Well I'm still in Rio, but only just. Carrying round 20 Reais in my front pocket to give to potential muggers, leaving my camera in the flat, jogs around the lake and along the beach, going into C&A in Copacabana to cool off on hot days (the iciest air con in Rio), portuguese lessons, and actually having a daily routine will all shortly be things of the past. I'll also be leaving behind in Rio my excellent host 'family' Teresa. Although my portuguese has impr...

One of the good things the language school I am at in Rio organises is afternoon excursions to some of the city's more interesting places that aren't necessarily on the main tourist hit-list. 'Professor Rurik' is this old retired guy who runs the trips out to museums and other historic spots; there is very little this bloke doesn't know about Rio and Brazil. He's been able to provide an interesting commentary to visits to the museum of contempory art (designed by...

I'm currently living in an apartment in Rio de Janeiro with a 40 year old Swiss farmer who speaks german, zero english, and knows about 16 portuguese words. We are staying with a middle aged brasilian woman who speaks portuguese, zero german, and knows about 57 english words. With the addition of my english, 112 german words, and 23 portuguese words (around 40% of which are footballers names) it makes for interesting conversation around the dinner table. Interest...

In the complete absence of anything to do whatsoever I thought I may as well kill a bit of time writing a blog entry. I'm currently in Bangalore, the famed IT captial of India, waiting for a flight to Mumbai and then onwards to Heathrow tomorrow. Leaving Kathamndu on Monday I flew down to Mumbai from where I had an internal flight booked on to Bangalore on the Tuesday morning. On arrival at Mumbai my airport pick up and associated reserved hotel room faileds to ...

Back in Kathmandu (again) after returning a couple of days ago from the Everest base camp trek. This was a 13 day affair with the same company I'd done my previous Nepal trip with. It was a similar set up to last time with a dozen of us in the group with a Nepali guide and then a number of assistant guides and porters on the trek itself to do the donkey work. Any lingering worries about the dangers and pitfalls of trekking in a remote region at high altitude were...