Suriname to Guyana!! Waking up at 2:30am this morning wasn't so bad as I barely slept anyways with the extreme heat, terrible mattress and biting Mosquitos. I have organized a van tour by the name of Bobby's that does a door to door service from Paramaribo (Suriname) to Georgetown (Guyana). I was told to be ready at 4am but as expected the van came late at 4:40am. A couple if Indian guys came in the van directed me into the van and we were off like a bat out of hell doing 140km down the main streets of Paramaribo. The driver was an idiot to say the least and driving like a drunk - to go with that the seats were tiny with no leg room. Finally by 6am we picked the last 2 passengers up who had these ginormous boxes and 3 suitcases which ofcourse did not fit. The Indian guys tried there best to get boxes in and stocked all the suitcases and equipment high to the roof. I was given my two small packs bag of which I had to pile up on my knees and we were crammed with 4 of us on the back seat. 5 minutes down the road the suitcases slid and hit two of the women in the back of the head, they yelled at driver and he stopped to try and fix which took another 30 minutes. In the end we were stuck with these dangerous sliding suitcases that every time the driver would brake would act like missiles - hitting passengers. The next 2.5 hours were hell with sliding suitcases, complaining passengers, 10kg of packs piled up on my knees, no leg room, no seatbelts and a crazy Indian driver doing 140km and hour. When we arrived I thanked God and vowed never to return in Bobby's minivan. We were ushered to immigration where a very rude man screamed and yelled at us to hurry up with money and passports as the ferry was supposed to of left at 9am and it was now 9:30am - people got angry and the whole situation was once again unpleasant - but one nice thing everyone was speaking English - the native language of Guyana. We eventually brought our tickets and boarded the ferry with cars and a bunch of foot pedestrians. There must of only been 3 other tourists in the boat and amazing I got to meet two of them; 2 lovely Japanese girls. Only one could speak English and her name was Hiroko. Hiroko was so full of life and asked me about my plans, about my travels and my life and amazingly I found out Hiroko has visited more then 45 countries. The ferry ride went very quickly and we had arrived in Guyana - first observations were of a lot of Indians speaking a strange Indian English. I cleared immigration and as I walked through customs I got the comment about my last band and the two famous Australian cricketers: Mark Waugh and Steve Waugh - yes I am in the country of cricket lovers. As soon as I exited building I was met by wheelers and dealers but I quickly found Bobby's minivan service and I was directed to my van - I said goodbye to Hiroko and exchanged contact details in the hope we might meet in Georgetown this afternoon. This older Indian lady that had been complaining the whole trip from Paramaribo was now historical because her son was supposed to meet us on the other side of boarder (I am guessing he didn't have visa and we had dropped him off on river on Suriname side) - anyways long story short he wasn't there and we spent the next two hours trying to find him. In the end we found him in the nearest town in the bar and I was so angry because his silly mother had been yelling at everyone and had delayed us all 2 hours and didn't even have decency to apologies to us. Finally after the two hour delay in the stinking hot sun (Guyana even hotter then Suriname) we were off to Georgetown. A quick stop for lunch and 2 more hours and we arrived in Georgetown; the driver kindly rang my host Peter and organized for us to meet out on the highway. Getting out of the van I once again was overwhelmed with happiness that this epic journey was now over - my neck and back were killing me, I was super dehydrated and sleep deprived but I was here. Peter is a British guy and a top sort at that and we kicked it off straight away - he showed me his place, gave me keys, gave me directions to city and even leant me money for bus and then he was off back to work. I emailed Johhny the travel writer I have been taking to for last week and then organized to meet up with Hiroko at Johnny's guesthouse later in the afternoon. I took the bus to the centre and wow culture shock - I imagine this is what Africa is like. I became very nervous straight away and as I know this is a dangerous dangerous country my guard was straight up. I watched the vans for a while so I could figure out how to get home and then made my way to the only foreign ATM in the city that would except my bank card. To say I stood out is a huge understatement with people stopping, staring pointing and yelling out whiteboy!! People look poor here and quite a few with sinister looks about them, I found the ATM and much to my dismay got slapped with a $5 fee for withdrawing money - something I have so far managed to avoid on my travels. From here I made my way straight to the big central market called Stabroek market. Even from a kilometer a way the streets were lined with vendors selling everything imaginable and its was chaos with people, cars and motorcycles darting every each way. Everyone looked at me but I walked with confidence and felt safe enough. Reaching the market was incredible; a culmination of everything you can imagine al crammed in and around this old colonial style building. I made my way in and straight away was blasted with offers of goods, foods and services. The prices were the lowest I have seen so far in the Guianas and I wasted no time buying various bits and pieces. I brought a bunch of vegetables, 4 big avocados and when I came to the dried fish section the woman took the time to explain to me how to prepare the fish so I decided to buy some salted trout and have a crack at cooking it tonight. I found my favorite fruit: jackfruit and brought a huge piece of it for less then a dollar and withing 45 minutes I had filled my backpack and had two bags to cart. I had barely seen a quarter of the market but decided that would be enough for today and I would come back tommorow as it was near 4pm and time to go meet my friends. I made my way to Jonnys guesthouse and met Jonny and his lovely girlfriend. Jonny is from Northern island and his girlfriend is from Hong Kong and Jonny is a travel blogger - one of the best and I was lucky enough to get to pick his brain about travel writing for the next few hours. Hiroko the Japanese girl I had met on the ferry also came and met us and we all decided to head to the bar opposite the guesthouse to watch the Algeria Vs Germany game. Jonny inspired me with his stories, his travel writing and clear passion for what he does - I think this is exactly what I needed and in the coming months I will take to setting up a new blog with the hope of more publicity and eventually the hope of making money from it. Peter had told me not to be out in Georgetown after dark and to be on the bus back to his place by 6pm so at 6:15pm I had to say goodbye to my new friends and rush to Camp road where I could take a van from. I met a lovely Guyanese lady that helped me catch the right bus and even directed the driver to where I needed to go. The lady warned me I had to be careful and showed me what I needed to do and how to get home. The van dropped me off 10 minutes walk from Peters and I had to walk through a dark neighborhood which made me a little uneasy but as it was dark maybe the people couldn't see the colour of my skin. Arriving back at Peters with a huge sigh of relief I realized I will not stay out past dark again - just to avoid the risk of something bad happening.
After arriving back I went about trying to cook the salted trout I had brought at the market; I followed the lady who had helped me with the vans directions: boil the fish to remove salt and then fry small pieces of fish with onions and peppers. I followed directions and after boiling fish for 10 minutes removed the salty water and then fried - the result was a very tasty hard fish but still a little too salty for my liking. Around 8pm Peter returned and we had a really good chat about Guyana, life, motorcycles and Peter even told me a little about his incredible kidnapping story. Peter had gone to Iraq as an IT expert and was taken hostage with 4 others - he was kept hostage for 3 years and was the only survivor of the 5 taken: he told me about being blindfolded for the first year, chained up for 3 years - unbelievable story. The best thing though is Peter is very down to earth and easy-going; a nice change from others I have met recently. The Mosquitos are really bad here in Guyana and unfortunately Peters house is full of them; I followed his advice and put pants and socks on but the little b*****s bit me through my clothes. Tomorrow I will buy some insect repellant and be better prepared for these annoying bloody insects.

ONSERVATIONS:
- Bobby's Minivan service - terrible, drove like idiots and suitcases falling everywhere, delays
- Ferry crossing met Hiroko
- Georgetown like Africa
- CS Peter
- Stabroek Market
- Jack fruit
- Salted Trout
- Peters Iraq Hostage story