Home again after our circumnavigation. A bit earlier than expected with the weather in New Zealand and latterly Sri Lanka taking the fun out of it.
Some high points/low points.
Australia refusing my visa (Mrs DJP got hers no problem). This in hind sight turned out to be a good thing as after New Zealand we couldn't have faced the thought of another three weeks or so in a motorhome. Had to do a quick replan though which encompassed a stop in Sri Lanka. This was hastily arranged and booked which meant I didn't perform the diligence necessary for that country.
Brazil - high point easily up the Amazon. Rest of the country apart from Florianopolis was disappointing - mostly dirty and lairy (Rio, Recife, Belem) and those bits that weren't were not worth going to in the first place (Brasilia, Curitiba). Low point was Avis knocking back my credit card (American companies tend not to do prepaid cards), which fucked up the visit to the Serra Geral and the canyons.
Uruguay - high point - 'erb on tap, our apartment in the old town. The rest of it seemed rather dull. I bet its bloody horrible in the winter, even Punta del Este.
Argentina - High points - Buenos Aires - wonderful city, and pilgrimage to Marcelo's Newells in Rosario. Low points - mostly the rest of it - the journey across from BA to Rosario, Cordoba and Mendoza was pretty dull - mostly flat and featureless with very little going on, even in the cities.
Chile - I like Santiago, stayed in Little Italy this time - very nice. The hight point literally was the road over Andes from Mendoza. Pretty spectacular.
New Zealand - ruined for the most part by the remorselessly shit weather that seemed to follow us around. There was very occasionally some spectacular scenery but most of the time everything was obscured by low cloud and rain. Caught up with some old friends from Alicante and Scotland so that was good. Too ambitious with the schedule - 5500 km in a 20 year old shed in three weeks knackered me.
Singapore - I know I shouldn't but I love the place - so much to see and do, such a melting pot of races and cultures. Somehow it seems to work.
Sri Lanka - massively disappointing. A total shithole before the typhoon washed half of the roads and railways away it's even worse now. Traffic and associated pollution is horrendous. Everybody makes out they want to be your friend with their wobbly heads, winning smiles and colonial style grovelling but in reality they're just lining you up as a mark to rip you off one way or another. Accommodation varies from shit to very shit, despite what they say on booking.com. Beaches are getting hammered by typhoons and sea level rising. There are some parts that are stunning (the national parks) if you can avoid the wide boys, food isn't what it's cracked up to be - like so many other parts of the world anything decent is shipped out as cash crops to more prosperous nations, but the shit far outweighs to good. We canned a lump of the trip (we were to go to Jaffna fo a few nights but were consistently warned off going up there, and after what we'd seen we decided enough shit was enough. And the weather came back to haunt us - mostly shite again. Really just reminded me why India has never appealed.
Istanbul - very pleasantly surprised. Beautiful city on the european side but even the asian side looked pretty good and was half the price of the west side. Might have to do some more exploring over there. Capadoccia definitely on the list.
