This post is full of pointless information - but there has been someone who's asked me the question to most of these answers, so I'll just put it out there and save myself some time >: )


Favourite Developed Destination:

New York

Favourite Developing country:

Vietnam

Favourite place:

Hoi An, Vietnam (Where I got the suits made; a lovely old French colonial town).

What was overrated now I've been there?

Hawaii - was still brilliant though.

What was underrated now I've been there?

Vietnam.

If I could live anywhere I went to, where would it be?

Melbourne, Australia

Favourite Capital City?

Hanoi, Vietnam.

Least favourite Capital City?

It's close between Vientiane in Laos and Canberra in Australia. Has to be Canberra though, as Vientiane was heavily bombed years ago so they actually have some kind of excuse. Both are seriously dull with nothing going on.

Worst part of the trip?

Hard to say, but the vomiting and diarrhoea on the plane to Singapore has to be up there. Having said that, it really was quite funny. Some times you just have to laugh >: )

Best part of the trip?

This is a tough one. The 60 seconds while I was falling to the Earth at 120mph were pretty special.

Times I was told I reminded someone of Chris Martin of Cold Play:

1,789,345,678

Ages people most often had me down as:

26-28 years old >: /

Really wasn't happy about these age guesses - I suppose the sun does age you afer all...


It may seem strange that I bothered to work the below out, but when you spend as long as 27 hours getting from one place to the next on a coach, you need to do something to keep the hours ticking by....

Rough total travel time for my 5 months away? A crazy 400+ hours! Or more than 16 full days travelling >: /


Things I missed most about England? (In no particular order)

1. Match of the Day.

2. My Mac.

3. Sandwiches (so many times I just wanted a decent sandwich and rarely got one).

4. My PSP (I should have brought it with me)

5. Winter (Only slightly which I can't believe, but needing a shower 3 times a day due to the heat gets very annoying).

6. Reading the paper.

7. Riding my bike.

8. Having a kick-a-round with Saunders.

9. Reilly's laugh >: )

10. Mum's cooking.


Books read:

Bill Bryson - Notes From a Small Island (Makes you realise how good we've got it!)

Howard Marks - Mr Nice (This guy is crazy!)

Bill Bryson - Down Under

Chris Ryan - The One That Got Away (I Love my SAS books >: )

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code (This really is good fun!)

Ben Elton - High Society (Very interesting)

Neil Strauss - The Game (This book is CRAZY! - single men, you have to read this!)

Stephen Fry - The Liar (Funny but a bit strange at points)

Gascoigne - The Biography (An old 1993 book - this man had/has serious poblems)

Dan Brown - Angels & Demons (As good as if not better than The Da Vinci Code)

Steven Gerrard - My Autobiography (Ronaldinho who?)


Observations:

I think a lot of people (myself included) suffer from 'The grass is greener' syndrome. A lot of the places I went to were excellent for a holiday etc, but wouldn't necessarily be better to live in. I thought I'd be keen to look into living in Australia for a couple of years, but I found that you're so far away from what's going on elsewhere. The weather is great and the beaches are excellent, but the countries (not including South East Asia) lack the depth that European countries have. New Zealand was great, but the place has all these adrenaline sports because there's little else to do. Christchurch, the 2nd biggest city in New Zealand, is like an English town on a Sunday afternoon, which is what a lot of the country is like.

England isn't so bad >: )

Anyhow, I hope you've not found the blog of my travels too boring; I made sure I gave you the option of just looking at the pictures >: )


Over and out,

James

So finally I came to my last destination - New York.

I'd been looking forward to this for a while for two reasons. First of all, I've always wanted to go there more than most places and secondly, my old buddy Tom Dover arranged to meet me out there >: )





Usually flying from Hawaii (averaging close to 30 degrees), to New York (averaging close to zero degrees), would give you a cold pretty quick, but I skilfully managed to avoid this. I can't say it didn't feel rather strange however and it didn't help matters not having a coat for the 1st day, before Tom arrived with my winter clothes in the evening.

New York is often mentioned in the same breath as London for being one of the best cities in the world and I'd agree with that to some extent. The place really does have a buzz about it and feels pretty special to be there after all these years of wanting to visit. You're certainly reminded which country you're in while you're there. (All the U.S.A Flags...)





There are quite a few sites of interest that are pretty obvious such as Time Square, The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Central Park etc. We packed all of these in which are shown below...

The Empire State Building and the view from it were excellent; it's a shame the Twin Towers weren't in the skyline, but that couldn't be helped >: /








Central Park was as exciting as a park can ever really get, but it was fun all the same and the frozen lakes gave some good pictures. Tom's mum wanted a shot of part of the park shown in the film 'One Fine Day' - as you can see, we tried to bring it to life >: )





And a shot of one of the horse and cart sets that take you around Central Park......





Ground Zero was a little odd to see and it didn't really register to be honest. To think we were there 5 and a half years later was incredible, it feels like yesterday and probably more so for the people immediately involved. The size of the hole is hard to get across - we could see a subway train track that enters the square hole and then goes back underground which give you a reference for scale. It will be interesting to visit again once the new Freedom Tower is built and the monuments for the Twin Towers also.





The Statue of Liberty was great to see, but I'll warn anyone who plans to go - it's not as big as you think it is! That doesn't mean you're not impressed to see it finally, but it was a little surprising. The boat over to Liberty Island gave us excellent views of Manhattan, which I've combined with the one of the green lady.





Time Square was another of the famous sites and was probably one of my favourites in a child like way. The amount of advertising boards and screens is astonishing - it makes Piccadilly Circus look rather second rate. (It was hard to get a night shot as the bill boards change quickly so you're left with a picture of Time Square full of blurred screens >: /





On one of the nights we managed to get tickets to the New York comedy club, which is aired on TV over there. There were about 10 different acts and they were all pretty good; they often pick on people in the audience and we didn't escape. It only happened once, but the guy was quite chuffed to find out we were English; cue stereotyping with posh accent and tea jokes >: )

The following evening we had a night out in an area we were told could be quite lively, where we ended up in a bar that played excellent live music; I'd like to say we had a crazy night and showed them how to really party, but we were pretty restrained >: /

I'm not sure how cheaply you can do New York really, but if you're someone who buys a new wardrobe every year, the saving you'll make in The Big Apple would cover a fair bit of the cost. It was pretty much like shopping in the sales often is in England.

So to sum up, New York was an excellent city to check out and I'll definatly go again given half a chance. Like I said, it has a similar feel to London, but having said that, it obviously doesn't have the same history as the European cities, which it obviously never will. Unless you go in 500 years time >: /