Made it to Japan and survived the first week!

spent the first day in tokyo, having forced my various belongings (now including my Morroccan tam-tams wrapped in plastic and packed in a dodgy Walkers Chip box found in the loading bay of Heathrow Terminal 1) into a few coin lockers.

Was rather tired by the time I met up with my friend Fumi at 8.30pm having been up since 11.30am the previous day. nevertheless i soldiered on and had a nice dinner in Shibuya.

Fumi's house is south of Central Tokyo which is in a quieter area, although no less built up.

Ive managed to get the full range of experiences in a short period of time - 6 million vending machines, incredible shopping and entertainment districts like Shinjuku and Shibuya (the department stores are unbelievably large and overstaffed with over-friendly.. ahem.. staff). i was even very excited to be squashed onto a train and i mean squashed more than La Tomatina (although with considerably less water, Roma tomatoes, amd nudity).

It brought to mind one of many contradictions about Japan.

Everyone is so damned polite and friendly all the time (a nice change from service in Italy, Spain etc.) but have apparently have no issue with pushing into people with all their weight like a rugby scrum to get onto a train.
This was one of the last trains on that particular line at 12.45am!

Fumi has also taken me to some nice restaurants soive had a few local specialties such as okonomi-yaki, the DIY pancake-like dish from Osaka, and Awamori, the grain liquor from Okinawa.

And weve been to a rather large Karaoke bar with his friend Yukari.

I now find myself in Kyoto, after the 2.5 hr Shinkansen (another japanese experience of course) ride down from Tokyo. The Japan rail pass i bought in London gives me free unlimited travel for 2 weeks on JR trains and buses and most of the Shinkansen.

So ill be getting the shinkansen down to Osaka in a few days (15 mins) and then a few days later down further to Hirosima and Miyajima and back via Himeji.


By the end (which is steadily approaching both depressingly and thankfully),
I shall never wish to see another Church, castle, palace, shrine, temple, gallery, or museum ever again! ever.

Mind you, i dont think theres many more important ones that i havent seen anywhere in the world!

Finally back in London after 3 incredible months of fun and excitement.

Had one final day in Paris on the way back, during which I headed out to Versailles, and then back to Musee D'Orsay, before finishing Europe beneath the sparkling Eiffel Tower once more, having returned to the Sacre Coeur the previous night.

Now, apart from catching up with various people, I've also managed to put alot of Europe photos up on the web. See the link on the left: 'New Updated Travel Photos'.

Only 4 days until I head to Tokyo, and then another 2 weeks before I return to the real world.

I think I might enjoy it while it lasts!

Finally returned from Morocco after 2 and a bit weeks of incredibleness (sic):

or How I went to Morocco and ended up in a Hollywood Movie.


After the impressive Alhambra, I left for Algeciras on the early train before catching the ferry over to Tangier and continent number 3.

The first night was spent in the rather luxurious Tarik Hotel before starting the tour the next morning. I was rather interested to discover the Production offices of the Bourne Ultimatum housed on the first 2 levels of the hotel, but thought no more about it as our group of 25 left in a big truck for Chefchaouen, our first stop in the hills inland.


It was a cool little town, literally, because of the white and blue painted buildings.

It was our first taste of Moroccan culture (aside from the predictably dodgy characters at the port in Tangier) and we saw some handmade blanket and rug shops, whence the rest of Morocco and the world imports.

After a night camping there, we swiftly moved on to historic Fes (via Volubilis, the ruins of the farthest outpost of the Roman empire)

Passing the very well located McDonalds, we moved into the Medina, where we were guided through the maze of 9600 alleyways by a local guide, experiencing the sights and perhaps more significantly the smells of narrow covered alleys filled with donkeys.

We were taken to the dye pits where the leather is produced (and sat around in the leather store while 20 girls looked at and bought various leather goods).

That night we dressed up and went into town for a night of meals and 'traditional Morccan entertainment' (clearly designed for tourists as everyone there was clearly a tourist). Still a lot of fun nevertheless.

After 2 nights in Fes, we moved on through the Moyan Atlas to the Meski Oasis, where we camped the night surrounded by beautiful scenery deserts, oases and old ruined medinas. Oh and I bought some Moroccan drums (Berber Tam-Tams made of ceramic)

From there, we drove further out to the edge of the Sahara, where we all rode in a caravan (of Camels of course) out to our desert camp as the sun set, and then we slept under the stars, chilling out with shisha and drums.

Getting up for sunrise, we then returned on our camels, and continued our way over to Todra Gorge, where we once again chose to sleep under the stars, pulling the mattresses out from our rooms in the hotel to sleep on the terrace.
Just stunning scenery.

The next morn, we did some real rock climbing up the gorge (there's a first time for everything), and surviving relatively unscathed (just a few cuts and bruises), a few of us started hiking up the gorge in the afternoon, for more stunning views and a bit of a workout (my thongs by this stage were nearing their demise, particularly after a 4 hour hike down the dry river beds through the gorge)

Moving on from Todra, we drove through the High Atlas, climbing the Tizi-n-Tichka pass, en-route to Marrakech.

Marrakech was at times exciting, colourful, stinky, dodgy, and friendly.

the Djemaa El-Fna (main square) was pulsating at night with hundreds of open air food stalls, performers, snake charmers, and mazes of souks off the square.

By day, it was no less busy, with 40 or so fresh orange juice stalls all next to each other. Most our free day was spent shopping, or rather haggling, which I found great enjoyment doing, often for other people, as I wasnt buying that much myself, and when surrounded by 15-20 girls, somehow you end up going shopping a fair bit...


The second week of our trip happened to coincide with the start of Ramadan, which created a few issues, and some people got shouted at for eating or drinking before sunset. And the people in the shops were less willing to haggle as they tired later in the day.

I did go to a Hammam (arabic bath) where i was scrubbed down and stepped on by a skinny little Moroccan man who looked a lot like Gandhi. So that was nice...


From Marrakech, we headed towards the coast via the Film Studios where we looked around the Castle set built for Kingdom of Heaven.

From there, we made it to Essaouira the fishing town on the atlantic coast, with another incredible medina with so many souks, and great surf beaches.

There was also the Castle made of Sand where Jimi Hendrix lived for a while further up the coast a bit.

We hugged the coast from here, up to Asilah and then Cap Spartal where we had our final night party and bonfire (grilled pigeon anyone?)

And then it was all over....


We were returned to the hotel to pick up our stuff, and as fortune would have it, i had decided to stay another night in luxury at the Tarik Hotel rather than getting the ferry over to Algeciras.

Because on my return to the Hotel from the port, Bianca who had stayed there,
informed me that the Casting director for the Bourne Ultimatum wanted 5 backpackers to feature in the movie!

So with 2 other girls from the 7 day tour and a random english guy who had just rocked up, we suddenly were signing contracts and hanging round in Tangier for another 2 days.

And so we left the hotel at 5am and were taken down to the port where we had an amazing breakfast, and then jumped on a ferry for 7 hours, most of which was shooting this one scene from the movie which required me and bianca to walk directly in front of the camera past Matt Damon and Julia Stiles, and join the others in the background of this scene. All of this while wearing very very warm winter clothes with very very warm summer weather.

After about 15 takes from various angles we returned for an amazing lunch, and waited around while they shot another scene in immigration, before we swiftly were paid and we rushed back to the hotel to get our stuff and return to port where 2 of us just made a ferry back to Spain and then only just made the night train to Madrid and then the day train to San Sebastian where i am sitting typing this increasingly lengthy blog entry right now....