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From that sleepy town of Bozeman it was off to Vancouver, to a new city, and for the first time in a long while, a new country.

Once again Salt Lake City was the depressing hub, and once again, a small Canadair Regional Jet was the mode of transport.

But, this flight was like no other. Flying over the Rockies and experiencing turbulence in a small 50-seater plane was very scary! At one point the Pilot came on the speaker system asking us to please remain in our seats and fasten our belts as the weather was much worse than they had expected. Soon the single air hostess was called into the cockpit... for about 20 minutes. Then another announcement about the weather not getting better. My knuckles were white! But, after another few minutes, the air hostess surfaced and started applying make-up - this was indeed a good sign :-)

The flight into Vancouver was amazing and the scenery below was unbelievable. Heavily forested islands dotted in a tranquil blue sea trafficked by lone passenger ferries and container ships.

Eventually landing, I hurried through a very intimidating customs and more ridiculous questions that makes South African's very much appreciated overseas! Not! When are they going to leave us alone??

Anyway, I found my way to the HI Hostel on Granville Street. It was big! In fact, the biggest hostel I'd been in. I was on the 2nd floor of 3 I think. There was a reception floor, kitchen/tv room floor and rooms on the other 2. The beds were actually very comfortable and the amenities by far the best. But, like most of the hostels in North America, this one was lacking a little something!

Nonetheless, Vancouver is a very fun city. Very pedestrianised and full of friendly people. Except, I still find it hard to grasp the concept of all the homeless people! The streets are full of current, and ex-junkies. And, people that just choose to be homeless - it's a bit disturbing.

The food is good! Actually excellent! Sushi in Vancouver is a must and is by far the cheapest I've ever had. Try Kisha Popo on Davie street for an excellent all-you-can-eat sushi experience for a pitiful CA$12. Free tea and the friendliest waitresses make it superb! In fact all around Granville and Davie Streets, you'll find extraordinary sushi. Cheap pizza slices abound, and my favourite, falaffel restaurants by the dozen! There's even a Chinatown, like most North American cities have.

There's good shopping around Robson Street and the Sears shopping centre. Take a trip down to Gastown and the beautiful passenger ship terminal to look across the Bay. It really is impressive.

And, of course, thanks to some really cheap tickets at the Hostel, I managed to go see some good old Canadian ice hockey. The Vancouver Canucks against Minnesota Wild! Very exciting, but not enough fighting for my liking!

Next stop Whistler for some snowboarding and R&R.

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After another ridiculous delayed connection through Salt Lake City I headed off to see Cassie up in Bozeman in Montana - Big Sky Country.

But not before managing to beg a $100 flight voucher from the ticket sales supervisor and a $7 meal voucher for the airport.

But, this was not entirely without justification. The connection from Las Vegas was late! Not least because we were stuck behind a queue of 27 planes at McCarran Airport!

So, after giving some felel-sorry-for-me story on my second connection through Salt Lake City and soon to be three in 2 days I managed to get $100 for my troubles!

Anyway, I made it to Bozeman and landed at the quaintest little airport that reminded me of Bariloche or Ushuaia! And, surprise, surprise there was Cassie! She's unexpectedly come to the airport to fetch me!! Thanks! And, thanks for coming for the first flight too, that I wasn't even on! We drove into town and went straight to the Hostel that Cassie had already scoped out for me! It was very cosy :-). Bozeman International Backpackers Hostel on Olive street - go check it out!

We went out and had some good bison burgers at Cassie's place of employment - The Garage! Really cool spot! Novel menus covered in licence plates from around the country.

Later while being driven back to my hostel, we had the ultimate American experience! We got pulled over by the cops!! Legendary! Why did we get pulled over? 'Cos the headlights weren't on! C'mon! We at least had the fog lights on! Anyway, the damn copper was such a stickler! She mad Cassie get out the Driver's licence and insurance just like on TV! You'd all be so jealous! Unfortunately there was no current insurance in the car and so Cassie got a citation and has to go hand it in this week! What bollocks! Back home they would've just told you tyo put on your lights and be safe - if they even pulled you over!!

Next day I went snowboarding! Yeah! I was quite excited and for the first time in a lopng while I made quite an effort! I even hired a car! I drove myself off to Bridger Bowl, a community run ski resort 16 miles from Bozeman! I'm still a bit rusty after my last outing in Ushuaia and had a lot of wipes! But, fun nonetheless and definitely a good day out!!

Went out for supper to Dave's Sushi and the waitress completely underestimated our ability to gobble up the biggest order ever! And the sushi was actually damn good! Even though it was made by three white guys from Bozeman :-) Go check it out!

Finally I made another useless plane trip through Salt Lake City on my way to Vancouver!

I've never set foot out of Salt Lake City airport, but somehow I already hate the place! And, I think it'll be a long while before I fly on those small planes of Delta - if ever again!!!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, after the marathon trip, I finally arrived in Austin. The State Capital of Texas. The Doctor lives here - studying at the University of Texas.

Austin is also the proud owner of the title "Live Music Capital of the USA", which I suppose in most instances also means that it's the Live Music Capital of the World?

First off I took a walk around the campus, but not before filling my morning belly with some awesome, authentic tacos from Mi Madre's up the road from the Doctor's East Side home. Although the area looks pretty ghetto, it's actually really safe and everyone is really friendly.

So, another culinary delight of mine seems to be Mexican now added to my growing list of culturally diverse food passions.

The UT (University of Texas) campus is huge! It's actually a bit crazy - 50 000 students and departments and some museums that are probably some of the best in the world. They take sport very seriously in this part of the world, as in most US cities and the Texas Longhorns (UT's American Football team) are the Rose Bowl champions. Their stadium, believe it or not, is bigger than Newlands and seats around 80 000 people. They also have an indoor, airconditioned training facility for those off season sessions and to keep out the spies. The facilities here are unbelievable.

Thirsty? Try some margaritas. They're cheap during happy hours and go down really well, even on a sweltering hot and humid Texan afternoon. In fact, this place gets so hot that every establishment has airconditioning and offers free water to drink!. Very cool.

But, some advice - playing touch Football (which is actually pretty cool) in near-100% humidity after some 'Ritas is probably not the best idea!

So, we got hold of my friend Sarah who I met in Argentina who also lives here in Austin. And, it turns out that another Argentinian-trip friend, Nora, was here too - just in town for a massive film and music festival called South by SouthWest (SXSW). We went out that night to watch a brilliant Latin Funk band called Grupo Fantasma. They were brilliant!

Also met Erik, a Canadian, who it turns out is the producer of a film being showcased in the festival. He managed to get us tickets to the screening at the Alamo cinema (where, it turns out you can order food and eat while you're atching a movie). The movie's called Eve & the Fire Horse and it's really good! Also got to meet the director, Julia Kwan. My first film festival experience really.

But it didn't end there! Getting in the mix with the movie people, we went downtown after the screening and went to a party thrown for the festival and also got to watch another brilliant band - Alpha Rev - a bit of a mix between Radiohead and Coldplay, but combining violins and basses and stuff. Next it was off to the most legendary event of the night!! DJ Jazzy Jeff spinning the decks live at the Music Hall! Again, somehow with Nora's sweettalking we managed to go in free. The dude is brilliant - he was mixing songs from The Police, Nirvana, The Fresh Prince (and DJ Jazzy Jeff), The White Stripes, Eurythmics, etc. Also, I managed to catch an autographed drumstick from ?uestlove (apparently that's how you spell it) from The Roots - the guy with the big Fro!

We went off to some more bars and then ended up at some film producers' party in the penthouse of the Marriott hotel. Actually that party was the least exciting of the lot, so we left!

Austin is a cool city! Not weather wise, mind, but in every other sense, it's a must visit. And, just to put your minds at ease, it is really different to the rest of Texas :-)

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, it took a mammoth degree of patience to handle the transport situation that was to greet me on leaving D.C. Apparently, the rails were being repaired and this required a bus ride - something I'd been avoiding like the plague!

But, nonetheless after some rather confusing consultation with the Amtrak staff I took the fact that I was due to have a 5 hour bus ride and then a 5 hour train ride on the chin! An additional delay caused by some geriatric bus driving and an extended pitstop added a cool 2 hours on to the trip!

Anyway, I eventually arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina! At the Amtrak station in the middle of the stix was a pleasant sight - Laetitia had arrived to pick me up!

We drove on to Davidson to the college where Tice studies! Even in the dark this campus was impressive. She kindly gave me her room while she squatted on the floor with her housemate! So kind! :-)

It was good spending some time and meeting some cool, down to earth Americans. Actually the majority were internationals and that made things interesting.

It was a great time spent eating, drinking, getting completely outplayed at basketball, shopping and sightseeing!

Thanks Tice - you're a legend!

To Austin...

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The second day in D.C. was more relaxed. Just planned to see a few more things and then I was going to take it easy and would head off to Charlotte.

Planned to go to the Spy Museum which sounded quite cool. But, upon arrival and requiring a entrance fee of $15 I decided to go through the gift shop instead.

I went for lunch at a place that served very good burgers! Look it's no Steers, but the concept is really good and the burgers are more of a gourmet variety. It's called Fuddruckers. Strange name. You order your meat by weight and cooking type (rare, medium, etc.) and you pay. Then you get your ground beef hand-made patty and you can dress it up how you want - tomatoes, lettuce, sauces, etc. Very nice!

After eating nicely, I headed off in search of George Dubya! To the Whitehouse! Strangely, though, I didn't see him, but again I managed to get some touristy snaps and carried on walking.

Saw the impressive WWII memorial, the huge Lincoln Memorial, the Korean & Vietnam War Memorials and all this while walking over 5 kms!! Again - very impressed!

I had to purchase and FBI cap and with my Reebok hoodie I think I looked like an empoverished local and people started asking me for directions!

Chinatown's sweet and sour chicked for supper was so much I couldn't even finish it! The first time in forever!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From New York on my way down to Charlotte, I thought I'd stop off in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

Having to wake up at 04:45 was not pleasant, but knowing that the subway in NY runs 24 hours I was a bit more confident that it would be easy to get to the station for my train to D.C. Unfortunately I didn't know that after hours the subway trains are completely different to the ones during normal hours. So, of course, I got on the wrong one! But, no worries - I rectified this amateur traveller's error and was soon at the station with enough time to get a doughnut for the trip.

I got to Washington, D.C. after a very pleasant trip on the Amtrak. And, having completely misjudged the distance to the hostel, I decided to take the scenic route. Man, it was long. And, with 25 kilos on my back it wasn't pleasant, but like any excercise I do these days I was quite proud of myself!

I arrived at the hostel and attempted to check in. What an unfriendly bunch! Apparently the rooms only open for check-in at 2pm or something ridiculous, so I had to put my backpack in a rip-off locker in the basement while I wondered the streets for 3 hours! So, a word of advice - don't stay at the HI Hostel in D.C. - there must be others.

I took a walk down towards the Mall. I actually (believe it or not) took a wander through the Art Museum, which was actually quite impressive.

From there I walked to the most impressive Capitol. Surrounded by armed security guards I took some touristy snaps and attempted the walk down the equally impressive Mall towards the big obelisk that is the Washington Monument!

Along the way I walked through the Smithsonian Institution Air & Space museum. This is the most interesting museum with space craft, flight simulators, IMAX theatres, demonstrations of how flight is achieved and all these things! Very interesting!

The Wahsington Monument is huge and apparently no building in D.C. is allowed to be taller. They take tours up it I think, but I was too late for one of these!

I went back to the hostel after buying a keyring from a Chinese woman who refused to believe I was from South Africa because I wasn't black! That, after trying to convince her theat South Africa is not in the USA!

Later went out for some good sushi it took me a while to realise that Sushi Go Round, as it was called was a Gay sushi bar. Nonetheless the sushi was very good and quite reasonably priced!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A more relaxing day planned!

The snow was bucketing down and I was loving it! This is Northern Hemisphere weather and somehow I can't get enough of the snow.

Decided to go for a walk through that good old borough of Harlem despite that we were the only white people for like 50 miles and that it was snowing heavily!

A very interesting place indeed. Run-down old buildings mixed with modern shops and eateries. And, somehow, probably more hairdressers per square mile than any other place in the world!

Passed the Apollo Theatre and stopped off to get some good old pancakes from the IHOP (International House of Pancakes). They were so good and we were served by the huge, ridiculously efficient, Bobbi. It was an authentic experience and was even more worthwhile as it felt we were like pioneers - again the only White people around.

Rested the afternoon and headed out later.

Had a legend time at our second pub stop, The Slaughtered Lamb! Brilliant! Encountered a Miller Lite promotion and after a blind tasting and completely getting Miller Lite confused with Bud Lite, I managed to talk the promo girls into giving me a one-the-spot, customised, printed T-Shirt! What a brilliant concept! After witnessing some crazy potentially going down in the pub, and death threats flying between patrons, we decided to move on.

We ended up at another pub and started chatting to some people. Talks of politics and the hatrid for George W. Bush were the order of the day! No-one seems to like him! Goodness knows how he got re-elected!

Then to finish off the night ended up at the Waverley diner to have some great food served by an array of immigrants from all corners of the world!

Back to the hostel on the clean, efficient, 24-HOUR SUBWAY! This city impresses me more and more. I couldn't live here (too cold and busy), but it really is amazing!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today was the day for museums. I'm always reluctant, hate being overdosed with cultural things that have absolutely no bearing on my life and are most of the time quite irrelevant. But, being in New York, and having most of the big museums right on our Upper West Side doorstep, we decided to take a look.

We walked down the road to the Natural History Museum. Apparently there are some nice exhibits! We arrived a bit early and it was still closed. So, we moved on. We crossed Central Park and headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The entrance fee was something like $15, so, being the ridiculous budget travellers we are, we decided to give it a miss. Got a brochure though to prove we were there and wondered round the gift shop.

From there is was off to the world-famous Guggenheim museum. Apparently it's really good too, but with another hefty entrance fee we took some photos and brochures and left after wondering around the gift shop for a few minutes!

So, all-in-all the museum visits worked out well. We went, we saw nothing, and conquered even less. But we did save like $40! :-)

Walking down 5th Avenue on the Upper East Side, oppulence is ridiculous! Chauffeurs waiting for clients, doormen and random price tags for apartments of around $10 000 000 (yes, ten million!). Don't think I'll be buying property there!

Did a bit more window-shopping on 5th Avenue after seeing the strange sight of people walking around with ash crosses on their foreheads - turns out it was Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.

Walked through the Rockefeller Center and passed the famous ice-rink where some freaky old woman was doing some sort of pilates/capoeira/ballet ensemble on the ice and petrifying the people sitting in the adjoining restaurant having lunch!

From there to Times Square once more to find decent Internet access. Internet access here is ridiculously expensive!

I went to have a sushi snack after trying the first slice of New York Pizza. It was good. While walking back, I was stopped by a guy doing a street interview for HBO. I told him I have no clue! He insisted they interview me for their market research - so they did - on camera. I had no clue about any of the programmes they were talking about, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Then, after some deliberation it was off to one of the last major sights on the list - the United Nations.

What an excellent experience! Strangely our guide was a Zimbabwean who, as it turns out, studied psychology at UCT at exactly the same time I was there! Weird! Also met a South African security guard.

The tour was very interesting. We got to sit in the Security Council Chamber and also the General Congress. Got some insight on how it all works and also some good snaps!

Back to the hostel and later out for Mexican!! I got to practise my Spanish and after enquiring whether the Giant Burrito would be enough for me, I was pleasantly surprised! The thing was huge! It was about the size of a whole Swiss Roll. Had cheese, rice, beans, avocado! Delicious! Another culinary New York delight.

After my realisation that I'm a genuine gastronomic tourist, I've decided that museums of food and drink will replace those of art and skeletons on my future travels!

Stay tuned for part 4...

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After expecting a slight hangover from drinking draught Budweiser the night before, I woke up damn early and surprisingly fresh! Maybe it's the cold! It's freezing here! With the wind chill factor it's about -2 to -5 deg. C!! My snowboarding jacket has been used every day!

We had breakfast and headed off straight downtown to the South Ferry! It was off to the Statue of Liberty. But, we went the cheap route and took the Staten Island ferry which goes past the statue and is free! Free! Got some great pictures and was amazed again with the enormity of the downtown skyline, and the gaping hole where the World Trade Center Towers were!

Was the ferry cold? Freezing! Hands froze and I struggled to press the shutter release button on my camera! But got some good snaps in the end!

Once docked it was off to the Financial District! To Wall Street. Got some shots of a heavily fortified New York Stock Excahnge and the sustomary photo of the Wall Street Bull. Again, the skyscrapers here are unbelievable. And everything is spotless!! This city is so clean!

From there we went to get some more views of the World Trade Center site and ended up looking for a toilet (restroom) in the World Financial Center for 20 minutes! There's something very impressive about any building(s) being called "World" something! But, that's New York!! And, had to pass through Century 21 for some more retail therapy and managed to pick up a cool top for only $14!

The stomach decided the rest of the trip and I had to get to Chinatown! What a cool area, so authentic. Everything's in Chinese! Had supper/lunch at a place called The Dumpling Cafe or something! I had Sizzling Chicken - superb! Some more window shopping looking at all the imported junk and then headed off back to the hostel in preparation for the next day!

Stay tuned for New York, New York - Part 3...

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it was off to New York from London. My first time in the Big Apple. I flew in to Newark airport in New Jersey after the most turbulent plane ride since the LADE trip in Argentina. Had long conversation on the plane with an old woman from New York. She was funny - gave me some good tips. Actually, the plane was full of geriatrics - must've been theire week off in London!

Immigrationn was interesting. Queues and queues of people (most not even speaking English) trying to get into the country. I managed to get to the counter after quite a wait and the official was surprisingly friendly. What a pleasure after Heathrow. The questions weren't bad, but I had to repeat 3 times I was going on holiday, then once in (what a relief), I had to repeat the same information to the customs official checking bags.

Took the train into NY Penn station and didn't see the city yet - just had to get to the hostel to drop my bags. Took the subway all the way uptown to 106th Street on the Upper West Side. Hostel was pretty decent, but quiet. Nothing much exciting going on. I think I've been spoiled by South America again!

Sunday night was quiet - went up the road and had a bagel - so nice!

Monday was hectic! Got up so early and headed off to town. Walked through thewhole of Central Park (man, is this one big park!) and then down 5th Avenue. Passed Trump Tower, LuisVuitton (sic), Gucci, De Beers, Tiffany's - you name it - they're all there.

Walked down past Radio City and through Rockefeller Centre to Times Square - what a place! My neck was sore from looking up! The buildings are huge! Went down Broadway to Macy's Department Store (the biggest store in the world - it's unbelievable!) and then to the Empire State Building (even more unbelievable).

It was up the Empire State building next! Man alive this building is impressive! All the way to the top and had an audio tour from Tony the Cabbie over the most impressive city I've ever seen in my life! Truly unbelievable!

From there it was a massive walk downtown. I'd read about Katz's deli (the one from Where Harry Met Sally). Hmmm... Food! What a walk! Good corned beef on rye (not cheap either!). By the way they ship polony all over the States if anyone's interested!

From there I walked some more - saw Town Hall and then made my way to the amazingly huge gaping whole that is the World Trade Center site! It's shocking! They've set up a viewing fence all around with pictures, names and stories of the events. There's also plans for the new building! Looks quite impressive! From what I can see, those buildings were so much bigger than everything else and were even higher than the Empire State!

Did some shopping! Had to! Everything is so cheap! Went to Century 21 across from the World Trade Center site and tried to control myself - the place is ridiculous!

Well, it was off back to the hostel by subway! My legs were killing me after my 10-times-to-Pick-'n-Pay-and-back walk!! I was even impressed with myself!

That night we (English guy, Gary, an\d I) went to a bar up the road, funnily enough called the Lion's Head! Had long conversations with locals who hate George Bush and can't afford to live here! Also had some of the best chicken wings ever! Cost: a mere 25c each!

Off to bed drunk after chatting to some very unsurprisingly beautiful Argentinian girls in the hostel. Funny!

Next... New York, New York - Part 2!! And, some photos!

Posted by Kevin Tucker at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)