Straight from the bright lights of Chiang Mai, I found myself in Tha Ton. The Lonely Planet reckoned the place was little more than a riverboat dock and for once they weren't wrong. The most interesting thing in the town was a poster in a DVD shop for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. "The cars only flirt with distruction," goes the ringing endorsement on the poster, "and the movie only flirts with entertainment." God, film reviewers can be so cruel.

We left the Sea lion island last nigt and are heading full speed to South Georgia. We will have at least 2 days at sea with no land in sight. I tought it was going to be quite boring but that was completely wrong.
Most of the people here on the boat are really nice and I enjoy their company a lot. There really are only 2 people I get a bit annoyed with and they are very easy to avoid so no problem on the personal front, yet... Been 2 30 min lectures on whales and birds today. The rest of the time is spent outside looking at birds and to keep the look out for whales.
Only birds so far.

The boat moved to Sea Lion Island during the night. There were some waves but I was not bothered by them. How ever some of the people got sick and went to the doctor.
We took the zodiac boats to land. The waves at the beach was a bit higher then expected and if you didn't have waterproof clothes on you got wet. Luckely all the camera gear were stored in my waterproof backpack.
On the island we went for a walk. It was quite a long walk to the far end, around 10km. But since the weather cleared up and got really good it was like a walk in the park. OK a bit of a strange park with no trees or bushes and with some strange animals.
You can get really close to all animals here but we have a rule of no closer then 5m unsless the animal comes to you. On the island there were
3 different types of panguinies, sealion, sea elefants and tones of differen birds. Got some really god photos today.

Well Santiago is now behind me. It still feels very strange being part of a group of travlers. Getting on a big nice aircon buss to go to a fancy restaurant together with 48 other people, it is not really like me! The good thing is that I am far from the only one in the group that feel this way. Many of them have traveled more then me and have done it alone. They also like to be in the middle of no where were no sounds from the outside world will reach.
On the way down to Puerto Arenas we flew over the national parks that I am going to do the trekking in. I can sum it up with 3 letters: WOW There was a clea blue sky so we could see the whole parks from the air.
Oh my god did it look nice! Almost felt like skipping the first part of the trip just so I could see more of the parks. Well it was a stupid idea but it did cross my mind.
The flight to the Falkland Islands was 1 hour late and the only thing they server to us during the 2 flights was cookies and peanuts. We got up at 4:45 in the morning and only had a light breakfast. Then the flights... Some people was really hungry when we reached the hotel in Stanely at 4 in the afternoon. Luckely there was lots of snacks to choose from.
We strooled around in the town (2500 people) until 19:00 when we were going to take the zodiac boats to Prof. Multanovski that was going to be our home for the next 16 nights.
Stanely reminden mee a bit of Sorsele. The streets were completely dead, no people except us tourists. But there were plenty of small pups and they were packed with people. That how ever is not like Sorsele!
Be back problem is no manageable when I use Voltaren. I have no proplem functioning as normal.

A remote destination. The other side of the world. Oh my God!! These islands are stunningly beautiful, with a rich culture which incorporates the islands somewhat colourful history. I was resident in the islands for two years at the British Royal Air Force base at Mount Pleasant, 40 miles from the capital Stanley, and while there I immersed myself in the experience. If you ever get to the Falklands try to visit the following places: *Volunteer point - a penguin conservation colony *Mare Harbour - British Navy harbour, trips out to see sea lions, dolphins swim with the boat * Estancia Farm/Ranch - local islanders who will act as guides to Volunteer Point * Darwin Lodge - Tea and cakes in a friendly guest house/cafe setting * Sheep shearing competitions - please note the big competition is the Estancia Competition which is held at a different settlement each year * British Cemetary - near San Carlos on north-west side of East Falkland * Argentine Cemetary - near Darwin and Goose Green The experiences that I had while on the islands will stay with me forever, and if my memory of them ever starts to fade, i'll just have to go back and remind myself of how much fun my family had while living there. XXX