LOST LUGGAGE

Upon leaving Guyana we discovered that our flight to Barbados (connecting to Grenada) had been delayed for 4 hours, we weren't told until about 2 hours after the flight was meant to leave this was the case though, so we had a very unexciting extra stay in the "great" country of Guyana. When we eventually got to Grenada (about 3 hours after we should have) we discovered they had lost every ones luggage, not just our groups, but every ones about 20 people in total. Including a very angry, and slightly drunk, Brian Waddle (he had all his radio gear in his bag). So that was a great start to our stay in Grenada.

The next day was the Sri Lanka game and thankfully most of our bags had arrived, so we had to go out to the airport and pick them up and were about an hour late for the game. Didn't miss much though in a very boring game, plus we lost. No matter though we one the next one, in another boring game, to book a spot in the Semis.

Haven't seen much of the Island yet back it looks very nice, and now that there is a few days before the next game will be looking to explore a bit more. Here is a picture some very nice water, and another picture of some very drunk people at the South African game.

One thing I have noticed is that NZ looks like they have the biggest supporters crowd, much more that South Africa and perhaps in Aussie.

THE 3RD WORLD

I knew that some of the places I was going to visit were not going to be that "civilised" but I wasn't really expecting what I saw in Guyana. Rubbish filled streets, beggars, open sewers and rubbish burning on the side of the street, and apparently they had cleaned a lot of the place up for the cricket. I top of that we found our accommodation was not really up to scratch and we were paying quite a bit, so we decided to pay just a little bit more and moved into the same hotel all the cricket players were staying in. The place had a pool, which was necessary because it was bloody hot and you couldn't go anywhere near the beach for fear of catching some terrible disease.

Because we were staying in the same hotel as the Black Caps we were able to have a few, in some cases a lot, drinks which was great. And they had the same thoughts of the place as I did, some of them said it was worse than the worse places in India which I'm sure isn't a good thing.

Probably the best thing about the place is that it is pretty cheap, you can go out and have a meal and a few drinks for only about $US10, and the money is pretty cool to they have $1,000 notes down to $1 coins. We didn't really do many touristy things while we were there, in fact we hardly left the hotel except to go to the cricket, we did go to the zoo and saw some rather exotic animals. While we were there the monkeys escaped which was a bit of humour, no one really seemed to care though.

Next up is Grenada for NZ most import 3 games of the super 8's.

ARRIVAL

After leaving Boston early in the morning where it was about 3 degrees we arrived in the Caribbean about 3 hours later where it was a lovely 30 degrees. First port of call was San Juan where we had a couple hour stop over, which was just enough time to buy some of the cheapest duty free alcohol I have ever seen, $13 for a bottle of absolute vodka, I bought my limit.

The flight to Antigua only took about an hour but the 7 foot American beside seemed to be a bit uncounfitable. On arrival to Antigua we were greeting by a kettle drum band, pineapple, some sweet beverage and a two hour queue through customs, about three international flights arrived at the same time. So that was pretty much the first day.

The second day was NZ vs West Indies, and man was it hot, we sat with the Beige Brigade guys and at the start we were all pretty quite, but by the end it was getting pretty rowdy. All good fun though and we won easy so that's all good.

Had a few days between games so we went to the beach, and once again man was it hot. The beaches here are great white sand, clear water, and for the most part (much like the cricket games) pretty empty.

The Bangladesh game was much of the same except a few of beige brigade boys had a rater large night before hand so it wasn't drunkard this time. Plus the game was a bit shorter. The crowds have been rather disappointing and it's not surprising really, everything is pretty expensive, out of the league of most locals who are all rather poor.

Off to Guyana tomorrow for the Irish game, and some more lying on the beach. I'm going to have a rater nice tan by the time I get back one thinks. I'll also try to put some pictures on, I forgot to bring my camera cord today so I couldn't.

New York New York

After waking at 3:30 am on the 21st and travelling for about 30 hours I finally arrived in New York at 9:30 at night. I didn't have to many problems with the US customs (I didn't really like them taking my finger prints and a scan of my eye but I didn't really have a choice in the matter) however I was pulled aside in LA because I set the metal detector off twice and got a more intermit search from a guy who thought I sounded German.

I've spent the last two days just walking around the city really because it's too darn expensive to do much else. Attempted to go up the Empire State building today but there was a 90 minute wait so gave it a miss. It is an amazing city though and it's been great fun seeing all the things you see on t.v all the time, and there is so many people. We can back to the hostel at 12:30 am a couple nights ago and the subway was packed, it's just amazing how people live here.

Head up to Boston tomorrow for a few days before heading down to the Caribbean and the start of the super 8's, which include Ireland and Bangladesh, who would of thought? What more could you ask from a sporting tournament murder, mystery and cricket.

THE VISA DEBACLE

As the name suggests this blog is dedicated to my travels to the cricket world cup in the Caribbean. The journey will begin in just over a weeks time when I'll be catching a plane in good old Chch to New York. I'll be spending a few days there before heading up to Boston and catching a flight down to Antigua when I'm sure the real fun will begin. The Odyssey ends after the final in Barbados at the end of April, and then I'll have to get back to reality.

I'll be taking along my camera and taking lots of picture, especially at the beach, so check in often because I'll be putting a few on this page.

The planning for the trip is all but complete, thanks mainly to Chicken, and has mostly gone off without a hitch. Which brings me to my first of mostly likely many rants, that being the stupid "special world cup visa" we had to get. It's apparently for security purposes, but the way I see it it's just a way for them to get US$100 out of everybody. I had to send my passport over to Sydney (because they didn't have an office in NZ), which was kind of worrying because if it got lost I would be pretty much screwed, and then I had to wait at least a month before it would come back. Luckily I didn't require my passport during that time. We weren't even told that this special visa was required until the end of December, so the whole thing was a bit of a balls up really. It's all sorted now though so nothing more to worry about, except maybe getting through U.S customs.