Uganda is set in the geographical heart of Africa alongside a large proportion of Lake Victoria’s shore. The two travel bloggers Matt and Kristy have been discovering the country and posting on all they are experiencing.

Matt is a teacher from Illinois, who began his career in rural Alaska relaying knowledge to the children of an Eskimo village. After this he taught English and Theatre in Chicago, but took the opportunity of his summer break to spend six weeks in Uganda.

He has delivered four instalments on Uganda, each long and detailed, as well as a brief, yet informative summary on the country’s current political landscape. The thoroughness is partly due to slow connections and having to make the most of what access he can get while moving through the country.

Instalment #3 – Uganda Uganda (or look out Gulu, here I come) explains the school structure in Uganda, which is more interesting to your average reader than you may expect. It also features a droll description of a six hour bus journey that Matt endured under the weight of extreme tiredness, but devoid of a headrest.

Kristy has been in Uganda for over 15 months, a “woah dude” moment indeed. Her latest entry is entitled The Struggle and serves as a point of reflection on her time away. ‘The Struggle’ is now much more than just a mildly amusing slogan written on the side of cabs (amusing due to rap song connotations within Kristy’s own mind). To her now it represents difficulties that inevitably are encountered nearly daily in one form or another. It is just the way things are. Despite the sober tone of some of her evaluation, Kristy still manages to squeeze in discussion on ‘hairy’ equating to ‘hotty’ in light of recently grown arm pit hair…

Synonymous with the summer holiday season is the party destination of Ibiza, or as it is also known, The White Isle. It is almost a given that one must refer to the fact that the third largest of the Balearic islands floating happily in the Med is about more than just nightclubs and hedonism. However, although this is certainly the case, this not going to be the crux of this post, which is aimed firmly at those looking to throw shapes in the sun.

First up is a thread from the Ibiza Spotlight Forums started by Bambi back in March who was looking for the best clubs/bars/beaches. All bases covered then.

“I really don’t want to end up in a chav-fest which is just a British trance joint in the sun!”

The like minded responded in the form of Richard_M and Broadbeanmachine – it is all here.

Eyewitness Ibiza is a community based guide to the island and offers plenty of insider information. Notable is DJ Darz who delivers a podcast stuffed full of tunes and details on what is happening over the summer and where. Perfect, as he states, for the diverse demographic that arrive on the island with one thing in common, wanting to

“dance until there is no tomorrow”.

Finally a quick link to Ibiza Blog that does as you’d expect, post on all that is occurring. Ever wondered how venue filling DJs such as David Guetta arrive in what is undoubtedly a party capital of Europe, if not the world? By creating a mile high club of course!

You’re inevitably in Italy, which means things are good, because as far as European destinations go, the land of pizza, pasta, Fine Art and Robert Di Niro characters is one of the best.

Brenda and Shaun’s Travel Blog has posts from four Italian cities, Milan, Verona, Venice and Rome. Each is full of what they did and made of the various places of interest they visited. The posts are also accompanied by the most splendid of visual aids - photographs.

Along the same lines is Ibom’s account of adventures in Italy that come in a detailed and informative format, as well as Tara Roberts Travel Blog that does similar work in relaying experiences of traveling the country. However her Pompei Trip entry is interesting, and not just because it is about the city buried under a volcanic eruption. Tara made the error of not hiring a guide at the entrance, a mistake, that with hindsight she regrets - as a lack of signs make it almost impossible to tell what you are looking at. Worth taking note.

Finally, in relation to Italy there is this thread that poses the dilemma of whether one should choose Siena or Florence. It is a decision I was faced with during my own escapades in Italy. I went with Florence, which is a brilliant, brilliant city.

It’s one of the most familiar and stressful stages of travelling: the last couple of days before a long trip, when you sort out all those little details you’ve avoided up until then. It’s also the bit hardly anyone talks about online, but sharing tips and tales of last-minute must-dos can actually be incredibly helpful to fellow travellers.

So three cheers for Meg and Mojo, two of our STA Explorers, who have posted a great article about their final-week to-do-list for their European interrailing adventure. Meg recommends the best places for every essential, including good walking shoes, an ISIC card, MTV travel guide, and some excellent luggage and locks from Boswells. She also describes her struggles trying to sort out her Barclaycard and her 02 mobile deal for when she’s abroad - both customer serivces teams seem to be pretty useless - although apparently:

my conversation with the STA representative was much more satisfying. I was “connected to” the gorgeous-sounding, mellifluous, uber-helpful Rory. He sorted out my Interrail ticket for me, as for some reason my card payment had failed online. We even shared a little joke about the dire hold music…Rory prefers silence to this jazz medley too. Rory, if you’re out there - we’re made for each other. I love you. I’ve booked the venue and chosen the dress. Call me.

Could this be the first STA Explorer romance?! She also discusses our lovely Starbucks session where we talked about travelling, social media and.. yes, you guessed it, Rory.

The girls have now landed in Madrid, so keep an eye on their blog for more outspoken, independent and downright useful blogstuff.

The title of this article refers to this specific post in Dave and Meredith’s Travel Blog, a couple who, as it states in their about section, like to travel.

The Ghengis factor is a term used to refer jovially to when things going awry in Mongolia, although it is unclear how far spread this term is. But it was utilised by Dave and Meredith’s tour leader when a scheduled flight to Western Mongolia was moved four hours forward, something the party was informed of 20 minutes before the new departure time. Cue the dash to the airport. Other posts from Mongolia include very differing views from windows number 1 and number 2, as well as a cultural performance in Ulaan Baatar.

Also travelling in Mongolia recently was Jake of Jake’s Travel Blog. He has two posts dedicated to his time there, the first involving horse-riding, latrine building and vodka. The following piece has some detail about Mongolian hunters who use eagles to help them catch their quarry, and Jake shares his thoughts on the days he spent soaking up the experience.

“Overall my experiences of Mongolia in general and the Kazakhs in particular have been some of the best in my life. Their nomadic lifestyle, hospitality, food, and vodka culture is incredible.”

For more ideas on what can be done in Mongolia, have a skim through this thread on the Lonely Planet forum.

OK this might be a bit cheeky but the lovely stubbly Tom at STA Travel has given me the go-ahead to spread the love, so spread it I shall, like a great benign muck-spreader spreading droplets of joy to irrigate our parched lives.

Whatever. Basically, STA are offering a time-limited 15% friends and family discount on tours, accommodation and insurance this summer, and, as we’re all one big happy STA travelbuzz family, we’re sharing it with you here - and feel free to pass it on to any fellow travellers too.

Oh, really, stop. My clothes are getting soggy with your droplets of joy.

Vietnam is a popular destination for the year-outer come casual traveler and as such I thought I’d scour the web and see what experiences are being documented.

Andy Stoll’s comprehensive no boudaries.org travelogue records his experiences of Vietnam on an ‘unscripted’ around the world trip, described in his about section. He’s offered up numerous posts while in the country, from a train trip from Saigon to Hanoi to what it’s like to fire a machine gun in Vietnam. Trains to machine guns in two posts… that’s eclectic.

Having already made their way through Vietnam, the Coopers are currently in Sydney and are keeping everyone up to date with their two month honeymoon via the blog Adventures in Africa and Asia.

Vietnam was covered in a variety posts at the beginning of June and included the Chu Chi War Tunnels, A Mekong Delta tour and an impromptu dash around a Ho Chi Minh City emergency room (everyone was fine, it was as a result of infected wounds, that, as I discovered in an earlier post on Phu Quoc Island were a consequence of a minor motorbike accident).

Motorbike scrapes and machine guns - Vietnam sounds like an action flick script!