If the same old family holiday in the UK felt just a bit dull this year, you might want to start thinking about ideas for a trip in December 2009. Click on the custardy coloured bits below to find out just how much fellow STA travellers enjoyed their Christmases and New Years:

Relaxing on a white sand beach in Bermuda…

Visiting an orphanage in Phnom Penh…

Splashing in the pool on top of Mount Isa…

Ripping it up in Dublin… or

Coughing from the pollution in Kathmandu Valley…

… and don’t be afraid to leave comments or questions for our Explorers on their blogs to get further advice and opinion about how they found their festive time abroad.

Andrew begins his latest post at nice to meet you with,

“I’m basically the crappest blogger ever. Already in this first sentence I’ve used the word crappest. Crappest? That’s definitely not a word.”

Ok, so you used the word ‘crappest’, but loads of words weren’t actually words until Shakespeare used them. Andrew, just think of yourself as a modern day, globally roaming bard. Besides, getting interesting coverage of your Thai travels and a reference to Gladstone Small (who incidentally was the first ‘celebrity’ I ever met) into a blog post is clearly a skill.

The comedic prowess contained in the relaying of the visit to the Buddhist temple and riding of a sacred dragon is a standard that runs through Andrew’s entire blog,

“I was thinking about asking Rich if it would be disrespectful to take pictures in the Buddhist temple we were visiting, only to find him around the corner riding a sacred golden dragon. Unbelievable.”

For more in the same vein discussing the beauty of Mui Ne and Dalat head through this link…

As the ever ready Andrew Wan states in the opening of his latest entry, a lot has happened since he last posted…

“New presidents. Dancing bears. Flooded countries. Giant cockroaches. Joe Kinnear.”

Some of these mentions are specific to him and others are not, and such things need not be accounted for in detail. Actually that’s not strictly true, Kinnear gets a few sentences from our 7 months 12 countries STA-er, even if it is to describe him as a visual cross between a wolf and a walrus.

All that aside though, Andrew is currently in Dalat, Vietnam and gives us an insight into how he got (and what he’s been doing whilst getting) there. Escapade-based brilliance involving infinity mirrors, 16p beers, falling in lakes and standing on tanks make up some of the entertainment to be found in the post ‘miscellaneous meats‘.  And all this topped off with some tailored suit action.

For all the above and thoughts on ‘the monobrow’, just go read Andrew’s latest post at nice to meet you.

In writing STA posts, the mention of a WWF tag team legend is a fairly unexpected, but all together pleasant, surprise. Unbelievably it was in reference to sore buttocks, which makes it even stranger. It all occurs in the first paragraph of Andrew’s latest post, Rayden and The Pakistan Sandwich - (yup, that’s another ace name check – the video game Mortal Kombat).

Andrew, the STA Explorer we all know and love as 7 Months 12 Countries, has done so much more than just talk buttocks and Legion of Doom in the latest installment of the Nice to Meet You blog. Involving escapades in Hong Kong and China, the piece is full of cautionary insight:

“I unintentionally slept by a river one night and was rudely awoken by a dog at 5am. Not recommended. Dogs have rabies, rivers have rats and mosquitoes have teeth. Do mosquitoes have teeth? I think so.”

For more invaluable travel advice and etymological offerings follow the virtual highlighter…

Andrew our STA Explorer (better known as 7 Months 12 Countries) promised genuine travel advice and has delivered.

“Here it is. You need a visa to get in to China from Hong Kong. They’re not the same place apparently.”

Straight forward, but quite important. The difficulties with being effectively trapped in Hong Kong led Andrew to a differing opinion than that of the ‘visa woman’.

“I’m waiting on having my visa accepted before I can leave this place. ‘It’s common knowledge’ I was told by the helpful visa woman. The fact that all Argentineans carry dice in their hats ‘just in case’ is common knowledge. The Chinese visa situation - less so.”

Argentinean’s with dice? Is that an ‘always-ready-to-gamble’ reference? Got to be… Despite the unable to leave scenario, time has been filled with trips to Ocean Park for roller coasters and ice cream plus partying in private members clubs. Both of which seem exceptional ways to spend down time. Much better than the limited possibilities when your only entertainment is a Swiss Army knife and over-priced volleyball…

The reliably witty Andrew (who in his capacity as STA Explorer goes by the less than pithy but undeniably informative moniker 7 months, 12 countries),  has reached the Chinese stage of his round the world trip through India, Asia and South America. And he’s already causing merry mayhem, with plenty of advice on his blog for travellers on what NOT to do while you’re there.

Top of the list is don’t spend the night on the Great Wall of China:

we spend most of the night marching back and forward like border guards along a 20 metre stretch which we thought we couldn’t fall off to try and keep warm. earlier on we tried our best to avoid drawing attention to ourselves in case we ended up in a gulag. from midnight onwards we attempted to start a fire in the hope of ending up in one of them

Another top tip is don’t visit Mongolia on a national holiday:

bus to chinese border town - 15 hours. sleep in odd hotel - 5 hours. time to cross the most messed up border in the world to Zamen Uud - 7 hours. Being told there are no trains to Ulaan Bator or back to beijing - priceless

Although having to sleep in the taxi driver’s yurt with sheep milk curds for supper may not be the height of luxury, it’s nothing if not authentic. Andrew is apparently now spending his time exploring Beijing and ‘taking the piss out of mao loudly’. Oh dear. I have a feeling that another post with a title very similar to the above may be coming pretty soon.

Our STA Explorer, 7 Months 12 Countries is on his way and his blog Nice To Meet You is gathering pace. Currently Andrew is fleeing Mumbai, heading to the mountains in the North for some peace and quiet after the hectic start to his journey in the most populated city in the world, 13 million stories my friend.

His latest post describes the Mumbai experience; titled Mumbai Madness, you get a good impression of what he made of it. Be sure not to imagine that madness though as the ‘rave’ sort, its more:

“Noise, hassle, taxis, drowning elephant gods in the sea.”

In fact it might even be fair to say that his time in Mumbai was not the best:

“I’ve been ripped off numerous times, stood in plenty of cow poos and had a drunken taxi driver crash over a central reservation - the only central reservation in Mumbai, it possibly threw him.”

Don’t let this put you off. As Andrew says himself, when reading back his post it does sound as if his time in Mumbai was an entirely negative period in his life. There were, however, mitigating circumstances…