Brian O'Connell'sround-up of travel blogs
• Susan Giblin and Pete Chappell are travelling from west to east, taking their route from Paris to St Petersburg. www.aroundaboutway.com
As blogs go, Giblin and Chappell are willing to go the extra mile to keep their readers happy. On their page, audio files allow us to hear sounds from their travels. The site is updated almost daily, and there's an option to scan through snapshots, as well as a map of where the couple have been and where they're going next. For those of us who struggle to send a tacky postcard from our annual fortnight in the sun, it makes for guilty reading.
Currently in China, the pair have had a decidedly different experience to the "One World, One Dream" image promoted by the organisers of the Olympics. The alternative brand of "Chinese hospitality" became evident when they tried to visit the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, about 40km from Xining. Police were there when they arrived and refused access to the site. "They took our passport and visa details and then followed us out of the village (just to make sure we didn't try to cause any trouble)," writes Giblin. "They did let us have a glimpse of the house where the Dalai Lama was born, which I thought was kind of them in the circumstances."
• John Buckley is a 32-year- old American living in Daegu, South Korea, and blogging at johnbuckley.travellerspoint.com
Staying in China, Buckley sits watching the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and realises it's time he blogged about the trip he took to China before the Olympics started. Titled "Beer and Loathing in China", the blog tells us that if "procrastination were an Olympic sport, I, sir, would be a Phelps-like icon".
Recounting a booze-filled trip, where the highlight was a visit to a brewery, Buckley concludes by saying that "as an American, we and the Chinese certainly have our differences, but I will concede this: in the world of drunken, sweaty, shirtless arm-wrestling, China is clearly the best!"
• Michael Kennedy, David Hally and Jimmy O'Keeffe are travelling from Ireland to Australia by jeep, blogging at www.threeladsinajeep.com
"Twenty thousand miles, 20 countries, millions of potholes and three lads in a jeep." That's how the group of Munster lads introduce themselves to the blogosphere. On day four of their trip, they document the journey from Versailles, outside Paris, to Mont St Michel, in Normandy, where they pitched their tents in the back of a "quirky hotel". A few bottles of cider later and the music started up, courtesy of "Prince Ringyard and his one-woman band", who "banged out the French version of 'rebel songs' ". Our trio say they have undertaken their journey "for the experience and the craic. The spirit of this journey is adventure for adventure's sake."
• Have you news you want to share via your blog? E-mail goblog@irish-times.ie