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May 26 Church Stretton and LongmyndWell I know it has been a while but I have finally found a bit of time to add to this and thought I had better get some stuff on here. Andrea was working late shifts all bank holiday weekend, so I decided to take off camping for a night to a place in the Shropshire hills called Rushbury which is near Longmynd. Needless to say, what with it being a Bank holiday weekend in England it rained and blew but whats new. Got there late after finally getting to take a look in Decathlon which is like Rebel sports for all you Kiwis reading. Managed to get the tent up with a bit of swearing and cursing and got everything set up so I went off for a run. Was glad to see I had finally found some hills. 10k later and loads of mud and rain, I made it back to camp and cooked up a steak sandwich before settling back with a couple of Murphy's (cheap Guinness replacement). Up early the next morning to find the rain had stopped and the wind had blown most of the water off of my tent so I got everything packed up and had something to eat before heading to the reason I had come here - Longmynd. It is a series of hills near the Welsh border which are about the same size as the hills of the Banks Peninsular and about as windy. I managed to cycle the first 100m of climb and negotiate a couple of rocky stream crossings before being faced with a rather steep climb, which I chose to walk. 150m higher it started to flatten out so back on the mountain bike and along the top. The surrounds were quite similar to the port Hills with a lot of bracken like scrub around and loads of sheep roaming everywhere. There are a few stands of trees around here as well which made a nice change from all the developed areas you usually see over here. Headed along and into some forestry trails where I fell off a couple of times as the ruts got deeper and I remembered how not to get cleats out while not moving. I decided at this point that the original plan of 42 k's was a bit much and began making my way back at about the 20k mark. Stuck to the country lanes mostly from here as the bridleways were not as available. Got back to the car and a short break before heading home for some well deserved food. November 28 Catch UpWell it has been about three months now since we got over to the UK and this is the first time I have gotten round to updating this blog. Well you all knew I was slack anyway eh?
Loads has happened since I last wrote on here so I will start at the start. Ko Phi Phi was good fun, nice and relaxing, but a bit dearer than some of the other parts of Thailand. Still cheap but a bit more touristy. Saw a picture taken just after the tsunami and the place got trainwrecked. Mostly recovered now though but if you want mod cons you might be lucky. Can be hard to get a room over there as it can be very popular. Went on a trip out to a few of the island and did some snorkelling. It was much better here than Nha Trang. Also went to Ko Phi Phi Le which is where they filmed 'The Beach'. Stopped on a beach on the way back and fed some monkeys. One tried nipping at Andrea after we got too close but we managed to come away unscathed.
From here it was back to Bangkok for some last minute souvenir shopping before catching the plane back to Heathrow. We also got a massage, haircut and pedicure each for about ten quid or so. They took to my feet with a potato peeler or something. Weird stuff.
Got back to Birmingham, settled in, and started helping Andreas sister pack as they left for Perth about 6 weeks ago now. We inherited a great deal of stuff off them which is great. Now we just need somewhere to put it all. Also got started on looking for work and meetng all Andreas family and friends.
One of Andreas friends partners had heard about a kiwi coming over and quickly had me signed up to the local rugby club. Have been playing for their seconds team which has gone well so far. The backs are young and quick with a fairly mature and solid forward pack. We seem to be winning more than losing which is good.
Andrea and I got engaged as well and had a do for that and her sisters leaving. Was an interesting day with everyone being a little upset about Rachel leaving but excited about our news. We have set a date for June next year but hopefully most of you should know that by now.
We also now have jobs. I have one with a local aerospace company and Andrea is working with learning disabilities about 20 minutes away. We haven`t had much of a chance to have a good look around much yet as we have been so busy geting settled. Our stuff finally arrived the other day and we have gotten most of it put away so I guess that is next on the list. We did go and see a bit of Northern Wales while Wendy-Lee was here and have also shot up to Leeds to see some of Andreas friends and down to Cornwall with her great aunty. Will try to get some pics up when we get a chance. August 23 Hue and HanoiWell it has been a few days so here goes.
Hue was a much less touristy town with an old citadel which was supposed to be good. We had to go in the pouring rain as we only had a day and a half there and didn`t see anything too special. Others we spoke to thought the place was great so I think we missed out on something.
The city is also famous for its Perfume river and tombs of the Nyugen kings so we went up there on a boat trip and had a look at a couple. I think I peeved off the moto drivers when I said I wanted to run to the first one. They couldn`t understand why I would want to run 1.5k each way. It was stinking hot though and I worked up a biit of a sweat. But then everyone else did anyway so what the heck. The tombs were quite nice, but nothing on the scale of what we had seen in Angkor. It was kind of wierd as they had been built by the kings before they died and they actually lived there quite a bit. Who would want to live in their own tomb?
Anyway from here it was a 14 hour bus to Hanoi. We stayed here in the old quarter at the Hanoi Lotus. After a look around the lake which is really nice, we decided to book on the hotels Halong bay tour. We put in our washing so we would have a few more clean clothes for the three day trip after being told we would have them back in the morning.
The next morning before leaving for the trip, they took a bit to find our washing before giving us a bag with half in it. They had no idea where the rest was. We left hoping it would turn up while we were away and headed tp Halong Bay. This is a bunch of about 3000 islands and islets of a karst limestone type which legend says were created by a dragons tail when it touched the water as it ran out to sea. The whole area is very beautiful and we spent three days cruising in a boat, kayaking, trekking on the biggest island and walking through a huge cave. Unfortunately, we had a generator running next door to us while sleepiong on the boat, the rubbish is all thrown over the side, and the breakfasts were pathetic. The kayak was good though, although Andy still needs some practise.
After our trip out there we headed back to Hanoi and tracked down the remainder of our washing after dealing with a very rude hotel receptionist. We then moved to a far nicer hotel with friendly people for only $2US more. The last few days have just been spent looking round the city. We went to Ho Chi Minhs mausoleum. This guy looks like a shorter Asian version of Colonel Sanders. The place is very strict with no cameras pointing talking or stopping to look. You just walk in, around in a line two poeple wide and then out again. Checked out his house, Morris 2 and Peugeot, and the museum before we shipped some stuff using the local postal system. 30 pounds for 14kg to the UK.
We also tried the wider cyclos here but still couldn`t fit both of us comfortably. I don`t know how four Vietnamese ride in these things at a time.
We are now waiting for the taxi to the airport to fly to Krabi in Thailand for a few days on the beach before going to England. See all you Poms soon. August 14 Nha Trang and Hoi AnWe arrived at the beaches of Nha Trang after a bus journey of about 5 hours and stayed at a nice place in the middle of town for a few nights. Ha dplanned to take a night out on the islands but no-one seemed to understand us so we took a one day trip out there instead. Snorkelling at the first island, drinking in the water at the second, relaxing at the third, and an aquarium at the fourth before back to Nha Trang. Got very burnt though. Other thn that we just lazed around and had a look at the local markets and tours.
From there we went to Hoi An, which is an evil place to go! Just kidding, but we do have to get out of here before we spend any more money. I bought four shirts three t-shirts three pants, a jacket and two pairs of shorts and andy bought five pairs of pants and two tops. All this cost about $230USD. we then bought three pairs of shoes each for $130. Then on the way back we got dragged into another shop and bought a suit, a dress and a pair of pants for $58. All of this was tailor made. Oh and Andy got her legs 'threaded' by a cheeky Vietnamese woman named Hung. They use a piece of cotton to pull the hairs from the selected piece of skin. She thought it was painful but they tried doing it to my knee and it wasn`t too bad.
To make up for all this splurging we thought we had better go see some local sights, so we went to the Cham ruins at My Son. these were built in the 2nd to 10th century and are a protected heritage site. very nice, but they are pretty worn and battered as you can imagine after 1000 years and a few US bombs. Then it was back to try on our clothes and pack a new backpack so we could fit everything in, before a swim and dinner.
Next stop Hue, departing tomorrow. August 08 Sihanoukville and southern vietnamWell its been a while and we have been flat out touring all over the show. We went from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh which was a bit mad, about 40 people waiting for us pulling on our shiorts and trying to get us top go to their guesthouse. Thankfully we had booked this in advance and got out of there pretty quick. Went to the Grand Palace and Silver Pagoda. Nice to see but not that exciting, then on to Toul Sleng. This ised to be a school before Pol Pot turned it into a detention centre. Nasty place and some horrible stories, but a must to visit while we were here.Other than that, Phnom Penh was not that great a place.
We then went to Sihanoulville in the south of cambodia for a few days of sun and sand but it rained almost the whole time beautiful beaches but a bit of rubbish around. Got the bus back to Phnom Penh and sat behind a girl I went to primary school with! She was on her way back to NZ via Australia for her brothers wedding. Small world.
The bus trip to Saigon was pretty uneventful, got a room just off the main tourist area and had a look around. Went to the tunnel network that the VC had used for all the wars here and had a very good guide. Mr Binh was fighting with the Yanks andtold us a great deal about the history of the area and his theories on why all western people had fat bottoms.
From here we had a three day tour of the Mekong. It was some beautiful scenery but the tour felt very touristy. Had some nice boat rides along the Mekong river though.
We have spent the last two days in Mui Ne and hired a scooter yesterday to go out to the dunes sand sledding. great fun. The beach here is nice but very windy so we are off to Nha Trang this afternoon.
Hope all is well back home. By the way the cellphone is a no go - we can`t even find it at the moment and it never connected to the network here. will be on a computer every few days if you need to get in touch you can email us. Will try to get more pics up soon, but they take quite a while so most will wait till we get to the UK.
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