Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our friends and family worldwide!! Nick and I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with our Aussie Family!! From GIGANTIC Christmas Crackers (it was almost larger than Iris!!) to silly hats, it seems Santa finds silly things in all parts of the world to keep the laughter going through the Christams season!! Jay and Melissa arrived on the 24th and the fun began!! From a wonderful sunny day and sitting out on the patio with festive drinks (Jay's quite the mixer in this regard!!) to Nick entertaining us with his use of the Australian dictionary! Yes, "chook" is in the dictionary and yes it is a chicken!! The entire evening was capped off with an exceptional meal cooked by Jan and carved expertly by Keith!!

With our full stomachs, we crawled into our beds and enjoyed a restful sleep. The crazy antics began shortly after we awoke and found lots of pressies under the tree!!

The very cute reindeer sightings really did make everyone's day!!

The next day - we went to Melbourne and enjoyed a boat ride along the Yarra River to Williamstown. We had lovely fish and chips and ended it all with an ice cream. Even though Nick declined the offer of ice cream, he did well helping me with mine!! The entire visit with our Aussie Family has been amazing!! We have been truly spoiled and wish we never had to leave! Alas, today we depart for Sydney. We are driving from Kilmore to Sydney and catch our flight to Auckland NZ on Saturday. Nick and I will be counting the days until we can return to our Aussie Home. We wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!! We'll be adding more blogs soon on our excellent Murray River Camping Expedition soon!! Koalas, Huntsman spiders and more...stay tuned!!

ROADTRIP!!

So after extending our stay in Airlie for 2 extra days, we finally decided to rent a car and go exploring!! Nick was sad to leave our little oasis as he had made a few friends along the way. Two cockatoos would visit in the afternoon and actually took crackers from Nick's hand. I stayed inside and took pictures as I'm a little "scaredycat"!!
Our roadtrip destaination was north. On our way we stopped in Bowen and checked out the Giant Mango. We determined it was almost as large as the Big Apple in Canada. Sadly though, no mango pies were sold! (Do they make mango pies here? Nick feels they would be too mushy!!) Bowen is a very old fashioned small town that was used for the set for the epic film, Australia, currently in theatres.
In Bowen, we stopped at various beaches. At Horseshoe Bay, we walked in the rocks and the surrounding water. I found a fiver in the water at the same time Nick found a 50 dollar bill!! Thank goodness for plasticized money in Australia. I noticed that a few people were climbing the rocks and wondered if the money had fallen out of their pockets so we asked them and sure enough once they searched, they were short a 50 dollar bill and a 5 dollar bill. (We didn't tell them what was found beforehand.) So Nick and I were happy to have made their day! Nick decided to climb the rocks afterwards and I kept a lookout for any extra cash he might throw my way!! ha ha







We arrived into Townsville and walked along the Strand which is a large park along the ocean. It was quite windy so we didn't go swimming. We decided to have a greek dinner and call it an early night. The next day we walked to Flinders Mall - a pedestrian street with shops but is currently under a great deal of construction. Nick tried to visit a barber but no luck! On our way to Reef HQ, we stumbled upon some interesting sights. Nick favoured this chair over the other one - I wonder why? Dad is always pointing out the interesting insects that Australia has so we thought we'd send along this picture of a spider we saw overhanging the street. We quickened our steps when we passed underneath!
Nick and I really enjoyed visiting Reef HQ - we spent the entire afternoon here! It is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium!We saw all types of fish, coral, eels, sea snakes (yuck!), and even several types of sharks!! Nice to see them behind glass and not visiting us while we snorkelled!! We also saw giant versions of the remoras that tried to stick itself to Nick's leg in Thailand. The entire experience was fascinating.
Here is the sea turtle in the predators section. We have many pictures to share.
Finally - Liam and Rowan would have loved what happened when we were leaving the aquarium and Nick managed to get a picture of it. That scary shark from Finding Nemo came after me - good thing Nemo and Dora were there to distract him for me!!
We finally got back on budget and stayed in a backpackers hostel last night. We got great deals on dinner $6.50 each at Molly Malone's and Nick and I were content to be back in an irish pub on a Wednesday night!! (Thanks to the Casey Clan for making us aware that the nachoes still taste great at The Toucan!!)

Lazing about in Australia!!

Following our adventure in the outback, we went to Sydney for 2 days. Actually it was only supposed to be for one but our flight was cancelled to Brisbane and Jetstar put us up for the night with dinner - awesome deal!! It has given us some faith in the airline industry once again. We visited our favourite restaurant for mussels and beer at the Bavarian Beer Cafe in The Rocks area. A lovely evening!! Our bonus day in Sydney saw us enjoying the Christmas displays and we got to take the train in from the airport area. I especially loved the story of the four elves in the David Jones store display as shown. Nick was incredibly patient as I acted like a kid taking so many photos of the working puppets in the displays!

The next day we arrived in Airlie Beach and stayed at the SeaStar Apartments (same location we were at 2 years ago). It was great to have a kitchen to make our meals, a swimming pool to relax in, views to enjoy and finally - and most importantly - laundry facilities!! After a day by the pool and catching up on our sleep - we did a tour of 3 islands in the Whitsundays including Whitehaven Beach. The winds were quite high so the cruise was rather interesting! While on Whitehaven Beach, we saw a catamaran with the interesting name on it - Scarlett!! Nick pointed it out to me and I was wondering if someone was there to pick us up for our own private charter - ha ha!! We then went to Hook Island to do some snorkelling.

After donning the wonderful yet oh so sexy stingersuits - we were off into the waters. The crew fed the fish while we snorkelled among them. It was cool to have the fish come right up to your mask and check you out. As usual, we were some of the last people to leave the water to get back onto the boat for the ride back to Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach. Before leaving though, Nick had to check out the hammock and decided he would be content to stay here for a few hours!
Once back on the boat, we celebrated a good day by having a VB!!

Life in Australia!!

Nick and I are certainly enjoying being back in Australia!! Who would have thought we'd be back so soon after our last trip. This time we started off in Perth but sadly could not stay since we had to get to our booked tour in Alice Springs by the 6th of December. (We'll be back to Perth one day - we hope!!) The 3 day tour of Uluru-Kings Canyon was amazing!! We started off at 5:45 a.m. and Steve - our wonderful guide - gave us a warm welcome!! We hopped into the cool (literally since it was already quite hot) vehicle and picked up the rest of the group. The over 400 kilometre drive to Uluru was a wet one since we managed to the 1% of the visiting population to Uluru that gets to see a rainstorm in the desert!! Thus the music "it's raining on the rock played about throughout the drive" - compliments of Steve!! Steve's enthusiasm for the wet weather actually got the rest of us excited too!! The drive was unique at times since the road was covered with water and Steve drove us through it like a pro!! I was a bit apprehensive at times but all was fine!! Our first day consisted of a stop at the camel farm, Uluru and all its bits and then finally ending up at the campsite for night. Uluru was a site to behold and we walked around most of it. We were very lucky as the rain occurred before and after but not during our walk. The culture centre was also very informative and Nick and I wished we could have stayed longer to check it all out more thoroughly. After this, we headed to watch the sunset on the rock with champagne and nibblies - quite a nice way to end the day!! The campsite had a permanent cook shelter available and we set to work on dinner straight away. Luckily it was part of a larger campsite so shower facilities and all were available. The night was not as clear as we would have liked and thus tarps were put up to ensure some shelter from the rain that was sure to appear. AND - sure enough - at 2am - the rains came!! A small tsunami appeared out of nowhere and pretty much soaked the campers under the permament shelter. Nick and I and another couple, Andy and Michelle from Nottingham, UK (great mates!!) were under the other tarp and got wet too but not nearly as bad as the others. In fact, Nick slept through the entire thing!! After this, 4am came very quickly - the time Steve awoke us to get ready for the sunrise. We departed the campsite leaving our wet swags (a large canvas type bag that zips up both sides and has a flap that closes at the top (the better to keep snakes and spiders out of I guess) ) and sleeping bags behind - hoping they may dry in the time of our return.



The sunrise was beautiful - but I think most of us enjoyed the wonderful coffee and tea to wake us up!! After this, we went on a hike and Steve told us about the geological history of the area (plate tectonics, geologic eras, folding, faulting - all that juicy geo stuff that I love!!) so needless to say - it was a wonderful day for me!! The views were magnificient - beyond description - which I know sounds corny but it is true! That afternoon - we had lunch and dried out our swags - even managed a quick dip in the pool that was required with the hot outback sun beaming down at us in full force!! The rest of the afternoon consisted of driving to Kings Canyon - around few hundred kilometres - things are not that close together in the outback!! But on this drive - I actually saw a wild camel just walking about in the bush to the side of the road!! I should mention though that Steve decided that we should have a true Aussie experience so he purchased a kangaroo tail to roast on the fire that evening. The tail was 3 feet long and frozen - he gave it to Nick to hold onto and he put it on top of the water cooler. In the heat of the day - it did not take long for the tail to thaw and thus start to lean over the sides of the water cooler. Yes, what a sight to see!! We arrived at our campsite which was extremely secluded except for the millions of flies that decided to welcome us as we departed the bus. We viewed a beautiful sunset and began dinner on the campfire - veggies, chicken, rice, dampa bread (yummy) and of course the kangaroo tail. Steve first burnt off all of its fur then wrapped it in tin foil and placed it deep into the coals for a few hours!! After dinner we put our swags around the campfire and crawled in - exhausted yet satisfied from a wonderful day - and looked in wonder at the thousands of stars overhead!! In no time, the quiet of the night fell in.



The final day - we woke up to a great Aussie jingle - "Tie me kangaroo down mate"!! It was a nice way to wake up at 5am to see another beautiful sunrise!! Most of us jumped up and got started while others needed a bit of Spice Girls inspiration - yikes!! After breaky and tidying up, we left for Kings Canyon and went on a 3 hour hike through the canyon. Nick enjoyed a cool dip in the Garden of Eden - I dipped in my toes and took pictures!! We also got to take a few Priscilla - Queen of the Desert pics!! Another fantastic day and we were sad to leave the area as we travelled back to Alice Springs. Nick and I certainly picked an excellent tour and were even luckier to have Steve for our guide!! Amazing!!

The amazing race!

Leaving Perth this aft for Alice Springs. Yesterday was an adventure. Every flight we took was a squeaker, but we always managed to be on the plane! We've never seen so much airport chaos in our lives! First, in KL, we jumped the queue to get through immigration, only to discover it was going to take over an hour for our luggage to come through! Good thing our flight to Singapore was late, or we never would have made it! So after arriving late in Singapore, the flight attendant announced the wrong local time - we thought we only had 45 minutes to get to our next flight, and we had to pick up our luggage and re-check in, and go through immigration again! Fortunately, our flight was delayed by a half hour, so that gave us some breathing room. But then, the line-up to check in to Qantas flights was jam-packed, and not even moving! Turned out they were doing a 'system upgrade' to improve customer service, except it wasn't working! With minutes to spare, they pulled us out the line, took us into one of the premier lounges, and checked us in from there. We had to run through the concourse to get to our gate! And wouldn't you know it, then we sat on the plane for at least a half hour waiting for a couple who had been shopping, and left there passports in a shop, and were running all over the airport looking for them! So we didn't arrive in Perth until nearly 3am! We were exhausted! When we finally got to the hotel, we asked the clerk if they had a 'morning rate', and he was nice enough to give us a bit of a deal since we were going to be there such a short time!
Anyway, we're on our way to Alice Springs. Hope we have a good sleep tonight - we get picked up at 5:45am tomorrow!

Some Highlights from Bangkok

Nick and I managed to get a few days in Bangkok at the beginning of our adventure in Thailand. We visited the popular weekend market where everything in the world you can imagine finding is definitely there!! The sure size of the market really surprised us and we wandered through the countless stalls for hours!! I could have went crazy with shopping but, like the rest of the trip, have remained very conservative.

The next day we went on the ferries throughout the river to travel to various locations in Bangkok. Some of the stops were overwhelmed with water and we had to walk on benches to get into the area. It was quite unsteady but we balanced ourselves well as people walked in both directions across the benches. The water did subside but then the rains came so the water rose once again!!

The various temples we visited were amazing!! Nick was much more adventurous than I and he climbed them right to the top whereas I stayed closer to the bottom and took the pictures!! The reclining buddha was quite the sight and we would like to report that no his feet were not smelly!! It was exciting though as the security officers took out a pickpocketer while we were there - they took him down outside - a little bit of a ruckus!! A police officer came along and said "nothing to see here - more along now..." Nick and I got a chuckle out of that!!

So visiting Bangkok was a great adventure and we are disappointed that we never got to go back on this trip!!

A way out.......

We've managed to book AirAsia flights from Krabi airport (about 3 hrs from Phuket) to Kuala Lumpur, and then from KL to Singapore, just in time to catch a flight from Singapore to Perth. So we depart Krabi 12:50pm on Thursday, and don't arrive in Perth until 1:00 am on Friday, and then we have to fly to Alice Springs Friday afternoon in order to catch the outback tour that is booked and paid for. Its going to be a long couple of days. Expensive too, but I'll be making it clear to Cathay Pacific/Oneworld Alliance that I expect some of our costs to be reimbursed, since they have not been any help whatsoever. Cathay Pacific isn't even answering the phone - I was on hold (on the cell phone!) for an hour & a half last night, with no answer!
So all we have to do now is decide how we're getting back to Krabi, and when (ironically, that's where we left to come to Phuket, thinking Phuket airport would be a better option!). I've heard that there are so many folks just showing up at Phuket airport that there is a standby queue to try to go standby!
The folks here at the Marriott at Surin Beach have been absolutely fantastic, bending over backwards to help everybody as best they can. Another stranded guest told me she'd heard it reported that it will take at least a month for all the people stranded in Thailand to get out! That makes no sense to me; it would seem to me that there must be quite a few idle planes since Bangkok is shut down, so why aren't they flying them into and out of these other airports?
Anyway, its been a busy morning, time to relax and chill out before I lose my mind......

Update from Thailand

So the fun continues...can't wait to get out of here!! We are in Phang Nga - northeast of Phuket airport - have now booked into Surin Beach for tonight at Marriott - yep I need a break!! We are waiting for BA airlines to call us back with details as to when we can leave. As of right now, we won't be leaving today and BA has suggested we may be here until Tuesday of next week. As a result, we may not be visiting Singapore at all and our visit to Perth may be cut short. Nick bought a sim card for Thailand for the cell phone therefore if you are trying to call us - we'll check for messages on the England number. The Thai number calling from home is 011 66 89 8727913 - This cell number has only been purchased so we could call the airline and be aput on hold for a hour and have it not costing us a fortune. Once this is over - the England sim card will be replaced so know you can call the England number and we'll check for messages!!!!
I must admit the humidity and ants are really getting to me in Thailand and the red shirt people (pro for gov't) and yellow shirt people (pro for monarch - who are sitting in the airport we need) are also getting to me too. In fact, last night I woke from a dream thinking either colour shirt was after us. The sun has not made a serious appearance since Saturday so the postcard pictures must be taken on the chance days. Ahhh - what an adventure!!
On a serious note, Nick and I are dismayed at the latest news from Mumbai and thankful for not being there. Some of the mentioned locations we visited. We are thinking of our friends in Warrangal and hope that they did not have family or friends in Mumbai at this time. We will continue to keep you updated and once we have our onward flight - we will let you all know. Nick is awesome and he's taking great care of both of us!!

No, we're not in Bangkok......

We are still in Thailand, and we're supposed to go through Bangkok to get to Singapore, but we may be able to avoid this. We're close to Phuket, so we may be able to fly direct from Phuket to Singapore and avoid the nonsense in Bangkok. We'll let you know! In the meantime, don't worry! I'm off to start working on it right now.....
N

Phuket Thailand

Nick and I are enjoying the sun in Phuket. After a few days in Bangkok, we flew to Phuket and have been here for the past 4 days. We leave for Ko Phi Phi Island today until Sunday then onto northern Thailand. It has been a relaxing break. We have a week left in Thailand. The time appears to be going by more quickly now. The beach at Mao Khao has been amazing and Nick and I have been swimming in the sea on a regular basis. YumYum the elephant comes to visit each day and she goes for a swim too!! Yesterday, I finally had the nerve to get a picture taken with her. I need to make this short as we need to check out of the place we are currently staying at and get to PhuketTown to take a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. Hope all is well back home!!

Flashback - A day in Hyderabad

Our wonderful guide and friend, Mehender, from Bala Vikasa, showed us around Hyderabad. He is an expert guide!! And we weren't bothered quite so much by the touts with him around, but he was quite often bothered by the 'Security' types, who thought he might be a tout bothering us! He's the handsome fellow standing next to Nick in front of the Four Towers. He went to college etc. in Hyderabad, so knew his way around fairly well.

In our whirlwind tour, we saw the Salar Jung Museum, which is huge, and basically the personal collection of the righthand man to the last Nizam (royalty), the Charminar (or Four Towers) and the Laad Bazaar just around it, the Birla Mandir Temple (no pics allowed!), and the 17.5m stone Buddha statue out in the middle of a lake. Brenda particularly enjoyed the story about how the statue sunk to the bottom of the lake when it was first being delivered, and it took 2 years to bring it back up!

One of the most noticeable things about India is the sheer number of people - there is always a crowd. And there doesn't seem to be any concept that roads are for motor-vehicles, not people and herds of livestock! If there is a spot near the side of the road, there will be some sort of shop or market stall right up to the edge (laws and regulation about this sort of stuff don't seem to exist - in a Mumbai paper we read about shops being set up in what were meant to be toilets for the rooms upstairs - tax collectors even came by and collected the business tax, but didn't do anything about the fact that the 'storefront' was actually squatting!).

You can sort of get the idea from the crowd shots attached. Another example - there was some sort of traffic accident involving a bus outside our hotel, so for some reason, all the passengers got off, and proceeded to stand right out in the road! So then there was a back-up of traffic, every single one of them laying on the horn.

So after an exhausting day, Mehender took us to the restaurant at the Kamat Hotel for dinner. It was a traditional Indian 'thali', which is sort of a fixed menu. It consisted of a bowl of rice, half-a-dozen poori (flatbread similar to pita that is deep-fried so it blows up into a ball), and 4 or 5 different curries. It was fantastic! Also of note, we learned to eat Indian-style! No fork & knife, no chopsticks - just your fingers! There is a bit of a knack to learning to mix and mush your rice up in curry until you have a little ball between your fingers, and then scooping it quickly up, and then delivering it to your mouth with your thumbnail. Nick was pretty comfortable with it after some practice, but Brenda preferred the fork & knife...... Of course, she made the excuse that the rice got caught in her fingernails, but we all know she's a wuss!

Anyway, a great day! Thanks Mehender!

The next morning we headed for Hyderabad's new airport for the flight back to Mumbai. One more pic I just can't resist.......

Strange seeing Ronald there, but these guys were happy as anything to have their photo taken. And then 2 other guys came out of McDonald's and also wanted their picture taken with Ronald! And then they rushed over to see it on the camera. Such a contrast - the multinational, and people who so rarely see images of themselves that it is an event.... Which reminds me of the woman with a small child, standing at the top of the escalator with a look of trepidation on her face. She quite apparently had never attempted an escalator before, and was rather shaky. Brenda and another gentleman helped her on, and Brenda made sure she got off on the bottom OK.

Extended our stay in Hong Kong

Nick and I have decided to stay a few more days in Hong Kong - until Friday, November 14th. We fly to Bangkok on the 14th and then we're staying in Thailand until the 28th now. (Thus another change to our schedule!) Hong Kong is a place just to wander about and people watch or window shop or just try countless types of food!! I would like to shop like crazy but have restrained myself since Nick keeps informing "you buy it - you carry it!!" which is only partially true as he usually ends up carrying it anyway (he told me to add this!!). So far, we have walked through food markets - where a butcher was scraping the hair off of the skin of pig's head - fish markets - where Liam and Rowan would have a heyday looking at all the fish especially the clown fish (Nemo) - bird markets - where Nick tried to have a conversation with a large parrot who was too busy eating a cricket - through countless clothing markets - where the streets were so clogged you could hardly move and through the beautiful flower markets - that were just rows of stores filled with the most beautiful flowers ever!! Believe it or not - internet cafes are almost impossible to find!! Only the occasional coffee shop with two or three terminals. Everyone must use their cell phones here. As a result, it is proving difficult to upload pictures but we'll keep looking!! We're off to the Star Ferry to check out Hong Kong Island for the second day and to play on the escalator system which is the largest one in the world!! It is 800 metres in length climbing from the sea level to the middle section of the island up on the hill. Nick loves the efficiency in terms of moving people back and forth.
Take care!!
Brenda and Nick

Living it up in Hong Kong!!

Nick and I are thoroughly enjoying the concrete jungle of lights, skyscrapers and hawkers in Hong Kong!! Each day is full of new adventure!! In fact we may try to stay a few more days in the city. The views are amazing!! We are particularly enjoying the food from home!! This will have to be a short post so we'll sign off as we need to give the computer to another customer!!

The water well!!

Today was incredible as we visited the well that Bayridge students raised the funds for in order to have it installed. There are two schools on site - a primary section where the well is located and a secondary section just around the corner. We first saw the well and took pictures and even washed our hands in the water! Following this, we had an assembly of all the students in the main courtyard that is surrounded by the buildings that hold the classrooms. I spoke and explained how the two grade 9 geography classes raised the money through bake sales, selling bottled water, bracelets and making the miniature well for spare change. The students were very impressed that students the same age as themseleves made running water available to them. The entire school was very thankful and wanted to send back home their thanks to all of the Bayridge community. Nick and I then observed a maths lesson, a language lesson (telugu) where the students sang us poems, a geography lesson on India and a science lesson for year 10 students. We also taught a short lesson on Canada - showing where we live in Canada - and some of the basics of our country. It was again an inspiring day working with students who are improving their future through education. We have many more stories to share and in the next few days will post more on the blog. Thanks Bayridge for making such a difference in this small village in India!!

India!!

We arrived in Mumbai on Thursday and enjoyed some relaxation time to catch up after the long trip from Uganda. Arriving at the end of Diwali celebrations made the visit even more spectacular as Thursday evening the nigthsky was filled with fireworks!! On Friday we went exploring and did a little shopping until a very large crow decided to anoint Nick. The walk ended as Nick could not take the smell so we returned to the hotel to clean him up. It is good luck so Nick received PLENTY of good luck this afternoon.
We are now in Warangal - 3 hours (120 km) from Hyderabad - and will be visiting the water well on Wednesday. We will write more about our adventures and post some pictures soon thereafter...

Safari at the Masai Mara National Reserve Park

Safari at the Masai Mara National Reserve Park

On arrival in Nairobi Airport, we meet our two drivers, Simon and Frances and make our way into the city centre for breakfast. We get on our way by 10:30 am with a 5 hour ride ahead of us. The road is bumpy and similar to Ugandan roads with potholes etc. All was going well when we approached a traffic jam just outside of Narok. We learned that the local village was having a protest against the government to get assistance in the increasing elephant issues. In the two days previous to the protest, three people had been stomped to death by elephants. The protest took many hours but ended once the rain came down which was a good thing for us. Many vehicles were trying to not take the road but the side ditches to get ahead but in the end this was not a positive exercise as some found themselves quite stuck in the red mud. We were glad that Simon and Frances stayed on the main route.

On arrival to our campsite, there were approximately 10 army tents set up on permanent concrete slabs. Inside the tents were 2-3 beds. Quite comfy actually!! The showers and washrooms were quite rustic to say the least and Joanne kept yelling for Ashton to see if this was all a joke. But in the end, we survived the ‘rusticness’ of it all!! The campsite had a kitchen area where the majority of the food was cooked over an open fire and the meals were excellent.

The next two days were filled with safari rides. We saw hundreds of animals – it was amazing!! Wildebeasts, zebras, elephants, giraffes, leaping gazelles (that’s for you Dave!), hippos, lions, water buffalo (just like the Flintstones!!), cheetahs, deer, impalas, and so many more. It was just awesome to see so many animals. It felt like you were watching a giant screen tv on a Kenyan Safari documentary then you realized hey – I’m in the picture too!!

This whole adventure was just unreal – even the pictures don’t give it justice!!