this n that

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Back home !

Hi everyone. It was beaut reading your comments on my last two posts. Thank you - each and every one meant a lot to me.

We've been back home for a week now - still catching up on our sleep, plus starting to prune our overgrown garden and generally trying to "come back to earth" so to speak!

The trip was, well, just incredible. It was everything and much, much more than I would ever have expected.

Equally, it's wonderful to be back home too.

I've attached some pics of the start of our trip.
LOL ... bet you can't guess what I'm going to be posting about for the next while!!

Looking out from our brekky table on to busy

Spencer Street, Melbourne

Amongst all the colourful trams bearing advertisements, it was beaut to see

one as it used to look 'way back when' I worked in Melbourne

as a Junior, fresh out of Business College.

Southern Cross Station
Where we caught the Sky Bus to the airport

The Sky Bus

We ended up having a 3 hour departure delay for our plane,
so I amused myself taking random photos around the airport.

I got a bit cheeky with this pilot, but he
just ignored me.

Being a country girl, I wasn't familiar with the new fangled
hand-drying machine in the toilet.
So a friendly lady obliged with a demo.

Still wandering and snapping pics

Loved some of the murals on the walls

That's our plane ... apparently they had to remove all the fuel
before fixing whatever the problem was and, then,
re-fuel it.

Finally, we're up up and away!

Get ready for some obligatory 'photos through the
plane window'
Totally awesome to be above the clouds like that!

A river system somewhere in Australia

Sunset above the clouds somewhere over the centre of
Australia

Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok
Most people use the travelator on the right, however,
after 9 hours in the plane it was beaut to
stretch the legs and walk.

It's a huge airport - we walked for a long time before
reaching Immigration etc... gave us a chance to wake up
properly.

Hmm looks interesting!

Once out of the air-conditioned airport, we wilted a bit at Bangkok's stifling heat (even at midnight), and the humidity was so thick you could slice it!
Because of our flight delay, and by the time we reached our hotel, we had 4 hours in which to grab some sleep before catching a flight to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand.
No worries though, we're a flexible pair of travellers and knew we were headed for cooler weather.

Cheerio for now, I'm going to be making my way (slowly) to everyone's blogs and enjoy doing a huge catch-up... see you there! :D)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas

It seems like ages since I've blogged, however, I couldn't let Christmas go by without sending good wishes to everyone.

Our life has been taken up entirely with our travelling and, oh boy, what an amazing time it has been so far. We've been in Northern Thailand for 5 weeks, and are now in Vietnam making our way up North and will return to Australia in early February.

The camera has been given a good working out, I shall include a few photos in this post... I became a bit overwhelmed as to which ones to choose, so they're a random lot.

Gosh, we've had adventures galore, seen weird and wonderful sights, eaten delightful food (and some not so delightful too!! but we try everything).

We get around by planes, buses, ferries, taxis, trains and even on the back of scooters - wow, who'd have thought... me on the back of a scooter taxi on the roads packed with traffic who follow the rule that if you flash your lights and honk your horn you've got right of way. A mad dash around Bangkok on a Tuk Tuk in the evening (exhilarating) and a leisurely ride on a Cyclo straight through the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City's bumper to scooter traffic (scary and terrifying fun ... if that makes sense??).

We've been on the receiving end of some incredible acts of kindness and such generous hospitality by people, it's reduced us to tears. Seeing the living conditions and the results of basic lack of health care that we take for granted in Australia is such an eye opener too.

That's it for now, it's a bit of a one-sided post as I won't have time to be popping over to visit any of you kind blogfriends, each day is full to the brim while we're "on the road" and then we flop exhausted, but happily, into bed... see you all when we're back in Australia. Until then, enjoy the pics and have the happiest of Christmases, keep safe and eat lots!! Kindest regards, Susan and MD xx

Stunning White Temple near Chiang Mai... complete
with white fish (Koi)

Loy Krathong celebration of the full moon
We were in a crush of people, all orderly though
not scary at all.

Purchases from the early morning market.
The little banana leaf packages contained a sweet
sticky coconut rice mixture - very addictive!

A Temple by a Lake
A blissful spot

At the handmade Umbrella Factory at Chiang Mai
This lady was cutting spokes

MD thought I'd love this umbrella to take back home...
he was right, I did !
Just hope Customs let me keep it - fingers crossed.

Another of the beautiful National Parks in Thailand
(Phu Sang)

I'll never take rice for granted again after seeing the
hard physical labour that goes into harvesting it.
The itching and rashes the harvesters suffer are terrible, plus
the strain on their wrists and arms. MD bought some support
bandages for one lady's wrists and the relief was
immediate, the joy she showed was such a pleasure
to see. We're going to follow up with more for others.