http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Paul-Gallagher/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Paul Gallagher en-us Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:56:59 +0000 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:56:59 +0000 For the last 3 and a bit weeks we have been touring Thailand by boat bus plane tuk tuk motorbike taxi type thing and of course by foot We have seen most of the places you're supposed to see but there are many more we have had to unfortunately leave out of our travels. But I guess we can add them to the list of places to see next time we come this direction Time has really flown and we only http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-120338.html Another year gone by so quickly but its definitely one of the best years I've ever had. I've challenged myself in so many ways and I'm really happy where I am now. It was a bit odd not celebrating Christmas and New Years at home but I guess it makes you appreciate what you have at home your friends and family. We celebrated Christmas on an Island in Malaysia called Penang. You wouldnt think it wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Lanta/blog-115088.html Greetings from Kuala Lumpur or KL as the locals call it. We just arrived from Singapore where it rained 3 days straight Yesterday was the most rain in 100 years and they had 35cm of rain in one day We had problems getting from Singapore to KL because of flooding and our overnight train took 7hrs to get what would normally take 2hrs and then it stopped because it could go no further because of a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-112510.html Its too hot here to do anything else other than laze at the pool all day or really in the pool cos its so hot to lye down on the sun bed We havent really done much in Bali since we have been here other than just relax in the sun Since my last post we had a delicous sea food dinner on a lovely beach at sunset for Ulrika's birthday. We enjoyed a relaxing 3 hour treatment at a spa resort for 20 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-110564.html I was reading about the 100kmhr winds in Ireland while at the same time trying to cope with the heat here in Bali and I was kinda happy sitting in the sun chair dripping in sweat rather than rain. So I ordered an ice cold beer for a euro and settled into my deck chair to watch a free movie on the big screen over the swimming pool in front of our nice hotel. I was kinda thinking I might get a m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-108855.html Ulrika and I are great and have been enjoying our time in Australia for the last month We are in Darwin at the moment for the next few days until we fly out to Bali. For our first 2 weeks we have made our way up the east coast of Australia by bus. Our starting point was Sydney Australias oldest and largest European settlement. With over 4 million people it has more people than either NZ or Rep. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/blog-101831.html Aotearoa is the Maori name for NZ most often translated as Land of the long white cloud While it hasnt been as overcast as when the Maori first arrived in NZ the weather has been very irish Cloudy with sunny spells lots of rain particularly in the west and quite cool with temps hovering around the low teens during the days. However I think luck has been with us along the way because it on http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-98706.html We've travelled for just over 2 fabulous weeks now in NZ and we've had such a great time. The highlights of couse was the skydive We had the perfect day for it which was really lucky because the weather was bad the day before and the day after. I have to say tho after jumping 15000ft I really want to do it again Mainly because I dont think I apreciated everything because I was taking in so much http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Otago/Oamaru/blog-97794.html We are in Taupo and we are just back from a skydive where we went up to 15000 ft 5000 metres and came down 200 km hr So amazing http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Taupo/blog-96572.html Its spring time in New Zealand and we have had very mixed weather since being here. It hasnt at all hampered our touring of the North island but we were a bit worried when we arrived in Auckland and it started to hail stone. Since then it have been really pleasant but at night its cold and I've really felt very cold in most of the places we have stayed in. The houses seemed to be built for the war http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Northland/blog-95462.html I've been in paradise for 2 weeks and its a place I will never forget The Fijian people are so friendly and the 300 plus tropical islands that fiji is made up of are stunningly beautiful with white sandy beaches palms trees and lovely blue lagoons. Its the end of winter here but its still very warm but a little cloudy and rainy at times. We were made welcome soon after the 5am landing at nadi a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/Viti-Levu/Nadi/blog-92791.html Hello from sunny LA where its been in the high 70's and low 80's all week 25 for u metric folk Today we decided to relax by the pool in our hotel and rest our weary feet and tired bodies. We both believe we just didnt give ourselves the time to recover from our 28 hour trip to get here and have been feeling it all weekOur journey began in Ulrika's parent's house with a rude alarm clock call http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-90942.html We're absolutely wrecked at the time of writing this message. Last night was Ulrika's dads Sren 50th birthday. It was very well organised with over 100 people turning up and the 3 sisters Tess Lindha and Ulrika were the star of the night with very nice emotional speeches and a fantastic custom made film representing a sumary of Srens life time in about 5 minutes The party lasted well unti http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/blog-89123.html By UlrikaIrsquom back in Sweden now Irsquove had a lovely time so far. Yesterday I started my day relaxing in the jacuzzi then I went to get some treatment for my back in Vsters and then had lunch with a childhood friend. On the way home a stopped by a highschool friend who just had a lovely little son. In the evening I met all my cousins aunts and uncles and my grandparents As we f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/blog-87663.html I guess I should say a short hello toohellip This will mainly be Pauls blog I thinkhellip I might keep my old one and keep writing in Swedish wersquoll seehellip I havenrsquot written anything there yet but this is the address If you donrsquot want any more emails from us please unregister your email address. Ulrika http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Northern-Ireland/Londonderry/blog-85457.html Just to update you guys on our plans we are adding another location to our trip The Gambia Ulrikarsquos parents are kindly whisking us off to west Africa the day after we come back from Thailand to help celebrate Ulrikarsquos mums 50th birthday. Hopefully it should be a nice place to unwind but Irsquom not looking forward to the many hours of flying to get there On a different note o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Northern-Ireland/Londonderry/blog-85447.html Ulrika and I have been talking about travelling for ages and finally in January of this year we decided we would try and book something for September 06 To get inspired on different kinds of trips we could go on we travelled to London to see a travel and sports show. It was really excellent and we took sooo many brochures of trips we wanted to go on. We then began investigating prices for trips http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Northern-Ireland/Londonderry/blog-77720.html