After all the exotic travels, we landed and spent a few days with Ali & Birgitte in Oxford. The weather was gorgeous. These lyrics seemed appropriate as we set off back to work and our new jobs - even more so in retrospect now that we've been working for a month and a half! and it's goodbye to the sunshine goodbye to the dew goodbye to the flowers and goodbye to you I'm off to the subway I must not be late going to work in tall buildings In Tall Buildings By John Hartford, 1976 [View Full Entry]

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It's taken us a while to write up this one, what with moving and work and everything. Now we've finally got broadband, we should be more responsive. It's hard to believe that 6 weeks ago we were just landing back from China. Beijing was the last stop on our travels, and somewhat surprisingly one of the most exciting places we visited. I think it's fair to say that it exceeded our expectations, not that we really knew what to expect. It's a huge city, that has developed very quickly. Many of the older traditional areas have been bulldozed to make [View Full Entry]

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Due to our extended stay in Hong Kong, we had to cut short our time in China and visit only 1 city outside Beijing. We selected Chengdu, in Sichuan province. We left Hong Kong early in the morning, and took a bus across the border to Shenzhen airport for our flight. Here, we recognized that unlike other places we'd visited, English wasn't going to be widely spoken in China! After an uneventful flight, we arrived in Chengdu and our great hostel, Sim's Cozy House, located in a traditional courtyard, with resident pet piglets. It [View Full Entry]

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After the long flight from Sydney to Hong Kong, we were delighted to be given a harbour view room on the 17th floor of our hotel. Our first task was to obtain our visas for China, supposedly an easy task, achievable within 24 hours. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized that there was a local holiday and everything is closed for 4 days over Easter, so we'd have to stay in Hong Kong for an extra 3 nights to allow the paperwork to be completed. While this gave us more time to explore & enjoy the city, it was also the most [View Full Entry]

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We're safely back in the UK after our amazing trip, but have some catching up to do. So, here are some photos from the remainder of our time in Australia. Sydney is a truly fantastic city. It is centered round the beautiful harbour with the iconic images of the Opera House & Harbour Bridge, but has easy access to the ocean beaches, a vibrant night life and is only a short drive away from the mountains as well. We stayed at Simon & Kirrily's new house, in the suburb of Maroubra, only about 30 minutes from the centre and home [View Full Entry]

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Here's a recap of our first couple of weeks in Australia, traveling up to Sydney. After leaving New Zealand, our first port of call in Australia was Tasmania for a long weekend. Simon & Kirrily, Richards friends from the UK who now live in Sydney, organized a beautiful holiday cottage in Coles Bay, next to the Freycinet National Park. It was great to catch up with friends and have chance to relax a bit over good food & wine. We took a hike to the famous and stunning Wineglass Bay. Interestingly, the bay isn't so named because of it's shape, [View Full Entry]

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We were lucky enough with the timing of our trip to be able to attend Sue & Ralph's wedding in Wellington. Sue & Ralph met in Oxford and now live in NZ. The wedding took place on the beach at Princess Bay on the southern tip of the North Island. The weather was perfect - sunny and barely a cloud in the sky, with a nice refreshing sea breeze. The reception was held at the Pines, with beautiful views over Princess Bay. There was an abnormally high swell, so as the sun went down, surfers congregated on the beach to ride [View Full Entry]

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We're currently in Wellington, New Zealand, and taking the opportunity to post an update on our week and a half touring the South Island of New Zealand. Let us preface this entry by saying if you ever have an opportunity to vacation here -- take it! There's great natural beauty, interesting small towns and a relaxed attitude amongst locals and travellers alike. We started off in Christchurch, the 2nd largest city and most English place in this country. The center of activity is the Cathedral Square, where people hang out, entertainers perform, and Christchurch's very own wizard pontific [View Full Entry]

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We're a little behind in postings, so here's an update from last week, rounding out the SE Asia leg of our journey. After leaving Thailand, we spent 10 days in Malaysia and Singapore. First stop was Georgetown, on Penang Island. An old British colony, the town is a fascinating mix of colonial architecture, along with Chinese, Malay and Indian influences. Buddhist and Hindu temples mingle with mosques and churches. We were quite startled to be woken at 6:18am each morning by the call to prayer from the local mosque, broadcast over loudspeakers! The mix of cultures also influences the fo [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! We wrapped up our time in Thailand by heading south. We took an overnight train, then bus to the Khao Sok National Park, a dense rainforest with 200m high limestone cliffs. Since it is the dry season most of the waterfalls and the river were quite low, but along our 7-hour trek winding up and down the hillls, there were plenty of opportunities to take a dip to cool off. We were both very proud that we actually finished the hike, seeing as we've sat behind desks for the last several years. We had to keep up with our [View Full Entry]

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