Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2008…..Love from Mhairi and Bruce………… After returning back to Thailand from Malaysia we headed to Phuket to stay with Justin and Jo. Justin kindly met us at the bus station and it dawned on me that we would be taking a motorbike taxi home. Mhairi rode with Justin - so for her first trip on the back of a bike, she was laden with a bag on her back and front and one in her hand, shorts and t-shirt and in the madness that is Thailand. What an introduction to motorbikes (Mhairi was brave [View Full Entry]

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Upon arriving at Klang station we were greeted by Kevin (who is my cousin) and we did some catching up on the way back to the house where the brood had swelled since my last visit! We quickly got acquainted with the new arrivals in the family. It was a little bit of a surprise as I really was only aware that Pat and Kevin had two kids so the extra one was a little shock! We have spent most of our time in KL and the surrounding areas as all of Malaysia and the Islands that we had hoped to [View Full Entry]

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Kanchanaburi province was our next stop as we were meeting our friends there.....little did we realize how far this next adventure was going to take us! A couple of days before we met up with the gang we spent some time in the town of Kanchanaburi. On our first night there we went down to The Bridge over the River Kwai, made famous by the film in ’57. It is in full celebrations at the moment and there is a light and sound show recreating the history of the bridge. The performance tells you all that happened to the POWs and [View Full Entry]

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is the cry that greets you at 6:30am on the sleeper train to Chiang Mai. For some this is a lovely way to be woken but for myself I could think of nothing worse! I try to discuss my annoyance with a Canadian girl but her rebuttal to me when I try and engage her in conversation is that she only speaks English! So I just decide to read my book more, occasionally trying to wake Mhairi from her slumber as the orange juice man could not stir her to waken. We arrive in Chiang Mai at last and we only [View Full Entry]

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Upon landing in Bangkok we headed out to get a taxi to take us down to Pattaya (where Bruce stayed before and where Bruce’s dad was on holiday). Thailand as always did not fail to impress the farang (foreigner) bargaining for a taxi price which started at 2000 baht then quickly fell to 1300 baht after walking away! We were then treated to the usual standard of driving which meant breakneck speed and avoiding all manner of motorbikes and buses that glow with neon lights. If there are road rules we didn’t see many people adhering to them! After spending a [View Full Entry]

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We didn’t quite get round to writing a blog in Melbourne - mostly to do with the fact that we were hardly in! However we find ourselves with an afternoon in Pattaya (Thailand) where the heavens have just opened so a spare minute to update our blog! So anyway we’ll just give you a wee run down of what we got up to……. We could not have arrived at a busier time of year. Melbourne goes crazy during the Spring Carnival as people from all over flock to this magnificent city to enjoy the horse racing. Tuesday was a public [View Full Entry]

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Well alas we did not make it to Milford Sound. The weather beat us again! It had been raining all night in Queenstown which meant it was snowing near Milford! Of course we didn't know that the trip was impossible until after we had got up nice and early and were picked up by our bus at 7:15am! But 20 minutes out of Queenstown the driver was informed the road had been shut because of heavy snow and avalanche risk. On the upside that left us with $155 back in our pockets! We ended up watching France vs Argentina which cheered [View Full Entry]

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So since our last blog a lot has happened......we have walked on a glacier, survived an earthquake (that measured about 6.7 on the Richter Scale), been on a really fast jet boat and lots of other stuff too! On Monday we spent a day on the Fox Glacier - one of the biggest in NZ. It was not the best day weather wise but if you wait for a dry day on the west coast of NZ South Island you could be waiting a while!! To be honest it didn't really matter that it was a bit wet (well, the hour [View Full Entry]

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The ferry ride over from Wellington was gorgeous and we were so lucky to have a nice clear day. The views were superb once we got into the sound of the South Island. After arriving in Picton we headed straight to Kaikoura where we spent our first night camping in New Zealand. We arrived and as you can see the weather was lovely but that was short lived and at midnight that night the heavens opened. We were a little bit wet in the morning but we soldiered on to our first trip swimming with dolphins, sadly they did not want [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Taupo we went to Hawke Bay and the surrounding area of Napier, Hasting and Havelock North. Susan was expecting us to arrive so we found her hard at work at Cape Physio. Mhairi and Susan were so happy to see each other. We headed up to Susan’s house and met her housemates and have dinner. On Friday we walked up to Te Mata peak and had wonderful views of the surrounding area, the rest of the day was spent in Napier and Hastings looking around the towns and seeing where Susan now spends her time. On Saturday we headed [View Full Entry]

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