http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Shaggy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Shaggy en-us Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:00:48 +0000 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:00:48 +0000 Well thatrsquos us up to date Lois is doing great and now weighs just shy of 11lbs shersquos awake and alert most of the day now and is mesmerised by light and shade. She changes every day and seems well settled into her routine which quire frankly is eating sleeping and playing whenever she wantshellip. She is now sleeping through the night which is the best gift any man can get for http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-388685.html August 2008 We get the 12 weeks scan and everything is fine. Wersquore sure wersquore having a boy and we christen the foetus ldquoMilordquo and over the course of the next 4 months decide that if we have a boy that will be his name.October 2008 We get the 20 week scan and again everything is great Milo really looks like me in the scan which is really bizarre.November 2008 Friday m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-388684.html August 2008 We had already booked our holiday so off we pop to the Maldives for two weeks of the most relaxing holiday you can ever imagine I enjoy it far more than Fiona who is suffering terribly from morning sickness and obviously canrsquot drink or enjoy any of the water sports Irsquom partaking in. Worst of all wersquod booked a posh Jacuzzi villa and Fiona is told not to use it beca http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Maldives/Male-Atoll/blog-388683.html September 2007 We moved house from Dundee to Montrose a small town on the North East coast 35 Miles for both Aberdeen and Dundee Fiona and I both get the train to work.October 2007 The house we bought is a total hole itrsquos 110 years old and needs loads of work done tough times as we live through it and deal with one dodgy tradesman who Irsquom currently suing and three or four ot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-388682.html July 2007 We get married on the 15th of July. An amazing day in the sunshine. It was genuinely battering down with rain every day in July except our wedding it was glorious sunshine so strong and warm that there wasnrsquot a drop of damp anywhere and we had a fantastic day.A 20 piece brass band playing outside in the Sun with my father law conducting a 20 aside game of football on the hu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Aquitaine/Dordogne/blog-388681.html Well Where has it goneItrsquos been nearly three and a half years since we got back from travelling and wersquove fitted in a fair amount. Irsquoll add a few quick blogs with photos form our holidays in that time but herersquos the script.A quick chronological rundown as I remember it contains the followingDec 2005 Arrived back dosed around different peoples houses for a couple http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Montrose/blog-388680.html Right what the hell happened there then Itrsquos been THREE YEARS since I wrote this blog but for some reason I never published it.Irsquom not going to edit what Irsquove said basically itrsquos all based around ldquoOne Big Weekendrdquo which is an annual Radio One concert in the UK which for the first and only time came to Scotland in May 2006 the fact that it came to Dundee w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Dundee/blog-55740.html Well after an absolutely fantastic lifechanging year travelling the globe Andrew and I are now safe and sound at home in Scotland. We have been back for just over a month now and have been really busy sorting out our lives.It is great to be back among family and friends again but the weather and the daytoday life is taking a bit of getting used to.Our big news is that Andrew proposed a coup http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-38813.html We went to Makapu'u beach today and 'learned' how to surf I was a total natural totally and naturally kept falling off as soon as I stood up Fiona was a bit better but she wasn't going for the monster waves that I was going for WIPE OUTFiona has a healthy fear of sharks a fear that I add to almost every day by telling her that I think I just saw one I never tire of it and she seems to get http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Maui/blog-3299.html Can I firstly appologise for the delay in adding this blog we've been home for over three weeks now and this page was written a month ago we struggled to get the photo's on though so had to wait until we got back.Fiona takes up the story from the 10th of December there will be a final RTW blog answering all the questions that have been asked of us about this trip I may even add some photo's of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Chang/blog-32059.html Sorry this blog has taken a while and that it's actually 3 blogs compressed in to one there are reasons for this laziness being the prime one Internet being pricey is another and the fact that we're can't really remember much about the last 3 weeks is perhaps the most relevant so on to the story we left Hoi An and headed south destination Saigon but with a couple of beach breaks in between. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-30816.html .... the only thing I'm hunting for is an outfit that looks good...See my vest see my vest made from real gorilla chest.Feel this sweater there's no better than authentic Irish setter....The passionate lyrics of the Simpsons' Monty Burns when he tells us of his joy of having a full wardrobe we too wanted to feel this joy so off we popped to Hoi An not Ha Noi a small town of 75000 people a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-26893.html After an excellent and very busydrunken adventure in the Northern Islands of Vietnam we boarded the night train to Hue in Ha Noi.The train was good 14 hours in a sleeper cabin with these 2 Vietnamese dudes one of whom was afraid of the dark as he never put his light off all night Fiona took the top bunk as I couldn't climb due to the injury I had sustained on the bus back to Ha Noi from Halong http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-26895.html After a short flight from Vientiane we were in Hanoi. We had chosen a hostel to stay at and they offered free airport pickup so we thought that was pretty decent especially because we were arriving at night. Sure enough there was a young guy waiting for us with a big sign saying Miss Fiona. When I say young this guy looked about 14 and drove like he had never driven a car in his life. It wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-26897.html We were soooo glad to finally arrive in Luang Prabang after the worst ten hours of our lives. The bus journey was pretty bumpy and I spent 9 of the ten hours with my head stuck in a bag and Andrew unusually was quite ill as well. So with that experience behind us we decided to spend a couple of days lazing around in Luang Prabang before starting to see the sights. We had also decided to fly http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-26891.html Kunming was our last stop in China and it was a great place to end the journey. Although it is still fairly busy and polluted here it is a little more relaxed than the rest of the places we have visited the people are the friendliest we have met in China and they don't stare at you quite as much probably because there are quite a few foreigners here.We were staying in a really nice hostel here http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-24071.html So we're one hour from China a short flight from Kunming yet it feels like we've travelled a million miles from our last stop. Although we've only been here for two days I can honestly say that I've never met nicer people in a more tranquil and beautiful setting and we're in the capital city this is meant to be the worst part of the countryLaos is known as the country of a million elephants http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-24081.html After a fantastic week in Beijing we reluctantly got on our flight to Xian. We were quite sad to leave the capital as it had become one of our favorite cities this year but onward we must travel.Xian only has one major attraction which is the 'Terracotta Warriors' and otherwise it is not a particularly attractive place. The people here were very friendly as we found out when we were stuck in t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-22326.html After an uneventful time in Xian we were looking forward to moving on to Chengdu and we were not disappointed. We arrived at night and began our journey on foot to our hostel. We got pretty lost but 4 different locals along our way approached us to offer help and were very friendly instantly we knew this was a great place. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province located in southwest China http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Sichuan/Chengdu/blog-24070.html We couldn't wait to get to Beijing and escape Seoul after hearing and reading some great things about the future Olympic host city. It's Fiona here giving you the rundown on our first week in China.What a place Beijing is quite simply the best place we have ever been to yet maybe that anyone has ever been to It was a pleasent flight from South Korea to Beijing despite a rather strange exper http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-21953.html