http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/seppyandjon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from seppyandjon en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:15:01 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:15:01 +0000 4.30 am on Sunday morning and Jon and I sit in the Celtic club in Melbourne hoping to watch history in the making one of the things I miss most about being in Europe is watching and attending six nation matches those moments when people put aside club grievances and embrace the totality of Irish rugby when songs born in Connaught adopted by Munster become the anthems of a nation although lets http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/CBD/blog-384574.html It has been a really long time since we updated but think of it this way hopefully we now have something interesting to say. So we arrived in Melbourne in the middle of Spring Carnival and received a big welcome from the locals thanks Liz Sylvie when we went to the Melbourne cup races Unfortunately Septimus did not even place in the races alas maybe we Septimrsquos are all about t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/CBD/blog-380955.html Its about 5pm here in Melbourne and I am sitting on my balcony enjoying the sunshine drinking a glass of Australian wine Wolf Blass yum moments like this make me wonder why I would ever want to live anywhere else. Australia is interesting funny quirky and of course sunny. Funnily enough for such a large country they make it feel like you are in a small community no matter what part you tra http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/St-Kilda/blog-337921.html well after a packed month we are on our way again during September we were not quiet by any means after returning from the wedding Jonathan headed off to Ireland to spend some quality time with his friends hmmm and his family. During tihs time I worked on my paper with a brief respite to go to the food and drinks fair on the Harlemeerstraat with Karoliina and Darryl which turned out to be mo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/blog-333116.html It was a very nice weekend in some lovely weather. We had sort of miscalculated which day it was on so we had to rush the day we got back to Amsterdam but it was worth it a great way to meet up and catch up with lots of friends and to enjoy a very well organised day. Apparently a picture is worth a thousand words so I'm going to leave it at that.... http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Overijssel/Zwolle/blog-317646.html Since we last updated we have made it from Hue to Ho Chi Minh. Hue was a great place for a day The main thing to see is the imperial citadel unfortunately given Vietnam's rather bloody history not much remains of what was once a very impressive structure. Although as part of the visit we went to a show of Imperial dance and music where we had tea the imperial blend and cakes imperial cakes http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-316801.html Having visited yet another imperial palace this time the Forbidden City in Hue Jonathan has concluded that his next career choice is that of Emperor I would have gone for supreme ruler but hey I watch too much sci fi . I have been delegated chief concubine and as such have been briefed with recruiting a harem number of concubines. Job description You will be required to look beautiful whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-313921.html A few pictures from Beijing that I'm late posting partly because I couldn't put some of them up while in China. e.g. while on a mobile call with my sister I heard the click of another handset being lifted on the line... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-302296.html Seppy wrote the story in the other blog so here are a few pics to go with it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-312545.html So here I am back on a train again this time the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue which as you all know I just love the train. We have been super busy since we last updated having an absolutely fantastic time. We spent some time in Hanoi which was fun I have to say the vietnamese people are absolutely cracked I love them. I went out to go for a run at 6am there is a really lovely http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-313359.html Its funny that no matter how much you plan and organise your time that mother nature can whip you plans into something unrecognisable. At this point I thought we would be just about to start trekking up in northern Laos but actually we are now in Hanoi. We set off on Saturday for the airport to go to Udomxai which is a smallish city in the north of the country but the flight was cancelled due to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northeast/blog-311185.html A little bit late but wanted to upload the video clip.... We had always intended using Bangkok as a bit of a gateway into SE Asia it has a good airport loads of flight connections and reasonably priced airfares decent hotels to recharge in and to plan the next steps loads of western stores and brands if you need to get anything decent medical centers if necessary and all the embassies you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-307526.html Well we made it from Bangkok to Cambodia flight was uneventful and given the fact that Qantas have had a couple of plane problems bangkok airways seems pretty ok with their Airbus 320 they even fed us on our flight from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh which was only 30 minutes long hows that for efficiency. We flew into Siem Reap the only thing there is the Temples of Angkor but what a thing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-307427.html I know it has been a while but we have an excuse really... We are currently n bangkok having finished our time in china and as we did not want to run into issues with the Chinese government thus we refrained from posting until we left. So here it is our Chinese adventure. We ended up flying from Ulan Bator to Beijing as the Chinese govt would not sell us the overland train tickets to come in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-306256.html See the olympic pandas Jonathan and I went to the Zoo in Beijing and we saw the Pandas at get this the Olympic Panda house they also had an Asian games Panda house. They were absolutely gorgeous but Jonathan said I could only have one if t fit in my hand luggage meanie. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-304255.html Having arrived back from our stay in the Ger in Mongolia a few nights ago we will update our pictures by popular request. Note that I have updated the pictures in some of the previous entries too so you might want to look at them too. Actually we are in China now but just trying to catch up if I missed your call last night while we were watching a Legend of Kungfu please send me a text.The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-300790.html Sorry about the abrupt ending to the previous entry we had to publish quickly as our time was up in the internet cafe and we had to go and get our train to Mongolia which is where we currently are. So we have now completed the Russian part of the trip and whilst it was interesting and exciting for me the big part of the trip was coming here to Mongolia particularily as our arrival coincided http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-299154.html Since we were last in contact we have had a very eventful few days prior to leaving moscow we were lucky enough to get to go to the circus or half of the circus as we had to rush off midway to catch the train apart from cirque de soleil not sure if that classes as a circus it has been a really long time since i have been at the circus and the circus in moscow was absolutely amazing my http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-297341.html After our few days in St. Petersburg we took the overnight train to Moscow. The Russians made it very dramatic by broadcasting old marching music over the loud speakers as the train pulled in to the platform. I felt like I was part of one of those old black and white movies where people run along the platform chasing a loved one as the train chugs out of the station. The music lasted about 10 minu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-294514.html So we have made it to st Petersburg although the bus trip was an experience and a half with spending about an hour and a half lining up at passport control for the Russian border but after a few shaky moments we got through. We crossed the border at about 4.30 in the morning and our first glimpse of Russia was this forested area with mist rising from it in the partial light it looked like ice http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-293273.html