thethompsons

Hello from Finland! This will be a nice and brief blog since we aren't staying in Finland for very long. We arrived yesterday (sunday) around 3:30pm and took a taxi to our hotel in Helsinki. We're staying at a Premier Best Western, which actually used to be the Helsinki prison until 2002! Best Western bought it once it closed down and renovated it into a really cool hotel. They kept one of the cells untouched and open for the public to see. It's amazing how small the cells were...hard to imagine what life was like for the prisoners here. The original building was built in the 1800's, and was bombed in WW2. The history here is amazing and there's so much character to this hotel. Yesterday afternoon after we settled into the room, we went for ... read more

Last India blog! Thursday night was reception and the actual wedding ceremony, so we got dressed in our traditional indian clothing (a sari for me and a kurta for Jonathan). The sari was very difficult to figure out, and it wasn't until we got to the groom's house that I was told it was on backwards! So, a few of the women there were kind enough to help me out, but even they had trouble! At the reception another Indian women stopped to "fix" me, and then it happened again a few hours into the reception. I didn't feel too bad, everyone said how hard it was to get it right! The sari was beautiful, the bride's aunt picked both of our outfits out for us, which was so kind! Now to the reception. WOW! It's ... read more

So, our plan on the day after we arrived in Chandigarh was to have the driver take us to the bride's house at 11:30am so we could make it in time for one of the wedding ceremonies. The alarm was set for 10:00am, but unfortunately it was too quiet and we ended up sleeping until 11:30! We rushed around to get ready only to find out that the driver wasn't there, yet, thankfully. We requested a 12:30 pick up which gave me more time to get ready. Jonathan was out taking care of getting cash out of an ATM to pay the driver that drove us from the airport to Chandigarh. He was actually waiting for Jonathan in the lobby of the hotel that morning for his money! Jonathan went on a hunt to find a ... read more

I know I'm behind on blogging, so hopefully the next few blogs will get us all caught up! The trip to Delhi from Phuket was one of the longest days of our trip. Jonathan facebooked at 0452 in Phuket, we left the hotel at 0550, flew to Bangkok at 0700, transferred in Bangkok at 0900, had layover in the Cathay lounge until 1700, landed in Delhi at 2300 (-2 hours) and then drive four hours (w a driver) to arrive in Chandigarh at 0330 to the Aggarwal house, greeted by Mrs. Aggarwal who then had her driver bring us to our hotel. Around 24 hours of travel! After clearing customs in Delhi, we were met by hundreds of random people standing in and out of the building waiting to pick people up. So many signs, but ... read more

Ok, this will definitely be a long one!! After leaving Hong Kong, we had a quick stay in Bangkok then headed out from Bangkok to Phuket. We landed in Phuket, took a van ride to the place where we would catch a ferry that would take us to our long tail boat which took us to our resort! We landed at the airport at 1:40pm and I think it was close to 5:30pm by the time we got to our hotel. Quite the journey. We were lucky enough to meet a couple from LA (Mark and Kate) while waiting for the ferry who ended up being very cool. We spent most of the time talking to them while we waited for the ferry, then on the boat ride over to the hotel. It's always nice to ... read more

This will be a quick post since we weren't in Hong Kong very long. The last entry put us just arriving in Hong Kong, so I'll start from there. We did end up going to see the giant Buddha on Lantau Island (thanks for mentioning that Avanie and Becky!) the day after we arrived. We took the train to the island, ate at a very authentic restaurant, and then hiked up the billion stairs to the stop where the statue was! That was 3 days ago and my legs are still sore. :) After walking around the island for an hour or so, we headed back to our hotel to get our bags, then back to the train to get to the airport for our 10:00pm flight to bangkok. By the time we got to our ... read more

I've got some catching up to do on this blog! We've been without free internet for the last few days, so this will be a long one. :) Our time in Australia definitely had its ups and downs. We chose to take a harbor cruise over to the Sydney Zoo on Friday and spent a good 3 hours there. What a great zoo! We saw just about everything from elephants to giraffes to a duck billed platypus, my personal favorite. The weather was pretty good, mostly cloudy but warm, which was nice. Friday night Jonathan was able to get a few great shots of the Oprah House and the city itself. We checked out of our hotel on Saturday morning to catch an early flight to Mackay. Our plan there was to enjoy the sun and ... read more

This will be a short blog, but I wanted to get something out before calling it a day! Today has been the longest day of the trip so far. We were up at 3:30am this morning and at the airport by 4:30 to ensure we had plenty of time to make our 6:15 flight to Sydney. All I have to say is thank goodness for the Qantas lounge! We had a nice breakfast while watching the India/Pakistan Cricket game. We were fortunate enough to sit by 2 guys who were pretty knowledgeable about the sport. One of the guys was a producer for a sports channel in either Sydney or NZ (can't remember which) who focused only on Cricket. Even after listening to them explain the game, I still had no idea what was going on! ... read more

I can't believe it's already time to leave New Zealand! We've had such a great time exploring the country side and taking tons of pictures. Yesterday we went white water rafting and had a blast! Except for the whole getting hit in the face with a paddle when we hit the bottom of one of the drops. We were on class 5 rapids with a waterfall that dropped us 21 feet, which is where the minor accident happened. I think JJ and I also have a minor case of whiplash...we hit the bottom of that waterfall pretty hard! After wrapping up our rafting trip, we headed back to the bed and breakfast to relax, and then took a quick trip to the springs that were just down the street. We went for an hour hike and ... read more

Good Morning New Zealand! I've got some catching up to do... It's 6:30 Tuesday morning, and after taking a 14 hour "nap", we are ready to get up and explore this beautiful countryside. Our very very very long flight over here wasn't actually all that bad. We left around midnight on saturday night, watched an episode of House and Modern Family, took a nyquil, and the next thing we knew, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise. It was about 6:00am monday morning when we woke up, so I'm guessing that we got about 6 hours of sleep or so on the plane. Unfortunately it wasn't the most restful sleep...most everyone around us was either sneezing, coughing, or blowing their nose. Thank goodness for Airborne. :-) When we stepped off the plane, we found our rental ... read more