It took us a long time but we finally made it to Kampot. For whatever insane reason we decided not to stay in Phnom Penh just yet and head straight out of the city for the coast. So after an 11 hour flight to Bangkok, a night sleeping at the airport (great transit lounge, nice chairs to spread right out flat on, but why buff the floor at 4am when we are sleeping?!?!), a short hop to PP, a taxi ride to the bus station, we had a few hours waiting for the bus. Hot, tired, but mercifully not bothered by the people selling things as we expected, and have experienced elsewhere. Sure, kids came up a few times trying to sell us a paper, dvd, bread...but once we said no thanks, they wandered off. The ... read more

We're going to try and post some information and photos about any trips around New Zealand we do. We live in an amazingly beautiful country, and want to share it with all who are interested. Here is the first NZ entry - a brief description of our trip the other weekend up to Russell. We decided to spend the last Sunday before the football (soccer) season on a day out. You know, go for a bit of a tiki tour, have lunch somewhere...nothing too taxing... so 314km later...! We started off quite early (luckily!) and took off up State Highway One. The plan was to go up the old coast road to Russell. This we did do, but our couple of stops along the way took a lot longer than we'd planned. First stop was at ... read more

We had a great time, driving around some of the countryside visiting people and places. We went through some ancient areas, Woodhenge near Salisbury, and Avebury (Long Barrows, Stone Circles) on our way to see a friend in Cheltenham. As fascinating as the barrows and circles were, it was about 4C out, with a wind chill taking the temp way below zero. We also stopped at Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma and former home of GCHQ. Although some rooms and huts were closed for winter (open weekends only) what we saw was really interesting. Colossus, the first computer, was up and running, nearly complete and finished. One morning we even had some snow, all of a couple of inches. Our first for many years (since Morocco maybe, even then it was just in patches). However, ... read more

It was really windy coming into Heathrow and the plane rolled all over the place, and we landed fast and hard. We got down to Southampton quickly by bus, and were met by an friend, Karry, who kindly drove us the rest of the way to New Milton. We spent the day at my Grans house, waiting to surprise Mum and Dad in the evening. Despite it being quite mild out, Gran had the fire lit and we were all very sleepy by the time Mum and Dad came round. I think we managed to surprise them nicely. It took a while for it to sink in that we were there! We stayed the night with Gran and moved up to Mum and Dads house last night. Today we are off into Southampton for some football ... read more

We've had a busy couple of days in Brunei since the last post. After writing that, we went to Gadong night market, spending a whopping NZ$2.50 on dinner for two. Deep fried vegetable bits and pieces and this thick pancake thing full of chopped nuts, sugar and chocolate powder. Yesterday we went on a trip to Ulu Temburong National Park. It was a 45 minute water taxi ride from BSB to Bangar (mangroves, some jungle, crocodiles, herons & egrets, monkeys), then 20 minutes drive to the tour company "lodge" where we had morning tea. From there we took off in a traditional longboat, only they are now powered by outboards. The river was going pretty fast, and got wet and bumpy over the rapids. It was another 45 minute ride up river to the park. That ... read more