The Eagle has Landed

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Well not quite, but we have arrived at our penultimate (for the time being - no not that final penultimate) destination.

We had some amazing experiences in China & the Thai beaches, which puts them up with Luang Prabang as the favourite places on our tour. I am going to have to share them with you. The scenery is amazing and some of the experiences we had were 'once in a lifetime'. Unfortunately though hiking through gorges, trekking to glaciers, 8 hour bus rides and sunny beaches are not conducive to time spent on the computer & I got well behind with this log. So I thought I'd update you briefly with where we are & tell you about to China & the beaches once I've sorted out the photos to go with them.

OK. SO we landed in the UK on Sunday night. Met a nice freindly man at border control who sent us through despite the fact my Irish passport is currently in a ship somewhere on the Atlantic. Phew! I think that Chris (my older brother) & Ali (his wife) were surprised we made it through unscathed. They had kindly driven out to Heathrow to pick us up & drove us all the way to Walthamstow where their (flash!) home happens to be. That's right, they spent a year's hard labour gutting a place and have done a very nice job on doing it up. The finished product is very light, airy & spacious & a pleasure to live in. We LOVE the fact that we get our own bedroom, wardrobe, chest of draws & window with a view. No dirty stinking floors for us to sleep on thank you.

In a few short days we have managed to see quite a few sights - such as Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral, The Tower of London; cruised down the Thames, did a big bus tour, caught many tubes, strolled down (& shopped on) Oxford & Regent STreets and are getting ourselves oriented with the city. We've also unpacked all our gear - including the 12kg from Vietnam - and done all the usual chores like confrim our interviews for next week, set up our banik account and get a sim card for the phone. Speaking of phones, my 021 number will no longer work as I've removed the sim card & replaced it with a UK one. Our new mobile phone number is [phone]. Please can you delete the old one in your paones & replace it with this new one. Also as we couldn't transfer the phone directory over we don't have any of your new numbers. So, it woudl be really great if you were able to text us with your name & we will be able to add you back to our phone book.

Ok so that's the boring stuff over. I hope to update you on the fascinating China in the next few weeks.

Oh. One last thing. We already have our next holiday planned. No, not Rachael & Lars' wedding in Germany in May, but a castle in Transalvania at the end of this month! Chris & Ali are shouting us a trip over there with them. We are very excited, but I do plan on wearing a whole tonne of garlic around my neck.

Cheers for now.






Thanks to all of you for the messages you've been leaving on the site.

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