Had this little getaway booked for a few months...got a great deal through Timeshare and cheap airfares so why not? We had a very early 6.05a.m. flight from Melbourne so were off by 7.30a.m. in Hobart, couldn't book into our accom so decided to head to Richmond to check out this beautiful historical little town, a cool crisp morning so lovely for walking around Richmond. Richmond is quite an iconic site and only about 25klms north east of Hobart in the Coal River Valley region and that bridge is recognisable all over Australia. John spotted the bakery so we opted for Curried Scallop pies and coffee for breaky. Later in the afternoon booked into our accommodation at the Ramada Seven Mile Beach Resort, were pleasantly surprised a lovely three bedroom, two bathroom apartment set on a ... read more

Another couple of great days. Wednesday night we were invited to a wine tasting by the resort which was quite a fun night and we met two different groups of Americans, very nice people and had a great chat, sometimes you just click with certain people. Thursday morning headed over into Spain to visit our favourite sherry winery with the famous Pedro Ximenez grapes, also visited Sandemans as well but went to buy our favourite Pedro Ximenez El Candado, $14 a glass (small glass) at Adrian Richardson's restaurant in Carlton, around $37 in bottleshop and $11.80 a bottle here, amazing!!! Took us 3 hrs to get down to Jerez and then after the winery visit drove back to Seville to stay for the afternoon and night, had a wonderful couple of days in Seville, has such ... read more

This was a short unplanned jaunt over to Bali for our mate Reg Worthington's 60th, a surprise party on Lembongan Island on Friday 3rd March. After having got cheap Tiger flights and then they cancelled we then had to bite the bullet and buy a more expensive flight with Garuda, so flew to Bali on Gloria's birthday on the 27th February. Birthday dinner at Char Char which was very good value with a great array of steaks and seafood. Great night had by all. For the next few days laid low as Reg didn't know we had come over to Bali and the last thing we wanted was for him to spot on his way to work or going out to a job somewhere. Friday 3rd March came around very quickly and we were collected from ... read more

Tuesday pulled into Salay a 7,000 resident village founded in 13thCentury with very British colonial feel with lovely preserved old buildings and in fact our tour director has renovated a beautiful building and it now houses a museum, restaurant and shop. Had a great feel to the place with lots of young novice monks around town. There was procession of all decorated vehicles and everyone dressed in beautiful dress, a ceremony for the new novice monks and also for the young girls ear piercing. We visited a beautiful old wooden monastery designed as a copy of the Crown Prince House of Mandalay. Great to see a slightly different town. Afternoon sailing the Irrawaddy. Wednesday Magway by trishaw to local market. This is quite a big city 500,000 people. Great way to see around Magway in the ... read more

Bagan is the must see place for everyone that comes to Myanmar, it is quite incredible and so different, over 3,000 pagodas, stupors and temples are studded through the plains of Bagan. It is the worlds largest archeological site and was established in the 11th century. The Indian government is now helping them strip some of the pagodas back to show the original paintings below the layers of lime plaster. There is a lot of renovation work to be done around here. A couple of the pagodas we visited had some bamboo scaffolding around them as there was some damage from an earthquake here in August. We took an ox cart ride this morning with all the oxen and carts done up in their ceremonial gear, through the dusty countryside winding in and out of different ... read more