After going through our first lock and arriving in port at Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, it took our very able Captain 15 mins to fight a river in flood to dock safely. He said that for the first time in 5 years he had to throw out the anchor, have the ship at full throttle yet could only make 3 knots. Impressive. This morning we toured the old part of the city by bus and on foot - again, impressive fortifications and old buildings. We are docked near the newish bridge known as the UFO bridge because of a round saucer-like restaurant on the top of one of the bridge spans. A large separate walking deck is under the roadway. We are impressed with the humour of people we have met in both Hungary and ... read more

We arrived in Budapest about 9am yesterday and right from the airport to now, the only place not clean and well cared for was the Gillert spa. After Istanbul where litter and cigarette butts reign supreme, Budapest is altogether a completely different place...they even have men with brooms and shovels sweeping up the autumn leaves. A losing battle but full marks for trying. From the 2 hr Turkish Airlines flight yesterday we hopped straight onto a 2hr bus tour of this lovely city. In that time we saw just a small but significant portion of the city. Many of the buildings have been rebuilt since the war and more recently, the deliberate destruction of of treasured ancient architecture by the occupying Soviet regime, true to their original plans. Even the re-built bridges over the Danube have ... read more

I have to say, the Turkish take on what it means to be Muslim is very different to other countries. There is no throwing down prayer mats in the streets whenever the call to prayer is heard 5x day as Su has seen done in Egypt (the Turks generally feel such displays of devotion are ostentatious), that prayer at home is very acceptable, that gays are acceptable, that women don't have to wear head-scarves or burkas, and that women have equal rights to men. We've enjoyed learning about it as lived in Istanbul. The change is attributed to The Father of The Nation, Mustaffa Attaturk, who decided many decades ago to look to the west for Turkey's future. Hence the Turkish language is in the Western alphabet not Arabic script. The age of civilisation here is ... read more

Amazing. It's very hard not to be impressed by the way Singapore manages it's image, especially to tourists.Buildings have to be kept in excellent condition and cars have to be under 10 years old, although the trade vehicles must be an exception because they certainly weren't modern. We did a great deal of walking even thought the humidity was sapping. Dropping into air conditioned malls to cool dow... read more

We've only been in Singapore a couple of hours but already we are enjoying the heat...it's 6.30pm and 30 degreesC. Su got picked on by authorities today but was relaxed about it all. First she went through Christchurch immigration which spotted that her passport was not signed so she had to do that in front of an officer, then she was not recorded as being on the flight. However, the boarding pass was correct so they let her through. Then Su and Dik were called out over the loud speaker to report to the Singapore Airlines desk. Evidently there was something not quite right with Su's boarding details. Then it was decided all was OK. Then Su got pulled out of the line for a bag swab for explosives! Naturally they found nothing. Anyway, the rest ... read more