ThompsonFamily

The Strip By Michelle So I’m going to start by saying I LOVE VEGAS! I unashamedly love the glitz, the glamour, the bright lights, the frequently tacky and cringe worthy! For our four days of luxury we are staying at the Bellagio. OMG it’s gorgeous! It’s like a little mini city and at all time busy busy. From the spectacular horse in the entry way to the ceiling feature of huge blown glass flowers to the Asian themed conservatory. The rooms are stunning and we have a gorgeous view of the pool complex with the snow topped mountains in the background. Also to prove a point that Jacob never reads our blogs I will add in here that separate rooms halfway into the trip have provided a rather welcome respite from one another for a few ... read more

Downtown San Francisco By Michelle Had a few dramas catching public transport yesterday so it was with trepidation that we had another crack at it today. Got to the bus stop and along came the bus. Off the bus and the train arrived immediately. Brilliant, haven’t wasted half a day again! So the plan for today was to do the Downtown tour on the hop on hop off bus. Got on the bus and got off at Union Square the centre of the high end shopping district. In the middle of the square was a massive Christmas tree and an outdoor skating rink – cool! Coffees and croissants and we were ready to get into it. To cut a long story short we’re in a shop and Jake’s talking to a girl. Go over and he ... read more

The Start by Mike After a fab Xmas we did the last of our preliminary packing and readied ourselves for our afternoon flight to LA. Things were pretty cruisy in the morning due to some preparation and having time on our hands. The wonderful Tevita Viliami (David Williams for you palagi) picked us up at 11.30am on the dot. I was so musy chatting to him I was sitting in the car waiting for Michelle to get her shit together and a voice comes down from the top of the drive…”ready to go are we?” “Yes dear” I said trying to be as polite as I could… ”Do you want to take your wallet and phone then?” trying to be as polite and unsarcastic as she could…crisis averted! I run up to the kitchen trying to ... read more

The trek to Bangkok by Mike We departed the ship early morning and got an excursion which for us was as much about getting our luggage to the airport as anything else. We went to a couple of places we had already seen like Hagia Sophia although we went to a different area which was nice. It was still a buzz seeing it again too. We went to the Hippodrome – the venue of sporting contests in ancient times. Chariots would ride in and race here. There was also a pillar brought from Egypt to Constantinople which was cool as didn’t get there. We took tons of photos for you Carl! We then went to the Chora Museum which was a church and it contains some of the most beautiful mosaic. Then there was the trek ... read more

Rhodes by Michelle I woke up in the port of Rhodes and looked out the porthole to get my bearings. WOW – there’s a castle outside the window! After breakfast we walked into the old fortified town of Rhodes and had an explore. Our first observation of the shopkeepers is whilst (like the Turkish one) they still say “yes please, yes please, come on in please”, they aren’t as pushy. A simple no thankyou or just browsing is acceptable which meant we were actually able to browse. Mike and Jacob had been dying to get a new chess set and the lure of a Greek mythology set made out of alabasta was too hard to pass up (despite the continuing issues we have with increasing luggage weight). Wanting a cold drink and a snack we made ... read more