sally and colin

8 Bangkok Our rep was at the airport to meet us, Manob, as gay as you like and everybody loved him. Very efficient, we had a separate truck for our baggage with a load of people loading that, Manob and the driver and an assistant for him. Even the major moaners in the group couldn’t complain about this and over the weeks some people had developed into championship moaners! Manob had a great style and got us to the hotel where they were waiting for us with welcome drinks of something bright green but nice and then off to bed. We have only been here 5 minutes and instantly like the Thai people as they all smile all the time - they call it the land of smiles. Manob knows how to get on the right ... read more

On the road to Ayers Rock which is called Uluru these days, sacred place for Aborigines. First stop was a camel rescue centre with various other animals including dingo, emu, llama. Surprise to us but Australia has about million wild camels, some are used for their meat and others are shipped to India, Pakistan and anywhere else as they are said to be the only pure blood lines of camels in the world that are disease free. After a coffee stop, back on the road through this red land which was surprisingly green and guess what, it was raining! Lunch was at a homestead, part of a cattle station which is making a few extra pennies, they also had an art gallery featuring aborigine dot dot paintings, ie paintings made up of lots of dots. The ... read more

4. Last leg in New Zealand We liked Wellington, its a lively city, compact, lots of great architecture with querky features, though a seedy side too. The whole place is built on a volcano that has been out of action for 200,000 years, the houses are on the edges built on very steep banks, there are more than 400 funicular railways in a small space, some of them public but most are private to service each house to get the people and shopping up, one has just been built to help an elderly dog! We had a city tour and then the rest of the day free. On our city tour they mentioned fairy penguins who come back from a day fishing and have to cross the road to get to their nests, we were really ... read more

No rain today but very hot and humid. Took a boat trip on the Singapore River, walked through some of the government district but really was a case of mad dogs and Englishmen. We have decided that despite the 100% humidity, we like Singapore though sometimes you feel like you are in some sort of futuristic film with the variety of messages given out either on the loudspeakers in the stations or on electronic billboards - in the metro stations they show video of Madrid, London and Mumbai bombings with the message don’t let it happen to us, look out for those suspicious looking people - they still haven’t let him go. Failing that you are certainly living in Disneyland as Singapore has everything including different ethnic quarters, so today you can visit Little India and ... read more

Hopefully we have got to grips with this and included everybody in the email list ready for us to depart on Saturday, 2200 hrs flight to Singapore.... read more