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Published: March 11th 2010
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Another one of those early starts, with us packing our suitcases for hopefully the last time in a while. Our driver out to the airport was overjoyed that he had someone to discuss football with (John obviously, not me who was thinking ‘oh joy, football’!) - the driver says he always tries, but normally gets a fairly negative response along the lines of ‘I don’t watch it’ (yep, that’s what he would have got from me!!). We’ve found everyone in Malaysia really keen on English football, and they will certainly be supporting us in the World Cup. John says they probably get more premiership football on the tv here than we do at home (we don’t have Sky).
I’ve just realised we haven’t mentioned the debacle of rugby last weekend - this is because we’ve only recently found out the results ... luckily we had no access to tv, so didn’t have to suffer watching it!! Fingers crossed for more luck this weekend!
So thus ends the Asian part of our odyssey. We’ve loved every minute of it (well, apart from the tummy bug in Laos!) - as we’ve said over and over again, the people have been absolutely wonderful everywhere we’ve been, and we’ve seen and done so many exciting places and things. There have been a zillion times that we’ve pinched ourselves to make sure we’re not dreaming and said ‘how lucky we are’!
We will be taking so many precious memories with us, of places we’ve been, of people we’ve met and friends we’ve made. But I have a little confession: I won’t be missing having a constantly wet, sweaty back (I swear John’s shirt changed colour yesterday as it was sopping wet all over!); I won’t miss the squat loos (oh please tell me I’ve been faced with my last squat loo); I won’t miss the odd little steps that seem to be put in everywhere just to trip unsuspecting people like me; and there are some smells that frankly I wouldn’t want to come across too often.
But given the choice - all are a small sacrifice to pay for the wonderful time we’ve had and I’d do it all again like a shot - because as Jane, our Mother Hen, would say ‘that’s just Asia Valerie’.
After a 5½ hour flight we arrived in Oz and faced the long wait at immigration and quarantine - John mentioned he had some coconut chips in his case and despite being willing to ditch them we ended up in the long queue. Couldn’t quite understand why the chips were given back to us after all, but there you go! Mild panic ensued as the camper van company we were using closed in about an hour and we’d no idea how far away they were! Fortunately, despite rush-hour, we got there just in time and after various formalities, most of which involved handing over more cash, we were on our way! (Please don’t get John on the subject of camper van extras and how the fully comprehensive insurance he’d booked didn’t cover the windscreen.) (or make sure I’m not in the room when you do!!)
A short drive to a supermarket for provisions -gosh it’s expensive here - and off to the nearest campsite we could find to park up for the night. Despite being very tired we actually had a really great evening swapping stories with Lynne and Vince in the next van over a bottle of wine or two. It’s the first time we’ve seen the southern sky at night so there’s a whole new set of stars to see - may have to get myself a star atlas!
Our van’s actually bigger than we’d expected and consequently, more difficult to manoeuvre that perhaps we’d imagined - we’ll have a better idea tomorrow after taking it on a longer run. The inside is a little basic, but seems comfortable enough and hopefully we’ll get a reasonable nights sleep.
Basic?! I think there’s a Men at Work track that’s based on our van!!
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