FULL CIRCLE

Well this is it! We have come full circle and come back home to France. Our last travel picture was Bergerac airport where we took our first almost 7 months ago!! It has been so great to be back in France. Everyone at the KH gave us a wonderful welcome. All our travels have definitely made us realise where we want to be and the place we will call home for the next few years. Definitely here in France! We have loved catching up with all our friends here and the girls have enjoyed it too, we have hardly seen them all week.
I also think that a part of each year will be in the USA as that is the way business is taking us at the moment.
The weather has been glorious blue skies all week and much warmer than England. We have had a wonderfully relaxing week with Mark & Cath, drinking gallons of wine and eating delicious meals.
Half of me wants to just stay here and get settled but I realise too that we need to be back in the USA for the next few months to make our new business work. Hopefully though we will be back at the beginning of April ready to find ourselves a little house and get started.
We leave in the morning about 9am for the drive up to Boulogne so hopefully the Landy will behave and all will go as planned.
Our trip has been such an amazing experience and life changing in different ways for us all. The next post will be thoughts from all of us about the trip.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!

After leaving our cosy beds at 5.30am and stopping off at Einstein’s for a much needed coffee and bagels we arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our flights to New York. We thought we were very clever only having carry on luggage, after all we are the masters at traveling light now. We forgot about the ‘ I’ve got a uniform on and can steal anything from your luggage under the guise of it being not allowed under the new security rules’ lady. I specifically checked the website of the airline we were flying with and it said that nothing over 100ml’s. Anyway when my bag was checked I had a brand new Clinique moisturiser that was 10ml’s over and she put it straight in her pocket saying ‘well you can’t take that’!! Needless to say I was rather miffed. Never mind...on to NY.
We arrived at La Guardia at 11.30 am and the flights out from JFK were not until 6pm so we thought we may have time in the city to see a couple of the sights. As we were contemplating all this a guy came up to us and asked us if we needed a taxi ride. He said he could take us to see all the sights and get us to JFK for 4pm for $250. This seemed a huge amount until he said that just to get to the other airport would cost us $60. He promised us that he would be able to take us everywhere we wanted to go and to see everything including having a snack of the best New York hot dog we have ever tasted (not that hot dogs are really our thing, but when in Rome etc..!!). So we decided to go for it and hope he was not ripping us off.
Well what a day! I can’t think of one NY sight we didn’t see. From the Statue of Liberty to Times Square and the Watchtower building across the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park we saw it all. The hot dog was as good as he promised and so was the slice of NY pizza. The day could not have been better weather wise too. It’s a mad city and we all agreed we could not live there. The high rises seem endless and it makes Paris seem very calm and quiet.
The flight from Jfk to London was pretty uneventful, not great (no free booze, a first for us on a long flight) but not awful either. The films were good and we all managed to sleep a bit.
There was a nasty welcome for us in London though as the weather was dreadful. Cold and very rainy, so we piled on most of our clothes and quickly found the hire car we had booked and turned the heater up full blast. The drive up to Liverpool seemed endless and we had to stop once at a services to have a sleep, as although Nick does all the driving I am the official ‘keep awaker’! The girls slept all the way of course. We headed straight for Nick’s parents house which is where we were supposed to be staying as they were in Venice (we thought), dreaming of their lovely comfy beds that we would just crawl into. Unfortunately when we arrived it was to find that they had returned from Italy early as Fran was really ill with a stomach bug so we headed over to my mum’s and straight into her beds.
After a couple of hours sleep we dragged ourselves out to get the Chinese takeout we had been dreaming of for months and for a quick drink at the local (of course!). It’s lovely to be here with our family despite the weather and we are looking forward to catching up with some old friends here to before heading to France next Tuesday. Everyone’s excited about that!!!

The Fowlers are coming..............!!

Just a quick update to let everyone know we are back for a visit on 8th October for many different reasons. One of which being to see Tom get baptized! We will be in France from the 16th and are dying to see everyone and catch up on our cheese consumption.
As for our family.............well you know how much we are looking forward to seeing you. Be ready for lots of boring travel tales!
We will be back until the 5th November so plenty of time to catch up.
See y'all real soon!!!!
xxxxoooo

Update on life in the good ole US of A!!

Well it's finally starting to cool down here a bit so we have started going to the beach and of course Nick is back into lots of fishing. Candace was stung by a sting ray yesterday though, but she was very brave. Fortunately we had just visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and learnt all about them so we knew they were not poisonous just painful. We think we have found a house to buy just a couple of streets away. Not big but with lots of potential for expansion.
Business is back to normal now we are working on it regularly instead of from internet cafes and the new business we have started here is also going very well.
The congregation is lovely and we had a fantastic assembly where we saw loads of old friends that we hadn't seen for years. The girls got thoroughly fed up of being told how much they had grown!!
We do miss France and are looking forward to visiting in January and then hopefully coming back next year for the summer. I don't think we could live here year round, we love French life too much to give it all up. Need to think of a way to import the delicious Australian wine we have been drinking here though!!
We finally (after all these years) got around to taking the girls to Seaworld about a month ago. We had a wonderful couple of days and felt really privileged to have seen these amazing animals up close. One of the highlights was feeding the dolphins and being able to touch and stroke them. The shows were breathtaking but I couldn't help comparing it to other places we had visited and feeling sad that so many wonderful people we had met could never even imagine seeing anything like this. One just that day hundreds of people like us had no problem dropping a couple of hundred dollars on just two days entertainment, never mind the extras like food and souvenirs. It just reminds you how uneven and unfair the world is.
Sometimes I find it hard to spend out on things that I didn't think twice about before. Things that I didn't consider not buying, now I realise that I don't need them. I guess that is why taking this kind of trip is considered life changing, it really makes you think about what is really important in your life. In the western world we are brought up with things, even if we don't have them someone else does. The people we met are just happy to be clothed and have food and shelter. They don't care about brand names and what car they drive, most of them can't afford more than a moped anyway.
We are looking forward to lots of things at the moment. Our trip to the Bahamas at the beginning of October and the Clearwater Jazz festival at the end, our assembly (another one!) at the beginning of November and a trip somewhere, hopefully Arizona, around Thanksgiving.
What are we missing at the moment? - Family, friends, Candace - her books in storage in France, Me - my shoes in storage, esp. my Campers, Nick - his precious watch collection, Lara - her Polly Pocket collection (in France) as she has made a fortune on ebay selling the ones she had here!
ANYWAY.............next update from the Caribbean!!
Love y'all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

16th to 21st July

This week has been spent looking for a house and recovering from the journey and the 13 hour time difference. It has taken the whole week to adjust to Florida time and we have finally found a house in Dunedin, near the library and the Pinellas trail (a walking bike track that stretches for miles). It is old style and has a garage for Nick to drool over, it is so big!
Our friends, Ryan & Kyndall are going to the Keys tomorrow so we have the pleasure of looking after Boris. He is a Bichon Frissee and is so well behaved that we want to adopt him! Not to mention extreemly cute too. We also have the pleasure of their gorgeous home all to ourselves until they return in a couple of weeks - lucky us!
We can't wait to get our stuff out of storage and see what we have - none of us can remember what is in the boxes so it will be fun.

Back home (one of our many!!)

After a filthy lie in and a cooked breakfast and mimosas we headed out to do a bit of shopping. Lara finally got the book she had been wanting since we left France and Candace found stuff on origami (which she has become very good at lately).
The rest of the day was spent recovering from the journey and that evening we got to see some more of our friends, Ryan's sister Paula and his parents, as they all came over for a BBQ. It is a strange feeling being here as it is like nothing has changed at all.
We have a lot to sort out this week, house, work etc but for now it is good just to catch up with old friends and chill out a bit.

San Jose to Denver to Tampa (finally!!)

The flight to Tampa, Florida was at 10.30 am so we had to be at the airport by 8.30ish. Fortunately we were only about a mile away so we didn't have too much of an early start.
All went great, apart from the $50 excess baggage we had to pay! We had about four hours in Denver. Just enough time to relax and have a lovely lunch before getting the last flight to Tampa.
It was a long day as we didn't get into Tampa until 11.15pm but our wonderful friends, Ryan & Kyndall were waiting for us with a big hug and a big car to whisk us back to a comfy bed and a long awaited sleep. They couldn't believe how little we had in the form of luggage although we thought we had a lot as we had added a huge suitcase to our backpacks to carry all the extra stuff we had bought. Us Brits travel light!!
We finally got to bed at about 2am after catching up on everything we had missed since last October.

Santa Cruz & San Jose

After a breakfast of croissants, OJ & fruit from the supermarket we headed towards Santa Cruz. We both really wanted to go to Monteray but it was just too far as we had to be in San Jose that evening to fly to Florida the next day.
Santa Cruz was a typical movie style California scene. Teenagers playing volley ball on the beach and fairground rides all along it. Not really our sort of place so we just stopped for a quick coffee for us and milkshake for the girls at a lovely beach front cafe. We decided to head to the downtown and look for some sights and a supermarket to get picnic stuff for lunch.
After leaving Santa Cruz we headed back inland towards San Jose which is the heart of Silicon Valley but also a nice historic place to visit. I had booked the cheapest place I could find nearest to the airport to make it easy in the morning so we were expecting a grotty motel that would be ok for one night. When we got to the Doubletree hotel we were amazed to find that it was really nice and the room was huge with all amenities and most importantly for the girls - a pool! This meant that we had to rethink our plans to visit some historic places as they just begged us for a swim. In the end it was really nice to be totally lazy for a few hours as the last couple of days had been rather hectic and we had done a lot of driving.
We did manage to get to a Starbucks though to add to our collection of mugs. We thought that in view of how we earn our crust we really should have a San Jose mug!!

12th July – Driving down the Pacific coast

After a lovely breakfast of coffee and bagels we made the tough decision to leave the Inn and head further down the coast. It was a slow drive as the road is very windy but some of the most beautiful and dramatic scenery imaginable.
Again we found a little supermarket and got picnic stuff and this time stopped at an historic state park for lunch. Fort Ross state park is the site of an old fort from the late 1700’s when Mexico ruled California. It was a trading post also for some Russian merchants. The onsite historian gave us an interesting talk about the history of the place and showed us some photos of the damage it sustained during the earthquake.
We had a short walk after along the cliffs before getting back in the car to dive further down the coast.
The weather was again perfect with unbelievable blue skies so we decided to get back to SF to get some better photos of the bridge. After seeing a few more sights in the city we thought we would head south and find somewhere to stay.
We ended up in Pacifica at a hotel just across from the beach and ended the day with a meal at a Mexican restaurant.

11th July – Napa Valley

As the weather was still very overcast and cold we decided to head up to the Napa valley as we had been told that inland the weather is often better. They were right. After just an hour or so driving the clouds cleared to reveal fantastic blue skies and beautiful scenery. It reminded us of the Med area of France but on a much vaster scale. Vineyards as far as the eye could see and for miles of driving.
We decided to stop at a little supermarket and get some bits for a picnic including of course a bottle of California red! We found a lovely little quiet park in Calistoga and the weather was perfect. Not too hot, no humidity.
The Napa valley is 30 miles long and is a bit bigger than the parallel Sonoma valley. After reaching Calistoga we had driven the whole of the Napa valley so we headed over towards the coast for our first glimpse of the Pacific ocean.
I had heard from many people about California’s beauty but never having been I just thought that it was another nice place. After all there are many pretty places that we have been to. Some dramatic, some grand and some unusual. Now I know what the big deal is about California – it has it all!! That day we drove through beautiful vineyards, towering forests and alongside a dramatic coastline. All in the space of a few hours.
We drove down Highway 1, the Pacific coast highway, to Point Arena and found an idyllic place to stay called Wharf Master’s Inn. It was a restored home from the late 1800’s. For about the same price as a Travelodge in London we got two rooms overlooking the ocean with Jacuzzis and open fireplaces. The only disappointment was the awful $30 pizza we had for dinner.
We lit the fires and filled the Jacuzzi tubs and settled in for an early night with a G & T (us not the girls!).

10th July – Malaysia to Korea to San Francisco

It was a good if very turbulent flight to Korea and we arrived at 9am. We had until 2.15pm to wait for the flight to SF so we found a quiet corner and crashed out on some chairs. Nick and I got about an hour’s work done too, which was tough but necessary.
The fight to San Francisco went well and we arrived at 9am rather tired. Everything went smoothly though in getting our bags, finding the hire car and the hotel. It was a bit of a shock as it was cold. We had just left average daily temperatures of 38 degrees and now were in about 15 degrees!!
We knew that the best way to get into a different time zones sleep pattern quickly is to go to bed at the right time no matter how you feel, so we set the alarm for 2.30pm and zonked out for a much needed three hours sleep. It was the hardest thing to wake up and we were all very grumpy but we knew it was necessary if we were to get any sort of decent sleep that night. There was a 13 hour time difference between Thailand and SF so we had some serious adjusting to do.
The first thing we did was head straight to the nearest Starbucks for a much needed coffee and to get another city mug to add to our collection. Even then we were all very tired and knew we had to do something other than just going back to the hotel or we would all just fall asleep again. It was the perfect opportunity to go to visit some famous SF sights. We drove first down to the Golden Gate bridge which was just as impressive as we hoped it would be. We managed to stop shivering long enough to take some photos of it and of Alcatraz. Next we drove up to the Haights, those steep streets we had seen in so many movies. The houses were gorgeous and many of the older ones had survived the 1906 earthquake.
Next stop Ross as we needed some warmer clothes. We managed to all find what we needed and a couple of things we didn’t.
We finished up the day (a very long one!) at the IHOP for dinner. We had forgotten how huge American portions are and ordered way too much food. We could have actually dined on half of what we got!

9th July – Day 3 KL

We didn’t do much exploring today as the weather was bad and we had such a long journey over the next couple of days we decided to hang out at the hotel and be lazy.
We didn’t have to leave for the airport until about 8pm so we had a last meal at the Indian restaurant and a swim in the pool. The hotel let us check out late at 4pm and we were able to use the pool showers and changing rooms to get cleaned up for the journey.
Our flight was at one o’clock in the morning and we knew with all the time differences it was going to be interesting.

8th July – Exploring Kuala Lumpur

After a great night’s sleep in one of the comfiest and biggest beds I have ever slept in we dragged ourselves down to breakfast to a feast of a massive selection of just about any type of food you can imagine. From Japanese to croissants and beyond it was there to be eaten. We contented ourselves with a couple of coffees and some pastries before leaving to climb up the KL tower.
It was again a great experience to see the city from so high up although it was rather crowded and very touristy. After seeing all we wanted to we stopped to admire a Malaysian band playing some strange instruments.
It is a nice looking city with some very interesting buildings and better planned out than other cities we have been to so far. It is obviously very wealthy and there is no evidence of a huge divide between the rich and poor as is so obvious in Thailand and other places we have been.
We spent the afternoon visiting a couple of shopping malls and then headed back to the hotel so the girls could swim in the pool.
It was the girls’ turn to choose where to go for dinner and they chose the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was great and the only complaint was when I asked for a glass of wine and got about a third of a glass! They made up for it though when Candace got a refill on her iced tea. She handed it to me and said it tasted funny. They had brought her a Long Island iced tea!!! Very alcoholic, so I just had to finish it for her.
We got some great photos of the Petronas towers all lit up on our way home.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We left early today to get to the airport in plenty of time as we were a bit worried about our bags being over weight with Air Asia. As it turned out they were fine and we had loads of extra time to check in and find our flights.
We hadn't booked a hotel but had a recommendation from a fellow traveler to stay at the Shangri La. We called them from the airport and asked then to hold two rooms for us. When we walked in we were wondering if maybe we had got the price wrong on the phone and had misunderstood as it looked so posh. We thought how embarrassing it would be after getting the taxi here, if we would have to walk out with our bags and find another place! It actually turned out to be 30 ringitts cheaper than we thought!! We were all very excited at the thought of living in this luxury for the next two days. The rooms were just as impressive as the lobby and the girls were delighted to find that there was a huge pool at their disposal.
We had dinner at a fantastic Indian restaurant, the real deal, not UK palate stuff!! On the way back to the hotel we got our first glimpse of the Petronas towers all lit up.

6th July – Last day in Thailand

We didn’t do much really apart from last packing and a last walk along the beach. Dinner was had at Banana Corner and was super. The pool was swum in for the last time and everything ready to go for in the morning.
I am half excited about a new place to see and half sad about leaving Thailand. We have seen so much here and have been fortunate to spend enough time in the country so as to get a real feel for life and how things are run. It is a beautiful country but there are many things we will not miss such as the driving conditions and the locals lack of rubbish disposal understanding.

4th July – Ao Phang Nga marine park

For our last big trip here in Thailand we decided on visiting the Ao Phang Nga marine park which is known for it’s unusual and very beautiful karst island formations. One of which was made famous by the Bond film, The Man with the Golden gun, and is now known as James Bond Island. They are composed of over 40 islands with sheer cliffs with the largest Mangrove forest in Thailand. The area from which we could get the boat trip was about an hour’s drive from our house so we set off early and managed to find a big long tail boat to take us for 1500 baht (£20). The trip would take 2-3 hours so we figured that was a really good deal, especially as we had the whole boat to ourselves.
We soon realised as we headed out into the bay that this was going to be a very special trip. The scenery was breathtaking and like nothing we had ever seen before. After motoring right through one of the caves we stopped at the famous island, which was definitely so unusual no wonder they used it in the movie.
On the way back we stopped at Ko Panyi, a small island built entirely on stilts and nestled against the huge limestone cliffs. It is a Muslim fishing village and along with the alcohol ban no dogs or pigs are allowed on the island either. The food was fantastic though, if a little pricey. There were quite a few tacky tourist stalls but once we got beyond these and walked towards the mosque and the school it was nice to see evidence of ordinary life.
All too soon the trip was over and we were heading back towards the boat. We all agreed though that it had been one of the highlights of Thailand and definitely one of the most beautiful sceneries we had ever seen.

5th July – Last minute shopping

We all had a few last minute presents we needed to buy and a few more souvenirs so we headed up to Patong to brave the tacky tourist stalls to see what we could find. We also needed to find a bookshop to sell quite a few of the books we had accumulated.
We sorted out some stuff when we got back, some to throw and some to pack and realised that we would have to be very careful with the big suitcase we had bought or it would be overweight.
We had a dinner of what was left in the fridge, which turned out to be rather good and finished off the day with a walk along Nai Harn beach.

2nd July - Big decisions and last days

We had to make a big decision today on whether to stick to the plan of going to Australia or go straight to the USA. The business needed some attention and was not getting it by us working a couple of hours a day at an internet cafe. We realised a long time ago that this was the means by which we can do this travelling so we needed to think carefully about our next moves and some big trips were involved either way and we needed to pick the right ones. We had already booked our flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 7th but now we needed to decide on San Francisco or Australia. After much deliberation we chose SF as if we ended up in the same situation in a house with no internet in Australia things would be tough. The difference being we knew the USA and could definitely get what we needed as soon as we got to Florida and very quickly. The trip to OZ and NZ could easily be done next year or the year after. We managed to find a flight to SF via Seoul in Korea. A mere 23 hour trip!!!
Decision made we had to plan on how to get the extra stuff we had bought back to Florida. The choices were either UPS / FEDEX or the regular slow post that we used for our box from Koh Chang. As the box had not turned up in Florida as yet (rather worrying) we decided on FEDEX. An expensive option but even more so if your stuff goes missing altogether. Until I had the bright idea of buying a big and cheap suitcase and hauling it with us, saving us about £50. We thought that with some careful planning and packing we could keep it under the 30kg regulations.

1st July

Well we are officially the parents of two teenagers today as Lara turned 13!! We had a nice lazy day by the pool before heading up to Kata for the girls to get their hair braided and back down to Rawai and to Mandos for a nice dinner.

30th June – Burma

Up early for our trip today. First we had to head over to the immigration office to get stamped out of Thailand and sure enough there was our boat guy waiting for us. After formalities we set off with him, whose name was Mr Rambo, to the pier. It was a mass of long tail boats waiting to ferry goods and people over to Burma. We had to climb over a couple of other boats before getting into his. A long tail boat is powered by a car engine strapped on the back and steered by a huge long pole with a propeller on the end of it. It’s also rather noisy. Mr Rambo turned out to be very helpful and pointed things out to us on the half hour journey across to the Burmese mainland.
We stopped on the way at a small island which seemed to be a sort of immigration and he took our passports to show them to an official while we stayed in the boat. There didn’t seem to be any other foreigners doing it this way which was a surprise to us as we expected to see lots more expats. We found out later that most fly to Malaysia and get a three month extension there at the Thai embassy. After the short stop we soon arrived at the border port of Kaw Thoung. As soon as we alighted from the boat we were surrounded by people, mostly men. ‘You wanna buy whiskey, cigarettes.’ ‘ I show you good shopping’ etc, etc. We managed to get to the immigration office, where it was a quick procedure and a good money maker for the officials as we handed over $40 for the privilege. I really wanted to have a look around the market area before we headed back and maybe explore the town but we were suddenly conscious of the watches we were wearing and the cameras and wallets I had in my bag. It felt very different from Cambodia where we were often surrounded like this and we decided to abandon the idea of exploring and head back to the boat. The only problem was that Mr Rambo seemed to have disappeared. A woman came up to us trying to sell us some awful food wrapped in newspaper, a few men were standing by Nick talking about football one minute and the next asking for money. One man had followed us all the time since we got off the boat. Mr Rambo finally arrived back with a stash of whisky and we got on our way back, much to our relief. It was not a good experience but made us even more determined to visit again and see the country properly at a future time.
It was a quick procedure when we got back to Ranong to get stamped back into Thailand and we decided to start heading back to Phuket straight away.
We stopped at a place called Bang Niang on the way back for some lunch. It was quite sobering when we walked down to the beach as this whole area was the worst hit by the tsunami. It is quite flat so in some parts the wave reached up to 4kms inland. The devastation at the time was incredible. There is a memorial about 1km from the beach of a police boat that was washed up and left as a reminder. All the houses, hotels and restaurants here are brand new and there is still a lot of construction going on.

29th June – Ranong

We left early this morning as we knew that it would be a long journey up to Ranong. The trip took us up the Andaman coast and though some national parks. It was one of the most beautiful journeys we have had in Thailand as the road was often canopied by lush trees and the scenery was very tropical and mountainous. This is one of the wettest areas of Thailand which could be seen by the dense vegetation either side of the road.
We arrived in Ranong at lunch time so our first stop was a little restaurant recommended in the Rough guide. What they failed to say was that it was necessary to be covered in mosquito repellent so as to enjoy your meal! So I popped off to the local 7/11 to get some while Nick ordered.
Next stop was to find the immigration office and the pier from which to get the boat across to Burma. Again we followed the guide book, but managed to take a wrong turning that took us miles down a track to a dead end where we happened upon about six children breaking up large lumps of coke for charcoal. A sad sight and a reminder that on the surface this may seem to be a rather stable country but really is still extremely third world in many hidden and not so hidden places. Eventually after backtracking a bit we found it but decided to leave it until tomorrow so as to have more time to enjoy it instead of rushing back as the immigration closed at 5 pm.
Back in the car again, this time to find a place to stay. As it is low season we thought we would check out the poshest place – The Royal Princess, to see if we could get a deal. It was lovely but still rather expensive so we went to look at another place, which turned out to have closed down since the guide book was published six months ago! Finally we spotted a place that looked in between expensive and cheap, which also said it was a spa hotel. It turned out to be a wonderful find with a lovely pool and hot spa drawn directly from the mineral springs nearby.
We decided on a quick trip to the local ‘department’ store for a bottle of wine and drinks for the girls. They went off to choose some goodies while we pondered over the meagre selection of wine. All was great until Nick spotted a sign which said that they couldn’t sell alcohol between 2pm and 5 pm as it was the law. As it was only 4.30pm we didn’t feel like hanging around until 5pm just for a bottle of wine. Being Thailand however and remembering that most Thais take no notice of laws, I thought it was worth asking if I could buy it now. So I went up to a lady, smiled nicely and asked. She had a quick conflab with her supervisor and said that it was ok they would sell it to me if we paid cash and they would just put it through the till after 5pm. Can you imagine doing that in Sainsburys?!!! It got even better before we left the shop as there was a stall with a big pile of T shirts that we started looking through mainly because they were all 39 baht (about 50p), only to find that they were genuine diesel, von dutch, ck and other makes. All together we bought 11 t-shirts for just £6!
Back to the hotel and while Nick relaxed for a bit (he had just driven over 300km!) I answered some emails. Then we swopped and Lara and I decided to check out the pool and spa. I don’t think I have ever felt more relaxed in my life after going in the spa. The water was 40 degrees and at first seemed way too hot but after getting used to it – wonderful. We both felt like crashing out in bed afterwards.
We ended the day with a VERY spicy meal (delicious too!) in the hotel restaurant and crashed out and read our books for a couple of hours before getting an early night ready for our trip to Burma / Myanmar in the morning.

19th June to 26th June - Life!

Not a lot to report really.
We visited the local congregation and endured an hours group in Thai and then the watchtower study in English. It was lovely to meet the brothers and sisters. Apart from our family there were only four others for the watchtower so we got lots of answering up done. We went again on the Sunday for the same watchtower!! We managed to stock up on some literature though and found out about some ministry arrangements.
Well we have changed our minds lots of times this week. We had all planned to spend the next few months here as the guy we are renting the house from has been promising us an internet connection and we love it here. Unfortunately this has not materialised and we have had to change our ideas as we are very fed up with visiting internet cafes every day. Also after visiting the KH we realise how different it is to sit through a meeting in French and understand some and to sit through a Thai meeting and not understand anything at all. Also there are no young ones for the girls to hang out with. So the latest is that we leave the house on the 6th July and visit a few more places like Koh Samui and Krabi before flying to Kuala Lumpur and then getting the train to Singapore. A bit of a compromise that as I want to go by train and Nick wants to fly. That way we are both happy and the enviroment doesn't suffer quite as much!
Our assembly in Australia is in Townsville, down the coast from Cairns, is at the begining of August so we have plenty of time to get settled and find a house and car. Lara is looking forward to getting to OZ but Candace will be sad to leave Thailand.
We bought a lovely set of bamboo wind chimes the other day as a souvenir and before we leave for KL we will be shipping back another box.

18th June – Central Festival

Bit of a monsoon day today. We had a huge storm last night and there are a few trees and power lines down. It’s still raining so we decide to visit Central Festival, a massive indoor mall. It apparently has 256 shops so we have plenty of things to look at to pass the time. Inside on the ground floor there is the biggest fish pond we have ever seen with frighteningly large goldfish in. We manage to last about an hour or so before getting rather bored so we head up to the top floor to check out the restaurants and find a bookshop with quite a good selection of English books. Lara gets a reading book and a French puzzle book and Candace finds a good book all about world flags. I find another couple of books about Cambodia, one fictional and the other about a woman who worked in a refugee camp in Thailand. We finish our morning with lunch at Starbucks.

10th June – 17th June – Life in paradise

Working, eating, exploring and finding more and more beautiful beaches is what occupies our days. The girls do some maths and reports on different places we have been and we swim every day.
The best beach we discover is Layan beach further north. It is deserted apart from some local fishermen so we spend three glorious hours sunning ourselves, fishing, reading and playing.
We finally find out properly about the meetings and plan on going to the Thai cong on Sunday as we can’t seem to get in touch with the brother for the English group.
One day Nick and I find a lovely little stall selling the most gorgeous clothes, so we decided to treat ourselves and splash out 1000 baht (£15) on two shirts for him, a skirt, a pair of trousers and three tops for me!
Another day we visit Patong as we have been told that it is a good place for dvds and stuff for kids. The girls find a pair of shorts each and we get some new movies to watch. Apart from that Patong is full of girly bars and dreadful tourist stuff and not a nice place. All the stall holders are quite aggressive and we quickly get fed up of the constant hassling.
We have some great BBQ’s after Nick discovered a shop selling firelighters. We also find another supermarket that sells more western food, so we treat ourselves to some cheeses, olives and sundried tomatoes. It is much healthier to eat like the Thais but we have missed our cheese!
We finally find the Kingdom Hall after driving around for over an hour and asking about a million people for directions. We are too late for the Sunday meeting but manage to meet some of the brothers and sisters and plan to go back on Tuesday night for the English Watchtower study and the group. It's a small congregation of about 55 with the whole of the island of Phuket to cover. We are looking forward to helping them while we are here.

9th June –

We thought it was about time that we tried to find out about the English group that apparently was here, so we phoned the bethel in Bangkok for a phone number. Unfortunately despite many tries there was no answer so instead we phoned again about the meeting times for the local Thai congregation.
We decided to visit some of the areas that were badly affected by the tsunami, like Patong and Kamala beaches. It was a strange feeling being there after seeing photos and news footage of the devastation. Most areas are now completely rebuilt and there are signs everywhere about an evacuation route and also warning you that you are entering a tsunami hazard zone and what to do in the event of an earthquake, to move to higher ground. It’s very sad that it is only now that there are all these warnings as almost 1000 people died in this small area alone, around 10,000 on this coastline of Thailand.

8th June – Life in the mansion!

We all had a filthy lie in this morning and all emerged around 10am! It was nice not to think about whether or not we had missed breakfast.
Stan, the owner of the house, had said we could go over to his other place and help ourselves to his DVD player. However when we got there it was a whole surround sound system which we didn’t feel like dismantling and setting up again at our place. Instead we decided to go to Big C and buy our own that we could then ship to Ryan in Florida for when we get there.
We found a lovely little German bakery and cafe for lunch just around the corner and then did some more exploring of our part of the island. We are right in the south between Nai Harn beach and Rawai beach. It’s nice and quiet here without the bustle and touristy stuff of the other places like Patong and Kamala.

7th June – Finding the house

The day started off well with Nick getting a good deal on a hire car for two weeks. We piled all our bags into the little Yaris with difficulty but were all really happy that we could now explore properly without having to worry about how much it would cost for a taxi. The only map we had was the one in the guide book so we decided to just drive and see where we got to heading South. We had to meet Wellta, the lady who had some houses to show us at 11am so we thought we would have a look around ourselves first to see what we could find. It seemed as we drove around that there were plenty of houses for rent, but we were looking for a particular combination, pool and internet. A few that we phoned said they had a minimum rental of six months or a year, we wanted a max of two months. Wellta showed us the house we had already looked at the previous night, which the girls turned their noses up at, and one that was absolute paradise but a bit expensive. We had just decided to go for the more expensive one, which we were going back to have another look at, when we passed a large gate with about ten houses inside. A sign in English read that one was available for rent. When we called the number and spoke to the guy he said that normally he rents it for 40,000 baht (£600) per month, but as he had been let down, it was empty and he was desperate to recoup some money so he would let us have it for 25,000 baht (£375)!!! We couldn’t believe our luck when we were shown around it. It was gorgeous with three big bedrooms, a beautiful pool and he also said he would try his best to arrange internet access for us. It was better than we could ever have hoped for, like something out of a magazine. We even have Sam, a housekeeper, with the house, who comes in everyday to clean, make beds, tidy up and look after us.
Having dumped our bags we headed over to the Tesco Lotus to get some supplies to cook our own dinner for the first time in over two months. We got a massive shop which unsurprisingly enough cost almost half of what it would have done in England or France!!
When we got back Sam had made up all the beds and helped us put all the shopping away. It was great to be eating in our own home for a change and a real treat to have so much space. We all agreed that travelling in and out of hotels for the past three weeks has made us not only appreciate what we have but also small things like being able to do our own washing and cook our own food.

6th June – Bangkok to Phuket

The train journey wasn’t until 7.30 pm so we had the whole day to fill. We went back to MBK to pick up the camcorder and also the second halves of the Lost 3 and 24 series’. Candace got a new skirt and Nick bought a long sleeved top for any cool nights we may encounter way in the future!
Everything was going well until we got to the train station and found that our tickets were for second class instead of first class. We had stressed to the guy who booked them for us at the hotel that we wanted first class where you get a cabin and some nice privacy. Instead what we got was a rather old train with seats that turned into beds with just a curtain across. There was no dining car and we were all extremely disappointed, especially me who had planned and researched the whole thing. The only choice was to grin and bear it or get off and go the following day which would mean us going back to the hotel and paying for another night. We decided to grin and bear it. They made up the beds for us quite early just after we had eaten so we all decided to bed down and read our books. The girls slept fine but Nick and I kept waking up with the noise of other people and for me, worry about the safety of our bags. We arrived in Surat Thani at 7.30am rather bedraggled and managed to grab a couple of yoghurts and chocolate bars for breakfast before catching the bus for the four hour journey to Phuket.
We had decided to stay the first night in Phuket Town as it sounded quite nice and cheap. The plan was to find a house to rent asap. So we found a cheap, clean but very basic guesthouse where we crashed for an hour or two before going out to China Inn for a fantastic meal, just what we needed. We went to see a house that I had been emailing a lady about and decided that it would do if we didn’t find anywhere better as although it had a pool and internet it was not very nice inside, needed a good clean and seemed to be miles from anywhere.
As we were all a bit dejected and absolutely exhausted we all decided to have an early night and hope to find better in the morning.

5th June - Bangkok

Finally able to catch up with some much neglected work today before heading out into BK for some last minute things. We needed to swop the camcorder as there was something wrong with the battery and as it was our last time in BK there were a few places we wanted to go like Asia books for Lara and a watch place for Candace.
Our plans to get the sleeper tonight were foiled when we found out that the only four seats were not together so after much deliberation we decided to stay another day and go the following night. The hotel booked it for us and we were all looking forward to what we thought was a 1st class cabin the following night. Little did we know the fun we would have!!!

4th June – Leaving Cambodia – Journey from Siem Reap to Bangkok overland

Taxi arrived at 8am for the trip to Poipet. When I had read about this trip previously I knew that it wasn’t a good road, unpaved in parts and pot holed. The reality was a four hour ride over what must hold a record for the worst road in the world. How the car was still in one piece and driveable was a complete mystery. It ranged from just very bumpy to total bone shaking madness.
The guide book had said that the best thing about Poipet was leaving it and it was totally correct. Dreadful place and thankfully all customs and departure stuff was dispensed with quickly and it was a short walk in the crushing heat, laden down with backpacks and souvenirs, to the Thai border. We had never crossed a border on foot before so it was quite an experience.
We managed to get a tuk tuk to Aranyaprathet for the train to Bangkok. There were only two 3rd class trains a day to BK and when we arrived at the station it was like traveling back in time to the Victorian era. The train was another story also, as how do you describe a six hour train journey on wooden bench seats?! The open windows provided great air conditioning and we certainly got to see a great deal as we inched slowly towards Bangkok. We met a nice Belgium guy who was a professional photographer so chatting to him passed the time somewhat. By the time we arrived at 8pm we had been travelling for 12 hours and looked and felt like it. Arriving at the Hotel de Moc (our home in BK!) felt wonderful and so civilised.

3rd June - Bantrey Kdei & Sunrise Village Orphanage

We tried calling some orphanages that we had found online but to no avail so Vandy said he could drive us to one and we could make an appointment to come back later and find out what to bring for the children. He took us to Sunrise Orphanage and the director told us that if we come back at 2pm we can see the children perform an Apsara dance and afterwards we could play and talk to them. So we thought we would go off to our last visit of a couple more temples and then come back. First we headed out to Bantrey Kdei as there were some more of the stone faces that Nick wanted to photograph. As it was out third day walking around the temples I don’t think we were able to appreciate it as much as we should but again it was amazing, huge and mind blowing.
We headed back to the Angkor Cafe for a quick lunch before stopping off at a convenience store to buy some little gifts for the children. There wasn’t a lot of choice but in the end we chose some huge bags of sweets to share and loads of glitter pens and pencils.
It is hard to describe our visit to the orphanage. In many ways it was like something out of a movie. First the children did their dancing which was beautiful and funny too. Then we were given a sort of tour and were then allowed to just spend some time with the children. We handed out the small gifts and one thing that impressed me most was when I held out a handful of these pens with the children gathered around me not one of them grabbed for it, not even the tiny ones, they all just gently took one and every last one of them said thank you to me. Nick sat at a table and drew pictures for them and some of the older ones just wanted to practise their English sentences on us. Most of the little ones just wanted to be picked up and held. Many times we all had lumps in our throats, especially for Nick and I when we met a beautiful girl the same age as Candace who told us she had been there for five years. The children are so very polite and really look out for each other, the older ones taking care of the little ones. As we got back into the tuk tuk after our visit nothing much was said, we were all rather quiet. Quiet and with a massively changed perspective on life.
It was hard to enjoy our meal that night as all we have seems too much. I didn’t even want to think about our previous life in France. It seemed so unfair that we should have way too much and these children, our children’s age, should have so little.

2nd June – Angkor Wat & Ta Phrom (Tomb Raider)

2nd June – Angkor Wat & Ta Phrom (Tomb Raider)
Up early again and off by 9am to visit Angkor Wat properly. It was a perfect day for photos, being blue sky with just a few clouds, so we took full advantage of it. First we walked around the walls with all the many detailed carvings on them before heading to the centre where we climbed the steepest steps I have ever climbed in my life. When I got to the top, gasping for breath the thought of having to come down again was extremely daunting. There is a very good reason why this is one of the most photographed places in the world as we saw from the top. It was amazing! I didn’t think we would see anything better than we saw yesterday but the sights just get more and more impressive. After a few hours exploring we head over to the Angkor Cafe for a cool air conditioned lunch as we have all sweated a few pints and are hotter than we thought it possible to be.
As Vandy pulls into the parking lot in front of the cafe we are surrounded by children selling stuff. One little girl tells me she will be waiting for me when we have eaten, so I promise to buy some bangles from her when we come out. The cool air hits us as we walk in but it still takes us a long time to cool down, we are helped by the lovely iced towels they bring us – nothing has ever been more welcome!
As we step outside the cafe about 20 -30 children surround us like ants. I have promised to buy from the little girl so get a set of ten bangles for $1. No sooner have I handed her the dollar than at least ten more kids are clamouring for me to buy from them, postcards, bracelets, scarves and more. I changed a $10 note into ones but it is soon gone. Nick is not faring any better and Candace has soon spent her $5 too. The children hand us notes they have written wishing us good luck and telling us they are very happy to meet us – obviously phrases they have learnt in school. The lovely thing we notice about these kids is that they look out for each other. One older girl points Nick to a young boy and says we should buy from him as he really needs help. We finally extricate ourselves from the group with far more scarves and postcard than we will ever need (guess what y’all will be getting for presents!!) not to mention about 70 bracelets!! I think we all had a big lump in our throats as we got back into our tuk tuk.
On to Ta Phrom and the setting for the tomb raider film. Again an unforgettable place with sights we will never forget with or without photos to remind us. We are constantly amazed at things we are seeing here whether the ancient sights of the Angkor temples or the heartbreaking everyday sights you see just driving down the road.
Dinner tonight was at the Red Piano where Angelina Jolie (apparently) invented the Tomb Raider cocktail that is their speciality. We passed on that but the meal was fantastic and it was lovely to relax for a while on their balcony and watch the sun go down over Siem Reap town. This is the poorest place we have been to but it is actually the nicest looking in some ways. There are many beautiful colonial style buildings and nicer houses than we saw in Taiwan, which is ironic really.
Again we all went to bed absolutely exhausted and rather sobered by things we had seen that day.

1st June – Angkor Thom

Got up early today to get some work out of the way before our driver came for us at 9am. We decided that we would visit Angkor Thom first and leave Angkor Wat for the afternoon. Vandy, our driver, took us first for our tickets which were a bit more than we expected at $160 for the four of us for three day passes, but as soon as we got our first glimpse of one of the gates to Angkor Thom we realised that it would be more than worth it. It is a vast place with sights straight out of a National Geographic magazine.
The temples of Angkor all together cover 500 km2 and the walls of Angkor Thom are 3km along each side. The main temple is the Bayon with 54 huge stone faces carved in stone to represent the 54 Cambodian provinces. We both cannot stop snapping photographs as there are so many awesome things to see. We end up spending the whole morning exploring Angkor Thom and then ask Vandy to take us somewhere for lunch. He takes us to his sisters cafe for a quick plate of Vegetable fried rice. It is an open air cafe though and we are sweating and gulping water like it’s going to run out. We plan on an air conditioned lunch tomorrow! After lunch we get waylaid by some of the children selling postcards, flutes, bracelets and scarves. It is almost impossible to say no to them as they are so adorable and extremely persistent. We end up with a few postcards and some pineapple. Unfortunately as we head back to the temples some more are lying in wait to ambush us and we end up with more postcards, three scarves and an elephant bag that I will never use! These children walk around with either no shoes or broken flip flops and their clothes are all raggy and dirty. They are all very small and can’t believe the age of the girls especially Lara who is the same age as many of them but towers over them.
We finish off at Angkor Thom and head over for our first look at Angkor Wat. The main entrance is a bit disappointing as there are so many people there but it still does not detract from the sheer size and magnificence of the place. It is the largest religious building in the world and was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II. It is surrounded by a huge 200m wide moat which has been a protection from the jungle so it is very well preserved. As we are all rather tired by now we decide to just have a quick look and save the tough climb up the steps for tomorrow. We go around the back part and it is much quieter with less people. Nick gets talking to a young monk who is learning English at his pagoda. He asks us lots of questions and asks for our email address so we can write to him. I promise to send him the photo we took of him and his friend. Our first sights have been mind blowing ones we will never forget.
We just about had the energy after much needed showers to go to the Blue Pumpkin for a bite to eat before collapsing into bed.

31st May – Cambodia – Phnom Penn

31st May – Cambodia – Phnom Penn
Horribly early start this morning – 4am!! To get our flight to Phnom Penn. We all felt pretty crappy but also rather excited to be going.
Flying over Cambodia was amazing if rather surprising. It seemed like an awful lot of countryside with hardly any roads. It couldn’t have been better weather as there were no clouds, so flying into Phnom Penn we got our first glimpses of the country and it looked like nowhere we had visited up to now.
The airport itself was very small, smaller even than Liverpool and the visa process was very quickly done. Our pre-arranged driver was waiting for us with a comfortable looking Toyota Camry and so started our long trip to Siem Reap. The journey took four and a half hours and at times we wondered whether we would make it in one piece. The road is the best in Cambodia and if they have road rules we didn’t spot any apart from the fact that the biggest vehicle has right of way.
It was immediately apparent as we drove through PP that this was a much poorer place than anywhere we had seem in Thailand. We stopped about half way to use a bathroom at a restaurant and a very dirty little boy of about six came up to the car and asked for money. There was a snack bar outside the restaurant so I beckoned him over and with some hand gestures asked him what he would like. He chose a packet of mixed dried fruits, so I bought those and three packs of crisps for us. I handed him the fruit but he still stood there so I gave him a packet of crisps too. Even in Thailand we never saw children begging so it was a bit upsetting, although he didn’t look hungry, just awfully neglected.
After a very long drive we arrived at the Two Dragons guesthouse. Very clean and basic rooms with ultra helpful and friendly staff. We were all rather hungry so we decided to get a sandwich at the restaurant out front. Having been up since 4am we had all started to feel it so we decided to rest for a bit before going out exploring.
Unfortunately a huge storm ruined out plans for exploring so we caught up with some work and the girls had a snooze.
Everyone felt like pizza so we caught a remorque – moto (tuk tuk) to a restaurant we had read about in our guide book. All the streets are just dirt really, only the main ones are actually paved. There seem to be an awful lot of small children just hanging around. While we were eating our dinner a young boy came and stood outside the restaurant with a man who could have been his father or grandfather, it was hard to tell. This man had no eyes – not just blind – his eyes had been gouged out, probably during the Khmer Rouge’s reign. I think we were all so shocked that we didn't do anything. After we felt really bad that we hadn't helped at all.
I think being here is going to give us all a lot to think about.

30th May

Loads of boring shopping but great bargains as always. Had to get our US dollars for Cambodia and a new camcorder plus better footwear for the temple trekking and of course a new stash of Dvds!!!

29th May – Back to Bangkok

Pretty uneventful day – last look around Taipei and then we were off to the airport via bus to fly back to Bangkok.
So happy to be back here again. To sum up Taiwan – a great experience and definitely not a tourist spot so we really got to see a different life and culture apart from that usually promoted for foreigners. It was a beautiful country with lots of greenery and amazing mountains...............but apart from that basically a concrete jungle with lots of apartments and ugly town centers not very well planned out. Very glad we went but I would probably not bother going again.

27th May – Journey back to Taipei

Pretty uneventful, bumpy and hot journey back to Taipei. WE got the bus from Sun Moon Lake, fortunately we were early, just as well as it left ten minutes ahead of schedule! Only took about three hours and we managed to get the train to Taipei with only an hours wait. Got back about mid afternoon and checked into our old home – Delight hotel ! Nice meal at the Italian restaurant and an early night.

26th May – Sun Moon Lake

Managed to get the right train this time and got chatting to a student that was on an exchange program from Canada. Her parents were originally from Hong Kong and she had been here for a year. It was interesting as she told us about many cultural differences she had come across and what her life was like here.
We arrived in Taichung at lunch time so before racing for the bus to the lake we grabbed a MacDonald’s which was the quickest we could see near the station. We managed to find the most rickety bus for the hour and forty minute ride to Shuishe Village on the lakeside where we were going to stay. Fortunately we all had our iPods to drown out the lovely? music and rattles on the bus. When we arrived it was my turn to go hotel hunting, so with guidebook in hand off I went to look for a bargain. Before I had gotten to my first place a little old lady with very bad false teeth dragged me inside her hotel and asked if I needed a room. At least that’s what I think she said as it was all in Chinese! There was a younger woman inside though who spoke some English and showed me to one of the nicest rooms we’ve had so far. It was more like a suite with the first room having a double and a single bed and the second room with a double bed, TV in each room and a bathroom between. All for the grand total of 2000 NT a night which is about £30!! But the best thing by far was when I asked her if she knew of a laundry where we could get some washing done, she took me up to the 4th floor and showed me a washing machine that she said I was free to use. Now when you have had a washing machine available to use whenever the mood takes you there is no way to appreciate how wonderful this was. To be able to do my own washing without having to think of weight and cost and whether and how it would come back was wonderful. I will never take having my own washing machine for granted again!! Actually there are quite a lot of thing we will not take for granted anymore.
After resting in our room for a bit we decided to explore a bit and get something to eat. It was quite a nice little village with a pedestrian only (supposedly) cobbled street. It is now quite a popular tourist spot for the Taiwanese people but is also home to the Thao aboriginal tribe. There wasn’t much in the way of choice in restaurants so we decided to be brave and have some local food. If we thought we were getting stared at before it was nothing to when we walked into the restaurant. Definitely no chicken fried rice on the menu here!! In fact when we started to look at the menu we didn’t know whether to laugh or be shocked. We could have eaten a whole zoo. The heading at the top of the menu page was ‘edible wildlife’!! I chose the mushroom soup and Nick went for the beef with the girls opting for some fried rice. I think the general consensus was disgusting! The soup was actually really nice but the beef was awful and the vegetable fried rice we asked for just had a few pieces of sweet corn thrown in and was horribly greasy. We eat what we could and made a quick getaway putting it all down to experience. and was horribly greasy. We eat what we could and made a quick getaway putting it all down to experience.

25th May – Tainan

Decided to do some cultural stuff today although it was very hot when we stepped outside so instead of a walking tour of the old city we thought we would go to the Anping fort by taxi. Interestingly enough this place had been originally built by the Dutch in the 1600’s and there were a few bits left of the old walls to see. The most interesting thing was to see some old paintings inside of the fort and to see that it had been surrounded by water at one time because the sea had come up this far. Now all you can see is the city, no water. Apart from that there wasn’t much else to see so we headed over to the Anping streets which the guidebook said was the oldest part of Taiwan. Now I presume they were talking about the actual roads we were walking on a there was nothing else very old to see. But we wandered around for a bit looking in all the little craft stalls and quickly glancing away from the food ones. By now we were all extremely hot and desperate for a shower so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit and cool off before going out again.
We stopped off at the station on the way back to find out about trains tomorrow to Sun Moon Lake. No direct trains but it would still only take us about 3 or 4 hours to get there with a train to Taichung and then a bus the rest of the way. The plan was to do the walking tour around fiveish when it had got a bit cooler but the girls spotted a poster for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and of course we gave in (who can say no to an evening of Mr Depp & Mr Bloom?!!). It was of course excellent and everyone went to bed happy.

24th May – Train journey to Taitung or not!!

Got an early start today as we needed to get work out of the way before getting the train. Being as usual not entirely organised we had no idea what time the train would leave for the journey to Taitung on the East coast. We left the hotel around ten and got a taxi to the main Taipei station and for once our timing was spot on as we only had 10 minutes to wait for the train. There was a bit of confusion as everything was written in Chinese (wish you were here mum!) but after asking a few people we got to the right platform and the correct place to stand and wait. Our tickets said No.1 on so we were in the first carriage which when we first got on we had all to ourselves. Large reclining seats and loads of leg room, definitely seemed like first class although we hadn’t asked for that and we had only paid 1500 NT dollars for the four of us which is only about £20. The man who sold me the tickets at the counter spoke hardly any English so we had no idea how long the journey would take or where to change trains as he told us we had to get three or so we thought!
All was great until we got to the coast and the sea was not on our left as it should have been but on our right which meant that we were not travelling south but north! Despite the fact that I had shown the guy at the ticket counter a map of Taiwan and pointed to where we wanted to go he still sold us tickets for Taichung on the West side instead of Taitung on the East. How do you make that mistake?? So we quickly re-planned somewhere to go and decided to get off at Ershui and get a bus to Sun Moon Lake. What we didn’t plan on was the fact that the train wasn’t going to stop at this station at all. So Ershui flew by and out came the guide book again and we decided to go to Tainan which used to be the capital before Taipei and was the oldest part of Taiwan.
Finally we reached Tainan and Nick left us at the station while he went to check out a couple of hotels in the guide book. He found a great place for us if a little bizarre. It was a massive old 14 storey office block now converted into lots of hotels, a different one on every floor. We stayed in the Takatama on the 3rd floor with 2 rooms which is nice after being stuck all in one room for the week in Taipei.
Negotiating this city is a little more difficult as there are less Romanised signs but we decided to go out exploring and look for a restaurant the LP had recommended as serving western food – by now we were definitely off Chinese. We eventually found it down a back alley and up about four flights of a winding staircase with the help and a lot of gestures from a friendly local. It was scruffy to say the least but looked clean and after all our effort we deserved a drink and something to eat. As usual with this type of unassuming place the food was great and there was a whole shelf of English books to browse thorough while we were waiting. We asked if we could buy a couple and the lady said we could just take them they were free. Excellent – our kind of bookshop!!

23rd May – Snake alley

Not a very exciting day really. Had loads of bits and pieces to finish up before leaving the city tomorrow.
I had read in the guide book that unless you visit one of Taipei’s night markets while you are staying you really haven’t experienced Taiwan properly. So we decided to go to Snake alley, otherwise known as the Huaxi Street market. What a sight. As far as the eye could see were stalls selling absolutely everything from pornographic dvds to flip flops as well as many types of food also. Before coming we had planned on grabbing a bite to eat here but on closer inspection none of us fancied any of it, infact as we moved deeper into the market the smells were making us all feel rather sick. The only way to describe it was that whatever many of the stalls were cooking smelt like poo so needless to say nobody felt like eating!
But we still hadn’t seen the snakes so off we went down another alley to see what we could find. There seemed to be lots of puppies for sale, which the girls liked until we saw how drugged they all seemed. Although one guy had two little Huskies in a cage and when the girls went over to ask if they could stroke them he handed them each one to hold which was really kind as he must have known we were not going to buy them. They were very cute!
Down another alley and we finally found the snakes. A huge boa constrictor was curled up at the feet of a man in front of the restaurant. He (the man) had on a little microphone and was calling to people, not sure what for though as it was all in Chinese. Further on were many more restaurants with various types and sizes of snakes in cages in front. By now we had all seen enough and were ready to head back towards the hotel and find something more ordinary to eat.
Unfortunately what we had forgotten is that most places stop serving at 9pm and everything closes at 10pm so we ended up in the food mall at the local supermarket with a subway sandwich which was actually just about what we felt like.

21st May - Danshui, Taipei county

After our success yesterday finding the zoo the girls and I decide to take a trip out of the city to the end of the MRT line to a place called Danshui. It's to the NW of the city and is a lovely ride past some mountains and along the river. When we get there it is a nice change being by the water. It's right where the Danshui river meets the sea so on the one hand it's a bit touristy as it is where a lot of Taiwanese people come to escape the city, but on the other it's quite quaint.
The girls enjoy going into the little shops along the front and we do some exploring up some tiny little back roads with stalls selling unrecognisable foodstuffs. It's a lovely experience just to be here although we do feel like outsiders as we are definitely the only foreigners here. We get stared at all the time and one lady even stops to talk to us. She asks if these are my children and says how hot it is today. Although it is very different it all feels very safe and ok for us to wander wherever we want.
When we got back we talked about our plans for the next week and where we will be going next. We looked into flying directly to Cambodia from here instead of going back to Bangkok but it is too expensive. So we will stick to our plans and leave next Tuesday, stay a day in BK and then fly to Phnom Penn. We hope to go to the bethel on Thursday but haven't had the directions emailed to us yet so will have to phone again for them. After that we have decided to explore Taiwan a bit more. We have tried our best to hire a car but it just seems impossible here. Hertz don't even have a branch so that tells you how rare it is. It's a bit disappointing as we would have been able to see so much more by car instead of the train or bus.

21st May - Taipei Zoo

AS Nick had meetings and stuff all day the girls and I thought we would go to the zoo. Now those of you who know me well will understand what a feat it was to find my way across to the far SE side of the city and get three different MRT (subway) lines not to mention finding my way from our hotel to the station in the first place. However we did find it no problem! It was a lovely day, hot but not too sunny and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. I had read that it was one of the best zoos in Asia, if not the top one and it certainly seemed to be looking after all the animals properly. They all had plenty of space and the signs in English told us about some great conservation projects that they are involved in.
They had some really unusual animal too that even Lara (animal expert) had not heard of. Our favourites were obviously the monkeys as they had a tiny baby monkey that was so cute. I also loved the penguins and some tiny little Lemurs that we saw.
What can you say about the zoo - pretty much the same as any other really.
When we get back about five Nick is already in the room and full of his day. We sort out some laundry to drop off on our way to eat dinner. It's a bit more expensive than Thailand but necessary. We eat again at the Italian / Taiwan restaurant as it is just around the corner from the hotel and we are all rather tired.

Sunday 20th - 5 meetings in one day!

Having phoned the bethel for meeting times and directions we found out that the WT and talk were at 1.30pm. Nick found the road on a map and we decided to leave in plenty of time as we needed to get a taxi etc. As usual we were early but thought it would be nice to talk to the brothers and sisters anyway. Imagine our surprise when we got out of the lift on the 6th floor to hear the singing at just five past one. Opps wrong meeting time given! Anyway we sneaked in to find that there was no talk just the wt followed by the school, service meeting and revelation book! Normally five hours of meetings but today just four. We stayed for the Watchtower and Theo school which was really nice as we had not been to a proper meeting since Bangkok. The only sad thing was that we didn't get to talk to anyone as their meeting was still going on. Maybe next weekend we will still be in the city and be able to go again.
Interesting thing on the way back home from our meal. We rounded a corner and heard music like an ice cream van and saw lots of people standing outside a large apartment block with plastic bags in their hands. It was a bin lorry, well two actually with large bags hanging from the sides. When it stopped everyone came forward and separated their trash into different recycling bags and bins. Amazing sight really that everyone would just wait patiently with all their rubbish and then in a totally orderly way separate it properly. When you do see a piece of trash on the floor it stands out as it is an unusual sight. What a city! It's obvious really that the Taiwanese people really respect their country.

Taipei fine arts museum, Confucius temple & Bao-an temple

Totally cultural day today! After a couple of days feeling really crappy with the worst cold I've had in years I woke up feeling much better and in the mood for exploring. Lara fancied the fine arts museum and Nick fancied some temples, so we decided to do them all.
First of all we headed across town via the MRT for the arts museum. Like most things here it was very reasonable to get in. The first exhibition had work by an artist called Su Hsin-Tien and was amazing. They were called cyclical space paintings and the colours and sheer genius of the man was awesome. The rest of the museum was a little less inspiring.
Next on the agenda was the Confucius temple. Having been to a couple of Wats in Thailand I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely colours and elaborate dragon carvings in these Chinese temples. Both the Confucius & Bao-an temples were equally beautiful, though highly pagan as Lara so aptly pointed out! Seeing the local people worshiping there and being the only visitors and westerners was quite an experience. It was amazing seeing something so totally different and alien to anything we have ever seen before. As the smoke from the incense swirled around we almost felt like intruders as this was definitely not a tourist attraction but was just a glimpse of Taiwanese life.
When we got back to the hotel we all felt like we had walked at least 1000 miles but had learnt much more about the country we are in for a couple of weeks. We were all too tired to go out for a meal so instead had a snack of bread & salad from the local supermarket washed down of course with some lovely Australian wine. The girls watched a couple of episodes of Lost 3 and we watched some more of 24 (Kevin -it's better than ever!!! We'll send it on!).
Great day - again!

Taipei 101

Today we leave the hostel early to find a better place to stay before check out time at 11am. We decide on the Delight Hotel and move all our bags over.
After getting work out of the way we decide to visit Taipei 101 which is the tallest tower in the world (at the moment). 509m is rather high!
Our first impressions of Taipei are correct. This is probably the cleanest city we have ever been in. No litter anywhere and all the sidewalks are very tidy.
The MRT metro system is very easy to use so we have no problem getting over to the tower. It really is very impressive and has a five floor mall with ultra posh shops inside and everything is perfectly kept as if it's all brand new but in fact opened in 2003. We head over to the lifts that will take us up to the top wondering how much we will have to pay for the privilege imagining something similar to the Eiffel tower. Surprisingly it is less than £10 for us all to go up. The lifts are actually the fastest in the world. They travel at 1010 metres per minute and our ears pop as we go up in no time at all up to the 89th floor which is the indoor observation deck. It really is amazing being so high up and there are lots of very interesting facts around about the building of it and the new records it has set. It is rather a cool feeling to have been to the top of the world's tallest tower.
After seeing everything we want we send a postcard from the 'world's tallest postbox' and realise we need sustenance in the form of Starbucks next door. We take our time wandering back over the city just enjoying the sights. Non of us feel like Chinese food for dinner and we spot an Italian that looks good so we decide to go there after a quick shower. Good choice as it is fantastic! Great day had by all is the general consensus.

Taipei, Taiwan

Having experienced rather a lot of the Bangkok traffic situation we decided to leave early for the airport in case it is a slow ride. In actuality it only takes about 35mins so we have plenty of time to check in, answer a couple of emails and eat the usual airport rip off food for lunch!
The flight with KLM is fine and only takes about three and a half hours which means we get out of the airport around 7pm. After a ride in the poshest taxi so far, a rather large leather seated BMW, we arrive in Taipei just after 8pm. We had already called the Happy Families Hostel from the airport so he was expecting us. Mr Lee tells us that we were on the 5th floor, sorry no elevator! So we drag all our bags up and quickly decided to stay just one night. It's very clean but rather dingy and the two rooms are not close together. After dumping our stuff we realise we need towels and some loo roll as this is a BYO place! Anyway we are all dying to have a walk around our new city.
After Thailand which is crawling with tourists this feels like you are at a really foreign destination. There are not many white people here and we seem to get stared at a lot. The people are lovely though and very friendly and helpful. We find our towels and other stuff and as nobody is very hungry we pop into MacDonalds for some french fries before heading home to guzzle a bottle of Australian wine we have bought at the airport.
Our first impressions of Taipei are that it is very safe and immaculately clean and well kept. Probably something to do with the fact that it was ruled by the Japanese for 50 years until the end of WW2. We are all looking forward to seeing more of it in the daylight tomorrow when we go searching for a better hotel.

Bangkok

Well Candace is much better today, thank goodness. She slept until 9.30am so we just managed to squeeze in for breakfast before it finished.
Nick went off at ten for a tour of a factory and some other business stuff so us girls decided to have a lazy day to give Candace time to recover properly for our flight tomorrow to Taipei. I did some work and Lara surfed the net and wrote emails while Candace just stayed in bed and watched some TV.
Nick came back about four so we headed over to MBK to pick up some movies. The girls got room service for dinner and Nick and I went out for a quick bite before heading back to the hotel for a relatively early night so we could get a good start in the morning.

13th May Journey up to BK

Not a good start as Candace was up in the night with a bad tummy. All was ok until we were waiting for the coach in Trat and she passed out outside the toilets. Needless to say Nick and I were rather panicked but some lovely people helped us. One lady gave her a bottle of camphor stuff to sniff and another old Thai lady gave me some herbal pills to revive her which I was cautious about but she made me have some to show they were ok. They did work but poor Candace felt terribly sick for the whole 9 hour journey. Eventually one of the homeopathic remedies finally seemed to work and she managed to eat some crisps and a drink.
I am writing this as we reach the outskirts of Bangkok so hopefully we will just be able to get to our hotel and she can go to bed. Thank goodness it’s the Thai hotel which now feels like a second home.
A few hours later...........................
Well she is feeling much better. While Nick and Lara went out for a pizza and to buy the Lonely Planet Taiwan, I stayed in the room with Candace. I ordered some room service and we watched Bewitched on the TV which cheered her up a bit. She was fast asleep by 9.30 and hopefully will sleep late in the morning.

12th May Last day on Koh Chang

As the morning was rather wet we decided to do our packing first thing before going to have a last beach hang out.
As we have been here for five weeks it has really started to feel like home and we have made some good friends. So we said a last goodbye to them all and let some brochures with some locals for the last time.
We are all a bit sad to be going but also excited about the next part of our trip to Taiwan.
Had our last meal at Ta Tum’s which was excellent as always then headed over to Roland’s for a last drink and to say see ya!

11th May The waterfall

We were determined to see one of the waterfalls on the island before we left and last night at the bar we got talking to our neighbour and she told us of this amazing waterfall that nobody knew about except the locals. As it had rained a lot in the night and we only have a couple of days left we thought we should do it today.
We were told that it was quite easy to get to and got rough directions. Not too bad at first until we got into the jungle a bit and Lara started to get bitten by mosquito after mosquito and then Nick managed to spot a snake! Admittedly it was only a very small one but it did mean that we were all very careful. It was quite a trek and definitely an adventure. Talk about being in another world! In the middle of the jungle. Nick kept going ahead to see if it was safe to carry on. After clambering over boulders and walking along rather narrow edges for at least an hour and a half we could hear the waterfall, finally! The last bit was the toughest of all over rocks and under fallen trees, wading through small pools of water we came upon the most beautiful sight. Huge cascades of water falling 100 feet into a pool surrounded by ark greenery and canopied by the jungle.
WE were all exhausted and wanted nothing more than to jump straight in but as the rain had been so very heavy it was very murky and being very British we were, of course, very cautious!! In the end after debating for at least five minutes and getting courage up for another five, Candace was the bravest and jumped in. WE all followed and although I couldn’t help thinking that I couldn’t see what was underneath me I was so glad I swam in that gorgeous place.
We all agreed that as experiences go it was definitely up there with the elephant trekking.

6th May

We had the car until 2pm so we thought that we should go to Funky Huts again before we leave the island to see Chris and what he thought of the Purpose brochure we left and sample another delicious burger. We decided to leave our watchtower study until the afternoon instead. So after a lovely lie-in we set off about 11ish and stuffed our faces again with a meal that cost less than McD’s but was way, way better. After the meal we asked him what he thought of the brochure and he said he had read it and thought it was really interesting but that he could never go around telling other people his beliefs like we do. We had a super discussion though about the state of the world and why we do what we do and he said that he would definitely read anything we wanted to send and to keep in touch via email.

5th May 2007 – 17th Anniversary!!

No one could decide what to do today but we started off by giving our gifts and getting lovely ones from the girls.
We thought we would get a taxi to Bang Bao and go to the Buddha View restaurant for a special meal. The taxi driver wanted 400 baht one way and for 1000 baht we could hire a car for 24hrs which is what we did.
We headed down to Bang Bao and went exploring down a different road we hadn’t taken before going for lunch. It was the coolest place with Thai style tables but instead of just sitting cross legged they had cut a huge hole under the tables so our legs dangled over the water. The food was delicious and the place totally relaxing. We all agreed that it was probably the best anniversary meal ever.
Lara wanted to visit Lonely Books again so we stopped off on our way home and she bought a couple of books.
We bummed around for a bit and walked on the beach.
Nick wanted to take me back to Buddha View again at night as it looks fantastic all lit up. So we got the kids some stuff from 7eleven for sandwiches and a couple of movies for them to watch from Roland’s.
We had a relaxing couple of hours just chatting over a drink and lovely sandwich before heading home and treating ourselves to a long awaited bottle of wine. We didn’t expect much, as we have sampled rather a lot of wines since living in France, but it was gorgeous and we managed to make it last 2 days!!
All in all a wonderful day and one that will be hard to beat next year – but we will try!!

Back to Koh Chang

1st May

Left BK at lunchtime as we decided to get a bite to eat on the way. Bit of a mistake as there wasn’t anywhere (no where we wanted to eat anyway!). So we stopped at a gas station and bought some crisps and drinks – very healthy.
Got back sixish very hungry, so we dropped all our stuff and headed off to Roland’s for a feast. Pizza and Greek salad really hit the spot.

BK

30th April

Business today, boring! Nick had a meeting and then we had to go and meet a couple of other guys about more stuff. Not too bad considering back in France we used to work all day everyday 5 days a week!! Just shows how much time we must have wasted as we still seem to get everything dome ok.
We got sidetracked by a jewellery manufacturer. Not commercial like the other one. This one makes exclusive designs for Chanel, Dior, Cartier etc. the guy was very nice and told us all about his families mines in Chanthaburi. We had no intention of buying anything but Nick said he would like to get something for me as it was nearly our anniversary. So an hour later we walked out with a lovely ring for me.
The girls were very patient today and did some of their new workbooks, surfed on the internet and watched some TV.
We are all looking forward to leaving BK tomorrow. Nice to come for a couple of days but great to leave.

River trip in Bangkok

29th April

As the meeting wasn’t till 2pm we thought we would take a boat trip to the Grand Palace this morning. It was a great experience as it took us to some really interesting places. Bangkok used to be like Venice, without roads, so it was just like driving and exploring the back streets. We all felt like we had been given glimpses of the real life here not just all the touristy stuff. Unfortunately when we got to the Grand Palace it was closed until that afternoon as the king was there for a special service because it was the last day of the Songkran festival. Instead we got rather scammed by a tuk tuk driver who took us to a gem factory. It was rather interesting as they told us all about the different gems and history of the trade in Thailand, but they clearly expected us to buy something, which we didn’t! Next he stopped outside a tailors and told us that would we please go in as if we did he would get a coupon for 5 litres of gas free. How could we say no?? Anyway…talk about pushy those guy were not going to take no for an answer but we had to get back for lunch and to change for the meeting (thank goodness).
It was lovely seeing everyone again. They all asked us about what we had been doing and when we told them how long our trip is we got the same funny looks that we got back in France!!!! Great talk and watchtower but we decided not to stay for the book study as we had already done it and a 3 hr meeting just seemed a bit too much especially when the last hr was the Revelation book!!
Found a great book shop that sold loads of English books so we stocked up on some maths and science workbooks for the girls and reading books too.
Had a nice dinner back at Hippie HI on the Khao San Rd but we all got rather drenched in the rain on the way back.

Bangkok

28th April

Boringish day really as we needed to buy a couple of GPRS phones to use with our laptops. We also needed the guy to set it all up for us. So the poor girls were stuck with us in the MBK centre for 3 hours while we set it all up.
We bought Miss Potter to cheer them up and watched it at the hotel.

Travelling up to BK

27th April

Decided to drive to BK as we can hire a car for 4 days for about the same as the bus journey would cost and we would get to see loads more along the way. So we had booked the car for 9am as we wanted to start out nice and early so we would be at the hotel in BK well before dark. Got up early and while I packed a few things Nick went to collect the car. He came back after 5 mins minus the car! Apparently it hadn’t been returned yet but they promised us that it would be with us by 10.30. Ok no problem, we thought. So we hung around and watched some TV for a bit and off Nick went at 10.30 to collect the vehicle…………..30 mins.. we were promised again. So we thought we would fill our time by doing our group instead of doing it later at the hotel. So off Nick goes AGAIN and this time loses it a bit with the guy demanding our money back he promises to have it in 30 mins (again!) and offers us an extra free day if we wait. Anyway to cut a long story short we had the car delivered at 12.15!!
So our plans of arriving before dark are now not going to happen but off we go and have a fairly uneventful journey, only getting lost once and arrive in the outskirts of BK around 6pm. Not too bad but we also managed to hit rush hour. Amazingly we manage to get in the right vicinity of the area that we are heading for but by now it is very dark so someone (Nick) has the brilliant idea of asking a tuk tuk driver if he will drive to the hotel and we will follow him in our car. We offer him 50 baht and he laughs and agrees. Then follows a hair raising ride across the city including driving the wrong way up a one-way street. We made it though and boy did we enjoy our dinner that night.

Koh Chang

22nd to 26th April 2007

Just life on the island. Working a couple of hours in the morning and then on the beach or in the pool in the afternoon.
Almost bought an internet café business this week. Very cool and trendy place with all equipment and furnishings for just under £8000! Very tempting, we even met with the guy, but way to tying for us and not great for the girls here as after a couple of weeks there is not that much to do except be a total bum.
Planning on going to Bangkok at the weekend as we have some business stuff to look at there and it will be nice to get off the island for a couple of days.

Koh Chang

20th April 2007

We hired a jeep today to explore the island. The side we are on, the West, is the most developed side so we were looking forward to seeing the East coast and what it was like. Unfortunately you cannot drive around the whole island as the town Bang Bao in the South West side has been stopping the development from going any further as they get all the business at the moment as it is as far as you can go. There is about 500m of unpaved track between. The road just literally ends. To see the other village the other side you have to drive North around the whole island, which we did.

We decided to do some ministry along the way so went prepared with some leaflets and brochures. Wherever we stopped we gave the Thai people a leaflet. The great thing was - nobody said no to us!! We stopped at Funky Huts for their 'world famous burger' for lunch. The place is run by an English guy from the Lake District so we were able to have a nice chat with him and left him a purpose brochure which we said he would be pleased to read.

The East coast was totally undeveloped with only a couple of places to stay and no towns really just a few fishing villages. The people live very poorly in huts and shacks but are some of the happiest we have seen. It really is 'the land of smiles' - Siam.

It was lovely to explore properly and Nick really enjoyed getting behind the wheel again. We made the most of it and went to the book shop in Lonely beach and then took the girls for an ice cream in Bang Bao which is a fishing village in the South. It is mostly built out on the water with narrow walkways between the huts and little shops and restaurants. We wondered how many people fall in!!