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.