Landed with a splash

* Friday, Saturday

So on Friday we awoke in Bangkok, got some brek in us and headed off to the airport. We were a little nervous about what was about to happen but somehow managed to find ourselves reading and relaxing until our plane went. The flight was a mere 1 hour so within an instant, we were in Siem Reap. The airport was beautiful and looked like a temple itself. It was super relaxed considering the FOUR bits of paper work you need to fill in order to get a visa and prove you ain't got pig flu!

We breezed out of customs to a warm arrival from our tuk-tuk driver Thom and Sally the local project coordinator. We were immediately on the road and heading towards the guest house that will be our home for the next 6 weeks. The Victory Guest House is great and really accomodating. It is run by Moy and her family and she's a star. The only downside to our arrival is that we were given a temporary room for the first evening because there was a school trip from France! Slightly unexpected. But the room was lovely and we knew we would unpack the next day.

We had an induction with Sally about what goes on and met some really nice people. That afternoon, Aaron and Claire invited us to come to the pool of this hotel they belong to. We thought what the hell and went down with them. Within hours of getting here, we were chilling out by a posh(ish) hotel pool. Strange.

That evening, we all went out to a Mexican restaurant for Bronwyn's leaving do, she had been on the build project and so gave us an insight into what it will be like. We walked into town and what's great is you don't get a lot of hassle. The tuk-tuk drivers want your business but they aren't pushy. We were really glad to get to see the town on the first night. We stayed out socialising until 1am and I have to admit what with the initial nerves and quite a bit of booze I felt a little worse for wear the next day. What a friendly excellent introduction to our placement! We couldn't of hoped for better.

The next day, we woke up a little hungover and just lounged around the Guest House restaurant for brek then lunch. In the afternoon, me and ame went for a daytime explore in Siem Reap. It really is a cool place. Foreign but familiar. Ame likes that although it is a tourist destination, due to the number of travelers who come to see the Ankor temples, that doesn't take any charm away.

There are street stalls and a beautiful old market and people living their lives and going about their business. Then amoungst it are cafes and restaurants but they are tasteful and all different and all tempting.

We had a good walk about, bought a colour photocopied Cambodia Lonely Planet (for $3 and we're compared it to someone's real one and it's exactly the same!) and wandered around the markets. 

We had a smoothy, and then joined the hotel's pool for a month at $25 each! There is a local currency called the riel but they pretty much use US Dollars for everything. There are no coins so riel is used as cent. There is 4000r to the dollar and this never moves despite what the economy is doing.

So after a little swim we headed back, got changed and went out back into town with Aaron, Claire and Sarah for a Khmer meal. It was fantastic and served on leaves.  We had the meal in the main (and I suppose most heavily touristy) street (called Pub Street!) and it is really bustling. There is so many places to try out.

The meals with drinks costs about $7-8 dollars. Beer is $0.50. So you can't go far wrong ;-) We even went for a few games of pool at Funky Monkey. Then it was back to the Guest House for more beers and cards until 2am. It's been a fantastic start. The hard work starts on Monday.

Emerald means Jade

* Thursday.  Today we got up nice and early again (06:30 as we are still a little jet-lagged).  We got out and about and had a nice breakfast of Cornflakes and Ame had toast!  We like a little familiarity in all this change ;-).

Then it was straight off to the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  It was a short walk so we decided it would be good to stretch the old legs.  

On route we were approached by old ladies with bird food and we were well prepared for this scam after picking up a scam leaflet in the tourist office.  Basically they try and stuff bird food in your pocket or on top of your bag and try and make you pay for it.  We (and other tourists) were not having that and breezed through.  I suppose it's no different than the heather ladies in Covent Garden.

So we got into the Grand Palace and we were smuggly prepared for the strict clothing policy:  no bare legs or shoulders.  Lots of people were having to borrow clothing at the entrance but we did not suffer this indignity!  Once into the Temple grounds we signed up to the free English tour of the Temple and then the Palace.  The Temple was beautiful and of course massively over the top with decoration.  In a nutshell, the Grand Palace was built by King Rama I when he moved the capital to Bangkok around late 1700.  He also built the Temple as a private area of reflection and placed in it a spoil of war, the Emerald Buddha.  This is about 70cm high and made confusingly out of Jade.  The monk who discovered in hidden in a Temple many moons before mistakenly thought it was Emerald and it stuck.  There seems to be a common theme of mistaken labels sticking thorough out travel! 

The tour was operated by a young guide who looked like she was being assessed by a more senior guide.  I have to admit, I couldn't really understand any of her English so I only got a few words now and again.  But I admired her effort and she was extremely happy and proud of what she was doing.  Let's face it, her English was better than my Thai! 

We wandered around the tourist packed compound and were amazed by the sights.  This guard is a demon and apparently you can tell that because he is wearing pointy shoes!

I managed to confirm that the colour in the builds in stained glass, not jewels, but the gold is gold-leaf.  I'd like to know how much gold is there!  It must be worth a fortune! 

We were taken past excellent hand-painted walls with extreme detail depicting legends.  I particularly liked this one!

Then we entered the Temple itself.  No pictures were aloud inside so hence no pictures of the Buddha.  What was interesting is he has three different costumes depending on the season (the little diva!):  One for winter, one for the wet season and one for the summer.  Believe it or not this is the winter season so the Buddha had a little expensive cloak on (despite it being 30degrees c outside).  I have to admit I wasn't moved by the sight.  It is apparently one of the holiest sights in Thailand for Buddaism.  Inside, the locals were in silently prayer.  There was of course a lot of "rent a religion" westerns inside pretending they were spiritual.  You wouldn't find me pretending to pray in a English Church, so you won't find me pretending to pray in a Buddist temple.  Just because it's more popular to the west doesn't mean it isn't a little hypercritical in my book.  But still, I enjoyed the atmosphere.

Next it was onto the Palace.  This was the Palace built by Rama I which all the preceding King Rama's live in until Rama VII (the current Monarch) who moved his residence to a bigger compound further out to help him administer his projects for the people more easily.  He is a very popular King and the people love him.  Again there were beautiful thrones,  ceremonial rooms and gorgeous gardens. 

After the tour we felt quite knackered after all the walking, jumped in a taxi to Khaosan Road, had lovely lunch and fell asleep by the pool for about an hour.

Next task was to go and see what was happening with our camera and then try and go to this posh bar at the State Tower.  We got a taxi across town to our Panasonic Service Centre and handed in our service slip.  He returned with our camera.  FIXED!  No cost, on warrenty and fixed.  We couldn't believe it.  Go Team Amy and Rob!  So jumped in another taxi towards the state tower.  It's great hoping in public taxis because they aren't corrupt like some of the tuk-tuk drivers and you get to feel your exploring parts of the city you just couldn't cover otherwise.  It's great for people watching.  Eventually after 1 hour in traffic, we arrived at the State Tower and read the annoying words on the door:  No shorts.  Oh for God sake.  Really?!  I'm not used to dress codes but it is their country with their rules and customs in posh places.  We went up the 64 floors, got up to the bar, the hostess politely informed us that I needed to go and put trousers on, she showed us the view and then we got back in the lift.  Oh well.  Maybe another time.

So back to Khaosan for us.  We  went to this great, poshish bar around the corner.  It had loads of trees with lights and water features.  It was great for chilling out in.  It was also great to have our camera back in all it's glory although Dad's camera has served us really well.  We just love our wide-angle lens!

We watched the sun go down in this bar and the twinkling of the lights in the water.  It was great.  We then snuck off down another corner of Khaosan into a cool, hippy restaurant and had dinner.  

By 20:00, we were so tired again and went back to the hotel.  To be honest, we'd spent most of the money we wanted to spend and had a great time.  We are due to fly the next day so an early night was well called for.  It's been great here in Bangkok and a real lovely introduction to South East Asia.  Tomorrow night we will go to bed in our room in Siem Reap, Cambodia which we will live in for 6 weeks.  Crazy times.

Relaxed Buddhas

* Tuesday, Wednesday

We begun our final morning in NZ with a lazy lie in in the Tudor Court Motel.  Our flight was not until 15:20 so there was not a massive rush.  So after watching some NZ morning TV (like GMTV but hilariously un-PC) and Ame having some good quality book time, it was off to the airport.  Our flight from Christchurch to Sydney was 30mins late which seemed like it would be fine for our connecting flight.  The entertainment  was a viewing of  "This is it" which I watched.  I wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I have to reluctantly admit that it looked like it would have been an excellent show.  They should of shown more MJ diva fits though.

When we landed at Sydney, it was apparent that there wasn't quite as much time as we thought as we had got more delayed. In fact, we (and about half of the plane) had 1 hour to board the flight to Bangkok.  Luckily it all went according to plan and we took off exactly 1 hour from our previous landing.  Good good.

So we settled down to "District 9".  I had heard good things about this film and I did like it.  However, it was not what I expected and I have to admit I don't see quite what all the fuss was about.  After a 4 hour snooze, we landed into Bangkok at 23:00.  We breezed through customs, breezed into a taxi, the taxi super-breezed into town at about 110km/h, and by 00:00 we were on the Khaosan Road (the tourism heart of Bangkok).  We walked down the frenetic, loud, lively street towards our hotel; a bit dazed but a little amazed by it all.  Finally we got into our hotel.  Finally, a big long sleep.

The next day we woke around 07:00 (a little jet lagged) and got about reading about the town.  We of course had the bloooooooooming camera job to sort.  So eventually found the tourism office (after Rough Guide map had put a landmark on the wrong side of the road and consequently sent us the wrong way but we recovered quite gracefully from the loss of direction).  After Ame persisting and persuading the tourist office to make a quick phone call to Thailand Panasonic we found an authorised service centre in the city.  So we set off towards that.  This was one of the best bits of the day.  The walk through the non-tourist real streets of the city with people living their lives, and totally not interested in us, settled us into the city.  Finally we found the centre and popped the camera in under warranty.  In pigeon English, he said come back tomorrow at 16:00.  God knows if it will be fixed.  At least its somewhere.  I think we're seen one too many panasonic service centre for my liking this trip!

So with that, we jumped into a taxi and to the Wat Po temple complex.  I'm glad we did.  It reminded us exactly why we are in South East Asia.  The buddist temple was built around 13th century.  The architecture was excellent, huge, complex and felt so foreign. 

They had all these little random gardens along route with brilliant stone statues.

On the doors of the complex these big stone guards.  I liked these the best.

The temple's main boast is the biggest reclining Buddha in world.  It was immense.  I don't know how you begin making something that size.

After a quick and cheap taxi  back to Khaosan Road, we whipped into a nice looking cafe for lunch.  We had two chicken pad thai and a couple of beers.  This came to 400B (£8) .  It's soooo cheap here and if that's tourists prices, then I don't care.  After spanking so much money in Oz and NZ, it's time for some of these prices.

For late afternoon we went to our hotel pool; on the ROOF!  Again, we are paying £15 a night and the hotel is on the main road, it's somehow sound proof so quiet and it's got a fricking pool on the roof.

So now after an hours rest we are off out to the food markets and some drinks on Khaosan Road.  

Busy sunny Christchurch

* Monday

The time had come to send Eric off to the airport to catch his flight home.  Luckily the bus he and Rob discovered yesterday was also ideal for the airport and so at 8.15 Rob escorted him down to the bus stop.  After waving them off I called Alex, granny, grandad and mum which was really really lovely.  Then when Rob was back we signed onto skype to speak to Shirley and my dad, plus an expected bonus video call with Shaparak and a sleeping Samy.

After this skyping extravaganza we hurriedly researched a Panasonic shop in Christchurch, got our things together and headed off into the city for our coffee date with my friend Anastasia.  I know Anastasia through my Olympics work, she is from Christchurch originally and back here with her family for a few months while on maternity leave.  It seemed too good an opportunity to miss and we had arranged to meet up while we were both in town.  So Anastasia, her mum and baby Monty met Rob and I in the Christchurch art gallery cafe for a coffee and a catch up - it was great!

Then it was time to do some jobs, we had developed quite a list of things to get done today.  However in order to face the jobs we needed to build up some energy and so first we stopped in Cathedral square for a spicy bratwurst!  It was buzzing in Christchurch today due to a mixture of the market, school holidays, sunshine and a busking festival.

We then had a long but successful afternoon of visiting a range of camera shops (with the conclusion we'll have to get in mended in Bangkok), having haircuts, burning photo CDs and sending them home, buying me some replacement shoes and printing our camera receipt.  Then we had a coffee in the sunny square before heading back to the motel.  This evening we got dinner from a local healthy pizza place and are getting our money's worth of the TV and sofa in our motel.  Funny to think that tomorrow night we'll go to bed in the Khao San Palace Inn....

A springy finale

* Sunday

And so we awoke on the dawn of our final morning in the van (very sad) and packed up the beds for the last time (not so sad).  Instead of heading straight back down the coast to Christchurch we headed inland on the alpine/pacific triangle to the spa town of Hanmer Springs to have a reflective and recuperative soak in their nine naturally heated mountain spring pools. The hottest was 42 degrees and they were all mineral enriched and supposed to be healing (we were hoping they'd heal up our everlasting sand-fly bites).

After and hour or so of this we felt fully cooked and suitably healed so we took the van to a spectacular view point we'd spotted on the way in to have a last scenic lunch.

We felt a bit lah-de-dah when other vans jumped on our band wagon and caught us eating stuffed pasta and balsamic dressed salad on the edge of the cliff; it was just missing a table cloth and candelabra!

I inevitably snoozed a bit on the final bit of the drive back to Christchurch and so within a flash we were back in the city and back at Tudor Court motel unpacking the van as if we'd never been away.  Eric and Rob took the van back while I stayed behind to sort out all our stuff and put a wash on (and have a nice quiet cup of tea).  They returned very shortly on a bus.  There had been no probs returning the van and in fact we were refunded two days of the cost when we mentioned a few things that hadn't worked perfectly!

We all finished packing together and then took our Forrest wine around the corner to the Thai restaurant that Rob and I had tried out two weeks before.  Over an excellent dinner we mused over our incredible two weeks in the van and agreed that they had totally exceeded all of our expectations.

MISSION Ambush Dolphin

* Saturday.  We awoke to a beeping mobile phone at 05:20 to remind us we had to call Dolphin Encounter to see if our tour was going ahead.  After blowing a couple of quid on Dad's mobile trying to connect, we went to a phone box around the corner in rain and wind.  We were 80% certain that it was going to be canceled; but the lady on the other end said "It's on.  Get down as soon as you can"!

So off we went in our bleary eyed manner, slightly nervous about what was about to happen.  As we arrived we were told that they were on a "motion sickness" warning of medium to high!  So we all popped some travel pills just in case.  Next, it was like a military operation; they were very slick.  First, collect flippers, then wet suit, then mask (if needed, I have a prescription one so I can see), then get changed, then briefing video.  About 30 dozy people went though this procedure.  After the video, it was onto the buses to get to the boats.  It felt like we were navy seals going off for a recon mission!  It was quite a bizarre sight and experience. 

So at South Bay we got on one of the boats and headed out onto the rough rainy sea.  As we got further out to sea our nerves were beginning to flow fast.  Then suddenly there were over 20 dolphins around us!  The guide shouted "Everyone get to the back of the boat!".  We all ran down sitting there ready like soldiers about to go over top.  The horn sounded.  We all leaped into the water!  (Below you can see Dad, with the float, and Ame at the back with the pink snorkel)

The waves were big and a little scary but as we gazed down into the sea abyss we saw dolphins swimming quickly underneath us and they were very close.  They seemed to come out of nowhere.  It was pretty special!  Then the horn sounded again.  We all clambered back on the boat with waves hitting us quite hard.  The boat buzzed off.  Around us were even more dolphins.  HORN SOUND!  Again, we dived back into the water.

This time even more activity.  We were told if you made noise through your snorkel and swam in circles it might interest the dolphins.  So everyone was making funny noises.  They seemed playful and responsive.  Ame had one circling with her at one point!  Then the HORN SOUND.  This routine happened 3 more times so 5 swims in total.

We had such fun and it was an amazing unique experience I have to admit me and Amy were both sick but I think that was inevitable.  Dad's Achilles heal was he was not that confident in the water so he had his yellow float!

Good on you Dad for going for it!  He enjoyed it loads and a lot more than he thought he would at 05:30! 

After the swims were over, we got changed on the boat.  I felt pretty rough at this point.  You can see I'm pale as a sheet!

We then located a full pod of about 100 dolphins.  We took some pretty cool pictures.  It was brilliant to be surrounded by them.

We also saw an albatross which was really cool!  They are massive!

As soon as we were back, we had a warm shower and me and Ame had a pretty nice sleep in the van.  The water was freezing and after the adrenalin of the event we were tired (Dad couldn't sleep so he went for a walk).

In the afternoon, we had a little walk on the sea front and took some nice moody scenery pictures.

Then for some reason our wonderful camera gave up the ghost.  It's little motor it has to power the focus just died.  We're looking into getting it on 1 year warranty as this isn't our fault this time!  But in the meantime Dad has kindly lent us his camera.  Hopefully we'll sort it out fairly quickly.

In the evening we did a mini-pub crawl of Kaikoura and had steak.  Needless to say it was an early night.  Crazy day.

Soggy Seals and a hot bath

* Friday

When we left Spring creek this morning we popped up to Picton , the entrance to the south island where Rob and I arrived by ferry almost two weeks ago.  As wee have a bit more time on our hands for our last few days we thought it would be nice to do a bit of a walk out from the harbour along Bob's track to get a look at Queen Charlotte Sound.

We also saw the ferry traveling past on its way to the North Island...

It was a comfortable hour long walk and we polished it off with a coffee aboard the echo, a .... sailing boat that is moored in the harbour.

As we passed back through Spring Creek on our way South we did a small detour back to Forrest winery to resample their sauvignon blanc and Eric bought a bottle for us to have with dinner back in Christchurch on Sunday night.

Our next stop was for lunch.  On our way through a few weeks before Rob and I had coffee at The Store, a gorgeous coast side restaurant and so we decided to have lunch there today.  I had seafood chowder, yum.

Finally, we couldn't resist stopping at the fur seal colony en route to climb on the rocks and watch them sloth about.

I even managed to catch this little dollop plopping into the water...



We eventually arrived in Kaikoura by 4pm and headed straight to the dolphin watching office to find out about the forecast for the next day as we have a trip booked tomorrow to go swimming with the dolphins.  We had heard that bad weather was on the way and so were preparing ourselves for a cancellation.  Sure enough a strong southerly wind is expected which will make big waves on the side of the peninsula that they take you out.  However no decisions will be made until 5.30am tomorrow morning and so we still have to set our alarm for then to get up, call in to check and rush over if it is going ahead.  If it is cancelled we'll go back to sleep, they will give us a refund and I'll have to be brave and get over the devastation (this is number one excitement for me).  But I am being very positive about it and not bratty, and we have planned a consolation plan of surfing if we can't go (an appropriate use of the swell we think).

After establishing this we had a little wander through town and bought a few souvenirs.   Kaikoura is a happy little waterside town and is quite set up for visitors with small gift shops, lovely looking cafes and inviting pubs.  We're going to sample the pubs and have dinner out tomorrow so this was our last evening meal together in the van.  Our camp is very very nice and even has a hot pool with we soaked in outside in the rain before a tasty fish supper and a traditional game of cards. An early night is essential tonight so we can get up at 5am for the moment of truth re our dolphin trip.

Sauvignon Sampling

* Thursday

All through the night it rained and rained and I lay and listened and hoped that by morning it would be all rained out. No such luck, it was still tipping it down when we awoke.  But we persevered with a swift get away and headed through the puddles along the north coast to Nelson.  We couldn't really complain about the rain though because we'd avoided rain in all of the soggy hotspots such as Milford Sound and Arthur's Pass.  It was still raining when we got there but we wanted to take a look at the town so we first stopped briefly at the docks.  Unfortunately though we were too early for  the cafes there so we then headed into town for a coffee and a few little jobs.

The rain did eventually start to ease as we completed the second drive from Nelson to Spring Creek (near Blenheim) and it stopped just as we pulled into our riverside campsite.  The site is very quiet and small and picturesque, and with the damp setting today we could almost be in England.  It was really good that the rain stopped for us to have one of our traditional scenic lunches.

The morning's journey had kept to time despite the weather which is lucky as we had a 1.30pm deadline.  As we are now in the Marlborough region we had booked ourselves onto an afternoon wine tour to sample the finest Marlborough sauvignon blancs they have to offer plus their other regional varietals.  I was very excited about this as Marlborough sauvignon blanc is my favourite.  It is 80% of what they produce here because of the perfect growing condition for this grape.  It was a really enjoyable afternoon.  There were seven on us on the tour; the others were from Sweden and Norway and they were lots of fun. 

We visited four vineyards with one clear favourite - the forrest vineyard which was started and owned by two doctors who love wine and like to experiment with trying different grapes and ensuring that they focus on producing quality not quantity.  At this tasting they took us out to the vines and taught us about the pruning and picking techniques.  We liked their Sauvignon Blanc best of the four and discovered that a very dry Marlborough reisling can sometimes be even better than their sauvignon blanc.

By the last of the wineries the group was decidedly more chatty and bottles of wine were bought.  We restrained however as we want to return to our favourite tomorrow to pick up a bottle from them.  Then the afternoon was suddenly over and we were back at our camp having a cuppa.  It was a perfect afternoon to bring to life a rather rainy start and to put us in a laid back mode for the next few days.

Paddling with Penguins

* Today we got to the beach for 08:30 and embarked on 1/2 day kayaking trip.  It was a touch drizzly in the morning but this really isn't a problem when you are going for a paddle... As we were the only 3 doing it, we felt like it was our very own private trip.  They were 2 person kayak with a rudder and controls pedals for the person at the back.  Dad shared with the guide and me and Ame had our own.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I bloody love kayaking.  And the introduction of the pedals and rudder knocked it up a knotch.  It's brilliant.  You just paddle in any direction, out of time and steer with the pedals.  So easy and you can pick up such a speed!

The trip was to explore the coast line and in particular the Sliced Apple Rock.  Apparently it is the 3rd most photographed sight in NZ.  After this sort of press, I was a little surprised about how small it was.  But cool all the same.

We pulled up on the remote beach and had a juice and some cookies.

We then had a little explore in the caves.  It was all very enchanting.

We were very keen to keep paddling and the guide loved that so we went off on more of an explore.  As we were gliding through the open water, I saw a little series of bubbles coming  from the water and up popped a blue penguin!  The funny thing is they sit on the surface of the water like little ducks.  So funny.  We saw a few more as we went.  We were very lucky.

On we went on a search for the solitary seal who had been spotted on the rocks recently and to our amazement we found him.  Ame cutely named him Samy the seal after Shap's new baby son Samyar (arhhh).

We wove our way through the rocks on the coast line and even went through a natural rock arch.  Fun fun fun.

We returned to the beach fulfilled and extremely happy with our trip.  This afternoon has been pretty rainy so me and Ame sat in a nice bar and caught up on a few jobs (this pic of Amy below is online while she is still in the very same position; isn't technology great).  It's been lovely chilling out.  Tomorrow we're off on a wine tour of the Marlborough region (which is Ame's favourite wine region of the world!)