Sue n Gav's world tour

Last Leg of my trip!

2007-07-30T13:01:00.000+07:00

I am having such a great time in the States, which I'm so surprised about as everyone seemed to say I would want to leave LA as soon as I can, but actually I really like it!
Its been non stop since arriving here, I have a big checklist of things to do and feel like I really need another holiday after all this madness!

So I arrived in LA to see my friend Emma who I met in the Cook Islands, we planned my last 10 days or so together to fit in what we could!
Emma arrived a couple of days before me and made a friend Claire who wanted to join us on our trip to San Diego.
I opened the door to Claire and you are not going to believe this, but I knew her from when I was in 1770 in Oz!!!
It was great and we couldnt get over the coincendence, it was so funny as it was months ago when we were both there! I knew from there on in we would have a blast!

The first afternoon was spent in Hollywood, walking down the wall of fame and I actually got down onto the pavement and kissed Tom Cruises star! The girls thought it was hilarious!
Then onto Kodak theatre and finally the Chinese Mann Theatre, we watched Harry Potter in the theatre in the evening, I wondered which famous celeb would have last sat in my chair!

Next day was full on at Universal Studios, there was a group of us from the hostel who all stuck together and it was a good day, but very tiring! In the evening we visted a nice area called
The Grove for drinks and a meal.

Then we headed to San Diego the next day! We hired a car and Emma and I agreed to share the driving, it was really scary at first, I have never driven an automatic never mind the wrong side of the road, but soon got the hang of it!
We spent the day at Sea World, main attraction being Shamu the Killer Whale, aswell as the usual suspects, dolphins, seals etc
Stayed in the Downtown area and it was a buzzing atmosphere at night, wished we had another night there as it seemed a lively city!

Next day it was an early start again, we crossed the border of Mexico, just because we could, unfortunately they dont stamp your passport but it was good fun to do!
It wasnt the real feel of Mexico, mainly souvenir shops and cheap pharmacies for the drugs!
Lots of men were leering at us and shouting at us, bit unnerving and we named ourselves the Three Amigos and we were glad we were together and safe!!!

Emma & I then headed to the bright lights of Vegas!! (Claire went back to LA)
It was a long drive throught desert like terrain, but felt so good to be free and independant rather than on a long bus journey.

We stayed at a posh hotel on the Strip, The Monte Carlo!!! Its unbelievable really as they sell the rooms half price mid week, so it cost us 20 quid a night, we were like big kids when we saw the hotel, valet parking and finally the room.....2 queen size beds and marble bathroom and free shampoo etc!! It felt so luxurious after a year of backpacking!

We had 3 nights in Vegas and saw most of the main hotels, I love this place too! It seemed so tacky at first but its such a fun place to be!
Highlights were a Gondola Ride in the Venetian Hotel, Rollercoaster on the outside of the New York Hotel, Bellagio Fountains, and a nice meal at the Paris Las Vegas.
We also did a small amount of gambling...just cos you have to!
We won 90$ on the Roulette table, lucky 10 on the red....so took the money and ran to the cocktail bar to spend it!!! ha ha!

The last day was a flight over the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam & Mead River and then last minute running around the Strip to see what we had missed!

Back to LA the next day and we stopped off at Rodeo Drive, we had a nice lunch outside and was looking for celebs, as we started to window shop, we noticed there was a bodyguard outside Chanel and a couple of mean looking jeeps with blacked out windows were parked....we soon realised someone must be inside, so we hung around away from the crowd and sat waiting!.............Arnold Schwarzenegger strolled outside and nodded in our direction, we were both completely stunned and then realised neither of us had took a photo! doh!
So we got to the side of the car and was totally uncool and started snapping photos of him behind the glass!
He didnt quite look like the terminator, he seemed older with bad ginger colour hair!! We were completely star struck though!

We then carried on shopping and then collected the car....another valet parking lot!!! Oh I could so get used to this luxury lifestyle!!!

Next stop is San Francisco for 3 days.......................Alcatraz here I come!!

Aitutaki - Paradise Island

2007-07-21T11:18:00.000+07:00

I have just returned from a few nights away at Aitutaki within the Cook Islands.

It was just less than an hour flight away from Rarotonga and it was nice to break up the 2 weeks in Raro for a change of scenery.

Aitutaki has become famous due to the TV series Shipwrecked & Survivor and in fact they are back filming here next month.

I took a lagoon cruise around the mini islands, aaah you should have seen the colours of the lagoon, so many different blues, greens, aquamarines...hard to describe and hope the photos do it justice. Stopped off at Honeymoon Beach and One Foot Island where you can have your passport stamped from the smallest post office in the world!

Did two lots of snorkelling during the day too, the water was so clear and the colours of the fish was amazing, I fed them bread and I was suddenly surrounded by them all!

Other than that, I just relaxed and sunbathed, crept into a posh resort on the island and used their facilities for the day! So cheeky these days and I dont care!

Now off to LA tonight, met Emma here in the Cook Islands so we are planning a road trip for the rest of my days left! Yeeha!! Hopefully we will spot some stars!! Keep you posted

Rarotonga - Cook Islands

2007-07-12T09:48:00.000+07:00

Inlet where I spend most of my days!
Main Beach
Palm Trees...love em!

Sunrise at Muri Beach, right outside my bedroom! Had to get up at 630am but think it was worth it!
Sunrise again, trying to be arty with the palm trees!
Inlet island that you can wade through from the main beach....a real suntrap!

Simone & Cesca....we love playing Uno!!!!!
The gang! Most nights we played Cards and drank Vodka! Thats the life!

A wedding had taken place a few days earlier, so decide to pose under it!

Another paradise place, Raro is such a small island, 33 km around, so you can drive around it in about 40 minutes or jog around it in 2.5 hours!

I met up with 2 girls, Francesca & Simone from Fiji here, so spent the week with them before they flew to LA& then home, we are staying at a place right on the beach and its soooo relaxing!

There isnt much to do around the island, so its just sunbathing, snorkelling and more sunbathing! Finding it a little boring if thats not too bad to say! Its gorgeous but think Im used to seeing and doing things now after all this time, its good to chill and relax but now keen to move on, although there is a big clock ticking away and I'm keen to enjoy every last minute of my trip!

I have booked a few nights away on a nearby island for a change of scenery! Its supposed to be even nicer than here and its where Shipwrecked was filmed...so watch this space!!

Fiji .....Island Hopping....Bula!

2007-07-12T08:57:00.000+07:00

At the school, how cute are these kids, they just loved having their photo taken!
My first couple of nights stay in Fiji, look at the colour of the water! Bliss!
Smallest Island I saw, South Sea Island!

Bounty Island : This is where Celebrity Love Island was filmed and Im actually stood on the jetty where Patrick & Kelly sat!!
Bounty Island! Paradise!

Bounty Island again! This was my last 2 nights in Fiji, the best island I stayed at!

Celebrity Love Island House, do you recognise it? The pool was just outside on the veranda overlooking the ocean, I remembered it soooo well!

Its such a relief to get back in the sun again after being freezing in New Zealand! Seems really weird being in a bikini again and not wearing a coat, scarf, gloves and boots! What a contrast!
I stepped off the plane and the heat hit me and I realised that I much prefer sun to snow!

I landed in Nadi and spent the night there and then I booked a weeks trip around the islands as the mainland isnt anything special, it felt quite dirty, polluted and very poor.

I went into the local shopping mall, which in fact was smaller than a corner shop at home and the woman was standing behing bars and mesh and I actually couldnt see what stock she had! Scary!

So I booked a trip called "Lazy Threesome" which suited me fine, it was 3 islands over 6 days, not too much planned, so it was more of a chill and relax session. Whilst queuing for the ferry on the first day, I bumped into the Irish girls who I met in NZ and managed to have a good catch up until they had to jump off to their island. Such a small world indeed!

First stop was an island called Nanuya Lailai at the top of the Yassawa Islands, about 4 hours from the mainland. The ferry anchored and then little speedboats/banana boats came from all the various resorts to pick us up and take you to shore. Very well organised.

Stayed at a place called Sunrise which was the most basic accomodation I stayed in whilst being in Fiji. They had outdoor cold showers, electricity was turned off at midnight until the morning and the food was rice, rice and more rice! The best thing about the place was the location, right on the beach, hammocks to chill so that made up for it

The owner was a gay as you like, even called himself Queen and carried a handbag around! Funny! He always ended up singing in the evening and generally entertaining us.

I met a great crowd here and most of us managed to stay together throughout the week, it all depended on the package you had selected as to which island you went next.
So I met 3 Bristol Girls who were great fun, Sylvie, Ashlynn & Jenny, also Kat from London and we played lots of card games, drinking games & Spoons which we will play on my return!

The first evening we all had to take turns in standing up in front of everyone..about 50 people and introduce yourself, say what your best /worst experience has been whilst travelling. I hate doing these sort of things, but so did most people so grinned and beared it!
Then we were given the traditional drink Cava which basically tasted like Muddy Water! it was so disgusting!

Next day I visited a school on a nearby island, it is one of the most enjoyable memories I have in Fiji.
The kids were so friendly and very well behaved. On arrival we met the teacher who sent the children out of the room to collect coconuts so he could have a chat with us.
He explained its a boarding school as many islands don't have schools, so generally the children arrive on boats on Monday and go back home to see their parents at the weekends.
The school had children from the age of 5 to 11, imagine being away from your parents as such a young age.
They had no electricity in the school, water was tight too, school is the first place to close when there is a drought in the area.
I asked the teacher about the childrens behaviour, he asked them to do something once and they did it! What a difference to our kids today, he shrugged his shoulders and said its just their culture! What we could learn from this eh!
The four of us then sat in the classroom and the children sang to us, "You are my Sunshine!" & a fijian song, they loved it, afterwards we were free to walk around the different classrooms, all the kids were the same, they all wanted to talk to you and have a photo taken.
Later we were invited into the headmasters home, we sat on the floor with a tablecloth to eat from, served us tea and peanut butter crackers!
It was a truly amazing day and one I will always remember

Next day I walked over to the other side of the island and did some snorkelling, the beaches over this side were even nicer. Had a lazy day with my friends and then in the afternoon we were back on the ferry to our next destination...Naviti Island

On arrival Naviti was a lot nicer accomodation from the last two nights, there was 4 of us stopping here for 2 nights, so as we got off the boat we were greeted by all the staff, playing guitar and singing to us. Then they shouted Bula to us....soon learnt this word! Means "Hello or Welcome"

Again it was right on the beach and they also had a really nice swimming pool too! So again we were lazy and started sunbathing again!
In the evening, they showed us the Bula dance, they were all dressed up in grass skirts and we all had to get up and dance...bit like the Macrena Dance and then we did a Conga all around the restaurant! Later we sat on the beach with a bonfire whilst the staff played the guitar and sang! Great night!

Next day we visited "Honeymoon Beach", it was a private beach and had to pay a dollar to visit it, nice beach but nothing too special! Did some crab racing there and some more relaxing!

After Naviti was Bounty Island, this is where Celebrity Love Island was filmed! It was a gorgeous place, just one resort on there and I walked around the whole island in 20 minutes!
Again a swimming pool overlooking the ocean and a lovely beach right outside our door!

Celebrity Love Island house was still there and the jetty where Patrick Kielty & Kelly Brook stood!
The house had been spoilt, lots of graffiti on the walls from Brits mainly and all quite recent, the earliest I spotted was Feb 07.

Spent 2 days on the island and then back to the mainland for my flight to the Cook Islands.

Remember Fiji Time! Thats all they say when things are running late, time doesnt matter to them!

Will add some photos when I can, the technology is not the best here!

Back in the North Island of NZ

2007-06-27T09:13:00.000+07:00

So after leaving Christchurch, I headed a little further north to Kaikoura, the main reason for visiting this little place is to either go on a trip for Whale Watching or swim with the dolphins. i really wanted to do the whale watching and get the photo of the big tail out of the water. Unfortunately all trips were cancelled due to high winds and it just wasnt safe to go out into the ocean....bummer! So I literally walked around this small place and went onto the internet....nothing else to do!

Next day was a trans coastal ride on the train to Picton, this was a lovely scenic ride and we spotted seals sunning themselves on the rocks!

Then onto a ferry for 3 hours to get to Wellington, the capital city! We travelled through Marlborough Sounds and you can actually see both the North & South Island at one point..cool!

Onto Wellington and Im afraid I didnt do anything cultural, just hit the pubs as I arrived about 6pm and was leaving early the next day. Its a windy city thats all I can tell ya!

After the capital it was Napier where I spent the night in Jail! No honestly, it was a jail right up to the 1990's and now its a backpackers! Really quite eerie and people reckon they have seen ghosts as recent as this year! Saw the hanging yard, mess house and slept on an original bed like an inmate!

Then next morning we drove through Lake Taupo which was beautiful, its the biggest lake in NZ and then had the afternoon in Roturua, met up with Simon & Laura (pommes) who I got to know on Fraser Island so that was cool!

Last stop was Mount Manguini, a really pretty place where a lot of Kiwis come for their summer holidays, we arrived just before sunset so again didnt see much of it!

Now back for a few days with Tracey and its soo good to see her, she has moved house since I was last here as she is staying here for good...dont blame her at all!
The weather is cold and rainy but it feels nice to be back! Went into my old work place and it was great to see everyone again, they were upset I couldnt work for a while, but nah too much like hard work! ha ha!

Last night went to the Minus 5 Ice bar with my friend Kendyl (old work colleague from the cafe). They give you these big daft coats to wear and 2 pairs of gloves! Everything is literally ice, the bar, the glasses you drink out of and there was ice sculptures everywhere
We had a Jagermeister shot down this ice sculpture of a stiletto! Funny photo eh!

So again I set off alone...boo hoo...off to sunnier climates of Fiji and then the cook islands, will report as soon as I can..................Home in six weeks........................

After Queenstown! Whats this white stuff!

2007-06-23T06:23:00.000+07:00

Lake Tekapo

We couldn't eat with the chopsticks so what else could we do!!

Rosie & Deirdre on stage....what a riot!

Well after all that mad activity in Queenstown, I have now continued around the south island on a very sedate journey!
I left the boys in Queenstown for them to do snow boarding etc and I headed for Dunedin, which is the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh! Its the second largest city and it attracts students as they a diverse range of courses that some of the other universities dont offer.
Its also relatively cheap to live here too!
One of the most famous things Dunedin is known for is their Cadburys Chocolate Factory!!! Since I have never been to the one at home, I decided to do a tour as I was told about the free samples!
It was an interesting tour but more importantly I got lots of goodies to last me through the day!
After this I walked around Dunedin and discovered there isnt much to do, so in the evening headed for the cinema to watch Shrek 3 on my own....how sad eh!!

Next day I left Dunedin and headed for Lake Tekapo, en route it started to snow heavily and we were negotiating mountain passes and the driver started to get worried we wouldnt make it to our destination......anyhow we stopped for an hour or so to see how it would develop and we got the go ahead to continue.
On arrival at Lake Tekapo it was like a Christmas Card scene, so beautiful but cold!! So we didnt move away from the open fire, we had a few bottles of wine and played Scrabble.
I have met 3 irish girls called Rosie, Deidre and Ashley who are so much fun and we had a giggle that night!
Next day we had an icy welcome, but no more snow which we were thankful of, as a lot of us on the bus were restricted on our time schedules and couldnt afford to spend another night in a place that wasnt planned.
We heard from the bus driver that nobody is leaving Queenstown or Franz Joseph due to the weather conditions and the next bus to Lake Tekapo could be a couple of days, so we just escaped in time.....so lucky indeed!
We travelled to Christchurch and arrived in the sun early afternoon which was a nice contrast, the girls and I went out for a Chinese at night and ended up in an Irish Bar, which ended up with Rosie & Deirdre on stage!!!
I got chatted up by a guy from Ashton Under Lyne!!! cant go anywhere without finding a northerner!! He was apparently a professional golfer and he was old enough to be my dad!! The girls were sniggering at a nearby table and so I managed to make my excuses and run for the hills! haha!

Crazy Queenstown!! Love it!

2007-06-20T10:56:00.000+07:00

Well I am officially insane........I have just done the most scariest thing ever in my life!!

Yes I did the AJ Hackett Nevis Bungy Jump which is the 3rd largest in the world..crazy!!!!!!

It was 134 metres down a canyon and I was doing a freefall on some silly elastic for 8 seconds!

Oh my god, you should have seen me, I dont think I have been so scared!! I was fully pumped with adrenalin after the event and glad to be alive too!!

I had to buy the DVD as proof so I will look forward to showing you all when Im back home!

Di Thornicroft mentioned how I have changed doing all these activities and how I wouldnt jump over a wall before this trip...so true....just call me GI Jane from now on...ok!

This is what Queenstown is all about....its all extreme sports here and you have to do these things or you havent experienced it at all!

Really love this place, reminds me of a ski resort, its got a good vibe and the scenery is amazing!

In the evening we all went out to celebrate our survival and found a bar that sold cocktails in english teapots!!! Good night out indeed!

Next day I went on the Shotover Jet which is a fast boat that spins 360 degrees at a high speed, it speeds alongside canyons and you get sooo close to the cliff face...so much fun!

Later in the afternoon, decided to take ot a bit easier and took the gondola up the mountains to see Queenstown from above.........love it even more!!

I would have liked to have a go at snowboarding too, but there is 2 problems with that..........first being that my foot is still a bit sore so probably not the best idea and two is that there isnt any snow!! They have a mountain with artificial snow and they have forecast some real stuff over the next few days. The weather has been so sunny but cold....again they say its unusual for this time of year....I just keep bringing the sun with me where ever I go!

Franz Josef Glaciers & Quad Biking!

2007-06-17T14:36:00.000+07:00

Helicopter over the glacier

Me on a Quad Bike with Franz Josef Glaciers behind me!
Helmet lopsided but still in control...not!!

Oh thats a big one!
Wow....see what I mean...what a view!

Peters Pools......can you see the mirrored effect...check my lippy whilst Im here! Bottom of the glacier

Had to crawl through this ice cave!
Am I strong or what??? Holding up all of this!
Another nice view.......love the texture of the snow!

I am a Gold Panner! Could do with some right now!
"I'm a lady"says Henrik & Dave!!

On the way over from Greymouth to Franz Josef we stopped at this town called Ross, where
we had a Gold Panning Demonstration and then the chance to get rich ourselves! Bizarre place really, as you can see we just got silly and took some daft photos instead!

Then on arrival in Franz Josef I did a Heli Hike in the afternoon, the weather was spectacular as apparently they dont see the tops of the mountains very often and we could today, so no time like the present to do it!
So first of all I had to get kitted out with a waterproof coat, trousers tucked into woolly socks, hat, gloves, walking boots and best of all crampons!!! I felt like a professional with all this gear on!

So first part was a 10 minute helicopter flight to the Franz Josef icefall which was ideal as they drop you high up on the glacier which you wouldnt reach even if you hiked for a day, so it was well worth it! It was an spectucular view point from the air too!

Then it was a 2 hour hike amongst glacial ice formations where I saw so much blue ice due to its density, climbed into caves, walked in crevices and hiked up hills of ice and snow, the texture of the snow was peaked too and it looked tremendous

The guide had to carve steps in the ice using his pick on certain parts of the walk to make it as safe as possible, having said that I did have a few slips and slides but thats all part of the fun!

The crampons did a great job but not totally fail safe as you all know me for keeping on my feet!

Then we got back to the starting point for the helicopter to collect us and get us back safely to terra firma......wow what an experience!

It was funny to realise too that some people havent seen snow before, there was a couple of Ozzies from Brisbane who were seeing snow for the very first time, it was comical watching them feel it, taste it and then realising the best thing to do is to have a snowball fight! ha ha!

Next day I did a walk around the bottom of the Glacier to gain a different perspective and onto Peters Pools with the mirrored lake, beautiful!

In the afternoon I enlisted for Quad Biking, it was a unique setting as its where ice and forest meet in such a spectacular way.

There was only the instructor and I, as its low season so that was quite cool, we drove through so many different terrains and it was exhilating and scary at times!

Went though a track, then onto a rocky area which the bike handled so well, at first I was trying to avoid the big rocks until I realised that you were meant to drive over them, thats part of the fun! Then onto the mud, splashed everywhere, then more puddles and dirt!, then onto river crossings, which both us of got stuck as he didnt realise how deep it had gone and how many rocks were in it...aargh! Then ended in a twisty trail through a rainforest! Soooo much fun!

Next stop is Queenstown for the adrenalin rush of all my adventure activities!! Cant wait!

New Zealand Again!! South Island this time!

2007-06-17T14:24:00.000+07:00

In the Dog House!! Megan, Me & Henrik.....all wearing silly hats!

Small Blue penguins.....how cute!

This was a storm room to demonstrate how cold it gets in Antartica.....bbbrrrrrr!!
I hid in the cave for some protection from the wind chill!

After my Hagglund Ride...this can ride in all terrains and what recent explorers use in the Antartic environment. So I was taken out on an exhilarating ride over mounds, up and over a steep hill, across a crevasse, speeding across open ground, and through pools of water! Great fun!

Christchurch...Cathedral Square...its very english look alike with nice arcitecture everywhere

Water Fountain that I liked!

Tram ride around the city to get my bearings on arrival, its a hop on and off tram but I just sat on it the whole way around to see the sights!

So I have left Oz and now in Kiwi Land again, I am really sad to leave everyone in OZ and had real mixed feelings about coming here and having to start travelling alone again etc

but I know I love this place too and will soon meet some new friends, I hope!

As I flew over Christchurch I could see the Alps covered in snow and it was really exciting after being in the sun for so long, it was quite a contrast.

On arrival as you can see I did the tourist bit and hopped on a tram and a general look around the place. I booked myself a single room for the night as I wanted a good sleep and couldnt face a dorm room at the time...it was heaven but it was freezing even with an electric blanket...feels so weird to get out of bed and shiver...not done that for a long time!

Next day was an action packed day, I visited the International Antartic Centre as you can see, it was an interesting few hours learning all about the research/work/people in the North & South Pole and also appreciating what conditions they have to cope with!

Whilst there I got chatting to Rob from Cambridge so we decided to go "Punting on the Avon". There was actually nobody else doing this which should have given us a clue not to bother! But I was keen to do it and Rob has actually done the punting before himself living in Cambridge. Anyway it was so disappointing, no real views to look at all...Rob has said I must do it when I get back home and then I will know the difference!

Then we headed to some Art Galleries for a bit of culture...well actually to get warm again! Some of the pieces were beyond me...looked like something a 2 year old could have done!

Next day I started my trip alone around the South Island on the Magic Bus Tour heading towards Greymouth, so I travelled trans pennine from the east to the west coast and saw some amazing scenery and I now know what people mean about the South Island being so beautiful!

I met 2 guys on the bus Dave from Dorset & Henrik from Sweden who are so funny and we plan to stick together as the 3 musketeers for a week or so.

Arrived at Greymouth and there really isnt anything to do at all, so we just chilled at the hostel and watched a couple of movies ready to move on the next day. The hostel was called Noahs Ark and all the rooms were animal themed......guess what I really wanted......the Monkey room , but unfortunately we couldnt use it and ended up in the Dog House! No literally we had the puppy room!

Great Ocean Road

2007-06-17T14:01:00.000+07:00

Isla, Kylie & Me just after our helicopter flight over the Apostles!

My favourite catalogue pose...the Great Ocean Road Sign!
Not sure what I was thinking!!

My group for the 2 day trip...Good bunch!
Koala sign where we saw them in the wild...not seen a sign like this before!

The fabulous 12 Apostles or is that 13?

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im falling......please rescue me!

The London Bridge in 2 pieces now!

12 Apostles view from the air!

In the Grotto!

This was a two day trip to travel from Melbourne heading towards Adelaide. This tour company was unique in the fact that he does the trip the opposite way to everyone else so we avoided lots of tourists which was great!

I met some great people on the trip, especially Kirsty & Isla, we had such a laugh! So will definately keep in touch girls and I will have to plan a trip to Cork on my return!

The first day we saw Koalas, Kangaroos and Emus in the wild which was pretty cool after seeing all of these animals in zoos it was a rare sighting!

Then driving down the Shipwreck Coast we saw lots of different bays/beaches where the coastline erodes to create different rock formations.

There was also some funny stories, for example The London Bridge (photo 8) collapsed in 1990 breaking into 2 pieces and it left a couple stranded on the rock face for 8 hours as it was too windy for a helicopter to rescue them. Anyway after being stuck there for so long, all the journalists turned up together with local people and when the couple finally got to land they wouldnt show their faces to the camera...it turned out they were both married and having an affair....doh...so they got caught on national TV! Serves them right is what I say!

Then onto to the 12 Apostles (photo 6 & 9). This used to be called the Sow & the Pigs but then powers that be changed the name, when they realised it became a real tourist attraction. The odd thing is that there isnt actually 12 rocks...depending on what you count its anywhere between 8 to 13 rocks..funny as eh!!

We watched the sunset over the Apostles and it was absolutely Brass Monkeys out there, so we equipped ourselves with lots of layers and a good bottle of red wine!! Once sunset appeared we watched the Penguin Parade coming out of the ocean to a safe spot for the night away from their predators. They were really small blue penguins and sooooo cute to watch!

Next day we returned to the Apostles and thankfully the weather was a lot nicer, so a few of us decided to have a flight in the helicopter to get the best view of the Apostles and the other landmarks of the Great Ocean Road. It was such good value for money and really glad I did it!
We went to a few secluded beaches and coves and explored some caves later on and then onto Bells Beach (annual surf contest is held here and also Point Break was filmed here too!)

Then finishing off at town called Torquay where Billabong & Ripcurl first started, we shopped at a few retail outlets...rude not to get a bargain eh!

Melbourne City

2007-06-17T13:39:00.000+07:00

Melbourne really was a whistle stop tour of 4 days.....really needed longer but time was running out for me, so after the Neighbours tour & The Great Ocean Road Trip that left me one full day to see the sights of Melbourne City!

Lee & Kathryn Topping very kindly let me stay at their place which is gorgeous and very central, unfortunately Kathryn was in the UK but it was good to see Lee again and he looked after me very well as a landlord and tourist guide!

So armed with a list of things to do from Mark before I left Oz, Lee & I headed out on a mission and ticked the boxes after we had done the list!

Photo 1 & 5 was the famous Graffiti Alley which is constantly changing and as you can see its real art work

Photo 2 & 4 are in the grounds of the Shrine of Rememberance

Photo 3 were some girlies I met on the Great Ocean Road Trip and these guys were just stood in the street so we took advantage whilst trying not to laugh! As you can see not very successfully!

Photo 6 is Lee by Port Melbourne...this is just a few mins walk from their apartment...cool eh!
Photo 7 & 8 Well its me on a giant purse...which I had one of those right now with money inside! and the other one was a Wombat which I decided to jump on whilst throwing a small child off! No other words needed!

I do work....sometimes

2007-06-16T14:47:00.000+07:00

The kids at the orphanage

Me, Greg and students at the orphanage
Me, Anna and some randoms who just walked into the shop
Me at the shop....drilling and screwing
' Come on Yang, if it's so funny then tell all the class'

OK students , to day we are going to study Mancunian....after me..'aaalllllrightttt cock, ow are yer'

The shop in Shanghai gets it sign
Me and my students after class yesterday, the guy on the right is giving his score out of ten for my teaching abilities. Notice the board behind me, I wound them up about Paris Hilton being a nuclear phyisist....ok you had to be there.

Anna and Adriana in a raremoment of actually grafting and not talking nonsense!

OK, I got an email this week from someone back home who said 'it looks like you're having a great time over there Munro, but do you actually do any work to justify your sorry existence....' well I kinda do and here are the photos to prove it.

I've got a few jobs. I'm teaching 3 days a week for an electrical supply company here in Hangzhou, they buy and sell electricity to China and the west. My job is to get them all speaking perfect English so they can go to the States and understand stuff. I think I mentioned before that I didn't really wanna teach over here at first but this opportunity came along and the dosh was too good to pass on. So I work there Weds,Thurs and Friday. A two hour class a day and it's brill. The students are brilliant, smiley and all keen to learn. I'm supposed to be teaching them American English (which I think is retarded) but every now and again I give them good old northern terms, which keeps me entertained no end. I told them that people who acted foolish are known as 'balloons' and also the idiom that if someone is not cool they are 'a plum'. OK, that idiom word I only learnt yesterday so I'm trying to crowbar it into everything at the moment.....sorry. No it's a good laugh and I'm trying to make it as much fun as possible and so far their English is improving....but as ever my Chinese isn't.

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I was invited to an orphanage here. So I asked a mate of mine, Greg, from America to come along. It was great , well as great as visiting an orphanage can be (reminds me of what my sister said last time I spoke to her, she'd just come back from New York and I asked her if she went to ground zero...to which she replied with much excitement 'Yes, it was BRILLIANT') Anyway we went to the orphanage and took some supplies and played with the kiddos, that was a humbling experience.

So I teach. Then I gig. The band is fastly becoming the best in the city which I LOVE! OK the only competition may be a chinese spoon player but it feels good. We played last night and the place went crazy. I'm doing a myspace profile at the mo, it's not finished but theres some good photos on it...if you get bored enough, click www.myspace.com/theholymoliesband . Last night we got interviewed by the MEN of Hangzhou for an article, I didn't have time so I'm meeting a reporter today...I am thinking of making up some stuff, like I am the lovechild of Keith Harris and Jade Goody...believe me they wouldn't question it.

So gig on Friday nights, I usually go to Shanghai on Saturdays where I'm helping some mates set up their clothing business. They are working really hard at the moment, many days 12 hours, so I reckon it's gonna be a success. Anna, Adriana and Pilar. Three amazingly determined and talented designers it's great to be around them. So that keeps me busy from Saturday to Wednesday.

Then Wednesday I get the 2 hour train journey back from Shanghai, teach and then I play my solo gig at night, which is my favourite. At the gig at Paradise I gotta try and behave myself, one cos the band are brilliant musicians and two the bar is a bit classy. Wednesday nights at Maya bar are the opposite. The bar is dark and homely (I won't say dingey or dodgy in case the boss reads this), and usually all hell breaks loose.Every week something unexpected happens, whether it's a cockatoo being placed on my mic stand halfway through a song or the odd naked person running around....it's always entertaining.

OK folks gotta go, keep in touch

Love y'all (you hear?)

Neighbours Tour! Melbourne

2007-06-15T09:33:00.001+07:00

Guess where I am?? Ramsay Street......cool as!

I met Susan Kennedy which was part of the tour, she signed me a postcard with her autograph on it and had a chat with me about my travels and I asked her about her recent filming in London and then later Harold Bishop turned up randomly for a quick photo shoot on the street...what a bonus! He was really nice too, very smiley and friendly!

Can you believe it started 22 years ago and Scott & Charlenes wedding was 20 years ago! Scary eh!

Blue Mountains

2007-06-15T09:32:00.001+07:00

This was my last day in Sydney so Di & I booked a trip to the Blue Mountains

By the way we did buy matching hats and scarves thinking we would be in different countries wearing them...how wrong we were but we didnt care!!

It was a few hours drive from the city and so we stopped off at a few places on the way.
First stop being a wildlife place where I saw koalas and kangaroos...AGAIN!! Think its time to leave OZ and have some new experiences!
Next stop was at a Reserve where we had Boomerang lessons...that was so much fun not that it returned to you when we threw it....it seems its quite a skill!
Lunch was at a golf club dont you know, arent we posh!
Then onto the Blue Mountains and yeah they are really blue! We caught a cable car that took us deep into the mountains and had a fabulous view of the 3 sisters, which is three rocks on the cliff face............................The Legend is it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbid them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

Then had a walk in a rainforest with a talk about the trees and vegetation...dont ask me to repeat it though! and then onto the scenic railway which was a really steep incline going back up the cliff face at a rate of knots!
Then we caught a ferry back into the city and saw the Sydney skyline all lit up!

Sydney!!

2007-06-09T06:04:00.001+07:00

Darling Harbour...the place to be!
Free Jazz Festival in Darling harbour...she has just won Dancing with the Stars and she was great...bought her cd in fact!

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb..woo woo!

Well I just love Sydney!

It gave my goosebumps when I saw the Harbour Bridge & Opera House!

Mark and I arrived after a 12 hour bus journey in not the best of moods as you can imagine but determined to see the sights and make every minute count!

This is Marks last few days of freedom before he starts work and living in Sydney and Di has flown down from Noosa to meet up with us, so it was very sad to say goodbye to them both after all of this time.

I spent 5 days in Sydney and stayed with some friends of Di's in Bondi Junction which was great! On arrival on the first day we did a river cruise which cruised along looking up onto the Bridge and arriving in Circular Quay next to the Opera House, lots of photos taken then of course, but unfortunately camera problems so needed to reinact this on my last day!

We looked around the Rocks, the oldest part of the town and also visited Darling Harbour, a place to be seen around the harbour with lots of bars & restaurants and nice water features etc

Next day was a coastal walk from Bondi to Cougee, although Di & I got so hot walking around and knew we had to do some vital retail therapy such as Ug Boots and a warm coat!

Saturday was my Harbour Bridge Climb...takes about 3 hours and it was amazing...really enjoyed the experience and not as scary as I thought! I was lucky had a good clear day and could see for miles. I was worried I might not be able to do this after a big night out the night before as they do breathalise you before you can do the climb....so after several coffees I seemed to have passed....phew!

Visited the Botanical Gardens in the afternoon and got a little train around as we basically were too hungover to do anything else! All we could do was drink through it so we had a night out in Bondi...good night although a total meat market and reminded me of Oldham a lot!

Next day involved drinking again...there does seem to be a pattern emerging in Sydney! We caught the ferry over to Manley Wharf as they were having a Wine Festival there for the weekend, so it would be rude not to do! We sat on the beach and tasted different wines, they gave you a wine glass with a cord designed to go around your neck so you couldnt lose it...great idea and will bring it home!

After Melbourne I had one day in Sydney before flying to New Zealand so Mark and I went to this Jazz Festival at night...quality!! Spent the day with his flat mate Chua who is really nice and he had a car!......so did a quick whirlwhind tour around the outskirts of the city so I could see what I had missed last time and a quick dash to the bridge for more photos that had been lost previously!!

Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast

2007-05-28T12:46:00.000+07:00

Well I have a lot to tell ya guys......I have been very slack with all this racing down the East Coast over the last couple of weeks.
So after Hervey Bay & Fraser Island, Mark & I continued our intrepid journey down the coast. It has been such a rush seeing places and it truly has been a whistlestop tour! Next stop was Noosa and we spent 4 days there with Di, she was like a true local showing us around her hometown!
It was great fun, we had a car to cruise around in and I truly loved Noosa, it is a posh and expensive place for a backpacker but would be cool to live there......Di is aiming for an Aussie Passport I reckon!
We spent a couple of days on the beach, Mark had a surf lesson and I was the official photographer aswell as a professional sunbather!
We stayed at YHA Halse Lodge which was a great hostel, it was a lively place with great views and they even had a table tennis table!!
The highlight for me was visiting Australia Zoo...Steve Irwins place....Crikey!! Sorry I had to say it!!
It was a good day out for Mark & I, although I have to say I was a little disappointed there were no monkeys!!! So another opportunity to have my photo taken with a Koala and to feed the kangaroos......love it!!

We spent the day in Brissy and did the tourist thing and jumped onto a hop on and hop off city tour bus which showed you the sights!! It was hilarious really as we took photos of random buildings and we were not impressed at all! We kept saying we would jump on and off when we find something interesting to see....we didnt and stayed on the bus for the entire route!

It would be a nice place to live and work I guess, but after all the lovely beach resorts to come to this boring city it was a let down!

Then next day we headed down the highway onto Surfer’s Paradise which doesn’t live up to its name.......I only saw one surfer hit the beach!!

Its a party town with a really nice long beach, lots of shops and thats about it!

The further south we head, the colder it’s getting. I have become quite a wimp and if the temperature starts to hit single digits I'm moaning!! We are still determined to get every last bit of sun though, we sat on the beach today and almost froze with the cold chill!! Mad eh!

So we got warm and headed inside to the Q1 Building as it is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. There they had a lookout floor that gives you a breath-taking view of the city and apparently they are intending on building a second one.

Next stop was Byron Bay and although everyone had said I would love it....I wasnt feeling it!
We arrived and had a look around the small town which didnt take long at all and then we hit the beach. It was a long pretty beach with lots of people on it but it was cold and we lay there shivering...desperate to stay there as we knew from here on in its just the big cities and no sand!

Byron at night was a party town, it was full of bars with Coyote Uglys themes, pole dancing etc very classy indeed so we ended up going to the cinema to see Pirates of the Carribbean 3. Mark enjoyed it but I slept through it along with 2 other room mates!
The weather has been quite rainy with sunny spells at times, so finally the rain stopped and we headed to a lookout point where a Lighthouse stands and this represents the most Easternly Point of the East Coast of Australia overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was amazing, great views and we even saw dolphins, whales had been spotted earlier but we missed them...doh!

The last say in Byron and we hired bicycles which was good fun...a bit wobbly at first but as they say you never forget and its true!

In the evening we have a 12 hour bus overnight bus journey to Sydney......hell on earth!

Fantastic Fraser Island!!

2007-05-27T08:13:00.000+07:00

Photo 1 Me on the beach of Fraser Island

Photo 2 Our Group at the Champagne Pools

Photo 3 Di & I in the Rock Pools/Champagne Pools

Photo 4 Eli Creek, wading through......spotting eels

Photo 5 Lake McKenzie wow!!!

This is the worlds largest sand island at 123km long and we had the choice of whether to do a self drive or organised tour for 3 days/2 nights.
Diane & I decided to go for the organised trip with Cool Dingoes, which meant we didnt get stuck in a jeep with a load of numptys, didnt have to pitch a tent and basically rough it really!
So we had Ranger Craig who was so much fun driving us around in a bus and giving us commentaries and basically took the worry out of what to do whilst on the island
We had 16 in our group, a real mix of ages and nationalities but mainly British, Canadian, German and Japanese....we all got on so well which I was relieved about after hearing all the horror stories of fellow travellers
The roads around the island are so sandy and bumpy and it was a really rough drive most of the time, I would describe it like a rollercoaster ride....mum you would have loved it!
First stop was Basin Lake, we were the only people there and it was so peaceful and tranquil. The water was very refreshing shall i say! After a quick dip there we had a walk by the creek and through a rainforest before stopping for a picnic type lunch, I was very wary of dingoes at this point as there were signs all about how to be "Dingo Safe"! There are 150 of them on the island, but we were fine! Mustnt have liked our picnic! Apparently to be dingo safe you need to wave your hands in the air to make you look taller and dont approach them...whatever...think someone may be trying to make us look daft!
We stopped at a look out point and tasted the sap from a Scribbly Gum tree which looks like someone has scribbled over the light coloured bark! Anyway I tasted the sap and suddenly my mouth started to go numb and all that was missing was the dentist chair! The Aboriginals used it for this purpose as it acts like an anaesthetic
Then onto the infamous Lake McKenzie, which reminded me a little of Whitehaven Beach at the Whitsundays, white sands, gorgeous blue clear water.....the only difference being this was a freshwater lake not the ocean! So we relaxed there most of the afternoon, I had a body exfoliation treatment and cleaned my jewellery with the fine sand too! Wow Wow Wow! Amazing place!
We then went back to the lodges to book into our accomodation, thankfully no tents and it was very civilised! In the evening we all met at the bar for a meal and a few games of Killer Pool!
Next day was an early start as we drove along the 75 mile beach, again like New Zealand its not actually that length! But hey ho! It was cool to drive along with the sea to the right of us and having to dodge around other vehicles on the beach, felt like it was a highway at times!
We had a walk down Ely Creek and saw some huge eels, not like we are used to, they were massive!
Then onto a coastal headland named Indian Head, there were huge boulders to climb to get to the point and it was the most amazing view up there. We saw the first humpback whales of the season, dolphins and stingrays.
Next stop was the Champagne Pools, I wasnt as impressed with this as I had imagined it to be, it was nice though, rockpools overlooking the sea where waves crashed over which looked like champagne bubbling!
We spotted dingoes on the way back and all jumped off the bus for photos ensuring we were safe first but really they just looked like a cute dog!
Visited the Maheno Shipwreck that has been left stuck in the sand where it landed in 1935 and it was used for bombing practice during WW2 !
Our last day was spent mainly at Lake Wabby, beautiful green lake and huge sand dunes that you can roll down into the lake! We arrived very early and beat the rush of backpackers so it was sooo peaceful until Di dived into the lake and realised it was very shallow and nearly concussed herself!
Lunch time was in a nice restaurant and a bottle of wine later Di felt better, purely for medicinal purposes only!
So overall a good few days away, the place is beautiful and very sandy!!
Photos to follow, unfortunately my camera didnt mix well with the sand and has kaputt! Again!

Last few days in 1770

2007-05-26T14:30:00.000+07:00

After 6 fantastic weeks in the Town of 1770 where I considered myself a local, I have finally made the giant leap to leave Cool Bananas and the friends I have made there! I even have a Tshirt from the hostel as a long established guest and I will wear it with pride!
So after being a cripple for a while I had the last few days running around like a lunatic doing all the things I couldnt do on crutches!

Dad...you will be impressed I even visited a musuem, without moaning too, it told the tale of how the town of Agnes Water was established and developed and the story of Captain Cook...again!
I walked up to the lookout point too which overlooked Agnes and the town of 1770 which was bootiful and it felt like such an achievement to climb up a hill after all of this time on crutches!

Last day I went on a Scooteroo Tour....this was riding a Harley Davidson Chopper around the town in a group tour, stopping to see wild Kangaroos and to have a general pose on the bike! It was so much fun! Top speed was 80km and I felt like Tom Cruise in Top Gun!

So I had to say goodbye to my friends Destiny & Lewis who I have hung around with since arriving here....sad moment....lots of tears and we sent cards to each other...pals for life indeed.
Hoping to meet up with Lewis in New Zealand which will be cool, he is thinking of doing a ski season and will be nice for me to see a friendly face after starting my travels again alone..boo hoo!

Diane is in lurrve and so her plans have changed a wee bit, she has met the lovely ozzie John who lives in Noosa and so she has found work and will be staying in Noosa long term....yeeha! Really pleased for you both and dont forget my wedding invite...good excuse to come back!

My plans now are to travel with Mark (candian guy who I have met at Cool Bananas a few weeks ago and who had joined our elite group!) to Sydney. Mark is a great guy and loves a game of scrabble/balderdash/table tennis etc so we get along just fine! Apart from the fact he beats me at everything I do......challenge on Marcus I will win eventually!
He has been offered a job in Sydney who are looking at sponsoring him to stay in the country so I now have two places to stay in Oz when I return! Thanks Guys!
Di is planning to meet up with us both in Sydney for a few days before I leave for New Zealand which will be fantastic and sad at the same time : 0

2007-05-25T11:08:00.000+07:00

ok, from top left. This is my NEW GUITAR!!!! Yes, it's a beaut. It's the guitar that John Lennon used to have. middle.This is the complex where I am staying at the mo, it's in the west of the city and it's pretty cool. The right one is of the Lake, I go there and chill out. very relaxing. and the last is my OLD guitar, too many Pete Townsend style smash up's means that this needs to go into retiirement for a while.Lastly is the office that I work from although as of recent I've been relegated to working from the bar cos the local magazine team now squat in there.

So yesterday I went for a teaching interview. I've been reluctant to teach, cos I really want to work on stuff that I enjoy, music etc. So one the HR lady from this big American company (Eaton Power Quality Co Ltd) came to my gig on Wednesday and asked me if I wanted the job, offered me a decent package and so I said I'd do it. She said it's totally flexible to suit me. So she picked me up yesterday and we went to the company. I was asked to do a demonstration in front of the employees, it was a good size class (about 15) and I loved it!!! Just having a laugh and stuff and we ended the class with a rendition of 'On Top of the World' by The Carpenters (Lots of very surreal stuff happens over here). But I loved it all the students were really happy and smiling and actually got a round of applause at the end of the lesson (would that happen at North Chadd???).

After that I got an invite to an opening of a sports store, so me and Tim went down there. Now Tim almost looks as unhealthy as me , if not more so. So, scruffily dressed, we trundled to the stadium here and there was a fete style thing set up in front of the shop. We had a look around the shop at the stuff , Football shirts from all over the world, and we had to pretend we were interested. Anyway we then were invited to eat and drink outside. So we sat down and got food, drink and everything thrown at us. Then over-excitable randoms kept coming up chinking our glasses and bringing their kids up. Like I say surreal stuff happens all the time over here so I didn't think much of it. So then we left and Tim told me that the PR girls told everyone we were world famous footballers..........good job they didn't want to see our skills, cos I think the last time I kicked a football was back in 1987 when I tried to cross a ball to Ste Birley and ended up spooning it into Mrs Meeres' greenhouse, that was the moment that I came to the realisation that I should hang up my very cheap Asda football boots.

Then we went out to a place we're looking at buying into.....more of that when and if it happens. So I'm at the office now, working on a few things and getting ready for the band gig tonight at Paradise. Then Sunday up to Shanghai to do some DIY at my friends shop. I'll tell you it's all go at the mo.

OK readers, until next time Adios!

P.S.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY MOTHER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

Have a great day mam! Love you loads!

My Birthday Party

2007-05-21T14:33:00.000+07:00

below:me, Jing Jing, Eddie, Paul and Bong

right:Don, Nils and Iain

Me and Lenny singing 'Champagne Supernova'

Me, wailing out some nonsense

Well hello there people! It was my birthday on Friday, a big thanks for all your emails and I even got a couple of cards from back home as well. I had my party at the place I work and it was ace. Don took me out to a Thai restaurant with his staff to start with, then we went to Paradise for the fun and games. It was a good turn out. I put felts and papers on each of the table and told people if they made me a birthday card they would get a free cocktail, I read em all on Saturday morning and they ranged from offensively funny to sweet. Anyway, I've finally managed to get a band together, we aint got a name yet, but we have got a residency at my place, Paradise, every Friday.So we got Eddie on guitar, he's a top jazz player from America, Jing Jing on vocals who's got a great voice, Paul on drums and percussion, little ol me on vocals, keyboards and guitar and Bong on Bass,vocals and keyboard. Bong's widely regarded as one of the best players in China and I reckon I can learn quite a bit from him. So we played and messed about until 2am and the owner got me a bottle of whisky. Then I heard rumblings that I was gonna be chucked in the lake outside as some kind of birthday ceremonial nonsense. I didn't need to be chucked in. After a top party and with the adrenaline running thru me it seemed like a great idea so BOMBED it. It was cool at the time, but in the morning I felt like I'd eaten 3 courses of duck crap. Anyway it was a good night (except the fact that I lost my mobile phone).

So I'm up in Shanghai at the mo, helping some friends out with a shop they're opening, I went to B&Q last week for the first time in 12 months....................I don't miss that place. But guess what, I'm 5000 miles away and I walked in there and I could've been at the one in Chadderton!

Looking for some gigs up here at the mo as well, it's well paid in Shanghai and there are loads of places to play.

ermmmmm....what else?.......Just soursing some great and cheap guitars and getting some prices together in the hope of maybe selling them back home. Anyone interested in helping me out with that venture, let us know. I just bought one to test, back home it sells for about 450 quid and I got it for 120 quid. There are a few other things in the pipeline, but nothing worth boring you with at the mo.

Anyway people hope you are all wellKeep in touch. Theres another youtube coming soon.

LOTS OF LOVE coming back to the UK POSSE!

Gaveller

What a week!

2007-05-05T08:25:00.000+07:00

Sue: Its been a great week of partying and having fun with the Cool Bananas Gang!

One of the backpackers here did a gig at a local pub so we all went to support her. She is amazing and we sat and watched this beautiful sunset overlooking the sea, she is really talented and hopes to have a recording deal when she gets back home!

Next day we went to the local rodeo!! Bull riding, bucking broncos, lassooing...the lot!! Such good fun! It was good to do something a bit different for a change...we have some canadians in our group and so they were not quite as impressed as we all were, as they see a real rodeo in Calgary!

Last photo is Destinys birthday, we had such a laugh, as you can see we all had party hats etc and organised lots of games which involved heavy drinking! The best game was you had to pop a balloon and inside was either a forfeit or a prize!! The worst one was to drink a pint from a snorkel mask....aargh!! It truly was one of my best nights since arriving in Oz!!

2007-04-28T17:49:00.000+07:00

Artsy Fartsy attempt at a serious photo
In Shanghai with buidings behind me

Photo from my previous blog, remember when I thought I could breakdance? Note, not only the bust lip, but also the two lumps on my forehead! I'm pretty sure I broke something up there...when i shake my head now theres a sound like you get when you shake a medicine bottle with only one tablet in....that;ll be my brain then.
Me in Hong Kong Harbour, just like Miami Vice. That ship behind me was HUGE!

Surfing Dude Not!!

2007-04-22T09:32:00.000+07:00

It all started so well!! Really enjoyed the surfing and this is where it tragically ended!

I have the lifeguard picking me up each day on the beach in this buggy and dropping me off near the sea...what a service eh! Think I might milk this one for a bit longer!

2007-04-21T17:17:00.000+07:00

Photos of the Cool Bananas Gang

2007-04-21T17:14:00.000+07:00

Sue: Cool Bananas is the hostel Im staying at in Agnes Waters and these are the motley crew I have met since arriving a couple of weeks ago! Lots of drunken games and beach parties etc
We took over the hostel in style and an invitation into the circle of trust was needed!
Most people have moved on sadly now and there is now 4 girlies left, Jess, Diane, Destiny and me! Need to make some new friends now as we are planning on all staying for another 2/3 weeks...its an amazing place. Days spent at the beach, nights drinking.....its hell!!

Agnes Water and the Town of 1770

2007-04-08T12:17:00.002+07:00

Apparently aptly named as this was the second place Captain Cook discovered in 1770!

Its such a small and friendly place where the locals really welcome backpackers!

Its not too much of a commercial place and all the activites here are so much cheaper than anywhere else.

I have had a surfing lesson which was mental! The waves are so strong and powerful that it was totally knackering! We had 3 hours altogether and I really enjoyed it even though I was crap! Ended up getting injured, you know me! I have been hobbling now for the last few days, think I may have strained it..oops! Just goes to show exercise isnt good for ya!

Also been on a plane ride in a Cessna where I was the co pilot and got the chance to drive it down the runway and take over the controls at 2000 feet! Bruce the pilot was crazy and had us doing all sorts of acrobatics in the air, where things were flying around inside the plane above your head! Great!

We landed on this private beach, nobody around and we had oysters that he broke off the rocks and washed....they tasted rancid to be honest but had to try them! Also held a crab! Then it was back home with some more moves in the air! fantastic!

I have met some great people here and we have been hanging around in a big gang, nobody wanted to leave and kept staying for another night and then another! Now there is just 4 of us left so we need to make new friends again! All moved into the same dorm and we intend to take over this hostel again!

I have just noticed I didnt post this earlier, so the update on the foot situation is that its broken!! Nightmare so Im on crutches now for 3 to 4 weeks! So not many activities at the moment, lots of rest and sunbathing....hard life indeed!

Myella Farm Stay

2007-04-08T12:17:00.001+07:00

Sue: Spent 2 days/1 night at this working farm where you do all sorts of activities and generally help the owners with their daily chores.
Started the day horse riding and I get a very scary horse that knew he was the boss of me! He even bit another horse whilst we standing looking at some kangaroos skipping around the many acres of land they have. I thought I had mastered horse riding after my last experience, but not at all, I was glad to get back on terra firmer!
We had to wear these very attractive farm clothes too which made us all look like convicts, hence the very attractive orange shirt you can see! Their selection was a cross between Oxfam and a bad taste fancy dress party! Hilarious!
Also had to cook all of our meals on this stove in the ground, it was hard work even to make a brew! It took ages to even cook a cheese toastie, give me a breville grill any day!
Later on the day I went on a 4 Wheel Drive throwing bails of hay off the back of the ute to their 40 horses on the land and then the best job on the farm was feeding the smallest kangaroo I have seen, he climbed into a little peg bag and suckled on a bottle, just like a baby...so cute!See I do have some maternal instincts somewhere!
At night we watched the sunset with the owners home brew beer.
Next day was an early start milking the cows, it was easier than I thought to get the milk, but I would have been there all day just to get a pint of it! Tasted the warm milk too...cant get any fresher than that...hot off the press indeed!

Great Keppel Island

2007-04-08T12:17:00.000+07:00

Sue: I spent 5 days on this fantastic island, its very much like Robinson Crusoe where all you do is chill, chill and more chilling! Its a hard life I guess, wondering which way I should lie down on the beach!

It was very quiet and most days there was just me & my pal Di on the beach, didnt see anyone all day! Not a bit like the Med!

We were offered a job there for free accomodation which was quite tempting, 2 hours of cleaning a day...but thought that might be too strenous for me!

Greetings From HK

2007-03-27T14:44:00.000+07:00

So i'm writing this from a very posh hotel in Hong Kong. I decided to take a trip over here to renew my visa and find out what all the fuss is about. It's a fanatstic place. Springs arrived so it's T-shirt weather.It's not soaked in yet but I'm going to be sorry to leave (but I don't think my ever lame wallet will agree)but I need to work.
I arrived here yesterday with Don, who's in another city doing some businessmantypethings, so we got here at midnight and then went out for a few beers down this trendy street (cue 4 pounds for a pint of Tetleys) Now, dear readers, I haven't tasted that milk of the yorkshire angels in a 'mighty' long time and you know what, it tasted 'muchos muchos bien' (I told you I'm learning Spanish?)So I come to the most cosmopolitan city in the east and order Tetley Smooth bitter..............you can take the boy out of Manchester.......etc.
So yeah, it was good to get out with The Don, catch up, swap some stories and so on.....very good night. I was staying at a hostel (3 square metre room with bunk bed for a tenner???!!) so I woke up with the obligatory sore neck and such like and trundled down to the consul to sort my visa out.....that was really boring. Anyhoo, I then had a wee trip around this great place. I went to Hong Kong harbour and took a ferry across it....HK Harbour is like a cross between 'The Apprentice ' and 'Miami Vice', there are helicopters speeding through the sky, yachts, business monkeys everywhere, bad suits, good suits etc. So that was pretty cool.
So Hong Kong is now a part of China-I think it's called a municipality-but it's probably not, we gave it back a few years ago, which I think is a good thing. Although it's part of mainland China it couldn't be more different. The Hong Kongese people are really polite and speak great English, if you need help in Hong Kong, just stand in the street with a map and a really confused look on your face (I tried to remember the words to Shaddapa Ya Face) and someone will say 'Excuse me sir....do you need help!!!' That would rarely happen anywhere else in China.
Anyway, I'll blog some more soon, I'm going back to Hangzhou tonight, then doing a gig tomoz and then up to Shanghai for a few days.
So all in all Hong Kong is the place to be, a city built on a mountain. How cool is that?
I was thinking before (whilst on the ferry) that us Brits should be proud of our old colonial days. OK, putting aside the raping, pillaging, setting up dictatorships in far off places and all that, we have taught a few few people a few manners. Maybe we should reinstate the idea of The British Empire and take over China for a couple of hundred years?!
The views expressed in this blog are by no means a reflection or any likeness to the actual opinions of any bald headed, guitar playing balloon that is currently residing in China.
Until next time
Ciao

Whitsunday Islands

2007-03-24T18:04:00.000+07:00

Sue: Some more photos to make you jealous! I have just come back from cruising the whitsundays, it was amazing! It was a catamaran with 24 people on board and we did lots of snorkelling at different sites, saw sea turtles, angel fish, wrasse, parrot fish and little nemos!

We even had dolphins swimming next to us whilst they were barbequeing at the back of the boat one night......loved it!

The weather was gorgeous too, although the first day the sea was very rough and one poor girl was puking the whole time and we had to drop her off at a resort, I was really paranoid I would get sea sick but it was all good!

The photos are from Whitehaven Beach, where we spent all morning there, gorgeous white sand and blue water, dont think the photo does it justice...truly paradise!

Next stop is Great Keppell Island for a few days of R&R...cant wait!

Hope everything is ok with you all and that the snow has gone.....speak soon

2007-03-20T16:17:00.000+07:00

Photos!

2007-03-20T16:02:00.000+07:00

What a crazy week in Oz!

2007-03-15T17:06:00.000+07:00

Sue: Well its been the best and most crazy week ever since I arrived here in Oz!! I have been scuba diving on the barrier reef which was amazing! Not the colours on the postcard like I expected but they blame that on the seasons/venue etc so may try again further down the coast. After my trial in Thailand I really wasnt sure about Scuba again and thought I would snorkel instead, until the instructor convinced me...I felt so good after it! We saw a big turtle and lots of fish and as we got on board the boat a shark arrived!! Quite glad I didnt see that as I reckon I would have had a panic attack! Not a good idea under water!!
The next day I went on Uncle Brians tour which was a fun bus doing lots of singing and playing games on the way to the most beautiful waterfalls and rainforests. I have a photo of me doing the timotei advert under the waterfall flicking my hair back...it had to be done!
Then after a couple of days on my own I met my new pal Diane who is from Scotland, she is travelling alone too and we have got on so well we have decided to continue the trip together! We have had such a laugh and met loads of great people who we hope to meet up with again later on!
We have also been up to Cape Tribulation and the River Daintree. This is where the main rainforest is and we spotted huge spiders bigger than my hand! aaah!
The river crossing was for crocodile spotting, although again the wrong season, we did see one on the bank but not sure if it was a rubber one!
We stayed in the rainforest, very scary and noisy! Also a wild cassowary was roaming loose which was like a huge emu, we were told not to turn your back on it as it would think its a game, just shout and scream...no probs there!
The following day we went Horse Riding on the beach, I was the only beginner in the group, but I asked to gallop and canter with them once I felt confident and apparently they called me a natural!! We hooked the horses up after a couple of hours and had a swim in a creek and then carried on...just like a film! I really enjoyed it but I was soooo sore the next day...I definately had the John Wayne walk!
After a week in Cairns I have moved down the east coast 2 hours to a place called Mission Beach, very chilled out place and the main reason for coming here is to SKYDIVE! Yes I did it!! That has to be the highlight of my trip so far, so exhilarating and soooo much fun! It is all on DVD so will show you all when Im back! I jumped from 14000 feet which means 60 seconds free fall and then 5 mins with the parachute gliding down over the barrier reef and landing on the beach! Amazing experience which I would love to do again, maybe in NZ over the glaciers......watch this space!
We now have the next 2 weeks booked up, tomorrow we are off to Magnetic island for a few days, where we stay next to a Koala sanctuary, then onto Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands and finally Fraser Island (cant wait chev!).
Hope you are all ok, I am back on my oz number 61416792255 if you wanna text me, reception is a bit sketchy in some places so dont worry if I dont reply straight away....miss you all xxxx

2007-03-11T06:37:00.001+07:00

http://www.morehangzhou.com/venue/nightlife/bars/events-243.html

2007-03-10T13:45:00.000+07:00

Salvador Dali's Son Keith and Nils
'I will survive'? By any chance?
the Saki bombers took their toll on Gavin and Iains facial muscles
Camilla and Mac shaking their thang.

OK, so I just got up and I thought I'd tell you about last night....it was great, if not a bit scary! As I mentioned in the last blog, I'm now bar manager at one of the best bars in this place, riht next to the lake, 1st floor veranda...the works. So I have no previous experience of working in a bar and apparantly (as my mate who recomended me said....thats perfect). So I gets to the bar, the sound system is incredible, so straight away I was putting the tunes on. You lot will be pleased to know that I was playing songs that reminded me of people back home.........songs like....'When the Sun Goes Down', 'Take me Away', 'Don't Go Away', The Boys are Back in Town' ....you know who you are! I pretended I was the DJ at 'Tokyos' or the longtime closed but forever remembered 'Dreamers'. I also got a big video screen so I bought a load of dodgy music DVD's and played them too....I had a great time, and I think everyone else did. I took it upon myself to greet people when they came in and become there best friend for 10 minutes. it was good and I'm sure it'll get better. I heard that the lady who owns the place tends to hire us foreigners until we build up the clientel and then fire us , so that should be fun. It was great cos a lot of people I knew came in for a bit of support which was much appriciated. I had 3 beers between 9 and 2am which in itself made me question my mental state.
The only complaint that I had was from a 70 year old balding american guy with a combover and a chinese friend. He was telling me how good it used to be and was pulling his face at my 808 state remix of Fools Gold. He also said that it used to be a lot better when they had a live band....as he was saying this the 'Basil Fawlty' side of my charachter was saying 'I'm sorry to tell you sir but Glenn Miller isn't available to play in china....he's actually dead' but that thought didn't connect with my mouth muscles for a change. But apart from the that it was pretty much a success.
So 'm about to do my 'Saturday Night Playlist' and then go to look at an apartment, buy some jeans, get a train ticket for Shanghai and go and meet Don and Co. Hope all is well over there. Send some cool music please.
Missing y'all, if you're out tonight and a bit bored, get a taxi and ask the driver to take you to 36 Hubin Lu, West Lake, Hangzhou......it would be good to see you.....I have just done a quick calculation and it would cost approx £5,762.20p on Rollers' current rate, but come over it'll be good.
Hasta la vista Baby
LoVePeaCeandShEEp
Gav

I have a wage!!!!!

2007-03-09T16:52:00.000+07:00

Howdy or Ne Hao reader, How's thing? Just thought I'd put a little bloggette on whilst I am at the printers here in Hangzhou. Why am at a printers? Well, I am now officially Bar Manager of Paradise Bar and restraunt on the West Lake here in this city. I got asked to try it for a month and it's my first night tonight. I say bar manager, I have been assured by the lady owner that my duties will be to invite my friends, play my favourite music and tell her what drinks to buy in and what price to sell them for. Life is hard at the mo. As all of you who know me know, I do like a tipple and also -some might say annoyingly-love to say to people (often strangers) 'Have you heard this song???It's great, listen to the words'....well as far as I am aware thats my job now, it's well paid and I am even giving English lessons to the owner and her kids. This together with my regular gig on Tuesdays means I now have a wage and enough to save a lot! It's pretty much as good as it gets at the mo............just waiting for something to come along and mess it all up.
I'm off to Shanghai on Sunday, cos it's an amazing place and it's going to be my weekend retreat for a while. My mates recording an album so I'm helping him with that.
So why am I at a printers? Getting the drinks specials sheets printed for tonight...I have just been passed them by the girl who's done them...........all looks good, right back to the office for me now, to drink lots of redbull and become Pete Tong.
Laters Taters

My kiwi pals

2007-03-04T04:58:00.000+07:00

Sue: My last day in New Zealand, had a few good nights out with all the friends I have made here.

Friday night my work mates organised a BBQ as a bit of a send off for me which was great!

Had a drunken night and crawled home in the early hours, only to remember I had to be in work in 3 hours time.....aarrgh!!

Last night I went out with Tracey & Steve and some of their friends to the Viaduct in the City, we went to a restaurant called Wildfire which is a Brazilian BBQ where its all you can eat...good if you were on the atkins diet or you are a true caveman!!! The waiters come around with big knifes with the meat skewered on and carve off as much as you like! All different meats and seafoods.....you have a traffic light system too to tell the waiters when you want a break or when you want more more more meat...bring it on!!

So will be sad to leave NZ and my friends, but promised I will be back soon! Sorry Steve!

Last weeks Stage Invasion...I mean really.

2007-02-27T11:29:00.000+07:00

Hi Folks, hope you are all well. I'm at the office (substitue bar) with my Paninni and coffee prepearing for tonights Tuesday Night Jam and someones just emailed me some photos of last weeks debackle so i thought i'd share them with you. Last weeks was amazing. it was exactley what I wanted from day one. Everyone getting up and having a good time. the South Americans stole the show, theres me banging out Mr Jones, Wonderwall and all the other songs i know with 4 chords and this guy havier gets up. Javier (pronounced Havier) is from Argentina and he gets up and does with a guitar what I thought was only possible with a ...no idea...but he could play that mo. He did some South American tunes and played my guitar left handed with the strings right handed (for all you non musos......it's vvvvvvv clever0 Anyway the night ended with a stage invasion . You may be wondering where I was on that picture, well dear reader, i was around the corner, on my own, crying into my pint whilst thumbing through my Burt weedons Play the Guitar In a Day. back to drawing board for me. Anyhoo I've enlisted the help of Javier and we did some rehearsing last night. it's going to be good tonight, I can feel it in my chinese water. anyhow i'll just tell you who's who etc. FROM THE TOP: Cecelia, Adri and Javier playing some tremendous stuff.

Pic 2: South American Stage invasion

Pic 3: US Forrest US Julia (who knew all the words to Rocky Racoon and Rich (who looks like Salador Dali....seriously)

Pic4: Philipino Risa singing Torn

Pic5:same as

Pic6: Me and Tim finish it all off with Nirvana, trying to out-cobain each other.

Cairns & The Great Barrier Reef

2007-02-26T05:30:00.000+07:00

Sue: Hi everyone..... Im leaving New Zealand and my comfy home with Tracey & Steve to go off to Cairns on 4th March. I have been in NZ for 3 months and cant believe where the time has gone!

So my plan is to start at the top end of the East Coast of Australia and end up in Sydney where I will return to NZ to discover their South Island.
Really excited about Oz, although every Kiwi I speak to here is saying "Why do you want to go there???!!! Stay here its much nicer etc!!

I have been busy working to get as many pennies as I can before I leave so nothing else to report on at the moment.

Planning a big night out on Saturday, going to the Viaduct Harbour which is a buzzing area in the city and hoping to visit a bar thats made out of ice, where you have to wear special clothing and you can only be in there for 20 mins at a time because of the conditions! They even serve the drinks from a glass made out of ice.....cool....literally!! ha ha! Will post the photos soon

New Years Eve

2007-02-20T13:14:00.000+07:00

My amazing immodium Diet...try it free for 15 days ...only$19.99

2007-02-15T18:54:00.000+07:00

Well well reader, It's Chinese New Year and it really is going (fire) CRACKERS over here !!!!(see what I did there? Ok Gav enough of your crappy DJ lines) Yeah Chinese New Year is on Saturday and I can't wait. I'Ve been told lots of good stuff about it from the people over here so it should be a great time. Everything stops and shuts down over the festive period. Lots of people go away, including quite a few of the ex-pats. But I'm staying in The Joe (slang for Hangzhou), all the bar staff have left The World Famour Maya Bar, so I think myself together with Sheridan are running it, we were asked but who knows? Apparantly the sky lights up with Fireworks and at 12 o clock, there's nowhere in the visible sky where you can't see them. I'm trying to organise a hike up the mountain, or secure a great rooftop viewing point. As I am typing this I can hear huge fireworks going off outside, so there you go. So that's Saturday. Don and Jennifer go to Wenzhou tomorrow to meet up with her family, then come back for a day and go to Thailand for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, the 'Tuesday Night Music Club' (as I now call it) is going great, week two was a success with loads of new faces putting up with my singing and a few even coming up to sing themselves. Great night, I really look forward to it. A lad's just arrived from Manchester, Adam, top lad....and guess what? He's a solicitor in Moss Side....and the first thing that I said when he told me?........yes you got it 'You must be very busy'. But he's a good lad. Last night we met up with the American contigent which was great.

I've starting giving guitar lesson and I had one for a couple of hours yesterday with a kiwi. The hardest thing about having a little office above a bar is the fact that when you finish working or whatever you wanna call it, you then need to walk down the stairs and through the bar.......and there's always someone wanting to buy you a drink......it's a tough call I know....so last night was the same, the guitar lesson I was giving ran over a little bit, as I was walking down the stairs I heard lots of American laughs and craic, so I was straight onto it, with the usual 'Right I'm only staying here for an hour. That didn't happen. The owner gave us all some stuff that is apparantly 10x the strength of red-bull with vodka. the stuff was fast man. Less than 30 minutes later the owner and one of the americans were rolling around playfighting on the floor for ages. I just spoke to him before and asked him if he was planning anymore romantic Valentines nights for his customers where he ends up scrapping.

Anyhoo, what else,.....ermmmmmm I go to meet some new students tomorrow. I was supposed to go tonight but as it's Dons last night and Chinese Davids birthday, my scrawny ass has been invited to KTV, the karaoke drinkfest. Not that I want to go. I have had a severe....how can I can say this nicely?.....ahhh thats it...a stomach upset....I am currently having Imoddium for breakfast everyday and taking the strong advice of my dear old man by carrying cycling clips with me (you work it out)

So I'd better get ready for this night and this weekend, I'll try and post some piccies of the fireworks thing as soon as I can. Anyway better go, the immodium's wearing off.
Laters People
LOVE
gAv

PS Rick I'll youtube that TV thing ASAP

Piccies from previous blog nonsense

2007-02-07T22:48:00.000+07:00

From the top then, we got 'Dangerous Daves' Girlfriend, mel who did a top 'Blackbird' and an Alanis Morisette one.
then
Yanna, an American who brought the house down with 'Killing me Softly' and 'Aint no Sunshine'
then me
then
Jing Jing....Sheridans better half, who did a great version of 'Torn'...whilst I ate the microphone.
Me did usually nonsense, started off with The One I love like we use to do it 'State of Confusion', thanks chaps.

I nearly crashed on my bike laughing at an accident

2007-02-07T20:30:00.000+07:00

Well hello reader! Dunno where I'm up to on the news from this side of the globe so I'll just babble for a bit (nothing new there then Gav)

Loads happening at the moment and it's a bit CCCRRRAAAYYYYZZZZEEEEEEE! Did a recording for a TV show last week. The show which is being aired over Chinese New Year ( in a couple of weeks). We were asked to recreate a scene from back home on what we would do on a typical New Years Eve. So me, Dangerous (Dave) and a couple of yankee doodles sat around table in a Tea shop, drinking Li Chee Tea, looking bored and then I chirped up with....'Hey guys shall we sing 'Auld Lang Syne' after which I produced my guitar that I just happened to have behind my chair and sang and strummed (absolutely murdered it cos I was full of a cold and can't sing), Dangerous could not have looked less impressed at my rendition so it's going to be funny. It's being aired on the big tv channel over here so I may get even MORE stares and laughs from the natives than usual....so that'll be....errrrr......terrible. (I'll youtube it if it's either very good or very bad).

Yesterday I nearly crashed on my bike laughing at an accident. Let me explain......you know I told you about the driving over here?..... well the cycling is the same (as soon as I get a camera I'm going to video my taxi ride). Listen to this, it's not uncommon when cycling around the city to be cut up whilst in the cycle lane (cycle lane which cars fly down). So you tend to get a little road rage from time to time -very un-asian thing to do. Anyway I was cycling back from the office/studio and this lunatic chinese man flew past me. He wanted to get past the two bikes riding side-by-side in front but there was blatantly no room. The two bikes in front were six inches apart. So Lance Armstrong then decides to ride straight at them......and he let out a chinese expletive as he flew over the top of them and landed on his backside, well I nearly wet myself with laughter as I passed.

'OK Gav, passing the scene of an accident?....how heartless'

......you may think, but no, I have been advised that as a westerner, I shouldn't stop at any accident, the natives will bring the police who will then blame you and try and fleece you for dosh. I heard about a guy who was in a taxi when it knocked a cyclist over. He got out to help and then had to pay for the hospital bills and taxi damage!!!! How bizzare eh?

Had a great conversation today with one of the expats. We were extolling the virtues of Chinese culture, which didn't take long. Then we came up with a theory that most people subscribe to. The Chinese are brilliant and making stuff. You're probably reading this on a laptop Made in China, in clothes Made in China, with a watch Made in China and virtually most of the things that you can see around you are MIC etc, so these people are fantastic at mass production. But they have no idea how to think. The communist regime has been in power since the year dot and have made laws that persecute the curios. Questioning and logic is very much frowned upon. Therefore the people become conditioned to 'not thinking'. So they are totally impressed with anyone who has ideas. A lot of the westerners over here are here solely to make decisions and give ideas to the factories. And that philosophy is right across the board, from driving, socialising through to manufactoring. So that was my thought for the day.

Last night was one of my favourites so far. I was asked to play at the local bar, so made it into a bit of a jam night. I sang a few songs and then got some of the punters up. The quality was good and I just got a text from Tim at the bar who says they doubled their takings for a Tuesday. This is Tim I mentioned before who is a nuuuuyarker (new yorker), funny as hell and an all round top bloke and he's responsible for giving me some breaks and a lot of good advice. Everythings....forgetaboutit' , '....that's the stoooopiddis thing i ever huyed....'.and alike. Anyway I got a regular paying spot every Tuesday there, loads of fun and making money? It's the way forward. Someone took some photos and is sending me them so I'll post asap.

We have done the final presentation demo for the radio station, so the shows there. Now we gotta see what they think when they get it. I'm chuffed with it and me and Kev (aka The Mac) are laughing a 'proper gee-raaffe' (laugh) doing it . I'll youtube a copy of that soon, but you'll be able to download it from www.morehangzhou.com . It, hopefully , will be a one hour show everyday. The pre production, recording, research and editing all take a bit of time , but it's well worth it. I'll get some pictures of the studios/offices and post them soon. Again we're getting loads of support from the ex-pats here and it's really appreciated.

Right just got 'On the Waterfront' on DVD so am gonna watch it now.

Peace out brothers and sisters

The MonkeyMan

PS. Thanks to all you lot me and threebie are up to 2000 hits on this blog, keep posting your comments it's always good to hear/censor them.
P.P.S We were discussing this the other night, why do people still put P.S. on emails? Surely P.S was for when you wrote snail mail and had forgotton sonething right? Now you can just drop in..........think about it people.

Rotorua.....Mud Pool City

2007-02-07T05:21:00.000+07:00

Sue: I have been away again on a little trip to Rotorua for a few days, this place stinks! No it really does as its named "Sulphur City". It has bubbling mud pools, hot springs and Geysers that erupt every day! The hole place smells like bad eggs but its a fun place to be!

This place was where the 8th wonder of the world used to be, the pink and white terraces before it was all destroyed by an earthquake. I visited a musuem (getting good at this to a point!) which explained all about the volcanos and earthquakes etc

For people who live in Rotorua, they have to have special telephones, cant wear silver, have their fridges replaced every 6 months.........all because of the atmosphere but the good thing they have is constant hot water for free!

I went for a Spa which is supposed to be in the top 10 in the world! Although I didnt experience that, I went to the cheap seats area instead! Still very nice, sitting in hot spa pools in the evening overlooking the lake! The Pools were a mixture of sizes and heat...In fact one was too hot to stay in for long...hotter than a bath! They claim it helps aches and pains and even some arthritis too! So hoping my bones are feeling the benefit of it all!

The next day I spent the morning at Wai - O - Taupu which means Sacred Waters. This is a thermal wonderland which was cool to see, lots of thermal areas of bright coloured water due to all the minerals there. There was a champagne pool, lime green ( Photo 4) , yellow and a blue one.. Also lots of bubbling hot mud pools, got so many photos of mud.....something to look forward to when looking at my photos on return!

Later I had a fun filled afternoon enjoying the Zorb and the Luge! The Luge (Photo 1) is like a Tobaggon on wheels where you scoot down from the top of a mountain and you ride around various courses and then use a Gondola to get back up again seeing some amazing views and then down you go! Great fun!

Zorbing (Photo 2) was the best though, you climb into an inflated plastic ball, they fill it with cold water and then they roll you downhill on a zig zag track, bumping into everything until you stop at the bottom! I have never giggled so much! Brilliant stuff!

In the evening I went to a Maori Village, (photo 6) this was a fun evening where they explain about the traditional way of life as a Maori. Performed a show of song and dance. Then we had a Hangi meal, which is how they cook their meals. They basically dig a hole, throw in some rocks, put the food directly onto the rocks or in baskets nowadays and then cover the hole up and leave for 8 hours to steam! Could you be bothered, even BBQs are now gas for extra speed for us brits! haha!

The next day I went to a Kiwi Sanctuary, where baby kiwis are hatched and cared for until they can be released into a protected wild as they are endangered species.

Since my return I have been working like a dog! Looking forward to my next trip!

Hope you are all well, speak soon!

2007-01-23T19:25:00.000+07:00

Alright People. Here's the pictures I said I'd post a few blogs ago. This was the night that me and The Don played at this posh hotel, the bottom one was taken from the back of the room whilst we were playing........a bit posh innit??? OK so it's not Whitworth Brass Band Club but it'll do.

It's not all Showbizzy parties though, the following morning I had some marigolds, a straighted wire coathanger and a sink plunger and set to work unblocking my toilet (that had a dead fish flushed down it previously-that takes the fish body count to 6 this year.)

Me and the Kev man recorded our first radio show on Sunday and I spent the best part of Monday editting it together.It's gona be called 'All Noisy on the Western Front' and is going to be a craaaaazzzzeeeeeee whaaaacccckkkeee affair by all acounts......watch out Moyles your lardy backside is gonna be whooped! We got to play the demo to some people tomorrow then hopefully we're away. Anyway people gotta go, will post soon.......keep posting. The Monkey man (thats my Radio 'handle'------crazeeeeeeeeeee!)

Coromandel Peninsula

2007-01-17T04:24:00.000+07:00

Sue: I have been away for a couple of days to the East Coast to see Whitianga and the Coromandel Penisula.
This was where New Zealand's first gold was discovered although I didnt see any of it!

In Whitianga there are 4000 permanent residents but it gets really busy in the summer months when the Kiwis come here and stay in their holiday homes (called Bachs) which originally were tin huts but now it would cost you £1m to buy one!

On the way we stopped at various places, like Hot Water Beach where you can dig in the sand for hot spring water and make your own spa pool! I was really looking forward to this but unfortunately you can only do it for 2 hours either side of low tide and we were too late!

Also stopped at Cathedral Cove, another beautiful beach which has an enormous limestone arch to walk through. It was a bit of a hike to get there.....dont need a step class for a while but worth every effort to see!

Last stop was the Bone Carving Workshop, they used to make the carvings from whales but now use cows!

So I chose my design and sat down in the workshop where you used a dentist drill to get the shape which was very scary and even scarier was the owner who had no patience and I wasnt gonna argue with her when she was armed with a drill!

Then lots of sandpaper rubbing whilst it was in a vice! It so reminded me of my classes at school and me not being creative at all! Why was I doing this????!! Anyway with the help of the teacher I managed to get a necklace finished, dont think I would wear it to be honest!!!!

Stayed in a backpackers place in a dorm room which was my first time! It was quite an experience, luckily I ended up in a smaller room with 4 beds as opposed to 12 beds! They are all bunk beds and the rooms were tiny! It felt very strange sleeping in a room full of strangers and I couldnt relax at all!

I met some great people on the trip and it was nice mixing with backpackers again! .......lasagne & a pint (locals call it a handle!) for £3.00!

2007-01-14T15:17:00.000+07:00

Above: Bernard(crazy German), Jiang Jiang and Sheridan ( a very bad influence)
Well it's Sunday afternoon and I'm just watching aMadonna interview on Fox News, so i thought I'd do a wee blog! The internet is still playing up cos of the Taiwanese earthquake and apparantly it won't be sorted until the end of the month.Bobbins. So still using this mobile connection, which takes forever...but here goes.Well here goes, loads to tell you ....where can I start? First things first, I got a fat lip and a shiner on the way. Last night was Alex's birthday so we went for a meal and then to KTV, Karaoke TV, which is silly really. He's over here from London at the mo, visiting his dad who's got a leather jacket company (too much info there Gav) . So we went KTV after and he was on a mission. basically this KTV is a huge building with 52 rooms. Each room is like a hotel suite with amazing furnishings etc and a huge projected screen. And there are hosts that bring you whatever drinks you want. Len (Alexs Dad) treated him to this night so he was well up for enjoying his night. And out of about 20 of us, I decides to sit next to the one man drinking machine. Suffice to say that after a few hours we were all singing fantastically well and then I decided to breakdance some freestyle and, do you remember 'The Caterpiller'?well I forgot all about putting your hands down first and landed...................on my face. .........so I obviously told everyone later that I'd been in a scrap with lots of people....that I leathered!!! I have to blame someone...so it's The Prince to blame. The Prince is a Texan guy who's invited me and Suzie to stay with him in the US, and keeps suggesting that we go on a biking trip to Mexico.
So,yeah I'm sporting a Joseph Merrick style face today and have be told by The Don,to to leave the apartment! Yeah so apparantly I am going to be a DJ, not like a Fatboy Slim, Judge Jules modern day DJ but a good old fashioned disc spinning radio Jock! I've been talking to Sheridan and Jiang Jiang this week and it's definately a go-er! I'll have an hour long show everyday on Hangzhous Key 103, so with the help of Cockney Kev, we're going to play tunes from back in the west, have a laugh and try and make some dosh. I'm going to call the show call it 'All Noisy on theWestern Front' and am staying in tonight to finish writing the first show. Tim, the ultimate New Yorker, a legend, has asked me if I want to do a TV show???!!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING???!! So yeah, doing a radio show so if any of you guys can send me entertainment stories, new music it would be much appreciated . It's being pre-recorded cos you can't broadcast live in China, so that'll be good. It wil be on a website to as a podcast, so depending how it goes I might blog the website address.
And then on Wednesday, I went for an interview for a teaching job, got the gig and was then asked to do a little class, which I loved. I was telling them about back home and they were really good and laughing all the the time. I started by introducing myself as a monkey, then I saw a board duster for the white board and continued to tell them the story about my old maths teacher, Mr Jolley, and told them that 'if anyone was naughty, then Mr Jolley, used to throw the duster at you'....then I explained that I was bringing this form of teaching to China. Anyway that was great, and I have a contract to sign for a 4 hour job every Saturday at a factory. Did a conversation corner class on Friday too which was a bit boring. The thing is the kids are painfully shy sometimes and you really need to work at bringing them out of their little Chinese shells. it's early days yet, but I think it's going to be fun! I got an interview tomorrow for a full time job ...but i got a fat lip???!! Don reckons it'll go down tomorrow but.....it a beauty!!!! May take a photo actually and post it!!!! i love the little amount of teaching I've done so far....it's a good laugh.
Also planning a gig with Jiang Jiang. She's Sheridans girlfriend and is one of the best singers here in Hangzhou. She used to sing in a band and I put it to her on Friday that we should do a gig, then asked the bar owner, voila.......all sorted. So just gotts get a few tunes together, so I can't wait for that. The thing that is amazing about Hangzhou.......(by the way The Don just took a piccie of my face.......shall I post it????? let me know!) is that it seems like anythings possible and do-able......lots of people are doing lots of things .....before I came away I made a deal with myself that I would try and do things that I wouldn't back home... so this place suits me. Ideas aren't stiffled here and they are encouraged....it's a great mindset!
Oh I also think that myself and Ian are doing a pubquiz this week to at the local bar, that should be a good giggle. Ians a really funny bloke and is going out with a Norweigen girl called Camilla (by the way do you really need this information people???!!) Anyway I'll keep you posted on the progress of all these little blaggs......I mean ventures. I'll try and upload some photos, but may have to wait until the internet gets back up to speed. Let us know the news from back home!Spoke to 3x2 the other day and had a right good chat, we're in touch every few days for you people who are worried! Right, I got a radio show to write and an interview to prepare for so I'm afraid I'm going to hve to go......and my face hurts!!!!!!!
Love Ya People
Ma Ming

Sky Tower

2007-01-11T04:06:00.000+07:00

Sue: Guess where I am??!! I went up the Skytower yesteday, I have been waiting for a real clear day as you can see as far as 50 milles away when its good conditions.

The Sky Tower is the biggest landmark in Auckland and its the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere.......so heres the statistics for those peeps interested!

328m high, it attracts 750,000 visitors per year and it took 2000 tonnes of steel to construct it!

It has two levels to view from, the highest at 220m! You can see me there standing on the glass floor looking all the way down! Reminded me of Toronto bro!

There was also a sky jump happening when I was up on deck, some crazy people jump off the top attached to some wires. It takes 14 seconds to get to the bottom! yikes! See the photo of him dangling above the city!!

Christmas in Hangzhou

2007-01-08T17:47:00.000+07:00

Well Hello dear reader. Just looked at the blog and 3x2 has come up trumps...putting me to shame so heres a bit of a progress report. Christmas In Hangzhou! We had a blast, on Christmas Eve we had all the staff from Jennys company over for a meal and a drink, which was great, everyone had a ball, and as usual the for the finale the bald guy played the guitar...pretty cool actually because we were singing all sorts of stuff ...nothing that any chinese person could possibly know, but they all seemed to enjoy us westerners screaming...

'MMMMaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbyyyy, don't really wannaknowwwwwwwww............".

So that was Christmas Eve then Christmas Day it was all hands on deck for the Christmas Meal at Dons, which was great craic. Everyone got stuck in...I even peeled potatoes for 20 of us??????!!!!! Good crowd of people, good food and wine proved enough to make it a great day. We had a pub quiz on the night, which I voluteered to chair (why?) and was told that all these ex-pats get really competitive and that it was my job to lay the law down, my word was final......so I was more like Jeremy Paxman than Bamber Gascoigne...and I loved it!!!! We even had a drinking forfeit for anyone who questioned the question-master! ( Yeah.....That's how you create order Gav, nice one!??)

All the old gags came out including the old, eating a sliced carrot from the fish tank pretending it's a goldfish..............Jennifer screamed like the proverbial banshee and I think she's only just forgive me.

A great laugh though ended with much dancing to 'Fairytale of New York' and people wearing way too many hats...thats what Christmas is about innit??! Next day was the clean up operation....distinct lack of people for that...I wonder why???!! All was good though and we didn't find anyone asleep in the fish tank!

Last weekend was a bit surreal. You might have noticed a few blogs ago that me and Don played a few songs at his birthday bash....anyway....a few days later, this lady called and asked if we'd like to play at some presentation. As I answered the phone, I was like...'Of course' thinking can we charge or what, and then proceeded to tell her how famous me and 'our kid' were in England....I need to learn that not everyone gets irony........ anyway, I forgot about it and I think Don did so last Friday was the doo. We got to the place, I was carrying my guitar case through this massive hotel lobby feeling like Bono and not knowing what to expect. We got escorted to this function room....which was massive...and full of about 400 chinese people...with a big stage and PA and lights etc. Me and Don just looked at each other and cracked up.....then the old 'hor derves' (nerves) kicked in. So we asked the organiser 'who else is singing?' and she was like....'no one'.....ahhhh now you must understand that we'd rehearsed for this...obviously...........5 minutes before we set off and now were under the impression that we were the main event.....Excuse me?Where's that toilet?' I believe were the next words to come out of my mouth! OK so 400 chinese people and little old me and The Don were the only westerners! So delayed tactics were required and it turned out that there were some kiddies dressed as pigs and frogs singing Chinese songs and a lady of a certain age singing a traditional Chinese tune...if you've never heard any traditional Chinese singing....get a cat and accidentally step on it's paw.....for 5 minutes....that's possible the closest thing to it.

So we went backstage to get ready, and then we were called up by the hosts!! On stage and without a clue. All went well though, Don introduced himself in Chinese and then introduced me with my chinese name which I didn't recognise but the crowd seemed to find hilarious. Cos my old Chinese name is Ma Lon (bright horse) and my new one is Ma Liu (musical horse) but he introduced me as Ma Ping....................... which means Horse Fart! Anyway we got stuck into Sit Down by James and it went well, then Better Man by Blobby Williams which again went OK, everyone clapping away. And at the end of the night I got given an Mp3 player for my troubles. Result. Thats straight on ebay I'm telling you! But it was a great night and a bit of a relief, I've got some photos being sent me and will post them asap! So thats that people for another blog.....

a distinct lack of posts so far people......get some on or we'll be forced to do another picture quiz...adios

The 90 Mile Beach & Cape Reinga

2007-01-08T09:13:00.000+07:00

Sue: Cape Reinga Lighthouse is on the Northern tip of New Zealand and you can see herewhere the Tasman Sea & Pacific Ocean meet!

There were signposts saying how far away you were from different places in the world, and just so you know I was 18029km away from London!!

The next photo is us driving down the famous length of the 90 mile beach....which is actually only 60 miles!

Its very firm sand which means you can take your car and drive on it....another first for me!

There were no traffic jams , traffic lights, roundabouts....just needed to watch out for people and an odd surfer! Mainly it was very quiet and we were the only people on the beach...thank god we didnt break down as there was no mobile coverage or telephones around!

It felt a bit scary at first wondering if we would get stuck....all the advice given to us was

DONT STOP!!!

Last photo does not do it justice, but we passed huge huge sand dunes and people were using boards to surf down them! Looked good fun!

Bay of Islands......theres more!

2007-01-08T04:54:00.000+07:00

Sue : The palm trees photo shows the view from outside our apartment in Keri Keri, it was so peaceful there was no-one else around, apart from a Bull and some chickens! This was a good location near all the main beaches called Cable Bay and Doubtless Bay.

I thought I would post some nice beaches and sunny photos for all the people at home cold at the moment! Dont worry it will soon be your summer holidays!!!

We also visited a local vineyard which was very posh, people drove up the drive in their buggys from the golf course for wine and pate....like you do!!!

My first chance of tasting some local New Zealand wine...thats the life sat in the sun, overlooking the vineyards and the beach with a chilled glass of wine! heaven!!!

I have also learnt a lot about the Maori's history and the Treaty that was signed in 1840 between the British Government and the Maori chiefs. Visited the Waitangi Reserve which is the site where the Treaty was signed. Went inside the Treaty House and the Maori Meeting House which was very interesting. A bit of culture and a history lesson for me!

A Holiday within a Holiday!

2007-01-08T03:45:00.000+07:00

Sue: Happy New Year everyone, just returned from a week away up north to The Bay of Islands. As you can see its such a beautiful place, lots of lovely sunny beaches, pretty harbours and its the best place for the weather over xmas time, so we planned it well!

We went on the Mack Attack Boat Trip which is a high speed boat that takes you around the 150 small islands in the bay. The main attraction was to drive through the Hole in the Rock above, it was good fun, but very cold and windy onboard...hence the silly big coats we had to wear!!

The Harura Waterfalls were stunning, we climbed over the rocks to get to the mouth of the falls and there were lots of people kayaking in the stream underneath us! Great campsite here too, imagine waking up and seeing that view, although might make you want the loo a bit more!!

The other photo is Paihia Harbour, we stayed there on our first night, pretty seaside resort.

On New Years Eve we were stood next to the pier and watched a Firework Display and I think it was my first sober New Years Eve since I can remember!

HOUSE FOR RENT

2006-12-30T15:51:00.000+07:00

Gav: 'Hi People, The tennant who is currently living in my house will be moving out in January. It will be available for rent from then.

Its a two bedroom 'stone cottage'-or terraced if you like, in Whitworth, which is just north of Rochdale. It's really cosy and cool and was fully refurbished just before I left. It's got an open plan lounge, dining room and fully fitted kitchen with oven and hob. its also got a basement/cellar for storage.

If you are interested in renting, or know anyone that would, please feel free to email me and I'll send some more details. Please spread the word!'

my email is gavmunro@hotmail.com

Black Hawk Down

2006-12-30T12:42:00.000+07:00

Hey Hey hey Reader, just a quick note to thank everyone for the Christmas emails . There's gone and been a big earthquake near Taiwan (I swear I had nothing to do with it), but it has apparantly took out a load of communications link and left China without access to much of the internet. I'm managing to do this from a mobile link, but the cables will take a week or so to fix (come on Gardiners lot, get your toolboxes and an air ticket). It was a bit strange at first, cos you don't get a lot of information off the media over here, so some people were thinking something had happened with the North Koreans.......but you wouldn't want to start on China would you?
Anyway, Hope you all had a good old Christmas and all the best for the New Year. I'll get round to replying to all the emails when theTaiwanese find some choc blocks.
Cheers People
All the very best!
Gav

Merry Christmas Bloggers!

2006-12-24T05:36:00.000+07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hope you have a great time, we miss you loads

Will be thinking of you on Christmas Day! Ho Ho Ho!

Love Sue & Gav xxx

SuenGav The Movie

2006-12-22T02:09:00.000+07:00

Ok folks, It's finally finished, the story so far in pictures and movies etc. The top one is part one, the bottom part two.If you haven't used youtube before, press the play symbol on the screen then depending on your connection you might need to just pause it for a few minutes, watch the red line thatshows you how much has loaded, then press play again.......Enjoy it people.

2006-12-22T01:59:00.000+07:00

...it's all broken biscuits really......

2006-12-21T16:30:00.000+07:00

Above: Tea Plantations nearby
Left:Wulin Square

Well Dear Reader,

A bit of a progress report on my experiences in China so far!!! I'm in a city called Hangzhou, in Zhejing province. The province itself is pretty small compared to others in China but has got a population of 44,000,000. Hangzhou itself houses about 6,000,000 of the buggers! It’s huge and really picturesque, it’s supposed to be where the Chinese come on their holidays. I was here 5 years ago but the place has gone and got itself a make-over Llewellyn Bowen style. All the old stalls have gone and everywhere's scrubbed up well.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of cycling since I’ve been here and I’m kinda sussing the place out slowly. I’m out everyday, with my thermals and wooly, for a few hours. Me and Don went around ‘Xi Hu’ which us westerners know as ‘The West Lake’ which is MASSIVE. Took us 3 hours to cycle around, it’s about 2 miles wide and it’s really popular over here. But however cycling around the city really does open your eyes. They’re mad drivers over here, far worse than Thailand. My technique for riding on the city streets is pretty simple, look ahead, put your foot down and don’t let anyone in………..and try not to let anyone run you over. Driving or riding around is a bit like a cross between Grand-theft auto and ‘Chicken’, you know where you try and hold your nerve when cars are coming towards you? Well it’s like that, my first technique was just to follow the packs of cyclists around and copy what they do, but the other day whilst practicing this the guy on the bike in front of me got his foot run over by a car. So the traffic is mad but not really fast so it’s not as dangerous as it looks…it’s like organized chaos I think, cos no-one seems to get road-rage by getting cut up. There are bike lanes everywhere but its quite common for a car to just come down. Anyway it keeps you on your crushed toes.

You’ve got to understand that because Hangzhou has only a few westerners then the place isn’t geared up for us foreigners. Hardly any of the Chinese people in the shops speak any English and there are very few signs written using the western alphabet and 99% are in Chinese symbolic characters. My Chinese name is Ma Ming which translated means ‘Bright Horse’!!! How about that then? So I’m learning a little bit of the spoken language, which is great but is quite aggressive and loud. Ask someone for directions and they shout them at you as though you’ve just invited yourself around to theirs for Christmas dinner. And it's all broken biscuits really. A lot of the spoken word has around 5 different meanings depending on how you pronounce them so ‘ma’ for example means ‘mother, hemp, horse, swear, scold’ ‘Huo Shi’ can mean different things too including ‘nurse’ and ‘beard’, so for example if you had a friend whose mother had a nurse that you fancied (bare with me), depending on how you said ‘Wo xihuani ni da ma huo shi’ you could either mean ‘I like your mothers nurse’ or ‘I like your horses nurse’ or if you get it really wrong you could be complimenting your friend on his mums facial hair without knowing. So as you can see the language is a bit of a nightmare but it’s a good laugh to try it.

Walking around a bit you see all sorts of stuff, there’s a shop near Dons that sell live chickens, ‘Happy’ shops all over (email for explanation), in Thailand if you saw the word ‘Happy’ on a shop it meant you were able to get phone credit there, here it’s…..errrrmmm………. a bit different.
But the place is really pretty and there’s loads going on.

The western folk over here are a great laugh, they’re from all over world and many of them are studying, teaching or have proper jobs. Because there are so few of them they all stick together so you’re guaranteed a good night when you go out.

Went to Jer Jang University the other day with a mate of Dons, Dave who teaches there, and it was the size of Rochdale. 28,000 students. There was this massive tower-block the size of The Civic Centre in Oldham and that was the admin building. What’s all that about? The students must live on campus, go to their classes from 10am til 10pm including weekends, there was no uni bar, no grafitti, no traffic cones, no hung-over people…… and get this, at 11pm every night the power is switched off to the dorms and the doors automatically lock! From the second hand experience that I’ve got of uni life, I didn’t recognize it. Here is the weirdest thing…..the students loved the place, Dave was telling me that they go to lectures that they don’t need to go to…they buzz off education….I’ll tell you this country will take over the world.

But it is cold at the mo, ‘Baltic’ is to come in January. We’re having a Christmas party at Dons this year, it’ll be the first time that he’s been here for Christmas so we’re trying to organize it so it’s as western as possible, so we got the turkey sorted out, the guests, the games, all we need now are elderly relatives to fall asleep and break wind after dinner. And the bonus is…..no Queens speech!!!!!!! Halelleujah! I’ve been put in charge of entertainment so we’re having a pub quiz and sing-a-long no matter what.

Anyway I’ll stick a Happy Christmas blog on before Monday and let us know what y’all have been up to.

Cao Ni, Pi Yan (Chinese for peace and love to all…honestly)

Ma Ming

Welcome to Auckland, some photos for you!

2006-12-20T11:22:00.000+07:00

SkyTower....skyline from a distance away on Devonport Marina
Front view of my hotel!
Fancy Dress - The 3 Degrees......!

Sue: Hi everyone, well I have been busy sightseeing in the city and enclose a few photos.

Im am now working too which is a complete shock to the system!!!! Im totally knackered after a days work!! I am doing some waitressing work in a nearby cafe/bar and so far managed not to throw food everywhere or fall over!!! I guess there is still time for all that!

The weather has been warm but had a few rainy days...but definately no white christmas for me this year!! We have been invited to friends houses for Xmas Eve and Xmas Day!!

BBQ's this year..........no turkey!!

We are going up north to the Bay of Islands with a 90 mile beach! Its a very scenic area with lots of watersports and the weather is much nicer up there, so will be away from New Years Eve for a week!

Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, will raise a toast to absent friends, speak soon Love Sue

Hangzhou Fire Dept Were Not Happy

2006-12-14T23:01:00.000+07:00

'Don....me guitar's caught in the lights fitting'

'His Latest Flame' by The Everlate Brothers

'You are having a Gee Raaff aint ya?'
'Happy Birth.......... Can somebody hear Sirens?'
Notice we all had to wear T-shirts with Dons mug on.....

Well Dons birthday bash was a triumph! It was a surprise for him at this swanky club here in Hangzhou, organized by 'The missus'�1�7 And she can organize a party, I went over on Monday afternoon whilst Don was working to help set up stuff.

It was in a club called 'The In Club'�1�7a few miles out of the city. It was a bit strange at first cos the downstairs kinda reception/restaurant was like a the 'Moloko Bar'�1�7out of Clockwork Orange?????�1�7A lounge with big white double beds instead of chairs and little tables built into them......�1�7yep I was thinking the same....Is it one of those kind of clubs????�1�7 but there were no towels to be seen and apparently it was designed by a hot shot interior designer from Japan, so it was that kind of style!!!! It was pretty cool though, way above my station as I illustrated by failing to take my shoes off and spilling my grub over it!�1�7.you take the boy out of Oldham....�1�7et.....�1�7., so anyhow, we spent all afternoon there messing about upstairs at the club part of this place, Jenny doing most of the bossing and me and some other guys doing the lifting�1�7at one point she wanted the marble tables (which weighed a hundred weight Phil!) placed into the shape of the St Andrews Cross for Don. Good attention to detail though. Then we discovered the booze supply....��1�7��1�7��1�7�1�7ops.......�1�7.right, bearing in mind there were 80 or so people expected, the girl had ordered 200 bottles of red wine, 38 bottles of whisky and crates of guinness and lager.....that was at that moment that I realized it was going to be a long night.

Anyway the night-time came and I was in charge of trying to keep the 1�7lt;span style="color:#ff0000;">cat in the bag 1�7lt;/em> and keeping Dons mates from 1�7lt;span style="color:#ff0000;">spillin 1�7the beans 1�7lt;/span> on the fact they knew it was his birthday!!! So he came into the reception room downstairs (the clockwork orange place, remember?) and all his mates were there, and he was asked to go downstairs by Jenny, as a distration tactic, and we all went up to get the surprise ready. So he came up the stairs and we were in darkness and silence, I was poised with the guitar onstage, and he came in , a big paper fire-work set off, lights went on and I played ‘Happy Birthday 1�7lt;/span> accompanied by everyone.

Anyhow Don was genuinely surprised, even though on the way up the stairs he passed through a corridor of balloons, a sign saying private function and a video camera…�1�7��1�7�1�7ow I’d like to put that down to the fact that me, Jenny and his mates did sterling work by keeping it from him 1�7but at Dons ripe old age I'm afraid it's impossible to totally rule out alzheimers. But hey, he enjoyed it, he got his plate from the buffet, sat down in the corner with his tartan rug on and complained that he couldn't hear himself think'�1�7. 1�7only kidding he had a few beers, sang a few songs (me insisting on playing Oasis etc) and got a few kisses from ladies of the lovely variety. The downside was that the Hangzhou Fire Dept turned up and told us that the number of candles, in fact constituted a fire risk.

Twas a great night with all bladdered by the end, I went to the local bar with some cockney mates of Dons, Triffic Geezas knowatoymean?! And that was that.

footnote; So this club was top, the locks were still on the toilets, the taps needed you to turn them off, your glass was filled for you when it looked thirsty, the DJ actually let you get onstage drunk, the bar tenders did cocktail and fire tricks, everyone was happy, taxis were waiting outside at the end, no one was fighting…�1�7��1�7��1�7��1�7��1�7�1�7But to be honest it wasn't the Two of Clubs�1�7in Limeside, you know I do kinda miss that urine smelling, sticky carpeted, fat 'barmaided, nobbo chavish atmosphere............�1�7�1�7not.

CIAo4Now

Gav

P.S. I have picture to post of Dons new pets 1�7.coming very soon.

P.P.S. There is a youtube�1�7movie on the way.
P.P.S.S. State of Confusion�1�7are at The Colliers this weekend so try and get to see them, please heckle Tony that he is now a Sweaty Lover!!! 1�7lt;/span>
PPSSS. Keep posting people!!!!

Tracey & Steve & their new puppies!!!

2006-12-12T17:05:00.001+07:00

Jack & Holly....11 weeks old!

Arrived in New Zealand and staying with Tracey & Steve in Auckland! As you can see they have two new cute puppies!
Their home is a Treehouse high up on the mountains overlooking the beach, with the most amazing views!
I have been catching a lift into the city of Auckland with Steve which means getting up at 6am!! Bit of a shock to my system! So I have visited the famous Skytower which apparently is the tallest man-made observation platform in the southern hemisphere!
I have also visited Auckland Museum that tells the stories of the maori culture and about the history of New Zealand which was interesting as musuems go!
For this weekend there is lots planned, parties on friday & saturday, so its all good fun!!

A bit of fun!! Prize for the winner!

2006-12-10T12:12:00.000+07:00
Thought it was time for another competition!

Which are the only two animals in the world that cant walk backwards??

Clue is they are both in Australia!

Where did the name of the Kangaroo come from?

Sea World

2006-12-07T08:49:00.000+07:00

We all had a fantastic day at Seaworld, it had something for everyone, of course there was the sea animals, a water park with big slides, lots of shows to watch and a theme park with rides too!
As you can see we saw these cute big polar bears, they looked like they were training for the olympics or something, as this bear continously swam up to us, did a back flip and then floated in the above position, then he rubbed his eyes to get rid of the water and then he started all over again! People were saying who had been before, they had never seem them so active! They seemed to be having so much fun.....hard to believe how dangerous they are!
We watched a dolphin show which was amazing, I love these creatures! The setting was much nicer than Thailand although it was a lot more expensive to swim them etc as we had done.
We also saw penguins, sharks, stingrays, angel fish and lots of other types of fish, dugongs, rockpools with blue starfish with lots of colourful coral, sea cucumbers and a waterski show!
The photo is of us all on the log flume before we got very WET!! The park was really quiet so could have gone on all the rides as many times as you wanted....there were no queues at all! But once was enough for us!
The rest of our time on the Gold Coast was going up and down the highway looking at the different resorts, also had a day in Brisbane City where we spent most of our day on a ferry, jumping off at many stops to look around.
A huge big thanks to my Mum & Dad who completely spoilt me whilst I was there, had a fantastic time and it was good to see you both and catch up. They are now in Melbourne for 4 days and then onto Dubai.......have fun folks!!

WOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHH!!!! Who's turned the heating down?????!!!!!!!

2006-12-04T22:30:00.000+07:00
left 'Freedom....well sort of'
below left:'...the hat was is made of genuine polyester skin...very rare.'
Right: 'I can see the moon from here....amazing???!!'

below: hAiRof thE DoG is nEVeR a gOoD cUre foR a haNgover.

below: The karma sutra for exhibitionist freezoephiles is traditional on The Great Wall

Below:Me and me Bruvver overlooking the Great Wall

'Well I'm here in Hangzhou, it was difficult to leave Thailand and missing my travel buddy, but it's amazing to be here! I flew out of Bangkok and straight into Hangzhou and was greeted at the airport by Dons driver, who speaks only a little English with a big smile on his face, brandishing a sign saying:

'HANGZHOU LADYBOY SOCIETY welcomes MR GAVIN MUNRO TO CHINA'

mmmmmm, my brother the joker.....???!!!!!!! It was five years ago when I was hear last and this city has changed a lot....it's good to see that my brothers sense of humour hasn't. It's been amazing so far and I've only, just now got the chance to blog. I met his girlfriend for the first time who is soooo sweet and funny I wonder what the hell she is doing with Don????!!!Only kidding mate, you are The Don. Jenny had arranged for her English teacher to give me some lessons in Chinese, I learnt very little but managed to teach Jenny some English swearwords which sh's already using on Don!!!! Jennifer's got an apartment up in Beijing, which is about a 16 hour drive north and a two hour flight, so we flew up on Friday night and stayed up till the early hours catching up. next day we went to Badaling to visit a section of 'The Great Wall', which is exactly what it is. It was built over hundreds of years and bits were added to it by the different emporers and dynasties, apparantly to keep the pesky Mongolians out. it stretches East to West and is about 30,000 miles long!!!!!

The Great Wall was a brilliant defence but I thought as I stood there, 'Why didn't the Mongolians build 'The Great Ladder of Mongolia'????? That should be one of the wonders of the world as well. Any way it was minus four degrees at the wall so my plans of pitching a tent and staying over night have changed.

It was brilliant though, if you see the picture above, where I'm leaning diagnolly.......is taken with the camera at an angle so if you tilt your head you'll see how steep it was at some points (by the way, those aren't my sunglasses!) That was cool though, then we went back to Jennys apartment, which was class....proper luxury, to prepare for the night out, then fell asleep and woke up at eleven, thinking 'Oh we won't be going out now' but .....we were!!!! I'm full of a cold at the moment so I was being miserable when we went to a night club, which was something like you see on Nip/Tuck, ...out of this world really, it's where all the Beijing rich go and there were Ferraris and allsorts outside, anyway i was being boring and wanted a quiet drink, so we went to Suzie Wongs Bar, which apparantly is pretty famous.....Maybe it's like The World Famous Embassy Club. It was great though and we played 'Chinese Dice' into the early hours and back at the flat Me and our kid put the world to rights until 6am.

Next day we went to Tianamen Square, which is hugeeeeeeeee, really massive, the largest public square in the world and into the forbidden city, which was built by some Emporer dude to keep out the underclass. It was really good, we got a guide who showed us around. It's really weird because a western face in China is still a real novelty to some people, so you get asked to have your picture taken with random strangers, and they all laugh and stare at you|!!!!! Anyway the guide was telling us that the Emporers used to have concubines of about 20-30 mistresses and showed us the building he used to do the business, he would summon one of his Eunochs (who had to be castrated so they couldn't get up to anything) and ask him to 'Bring me a wench' (In Chinese though I think) and the eunoch would toddle off and bring back one of his concubines over his shoulder!!!!!!The weird thing was that the Empresses' building was right next to The Emporers knocking shop!!!!! The forbidden city is huge and I mean, would it have been too much to ask for the emporer to maybe do his doings further away from his missus?????? I suppose no one had the gonads to tell him....quite literally.

Anyway that was fun and we then got a quick piccie by the frozen moat and a slow rickshaw back to the taxi rank. Absolutely top day out though. We flew back last night and went straight to bed. Am contemplating another trip to Beijing after I earn some sheckles. Don and Jenny are the best hostesses and it's good to be pampered!!! Anyway amigos, Adios and keep posting your post things!!!!'
FIONA: HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO!!!!
(2 FOR 1 AT GALA ON A WEDNESDAY-TAKE DORIS AS WELL SHE DON'T GET OUT MUCH!!!LOTS OF LOVE-HAROLD!)

Wildlife Sanctuary Photos! How cute!!

2006-12-01T14:15:00.000+07:00

G'Day Everyone!!!

2006-11-30T09:58:00.000+07:00

Sue: I have arrived now in the Gold Coast, Brisbane and staying with my mum & dad in their luxurious holiday apartment! It feels like heaven after backpacking for the last 4 months!
There are some many facilities that I have missed such as:
A bath!!!! Not seen one of them, just a shower or a bucket of water in some places!
Washing machine & dryer......have had to pay for a laundry service so far, so taking full advantage of this!
Fully fitted kitchen, so able to have good old fashioned english food which I have missed!
and lots more! of course apart from all that its great to see ma & pa too!!!

We have visited a town called Tweed Heads, they have 2 time zones across the street from one another, as its on the border of Queensland & NSW so we caught the bus there which took about 30 mins to get there, but when we arrived we had to change our clocks to an hour later! Bet when people are late for work they have used that excuse before!
We also visited Point Danger where Captain Cook's memorial is based and it tells you the story of how he made his discoveries!

Yesterday we visited a wildlife sanctuary! It was such a good fun day out!
There were lots of the typical aussie animals that you might expect such as
kangaroos, koalas, possums, wombats, crocodiles, dingoes, snakes etc.......photos to follow!
Interesting fact....did you know that a Koalas typical day is up to 80% sleeping, 20% eating and 1% moving around!! Now thats what I call "THE LIFE", how nice would that be?!
They are so cute and cuddly and we had our photo with George the Koala who weighed 8kg!

Kangaroos who are female have a harder time, as from the age of 2 they tend to have 3 babies to look after at one time. They produce 2 sets of milk, so 1 for the pinky in the pouch, 1 for the young joey who is on foot but still needs milk from his mother and then the 3rd baby who is an embryo ready when there is room in the pouch!

I had a close encounter with a two headed lizard too, it looks like it has 2 heads, but one is its bum, the idea being if a predator attacks it, thinking its the head when actually its the bum, the lizard can whiz around and surprise them with its real mouth!!! Cool.......................mum called it a Push me Pull me!

Today we have had a relaxing day, the weather so far has been hot hot hot!!! We have been to Surfers Paradise Beach, although not many surfers for some reason!!
Gav is now in China with Don so hoping to hear some stories from him soon! No doubt the whiskey has been out with you two!! Say hello to Jennifer from me, sorry we didnt get to meet.
So come on Munners, what have you been up to?!

Our Plans

2006-11-23T11:29:00.000+07:00

Sue: Hello everyone!!
So we are finally leaving Thailand after having 3 fantastic months here!
I cant believe where the time has gone, we have stayed much longer than planned but that is what its all about, moving away from schedules as you never stick to them!

I fly out to Brisbane, Australia tomorrow where I will meet up with Mum & Dad for a couple of weeks and Gav will fly to China to stay with his brother, Don.

The plans have had to change a little bit due to timings, so Gav will stay in China working to earn some pennies for the next leg of the trip and I will stay with Tracey & Steve in Auckland, New Zealand until we can meet up again on the east coast of Oz to continue this adventure!

Good news for you avid readers, is there will be double the stories from us both!!

Some Photos

2006-11-22T17:41:00.000+07:00

Gav:Hey folks. Just a few piccies from our crappy disposable camera! From the top left:
We went to the Correction Museum last week. The prison was knocked down a few years ago to make way for a funky little park but many of the buildings are still there. This was a pretty hard core prison in Bangkok and we saw all the methods of torture that the Thais used to use against their prisoners.(link to virtual tour http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/misc/prison/1a.html)

The dark pictures are in the forensic museum at the hospital here.It was weird! Cases full of skulls of people who'd been shot, different body parts in formaldahide.I doubt that we could get away with it in England, but it's a bit like the top floor of Madam Tuasauds in Blackpool....but for real.Sue's stood next to Thailands most notorious serial killer (don't worry he's pickled). Siu Yup he was called.Apparantly he used to eat people. We were speaking to our Thai mate here who told us when he was a kid his mother used to joke that if he stayed out too late he would be eaten alive by Siu Yup! What a great sense of humour??!!! He is still being counselled.
I'm stood next to the largest testicles in the world, which was whipped of this guy after he died. It could of been the worlds biggest T-bag for all we knew.The jungle villages over here are open to all kinds of disease and this was Elephantitis. (link- http://www.bangkok-photos.com/frameme.php?page=bangkok-museums.htm )
The middle two are on the site of the correction museum. It's really strange because you've got this serene little park in the middle of quite a poor area of Bangkok and the when the Thai authorities knocked down the old prison they left the look-outs up, just to remind the people I think.

The bottom one is the only picture I got at the refugee camp and thats Henry, a yankie guy, getting in the way!Top time there, we met some great people. Heres a youtube link to a similar camp not far from this one-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrZ7E-ts7eU. I'll post more soon just going out for something to eat (not that you're really interested in that)

Jammin at Wendys

2006-11-20T20:50:00.000+07:00

A few piccies from before we went to the Burmese border with some mates of ours jammin a few tooons outside our hostel.......until4 in the morning. Jeremy was from South Africa and had some tremendous stories .....he had a top job over ther and just decided one day that he wanted to pack it all in and travel, he's been all over the place and we put the 'world to rights' on many a night. Tjerk was a top man, the only person I ever met who gets shinier as he gets more drunk-good guy. We met him here a few weeks ago and luckily enough we've all come back to Bangkok at the same time. Our guesthouse is in the backpacking area of Siam Square, but it's really expensive to go out here so you just get some cheap beer from the fridge in reception and away you go. Have the Craic!

Shiny Samuri Swords!

2006-11-20T19:56:00.000+07:00
Just to follow on from Gav's last entry about the scary men out at night with the samuri swords in Maesot......well the next night we went out again, we had asked everyone we spoke to that day, who the men were and were they protecting us?? etc

Everyone we asked including the hostel owner didnt have a clue what we were talking about.......so we ventured out again sober this time and you are not gonna believe this...................but we realised this time they were not scary swords BUT........... LONG WALKIE TALKIE ANTENNAS!!!!!!!!!!

We had a good laugh about it as did the rest of the crowd when we told them what it was!! So thats all folks!!

Visit to Burmese Refugee Camp

2006-11-18T17:44:00.000+07:00
Gav: Ok so last ime I blogged I said that we were going to try and get to a nusery or orphanage. Well when we left here last night and got back to the hostel the one of the guys there said that they were a few short for a run to the refugee camp here. The thing is, this place is kept under wraps by the Thai gov and it's not a place that tourists know about never mind get int-only UN aid workers and alike.
So we obviously accepted and had a beer with the guy at the guest house to make sure it was safe. Afetr an hour or so we deided to get some supplies from the local store and strolled out of the hostel. As we were walking Sue turned to me and said 'You know what, i feel so much safer here than I did at the Siam Hotel' (the hotel on the next street that we had stayed the previous night). Just as she said that, aguy walked past in a bomber jacket and black pants carrying a shiny samuri sword. On every junction to the store (about 500m away there was a guard with a sword! So we s$aT ourselves and laughed our way back to the hostel to get ready for the next days trip!We have since found that this is local security. I said to Sue last night as we were walking along 'Yeah it's pretty scary but I think that there on our side!' .Well it seems that they are. There's lots of secrets that this town keeps and like our landlord at the moment says 'You would need a lomg time here to understand the area...and even then you wouln't fully understand!
So be prepeared, pretend you're back in school and I'll give you a brief history lesson.........
Burma (or Myanmar whatever you wanna call it) is a military dictatorship which in this scenario means that they basically want everyone to follow their rules (like em or not) If you don't then it means that you'll probably be tortured or worse. So the border town where we are in Thailand is just next to the Burmese area of Karen. Now, the Karens are split up into two groups (are you taking all this in at the back Hewitt?) The Buddhist Karens and the Christian Karens. In order to keep their land the Buddhist Karens have signed a peace treaty with the dictatorship. The Christian Karens haven't and because of which have had their life made hell (Bromley and Rymes-stop giggling, if the joke is so funny why don't you come out to the front of the class and tell everyone?). Their land has been taken and many people have been slautered in the process (basically you get a warning and if you don't leave your home you get horrendous things happen). So Burmese government keep taking more and more land off them and persecuting the Karens. So the Karen rebels (keep awake Statham)live in the jungle areas and are an army in themselves. But the other people of this aea who want a nice peaceful life cannot, cos they are scared to death by the situation so they come into Thailand, over a river and claim asylum or become refugees. They have nothing. So the place we went to today was a refugee camp for displaced Karens (of all ethnic backgrounds)who just want to live in peace and raise their families. It was a real eye opener. There was a Thai armoured vehicle paroling as we approached the entrance.It was a real eye opener.(Keep up Sutton)
Walking around the camp of around 50-60,000 people. It was like a city built into the surrounding mountains and valleys. We went to the hospital which was like a military field hospital, with lots of poor souls in there, We saw a woman really porrly and very underweight who looked like she was dying. We saw an HIV hospital being built, and went around a church school where we had a chat with a burmese teacher who told us some of the hardships that his fellow countrymen were facing. Then we were invited to get something to eat at a music fair where the music students were performing. OK they didn't do any of The Beatles songs but I let them off with that! We had a bite to eat then it was time to go. It was a great experience and although the camp was incredibly basic they had electricity and street pumps with clean water running and there did seem to be a true sense of community between the people. They did not openly show there suffering and were smiley and pleasant. I was worried that we would arrive and be met with a real desperate sight of suffering and so, but looking at these people I just thought that they had no idea of their future, their security and had no sense of their own identity. Thailand hasn't signed up to some imigration traet and therefore can kick their arses out at any time. Our guide told us that ultimately they didn't want to be exiled or moved to another country because that would dilute their collective identity.
Antway it was an interesting day and it was a pretty unforgettable one as well. So we all came back with our guide and have spent the last few hours having a great old time with a few couple of guys from Canada, a guy from New Orleans and a guy from Texas (who claims to have invented the squeegee!!!!). Having a strange but great time here and we are popping out for a beer tonight before heading back to Bangkok tomorrow. This is a starnge but fascinating place!"

you tube movie from someone else is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB3ILrsT9Pw&mode=related&search=
as soon as we get a new camera we're gonna start posting stuff onto you tube.

Map thus far......

2006-11-17T20:27:00.000+07:00

Gav: Hey there folks, just thought I'd drop you a line to show you where we are and where we've been. We're currently in a little town in Thailand called Mae Sot, which is about 400km north of Bangkok. We're here to renew the visas as they are running out. You can renew the visas over here by popping to a border, crossing it then returning in to Thailand.
So this place is near the Burmese border, which is really intereting cos they're a dictatorship and this town has refugee camps in it for the Burmese people who are to scared or too skint to get back. It's great at the border cos there is a really long 'Friendship Bridge' that spans the river between the two countries. We have seen all sorts of stuff being passed across the border today, but more of that later. This town has Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Karens (an area of Burma where the border is and the refugee people)and there doesn't appear to be any tension here.....It's quite a poor place but people as always are all smiling and laughy (is that a word?) Even though they occasionally get mortar attacked from the burmese side. There are guerilla rebel training camps across the water from us and we've met someone today who was offering to take us there....it was a case of.....mmm....maybe next time mate.......now off you pop! No it's great to see all the stuff you hear about on TV. He was showing us pictures of him with the rebels and there was a kid of about 15 with a Kalashnikov!!!! Can you imagine that. Now I was a real little brat when I was 15 so that would've come in handy at school, where I could have finished Mr Donahoe off.......erm sorry was getting carried away!The map above is our route so far the crosses are where we've stayed. The guy who runs our guest house is a legend. He's from Singapore and supports all the local poor buying them supplies etc.
Anyway he's going to try and organise it that we go to an orphanage or a nursery tomorrow so that will be interesting, if it happens!
Signing off now, have a good weekend you guys-
GET POSTING SLACKERS.
Lots LOVE Gavlin

Parkinson Interview with the Intrepid Explorers!

2006-11-09T21:50:00.000+07:00

Parkinson Interview with the Intrepid Explorers!

What are your highlights of the trip so far?

Gav:All sorts mmm……Scuba diving, biking around the islands, people we’ve met…….just general stuff.

Sue: This really is the trip of a lifetime! There are so many highlights, but to name a few would be meeting up with friends in Ko Tao & Koh Samui, Swimming with Dolphins, Elephant Trekking, Snorkelling in Phi Phi and the Bangkok Coup and becoming famous in the local papers at home!
Also more recently, Koh Chang as it was such a relaxing place and I got my Moped Wings

Describe your best day and night out

Gav:Day out: Kanchanaburi was great, 5 tier waterfalls, River Kwai Railway, Elephant trekking, river rafting, staying with wacky a plastered landlady and a great mix of backpackers was a great few days, it’s hard to remember all the days cos everything is flying past at the moment!
Night out: Lots of good nights, we’re trying to discipline ourselves to going out once a week (on the pop) but we’ve had many a great night out with fellow travellers from everywhere around the world. A lot of the best bands in Thailand come over from the Philipines and they’re really the real deal when it comes to bands. Koh Sahn Road, Chewang in Koh Samui, Koh Tao….loads of great nights out.

Sue: Kanchanburi was my best day, where we slept in a tin cabin on the River Kwai, very basic but such good fun! We spent the day Elephant Trekking, feeding them, watching them perform tricks......it was fantastic!
So many good nights out, as you can imagine with us two! One night that stands out was in Koh Samui, when Don & Alex came over to meet us, we watched a band from the Phillipines who were amazing performers. They even balanced full bottles of vodka on top of their head whilst playing guitar & singing!!!

What new skills have you learnt

Gav:As above I suppose with people skills. The exciting thing about traveling is looking at the way other people act in their countries, their behaviours and all that, which is pretty fascinating. In Thailand theres a great custom of not getting mad with anyone, they call it “Keeping Face’ we probably say ‘Staying cool’. So the Thais laugh and smile through disputes or simply work it out without resorting to name calling or raising their voice so I think I’ve learnt a bit about how to resolve things without ‘losing face’! Being a foreigner in this country, you are perceived as a very rich person (how wrong can appearances be!) so people want to try and sell you things……….all sorts of things. You kind of learn to say no politlely and after a while you learn to laugh with them when they realize that you’ve sussed them out !

Sue: Biking (on a Moped!), Snorkelling, Bartering and learning to walk with a Turtle like shell on my back!

Any regrets?

Gav:No regrets, just more ideas of what to do next time! Cos it’s really cheap to do stuff in Thailand it’s a good idea to get ‘your wings’ at things over here. Like wind surfing, diving, snorkeling, drinking…all persuits that take it out of your budget, so we’ve tried to do as much as we can

Sue: None at all, only wish I had done this trip earlier!

If you could bring 3 things from home now, what would they be?

Gav: Friends, family and …………………mmmm……a endlessly refilling travelsized pint of John Smiths.

Sue: Friends and Family (well some of you anyway!),my comfy bed and my Hairdresser!

Name the most essential travel item?

Gav:Guitar! Sounds a bit cheesy but it breaks the ice, I’m not walking round like David Brent saying ‘Go and get the guitar…’ but it’s been great, cos when the locals see it they all shout ‘Geedaaaaarrr’ and then huddle round you to see what it is- I tell em it’s a really cheap crappy one. But loads of Thais play the guitar and it’s always good to whip it out and give it a strum and pass it round on the beach. Plus it don’t cost anything and it keeps me sane, writing and playing away!!!!!!

Sue: My Round the World Ticket, otherwise I couldnt continue the trip!
Also the camera, for the memories and for the blog for all of you to see!

What have been the funniest moment of the trip?

Gav: Sue being serenaded by a guy in Samui, he started singing ‘Stuck on You’ by Lionel Richie and really turned on the cheese as he sang and smiled away at 3x2! She was really embarresed, so he carried on doing it. Also the Dutch people we’ve met have me in stitches, their sense of humour is well funny, not sure whether they intend to or not but it tickles me, I think the Dutch accent is the funniest thing ever ‘It’s sowww crayzheee!!!’(even funny than monkeys in suits!!!!.......mmmmm Dutch speaking monkeys in suits???? That could be good) . German Alex also had me in stitches cos we hireda car and he had a big motorbike and we were mooching around Koh Samui one day and he flew past and shouted ‘Keep up Kojak!!!!’ Don’t ask me why that tickled me but it was just surprising to hear a German making a joke I think!!!!

Sue: Watched a ladyboy show and afterwards one of them called Yoko came and sat with us. Gavs face was a real picture, he was quite scared and not sure what to do at first. After a few more drinks Yoko was pulling down her top and we were asking her about her operation costs etc!!

What has been your worst embarrassing moment?

Gav:The C.I. Nuff said.

Sue: I have two!! As you all know I am a little accident prone!

My first one is when we went on a 2 day trip to Kanchanaburi, we were sat with our group for lunch, not knowing anyone at this point, when I fell off my chair into the guy next to me!! he then helped me up from the floor when I knocked over my bottle of water over everyone! By then I kinda knew everyone in our group! What an icebreaker!
The next embarressing moment was when I had food poisoning and was sick in the restaurant all over their cushions and floor etc in front of people having their dinner! Poor Gav then had to clean it all up for me! Thanks Munners!

What has been your most adrenalin fueled experience so far?

Gav: Going under a coral arch 30 foot in the sea on the last day of diving to get our licence. The arch was four foot at its highest part and was pretty dark and you had to remember all the things you’d learnt about keeping yourself from rising or falling as you passed through it. There were fish swimming through it besides you, was really good.travelling on any kind of transport is also good for the nerves…….I’ve hung off the back off pick-ups, been on a scooter with a woman and child…..actually yesterday our impatient arse of a Tuk Tuk driver got reversed into by a taxi-car! Also we had a bump with another boat as we we’re docking in Phi Phi-that’s where we learnt why you shouldn’t hang your feet over the sides when docking! The whole coup thing was pretty nervy as well, cos we’d been told to stay in the hotel by the bbc etc, but it was pretty obvious that it was all pretty calm so when we got to the military headquarters the next day it was all buzzing with tanks and armed soldiers, that was good

Sue: Learning to Scuba Dive

What was your scariest moment?

Gav:Probably getting my air tank caught in an anchor line when we were diving, but the instructor taught us how to deal with that before, but it was pretty hairy…..the situation not the anchor line. When you’re underwater if anything goes wrong your head and body want to get to the surface asap, but you can’t because of decompression and busting your lungs and all that so you have to deal with it and move on! And hiking a lift with a presumed pair of phycho

Sue: Biking (alright it was a Moped!)
Having Gav as my instructor is scary enough, when all his advice was take it "Nice & Easy"!
I was learning and a bit unsteady at times, but when we had to navigate chicanes that were really steep and you have big 4x4 jeeps trying to get past you, I was not happy!This was my white knuckle ride!!

What is your current catchphrase?

Gav: Apparantly “Nice and Easy’ and Always good’ in a smarmy American accent when anyone asks “are you good? Sue: I didnt think I had one, but apparently eveything is either Nice or Weird!

Do you feel you have changed, if so how?

Gav:Don’t know, maybe for other people to say. It’s only been three months but I feel a bit more streetwise about stuff. Feel a bit humbled by other peoples lives and stuff, but I don’t know! You learn pretty quickly when you’re traveling to adapt, it’s not that hard and really worth the little effort, you change your ideas about a lot of things and your opinions are constantly changing so I think I’ve become more open minded to stuff.

Sue: I have become more practical (I know i can hear you laughing reading this!)
I am also more independant (Gav has not carried my bag once!)
Also learnt not to worry about things, what will be....will be!
Gran you once told me that too!
Lastly I am not scared to try something new, I am doing things that I couldnt do at home, so yeah I guess I am changing!!

What are you most proud of accomplishing on this trip?

Gav: “The fingerpicking to Mother Natures Son by The Beatles! I don’t know about accomplishing anything but before we came over we said we were going to do stuff we wouldn’t or couldn’t try in England and I suppose we’ve done that, but a bit too early for accomplishment stories yet!Sue: Going out of my comfort zone on a regular basis and coping!

What are you looking forward to?

Gav: Tomorrow! Seeing ‘Our Kid’ in China cos I know am looking forward to the endless games of chess and debates on the socio-economic effect of goat herding in western……..I mean just catching up…it’s been waaaaay tooo long!!!!! Everything really, every day theres usually stuff to plan, but long term…….Oz will be great to see my mad family and friends over there, they’ll be bee-keeping and coral diving to do…..and one of the ideas at the mo for america is to maybe buy an old Dodge and drive across, still early days yet and I’m trying not to plan anything, but looking forward to the unexpected!

Sue: The rest of the trip, not knowing what the next day will bring!
Also looking forward to seeing Mum & Dad in Australia, it will be an early and my only Christmas present!!!

What has surprised you?

Gav: The generosity of people who have nothing to gain and the ruthlessness of people who have nothing to lose

Sue: I can live without hair straightners!!!!
Also that this travelling lark is a lot easier than I expected!

Favourite Album of the moment?

Gav:Black Eyed Peas, Highway 61 Revisted and David Hasselhoff’s Greatest Hits
Sue: Black Eyed Peas

Best book you have read since we set off?

Gav: The Damage Done by Warren Fellowes
Sue: Damage Done & Memoirs of a Geisha (a close second!)

Favourite Joke of the moment?

Gav: Erm,mmmmmmmmmm, blond pushes her car into a garage and says ‘It’s not working’ the mechankic takes a look at it for a while and fiddles about under the bonnet. When he’s finished he says to the girl ‘It’s Ok now, just crap in the carburetor and she says ‘Oh dear…How often?’
Sue: As you all know, I cant remember any jokes to save my life!

What is each others worst habit?

Gav: Sues....mmmmmmmmm....howmuch space have we got left????!!!!Noseying and getting half a story about stuff and then thinking I'm interested in what the couple next to us on the bus had for breakfast! Oh and obviously faffing.

Sue: Gav is really untidy......I walk into our room and think we have been robbed!!!
Also he is very grumpy...especially in the mornings!!!

What is each others best quality and how has it benefited the travel experience?

Gav: Her ability to laugh at my jokes....no her ability to laugh at stuff when things get a bit hairy is cool and also her ability to fall, trip and lose balance when we're in a social situation to break the ice that's commendable! This is a true story that i saw with my own eyes and i wish I had the camera at the time. I was getting a drink on this river raft and sue was sitting on a plastic chair and was litterally gorping at the people next to her and the chair began to give way, with plenty of time to save herself from falling she chose to keep staring and went down staring!!! Now viewer that, as the dear departed Roy Castle said, is 'Dedication'

Sue: Gav's sense of humour, he can always make me laugh whatever situation we are in!
Also his guitar playing has helped us meet some great people!
PS I have now learnt 3 chords on the guitar so watch out David Brent!!

What creepy crawlies and wildlife have you seen?

Gav:Huge Great Farty Sounding Toads, all kinds of lizards from 3 inch to 6 foot long, angry flying ants, Big ugly airy dragonflies, Ephelants, Turkles, Fishies, SlipperySnakes, Crazy Crocs, Cheeky Monkeys.

Sue: Bullfrogs, Lizards, Snakes, Flying Ants, Cockroaches, Butterflies, Spiders, Beetles, Monkeys, Crickets, Hawks, Storks, Elephant, Turtles and Dogs with fleas!

What tips would you give to people thinking about going travelling?

Gav: Plan a little and do a lot. expect the unexpected, practice bladder and bowel control, learn a bit of the language. learn the local knowledge. It's easy the hardest thing is booking the ticket.

Sue: Just do it!!! Its great fun, everyday is an adventure!
Pack light!! Its hard to do but thats hot off the press!
Buy a Lonely Planet, it does become your bible!
Dont have a planned schedule......cos it will change!!
Oh and of course get yourself a BLOG!!!!!

Has the trip changed your outlook about life in the UK?

Gav: ‘I think it’s a bit early to say but I think life in the UK may be a bit strange after all this. People said ‘Oh you’ll get the travel bug’ and I suppose I have!

Sue: It has reminded me of how lucky I am to have such good friends and family!
I know its cheesy, but I do mean it! I have seen and met less fortunate people and it makes me appreciate what I have got!
Also I would like to travel more, city breaks over weekends and exotic holidays when I can!
Lastly I dont want to work ever again!!......but of course I will have to get back to the real world!!!

What is the meaning of Life?

Gav: Have the craic!
Sue: Its life Jim, but not as we know it!!
Also as a good friend said to us before we left......"Its all about the journey"
and that is sooooo true!!
Gav: Yeah but he also said something about smelling of fish too so ..............!!!!

And theres more dolphins!!

2006-10-31T17:23:00.000+07:00

Gav: 'It was pretty cool playing with the Dolphins and seeing the show, the only dampner on the whole thing was that the place was alittle bit run down and the Dolphins weren't like you see in Flipper. They all got fed well though and seemed to enjoy doing all the waving and jumping around they were doing. We got a bit sick of the classic dolphin trick of 'bobbing out of the water and spitting at you' after about the sixtieth soaking of Dolphin flem, but it was great when they jumped out of the water to grab the fish from you! So that was good, and then they pulled you around the pool a couple of times, it is pretty amazing the power that they have in their tail-fin-flipper-things (not sure of the technical term for it). We met a cool Dutch couple, who owned a bar in Holland and we spent the day with them. Anyway as a result of the day, I had the raging trots on Tuesday and spent most of the day in bed and on the toilet, sweating and shivering. Anyway it was a good day but I reckon that truly swimming with dolphins has to be done with a snorkel or a scuba diving thing, so Oz might be good for that.
So the plan is now to get the bus up to Bangkok on Friday and spend a couple of days up there and go for a beer with some mates then flying to Xiemen in China and travelling by train to Hangzhou to see Don. So we'll keep you posted! let us know whats new!"

Swimming with the Dolphins!

2006-10-31T17:08:00.000+07:00

Sue: Reading the last blog, I think Gav may be feeling a bit grumpy with his man flu at the moment!!!!
We had a brilliant day out with the dolphins. It was really cheap at 20 quid too! They picked us up from our hotel, then jumped onto a ferry, and then continued in the minibus for approx 1 hour, had a free lunch and had an hour with the dolphins in the pool and then a show afterwards. Great value for money!!!

Ok I admit there are bound to be better places to do this, but it was a good taster for things to come!

They had the dolphins, jumping out of the water in front of us for various tricks such as :
To catch a fish from our hands & from a big fishing rod high above the water, shake our hands with their fin, dancing in a circle when we sang to them, kissing our cheeks, jumping through hoops! It was such good fun!
I agree with Gav though the spitting from the dolphins was funny at first, but then it wasnt aftr the 100th time!!

Swimming with them was great too, I was amazed how strong they were when they pulled you through the water and then they swam faster again when they were chasing fish the trainers had thrown in to catch!
I must admit the pool wasnt very clean,both apart from that they seemed to be well looked after.
We both have the sniffles at the moment but I reckon it was worth it for the experience and would love to do more swimming with them in Australia!

Biking and Staying Route on Koh Change

2006-10-29T11:46:00.000+07:00

map on the Island and where we have biked so far............
'Oh look an old man with a young Thai girl" Gav exclaimed to Sue

Fishermen on White Sand Beach

Biking in Koh Chang & Future Plans

2006-10-28T20:14:00.000+07:00

Sue: Hi everyone, I'm now officially back to normal...whatever that is!
Feeling better and ready to continue our journey after a few lazy days by the beach.
We have booked a trip to swim with dolphins on Monday which I'm sooooo excited about and will report back with photos etc of our adventures!
On Tuesday we return to Bangkok, organise our visas etc and then we will fly out to China to stay with Don the Don......cant wait to see you bro & to meet you Jennifer!
We have just heard that another mate from Rochdale, Barry has arrived in Thailand so we are hoping to meet up with him soon! Honestly we cant get away from you Northerners.....and we love it! Sue Holt, Koh Chang....Thailand Gav over to you-back to the studio!
Gav: "...Thanks Sue, good job.Had a great day today scootering around this place. We each hired a little 125cc b ike and took off for the mountain roads with shicanes and headed over the northern most tip of the island to have a mooch down the east side. Because all the beachy resorts are on the west side of the island (because of the sunsets) there's hardly anything there. Theres a little Thai village with lots of little Thais running around in little Thai shoes and then that's it-open road. I went down the coast on my own the other day whilst Sue was recouperating and I was a bit over-excited on my return (which I'm a bit prone to), and told Sue how 'AMAZING" it was, I got as far as a place called long beach which is about 60km from us. You know when you're in a local Thai area, it's easy to spot.....everything chases your bike and starts shouting at you.....dogs, old people and small children, .....it's all friendly 'Sawadeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Meeeester Fallang' Rouighly translates as 'Hello, Mr Funny looking Foriegner' and they all wave and love it when you wave back.
So we both got a bike and went down there again today. Let me just explain the driving rules and regulations over here."
a) Overtake anything,anytime,anywhere,anyhow. If you are stuck behind any vehicle that maybe a little more cautious than you then you must overtake. Safety is no excuse.
b) Beep your horn when approaching any foreigner who is going too slow or showing any sign of weakness, if possible activate horn as you are passing and have your children make loud noises and point to try and distract the foreigner.
Subsection c) Pedestrian and Road Workers Guides to Highways in Thailand
a) Walk into the road or across the road whenever you seem fit, paying no regard at all to any oncoming traffic.
b)If you are working on the road, make sure that you after you dig a big hole, leave uncovered and without safety barriers at all times (maybe put a little red flag in it if you must) c)Quarry Trucks- Try and spill at least half of the content of your truck on any dangerous mountain corner.
*taken from "Thailand Highway Code"

But, on the East coast it was pretty quiet and not too much traffic. We had some dinner at a place that was owned by a bloke from Ambleside who'd been here for 5 years and he was telling us all sorts of stuff about Thailand and then pointed out the Cambodian hills to us. Then we headed down to a 500 metre long pier, that we rode to the end of and had a break looking back at all the palm trees and it was dead quiet, all you could hear was the sea and the crickets. was a great day, and now the monsoon seasons over it's pretty sunny everyday.
So we're moving on soon but this place is going to be hard to leave. We've seen all sorts of stuff for the first time here shooting stars, streak lightning, fantastic sunsets, lizards, big spiders and .........a massive thing that was in our room last night....no idea what it was.

I was down the street and Sue came down flapping about something being in the room, she was watching a scary film when it decided to fly around the room like a wurling durvish (what is one of those things anyone????!!!) so when we got back to the room it was on the table and it was a big,daft ugly thing with wings (no not Linda McCartney), it was like a fat dragonfly, I went to grab it and Sue opened the door and a lizard came in and started dancing about on our wall...the dragonfly flapped off and hid somewhere but I managed to get the lizard out.

Eventually after searching for what seemed hours for this ...thing, we resigned ourselves to sleep and look for it in the morning, well I did anyway! So this morning, first thing I was woke up by Sue shreiking like a banshee and pointing to the bathroom....it was sat on the sink. It was a weird looking thing, so I was weak, not my usual humane self and buckled. I have a reputation for being a bit grumpy in the morning and today was no exception, and unfortunatley the big, daft, hairy flying thing was what I vented my spleen on. Did I grab it, wrestle it to the sink and break its neck? No. Did I pick it, bite off it's head and spit it over the balcony......no...........I grabbed my Lynx body spray and emptied the full can on it's ass, figuring it would either kill it or make it believe it was the most irrestable big,ugly,hairy thing in Koh Chang and go out on the pull .Anyway I think it's worked cos it flew off somewhere and we aint seen it since....we'll probably stumble across it when we move out of here. The Lynx effect- Repels Big, Daft, Ugly Things.......eh? Maybe they should put that on the advert.

Here's Bob with the weather.......

(We are watching way too much Fox News!)

Movie of a Fire Show!!!!!

2006-10-21T20:01:00.000+07:00

Gav:Just found this on youtube this is what the fire shows are like!
Click on this link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSQP6N6--s

actually this is the show that someones filmed outside where we're staying!~!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlBHiuZHJ8g&mode=related&search=

Previous Piccies and New Competition

2006-10-20T18:09:00.000+07:00

Gav: I've just wrote some comedy songs that in a country
and western style and I'm gonna create a myspacemusic site to put them onto. I'm gonna put them under an alias name, but I'm stuck, trying to think of a funny one. Anyone got any ideas???????Just think of a troubled reformed alcohlic, country and western style like ....mmmmmm Glen Cambell with a Kenny Rogers beard! Need some funny names from you lot. Something like Randy MacHandy the Second (obviously something funnier and more country than that), it's got to be a name that even when you here it , it sounds like a country and western singer with problems.....come on people, post your suggestions and we'll pick the funniest and use it!!!!

It's JUST A BIT OF FUN, but the winner will receive a prize in the post, as Chevvers did when he won the last comp!

And there's more on Koh Chang!

2006-10-20T17:13:00.000+07:00

Sue: Hello everyone! So I am now back in the Land of the Living, you avid readers have all emailed wondering where I have been, so thanks for all your messages!
I have had some bad food poisoning over here which started on Sunday night. We had just met a friend of Gavs from Rochdale, Peta who I was looking forward to having a good night with when
I started to feel really sick, next thing I was being sick everywhere in front of everyone in the restaurant! Really embarrassing! So the next morning I ended up in Hospital on a drip and various antiobiotics. I thought I had malaria or something and of course Gav thought I was being melodramatic! Not me!
It turned out to Gastroenteritis and they kept me in overnight and I am now slowly starting to feel better after taking about 10 prescribed tablets a day!
The hospital was lovely, it was a private one so very clean and posh and fluent english speaking doctors so I was well looked after, luckily my insurance has covered all costs or I think I might have had another bout of sickness when I saw the bill!

Previous to all that trauma, we were having a fab time on this idyllic island Koh Chang, topping up our tans etc.
Initially we stayed in the north of the island White Sands Beach which is very luxurious and we could stay here forever! We had a bungalow right outside the beach and very close to the bar!
Learning to play Killer Pool too so watch out lads on my return!! Get practising!!

The next day we both hired scooters to drive around the island, I looked like Penelope Pitstop with my bright pink Scooter! Driving like an old bid at first being really cautious, I think I could have walked quicker but since I have loved it and I now have my official scooter wings which will come in handy for other places!

Other events were when we had a very drunken and crazy night when all things happened!
Of course those dreaded Whisky buckets were to blame!

I met a group of Oldhamers who had just finished their ALevels at my old school BlueCoat!! It was brilliant reminising, some of my old teachers are still there amazingly, thought they would be coffin dodgers by now!
I did feel like I was one though too when I worked out they were 14 years younger than me!!
Oh my god so I think thats when it all happened, challenge was on! Could I still stay up as late as the kids?? How many whisky buckets could I drink?!! Say no more!

Back home...October is a popular month for Birthdays so glad im sooo far away and saving some money on all these presents!! Ha ha! So Happy Birthday to you all!!! Hope you have a good Birthday!
Tracey, Louise, Cara, Charlotte, Fraiser & Asha

Bro: Congrats on your new house! Looking forward to living in your west wing!
Mum & Dad: Thanks for all your Heinz Soup and get well messages, worked a treat!
Munro's: Thanks for your get well messages and handy hints from your medical backgrounds
Caz: Thanks for checking in with me, good to know if I disappear you will look out for me! Weird to think you even had sympathy pains for me too!!
Louise: Thanks for all your messages, take care and get a hotmail to avoid the Works Fun Squad!
Lisa: Well impressed, amazing progress, no longer a technophobe!!! Have a good party for Fraisers birthday
Di & Gill: Come on Thorneys let me know your news! Lets have another web cam chat!

Koh Chang stories

2006-10-20T16:42:00.000+07:00

Hello readers, we're still on the island of Koh Chang at the mo and have had about a week here so far and eventually have some stories to tell. First of all, we're staying here a bit longer than expected because 3x2 decided to go and get food poisoning, so she's recuperating at the mo and I'm running about trying to be the dutiful nurse, and as I've told Phil, Sue is insisting that I wear a nurses uniform which is getting some funny looks from the locals and causing me a bit of chaffing, but as Sue says if a jobs worth doing..................
So far then.........
We arrived on Koh Chang and headed straight to the resort of White Sands beach, which is gorgeous but a little bit pricey, we stayed at a place called 15 palms which is a bit of a jip, cos I can only count 9 in the grounds. But we stayed there for a few days and then got a bike to explore the island. The road on the East of the island is supposed to be a bit dodgy so we decided to travel down the West pillion style (or Arthur and Olive style-On the buses?) so we rode down, and it's just freaky cos everywhere you look there are tremendous things to see.

The residents of Koh Chang have had a bit of a hard time this year with the floods which means that there are huge chunks of road and pavement missing, but to give them their due they are sticking a red flag around all the danger spots. So we're driving down the island past big holes, lots of mad Thai scooter riders, mobile food vendors (who MUST get their licences from crackers) and the odd elephant. But it's amazing, I sometimes reckon it's the dangers of this place which make it more attractive! We got down to the very south of the island at about midday and had heard that there was a market on stilts at a place called Ban Bao, and sure enough there was, it was massive as well, so we walked around there and took some pictures with the late camera, and it was tremendous, there were little huts you could stay in as well. So in Blighty if you had a market on stilts (just imagine Tommyfield on stilts over the sea) you'd have railings everywhere right? Health and Safety and all that? No, there were gang planks all over running from a central concrete path which was about 3 feet wide, with the locals zooming down on scooters, weaving in and out of us farrangs (Foreigners), cats and dogs asleep everywhere, young Thai kids bailing over the sides, whilst all the time we were trying to say 'Sod Off' in our most polite Thai to all the hawkers who try and flog you stuff (I reckon deliberatley try and distract you as you get closer to something you can trip over!) All of this is 98 degrees as well. It was amazing and at the end there was a port with a few old fishing boats in and a few collapsed jetties.

The locals have just twigged as well how much us foreigners love it and have started building some luxury apartments, so another couple of years and it'll be full of tourists watching Fox News with their air-con on full blast. It was a great place and would love to go back sometime. We then headed around the bottom of the island, then ran out of petrol (nothing changes). We then found a beach with a little wooden bridge over to it. It was class, white sands, palm trees and all the stuff you see on postcards, so we had a nosey and took some piccies (that I'll try and post). Then we headed back and called in at some apartments on the way back to see how much they would be. We then moved down the next day to meet a friend from back home, Peta.

We'd arranged to meet her at a place called Nature Resort on Lonely Beach, which is a real backpackers place on the beach and when we got there we were suprised cos it was in good nick with a place to eat and a Beach Boys style 'Kokomo' bar on the beach which played 'top toooons' (the most important thing). So we settled there for the night watching the best fire show we've seen so far.
*the fire shows take place on the beaches at night and it's where the local top dogs perform acrobatic stlyle stuff with a stick or rope that they dip in petrol and set fire to it. There were three of these guys and they were amazing, throwing the sticks, juggling them and all sorts.
(........................By the way there is a guy stood next to me here at the internet place who is the spit of Patrick Swayzee-please miss internet lady do not put baby in the corner!!!!).....anyway
So we arrived there and there was no sign of Peta, but we managed to hook up the next night and have a laugh on the beach with a load of other people, telling stories and singing Johnny Cash songs with the Americans whilst trying to crowbar Oasis songs in for us!!!! Anyway, was a great night and Peta went the next day to get back to Bangkok to get a flight to Vietnam.

So we've come back up to 'White Sands Beach' at the north again to be closer to the clinic and so we got a bit of luxury for 'The English Patient'.

So all is good and getting better, I'll sign off for now but will post more soon.

Gav

Fiona: Good to speak last night Sis as always!! Lots of love to you and Andi and give the kids a big cuddle from UG and AS. You and Sue have now a shared interest in bins!
Andi:Get that bunk bed up mate! Send us a picture when it's done. My call out charge is currently 899 quid (plus airport taxes). Hope you're not working too hard. Fiona tells me that Top Joiner man left his cap there...........
Isobel: I heard all about your reading and I'm sooooooooooooo proud of ya! Lots of love sweetheart, send us an email soon! Auntie Gav
Finners: I don't like being splashed too mate, tell the instructer that you'll set Daddy on him if he does it again! Did you think that postcard looked like Daddy watching TV??????? Keep up the good work mate! Lots of Love Monkeyman
Dudley and Mary: Congratulations on the wedding in LV. Poosibly the coolest way to do it! I hope you got Elvis to sing 'Flower of Scotland'!All the best! (and try and get Mum and Dad to get broadband!!!!!)
Chev: I am disgusted that you didn't get a hose fitted in your new bathroom...........Mr "look at me with my new technique that you MUST adopt!' Hope you get the silicone off mate! I am no longer DIY man (remember what happened with Roxy's kitchen cupboard?) -and remember 'Safety first Fun Last'
Roxy: Have you fixed you kitchen cupboard yet? I think i'm pretty sure it was the large amount of birdseed you've got in there (maybe a cage would be a better place to keep your parrot (unless your hiding the parrot for some reason.....mmmmm....????-let is know)
Rick: Great clip on youtube mate but are you sure that wouldn't rather be playing Bangor Con Club????
Deano: You could make a fortune over here mate, clipping all these palm trees with your garden magic! Hope all is well mate, say hello to Cathy.
Mum: So near to posting!!!!......but not quite! I'll send some instructions remember to click 'post' or 'publish' comment??!!!!!! Thanks for the medical advice! Love ya
Dad:Good work with the church painting Dad, don't think that you have any issues with the big man now! Will post some stamps when we get back to Bangkok! I also think that you have earnt a night at The Station hotel (with all drinks on Mum!!)
Tony: Learning all the Chapin songs and have found those lost recordings of ours so I'll email soon! Lets try and meet up in NY with Mr Statham. Hope your well mate!

Peta: Good to meet up, good luck with the last leg of your travels and we'll be in touch for all the tips for OZ and New Zealand! I'm not that fat anymore am I? Thanks for that back-handed compliment!!!!!!!
Ebag: Missing your Mam....I mean missing you man, spilt vimto on the carpet last night mate! How was the windy city, and how are the plans for LA coming on, drop us a line pal!
Taylor: send mp3s and under no circumstances come anywhere near here, buckets of whisky for 2 quid could prove fatal.
Franco: Post something else mate-missing your funnies, and remeber what BH said, he's had good and bad times with girls but he aint..............
Tommo and Lisa and Izzy: Good to speak to you, try and email us! Also the dream about the house being picked up may be a premenition, keep your eyes on it for us!!!!

iZZY: pORCUPINE????i'M 33 AND HAVE TROUBLE SAYING THAT ONE!!! Hope your looking after mummy and daddy!!!!Lots of lOve, Your weird Uncle Gav!...!
Caz and Lee: Do you know what really Grinds My Gears......not being able to put Mp3s on this site!!! help required from the IT dept-Caz!. Glad the trip to Spain went well mate! keep in touch

GET POSTING PEOPLE

Thought for the day: There's only so much Fox news you can watch in an air conditioned hotel room until you really believe the apacolypse is imminenet! God that channel love Bush and his cronies!!!!!!!Thank God for the good ol' BBC! I think we need to get to North Korea next!!!!

The political situation over here is ok, the military government are banning any politcal gatherings of 5 or more people unless they are indoors!!!!!

Youtube video of the Day; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q0yoEfsfOA

Don't worry about posting/publishing delay

2006-10-10T16:08:00.000+07:00

Don't worry about the delay you may have experienced if you're trying to post. We've put a moderating filter on it so we can delete any of your gutter-mouth comments! Keep em funny and use $& &#@ for all your swearing needs. My mum is still in shock after reading the last one Mr Hewitt!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Poster for the previous story

2006-10-09T16:32:00.000+07:00

left) this is a Sawngtheau, our's was similar to this but without a tailgate.

Tale of the Unexpected.........

2006-10-09T14:14:00.000+07:00

Right let me tell you this story from the other night, cos it's a cracker.

This is a true Urban Myth that happened to us........

Gav:'We planned to leave Bangkok on the mainland and head to Koh Chang, via Poipet which is the border town for Cambodia and where you go to renew your visas for Thailand.We figured would take us one or two days. So we got a coach fromBangkok for four hours with other backpackers to Poipet, got transferred into a crammed minibus and then to the border. The dodgy TAT (travel company) that we went with were trying to flog us the trip to Koh Chang, but we decided to go it alone and do 'the proper travelllers thing' and make our own way there on public transport (which is loads better, you see the people and you can stretch your legs etc) so we got a dodgy Tuk Tuk to a dodgy Bus station, met a dodgy bloke, who pointed us to a dodgy market which we dodged. We sat down on a concrete seat, had a drink and tried to look like we knew exactly what we were doing (Traveller code is apparently, look confident and smiling). Anyway dodgy bloke came back, waving his arms and pointing to the road where the 1960's bus was pulling away, we took off towards it as fast as you can with 300 weight of packs on you, shouting at the bus to stop as the people on the bus shouted for us to get on. So it stopped and we threw our big bags in the dodgy 70's hold and I took my guitar and ruck sack on board, all the Thai people found it funny so we're smiling as we passed them to get a good seat whilst unbeknown to me I was taking small children and old people out with my big daft guitar case. So we settled for the 4 hour trip to Kanchaburi, where we were to change for Trat (A town near the port). Halfway through the trip the drivers assistant thought, for no good reason,it would be a good idea to take our big bags out of the hold underneath, and place them onboard near the door at the back of the bus , where all the lunatics sit, so we spent the rest of the journey looking back everytime we stopped and keeping our eyes on the bags. Luckily enough their was a monk sat on the back row in all his orange robes for the whole journey so I felt no one would nick them with him there. So I was catching his eye and smiling and trying to convey in the language of nodding-'Can you keep your eyes on our bags and don't let any scrote whip 'em while we're not looking'-Anyway I think it worked. When we got into Kanchanburi the monk disembarked the dodgy 70's bus a couple of stops before us and we gave him a nod and smile and off he went. I thought Top Man- I reckon he was watching out for us! So we drove into the main bus station through 6 inches of water (much of Thailand has been hit with flooding) at about 10pm , tired and weary, hungry and grumpy and again tried to look less confused than we were whilst humping our packs around the kind of people that hang around bus stations at 10pm at night, many of them coming up to us asking, where we were going and looking at our bags and guitar like it was Christmas. So, as is our plan in these situations, we smiled, ignored them and tried to walk to somewhere else,pointing at something in the distance and looking like we knew all along where we were supposed to be going! We found a little cafe which wasn't submerged, sat there got some noodles and water and dug out 'The Lonely Planet' to find out how to get to Trat which was a couple of hours further south. A friendly kind of Thai bloke walked up and in my pigeon Thai and his pigeon English we tried to get the 'knowledge' from him. He told us that the next bus to Trat was 1am and so we had a chat and weighed it up and he said he was a taxi driver and he could take us there, but because of the flooding we'd have to go a different route as to what was on our map and we would have to pay 550 baht (about 7 quid)- no negotation- I asked him what his taxi was and he pointed to the car park where there were loads of swanky looking pick-ups and he was a smiley sort of bloke so me and three-bie-two decided to take it and he said he'd go and get his car. He walked around the corner and two minutes later his taxi came round the corner. It was battered old small pick-up, the paint that was left on it looked red. It had a dodgy canvas roof on the back and a dodgy little orange bulb swinging from a smashed light. For those of you who have seen the film 'Deliverance'-you'll get the idea. We also saw that he'd picked up a male passenger , but it was dark so we couldn't make him out, all we could see was that he had a baseball cap on. So we threw the backpacks, rucksacks and guitar on to the back and the room that was left, we parked our backsides on and gripped on for a long ride. Our map was pretty useless cos we were using the back roads to Trat. Anyway, me and Sue were having a laugh in the back and making the best of it as we made our way, in the dark, through the flooded back streets, with no street lights, in the back of a noisy truck in the rain. All of a sudden we heard a massive bang on the front of the pick-up and a cry, then another couple of massive bangs under our feet on the bottom of the trailer, we'd hit something. It was a dog.The poor thing then got run over by the following cars and was pretty much dead in seconds. We were both pretty shaken up by it, but the driver and the passenger seemed unaffected by it and just carried on regardless, we couldn't shout anything cos they wouldn't be able to hear us. So we were a bit more wary at this point. We passed a roadblock and joined a dark dual carriageway and after a couple of minutes the little orange lamp in the trailer went off so it was pretty difficult to see anything unless you looked through the small window into the cabin, so we did that for a bit, wondering if he'd deliberately turned off our light, then why? Sue managed to stretch out and shut her eyes and I kept my eyes on the road and in the cabin. The next thing I noticed was the passenger had taken his baseball cap off and was looking out the window to his left. He had a shaved head and looked to be about 60 or so, I was looking at him and then realised 'It must be the monk from the bus!' and felt much more relaxed cos we weren't getting a lift from a couple of Pyschopaths and that the monk must be a friend of the driver. I thought I'd try and catch his eye in the mirror and give him a nod and smile.I don't think he saw me but he turned his head forward to look at the road again and the top right part of his head was missing..............................that my friends is true,and yes I nearly did drop my dinner and yes the dodgy street lights of the sleepy port town of Kanchburi were like Las Vegas to me when we arrived I'll tell you. I am now going to get 3X2 to read this and verify.

Sue: Yes folks it is all true....what we do now to save a few quid! Is it worth it! We are going to get a tourist bus back to Bangkok just in case! We have limited underwear and limited budget for laundry!'

Gav:..........and I'm desperately trying to learn 'Dualling Banjos' to save us from this kind of episode in the future..........................................I, under no circumstances, would like to 'Squeal like a pig.'

And the winner is Paul Hewitt/Chevron!

2006-10-06T21:36:00.000+07:00

Prize on its way Chevvers!

Well done, we can tell who the traveller is with our blog readers!

Be warned we started with an easy one first.........

OK so we'll explain, this weeks theme was 'Weird and Wacky transport ion the Crazy Land of Thailand' Well Done Mr Paul Chewetskini of Royton town, somewhere near Edenburg, I think, Well answered Pauly, you now are top of our league table. The correct answers were.......
1) The good old fashioned Tuk Tuk that drive around the place at breakneck speeds in order to get you from a A to B (via Tailors C, Gem Traders D and the odd Travel asgents C).
2) The E$lephant- Hannibals chosen mode and a slow but comfatable way to see jungles. Unless you try and sit on the neck with a boney backside, then it takes a few days to be able to sit down.
3)The Sawngthaew(songthoew) translated means two seater pick up! two rows of seats in the back of a pickup truck. If you are lucky hey'll be a hammock that you can ride in! Backpackers fly towards these when they see them at ports, you can share the ride and meet some great people this way! (and it's cheap)
4) Scooter- 'The old scooter or Motorbike as the Thais call them- Ok it's not Easy rider but as long as you get a girl with a baby you know it's gonna be half safe!!!!!!

OK, thats the first one over and done with, stay posted for round two!

Just in Trat at the mo, on our way to Koh Chang (Elephant Island) for some sun,rain, trekking and sand....and to de-louse ourselves from the BKK air.I've got a great story about our journey here yesterday, that I will try and stick on later, but it sounds like an urban myth (well it will when I've finished with it!) but it's trueeeeeeeeeeee, God I love this place, every day is an adventure, we're gonna catch the ferry someime this afternoon, but I'll try and get some piccies and post them before we go.
Kepp posting people!!!
Love Gav

Can you tell what it is yet???!!! NEW GAME, JOIN IN THE FUN??!!!!!!

2006-10-05T18:05:00.000+07:00

PICTURE1 (above) Picture 2 ( below)
Picture 3 (left)
Picture 4 (above)

"ROLL UP ROLL UP...STEP RIGHT THIS WAY......."
Ok we're incredibly bored in our hotel here in Bangkok, whilst it chucks it down outside , so we've come up with a new feature for our blog (contain yourselves, please)

It might take off, it might not, but right at this moment it's the most exciting thing in the world over here!!!!
Of course we don't think it's an original idea but here goes!.......

Right every week we're going to post zoomed pictures of things on the blog and all you have to do is post your ideas as to what it is. It could be an object, an animal, a food, a landmark or anything.(please stick with this one!) so all of you post your answers on our comments page thing (you know under this post you see where it says comments (0).

Only the funniest, rudest ones along with the correct answers will be published. And the winner? The winner will receive.........drumroll..........through the post................ a fantastic free gift!

Here goes...these are the first 4 pictures, 4 different things (thanks Phil!) remember ...

'if you think you know ......., give it a go!!!!'

(thats the catchphrase right there.) So come on people post your answers as soon as you can. They're really easy this week to give some of you Oldham Oglers a chance, but ' as the vicar said to the actress....' "it will get.....more difficult!!!!'

News From Bangkok!

2006-10-05T12:25:00.000+07:00

Gav: Hello.Greetings everybody!!!!!Just staying near Siam Square in Bangkok, which is the big commercial area around here, 3 massive trafford centres are just over the road from us-warning-do not send Sue a credit card!-a few pictures above from our last weeks adventures. I'll explain all the pics for you!
1) 'Vespas'-Walking down Koh Sahn Rd the other night with our mate Jenns we saw four Vespas decorated up in true mod style, was a great reminder of England and definately the best scooters we've seen since we arrived in Thailand.
2) The Thai John Wayne- The raft on the river Kwai was definatley one of my favourite experiences so far......'Was it the fact that we we were eating and sleeping on a raft that was on this most historic river?....No, Was it the fact that we 'got back to Nature' and our abolusions dropped directly into this famous River?....No, was it the fact that we were chuffed that because we're now used to roughing it that we were the only ones in our party who got a decent nights kip because of the sounds of the jungle? No, ....it was the fact that the owners were completely crackers! The lady owner sank 1 bottle of whisky at breakfast everyday and then danced and sang her way through the day and her husband was ......'The Duke'. Well 'The Thai Duke', he found it pretty amusing that I kept referring to him as 'The duke' and he must have been told before!!! Have a look at the picture and judge for yourself (' Git Off yer horse n drink yer milk'-Did John Wayne really say that Mum????)
3)Our Digs on the River Kwai- This is a picture of the raft boat that we stayed on, rooms were impeccable, 5 star I would guess, En-suite with an amazing view through the floorboards of the river and anything that you flushed down the toilet, 1 double bed matress (6 inches off the floor) three complementary spiders left in bathroom for the guests, an absolute treat to stay. I think they should have one of those signs above the entrance to the place , like they have in Blackpool, which says 'Arrive as Strangers, Leave as Friends with the trots!'. But it was an amazing place to stay, would do it again in a heartbeat!.
4) 'Thai Students at temple'- These Thai students accosted us at a temple and asked us some questions to practice their English. They were all really sweet, but I think they had problems understanding our northern monkey accents 'Eyybygumm lasss, course you can talk to us luv, it'd be bloooooooody great for a bit uv a chat.......do yer wanna brew?' Anyhow that was funny. Sue: Apologies for the bad fashionwear, I was given these clothes at the temple as visitors have to covered up. Honest!!
Gav had some daft pantiloons on too but managed to hide them behind the students, I was not so lucky and cant believe the photo has appeared on the blog!!
5)'Koh Sahn Rd Floods'- As you probably know I've had my fill of floods in the UK, and now am somewhat of a flood expert! So I took this one outside the entrance to our hotel the other night. One minute it can be really sunny then .....it lashes down. An example, today we just had breakfast and we're were looking outside at the glorious sunshine and we decided we'd go to Lumphini park, with the guitar and a few drinks and relax, so we went upstairs to pack, came back down after half an hour and looked outside and it's like a scene from 'Twister'???!!!What IS all that about?, Anyway luckily the hotel didn't flood (although I was halfway through constructing an Ark for Sue and me out of a few lolly sticks and a bit of twine.....wasn't needed.
6) The Guitar so Far' - As some of you might know, I'm decorating my guitar on this trip with local stickers etc, and on the back I'm getting friends that we meet to sign it and put comments in their native tongue, without translating for me, and then when we get back i'm going to translate them myself for a bit of a laugh!!!! So far the front of the guitar looks like this, I need to economise on the space to make room for Oz, US etc.
So there we go people, let us know what you think, your comments are always appriciated over this side. Keep posting, much much muc more to come, leaving Thailand soon for China, going to miss it but not for long!!!
Lee and Caz: phenominal (is that how you spell it??) posting as usual, thanks for the clips Lee, I'll email you the results!
Chev: Thanks for your last comment mate, hope everythings good over there, Give Roxy a big hug from me- and get her to give you a firm handshake from me also (please don't get them the wrong way round), and milladdo, any more of your filthy language and I'll get in touch with Bob to come around and wash your mouth out with soap. KIT duuuude.
Mum and Dad: Thanks for the email, got it today. Good news about Dudley, married in Gracelands Chapel in LV!!!! The man is a legend!!!!! Can you send me their email address so i can congratulate them? Have you got broadband yet???? Take Care, Missing you (and Dads whisky)loadsx
Fi, Andi, Izz and Fin: Thanks for sorting the car out sis. much appriciated. Thanks for the email, will respond asap. have a photo of me and Uncle Don pretending to be monkeys kids!!!I am much more convincing!!!!!???!!!!!!will email it you!xxxxxx. Well done sis with award, missing yousssss loads!
Donster: Looking forward to our Asian reunion in a few weeks, looks like were going to Koh Chang for a week and then flying over to Shanghai. Book the jump suit,book the Karaoke A0264-'Suspicious Minds'.
Tony, Rick: Let us know what you been up to chaps, I hope , in the name of God, that you are staying away from BBs or FFs!!!!!!(keep up!!!)
All at Gardiners(especially the tech team): 'Alright everyone, If we get another bathroom with a fuse box above the shower I'm gonna be on the phone!' Keep in touch YB, DM, JH, LM, JFS!,MS, MV,AB (you wouldn't believe the DVDs out here mate!) DF, DM,MW, hope your all still wearing your ADI T-shirts.
Everybody else:(in true Jerry Springer style)........Look after yourselves................and each other.'

Bangkok Thai Boxing

2006-10-04T14:09:00.000+07:00

Sue :
We have had a a change of plan as we have heard from some fellow travellers that Cambodia is not that safe at the moment with lots of muggings etc and also that Vietnam has a Tropical Typhoon going on at the moment!!
So we are still in Bangkok but now in a different part of the city to explore more and it was a great move as we are now very close to some great shops!!
So we are just deciding whether to go to China sooner or stay in Thailand a bit longer....sooo many decisions....it can be hard at times!!!
A couple of nights ago we met Jens (nickname Cheeseburger!) who is from Munich and a couple of girls from Oz and we all went to watch a Thai Boxing Match. We were told that some places are more for the tourists and they are not really fighting...but believe me this place was for real!
We got ringside seats by the Red Corner which was great, we could hear all the Trainers giving them advice, we got splashed by the water they were throwing on the boxers to keep them cool and towards the end there was blood everywhere, broken noses the lot! Great Fun!!
Dad: Yes that is me sat on the front row....you can imagine me wanting to be there seeing and hearing all that was going on!! Didnt want to miss a thing!

2006-09-27T18:41:00.000+07:00

2 Day Trip to Kanchanaburi

2006-09-26T19:46:00.000+07:00

Sue: We had cabin fever after staying in Bangkok unexpectantly for soooo long, so decided to book an overnight trip to Kanchanaburi which is a 2 hour drive north of Bangkok.

The first stop was a memorial garden for the many soldiers who died in World War 2 on the River Kwai, most were British, although some American, Australians and Danish too.
It was a beautiful garden with rows upon rows of plaques in the grass with Soldiers names, regiments and loving words from their families. They were mostly aged mid 20-30's and we noticed a lot of men were from the Manchester Regiment.

We then went to the Bridge on the River Kwai, it was amazing to stand there and think of all the Prisoner of Wars building it and how they must have suffered at that time.

In the evening we stayed overnight in an Elephant Camp and we slept in tin huts by the River Kwai. It was basically bamboo floating on the water and you could see the river through the floorboards! We didnt sleep that well as there were so many noises from the wildlife!

Next morning we visited a museum all about the River Kwai and walked down Hellfire Pass to see where the soldiers were instructed to make a clearing of the rock so they could build a railway track between Thailand and Burma for supplies. They had hammers and chisels and some explosives to do this. Thousands of men died there due to being overworked, underfed, malnutrition and disease.
They even took people from hospital to work on the site when they needed extra manpower to complete it within 18 months, when engineers had said it would take over 4 years to build.

After that we then did some Elephant Trekking which was fantastic! Our elephant was called Sandy and was 20 years old and our driver was 12 year old Uo. His father had bought him the elephant and he takes him home at night and Sandy sleeps under a tree!
Very gentle creature, at first it was a little unnerving when we were sat so high on him, but we soon relaxed and we had a trip into the Jungle! We each took turns moving from the seat on top to sit on Sandy's neck, which I wasnt sure about but Ou said it didnt bother him.

On return to camp we gave him a big reward of a bunch of bananas which he wolfed down. Probably needed all them for some more energy after carrying us!
He then did some tricks for us such as playing a mouth organ with his trunk and standing on 2 feet! Amazing!!

Later in the afternoon we went Bamboo rafting, not quite as exciting as we thought. We were led to believe it would be like white water rafting on individual rafts, but it was more like a floating bamboo sheet steered by a driver.....very sedate....both Gav & I volunteered to steer for a while and of course we headed for the sand banks not downstream!!

It was a brilliant two days away from the dirt and chaos of Bangkok and we are now keen to head for Cambodia

HOT OFF THE PRESS-TOMORROWS ROCHDALE OBSERVER

2006-09-22T23:04:00.000+07:00

Published: 22nd September 2006
A military coup can’t spoil fun
THE first thing Gav Munro and his girlfriend did when they jetted off on a holiday of a lifetime was set up a blog to let friends and family know where they were.
On Wednesday Gav penned the following message: "So it’s week six and everything is fantastic. A few little things aren’t fantastic though...
"Like running out of suntan lotion, the odd cockroach – oh and being a couple of streets away from a military coup in Bangkok!"

Gav and Sue Holt, both 33 and from Rochdale, had taken six weeks off work to go backpacking around the world, starting in South East Asia. They arrived in the Thai capital Bangkok a few days ago and found a hostel in a favourite area for travellers as it has lots of cheap accommodation and food stands.
In his blog, Gav said: "Last night we heard a bit of a ‘commotion’, a good word I think, but put it down to fellow backpackers.
"Then a friend alerted us by text and we put the news on and there it was. We were in the middle of a miltary coup.
"We were supposed to be going up to Chiang Mai in the next few days to do some trekking, but that doesn’t look likely now – these Thai military coup organisers are really unthoughtful aren’t they?
"But we’re safe and that’s all that matters."
In a second blog, posted yesterday (Fri) as the Observer went to press, Gav wrote: "We’re still in Bangkok but thinking of leaving in the next few days to go west to Kanchanburi, which has no historical relevance, but it was where they shot all the outside film for Bridge on the River Kwai.
"Today in Bangkok we went to the King’s palace which is currently being guarded by about 10 tanks. But we got some good tourist photographs. The funny thing was it was the most polite coup in military history. The guards all have roses in their guns, they smile for pictures and when it was all over the army played a loop on TV channels apologising for any upset caused."
Earlier the couple had visited Phuket which was badly damaged in last year’s tsunami.
Sue said: "They are still rebuilding homes and it really hit home to us how much devastation was caused. They have built a memorial garden by the beach with plaques from families who lost loved ones. Now it’s a very peaceful and tranquil place to visit."
Gav and Sue plan to go on to China next month.
Dave Appleton
First published by the Rochdale Observer

JUST FOR THE RECORD!!

2006-09-22T22:39:00.000+07:00

Sue: Hi Guys
You probably wondered where I have been?? Now gotta beat my very own Gordon Burns to the Blog! Ha Ha! Its been good fun being famous for a day at least! Shame we are on the other side of the world as I would have milked it for as long as possible!!

Just for the record I am not 33!!! Gav reckons he said it so not as to cause any confusion to the journalist.....eh??? I dont think he wanted to admit his very old age alone if you ask me!

Also we are not trapped in a hostel, the wonderful press and their sense of making a gritty story!! Gotta love em!

Keep blogging, its great to hear from you all........if not we may not speak to you with us being so famous now!!