My new life in NZ

Hi everyone from rainy Dunedin! We've been here just over a week and I'm just starting to get the hang of this weather.....

We flew out last Saturday and we weren't nervous at all. Plenty of people have been asking how we felt, but I think we both felt excitement, relief and joy, but definitely no nerves or trepidation! Mum and Dad on the other hand....... will probably wonder where all that extra food, money and spare time is coming from now! We landed in Dunedin (direct flight - yeah!) in the afternoon and the weather was about 5 degrees and calm. It wasn't so bad but in hindsight I think we counted out chickens a bit too early. The weather only got colder over the next few days as we rediscovered the magic of electric blankets and thermal underwear. But as soon as Pete started work, the weather seemed to fine up and I was mostly quite happy for the rest of the week and the weekend just gone.... but just as I started to think that this place wasn't so cold after all... a cold front has just swept through this afternoon and up at Macraes where Pete's working, it's snowing hard and they're worried they might be stuck there tonight!

Other than the weather, which seems to take up a substantial part of the news each night, for now-obvious reasons, I've been cruising around the shops in my current role of hausfrau. The supermarkets here are by and large just like supermarkets anywhere else in the world, but I have been very excited by the weekend farmers' markets held on the platform of Dunedin's historic train station. The leeks, the venison, the spuds, and oh, the lamb! All so fresh and delicious. I'm a little hampered at the moment by our sparsely-equipped temporary kitchen but already I've prepared some really yummy meals.

The knives that were initially provided in our kitchen were woefully blunt, so we splashed out $7.99 for a sharper Wiltshire knife at the supermarket. It was certainly sharper, but only enough to lull me into a false sense of security. The other night I nearly sliced the tip of my ring finger off trying to chop potatoes... actually the incident was almost identical to the one in Tom Price where I saw ligaments, a lot of blood and my own bone mometarily! Budget or no budget, I decided the very next day to really splash out on a knife and I came home with a much sharper, much safer Scanpan knife.

As well as trying to amputate my digits, I'm also trying to find work, a house for us to live in, and another car. The details of all of the above are unfortunately closely related and I feel quite overwhelmed at the thought of sorting it all out. Hyphen, the cat-that-won't-die is also coming over here to live once we have a permenant residence, which I suppose provides motivation to get our housing situation sorted out soon.

I've included a couple of photos of our apartment for all to see, it's nothing exciting and it's actually quite grubby, but you can't see that in the photos. The floor needs a good mop but they havne't provided us with one. It's quite small but it does get a nice dose of sunshine throughout the day, on the days when the sun decides to peek out from behind the clouds, of course. That last photo is the view from our front window. We're in a slightly dodgy part of town, but the architecture is still beautiful!


I'm off to prepare some scraps for dinner tonight - big shopping day tomorrow! Pete is on his break as of tomorrow and he can help me carry it all back from town in this antarctic gale! Hope you're all well. x

BIG NEWS! WE'RE MOVING TO NZ!

Hi, it's been a while since I've blogged and so much has happened. We've had a few short trips away to Ballarat and Coolum, but the biggest and best place we have been is on a site visit to Dunedin, New Zealand! And it was successful so in less than a month, we'll be New Zealand residents. So far only Pete has a job, but we're thankful just for one job in such an uncertain economic climate. There will be plenty to do once we arrive too, so it may well be handy if one of us is available for the removalists, bank accounts, picking up the car and finding a house. Pete has accepted an offer as a Mine Geologist at Macraes, a gold mine owned by Oceanagold. It's about an hour north of Dunedin.


Dunedin is a beautiful place, not too big but with all the amenities you might ever need. It even has direct flights in winter to Brisbane! By road it's about five hours to Christchurch and three and a half hours to Queenstown. Pete will be doing an 8/6 roster, and with the long hours, we've decided to live just north of Dunedin so he can be close to work. The beaches in Dunedin are just beautiful (although quite wild, cold and windy) and there is so much to do around the town. There's trout fishing (Pete reckons he's going to learn how to smoke them), awesome bushwalking (or should I say 'tramping'?) on the Otago peninsula, skiing in winter at Queenstown and some mouth-watering farmers' markets each weekend.

I've put some photos below so you can see what it looks like and what we got up in our spare time over there. We're thinking of moving to either Waikouaiti or Karitane, two little beach towns about half an hour north of the city centre. The photos above are of the area around these towns. Below are some photos from Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula. We went there to see yellow-eyed penguins late one afternoon but saw something larger and scarier instead!


On to other things, we have been to quite a few weddings so far this year. Since the last post we've been to Booreen Point for my brother's wedding, Ballarat for Ben and Rhiannon's wedding, and to Coolum last weekend for Boon and Georgie's wedding. All were lovely and we relished the chance to break away from the centrelink-enforced drudgery of continuous job-hunting. It seems however that it must be wedding season, perhaps there's been something in the water? Although I'm thrilled for all our friends that have found happiness in each other, I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief when it's all over later this year. Although as an afterthought I do quite like the excuse to go shopping for new dresses!

Peter and Jasmine's wedding was so lovely, in fact one of the nicest weddings I've been to. Jasmine and Peter both looked so lovely, and the food was good, the music was fun, and the speeches quite funny. It was the first time I'd ever acted as MC at a wedding so I was quite nervous. I had last minute doubts about my dress on the day of the wedding and made mum come with me on a mad dash to Sunshine Plaza to find a new one. I don't have many pics of the day yet, since I can't find the cord to connect my Nikon to the computer. You can see most of the ones I have on facebook already.

Ballarat was lovely, and seeing as neither of us had been there before, we quite enjoyed exploring the region with Dools and Jen. The food was excellent and we even squeezed in a trip to an organic winery at Daylesford. The cheese they had was excellent too, and we would have brought some back home if it didn't stink to high heaven. The stinkier the cheese, the better the taste, I say! We also enjoyed catching up with my friend Meredith for lunch at Southbank in Melbourne on the way through. Ben and Rhiannon's wedding was really lovely, and the ceremony was short but sweet. The reception was also fun and I really loved the speeches. Some of them were really nice, and some of them were so funny! And Rhiannon's shoes were cute! Pink cowgirl boots......


We also had an awesome time at Coolum for Boon and Georgie's wedding. I felt terrible the day after the ceremony but I suppose that means I had a good time the night before. The Saturday of their wedding was the first chance we'd had to celebrate Pete's job since finding out about it so we made sure we partied hard. I was ridiculoulsy happy when the DJ played 'Slice of Heaven'; in all seriousness I'm still so happy that NZ has given us a chance. Pete made sure he partied extra hard again at the recovery party and made things difficult for himself that night. I went out for dinner with everyone while he slept off the champagne! Again, I have more pics on my Nikon, so these few will have to do until I get that sorted.

Well that's enough rambling for now, enjoy the pics and don't hesitate to email if you want to find out more about our move to NZ. It seems everyone has a million questions and I can't think of everything you might need to know right now. JMx

A Week In Sydney..... Finally Some Photos!

Hi Everyone, it's a bit late, but here's some pics from my stay in Sydney on the way back from Broome. I stayed with my Auntie Tina in Kingsford, and although I had grand plans to spend some time with Pete and his family while I was there, it didn't quite work out. To keep busy I tried one of the council's suggested walks. I tackled the 20km stretch from Clovelly to La Perouse and did it easy in about four and a half hours. In fact I probably should have taken less time, but the track definition gets a little sketchy around the golf courses, and it actually disappeared once I got to the southern-most headland.


Tina and Rick took me out and about while I was there too, to a couple of jazz gigs, and to the Souths Leagues club to see the Choirboys' tribute to the Easybeats! We had a great night and had a great time watching the grannies rocking out to the music. I finally met Tina's friend Melinda after a few years of 'you've met Melinda, haven't you?', and totally loved her Ed Hardy dress. I want one... in fact I walked past the store on Edward street only last week. Just wait til I get some money!


Speaking of money, Pete and I have just about run out and we are eight weeks into dealing with Centrelink. In between filling out forms and waiting for phonecalls from them, we've been applying for the few mining jobs still left out there. I have had a few stop-start experiences with Newcrest, who seem a bit unsure about whether or not to hire people at the moment. I had a Dilbert moment with them the other day when I called them back to find out what was happening with a re-application. The poor HR guy said, 'Oh, we haven't called you back because you haven't been unsuccessful yet. You don't need to re-apply for that position.' This was after I'd been told by a different department that I was unsuccessful and my online application status had been changed to 'unsuccessful'. I'm confused.... And to add insult to injury I've been formally turned down for a job at Coles. I'm not sure why but maybe I should have put some spelling mistakes in my CV and left out the bits about a tertiary education? I'm now starting to think about some medium-term alternatives like a barista course, a floristry course (my other not-so-secret ambition) and a Dip Ed.

Pete has a site visit to Cannington Mine on Tuesday this week. We think (with our powers of deduction and a little inside information) that he's down to the last three or four candidates. Family, friends, and certainly my frustrated parents have our fingers crossed that all goes well this week.

We're currently house-sitting for Angie and Kas, who are on a whirlwind tour of Japan. I can't wait to see their photos and hear their stories when they get back: Japan's at the top of my wishlist. Their cats are a scream, between the three of them we might have a few more grey hairs coming our way. Mooks went missing for a few days, then turned up just as we started to panic. And Snowii has been keen to wake us up in the morning for breakfast. And Randy has taken quite a liking to sitting inside, something that the other two abhor.

We are going up to Booreen Point this Thursday for my brother Peter's wedding, which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. No doubt Jasmine will look lovely too. Mum and Dad have booked a big house on the lake-front for us and the rest of the extended family to stay in. Pete and I are taking some sleeping mats because we're anticipating a bed shortage..

Finally, I here are another couple of photos: The first is of Pete with his gorgeous niece Anna on her christening day. She's totally captivated by his stories about the Cameroon Football Team's logo. It was a such a funny trip, Pete was convinced he wouldn't need any good clothes and was shocked when he learned that he might have to go to church! He was invited to a christening after all.. Hence the Cameroon football shirt, the only one he brought with a collar.

I've also put a few photos of our trip to Bald Rock at the end of last year. Dad, Peter, Peter and I went down on a weekday to fill in some time. We got to the top and found ourselves in a ladybird plague. I called mum from the summit (I have a love-hate relationship with Telstra NextG) and she was so thrilled about it! I must say it's a much more pleasant experience that a plague of midgies or flies.

Well, I'm off for an afternoon siesta after a totally excellent breakfast at the Riverbend Cafe. I'd highly recommend it if anyone's out this way. Hope you're all well xox

All Good Things Must Come to an End

As the title suggests, a very good thing has indeed come to an end. After a hectic 'race around the world' through Indonesia, we arrived back in Oz late in October, bleary-eyed after a couple of crappy flights from Bali.

Our plan was to have a couple of week's relaxation in Brisbane while finding a job, but I don't think we could have planned our return to the mining workforce at a worse time! The markets crashed in October, capital was hard to get and most companies seemed to put moratoriums on hiring. A person we know who works in recruitment said that jobs went from 90 one week, to 3 the next, to none! We completed 90% of the recruitment process for two jobs based in Orange (which would have been so lovely) but right at the end those jobs evaporated. So at the moment we're still waiting until the silly season finishes up so we can continue the job hunt. We're not holding out hopes of finding much though, so I'm starting to think about doing other crazy things, like going back to uni.


In between everything I managed to fit in a quick trip to Broome so I could be at my friends' wedding. It was so fabulous to see all my friends from Tom Price, who reminded me of a few things I'd rather forget from my times as a party animal! Ceanne was a such a beautiful bride and Jeremy had everyone in tears as he got emotional during his vows.

My friends Carly and Chris were nice enough to ferry me around to the tourist attractions in their hire car as well, which felt like charity for the unemployed at the time.... in fact I'm still unemployed so I'm glad they were so generous! We went kayaking around the headland and saw some amazing things, the giant flatback turtles were my favourites. I stupidly forgot a hat so had to pull out my emergency Buff to keep the 36-degree sun off my scalp. We also went down to the headland to check out some dinosaur footprints, but the tide wasn't out far enough for us to see them. We also went to an pearl farm and got talked into taking a scenic chopper flight while we were waiting for a tour! Words can't describe how beautiful the water is there: You'll just have to check out the photos.


I stopped in Sydney on the way back through to Brisbane for a few days and stayed with my Auntie Tina. Sydney was great, although I'm still convinced I couldn't live in such a busy place. Pete and I met up for lunch and to see the Monet exhibition, which was a bit disappointing (albeit a bit cheaper than usual). For some fresh air and exercise I walked from Clovelly to La Perouse one day and was blessed with the weather and awesome views. Mind you, the amount of waiting and dodging golf balls and dirty old men through THREE golf courses was a bit much to handle. I was certainly glad to get to the proper tracks in the National Park. While walking through the banksias and flowering, heady-scented eucalypts I was close to tears as I remembered how much I missed this country and took it for granted.

Christmas was great, albeit a bit melancholy given the double-whammy unemployment status for Pete and me. We had a lovely Christmas Eve with my Mum and Dad, and my brother and his fiancee, Jasmine. Santa did a very good job this year and we all went to bed with smiles on our faces. At the end-of-year sales today I picked up a nice (cheap!) dress to wear to my brother's wedding in February, and a couple of other nice things I neither need or can afford! My budget starts tomorrow! We're thinking of doing an overnight walk at Lamington for NYE, but park or track closures might get the better of us.

Here's hoping for a good start to the new year with some job offers for Pete and I!

So Close But So Far....

At least that's how it feels anyway. We're currently in Lovina in the north of Bali, relaxing after a very hectic few weeks in Java. We fly home from Denpasar on the 26th of October giving us a good few days of R'n'R before returning to Oz.

Let's see what I can remember of our last few whirlwind weeks....... We had a great time in KL and Singapore eating up a storm and and shopping til we dropped (well I did anyway, Pete waited patiently for me at home..). In hindsight it was a bit of a mistake to spend so much time in Malaysia/Singapore before heading to Java because we became so accustomed to the wonderful hawkers' food that Indonesia has been a real culinary disappointment.

Bandung was a real highlight for me, since so many memories came flooding back. We hired a driver for the day and went to visit the houses I lived in when I was a kid, and also my old school. By coincidence our driver also worked in the aviation industry in Bandung (just like my dad..) and his English was excellent. The first house we went to, Budi Sari, was still exactly how I remembered it, and the owners were nice enough to let us inside for a look. Amazingly, even some of the same furniture is still there! The second house also appeared the same, but the owners weren't too happy about some random aussies coming in for a look - it's in a gated secure compound. The staff at my old school were incredibly hospitable, and I almost felt like a celebrity for a few hours there. I had trouble recognising some of the buildings there but I think that's because so much has changed. The old playground is now a swimming pool! They were so disappointed when I couldn't hang around for 'fabulous friday' when all the early childhood classes perform songs for their parents and classmates. To be honest I would have felt quite embarrassed to be there!

We also spent a day climbing Tangkuban Perahu, the volcano which overlooks the city of Bandung. It's exactly as I remember it, except that this time the amount of rubbish is staggering. As friendly and helpful as the Indonesian people are, on the flip side they aren't so good at being clean or dealing with rubbish. Jalan Cihampelas (Jeans Street) in downtown Bandung was a scream. In a bid to outdo each other, each of the cheap clothing retailers have constructed enormous super hero statues outside their shops, so that in about 50m you can see Rambo, Superman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk. Pete just had to get a pic with Arnie.....

From there we spent a day at Pangandaran, a beach town I remember going to as a kid that was unfortunately been battered by a tsunami a few years ago. They're still rebuilding, and the upside for travellers is that all the accommodation is new and mostly in good working order. I was disappointed however to see 2m-high piles of rubbish on the beach, which I remember to be in better shape back then. It's the perfect example of paradise lost, I suppose.

We then went to Jogjakarta and had a lovely time. It's a bit smaller and thus less hectic that Bandung or Jakarta and it has Borobodur just down the road. We woke early to see Borobodur at sunrise and were glad afterwards that we did (although at 4.30am it was difficult to see through the haziness of sleep). I can't wait to see the photos from that day for real on my computer, the light was so beautiful on the carvings, and the haze over the surrounding jungle was so moody and perfect.

Now onto the epic tale of yesterday - We continued on the theme of early mornings by booking a trip a day after Borobodur to see Gunung Bromo at sunrise. Due to a bit of tout 'misinformation' we missed out on the best part of sunrise but were still in awe of the landscape - it was almost lunar. After the early morning yesterday we then continued on to Probolinggo, then on to the ferry to Bali, and then at 6pm had to find some transport to Lovina! We ended up having to buy out the rest of the seats on the local bus (so typical of the developing world...) because the driver refused to leave until the bus was full, never mind if nobody else showed up that night. The driver then had the cheek ignore our requests to be dropped in town at the post office, and instead dropped us at his 'friend's' hotel, half an hour's walk from Lovina, after 10pm! Peter the Patient lost his patience and wanted to chase the driver down the street for a chat but thankfully reason kicked in and we got our exercise for the day walking back to where we wanted to go in the first place, albeit way past our bedtime.

I'm getting a bit nervous about coming home, but I'm so excited for so many reasons. I think a bit of reverse-culture shock will kick in, I suppose most people haven't been arguing with locals over a $2 bus trip or had to bargain for such things as drinking water and the price of using filthy toilet! Travelling certainly isn't glamorous! There are so many things I realise now that I take for granted in Australia: road rules, good wine, reserved seating on public transport, fixed prices, and health and safety regulations. So first on my list of to-dos back home will be to enjoy a nice glass of wine, and breathe in the clean air which I so often take for granted. I'd even like to catch the train home from the airport but my mum won't hear of it!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again so if you're in Brisbane and free anytime after the 27th October, let me know! I'll be up for as many cups of tea as I have friends (I wonder which is the greater number?), and since I don't have a job (yet) I'm free almost whenever. Hope everyone's well xox

Full Circle

I'm writing this post from Penang, where I was born 28 years ago (although I wish it was a few years less!). So far we have been here for about a day and we have had fried mee, char koay teow, indian thalis and more. I love this place! It's a total gastronomic paradise. And the highlight so far is the lack of tourists. I think the bulk of the young Bangkok tourists are put off from travelling here because it's a strict Muslim country, so you don't get the party animals, narco-tourists, sex tourists or up-and-coming barflies. Basically you cut out all the crap! I think it will be a bit easier to meet people here than on the tourist trail in Thailand. On Wednesday we're catching the ferry to Medan where I think there will be even less foreigners. Mind you, there will be less Indians and Chinese too, so finding something to snack on during the day at the moment might be a bit tricky! Hope everyone's well.

I Love Bangkok!

Yes, I'm still alive and in Bangkok. It's my first visit to the Thai capital and I love it so far! Thais are so neat and clean, and smiley as well. The only negative experience so far was our attempt to buy a couple of cool t-shirts on Khao San Rd last night. Khao San Rd is the main tourist strip in Bangkok, and for most of the time it's closed to traffic because there are so many tourists. There are some awesome t-shirt designs in amongst all the other mass-produced ones, but when we tried to buy three of them, the shark running the stall wouldn't give them to us for any less than 200 baht each. That's about A$8! A total rip-off when you can buy the same shirts at the weekend market for about $3. I think too many clueless people have passed through there and paid way too much, ruining the fun for everybody else. But enough complaining..... Bangkok is so cool!

Yesterday we spent the entire day wandering around Siam Square and the surrounding shopping district. We saw a movie as well, in the plushest cinema I've ever seen! And it only cost $5 - That's cheaper than when I was at uni! We bought a couple of things (Pete finally has his battery-powered hair shaver) and drooled over lightweight laptops. We had a fantastic lunch too, in a really swish food court. I think tomorrow we might go ten-pin bowling in the Siam Paragon centre. I love this city!

The Middle of the Mekong

Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), in the middle of the Mekong on the border between Laos and Cambodia, is the sort of place where it's easy to extend your stay. We planned to stay for one or two nights and stayed for three, and six years ago when Pete was here previously, he stayed a week! Below is Pete doing what suits Don Khon best - reading and lazing about.


There's no escaping the fact that we are travelling in the wet season, and while we have had mostly clear weather throughout SE Asia so far, the rain is never too far away. Apparently the Mekong is currently at 100-year flood levels up north, so I shudder to think what might be happening to the bars, restaurants and bungalows on Si Phan Don.


One of our favourite things to do was to sit on the French colonial-era bridge and watch the sun set and the water rush by. It all went down nicely with a icy cold Beer Lao from the shop next to the bridge.


There are several 'waterfalls' in the vicinity and below is a photo of Pete cycling on his weapon bike to the slightly smaller one. I don't think we've found a bike yet that fits him, which is great for me, I get a laugh every time I see him riding by!


Here's the slightly smaller, but arguably more spectacular waterfall on the Mekong. Even my wide-angle lens doesn't do the spectacle justice - it's almost a 270 degree view of rapids.


Night two sitting on the bridge was spectacular, not only was the beer nice and cold, but the sunset was amazing. Mother Nature manages some glorious sights sometimes, and the cloud formations as viewed from the bridge were one of her better efforts. Never mind the clapped-out pair of thongs below, the bridge was still hot from the day's sun, and stubby coolers are rare in Laos!




On day two we caught a rustic long-boat and then a very luxurious mini-van to the slightly larger waterfall. It was pretty amazing as well, and as with the other waterfall, it was also a 270 degree view. As ever Pete was being a boy and couldn't resist posing.


And on to the finale: The sunset on night three. We saw and felt the cool change come through - that's it you can see in the cloud stretching across the horizon.


Finally, just for fun, here's a photo of one of the menus on the island. Along with 'Spin Rolls', we could also choose to have 'Streamed Rice'. There's two I haven't seen before.



We're still in Siem Reap after a few false starts. Hoff and Katrina turned up and we all had an impromptu big night drinking 'Tomb Raider' cocktails (cointreau, lime and tonic). They went down a little too easily and we stumbled home way after midnight. The next day we felt sore and sorry and yesterday we tried to spend the day doing at least something useful. Katrina and I went to a interesting but very expensive artisan workshop, where to create a certain effect on the imitation wood carvings, they rub the wood with their calloused palms for one week! I'm going to remember that every time I think I'm getting bored at work! Today we were meant to leave early on the bus to Bangkok, but as luck would have it, Iron Guts Stonestreet is scared to leave the proximity of the toilet. So the plan is that we'll finally leave tomorrow if nothing else changes.

What? Poo?

Hi, I have time for another post I think so here goes. First up is a photo of a typical street in Savannakhet, a small town in southern Laos. It's full of dilapidated old French colonial buildings, with the odd new Chinese building or Wat (temple) thrown in for good measure. With some paving and a lick of paint, the town seems to me to be almost identical to Luang Prabang, now the hippest and fanciest place to go in Laos.


While we were discussing the day's events with a Beer Lao looking out over the Mekong, we were lucky enough to see some locals in a dragon boat going past. Because it's the wet season right now, the river is flowing very fast, so when we saw them coming back the other way, they were definitely going slower and working a lot harder! That's Thailand you can see on the other side of the Mekong.


After our gastronomic excesses in Vientiane, we tried to keep things low-key, but we couldn't go past this crazy place which was floating on the river. I think it was run by Thais, since most of them were speaking English. I believe that the Mekong is now experiencing 100-year flood levels, so I wonder how this place is going, and if you can get out there at all? Note the boardwalk for access.


After a night in Savannakhet we kept heading south to Pakse, Champasak, and the lovely Wat Phu. On the way to the Wat we shared the tuk-tuk with some French girls, who bought one of these things for a snack. Having seen plenty of them for sale I was intrigued as to how you might eat them. It turns out that you break the seed pod apart and then peel the seeds to eat the inner crunchy and slightly-sweet part. I found out later that these things are the seed pod of some kind of water lily.


Upon arrival at Wat Phu, we were immediately impressed. It was inexpensive to get in, and small enough that we saw everything in under two hours. It's an old Khmer temple complex which dates from the 11th-13th centuries. Although the walk was a bit tough in the sticky weather, our efforts were rewarded since the ruins at the top are nicely shaded and cool. There is even a natural spring seeping out from the sandstone cliffs above.




These gorgeous things are available for purchase for Buddists wanting to make an offering at some of the shrines around the complex. There are loads of different types, most of them involving orchids, marigolds or jasmine.


This is the view from the upper temples at Wat Phu. As you can see, it's only a small site, but quite nice. It was a taste of things to come later at Angkor Wat.


It might take a while to make it out, but this is a carving of a crocodile. There were a few cryptic carvings labelled on the map, so it was a bit like 'Where's Wally' as we tried to find them.


Finally, the steps we climbed to access the upper parts of the temples. It might not look that bad in the photo, but those stairs were steep!


At the moment we're in Siem Reap, the town that services the Angkor Wat temple complex. It has to be seen to be believed - the number of temples here is just amazing - Angkor Wat is the biggest one but there are hundred of others, all in various states of disrepair or restoration. I especially liked the Bantay Srei temple - the relief carvings are almost 3D, and so beautiful. We went back for a second visit to Angkor Wat yesterday for the sunset and it was so beautiful. The temple started to glow with the warm golden colours of the setting sun. The reflections in the adjacent pool was perfect and so majestic. I can see how this place can be so addictive and mesmerising.

We spent two days checking out the temples and we have two days in Siem Reap left. Today Hoff and Katrina are flying in from Koh Samui so I think we might have a big night tonight! Tomorrow I'll try and squeeze in a cooking class and maybe a massage from the blind people. After that we're going to Battambang for a couple of nights, and then on to Bangkok! I can't wait to go shopping!

That's it for today, since Slowstreet is finally at the tail-end of drafting his CV. I can't wait to put some of my Angkor photos up.

Vientiane

Hello, here's some photos from our stay in Vientiane. Although most travellers seem to think it's a boring place, we spent a good few days there and probably could have spent longer. There are plenty of lovely shops and restaurants in town (many of them French..) and some great places to sit by the Mekong and enjoy a Beer Lao. La Cave Des Chateaux was the best French restaurant we tried: You can't argue with a perfectly-cooked steak for just $10! I took a photo of the sign because the gecko looks so out of place.


While walking to the markets, we came across this sign, apparently sponsored by the Australian Government. It's pretty cute!


Here's me having a whale of a time at the brand-new water park. I think I posted something earlier about our trip to this place - Pete ended up bruising his rib cartilage when he started going too fast and fell. We were having a great time up until about then. After the rib incident we mostly floated around in the kiddies pool.


Again, here's me having fun while Pete was nursing his sore ribs. He was miserable for a few days after that and even now he's still a tiny bit sore.


Although it was only hours after the rib incident, Pete perked up for dinner with my mate Rosco, who works for Pan Australian in Laos. We went for dinner at La Cave Des Chateaux and then headed up to one of the many bars in town where ex-pats go for a drink (or maybe even to find a Lao girlfriend). It was on the fifth floor of a building right next to the Mekong, so the views were impressive. Although I remembered too late to make a can of 'harden-up', I did do my best to shoosh Rosco (these jokes will only be remembered by a few who were at George Fisher around 2002-2003!)


Patouxai, Vientiane's Arc de Triomphe is pictured below. Apparently it was built with cement donated for construction of the new airport, so some ex-pats have nicknamed it 'the vertical runway'. It's lovely from a distance, and ghastly up close!


And just in case you don't believe me, here's the sign that proclaims that fact:


The view from the top is impressive however, and from the photo you can probably deduce that Vientiane is not much of a city, and more like a big town. I don't think there are any buildings in Laos that are more than about five stories, which makes for a laid-back and relaxing place.


Finally, just for fun here's a photo of Pete's lunch while we were on our way south to Savannakhet. He bought some boiled eggs as part of his lunch and got a bonus with his purchase! The man with guts of steel couldn't quite bring himself to eat a baby chicken so the dogs did very well for themselves that day.


That's it for now, I'll post again if I have time today. Pete's doing his CV so I may have some time up my sleeve. Mine's already done but it's too scary to send it off - because then reality really will kick in! We only have about ten weeks left until we return to Australia, which is not a very long time at all!