Wednesday 20th December - Banana Pancake Virgin

Day One:

Up bright and early, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Laos and the ‘Vianello-Smith-Connolley Christmas Extravaganza.'

Our Bangkok Airways flight (fyi best airline ever) landed at Luang Prabang airport, where Mat and Kat were waiting for us with open arms and a Tuk-Tuk to whisk us to our guesthouse. We’re staying at the Sok Xai guesthouse, which is situated in the northern part of the peninsula. It’s a lovely place, very cosy and located just across the road from one of the many ‘monk-filled’ temples in town.

As soon as we had dumped our belongings we headed into town where Mel tried the first of many banana pancakes, Mat has mentioned these repeatedly in their blog but we didn't see them last year. I can see why he loves them so much Mmmmm bananaeree goodness.

As Kathryn had predicted we brought Christmas with us as much as we could and as we watched the sun set, we made up paperchains and strung them along the guesthouse balcony.

We have not seen Kathryn since March and have not seen Mat since our wedding in July last year, so it’s fantastic to catch up with them both and we are really looking forward to spending Christmas with them.

Mat and Kat arrived early and had luckily done some preliminary scouting of the town, so in the evening, they took us to a super barbecue restaurant, which they had discovered the night before. This involved starting a fire in the middle of the dining table and the boys cooking their own tea. At the restaurant we sampled some of the local brew, called lao-lao, which is distilled from rice and goes down far too easily. At this particular restaurant it was sweet and bright green.

Monday 18th December - Transit

Airports

You can't fly direct to Laos but we didn't mind as we enjoyed Bangkok during our honeymoon and we were looking forward to seeing it again. Flights to the far east are a fortune over Christmas so we chose to split the flight with a stop and to make it even cheaper we chose to go with Turkish Airlines.

Whoever said “It’s not the destination, but the journey that’s important” has clearly never travelled with Turkish Airlines….or stayed at the Avana Hotel in Bangkok ;o)

Not a fantastic flight….Mel was sat next to Winona Ryder from the film Beetlejuice (or someone who looked, dressed and acted remarkably like her), who proceeded to huff and puff her way through the flight, before disembarking sporting a single white glove (a-la Michael Jackson)….naturally she was travelling “uuutterly alone !!!”.

The flight also saw Melly’s vegetarian meal ‘disappearing’ and taking a good 10 minutes of hunting for another one which was ripped open by the stewardess, given a disdainful sniff and hurled in our general direction. Mmmmm yummy.

Istanbul airport was quite pleasant and so the stopover went very quickly, we were soon re-boarding the plane for the final ‘overnight’ leg of the flight.

We arrived at a very new, shiny, and large Bangkok International airport at about 4pm the following day and slightly flagging, but still fairly bright-eyed, we hailed a taxi, which took us to our hotel.

Unfortunately the ‘quiet top floor location’ turned out to be directly below the hotel ballroom, which was setting up for an evening event - apparently ‘Animal’ from the Muppets was on drums, so we facilitated a quick change of rooms to a much quieter floor and got our heads down ready for our early departure for Laos the following day.

December 2006 - Sunny Christmas

Holiday

This year we decided to have an alternative Christmas with our alternative family MatnKat. As I'm sure you all know they are currently traversing South East Asia with nothing more than a bike pump and some kendal mint cake... we wish them luck. Anyhoo they will be passing through Laos over Christmas so that's where we will be meeting them. We can't wait.

October 2006 - Emilie

Despite fears of Jonny's genes creating a wolf child, Juliana's genes fought back and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Emilie.

We've gone from being babyless to two within a couple of months.

So who's next then ;o)

September 2006 - Eve Summer

On the 23rd of September in the comfort of their own conservatory the Wortleys welcomed Eve Summer at record speed. The third beautiful girl for their ever expanding brood and another niece for Uncle Joel to spoil.

August 2006 - Katie Alice

In August Vicky and John brought Katie Alice to our clan. We have all been very excited about this as Katie is the first baby in our 'gang', a new mind to warp and corrupt ;o) or in the case of Mat, experiment on. It also means that we finally have to accept the fact that we are adults............. or alternatively it gives us the perfect excuse to carry on acting like children under the pretext that it's "for the kids" :o)

Wednesday 11th October 2006 - Baby Fest

We've had a bit of a baby fest recently and I think it's only fair that we welcome them into our extended family.

Monday 5th June 2006 - We're Off To China

So, after much debate on where we want to go on holiday this year, we've decided on China.

Having been to Hong Kong last year, it was nice to get a taste of the chinese culture, but, by the very nature of the place, we still felt that it was quite westernised and we wanted to get a bit closer to the way of life for the average citizen.

So, we are looking forward to a couple of weeks of beatings, torture and oppression, although of course due to the strict cenorship laws (particularly the internet), it is unlikely that you will be able to see how we are getting on via the blog.......so if you don't hear from us after a couple of weeks, please feel free to call the Amnesty or the UN to negotiate our release.

We fly out on Wednesday 7th to Beijing and will be based just to the north of the Forbidden City.
See you soon

Melly and Joel

Sunday 21st - Tuesday 23rd August

Hong Kong Phooooey

Juuuuuust about made it onto the plane at Brisbane…..Mark and Tiff dropped us off at the airport at about 9:15am for our 11:10am flight…….plenty of time……but we walked in to find an absolutely huge queue, which was moving very slowly (apparently Qantas were 14 staff down that day)

After much zig-zagging up and down the airport, we finally made it to the front of the queue to check-in at 11:00am (boarding time was 10:40)…..ok…..so we now have ten minutes to get through passport control, have ourselves and our hand luggage x-rayed….and get to the gate for boarding. Gazelle-like we sprinted through the airport, with the ‘final-call’ announcement ringing in our ears, filling in our departure forms as we ran and arriving at the gate at about 11:15….even managing to squeeze in a wee and stop for some food and drink at duty free….oooooh we like to live close to the edge.

Luckily the plane was still there when we reached the gate and we managed to jump on and take our seats…pheeeeewwwww…..

Arrived in Hong Kong after an 8-hour flight……….hmmmm……after so many flights the novelty of flying really is wearing off and we still have the 13-hour flight home.

Jumped on a train into the city and arrived at our hotel around 8pm….our hotel is in Chinatown….which is a good location as it is close to everything…..

Wow….what a fantastic hotel and room !!!!!…..we managed to play the ‘honeymoon card’ and were upgraded to an executive suit on the 32nd floor with large plasma TV…DVD player etc…etc….and wonderful views of the city….the bathroom has speakers and a glass wall, so you can even watch TV from the bath…

Headed out to investigate Hong Kong the next day and jumped on a tube train over to Hong Kong Island….we bought a 3-day metro pass (called an Octopus pass) at the airport, which we soon realised was essential, as in contrast to Sydney, the map doesn’t do justice to the size of Hong Kong.

Jeez this place is hilly….Hong Kong Island is basically one big mountain, but luckily there is an 800m long escalator system that run a significant way up the mountain, which was great…..apparently all through the day the system runs uphill until 4pm, when everything reverses…..cool…

Jumped on and took the escalator up to the botanical and zoological gardens…..the gardens are free and open to all, which is great, but unfortunately you get the feeling that this lack of entrance fee (hence funding) has a bit of a detrimental effect on the welfare of the animals…..the main attraction is a large orang-utan, who looked very unhappy in his cage.

After the gardens we then jumped onto the ‘Peak Tram’ which we rode up to the summit of the island.…..great views of the Hong Kong City and the mainland, even with passing clouds getting in the way….Hong Kong has a very low cloud-base and it is a very strange feeling watching a cloud come towards and engulf you….

Next stop was the harbour for a look at the Kowloon skyline....which, due to a bizarre lack of pedestrian routes in Hong Kong was easier said than done……however, after clambering over many road barriers and central reservations and cutting through various office buildings, we finally made it…..

After a long day we returned to the hotel, stopping at the night market to pick up some viewing pleasure for our in-room DVD….$20HK (£1.50) bought us the new version of Charlie and Chocolate Factory…..Joel also managed to pick himself up a very nice watch for about £20….

For our last day in Hong Kong and our honeymoon, we decided to head out to do some pressie and souvenir shopping….before heading back down to the harbour for a look at the Hong Kong City Skyline (from the Kowloon side)……

And then it was time to leave…….

Picked up our rucksacks and headed for the airport for our flight home……playing the honeymoon card for the last time, we managed to blag a very welcome upgrade to business class, which made the long flight home much more pleasant.

Tuesday 16th - Sunday 21st August - Brisbane

Left our hotel to catch our short flight to Brisbane…...we say ‘short’, but it is still 1 ½ hours and 1000km between Sydney and Brisnbane, which is Oz terms is just a hop up the coast……hmmmm…..we’re still trying to get used the scale of Australia.

After the chill of Sydney, we were very relieved to arrive in a pleasantly warm and sunny Brisbane to be greeted by Mark and Tiff…our hosts for the week…...Although they were both working, they took a ‘slightly extended’ lunch hour to not only pick is up from the airport but also whisk us away to a nice riverside restaurant for a cup of coffee and to recommend a afternoon ‘ramble’ for us through Brizzy.

Leaving us at the nearby jetty, they returned to work, whilst we jumped onto a City-Cat, which took us to the main city centre.

We strolled through the business district and into the botanical gardens and sat on a park bench to drink some juice and eat some fruit…..suddenly Joel was aware that not only had he just been hit by two apples, but that his orange juice was on the floor and Mel’s apple juice was all down his trousers…..the reason….a man-eating venomous spider has just dropped out of the tree and onto Mel’s arm (for clarity ‘man-eating’….means ‘small money-spider type arachnid’).

Fleeing from the gardens, we headed across the river into the South Bank area…..as with the London South Bank, it seems to be the cultural and arts centre for Brisbane and was a very nice walk......the are lots of restaurants and food waggons and also a cool man-made beach area, where you can strip off for sunbathe and a paddle.......

We finished the day by jumping back on a City-Cat and meeting up with Mark and Tiff for a few beers at a pub further up the River.

The house in Samford that we are staying at with Mark and Tiff (they are house-sitting for the owners) is lovely. By British standards it’s huge and has both a swimming pool and tennis court in the grounds….’ohhhhhh’…staying here is going to be soooo tough ;-)

Wednesday was a public holiday in Australia and so Mark and Tiff had the day off and generously took us on a drive up to Noosa and Maloolagbar on the sunshine coast to see some beaches…..on the way we passed a place called ‘Mount Mee’ (geddit), which we could not stop laughing at…heehee….we’re such children….

The coast was lovely….’picture post-card’ golden sands that stretched forever, with a plenty of surfers braving the 'winter' seas.

For the following day we had booked a day trip up the coast to ‘Fraser Island’….it is made entirely of sand and is in-fact the largest sand-bar island in the world.

With minor development and no roads it is an unspoilt haven for wildlife and vegetation. The only way to explore the island is via 4-wheel drive car / bus and, as part of journey necessitates a drive along the beach, access is limited to periods of low-tide.

During our trip we saw plenty of dingos, which roam free on the island and admired the various rain-forest terrains. We also stopped off at Lake Makenzie in the interior of the island. Lake Makenzie is a rain water lake, surrounded by some of the purest sand in the world…excellent for cleaning jewellery apparently….Joel applied some sand to his ring and it shone nicely afterwards…..fnarr…..fnarr….

Unfortunately by the time it was time to leave to the island, we were running about half and hour late…”not too bad”, I hear you cry, but with the tide coming in, this meant that out road back to the ferry stop was getting narrower by the minute and delay would mean an ‘unscheduled’ night on the island for us with the dingos….and it is not even as if you can swim to shore as the sharks that roam the waters around the island are notorious man-eaters (not joking).

And so it was, with the sea lapping under the wheels of the bus and a third of the distance still to go that we eventually ‘lost’the road and had to try to drive up a small sand hill and head inland to find another route…or so we thought…..attempting to climb the hill, the bus got stuck in the sand…”d’oh”…..another five attempts and still no joy….not panicking yet….just need to get everyone off the bus to lighten the load.

With night falling and the tide still coming in, the bus hurtles passenger-less at the hill…..and grinds to a halt….stuck in the sand……double d’oh…is that the sound of a pack of dingoes getting closer ????…..another few attempts (by now the bus is having to reverse back into the sea up the its wheel arches in order to get a good run up)…still no joy…..panicking slightly….but, as if in a Hollywood movie with sharks chewing on the bus tyres and dingoes trying to kidnap the driver, the bus finally crawled up the beach to safety…where we all jumped back on board and made it back to the ferry port just in time and headed to the mainland….

Joel celebrated our ‘brush with death’ by ordering kangaroo steak at the local restaurant, before we jumped back on our coach and headed back to Brisbane.

On Friday, we had the loan of Mark and Tiff’s car so we decided to do some local exploring….we first headed to the ‘Australian Woolshed’ a nearby farm / open zoo, where you can feed Kangaroos and cuddle Koalas…..naturally Mel could not resist a cuddle and had her picture taken with a very cute Koala named Eukie.

After picking up some food for a picnic, we headed up to Mount Glorious, one of the highest peaks in the area where we sat and listened to the sounds of the wildlife......then, to work off our lunch we headed into the rainforest for a nature trail walk to admire the greenery.

Finished the day with a drive through the spectacular countryside, before taking Mark and Tiff out for dinner at a very nice pub in Samford as a ‘thankyou’ for their kind hospitality, where unsurprisingly….Joel had more steak…

On Saturday, as Mark and Tiff were at a Wedding, so we drove to the station and caught the train into Brisbane city for some sightseeing, shopping and another stroll around the South-Bank (Saturday is when they hold a craft market). We perused the local craft stalls and Mel treated herself to a tattoo….albeit a temporary one.

That night we found ourselves at the pub……again….and yes…..Joel had steak…..again……

Sunday was the day of our departure from Brisbane to Hong Kong and we were quite sad to leave.....it was really nice staying with Mark and Tiff, not only because they were such fantastic hosts, but also because it was really nice to stay in an Australian home......our hotels have been fantastic, but I do think that nice to see a country through the eyes of the people who live and work there....

Given the nuptual celebrations the previous night, we did however feel a little guilty dragging our host out of bed on Sunday, to take us to the airport.