Ireland

Have spent this week touring around Ireland and have seen quite a bit.

Spent a day looking around Wicklow and Arklow, where some of Matt's family is originally from, a really beautiful and scenic area. Took us a little while to find his great, great grandfathers headstone at Glendalough, but found it relatively easy in the end, right near the main church!

Matt has been enjoying the country roads, specially when the speed limit is 100km!... though that requires concentration and can get tiring, so we mixed that up with some main road driving and just stopped wherever he got tired. The drive though has been great, everything is very green (apparently that's cause it always rains here, but we haven't seen any!) and scenic, lots of tractors, including on the motorways... and lots of pubs of course.

We've stayed in a mix of B&Bs, some great, some not so... my favourite was the one where the room was decorated all in pink and florals... very pretty!!!

The Rock of Cashel was really interesting, amazing to think that the buildings have been there since the 11th Century

Visited, and kissed the Blarney stone this morning... wasn't expecting to have to lie on my back over the edge of the castle though to have to do it!... apparently this will give us the gift of eloquence from now on... we'll see! At least we were the first ones there this morning, so hopefully the mist on the stone made it relatively clean?!! All I could think of was how many people must have done this before me!

Dublin!

Arrived in Dublin this morning! Got in just after lunch, picked up the rental car and headed straight for the Guinness Brewery (well... it was getting late!). The museum was quite good actually, and it's true what they say, the Guinness does taste better in Ireland... but, I think I'll stick to the Lager (can't believe I'm calling it that already!)... Back into central Dublin tomorrow for some more sight-seeing... (Our hotel is about 5km out of town, most of the reasonably priced hotels were booked out... know why now... the gaelic football grand final was on this afternoon!)

We have arrived in the UK

Hey everyone,

We arrived in the UK Monday night. Flight was "ok"... wouldn't go Finnair on a long flight again though!... Neither of us got any sleep on the flight. After circling over London a few times, we were lucky enough to be met at Heathrow though by Lee and Connor, and I was able to have a bit of a snooze on the way back to their place in Essex while Matt chatted with Lee!

We've both been a bit effected by jet-lag, but are starting to feel normal today!! We have both been spending a bit of time looking for jobs and setting up interviews, opening bank accounts and all that fun stuff.

Off to Ireland for a week from Sunday... which should be great!!.. We don't have much planned for the trip, just hiring a car and going wherever looks good!

Day 4 - Sept 14

Spent today seeing the older parts of Bangkok... caught a ferry up the river to Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. Wat Pho was great, spent a little extra for a guide who was able to explain a lot about Buddhism and the history of the temple as we went around. We also got our palms read... One of the first things he said was that I love food... how accurate!! Things are looking good apparently for the next few years... a good time to make a change he said!Had a quick look around Khao San, quick Tuk Tuk ride and back to the hotel... need to work out how we're going to fit everything back in our bags for our flight tomorrow! Plus... there's a few thunderstorms around at the moment... great night for a few beers on the balcony!!

Day 3 - Sept 13

'A full one day!! Hired a taxi for the day who took us to the floating markets, an elephant farm (which I wouldn't actually recommend doing unless you really want to just be able to say you've ridden an elephant, felt a bit sorry for them).. from there we headed out to the River Kwai, which was great to see... spent a bit of time there before our taxi driver took us to a tiger temple... This is worth doing... felt like the Tigers were more in natural surroundings and well looked after... was a little bit strange sitting so close to them... specially when they started waking up when it started raining! The cubs were great though, just like playing with a puppy!!.. Just always at the back of your mind that they can snap and turn around and bite your calf.
It was a long day, but a really worthwhile one... Must have been about a 300km journey all up, but still worked out cheaper than going on an organised tour. But best of all we could keep to our own pace.

Once we were back in Bangkok, managed to find a bar televising the Bledisloe, just in time to see the last 5 mins...so close yet so far... d'oh!!!!

Day 2 - Sept 12

Spent today walking around central Bangkok. It's so easy to get around... the Skytrain is just up the road, plenty of taxis and Tuk Tuks.. but we stuck to the Skytrain today.
Thank goodness for airline baggage limits (and that we were already at our limits).. could have spent a bit of money here... I wouldn't say you get massive savings to Sydney, especially for the decent quality stuff, but it is a little cheaper, and there's just lots of it! Matt was at home at the computer "stuff" market... huge!
Have had fun just working things out here... like we had lunch in a food court, where you have to buy coupons which you used instead of money at the various outlets... pretty cool... lunch for 2 for about $3! (Yes, including beer)

Headed back to the hotel for a snooze (my feet were killing me... not used to so much walking)... before heading out to Patpong. Had a look through the markets (and here's my bargaining tip... Actually have no money with you when you're looking... you can honestly say you don't have any money and start walking away and it's amazing how cheap things got!.. I ended up getting 2 pewter wine glasses with elephants engraved on them for about $20 each.. now don't anyone tell me I could have done better... cause I was happy with that)
Had dinner here in Patpong... it was pretty shite but kinda fun watching the "interesting" crowd

Day 1 - Sept 11

Doomsday 7 years ago... but marks the beginning of our adventure!! Most of today was spent travelling so not much to report. Watched a few movies (I'll blame it on the emotion of leaving and the 2 champagnes I had had, but the Sex and the City movie made me teary!!).. Had and interesting passenger sitting across the aisle from us.. couple of wines and she was gooooonne!!! Very loud! And had an argument with the Jestar staff when settling her tab, she really didn't think she'd had that many drinks!!
Bangkok airport can be desribed in one word - massive
So easy to get a taxi, and 400 Baht later (bout $15).. we were at our hotel/serviced apartment Chateau de Bangkok...
Our Bell boy/tourist activity advisor has been great... his name... and I'm being serious... is Ping Pong. He says Aussies are great, always having a joke and remember his name!!.. no wonder!
Made it just in time to squeeze in dinner at the hotel's restuarant before it closed.. about $20 for our meal including beer... love Thailand already!!! Unfortunately Matt accidentally ate a whole chilli :( has turned him off the hot stuff!

Welcome

It seems to have both taken an age yet come around so quickly, but tomorrow... we're off! We've had a great time over the last week or so catching up with everyone before we head off... lots of eating, drinking and fun!! It will be a bit strange for a while not having everyone around, but we hope to see at least a few of you over in the UK/Europe at some point!

Our first stop is Bangkok, for a bit of shopping, sight-seeing and relaxation, arriving in London on Monday 15 September.

The plan is to keep this site updated with what we're up to... so don't be afraid to let us know when we've been a bit slack!

PS: To all the McLeods... will be with you in spirit on Saturday.