We leave Koh Lipe via boat from the Island to mainland Thailand then travel on overnight coach to Bangkok.
Luckily we have enough time to see some of the famous sights of the capital before our flight departs including the main temples.
Wednesday 4th January
Back in the UK for Mikes dads funeral. A big thank you to Rachel, Ben and Adam, who kindly give us temporary accommodation at their home in Rickmansworth for our 2 week stop over in the UK.
Monday 9th January
Funeral in Margate Kent gave us an opportunity ( albeit a sad occasion ) to catch up with the ruby side of the family.
Tuesday 10th January
Time to investigate how we are going to exit the UK, so off we trot to the travel agents in 'Ricky' to check on econmical flights back to Thailand so we can continue our adventure. No luck everthing we were offered was far to expensive, we were just exiting Thompsons when the assistant said they had a few seats left on flights to Australia for 164 pounds plus 30 pounds fuel tax EACH one way only, our bottom jaws dropped along with our shoppingand we asked about the date for the next available flight, which was scheduled for Tuesday 16th January flying to Sydney.
AUSTRALIA now took priority on our tour schedule.
During the we before departure we took the opportunity to visit all our friends and relatives in the UK and wish them happy new year.
We had been wearing lightweight hot weather clothing for our travels in Asia and were not prepared for a visit back to London in the January as all our winter clothing was in the lock up, so we needed to visit the shops and buy a few warmer outfits.
Monday 16th January.
Arrive at Gatwick airport, expecting to help push the plane up the runway ( bearing in mind the cost of the tickets )
No problem! we had seats near the front of the plane and our flight, although long in duration was on time when we landed in Sydney. ( population 4 million )
GOOD DAY BRUCE & SHEILA - We take our time to get used to the language !
Wednesday 18th January
We indulge ourselves by staying in the Rocks district of Sydney - similar to Londons Covent Garden - walking distance to all the famous sights, so we visit the Harbour bridge, the Opera house, Bondi beach, and various other famous sights. No worries mate! and No drama mate! are common phrases amongst the locals.
We love Sydney, the sights the people and the lifestyle.
Our plans are to visit friends in Melbourne so we investigate hiring a car and driving down the East coast stopping off on route.
Saturday 21st January
Leave Sydney by car and travel along beautiful country roads for a visit to the blue mountains just west of Sydney,
the name comes from the blue haze of ultrafine oily mist given off by the Eucalypts trees that abound in the mountains. We see rainbow lorakeets and a mix of wildlife never seen before.
We stop on route at deserted beaches ( Broulee ) and small seaside villages, including the fishing port of Eden famous for watching migrating whales which pass close to the coast. Crossing from the state of the New South Wales into Victoria we stay in the costal town of Mallacoota and then drive via the lakes disrict ( Metung ).
Until you study a map of Australia and drive between towns its difficult to judge the size of the country, We were told that the whole of Europe could easily be superimposed over Australia and there would still be land over.!!!
Driving is sheer pleasure as the roads are empty and well maintained.
Thursday 26th January.
We arrive in Melbourne ( population 3.5 million ) its the national Australia Day ! We drive along the coast just south of central Melbourne to Mornington peninsula and search for our friends home in the town of Mornington.
Ian and Karin live in a fabulous house 2 mins walk across the road from fishermans bay a sandy beach ideal for daily swims.
posted by MartineandMike @ 12:50 PM
1 Comments:
What?? No blog update since early Feb?? What are you guys upto??!!! Mike, you aren't getting lazy & not updating the bolg - are you??!! Love & hugs, Sandhya xx
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