Same, same but different

We are now back in Thailand, getting ready for two sailing regattas. You may remember from the last blog the photo of the police water cannon, we can now explain why we thought it might be useful in Thailand. No, not for use against the red shirt rioters. We travelled from Bangkok to Pattaya by bus whilst the Songchran (water) festival was on. This involves people throwing water over each other and having a big party. Great fun to watch, shame we were on a bus although on the last part of our journey we were daubed and hosed a little by the locals. View out of the bus windscreen. The road is soaking wet and it hadn't been raining. The locals put a barrel of water on the back of their trucks and filled pistols, dishes, whatever to catch anyone riding or walking past. The journey took 5 rather than the normal 2 hours.

Out of the side window of the bus, you can see we were still targets. It is a fun festival, with everyone taking part in total good humour and lasts for 12 days.

We went to a leaving do for Sam and Keith who we had met before in Pattaya. They are off to Kuwait. Good luck Sam and Keith. Lets hope you find some booze. In the picture are three PIGS (Pattaya International Gentlemen's Society) from left Michael, Tony, Keith and Garry.

Larking about on boats again. This was Garry celebrating his birthday by stripping and cleaning a bilge pump. All part of our race preparation. Reinstalling the pump, whilst out at sea invloved a few choice words, including head, up ar.., f........, can't, see.

With the pump re-installed and the sea cocks closed, it was time to relax. Alison had provided champagne for all on board.

All on board. Race preparation and team briefing taking place. (Yeahh right!). From left Gary, Cliff, Tony, Chris, Thane, Garry and Siam up front.
The racing starts Friday 1st May. We still have lots of work to do, but are confident of a good result or two.

Cheers

Alison and Garry

Silver Surfers in Bali

We moved from Melbourne over to Indonesia for a flying visit (by our standards, we seem to find ourselves staying in places for longer and longer). It was fantastic to be back in Asia again. Our time in Indonesia was such good fun, we are definately going back, but we don't yet know when. We have since moved on to Thailand to take part in two sailing regattas. You might have heard about the red shirt protesters and the disruption they caused, - not a problem for us, in fact we had a great time in Bangkok and the only problem we had was (another) long slow journey to Pattaya. Anyway, back to Indonesia and enjoy the pictures below.

Our first stop off was Bali where we took the opportunity to show the locals how to surf, as above.

Alison, after she had just come out of a tube! ("Yeah, right" for any kiwis reading this)

We went to a seaside fish restaurant, where we had to catch our own. Garry got very wet and Alison ran away.

The food was very good and particularly fresh!

We hired a car and took a drive North to Ubud. On the way we passed lots of furniture designers. This was a particularly fab bath which is one piece carved out of stone.

Hot stuff this pic! Chillies in the foreground and a volcano in the background.

We stopped for coffee at another Starbucks, conveniently sited next to the volcano.
On our little journey, we had to drive up a very steep hill and failed miserably the first time, much to the amusement of the locals. So we reversed down for a second attempt. This time we made it and received a big cheer from the audience.

These local kids have made a dragon out of bits and bobs and wanted their picture taken.

This is the North of Bali, the lake and volcano Batur, where we stayed overnight.

Two more volcanoes and tomatoes growing at the side of the lake.

On the way back, in Ubud, we visited the Antonio Blanco Museum and Gallery. A bit weird but worth a visit. On the way in you pass through a bird sanctuary and can be decorated in them if you wish.

Tucan play at this game!

Monkey business in the temple. We learnt from someone else's experience not to carry bananas or they will wip them off you.

This is a statue in the Monkey Temple of a very attractive lady (we think her name is Randang). Legend has it that she has a one metre long tongue, funny eyes and pendulous breasts.

After Bali, we went to Lombok by ferry.

In Lombok, we found a locals "warung", no electricity, no toilets, no water, no english and great food. On the second night we went, Garry tried something a little more adventurous - a whole fried chicken, including feet and head.

To get to the warung above, you have to take a Lombok Ferrarri, pictured above. One horse power.

By chance, we came across this lovely beach with the locals enjoying a public holiday
We tried the fried tapioca - Yum!

Gilli Islands - we found paradise. We hired push bikes as our preferred option to shanks' pony or a ferrarri. There are no cars or motorbikes. We then tootled off round the island snorkelling. We saw loads of great colourful fish and the highlight was seeing turtles. Really big but not frightening.

From Gilli, we took a very long bus and ferry ride to Jogjakarta. Worth the trip though. Above is the Prambanang temple, built in 800 a.d.

This guy looks after the entrance to a smaller temple. We think it may be the Heineken temple.

If you drink too much Heineken, you have to go to rehab. Check out the sign.

We were a bit surprised to find this, as we only ever see chicken on the menu.

Anyone interested in old scooters? Indonesia is the place to track one down. There are stacks of these.

We stopped in a little town for another coffee from Starbucks! We have seen loads of this kind of stuff, but we still love the way they cram unbelievable amounts of stuff on a motorbike.

This guy was patrolling the car park. Car crime is not a problem in Indonesia.

We will spell this wrong, but this is a Buddhist temple, called Borobudor. The largest buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. Also dates from 800 ish. It has had several renovations, the most recent in 1983. If you walk around all the levels, (as we did), it is only 5 kms to reach Nirvana, at the top. Of course, we did it at midday!

Great carvings showing Buddhist beliefs. See the notice for interesting information

Nearly at Nirvana, each stupor has a buddha carved inside it.

It is considered lucky if you touch the buddhas hands, but as you can see, it was a bit of a stretch.

Any ideas what this is?

It is egg shells over the tips of the plant leaves. Allegedly, it makes the flowers grow faster. Can you try this at home and let us know if it works?

Another Starbucks. This time at the old harbour in Jakarta.

The harbour wall is lined with these wooden boats all being loaded and unloaded by hand.

Proper hard work, loading bags of cement by hand, in temperatures of about 30 degrees C. And check out the gang plank!

Public disorders are not common here either.

We could have done with this truck for our arrival in Thailand, but more of that later!

Our last night in Jakarta, we did something we really enjoy doing - eating street food - you meet great people, the food is really good and cooked straight under your nose (literally).

Bye for now

Alison and Garry

Curry in Melbourne

After Sydney we moved on to Melbourne. We were coming to Melbourne mainly to watch the first round of the formula 1 Grand Prix. However, we also had the opportuinity to catch up with Alison's relatives, our friends Aileen and Ronan from New Zealand and Ronan's sister (Ursula) and brother in law (Tony) and their 2 boys (Niall and Jack). So as you can imagine we were really looking forward to Melbourne.

We had also had an idea, to have a curry delivered from Akbars in Leeds to Melbourne so that we could enjoy it with our friends. Akbars were very enthusiastic about this idea, especially as we set it up with Guiness World Records as a potential world record for the longest take away delivery. Unfortunately, it didn't arrive so we had fish and chips instead. However, we haven't given up and Akbars may yet deliver and Tony and Ursula can enjoy it.

All of the above (F1, curry from Akbars), was very exciting, but not as much as finding out that Maureen (Alison's relative in Melbourne) was getting married the day after we left. Hopefully we'll get a photo from the wedding and post it on another blog. Maureen - hope it all went well please send a picture soon.

As a small aside, we travelled from Sydney to Melbourne on an overnight train, definately not recommended.



Melbourne has a strange but interesting mix of architecture. This is an arts centre in the middle of town. There was also live music in the square and a nice bar where we met some friendly locals.

We stayed our first couple of nights with Maureen (Alison's dads cousin). Thanks Maureen. In the picture, left to right, Garry, Maureen, Ann, Geraldine and Brian. Alison says they haven't changed a bit in sixteen years since her last visit!

Alongside Melbourne's strange, but interesting architecture, they also have some strange but interesting sculptures. This is an upside down cow in a tree. Good hey.

One of the support races for the formula 1 is this thing called "Aussie Cars". For those of you that remember Legends and Garry's attempts to race one, may be interested in the above. It's a Legend that has been slightly modified (chasis bracing and discs all round) so that it has some grip. They run on slick tyres and put on a good show of fast close racing. Garry's thinking about a come back but Alison reckons it's a mid life thing.

This was another close encounter with a kangaroo! Not seen this kind of wildlife at the track before.

Ronan and the boys very kindly made us a sign to put up at the track. Did anyone see it on the telly? We were in between the last two corners.

Guess who at the track?

This was Button leading Vettel. Sorry about the quality of these very important Grand Prix pictures, but someone who shall remain nameless forgot the camera, so he had to run approximately 2 miles round Melbourne to buy a disposable camera. Anyway back to the racing, does anyone know the final result yet, as it has changed three times since we saw the race?

Rumour has it that in order to cut costs, teams will no longer be required to turn up at the track and the stewards will decide who gets what points.

With no zoom on the camera, it is a little difficult to make out the Who on stage after the race had finished. Great concert with all the old favourites. A fab inspiration for any of us who do not want to grow old gracefully.

As a warm up for the 2 mile run mentioned above, the person who forgot the camera did a 1.2 km swim in the morning. This was inspired by Jamesons and Ursula over dinner the previous evening. Pictured left to right is Damien, Garry, David (?) and Ursula. Ursula is a pretty awesome swimmer. She was fourth in her class and first out of the above elite team.

Nutrition has always been an important aspect of training, Garry is seen in training above - enjoying a pie sandwich.

This is Captain Cook's house, moved brick by brick from Yorkshire to Melbourne, probably the oldest building in Melbourne.

Still no picture of Aileen and Ronan. It was great to catch up with them, when they were not working. We had a lovely day out with them on Philip Island. Look forward to the next time.

We have now moved on to Indonesia, specifically Bali and Lombok, having a great time. Another blog will follow.

Bye for now

Alison and Garry