Day 41: Italy just gets better and better - Florence!

We met Paolo at our apartment at 7:30AM for checkout.  Our train was at 8:30, and it was about a ten minute walk, but I like to be early and not risk missing a connection.  There were no hassles with checkout, so we were soon lugging our luggage down the three flights of stairs, and dragging it all up to the train station.

They had a really cheap and nice café shop at the station, which was great after having to pay upwards of 5 euro for coffee!  And they had café ginseng!  For 1.50!!

Day 40: Totally Love Venice!

Today was Michelle’s birthday.  What a perfect place to spend a birthday! After getting the train into Venezia Santa Lucia, we saw the Orient Express awaiting departure at the platform.  That train looks like a must do experience, but when I looked it up online afterwards, it only travelled from Venice to Paris.  Not sure why it's still called the Orient Express anymore?

Day 25: Beautiful Annecy

Today we were treated to, wait, yes you guessed it, another town market!!!! The prices of the goods here seemed a little more expensive than the one in Uzès; perhaps this place is a bit more touristy and gets a lot more touristy French visitors, given that it is only 3 hours away by fast train from Paris.

Day 22: Uzes Market Day

Today was market day!  But the town seemed strangely quiet. I’d have thought the place would be buzzing with a market that was reported to be the best in France being held!
As we made our way through the cobbled streets, the noises of the market indeed became clearer and louder and sure enough, the entire Place aux Herbes had been transformed over night from a quiet place for meals and relaxing, into a huge bustling market place.  In fact the market had completely filled the square, spilled out into the surrounding streets, and then flowed both ways down the boulevard as well.  Huge!

Day 19: From Carcassone to Uzes

We had a few hours of driving ahead of us today so it was decided to break it up a bit by visiting a couple of small towns along the way, and keeping off the motorways where ever possible.  This meant driving through country lanes narrower than those in the Cotswolds, with the beautiful scenery typical of southern France: streets lined with plane trees, fields of cherry trees, olive trees, vineyards and flame red poppies everywhere we looked.

Day 16: Pintxos! Xurros! Votives and more Barcelona!!

It was a bit cooler this morning.  Looking out the window across our terrace and seeing a sky full of chattering swallows and the sound of church bells ringing across the city was just beautiful. Today's plan was bus turistic again, this time the blue route.  For the first stop, we hopped off at Gaudi’s Homage to God,  La Sagrada Familia.  An amazing homage, spectacular and grandiose in vision and size, a work in progress since 1882, and not likely to be completed for another decade or so.  God mustn’t have thought too much of it though, because Gaudi ended up getting hit by a tram and dying a few days later, mistaken for a vagabond.  :-(

Day 15: Gaudy Gaudi and Magic Fountains - Barcelona!

I was tasked with being the tour guide during our Barcelona visit.  The bar had been raised pretty high with Ken’s London and Edinburgh itineraries; I quickly knocked a plan up on the last couple of nights in London, and today it would be put to the test.

Michelle and I had a simple breakfast at Bar Castells on the corner down from our apartment: cured ham in a baguette with americano coffee and juice, while we awaited Ken and Shaz’s arrival.

The itinerary didn’t really make it much past breakfast when we decided to catch the Bus Turista to get a good all round overview of the city.

We walked up La Rambla to Plaça de Catalunya and queued up for the bus.  There were a lot of people, and everybody wanted to sit on the top deck.  We let the first few buses go, and it wasn’t too long though before some brand new, and more importantly, empty buses rolled up.  Then we were off.

Europe Day 9: Edinburgh

Today we were leaving Edinburgh to head back to London, but that did not mean we couldn't still make the most of our remaining time here.
We had lived right across the road from this amazing church, and yet in our time here had not once visited inside, so that was definitely the first thing on today’s agenda.
Not only was this a really beautiful church inside, with some lovely stained glass windows, but as an added bonus, the choir was warming up for the Sunday Mass. What an amazing sound; sends chills and shivers right through me.

We have arrived: First day in London

The plane trip wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it would be. Sure I knew it would be long, but I managed to get in a good seven hours sleep between Hong Kong and London; and that was without drinking any alcohol at all on the second leg.
The early morning lights of London were laid out beneath us as the plane flew on and circled around to Heathrow. I love flying over cities at night, and really love arriving 30 minutes ahead of schedule!
A very quick passage through customs and baggage collection and we were met by Shazzy and Ken with many cuddles and smiles; a lovely warm welcome after our long flight.
Ken had arranged a private taxi to take us all back to their apartment in London. Leaving the airport and out onto the motorway I still didn't really feel like I was in another country, at least not until we were passing these beautiful multistorey apartment buildings with their high pitched roofs and tall chimneys.
Our taxi driver took us on a little impromptu tour of London: Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park with Big Ben in the distance. Along Whitehall and past Trafalgar Square, Cleopatra’s Needle across London Bridge and to the apartment. Yeah, we were in London. :-)
A couple of hours to change and freshen up, and then we were off on Ken’s lovingly and painstakingly prepared itinerary.

Luang Prabang and Kuangsi Waterfalls

A much later start to the day today; our pickup was at 9:30 so we had plenty of time to relax over breakfast.

Nikhom arrived on his motorbike, and our driver brought the mini-van along shortly after. We headed out through the suburbs of Luang Prabang, passing scores of schools with their yards a sea of bicycles. The houses thinned out and the water buffalo became more frequent as we left the city. The road started weaving through the mountains, and we passed many young teak plantations and small villages.

Luang Prabang and Pak Ou Caves

Up early today for a 6:00am pickup. We watched the monks doing their dawn alms collection. Very beautiful to watch. A large family had come to give alms and they were the centre of attention with lots of tourists taking their photo, even before the monks arrived.

The monks came in single file in their saffron robes accepting rice, bananas and other food without acknowledgement. When their bowls were full, or just at their choosing they take some food out of their bowls and give it to some poor children who were standing at the side of the procession.

Pakse

Today was a transit day. Our guide wanted to pick us up at 8:00 in the morning for an 11:45 flight. This would have left us sitting at the airport for nearly 4 hours. When challenged the night before, he said it was something to do with the airport, and not knowing enough I didn't argue it with him. But after checking with the hotel desk, I decided to leave him a message and we would make our own way to the airport.

I was up when he arrived so told him directly that we would just catch a tuktuk to the airport ourselves. He said to leave it with him, and a phone call later he said he had a driver arranged that would take us to the airport at 10:00. Much better.

Si Phan Done

I was up before dawn, and walked out to watch the sun rising over the Mekong. Some monks were walking along the river but I missed a beautiful photo of them with the sunrise as the battery went flat in the camera and I was locked out with Michelle still asleep and couldn't change it.

We are not quite getting what is meant to be happening with our new guide. He said he would pick us up at 8:00, but was at our hotel at 7:00. Questions on whether we were late or he was early or checking the time on our watch didn't really get resolved. I guess this was laid back Laos.

We had a filling breakfast of scrambled eggs and the most beautiful sweet orange juice. We rushed our breakfast, finishing at 7:30 only to not be able to find our guide anywhere. We wandered along the banks waiting; he showed up soon after but then we couldn't find our boat driver. Eventually we were off down the river.

Don Khong Island

Mone picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at Talat Suo Market. We had a quick wander through and bought a few woven scarves. Then it was to the airport for our Air Laos flight to Pakse.

Inle Lake

A more relaxed start to the day today, though I was awake long before the beautiful sunrise which I watched from the balcony over the water.

After a huge breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, coleslaw, tomato, toast and bagel with excellent coffee(I’d heard a lot about Laos coffee, but if was going to have to be damn good to be better than the Myanmar coffee I got everyday), Phyo met us at 9:00 for day of touring of Inle Lake by Long Boat.

We cruised up the largest creek feeding the lake which was a beautiful soft blue colour, presumably from the limestone in the surrounding mountains. We passed many people making their way to the markets, leading water buffalo, kids walking to school and monks on the riverbanks.

Mandalay and Mingun

Today we had the luxury of a little sleep-in. We watched the early morning mist blanketing the old palace grounds from our hotel window, which gave us excellent views over Mandalay. We had breakfast at the hotel, which had a huge assortment of food to choose from. I tried a Myanmar pancake which was quite nice. Today we were heading to Mingun, and Mimi met us in the hotel foyer. Mimi told us today that Myanmar is pronounced Mee-ah-mah. Similarly Mandalay is pronounced Man-a-lay.

Mandalay, Amarapura and Ava

It would have been perfect to stay another day or two or three in Bagan. Bagan was beautiful with so much to see and do. Soe told us about Mt Popa; how it was used as a hill station and that it is jungle with many animals including monkeys to be seen. We will have to visit there next time we come to Myanmar.

This morning the sunrise was stunning. We could see the warm crimson glow on the stupas. One large golden stupa was especially magnificent. The fogged car windows didn't faze our driver and we arrived quickly at the airport.

Bagan - a city of temples

Today was a very early start, up at 4:00am. We had a quick breakfast at 4:45 then met Tun at 6:15 for the early morning drive to the airport. A bus took us out to our Air Bagan flight, a Fokker 100. We were welcomed on board and were soon in high in the air flying above the clouds.

As we approached Bagan, we could see multitudes of temples from the air scattered around the fields as well as on the mountains across the river. This was the dry season and many of the streams and smaller rivers were dry. The river also was very low with large sand banks exposed.

The plane landed onto a wet tarmac; a light rain had been falling earlier at 6:30am. Our new guide, Soe welcomed us and organised our baggage collection for us and we were soon in our car. After a short drive from the airport we stopped at our first temple. We got our first lesson in Bagan history and temples as we walked around Izza Gona temple. For example you can estimate the era of the Buddha statues: if the ears were touching the shoulders then it was likely built after 1100AD.

Arrival in Yangon

We flew into Bangkok airport whilst it was still dark; a full moon following us on our flight from Melbourne. The lights of Bangkok like jewels cast to the horizon.

Bangkok airport is huge; and new only being completed 2 years ago. We made our way to transit as our baggage was checked through to Yangon.

The distance between our arrival gate and departure gate was about one kilometre! Michelle took advantage of the many travelators. I’d eaten so much on the plane that I needed the exercise: having eaten two meals during a time that I would normally have been sleeping! Our first in-flight meal was Thai Fish Balls in spicy green curry, delicious whilst Michelle had the chicken pasta. For breakfast we both went for the cheesy omelette.

We had a very brief look in a newsagent, but I had no baht on me so I had to give the tempting salty durian chips a miss. We retired to gate E2A to await our flight to Yangon.

Siem Reap Market

Being all templed out, we decided to spend a quite day exploring the markets and the town of Siem Reap.  We caught the Tuk Tuk into town with Savin from the Guest House and spent ages walking through the market where Michelle and Oiyee where happy to spend hours looking at silk and bags and scarves and the like.  I bought many small brass figures of various Hindi deities and Liam complained bitterly about the smell of the fish and meat markets.

We also looked into many of the art and souvenir shops in town.  We had lunch at the Ivy Bar, Liam having a Burger and chips, Michelle having a steak sandwich and chips and Oiyee and myself going the Fish Amok in coconut.  They had the best mango smoothies here, and I think we ended up having 2 or 3 each before we left!

We continued exploring around the market and town, stopping for ice creams and trying unsuccessfully to find the Blind Massage.

We returned to the Guest House, where Liam played shuttlecock with the local children until dinner time.