Another good flight - I’m getting used to getting upgraded – and here we are in the US of A. After a small drama with the hotel not having our booking and being full, we called around from the airport and found somewhere just across the road from where we originally wanted to be. From LAX we headed straight out to the hotel in time to catch the fireworks at Disneyland which was just a block away. In fact, it seems everything is just a block away from where we are. Give me convenience or give me death!!!

The next day after arriving was our first at Disneyland. I think I said already that I was a bit sceptical about the whole America visit, but after today I am starting to change my mind. Everyone around us has been truly friendly (not the fake “would you like fries with that” friendly that I expected). Disneyland also has something magical about it and they are visibly trying to be the leader in this kind of family entertainment. We all had a great day and everything flowed really well. Everyone is glad we got the 5 day pass.

The next two days we took off to recover and just played in the pool, watched soccer and visited the Mall. Everything is so cheap and we are already in need of another bag to carry all the stuff. Skye has turned into a real shopping princess and has got around the money issue by drawing her own at home before we go out. We just give the shop assistants a wink and they take her “money”. She’s amazed at how easy it is to earn money and we are left wondering about the monster we have created ;-)))

After a couple of days of much needed rest, we headed back to Disneyland again, but this time to the California park, where we celebrated my birthday (thanks everyone for the well wishes!!) and then had a Pizza Picnic in the room for dinner. I’m still really impressed with the whole set-up here and how easy everything is. The only downside is that we are pretty much tied down to fast food for all our meals. The hotel does donuts for breakfast and I don’t think I could ever face one again. It is pretty scary when the 7-11 is the healthiest option for food. The scariest of all is Taco Bell. It should be illegal to sell 5 Layer Beefy Burritos for 79 cents. The whole family eats for under 10 dollars and we have already tried pretty much everything they have to offer. Probably a good thing they don’t have these in Germany ;-)

We’ve now decided on our last section of travel and will head down into Mexico for a bit. Just a couple more days of Disney and then down to San Diego for a bit before crossing over at Tijuana and into Baja California.

I think I might stay here and never go back to Germany after the mauling the Socceroos got in the World Cup opening game. Either that or go down to the local tribal tattooist in an effort to have some other pain to concentrate on. 4-Nil was pretty undeserving though, I have to say and the send off was just plain stupid.

Here on the island though everything continues at the same slow pace as always. Somehow, not that we are in tune with it, it is nice moving at this speed and not doing very much at all. The highlight are the bonfires we are building at night.

Mid-week, we moved to the other side of the island as the house we were in was no longer available. We stayed in the Rarotonga Backpakers right on the beach and it was nice to have some people around us again. On the Wednesday night we went up into the mountains inland for an “Island Night” which was lots of fun and the banquet was the most food we had seen in weeks. You wouldn’t think it was possible to eat that much Taro, but we all got stuck into it.

Other than that Australia did much better in the World Cup and Queensland spanked NSW to win 5 series in a row. There is no way possible that Australia can get through to the next round of the World Cup, but I would rather have Qld win “The Origin” any day. There was even a great fight in the game which just goes to show why it will always be much more of a spectacle than the soccer ;-))

From here it is off to the US. We plan on going somewhere lese straight away and don’t have any real inclination to visit America, but a trip to Disneyland is definitely on the cards. The kids can hardly wait.

In summing up the Cook Islands…

An amazing place if you want to get away and do nothing, but so expensive just for the basics. I keep comparing to Thailand / Malaysia where you can get much the same, but better and cheaper. I liked my time here, but don’t see any reason to come back, but I’m sure this is the place I will be wishing for when we are back and necks deep again. A lazy 7/10 for the Cookies.

A great flight over to Rarotonga as we all got bumped up to Premium!!! First impression of the Cook Islands was that the islanders had no idea what they were doing as one customs person said go this way and then the next said go the other way. This happened a couple of times and we had to wait ages for the luggage, but we eventually got out to be greeted with a pick-up sign and flower garlands for everyone. Short lived as there was a mix-up with some other people and they had to share the ride with us with kids and luggage on laps. On the way to the house we also discovered that nothing was open on Sunday and the Monday was Queen’s Birthday public holiday. We found a small store open and got the essentials, but had to pay through the nose for them. $5 for Bread, $5 for Milk, $10 for a block of cheese. You get the idea.

Turns out though that this is pretty much the price you have to pay every where on the island. Basically everything has to be flown in, so the prices are crazy. Given that the wage is about $6 an hour, you can see why it is only the resort owners making it rich.

The house we had booked in Matavera was about 7k’s out from the main beach of Muri. The house is absolutely great. Just what we where looking for. Right on the beach (although there is no sand here), palm frond roof, and a great big deck looking out across the pacific. The only problem is there is nothing to do!!! A bus goes every hour, but after a quick look around the island on the Tuesday, we decided to spend the time playing around home on the huge lawn. Both the kids love playing soccer and having water fights. Tina is also becoming expert at cooking up a storm with minimal ingredients. The breads and cakes have been great.

The only down side other than having no real beach in front of the house, was that we were meant to have internet and DVD and SatTV etc at the house, but this somehow didn’t work out and we have been stuck “off-line”; which is no good considering we still haven’t booked or researched any of our onward journey after the Cook’s.

At least we got a good discount and they got a pre-pay wifi service up and running for us after 4 or days, but we did have had to learn to live without the modern conveniences for a while.

We also figured out the best way to get around is to hitch a ride with one of the locals going past in a flatbed truck or ute. The kids love riding on the back of a car, and there is certainly no way they could ever get away with this back home. After almost the whole of the first week we finally settled into Island time and are spending the days down at the lagoon and messing around with the kids. Jamie has (finally) gotten off the dummys and only has a nappy at night now.

Each Saturday there is a big market in town, which was great to look around. They have music and dancing going on in the middle of it and there is a great vibe to the place that is missing through the week.

Our last week in New Zealand and fittingly, our next stopping point was Cape Reinga, where the Maoris believe the spirits depart from when leaving this world. It is also pretty much the northern most point in NZ.

Nearby were some huge sand dunes and we had a lot of fun playing in the creek and trying to ride down the dunes on a broken bodyboard that we found.

The following day we paid a visit to 90 Mile Beach. Despite turning the van around before getting to the beach, we still found ourselves stuck; bogged in the sand in the carpark. A local guy kindly informed us that it happens everyday and they were just waiting for Council to fix up the carpark. Then he charged us 50 bucks to tow us out with his 4WD. Not really sure how keenly they are awaiting the council to fix up the carpark if they get a couple of hundred a day from hapless tourists getting stuck ;-(((

Any way, we got back on the road pretty quickly and had a long drive down south where we stopped of to see the huge Kauri trees and visit the Kauri Museum. The trees are truly impressive in size, but the real highlight was the museum. The quality of the pieces and the set-up meant that even the self-professed “Museum Hater” Tina had a great time there, and we all learnt a lot about the gumdigging past of the area, as well as the history of NZ as a whole.

After such a hectic time ;-), we decided to spend 2 days in Orewa, before going back for a final night out near the airport so we could get a quick start on the morning of departure. Orewa is about half an our north of Auckland and is a cute beach town. While we were there it blew a gale and drew out all the kite surfers.

The wind stayed with us on arrival into Auckland, and provided a few hairy moments up the top of Mt Eden where we really thought the van might be blown over. It was swaying from side to side so bad that it was a relief to get off the peak, after a quick look at one of the volcano craters that the city is built on (about 200 in total I think they said). We also managed a quick trip to One Tree Hill, but the weather was awful and in the end we just headed out to the campsite with plenty of time to pack up and get ready for the early start in the morning and the flight over to the Cook Islands.

All in all, NZ has been the highlight of the trip so far. Rather than being cramped (and despite the bad image you get of campervans from living on the Dutch border) we all really enjoyed the freedom and versatility of the van, as well has having a sense of consistency and the same bed each night. Best of all was having a toilet whenever you needed it and the ability to cook up a quick feed no matter where you are.

In rating NZ, it is probably best to split the country into North Island and South Island. While I probably won’t ever get to the North Island again, there is nothing there that would really draw me back. Despite that, it is well worth a look and gets a 7.5/10 from me.

On the other hand, the South Island made such and impression I would have to recommend it as a “Must Do” destination to anyone, and I will certainly be happy to come back for a visit anytime. Hell, I’d even come here to live; if there was a decent living to be made. They don’t call it GodZone for nothing. A well deserved 9.5/10 for the South Island. Easy to travel in a fortnight, but you could occupy yourself for months with the wide variety of things to do and see. The only reason it doesn’t get a ten is that some of the things just cost so much that you go broke before you were done trying everything you wanted to.

From Raglan we went up north to Auckland. First stop was a catch up with Shaun, and we spent the day out at Piha with him and his partner. Piha was nice and we had thoughts about staying the night out there, but as we had all travelled out in the van, and had plans for a Chinese meal together we headed back to Green Bay. Happy to say we made it all in one piece even though I managed to totally miss a give way sign at pace – lucky there was no traffic coming. The Chinese we got was a great throwback to the Dragon Bus days. Very authentic, even down to the eating too much bit. Big Chinese dinners don’t sit so good on a 3 pie day. The next day we travelled into Auckland proper. The harbourside area was great, but everything else was quiet as we deliberately picked the Sunday to visit as we were driving Big Bertha into town. We learnt that morning how hard it is to manouver the beast of a thing in traffic when we drove to the Avondale markets. After Auckland, we had a short trip up the eastern coast north to Mangawhei Heads, where we overnighted before heading further north to Pahea. We spent two days here, mostly because they had free wifi and we still hadn’t been able to plan any of our onward journey to the Cook Islands and beyond. We also had an enjoyable day taking the ferry over to Russell, which was the first town settled by Europeans in NZ. On the flip side, we also visited the Maori cultural centre and watched some dancing, singing, playing with the Poi Poi and a performance of the Hake. Jamie is very interested in being a warrior and can do the scary stick out your tongue face so good, he even impressed the locals.

Wow, what a ride the last 10 or so weeks have been. I suggest going back and starting from Week 6’s entry for those of you that you have the time (and patience) to read through all the updates. Bear with me as I try and catch up the blog, as the reason it has been so long between updates is that we have been so damn busy seeing this amazing world.

Currently we are sitting in the van out at the beach at Raglan, on the Western Coast of the North Island, not far south from Auckland. We arrived after dark, so not much to say about here just yet. The day was spent at the geothermal wonderland that is Rotorua. The hot mud pools and geysers are pretty amazing, but gee this place stinks. Even Jamie kept saying he wanted to leave because of the smell. At least the sun came out today for the first time since we have been on the North Island.

The day before we travelled from Ohakune past NZ’s big volcanoes, including Mt Ruhepahu and the one they used as Mt Doom in the LOTRs trilogy. Shame we couldn’t see anything but grey skies and lots of rain. Whakapapa (Maori Wh is pronounced as an F) was also a bit of a let down, so we continued on to Taupo, which also didn’t excite us overly much. In the end, we decided to push on through to Rotorua, so pretty much the whole day was spent in the car. Fortunately, I was able to take my pent up energies out on a bottle of Bundy Rum while watching Queensland brush aside NSW in the first of this years State of Origin series, keeping them on track to be the first side to ever win 5 series in a row.

Another day of rain continues the trend back another day. We left Wellington in the evening, after spending much of the day in “Te Papa” (the big museum here), and then wondering the streets. Windy Wellington is quite a nice city, and so much bigger then anything on the South Island, but the locals are still überfriendly. Everytime we stopped to look at a map, 5 people would offer to give directions if needed. The evening was spent biting nails as Austrlia’s (not so) mighty so mighty socceroos only just scraped in against the All Whites of New Zealand for a pretty undeserved win. I’ve got to say, it’s not looking so great for the first World Cup clash against Germany. Still, anything can happen and I hope it does. That is if they’ll still let me back in the country/neighbourhood after Australia kick ass ;-)

This seems to be such a long week!!! How the hell am I going to catch up on everything.

Pushing on then… The ferry from South Island to North island was huge. The even have a cinema on board for the 3 hour trip and a kids playground. While we skipped the movies, the kids made good use of the junglegym and the trip past blissfully quickly.

Which was a good thing, as we had all just had our dose of excitement in Kaikoura by taking a helicopter out whale watching. We got to see 3 humpbacks, but it is hard to get perspective on just how big they are from the up in the sky, and Jamie thought they were dolphins. I’m surprised he had time for anything else though after the excitement of being able to sit up in the front of the helicopter for the flight.

We seem to be alternating between high excitement and total relaxation. The previous day we were sitting for the most of it in the thermal spa at Hamner Springs. The day before that was my first ever helicopter ride (I feel like a veteran now) up into the Franz Josef glacier. This was a real highlight and Tina is well jealous that she stayed back with the kids (she had done it before and kids under 8 aren’t allowed up there). I thought the flight would be the most fun bit of the activity, but I really enjoyed squeezing through the ice caves and the landscape is just out of this world. I can highly recommend it to anyone.

We decided to start our NZ travels on the South Island and skipped straight down from Auckland to Christchurch by plane. This week sees us reach the half way point of our travels, and what a great place to be at this point in time. There is no room for any lethargy on NZ’s south island. This place is awesome!!! OK, I know I shouldn’t be giving it such a big rap, being Aussie and all, but I can’t help but think the have got it just right here.

Christchurch is a beautiful little city and while there is not that much to do, it is so picturesque that you could imagine living here, and not needing to do anything. Despite a few minor glitches with “Big Bertha” the Campervan (leaky gas bottle and faulty 12v charger), we soon got things sorted out and headed off for Mt Cook.

Mt Cook is (for some insane reason) not really high on the agenda for most travellers. We stayed in a nice camp ground and woke up to the most amazing views of snow capped mountains and alpine lakes. The kids had a trampoline each, so they were in heaven, and Tina and I were able to plan a trip out onto the world’s newest lake (complete with icebergs). Tasman lake is formed from the melt of the Tasman glacier terminal (face). Ice chunks break off under the water surface from the glacier wall and then pop up in the lake as icebergs. The largest on the lake was more than twice the size of the one that brought down the Titanic. We got right up close to the icebergs; the only shame was we were up at the glacier wall end when one of the icebergs turned and split in half. This meant though that we got to taste the inner, very pure, ice that was created before the world even knew what pollution was. While the rest of us were completely frozen through at the end of this memorable experience, Jamie’s only complaint was that the boat didn’t go faster.

Next stop Queenstown – adventure capital of the world. On top of the drop dead scenary, Queenstown offers the largest array of adrenaline generating activities you could ever wish for. My personal pick would have been the Shotover Swing. 109mtr freefall like a bungy and then 200m swing out of the bottom of the arc across a river. Thankfully, the insane price asked for this pleasure was enough to get me out of testing my manhood. Instead I opted for the Shotover Jetboat. I thought this was pretty “out there” until they said that kids from 3 could go on it too, and they could ride for free at that. Given Jamie’s whingeing yesterday there was really no choice but to take the kids with me for the canyon wall scraping, 360 degree spinning half hour jaunt. Despite this being great fun for all of us and possibly the most adventurous boat ride in the world, I get the feeling that Jamie probably would have preferred it went even faster.  

Continuing further south, we travelled on to Milford Sound. I reckon this is false advertising, but I promised Tina not to make any MILF jokes. The scenery is grandiose and even the dolphins came out to play during our cruise on the Fiord (they point out many times here that the first explorers erroneously named it a sound).

The next stop on the agenda was Wanaka, and Tina and I seriously discussed staying here for the rest of our travels and to hell with the rest of the world. Wanaka lies on a beautiful lake and services Cardrona and Treble Peak ski fields (the season is just about to start here). The people here are all really nice and in a town about the size of Lobberich, they have 7 playgrounds. Unfortunately though, our time here is limited and we need to push on. After over-nighting in Haast, we travelled up into the westcoast glacier country with plans to visit both Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. Unfortunately, the path up to Fox was closed and the Helihike to FJ was cancelled due to inclement weather. At the time of writing, I am crossing my fingers that the helicopter rescheduled for 10:15am tomorrow will indeed fly. Promise I’ll make a quick update to the blog this time though and you won’t have to wait 2 months to find out if I finally get my chopper ride. Oh, as an aside… Is it bad to keep getting your son to say “get in da choppa”, just because he has a cute little german accent???

Ok, so I am going to cheat a little here and blog a whole month in one entry. Only because this is more of a home stop and we aren’t really travelling anywhere.

Having said that, we did make a few trips out of Brisbane, including some day trips to Burleigh Heads and Wynnum and a 6 day trip out to Ravensbourne and the Bunya Mountains.

In Ravensbourne we stayed with some friends of my Mum and Dad on their farm of about 40 acres. This place had something really magical about it. The farm had so many different parts to it, sometimes shady, sometimes sunny, sometimes red fertile soil, sometimes expanses of lawn waiting for a ball and a couple of kids. Jamie and Skye were more than up for a kick around. That is when the weren’t off helping with the cows or feeding the chickens. Tina and I were even able to get away for a while and have a game of tennis with our hosts, which was really enjoyable (if not a little embarrassing given it has been years since either of us picked up a racket). The Bunya’s were also nice, but lacked the same magic for me as at the farm. And a word of warning, don’t mention anything about ticks to Tina.

Apart from the short journeys, the time was mostly spent with family and catching up with friends, and doing stuff like a trip out the Ipswich Rail Museum with Jamie and Poppy or riding on the CityCat ferry (RIP hat).

The Sunday before we left was Jamie’s 3^rd birthday and it was really great to be able to celebrate it with all the Australian side of the family, and even Grandma Beckman was able to come and join us for the day which meant we had 4 generations together. Most of all though, Jamie was wrapped that his little “Sopie” was there. There certainly was an instant connection between him and his cousin Sophie, and the two were almost inseparable during the time they were together.

So after much too short a stay, and with heavy hearts and heavier bags (including about 20 kilos that we shipped home – and a couple around the waistline that I wish I could leave here where I got them) we say farewell to Aussieland and head over the ditch to the dark side…

The first thing to sort out in Xi’an was something for Tina’s birthday. As we arrived the evening before the big day, there wasn’t much time and she had to make do with presents from the tourist shops along the way. The tank made out of bullets from Jamie (Andy) was a real highpoint in gift giving. During the days before though, we had struck up a plan to organise a surprise picnic at the Big Goose Pagoda. I think they named it this because you sure feel like a big goose when trying to find the 2 people who have set up the picnic amidst the 2 million or so other visitors to the park that day. After 2 hours of searching and borrowing mobile phones, we found Andy and Shaun, cracked a bottle of wine and settled into a really nice afternoon. At some stages we really felt like royalty/superstars. Skye and Jamie had some little soapbubble guns and were having so much fun blowing bubbles that they drew a crowd of a couple of hundred people. No kidding, we had a ring three deep around us, with more and more coming to see what the fuss was about. It was actually really daunting, and the only way we got rid of the crowd was when Andy told them they had to pay for the spectacle.

Xi’an was pretty much our favourite city in China. It has a really cool vibe about it and the hostel we stayed in was the most impressive I have ever been in. The day after Tina’s birthday, we rented some bikes and rode around the top of the city wall. About 1k into the 14k round trip, some woman swerved to miss a little golf cart bus and managed to sideswipe straight into the bike Jamie and I were riding. We managed to come out of it unscathed, but the girl blocked her front wheel and went catapaulting straight up. I’m really surprised she managed to get up without any (apparent) broken bones. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after we started to get going again that we realised she had buckled our rear wheel enough to make the brake lock for half of the revolution. The rest of the journey was a real struggle just to peddle and by the end of it I never wanted to see a bike again. It was like riding an exercise bike with the resistance right up, but I also had Jamie on my back in the babycarrier.

For most people the highlight around Xi’an are the Terracotta warriors. I have to say though that this was a real let down for me, and much over-hyped The warriors you see in all the photos are actually freshly produced in the surrounding factories. As an archaeological site, it is truly an amazing find. I would have liked it much better though if I wasn’t expecting something more from all the marketing. Much more fulfilling was the visit to Xi’an’s mosque. This place is an absolute oasis amidst the hustle and bustle outside. When you are within it’s walls it is almost impossible to believe it is smack in the middle of the town’s bazaar.

On the day we left Xi’an we had another nice visit, this time to a teahouse that wasn’t set up to rip off tourists. The kids loved the monkey magic shadow puppets and even managed to sit through the whole tea ceremony and actually enjoyed some of the teas they tried. The most interesting for me was the Bitter-Sweet tea. The first infusion is quite bitter, then just by seeping the same leaves in hot water again, the tea turns quite sweet.

After a relaxing day, we had a hectic run to catch our train. Despite leaving plenty of time, it turns out there is a “shift change” were no one wants to go out of the centre of town and won’t take anyone to the train station. After getting a bit anxious, we ended up piling everyone and everything into one tuk-tuk and made it on time, much to the amusement of the other traffic.

Despite some trepidation, the overnight train was really comfortable this time. We had a whole compartment to ourselves and the 17 or so hours actually passed easily.

Shanghai itself was pretty much as expected. We walked along the “Bund” and got a feel for the transitions this place as made over the years. By far the weirdest thing in Shanghai is the tunnel that crosses under the river – definitely though up by someone on an acid trip with lots of flashing colours and lights accompanied by random sounds/voices. You’d get a little laser display with someone whispering “Magma” out of the speakers of the gondola.

Apart from the sights we also tried to do the obligatory shopping run. Unfortunately, “Made in China” doesn’t mean “Sold in China” and it was really hard to find another worth buying, despite stumbling across a wholesale wharehouse of the crappiest clothes in the world. This place is basically where the people who run “1 dollar” shops come to get their gear.

We had a bit of fun buying a watch and then returning it the next day because it had already stopped working. This from the same people who tried to sell us an i-Phone with wifi, which didn’t actually have wireless. At the end, we got our money back, but Tina would have really preferred the phone and I would have looked great with a Breitling on my wrist.

Oh well, $50 well saved. We’ll need that during our next step – Australia. Home to see Grandma and Poppy!!! From all experience Australia just keeps getting more and more expensive (as I am writing in hindsight, I can compare to NZ which is on the whole a good 20% cheaper than Aus. I can’t believe there is any justification for the big gap in prices – GST’s are at the same level. Aussies are just getting ripped off, I guess. RISE UP PEOPLE!!!!)

Before leaving though China, we got to experience one last highlight, which was riding on the MAGLEV train.   Top speed 430 km/h sees you cover the 35km journey from Shanghai to the airport in 8 minutes. Cool.

So what did we get up to in Qufu then??? The home of Confucious, the seat of Oriental wisdom. We played Tekken on PS2 and made Confucious jokes, of course. And inexplicably I ate dumplings again. Damn things are addictive I tell you.

The kids enjoyed riding on horse and cart up to the forest and doing charcoal rubbings of the grave stones of all the wise men.

From there we went on the Zhengzhou where we visited the yellow river, and saw the big new statues that have been carved into a mountain here in the last few years, much like Mt Rushmore. In a way it seemed out of place with the centuries/millennium old sites we are seeing otherwise, but I guess these “visit worthy” sites have to start their lives sometime. Maybe people will be visiting here for millennium to come and will only be able to guess what and who the faces have looked down on over the years. Man am I getting deep here or what. Maybe some of those Qufu gravestones rubbed off on me.

But the real reason for stopping in Zhengzhou was because it is the launching pad for visiting Shoalin. That’s right Grasshoppers, the home of Kung Fu. You won’t believe the number of kids out here training. There were thousands. Someone said there are about 100,000 shoalin students. Not a bad size warrior army. Which is actually what makes Shaolin special. A long time again, one of the Shaolin monks saved the life of the emperor. In return, the monks were granted the right to bear arms and train in the martial arts. Normally anyone trying this kind of stuff would have been massacred for starting a revolution.

In honesty, I guess I was looking forward to this part of the trip more than anyone. In hindsight though, it was one of the stops that left the biggest impression on the kids. Jamie started practicing his moves before the demonstration was even finished. Skye went through all of he positions on the mural in the garden of the monastery and we could have made a fortune by passing the hat around as everyone stopped to watch the littlies. Even the monks were checking out some moves they had probably never seen before.

After Shoalin, we overnighted in a homestay in Laoyang. The guy who put us up rents out his available rooms to travellers. He was a really nice guy and despite this being the typical grey apartment highrise block scenario (carrying the bags up 7 flights was fun) the place had a real neighbourly/family feel about it. In the evening we played the cardgame with him that you see people playing on every corner, called Landlord. We also managed a round of poker, and am happy to report back to the “Aces” that all the training paid off and I won the asian leg of the poker world tour.

Just outside of town, we visited the Laoyang Grottos, were locals have been carving images of Buddha for centuries in little caves all along the valley. Despite it being quite impressive, I think at this stage we are all suffering a bit from ABC syndrome (Another Blood Carving/Church/Cathedral/City).

On the Sunday night we met the rest of our party for the next few weeks. All 2 of them. Luckily Gordon and Sean turned out to be great company, as did our tour guide Andy.

The first day of the trip was out to get our first glimpses of the Great Wall. The section we visited is just outside of Beijing and a very popular tourist stop. It is here that you first see the inscriptions of Chairman Mao’s famous remark that “you cannot be a great man until you have climbed the wall”. The stop at the obligatory jade/gold/tea/souvenir shops make it seem more like a trip to the Great Mall than the Great Wall, but we actually think it should have it’s name changed to the never-ending staircase.

Day two of the tour took us to a much more remote section of the wall at Simitai and WOW!!!!, this is much more like what we expected (and then some). Despite the fact that the staircase just kept going, we reckon we covered about 4 kms and the effort was certainly worth it (don’t forget we’re carrying the kids on our backs here, so it really was breathtaking). To cap it off, we decided to take the fast route back down to the base point and harnessed ourselves up to the flying fox; one kid each. Words won’t do this justice, so I suggest looking at the photos to see just how long this ride down was. If anyone needed any confirmation about how mad we are, then this is their proof. It will stay the family highlight of China forever though.

Day 3 was Chengdu. I probably should leave this part out, as it is a bit of a blur involving some great food and beer, followed by Chinese rice liquer (Baiju I think it is called), followed by more beer/Baiju, followed by making friends with the local who sounded (and looked) like a pirate, followed by more beer/Baiju and this time BBQ steer testicles. I guess you are getting the picture by now. Yep, Tina let me out by myself again. At least I got a lot of milage out of the line “these are definitely the best tasting testicles I have ever eaten”.

Apart from the cultural and culinary adventures, we did visit the emperor’s summer palace and saw deer running on the frozen lake. Nothing like a world of contrasts, eh.

The next day we looped back into Beijing and said goodbye to Gordon who was only joining for this part if the tour. This meant it was just us and Sean now, with effectively our own private guide, fluent in Chinese. Sorry Andy, I mean Executive VP of Tour Facilitation ,-))

In Beijing we stopped to check out the Birds Nest Stadium complex, but somehow ended up with only enough time to grab Macca’s - the only food there on offer. We then got to visit a Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre, including a free foot massage. In the evening we went out for dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant started by the ex-head chef of Beijing’s premiere duck joint. Somehow though, the “real deal” didn’t taste anywhere near as good as the food we got at the places we were eating in everyday. I’m sure this wasn’t just down to MSG either. In fact, I have to say that perhaps the best reason for joining a tour like this in China is being with someone who can read the menu and order stuff for you that you would never otherwise try. Thanks for that Andy. BBQ testes excluded. Although…. they were definitely the best gonads I’ve ever eaten ;-p

From Beijing we made our way to Tsingdao on the bullet train. Unless you have been to China (in recent times) you won’t believe how modern the infrastructure is. The train station was as big, and well appointed, as an international airport. Tsingdao used to be a German concession, which means that the Chinese ceded the town (and port) to Germany (so effectively German soil). While the Germans didn’t stay that long, it was enough to put up a brewery and leave an indelible mark on the town. Walking around the streets here you really get the feeling you could be in the suburbs of Moenchengladbach. The beach here is also used by just about every couple who get married for their wedding photos. It was quite surreal to be strolling down the beach with everyone else in tux and wedding dress (except for one couple who were getting photos taken with them in Peoples Liberation Army fatigues as a bit of a joke). Jamie discover his favourite game in the world here with our main-man super guiding facilitator dude (Andy for short) basically Jamie would yell “123 Andy” and then run with all his might to be thrown up in the air and caught again. As an expectant father, Andy sure got a taste of how much energy he’s going to need. Oh, and so did Sean before he went on to tire me out as well. It was funny on the tour around the brewery to here Jamie screaming out “123 AAAaaandy” from one side of the building and Andy echoing “123 Jamie” from the other side. Such a hard day’s work deserved a big dinner. I don’t think I will ever be able to look at a dumpling again without gagging. We must have goon through about 300 of them.

Well, things didn't really pick up in the first few hours getting out of Vietnam and into China.  Some prick tried to swipe Tina's bag on the overnight bus, but got sussed out in the process.  While I'm pretty sure he didn't understand a word of the "kick your MF arse if you try that sh1t again" verbal he got, we didn't see any more trouble (other than a sleepless night) and made it safe and with all our belongings into Kunming. 

The first impression of China was...

My god, no-one speaks a word of English here!!!

After the intial shock of this and getting use to working around it, Kunming was really nice.  A real breath of fresh air after Vietnam.  While we only stayed 1 day, we all agreed it would have been nice to spend some more time in Kunming. 

Everything just keeps getting easier...

The flights were so easy over to Beijing and we got a taxi with no problems to the 365 hotel.

Was I sounding over conifdent there???

Yep, we wanted the 365 Inn, not the 365 hotel.  No worries though, a short ride in the cab later and we ended up in the correct place which turned out to be a cool backpaker haunt smack in the middle of Beijing.

The first day in Beijing was spent getting our bearings and we headed out to the Silk Road area for some shopping.  First item for everyone was jackets.  Zero degrees here folks, with a biting wind.  I have to say I am very happy with my (maybe not so) original Mammut soft shell for 15 euros.  Keeps me very warm though.

Day 2 here in Beijing and all rugged up; we decided to explore Tiananmen Square and up through the Forbidden City.  So impressive.  The size of the square and the pictures in the mind of the young guy in front of the tank, against the grandure and elegence and decandence of the past dynasties.  Really cool.

Day 3 here (today) saw us take a day out for the kids and head to the indoor playground.  A bit overpriced, but they had a great fun.  Jamie has never been so energetic.  I guess he really needed it.

Tomorrow we meet up with the tour group in the afternoon.  On the one hand it will be nice to have someone lead the way, on the other it is also a bit of a shame as we have been making our way round really well despite all challenges being thrown at us.

So, here goes again.  Don"t you hate it when you write a huge blog and the computer sh1ts itself while uploading ;-(((

After enjoying the relative sanity of Hanoi again after the hassles of Halong Bay, we took the overnight train up into the mountains to Sapa.  After another night of relatively little sleep (overnight travel = hell on earth) we awoke to a new world.  This was the Vietnam we had imagined...  Rice paddy terraces and colourful villagers in their colourful gear.  Despite being something of a toursit mecca, Sapa has a lot of charm and the peddlers hassling oyu to buy something are much easier to tolerate when they are all dressed up in their indigenous gear.

After having the feel of Sapa town, we went for the adventurous option and booked a two day hike with an overnight stay in the village of the Red Zai people.  The first days hiking went smoothly and we arrived in good time into the village.  The homestay was a bit disappointing though as the family never really joined us.  On the second day we watched them preparing breakfast, but they nor our guide never joined us to eat.  Although we were "blessed" in that the "fortune teller" was there to help out the wife with an illness.  He and Jamie really hit it off and we were able to join in with them in drinking the "happy wine" - homemade rice liquer.

The second days hiking was much, much harder with lots of up and down sections that were reall steep in parts.  Having Jamie on the back and adding 20 kgs meant I was absolutely rooted at the end of the day and ready for a good night's sleep.  Did I happen to mention overnight travel before???  Naturally we had booked the overnight bus into China.  Despite being assured we wouldn't have to pay cent more and the everything was organised, of course the minibus driver tried to swindle us and was threatening to put us out early.  I said we would pay at the end, knowing that we were being met by the rep from the company we booked through at the border office.  We sent the bastards home wihtout a red cent.  Small consolation, but at the end of 4 weeks of being ripped off left right and centre, it really leaves a bad taste in the mout.  Despite some beautiful sites and 1 or 2 great people, Vietnam turned out to be a real dud.  Despite trying over and over to look for the good bits, I can't bring myself to give the country more than a 4/10 rating, which is really a shame because of the high expectations we had.  People, save yourself the hassle and go somewhere else.  Vietnam is the worst country I have ever visited.

Let's hope China can restore our faith in travelling and meeting new people/cultures...

Well, this has certainly been the most eventful week so far and we have seen the full spectrum of life (and death)...

We start in Hue...

Hue itself doesn't offer much to talk about.  Apart from a very old citadel which Tina and the kids visited, the only other things we did were to visit the markets and cruise the river.  The kids loved the opportunity to play on the pool table in the DMZ Bar and that was probably the highlight for Hue.

While Tina and the kids had a day visiting the old Citadel and riding elephants, I rented a motorbike and made a day trip out to Khe San and back (just to complete the "A walk in the light green" theme).  Sorry to say that there was nothing in Khe San that warranted the 6 bumpy hours on the back of the bike.  Even worse, the part if the trip that stays with me, is seeing firsthand the mess that is made when this crazy traffic system here goes wrong.  Truly the stuff of nightmares. 

Having made it back safe and sound to Hue, we then all took the overnight bus up to Hanoi.  Having learnt from previous misadventures, we book an extra seat/bed and had a much more compfortable journey.

Despite being ripped off by the taxi from the bus station to the hotel, things picked up in Hanoi as we ended up in a great (very child friendly) hotel - The Rising Dragon.  The staff here are fantastic and put up with much more than they should have from the kids.  Jamie rode a bike by himslef for the first time in the hotel lobby, while Skye practised her mega skids between the people trying to check in.

From the hotel, we booked our dream trip out to Halong Bay.  VIP suite and stay on the boat for 2 nights.  Unfortunately, no-one remembered to remind the local police/mafia about this being our once in a lifetime experience, and they subsequently impounded the boat because the monthly "fees" had not been paid.  Our first experience of the extortion that rules in Halong Bay.

Trying to make the best of it, we hooked up with some of the people on the same bus out to Halong Bay and organised our own boat out through the bay, and then dropping us on Cat Ba island where we planned to stay the night.  Everything was going great until it went dark and the boat stopped at a deserted pier on the other side of Cat Ba from the hotels and said "get off".  As "getting off" meant taking the one minivan that was there waiting (surprise, surprise), we decided that disembarking was not the best idea (the 4 vietnamese guys in dark suits sitting in the van didn't look the firendliest of guys). 

Luckily there was another boat in the harbour and our boat agreed to take us there.  We organised with the captain of this boat to let us stay the night with him, and agreed a price which he explained was " a bit higher than normal" as he would need to pay off the men at the pier or he would get in trouble. 

Having secured a place for the night, we got to know the people on our new boat, and they turned out to be a great bunch.  The best bit of the trip (despite the truly amazing scenary) was Jamie doing Vietnamese karoake on the boat.  He had everyone in stitches, as somehow he managed to carry an oriental tune.

The next day we made our way back to Hanoi; a day earlier than expected, but we secured a full refund for the trip and all in all had a pretty amazing/eventful/tiring experience. 

In summary, Halong Bay is a really amazing, beautiful place BUT it is also a place where corruption and kick-backs are the order of the day.  We met some other people on the return to Hanoi and they told of a group of men physically beating up the young guy who took them out on a boat because he did not have the necessary "authorisation" to be there.

Tonight we take the train from Hanoi up to Sapa and stay a couple of days before crossing into China and heading for Kunming.  From there we will fly up to Beijing and start the guided tour. 

It really feels like we have settled in to travelling now.  Much easier to pack each time we have to move and everyone is pretty relaxed.

There was no need to worry about the bus trip from Dalat to Nha Trang, as not even a super stunt master could have coaxed anything out of the delapidated old bus we were on.  The only hazards we faced were the dust from the unsealed roads and the last stretch into town as it got dark as we had no lights.  The driver's sidekick was actually hanging out the bus door with a torch.

Nha Trang itself was unexpectantly good.  Reading about the place made out that it was the Vietnamese answer to Surfer's Paradise - all built up and touristy.  We ended up in a great (new) hotel close to the beach and really enjoyed our time there (despite another bout of the Viet Trots ending up being sorted out with a course of antibiotics). 

We also caught up with the Australian family again that we met in Dalat (6outofoz.com). Sorry Paul - promise I'll be up for a beer next stop.

From Dalat we caught the "sleeper" bus up to Hoi An.  I can assure you though that there was no sleep for me or Tina as we had to share the little reclining seat with Skye & Jamie respectively.  You had to be a contortionist just to fit the both of you into the thing.  Never listen to any nice people who tell you the kids can sleep on the spare seats.  Actually, it would have been really good except that there were no spare seats on this bus.

Hoi An is the higlight so far.  The town is a world herotage site and comes across as a more of a movie set than a local town.  The place was once one of the largest Asian trading ports for hundreds of years, and all the buildings are preserved well from this time of seafaring and swashbuckling.  The food here has been really good too.

Not too far out of town is the best beach we have seen in Vietnam.  We rode out there on some rented bikes (40 cent for the day) and had to sort out an inner tube replacement on Tina's bike about 6 km's away from home.  The 2 USD it cost to fix was well worth the fun of finding someone who could fix it and sorting it out with them.  The old guy who did it "talked" to us by writing broken  French on the pavement with chalk.

Tomorrow morning we are up at 6:30 to head of further North to Hue.  Till then...

So first up a quick sorry for taking so long between updates.  Lots to do and a bout of delirium in between. 

Mui Ne -  4 days on the beach - well 2 on the beach / pool and 2 in bed recovering from whatever I ate that didn't agree with me.  Skye had a one off vomit and was good as gold again, but it took me two days of the shivers to shake it off. 

All in all, Mui Ne is a rip-off joint but we had a pretty good time.  The best bit was a day trip out into the countryside and up into some cool sand dunes (see the photos).  The funniest bit was having to hear some little kite-surf grommet say “you’re at the end of the world here, man”.  Nice to know that the end of the world is only a short bus trip from an international airport.  Oh, by the way, the end of the world also has Pizza, Icecream, Beer, running water, electricity, free wifi and pool tables.  TWAT!!

It wouldn't be so bad if there was some consistency to the madness.  Sometimes the price is really high, sometimes low for the same thing.  And it is not like Thailand (or any of the other haggle countries) where you walk away and they call you back with a lower price.  They don't care if they miss a sale here, but are very aggressive and blatant with scamming you here.  Service is appalling too.  I guess the kiteboarding groms haven’t endeared themselves to the locals either and they take it out on all tourists.

Dalat - been here 2 days now and love it.  The people are friendly and this is more like the Vietnam I was hoping for; although very different than expected.  We already know some people around town and have found it very easy to see the sites without using an organised tour.  Unfortunately, we decided it was too expensive to go with an "Easy Rider" to Nha Trang, but for any one coming to Vietnam, I would recommend thinking about using their services - nice guys and very dedicated.

Tomorrow we are off to Nha Trang on another "killer" bus trip.  We met a family here doing a similar thing as us, and he refers to them as Mr K's i.e. Kenevel.  Most having been kicked out of Evel's stunt school for being too psycho.  I turned to religion after our Mr K thought honking his horn real loud was a safe way to warn any potential oncoming traffic of his latest stunt which involved overtaking a truck into a blind corner.  Funny thing is, everyone here uses the same system of madness and apart from one lorry in a ditch, we haven't encountered any other evidence of stunts gone wrong. 

Pray for us people.

Till Nha Trang (hopefully).

Mum - stop worrying

Wow - the kids took the day and a half travel getting to Saigon in their stride.  After 2 days in Ho Chi Minh city,  I only have good things to say, and much, much cleaner than expected.  The amount of mopeds here is truly amazing, and crossing the road here with everyone in one piece has left me with a sense of having achieved something.  Tomorrow sees us off to Mui Ne for our first bit of beach relaxation.  We have 4 weeks to make it up along the coast to Hanoi and cross into China, which we plan to do by bus.  When I look at the places we will go past (Nui Dat, Vung Tau, Khe Sanh) it feels like being in a Chisel song ;-)

Well almost...

Because of the big train accident in Belgium today, we have had to change travel to the UK meet up with our flight to Vietnam. 

After a lot of frustration with the train people, 40 000 frequent flyer points and 100 EUR on top, we are now flying (hopefully) with Matty's favourite carrier - Air Berlin - to Stansted and taking a very relaxed journey from there across to Heathrow. 

On a brighter note, we managed to pack everything away and have the house ready for Cam, Michelle, Gracie and Oli to move on in. 

So here's hoping we get a decent night's sleep in tonight, and that we get spat out the other end in Sunny Saigon in 36 hours in one peice; marriage and sanity intact.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

So much to do, so little time left. Only a week to go before kick-off.

Still, sure beats working for a living.

Will be much happier when we actually have our passports back from the various embassies/consulates