Christmas Afternoon

A quick friendly game of cricket

A brief walk to work off dinner

Lunch time...

A quick game to work up an appetite

Lunch for 30, including us waifs and strays

Ed winning the renowned Evans 'hat staying on' competition

Christmas Morning

Healthy fruit breakfast on the beach

Ed snorkelling Christmas morning

Rella with her Christmas koala

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thinking of you and missing you greatly. Enjoy the festive feasts you have planned and have a glass of mulled wine for us. We will think of you as we chomp on our mangos and head into the sea for our morning surf! xxx

Bongo Madness

Just take a look at our new wheels, a Mazda Bongo Wagon...our home for the immediate future. This 'beaut' has been checked out by the RAC, a family friend mechanic and now belongs to us. Hurrah! In a couple of weeks we will hit the road and start our trip around Australia in true traveller style. Watch this space...

Perth

We have been in Perth, WA for about a week now and are having a fabulous time. At home the nights must be drawing in but here the sun is shining, the sea is inviting and ice creams a festive necessity! It doesn't really feel like Christmas in 30 degree heat and the decorations look a little out of place. Still, we like to get in to the spirit and have therefore thrown ourselves into the spirit of Christmas in the true Australian manner... VB and Barbeques!

Our stay in Perth began with the cricket - dare I mention it?!

Ed attended two days and I went to one. It was really hot, about 53 degrees in the sun. As we were in the cheap seats, I think you can guess where we ended up...no shade at all. It was good to see the cricket live and despite the end result and the 'pom bashing' we had a good time.

Do you recognise this face???

Our hosts in Perth are excellent. Luke's family have invited us and our smelly laundry in to their home and couldn't do enough for us. Not only have they offered us the most comfy bed of 3 months, hot water and a much needed washing machine, they have also shown us around town and shown us the best spots. Including a trip to Perth zoo, the markets at Freemantle, surfing at Trigg beach and fishing from their boat...to mention just a few.

Just couldn't resist putting this in...first ever sighting of a koala!

Keeping you in the Know!

For the past few days we have been in KL and Singapore. KL was a bit of a wash out with lots of rain and Ed being confined to our room with gastric flu. I did the independent thing and went off to the ' Petronas twin towers' and the KL tower, both were impressive and the views incredible. Ed in bed also meant free reign on the credit card...not as fun as one may think, the arses over here are tiny and finding a pair of new trousers was extremely difficult, part of the difficulty was allowing myself to admit to being XL!!!

Well, it's the end of our Asian adventure. We've had a fabulous time and can hardly think of a low moment. In half an hour we board our plane for Perth where the next leg of our journey will begin. We will probably stay in Perth for about 1 month before heading off in a camper van (hopefully!) for the long drive to Melbourne, we will take about a month to complete so we are not too frightened of the many miles that we will need to cover. Then we'll find some work I guess...we will keep on updating the blog, so keep logging on.

One for the Girls...

We arrived in KL, Malaysia yesterday, tired after the journey we rested our weary bones in front of a movie and thought we'd save the sight seeing/shopping for today.

Bright and early Ed wakes with shivers, a sore tummy (you need not know more!), and flu type aches. Insisting that he needs Tiger Balm I go on the hunt throughout our ever growing baggage, plunge my hand into his wash bag and slice my finger on his F****** razor, you've seen the photos, hardly used, it was bloody sharp. Blood stemmed and finger pulsating we head for KFC a guaranteed fix during hard times. Ed leaves his chicken and comes back to the Guest house - must be something wrong, perhaps it was the cockle curry??

Damaged finger, grasping credit card I hit the shops for a bit of retail therapy. Pop into Body Glove for 50% off sale and grab a pair of their size L trousers, they don't fit...try on a pair of XL trousers...they are too small...ask my shop assistant stalker if they have XXL trousers...(damn these Malaysian women and their tiny butts)...no luck, I am too fat for Malaysia. Trouser shopping abandoned I try for underwear. With in seconds of being in the shop a woman has pounced, her hand is cupping my breast and before I know it she has me in a bra, on top of my clothes in the middle of the shop. As my feet hit the curb the skies open.

Feeling embarrassed, wet and fat, I have returned to the guesthouse and will have to settle for another night in front of the TV. Just another day in paradise!!!

Diving day two, Sipidan

On our second day of diving we headed to Sipidan, to one of the best dive sites in the world. This tiny reef island, fringed with white sands, rises from the sea like a huge skyscraper. Only a few metres offshore (about 10 at its shortest) there is a sheer drop of 600m. The turtle's heads below weren't the only ones on show!

We also rented an underwater camera for this dive, just incase you are wondering where the shots came from...

Cool for cats - tashe and mask don't combine to make a water tight environment

Shark, where?

Oh, there!

On our first dive of the day, and only a few minutes in we saw our first shark, a grey reef shark over 2 metres long gliding alongside us. Being the gentleman that I am I remained ocean side and let Rella stay by the reef wall.

Rella Before seeing shark...

Rella After!!

Within seconds of entering the water we had already seen two different breeds of turtle, they were everywhere.

Satisfied after a good day's diving...

We headed back to the mainland, and to bed to dream of turtles, and sharks

p.s. At the end of our first dive we were attacked by Evil Eddie. Evil Eddie's species has not been identified by any of the dive masters. It looks like he is some sort of mongrel fish, he is the only one on the reef and has a serious inferiority complex. This ugly little sh!te attacked our dive master by charging and biting / headbutting her on the top of her head. He then tried to attack a few of our fins, and made a charge for Rella's face. He then went after the other group of divers and drew blood on a girl's hand.

Hope the Weather is Nice in the UK

Heard it is getting a little cold back home, well not here!!

Sorry to gloat but we've just found paradise. A couple of days ago we headed to this tiny island for a day of diving. I had told Rella not to bother to bring the camera in case it got wet on the boat. Luckily a girl (from Bris too) that we were diving with kindly let me borrow it to take some snaps of our dive site.

We did three dives all around the island and two of those straight out from the shore. On our second dive we saw the most mahousive green turtle taking a nap. As we approached it swam off gliding right beside us. This old boy was bigger than me!

Also saw countless other little fishies including lion fish, box fish, bat fish, and frog fish, which are the most unfortunate looking beasts. They look like a sponge with feet, and a tiny tail.

Locals out fishing - I was offered a raw sea urchin, politely declined

The harbour

Who needs Photoshop?

Monkey Nuts

After a flight from Hanoi to KL, a night on the airport floor and a further flight to Sandakan we had arrived in Malaysian Borneo. A hellish journey but well worth the trip. After checking into our guesthouse we hopped onto a local bus and made our way to Sepilok Orang utan Rehabilitation Centre, (one of only four in the world) in the middle of the rain forest. Luckily we made it in time for the mass feeding. What a sight!

Ha Long Bay

After scouting around many real and fake travel agents, all using the same name, we booked ourselves on a three day trip to the renowned bay.

After a four hour coach ride (Scotland seems closer and closer every time) we met our junk boat in the harbour and headed for the famous sea scape, it was just a shame about the weather, misty and worryingly cold!

This didn't however, stop us from ditching the fleece, donning swimwear and throwing ourselves from the top of thr boat into the murky blue waters beneath...the beer coat certainly helped.

After a small cruise we arrived at the 'Surprising/Amazing cave', the cave wasn't that great, but the views were stunning...

The rest of the day was spent as you might expect when beer is 50p per can (why do bar tabs always look bigger than you expect in the morning??), good Australian company, an on board dinner (we've been fed so much squid that we're farting ink!) and a good night's sleep in our luxury cabin...

breakfast on board, a small cruise and we arrived on Cat Ba Island...not really worth a mention. From here we visited another cave, things were a little basic!

and a trip to 'Monkey Island' - not much enjoyed as a crying french tourist passed our boat on arrival, gripping the dripping wound of an unprovoked monkey attack...not wanting to contend with rabies we avoided the monkeys and stayed on the shore line, taking bets on which of the tourists wielding biscuits and sticks, would be the first bitten.

A drunken night (who can resist for 15p a glass at a make shift bar, in a car park?) on Cat Ba, a morning cruise and then back on dry land for our last night in Vietnam.

A trip to the 'Water Puppet theatre', a spectacular show - even Ed was impressed!