Rush job

Hi folks - well I am staying up late to watch Spain v Germany and I thought I would throw some quick posts and photos on the blog. Not much chat but just some photos - I have loads of others from our trip down the big Kitabangtangan river but I don't think I will be able to get them up anytime soon (a file difficulty)

Hope you enjoy the ones I have put up though and there will be lots more to follow shortly hopefully.

We are now in Kota Kinabulu - just flew in at 10.30pm - staying in a very basic hostel and checking out tomorrow to fly to Kuching where apparently the rainforest music festival is happening this weekend - we are starting to think we'll struggle for good accommodation as we have only just realised that this is a pretty big deal here and everyone wants to go to it!

Will keep you posted.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur - a very interesting place - Malaysian food is amazing but the heat is a bit crippling. We stayed at a really nice hostel in KL and met a great couple Adrian and Michelle (both Malaysian) who looked after us and helped us haggle to get a new compact digital camera.

You may be able to guess what the biggest atracion in KL was apart from foot fish and shopping.

Yep, the Petronas towers. We spent an hour having a cocktail at the Sky Bar next door (with it's own swimming pool) so we could get a closer look at the towers.

Anyone fancy some fish therapy?

This was a pretty bizarre experience - you stick your feet in a tank full of Dr. fish and they nbble all the dead skin off your feet. Methinks I am paying to feed fish - hmmmm.

Very tickly indeed.

Some wildlife shots from Sabah , Borneo

Borneo

Since I wrote last we have seen orangutans, proboscis monkeys, wild snakes, crocodiles - we've been on a night boat trip, a sunrise boat trip on the Sungai Kinabatangan, we've been on a long bus journey to Semporna and then we got lucky with a deal over to Pom Pom Island for 3 nights.

We are now just hanging around waiting for transport back to the main land where we are then flying to Kotu Kinabulu tonight - staying there one night before we head to Kuching in Sarawak which is still in Borneo.

Anyway, things have been mad, computer access limited and little time to write. I am hopeful that when we arrive in Ho Chi Minh on the 11th we will have a few days to catch our breath and hopefully I will get some pictures posted for you all to see (cos let's face it, you'd rather see photos than words eh? ;o)

All the best, 4 weeks til we see you in person!

SB

Kuala Lumpur

Well, we made it - after a quite horrendous flight with lightning storms and crazy turbulence (Katie slept through it all) we made it to K.L. at 1.30am. Made our way into town, got to our accomodation but there was a problem with our booking - we had booked for tomorrow not today. ;o)

So we have just pretty much stayed up all night out on the very plush front porch (it's a proper seated dining area in a covered porch area) watching the world cup and being looked after by the very nice staff here - giving us coffee and breakfast etc. Very nice indeed.

Trying now to book our next stage of our trip but it goes something like this (it is all up in the air and may well change):

Tuesday - fly to Sandakan in Borneo

Wednesday - visit the Orangutans

Thursday - visit the Proboscis monkeys

Friday - go on a river cruise and spend the night in the jungle

Sunday - try and head to Sepidan for a bit of diving with turtles

Wednesday - fly to Kotu Kinabalu (Borneo)

Thursday - fly to Kuching (Borneo) then spend the night in Baku National Park

Sunday - fly to Kuala Lumpur and then straight out to Ho Chi Minh.

We haven't made any plans as yet for Vietnam but will post them as soon as we have a rough idea.

;o)

Hong Kong

Well, after one week in Hong Kong the cold and wet of the New Zealand winter is a bit of a distant memory.

We have had a great time here in Hong Kong and have been well looked after by Roddy from Carradale who has very kindly let us stay at his posh flat in the city centre.

I have just quickly uploaded some pics for you to have a look at - there are plenty more but we are just about to rush out to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

We have finally decided on our next part of our trip and we have thrown ourselves into the deep end with a hectic schedule of 6 flights in 14 days to explore Borneo. We cannot wait - I will try and post as much as I can to keep you updated with our movements.

Final weekend madness with Lorna and Iain - who else?

The night before my Karate grading we were lucky enough to get another visit in Wellington from Lorna and Iain for a farewell soiree. It was really nice of them to make the effort to come down - and although sad to part, it is thanks to them we have so many good/hazy memories of some good times in NZ. They wil be sorely missed.

On the Friday night we thought we would play a trick on the pair and told them to meet us at the Splash Club - it's a brothel on the main street - but unfortunately the taxi driver either genuinely didn't know where it was or he was playing dumb. Anyway, the joke was rescued as Lorna had already texted a friend (who is a local) to say that she was in Wellington and heading to the Splash Club to meet some friends - nice. Guffaw guffaw (a cheap shot I know)

We had a couple of drinks on the Friday but the big night out was always going to be the Saturday - Katie and I had arranged to meet some people from work in town, the All Black's were playing on the telly and we were all on a high. Iain and I foolishly thought we would see it through the night to catch the USA versus England at 6am. (we got home at 5.30am)

As usual mayhem then ensued - here are some photos....

Senpai Daniel from my Karate club came out with us

Iain tried to impress Dan with his crane style.

Add your own caption for this one............

Chuck came out and made some funny faces, with Robert from school

Steve came to see us and stayed past his bedtime.

Iain and Lorna left to return to the heat of Auckland after a Sunday of hanging around in front the big fire.

And that as the say is that, out last night out in Welly and time to go home. Another classic weekend, more good times and some really silly photos.

Never mind, now that Katie and I are travelling again the usual cultural posts and sights will return - maybe!

Final Karate

This weekend has been a bit mental and I will write more about that in the next few days but my final Karate grading took place on Saturday and it was as hard as usual. I was successful though and I now have a green belt which is 4th Kyu (out of 10 and numbers are descending so next step would be 3rd).

Quite an emotional time with eveything that is going on in our lives as we gear up to leave New Zealand next week - it has been a real week of goodbyes and after putting so much hard work into training sayng goodbye to the Karate was very hard. It is going to be something that I really miss (and they don't have this syle of Karate in Scotland unfortunately) but I will be able to continue doing something when I get home.

At the end of my Karate grading Shihan Ben made me go out and do an individual performance in front of everyone, he wished me well and presented me with a polo shirt from the Karate Club. Which was very nice of him.

here are some photos of my previous grading that have only recently been published on the Seido website.....

 

Napier, Hastings, Havelock North - Hawkes Bay

It's took me ages to get the Auckland post done and now I have some more spare time and a computer at home (our Apple Mac is currently incapacitated - potentially expired) I seem to have a lot of catching up to do.....

A couple of weekends ago we decided that because we are running out of time we HAD to race up to the Hawkes Bay. It's allegedly one of the sunniest places in NZ, it's full of wineries and the scenery is supposed to be spectacular - so we shot off straight after work on the Friday and headed North East.

We were staying with a colleague of Katie's from the Tennis world - Trevor, and his wife Meryn. They were really really nice and welcoming and we had a lovely time staying at their house in the town of Clive. Trevor is a tennis coach who has a tennis court in his back garden with a small shed with a fridge, kettle etc for mid-coaching drinks and snacks for player and parents, what a great idea. Trevor is also really into his football so there was a lot of chat about tennis and football over the weekend. Trevor and Meryn have a couple of kids but they were also looking after their daughter's friend and they were also hosting a German exchange student - they certainly have a busy old house.

After a late one on the first night chatting sport we got up and went for a wander around Napier. It's an interesting place - it's predominantly Art Deco stylee since they had to rebuild the whole place after a devastating 7.8 earthquake in 1931 reduced pretty much the whole town to rubble.

This photo montage isn't my creation - my photos are on my camera and I can't process them due to the condition of the Mac. ;o(

It is funny though because as with most things in period styling, the buildings look really dated - truly old buildings are timeless but Art Deco just looks out of place these days. (in my opinion - pictures to follow) But it's certainly very unique - an Art Deco town. (as far as I know)

So after a bit of sightseeing on our own, Trevor took us a wee trip up the local big hill called Te Mata Peak.

Stunning views all the way to the Centre of the North Island by the way and it was a glorious day - we just missed on on seeing all the way to Ruapehu however (where we went skiing).

Katie and I then went on a quick tour of some wineries.............

Sileni Estate

hmm, Church Road...

Mission Estate

The other thing we did in our short stay in Napier was to head out for dinner and afterwards we were able to catch up with my best friend from primary school - Neil McGinley.

We basically got in touch via facebook a while back and realised we were both in New Zealand and this was an ideal opportunity to get meet up. We met in a pub and reminisced about the good old days over a few beers - it was certainly a blast from the past! It was really interesting hearing all his news and Neil's been a busy guy since moving here, he has a wife and a son now and is a qualified electrician. Who knows when we will catch up again - in another 20 years?

             

On the way back to Welly we took an alternative route and ended up driving past the Tui brewery which is a New Zealand icon.......here is what the brewery looks like in the adverts...

Unfortunately the girls weren't at work on the day we visited so I had to settle for a couple of less exciting photographs....

Tui are also well known for their controversial adverts which are actually quite funny and generate the desired media attention.

Here's one of our own......

So that's that.....we now have two weeks left in New Zealand and our travels around the country are now at an end. Next Friday we both leave our jobs, hand our car, laptops, keys and everything back and we will offically be unemployed travellers again. Scary stuff!