Asia

Sabah & Hong Kong

Sabah was absolutely fantastic. I'm so glad we decided, ahead of our world trip, to stop off here on our way home. We stayed in top notch hotels (it's a hard life...), the Sutera Magellan & Shangri-La. Life in the sun, good food and watersports. Gotta love it. We visited an Orangutan Refuge, did some pretty good shopping and basically lazed around in the sun. Also went paragliding for the first time. Excellent fun, although not the most elegant landing for a lady... lol

Anyway, after a well earned luxurious rest we arrived in Hong Kong, to stay with a mate of Grant's who's an expat. Trish and her hubby Mark have an awesome apartment right in the city and overlooking Hong Kong island (see pic). We've only been here 2 days so far but it's been sooo good already. The shopping is PHENOMENAL. Very excited. I have fought my urges to just go nuts buying stuff, but not very well. Went to a Russian Ice Bar, where we had vodka shots in cold conditions (but not that cold). Grant was doing Pimp impersonations. Purrrrr!

Grant and I finally managed to buy ourselves a camera so hopefully i will have time, amongst all my shopping sprees, to post some pics online soon. I will also try my hardest to scan those italy pics...

Not sure when the next post will be. I'll surprise you.
Lots of love to all

Maz xxxxx

La Bella Italia

2 Days in Rome

That's right, we made a quick pitt-stop in Rome on our way to Asia. We had planned on having 3 days here but a mega flight delay in London meant a reduction to 2 full days. Can't complain though. We did it ALL.
Pics from top left: Bird's eye view of St Peter's Piazza from the top of the Basilica (Cuppola); me at the Roman Forum; Grant's arty shot of the Colosseum; and the big guy with the Colosseum in the background. I have more pics but i haven't scanned them. No time!

In summary we saw:

• Day 1: Open-Air mass with the Pope. Got him on video. Pretty chuffed about that. Also visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and La Bocca dela Verita (mouth of truth).
• Day 2: Super dooper tour of Vatican City - Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, the Basilica and the Cupola and St Peter's Square. Then did a tour of Palatine Hill. By this stage we were SPENT so we went back to our hostel to chill out with a couple of drinks.

All in all, a very successful trip, considering its length. We had to get up very very early both days to see it all before the other tourists packed these places out, and it paid off. We lined up for the Sistine Chapel at 7.20am. By the time we left (around 2pm) the queue was metres and metres long. Ridiculous!! And the poor plebs at the end of the queue had no idea how long it went for because it wound up a few times and you couldn't see where the entrance was from the end. Ha ha!!

Next stop: Sabah, Malaysia. Woo Hoo!!

Maz xxx

The UK III

Time with our Pals!

In our last week here we had the pleasure of spending time with our two favourite poms: Vicki & Dre, our mates from Chile, courtesy of Craighouse.

We visited Norwich, Vicki's home turf, checked out the sights and met the fam. Lots of wine to be had (surprise, surprise!) and we had a great catch-up and story-swapping after a few months apart (Yes, we were all attached at the hip whilst living in Santiago, so we had lots to tell).

We visted Cambridge on our way to Bristol, and felt smarter as soon as we arrived. Saw lots of important buildings whose names i can't remember, and we also managed to go punting. Zig-zagged our way back and forth along the river, sweating and laughing at the prospect of losing our punt or the punter into the water!

Whilst in Bristol we drank at many a waterhole, absorbed the buzzing uni life around us (almost made me wanna go back. Almost) and enjoyed the sights on offer. We also took a trip to Cardiff, Wales, in search of the Eirth Family Crest. Not successful. Maybe Eirth is irish... 'cos we didn't find it in Scotland either... Undeterred, we moved onto Cardiff Castle, where Grant and Dre made me so proud by chasing peacocks around the grounds to make them flare their tails. All class they are! We also spent a couple of hours in a GREAT Science museum called Techniquest, where everything on display can be touched. They had stacks of interactive things on, and even my science-unappreciative company enjoyed themselves.

Also went to Bath and visited the old Roman Baths, touched and drank the famous spa water by the hot spring, all this in the rain mind you, not the best weather for sightseeing but we managed. And all this in 4 days. Go us!

Now we're wrapping it up in London before we fly to our last European destination: Rome.
A big thanks goes out to our lil pommies Dre & Vicki for their awesome hospitality and partnership in drinking crimes (shock!). We had a great time with you and hope to see you in Sydney soon.

Maz xx


ps. A great big THANK YOU to Dre for supplying the photos. You're a gem! xx

The UK II

Edinburgh & The Highlands

Our camera died as soon as we returned from this trip, and we've only been able to recover a few pics, so here they are...

We caught an overnight bus from London to the gorgeous city of Edinburgh (nightmare trip! The poms have got NOTHING on Chilean Coaches. We kick ass!!!). We were lucky enough to have 3 great weather days, except for rain when we went to the Highlands (which was to be expected).

In our 3 days there we did a good round of the city, checked out Edinburgh Castle, saw churches and parks and great lil pubs and shops. And we stayed in a fantastic hostel. The girls' toilets had hairdryers!!!! how cool is that! Hadn't come across this lil perk in any hostel before this one. Anyway, also visited Rosslyn Chapel, the one made extra famous by the Da Vinci Code (impressive architecture and amazing history). And of course, no trip to Scotland would be complete without a stop at Loch Ness. We went on a 12 hr tour of the Highlands including a monster hunt in Loch Ness. No luck.

Overall a beautiful country, at least the bits we saw. Edinburgh kicked ass and i give it two thumbs up!

Maz xxx

The UK

Around London

Well, we've been here two weeks so far, exploring the city and doing some shopping. MY GOD the clothes here are gorgeous, and every girl on the street is uber trendy! It makes me feel like such an unfashionable dag in my backpacker outfits. So i have done my bit to fix that within my limited budget which, surprisingly, has not been that hard to do.

I have managed to see quite a lot of London, I've walked around all the must-see places with great shops; visited lots of museums; checked out a few street markets; walked along parks (love the squirrels!!); went on the London Eye; and i am TOPS at getting around on the underground. Grant has seen a lot less than me because he has been totally sucked into the pub culture and glues himself to the TV for any sports that's on (i'll admit, he hasn't seen aussie footy in a while. But he passed up on going to the Imperial War Museum to watch a swans game. He's all culture, he is). And his gut is expanding from all that beer. About time things turned around!!!

Also did the "Jack the Ripper" walk with our kiwi mates we met in Turkey, Jack n Fliss. Excellent walk. Very historical and interesting. And a bit creepy! At the end of the walk we had a few drinks at The Ten Bells, the pub where all the prostitues who were murdered used to drink (that's where the pic with these guys was taken). We also went to Brighton overnight this week, and of course had rain, but it was still a very nice place. If i had to live in England i'd bypass london and move here instead.

Next week we head off to Scotland and later back to England for some time in Bristol with our mates Andrea n Vicki (who we met in Chile).

That should be lots of fun.

Maz
xxxx