The Midlands and the South West

In the words of Diana Sidaway (Dave's Mum) who was a fantastic guide for our roadtrip around the midlands and the South West - thanks Di

Met the boys at Heathrow having driven in leaving 5.15am and then not finding a park at terminal 3 which is an awful dump, left it illegally only to be called back on the loudspeaker and had to go miles and get a bus back so missed the great moment of them walking out!! Bearded and cheerful we piled into Harriet (hopefully my beard doesn't show as much!) and wended our way thru Mon am traffic in S London to Wimbledon luckily the day after the tennis finished and got the key then on to Renee's super flat in Worcester Park. Some discrepancy over pronunciation by boys of latter and am teaching them English!! After unpacking we explored the street that is Worcester Park identical to so many other S London high St's but has everything they need and station 10 mins walk and 1/2 hr to city.Dane cooked a delicious meal and bedybyes me in the car park in Harriet.

Next morning just after 9 we got a day ticket for £6.50 for London. Arrived Waterloo station and walked miles to Jubilee line just opened with glass doors like Singapore all along the platform. A couple of stops to London Bridge where we went to Guy's Hospital and walked all round my old haunts with the boys laughing about my canoodling spots! Went up 30 stories in the surgical block and looked at the view then walked passed the operating theatre museum to be inspected later to Southwark Cathedral which is a friendly church. Walked through the old cobbled streets of the wharf through converted warehouses and the Clink prison to the Anchor Inn by the river which Shakespeare and I frequented in our youth and pointed out the way to the Globe theatre and the Tate Modern then we got a coffee and found a seat by the river and watched the traffic on the river which actually was quite quiet apart from pleasure boats..usually barges carrying all sorts of stuff and police boats zooming up and down.

We walked on along beside the Thames with good views of the Tower of London on the other side and a few photo stops where I was baffled with Dane's camera ,something I haven't lived down! We had our picnic looking atTower Bridge and as we arrived on it it began to rain. We had a look at St Katherine's dock and walked round the tower with me spouting information about Traitors Gate etc and on up to Tower Hill station, which for future reference is miles up steps!! Went one stop and I went on strike re steps so we walked all thru the city in the rain up Cheapside etc to the London Museum which is very swish but only really goes up to fire of London and putrid pestilence of the Black Death,1665/ 1666 as the modern part is to be opened next year which is what I wanted them to see..however we walked on to St Pauls and got a no 8 bus down Oxford St then down the Haymarket to Trafalgar Sq watching the population's umbrellas from front seat upstairs.
Had a look at Trafalgar Sq and nice clean Nelson but weird with no pigeons. Apparently all the buildings have spikes on and it has done the trick. Had a cuppa in the National Gallery and then the boys walked up the Mall to Buckingham Palce thru St James Park which is all green trees and very pretty..past all the palaces etc while I took a shortcut thru Horseguards parade and past Downing Street which is all fenced off and the war memorial and the balcony where Charles 1st was beheaded and the new war memorial for Woemn in the wars which is lovely and the centotaph to Westminster Abbey which closes at 3pm!!

The boys watched the changing of the guard at the palace and as they started down Birdcage Walk with only the odd tree for shelter we had the most incredible thunderstorm! I have NEVER heard such claps of thunder and the rain was a deluge...was in all the papers and on TV apparently! I was sheltering in the doorway of the Abbey and was glad I was handy to a house of God! The boys eventually arrived absolutely soaked! They had jackets of course as this is England! I did an acrobatic walk along the railings by the gate to avoid a puddle which Dane said we should have charged for as so many people watched me! We paddled to the underground admiring the houses of parliament as we went and big Ben and they experienced just 1 stop of the rush hour in the tube! They fought their way out and said that was enough!

We finally got back after a very cheap day out about 7pm and Dane cooked another yum meal! He has been pining to cook!

The next day we packed up and drove to Windsor where the boys explored the castle which is huge and has the state apartments etc too, lots of foreign school trips. You wonder how much they remember... It was £15 to get in which i think with the royals taxpayer stuff is a rip off! I waited in the car park avoiding the vulture like traffic wardens. Have been told I am way over when I arrive 3 mins late! Drove on through the Countryside into the rolling downs of Wiltshire. We stopped in Marlborough a lovely old town with a long long street with the market and had a cream tea at the Polly Tea rooms which have been going for hundreds of years and are famous. On again and walked all round the Avebury stones 5000 years old and then through the pretty village. Drove on up hill and down dale through very wooded pretty countryside to Bath.
Here we found the boys a hostel and they explored the city in the lovely late sunshine seeing the Crescent and the Circus and all the golden stoned streets and buidlings while I collapsed at the camping ground!

Thurs morning they went round the Roman baths and we met up and then drove thru the S Cotswold countryside to cuzzie Tom and Katies farm where we changed into little Midge the Seicento Fiat. They managed to fold themselves in and we drove to Birdlip my home village through the lanes past Caudle Green which is my favourite village with a big green in the middle. The boys have loved the red phone boxes and here I remember Renee years ago, taking a photo of the mailbox embedded in a wall of a house. Then down through Cheltenham, sadly missing Jane and Nick who were out and thru the town down the Promenade with its chestnut avenue and white Regency houses and on thru Winchcome and up into the hills to Snowshill Manor which had a nice garden and lovely manor house and I though would be a stately home but apart from the cottage in the grounds where Charles Wade lived while compiling 22000 bits of memorbilia that is all the house is full of and I hated the claustrophobic feeling. There were some good bits like all sorts of bikes from penny farthings up. We luckily got in free by chatting up one of the National Trust ladies!! We then went a couple of miles to see the lavender farm which is what I wanted to see and it was AMAZING! fields of deep purple just about to be harvested.

We drove back through Bourton on the Water and walked round the village and over the bridges, it was early evening and mercifully hardly any tourists...on to Lower Slaughter so pretty with cotswold stone cottages rose bestrewn, sleeping in the late sun in a row the other side of the brook with little bridges across and willow trees and ducks.

Came back to Painswick and dumped their bags at Damsells Lodge their B&B and on to Dane's first pub The Butcher's Arms Sheepscome right down in the valley through green treed tunnel lanes just wide enough for 1 car. Dave last went to that pub when he was 14 months with Grant and I! All hanging baskets and beams...then on to Downbarn farm where cuzzie Katie gave us a lovely meal of lasagne and lots of chat and at 9.30 was just getting dusk.

Friday morning the boys enjoyed their B&B and yum breakfast and we walked round painswick village Queen of the Cotswolds so picturesque then on to the George Hotel where we walked through the cathedral like arches of a beautiful beechwood to The Peak a landlocked headland with great views for miles around and I was able to point out May hill with it's clump of trees on the top miles across the Severn Valley and Gloucester in the misty distance where we were going next. Dane did very well as it is a good hours walking and he only had flip flops and socks as he has awful blisterfs from cheap Thai shoes! We had a coffee at the George to recover and down the very steep Roman road of Birdlip hill to Gloucester which we bypassed just seeing the tall lovely Cathedral tower above the buildings.

We went on to Lonton a wee village where my parents lived and are buried in the churchyard in the shelter of the spire of the pink Hereford stone church. A very friendly church which we looked at and Dave's said hello to the granparents...the lavender I planted is blooming madly and looks lovely.
We dumped our stuff with Janet and admired the pretty garden. She very kindly put us all up and the boys admired the view from the bedroom I lived in for 6 weeks.
We went on through Ross on Wye and on to Symonds Yat where we had out bacon sammies, cooked in Harriet first thing! Apart from the lovely view of the Wye river going in both directions from this very high cliff we enjoyed the competitive chatter of the Twitter bird watchers assembled there with telescopes dangerously swinging round.

On to Monmouth and into Wales where the boys loved wth Welsh signposts. Over the Wye through the ancient town and on to Abgavenny or I Fenny..then branched up miles and miles gradually going up and up a narrow hedge lined lane thru a big valley past several places where you can have riding holidays through the border country which is very pretty. Finall after coming out on moorland very high up we saw the incredible views from Hay Bluff and Lord Hereford's Knob!
It was fortuitously very clear...Dave ran up the knob a bit and back then we drove thru the town of Hay which has a famous pony sale but is mostle famed for the whole town sellling second hand books from all the houses which are shops etc.

Found Woodseaves the hamlet my father's family comefrom and saw the White House and the Great Oak over a 1000 years old and hollow and then explored the wee graveyard at the back of the chapel which is now a house. Dave was able to say hello to his great, great, great grandparents and great great aunt Nettie who went mad and burnt all the family memorbilia in a garden bonfire!

We went back thru the outskirts of Hereford in the rush hour with Midge making awful grinding noises which Dave said was a vibration and Dane a whistle!! Luckliy it stopped and we got back to Upton Bishop to have a typical English meal in a country pub where the food had been recommended and we found it was in fact a Gurkha restaurant! The food was lovely but Nepalese! Dane was so disappointed so we went back to Janet's and had apple pie for pudding! She made us so welcome and we were very comfy.

Sat morning we went across the road and met my friend Pat who had a Welsh Mum and is wonderful at Welsh cakes. We had a cuppa and sampled a few and admired her garden and the wonderful view and had a few belly laughs she is so hilarious then back to Gloucestershire to Slad and swapped vehicles and off to Salisbury. We managed to drive past Stonehenge for Dane and were as close as the 1000's walking round! We walked round Salisbury pass the New Inn which was new in the time of Elizabeth 1st. All round the beautiful cathedral in its green close and then on to Southampton.

Cousins Jenny and David made us very welcome and Cousin Rose came over for a lovely chicken casserole. The next day after an inspection of Rose and Tony's estate with dogs and cat and fish and poutltry and barn and stables and field and beautiful garden..David drove us to Portsmouth and we had a yum fish and chip lunch in paper at an old pub on Spice Island a very old part of Portsmouth and an a fascinating hours trip on a boat going round the harbour with all the warships etc. We meandered thru all the cobbled streets to the huge shopping centre built in old warehouses under the white millennium tower which is like a spinnaker and 170metres high which you can go up and look through a glass floor...ugh! Dane managed to buy some good sneakers at 70% off and we came home through the villages and had an explore and back home where Dave and Dane cooked us a lovely meal.

Monn we had a haphazhard tour of Southampton seeing the Roamna wall and the shops and docks in the distance with the cruise liners and past the park David had a swing on when he was 13 months when we came to see where Grant had been a lifeguard at the Southampton pool in his youth and found it built over! Then we drove on the M3 into Surrey to Virginia water where we had a salad at an exorbitant price with a frightening waitress and I saw the boys off on the train to London and they obviously arrived safely.

Bangkok to the Motherland

Dave and I at the Southampton Port

The Roman Baths, in Bath

The Thai family in Bangkok

Windsor Castle

Changing of the guard-Buckingham Palace

One of those famous red telephone booths
Avebury stone ring-sw england

We spent our last night in Bangkok, and South East Asia, before heading to the mighty Londontown, at the Salawas. Since we were there last they had moved out east of the mighty city. Dave and i, all packed up to the brim with our new purchases flagged down a nice air con cab for the journey - well eventually anyway. They're reluctant to go any long distances and the drivers that were had no clue where the address was that we wanted to head to. After a 70minute drive through suburbs where we stopped three times to ask for directions (and at one stage our driver went into a reception area for no less than 15 minutes) we eventually made it to their humble abode. The taxi driver was extremely happy i bet he went home for a well deserved local brew. Their new house was rather nice and in a gated community described by dave as something off Desperate Housewives - much to his pleasure i suggest. That night we ate a lovely home cooked meal. The family has two maids so you are constantly getting fed and you don't have to do a thing which is something that i imagine takes a while to get use to. It was great to spend a couple of days with the family because you get the true experience of how they live, what they do, how they interact, what they think etc.

We were dropped off at the Bangkok airport on Sunday night. Driving down the maze of motorways to get there the airport was an amazing sight - something a bit reminiscent of Star Trek. And inside it was amazingly massive and not particularly easy to find your way around. We checked in, were under our baggage limit (just), and as we moved closer towards our terminal we were sadly saying farewell to the place that had been our home for three months and getting closer to what is the unknown part of our journey.

We touched down in Heathrow at 6:30am Monday morning and was greeted my Daves mum, Diana. As we drove through the outer suburbs of London towards Worcester Park (the apartment of daves sister, renee, who is in Turkey for two weeks) i sat in her little campervan and admired the old stone buildings just as you could expect on a typical postcard. we were finally in england, the motherhood, rich with history and although i was a bit sad to leave the adventure of travelling around asia i was excited about what lay ahead. that afternoon we rested up and i must say that it is so great to finally have a base where you can just relax in rather than moving places every other day. we went for a walk into the village where i went in every second shop excited by what i might find which was either the same or different from back home. although i couldn't help it, its also hard not to compare the prices of things from in nz and asia to here...its actually quite depressing, $6 for a coke or $5 for a loaf of bread. we got to cook tea that night which, believe it or not, is such a luxury when you've been on the road for so long. in fact, i estimated that we had to choose no less than 200 times where and what we would eat next in asia-a prospect that can be frightening but is more tiring.

the next day, being tuesday, di took us on an adventure into london (city). i went on the train and the tube for the first time as we arrived at the famous waterloo station (boy its massive), walked to see the hospital where she trained to be a nurse, which was bombed in the war, many years ago. we towered to the 30th floor where we had a great view of londons sights. we walked along the river towards the famous tower bridge and got hit my some unfavourable unsummer like weather. the museum of london told of englands amazing history up until the fire pof london in 1666 which lasted for five days and wiped out most of the city, which had been hit one year earlier by the black plague. catching a double deaker busthrough the eart of the shopping centre was a highlight. we reached trafalgar square and then walked down to buckingham palace where we were just in time to see the changing of the guard. it was so formal and a bit of a laugh really. there had just been some sort of a luncheon as masses of people dressed up as though they had jsut been to the boxing day horse races scrambled out. our short walk to westminster abbey turned into a bit of an ordeal when it absolutely persisted down, had thunder as loud as that encountered in Laos and massive hail stones. dave and i got drenched while Diana was safe and dry having skipped out the walk to the palace. westminster abbey was consequently closed and by that time we were soaked and ready for home. we caught the tube and train, in the rush hour, back to worcester park. we only managed to see a glimpse of the city but its history is absolutely amazing, and i can now see how you could get stuck in a place like this with so much to see, do and experience.

pi sit here in renees apartment exactly one week since we arrived

The Great Temples of Angkor Wat

In any random order.......

Wow......how amazing were they? We had heard plenty of stories from fellow travellers about the beauty of the temples and by the time we had reached Cambodia we were pretty excited!! We brought a three day pass and had the original plan of just going for two days, but as it turned out we used all three days.

We got a tuk tuk for the first day and had drafted our plan of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see...but had a bit of difficulty with our driver. He suggested that there wasn't enough time in the day to see all the temples we wanted too...we were positive there was (although we really didn't have a clue). As it turned out we saw less temples on day one than what we had wanted to and we were back at our guest house by 2pm! Wat! We wanted a full on day of sightseeing and were told there wasn't enough time! Consequently we used another driver for day two.

We first visited the Roulous wats which were the first built...made of sandstone...they were quite spectacular. About 800 years old we stopped to imagine just what it would be like back then with people building them and life revolved around them. All the temples, and there would be about 30 of them, are spread out over many acres. On the second day we drove one hour (40km) to see one of the 'top three' - quite a journey through the amazing Cambodian countryside. The temples are exactly like how they would appear on 'Tomb Raider', so im told anyway. We actually visited one where Angelina Jolie would have been. It had massive trees growing over, around and through thick stone bricks and is described in the travel books as the "most photographed" of all the wats.

I thought that visiting so many wats would be tiring and that i would get sick of them, especially after seeing them many times throughout the last 10 weeks...but alas we did what apparently not many tourists do and what those fantastic 'guide' books suggest not to and saved the big puppies (Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom) for last. Us Kiwis are just great pioneers aren't we!?

I was excited, then drained, then enthused, and then excited again about the prospect of waking up at 4:30am and cycling in the dark some 12km to see the suns rays as it awakes again shine over the old stone of Angkor and its surroundings. We parked our bikes up on day three opposite the long and drawn out entrance way as hundreds of tourists piled out of their noisy and polutant tuk tuks and walked the same path as us. In all its glory it, this majestic gem in the middle of nowhere, stood as it had for many centuries before and glowed in the morning sun. Everyone is told to visit it at sunrise and those guide books suggest that nothing will prepare you for it....and they were right....heleulah! While it was disappointing that there were many other people there at the same point in time and that this took the shine so to speak off the visit-i think that there is no time in history when there ain't a group visiting this wonder!

At every wat there would be many children and women trying to sell you books, bracelets, water, food...you name it and they've got it and they will hassle you and prod you to buy. This also took the shine off the visits, especially when they were hidden amongst the stone of the temples and ready to pounce. We heard sayings such as "if you don't wear this you hate Cambodia" - this from a little girl, or, "you buy postcard sir?" - "no thanks - already have" - "its not the same" - "its exactly the same", or, "you buy bracelet from me" - "no thanks" - "for your girlfriend" - "i don't have a girlfriend", then they would reply with "you know why you don't have a gf", "no", "coz you don't buy bracelet". It seems as though there is an answer for everything.

So...we visited the wats and left Cambodia...which is a lovely country with nice people but alot of poverty and still struggling with the horrific tragedies of the Khmer Rouge's trying to wipe out their own race and trying to ensure that the past is a more pleasant place to live. I would recommend a visit to Cambodia!!

So Dave and I have been shopping our hearts off in Bangkoks markets and preparing to leave for the mighty UK on Sunday night.

Peace and Love....and remember....try not to work too hard 'coz life is short.