One For The Watsons

We thought Kirsty, Brian, Kira and Erin might appreciate one of Hong Kong's more popular drinks!

We hope it has not been freshly squeezed from a Watson!

Flat Packing & Mazda Thrashing

Well it's been a hell of a time the last couple of weeks. We have spent most of the last two or three weeks emptying all of our things out of the flat in preparation for our tenant moving in. We've been up past midnight most evenings packing and cleaning, which is quite tiring when you've been getting up at a quarter past six in the morning for work. We've also sold Liz's beloved MX-5. We're really going to miss it! It's been such a fun car . . . and it's got really nice spangly wheels!



What with the whole credit crunch thing selling it has been a bit of a nightmare, people just can't get or aren't willing to spend money at the moment. Plus selling a cabriolet at the end of two of the worst British summers is always going to be a bit more challenging. We tried Auto Trader and couple of garages without much luck. The whole Auto Trader experience has tested our patience to the limits. Never in my life have we had to deal with so many scammers, con artists, spoof emails, time wasters and general toss-pots! In the end we put it on eBay and auctioned it off. We hope the new owner gets as much fun out of the little fella as we have. He certainly looked like he was enjoying it as he drove . . . or should I say wheel spun off with the rev counter on the red line.

Since finishing work on Friday we have spent a lovely few days in Torquay with Liz's family. We're now back at my Mom & Dad's just having a few days relaxing and doing the final packing before we depart on Sunday for Hong Kong.

Government Statistic

I am now an official government statistic . . . I am now unemployed!

Taking a little Jauntlet

A few weeks ago my Mom had asked if I could do a map for her showing where we where going and when. In this digital age that we are all living in I thought that there must be a better solution than manually drawing the route out on a map with a pen (an analogue map?). After various searches on Google I couldn’t work out how to do this without being some sort of software programming guru.

However; yesterday I accidentally stumbled across a blog called Full Hook Ups that is written by a couple called Bethany & Bill. They are travelling across the USA with their cute dog Billy in an Airstream Trailer (one of those big classic shiny beasts).

Here’s a picture of their fantastic Airstream . . .

Their Blog features a little interactive tool called Jauntlet which has been the answer to my mapping prayers. I’ve added a Jauntlet map for our trip on the left hand side of the Blog. It’s down there just below the Itinerary . . . go on take a look.

It works just like Google Maps - there are a few buttons on there that allow you to pan around, zoom in and out and to move forwards and backwards across our route. We’ll endeavour to keep it up to date with our itinerary so that you can see exactly where in the World we are.

I found Bethany and Bills Blog via the Delightful Blogs web site. It’s a nice place to find some of the better Blogs that are lurking out there in the internet web pipe.

Green Dates and Packing

If you take a sneaky peak at the itinerary on the left hand side of the Blog you will see that more of the dates have gone green. We spent last night booking flights for the first few legs of our trip (we can thoroughly recommend Air Asia). It’s all now confirmed up to the 11th February 2009! We’re just waiting to hear from our friend Anne to see if she has confirmed her flights for coming out to see us in Thailand in February 09. Once that’s sorted we can then get the timing through to Singapore finalised.

We’ve had to plan the first part of the journey in quite a lot of detail . . . mainly because we are using Bangkok as a hub. This causes problems as you can’t legally enter Thailand unless you have booked a flight out. This combined with the Thai visa requirements (30 days max stay per entry with a maximum of 3 entries per 12 month period) means that the start of the trip can’t be too flexible.

We’ve also had a trial run at packing this week. It’s quite challenging trying to get all the things you think you may need for 15 months of your life into a 65 litre rucksack! Just how many pairs of underpants does a man need? Answers on a post card . . .

Recovery, Resignations, Renting and a Wedding Report

Liz has been really ill over the last couple of weeks and we were potentially going to have to delay our trip. However; she’s making good progress and is now well on the road to recovery (a big thank-you to those of you who've send cards and flowers). Hopefully we’ll still be able to depart for Hong Kong on the 2nd November.

Despite Liz’s illness it feels that we are rapidly approaching the point of no return for the trip. This morning I resigned from my job at TRW as the company no longer offer sabbaticals or career breaks. Liz is in the fortunate position that BCTU are keeping her job open. So as of today I have 4 weeks of work left (my last day at work will be 24th October) which is a slightly scary thought.

We’ve also managed to rent our flat out. We were really amazed at how quickly it went. With all the talk of the credit crunch and financial meltdown we weren’t sure how buoyant the rental market was going to be. However; we needn’t have worried as we had 10 enquiries within 2 days of it going on the market and the first person who saw it took it. . . maybe we should have put it on for more money!

Our last day at home is also going to be 24th October. We’re then going to be down in Torquay for a few days so Liz can see all her friends and family before we come back up to the Midlands on Wednesday 29th October and spend the last few days at my Mom & Dads house.

One final update is that we’ve had a little piece about our wedding in one of the local papers. My sister was kind enough to send a picture and a small write-up in which was published a couple of weeks ago. It’s just like being in a less glamorous version of Hello magazine . . . wonder how much we should charge for the deal!!!

More On Venice

I thought I would add a few more pictures of Venice in addition to the ones posted by Liz yesterday.

And one additional point . . .

Please don’t feed the pigeons . . . one of the little bleeders squirted me with some bodily fluid from a ledge in St Marks square!

Other than the pigeons the other major warning for any potential visitors to Venice is the cost. . . It’s easily the most expensive place we’ve ever been to, far more expensive than London or New York. Particularly if you want to eat or drink anywhere near St Marks square or on the Grand Canal at the Rialto Bridge. Be sure to check for hidden charges such as cover charges, bread charge, live music charge (if there is a band) and of course the obligatory service charge and tip! A good rule of thumb is if it has a sign outside saying Tourist Menu or Menu Turistico then you are probably be going to be paying over the odds for low quality food.

Two places that we can highly recommend for great food and service are Bancogiro in the Rialto market and Ristorante da Raffaele. The best bar we found was probably Muro which had great crowd and drinks at reasonable prices (for Venice!!!)

Long Weekend in Venice

Si and I have just come back from a long weekend in Venice which was a birthday and wedding present from me to Si. We had a lovely time. The weather was great so we actually managed to see some blue skies and feel some heat from the sun for the first time in ages! We stayed in a great hotel called the Hotel Ai Do Mori. It is literally just behind St Mark's and we had the 'Painter's Room', Room 11, which has it's own roof top terrace with amazing views over St Mark's and the Bell Tower. It was quite noisy when all the various bells were rung nearby, but it all added to the atmosphere. We spent our days enjoying just wandering around the tiny alleyways and bridges around Venice and sightseeing along the way. The views from the top of St Mark's Campanile were amazing, the Doge's Palace was great and we really enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. We didn't enjoy the journey from the airport by ferry, it took ages and was very choppy! We did however enjoy all of the lovely food - pasta, pizza and delicious ice-cream, good job we did so much walking to burn it all off. The next time we head off in November for the big trip we won't be coming back!

St Mark's Campanile (Bell Tower)

Detail of St Mark's frontage
Venitian Masks for Sale

The Wonders Of The World Wide Web And The Sunday Times

When you’re planning a trip like this (or in fact any trip) the web is a wonderful resource. It just makes things so much easier to plan and arrange. A lot of websites now have review and feedback sections so you can get a real idea of other people’s thoughts on places before you book or go.

The daddy of the travel review websites is TripAdvisor and we use this a lot. However; you have to treat some of the reviews with a pinch of salt!

Some other great travel planning and booking websites we use are Opodo, Expedia and Travel Supermarket which are good general purpose ones for flights and hotels. More specific for flights are Sky Scanner (which has a great route mapping feature), Kayak and Airline Route Maps (does exactly what is says on the tin). For absolutely anything to do with train travel you just can’t get any better than Seat 61.

We also use a website that is set up and run by Lonely Planet (whose guide books are our favourites) called the Thorn Tree. Thorn Tree is a forum where all sorts of travel related information, issues, advice, hints and tips are discussed. It’s a fantastic knowledge base and if you can’t find a solution to a particular question you can post one yourself (no matter how obscure) and other users will answer.

We’ve even resorted to the Sunday Times news paper for advice and help. This was published last Sunday . . .

3 Months And Counting

Just under 3 months to go now. . . We can’t wait and are starting to make more and more preparations for the “big off”.

We’ve both been injected with various nasty things to prepare us for what the world can throw in our direction. Our final jab was for Yellow Fever last week. We went together for moral support as both of us have an irrational fear of needles. The injection itself wasn’t too bad but it’s had some delayed side effects on me. I’ve been suffering with a slightly mashed-up head for the last 3 days and it feels like my eyes are slightly too big for their sockets!!!

Our schedule which is shown on the left hand side of the blog is now falling into place and more of our friends are making plans to meet up with us in various locations. As Liz highlighted in the last entry Paul, Nic and Sarah might come out and see us in Koh Phangan for New Year. We're also planning to meet up with Anne when we are in Chang Mai. One of Anne’s friends Grat will be over there teaching English so we are all going to meet up for a couple of weeks. June and Brett have also said that they would like to join us at some point.

The big surprise though is that my Mom and Dad are coming out to join us in Singapore. They have never flown long haul before or been out of Europe. We’re really excited that they will be coming out to see us and experience somewhere that will be so different to anywhere they’ve been before.

Liz’s friend Allison, who’s currently living in Johannesburg South Africa, has also told us to look her up when we are there so she can show us around. She's also offered us sleeping space at her house, which is very kind of her . . . Although I think she may change her mind after she sees the mess we are in after 10 or 11 months of travelling!