Back online and settling in.....

Dear Blogger, it has been over two months since our last blog entry. So sorry - we will try and keep it updated more often from now on.

The last few months have been a bit of a shock to the system. When you go travelling you always spend a proportion of your time recovering from the trip. As soon as we arrived in Perth it was landing back in the real world with a bump. We had been in la la dream land for over three months and suddenly had to think of things like: where to live, where to work, how to get to work, bills etc. etc.

On arrival we were so lucky and our friend Tamara set up a house sit in a fairly swanking side of Perth. It was a lovely house with a stunning garden. Here is a pic of the house we stayed at for our first three weeks:


Tenae started her new job shortly after we arrived and I started job hunting. After a few weeks in Perth we managed to escape to the bush over the weekend. Our friend Tamara found an idyllic spot to camp near Dwellingup. Here is a pic showing the glassy river right next to where we were camping:


The posse keeping warm at the campfire:


After a few glasses of port we all started to get pretty arty:


So a week after our camping escapades we moved to our new place in Maylands. It is a three story townhouse with some nice views from the top floor. After moving around for so long we have loved settling down. We haven't taken many pictures unfortunately. Our house is right next to the Swan river and we have been riding our bikes loads on the cycle paths along the water front. Tenae has started playing touch and a little netball. I even squeezed in a game of b'ball last night.

Now we are finally back online we will try and keep the blog updated more often. Promise!

West Coast Road Trip

After my birthday T and I headed up north of Geraldton for a weeks camping. Equipped with a tent and nothing much else we set off in T's trusty old Nissan Skyline.

Despite the fact that tourism has really taken off since I was here 11 years ago, it's still not too difficult to get away from it all on the West Coast. I was totally blown away by the landscape and the wildlife.

Here are a few pics from Coral Bay. On our second day there we hired some kayaks and a guide went exploring the outer reef. I love swimming with fishes.

Our guide was so blase about swimming with sharks that we were not scared. It might have been a different story if we were on our own. We saw three.

And Mr Turtle was so cool to swim with.

Here is a pic of our favorite campsite at bush bay.

And one of Tenae at Shell Beach. I was here with Borny 11 years ago. Was thinking of you mate!

This pic gives you a better idea of where it gets its name.

So now we are off to Perth. The holidaying is over and we need to find a place to stay and join the Rat Race again. We will be offline until we get the internet at our new place.

Gero - The Sunshine City

Geraldton has really lived up to its name so far. We arrived here four weeks ago and we have had blue skies almost every day.

I have started looking for a job and Tenae has gone bonkers on Freecycle. So far we have picked up a BBQ, a washing machine and a printer. Our aim is to try and kit out our new pad in Perth with mainly second-hand bits and bobs. Also, the other day I found a really good road bike for Tenae at the tip. I've now built it up and it is a lightweight flying machine. What's really cool is that the bike is called a Ricardo!

A week ago we took a trip up to Kalbarri where Tenae's Nanna lives. Here are a few pics from the trip. Here is one a T, her wee sis Squeeky-Neak and a new friend they adopted at the beach.

We hung out at a famous surf spot called Jakes. The waves were amazing. I was happy to watch from the shore as it looked like a scary take off. Maybe one day I'll be as good as this fella:

Maybe a little big for our kids sized body board.

Last week was my 31st birthday and we celebrated in style. Yep fish and chips at the seaside - perfect.


For my birthday Tenae's Mum made me a Tiramisu. Mmmm - my favorite!

The home straight

Following a delay in Hongkers we arrived in Kuala Lumpar at 2am. Bleary eyed we dragged ourselves around the airport trying to find some form public transport into the centre of KL. We quickly realised that we had in fact landed at 'backwaterinthemiddleofnowhere' airport instead of KL International. This was a bummer as a taxi would have cost a fortune and the next bus was at 5am.

Resigned to our fate we tested out sleeping on a park bench before a massive thunderstorm and heavy rain spoiled that idea. Next option was a restaurant table - nice. Amazingly Tenae managed to get some sleep. We caught the bus to somewhere in KL. We had no idea where we were or where we were going to sleep. I don't think I have ever seen Tenae so tired.

We were so jealous of these guys as they hogged the comfy seats. This was an advert outside of 'backwaterinthemiddleofnowhere' airport KL.



However, it is funny how when you are traveling and things are not going your way that everything seems to work itself out. We ended up staying in a fantastic little hotel right smack bang in the middle of China town. We couldn't have picked a better spot for sampling the local food and exploring the city. I was so excited about the food as it reminded me of my time living in Singapore.

After eating, exploring then more eating eating and eating we jumped on another late night plane headed for Perth Australia. Following another wonderful 5 hours (you never had this problem with the trains!) waiting in Perth Airport we then boarded another plan headed for Geraldton, Tenae's home town. Here is a pic of Tenae. She really was this excited about getting home to see her folks. I was happy that we managed to somehow get Tenae's Dad's hat through customs.


We arrived in Australia on Wednesday the 22nd which was Tenae's Dad's 60th. He had no idea we were arriving and thought we wouldn't get there until the middle of May. Our plan worked perfectly and he was so surprised to see the two of us sitting in his living room.


We have been here for five days now and we have been spoilt rotten by Tenae's folks. Tenae's Mum's cooking is every bit as fantastic as she said and I have been made to feel extremely welcome in the family home. Here is a pic of me, Tenae, Tenae's sister Aneak and her Dad Neil. This was taken at Neil's 60th where I got a chance to meet lots of Tenae's extended family and close friends.

Bonkers in Hongkers!

Its Monday the 20th of April and we are in Hong Kong. We arrived here yesterday after a crazy 12 hour overnight bus journey. We opted for the bus as our dodgy hostel folk in Guilin suggested that it would be way more comfortable, cheaper and reliable than the train.......

Oh how wrong we were as it turned out to be none of the above. We were crammed in there like sardines. The bus was so full there were people sleeping in the aisle. All we could do was close our eyes and listen to our music to take our minds off things. Matters were made considerably worse by the fact that they didn't stop for the toilet until 4:30am - some 7 hours after we left Guilin (and some 5 hours after Rich started needing a pee).

Here is a pic of Rich (he was too wide to fit down the aisle!) on the bus that we would like to forget but probably wont;

Now we should probably take a few steps back as we have been neglecting the blog since being in Beijing. So its time to show a few pictures of where we have been in South China.

We started our trip in Guilin and headed North to Sanjiang. This is the town were Rich reached the height of his celebrity fame. Check out the little girls reaction to Richard walking by, they couldn't stop staring and giggling, so cute.

On the same day we met Monroe, a local English teacher who invited us round for dinner at their house which was on the school campus. Monroe and her husband were fatastic hosts and treated us to some of the best Chinese food we had eaten so far. When Rich popped out before dinner to shoot some hoops it was as if the whole school showed up to watch. They seemed to cheer regardless of whether Rich shot an air ball or took a rebound. Funny for Tenae and slightly embarrasing for Rich.

After Sanjiang we went to Chenyang to visit the famous wind and water bridge and the traditional wooden houses.

Rice paddy fields in next to the traditional Dong wooden houses also at Chengyang;

After being North of Guilin we headed South to Yangshuo and rented electric mopeds for the day and had a ball. Here's a photo of Rich - born to be mild!

Tenae admiring the view;

We spent 2 days in Yangshuo (were we saw Mrs Jane Fonda in action on the dance floor and Richard was accosted by the disco boys mentioned in our previous posting) before jumping on our mystery bus to Honkers. Here is a pic of the skyline at night;

We leave HK this evening on route to Kuala Lumpar. We should be in Malaysia around 1am tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more on our adventures through South East Asia. More updates soon.

Tourist Attraction and Jane Fonda

As it turns out Richard is abit of a tourist attraction here in South China. People stare and take photos of him in the street. Small children erupt into fits of giggles whenever he walks by. The funniest thing is he's receiving alot of male admiration; a few teenage boys have told him he is very handsome and asked for their photo with him and last night a random bloke brought him a drink and asked him to dance.

Speaking of dancing, we're loving the Chinese moves. We walked into this loud doof doof club in last night and found this lovely conservatively dressed middle aged lady strutting her stuff on the dance floor. Her repitior of moves looked as though they had be catalogued from a 1980's Jane Fonda aerobic work out video, all that was missing was the lycra, crazy perm and headband. She warmed up with a few gentle hip rotations before moving onto some leg dips and arm curls before finishing with a series of pelvis thrusts. All of which were completely out of time with the music, it was very funny and very cute.

A full update of our last few days to follow soon....

Hot and Sweaty in South China

We got the train at night from Beijing to Guilin. It was a great journey and we woke up in a totally different world. South China is hot, humid and tropical. So different to any of the landscapes we have travelled through so far. It was such a contrast to Siberia. It really hit home that we have travelled such a long way.

We need to keep this post short and will upload some pics soon. We are in Yangshuo at the moment. This area is famed for its beautiful limestone karsk peaks. We will do a proper blog soon when we find a good internet cafe. We leave on a sleeper bus tomorrow night to get to Hong Kong.