Mar Menor

So where did last month go??? Well we spent the time in Cambrils and explored all of the surrounding areas from Del Etbe, where they grow the Arroz rice, to Tosse Del Mar, up near Girona, with a day trip to Barcelona  - as you do.

Also, we were a few minutes from Tarragona where the world’s largest yacht - Azzam - was moored. It was amazing and looked immaculate, but if you can afford USD600 million to mess about on the water,  then I guess you can afford the army of cleaners!

Our base in Cambrils was great for a month, but it didn’t quite manage to tick all of the boxes. Ultimately, we didn’t find a place or area we liked enough to settle and if we were to extend our stay then it would have required signing up to a 12 month contract and when taking in the opportunity or lack of work, we decided that we needed to look further afield. Further south where the climate is warmer.

So we departed Cambrils and stopped for an overnight stay in Valencia, which was a lovely treat as we stayed in the Westin and it was also the start of their local festival. What seemed a bit odd to us was that it started at 6pm so was still light, why go to the effort of a firework display when it is still light? The reason is that they are focused only on the noise and smoke. And boy! the noise was immense and so loud that it hurt your ears and you could feel the vibrations in your trousers…..well that was what Patrick said!!......

Valencia is a lovely city and the architecture is beautiful and it was very nice to see it with more life and colour since our last visit a month ago.

However, we were bound for the Mar Menor Golf resort which is our home for the next month. To be frank, I was expecting it to be very quiet and a bit of a ghost town - lots of apartments and villas all shut up with the odd few golfers pottering around in their gawdy coloured clothing, but in fact, only the gawdy trousers bit was correct. Maybe its to divert attention from the long walk after a little ball? As you can tell, golf was not our priority but it seemed that the decent accommodation is on a golf resort, hence we are here and it will be our base to explore Murcia and La Manga. However, we are reaching the point where we will need to decide what we do if we don’t find something suitable. Hopefully, we can stave off that decision for the next few weeks - particularly as the weather is 24c and bright sunshine - so that ticks one box!

Will keep you posted in the next week or two.

Adios Amigos

The Blog is back!!

Well it has been a while since the last update and the reason is that we have been really busy and also tecnically challenged! As there was a small hitch with our laptop, in that it no longer worked after our last journey from northern to southern Spain. However the summary is as follows:

One month in France
Christmas and New Year back in the UK
From mid January until now Spain.

So where were we back in November? Ah yes, we had left Nice for Bourdeux and spent a couple of nights there in a really smart revamped townhouse. Although the set up was part of the owners house and I don't think they really wanted to have guests, but basically needed them to pay off the renovations. Bourdeux could be pretty if you removed the graffiti and doggie do's (maybe a gap in the market to promote best practice when you have a dog i.e. buy some bags) and improved the parking, apart from that it was ok but not top of Patrick's list as you may have gathered.

After Bordeaux we moved on to Saintes, pronounced ' Sontes' and here we stayed in a hotel which ....with an extra half a million, could have been fantastic. It had all of the original features and staircases etc but unfortunately hadn't been updated and was on the market for EUR 850k. ...Over our budget!! This is where the fun started and we began our search to see if there were any properties we liked enough to setup home and create a business. We travelled to Royan, La Rochelle and Cognac and numerous towns and villages in between and unfortunately came to the same conclusion, that every where needed an injection of life to make it appealing, it was so quiet and everything was too far apart. From Saintes to La Rochelle was 90kms and the scenery in between not the most inspiring.  However, we did see a little townhouse in Cognac that had potential but unfortunately nothing else did.
After Saintes, we were a little stuck on where to stay or go so in the end stayed in La Rochelle for a couple of nights and then found a villa on  Il de Re which is reached via a 3 km bridge, similar to Wales and the Severn bridge and you have to pay €8 to get onto the island......but they let you off for free! It was known as the exclusive area of the region like Sandbanks in Poole, but I think it was really a marketing ploy. It was nice and we had a good villa and were able to cycle for miles and miles but again it just lacked any real life, so didn't do it for us.
Eventually, it was time to leave France and head back home for Christmas and New Year but with a feeling of ...not quite despair, but really wondering what we should do next as it had not turned out as we had hoped, but c'est la vie!

Back home and we were off with a bang and up to London for Williams christening and first birthday. Nina is a Great Aunt! This was a great day and he is a lovely little chap who is very laid back and relaxed with people. This is probably a  a reflection of his mum and dad. It is hard trying to think of all the things we did but mainly it was catching up with Hannah and James and the rest of our family and friends.
Christmas was a nice time as we had 2 Christmas days. One with Patrick s family, where both his sisters were able to be there which was the first time all 3 had been together at Christmas for about 20 years and the second one was on Christmas day itself where we were back up in London with Nina's family. We were delayed by about 3 hours due to a puncture on our hire car and they had not supplied the locking wheel nut so Patrick could not change it, much to his annoyance. However a very very nice man from the RAC was able to come out and get us going!
The rest of the time was spent seeing friends and catching up with all of the events and happenings since we had been away. As well as dealing with the mundane items of sorting out rent renewals etc.
However, as we were of no fixed abode at home we had to decide on where we went to next.
This came down to 2 options......Italy or Spain.
For preparation, Patrick ordered 2 maps from Amazon and the Italian one did not arrive so the gods were telling us to go to Spain. Not very scientific but some things are meant to be!

Spain
We had booked a villa for a month at Miami Playa which is south of Barcelona, but unfortunately the accommodation left a lot to be desired and neither of us were willing to spend a night there! This did cause us a bit of a headache as we had no internet or phone connection at the time, so needed to get that sorted before we could find somewhere we could stay for the night. Fortunately,after much driving around, we stopped in Cambrils, sorted out the phones, Nina disappeared for ages seeing a couple of apartments and Patrick started searching for a hotel.......and finally found one in Vilaseca.
Now we had a base for the night but our plans were in disarray. We had thought about going south to the Costa del Sol whilst we were in Spain, so now brought that plan forward and over the next few days stopped in Valencia,  Marbella and Alicante and visited many places in between e.g. Torremolinos,  Benidorm and Puerto Banus! Also we were fortunate to be able to meet up with Patrick's cousin who lived just outside Marbella and see the local side of the Costa del Sol.
Although our experience of Miami Playa was not what we had hoped,  the positive side was that when we stopped in Cambrils we did really like it, so during our last leg of going down south, we managed to book a one bedroom apartment for a month in Cambrils, so now gave us a base. It is a great apartment and in a good location near the beach and port.......and also the train station which is a bit annoying when the Barcelona express chugs through and the driver is tooting his mate on the platform, but all considered we have made a good choice and can now explore this area more.
The downside of travelling is that we have unfortunately lost our laptop as the hard drive packed up between Alicante and Cambrils which has limited our online ability. It is quite interesting in how dependent we now are on it and how behind both France and Spain  are in their technological capabilities. Every apartment we have looked at in Spain is without or 'sin' (local lingo) wifi connection, so we are limited to the mobile phone networks and they are slow and expensive, which is surprising when compared with Thailand where the infrastructure does not appear to be as mature but they have greater phone and Internet connection with top ups available everywhere. Here it can take half hour just to top up your phone (with France Orange shop having the record in taking over an hour to get a top up!).

But  hey we are at least able to get our blog up and running again and have joined the local library so we can get some books and dvds. ....and are beginning to learn a few words of Spanish.

So adios until the next update.......

Dogs, Fines, Paris……Nice!

Well a lot has happened over the last 2 weeks so where do we start!

Dogs

As we have mentioned, we have become quite fond of Seamus and Weekly and it was a ghastly shock for Patrick when he witnessed Weekly perform his usual escapade of chasing the 4x4 but this time it didn’t slow down and in fact whacked the poor dog on his rump! After witnessing this, Patrick was out of the villa like a bullet out of a gun, making off in the direction of the dog to check it was ok and being such a wannabe detective he also made a note of the car registration.  Although Weekly was making a lot of noise, with Seamus offering support and growling at anyone who approached his mate, he did seem able to limp, somewhat painfully to his owner’s house.

However, Patrick was incensed that the driver of the 4x4 did not check on the dog and set off to find out where they lived. Needless to say, he managed to find them the next day and confronted  the driver who meekly responded with a “I thought it was ok” anyway the main thing was that a few days later the dogs were back on the street….although their appetite for chasing 4x4’s seems somewhat reduced.

Fines

As we were leaving Phuket, we encountered a slight problem at the immigration counter. In our delight at staying for an extra week and re-arranging our schedules, we had overlooked the fact that our visa was for 30days. So we were informed that we had to pay a fine of THB 8,000 in cash to be able to leave, as we had overstayed our welcome. The excuse of being British did not cut it and it was cash or accommodation of their choice!

Though, we felt like a complete pair of numpties, we were able to relax over a glass of wine courtesy of Malaysia Airlines. Yes – we chose them as they were a) available and b) cheaper than everyone else.

The calm before the storm (or Paris)

It was an excellent set of flights to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Paris. The Paris flight was on a new Airbus 380 (and we were lucky enough to have seats upstairs) we had so much space, a lovely selection of food for dinner/breakfast and free champagne, Patrick was so chuffed I don’t think he slept at all!

Paris

6.30am on a cold Thursday morning, we arrived and made our way to the Hertz desk to pick up our voiture. This wasn’t quite as smooth as we had envisaged, no surprise there! They sent us off in an upgraded car…..or rather a 7 seater bus!

This made for some interesting driving as we exited the airport during rush hour! Unfortunately, the directions we printed were useless and as we missed our turning, we had to rely on Ms.SatNav! Fortunately, she knew where we were and how we should get to Beaune (for our overnight stop).

Beaune was lovely, a very pretty town and we enjoyed dinner in a local wine bar!

The next day we completed our journey to Nice and whilst the bus was great on the motorway, the narrow streets and bollards of Nice were not to its liking and this coupled with the lack of parking spaces saw the re-emergence of Basil Meldrew!! ( Basil Fawlty meets Victor Meldrew) which was not pleasant, so it was a relief to reach Helen’s so she could park the bus in her very tiny garage.

Nice

It was lovely to see Helen and the boys and our first day was spent walking around Nice under clear blue skies and 21c which felt very pleasant.

However, the next day, we were treated to thunderstorms and lightning and plenty of rain! Still it made for a good day as we were able to stay with Helen and have a Raclette – which was a great way to sample typical French cuisine!

Patrick’s birthday was on the Monday and Helen, Thomas and Arthur had arranged a cake with a nice big 46 on, but Thomas gleefully changed this around to 64 which he thought more apt!

After some deliberation, Patrick and Helen realized it was the first time they had been together on his birthday for about 24 years, so we decided that was a cue for another bottle to be uncorked!

Unfortunately, the days went very quickly and before we knew it, time to leave, so on the 11^th November – a public holiday in France – our French adventure began for real!

Last week in Phuket

So we are into the last week here in Phuket and apart from dodging the showers, it has been a relaxing time, either cycling to the beach, looking ‘sophisticated’ on our moped or checking out the areas we had not yet discovered.

Last week, we booked a speed boat trip which took us out to four small islands and lovely unspoilt bays, including the James Bond Island – Phang-nga. The day was overcast which was a shame for the photos but good for the skin…..I think it would have been roasting if the sun had been out, although Patrick still ended up with a red face!

The trip included canoeing through the caves and having lunch at the “Floating Village”. It was very interesting with stunning scenery. However, it was an organised tour and we both decided that we really prefer discovering places under our own steam, though luckily the people we met and shared the experience with were mainly really nice and as always it’s interesting to hear other people’s experiences and stories as to why they are there. We were the only English, which we are quite used to here, most of those that speak the same language are Australians on holiday with, it seems, Russians and Chinese being predominantly here to purchase a property!

For those not familiar with the history of the James Bond island. It appeared in the 1974 film – The Man with the Golden Gun – for about 3minutes in a scene with Roger Moore and Scaramanga. However the actual beach is about 30feet long and now filled with tourist souvenirs (to be polite). Still they have made a living out of it for nearly 40 years so fair play!

One of the other challenges when on a tour with many people is contending with other tourists who want to be the centre of attention and in everyone else’s photo’s. Still with the art of the English language and Patrick’s ability to utilize his very own form of sign language, i.e. a not so subtle arm movement and Paddington stare achieves the result of being able to converse in their language. Effectively, “you’ve had your time now bugger off” and let others take their photos in front of that famous rock.

The speed boat ride was really exhilarating, although in amongst this natural beauty you still can’t escape the rubbish man leaves behind….. on 2 occasions the boat had to stop after the engine started to emit a bleeping sound, due to plastic bags being caught in the propeller!

Vouchers

When we came to Phuket in July, we were approached by the Laguna Holiday team to listen to their presentation for 90 minutes, with a view to receiving some free vouchers, which we knew was obviously Time Share re packaged, so we declined at the time. However now we had been back for a month, we thought we might as well check it out……oh my word!....

The presentation was effectively a time share scheme, no surprises there, but on the face of it seemed a pretty good deal, until you get into the nitty gritty…which really uncovers the fact that  not much has changed over the last 30 years, the sales team are still very economical with the detail, until you probe and then discover it’s not such a good deal really.

Needless to say, we didn't part with anything other than 3 hours of our time!

It was hard for Nina not to tell them she was once sitting in their seat ……but hey there is no such thing as a free lunch and Patrick didn't want to miss out on the vouchers!

Still at least we know how the club works now and more importantly know it’s not for us even though this is a really nice part of Thailand we would rather be free to choose where and when we spend our money.

Sun bed saga and salvation……

When the weather has been good, we have been to the beach and after the Dusit Thani experience decided to try another hotel for a couple of days, which was good, the sun-loungers were provided and some local ladies came by with drinks etc – so all was well. Until the other day, when another jobsworth decided that our towels were the wrong colour and not from the Angsana Hotel – so although he did let us stay for the rest of the day, we had to find another place. Luckily salvation was literally next door at the Xana Beach Club which had recently been re furbished and included a background of funky club music so Patrick was in his element (although Boney M didn't feature)!! As they were very welcoming, albeit the drinks were more expensive, we decided to return Friday evening for a cocktail and Seafood Buffet.

Both were superb….the buffet was excellent and the Green Curry with crab fried rice was the highlight, although the fish wrapped in banana leaf came a close second, along with the salmon, just a shame we couldn't fit a desert in!

There was also a fire eating display on the beach in front of us which was pretty amazing – the photos below are not very clear but you can get an idea. It was so close you could smell the fuel and feel the heat. The atmosphere was very relaxed and there were a few children who were mesmerised by the fire display, especially one little Asian lad who didn't quite understand that he needed to move back, not sure where the parents were but as the flames were getting closer and closer Patrick had to step in and move him back, but the look of confusion on his face was quite a picture.  Luckily no irate parents appeared to say anything!

In order to get to the club, we did take our Scoopy which was fine for Patrick in his shorts but a little problematic for Nina in a dress! This was resolved by going “side-saddle”. See what a month does? There is no way we could have done this on the first day of riding Scoopy but on the quiet roads it was possible to salvage ones dignity and look elegant…..well as much as you can on a 125cc moped!!

We are going to make the very most of the next few days, before preparing for France. We've already had to make changes as our flight home was cancelled less than 48 hours after booking it, so we will now be going home via ferry! Another mode of transport ticked from the list!

Au revoir, mon amis.

p.s.Also meant to mention who you have to share the beach with in Phuket.....here he was coming back from his swim - but it was funny beforehand as he ran to the water with his mahout pulling his tail trying to stop him....obviously the mahout failed and it was too quick to get a picture.

p.p.s Look who also decided to make themselves at home on our patio - Seamus and Weekly....

Persistently, Precipitous Phuket!

It’s Wednesday 8^th October and it has rained every day since we have arrived – the only consolation is that we have now experienced all types of rain – the drizzle, the shower, the absolute monsoon downpour – and have been treated to lighting and thunder on more than one occasion. So we are rapidly gaining an ‘ology in Rain!

This wonderful weather also resulted in the power and water being cut-off on Sunday evening, so Nina was grateful for my forward thinking on this occasion, as it meant we both had a torch to read our books with, exciting!

We were wondering what we might find in the fridge and freezer the next morning if the power stayed off all night, but fortunately it must have returned just in time to save the ice-creams, well they seemed edible the next day. The result of all the bad weather is that all of the water has left the electricity cables “fizzing” outside along the roads which is a little disconcerting, especially as many of them are hanging down around head level!

You may think it’s a perfect reason to stay in and watch a film……which would be nice but it seems the owner of the villa hasn’t paid the subscription so we have no TV!....... we didn’t miss it much until the ability to watch it was removed.

We have ventured out to Patong as we felt we needed a bit of “life” but this proved a little challenging as the weather turned to yet more torrential rain as the taxi driver dropped us off and although we requested him to pick us up ….he had other ideas!  So we were stranded in Patong with a lot of other wet and hacked off people all trying to grab a taxi to avoid the rain and get home. Still, Patrick took control and paid over the odds for a wet, windy and noisy Tuk Tuk!......travelling in style it was not and I’m sure the driver thought he was Valentino Rossi whilst we were praying for the tyres to have some tread and stick to the road!

But it is an adventure and the rain had to catch up with us eventually…….hopefully, it will dry up to allow us to get out and about!

Sunshine!

It had to stop eventually and now it has! We’ve been blessed with the sunshine once again and it is lovely and warm. The only downside is that Patrick has had a cold and is sneezing and spluttering all over the place and working his way through multiple boxes of tissues. However, since the Patong adventure, we decided that we needed to sort out our own transport….and Funky Moped numero 2 has entered the scene, well driveway!

It’s a Honda Scoopy and Patrick is in his element and loving the freedom and raw power of 125cc!!......

Still we were able to use it to go out the other evening to Flame where we had a lovely dinner of roasted chicken Thai style and lamb kebab! It is a really good place, relaxed, great food and inexpensive!

Having the moped has allowed us to get out and about and go to parts of the Island we’ve not visited before and it has been quite surprising seeing a real mix of sparkling new developments and also a number of half completed sites which look like the funding was pulled at some point and the work literally came to a stop mid build. This was evident with the developments below, they were in the north east of the island and had a good view, but the rest of the surrounding area had unfortunately been neglected and if you were aware this would definitely deter any buyer. Would be great to have the funds and knowledge to take it on ….who knows someone might do it …..but it looks too big a venture for us!

On that note we have had some building work close to home…… the builders have been in the villa next door and they work Thai style…….very early start and then its lunch by 11am and then they’ll restart about 5pm! Apart from the noise, it is quite funny listening to them as their mantra is “to enjoy their work and have a laugh….. and the work will be finished at some point!”

Fortunately, we’ve not had any further electricity blackouts and the TV has been restored although apart from the Russian Grand Prix, I’m not sure what we’ve really missed…..the channel options are as uninspiring as Hong Kong.

Still, we have the difficult decision of which beach shall we go to today? ….I like Naithon Beach which is smaller and cleaner versus the pretentious Surin Beach. We did stop at a beach café at Surin Beach and on the menu (and in the cabinets so they really did have it!) was a methuselah of champagne (6litre bottles!) for a mere THB60,000 (that’s about GBP 1,150 or EUR1,500, HKD14,365 / AUD 2,120 / SGD2,350….just to save any exchange calculations!).

When you consider that the local “Waitrose equivalent” supermarket employs its staff for THB 9,000 per month…..that is one decadent bottle of plonk.  Not sure how many they are likely to sell!

Over the next week, we will start to work out our plans for November but for now, we are just enjoying the sunshine and the freedom….as we don’t know how long either will last!

As we end our second week in Phuket we find ourselves asking ….are they male or female?

On Wednesday (15^th Oct), we went to see Simon’s Caberet. We stopped at a little restaurant and had a superb dinner with starters and drinks for under GBP10!!....the show was in Patong, so we splashed out and went via Scoopy! This was an eventful journey which started by meeting a JCB Digger head on down one of the lanes in Bangtao. Patrick’s foot has never been so close to the caterpillar tracks of the machine but there was no space to move!

Patong is a good 45 minutes from where we are staying and it was quite a journey with an incredible red sunset during the first part of our journey, but as we approached the town – the traffic started to come from all directions….and being on our scoopy Patrick was also trying to avoid the drains which are about 3 inches lower than the road, which did make for a very challenging and bumpy ride.

Needless to say, we arrived a bit windswept and also relieved to get there in one piece. Neither of us had any real idea of what to expect but it was great entertainment. The stars of the show were the individual performers who ranged from a “Barbie Girl” rendition to a person dressed one side as female and the other as male and they were both very entertaining. The costumes were really glitzy and colourful, with incredible headdresses and costumes.

The only negative was the fact that a lot of the performers were miming and the dancers were out of sync and needed to sharpen up their routine, not a lot of rhythm basically. Mind you the show runs 3 times a night/7 days a week so maybe it was a case of ‘burn out’.

We did really enjoy it and after the show we had a smoother ride home, although it was a relief to get back – you do have to constantly be on the lookout for potholes and/or any other debris that’s made its way onto the road!

Thursday was a beach afternoon so we went to Bangtao Beach or to be precise we went to the beachfront at the Dusit Thani hotel, we had been informed that as a visitor to the Laguna Villas we could have access to any of the hotel facilities within Laguna. Unfortunately, this was cobblers….and whilst Nina was busy shopping, Patrick had to contend with the deckchair police. After attempts at negotiation and even bribery in the form of buying a drink, it was to no avail so Nina came back to a grumpy Doyle! However as I had brought a new bikini for all of GBP7 he soon cheered up and we moved onto the beach itself which was actually nicer!!

I think the buffet at the Dusit Thani is off the agenda!!

Well we’ve decided to stay an extra week in Phuket so we can meet up with Helen (Patrick’s sister in France) and hopefully stash some bags while we tour around.

Both of us were secretly pleased as it’s so lovely here and we have really fallen into the laid back way of life, it feels a bit like a nice cosy cocoon, where you don’t have to worry too much about  anything.

p.s. I keep meaning to introduce you to Seamus and Weekly, the local dogs that have taken up residence near our villa. Weekly is obviously top dog as he struts around with his nose in the air looking important, Seamus follows some way behind trying to look like he knows where he is going, but you just know he has no idea and is just following his mate, well, that is until a white 4x4 comes along the road, which for some reason he has taken an aversion to, off he goes chasing and barking at it, until eventually the driver slows down and has to stop, obviously Seamus then feels he has fulfilled his task, he gives the car a furtive look, piddles up the nearest tree and sashays off back to his mate.  

Ohh and in case you wonder where we came up with these names, well……our plan for France or wherever we settle is to have a Great Dane called Daley and a Boxer named Sean, but Patrick felt these poor mongrels just don’t cut it so he came up Weekly and Seamus, you can see how his mind works, can’t you!  

Pictures below!

Follow the sun: Sunny Sydney & The Blue Mountains

Follow the sun: Sunny Sydney & The Blue Mountains: We arrived in Sydney on Sunday 21 st and checked into the hotel which happened to be very close to two of the most prominent icons in Sydn...

Sunny Sydney & The Blue Mountains

We arrived in Sydney on Sunday 21^st and checked into the hotel which happened to be very close to two of the most prominent icons in Sydney, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, we could not have asked for more. By strange coincidence it was the same hotel, although under a different name, that Patrick stayed in on his first trip to Sydney! The room had a fantastic view – see picture! – and was very close to The Rocks where we went for dinner on our first night. The only blot was that somewhere between the debacle at Perth Airport and returning to the room after dinner Nina lost a very expensive earring, more importantly a present from me. All efforts to find it have been unsuccessful so I can only assume that someone was lucky enough to find it but not honest enough to hand it in, maybe they now have a very nice pendant…what was that notice up in the winery…oh yes ‘we believe in Karma’ well so do I! .. Nina will just have to wear the remaining one and be “uneven” (no change there)!

However, this trip/travel has highlighted that it is not necessarily the material items that matter but enjoying where you are and who you are with.

On the Monday, we ventured to Bondi Beach. This was a funny experience as Patrick had been there many years ago and rated it with less than one star – in fact, I think he was only coming this time as I hadn't Although, due to our limited choice of TV channels in Hong Kong, we had watched virtually every episode of Bondi Rescue so both felt we knew every inch of the beach and those life guards already (well Nina did!). We took the bus from Circular Quay and arrived at Bondi in the sunshine.

It was a really lovely place and far better than we were expecting, clearly it had received a face lift and botox since Patrick had previously visited, which we worked out to be some 12 years before.  There was even a stall to purchase “Official Bondi Rescue Merchandise”. I dragged Nina away….who was scanning the beach to see someone famous….

Both Bondi Beach and the walk round to Tamarama Beach had great views all along the Cliffside and the weather was really perfect which helped.

The surf was really good, but Patrick felt he didn’t want to show the professionals up by dipping his toes in…

On our way back, after a magnum (ice cream, not champagne as bit early in the day) we got off the bus a few stops early to walk through the Botanic gardens and see more of Sydney. It was a strange experience as we had both been to Sydney before with work but not together. So it felt like we knew it…..to the point of disagreeing on which way to go.  But it also felt very strange not to be expected to go into work particularly when you see the JPM logo on top of the office block next to the Westfield tower.  This obviously has many positives which you can all guess, but on the down side does remind us that we do not have any money coming in, which in itself is also strange and a little scary if you think too much about it.

Moving on, we did take the time to meet up with a few friends from work, Patrick had lunch with Steve and Phil and Nina with Jane. It was a nice time but did reinforce our current thoughts that any return to corporate life right now, would be too soon, we still want to see what else is out there.

On Wednesday, we explored the Harbour and Gardens more extensively and just enjoyed the free time and sunshine. In the evening, we made our way to the other side of Darling Harbour to a place called Pyrmont to meet up for dinner with Jane and Dave. This was a really enjoyable evening with some excellent food and wine– in fact we were the last to leave! – and it was a great way to end our time in the City and as always lovely to catch up with friends.

The Blue Mountains

When Patrick first visited Australia he had decided to hold off on visiting the Blue Mountains as he wanted to wait until we could visit them together….and we are both glad he made that decision.

You see the pictures and read the write ups but you still don’t quite know what to expect – and this was the case.

The drive out of Sydney up to the Blue Mountains was pretty packed with traffic going to and from the City (in fact Sydney CBD traffic system is dreadful – too many traffic lights and one way systems result in traffic moving at less than 10kmph most of the time……the only consolation is that there is no chance of being fined for speeding!). The journey was mainly dual carriage way with very little to see, which we were not expecting, I think we both had in mind a journey with lots of lovely views and scenic, but this was not the case.  However eventually we turned off for Leura which was where our accommodation was based. Leura was a lovely town and we think the best in the Blue Mountains!

Our accommodation was unique and full of character, you could not have experienced a bigger contrast to the Sydney hotel. We had champagne, chocolates, a spa bath and even decanters of Port and Sherry! It was very special.

On Friday, we decided to leave the car and take a short walk around the area to get our bearings and by luck came across a walk which seemed fairly interesting, this was really our first glimpse of the Blue Mountains. What we did realize was that the signs indicate the length of the walk not the amount of steps or incline associated with it! It turned out we were walking through Gordon’s falls named after a British soldier. The falls were very pretty but the view from the lookout point was incredible – it set the benchmark for the other sights and in Patrick’s view was not beaten!

After coming to the end of the walk, we discovered the Everglades Gardens which are part of the National Trust, so decided to grab a coffee and a rest whilst admiring the flowers and views. It takes a while to adjust to the fact that the plants are budding as it is spring but the time of year in our heads is autumn.

After the gardens, we decided to take the car and venture further afield and took the “Blue Mountains Drive”. This was a great drive but the views are shielded behind the trees so basically you are driving along a tree lined road, so need to stop every now and then and get out and take a peek at the different viewpoints! We saw the Three Sisters at Echo Point and stopped in Katoomba.

In our minds, Katoomba was the main town in the Blue Mountains as this is the one mentioned in most guide books etc., but if you are planning a trip we would suggest skipping this town, which actually seems to be what most others either have done or are doing. Walking down the high street, the number of closed shops and business premises indicated that economically, it was not doing very well especially compared to Leura.

We also drove to Lithgow on Saturday afternoon as it was another key town on the map in the region, however we think we must have hit it at a quiet time, either that or they had closed the town as there was hardly any people and everything looked shut. The only place with any activity was the centre with Coles, Target and Liquorland….lovely! We’d seen enough of those already.

The actual views of the mountains are stunning and not like anywhere else we have been, irrespective of the towns, it’s worth a visit.

We also followed the tourist trail to Scenic World which was a set of cable cars and a railway. The motto of our trip is to do something in a place that you can’t do anywhere else – (hmm that’s Patrick’s line and I’m not sure where his mind is …) anyway a cable car was ticked in Singapore which left the railway. However, the queue for tickets was ridiculously long and slow moving, so after some questioning we found out that we could walk to the bottom of the valley and get the train back to the top and pay then! Bargain…….surely just a few steps down?

About 1.5 hours later with achy legs after descending many, many steps, a number of boardwalks and negotiating various cliff side paths we found the bottom of the train line.

Although quite short the journey back up in the train was worth it, the track is approx. 320meters long but descends 250meters so at points it is vertical and most of the journey up feels like you are about to tumble out of your seat onto the person in front! It was a great ride and the history surrounding the site was impressive. The site was a previous mine in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and to see it you could only image the terrible conditions at the time, but the ingenuity to build such projects with limited tools by today’s standards was extremely clever. I think it must be an age thing where the older you get, the less distant things in the past seem……the mine was in use less than 100 years ago, and you compare that to sitting at a table with a laptop typing these thoughts and thinking how far the world has come …yet at the same time could it be too far, with so much information and the ability to do more or less anything, could this also be a bad thing? We leave you to ponder… while we open the wine!

Back to the Blue Mountains, where unfortunately, our few days had come to an end and on Sunday 28^th Sept, we returned to Sydney for one more night.

We have to mention the returning of the car to Hertz, as the gentleman in the pound did try to highlight a minor dent, which Patrick was having none of, especially as they had not even bothered to check anything when we picked it up, he then called his supervisor which was quite funny as it was obvious Patrick was starting to get more irritated by this time and stated this is nothing to do with us! The crazy thing was he overlooked the cracked indicator cover, the split rear bumper and the separation of the front wing from the main chassis, all of which had been there before we took the car, but nothing had been noted, in fact the car had seen a lot of life in its short 31,000km.

Anyway lucky for them the supervisor just waved the guy away and said it was nothing, good job!! 

Upon returning to the hotel we were pleased as they had upgraded us to a bigger room on a higher floor which had an even better view of the harbour, this also meant we had plenty of space to pack again. This time ready for Thailand so trying to think of warm summer clothes rather than jeans and jumpers!

The flight from Sydney to Phuket was via Jetstar (the low cost division of Qantas) and we had a new Dreamliner plane which was very good for the 9 hour flight. Unfortunately, the plane was an hour and a half late taking off but as we had access to the Qantas Club Lounge, it was not too much of a hardship – and a great way to leave Australia after having spent 2 months travelling around.

We feel we have seen a good part of the country on both the East and West coasts, although it’s so massive you could easily spend even longer, however we had some wonderful times and had the opportunity to catch up or stay with some really good friends.

Now Phuket beckons for the month of October and although we have only been here a few days we are both hoping the rain will stop at some point as ‘some’ of you may be pleased to know it’s absolutely chucking it down and has not stopped for the past 36 hours, hence we found time to update the blog!

Here’s to a dry update next week!