Chiang Mai

Aren't mother's great? As I embark on traveling halfway across the world, my Mum informs me that a friend of her's daughter is living in Chiang Mai and that I should get in touch. So as soon as we arrived, that is exactly what I did do. I met Katie for some food in the local market and had a wonderful evening. It was great to catch up. And there was alot of catching up to do. We think the last time we saw each other was about 18 years ago...

Chiang Mai is a lovely city. Although it is a big city, it doesn't feel like it. Lots of narrow winding streets, lovely markets and hundreds of temples.

The feeling we get is that no one has a kitchen in Thailand. As soon as it gets dark the streets come alive with people cooking on the streets, lots of street stalls with wonderful exotic food to choose from, it is really quite amazing. And the food is fantastic.

Bangkok

The adventure has well and truely begun. Arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday morning, and managed our way, thai style, to Khao San Th. My first impressions of Bangkok didn't really change as the time passed. It is another large buzzing capital city, very smoggy and lots of traffic.


On our second morning, we decided to get a Tuk tuk. A kind of thai taxi - for an hour the guy promised to take us to alot of the big temples, the sleeping buddha, the standing buddha and the travel agency, and all for only 5 baht (about 10cent). He did most of what he said took us to lots of temples, the travel agency, A TAILOR, A JEWELLER, .. Apparently for each customer they bring to these shops they get commission. Finally he left us stranded in the middle of nowhere... where we were picked up by another tuk tuk.. who drove us around to more shops... before finally bringing us home - very tired and a little annoyed. However the adventure cost us nothing and we saw a large chunk of Bangkok.... at that moment, we decided we would head to north, to Chiang Mai and booked our 12 hour over night bus journey for an expensive 5 euros....

the countdown is on

and the tearful goodbyes have started....

After a great night on Saturday and an attempt at a drizzly day in Glendo (resulting in cake and tea), the packing and repacking began... Bringing as little as possible is more difficult than I thought.

My vague plan is to follow the black dotted line ... (well kinda) and so begins the story of my trip around the world ....

costa blanca

After our eventful alpine start - the climbing got underway. Costa Blanca is a wide and varied place and the perfect venue for a great trip. Although - we did have to divert our eyes from the scary lights of Gotham City (Benidorm). The climbing, the banter, the food, the company were all first class.



Check out the rest of Costa Blanca photos here.

sports climbing with an alpine start

Who would have thought it? But at 4 am on 8th November, we got up and dragged ourselves to the airport to catch a flight to Alicante. With sleepy eyes, we stumbled our way onto the plane and sat back, hoping for a few hours of shut eye. What we got instead was an amazing sunrise.....

our tickets have arrived...

Yes, our tickets have arrived. The final countdown is on. Three and a half weeks to go :)

quick trip to font

How better to start off the winter season, with a quick trip to a bouldering mecca. Off we trot, bouldering mats in tow ... to a forest filled with boulders and sand - ah the playground :) The bouldering as usual was great - altho a little rain on Sunday gave the ideal rest day, a trip to paris to the Musee D'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower.