Catching up with Sonja

This morning I woke up with Ross again but stayed in bed until about 11 doing stuff on the laptop and making a few phone calls. Our neighbour Sonja text to see if we could catch up. They arrived home on Wednesday and had taken a couple of days to recover from the jetlag of flying back from the states.

I met Sonja downstairs just before 12 and we drove out to the Curve as I had a bikini wax booked at Strip. So Sonja sat in the foyer reading her book while I went to get maintained. I had a different girl today, Elaine. She was super chatty, which was fine by me as it kept my mind off what was going on. They had a new type of wax they were using this time - chocolate and berry. It really did look like melted chocolate - and smelt like it too! It was the best wax I've ever had!

After I finished, Sonja and I went to the Apartment for lunch before heading to Cupcake Chic for our sweet fix. We shared two cupcakes - Red Velvet and Lavender - yum! They have opened up another branch at Pavilion which is a bit dangerous as it is too easy for us to walk to!

We wandered around the shops for a little while before driving home. The girls were in the apartment cleaning when I got back so I went back downstairs and met Sonja and Emma by the pool for an hour or so. Brian came home from work and the Miller's all headed up to their place. I came back upstairs and met Ross and we relaxed for a little while before heading back over to the Miller's for dinner.

It was nice to see everyone together again and we shared a great meal that Brian and Sonja pulled together from whatever they had left in the fridge. In the end we sat down to a full meal of tapas! It was great. We sat outside and caught up on our holidays.

It was nice to have our friends back again!

Back at home, Ross watched the cricket and the league while I headed off to bed for hopefully my first decent sleep in a week. I keep forgetting to take photos lately - so here are the cats... again!

A pretty lazy day

I didn't end up doing much today. After my last couple of days getting up early, today I didn't get up until just before 10. My head cold is still hanging in there - not impressed!

Anyway, by the time I eventually got up, showered, had breakfast and did a few things about the house it was already 12 and Ross came home for lunch. We had a leisurely lunch before I dropped him back at work and then headed out to Great Eastern again to do some more food shopping. I also went to the optometrist to pick up some more contacts and while I was there, I asked if they could have a look at my glasses - straighten them up and clean them for me. They did a good job. I always wear my glasses while reading in bed at night and end up laying on my side with them on so they were pretty bent out of shape!

Back home, I got a wave of inspiration and got busy making some beetroot hommus for the first time as well as looking up some recipes for dinner. Ross came home and headed to the gym and by the time he was back I had finished making the hommus. We sat and enjoyed our entree - the hommus was really good and a beautiful pink colour! The recipe made a ton, so I packed up the rest in containers to give to Sonja and Brian.

After our snack, Ross and I got busy cooking pork fillets with a red cabbage side dish. The red cabbage was cooked with bacon, onion, apple and balsamic vinegar and kind of stewed for over half an hour until all sticky - it was awesome! Another of Jamie Oliver's recipes - definitely one I would repeat.

Today's photo is off the construction site across the road. See the last photo from 2nd May for a comparison.

Learning something new

This morning I woke up with Ross again. I got ready and headed out the door just before 9 to drive out to Petaling Jaya for my first beading class. Although the traffic was bad, particularly on Tun Razak, I managed to get there on time. I registered and then went into the classroom where one lady was already waiting.

Our instructor Hester was there also and a lady called Margaret who I assume is the owner of Beadazzle. Another lady turned up not long after I did and then we got started. Hester gave us our tools and asked us to pick out the colours of the beads that we wanted for our first project.

The first thing that we were making was a floating necklace using plastic pearls and nylon string. Hester taught us how to knot the string properly and then thread the beads. We made the necklace with three strands and alternated the order of the beads on each strand so that when they hung together there would not be a group all the same colour.

We were then taught how to finish the necklace properly with crimp beads, oyster callets and a lobster claw. It was a little fiddy but easy enough. I used different sizes and shades of silver pearls (see photo). Although it's not really my style of jewellery, I know that a lot of people like the floating necklaces. I could imagine combining many more strands and making a really chunky necklace.

Our second project was a weaving project this time using acrylic bicone beads and bugle beads again with nylon string. This one was a bit more fiddly as the string was an uneven length and also the bugle beads are tiny. However, it did give it a really good effect and once we weaved the 'wings' down the sides, I can imagine it as a nice bracelet to wear out.

I finished the projects early and left just before 12 although the class went on until 12.30. I drove home and when I arrived Ross was there to meet me for lunch. We had a quick lunch together before I took him back to the office. In the afternoon, I tried to make another bracelet like the one we made in the class to make sure I knew how to do it. Although I didn't have exactly the same materials, I managed to use what I had to make a bracelet (without the wings). I also worked out how to combine the beads to make diagonal stripes rather than the pattern we did in class.

I didn't do too much for the rest of the day except hang out with the cats and watch some TV. Ross came home early and we had a quick dinner of pommegrate and feta salad before driving out to the driving range at KDE for a bit of practice.

Out at the range, we ran into our instructor Eric and booked in for a lesson with him on Saturday. Ross and I each got 100 balls and set about hitting them into the lake. This was the first time I was using the clubs that our friend Mark had sent me from China. They were a bit heavier than the ones I had been practicing with but I did ok. Not great, but ok especially considering I hadn't done anything for over 4 weeks.

On the way home we stopped at Great Eastern Mall for a coffee and shared a piece of cheesecake before heading home. A good day.

A few new things

I woke up with Ross this morning. Even though I had had a crap night of sleep, I thought I should get up so that I can get my body clock back to normal. We had breakfasts together before he headed off to work. I did a few chores, watched 'Brothers and Sisters' and had breakfast and before I knew it, it was 11am.

I got ready and then drove out to Bangsar to try and find MANZA House. It didn't take me long to find it. I paid the registration fee for Ross and I to become members, had a look around at the different rooms and chatted for a while with Jacqui the assistant treasurer and Cathy the web master.

From MANZA, I drove to Bangsar Village to wander around the stores for a while before meeting Julia for lunch at Delicious. We spent a couple of hours having lunch and coffee and catching up on the past three weeks. After lunch, we wandered around the shops for a little while before we went our own ways.

At home, I watched some TV before Ross came home from work. We spent time making spinach and ricotta cannelloni for dinner. It was the first time we made it and although it wasn't hard to make, it was a bit fiddly - similar to lasagna. However, it was so worth it! It's surprising how filling it is as Ross and I made 12 tubes and only ended up eating 6 between us. Oh well, plenty for lunch tomorrow!

After dinner we continued watching Californication and played with the cats (see photo) until we went to bed about 10.

A dry run

Well, I didn't really achieve much today. I spent the morning phaffing about the house until lunch when Ross came home. I did however manage to book some concert tickets to Aimee Mann in Singapore for Ross and I and also organize an engagement present for my friend Cassie and her fiance Dan.

Ross and I enjoyed the leftovers from our banana leaf dinner on Saturday night and then he headed back to work. I did a couple more things on the computer before finally making a move. I wanted to go and find out where Bedazzled, the place where I will be starting beading classes on Wednesday. I set up the GPS with the address and off I went.

I drove for about an hour and half before I finally found it. Out in Petaling Jaya (PJ), the names of the streets are all numbers and very rarely in sequence so it is a nightmare. Even the GPS was playing up. I drove half way back to town before resetting the GPS and trying again, this time it worked and after some walking around, I finally found the place.

I spoke with Hesther who would be my instructor. She took me through the things that we would be doing each week and explained a few of the other courses. I had a look around at some of the items that they had for sale before leaving. I'm excited to start on Wednesday!

On the way home, I stopped in at Pavilion to buy some groceries before heading home. Ross stepped out of the other lift 2 seconds after I stepped out of mine.

Tonight, Ross was the chef and I was his helper. He made pizzas with ham, capsicum, onion, zucchini, fresh parsley (from the herb garden :-)) and egg (see photo). This was the first time we had cooked eggs of pizzas so we cooked the pizza for a couple of minutes first then cracked the egg on top to stop it from running off completely. 15 minutes later and it was divine!

We spent the rest of the evening finishing the first season of Californication. What a great show. At 10 we had to call time although it was hard not to watch the first episode of the next season.

Bits and pieces

This morning we headed straight out to Ikano Power Center to do some things. We put in some things to be repaired (a suitcase with a broken wheel, a backpack with loose stitching, my leather handbag that the cat peed on and my white thongs with the insoles worn out) at the bag and shoe fix-it place. Seems like they will be able to fix everything (we'll see about the cat pee!).

From there we had some brunch at Dome before braving the IKEA madness to find a curtain rod and some more pots for my herb garden on the patio. We also walked over to the Curve to try and find some more cat grass seeds with no luck.

Some time ago, we had dropped in our PlayStation controller to be fixed so we went to pick it up. They told us it couldn't be repaired so we bought a copy controller (not a genuine Sony) for 35 ringgit as well as some copy games for 5 ringgit each - bargain! We stopped in at the pet store to ask about Blue getting his teeth cleaned - not looking forward to that! Downstairs and on our way out, I spied some herb plants out the front of ACE Hardware. I picked up some pretty big plants - sweet basil, flat leafed parsley and mint - to add to the growing garden.

It was a pretty successful trip in all. Back at home we relaxed for a few hours before walking over to the Pavilion to meet Brian at La Bodega for some food before we headed to watch the latest Harry Potter movie. After some great tapas and with the boys having a couple of pints of Hoegarden under their belt, we headed to the Gold Class cinemas for the movie.

Wrapped in our doonas and on our leather recliners, we enjoyed the movie. It was a bit dark and long winded but a good movie. I couldn't remember anything about the story line until almost at the end, then a few things came back to me. After the movie we walked home together and headed our separate ways.

Another great day and a great weekend.

Health and Fitness Check:

Weight: 70.4 kg

Surprisingly, this week is my lowest weight to date. I also reached my 5kg goal. I was amazed when I stepped on the scales last Wednesday, after two weeks of not really worry too much about diet and exercise on holiday, that my weight was 71.6kg. So I was really amazed today when I had lost 1.2kg in a couple of days. However, I think a lot of that is loss of muscle :-(

Exercise:

- 2 x walking around KLCC park for 2 laps (around 60 minutes)
- Walking around KL to monorail and wet market (30 minutes)

Not too much this week but at least it's something!

Finding out new things in KL

I pottered around the house this morning while Ross went to the gym. About 11, we decided to walk over to Pavilion to do a couple of things and to have a coffee. I had been meaning to get to the Chow Kit Wet Market for about a year so Ross and I decided today was the day.

While sipping our coffees, we rang Brian to see if he wanted to come with us and he met us at Coffee Bean not long afterwards. From Pavilion, we walked up Bukit Bintang to the monorail station and got off at Chow Kit. It was pretty easy to spot the market from the monorail so we walked 100m or so and entered the under cover market.

At the front were lots of little stalls selling household goods, toys, accessories etc. As we walked deeper into the market, we passed sidewalk food stalls and within the depths, we finally found the fruit, vegetable and meat stalls.

As with any wet market in Asia, it had a pretty pungent smell but nothing too bad. There were a lot of stalls selling fruit and veg and I was amazed to see how some stalls were displaying their few bits of produce carefully on coloured plastic plates. It seemed that a lot of these stalls were from home gardens.

Some stalls sold fruit, some salad vegetables, some herbs, some onions, potatoes and other staples. Before long we walked into the meat section. Butchers selling all manner of meat were everywhere. We saw massive tongues, livers, cows tails, massive hooves and many other things we didn't really stop to ponder!

We also found the fish mongers and we decided to buy a fish, some squid and some yabbies. We think the fish may have been a coral trout - not sure though. For a decent sized fish (about 50cm long), 1 kg of yabbies and a couple of squid we payed 47 ringgit - bargain! I also bought some banana leaves to cook the fish in. I bought a huge bundle for 2.50 ringgit.

We walked around a bit long before the heat became a bit too much and we headed back to the monorail station to start our trip home. We walked back to the apartment from the monorail station and put the seafood in the fridge. Ross and I spent the afternoon relaxing before Brian came back over about 3.

We watched the AFL game and prepared the food and at half time, the boys began cooking. I whipped up a salad and some coconut rice as well as a few of mango/ pineapple daiquiris. We sat outside and enjoyed our feast eating off banana leaves as plates (see photo) which was great idea as it saved on washing up!

About 9, Brian left and Ross and I watched some TV before heading off to bed. It was good to discover something new in KL and see a bit more of the authentic KL rather than the Westernized side we see every day.

A bit of pampering

This morning I woke up to have breakfast with Ross and then fell back to sleep until 11! I think my body is trying to fight off this sinus infection that keeps trying to break through. Anyway, by the time I did a few things around the house, had a shower and talked to the cleaners it was already 2 o'clock.

I thought I should get off my butt so I packed my book and walked over to KLCC. I thought I would try to see if I could get in for a nail appointment at the new salon - The Nail Parlour. I went straight up and they could fit me in straight away. I opted for the hot mud mani/pedi with masque (even though Ross and I just had hand and feet treatments on Monday in Broome!).

The treatment began as normal with a soak of my feet, then she scrubbed them with an exfoliating scrub before applying a red mud all over my feet. They were then wrapped in cling wrap and placed in these hot electric booties (see photo)!

While my feet were heating up she moved on to my hands. She did the same treatment there and before long I had these massive mittens on both hands - not easy to read a book with those things on!

Back to my feet and she went through the normal pedicure routine and soon I had gorgeous coral coloured toes. Back at my hands, she removed the mittens, washed and moistuised my hands before getting on with the manicure.

When she was ready to paint my fingers, I moved to the manicure desks out the front where she applied the nail colour. I sat by the drying machine for a while before I was ready to leave. I was pretty impressed by this treatment as it was about the same price as the spa treatment at my old nail salon but was alot better. The only thing I didn't like was that she cut my cuticles too short and so now I will have to be really careful that they don't dry out and split. There is one more nail salon I want to try before I commit to any so we'll wait and see how that goes.

By the time I walked out of there it was already 5.30. Ross walked up to the park and met me and we walked home together just in time to start watching the footy. We watched until quarter time and then started thinking about making dinner. We decided to make and BBQ some beef kebabs and I made a mango and corn salsa to go with it. At half time, Ross fired up the barbie and we sat outside looking at the towers enjoying our meal.

Back inside, we caught the last quarter of a pretty dismal game between Carlton and Collingwood. We watched Boston Legal and then decided it was time for bed.

Post-holiday boredom

This morning I woke up at a reasonable time. I spent the morning finally finishing my blog - it took hours! About 2 I thought I should probably have a shower and do something a bit more productive so I did a few chores around the house before heading out to do the shopping.

I drove out to Great Eastern Mall and my first stop was the housewares shop where I picked up a new grater and some other doodads for the kitchen. Downstairs I picked up a Starbucks then headed to Cold Storage to stock up the kitchen. I reached the checkout with a full basket and was happy to find out that it was 'No Plastic Thursday' so they put all my stuff in reusable bags - pretty good for Malaysia.

Back at home, I continued doing the washing, spent some time with the cats and tried to upload some photos to Facebook which also took me ages.

Ross came home about 5.30 and we made dinner together. Now that I have my little herb garden growing on the back balcony, I thought I would try and use the sage which I haven't really used before. I looked up a recipe for Chicken breast with lemon and sage. It was pretty easy to make and tasted great.

After dinner, we headed out for a walk again as neither of us have yet found the motivation to get back to the gym. Back home we watched a few more episodes of Californication before heading to bed.

Today's photo is of Ross' beard - the best beard he has been able to grow to date! I thought I should capture it now because he plans to shave it off tomorrow.

Getting back to normal

This morning Ross and I had a slow start and enjoyed breakfast together at the Coffee Bean before I dropped him at work. Back at home, I spent some time with the cats (Blue spent a couple of hours outside in his playpen) and then tried to catch up some more on my blog. I got sick of that so laid down on the bed to read my book. Black joined me and we promptly fell asleep. The three of us (Blue, Black and I) slept for a few hours before I was woken up by Blue meowing. I let him inside and went back to sleep (again the acts joined me – see photo).

I soon got too hot and moved into my bedroom where I cranked up the air-con and couldn’t help but fall asleep again! I was woken by the phone ringing, I was too drowsy to get up but I eventually stumbled out of bed. Not long after, Daisy walked through the door to pick up our drycleaning.

By this time it was about 4 so I plonked myself on the couch, tried to do a bit more of my blog and watched some TV. About 5, I thought I should try and get some dinner together. I scrounged the cupboards and managed to pull together a mince, spinach and pinenut pasta bake. I was just beginning to prepare it when Ross walked in the door.

We cooked dinner and ate it in front of the TV watching Jamie Oliver. After dinner, we forced ourselves to get up and go for a walk around the park. We did a couple of laps before heading home for a shower and to spend some more time with the cats.

We soon got tired again and fell into bed about 9.30. Although I didn’t do much today, it is nice to be home.

Back to KL

This morning the alarm went off indecently early at 4.30am. Ross and I stumbled around getting ourselves organized before heading to reception to catch our taxi. Instead, we found a mini bus waiting for us with a bunch of blokes looking pretty miserable inside. We jumped in with our stuff and waited for a few more people (who, when they rolled up, were still drunk from the night before and were asked to catch a taxi) before we headed off.

The minibus dropped people at the domestic airport first then onto one of the smaller air carriers running flights to the mine sites before we were on our way to the international airport. At the airport, check-in was painless and we pretty much walked through passport control and straight to the gate to board the plane. We picked up some breakfast to take on board before we finally boarded the plane.

After our last experience with Air Asia, Ross and I had it sorted. We loitered around at the back of the plane until almost all the passengers were on board and then took seats so that we had a free seat between us and the next person. Although we weren’t sitting together it was great to have a bit of free space.

The flight passed pretty quickly and we landed 20 minutes early. We grabbed our bags and jumped into the car waiting for us and drove through the rain pretty much the entire time on our way home. At home, we were greeted by Black and Blue who seemed pretty excited to see us (see photo). We spent some time with them before we got too hungry and we drove over to Pavilion for some food.

We scoffed down some sushi and picked up a few essentials from the shops before heading home. We showered and hopped into bed and we both fell asleep for a few hours. Ross busied himself with putting things away before we got hungry again so we heated up a frozen pizza and spent the rest of the night on the couch with the cats.

We had a great time in WA but it was great to be home.

Last day in Broome :-(

We woke up early this morning, packed up our stuff and dropped it at reception before heading to the resort next door – Bali Hai – for our spa treatments. At the spa, we registered and began our three hour spa extravaganza!

First, our therapists washed our feet then we went inside and began our hour full body massage. This was followed by a salt scrub and full body mud masque. While the masque did its magic, we were treated to a hair treatment and fantastic head massage. We had to wake up and head back outside to the outside shower to wash off all the mud.

Back inside, we started with a facial followed by a hand and foot treatment. It was fantastic! The therapists were very nice and the treatments were wonderful. We walked out of there with a new lease on life.

From the resort, we walked back down to Cable Beach for some lunch at the café on the cliff above the beach (see photo). We enjoyed our seafood and white wine while overlooking beautiful views. As it was our last day of holidays, we shared a Banoffee pie and had coffees before calling a taxi to take us back to the resort to pick up our luggage and then on to the airport.

We had to wait a while before the check-in opened at the airport but soon we were on our way back to Perth. The flight was pretty uneventful and when we landed the weather was wet and freezing! We jumped in a cab and headed to the Comfort Inn for a quick night before heading back to the airport early in the morning.

As the cab pulled up at the lights on Great Eastern Highway, it jolted to a stop and the driver couldn’t get it started again. Ross and I waited in the taxi and couldn’t believe our bad luck. Eventually the car started again and we managed to get to the motel before it conked out again. It was pouring rain so we grabbed our key and ran to the room, locked the door and swore that we wouldn’t be going anywhere! We ordered chicken noodle soup from the restaurant and they delivered it to our room. We had showers, organized a few things and jumped into bed as we had to be up at 4.30 to catch a taxi to the airport tomorrow morning. It was a miserable night in Perth and the rain and wind pelted the door all night.

A quiet day in Broome - Elyse leaving :-(

This morning started a bit slow. Elyse was leaving us this morning so she spent the morning getting organized. My bites were driving me insane so we said goodbye to Elyse and Ross and I caught a taxi into town so I could go to the Chemist and get some relief for my bites. After taking some anti-histamines and smothering myself with cream, I was starting to feel a bit more normal.

We had some breakfast from Brumby’s then walked to the markets up the road. We browsed around there for a while before walking back into the main street. We stopped and watched a local cricket game for a while before walking back to Coles to pick up some supplies for dinner.

We thought we would catch the town bus back to Cable Beach so we waited at the stop and chatted with a couple of other tourists before getting on the bus. We got a full scenic tour of Broome before we started heading back to Cable Beach. The bus took about an hour and we were so ready to get off by the time we left – next time we’ll catch a taxi I think.

I had another nap for a couple of hours, we watched a bit of TV, had a snack for lunch and in the afternoon we walked back down to Cable Beach to watch the sunset for the last time. We found a spot on a rock and watched as the sun went down – beautiful!

After the sun went down, we walked back to the apartment, packed up our stuff and then got busy making some dinner. We spent the night flicking between the football, cricket and Tour de France while we enjoyed our prawns and salad with our last beer.

It was great to have a quiet day in Broome.

Broome - 200 posts!

Ross was up first this morning and I found him out in the lounge watching sport when I got up at 8. Elyse woke up last and once we showered, we walked down to the shop on the corner for some breakfast. It was already warm so we headed down to Cable Beach to make the most of the great weather. We rented a recliner chair and an umbrella for half a day. The guys who ran this rental shop were definitely onto a gold mine; they rented loungers, boogie boards, umbrellas, kids sand toys and heaps of other stuff – what a great idea!

I was pretty hungover so I decided to go for a swim to wake me up. Ross joined me and we braved the cold water and waves and walked out to float about in the crystal water. It definitely refreshed us. Back out of the water, I resumed my spot on the recliner and soaked up the sun for another couple of hours before getting too hot. Ross and I left Elyse on the beach and walked back to the shop to pick up some hangover snacks before walking back to the cool apartment. We relaxed at the apartment for a few hours, I had a nap, caught up on my blog and we watched the AFL. Elyse joined us later in the afternoon after she had had enough of the sun too.

Elyse brought home a six pack and we sat outside enjoying a beer before we headed back to Diver’s to watch the Tri-nations game between NZ and Aus. We arrived a bit early and managed to snag a table right by the TV. We watched the game (unfortunately Aus lost) and then we moved tables as some of the locals were getting a bit feral.

We spent the evening drinking, chatting with locals and watching as women kept walking in the bar completely dressed up to the nine’s. We wondered what it was all about until someone told us that the races had been on today in Broome and so everyone was coming from there. The pub was packed and Ross, Elyse and I kept ourselves amused by watching the ‘fashions’ that walked in the door time and again.

Towards the end of the night, we got chatting to a couple of guys called Will and Marcus who had traveled down from Derby for the races. Ross and I had had enough for the day so we headed home and left Elyse chatting with Will. However, we were lucky to witness some guy, obviously from the races, who decided to bring a blow up doll into the bar (see photo).

Obviously the night before, I must have been eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had completely reacted to the bites and they had swollen really badly. I spent an uncomfortable night scratching myself stupid!

Eighty Mile Beach to Broome – Last day with Bessie! (365 km)

We managed to sleep in until just before 10 this morning. Surprising considering the caravan park was almost empty by the time we rose – we couldn’t believe we didn’t hear everyone leave!

We had breakfast, packed up Bessie and hit the road again for the last time in Bessie. Today’s journey was similar to yesterdays so we ended up in Broome early in the afternoon. We checked into the Broome Beach Resort, dumped all our stuff out of Bessie before having to take her back to Britz.

After catching a cab back to the resort, we had some lunch (with our last beers from the road trip!). We made the most of having our own shower and took our time luxuriating under the water and scrubbing away the grime from our road trip. We all put on clean clothes (we had been wearing our tour tank tops everyday up until this point!) and headed down to Cable Beach in time to catch the last minutes of the sunset. There were tons of people doing the same thing.

We walked across the road to the Cable Beach Club Resort where we indulged in a fancy cocktail by the pool (see photo) before heading to their other bar for a bottle of sparkling wine and an appetizer of prawns on ice. A nice way to begin the evening!

Back up the road towards our resort, we stopped off at the Diver’s Inn which was pretty packed with everyone watching sport. They had so many screens with different sports on that Ross didn’t quite know what to do with himself. 2 games of AFL, league and cricket kept us entertained so we settled in with a drink and soaked up the atmosphere of a real pub. We also enjoyed looking at the wildlife that had been attracted to the watering hole – some strange types in Broome!

We stayed there for hours, drinking, sharing a massive chicken parma, watching sport and chatting with the bartenders. About midnight, the bouncers came in to kick the stragglers out – yep, that included us. Despite Elyse being determined to finish her drink before we left, we pretty much left when the bouncers told us. Elyse and I ran home as it was cold and we were in summer dresses. At home we all fell into bed after a great night.

Road Trip Highlights:

• The drib: the backwards ‘bird’ that was given to drivers coming the other way if they did not return our wave

• Lollies: snakes, wine gums and other lollies kept our energy up and provided entertainment as we lined up gums on the dashboard, stretched snakes on the steering wheel, and did some weird things with lolly teeth and snakes.

• Elsie jumping at every road house and my bad photography skills trying to capture her while off the ground

• Cocktails on the run – a quick dash into the back of Bessie and Elyse and I had cocktails on call

• Air guitar, drums, jug, eukalali (sp?) and head banging as we ploughed through the playlists on the iPod at max volume

• Elyse’s knack of falling asleep on the spot

• Counting down the 850km on our longest driving day

• Playing shithead in our pyjamas while drinking cocktails in the back of Bessie until late at night

• Walking around the caravan parks and seeing the long-termers with their plants, satellite dishes, shell ornaments and whirly gigs set up outside their caravans

• Pulling Bessie into her parking bay in the caravan park, getting the table and chairs out before anything else and enjoying a beer in our new location

• Watching Elyse try and insert herself into the upper bunk after a few cocktails each night!

Port Headland to Eighty Mile Beach (280 km)

This morning we woke up at a reasonable time, packed up Bessie and headed back to Woolworths to pick up supplies for the next day and a half. We filled up Bessie and hit the road again for the shorter drive to Eighty Mile Beach. It only took us a few hours to get there and we joined the queue of cars waiting to check-in as the Caravan Park doesn’t take bookings.

We drove to our site, set up Bessie and then walked to the beach for our first glimpse at Eighty Mile Beach. It was a beautiful day. We soon got hungry so headed back to Bessie to enjoy an amazing lunch with a beer (of course). After lunch, Ross and I relaxed outside Bessie while Elyse hit the beach. We spent a couple of hours relaxing, I tried to catch up on my blog, before putting our togs on and going to find Elyse on the beach. By this time it was late afternoon and getting a bit cool but it didn’t stop a lot of eager fisherman (although we didn’t see many people catching fish!).

When we got too cold, we headed back to Bessie to get some warm clothes, the sparkling shiraz and then headed back to the beach to watch the sunset – magnificent! We were surprised that not many people were actually down at the beach, most were back in the caravan park.

After finishing our drinks and making the most of the sunset, we headed back for showers before dinner. Ross cooked up rissoles and sausages while Elsie and I got busy fixing the salads and more importantly keeping the cocktails flowing!

As usual, the night was spent playing cards and finishing our liquor supplies (which we definitely underestimated!).

Exmouth to Port Headland (805 km)

This morning we woke up pretty early to get out on the road for the longest drive of the trip. We packed all our stuff in Bessie and were on the road by 7. We drove for a couple of hundred kilometers before stopping at the Nanutarra Roadhouse to fill up and have some breakfast.

Back on the road, Elyse took the wheel for a couple of hundred kms. The drive was pretty mundane to start with but soon we were driving through an area with beautiful ranges. Elyse took us to the next roadhouse where we swapped drivers again. Ross drove and we ended up in Cossack, just outside of Roebourne where we stopped for lunch by a mangrove estuary. It was a nice spot to stop and take a break.

As we had been traveling through the Karratha area, we passed a lot of Aboriginal settlements – Elyse’s first time seeing true Aboriginals. The drive from Cossack to Port Headland was pretty dull but as we came into Headland, we had to stop at train crossing for an ore train that went on forever. We waited about 15 minutes for the train to pass. We were pretty excited to almost be at our destination.

Our first stop was Woolworths to pick up some supplies for dinner before heading to the Cooke Point Caravan Park. We hit our first snag of the trip when we tried to check in. They had our booking for the night before and the park was completely booked out for tonight. I had stuffed up the dates!!! They were incredibly nice about it though and managed to find us a spot in the car washing bay which they no longer use due to water restrictions. They even supplied us with a power cable that would reach to the power source so we could charge Bessie.

After all the negotiations to get us a bay, it was after dark by the time we finally got set up. We enjoyed a beer just as the sun set then showered, donned PJ’s and got busy making dinner. Prawns and salad for dinner followed by numerous cocktails and obviously many rounds of Shithead was how we spent the night. Good times!!

Exmouth

This morning started off a bit slow after last night’s beers. We walked over to the bakery and picked up some breakfast and a smoothie before driving to the caravan park to rent wet suits for the day. From there we headed around the tip of the cape and onto the west coast. After about 60km we came to my favourite spot on earth – Turquoise Bay.

It was a bit windy and choppy at the bay but as we walked around to the drift snorkel area, it was a bit more protected. There were already quite a few people on the beach and in the water. Elyse was absolutely blown away by the colour of the water here and spent most of her time taking pictures as we walked along the beach. The three of us struggled into our wetsuits (see photo) and hit the water with our snorkels and fins. Thank god for the wetsuits because the water was freezing. We couldn’t believe that people were snorkeling without them.

Just a few steps into the water and we were surrounded by coral and fish. We snorkeled out further and saw schools of parrot fish and a ton of other aquatic life. Elyse even saw a shark and a small sting ray – we didn’t though. The further out we went, the choppier it became and after about an hour we decided to head back in. We stood around warming up before de-wetsuiting and lay on the beach soaking up the sun for a while.

As we left, the beach was packed with people – a good time to leave. We drove down the coast further to Mandu Mandu Gorge where we parked Bessie and packed some supplies before hiking up the gorge. The view from the top of the cliff on the way back was amazing as you could see all the way down to the water. We enjoyed our lunch with a beer and great views before heading back to Bessie.

We began the drive back to Exmouth and stopped at a spot with amazing huge white dunes for a last look at the coast as the sun got lower in the sky. It was beautiful lying on the pristine white sand looking out at the turquoise water.

Back in Exmouth we dropped off the wetsuits and went back to the hotel to shower and change before heading across the road to the bar again. This time we were early so we snagged a table under the gas heater and enjoyed our sparkling shiraz as the sun set. We all ordered fish for dinner which was amazing and sat drinking the night away and, believe it or not, playing some more Shithead. About 9 we called time and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Exmouth.

What a fantastic day out in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Canarvon to Exmouth (427 km)

This morning we woke up reasonably early, showered, ate breakfast, packed up Bessie and got back on the road for our drive to Exmouth. After filling up the car we drove for a few hours before hitting the Minilya Roadhouse roadhouse where we stopped for a quick break before heading on to Coral Bay for lunch.

At Coral Bay, Elyse was amazed at the colour of the water (as we all were!) and we had a very brief (and chilly) dip before heading back to set up our picnic table in the car park for lunch. As always, lunch was accompanied by a beer and we lapped up the warm sunshine and great views before heading back on the road for another couple of hours before we hit Exmouth.

At Exmouth, we checked into the Potshot hotel where we had a 1 bedroom villa with a spa – the only accommodation I could find in town as everything else was completely booked out. It was late afternoon again by this time so we walked over to the bottle shop to replenish our supplies before relaxing in the room with our bottle of sparkling Shiraz. We made up Elyse’s bed with the mattress and bedding from Bessie before heading across to the pub for another drink. The outside bar at the Potshot hotel was great – friendly staff and a nice atmosphere by the pool. We were actually just passing through on our way to find some food but we stopped for a beer before moving again.

The receptionist had said that Whaler’s was a good place for dinner so we walked to the shopping mall only to find that Whaler’s was completely booked out until 8 o’clock. We decided we couldn’t wait until then so we went to Planet Burgers (a fast food joint set up in a caravan with fairy lights) just outside the Potshot Hotel and had the most amazing burgers with fries. We sent Elyse back to the outside bar to see if she could convince them to sell us some beers to go with our meal and she came back successful so we sat on the picnic tables and enjoyed our dinner and beers.

Naturally after dinner we walked back to the bar where we found that the bartender (Elyse’s boyfriend for the night) already had Cooper’s on ice in preparation for our return. Ross went back to the room to pick up some jumpers and the cards and we sat playing Shithead again for hours until the bar closed at 10pm. We went back to the room and continued to play Shithead until we were too tired to speak and fell into bed exhausted again and looking forward to spending the day exploring the reef and not in Bessie on the road.

Denham – Monkey Mia – Canarvon (331 km) and Elyse arriving!

It had poured down over night but when we woke up in the morning the sky was bright blue. We got Bessie organized and tidied up before walking down into town for breakfast at the bakery. Over sausage rolls and cappuccinos, I updated my blog and Ross read the paper as we watched people come in and out of the super busy bakery.

We walked back to Bessie and chilled out for a while, spoke with our friend Dee who should be on the road trip with us but couldn’t get time off work and did a few more things to get ready for our drive to Monkey Mia to pick our friend Elyse up who is flying in from Perth today.

With Bessie all packed up and ready to go, we drove towards Monkey Mia to have a look around. Our first stop was at Little Lagoon, a tidal lagoon just off the coast. It was a beautiful spot and we walked about half way around before walking back again. It looked gorgeous at that time of the morning although it was still a little chilly.

From Little Lagoon, we thought we would drive in to Monkey Mia to have a look around but when we arrived we realized that we had to pay entrance fees just to get into the area. Seeing as we didn’t really have time to see any dolphins and the fact that we had seen them before, we decided not to go in and headed back to Denham instead to buy a couple more things and fill up the car before going to meet Elyse.

We found the Monkey Mia airport fairly easily and waited in Bessie until we saw the plane fly over getting ready to land. By this time the car park was pretty full with people either picking passengers up or waiting for a flight themselves. Elyse’s plane landed and we met her at the wire fence. It was great to finally have her here with us in Aus!!

First things first, we mixed up a cocktail (see photo) and gave Elyse her presents – a pair of thongs with the names of beers in different states, a stubby cooler with all Aussie Sheila sayings on it, and her RECD tour tank top (the Campervan and Cocktails tour from Perth to Broome July 2009). After catching up for a while in the airport carpark, we headed back out on the road for our drive to Canarvon; Elyse and I with traveling cocktails for the afternoon.

We drove for a couple of hours before hitting our first road house where Elsie started her trend of taking a photo of her jumping in front of every roadhouse we would pass. Back on the road again and we made it to Canarvon by about 5pm and checked into the Plantation Big 4 Caravan Park. “Shirl” (not her real name) at the desk was a doll and provided Elyse with her first true Aussie Sheila experience.

Being a Sunday night, things were pretty quiet in Canarvon but “Shirl” put us on to the roast dinner buffet at the local motel about 1 km down the road. After setting up Bessie, we rugged up and walked down the road to the motel. It was obviously a popular spot as the place was packed and the only table we could get was outside. The food however was amazing and just what we felt like after a long day. As we ate, we were entertained by a lovely old bloke playing the keyboard with his wife sitting next to him picking and refiling the music as he played – it was pretty cute to watch as they must have been both over 70. After our third dessert and on our second bottle of red wine, we started playing Shithead until one of the waitresses came over and told us that they closed at 9 (it was 9.25 at this stage). So we finished our game and headed back down the road to the caravan park to play more Shithead in Bessie until we were ready for bed.

A good first day on the road with Elyse.

Day 2 - Kalbarri to Denham (340 km)

Surprisingly, we didn’t wake up until just before 9 this morning. Obviously the curtains did a good job of blocking out the light. We packed up the bed, put everything away and headed out to start our next day on the road. After filling up, we drove out on the main road and tried to go to The Loop for a walk but the track was closed because they must have had so much rain recently. Instead we drive to one of the other lookouts and walked down to the Murchison River banks to have breakfast. The river was really flowing and the contrast between the bright red cliffs and the green gum trees was gorgeous. We found a quiet spot and enjoyed our breakfast before wandering around a bit longer then heading back to “Bessie” (the campervan).

We hit the road with Ross driving this morning. We tried to put some km’s under our belt before stopping at the Billabong Roadhouse for a break and some lunch. We picked up a tacky stubby holder with Aussie Sheila sayings on it for our friend Elyse who we are meeting in Monkey Mia tomorrow (she’s American).

I drove in the afternoon and we made great progress along the highway. Not much to see, just plenty of straight road! We turned off to the west to head out to Denham where we would spend the night. On the way, we stopped in at Hamelin Pool to look at the stromatolites. I had seen them on one of my geology field trips years ago and just thought that they were amazing. It is the only place in the world where you can find living stromatolites and the ones in the Hamelin Pool area are around 5000 years old. They are made up of cyanobacteria that has been on the Earth for 2.4 billion years and these bacteria helped to produce the oxygen in the atmosphere which allowed animals and plants to evolve. OK- I am a bit of a geek but that is pretty cool!

There is also an old quarry at Hamelin Pool where they mined cocquina, basically they cut out building blocks of shells that had been stuck together by calcium carbonate that had dissolved from the shells. A lot of the buildings in the area had been made out of this material.

From Hamelin Pool we drove another 100km into Denham. We turned up at the Blue Dolphin Caravan Park about 3 and after some confusion we found our spot and set up. We took a bit of a walk along the foreshore and picked up some snags, onions and salad to have for dinner. Back at “Bessie” we cracked open a beer and played a few rounds of shithead before starting dinner. I made gin and tonics while Ross cooked the snags and onions on the gas stove.

You can’t beat snags with onions and sauce in fresh bread and it was nice to have some fresh veg again. After dinner we packed up our stuff, did the dishes and set up the bed. We walked into town (500m down the road) and headed to the pub for a beer and to watch the Ashes and AFL. We also played a couple of rounds of pool and watched the locals for a while – what a place! We can’t wait for our friend Elyse to join us to experience true Australia!

We headed back to Bessie and as usual had a cup of tea with some chocolate while listening to the cricket on ABC radio until we went to bed. Another great day on the road.

Start of the road trip! Perth to Kalbarri (589 km)

We woke up about 8 this morning to get ready for our road trip. We had breakfast then headed back up to the room to pick up our stuff and check out of the hotel. We jumped in our taxi and headed to Britz to pick up our campervan. After watching the 15 minute DVD on the campervan and doing the routine checks, we were on our way.

Ross drove and we headed out through Midland and onto Highway 1 for our trip north. Today we had to get to Kalbarri for our first night. It didn’t take long to leave the city behind and soon we were on the open road watching the scenery change as we headed further north. Our first stop was at Eneabba (about 200km north) where we filled up and had a quick break for lunch before switching drivers and heading on.

We had the iPod cranked and continued driving up the inland road until we started to move to the coast at Geraldton. We headed through Geraldton without stopping and continued up the coast to Northampton before heading west on the scenic route to Kalbarri. We swapped drivers again and Ross drove the rest of the way. By this time it was about 4 and so we had managed to get to Kalbarri in daylight. Before heading to the caravan park, we stopped off at Red Bluff for a look at the red cliffs that surround Kalbarri (see photo). It was nice to get out of the campervan and stretch our legs!

We found the Anchorage Caravan Park by the river and checked into our spot. We plugged in the power and were happy to still have a bit of daylight left to get things organized. For dinner we walked next door to the local fish and chip shop and ordered up some grilled coral trout. The place was super busy with school holiday tourists. We picked up a six pack and headed back to our campervan for dinner.

We set up out table and chairs outside and enjoyed our dinner before it got too cold. We packed everything up and headed inside to try and figure out the bedding situation. Once we figured out that this inside table was used as a base for the bed, it was pretty easy to set it up. The downstairs bed was huge! The size of a king bed. Ross and I played some rounds of “shithead” – a card game our friend Dee taught us and Ross set up his tranni radio to listen to the ashes. We kicked back and relaxed until about 10 before turning in for the night. A great first day on the road!!

Catching up with old friends

This morning started reasonably early. I had to be up and at the bus stop before 9am so I had a quick breakfast with Ross before he walked with me in the rain up to Barrack Street. It was raining so hard that Ross and I had to stop off at the newsagent to buy a couple of dodgy umbrellas.

I didn’t have to wait long until the bus came and I was on my way to Morley bus station for my connecting bus. On the way we passed through Dianella where Ross and I first lived when we moved to Perth. It was funny being back there after so many years. It was great to see the Sizzler was still there – many bottles of Houghton’s White Burgundy were drunk over a meal there!

At Morley I waited about 15 minutes for my connecting bus to Ellenbrook. The bus took about 50 minutes to get out to my friend Lisa’s place (we went to Uni together). I walked for about 10 minutes once I got off the bus. At Lisa’s place I met Alita for the first time (she’s now 11 months) and saw Ashlee for the first time since she was about a week old – now she is almost 3!

We spent the morning just hanging out being entertained by the girls and catching up over a cup of tea. We were going to drive up to the Chocolate Factory in the Swan Valley for lunch. It took a while to get the girls organized but eventually we were on our way. It was a beautiful day and so a lot of people were out and about making the most of the school holidays. We managed to find a table and enjoyed our lunch with Alita while Ashlee slept soundly for most of the time.

Of course being a chocolate factory, I had to buy some of the local product so $50 later I walked away with a block of Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Chili and Dark Choc Mint chocolate as well as two types of fudge – caramel and Irish cream. My excuse for buying all this was that it was for our road trip (although it didn’t take long to break into).

After a nice lunch, we headed back to Lisa’s place and it was about time for me to catch the bus back to Perth so she dropped me off at the bus stop and I said goodbye to the girls. The trip back was uneventful and I read my book for most of the way.

It was about 3 when I got back into the city and I met Ross back at the hotel. After dropping my stuff off, we headed out to buy some supplies for the road trip. We returned to the hotel stocked up and hungry so we walked around the corner to King’s Street Café for dinner. Although we were just looking for something casual, we ended up with an amazing meal of gourmet pizza and great wine by the glass to match. Being on holidays, we felt justified in sharing a dessert so we had a slice of flourless orange cake with two glasses of dessert wine to finish off the meal – yum!

Back at the hotel we packed our stuff up ready for leaving in the morning. We watched the cricket for a while before we fell into bed.

A great day in Perth!

This morning we woke up just before 10 after a great night's sleep and felt pretty good. We got into our trackies and donned our trainers for a walk up to King's Park.

It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining - a great day to visit King's Park. It was a good walk just to get up to King's Park with a steep hill to warm us up. Once in the park we followed the Law Path around the edge of the park with great views over the Swan River.

The park has changed a fair bit since we were last in Perth. A major fire had been through the park a few years ago and parts of the park were still recovering. There was also a new suspended walkway through a part of the park (see photo). Ross and I really enjoyed being back there again. The walk took about 1 3/4 hours - a good bit of exercise.

We headed back to the hotel, showered and headed straight out again to catch the train to Fremantle for lunch. Down in Fremantle, we had lunch on the sidewalk outside Benny's cafe - the place where we had our going away do before we left Perth 8 years ago. After lunch we wandered around the shops for a couple of hours before catching the train back to Perth.

Back in Perth, we found the information center to look for bus timetables so I could go out and see Lisa tomorrow. We also walked around and sussed out the shops so we can get our supplies for our road trip on Friday. We found a great little coffee shop and stopped for tea and cake before heading back to the hotel.

I spent the evening catching up on my blog. Ross and I headed out for dinner at the pub down the road and we sat watching the first Ashes game and enjoying a counter meal. Back at the hotel, we watched the Michael Jackson tribute concert on TV amongst other things.

A great, relaxing day in Perth.

First day in Perth

We arrived in Perth at 6am and got to the hotel by 7. As we expected, our room wasn't ready yet despite us calling them yesterday to check. Anyway, the receptionist did manage to find us a room for a few hours until our room was ready.

We scoffed down some breakfast and then crashed out until lunchtime. Once we woke up, we made our way out into the city for some lunch at Dome. We wandered around the shops and did a few chores for a couple of hours before we headed back to the hotel feeling exhausted and in need of a nap again.

We woke up around 6 and headed a couple of doors down for a drink at Carnegie's while we waited for our friend Lisa to arrive and meet us for dinner.

Once Lisa turned up, we walked to the Indian restaurant 9 Mary's and had a great time catching up after three years over great Indian food.

We walked Lisa to her car and headed back to the hotel to bed. Not much happened today!

Dee leaving KL and a root canal!

This morning I dropped Dee off at the train station and waved her goodbye as she boarded the bus for the airport for her flight back to Melbourne. From there I tried to find my way to the Endodontist's office for my root canal - yuck!

I finally managed to find the office and went upstairs. While I waited, they handed me a colour brochure of what a root canal is and why it needs to be done. As I was reading this, panic was starting to set in! My loathe of dentists came back with a vengeance.

I got into the dentist's office and he took time to ask me about my situation and then explain what he needs to do to confirm that I do in fact need a root canal. He did several tests on me including a tap test where he used the end of his mirror to tap on my teeth. I almost jumped through the roof when he hit my cracked tooth! He also sprayed cold water on it - also incredibly painful. He took an x-ray as well and used a UV light to show up the cracks in the tooth.

He took me through all the results of the tests and basically said I had two options: have the tooth extracted or have a root canal. He also explained that although the root canal will take away the pain and save the tooth for now, in the future, the tooth may crack more and eventually have to be removed anyway. But we decided to go ahead with the root canal as I didn't have time to do anything else before traveling to Aus tonight and the pain was too much to bare.

As he was explaining the procedure to me, I felt myself go all pale and clammy. I haad to sit down for about 15 minutes before he could start as I felt very faint. Not sure why as I wasn't actually too stressed but I guess the tests that he had done already had made the pain really bad in my tooth and made me feel all woozy.

Anyway, I pulled myself together and he started the procedure. First came the anaesthics - two massive injections on the inside and outside gums surrounding the tooth. We waited 10 minutes until it took effect. I was then fitted with a rubber damn that completely covered my mouth so none of the chemicals etc. would fall into my mouth.

Next was the drill. He drilled a hole in the top of my tooth until he got through the enamel into my nerves. Thank god I couldn't feel anything! From there, he injected more anaesthetic directly into the nerves - completely numb now! He also found that I had four nerves running down into my gums rather than the normal three - great - nothing is never simple with my teeth!

He then worked on filing away each of the nerves with tiny little files about the thinkness of a needle. This took time as he had to check he reached right to the bottom of eacch nerve and one of them was particularly difficult as it was very curved at the bottom. He showed me the four tiny holed I now had in my tooth after he had finished filing away the nerves. Next step was to fill the tooth and finally I had a steel band wrapped around the entire tooth to keep it together (see photo).

Two and a half hours later and he was finished. But this was only the first stage and I will need to go back two more times to finish the procedure and then go back to my normal dentist to have a crown fitted to the tooth as the final step.

So around 4 o'clock I drove home completely exhausted. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to relax but also finished the packing for Aus. Ross came home about 5.30 and we did some last minute things and had dinner before heading to the airport for our flight.

On our way to Perth!

Just chillaxing!

We rose about 10am after last night's frivolities. After a bit of a slow start, (although Ross and I did manage to get to the gym) we drove to Great Eastern mall for breakfast at Alexis - awesome! We did a bit of shopping for a big Vietnamese cook-up tonight.

Back at home, Ross and I spent the afternoon trying to pack for our trip to Aus while trying to watch the AFL match between St Kilda and Geelong - great game! About 5, we started to get dinner prepared. Dee and I thought we would try to replicate some of the dishes from our trip to Vietnam. Dee worked on the stuffed snapper, Ross and I worked on the beetroot and goat's cheese salad as well as the grapes wrapped in goat's cheese and pistachios.

We waited while 'Kevin' the Snapper cooked on the BBQ (see photo). Dee, Ross and I enjoyed an great meal with a lovely bottle of wine while watching the towers. After dinner, we relaxed on the couch for a while before heading to bed. Dee's last day in KL...

Health and Fitness check:

Weight: 71.8kg - put on 1 kg in a week! - too much booze :-(

Exercise:

- Weight machines: 35 minutes
- Walking on treadmill: 20 minutes
- Elliptical trainer: 30 minutes
- Misc. walking in Hanoi: a lot but obviously not enough to compensate for the food and booze!

Relaxing in KL

We all woke up late this morning and pottered around the house having breakfast until mid-morning. Dee and I walked over to Pavilion for some retail therapy and Ross went into work for a couple of hours. Dee and I booked in for nail appointments tomorrow and did a bit of shopping before we got hungry again. Ross met us at La Bodega and we had tapas and sangria to kick start the afternoon. We were "entertained" by a group of mediocre break dancers while we ate.

Back at home, we donned our togs and headed to the pool with our lilos. We floated about for an hour or so and also met a few more of our neighbours as it seemed a lot of people were out taking advantage of the sunshine.

Back upstairs and we got straight into making a jug champagne sangria with bananas and strawberries. Dee broke out the cards and we whiled away the afternoon enjoying our cocktails and playing round after round of "Shithead". Scores: Dee 4, Ross 3, Cherie 3 leaving Dee as the ultimate Shithead.

By this time it was well past cocktail hour so we changed and walked down to Traders for a drink at the Skybar (see photo). From there we caught a taxi to Changkat Bukit Bintang and were entertained with the banter between Dee and our driver "Gunna". Dee even had a long chat with his ex-girlfriend on his mobile. Before we knew it we were at our destination!

We enjoyed a great meal of Thai at one of the restaurants that we hadn't been to before. From there we walked to Gypsy Bar but Dee was a bit put off with all the night-fighters (aka prostitutes) so we moved on to Bar Twenty-One and sat on the upstairs balcony watching the world go by. We hit one more bar, The Social, before deciding to head home at 1am.

At home, we all tried to watch the AFL but it was all too hard so we fell into bed... again.

Back to KL

Dee and I left the hotel at 7.30 for our trip back to KL. I had to take an extra bag for all the stuff I had bought! We had breakfast at the airport and boarded out Air Asia flight back to KL. We both slept most of the way and after getting out of the airport, we caught the bus and a taxi and then we were back at Stonor Park.

It was 4pm at this stage and we were starving so we walked over to KLCC for some sushi. Ross met us and we walked over the road to Avenue K for a drink. We walked home, had a quick refresh and then drove out to Tamarind Springs for dinner. We had a great meal of Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese food (just so Dee felt at home after her travels :-)).

Back at home, we enjoyed a few cowboy shooters with our newly purchased butterscotch schnapps before falling into bed after a long day! It's nice to be back home.

Last full day in Hanoi

This morning started reasonably early as I awoke again to the propaganda being pumped out of the loud speakers up the road. I had a quick breakfast and then jumped in a taxi to take me to the Temple of Knowledge. I had read that the temple was definitely worth seeing and they recommended that you get there before the tour buses so I arrived about 8.30am.

I got out of the taxi and was met with a sea of people trying to get tickets for the temple. Everyone seemed to be local though - hardly any tourists. So I joined the throng and followed the locals in pushing my way to the front of the ticket booth and shoving my 20,000 Dong through the hole to get my ticket. I literally had to elbow my way out of the ticket booth and by the time I reached a bit of space, I had worked up a sweat - I just had to laugh!

After taking a couple of minutes to compose myself, I walked with the crowd through into the temple area. It seemed that all the locals were there to offer prayers to the idols in the temple before heading off to work. The temple itself was the first university in Hanoi and around the central lake, a ring of tablets with the name of each person who graduated from the university with a doctorate degree.

As I walked into the first temple, I was struck by the strong smell of incense burning and I stood and watching people offer money and prayers to the idols. The religion in Vietnam is a blend of many religions many based on Buddhism so it was a little familiar to temples I had seen in Thailand.

I left the first temple and headed to the larger, two storey temple at the back. Again, more people praying and giving offerings to more idols. I climbed up the stairs and had a great view of the temple grounds. I walked back slowly along the outside walls of the temple grounds. The temple was OK but nothing too spectacular. Definitely not worth the argy-bargy I had to go through to get the ticket!

From the temple, I walked up the street until I came across a little cafe called Smile. I had read about this cafe in the guide book as they trained former street kids in hospitality and they work in the cafe. I popped in for a quick cappuccino and a pain au chocolat and sat there planning my next move while dunking my croissant.

I continued up the road and headed into the Museum of Fine Art. In the first building I found an amazing display of the costumes and artefacts of the different ethnic groups found throughout Vietnam. It was amazing how many groups there were and how different their traditional clothing was.

I wandered through the different levels of the museum looking at ceramics, paintings, sculptures and religious artefacts for the rest of the morning. It was a great museum and well worth visiting. I really enjoyed wandering around and for the majority of the time that I was there, I was the only one in the museum.

From the museum, I wandered up the road and stumbled upon a groovy little English language bookstore. I bought a Bobby Chinn cookbook which I thought would be a good one to have seeing as Dee and I were going to his restaurant tonight. I also looked around a great furniture, homewear store called Dome.

By this time I was incredibly hot and sweaty so I walked back down the road and found my way to Koto, another restaurant that trains and employs disadvantaged youth. Dee text me to say she was on her way back into town from Halong Bay so I had sat in the Koto Temple Bar and had a drink while reading my cookbook waiting for her to arrive.

Dee turned up soon after and we ordered great food - prawns, green mango salad and other appetizers - and as usual, a couple more beers! We were quite merry by this stage so we walked back to Dee's hotel and picked up her stuff before jumping in a cab to my hotel where Dee was going to stay with me tonight.

We relaxed for a little while before heading out to hit the shops for the last time. I took Dee to the couple of the boutiques I had been to down the street from the hotel then we headed back into the Old Quarter to pick up the last couple of things Dee was looking for. We took a cyclo through the streets of Hanoi which was an interesting and somewhat 'scary' experience! See video.

We stopped into Le Pub (again!) where they had $2 cocktail specials today and had a couple of drinks while we watched the world go by. Dee found her tea set and other bits and pieces she was looking for on the same street and we grabbed another cyclo back to the Old Quarter to pick up the dress that I was having made before we walked back to the hotel.

We arrived in time to have a shower to refresh ourselves before heading out to dinner. We jumped in a cab again and headed a fair way out of the city to Restaurant Bobby Chin. The restaurant had moved locations recently and the old location was close to the hotel but now we traveled for about 30 minutes out of the city to a tiny nondescript villa where the restaurant had relocated.

As we arrived, both Dee and I were a little wary as the place looked a bit dodgy but as soon as we went inside, we could tell it was a pretty cool restaurant. We had a glass of Prosecco in the downstairs lounge before heading up to dinner. The chef Bobby Chinn is half Egyptian, half Chinese so we weren't too surprised when we saw shisha pipes on the tables!

After our cocktail we headed upstairs to the tiny dining room. The place was packed but this meant that there were about 15 people there! The waiter was really friendly and helpful and we enjoyed an amazing meal with a bottle of wine. The standout of the night was the red grapes coated in goat's cheese and pistachio nuts - an odd combination but like a party in your mouth! The beetroot salad was also amazing as were the coconut prawns and the chicken curry.

We finished the meal with a trio of creme brulee - amazing! We were so full but managed to roll downstairs again for a final cocktail and some shisha. We lounged about on the diwania for an hour or so and before we knew it, we were the last ones in the restaurant! We asked the staff to call us a cab and we headed home after an amazing night - great food, great atmosphere and great company!

Day by myself in Hanoi

With Dee traveling to Halong Bay, I had the day by myself in Hanoi. I was woken up by sunlight streaming in my window at some ungodly hour of the morning! About 7am, the loudspeaker down the round started spewing our socialist propaganda for an hour or so. By this stage I was well awake and so headed downstairs to breakfast. While I had my breakfast, I looked through my two travel guides to work out what I was going to do with my day.

First thing I did was walk out of the hotel and across the road to Mocha, a coffee shop, for my cappuccino fix! After this I walked around the local area checking out the small boutiques around the hotel. After a couple of hours, I was hot and sweaty again and so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to cool off and relax.

About 1, I walked up to the lake to find another branch of the Pho 24 noodle chain and had my second bowl of Pho noodles (with a beer of course) overlooking the lake. After lunch, I decided to try and find my way back to the Old Quarter where Dee and I had been last night. I walked around the lake and into the area where I thought the shops were but got completely lost for about two hours. I did get a chance to look around a bunch of small shops however. The photo was taken as I was wandering. I was too stubborn to get out my travel guide or to take a cyclo to the area I was looking for but eventually I did find my way to Le Pub where Dee and I had had a drink last night.

I wandered around a bit longer but was pretty exhausted by this stage so I headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours to lie down and cool off. On the way home, I bought a couple of things, a dress, some stone bowls with b rass around them, a tea set, and some purses.

After a relaxing afternoon, I showered, and headed back out into the streets for more shopping and also to find a place for dinner. I bought another little dress at an Australian designer's boutique and also found a cute little tea light holder shaped like a traditional Vietnamese person carrying two baskets on their shoulders.

Not far from the hotel and near the boutiques, I went to La Restaurant for dinner. I had an amazing Vietnamese fish curry as well as some fresh spring rolls with a lovely glass of wine. A great meal!

From there I walked up to the lake, headed to Fanny's Icecream and picked up a passionfruit icecream cone and then did a lap around the lake to observe the locals. It seemed like everyone was out and about. Some people were doing aerobics classes (despite the heat!), one lady was doing a hula-hoop kind of thing with a huge string of coconuts. A lot of parents were out with their kids and every bench seemed to be filled with young couples soaking up the moonlight by the lake. It was a great walk and by the time I got back to the hotel I was completely exhausted after a great day so I headed straight to bed.