The pic we never showed...

This was one of the photo shoot photos that I was too embarrassed to put on! Before each photo we would quickly decide on what pose we would do. This one we decided to be serious. We didn't think it would look as though we had just had a huge argument!

1 month in the UK!

We've been in the UK for 1 month now and lots has been happening...

Our time here has been a mixture of amazing, fun, tough, exciting, adventurous, and thoughts of - have we done the right thing?! It has been fun to visit new places and meet people, but because we are living here the so called 'simple things' are so different over here. Some of which are funny and some frustrating.

Anna and I have both been into our new schools and had the run-down. There was heaps to take in and the days were so exhausting! We felt overwhelmed with everything to do and learn. The schools are in Reading and my school is called St Mary and All Saints and I will be teaching year 5. Anna's school is Ranikhet Primary and she will have reception which is 4 and 5 year olds. 

Life here has been a bit up and down - some things are very tricky such as getting car insurance - yes we've bought a car (1998 Ford Mondeo). Older cars are very cheap here as there are so many around for sale. I had to obviously sort car insurance for it (which was not easy at all). 5 hours on the phone and 6 companies later - we have it! It did cost more than the car though! We had decided that buying a car was a good option and bought one sooner rather than later as getting around will be easier, especially since we have our packs to take with us and all. Getting on the tube at peak time with a huge pack is not an easy thing to do, and it really upsets some people - lots of sighs and frowns :-( And we have also decided to go on a camping trip around the UK.

CAMPING
It's now Saturday 13th and we've been camping for a week now. Ahhh, summer camping in England... grey skies, rain, leaky tents, layers of clothing to bed... not quite the same as a camping trip away mid January in NZ!!! However, we do get to experience rolling English countryside and explore the most gorgeous and picturesque little villages scattered everywhere. We've made our way up through the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and now the Lake District, and have also invested in a bigger tent, so we are both enjoying the camping experience even better now!! Next stop is most likely somewhere up in Scotland, which we'll explore for a week before heading back down to Reading to start getting stuck into setting up for the school year starting in September. (I can't believe we've been on holiday for over two months and still have a few weeks to go!!)

For those of you who don't know, we have found a lovely little flat to live in. It is in a cute wee village called Burghfield Common outside of Reading. After arriving in Reading, we quickly realised that living in the town is not what we are after (lets just say it isn't the nicest place in England!) So we are very pleased to get the flat at The Bolt Hole Farm so we can enjoy the countryside, and the alpacas and horses that live outside our house! We will most definitely post up some photos when we move in. Although it isn't until mid September so until then we will be living in temporary accommodation somewhere.
We've been really lucky to make some great friends, Emily and Fraser, who we met in Scotland at Holly's wedding, and who live in a village near Reading. They are great fun and have been very welcoming. We've missed all our friends back in NZ (yes, you!) so it has been so good to get to know these two, although we only have the pleasure of their company for a few more months as they are planning a move to NZ in November! We are trying to convince them to head Wellington way.

Right, it must be time to head off exploring now. More later. (And yes, we have been terrible at posting photos I know. We need to track down our camera cord... so hopefully some more photos soon.

Love,
us xx

Whisky, haggis and ceilidh dancing...

We've been in the UK for over a week now. Is great to get here especially because this will be our home for the foreseeable future! Spent a day in London doing paperwork with our teaching agencies and signing up for national insurance numbers and bank accounts, so we are starting to feel like we live here, despite having no home yet.
We've been in Scotland since last Wednesday staying in the very beautiful Edinburgh and have had a great introduction to Scotland with evening whiskys, haggis (it's actually okay tasting so long as you don't think about what its made of!) and an absolutely brilliant wedding last Saturday complete with kilted guests and fantastic ceilidh dancing all night. I even got my first ceilidh bruises on my arm, which I've heard is compulsory in order to say you' ve really danced your heart out!
We've been very lucky to be so warmly welcomed here by Holly and James (the newlyweds) and their lovely family and friends. Words can't really say how lucky we've been and it's been such a blast!
Next week will be back to London area to go out to job interviews (me, Anna) and for Pete to go meet his new class at his new school. We will be living in the Reading area in Berkshire, which is nice and close for trips to London, Oxford, Bath and many other lovely locations. As for after next week... who knows yet. We still have 6 weeks of holidays to go!!! Crazy but totally loving the extended relaxing and holidaying all over the place. We are thinking Eastern Europe, so watch this space...

Dubai!

We had heard Dubai was hot and we thought after the heat of South East Asia we would be a little prepared. We were wrong.

We walked out if the terminal (in Abu Dhabi) into the midday heat and had the energy drained out of us. It is so hot. We had to go back inside and then wait for the bus from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.

The landscape was not all that flash (funny that) and they were having a sandstorm, so you could not see very far in the distance. At one stage you could even look directly at the sun and see a very faint orange ball.

Anna was a little nervous about Dubai as she was unsure on how she was meant to act and dress. But it was fine. We spent the day at the (enormous) Dubai Mall where a lot of Westerners were. We had never seen anything like it. This place had an aquarium, an ice skating section and our favourite - a HUGE candy store. It had every kind of sweet you can think of (25 flavours of jellybean. We spent so long looking in there and then bought some white chocolate peanut butter cups. SO GOOD!

We spent the entire day at the mall and still did not see it all. But we were exhausted by the end of it so went back to the hotel.

The funniest part of the trip was being back at the airport in Abu Dhabi and going into the departure lounge. The security guard was very friendly and pointed us in the right direction when Anna needed the bathroom. I said that I would wait here for Anna. The security guard waited until Anna was out of ear shot and then asked me if I was going to let her go alone. I said - yeah, she'll be fine. He was blown away and could not get over the fact that I was letting my wife out of my view. He must of thought I was crazy!!

Hi from Bangkok.

Well here we are in Bangkok arrived this afternoon. We had a blast in a little Thailand town called Krabi. It's a nice little place not far from the sea. The guesthouse we stayed in was very cool (the girls loved it).
Not much to do in Krabi other than go to the beach, eat and drink (which we did lots of). We also did a beach hopping tour which included seeing some amazing little islands, swimming, and our favourite - snorkeling around coral reefs. It was amazing!!!

We had to say bye to Sarah this morning which was tough. She is off to Phuket for a few days.

Anna and I are staying in an airport hotel for two nights before heading off to Dubai and then the UK.
Tomorrow we are off into the city for a look, should be great!

Anyways, enough from me, more pics from our travels now - enjoy...

 These little guys are all over Cambodia and Vietnam, but mostly Cambodia. They hang around the lights at night to get the insects and are so quick. Our highlight one night was seeing one of them finally get a fly.

 This was in Cambodia at one of the temples. The trees were amazing that grew around them. Such a beautiful place. This was taken at the jungle temple - our favourite.

 This was a bat we saw in Vietnam. He was lying on the footpath in the hot sun, poor wee guy.

 This was on one of the islands we were on for our island hopping tour in Krabi, Thailand. The boats are the ones we went on.

 At the caves on an island on our tour in Krabi.

 We started a biker gang when we were in Langkawi, Malaysia. We went all over the island on the scooters. It was great fun. No one was too keen to join us though, we're too hard core!

 My new $2 tiger T-shirt. I think the beer cost more than the shirt.

 At the jungle temple in Cambodia.

A pool in Cambodia. It was a french run bar and pool. Very fun.

My favourtite photo so far...

We just had to laugh at this one, the things you see people carrying on bikes is incredible.
This was taken in Vietnam.

And the adventures continue...

Vietnam

After Cambodia we spent 4 days in Moto City aka Ho Chi Minh. It was very different from Cambodia with heaps of high rise buildings and so many motos that crossing the road definitely got your heart rate up! We had a great stay at Madam Cuc’s Hostel (thanks for the tip Lonely Travel : ) they were very friendly and helpful and a wee bit motherly too, which was kinda nice. We spent our days going on a few tours out of the city. The first one went to Co Chi tunnels where they hid and fought during the war. Watched an interesting video talking all about the enemy (aka USA) and how some of the Vietnam soldiers became “American Killer Heroes” for killing so many American enemies. Phew! Was a bit rough, especially for the American tourists watching too. It definitely wasn’t a PC version!

Our next tour was a full day travelling down to the Mekong Delta and it was really great! We had heaps of boat trips around a few islands in the Delta and got to experience a massive downpour (good old monsoon season!), learned how coconut candy was made, visited a fruit orchard and sat there eating fruit while listening to a live traditional music performance, and had our picture taken with a boa constrictor. I was very keen to stay well away but Pete and Sarah were both keen, so instead of looking like the chicken that I was, I braved it out and stood in the middle with the thing on the back of my shoulders. I actually look quite calm in the photo but as soon as it was taken, it took all of about 2 seconds to get to the other side of the hut! We opted for the speedboat return trip up the Mekong then the Saigon river, over another few hours in the bus (oh buses, I think we’ve spent all up about 30 hours so far on buses).

After a day of wandering round and exploring the shops and malls (so crazy to find yourself in a super flash mall it’s like you’ve stepped through a door into a different city!) and eating lots and lots of ice cream, (mmmm… yummy) we went to an evening show of Water Puppetry, which was so clever and funny! Will try and attach a wee video, the pics came out awful cos we were at the back and the camera is pretty crap! It was a brief introduction to Vietnam and will definitely have to come back sometime to explore further north.

Singapore

Ahhh… a little slice of nice. It was kinda nice to balance out our adventures with the clean, orderliness of Singapore. We only stayed 2 nights but it was pretty blissful. We ended up at the YMCA, which was about double the price as we’ve been used to from Cambodia and Vietnam, but it was lovely and clean and flash and cold. We ended up in little 4 bed dorm rooms with Pete in with the boys and me and Sarah in a girls one. We met an Aussie traveller called Pip who we took an instant liking to. She’s been travelling around Asia for a while and it was great to swap stories. Hopefully our paths will cross again sometime in the future…

Our first night there we went to the zoo and did the Night Safari. It was very touristy but actually pretty good, especially when partway through we got offered a free private tour on a buggy by a guy who wanted to get some practice in before his assessment the next day. For all of us the highlight was the walking through an enclosure with bats flying around you and munching on fruit within arms reach. I never knew bats were a) so very cute! and b) such noisy eaters with very big mouths!

We hit the lovely aircon malls too and got a few basic but good items that you can’t find in a cheap Asian market. And had a great view of the city at night on the Singapore Flyer which is a bigger version of the London Eye. 

Malaysia

We caught the train from SIngapore right through to Kuala Lumpur. It was very long but pretty empty so we got to spread out catch up on some sleep after our late nights in Singapore. Oh and a little tip... limit your liquid intake so you can avoid the train toilet. I have become pretty good with all conditions of toilets over the past few weeks but the train version is best avoided!! 

None of us were that keen on Kuala Lumpur. It was just a big noisy smelly crazy city. We stayed 2 nights in a pretty crappy hostel, but was fine, all part of the adventure : ) Although it meant we didnt want to be there except to sleep. We spent a lot of time in air con malls and cos our hostel was so gross, and we just were so tired and wanted to chill out, we ended up going to the Library and curled up in massive layzee-boy chairs and had a nap for an hour. It was absolute bliss!! Our second night we went to a super flash mall and went to the movies to see Kungfu Panda 2, which was just what we needed. A nice cool few hours to laugh and chill out. The audience was so much cooler than in NZ theatres, they all laughed hard out!!! Made us laugh even more. We walked back to our hostel and it was midnight so got to see some interesting seedy nightlife... 

 
On Thursday we came to Malaysia paradise called Langkawi which is an island - well one of 99 islands in a group together and we are on biggest one. Is so amazing here!  It is very chilled out and laidback, shops don't generally open till about 11am or later, whenever the person decides to turn up!  Our hostel is so great, basic but awesome. Is called gecko guesthouse and has about 20 cats and a great bar with cheap beer - by Malaysian standards anyways. And also does the best chocolate shakes ever! The first day was a recovery day cos travelling is so bloody exhausting! On Saturday we rented scooters and went all the way round the island. It was a great way to check out the sights, as well as being deliciously cool when speeding through the shady bits with the wind rushing past. Swimming was great too, although the sea is so warm that it doesn't really cool you down much! best to stick in the shade and drink icy cold drinks : )

 Yesterday we caught a ferry to the Thailand mainland and caught a bus to Krabi, a little town on the west coast, to check out some beautiful beach spots that are nearby. We are planning on maybe a canoeing, snorkelling, swimming, elephant riding tour tomorrow. Ahh, loving the Thailand prices, especially after Malaysia and Singapore!!

 Only a few more days left in Asia before saying goodbye to our travel buddy Sarah and heading off to the UK. 

Exploring Cambodia

We’ve had such a blast in Cambodia over the past two weeks. I can’t believe it’s only been that long, we feel like we’ve been here for ages and so much has happened!

After the wedding I (Anna) spent the Monday teaching Kate’s lovely class with Sarah. The kids were on their last week of school for their school year so we’d been warned they’d be pretty tired and over it. But they were all so wonderful and we had heaps of fun. It was a great experience to spend the day with a bunch of kids from all over the world. It was also such a different and awesome experience for me being at a school where God is central to their lives. We started the day singing worship songs and then the kids who were leaving the school were prayed for by their friends and teachers. It totally blew me away to listen to three little kids from Kate’s class praying such simple and honest prayers from the heart for their friend who was leaving.

We had our last group dinner that night all together as Nina and Emma were heading back home. It was so great to spend the first week of our adventures with close friends to share them with! On Tuesday we headed off to Siem Reap for a few days.

Siem Reap was a place we really enjoyed. We arrived after a 5 and a half bus trip and were greeted by huge downpour. We have certainly never seen rain like it before. Our tuk tuk driver (arranged by our hotel) very quickly loaded us up and we were off to our Guest House. On the way the streets started flooding and the poor tuk tuk driver broke down because of the water flooding the engine. He finally got it going again and we got to our Guest House pretty dry (considering the amount of rain).

The Guest House was lovely – swimming pool, restaurant and bar.

We stayed in Siem Reap for 3 nights and had a lovely time. Pete found a gym to go to but most of the equipment was broken, but he got to use a skipping rope and bench press.

One of the highlights was the night market. We could not walk more than 3 steps without someone asking for us to but their stuff or to eat at their restaurant. We just had to politely say ‘no thanks’ and keep on walking (another 2 steps before being asked again).

Another highlight was Anna and Sarah going to ‘Dr Fish’. ‘Dr Fish’ are everywhere in Siem Reap and are large tanks of small to medium sized fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. So, Anna and Sarah dipped their feet in and lasted all of 25-30 seconds before saying ‘That’s it, we’ve had enough’. We will put some photo’s on of them doing it.

We also spent half a day looking at the temples. They were amazing! Our favourite was the jungle temple called ‘Ta Promh’. We all loved seeing the elephants and monkeys (the animals have been one of the many highlights on our trip).

So that was Siem Reap, very cool (other than our 7 hour bus trip on the way back).

Our last few days in Cambodia were spent at Kep, a lovely seaside holiday destination for Khmer and expats, with very few tourists. We spent 3 blissful relaxing days with Kate and Retdy there in a paradise location called Raingsey Lodge Bungalows. One of the days there we took a boat trip across to Rabbit Island which was just like the tropical paradise I’d dreamt of! Ahh, to be on holiday… (sorry for all you still working hard!)

The boat trip back was pretty rocky and poor Retdy is now determined to never set foot on a boat again in his life!

On Tuesday 15^th we said farewell to the crazy beautiful Cambodia and headed off on yet another bus (they can be interesting!) to Vietnam. We can’t wait to come back to Cambodia again in the future, it is an amazing place.

A beautiful wedding...

Apologies for the delay...

Last week on Saturday 4th of June our wonderful friends Kate and Retdy got married. It was such a beautiful and moving wedding and of course Kate looked like a princess! 

The morning ceremony was mostly like a western wedding ceremony but mingled with both Khmer and Western language and culture. I loved the singing of Amazing Grace in both languages at the same time! During the ceremony Kate and Retdy incorporated a traditional feet washing custom where the wife washes her husband's feet to show her service to him, but they made it totally their own by having Retdy wash Kate's feet first to show that they will both serve each other. It was such a touching and beautiful gesture for each other. 

They also went to both sets of parents during the ceremony to address and thank the parents for raising their son/daughter into who they are today. After that the parents came up to light a candle each which then was used by Kate and Retdy to light their own candle together. 

I really loved the way the ceremony was such a unique and special reflection of Kate and Retdy and what is important to them - their cultures, their faith in God, their families and friends. 

After the ceremony I got to really fully experience being part of a wedding party in Cambodia! We drove around having photos in amazing places in a typically hot humid Phnom Penh day. It was crazy putting make up on while the sweat is dripping off your face! I braved it out with the happy couple doing the bridesmaid thing, while the others went back to aircon rooms. It was crazy hot but so much fun, although my parasol only really shaded my face so I got to experience my first overseas sunburn!!! It was so bad, and faded away a day or so later but being hot while in a hot place isn't desirable or recommended!!

After a quick nap it was off to the reception to be re made Khmer style. Lots of very white make up and false eyelashes and fancy hair do's (kinda like the photos we had a Heng Lay although luckily I was able to get them to 'tone down' the bright pink lipstick and drawn on eyebrows!) The reception involved more photos, greeting people, helping Kate with her many dress changes (and bless her, she was able to exclude the bridesmaids from this, and we were soon back into our own red dresses, much to the relief of my sunburn as being pinned into a very tight and jewel encrusted bodice was rather painful!)

Kate looked stunning no matter what she wore! We did have to do a bit of fixing up of her make up as the Khmer make up girls went for the drag queen look! After rubbing off her bright lipstick, very dark thick eyebrows, and going down to just one layer of false eyelashes, Kate then looked more like herself! 

It was a lovely reception with yummy food and cake, and the Kiwi contingent consisting of myself, Pete, Emma, Nina and Sarah, lasted to wave off the happy couple in their Jaguar pick up car from their hotel. 

All in all it was a day full of many different experiences and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was such a special thing to be there for Kate and to see her and Retdy so happy and in love!

Pics

Yesterday we went and picked our photo's up from our photo shoot the other day. Once we had them we went to a huge (very western) mall. We were at an ice-cream shop and the staff (mostly young Cambodian ladies) were so interested in the photos, they were giggling and telling the other staff to come and look. They were so surprised that we had them taken as it is not common for westerners to do that (I guess it would not be commonly known that the shop exists to visitors as it was only through Kate that we had head cause her and Retdy had them taken). Anyway, take a look and feel free to laugh out loud, cause we did and still do!

Friday!

Yesterday we did something really fun. We had heard about a place where you go and get made up in traditional Cambodian attire and get a photo shoot. I sat as the girls got made up - they couldn't stop laughing which sent the Cambodian ladies into fits of laughter too. So after about an hour of make-up the girls got their clothes and I got mine and we had a photo shoot (which they photo-shop). It was a lot of fun. I will try and take a photo of the photo's once we get them and put them on the blog.
We also went to the Russian Markets. An amazing place that is just so busy. It was so hot in the tunnels of shops (clothing, cd's, sunglasses, food) and everyone wants for you to go into their shop (which you do if they have a fan!). We love getting around on the tuk tuk's, you just have to walk out the shop or the hotel and you have people waving at you and asking if you want a tuk tuk. We negotiate the price (usually about $2 -$3) and away we go.
Today we are off to the supermarket (more out of interest than a need of food as you eat out for every meal as it is so cheap) and we need to get some washing done, so we will go exploring more. And about half past 2 I am off to Score to see if I can see a Super 15 game!
We are really loving it here!

Here we are!

Anna and I are in Cambodia - what an amazing place!
We had a pretty good flight from Christchurch to Singapore (where we stayed the night) and then Singapore to Phnom Penh.

The heat is very intense and we just sweat, sweat and sweat. I have been for a run in a local gym! It is an amazing place - 3 levels. olympic size pool, steam room (not that you need a steam room here!) and all the fitness equipment you can think of and then some.

We have been out on a tuk tuk (many times) - little motor bikes with a carriage on the back - you get asked if you want a ride as soon as you step outside and unless you are firm in saying no, they will keep asking and asking. Things are cheap here (not the gym though - $15 USD for a session!

We pretty much eat out every meal - so cheap. Average is $3 for a good size meal. Some of the places are very much like home. The pub closest to us called 'Score' is a sports bar - they play the Super 15 there! A beer there costs about $2.50 and you get good food too.

Anyways - bed time now. Photo's to come (haven't taken any yet).

Last entry before we go...

Sunday morning - clean up day!
Thanks to everyone for giving us a lovely send off, both from school and from our family and friends. We are so blessed to have loving people in our lives.
If we have not had the chance to catch up with you and say farewell - sorry. We WILL keep in touch, mainly through our blog. (sorry facebookers)

Pete and Anna

We're off in 1 week!

Well, it doesn't quite seem real quite yet that Anna and I are off in just over 1 weeks time.
We have got a week of school left and then away we go - the Hulls will be abroad!

Follow our blog as we go on our travels.