The time in Bangkok was supposed to be a relaxing few days to see Dan and Jess without frantic sightseeing to ensure that we were fully recharged on our return to London. And it lived up to that whole-heartedly.

We made the obligatory trip to Martys where Colin bought his first made to measure suit (very smart it looks too!), took a day trip to Ayuthya (the second capital of Thailand, destroyed by the Burmese in 1759) and sampled afternoon tea at the Oriental (voted no. 1 in a recent poll of the world's best hotels).

Dan treated us to a trip round Bangkok's aquarium, which is very good if slightly surreal because it is situated in the basement of a shopping centre!

So we came to the end of our four weeks - it really feels like we've had a break. We both made it to work despite the usual speed of service from Heathrow baggage handlers and london underground. We're not quite back in the right timezone yet, but a week in the office should ensure that we are sufficently tired to sleep through the night next week.

Goodbye Australia, hello (again) Thailand!

Chaos in Sydney airport resulting from a combination of an earlier baggage handler strike and power failure, but no real holdups for the actual departure. Thailand's new airport has that open, but not quite finished feel.

Greetings from the Whitsundays!
Now it feels like we've had a holiday - sea, sand and sunburn! After 3 days and nights on a 50ft yacht we're back on dry land and waiting for our return flight to Sydney.
The Madison was superb - we saw such amazing colours and variety of fish and coral whilst snorkelling, we were even joined by turtles. Colin took the helm on one of the few opportunities we had to get the sails out - the weather was perfect for snokelling, but the calm clear waters left a lack of wind for sailing!

On to the Blue Mountains, only 2 hours from Sydney. If there was somewhere like this only 2 hours from London we'd be there every-other weekend! The cottawge in the Leura Dairy was a tranquil retreat in the mountains, full of reused bits (turning the old milking vat into a hot tub is a good example of the creativity that has gone into this).
This is definately a place that we could spend more time! In the 3 days that we had, we crammed in bush and rain forest walking, fantastic caves, fab food and stunning views (best seen from the passenger seat). You can tell how little rain there has been from the lack of water going over the waterfalls

Another day, another form of exercise disguised as sight seeing! This time a jog across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and around the Opera House. Later, a trip up the Harbour Bridge lookout does a good impression of a step class (but without the complicated arm choreography). All set for a trip to the Blue Mountains (and more walking!) tomorrow...

So on to Sydney!

Slightly warmer weather since we arrived in Sydney has allowed us into the obilgatory holiday shorts. This proved to be a mistake when we enrolled on a walking tour half an hour before a downpour! The theme of our time in Sydney seems to be walking! Powered on by fruit smoothies, we covered most of the main tourist sites in Central Sydney on foot in day one, unfortunately reaching our end point half an hour after all the coffee shops shut and had to resort to Starbucks for a boost to get us back to the hotel.
Not sure that we had covered enough miles, we combined a walking tour of the historic Rocks part of the city (the first European Convict Setllement) with the 10km walk from Spit Bridge to the beach suburb of Manly. The day gave a real mixture of history and scenary, and in true British style we paddled on Manly beach despite the onset of drizzle! A trip home on the boat might nicely round off a busy day, but not for us! Following a high speed costume change we headed for the Opera house and a fantastic performance of the Pirates of Penzance - the influence of Pirates of the Carribean was more than evident in the Pirate King! Finally we rounded off the day with champagne (OK - Brut for those who can appreciate the difference anywhere other than their wallet!) and nibbles in the Opera Bar underneath the Opera House and overlooking the habour and bridge.

Since our last post we have been to one of Western Australia's wine regions - the Margaret River. We got there in a hire car -an interesting experience as neither of us have driven an automatic before. What with the automatic gears and the cruise control, it was as if the car was driving itself! The 4 hour journey took us nearer 7 as we stopped off at so many places on the drive down; Bunbury, Bussleton and Cape Neutraliste. After getting to cow-town we spent the next day on a Mountain Biking winery tour (a great way to get around - we went with Becs from dirty detours). It's a great way to get from winery to winery. We even had a group of Kangeroos race past us as they headed away from some burn-off. The largest was a good 8ft tall! That evening we watched the Sunset over thete bay at Gracetown. On our way back to Perth we stopped of in Freemantle - more old and interesting buildings than Perth and great markets (E Shed is worth a visit too). On returning to Perth we met up with Clare's cousin Alison for a Thai dinner - good to catch up with the Oz contingent of the Stones.

Arrived safely in Perth. Maureen and Bob hav been fabulous, picking us up from the airport and taxi-ing us around from their place in the hills! Did the tourist thing in Perth today (walked miles!) and are off to the Margaret river tomorrow. Maureen and Bob arranged a family meal for this evening, so we got the opportunity to meet up with kids (and one grandkid), It feels pretty cold here after Singapore, but the sunsets are excellent.