We had a fantastic goodbye party ( or a Hello gathering as we called it as we hate saying goodbye) in Copenhagen with all our friends in a pub in town. 
A few faces were missing that evening, especially my "one-day-it-will-happen" 'bridesman', Ronald, but he made up for it by getting to the bus station on the day we were leaving at 6am with a bottle of champagne in his hands and some plastic cups! we had turned up little bit late for the bus, so the whole of the bus had to sit and wait a little longer while we all drank a cup full of it, with one last 'skal!' !! As the bus did a U turn, we passed Ronald who had stuck his thumb over the top and shaken up the bottle, as the bus turned round he was spraying champagne in a perfect arc. He had a massive grin on his face. My last sight of him for a while, it broke my heart, but with a massive smile on my face too!
We arrived in Berlin and had a good few days, despite being in a hotel way out of the city. It was hard though, having said goodbye to everyone and knowing that it will be a long time until we see them again. I had received a book by my girls of photos of all our shenanigans over the years, and it played a big part of Berlin for me, looking through that book and missing them so much.
My parents came to see us one day in Berlin. It was a good deal, as the amount of times that they have had to drop me off at airports and said goodbye to me, it was time that I did the same for them! well planned! We had a great day, going to places that Maurice and I have not been before and taking a lovely boat cruise around the river, had a very German lunch that was massive!
On our way to Australia from Berlin, we stopped off in Thailand for three weeks.
The morning we left Berlin, as we were getting ready to leave the hotel room, we were watching the news, Bangkok was on the news: Chaos on the streets of Bangkok, the government may be overthrown.
We started off in Bangkok, where we had been before, on our return trip from Australia. We stayed in Kho san Road. It has changed a lot though, from being dusty streets, it had turned into well paved streets, and almost a cafe culture starting, which is despite being very tacky and touristy, is good for the area to be using the money that the tourists have been spending in kho san for so many years. It has become a much cleaner, safer area.
As we had a massive amount of baggage with us, we left most of it in the hotel that we were staying in, and both packed a little day bag rucksack to take for the next three weeks. A much better solution rather than carrying a whole heap of junk around.
After one night stuck in a room with no air conditioning and a little bit of jet lag, we jumped on a night train to Trang, south west of Bangkok, and a whopping 17 hours. It was a wonderful train though, very similar to Indian style sleepers but facing a different direction (so either your head or your heat go forwards parallel to the train - rather a strange experience). It was much more organised though, at a certain time the carriage attendant came and made every ones bed. Not just fixing the attachments to pull the beds from off the walls, but also putting all the bed clothes on and fluffing up the pillows, and fixing curtains for that little bit of privacy! we both had a hard nights sleep, but as we got in late in the morning we had chance to sleep for longer.
Feeling nice and refreshed we arrived in Trang and decided to go straight to the town of Krabbe. That involved another bus journey of around three hours. When we arrived in Krabbe, we got off at the wrong place and ended up walking for hours trying to find a hotel that we had seen in the LP. When we finally got there, it was too expensive, so we stayed over the road in a lovely hotel with A/C and cable TV. After a fab sleep we were up again early in the morning, and catching a boat to Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee - which I found rather amusing the whole time we were there)Island with a boat load of English and Irish young holiday makers (including a young couple from Braintree!).
Before the Tsunami happened in 2004, Phi Phi island was getting overcrowded with tourists, and there were plans to reduce the amount of visitors, to protect the environment and try to preserve some of the local wildlife that was slowly dying through mass tourism.
We stayed a few days on Phi Phi island but found it very over crowded and not very Thai at all. We set on our way back to Krabbe where we spent a couple of days hiding from the rain until we decided to go to Reily, a part of Krabbe that looks like its an island.
It was terrible weather, we managed to get a couple of hours of sun one morning, and the rest of the 5 days there we were basically running from restaurant to hotel room and back again trying not to get too wet.
Back to Krabbe again, and this time we stayed in a lovely hotel that had its own bar, movies, lovely staff and a really nice room with....HOT WATER wowie! In Krabbe for the rest of the time we basically just relaxed, and had a good time in Thai lifestyle. Got our teeth cleaned, had a filling each, ate in the markets shopped a little and generally just lazed around. We hired a bike one day and went around some lovely nature area, looking for the nature park...but never finding it!
My head chef at work, Arif, had laid on a delicious selection of Smorrebrod and Kostas made some sandwiches for us all. It was greatly appreciated as we all started drinking at around 3pm and went on way into the late hours of the next morning!
A few faces were missing that evening, especially my "one-day-it-will-happen" 'bridesman', Ronald, but he made up for it by getting to the bus station on the day we were leaving at 6am with a bottle of champagne in his hands and some plastic cups! we had turned up little bit late for the bus, so the whole of the bus had to sit and wait a little longer while we all drank a cup full of it, with one last 'skal!' !! As the bus did a U turn, we passed Ronald who had stuck his thumb over the top and shaken up the bottle, as the bus turned round he was spraying champagne in a perfect arc. He had a massive grin on his face. My last sight of him for a while, it broke my heart, but with a massive smile on my face too!
We arrived in Berlin and had a good few days, despite being in a hotel way out of the city. It was hard though, having said goodbye to everyone and knowing that it will be a long time until we see them again. I had received a book by my girls of photos of all our shenanigans over the years, and it played a big part of Berlin for me, looking through that book and missing them so much.
My parents came to see us one day in Berlin. It was a good deal, as the amount of times that they have had to drop me off at airports and said goodbye to me, it was time that I did the same for them! well planned! We had a great day, going to places that Maurice and I have not been before and taking a lovely boat cruise around the river, had a very German lunch that was massive!
Ok.. call me wierd, but I just love this toilet. We revisited this pub while we were in Berlin again, and I fell in love with the ladies toilet yet again! (See previous visit to Berlin) Check out the two chairs on either side so you can have a good old cry with your girlfriends when your drunk and emotional, and all the free cosmetics to make you beautiful again and ready to face HIM!
On our way to Australia from Berlin, we stopped off in Thailand for three weeks.
The morning we left Berlin, as we were getting ready to leave the hotel room, we were watching the news, Bangkok was on the news: Chaos on the streets of Bangkok, the government may be overthrown.
We started off in Bangkok, where we had been before, on our return trip from Australia. We stayed in Kho san Road. It has changed a lot though, from being dusty streets, it had turned into well paved streets, and almost a cafe culture starting, which is despite being very tacky and touristy, is good for the area to be using the money that the tourists have been spending in kho san for so many years. It has become a much cleaner, safer area.
As we had a massive amount of baggage with us, we left most of it in the hotel that we were staying in, and both packed a little day bag rucksack to take for the next three weeks. A much better solution rather than carrying a whole heap of junk around.
After one night stuck in a room with no air conditioning and a little bit of jet lag, we jumped on a night train to Trang, south west of Bangkok, and a whopping 17 hours. It was a wonderful train though, very similar to Indian style sleepers but facing a different direction (so either your head or your heat go forwards parallel to the train - rather a strange experience). It was much more organised though, at a certain time the carriage attendant came and made every ones bed. Not just fixing the attachments to pull the beds from off the walls, but also putting all the bed clothes on and fluffing up the pillows, and fixing curtains for that little bit of privacy! we both had a hard nights sleep, but as we got in late in the morning we had chance to sleep for longer.
Feeling nice and refreshed we arrived in Trang and decided to go straight to the town of Krabbe. That involved another bus journey of around three hours. When we arrived in Krabbe, we got off at the wrong place and ended up walking for hours trying to find a hotel that we had seen in the LP. When we finally got there, it was too expensive, so we stayed over the road in a lovely hotel with A/C and cable TV. After a fab sleep we were up again early in the morning, and catching a boat to Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee - which I found rather amusing the whole time we were there)Island with a boat load of English and Irish young holiday makers (including a young couple from Braintree!).
Before the Tsunami happened in 2004, Phi Phi island was getting overcrowded with tourists, and there were plans to reduce the amount of visitors, to protect the environment and try to preserve some of the local wildlife that was slowly dying through mass tourism.
When the whole island was almost wiped out in the Tsunami, with the water going from one side to another, it was thought that this may be the chance, to get the tourism back, but to learn from mistakes and not go over the top. Unfortunately, it has become even more busy with tourists, and when we were there, most hotels were three quarters full, despite it being LOW season! Every restaurant we went to would have books of photos of the destruction and terror of that day, anguish of family's losing other family members, children left parent less... for dining guests to look through while they were waiting for their meals...enjoy your meal.
We stayed a few days on Phi Phi island but found it very over crowded and not very Thai at all. We set on our way back to Krabbe where we spent a couple of days hiding from the rain until we decided to go to Reily, a part of Krabbe that looks like its an island.
It was terrible weather, we managed to get a couple of hours of sun one morning, and the rest of the 5 days there we were basically running from restaurant to hotel room and back again trying not to get too wet.
Back to Krabbe again, and this time we stayed in a lovely hotel that had its own bar, movies, lovely staff and a really nice room with....HOT WATER wowie! In Krabbe for the rest of the time we basically just relaxed, and had a good time in Thai lifestyle. Got our teeth cleaned, had a filling each, ate in the markets shopped a little and generally just lazed around. We hired a bike one day and went around some lovely nature area, looking for the nature park...but never finding it!
hmm dont I look dashing?!
We flew back to Bangkok (as despite the government closing the airports during the week, they had opened them again) and were very relived to find all our belongings still safely tucked away in our hotel.
Photos and the last few days of Thailand to be put on soon!
We flew back to Bangkok (as despite the government closing the airports during the week, they had opened them again) and were very relived to find all our belongings still safely tucked away in our hotel.
Photos and the last few days of Thailand to be put on soon!
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