Bangkok

We flew to Bangkok for a mini holiday within the big holiday. Staying near the Khao San road, eating banana pancakes and doing a good bit of nothing. This is great.

Still a little bit of sight seeing done though. We went to the emerald Buddha, Wat Po and the reclining Buddha. Then some of the more traditional sight seeing like Patpong and a ping pong show. Strangely not a ping pong bat to be seen though.







We went to the floating market and then went to see a cobra show where we watched a cobra fight a mongoose. Not sure the RSPCA would approve. At one point they had a jumping snake that got away from the snake-guy and it came shooting towards the crowd. It was part of the act a little bit; at least we think so. When it happened a young guy in the front row, ran up the stairs faster than a whippet with its bum on fire. It was hilarious, but we had to say that we would have done the exact same thing.

They milked a cobra of its venom in front of us and told us a guy died doing the show a few years ago. The final act was a guy being attacked by three snakes at once, grabbing two with his hands and then catching the third with his mouth. Freaky.









Night markets, thieves markets, floating markets, China town, poolsides, banana pancakes, pineapples, wats, monks, hippies, sun, flip flops, protesters and freaks. Bangkok has it all.

Disneyland

After my family left Hong Kong on their own travels, we decided to cheer ourselves up with a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland. I love Disneyland and made sure Nicci set the alarm so that we could get there from opening time until the park closed. The funnest place on earth!

Engagement Ring

Hong Kong has an enormous selection of diamonds and seems to be paved with them, so we took the chance to get the main engagement ring while we were here. The proposal ring seemed to be getting a little rusty in the ocean air (ahem).

I can't say I share people's enthusiasm for little shiny rocks. They don't do anything useful and I can't ride, drive, surf or fly using them. But seeing how happy Nic was when we found the perfect ring makes it all worth it...

The man at Chow Tai Fook, a famous jewellery chain here, helped us immensely with the selection and smiled each time we came in to see the ring again. If we visited the shop any more times, I think we would have to take him out to dinner. He was great and so was the service here...

Ocean Park

Fun parks = yay.
Hong Kong's Ocean Park with the family...

Meet the Hamlins

Hong Kong is a little special for us because we were meeting up with my family again for a while. My sister has just got engaged which is cause for celebration along with our own engagement.

I've been lucky to see my family a couple of times recently in the last few years. They are wonderful. So here are the photos of my favourite people in the universe...

Hong Kong

We took an overnight train from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The train was fairly nice. We shared a cabin with an ancient Chinese couple. If they hadn't moved I would have lit a candle on their heads thinking they were good luck charms.

Move they did. They spent the evening and the morning eating freshly cooked crabs, slowly disecting them with scissors and spoon ends. They ate relentlessly.

The smell was not so special, but Nicci fought back with Nail Polish and makeup. I lay down and asked myself why we enjoy this sort of stuff so much; it doesn't make sense that a less comfortable way of living could be so much fun. The old lady looked up, gave me a toothless smile and I knew then why we do it.

Shanghai

Shanghai, a big city strangely devoid of anything to do.

We thought this would be a great city to visit, steeped in colonial history and dripping with old stories of opium trading and gambling. Unfortunately the city, known for reinventing itself, has changed again and is now a big modern shopping mall that looks great at night, but doesn't seem to have much to do in the day.

We went up the pearl tower though which was a drawcard for me when planning the trip. It had a roller coaster inside it which was fun. Great views of the city too.

Tokyo Fish Market

We got up at five in the morning to go to the Tokyo fish market to see how all the seafood gets everywhere in Japan. This place was mental. Little carts flying about the place, tuna being cut with bandsaws, men smoking cigarettes while gutting fish and the occasional tourist scurrying around trying not to get in the way.

Japan... you've got to love this place

Japan is great. No argument. We love this country.