Here, there and everywhere..... (last week in Sydney)

We hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend.  The Easter bunny did come to Paddington  - were they

pretending to be Bill and Judy? (see one of our earlier blogs).

On Sunday we set off across the harbour by ferry to Manly with Pete and Tilly (his lovely 2 year old) and walked beside the bay as the Asian Women's Beach Volleyball matches took place - exciting to watch with a backdrop of  waves bringing in the brave surfers!

We managed to get to St. Michael's Church for their evening service, a very intimate and small gathering.  Beautifully situated overlooking the harbour. We were warmly welcomed by Michael Palmer (the vicar).  As there were a few children present, he quickly adapted his talk to make it creative and fun - he used paper and by folding and cutting it, he told the Easter story (really clever) - I was busy taking notes in the hope I could use it myself one day!! Very enjoyable.

The rest of the week has been going here, there, and everywhere - so many wonderful places to see and so many beautiful bays and gardens to fall asleep in!! (We feel like we might be named "The English Vagrants").
If you have ever been to Neilsen's Bay, The Royal Botanic Gardens (full of very noisy cockatoos), Bronte Beach, Athol Beach (near the zoo) you will know what we mean by 'stunning'.


However, caution is needed when feeling like a quick cooling dip, as today at Athol Beach, gently testing the temperature of the water, we were joined by a SHARK!!!  Needless to say, we withdrew our feet!!

But lovely things do happen as during our walk along the coast towards Balmoral, a kookaburra sat patiently waiting for me to take a photo - how kind!!

We might be the only tourists to have captured the 'headless kangaroo' on camera!  We are selling the original photo for a vast sum - all proceeds to ASHA!!

We are packing tonight, ready for our flight to New Zealand on Friday morning.
It has been wonderful staying in the home of Ian and Sari England - many, many thanks for your open hospitality and friendship.

With Ian and Sari at the Icebergs Club overlooking Bondi Beach

Love and best wishes

Heather and Ken xx

Happy Easter from down under!

Last Friday we wrote our blog in Bangkok and tonight we are sitting in the home of Sari and Ian England (friends of Sally McHutchon) in Paddington, Sydney, Australia!!

Last July, when we were booking our flight to Delhi, our travel agent suggested that the best deal we could get was a ticket to Thailand with a stop-over for 6 months in Delhi. Looking at a world map, I said, "Australia is not to far from Thailand," (relatively speaking).  "Perhaps we should go there as well - we could see the Nash family." We had got to know Pete and Nic when they were at St Stephen's church but two years ago they returned to Sydney. So Australia was added to the travel ticket, for a two week visit before continuing to New Zealand (which is not far from Australia, so had to be added as well!).

Nic met us at the airport and we had a lovely weekend catching up with all their news and trying not to say the obvious to Phoebe and Xani, "Haven't you grown" etc. They are beautiful girls and have settled really well into new schools and Aussie life.

A quick update on where we have been:

Sunday morning - Hillsong Church with Nic -  very famous and very big and very lively! A good experience.
Monday - Pete took us to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan caves - beautiful scenery and stunning rock formations - the cave tour took 1 1/2 hours to walk through  - they are enormous! The photos never do them justice! We also saw a kangaroo!! (not in the cave but hopping along as we drove - awesome!)

Tuesday - Bondi Beach for a picnic and to watch the brave surfers.
Wednesday - Walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge taking in the stunning views of the Opera House.

That evening we met Matt Miles (the other son of Fiona and Nick Miles (NZ)), for a meal and big catch up!! Really lovely meeting you Matt, hope to see you again soon.
Thursday - Moved to Paddington - Sari and Ian's house, which they have generously given to us to stay in whilst they are away over Easter and until we fly to NZ next Friday. Scout, the Siamese cat, is getting to know Ken well - she loves a lap to sit on! They have also left us their car, so we took off to Watson's Bay - it is beautiful there!

Friday, today, the weather was quite cool and overcast (even some rain!!) but headed off with Pete to see Balmoral - a beautiful cove and small harbour area - perfect for a good coffee and watching the world go by.

Our next blog may be a day or two late, as we fly to NZ early Friday morning and we will be swept off our feet by our lovely friends Nick and Fiona (Fiona and I have SO much catching up to do!!!)
This is the Easter weekend - all the churches around us here have welcoming messages and banners asking us to join them to celebrate Easter Day - it reminds me of the invitation I heard many years ago - "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me",  (Revelations 3:20) - and when we invite him in to our lives, he has a wonderful plan for our lives. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart". (Jeremiah 29: 11-13). Christ the Risen Lord looks for us during this Easter season to meet our needs.

Happy Easter

Heather and Ken xx

Torture hut, but all will be ok as the Mantis is praying

Since our last blog post we have been lapping up the sun and swimming in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand, off Koh Samui. We were staying at a lovely place called Moon Hut, which is right on the beach; the food from the restaurant/bar run by John and Big, the owners of Moon Hut, is really good and recommended. We must do that TripAdvisor review as promised.! However, there is a little hut in Moon Hut which Heather has dubbed, 'the torture hut'. She will explain why. I avoided it.

Before we left Moonhut, I (Heather) decided to have a Thai massage - there is a massage hut on the beach where we were staying ( it's been renamed by me as ' The Torture Hut'). What an agonising hour it was as every knot, stress area, and bit of cellulite was crushed, squeezed and walked (yes, she walked all over me) out of my body!!  Thank goodness my earlobes were not knotted or stressed as it was the only part of me that didn't hurt as she pulled them!!! I didn't scream just silently groaned and I'm afraid the pillow my head was on probably has been discarded by now due to the big teeth marks!!! Anyway, I was able to walk after, and even felt quite 'loosened up' !! No doubt it has done some good - safe to say, I won't be having another and completely put Ken off!

Looks can be deceptive

It was great to see that even the insects are praying for us.

Sorry if you didn't get to spot the monitor lizards in a previous blog, you can't miss this little fellow!

On our last night at Moon Hut we were introduced by John to a lovely, friendly German couple, Amir and Gabby. That day Amir had taken Gabby to an isolated beach and had asked her to marry him; she said, 'yes'! They have been friends for nearly 20 years and had then decided to go out together and ...there you go! It was a shame we only met on our last night as there was a bit of a celebration (lots of white wine) and lots of laughter (and a bit of a headache the morning after). It was a great way to end our time in Samui.

The train journey back to Bangkok was another adventure, but the air conditioning on the train was freezing and the train went so fast there were times when we thought we'd fly off the tracks - but we didn't. Sleep was hard to come by.

As we arrived in Bangkok on time (6.30 am), we left our luggage at Hua Lumphong station and wandered around Bangkok until the Grand Palace opened at 8.30 am. We queued with hordes of other tourists for the ticket office to open. I know Heather and I are tourists too, but there were huge numbers of groups of both tourists and schoolchildren. Once inside there are lots of signs saying, 'Please be quiet'. Hmm, the guides of the groups shouted very loudly, most of the time, and groups swarmed everywhere, apparently unaware of anyone else except their guide and the next 'thing' to see. The Grand Palace and buildings are, like so many public buildings in Thailand, very impressive, but the people and the noise! And it was very hot and humid.

An Apsara - created during the Stirring of the Milky Sea (have a look at the Hindu creation story)

Later that morning we were able to meet up with Chris Miles -(he is Fiona and Nick Miles's son - Heather's special friends in NZ). Chris is in Thailand working but yesterday he was passing through Bangkok to the airport. We met him for lunch and had such a lovely time catching up!! Thanks Chris - see you in India next!!!

So, a little later today we'll be heading off to catch our evening flight to Sydney, and another chapter of The Browns in South East Asia and Australasia (that's a bit of a mouthful for a blog title).

We will return to Thailand in May and have plans to teach English through a local church which offers English conversation sessions.

"Sawasdee krab/ka" Goodbye from Thailand

Heather and Ken xx

Sun, sea, sand and Samui

Sun, sea, sand, Samui - bliss!!

Our journey to Koh Samui was very exciting for us 'untravelled folk’, as it was a night train - great fun!!

Not only did we have a delicious meal with our own special table and cloth

(the menu deserves a quick photo and could have put us off, but many words we might find unappetizing sometimes turn out ok!!)

But soon after eating, our seats were turned into very comfy beds. The curtains were drawn around and a snug, cosy space was made for the night. Ken gallantly climbed the ladder and crawled into his space above. 

We rattled through the night and were woken the next morning with sounds and smells of breakfast being served.

Such a fun experience (I sound as though I'm a tiny child but even the 'more mature' can be excited by such things) and really a great way to do a very long journey. A bus, ferry and taxi ride later and we arrived in the most idyllic setting of beach huts on the sand in a small quiet bay on Maenam beach. It is a little paradise for us for 8 days, to relax, digest our time in Delhi and North Thailand and think and pray about future plans and most of all CHILL !

We discovered that John, the owner of Moon Hut is originally from Kingston!! Small world really.

Last night there was a local market, full of delicious street food and all kinds of stalls. Great to browse and only browse, as I was quickly reminded that our luggage is already quite full and heavy and anyway, there is really no need for another shawl (or bag!) (I think I have heard that somewhere before!!!) and definitely no need for elephant print beach trousers??!!  We did indulge in the street food though as we won't be packing that and carrying it around for the next few months.  Green coconuts, full of lovely cool water, and skewers of bbq'd pork/chicken/ squid were delicious!!

We're back to Bangkok next Wednesday and then off to Sydney Aus, so our next blog may have a bit of an 'Antipodean bounce' to it. 

We are looking forward to catching up with Pete and Nic Nash during our two weeks there.

Love,

Heather and Ken X

Wat, Wat, Wat (yes, that's the correct spelling!)

We are writing this weeks blog from Chiang Mai, Thailand - our travels have begun having completed our time and visa allowance in India.

Last Saturday we had a lovely time with all our Saturday students at Ekta Vihar - dancing, playing games and then sadly saying goodbye - they are a wonderful group of young people and we miss them already!

Most of them had internship interviews the week before, so we now wait expectantly to hear of the opportunities they may have for work experience.

The Asha staff at Bikaji made their feelings about us leaving quite clear!!

We will be back, tho guys - but you have a few months to recover!!

We have been really pleasantly surprised by Bangkok - its clean, orderly, quiet and very easy to get around. However, our taxi ride from the airport, was a bit of a challenge -  the driver had no idea where he was going and spent much of the time on his mobile phone ringing people to get directions whilst driving on the motorway. He then decided that he would try to negotiate a rather high private charge for the journey even tho it was a metered taxi - we weren't having that, (Delhi has taught us well) so we insisted on the meter reading. All ended happily and by the end of the journey, we quite liked him!!

Wednesday and our fun began with taking the Sky Train and Metro to collect all our train tickets for the next few days. The company we booked through, 12Go, was very efficient. That done, we decided to see Bangkok from the river - a brilliant trip took us along the canals behind many of the streets where we were able to see some of the 'real' life, not to mention some of the 'wild life' too.

Now its time to play 'Spot the.....lizards (there are 2 and they are big!), Buddha (its not Ken!!) and the reason Heather also loves Bangkok!!

Spot the lizards

Spot the Buddha

Spot the reason 

We have now been to Chiang Mai and are completely 'Wat-ted' out!!  We have never been in so many temples (Wat's) and seen so many Buddhas - we are learning lots.  We had a lovely opportunity to ask some questions and find out more about Buddhism when a young monk, Som, came and sat with us as we had a drink in a garden.  He was really interesting to talk with and as he was studying Humanities at university, he was also interested in talking about Christianity, so we told him about Jesus and what he means to us.

If you have been to Thailand you may recognize some of the places we have visited:

W District Market, Wat Pho, Wat Phra Singh, Wat Mengrai, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Pan Tao, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, Wat Suan Dork. (This has been over 5 days!)

Now we are packing again ready to take the train back from Chiang Mai to Bangkok in the morning.

Ken has obviously been pleasantly effected by the 'influences' of the Wats - he actually uncharacteristically tipped a folk singer playing last night as we had supper!  I, however, had an alarming experience, when at the train station. I saw some lovely teak benches to sit on. Ken had gone off to sort some tickets out so I decided to rest my weary feet. A monk was sitting at the other end of the bench and suddenly let out a very loud, shrill, high pitched screech of what sounded to me like "WooohoooTrillywillywillyweeeee"...  (it seemed to go on for ages) - I suddenly saw the sign that said, FOR MONKS ONLY!! I shot off and quickly perched on the plastic seats behind meant for the unenlightened!!  Won't do that again!!

On Monday, we take a night train to Koh Samui.  We are both looking forward to feeling the sand under our feet and swimming in the sea for a few days.

Lots of love to everyone.

Heather and Ken.