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Rosie & Jim
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Vietnam 2011
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Vietnam,
Hanoi
We started early again today with a long walk to breakfast, well 5 steps anyway. Oddly, we then had to check out of our rooms even though we weren’t due back at shore for another 2 hours. The views this morning were better than yesterday with only a thin morning mist obscuring things. We got back to the boat station at 9am for the journey back to Hanoi. The first stop was at a local pineapple stall where we were shown how they cut pineapple in the north. It certainly looked simple when done by the experts, but when one of our group had a go, I think the stall owner was a little concerned about him losing a finger. Once we had all sampled...
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Rosie & Jim
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Vietnam 2011
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Vietnam,
Ha Long Bay
The next morning we had a fairly early start. We had to sort out an overnight bag for staying on a boat in the bay, have breakfast and checkout by 7am. A tall order on most days, but especially considering the amount of sleep we had all had in the last 2 days. However, by 07:05 we were getting on the bus for another seemingly long journey south to Ha Long Bay. Hai spent about 45 minutes giving us an endless stream of information about Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, what the plan was for the next 24 hours and what we should expect. Unfortunately, by that time, he had lost half of his audience to sleep so he gave in. We stopped at an...
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Rosie & Jim
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Vietnam 2011
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Vietnam,
Hanoi
Our latest journey started at the relatively late hour of 6am. We headed out to Heathrow for the first leg toKuala Lumpur. The 12½ hour flight was fairly uneventful, but neither of us managed to get much sleep so we were both a bit tired on arrival in Malaysia. We had a three hour stop over and after enquiring we found that we wouldn’t have enough time to actually visit KL. This was a little disappointing, but the airport had an outdoor courtyard area so we visited that instead. Our next leg was three more hours up to Hanoi by which point most people were feeling a little worse for wear. We picked up 3 million Vietnamese Dong (about 90 quid) and met up with...
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Rosie & Jim
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New Year 2010/11
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Iceland,
Reykjavik
Our last full day in Iceland was always going to be memorable, but when we woke up this morning, we had no idea just how memorable! The plan for today was to hire a car, visit some of the local area we missed in the last couple of days, and finish up at the blue lagoon. So we got off to a good start, got up early, booked the hire car and had breakfast. We then headed out into the night/morning in the hope that the miserable weather would fade away before sunrise. We were picked up from our hotel by the hire company and taken to their offices where the paperwork was sorted and we were handed the keys. After picking up some food...
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Rosie & Jim
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New Year 2010/11
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Iceland,
Reykjavik
Up early again this morning for our next tour, the Golden Circle. Rosie’s starting to suffer a bit with the lack of any daylight before 10am, but still good. We boarded the bus and headed out. The first port of call was a local nursery to see how they cope with the lack of daylight hours when growing food, however, someone had forgotten to tell the owner so nobody was there, and due to it still being dark, we couldn’t see much so we moved on. We had a toilet break on route to Gullfoss (the big waterfall) where we were able to visit a local Lutheran church. Inside the guide gave us a brief introduction, then serenaded us! Turns out he was a very...
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Rosie & Jim
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New Year 2010/11
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Iceland,
Reykjavik
Last night we headed out on our Northern Lights Tour/Hunt. We spent three fruitless hours trying to find gaps in the ever increasing cloud cover, but unfortunately saw not even a glimmer of the Northern Lights. However, the tour was due to finish at midnight back at the bus depot in Reykjavik, but due to the enthusiasm of the tour guides, we were still about 10-15 miles outside of Reykjavik as the New Year was approaching. We took the opportunity to pull over to the side of the road to watch the fireworks over Reykjavik from afar. The sight was incredible! As was the noise. Fireworks were being let off from every part of the city lighting up the whole sky. It was like looking...
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Rosie & Jim
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New Year 2010/11
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Iceland,
Reykjavik
We took the late flight into Reykjavik arriving shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve, so our first day in Iceland started a little late. We got up for breakfast at about 0930 and the sky was still pitch black! A very weird situation indeed. The plan for today was to visit Reykjavik itself, then head out on the Northern Lights Tour/Hunt this evening so upon finishing breakfast, we got sorted and headed out into the city. The sun was starting to creep up over the horizon giving us approximately 4 ½ hours until it sets again. Bizarre. On the plus side, Reykjavik is quite small so 4 ½ hours should be plenty. We walked into the city as the sun was rising, taking a...
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Rosie & Jim
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Honeymoon 2010
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Morocco,
Marrakech
Apparently Thomson thought there was some kind volcanic ash over the UK so we ended up stuck at the Riu Tikida Palmeraie in Marrakech for an extra four days, all inclusive! It was such a tough time, but somebody had to suffer . We were told on Sunday night that our flight the following day was definately cancelled so we chilled out! The hotel, and Thomson reps all looked after the stranded Brits giving us information as and when it was available. They also let us know if there was a possibility of a flight each day meaning that we weren’t stuck in the hotel! We, however, decided that we had managed to see everything we wanted to in Marrakech and so spent our time...
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Rosie & Jim
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Honeymoon 2010
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Morocco,
Marrakech
It was our final full day in Marrakech today and we were booked on another full day excursion. When the bus arrived, we soon realised that we were the only two people from the hotel booked on the Discover Marrakech tour for the day so we were quite looking forward to it. After a few issues getting hold of a couple from another hotel we finally ended up at the Saadian Tombs with only one other couple. Almost our own personal tour :-). The Saadian Tombs was the final resting place of the Saadi dynasty. They were very ornately decorated in the Traditional Muslim manner with geometric shapes and Arabic script along with plenty of colour, if a little faded now. They were also extremely...
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Rosie & Jim
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Honeymoon 2010
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Morocco,
Marrakech
Another chilled out day today, although this time we chilled out in the Medina (the old city). We caught the second shuttle bus down into the city and were dropped off just outside the magnificent Koutoubia Mosque. From here we hopped onto a Calesh (horse and cart) for a trip to the Jardin Marjorelle, which is a memorial garden for Yves Saint Laurent. The gardens were absolutely beautiful, and incredibly colourful with brightly painted walls, pots and walkways everywhere. We both decided this was a great place to play with the new lens I bought just before coming out (a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime). After a quick lesson in the basics, Rosie even played with the camera a little. It was a lot of fun....
We started early again today with a long walk to breakfast, well 5 steps anyway. Oddly, we then had to check out of our rooms even though we weren’t due back at shore for another 2 hours. The views this morning were better than yesterday with only a thin morning mist obscuring things. We got back to the boat station at 9am for the journey back to Hanoi. The first stop was at a local pineapple stall where we were shown how they cut pineapple in the north. It certainly looked simple when done by the experts, but when one of our group had a go, I think the stall owner was a little concerned about him losing a finger. Once we had all sampled...
The next morning we had a fairly early start. We had to sort out an overnight bag for staying on a boat in the bay, have breakfast and checkout by 7am. A tall order on most days, but especially considering the amount of sleep we had all had in the last 2 days. However, by 07:05 we were getting on the bus for another seemingly long journey south to Ha Long Bay. Hai spent about 45 minutes giving us an endless stream of information about Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, what the plan was for the next 24 hours and what we should expect. Unfortunately, by that time, he had lost half of his audience to sleep so he gave in. We stopped at an...
Our latest journey started at the relatively late hour of 6am. We headed out to Heathrow for the first leg toKuala Lumpur. The 12½ hour flight was fairly uneventful, but neither of us managed to get much sleep so we were both a bit tired on arrival in Malaysia. We had a three hour stop over and after enquiring we found that we wouldn’t have enough time to actually visit KL. This was a little disappointing, but the airport had an outdoor courtyard area so we visited that instead. Our next leg was three more hours up to Hanoi by which point most people were feeling a little worse for wear. We picked up 3 million Vietnamese Dong (about 90 quid) and met up with...
Our last full day in Iceland was always going to be memorable, but when we woke up this morning, we had no idea just how memorable! The plan for today was to hire a car, visit some of the local area we missed in the last couple of days, and finish up at the blue lagoon. So we got off to a good start, got up early, booked the hire car and had breakfast. We then headed out into the night/morning in the hope that the miserable weather would fade away before sunrise. We were picked up from our hotel by the hire company and taken to their offices where the paperwork was sorted and we were handed the keys. After picking up some food...
Up early again this morning for our next tour, the Golden Circle. Rosie’s starting to suffer a bit with the lack of any daylight before 10am, but still good. We boarded the bus and headed out. The first port of call was a local nursery to see how they cope with the lack of daylight hours when growing food, however, someone had forgotten to tell the owner so nobody was there, and due to it still being dark, we couldn’t see much so we moved on. We had a toilet break on route to Gullfoss (the big waterfall) where we were able to visit a local Lutheran church. Inside the guide gave us a brief introduction, then serenaded us! Turns out he was a very...
Last night we headed out on our Northern Lights Tour/Hunt. We spent three fruitless hours trying to find gaps in the ever increasing cloud cover, but unfortunately saw not even a glimmer of the Northern Lights. However, the tour was due to finish at midnight back at the bus depot in Reykjavik, but due to the enthusiasm of the tour guides, we were still about 10-15 miles outside of Reykjavik as the New Year was approaching. We took the opportunity to pull over to the side of the road to watch the fireworks over Reykjavik from afar. The sight was incredible! As was the noise. Fireworks were being let off from every part of the city lighting up the whole sky. It was like looking...
We took the late flight into Reykjavik arriving shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve, so our first day in Iceland started a little late. We got up for breakfast at about 0930 and the sky was still pitch black! A very weird situation indeed. The plan for today was to visit Reykjavik itself, then head out on the Northern Lights Tour/Hunt this evening so upon finishing breakfast, we got sorted and headed out into the city. The sun was starting to creep up over the horizon giving us approximately 4 ½ hours until it sets again. Bizarre. On the plus side, Reykjavik is quite small so 4 ½ hours should be plenty. We walked into the city as the sun was rising, taking a...
Apparently Thomson thought there was some kind volcanic ash over the UK so we ended up stuck at the Riu Tikida Palmeraie in Marrakech for an extra four days, all inclusive! It was such a tough time, but somebody had to suffer 
. We were told on Sunday night that our flight the following day was definately cancelled so we chilled out! The hotel, and Thomson reps all looked after the stranded Brits giving us information as and when it was available. They also let us know if there was a possibility of a flight each day meaning that we weren’t stuck in the hotel! We, however, decided that we had managed to see everything we wanted to in Marrakech and so spent our time...
It was our final full day in Marrakech today and we were booked on another full day excursion. When the bus arrived, we soon realised that we were the only two people from the hotel booked on the Discover Marrakech tour for the day so we were quite looking forward to it. After a few issues getting hold of a couple from another hotel we finally ended up at the Saadian Tombs with only one other couple. Almost our own personal tour :-). The Saadian Tombs was the final resting place of the Saadi dynasty. They were very ornately decorated in the Traditional Muslim manner with geometric shapes and Arabic script along with plenty of colour, if a little faded now. They were also extremely...