Kuala Lumpur

January 27, 2025 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

As most of you know, we arrived back to Australia early Thursday morning, so I’m writing this blog extra-retrospectively!

Thursday January 16 – Krabi to KL

Our flight with AirAsia was a relatively quick and bumpy hour. The highlight of this flight (other than landing) was Rod purchasing a litre of Absolut Vodka from the onboard duty free. From our one other visit to Malaysia, we remembered alcohol was quite expensive, so this litre bottle for $34 was too good to pass.

It had taken us forever to book accommodation in KL. There were so many good 2 bedroom apartments with pools, I could hardly make my mind up! We eventually settled for one in the area of Bukit Bintang, which is right next to the other popular suburb of KLCC (KL City Centre). Our plan for the week was to find some fun things to do and I think we did a pretty good job.

Uncle Roger Fuiyoh! Social media star and comedian, Nigel Ng (whose alter ego is Uncle Roger) has a restaurant in KL and it just happened to be in the Pavillion Shopping Centre which is precisely where we were heading for the purpose of dinner and groceries. Hamish was very excited to be eating here and we have some drink bottle souvenirs. I am fairly certain Uncle Roger isn’t short of a dollar. Whilst our meals weren’t expensive, the menu is pretty basic. We ordered Y So weak popcorn chicken to share as a starter, which was mostly dried chillies. Hamish pranked us by saying he’d eaten the chilli’s and they were fine. Well, we fell for that and spent the next five minutes letting ice melt on our tongues! Uncle Roger roasting Jamie Oliver is well worth the view – search it up!

We followed our dinner up with a night time swim in our pool on the 32nd floor of our apartment building – what a novelty!

Friday January 17 – Self Care Day

Hamish and I had set aside Friday for a day of personal care. Hamish got a haircut. I got my nails cut and shellac removed, and my eyebrows threaded. We had a delicious Korean lunch (back at the Pavillion) and walked around the shopping centre.

Later that afternoon, the three of us walked into KLCC to check out the Petronas Towers (Patronas Charm anyone?) and KLCC park, which also had a light show on the little man made lake. The Petronas Towers are really very spectacular. Unfortunately all tickets were sold out to visit this iconic building and walk across the Skybridge. After raving about our lunch at the Pavillion, we took Rod into the food hall for dinner, but sadly, our meals didn’t meet expectation.

Saturday January 18

Today we planned to go to an indoor theme park at Melawati Mall. We caught a Grab for a measly $10 to go across town. Had a cheap lunch then went indoor Go Karting which was heaps of fun! We then headed to Level 6 of the mall to the indoor park. Unfortunately, there were loads of other people with the same idea but most of the families had quite young children, so it didn’t look like it would suit us. Instead, we played some arcade games (basketball hoop throwing, air hockey and a drumming game) which was great.

Our next stop for the day was Titiwangsa Lake, where we aimed to do some paddle boating. The path around the lake was bustling with people on hire bikes, many of them tandems, as well as people out for a walk or a picnic. In the near distance, the Petronas towers were visible, so this is a lake right in the middle of the city. We walked to the water’s edge where we saw something that looked like a small crocodile cruising along the shoreline. I questioned Rod using my favourite swear word – “What the _ is that?” It was some sort of huge lizard/monitor/perentie – suddenly paddle boating didn’t seem like such a good idea.

I jest. We lined up for ages with our life jackets and got into our swan themed paddle boat. Rod and I were keen to spin the legs, but after a while, I swapped with Hamish and let the boys do all the work. At this point, I was getting a sore throat, so felt like a rest was in order. Rod cooked us a delicious spaghetti bolognaise for dinner and I crashed into bed.

Sunday January 19 (by Rod)

Belinda is feeling unwell so Hamish and I decide to head to the Bird Park, which apparently contains the largest walk-through free-flight aviary in the world. Our first challenge is getting there. After months of doing our homework to figure out each local transport system, we have gotten lazy in our last location, getting Grabs whenever a walk was too far. This time, though, a train looks the way to go.

We head to the Bukit Bintang MTR station. We follow promising signs and try to buy two tickets from the ticket machine. These cost a total of 4.30 Ringgit. The machine only wants 1 or 5 Ringgit notes and the smallest I have is a 10. It does not accept a credit/debit card. I head to the information booth, only to be loudly told they only deal with KL Sentra line! I ask where I should go: “Down escalator then left.” I get the strong impression that is all the information/assistance coming my way.

We duly head down and then left. Thinking we need smaller notes to buy our tickets I look for a way to get some change. A “fast food” street stall is selling Churros for 4 Ringgit, so that should do the trick. Nothing is easy, though, and we wait 10 minutes for our single Churro! In the meantime, since the vendor has good English, I ask him about the whereabouts of the station/platform we require. He suggests we head back up the escalator. We do and still feel lost before asking a local, who directs us down and to the right (where there is nothing but a busy street)! We explore around the corner to the left and discover the loud, seemingly unhelpful lady was right all along. The station we require is tucked away around the corner.

The train is prompt and we duly travel our 3 stations. Upon alighting, we aim to walk the last 800 m to the Bird Park but Google maps sends us into a cul de sac. With little idea which way to go we get a taxi. This short taxi trip costs more than the 3 Grabs we caught yesterday combined!

It’s time to again truncate what is becoming a very long story. Hamish and I enjoy the bird park. It features several lovely walks, ponds, aviaries and a very cute photography booth. The birds in the booth are just perching; not tethered. They call out to be included in the photos and happily sit on your shoulder/arm/leg for the photos. We have a nice lunch and love the owl roosting station. (Again they are not tethered and could be anywhere in the netted area.)

We aim to get a taxi back to the station, but there are none around. So we actually manage to find our way on foot! The trip back is uneventful and we arrive back at the apartment after a most enjoyable afternoon.

Monday January 20

The only real activity we did today was the Skyline Luge. It’s based on the original one at Queenstown. I have a feeling many of the bigger theme parks in KL are quite new; they’re a long way out of town and aren’t exactly on a public transport route. This was heaps of fun although there was quite a bit of stress when my e-SIM stopped working and Telstra would only give me 3G. Not helpful. We had dinner in a fast food cafe (ordering Root Beer thinking it was cola – Hamish said it tastes like minty cough medicine) and used their wifi to order our Grab back home. Crisis averted.

Tuesday January 21

Our last full day in KL! We’d booked a tour to take us to Batu Caves and to visit a traditional Batik manufacturer. At $22 each, this was great value with our friendly Sikh guide, giving us an overview of the different religious groups in Malaysia as well as some local history. The Batik shop was first and there was a section where you could paint on some silk fabric. I loved this and was first to pick up a brush. Rod purchased himself a batik tie.

We were then transported to Batu Caves which is a series of limestone caves discovered by some Englishman back in the day. It’s quite a holy site and now home to some Hindu temples (and many many monkeys) who were referred to as “The Brown Mafia” We kept our distance, but many tourists provoked them or posed for photos with their faces right next to the monkeys! Idiots are everywhere. Despite this, we all agreed it was a great way to spend our last day of the trip.

Dinner saw us head back to the Pavillion for some incredible tepanyaki. I had fish, Rod had steak and Hamish had lamb kimchi. Each was served with a generous serving of stir fry, rice, miso soup and sides. With soft drinks, our meals cost $10 each and whilst we have consumed some amazing meals over the past 4 months, we think this may have just been the best.

Krabi

January 19, 2025 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

Hello from Malaysia! We are currently in KL – we arrived Thursday late afternoon. Sadly, we fly home Wednesday, arriving into Tulla about 0630. Read on for our adventures in Krabi.

Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th (by Rod)

It’s a very relaxing Saturday morning, so I decide the time is right to jog down the road, in the opposite direction from the village, to both exercise and see what I can see. There’s not a lot to see, but it all looks green and interesting. No possible restaurants or activities. But it is a pleasant jog and the heat does not bother me too much, when I know a quick dip in the pool awaits on my return.

We then continue the process of trying to hire a car. We have made enquires via our host/local entrepreneur/finger in every pie man Mr. Keng. He said he will ask, but has not gotten back to us. Another online enquiry leads nowhere, so Belinda and I book a Grab and head to a local agent, or so we thought. The agency looks more like a hotel reception, with nobody at the desk. There is an office off to the side where a lady at a desk calls us in. We explain our needs and she makes a call. We are not sure if it is Mr. Keng we are talking to, but he seems to think he has already explained the lie of the land. To cut a long story relatively short, we cannot get a car.

We find an Irish pub and enjoy a couple of beers and some snacks whilst watching some sport on TV. Then we head out to get a ride back to our villa. Immediately, a local operator asks if we want a taxi. For once, we say yes and proceed to haggle:

Destination: Green Hill Villas. 300 baht. No way, it only cost 110 to get here! Okay, 200. Alright.

It turns out to be a tuk tuk – our first for the trip. We hop in the back and wander along the esplanade into Ao Nang. We had no idea this was so developed and busy! Shop after restaurant after weed outlet after shop; it goes on and on across the road from the lovely and fairly quiet beach. It feels a bit like Phuket again, but much more modern and orderly in appearance. Still, we are keen to return later to look more thoroughly. It feels like we are heading in the wrong direction and getting nowhere slowly. This feeling turns out to be validated when the tuk tuk comes to a halt at Green View, nowhere near our destination (Green Hill) and in the middle of mostly stationary traffic. We now have one angry driver and two angry passengers. We want to just get out and walk/find alternative transport, but the driver insists on retracing part of the journey, to be sure he drops us off in the busiest, most inconvenient position in Ao Nang. Job done, we pay him 200 baht and weigh up our options.

We start walking back in the direction of the pub (which is now about 2 km away), largely to try and get out of this traffic snarl. We stop about half way and try calling a Grab. Eventually we secure a driver who messages us about waiting at the 7-11, due to the traffic, of course. We keep walking, only to realise we have walked past the vehicle. By now my bladder is asking me some serious questions. Finally we hop in the vehicle, and roll our eyes as he heads straight back the way we have been walking, again through all the traffic. My bladder can’t look.

Another very long story truncated; we arrive back at the villa more than two hours after getting in the tuk tuk, paying 500 baht for a journey that cost 110 and took 12 minutes on the way in!

Monday 13th

Thai Cooking School (by Belinda)

Over the weekend we planned and booked some activities, with the aim of a good balance of relaxation and sightseeing. Monday saw us split with the boys going to the Elephant Sanctuary and me going to a Thai Cooking School.

I’d kind of been looking at a few cooking classes during the course of our trip, but they can be very expensive. The class I found in Krabi (Thai Charm Cooking School) was very reasonably priced, 1300 baht (that’s about $60 for the 3-4 hour class). I paid an additional 700 baht for transport, as I was out of the free shuttle area. The class was made up of an Australian family of 4, a Swiss couple and a German and Belgian who were friends from a previous trip. Our teacher Penny was great – fun and funny!

We were able to choose a curry paste to make from scratch, then a curry to make with that paste, a soup, a salad and a stir fry. We also had a master class in rice cooking, as well as helping to prepare 2 x desserts: banana in coconut milk and mango sticky rice.

I chose: Tom Kha Gai (which is a coconut based soup) – Pad Thai – Cucumber Salad – Penang Curry Paste – Penang Curry with Chicken. It was fast paced and lots of fun. I was cooking next to the young man from Belgium who was easily distracted, so often we were like: “What did she say to do next?” We used mortar and pestle to make our curry paste and the best knife (it’s actually a cleaver) I have ever used! As we made each dish, we put them on our table and covered them up. We sat down in a group to eat our meal and they were incredible! I couldn’t believe I had made those dishes – they tasted so authentic (in my opinion of course…). We were able to pack up what was leftover to take home, which Rod and Hamish were very excited about.

During the lunch, we had time to talk to each other about travels and Thailand and life and I really enjoyed this aspect of the day, as well as the cooking. Each of us were given a recipe book and I can’t wait to try and recreated these meals when we get home.

Elephant Sanctuary (by Rod)

The transport arrives on time to collect Hamish and I for our elephant experience. We have chosen this place because it features “rescue” elephants, who now carry no passengers and do no chores. The tour’s motto is “love elephants.” And it does not disappoint. It’s also about 500 metres from our accommodation, but the route is circuitous.

After an informal briefing/chat about elephants in the common area (with heaps of snacks and water laid on) we are loaded into a kind of troopie, where we all stand in the open back and hang on. It’s only a short, slow drive to our meeting point in the rainforest. Our guides actually call the elephants by their names (Boo-boo and Mama) and they duly appear, casually tramping their way through the undergrowth. They certainly look relaxed and happy as we take turns feeding them bananas.

A slow walk back to the common area ensues, as we keep feeding our big new friends. They wade through a narrow, shallow creek, then give themselves a dust bath before we get back. They are then stationed (no tether; just happy to wait in the shade and hope for some more food) whilst we prepare some treats: a mixture of squished bananas, bran and vitamin powder. They are called over and we give them their latest food (they eat about 300 kg a day).

After this they take a shower, followed by a mud bath (because why not) with a cleansing shower again. Then it’s off to the “pool” for a swim and a scrub. They are clearly enjoying this, as are we!

When it’s all done, they calmly head back to the shelter, where they keep getting tidbits, including any leftovers from our next snack of fruits.

We are so glad we chose this tour. The elephants are clearly well treated and the whole program appears to be designed for them to have fun and eat continuously. A quick shower and change of clothes for us and we are returned to our villa.

Tuesday 13th – Nong Thale Kayaking

In our area of Krabi, there are a couple of freshwater lakes where you can pay to go kayaking. Without a car, we were at the mercy of tour operators. Sounds easy enough to book a kayaking trip, but there are so many tour providers, all offering basically the same thing, it took us way too long to decide on ‘the one’. Once we had decided, the booking wouldn’t go through and after 3 attempts I cracked the shits and shut my iPad.

The next morning we revisited the kayaking tour, chose a different operator and the booking went through. We were picked up at 1pm in a fairly typical transportation vehicle: ute with canopy, bench seats and grab rails. Two kiwis were already in the ute. It was a quickish drive through rubber and pineapple plantations to the Nong Thale Lake. We were given waterproof tie down sacks for anything we wanted to take with us on the kayak and the briefest briefing: “You go that way, 30 minutes, then swim. Then you go this way, then you come back and finish.” I mean, I guess there wasn’t much else to tell!

Hamish and I went in a 2 person kayak and Rod was the solo occupant of a 2 person kayak. We had a 13 year old ‘guide’ – the Kiwi couple had their own guide. The lake had many submerged fossilised tree trunks, that Hamish and I manage to hit. We also found ourselves stuck on these rocky obstacles a few times, where try as I may to reverse paddle and push off with the paddle, the child guide had to come and help. The swimming spot was beautiful, but freezing. We stayed there for some time, then headed back downstream where Hamish and the Kiwi couple swam, whilst the child guide had a relaxing ciggie, whilst Rod and I chatted.

After getting Hamish back on board, we paddled back to the base, inelegantly extracted ourselves from the kayak and were given fresh pineapple and bottled water in a treehouse viewing platform. What a lovely way to spend a few hours! We were transported back to our accommodation where we had a swim and play in the pool, before retiring to our villa for a bit of downtime.

That afternoon we ventured into the busy Aonang to get dinner and do a bit of last minute gift buying.

Our driver on the way home, as it turns out, is a local man from Nong Thale – he even pointed out his house on the trip home. He said he knew Pat and Pat’s mother was his teacher! (Pat is the on site host at the villas).

The following day, we walked into the village to purchase a Thai lounge as a thank you to Pat, who has been the kindest host. The ‘lobby’ at the villas is an open air hut, where Pat has a store of moto helmets and other bits and bobs. He often has a nap there in the afternoon, just on the bare bamboo floor, so we thought a floor lounge might be appreciated. He shyly took our gift, without saying much and we weren’t sure if he liked it or not. But later that afternoon, we saw him sitting on it, so we think it was a good gift after all.

The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing for our flight to KL. We ate meals from the 7-11 (they have a great range of ready to heat and eat meals for $2.50!) and just generally relaxing. It rained a bit, so that was nice in the evening sitting on our little deck listening to this and having a Changs (although this Chang was enjoyed from the shower).

Phuket – Krabi

January 11, 2025 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

Our final few days in Kata Beach were spent in similar fashion to the last update: swimming, reading, eating tropical fruit and delicious Thai food. Rod and Hamish had a bit of a break from Thai food. Rod hasn’t been so lucky in his pursuit of western foods: he ordered steak which was both tough and tiny; he ordered a chicken fajita which was a chicken breast stuffed with mushroom and cheese, with some corn and peas and other random things on the side. Hamish’s pizza on the other hand looked incredible. I have only ordered Thai food because in a blink of an eye, we will be back in Wangaratta wishing we were not.

Cat Cafe – by Rod

Eighteen months ago we all visited the Neko Cat Cafe in Phuket. Hamish and I were hungry to get reacquainted and jumped in a cab. It’s a short trip, full of anticipation. We are not disappointed when we arrive, as there are only two other families present and we are shown straight in. There appears to have been some turnover in staff, so we don’t recognise many of the cats. Hamish thinks a couple look familiar, though. We order some smoothies and purchase some cat treats, too. The cats must get lots of this stuff, you’d think, but they seem ravenous for more. We have several instant friends, ostensibly due to the food we provide, but we are sure they would prefer our company in any case. We are clearly more “cat people” than the other clients. This is confirmed when one family leaves and stands (for some time) with the door open whilst they are putting on their shoes! The owner almost has a conniption as she calls out something in Thai and rushes over to close the door before any recalcitrant staff member contemplates an adventure on the street. Then the other family wander from their table, leaving a half-eaten chocolate-based dessert within easy reach. More hysteria from the owner as she removes the plate from the opportunistic employees. Hamish and I exchange eye rolls as we keep other cats comforted and entertained.

After an hour we meet our cabbie and head back to the apartment; tummies replete with smoothies and our fix of cats sorted.

Ferry Transfer

The day after we arrived at Kata Beach, we booked our transfer from Phuket to Krabi with a young travel agent we’d met on our last trip. No longer on her L plates, she was a picture of confidence when we asked about our options for getting to Krabi. To clarify, Krabi is a province – part of the province is a beach town called Aonang and Krabi town (a bit further away). I digress… We chose the ferry transfer – 2 hours, $45 each and accommodation pick up/drop off. I watched a few reels about horror crossings with huge waves, tourists being sea sick and luggage rolling around! In light of this (and my need to be organised for any possibility) we prepared a little pack of emergency items: spew bags we’d collected from flights along the way, travel sickness tablets, wipes and anti emetics – we spoke to Hamish about what to do if we find ourselves in the water. Yes, I am that parent.

If Phuket was Little Russia, the ferry terminal was Little Australia: lots of young Australians sporting their tattoos, mullets and tans. After having a few snacks and washing our travel calms down with some coke, it was time for us to board. The Thai deckies helped many people heft their luggage up the steep stairs – then they just take your bag, stow it and you hope it’s going to be there at the end of the trip.

Question: what do you do with airline seats from planes that are no longer in service? You put them in a ferry of course! The cabin was very well air conditioned – in fact, it was colder than my Mum’s air conditioned lounge room! (If you know, you know). Other than that, being a bit cold, nothing eventful happened. I had a nap, Rod and Hamish listened to music, our bags made it to the other end and we arrived at our beautiful oasis with little stress.

A note on aging: I pride myself on being able to carry my suitcase and backpack without assistance. That’s kind of the rule of travelling isn’t it? If you can’t carry it, you’ve overpacked. At times, I ask for help or Rod just kindly assists me without being asked. At the Krabi terminal, I was skilfully carrying my bags, walking down stairs and the gangway, when a deckie just took my suitcase out of my hands, hoisted it onto his shoulder and delivered it to the dock. Grateful, but perhaps I am starting to look old in a sea of young tourists! Hamish said he’d wished someone had carried his bag!

Krabi Green Hill Villas

I can’t remember how I found this accommodation, but it is heaven. We are in a very modest 2 bedroom ‘villa’ (stand alone, self contained apartment) and it’s perfect. Mr Pat is the onsite Mr. Manager – he is softly spoken (even by Thai standards). On our first morning, Rod and I were sitting on our veranda having coffee and Mr Pat tells me he’ll bring me a watermelon. Five minutes later he returns on his scooter with a shy smile and a little round watermelon. We have prepared two curries in the tiny kitchen (one hot plate, one rice cooker) with local ingredients and spice mixes from the small supermarket.

It’s about 1km to the small shopping strip of the semi rural village of Ban Nong Thale. We walk along the busy two lane road – there’s a hairdresser on one side, a fruit market on the other and a couple of dead snakes thrown in for good measure. In town, there’s a couple of tiny little restaurants, a 7-11, a variety store and a mini supermarket. Last night we had dinner in one of the restaurants and the total (3 x mains and 2 x 600ml cokes) was $10. The dishes came out one at a time (because there’s only one wok) but they were delicious and very filling. Ten dollars – I still can’t believe it. There are not many white tourists in this part of town – little kids hold their hands out for high fives, last night a kid just poked Rod in the back.

Four Islands Day Trip

Through our host, we booked a day trip on a speedboat, the “Four Islands” trip (book through the host, pay in cash to Mr Pat). Mr Pat practically helped us into the mini van – he is like an overprotective Uncle, making sure we are OK and that everything is OK! We were transferred to the beach where our names were taken in a very orderly and organised fashion. It felt like every tourist in Aonang was on the beach yesterday morning waiting to be whisked away to islands by speedboats!

Whilst we waited, I bought a little pack of fresh mango for a dollar (everything is packed into plastic bags) which I ate whilst Rod walked along the beach taking photos. Just after 9, our group of about 20 were given a short briefing by our guide, whom I’m going to call Will (because he reminds us of a Will we know!) and also I didn’t understand most of what he said that day (including his name) except for key phrases like: now we go, islands, low tide, be back 1 hour 15 (50?) minutes, snorkel next island, there are no sharks here and so forth. We followed Will and another crew member and boarded our speedboat and took off at pace with no mention of life jackets.

During the day we visited:

Railay Beach – famous for rock caves and beaches you can only reach by boat

Chicken Island – yes, a rock which kind of looks like a chicken.
We snorkelled in a quiet spot near Chicken Island

Tup Island – which is connected to another island via an isthmus at low tide

Poda Island – quite large, we had lunch here (rice, chicken, chicken stir fry – none of it refrigerated and/or heated up!) and a swim

It was a perfect day. We had plenty of, “I can’t believe we’re here” and “we are so lucky” moments. We have four more days in Thailand before we fly to KL for the last week of our trip before we come home.

Düsseldorf to Phuket

January 5, 2025 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ 1 Comment

We awoke to a grey, cold, miserable morning in Düsseldorf – nothing like the last few days we’d spent with Mattia, Inna and Marko. We’d already decided there was some clothing we were going to donate: among them Rod’s green Kathmandu puffy jacket he originally purchased for our trip 10 years ago. Rod picked up the car, found a space across from the apartment and before we knew it, we were free of the car and waiting for the check in to open at the airport.

Security was surprisingly slow, our home made jam from Inna was confiscated, and after a last minute panick about our Schengen visa (had we overstayed?) we found our gate and waited. Nothing to report about this flight except the stunning views over the snow covered mountains across the east of Europe. We crossed Egypt with the Sinai peninsula on our left and made our way to Dubai. Hamish asked, “how long is our hangover in Dubai?” – you can certainly feel hungover when you have multiple flights across multiple time zones!

We boarded our next flight and waited a further hour until take off due to the late arrival of a connecting flight. I am not sure how delaying a full flight, for 5 people makes financial sense, however, I am not running an airline. I was comfortable enough watching Anchor Man, but at the end of this relatively short flight (6 hours), we started to feel that extra hour. My gluten free ‘snack’ gave me indigestion for the better part of 4 hours, so not my favourite flight. Flying into Phuket certainly made us all feel a bit better, seeing the blue skies and the even bluer sea below. Further delays in disembarking the plane, didn’t help our tired state, nor did seeing an Aeroflot plane sitting on the tarmac (more on that later). Immigration, add another hour until we finally got to our pre booked taxi. Phew! A huge day! At this point it’s nearly 2pm Monday the 30th of December – we’ve been in transit for 24 hours.

The taxi driver is a very quite, tiny Thai lady and she plays, on repeat, what can only be described as ‘80’s Easy Listening’ tunes – we all fall asleep for the twice as long drive from the airport to Kata Beach. We finally arrive at our apartment, which is maybe 15 metres from the resort we stayed in last time, get into our swimmers and head to the pool. This is bliss and we are instantly refreshed. The swim is followed by a nap and then we head into town for dinner.

Our days have been relaxing. No sight seeing. No schedule. Breakfast is tropical fruit (mini pineapple, mango, mangosteen & passionfruit) with iced coffee for me, regular coffee for Rod. We have been sleeping in, adjusting to our new time zone, so breakfast is anywhere between 9am and 11am. Then it’s either beach & smoothie (600ml smoothie for $2.50) – home for lunch (salmon onigiri from the 7-11) – nap/read – exercise – pool – out for dinner. OR, walk into town to buy fruit and supplies, then lunch – read – nap – exercise – pool or beach – out for dinner. Somewhere about 6pm there’s a gin and tonic either by the pool or on the balcony – sounds dreadful doesn’t it! We had one trip to Jungceylon which is a huge shopping centre in Patong, but otherwise have just been around Kata Beach. The days don’t differ by much and for many people this might seem a bit monotonous, but not for us; it’s heaven. Rod and I are reading books like crazy and it’s good for our usually overthinking/overactive minds.

We spent New Year’s Eve at the Ska Bar and Restaurant, a place we visited last time which is situated right on the beach. We hadn’t booked, but thought we’d try our chances. The maitre’d said she had no seats for us, but managed to find us a tiny table in the bar side of the restaurant. With reggae playing in our ears, we had a few beers/fantas and enjoyed the multiple sets of fireworks going off. The other stand out were the sky lanterns. We’d seen them from our pool in the afternoon, but thought they were drones. For $5 you buy a lantern, it is lit and you wait a few minutes for the air to become hot enough for the lantern to rise into the sky. I love the idea of packing up 2024 into a lantern and sending it on its’ way – all the good and bad, ready for a fresh start the next day. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for the lanterns – some of them got caught in trees, some of them caught on fire on the ground, some of them caught on fire in the air causing them to plummet into the sea (or into a buffet, as was one case!). Our little Pooh Bear lantern flew high and she flew away into the distance without any of the aforementioned trauma. Only later we discussed the environmental impact of the lanterns, in that, the cane and metal shells fall into the ocean, hundreds and hundreds of them. To rest my conscience, the next day I picked up a frame from the sea floor – practically an environmental warrior!

Wednesday we leave via a ferry to the Thai mainland west coastal town of Ao Nong next to Krabi town. This area is new to us and I expect we will be a little more active with an island trip to Phi Phi and some other things which are currently undecided. We have booked a small stand alone villa about 10 minutes drive from town in a complex with 8 other villas, so it’ll be a bit more rustic (although we still have aircon, wifi and a pool…so not exactly doing it tough). I think it’s the cheapest of the accommodations in the entire trip at about $75 per night.

A side note about Russians. I have read there were over 1 million Russians to visit Phuket last year – the largest nationality to visit. Many now live here since the invasion of Ukraine. We noticed this 18 months ago when we were here, but it has really ramped up since then. We have pro-Ukraine t-shirts but I feel this type of provocation may only get us in trouble – I am sorry we are not brave enough to wear them. It is rare I hear an English, Aussie or American accent. This island is definitely set up to cater for Russians; some restaurants even have a section in their menu “Russian Foods”. I’m going to make a big generalisation here – the Russian tourists can be quite rude and demanding when interacting with the quiet Thai’s. At the beach, one Russian man walked up to the beach bar, didn’t wait his turn, called out his order, threw his money at the staff and said, “Bring them to me – I am over there”. I mean, the staff do this anyway, no need to have the attitude. And yes, I know, there are plenty of rude people around from plenty of different countries, but it’s the sheer number of Russian tourists here that amazes me. Ukrainians can’t leave their country, why should Russians be allowed to do whatever they like?

Strasbourg & Dusseldorf

December 28, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

Tonight we are packed and ready for our flight to Thailand which departs at 230pm from Düsseldorf Flughafen. Sadly, we say goodbye to Europe – what a fantastic time we have had since we arrived in Istanbul 3 months and 1 week ago. We are now very much looking forward to the last phase of our journey, which includes 8 days in Phuket, 8 days in Krabi and 6 days in KL. We will fly home from KL on Wednesday January 22 and arrive into Melbourne early morning on Thursday January 23.

The lead up to Christmas in Strasbourg saw us exploring a huge military museum called MM Park. The museum houses an impressive collection of large and small arms, ammunition, trucks, tanks, other motorised troop carrying vehicles and uniforms. There’s even the top part of a U Boat, an actual Naval vessel and a couple of planes! In my opinion, the stand out feature at this museum is the collections are from many countries: US, Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Russian, English and even Canadian. The displays are full sized – rooms with row after row of vehicles. Rod and I figured what else do you do with all the hardware armed forces leave behind once the war was over. A large part of the museum was dedicated to the 120 French civilian men and women who were trained to act as spies for the allied forces under a plan called Operation Sussex. So brave.

On the drive to the MM Park, I said to Rod, “What sort of weirdos go to a war museum 2 days before Christmas” We laughed, turns out quite a few actually! Afterwards, we balanced this activity with a trip to the Schaal Chocolate Factory – a family run company which has been operating in various forms since 1871. We learned their raw products are sourced from Ecuador and France and that it’s a 6 year apprenticeship to be a chocolatier! The museum smelled absolutely divine and for 3 people who hadn’t had lunch, those free samples were a welcome delight. At different points, both Rod and Hamish said to me, “You can have as many free samples as you like – no one checks!”

Christmas Eve we booked an Escape Room experience. Years ago, we completed a board game version of this, where you need to solve puzzles and clues to ‘escape’ or win I guess, but we’d never actually done this at a dedicated place. We made our way there via tram and had a bit of lunch in a park as we were a bit too early. Celia our host met us at the front door and stepped us through how it would all work and that there would be multiple puzzles to solve concurrently and to use each other’s skills as effectively as we could. I am sure deep down, we thought we would beat this challenge – no one actually said this, but I could tell – we approached it with confidence.

We were given an item each and put on a lab coat. Our scenario was to collect specimens in a lab before a virus mutates – kind of zombie apocalypse. The first room was the entrance to the lab. The floor and walls were blood smeared and the room was lit with a yellow light – a proper immersive experience! Boy it was hard. Took us 10 minutes to get into the actual lab! Hamish’s idea to look through a bin was correct where we found a key, which unlocked a cabinet which housed a puzzle. We had to solve the puzzle then key the code into the door. At one point I thought, we’re not even going to get into the lab!

Once in the lab there were multiple puzzles to solve. Took us ages – at certain points, Celia prompted us which helped. Hamish worked out a code on the computer, Rod worked out a code with books and I just kind of organised everyone. There was a ‘dead’ scientist in a locked cell – we had to get a key from his hand to open the cell to find other clues (and a hidden passage). Bravely Hamish and I sent Rod into this enclosed space whilst we worked on something else. At one point, there is loud banging on one of the doors: Rod and Hamish: “Should we open it?” Me: “No way! Haven’t you seen zombie movies? We open for no one!” It was just a ploy to rattle us and it worked! Long story short, we ended up finding 4 of the 6 or 7 vials but ran out of time. Celia was nice and told us we did better than most people – the room has a 50% success rate, so it’s tough. Thoroughly recommend getting a group of your friends together giving this a go – lots of fun.

Once back outside we debriefed about the adventure all the way to the Christmas market. It was surprisingly not too busy, but we did note a large presence of heavily armed police. Certainly something we’re not used to in Australia, but the Christmas Markets have been targeted over the years, so it’s not unusual for this time of year. We got one last gluwein and a pretzel for Hamish, walked around and caught the tram home.

Christmas Day was crisp and sunny – perfect. This is our 3rd European Christmas and each has been blue skies and sunshine. No complaints from us! We had a pre-lunch walk to the canal and a longer afternoon walk to the next village and home along the canal. It’s a very picturesque part of the world and we talked about how good it would be to have bikes here!

Boxing Day we drove to Düsseldorf where we have been catching up with Mattia and his beautiful family: Inna and Baby Marco. Rod and I agreed this was the perfect way to end our trip to Europe. It is 9 years since we stayed with Mattia’s parents and it was certainly lovely to spend time with them again. Marco took to the Bluey presents we gave him – so we have started something there! Last night we had a bit too much fun, so we have been a little dusty today…Tonight the three of us walked back to Mattia’s to have dinner and to say our goodbyes. We hope to see them in Australia in the next few years for a visit.

The Electric Car by Rod

The electric hire car has certainly added another layer of stress to our journey. Having to find charging stations, figure out how to use them (they all seem a bit different, if indeed they work at all), wonder how and how much we are paying for their use and waiting for the car to charge have all been annoying.

When we arrived in Düsseldorf there was an extra challenge; finding a place to park the car. This is notoriously difficult in Düsseldorf. I manage to find a small spot a couple of blocks from our apartment, which appears to be a pay for service spot, rather than a resident’s permit only space. Fortunately, it’s Boxing Day, so I will not need to pay until tomorrow morning. In the meantime we catch up with Mattia, who tells us we can bring the car over the next day and park in his apartment car park, since neighbours are away. What a relief! We have a couple of hours of paid parking in the morning to get through when Belinda has the brilliant idea of moving the car to a charging station for that time and top up the battery at the same time! I check several of the local stations, but you need to supply your own cable. I check the car, but cannot find a cable! Thwarted again.

There has also been an ongoing saga with the rental company. A few days ago I tried to connect at a charging station. It would not accept the Hertz-supplied fob/tag. So I foolishly tried to use my credit card. Still no luck. An hour later I check my bank account and find that the company has taken $66 out of my bank account! I contact Hertz, not thinking they could actually do anything, but not knowing who else to call? They have since sent many emails indicating they do not really know what I am talking about. Hopefully we can sort this out when we return the car tomorrow, but it will no doubt be confusing.

The electric car has been very nice to drive but it is a totally inappropriate vehicle for a journey such as ours.

5 Countries – 36 hours

December 22, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

Wednesday morning we checked out of our apartment in Munich and headed to the south of Ulm, where we were meeting two friends from our very first trip – Klaus & Esther. Back when Hamish was 5, we stayed with them for a few days in Heidenheim and have kept in touch on and off since.

They had suggested a meeting place which was just off the freeway, so it was easy for us to find. An added bonus here was that there were lots of EV chargers, so Rod was able to plug the car in whilst we had lunch (more on the car later). The county borders of Bayern Munich and Baden-Württemberg cut the restaurant in half – this is quite a novelty and one Esther & Klaus are keen to show us.

After a lovely lunch and catching up, we said our goodbyes and headed to the final micronation of the trip: Liechtenstein. This country has been on Hamish’s radar for a few years, so Rod and I were happy to indulge him! I bet you wish you had a Hamish – we never would have included Liechtenstein on our itinerary if not for him. The views were gorgeous: snowy mountain tops, winding roads and green hills – we followed the Rhine into Liechtenstein, then turned left and wound our way up to Triesenberg (above the snow line) where we were staying the night. Prices here were astronomical – but seriously, after 3 months, who’s even counting?

Our accommodation was a well heated hotel room with no fridge for Rod’s final medication – but the staff happily popped his injection in their fridge and the ice packs in their freezer. We then had to ask them for an adaptor for our electricals as Liechtenstein has a 2 narrow pin system, quite different to the rest of Europe. The room was so well heated we slept with the balcony door and a couple of windows open! Have we heard of climate change? It’s crazy how overheated most of our accommodations have been. Also, in Liechtenstein you are charged in Swiss Francs and the exchange rate is similar to the British pound.

Once we were sorted with medications, chargers and car parking, we headed outside for a bit of a walk around. The stand out features of Triesenberg were: 2 main roads, a church, a store, and what looked like an aged care facility. The views are mostly of the Swiss Alps and are as you can imagine, incredible.

We had a two course meal (because that was the meal choice of the day in the restaurant) and then headed back to our room to wait until midnight where we were able to watch Dad graduate from Uni via LiveStream. Exciting.

Hamish’s favourite thing when travelling is a breakfast buffet and the little hotel did not let him down: boiled eggs, croissant, bread roll, cold meats and cheese, honey, Nutella, juice and a hot chocolate. I said to Rod, Hamish gets his money worth. He leaves nothing behind on his plate and will try everything!

We left the hotel and pointed the car in the direction of our current stop: Strasbourg. Side note: the Receptionist/Cook/Waiter told me the cost for the dinner the night before was “false” so she took it off the bill – I am still waiting for them to reconcile this and charge me an extra $150! We are still getting used to the EV so needed to work out when, where and how to stop and charge the car. The charging capability of each charging station varies: slow, medium and fast. So we found a fast charging station, but it still took about 45 mins to charge (adding about 60% of charge to the battery). Hamish and I stayed in the car and played games on our devices whilst Rod pottered about outside, taking photos, getting snacks, going to the bathroom – anything to pass the time. The car is great, but for first time EV drivers, driving in a different continent, trying to find charging stations (that actually work) is the biggest stitch up. We will be sending a strongly worded letter to the car rental company once we leave Düsseldorf Sunday.

Our trip to Strasbourg took us through Switzerland which wasn’t at all unpleasant. We found our apartment easily – it is the top floor of a 3 story house in the suburb of Eckbolsheim, about 6km from the city centre. Since arrival we have shopped, charged the car (I think Rod might write about this in the next blog), caught a tram into the city, done some sightseeing, walked around the neighbourhood and shopped a bit more for Christmas.

Many of the homes are in the traditional Alsace style, with pitched rooves and timber panels – they are just gorgeous. With quite a bit of rain around, we’re not expecting a white Christmas, so we’re glad we have experienced a tiny bit of snow already. The news from Germany’s Christmas Market tragedy provoked my hyper-vigilance yesterday. I think our best Christmas Market days were done back in Vienna and Bratislava.

I’ll leave you with a Fun Fact. Wednesday and Thursday we travelled through 5 countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and France. The total distance of these trips: 660km give or take. At home, if we travelled 660km from Wangaratta we’d be in places like: Sydney or Renmark or Dubbo!

And one more: Rod’s top speed on the autobahn Wednesday was 152km/hr – Hamish said, “Go Dad!”

Munich

December 17, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

Be warned: this is a long blog, grab a cool drink!

Our week in Munich has come to an end. Rod and I are currently sitting on our bed (Hamish is on his, upstairs) resting after a HUGE serve of schnitzel and pommes (chips) for lunch. Rod and I both said we could have shared one between us – Hamish suggested he didn’t need to share his schnitzel and in fact, polished off a big portion of my chips. The kid is unstoppable! We are about to go to the Transport Museum, mostly because it’s across the street from our apartment. Read on for a recap of our week!

Friday – Walking tour, Christmas market and Hofbrauhaus

Our cold weather gear had been serving us well; that was until our walking tour Friday morning. It was -1 degree and breezy whilst we waited in Marienplatz for our tour to begin. Hamish and I did laps of the Christmas market looking for hot chocolate, but alas, there were only alcoholic beverages (and at 10:30 am I felt this was a little too early even for us!). Not cool Munich – I bought some slivered almonds coated in chocolate and between the 3 of us they lasted about a minute! We joined a large group of English-speaking people and were shown some of the sites of Munich.

It started with the famous Glockenspiel in the town square of Marienplatz. The figures reenact two pivotal moments in Munich’s history: a battle victory and a wedding, with a 16 day party afterwards…or so the story goes. It was a cute little thing to see; I noticed a lady from another tour group filming the whole thing (over 10 minutes worth!). I said to Rod, imagine getting back home and forcing someone to watch your 10 minute video of some life sized puppets way up high on a clock tower that you can barely see. Still, who are we to judge someone else’s idea of excellent cinematography?

We then walked under the tower into the square beneath the Rathaus (Government building). I am sure those workers love listening to that Glockenspiel ring for 10 minutes twice a day! Our guide told us about some of the architecture, the spire and something about some of the statues situated on the building. At this point I am regretting not wearing my woollen socks. I also scour the small market stalls for hot drinks.

Our next stop is the very large and very ornate Munich Cathedral. To my untrained eye, the Rathaus looked like a Cathedral and the Cathedral looked like a Government building! Inside, the ceilings are incredible and the stained glass windows very impressive. Our guide tells us a folk story about the devil’s footprint on one of the tiles and if your foot fits you are destined to become mad for the rest of your life. Rod of course had to try his foot in this tile and of course it fit. I can confirm no change in his mental status since. Lucky it’s a folk tale! I hear one of the British girls say to her friend “I think I have overestimated the warmth of my tights today…” I don’t think it mattered how many layers you wore that day, stopping every 5 minutes for a 15 minute story was never going to warm you up. The guide can see we are struggling with the temperatures, so her next destination is in what feels like an outdoor shopping mall. To be fair, it’s out of the freezing wind, though I hear the girls from the UK state how much warmer it was in the cathedral.

Our next destination takes us to the ‘Field Marshall’s Hall’ a public place where in 1933 the socialist party, lead by Hitler, attempted a coup. Four police were killed in the uprising and the plaque below commemorates them. I leave the group to look around, get a couple of photos and keep moving. Despite my usually very warm gloves, my fingers are frozen. Hamish is a gentleman and gives me his gloves, or holds my hands when we stop so I can try and warm them up. Not to throw shade on Rod, he hugs me whenever he can too! Hamish says, “Good news – only 40 minutes to go Mum” I swear this will be our last walking tour.

We walk to the last destination which is the Hofbrauhaus – the most famous in Munich (probably the world) where Hitler held his meetings prior to (and after) the uprising. We walk up the stairs to a foyer that is perfectly heated. Again hard for Rod and I to believe Hitler had walked up those stairs and held meetings in this part of the beer hall – and we’re standing there 90 years later!

Thankfully the tour is over and we head into the brew house for lunch. I order the big beer which is 1 Litre! I need two hands to lift it. We share a platter and some sausages, then we buy a BIG pretzel – because we haven’t flown all this way to have regrets. The beer hall has a resident band playing ‘oom-pah-pah’ tunes, which provides a great atmosphere. Our tram trip home seems to take forever and Rod and I are pleased the apartment has toilets on the ground floor; cold + lots of beer puts strain on the old bladder!

For the record, no beer was consumed by Hamish.

Saturday – Deutsches Museum (by Rod)

The Deutsches Museum is the largest Science/Technology museum in Europe, so it’s on our agenda – it can’t all be beer and pretzels! I have downloaded the app and a scroll through the menu suggests we should start with the “extended highlights” tour of the museum. This will include visits to the best exhibits in most of the popular sections of the museum. It tells me to start by visiting “Theo” in the Robotics sections. As I write this (4 days later) I have not yet found Theo, or any of his other Robotics mates. Instead, we land in the “Light” section. Lots of hands-on and written material about the (still confusing) particle vs wave models of light. I keep an eye out for Schrodinger’s cat, to no avail – perhaps he is hanging out with Theo in Robotics.

We spend a lot of time in the modern and historical flight sections. Fantastic displays of actual sections of aircraft, or even whole aircraft, as well as many models and a lot of fascinating information. You could really soak up a lot of detail in here. We try not to get bogged down, though, as Theo is probably dying to meet us. Moving on we encounter sections dealing with Music/instruments, Chemistry and Astronautics, which is just amazing. The place is huge but we eventually find the rooftop restaurant for a spot of lunch. Another bun-fight as we try to claim a table. It’s packed and one can only wonder how busy these places get in high season. Most places we have been on this trip have been crawling with tourists. Everyone seems to be traveling these days.

Sunday – Olympic Stadium (Rod and Hamish) – Dachau (Belinda)

When we arrived in Munich, I booked a tour to the local concentration camp Dachau. I had chosen not to visit Mauthausen whilst in Linz – after the Terror Museum in Budapest, I’d not the emotional strength for it. However, in order to remember and honour the people who had lost their lives in the Holocaust, it is a small sacrifice for me for one day. Rod and Hamish have planned their day and Rod will write about this below. We travelled into the city together and the boys dropped me off at the tour operators shop with a plan to meet back there at 3:30 pm that afternoon. Our tour groups were split in two – my group was about 15 people and our guide Jake (an amusing, sarcastic, former teacher and very well-liked American) led us to the hauptbahnhof. Dachau is a small town about 20km NW of Munich but is of course known for the camp and we used public transport to get there and back. Whilst on the platform, we all introduced ourselves (name, country of origin) and I discovered two Australian couples – one from SA and one from the NT. It was really nice talking to them throughout the day and hearing about their travels and their lives back in Australia. Jake collectively called us “Team Aus.”

Dachau is the oldest camp in Germany. It was set up in 1933 for ‘political prisoners’ (this could be anyone!). In the 30’s, the inmates were treated like prisoners, with days off, personal effects and letter writing allowed. This all changed when Germany invaded Poland and the Nazi’s ramped up work camps and death camps. Dachau was a work camp, a training site for the SS, was run by the SS and was the main camp of over 100 work camps in Germany. It was brutal and I don’t need to go into the details of how the inmates were treated – the mostly men, were literally worked to death. It wasn’t hard to imagine the harsh conditions as we stood on the parade ground in the cold with no protection from the strong winds. The camp was liberated by the US armed forces in 1945 and their accounts are well documented. Check out a movie called ‘Lee’ about a US fashion photographer who became a war correspondent – she photographed the Dachau liberation (I haven’t seen it, but have heard about it).

Hamish and I wave goodbye to Belinda and get on a tram (literally right outside the cafe door) towards the Munich (1972) Olympic Stadium. The tram deposits us a short walk away, through lovely gardens, from the stadium. It’s pretty chilly/breezy, but a bit sunny and not as cold as previous days. We get to the stadium to find most of it fenced off, but we eventually find the (only, barely noticeable) entrance. It only costs 6 Euros for the two of us to enter and we quickly find the toilet! We then slowly complete a lap of the stadium, through and over the terraces. You can’t get down to the track or into any of the internals, but it presents a fascinating view of the arena. It still looks quite modern, due to its interesting design. It is not a walled stadium, but is built into the landscape as a key part of the surrounding Olympic area. Along the way there are displays and a “video kiosk,” where we watch a rather odd 20 minutes of mixed footage from the games. There is minimal commentary, not even mentioning the efforts of Mark Spitz as he is shown swimming towards his 7 gold medals. The Jewish hostage saga is shown in part, but it is assumed the viewer knows what happened here.

After exiting the stadium we find we can walk across to and enter the swimming pool arena. The warmth is most appreciated. There is a crowd watching a water polo game to keep us amused and toasty for a bit before we push on. The whole Olympic complex is built into the surrounding parklands, complete with lakes, plazas, amphitheatres and the Olympic Tower.

We walk and tram our way back into town for a prearranged 3:30 meeting with Belinda. Now, dear reader, understand that I do not have internet here without free wi-fi. At about 3:45 there is no sign of our beloved, so I trek into the hauptbahnhof (free wi-fi) to check my messages. Sure enough, Belinda has been delayed. So we have another hour to kill, which then stretches to an hour and a half after checking for another message. After a couple of trips back and forth to Maccas and the labyrinth of shops at the hauptbahnhof for some shopping we head back to the rendezvous point, at one point passing an older lady who staggers from, presumably, too much Christmas cheer. We walk on and wait. I then, belatedly see another message, suggesting we meet at the dreaded hauptbahnhof! We hastily head back only to find Belinda giving triage/first aid to that same old lady, now suffering from a PFD. “There’s mum!” shouted Hamish as I blithely stride past. We had never really seen Belinda in action and she is amazing! Handling and calming the injured, talking with other passers-by/helpers who have other native tongues, helping with the hand-over to Paramedics and just calling the shots really. Well played Belinda!

Monday – Rental Car – Herrsching am Ammersee (Lake)

We have booked a rental car for the last part of the European trip and we walk/train/walk to the pickup point. It’s a relatively smooth process, (even though we don’t have passports as a form of ID) – Hamish and I go into the local Lidl to get some drinks and snacks for the car trip to the lake. When we return, Rod is sitting in the car getting acquainted with the new interior. We do a check of the vehicle for existing scratches/dents and discover it’s an electric car! What’s that about old dogs and new tricks? Something new for us to learn in the next couple of weeks.

We drive to a lovely lakeside area and walk around before getting some excellent Italian food for lunch in a restaurant way posher than we were expecting. Oh well! Hamish loves to test the water to see how cold it is – ‘very cold’ is his answer. No joke, we can see the Swiss Alps in the distance.

Tuesday – Tucherpark (or English Garden) – Schnitzels – Transport Museum

Rod has found a park on the other side of the city so we set our sights on this area. The weather is sunny and it’s nearly 10 degrees – wonderful! We walk around the lake and it reminds me of the Lake Benalla walk, except for the threatening signs warning of death if you ice skate, sled or play curling. They don’t muck about here with their public signage! We all decide we need a schnitzel for lunch as we’ve not really indulged in this local food. We have luck with the 3rd cafe we come across, which is outdoors and occupied by three men and two dogs. I order us all schnitzels – the young woman says she’ll let us know when they’re ready and we can come and get them from the counter. She literally yells at the top of her voice, something in German – we take that as our cue our food is ready. As Hamish says, “The schnitzels look big, but they’re full of air…” I’m not worried about the schnitzels, it’s the 1/2 kg of chips on the plate that has me worried!

What’s next?

Tomorrow we head for the last of our micronations, the one that started it all: Liechtenstein. We are staying one night (in a hotel costing 1/3 of our entire week in Munich!) then driving to Strasbourg to settle in for Christmas. After seeing the Swiss Alps in the distance yesterday, we are really looking forward to staying in this tiny country in the mountains. Good luck with the last of your Christmas shopping and those of your in Australia, keep cool! Ciao!

Oh and for the record? the transport museum is open twice a month, every second Sunday.

L_nz

December 12, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

We are currently on a train to Munich; my allocated seat is roomier than an exit row on an airline. These Europeans know how to do train travel. Australia could take a leaf from their ‘Trains’ book. If you’re wondering why the word Linz looks a bit weird in the title, it’s because much of the Christmas signage in Linz this week looks like L_nz

We arrived into Linz Hauptbahnhof Saturday early evening, after catching two trains: Budapest to Vienna – Vienna to Linz. We caught an Uber from our apartment (as the train station was quite a distance across town) with a non-scary Hungarian driver. After walking through a tunnel to god knows where, we backtracked and ended up in the “not awful, but not comfortable” train station. We boarded the train with what felt like thousands of others, some of whom were sitting in our allocated seats (always an awkward conversation) and settled in. Arriving back in Vienna was a relief in comparison to the Eastern European train stations we’ve encountered lately: the station smelled of vanilla and cinnamon, everything was clean, warm, organised and well signed. Once in Vienna we had an hour to get to the Westbahnhof (across town). We tried to engage one of the multitude of taxi’s parked in front of the station, but many of them were trying to negotiate in cash only. Cash is precious and not to be wasted on a taxi, so we just kept walking down the line until we found a taxi who would accept payment with a card. Our driver was an older lady whose official ID suggested she was about 17. Rod asked her how long it would take to get to the station. She took this as a challenge and flung us through peak hour traffic (one near miss with brakes fully engaged) to get to the station with plenty of time to spare.

The travel time from Vienna to Linz was a bit over 2 and 1/2 hours. We had planned to meet our host at 6pm at the apartment we had booked for the 4 nights, so again, hit up one of the many taxis outside the station. No question about cash/card until the driver dropped us off – cash only! With help from Hamish’s few euro coins, we managed to scrape together the 8 Euro. Not getting caught with this taxi scam again – Uber all the way. Our very kind host dropped Rod off at a market to grab a few breakfast supplies due to supermarkets being closed on Sundays. During the car ride, the host told Rod his daughter had been offered a scholarship in athletics in the US and the other daughter was, I can’t remember, about to solve world peace. I said, you should have told him Hamish knows all the countries in the world!

Our apartment was in walking distance to the main city centre this week so again, we have not bothered with public transport. Once unpacked, we found a sushi train restaurant for dinner. I have never had this eating experience before, but Hamish has. Rod ordered a dish from the menu, but Hamish and I were excited to try the many samples of hot, cold, sweet and savoury dishes on offer. For reference, the plates are about the size of a saucer, or a small side plates: Hamish had 16 plates I had 8. We had dishes such as: steamed rice, fried rice, prawn stir fry, pork ribs in plum sauce, honey chicken, sushi, sashimi and a mini muffin/cake. The beer I ordered was 500ml – you really have to commit to a beer here!

We’ve had a slow week in Linz. With 4 unallocated days on our schedule, we had to pick something between Budapest and Munich, so Linz felt like a good halfway point.

Sunday we visited a technology museum which was very hands on. There was a display where you could rearrange a dish cloth and a phone cable and the AI programme would make this into a painting. It was incredible!

Monday we caught a little tram to Postlingberg – the local mountain. Here it snowed for us! We looked at the church and walked around a bit, Hamish tried to hit Rod with a snow ball, but his aim was way off. Found a gorgeous little bird (female Black Bird) who patiently posed for me whilst I got a few photos. On the way home, the little tram had screens showing the news, Rod was trying to make out some of the news (in German) and telling me what was happening in the world. He says, “Oh, Judy Dench has died. She was 90” Turns out Judy didn’t die, she just had her 90th birthday.

Tuesday Hamish opted for a ‘day off’ – he says he hasn’t been sleeping well and we were happy to leave him in the warm confines of the apartment. He’s actually fallen asleep on the tram yesterday!

Rod and I headed for the castle, which wasn’t very interesting, then walked around a few churches one of which Anton Bruckner had been the choir master and the other he’d been the church organist. Hedging his bets? We had lunch and then spent at least an hour in the biggest sports store we’ve ever seen – it was the best! We now both have new runners – and they’re well priced in Europe, Rod’s Asics were 57 Euro and my Mizuno’s were 75 Euro (that’s $200 for two pair of good quality/brand runners!).

The train has just stopped in Salzburg and here the very long train splits. Our half goes to Munich and the other half goes somewhere else: “Please make sure you are in the correct carriage” The Police have just jumped on board. Rod (who is sitting with Hamish in front of me) has asked for our passports. I hand him his and Hamish’s – the Police are checking ID and asking loud questions like “When did you arrive in Europe?” and “Do you have a residents Visa?” and “Show me your ID” – Good God. We watch them come towards us – Rod has the passports open, but they merely glance is his direction and move though the carriage. Flashbacks to the time Rod nearly got arrested in Poland for not validating the tram ticket!

I’ll finish this blog in Munich in the next day or two and post it. We are in Munich for one week – we only have 18 days left of our trip in Europe before we fly to Thailand and Malaysia for our 3 week ‘holiday’. Accommodation in Munich was quite pricey, but I found a little apartment SE of the city centre (about a 20 minute ride to the touristy areas) for 95 Euro per night. The Lidl is next door, bus stop around one corner, metro around the other corner, bakery next to the Lidl – so what it lacks in sights, it makes up for in connectivity! Good I think, to get a glimpse into the daily life of people living in the suburbs – makes it real. Tomorrow we have a ‘free’ walking tour in the city ending at the most famous beer house here: the Hofbrauhaus! Exciting times ahead!

Update on the Police on the train: We made an unscheduled stop and I saw about 6 Police escort about 8 men of African appearance, off the train. We’re guessing no tickets, no visas, no ID and quite possibly all of the above.

And one more thing, whilst looking for things to discover in Linz, Rod found this review of a lookout over the powerplant. Best review ever.

Budapest

December 6, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ 2 Comments

It’s Friday December 6 and today we’re having a day off. We planned this earlier in the week when looking at the weather. Today was scheduled for sleet, it has in fact, just started snowing. This is exciting for us, but not for the workmen in our apartment block who have been doing some serious construction this week – jackhammering and angle grinding at 0830. Nice start to the day…

When searching for spots of interest this week, I happened across an article about a guerilla sculptor, Mihaly Kolodko, a Ukrainian citizen with Hungarian heritage, who has mini statues across this city. We used the guide as a way to discover the city of Budapest, whilst searching for the hidden statues. It’s been a fun (and frustrating at times!) way to keep us all engaged.

Monday – Liberty Square, Parliament, Margrit Bridge, St Stephen’s Basicila, Christmas Markets & Dohány St Synagogue.

We were greeted with crystal clear skies when we left the apartment Monday morning. Rod had spent considerable time reading about the (complicated) public transport ticketing system, but we decided to take advantage of the weather and walk. We headed in the general direction of the Parliament, but took a few detours along the way. We pass through the gardens of Liberty Square, with a few statues of American Presidents (George W and Reagan) and pass along the back of the Parliament. It is one hell of an impressive building. Walking towards Margrit Bridge, we come across a statue (there lots of monuments and statues in Budapest) dedicated to Nagy Imre. Rod and I are trying to decide if he was a good guy or not. Initially he was in the Communist party but then tried to establish Hungary’s independence from the Soviets, which of course didn’t end well for him. History has judged and deemed him worthy of reverence. Oh and he was the PM at one stage. It can be confusing here with the history, but one thing that isn’t confusing is the depth of the scars on Hungarians caused by war and communism.

We head along the Danube, which is blue today. We walk past the ‘Shoes on the Danube’ memorial to Jewish people lined up and shot by the Arrow Cross (Hungarian based, Nazi backed strong arm in Budapest in WW2). There’s loads of people taking photos, but I don’t feel like I can. Hamish doesn’t want to look and distracts himself by trying to get Rod to laugh. I hiss at them to “stop being idiots” and we leave. By this stage we’re all famished (and one of us is cranky…yes it’s me) and find an ‘Asian Fusion’ restaurant that looks Chinese but serves Thai food too.

St Stephen’s Basilica is just around the corner (it’s hard to miss) and as is tradition, Christmas markets. We get some vanilla almonds – they remind me of my Grandfather Johnson, he always had some sugar coated almonds on him! The bag costs a small fortune, but we delight in their sweet-salty taste as we saunter back home through the streets.

As mentioned earlier, our apartment is in District VII. Towards the end of WW2, Jews were forced into a ghetto in this district – so many people there were 14 per room. Our street, Dob utca (utca is street) was part of the ghetto, but not up the end we are staying in. The Dohany St Synagogue is the largest in Europe – it has a very grand facade – it bordered the ghetto in 1943. We walk to it on our way home (there’s also a mini statue there to find).

Once home, Rod and I head to the closest Lidl to get some groceries. It’s about 5pm and the little market is packed, the aisles are one person wide, the staff are scary (maybe it’s the accent) and we vow never to go back (although we do go back, we go back twice thinking it might be better at different times of the day. It’s not.). I am delighted to find excellent fruit – the double punnet of blueberries is gone after breakfast the next day! Hamish has a sore throat (again) so I’m trying to increase his vitamin uptake!

Tuesday – Varosliget Park, Vajdahunyad Castle, House of Terror

Hamish still has a sore throat, but not sore enough that he can’t inhale 2 bowls of cereal. I suggest we go for a short walk to find 3 mini statues which are in the streets parallel to ours. He thinks he can manage. After finding those, he says “we’re actually close to these ones too – why don’t we keep going?” So we set our sights on a large park to find some more mini statues. We find what I like to call the ‘Hungarian Stair Master’ which is kind of a look out built into either end of the Enthographic Museum. Hamish does not hesitate to walk up there so we follow. It is actually pretty cool and gives us a great view of the park and the surrounding streets. The park is huge and houses lots of different sporting fields, ice skating rink, thermal baths and dog park. We frustratingly don’t find one of the mini statues after walking around and around the park, so we stop for a hot drink and a sit down. The next mini statue is easy to find so we get our photo and walk home.

In Vienna, Rod and I were discussing which museums, if any, we were going to visit. After 10 weeks of travel, we have learned not all museums are created equally. Museums can be great. Museums can be dull. This cannot be said for the Museum of Terror, which Rod and I visited Tuesday afternoon. Only a few streets away, this museum is dedicated to the thousands of Hungarians who were imprisoned, killed and tortured in this building by the Nazi and Soviet Regimes from 1944 to 1991. It is four floors of hell.

Top floor (Arrow Cross Danube shootings, Hungarians being transported to labour camps, Jews transported to death camps, hospital massacres, Nazi’s blowing up the bridges in Budapest, Russians replacing Nazi’s).

Middle floors (war crimes trials, Gulag deportations, dictatorship, communism, Arrow Cross morphing into the secret police (AVH) , public arrests in the middle of the night).

Basement (torture cells, perpetrators, retaliation, emigration).

I have been to Auschwitz and I felt as drained as I did after that day.

Wednesday – Chain Bridge, Furnicular, Buda Castle, Funnel Cakes & Hot Chocolates

With a new found respect for Hungarians, we walked to the Danube and crossed the beautiful Chain Bridge (not at all looking like the pictures we’d seen of it yesterday in the museum). We caught the furnicular to Buda Castle. The ticket seller was a bit frightening (yelling at me when I didn’t understand what she said) and further when she yelled at a group of women who were delaying getting in the carriage: “Get in the car! Move! You are holding up everything! Get in the car!” See? Scary. We found our little statue and walked around the grounds of the castle admiring the view. It was actually pretty cold and miserable so I suggested we pull the pin, get warm food and drinks on our way home and settle in. Hamish said, “but those other statues are soooo close” So we persisted and found more of our statues before heading to the market for hot chocolate and funnel cake.

Thursday – Fisherman’s Bastion, Mr Bean’s Teddy statue, Ferris Wheel of Budapest.

The last of the statues we were keen to find was Mr Bean’s teddy, entitled ‘Brexit’ gosh he was hard to find! Crossing the Chain Bridge again, to find the Fisherman’s Bastion this time, we were glad of our warm gear with the temp about 3 degrees. We didn’t need the warm gear for long as we had to negotiate about 400 steps! But gee the views make it worthwhile. We hung around the Starbucks for a bit to use their toilets (you have to buy something, your receipt gets you into the toilet) and then headed back down, a different way, with less steps this time. The Ferris Wheel was a cutesy thing to do, but I realised, as we dangled hundreds of meters in the air, that I don’t actually like them.

Wrap Up

Our week here has been fab. We’ve walked and walked and walked – about 15km a day actually, so it’s good to have a down day. Rod had a hair cut. Hamish is still in his PJs. We’ve enjoyed watching the snow fall from our warm, comfortable apartment today. It’s quite a novelty for us. Tomorrow we head to Linz in Austria for a few days before a week in Munich.

Bratislava

December 2, 2024 ~ Bel Dunbar ~ Leave a comment

It’s Monday evening December 2 (actually it’s only 5pm, but it feels much later) and I’m writing this blog from our apartment in Budapest, Hungary. We arrived late yesterday afternoon, after the 3 of us suffering from insomnia Sunday night and having to hang around Bratislava train station for an extra 30 mins due to our train being delayed. Once we were on the train, everything was smooth and we found the right tram to deliver us to our suburb (District 7) – it’s the Jewish Quarter (named from back in the day, not necessarily now).

Bratislava was a happy accident. We had no plan – in fact, I can’t even tell you why we chose to go there, except “It’s not too far from Vienna and it’s in Slovakia” Slovakia is new country for us and we loved every minute.

Wednesday – Our apartment, as mentioned in the last blog, was smack in the middle of old town and a stone’s throw to the busy main square (Hlavne namestie) which at this time of the year is set up with the Christmas market. On our first night, we walked around the markets and found plenty of delicious drinks to keep us warm and some hearty traditional foods. The square itself was looking beautiful – the Christmas decorations and lights really added to the vibe. Rod made friends with one of the stall workers selling their national dish – bryndzove hallusky (potato dumplings with various toppings). They struck up a conversation over Christmas markets (Bratislava vs Vienna) and us travelling from Australia. He was surprised by both! As we were eating the dumplings, other staff from the same stall kept looking at us and giving us a thumbs up, then he walked over and checked for himself that everything was good. Such friendly people. Throughout the week, Rod also made friends with one of the stall workers who sold hot alcoholic drinks closest to our apartment – we were there most days!

Thursday – Those warming drinks certainly creep up on you – which we didn’t realise until the next day. We’re slow to get started anyway, but with slightly heavy heads, we planned the day which included buying winter boots for Hamish. I’ve had my eye on a shoe shop called Deichmann, as they were having a good sale, so we headed to Nivy (huge, sparkling, modern shopping centre) with a Deichmann and found a pair of waterproof boots for 49 Euro – does Landrover really do a boot? The trip to the shopping centre included lunch (traditional for Hamish, miso soup and dumplings for Rod and I) and a few sights along the way, including the beautiful Blue Church (it’s rarely open for visitors) and the less fun, but significant, Memorial to the Victims of Communism. During the walk home, we had to try and answer Hamish’s question of the day: “What is Communism?”

We left Hamish at the apartment to do some maths with a promise of dessert at the market after dinner, and went for a pint at the local Scottish Pub (with beers so big you need two hands to hold) followed by a Kilkenny at the Irish pub next door.

As there is little difference between high and low temps here in winter, it does’t make much difference if you’re out in the day or the evening. Sometimes it’s just a few degrees of variation, say 6 degrees in the day and 3 degrees at night – makes little difference to your comfort. Once we delivered on the ‘dessert at the market’ we walked down to the Danube and walked home via the other Christmas market, just a few hundred meters away.

Friday – After a quick shop at Aldi (where you can buy shots of Vodka for $1.12 at the checkout) we visited Bratislava Castle, which proudly sits overlooking the city. It was a pretty easy walk with a generous sprinkle of steps thrown in to keep us warm. Some of the interior of the castle houses the Historical Museum which took us on a journey from prehistoric times (BC, Stone Age, Iron Age) to Roman Times to the more recent Velvet Revolution (when the Soviets left Slovakia). The history of Slovakia would take a lifetime to get your head around – it was part of Czechoslovakia (which we know as two seperate countries: Czekia and Slovakia) but has also had parts of its territory in Hungary. It seems every big player has tried to take a piece of Slovakia.

Saturday – We set out mid morning to walk to the UFO Tower, which is a 95m observation deck, bar and restaurant on the Danube. It was a clear, sunny morning which made for magnificent views of the city. As we were catching the lift to the top, I just had a funny feeling the observation deck was going to be outside – and I was right! As the lift stopped, we got out, saw the enclosed bar and restaurant to our left, but followed everyone heading up stairs to the open air observation area. Typical Eastern European fun.

Taking advantage of the sunny weather, we walked along the Danube. We grabbed some lunch at an unexpectedly excellent Asian restaurant in a small shopping centre (Rod and I actually shared some noodles here Wednesday when we did some grocery shopping) with a plan for me to to stay and get a manicure whilst Rod took Hamish home to do some maths. I had to call my Knight in Shining Armour back 30 mins later to pay, as they only took cash and I only had my phone with me.

Saturday evening we opted for dinner in a restaurant which served traditional foods (Hamish had dumplings and chicken, Rod had beef stroganoff and I had schnitzel) and had one last lap of the markets before retiring home.

“Who falls in the fight for freedom will not die” memorial to the Bulgarian Partisans from the Slovaks

We still cooked at home during our stay in Bratislava (Red curry with chicken and rice, pork stir fry with rice another night), but for the record, these are the foods and hot drinks we tried at the Christmas markets:

Honey Mead, Hot white wine, Apple gingerbread punch, Black Currant wine and Hot chocolate (non alcoholic).

Potato dumplings, potato pancake/fritter (kartoffelpuffer) bigger than a dinner plate, churros, funnel cake with cinnamon and sugar, Slovak crescent bread.

Do you want a shot with your alcoholic hot drink?

I haven’t captured the emotions we felt being in Bratislava – it’s hard to put into words, but they are the feelings that fill your chest with warmth and joy and the privilege of travel. If you ever get the chance, do not hesitate to put Bratislava on your travel list. It was simply incredible.

	Stephen Patten on Düsseldorf to Phuket
	Bel Dunbar on Budapest
	Stephen Patten on Budapest
	Carmelina Di Gugliel… on Halfway Point
	Bel Dunbar on Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

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