4 –Bali

We arrived in our accommodation in Bali. We chose to stay in Ubud which is in the centre of Bali and is known as the cultural area. Our hotel is very small and rustic. All the rooms are classed as small villas with their own bedrooms and bathrooms and outdoor lounge. Our one overlooks the pool.

We spent our first day relaxing and enjoying a stroll through the town down to the Monkey Forest where the monkeys come out onto the street to see what they can scavenge. You have to make sure all your possessions are secure otherwise you’ll loose them.  An Australian girl Rebecca who was staying in the next villa to us had her havaianas (flip flop) ripped off her foot by one of them.

Having recharged our batteries we decided to do something more adventurous so we signed up for Bali’s Eco Cycling Tour.  We were picked up by bus along with ten others from various hotels around Ubud.  We were a mixed bunch of Dutch, Australians, Americans and us Scots but all got along really well swapping stories about our travels etc. En route to the start point we stopped off to take photos of the scenery and for breakfast overlooking Mt Batur an active volcano in the north of Bali, then at a coffee plantation and processing place where we sampled six different types of coffee – my favourite was the ginseng coffee.

We picked up our bikes and headed off into the Bali countryside.  We cycled through small villages where we learned about the Balinese culture and along paths through the rice paddies where we stopped to watch the people harvest the rice.  We were asked to join in so Syd cut some of the rice from the plants and I had a go at threshing it to remove the rice from the plant. It was good fun and made the locals laugh. We then got back on the bikes and continued our journey towards Ubud.  At the end of the trip we were given a typical Balinese lunch which consisted of rice, noodles, smoked duck and chicken, bean curd in spices and tofu in peanut sauce along with local vegetables and chicken satay.  It was followed by fresh fruit platters.  The lunch was just what we needed after the 25km cycle.

In the evening we headed into Ubud where we watched a Balinese dance show performed by local teenagers. The music and dancing was tremendous and the costumes were beautiful.  The performance took place with a temple as a backdrop.  It really made us realise how far from home we are.

3 –Singapore

Arrived in Singapore after a long long flight.  Decided to make our way to the hotel by the local MRT trains.  Had to change trains twice but we met a local Chinese man Raymond Lam who kept us right.

Hotel’s just what we expected for a 2 star – basic.

Situated within the city centre half way between Chinatown and Little India and just along the road from Raffles (not Ruffles Syd that was a couple of decades ago!) Had to pay a visit to the Long Bar for the obligatory Singapore Sling and to throw peanut shells on the floor.

Chinatown was a bit of an adventure. Found ourselves sitting on the end of a lightning bolt – well it felt that close. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain.  Didn’t stop us from visiting the sights.

Little India was really colourful. They were preparing for Deepavali – The Festival of Lights, so all the streets were decorated. Very busy and chaotic, could have actually been in India.

Headed out to the Marina area to view the Merlion and meet up with Larry,Shelagh and Luke who were down from KL for a couple of days.  Spent the afternoon and evening with them. We tried out the Singapore Flyer. Great views over Singapore then went to view the watershow at “Marina Bay Sands” from the hotel room.

We certainly tried and liked lots of different foods.

Two more days here then we're off to Bali.

2. Bon Voyage

The last couple of weeks has been spent saying farewell to family and friends.  We have had many cards and messages of good wishes, meals, drinks and cakes.

  Thank you to everyone. We are really touched by your messages.  Last night we said goodbye to Nikki, Chris, Emily and Douglas. It’ll seem odd not to see them for a while but we can keep in touch by text, e-mail and skype.  Emily drew a picture for us to take with us.  We’ll photograph it a various locations on our travels.

We have a world map that Syd uses to display his pin collection. One for each place we have visited.

This shows the map prior to this trip.  How many more pins by the time we come home?  These pins seem to be rather expensive maybe he should collect something cheaper! (like dairylea triangle stickers Dave)!!

 It all still seems a bit surreal but the day of departure has finally arrived. 

Raymond and Ann took us to the airport – just to make sure we actually went!!

Goodbye winter

Bring on the travels

We flew down to Heathrow.  We were in good company on the flight.  Camilla Parker Bowles - Prince Charles’ wife was in the front row (my claim to fame, I sat on the same toilet as Camilla) and Steve who works for Bank of Scotland at the University was travelling to Heathrow en route to Barcelona.  You can’t go anywhere without knowing someone.  Wonder if I’ll be saying the same in a few weeks?

Tomorrow the real trip begins with a 13 hour flight to Singapore.

1. How it all started

Over the years Syd often asked "When are we going to do this Round The World Trip?" My usual reply was "I'm too young to retire yet - wait a few years".

I always assumed it was something we'd do once we'd finished work. But then life causes you to stop and think about what is important to you. We lost some family and close friends and had some health problems in the past few years and decided that maybe now was the right time for us to do something for ourselves.

Thanks to a very supportive boss I have been able to take a sabbatical from work and as Syd works for himself we now have the time to go on our adventure.

First decision - Where to go and for how long.

After many discussions and much research we decided that we wanted to go to SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and USA.

Destinations chosen we then set about booking the RTW ticket, visas and other necessary paperwork.

We've decided that we want to go with very little baggage so it's rucksacks for us. We're going away for six months. How can you pack for that length of time. Travel light, you can always buy what you need wherever you are (hopefully that'll be true).

Everything's now in place. At present our itinery is:
Singapore, then onto Bali, fly to Kuala Lumpur where we're staying with Larry and Shelagh. From then on it's a bit sketchy. We plan to travel overland through Malaysia into Thailand then onto Cambodia and Vietnam arriving in Hong Kong in the new year. We'll then fly to Australia, onto New Zealand, Fiji then Los Angeles in the US where we'll start the final leg of our journey to Chicago via "Route 66".