Hare Hare Hare Krishna

Day 7 - Frome

At last night's dinner we were given some good advice on towns to visit in the area, so we started off by driving to Wells. It was market day so we had to stop by a few carparks until we finally found one with space. We strolled around the town, visiting the Wednesday market, the cathedral and Bishop's Palace.

We drove on to the "hippy" town of Glastonbury, known for the music festival but apparently also a place where westerners can pretend they are religious Indians and sing about Hare Krishna. There were lots of shops with crystals and potions, men with pointy beards and pony tails and women with kaftans and pink/blue hair. 

It was a nice sunny day so we had lunch, then walked around town for while, viewing the ruins of the abbey from the outside and with the Glastonbury Tor in the background.

Back in Frome we walked the steep cobbled streets, checking out some of the local shops, followed by a quick drink at a quaint local pub which seemed to have a nice authentic atmosphere. 

Winchester Cathedral, you're bringing me down

Day 6 - Winchester to Frome

M took an early walk through the Winnall Moors nature reserve before returning to pack up and check out. We left the car at the hotel and explored Winchester, including a look at the cathedral, which we have since learnt is the longest in the world, though it wasn't obvious to us at the time. 

We drove on to Southampton and stopped at the waterfront (where the Titanic left from) to watch huge ships being towed by small tugs to start their ocean journey.

Our next destination was Old Sarum outside of Salisbury, though we had a little trouble getting there as we always seems to be in the wrong lane and ended heading off in the wrong direction, and the traffic didn't help, getting caught in a traffic jam along the way.

Old Sarum was built around 400 BC, the massive circular earthworks served as an early defensive hilltop fort. William the Conqueror who built a royal castle here around 1070, and a cathedral followed. Not much of it is left, there are some excavated stone walls and drawings to help you imagine the original buildings and rooms, but much of the stone was removed to build other forts and castles in the area.

We made it to Salisbury Cathedral where we joined the 2pm stonemasons tour, a behind the scenes look at the restoration work being done at the cathedral. The cathedral is home to Britain's tallest spire, oldest working clock, and an original copy if the Magna Carta from 1215. The tour included a visit to the stonemasons' workshop, where they seemed to be working in what seemed to be dusty and potentially unhealthy conditions. After the tour we had time to look at the Magna Carta and wander through the very impressive cathedral.

Finally we drove to Frome, our home for the next 3 nights. We spent a lovely evening with K's Spanish teacher from Barcelona and her friends at one of the local pubs though it seemed they'd lost our food order but made up for it by offering us free drinks.

It's so dry

Day 5 - Brighton to Winchester

This morning we woke up at a regular time, hopefully our time adjustment is now sorted. 

Our room had a lovely view over the ocean which K enjoyed while M went for a walk, heading away from the beach through some parks then along the beach and down to the water's edge.

After that we went across the road for a decent flat white at one of the cafes on the promenade by the pebbly beach, followed by a wander through The Lanes. 

We then walked to The Royal Pavilion where the gardens had been burnt to a dry crisp by the heat waves and drought that's hit England this summer. The Royal Pavilion was built for King George IV and has distinctive Indian architecture with bulbous domes, minarets and arches. Apparently the interior is decorated with a Chinese influence, talk about a cultural mix.

We left Brighton and drove on to Worthing, stopping in the pretty village of Arundel for lunch by the river with the very impressive Arundel Castle up the hill.

Our next stop was Portsmouth, where we stopped at Gunwharf Quays which was a huge shopping centre which reminded us of Docklands, very modern with lots of shops. From there we walked to Spice Island and the historic waterfront area of Old Portsmouth which was more interesting. Walking through the ferry terminal we followed the edge of the harbour, finding a pub where we had a quick drink while watching the huge ferries pass by.

We drove on to Winchester, our stop for the night, relaxing for a drink in the hotel garden before heading out for a delicious Nepalese meal.

Woosh Woosh

Day 4 -  Dover to Brighton

We woke up around 5am, not quite having caught up with the time difference yet, so we decided to visit the Dover cliffs before the crowds arrived. Getting there around 7am we basically had the place to ourselves with only a couple of locals walking their dogs. We followed the cliff path admiring the chalk cliffs and the huge port below us, and we could faintly see France in the distance.

Our early start meant we had more time up our sleeve than we'd planned so we drove to Margate, the opposite direction of our originally planned route, to visit the Shell Grotto. The grotto is a series of 21 metres of underground tunnels discovered in 1835. It's unknown when it was built, by who and for what purpose. It's decorated with 4.6 million shells all over the walls and ceiling.

Our lunch stop was at the very busy Harbour Arm in Folkestone for lunch where the pebbled port and foreshore area had been developed into a very popular entertainment area.

From there we followed the coastal road through Rye and Hastings to Eastbourne where we found ourselves driving through crowds who were there to see Europe's largest seafront airshow! There were road closures, detours, traffic queues and lots of buses. We seem to have a talent for finding ourselves in cities during major events that we had no idea about, like when we were in Budapest during the Red Bull airshow. As we drove through town we could hear the woosh of the planes overhead but couldn't see them from inside the car.

After Eastbourne we took the coastal drive which takes in the striking chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, Birling Gap and Seven Sisters. We stopped at Birling Gap to walk to the lighthouse along the cliff edges with their sheer straight drops down to the ocean. The edge of the cliff was roped off for safety but that didn't stop people from standing near the edge for photos.

The coastal drive from there took us through Seaford to our hotel on the Brighton foreshore. We checked in then explored the Lanes area behind the hotel. It was a little quiet as it was Sunday night, but there were plenty of eating and drinking places open.

That looks rough

Day 3 - Helsinki to Dover (England) 

Our body clocks weren't in sync with the local time zone yet so we were both wide awake at 4am. We headed down for a very early breakfast, surprised to find there were already lots of people up and eating.

It was only a two minute walk from the hotel to the departures terminal where we checked in for our flight. We were flying into Heathrow for the first time, the only other time we've been to the UK we flew in and out of Bristol.

The flight was only three hours, we landed around 9am, retrieved our luggage then walked for about ten minutes through a long underground walkway to collect our rental car. Of course they didn't have the car we had booked, but we resisted the attempts to convince us to pay "just a little bit extra" for a larger car, finally walking away with the larger car and no increase in price! After finding the car the next thing we had to do was google how to put the car into reverse, it turns out the controls were on a stalk on the steering wheel!

Traffic out of Heathrow was very busy, so figuring out a new car while working out where to go was a bit tricky, but we finally were on our way to Dover for our first stop in the UK. 

We arrived in Dover a while before we could check in so we decided to visit the White Cliffs, only to find that the car park was full. So, we parked the car, dropped off our luggage, and spent the afternoon walking along the promenade, watching the ferries crossing the channel and wondering how people could lie on such a pebbly beach!

We were pretty tired so had a very early dinner at at a nice Italian restaurant with water views, before going to bed around 7:30pm. 

How long has it been?

Day 1 - Melbourne to Bangkok 

Yes, it's been a whole 66 days since we returned from our last trip. Must be a record, right? Maybe - but only if you don't count M's short trip to South East Asia that he returned from just 13 days ago!

Enough of that, time to get this blog going again.

We took off for the first of three flights to England, first leg Melbourne to Bangkok. A civilised departure at 1.30pm had us arriving around 8pm local time, for a stopover at our usual airport hotel.

Day 2 - Bangkok to Helsinki 

With what's been happening in the world we weren't keen on getting to Europe via the Middle East, so from Bangkok we opted to fly to Helsinki, taking advantage of some reasonably priced business class fares, which made the 13 hour flight slightly more tolerable.

We were looking forward to visiting Helsinki again after our visit four years ago, but by the time we made through the incredibly slow and inefficient border formalities we ended up having an early night at the very convenient Clarion Hotel at the airport.

Back to the cold

Day 28 - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Melbourne (Australia)

Our flight ticket allowed us to use the Malaysia Airlines lounge, so after an early start we were able to have a reasonable breakfast (nothing special, but at least the coffees weren't made in a machine), before our uneventful flight home.

Our next trip isn't too far away, but we will have to endure more of Melbourne's cold winter weather than we'd like before escaping again!

That paru rendang looks nice ... hang on, wait a minute ...

Day 27 - Kuala Lumpur 

The only task for today was to change hotels as the city is an hour from the airport and we had an early flight home the next morning. 

We had been looking forward to breakfast as the buffet was one of the highlights of our previous stay at Traders Hotel many years ago, but we ended up being a bit disappointed. It was crowded, the food wasn't very hot, and M couldn't bring himself to try the Rendang Paru, which translates to beef lung rendang!  

After a final visit to the Club Lounge we checked out at 12pm, and made our way to the Sami Sami airport hotel (yes, Grab again).  We arrived a bit early for check-in so we had some lunch, before finally making our way up to our room. We explored the departures area of the airport to see if we could have dinner somewhere other than the hotel restaurant, finding a Malaysian restaurant where we later had the final rendang of our trip.   

Nice upgrade!

Day 26 - Bandar Seri Bagawan (Brunei) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) 

Royal Brunei Air flies directly to Melbourne and this would have been a much easier way to get home but as it was an overnight flight we decided to take the long way home via Kuala Lumpur. Our flight was very early so there was little traffic, meaning we arrived a bit early and we were pretty much the first people there (and of course the flight then left late). 

After landing we took a Grab (where would we be without Grab) to the Traders Hotel, where we managed a free upgrade to a club room, meaning access to the Club Lounge with a great view over KLCC Park, free afternoon tea with scones, jam and cream, and complimentary drinks and nibbles during happy hour until 7pm. After afternoon tea we took a walk to the KLCC Centre, a giant shopping mall crammed with both locals and tourists, including lots of children visiting the Lego exhibition. 

We definitely feel that we're on our way home now and that the 4 week holiday was too short, especially given that we're returning to a Melbourne winter.

The Sultan is very good to us

Day 25 - Bandar Seri Begawan  

We hadn't really timed our visit to Brunei very well, as our only full day there was a Friday, the Islamic holy day, which meant many attractions and places of interest were closed.

We decided to book a morning city tour to ensure we saw the key sites before leaving, so at 9am we were collected and joined four South Korean ladies who were spending a week in Brunei.

Our tour guide had very good English (it is taught in school) and she was very good at explaining how this tiny, but extremely wealthy, country operates. Some of what she told us sounded a little like propaganda, as she was continually praising the Sultan and how he looked after his people. 

We visited a local market, followed by a Chinese temple then a stop at the magnificent Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, which tourists couldn't enter on a Friday.  The mosque has an enormous lagoon out the front complete with a full size replica of a 16th century Royal Barge. It was very hot so we all scurried back to the cool of the van once we'd had a good look.

From there we visited the government handicraft training centre where the seven main art forms of Brunei were taught and showcased (nearly everyone in Brunei works for the generous government/Sultan). There were things like leatherwork, weaving and metalwork, but strangely no ceramics. 

We then visited the outside of the Istana Darussalam, the old wooden palace where the current Sultan of Brunei was born, before visiting the Istana Nurul Iman, the Sultan's current palace and the world's largest private residence of a monarch. We stood outside the gates and peered in, before jumping back into our van to escape the heat.  

We finished off our tour by visiting the impressive Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, complete with an incongruous private escalator to take the Sultan to the top floor.

After returning to the hotel around 11:40am we thought we'd get something in the hotel café, but as it was Friday this meant everything had to be closed between 12 and 2 for midday prayer. Strangely though we could still get room service during this time. 

That afternoon M went for a walk into town, walking along the waterfront across from the floating village (which had been rebuilt by the Sultan after a fire), then visiting the food market where families were spending their afternoon.