The second lot of photos from our trip to Vietnam….these are from the small town of Hoi An! Click the photo for more…
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| From Hoi An |
Good Morning Vietnam!
21 05 2011Its certainly been a while – but we are back and just returned from an amazing holiday in Vietnam! We are in the process of writing of some blog entries about our trip – but in the meantime, here are some pics to keep you going!
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| From Ho Chi Minh |
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Up Early for the Canyon?
5 01 2010Getting up before sunrise is always a great idea the evening before – but when the time comes it becomes nearly impossible! Our plans of seeing the Grand Canyon at sunrise were quickly destroyed, as we rose after 7…and we still had an over an hour drive to get to the Canyon!
On first glance of the Canyon it does take your breath away – just the sheer size of the area, and the quietness really struck us! Being out of peak season, at times we found ourselves alone at the viewing points along the Canyon – which made us feel very small in comparison to the walls of the Canyon. Being December, parts of the Canyon were also scattered with dustings of snow making our visit unique compared to the numerous postcards and photos we had previously viewed.
We started our journey by catching the FREE canyon bus to the east side of the canyon and back to Mather’s Point, directly behind the Visitors centre. One of the disadvantages of visiting the Canyon out of season is that the FREE buses only ran to the Canyon Village and to east of the Canyon – not touching the Hermits Rest or Hopi points– which some consider to be the best viewing points. Once again we were glad with the decision we had made to hire a car – and we were able to cruise the edge of the canyon stopping at our own leisure get numerous views of the amazing natural landscape.
Before long we found ourselves back on the highway – heading east and leaving the Canyon after a great day exploring. Time was against us, as we raced into Utah, hoping to catch a view of the famous Monument Valley. We crossed the border at 6pm – missing out on the first glance by half an hour. We checked into Gouldings Lodge, unknown what view would greet us in the morning. All we knew was that tomorrow morning all we needed to do to catch sunrise over Monument Valley was open the curtains….
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Tags: ariz, Arizona, flagstaff, grand canyon, monumnet valley, sunrise
Categories : Arizona, North America
Bouldering our way to the Canyon!
5 01 2010We had made it to Las Vegas – but stayed firm not to go to the ‘strip’….just yet. Our plan was to leave this morning for a roundtrip around the Southwest visiting areas around the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Canyon De Chelley, before arriving back in Vegas in time for Christmas, and to experience the ‘real’ Las Vegas.
After picking up a cheap rental car near Las Vegas airport, we made our way nervously (this was the first time we had driven a car for 2 and a half years!!) on the freeway out of Vegas and out onto the open road. The changing landscapes were amazing as we made our way to Flagstaff in Arizona, where we planned on bunking down in a cheap hostel for the night.
We passed the amazing Boulder Damn – an unbelievable sight. We drove down historic Route 66-stopping at a classic Route 66 diner in Kingman. And we slowly got used to driving on the wrong side of the road and the car! This was certainly going to be an adventure.
We were thankful that we had changed our original idea of camping in Southwest, when we arrived to snow in Flagstaff. A bed, blanket and roof were a much better idea for this time of year. We headed to bed early, in preparation of getting up at the crack of dawn, and making our way to the Grand Canyon.
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Tags: Arizona, boulder dam, flagstaff, grand canyon, las vegas, route 66
Categories : Arizona, North America
Snakes Eating Mice!
4 01 2010Yesterday saw us take to the skies…twice, as we flew from Orlando to San Diego! Finally time to check out the West Coast! The flight was a long ordeal – made even harder by the fact that we had arrived home from the Magic Kingdom Christmas party at 1am and were back up and heading to the airport at 4am…GREAT planning! It was safe to say that we weren’t doing anything on arrival to San Diego – except catch the local bus to the Gas Lamp district and admire the Californian sunset!
Today was a different story – after a slight sleep in! We decided to check out the world famous San Diego Zoo – choosing to get some exercise and walk through Balboa Park form the hostel. After paying the hefty entry fee – we were blown away by the sheer size of the Zoo!
The ‘Zoo-Fari’ cable car ride gave a great overview of the zoo – as you ‘glided’ over the zoo in gondola type vehicles. Soon enough it was up to our legs to do the work as we hiked around the extensive zoo. Stand out exhibits were the whole ‘Rain Forest’ section with a great selection of animals from Gorillas, to hippos and crocs! On arrival to the Croc exhibit we were shocked to find that one Croc had latched onto and another crocs face – drawing blood. It certainly did not local comfortable and certainly not normal. It was confirmed that this was not a normal practice when two keepers rushed into the pen to ‘scare’ the crocs in order for one to let the other go! It was certainly not a normal sight for a day at the Zoo!
The reptile house was another amazing area – and proved once again to be perfect timing as we witnessed the keepers feed a cage full of snakes, with some live rats! What an amazing experience and made for some great home movies! It was amazing to see the snakes slowly ease the rats into their mouths to swallow them whole, then watching the ‘lump’ travel down the snake’s body!
We finished with another standout exhibit and yet even better timing in the newest section of the park – which looked at the animals that have existed somewhere in time in the California region. The perfect timing in this section began when the lion trainers presented the male lion with a new ‘toy’. The toy came in the form of a 40 gallon drum, which was VERY quickly destroyed by the powerful animal!
It was a great way to spend the day in San Diego – but sadly we didn’t plan on having enough time in the region – as we packed that evening ready to board a bus to Nevada. It was time to start our roadtrip.
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Tags: crocs, gorilla, Lions, San Diego, snakes, Zoo
Categories : North America, San Diego
The Islands of Adventure!
29 12 2009Day 4 of the theme park marathon! Once again after little sleep, we entered Universals ‘Islands of Adventure’ theme park to look for some thrills to boost our energy!
As we entered right on opening at 9am – we felt as though we were the only ones in the park, heading first for the ‘kids’ area of Dr Suess’s 
Landing. This area got a fan immediately in the form of Jax! WE loved the theming of the area, and especially the holiday decorations! The area was decorated to look like ‘Whoville’ from book and movie ‘When the Grinch Stole Christmas’! We had the chance to ride all the rides without a kid in sight – and also got to meet the Grinch himself before he took the stage for the Grinch show. It was a funny retelling of the classic book!
Soon enough we needed some thrills – so got wet on the Jurassic Park boat ride, jumped on BOTH versions of the ‘Duelling Dragons’ rollercoaster’s which come scarily close to hitting each other (by the way we like Ice better), got shot straight in the air on the Fear Fall, shot out of a cannon into a loop on the Hulk Rollercoaster, and fighting baddies with Spiderman in an amazing 4D ride! It was fair to say that we were starting to get some great thrills!
To calm down we took in the stunt show which revolved around a pirate setting, and saw the evil character set on fire in the finale and sent falling off a cliff! And then decided to cool off from the hot Florida sun – good idea or bad idea??
Universal is home to two of the wettest rides in town that we are sure should have been designed for an actual Water Park! The first was the ‘Rip Saw Falls’ which was a classic log ride – the difference being the amazing drop at the end which saw the track go 10 feet below the water line! The next was the Popeye river rapids – where you boarded circular rafts. We were joined by two families – who we became fast friends with as the competition begun of who got the most soaked! Not only did you get wet by the rapids – but water was literally poured on you form the characters on the banks of the river! The banter between us and the families got so serious we ended up going around 3 times without hopping off – hoping to get each other wet! It’s fair to say we were SOAKED after this - it’s amazing how much water we could ruing out of our socks!
We spent the rest of the day chasing the sun and riding the rides in wet clothes until the sun went down. Instead of going out for dinner we had to get takeaway – a hot shower was needed after this epic day!
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Tags: hulk, islands of adventure, Orlando, rollercoasters, theme park, universal studios
Categories : North America, Orlando
A Christmas Message from LAS VEGAS!
23 12 2009Hope you all have a great Christmas – being in Las Veags i’m sure we will!
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