Today we said farewell to Bali, which has given us a month of magical snorkelling, spicy food, lovely accommodations and heinous traffic. The drive back over the mountains in the early morning light was exceptional, the rolling rural landscape looking every bit as idyllic as an autumn morn in the Shropshire Hills. My heart was turned to home even as I enjoyed the exotic views, and not a tourist or tour bus to be seen.
We also said farewell to south-east Asia, as we flew on to Australia and New Zealand; completely different landscapes, climates and of course people. We’d spent almost three months getting a small sample of Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It’s been all about great food, very different cultures, all the pros and cons of steamy tropical jungles and sandy sun-soaked islands and not having to worry too hard about out-spending our budget.
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Aww… we miss you guys so much!! If we could have got onto a flight to Oz we’d have been there! Hope you’re having a great time. We have over 1800 photos to work our way through so expect to be tagged on some in facebook soon.
How is the arm? Dropped off yet?
Lots of love
xxx
Today was our first outing in the car since we’ve been home and I found myself really missing … er, the cigarette ads! Especially your theatrical versions of course. We argued about whether it’s “Country, The Taste of Adventure” or “Country, The Flavour of Adventure”.
That reminded me of a couple of things I’d wanted to check up while we were webfree. First, the kretek (clove blend) cigarettes. Apparently they are still the dominant type in Indonesia, and lots if the brands I saw are definitely kretek. So I must have exaggerated in my mind how strong the aroma is. On my first trip I was smoking a bit, so it would have been much more noticeable. I’m really tempted to get a pack off the Internet, but I think I might get into trouble!
Secondly, the 7 wonders of the ancient world. They were indeed defined in ancient tourist books, around 2nd/1st century bc. Notably the one by Antipater of Sidon! Better get a copy fir your next trip … though only the great pyramid survived out of all 7.
Your pictures are superb, especially the wildlife – you clearly get enormously better performance at 300mm from that lens that I do with mine. Now back to sorting through my 1400.
Flavor.
And thanks for checking on the 7 Wonders, it’s stuff worth knowing. Good luck trawling through the photos…
Ah, you’re right … my marketing head must have turned it into Taste … because that would be a better line!
I said flavor! But it just doesn’t sound right unless Matt is saying it 🙂