1. The software that I used to use to maintain this blog is no longer operating, so I’ve had to move the blog to a new platform.
2. In doing so, lots of images and links got messed up, and I need to re-establish everything. This will take some time for me to do…

The new platform is pretty good though, and brings things like search functionality and ‘categories’ (so you can see all the ‘travel’ or ‘London’ posts, for example).

It’s also worth noting that there will not be many more posts on this blog – perhaps just one more to cover our recent trip to SE Asia. All new posts will be made on my new and exciting ‘Jason and Kirsten in Melbourne’ blog, which is already up and running. Check it out!

The Airport Express carried us directly into the heart of the city, and from there it was only a short walk to our hotel. However, we soon found that a short walk in Hong Kong is not an easy walk – the combination of masses of people, hilly landscape and some ageing Asian sidewalks combined with our massive suitcases (the only possessions we will access in the next 3 months) to make the walk very, very uncomfortable indeed.

We finally managed to limp our way up to our hotel in the heart of the Lan Kwai Fong area, which turned out to be a very happening part of town filled with bars, restaurants and almost as many ex-pats as local Chinese. Our hotel (Hotel LKF) was booked months in advance and was very nice indeed – kind of a mini-honeymoon suite for the almost-honeymooners (we have just got engaged, if you hadn’t heard in other news).

Some of the highlights from the trip:

• With jetlag in full swing, we took a walk through the Graham Street market, in the western end of the Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) area to see the stallholders setting up in the very early morning. It was a great chance to experience an interesting side of Chinese life in Hong Kong, and made for some great photo opportunities (it was the first outing of my new Nikon D700 and the 70-200 f2.8 combination). Soon after, we headed over to the Lin Heung Tea House nearby, frequented only be older Chinese people reading their morning newspapers. We had some interesting (and dirt cheap) dim sum, but it was the awesome pork congee and the theatre of old Chinese men rushing up the the waitressing bringing out the fresh food that was most satisfying to experience.
• Seeing the contrasts of “East meets West” unlike anywhere else: older people meditating and taking walks in the early morning, while wealthy youngsters (of all races) are still out partying from the night before; expensive Western brands in flashy malls at London prices (and above) while traditional medicines made from deer antlers, caterpillars and thing much rarer are being created and sold 10 mins down the road; people undertaking traditional meditation and burning incense while working in the massive skyscrapers of international finance that tower over the city.



• Freezing our asses off everywhere, but especially on the top of The Peak (Mt Victoria) which overlooks the city. We thought we’d left the cold behind us in in England, but we found it does get quite cold in Hong Kong. We’d only brought a couple of Icebreakers jumpers with us each, and these were no match for the wind and chill at the top of the mountain in the height of hong Kong’s winter. However, the walk from The Peak along Lugard Road to Hong Hong University below provided us with some shelter from the wind and some spectacular views of the awesome city of Hong Kong
• Enjoying the 24/7 buzz that was only matched by New York in my previous experience. At almost any time, there was a lot people doing something, anywhere in Hong Kong. The experience of exiting the Mong Kok underground station into the throng of shoppers on Nathan Road in Kowloon will never be forgotten – even expecting it to be intense, it was a riot of people and neon.
• Haggling with shopkeepers selling ‘real’ fake handbags in the Ladies Market in Kowloon, and finding out that the best way to get a good price on things is to really, really not want to buy anything. We were also feeling lucky to escape with our lives and our wallets after being led to a very dodgy looking 29th floor apartment only to discover it was actually a warehouse selling handbags, albeit at double or triple the street price.
• Finally finding the holy grail of dim sum at Yung Kee restaurant in LKF, after sampling a numbers of others (all good, too) including dim sum in style at the famous City Hall restaurant.
• Hanging out at cool bars, including the rooftop bar of our hotel giving awesome night-time views over Hong Kong and drinking alongside Hugh Grant at another bar nearby our hotel.

Hong Kong was the amazing blast that I had hoped for, and that many who had been had spoken about. While Kirsten was more afflicted by jetlag than I, it was obvious that there are many more reasons for us to return to Hong Kong in the future – its a city that works on a surface level, but I’m sure gets better and better once you get to know the city. I look forward to getting to know it better in the future.

You can see more photos of the trip to Hong Kong here ».

• Yangon / Rangoon
• Mandalay
• Ngapali Beach
• Kyauk Pyu
• Mrauk U
• Sittwe / Akayab

I also have a collection of ‘people’ photos from the trip here:

• People

I’m pretty happy with the pictures; I think many are some of the best pictures that I have ever taken. Each has been captioned in more detail than I normally do, so those eager for snippets of the trip can read along to find out bits and pieces.

Doing all of this has taken so long that I haven’t really had the time to write anything here about my travels. I will try to find the time to write soon, the problem being that there is so much to say!

On the day of their arrival, I had booked us in for a session of dinner and bowling at All Star Lanes in Holborn. I didn’t know if it would be quite the marriage celebration that they hoped for, but it turns out that they were dying for some ‘normal’ food after having spent time in Marrakech, and ribs were on the menu for us all. The place itself was done in a really nice 50’s American diner fashion, and bowling was fun even though we were all pretty bad.

The next day we started by visiting the local laundromat, our washing machine having picked a pretty inconvenient time to die just when Jess and Raoul had weeks of washing to do, before heading to breakfast at the Spanish restaurant next door. We headed out to the ubiquitous Borough markets in some brilliant weather, before making our way over to Spitalfields and onwards to White Hart Lane for the Spurs vs Burnley game.

Although they had just been to see Barcelona at home to Athletico Madrid a couple of weeks ago, they were both pleased with the atmosphere at White Hart Lane and were lucky enough to see a 5-0 Spurs win, which is a real rarity. After the game we headed into Hoxton for drinks and chats and then on to our favourite Vietnamese restaurant, Cay Tre, for dinner before heading home.

Sunday continued the good weather, after breakfast at the old favourite Breads etc we walked through Regent’s park and followed Raoul to the famous Abbey Road crossing in north west London to recreate the famous Beatles cover shot. There was a lot of competition for photo opportunities (including from a woman shooting some promo shots for her yoga centre) but we got a few decent snaps of him in the end.

We bussed over to Camden markets, which were heaving and a lot more extensive than I remembered. After a little wandering around we took shelter in a quiet bar before Jess and Raoul headed off to do the Jack the Ripper Tour while we went home to relax.

It was great seeing my little sister and her new husband again, and I’m really glad they got the opportunity to visit with us before we leave for Australia. For them, its off to New York, LA, Melbourne and then back to Perth. For us, it a few more days till Kirsten’s mum and sister arrive as the last batch of guests we’ll have over here, and then looking ahead to the big trip to Burma at the end of October.

You can see more photos of Jess and Raoul in London here ».

It seems its been ages since my last update, and with good reason. The last few months have been filled with thinking and planning and scheming and we’ve finally made the decision to leave London.

It hasn’t come lightly, but both of us have come to the realisation that we’ve probably enjoyed the best of what the UK had to offer and we’re eager and excited about our life ahead. When we leave, it will be exactly 4 years for me, and just under 3.5 for Kirsten, so we’ve both had decent innings.

So far, this means heading to Perth in mid December 2009 after a brief stop-over in Hong Kong, a fair few weeks travelling around South East Asia in Jan / Feb 2010, back to Perth and Adelaide for weddings and then probably off to Melbourne for the next exciting phase of our lives.

Things aren’t really all that clear beyond the SE Asia trip (which will include the usual suspects of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, probably alongside some kind of resort action in Thailand or similar). I’m not phased by the lack of planning – the open ended nature of things is exciting in itself, and marks a significant departure of the business and ruthless efficiency with which our lives have been led over the last few years.

On top of all this, we’ve been busy with visitors – a couple of days of my sister and her fiancee, Kirsten’s friend Ben from Perth and now Kirsten’s mum and dad are here. As soon as they leave Jess will be back with her husband (!) having gotten married en route around Europe and then Kirsten’s mum and sister come back right after that.

In the middle of all of this (well, technically right after) we have a trip of a lifetime planned to Burma with my dad, his brother (maybe two), my aunt and her husband. I can’t wait for that, but it’s hard to distill everything that is going on at the minute.br /br /Work is as busy as ever, and planning the timing around announcing our resignations (we both have three month notice periods), payment of bonuses, travel, visitors etc has been a real challenge. Now at least both of our workplaces are aware, but it may be some time before we can officially announce things to our colleagues (and in my case, to my clients). A three month notice period is a really long time, and takes some management!

In a way, I think things will only accelerate from here and I’m sure the leaving date will soon loom large in our minds. We’ll face all the practical matters involved in the similar move we both made from Perth to London, only this time as a couple and without the base of our parents’ and their houses to aid us.

We’ve already started stocking up on clothes and other things we know we’ll regret not buying while we are here. We’ve not got much left on our ‘must do’ list as we’ve been pretty active over the last few years, but we’ll definitely be enjoying London as much as we can over the next couple of months. With the weather closing in, this means things like our beloved BFI Film Festival, a visit to the Globe Theatre to see some Shakespeare and the like.

Kirsten won’t treasure this, but I’m really looking forward to our last European winter – the coats and scarves, the comforting central heating and the crisp, dense winter air, the leafless trees and the weirdly short days where you savour every hour of daylight. In a way, its the essence of our experience here; love and hate all wrapped up together in a bizarrely inextricable way.

If I wasn’t looking forward to the future as much as I am, I might even start to miss this place before I’ve even left.

Porto

We started with a couple of nights in Porto on the north west coast. Porto is the home of port wine (which gives its name to the whole country) and seemed an ideal place to stop over for a couple of nights before our next leg. We had an early flight from London and so we were in town by 11am. We’d dropped off our bags and headed down to the Douro riverside by lunchtime, basking in the warm sunshine.

Porto is a small city, so we’d done a circle of most of the central area in the first few hours. Our legs were really getting a workout too – its very hilly, with lots of narrow lanes and alleyways. After a very average lunch we decided on having some of the famous seafood for dinner. It was nice, but not fantastic – unfortunately food is not the best aspect of Portugal, as we were to discover. That night we did our first port tasting – one each of the three main styles of white, tawny and ruby ports accompanied by dried fruits and chocolate. We love our dessert wines, and the port was in the same vein, but not better than a good Sauternes.

The next morning we woke to the unexpected – rain and grey skies. Perplexed, we walked around for a while, realising we’d pretty much seen the whole town on the first day. Kirsten noticed that a conference on utopianism was going on in a building nearby, and before we knew it were in the audience for the interesting summary lecture – an interesting way to spend a couple of hours, and certainly more intellectually stimulating than most holiday activities!

Later that afternoon we ventured to what looked like the boring south side of the river, technically another town called Vila Nova de Gaia, where the port wine cellars were all located. Surprisingly, we found that these were still is use as real cellars, and so we took a tour at the Offley port winery. The tour itself was not particularly interesting, but the tasting (8 different varieties, all with decent sized glasses) was fun! We were joined by an interesting Dutch couple and a had a great time drinking and talking for a while.

For dinner, we dared to sample the traditional bacalhau (dried salt-cod) which was being sold in almost every restaurant we saw. We first heard about this on our trip to Norway (bizarrely, that’s where all the bacalhau comes from these days due to their abundance of cod). We didn’t really see the attraction – it was fantastic.

What tasting bacalhau did do was give us an insight into the the poor nature of Portugal. While Porto certainly had its high points, it was obvious that if this was Portugal’s second-biggest city then it was a very backwards country compared to its Western European neighbours – it has a distinctly Eastern European feel.

The Douro Valley

In many ways, visiting the Douro Valley was the main point of our trip – we wanted somewhere quiet, summery and enabled us to do some walking around the countryside. So we took an early train from Porto almost directly east, tracking along the Douro river to the central north of the country. We got off at a small town called Pinhão, which is the ‘epicentre of the port-making industry’.b

From there it was a pre-arranged 20 minute taxi ride to our accommodation for the next 3 days in Vilarinho de Sao Romão. Our lodging was probably the grandest residence in the area, now turned into a 5 bedroom accommodation with an all-important grassed area and pool. There was almost nothing to see expect similarly sized small towns in the distance and vineyards – exactly what we wanted.

Once we’d settled in we took a quick walk around the village and headed for the poolside for a ‘quick’ sunning. A few hours and a decent afternoon nap later, I had some tingling in my legs (which I guess is what white people experience as the start of sunburn) and Kirsten had 3rd degree burns. The lure of the shady warmth and the mask of the cool breeze had got us!

That evening we’d organised to have dinner at the accommodation itself – pricey at €28pp but it wasn’t like we had a huge amount of options. As it turned out, it was a great move – 3/4 courses of really well cooked Portuguese food, home-cooked but obviously the kind of dishes that most Portuguese reserve for special occasions, all served on fine china in the grad dining room by the accommodation’s housekeepers. The food was really good, and this meal (along with the other meal we had at the accommodation a couple of days later) were to prove the best meals we would have in Portugal.

The next day we head out for a proper walk, one of the many written up and mapped out by our hosts. Once we’d left the village we found ourselves in a bizarre environment – it turns out that outback Portugal is almost indistinguishable from outback Western Australia, gum trees and all. Okay, there were a few more pines and things were a little greener, but you’d never know at a glance. And to our bodies, used to the English weather, the late 20’s or early 30’s temperature felt as warm as late 30’s in Australia. This time, Kirsten was covered from head to foot though, no more chances of burn!

The walk was pretty and warm, but luckily not too far. We had ‘lunch’ along the way in a small town (a ham and cheese sandwich – and we were lucky to get that) before heading back to the pool to chill out for the afternoon. Much like our trip to Tuscany about this time last year, we were amazed at the temperature control of the accommodation – not so much that backwards Portuguese could build houses that were cool despite the heat outside without the need for any air conditioning, but that places like Australia still can’t manage to do this despite everything. Crazy.

That evening we headed to the nearby town of Sabrosa for dinner – it was meant to be about an hour’s walk (and, being a little larger, we had a chance of finding a taxi that could take us home). However, we missed a turn at the start of the walk and turned back, put off by our tiredness from the morning’s walk and the fact that Kirsten’s sunburn was chafing against her jeans. We managed to get a lift from our host into Sabrosa, but were disappointed by the food. Still, it was a nice change and good to get out, but being night we didn’t see a lot of the town.

The next day’s walk was much less ambitious – we managed the walk to Sabrosa that we failed the previous night without getting lost. Walking in the heat of the day, we were exhausted, but it was a nice little town. We spent the afternoon in our usual way, and had dinner at the accommodation again before getting and early night. We had a train to catch at 7:30 the next morning!

Lisbon

The train back to Porto went off without a hitch, and we changed for another train south to Lisbon. The intercity train to Lisbon was a treat itself in two ways: firstly, it shows how train travel should be (hitting 220km/h, in air-conditioned comfort for €22 – are you listening Virgin Trains??) and secondly, because it showed us the west coast of Portugal which is again the spitting image of Western Australia.

Lisbon, in contrast to Porto immediately struck us as a vibrant and buzzing city, if not also crazily hot. All the white marble and stone paving everywhere didn’t help, neither did the crazy amount of hills throughout the city. They give great views, but are a real pain – I’m guessing these are the only things keeping the pastry-living Portuguese from exploding into fat monsters.

As it happened, our guest house/hotel room was at the top of a hill just to the north of the main square in the centre of town. Though we’d booked it ages ago, I recall being sold on the idea of staying at the top of a hill because there was a funicular nearby (and we love funiculars anyway). Of course, it was being repaired while we were there…br /br /It didn’t take long for us to drop our bags at the hotel, dripping with sweat, and head straight for the river views of Bairro Alto – the cool, and appropriately dingy drinking and eating area where all the cool kids hang out. We settled at a great wine bar, sampled some local wines and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the most buzzing part of a pretty happening city.

As evening drew in, we found ourselves at a nearby (temporary) park, where a Gallo Family olive oil promotion was going on. Bands were playing, people were drinking and lounging around on the grass and the vibe was very much summer on the continent. We remarked how it was busy, but not crazily so (as would be the case in London) – of course its a million miles away from anything that could happen in Australia; somehow people in Europe know how to drink in public without going overboard.

The next morning we took the famous #28 tram for a tour around Lisbon. While it’s apparently just a normal tram route, it does take in most of the awesome sights of Lisbon while negotiating some crazy inclines on your behalf. Its always packed, but well worth it.

That afternoon we headed down to the Electricity Museum, just outside the main part of town. Kirsten thought it would be interesting, or perhaps relevant to her job and I was happy to tag along. It was even happier when I found it was currently hosting its annual World Press Photo exhibition, which I was much more interested in!

Soon after we headed further out of town to Belem, a small town just outside Lisbon (practically attached) which is the home of the famous Portuguese custard tarts (pastéis de nata, or pastéis de belem in Portuguese). We munched down on a couple each, and the horrible coffee (quite unusual for Portugal) didn’t manage to dissuade us that these were indeed the best of the few examples we’d sampled.

Later that evening we headed out to the Aflama area of Lisbon, which is home to the famed fado, the traditional Portuguese folk-singing which originated in this part of Lisbon. We paid a small cover to see a really very good local band play in a restaurant, and while the set was short it was excellent, much exceeding my expectations. The crowd singing along led us to believe that these guys were pretty famous (as the fado club claimed), so we were sure we had enjoyed the pinnacle of the genre.

Sintra

On our last day we headed out of Lisbon to Sintra, a town about 45 mins train ride out of Lisbon towards the west coast. The train ride itself was interesting, taking us through the slum-like suburbs of Lisbon, before reaching the picturesque Sintra.

The Lonely Planet called Sintra “something out of a fair tale” and that wasn’t far from the truth! We walked around the main town a little before choosing to walk the 2km (steeply) uphill to the Castelo dos Mouros (pictured) – the remains of a 9th century Moorish castle. It was a hefty walk, even in the shade. Deeply Catholic Portugal (like Spain) doesn’t like to make much of its Muslim/Moorish past, so it was surprising to see a Moorish (?) flag flying at the castle (alongside a Portuguese one, of course).

We then climbed further up to the lavish Palácio Nacional da Pena – the palace that gives Sintra is fairy-tale like feel. The palace honestly looks like something out of a Disney movie on the outside and even more outrageous on the inside (deer-head room anyone?). We caught a bus down (rather than up, like most people did) and headed back to Lisbon very happy that we took the time to explore Sintra.

Our last night in Lisbon was again spent in the Bairro Alto area, where we ended up sharing a dinner table with a Kiwi and his couple friends (a Geordie and a Dutch woman) who were all International Teachers. They had taught some interesting characters (including Nico Rosberg, and the kids of Sergey Bubka and Ruud Gullit. It was a good night, and a great way to spend our last in Lisbon.

Overall, Portugal was a mixed bag. As a holiday, it was awesome – especially the quiet calm of the Douro Valley and the excitement and buzz of Lisbon. It was a lot poorer than I expected, and really very backwards generally despite obviously also being a former colonising powerhouse. The Portuguese language is actually quite horrible to listen to, and sounds nothing like Spanish or Italian despite being written in a very similar way. And the food was a major disappointment.

But overall, it was a fun, interesting and eye-opening summer holiday, filled with an appropriate amount of ’summer’ (its raining heavily as I sit here in London writing this, in contrast).

You can see more photos of the trip to Portugal here ».