Cyprus - Day 2 and 3

Cyprus – Days 2 and 3.

We woke both days to a blue sky and blue ocean. Not just blue – th kind of blue you see in the best picture postcards. Deep, bright sapphire. Temps around the 25 in the morning were a welcome change from the 35+ in the UAE. A lazy  start, then a stint in the gym, followed by breakfast and a swim, and getting some serious tanning begun, filled the first few hours both days.

Yesterday we decided to do a bit of a tour into the mountains. And so off we went at around 12:30’ish in the little Kia.  This is definitely the smallest car I’ve ever driven. A bit like a sewing machine on wheels – but thankfully it seems up to the task and we zip down the motorway to our turn-off into the foothills. The countryside is quite bare and stark. Signs of recent wheat/hay harvests are here and there, but otherwise there is little obvious agriculture, and certainly no grape growing to be seen (disappointing, that). A few villages pass and we stop for a coffee. The deep, small cup, boiled type that gives your heart the jumps and keeps you awake for the next 36 hours – yum. 

During coffee we decide to head for a monastery, about 30km ahead. The road takes us well into the mountains and the vegetation slowly changes from barren to sparsely wooded to forest. We pass charming picnic areas, a little old church dating back to the 1100s and push on over unsealed roads. Finally the monastery,  Macharais, is in sight – and quite spectacular (http://www.kypros.org/Sxetikos/Monastiria/MachairasE-1.htm). Apparently it also dates back to the 1100s.

Moving along, we wind our way over the top of the next mountain and begin the slow descent back towards Larnaca. Along this route we encounter a sizeable village called Lefkara, which turns out to be a little tourist hub for lace and silverware.  Totally charming and beautiful. An hour here and the call of an afternoon drink is too strong to resist so, with wallets untouched, we head back to the hotel.

Finally, dinner calls and we head out to a nearby local restaurant where we gorge on slow cooked lamb, pork and beef with assortments of veggies and salads. Best part of the evening is the live music trio – a guy on the balalaika, another chap on keyboards and woman with the loveliest singing voice. Replete with food, wine and lots of lilting Greek folk songs we return to the hotel and sleep soundly.

Day 3 begins as above. At around 1 o’clock we drive along the local coastline towards the nearest town – Agia Napa (pronounced Aiya Napa).  But there are again some sights along the way. Yesterday was filled with beautiful blue skies  - today is spectacularly so. And the ocean is the brightest blue I’ve ever seen. We stop to gaze at a little chapel on a headland, some tourist boats groups of people snorkelling in that deepest of blues. Agia Napa is pretty – lots of nice looking streets, but also a bit disappointing. Every shop is either a tavern, restaurant, or tourist souvenir shop. However it does have a redeeming feature. Hidden behind all these tourist traps is a lovely old chapel and monastery (I'm beginning to think that every town in Cyprus has one or more of these). And so after some browsing, a beer and buying a few essentials, we return to the hotel for a quiet end to the day, reading (and writing this!).

Tomorrow we’ve booked a cruise up the coast. I’m hoping the ocean and sky are still as beautiful and blue as today.

Cyprus - arriving

We arrived in Larnaca, Cyprus at 5am and picked up a little Kia Picanto - definitely not a pocket rocket - just a pocket really! Snug inside we took off to have a look at Larnaca as the sun rose, thinking we might find somewhere to have a coffee and watch it all happen. Unfortunately we were the only people awake in Larnaca - couldn't even get a coffee at Maccas - they were asleep too. Anyway we found a nice spot to sit and watch the sun come up and a table to pour over the map of Cyprus and find where our hotel was located.
Larnaca is a nice seaside town of fairly sizeable proportions and we found our way around quite easily. We had to head off in an easterly direction along the southern coast of Cyprus to find the Grecian Park Hotel in Protaras which was about 50 klms away. After deciding that not one cafe was open (we searched hard) we cranked up the Picanto and hit the road.
Cyprus is a rocky and barren island along the route we took - lots of limestone and pumicy looking rocks and what vegetation there is dry and brittle. However the Mediterranean is magnificent - as clear as sapphire and just a bright and glistening.
We eventually found our hotel only to be told our room would not be ready until at least 2pm and that we would need to wait as the hotel had been full the previous night and people (of course) were still eating breakfast and grabbing their last swim. We decided to use the time to explore the surroundings a bit and so we went off to Potaras and Paralimni to see what was happening locally. Both are very picturesque villages with miles of holiday accommodation. It seemed like half of Britain was here on holiday as everywhere we went there were British accents obvious. So we had oriented ourselves to our part of the island and decided to go back to the hotel and pass the time till we could check in.
They gave us a couple of towels and we changed and spent a few hours by the pool. As you can see in the photos it was no trouble at all to fill in time around the hotel! The Grecian Park is acknowledged as one of the "great hotels of the world" by a plaque in the foyer and we could see why that might be the case - it is LUSH! (As our Welsh friends Ange and Liz would say!)

So we swam for a while and sunbaked and waited..... and waited..... and waited until eventually we got our room. The room has a seaview and is just really lovely.

Here are some pics!

Return to the UAE

Well, we’re back in the Middle East. And so I thought I’d see where the blog was up to and found we hadn’t updated it since September. How bad is that?

So how did we end up back in the UAE? Not hard to explain really. We came for a holiday in October – just visiting friends. After 18 months in China, of which more than 9 were at freezing point, Cheryl has still not been able to get work. This arose in conversation while we were with friends in Abu Dhabi. One conversation led to another, and another, and several interviews later, Cheryl was offered a great job. We leapt at the chance.

At that stage we weren’t too concerned about me getting work – figuring I’d pick up something when we got here. In fact I was looking forward to at least a few months of being a man of leisure.  Silly me. Almost as soon as Cheryl landed hers, I got to interview stage and now I’m working for the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC)  as a cluster manager.

So Cheryl moved over in mid-December, having packed most of the house things up and left me with the landlady’s furniture and a minimal kitchen pack. Not wanting to dump too badly on my employer, I stayed until the end of the semester and came over at the end of January.

Cheryl spent her Christmas with Liz, Mark and Ange Stevens and also spent three weeks staying with them before heading off to New Zealand for her work. Cheryl is working for Cognition Education which is a New Zealand based company and she is part of the corporate HR team as HR Consultant – Gulf States. She is spending most of her time in her base office in Abu Dhabi and is also responsible for HR matters for all the Gulf countries Cognition works in. It looks like she could be visiting Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, maybe Kuwait and Bahrain. So we are keeping a close eye on what is happening in all of the close by Gulf States.

And it’s been all go. Cheryl is incredibly busy and loving the fact that she is again using all those fantastic skills she has. I’ve had a cruisier start, but am also relishing the role mentoring a small group of principals through their school improvement process as part of the school reform agenda.

On reflection we both agree that China was a fabulous experience. My school made leaving a heartfelt experience. Lots of staff and kids wishing me to stay – but also wishing me the very best in my new country. They were all just lovely. And we wouldn’t have swapped the China experience for the world. But it is SO good to be back in the warmth, in the very cosmopolitan Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately circumstances didn’t allow for us to have a break back in Australia between China and the UAE -  but we’ll be back soon. We’re eagerly awaiting the birth of our first grandchild courtesy of Mike and Bec and will be on the first plane as soon as that happy event occurs.

Next weekend we will move into our accommodation in Abu Dhabi – up until now it has been a nice little hotel apartment but it is really just too small for what we like – needing to spread our wings and feel settled. We have purchased a Prado so we can whip out into the desert with the Abu Dhabi off road group.

We will have lots of bedrooms and bathrooms so the calendar is filling already. Lee and Betty are booked in for August – both ways on their trip to Europe. So let us know if you are planning to pass through – we make great tour guides!

Dating Aussie Girls | Socyberty

Dating Aussie Girls | Socyberty

Overnight cruise on Halong Bay

How do you begin to write about a mind blowing, wildly spectacular experience! Halong Bay in North Vietnam was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994 and ranks right up there with some of the most spectacular natural environments in the world. I think a collage of photos of the Heritage listed area will probably do the trick without too many words to say. Ron and I were lucky enough to book a suite on a junk with only 2 other people booked in. It is monsoon time in Vietnam and people seem to be avoiding the place in droves. However we have only had a few showers and our overnight trip was not marred by even a sprinkle of rain. The boat was a replica of a 14th century Vietnamese Junk - and our suite came with a very modern king size bed! I had visions of sleeping in hammocks!

Bath time on the streets of Nanjing

We were wandering home from the performance at Bailuzhou Park and came across a family having heaps of fun on the footpath near the bus stop. Mum and Dad were giving the children a bath in a large plastic wash basin. The older of the children did not like having water over her face and was screaming at top pitch when we arrived, while the little one just puddled away in the water!

This looked like a nuclear family so I don't know how they fit in with the one child  policy but I may be making assumptions and they were neighbours or cousins - or something else altogether!

A musical play in Bailuzhou Park

Last night we decided to retrace our steps to Bailuzhou Park. On our previous trip we had found a stage all set up on the lake and some seating. On asking around we found out that at 8 pm each evening there is a performance. Last night was a lovely clear and balmy evening so off we went to see if the performance was on (you can't really trust advice in this place - so we went fully expecting that it would not be on!) We had no idea what sort of performance to expect but thought it was a good excuse to get away from the house for a few hours.

What unfolded was the story of 2000 years of Nanjing. Unfortunately our camera hasn't taken great pics at night and at distance but anyway - here are the few we took that turned out OK. It was a delightful show with boats gliding by with singers on them and beautifully constumed dancers. There was also a large screen that described (in Chinese) the history of Nanjing up to the Qing dynasty.

Japan and Korea in the rain

July is monsoon time in Asia and a few typhoons hang around dumping heavy rain and blowing winds right up the Chinese coast and into Japan and Korea, so you would wonder why we might choose to cruise at this time of year! I just was not aware that it would be so darn wet and, after all, this is when Ron has his holidays. We left Shanghai on the 11th July in a warm, humid drizzle on board the Legend of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship bound for Japan and Korea and seven days on the sea.

We have not been regular cruisers and only have one other trip under our belts - the South China sea cruise we did in 2007. So we approach cruising with a bit of a dubious attitude - isn't it really just for old people (and we are not yet that old are we?), and isn't it packed with Asian gamblers and will we feel like sardines crammed into a small space with hundreds of people we would rather not be with? In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the passengers were in a majority from Asian countries - after all we were cruising in Asia! The overwhelming majority were from China and they were families, sometimes 4 generations from the great grandma through to the only child. And they were having just the same sort of holiday any Aussie family would be having! There was a small casino on board that opened in the evening and stayed open till the wee hours and, yes, the casino filled with people who wanted to use it but it was just a small part of the ship and only one of the activities that were happening at the time.Mostly we felt we were living in a 6 star hotel with everything laid on and staff who would do anything to make life easy, pleasant and fun. I had also heard that cruise ships turn into drunken dens of iniquity! I saw no evidence of this but Ron did note that there was a Spanish guy who was watching the world cup final at 3 am who was rather strongly inebriated and showing very vocal support during the game! So really for most of the time the cruise felt right for us and we had a great time. All negative perceptions thrown out the window and now thinking we might try another cruise sometime soon! you can't go wrong checking into a 6 star hotel, unpacking your bags for a week and visiting 2 countries and four cities and never having to wait in a queue or repack your bag! Here are some pics we took when we got onboard and before there were a lot of people around:

That's me sitting in the casino - the only time we visited it really! And then clockwise - the card room, the whirlpools, art gallery, dining room, library, looking over the outdoor pool, internet cafe, and looking down into the music lounge.

Our first port of call was Kagashima in southern Japan. At all ports you could choose to take a guided tour of some of the highlights of the town but Ron and I have seen enough temples and Asian markets to last us a lifetime so we decided to abandon the guided tours and just go experience the city. Armed with a map we wandered the streets of Kagashima and found a market style shopping centre, a bank and a beer. The rain had started to bucket down so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the ship with 2 umbrellas added to the luggage. We all know if we buy an umbrella it ensures it won't rain anymore so we were placing our holiday in the hands of the umbrella gods!

Next port was Nagasaki where the typhoon was in full swing and the rain was falling almost horizontal driven by a strong wind. Sounded like a good day to hunker down with a good book and keep warm and dry! So Nagasaki did not get a visit from us - we observed it from the ship. Does that count as a visit? Oh well - that's how it went. Some of the more intrepid cruisers went to see the Peace Park and the Memorial Museum but I have to say all that war stuff just leaves me feeling depressed and overwhelmed by sadness. Our dinner partners came back from the visit very subdued and quite saddened by the atrocities of WWII and the nuclear holocaust.

Fukuoka gave us a morning of sunshine before turning on the buckets of rain - so off we went into the subways, exploring underground shopping centres and eventually finding me a new camera to replace my other little portable one which I think I have now worn out completely! We strolled some shopping arcades and eat streets, Ohori Park and the Museum of Modern Art. Ohori Park was lovely, filled with ponds with lotus floating on them and really very similar to parks in China, except much better maintained! We enjoyed the museum and picked up a few arty postcards, wandered around the park and found a coffee shop and then headed back to the ship.

Busan in Korea greeted us with a slightly better day and we were now adept at working out the subway systems under these Asian cities. They do transport so well. The curiousity of the locals was quite funny - everywhere we went we were nodded to, smiled at and greeted with courtesy and respect. We spent a short while in a Cultural Centre and the Museum of Busan. Both very interesting and a great way to hear about the history of Korea and it's interactions with China, France, Russia, the USA and Japan. I reckon those poor Koreans have as much fighting spirit as mortally wounded bulls in a bullring - They just keep fighting back!

Here are some pics from the trip :

Picnic at Lion Rock Beaut Spot!

Summer has come to Nanjing with a blast. Temperatures during the day have not fallen below 30 degrees for a few days now and it is muggy and tropical. What a contrast to the snow an ice of a few months ago!

So to celebrate the good weather and take advantage of lovely balmy evenings we decided to take a picnic dinner to the Lion Rock Beaut Spot - yes, that is the official name! Here is proof!

We had no idea how to find it so my friend Sian who had visited before came along to be the guide!


Ron has been collecting some Chinglish signs, just for fun, and there were many to be found here at the Beaut Spot. (More news on Chinglish later!)

Now there is not much to say about heading out for an evening picnic really, however the picnic spot was delightful and the Champagne and prawns with seafood dipping sauce, followed by honey soy chicken drumsticks, potato salad and a green salad, crispy bread rolls accompanied by a nice bottle of French red was certainly a tasty repast! So it's really not too tough in China now the winter is over!

I think you will agree - the setting was very nice!

Great Wall of China

One of the things to do in China, in fact a must do, is to see the Great Wall of China and it is really amazing to be able to walk along pathways and through buildings that were originally built in various stages from the 5th Century BC up to the 16th Century! The Chinese name for the GW is "Wanli Changcheng" and it means the long fortress of 10,000li, which is just short of 9,000 klms and just over 5,500 miles. Most of what remains of the GW was built in the Ming Dynasty between the 14th and 17th centuries. We visited the Mutianyu section of the wall which is about a 90 minute drive from Beijing. Although it was Sunday there were not so many visitors as to make it crowded or uncomfortable and we had lots of opportunity to take photos and not have them full of people. This is quite different in China as most tourist spots have wall to wall people and you struggle to get photos that don't have people in them.

At Mutianyu we were able to take a gondola style cable car to a high point on the wall and walk about 2klms to a chair lift that takes you back to the entrance area. Along the way you climb and descend hundreds (no - probably thousands) of stone steps. You also pass through a number of watchtowers and along some parapets. It can be done at a slow ambling pace and there are lots of places to stop and catch your breath. There are also some small stalls that sell water and iceblocks, Coca Cola and other soft drinks and BEER!

At the entrance to the site there is a small tourist shopping area selling "I climbed the Great Wall of China" t-shirts and other touristy paraphenalia. We got the T shirts!

So I guess now we can say - "Beijing? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!"