At Vang Vieng we did do some water sports.

Again we were extremely lucky kayaking a section of the river back to Vang Vieng and having the entire river to ourselves.




The three kids were all in a kayak with our guide sitting on top of their life jackets - fortunately they can all swim.



Kim and I was in one Kayak and Sacha and Mavis in another.





Just where we started out there was a rapid with water flowing over a large boulder but with plenty of flat water on the sides. Kim was little impressed when I headed straight into the rapids and with perfect skills paddled us through them...her being soaked and the kayak being full of water may have had something to do with it.



She's later said that the kayaking trip was one of her favourite and most fun activities on the trip, so maybe she was somewhat impressed with my brilliant paddling skills!!







Along the river are still some of the remains of the bars and zip lines - but all very quiet now.



Approaching Vang Vieng we went past some really scenic locations with bungalows etc.









The experience at the end got and all thumbs up!





Another water activity that Mavis and I did was tubing through one of the caves. You essentially sit in an inflated car tyre and then pull yourself along a rope inside a cave. It was fun for the kids, however this place was packed with Koreans trying to do the same thing.

Aiden initially didn't want to go, but I am proud that he eventually managed to get the courage to do so.



We also went to one of the lagoons. There are a number of them and some of them are very popular. We organised with a driver to drive us to one of the less popular ones. It was still scenic and it had platforms of the trees to jump from and you could see why some travelers would have killed themselves jumping off them.







There were also a couple of rafts which reminded me of the first time I went to Laos and paddles across a local river on a raft. It got on one of them in the lagoon and the whole thing literally sunk under me - I only just managed to get off in time before getting soaked.

The second one was able to hold my weight and I took the boys for a little paddle.

At one of the caves in Laos there is this amazing Buddha statue inside the cave.

I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the diffused light was falling onto the statue itself and through the entrance to the cave. We were there all by ourselves and I asked Kim to sit and offer a little prayer in the ray of light coming in through the cave.

I didn't bring a tripod with me to Laos, so everything had to be shot handheld which was tricky as there wasn't much light there.

In Vang Vieng we also went to some caves. Again we were the only ones there - I don't know if this was just because no one else were interested or because we went there at a time when everyone else were doing other activities.

The caves are in fairly pristine condition, they are dark, moist and other than descending a makeshift ladder walking through them gives a feeling of exploring the caves for the very first time.





Some passages were really narrow






And other parts of the caves were massive.










Overall the caves are beautiful and again it was amazing having them to ourselves.

The tribes of Laos still exist although it is no longer as noticeable.

They no longer wear their traditional costumes but it is possible to glimpse the occasional traditional head wear or dress in one of the shops.








It is especially sad to see the Hmong tribal wear gone as worn below by Mavis and Kim. The Hmong traditionally lived in the mountains. The government has forced them down into the lowlands where they can be controlled and 'integrated' into the the rest of Laos.

On the first day in Vang Vieng we hired a local guide to take us through the country side and some of the villages around Vang Vieng.



Hiking through the countryside in Laos is partly magical and at the same time an eye opener. It is not until you get into the country side that you get a glimse of the real Laos and its people, the way of living and their beliefs.

Walking into the first village a group of boys came walking towards us. One of the kids was holding his head with blood dripping down his face. The other boys were taking him home to his parents. I couldn't help but notice that there was a green substance smeared across the wound and asked our guide is he knew what it was. He went over to some bushes and plucked a couple of leaves and said that if you crush them then they will help stop the bleeding. This is when you realise that a lot of the plants in the villages serve a purpose as natural herbal medicine or for eating.

The village was a HMong village and at one of the houses we spotted the little girl above standing in a door opening with her grand mother. There are very few of the traditional bamboo shacks still standing and instead being replaced with brick buildings.




A bit further up the road we heard a sound. Someone was hitting a gong and chanting. Thinking it might be a monk we went to investigate. The sound was coming from one of the local houses. At the back of the house the family was in the process of preparing food, but we couldn't see where the sound was coming from. Our guide asked them and was told that they had a newborn (possibly sick) child and that the Shaman was in the house talking to the 'other world to' attract the good spirits and chase the evil spirits away.



As we walked on we could see him through the opening of the door and I snapped the above photo which is one of my favourite photos of the trip.

In the village people go about their normal life such as this woman removing lice from her daughters hair.



As we walked on we had to walk through the local school. It happened to be recess and the kids in the smaller classes were outside playing.





There was a small stand selling them lunches who also sold lollies, so Kim got the idea to spoil the kids with lollies - but also turned out to be a great opportunity for our kids to interact and see what a classroom in Laos looks like.





The area is still very un-developed. Although there seems to be electricity, this is mainly used for lighting. Cooking is still done by collecting wood and done on wood fired stoves and people still wash their clothes in the rivers and streams.






Although there are still a number of water buffaloes these are mainly used for eating along with any other non-human living animal - such as pigs, dogs, birds etc.













It was very healthy for the boys to see where their food 'potentially' comes from and understand that this is part of life.

The area is full of rice paddies, but these are now worked with mechanical tools rather than buffaloes.






The government has built bridges across the large river to allow access to the villages.




But the smaller streams have bamboo bridges - in this case wide enough to drive a motorbike across, others just a single bamboo to allow a person walk across.




At the far village (Lao and not Hmong) there was a limestone cliff with a small cave in it. This was called elephant cave and inside there was a small shrine along with some bizarre images.







The whole area is spectacular - I can only imagine what it would be like during rice planting season - yes it would be muddy but also stunningly beautiful.














During this whole hike we saw no other travelers. Other than at the cave we didn't get a sense that there frequently came any groups through and I think the feedback from all of us was that this was one of the highlights of the trip - no adrenaline required.

Vang Vieng is an interesting tourism destination in Laos that has undergone several iterations of re-inventing itself.



When I first visited for an overnight stopover it was a sleepy little town with maybe a handful of backpackers going tubing (more on that later).
I also remember the deserted airport runway from the 'secret war' going through the sleepy little village (Lima site 6) and the stunning mountain scenery in the background. Other than that there wasn't much there.



Ten years later my mum and dad visited the place and told me stories how the place had transformed. It had grown and was full of drunk backpackers with loud rave music and parties throughout the night. During the day they were floating down the river in car tubes again with beers and drinks in their hands.



Then again about 5 years ago, Laos appeared in the Australian news media with stories of young backpackers breaking their necks doing somersaults off the tree branches on the river and lagoons and hitting the rocks. Stories of high highly available drugs were also emerged.

The Lao government stepped in and closed the majority of the bars along the river, stopped the parties and the drugs and implemented a number of other safety restrictions.
It worked, the parties stopped and the young party seeking backpackers fled.

A new crowd has now moved in - this is bus loads of adrenaline seeking Koreans. They go there to go kayaking, zip lining, tubing, buggy riding etc. They eat at the Korean restaurants and stay at the same hotels, but otherwise mostly keep to themselves. This also means that some of the same old sleepy feeling has returned to this town. It also meant that is was easy (or just plain luck from our side) to avoid the tourists.

The airstrip is still there, but I recon most visitors would walk across it and not notice and definitely wouldn't know the history behind the secret war in Laos, let alone the American involvement and the little airstrips around the place. It is a fascinating story and has very much shaped Laos into what it is today.



The area is just absolutely stunning with steep limestone cliffs and rice paddies. I could easily have spent more time there taking photos in the surrounding area.

A must see in Vientiane is Pha That Luang - It is on every bank note in Laos and they are very proud of it.



Unlike Buddha Park it is surprisingly quiet when it comes to tourists. The majority of people visiting seems to be either Laos or Thai people offering a prayer. The correct way here is to get the insense and flowers and then walk clockwise around the Stuba on the inside of the covered corridor (mostly to keep out of the sun I assume).





Although it is not particularly old (The original 1st century structure was mostly destroyed and has undergone a number of more recent restorations), it is stunningly beautiful and impressive in size.



For me to get some of the panorama photos here with the selection of lenses I'd brought along I had to take multiple photos that I then had to stitch together.

Outside there is a temple that is equally interesting, although nothing compared to further north in Luang Prabang.





There are also street vendors selling cage birds that are supposed to bring good luck and prayers to anyone releasing them.

One of the sights we wanted to visit was Buddha Park outside Vientiane (close to the border crossing back into Thailand).





Trying to figure out the most comfortable way to get there we settled on taking the local bus. There aren't any taxis as such in Vientiane and we weren't keen taking a tuk-tuk for 30 kilometers. Most of the tuk-tuks are in an extremely poor shape with failing brakes, wobbling wheels and thick smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes.
They are perfectly fine for shorter trips inside the city (such as hotel to bus station), but not recommended for longer trips.

The bus turned out to be easy to find and we were early enough to all get a seat. The bus was later packed with passengers going to Thailand and it would have been tough to stand up for the one hour bus ride.

The bus is also really convenient in that it stops right outside Buddha Park which is the last stop before the bus turns around and heads back to Vientiane.









Buddha Park itself was apparently established by a Monk building the statues for religious purposes as education of his religious beliefs.



It is actually a nice little area and quite interesting with lots of (to us) weird statues showing bizarre things.



The most obvious is the massive 'pumpkin' at the entrance that you can climb. Each level inside the the sculpture itself represents hell, earth and sky.



The entrance is a head with a clock above it - meaning swallowed up by time?





There is also a massive reclining buddha.



And my favourite was the large centre sculpture carrying the body of a woman...no idea what this is supposed to represent.

Vientiane is no longer the sleepy capital city it used to be. It is hustling and bustling with people, cars, motorbikes and shops everywhere.




The once neglected colonial buildings have all been renovated and the red dust flying everywhere is long gone as the roads have been paved. In the outskirts of the city high-rise office towers have started shooting up and I think that given another decade this city will look like any other East Asian capital.



The most striking difference was the banks of the Mekong River. Last time I was there it was really just a dirty path and following it north long enough there would be a string of wooden shacks with local restaurants that would serve some beautiful local dishes, fish and other seafood.
The water then would come right up to the bank and the boats could pull up and during the day the local kids would jump from the trees and swim in the river.
The old path has been replaced by a modern walk way (which actually is really nice) and the shacks have been replaced by some bars closer to the centre catering more for a western clientel - still with some nice seafood on the menu. The water of the Mekon has receeded and there is now a massive sand bank moving the river 2-300 meter back from the city.

Although Vientiane doesn't have a massive amount of things to see, it is definitely worth a visit. The Wats are beautiful and the vertical runway (local Arc de Triumpe - called so because they used cement intended for building an airport) is worth the climb to get a view of the city (and the main road which used to be the only paved road). There is certainly plenty to do for a couple of days.









About 100 meters from the Arc down a side street we had what was probably the best noodle soup of the whole trip. It was just a local mum, dad and grandma run place and it met the critia of being busy having locals eating there which means that it is likely that the food is good and relative fresh.



Even with it being in the middle of the city there was no access to gas or running water, so everything was cooked over wood fired stoves with the broth for the soups likely cooking overnight and the rest cooked fresh on the spot.



On the first afternoon we were sitting in a local coffee place and I started speaking to the girl working there. I asked her for local places to eat great authentic Lao food - not touristy. She recommended a place up neat That Dam (the black stuba) called Soukvinam and she showed me some photos. It looked more like a fine dining place, but the food looked delicious so we decided to give it a go.



It was a quiet place with a nice ambience. We were sitting outside in the courtyard which was ideal with the kids. We ordered a lot of food sticking to specialties we had never tried before such as stuffed frogs, fermented fish eggs etc. and it was all really nice.



By Lao standards it probably wasn't cheap, but for the whole group of us the entire meal ended up costing approximately $100 AUD. On that 'note' it is easy to be an instant millionaire as a foreigner in Laos - change $150 Australian dollars you are there.



We also celebrated New Years Even in Vientiane which was fairly low key with a couple of late night drinks.

This year our holiday was going to a country in South East Asia called to the Laos with the boys and some close friends. I went there almost 20 years ago. I had just migrated to Australia and was going on my first holiday. Laos which had only just been opened up by the communist regime, was very much undeveloped after two decades of isolation and happened to be one of the first places I visited in Asia and it was a country that I immediately fell in love with.

It wasn’t the things to see and do in the country that I fell in love with - but the people. I loved the smiles, how welcoming everyone was, and I especially loved the joy of the dirty kids playing in the streets. Everyone was living at very simple lifestyle and yet everyone had what they needed and were happy.



Back then I had no firm plans, but made them up as I went along. I traveled light, caught local transport, I met locals and other travelers along the way on a budget of less than $10/day, and still remember the sticky rice sold to passengers when passing through towns.





I had some incredible experiences in an amazing country. I managed to have a full busload full of locals break down laughing from me trying to read up sentences from my little pocket Lao phrase book. Through this I was invited to visit families and join their local celebrations through festive events. The only local I met up in Northern Laos who could English was a girl working for an NGO. She invited me to join her visits to remote local villages where we had to cross the rivers on bamboo rafts to get to them and experienced the local dragon boat racing.

Since this distant time I had heard and lots about the country from other travelers including my Mum and Dad who visited the country ten years ago. I heard how the country had changed and how mass tourism had ruined the experience. I had heard about the young backpacker rave parties, the drugs and adrenaline junkies in Vang Vieng. I heard about the modernization, cars and traffic in Vientiane.

Going back with family and friends I was worried that they wouldn’t see the country that I saw so many years ago. There isn’t a lot of historical sites to see in Laos other than in Luang Prabang where there are lots of Temples due to many wars destroying major parts of the country. More worried was I that I would be disappointed by the country and the people I saw back then being no more.



When we got there it turned out that, yes, the country has changed a lot. Lots of roads have been paved, there are lots of cars everywhere, the old colonial buildings have been renovated and all the houses are now built in brick and mortar instead of being wooden bamboo shacks. People are on mobile phones, the kids are watching youtube videos, every hotel has wifi, you can buy everything, and major investments are flowing in from neighboring Thailand, China and Vietnam.

There are a lot more tourists in the country, especially in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, but they are a different type of tourists than the ones I was dreading.The backpackers have been replaced with mainly adrenalin loving Korean tourists or wealthier middle-aged Europeans and the era of party fueled backpacker tourism is largely gone.



And most importantly getting outside the towns, the Laos I loved back then still very much exists if you go look for it. The modern tourists are surprisingly easy to avoid. They all stay in the same places and visit the same top ten sites or visit the same restaurants that Tripadvisor recommended they go to. They go back home and tell everyone that they have experienced Laos, not knowing that their comfort has eluded them of the real magic of Laos.



The Lao people everywhere are still very loving, smiling and friendly, there are dirty kids, chickens, cows, dogs and cats roaming the streets everywhere and the remnants of the old tribes that I saw back then still exists through their ancient traditions although the traditional costumes and houses are largely gone now due to government policies.



Had we gone even further afield that we did on this trip, I’m convinced that little has changed in those villages I once visited two decades ago. Prior to going I was scared what I would find there, but now I feel blessed that my family and friends have experienced some of the glimpses of ‘my’ Laos together with me…Laos still has a big place in my heart.

I have now added photos from 2004. The highlights from this year was a trip to the United States and Canada as well as a family trip to Egypt. This was also the year that Australia entered the war in Iraq, so there are a couple of photos from the anti war demonstrations.

Click here to read about 2004

In Mid 2006 I was in Portugal for our International Partner Conference with the company.

It was a week of being busy setting up for the conference, socialising but also a lot of fun and partying.


Click here to see more photos from:Portugal/Slideshow

I quite regularly head up to the Blue Mountains to go Rock Climbing.

We normally camp overnight and then depending on the weather and temperature decide on the day what walls we are going climbing on. The photos in the gallery are a selection of some of the photos I've taken in 2006, but there will be more to come in 2007.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of photos of me climbing as I tend to forget to pass my camera to someone else.

Most of the time I go with my friend Sarah, but she has now moved to Canberra so she doesn't come up there as often as she used to.


Click here to see more photos from: Climbing in the Blue Mountains/Slideshow

In September 2006 I went on a business trip to Tokyo along with a colleague of mine Tsukada-san.

Most of the trip was hard work and very long days, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos here and there.

We did get the deal in Tokyo, so the trip was worthwhile, and we are now installing our solution across all of Asia.


Click here to see more photos from: Tokyo/Slideshow

In early 2006 my Mum had a stroke while my parents were on holiday in Thailand.

A few months later in April when I was in Europe for work I used the opportunity to go and visit and check up on how my mum is doing.

She is now in a wheelchair and still getting used to finding new ways of doing things.

I didn't do much while I was there, because it was mainly a social visit to help my mum and dad.


Click here to see more photos from: Denmark/Slideshow

I have a number of photos that don't really justify being in individual albums. I have now added all these photos from 2006 into one album.

Click here to see more photos from: Miscellaneous/Slideshow

In early 2006 I went a trip to Seattle for our annual kick-off event.

Some of us flew over there a few days early to go skiing in Wanatchee east of Seattle. If was a weekend of perfect skiing. It was my first time skiing so I took some lessons after which I was doing fine (blue slopes).

During the week we had lots of meetings and dinners. There were award nights as well as just social nights where we could meet up with the rest of the company.

The following all of us in International went down to Crystal Mountain at Mount Raineer to do some more skiing. It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time.


Click here to see more photos from: USA/Slideshow

Mid 2006 I went with Soeren and his family (visiting from Thailand) to Thredbo to do some skiing. We drove down there Friday night and returned Sunday night. Thredbo is located in the Australian Alps 5 hours drive south of Sydney.

Generally the skiing conditions are pretty good, but last year was pretty bad, but we did get some skiing done.
Click here to see more photos from:Skiing in Australia 2006/Slideshow

In 2006 I went to Holland a couple of time for work. We have an office in Vianen 50 milometers outside Amsterdam.

I normally don't take a lot of photos when I go there, but if you click on the link below then you can see some of the ones I did take.


Click here to see more photos from:Holland/Slideshow

The year 2007 as you can see was a busy year with lots of traveling and adventures.

It is now time to move onto 2008 and see what this year can bring.

You can follow my adventures in 2008 by clicking on this link.

Can I at the same time suggest that you bookmark this page and I can highly recommend using the new RSS feed features on this website.

Today it is Aidens Birthday....he is now 5 Months old (when you are less than 6 months old you get to have birthday every month).



He is a good/easy little boy. He is now able to keep his head up, but still unable to sit or roll around onto his tummy. He sleeps through the night and wakes up around 7.30 to get a feed. On weekends he is happy to go back to sleep so his Mummy and Daddy can sleep in.


He is very quiet when in crowded places and likes to just sit and observe (Kims dad is saying that he has got that after me).

It has taken me a long time to get this photo done. I had to wait for him to keep his head up and even then it was pretty hard to get hime to look in the right direction.

I have now finished the second portrait in the series of the four elements...just Fire and Air left. This one is "Water". The yellow blob is a Weedy Sea Dragon.




...Really helping my Photoshop skills. Not sure if anyone else thinks these photos are cool...but they are cool to make and are different from what I'd otherwise be doing.

This weekend Kim and I went to see the musical Fame at Capitol theatre with a couple of friends Audrey and John.

Most of the cast was made up of dancers from “So you think you can dance” so there was a potential for a really good performance with some excellent dancing.


Our friends had organised a babysitter for the night and Aiden was being looked after by Kim’s dad and sister.

The performance was good (but not great). I think we were expecting more singing and dancing (It was a musical) and less dialogue. The second half of the play was a lot better than the first half with more dancing.

Unfortunately our friends missed this part as she was worried about their kid left alone with the babysitter (that is kinda the point of getting a babysitter) and left during the intermission.


At the end they got everyone in the audience up from their chairs for the famous "Fame" song.


Kim and I however had a good night out…and she looked smashing!

Lately I have been playing around with Photoshop a lot more going through different tutorials.

Main purpose is to enable me to manipulate photos and add a different dimension to these photos. I have especially been trying to create some interesting profile photos that I can use of facebook and the like.

The portraits don't necessarily mean anything...mainly created them to see if I could do something out of the ordinary.The plan is to see if I can make a series Earth - Water - Fire - Air following the four basic elements.


It was really hard to get the starting photo right in my studio. It is almost impossible to do a photo of one-self and have it in focus...eventually Kim had to step in a help me (which I am very grateful for). In total it took me about 2-3 hours from start (taking the photo) to the finished result.

Yesterday we went to the beach to have a coffee with a couple of friends. While Kim was catching up on all the gossip I went out to see if I could get some good photos of the surfers (The surf was pretty good that day).

On the weekend I had a bit of fun with Aiden. I bought a world map on email just so that I could take the following photos of him...







And this last photo I call "Is this where you grew up daddy??"




He is now 4 months old and still doesn't like being on his belly...so I had to be pretty quick with the setup.

Sunday night Kim and I was looking after Ethan and Kayla while Chong and KC went out for dinner.

Kims dad and Dylan popped over for a couple of hours (Kims dad wanted to see Aiden ;-)) and after dinner and after Aiden was asleep I set up the studio to take some portraits of the kids. Main purpose was to experiment a little to improve my photography skills...especially my study of shadows (It is easy to light, but harder to create meaningful shadows).

Lately I have been doing more photography using all my flashes with wireless triggers to get interesting angles and effects. A couple of days ago I bought a couple of pieces of fabric in different colours (blue and red) to use as backgrounds and the following photos are a result of Sunday nights photoshoot.












I used one flash camera right in a 60*60 softbox, Hair light behind camera left snooted. In retrospect I should have taken my 3rd flash and used this to light the coloured backdrops to create better seperation...the highlights above are done in Post processing.

I had a bit of fun on the weekend and spent a little time using photoshop doing something different for a self portrait. Just a bit of fun for a Facebook profile photo.


It took me about 5 minutes to take the photo and about 25-45 in photoshop to modify the image.




After taking the image I modified the background, de-saturated the colours, saturated the green colours, added the cat-eye contact lenses and extended the canine teeth slightly...done! Not perfect, but good enough for what I wanted to try and accomplish.

This week there was a big low pressure system of the coast of Tasmania resulting in 18 meter waves there. It was predicted that some of this swell would hit Sydney this weekend resulting in 3-4 meter waves on south facing beaches. This Saturday morning I went down to Maroubra to have a look...The waves weren't as big as I had expected, but there were lots of surfers there and I did manage to take a couple of reasonable photos (I may try again tomorrow).










I am sure that there were a lot of professional/semi professional surfers out there, but unfortunately I would not be able to recognise anyone. Some of the photos I took with my 28-200mm lens which is super sharp. I also took some with an old 500mm mirror lens...it is reasonable ok...but almost impossible to keep in focus.

Some people have said that Aiden looks like me (mostly) and some says that he looks more like Kim.

Here is a photo of Kim and I with Aiden as well as my mum holding me after I was born (I think):



I REST MY CASE!!!!!

When we came back from our holiday our watertank had started leaking significantly. Actually it had started leaking slightly back in May where at the same time the government was introducing the stimulus package as part of their rescue plan for the financial crisis. Part of this package was an increased rebate on Solar hot water which provided a total $3400 government funding.

Back then I got a couple of quotes, but never proceeded hoping that the tank would last a little longer.

When we came back the leak had become a lot worse and could burst any time. It therefore had to be replaced very fast. It seemed that just replacing the existing electric tank would cost almost the same as installing Solar hot water and would be more expensive in electricity. Besides we have already installed extra insulation and energy efficient appliances so it only made sense to use Solar hot water as well.



It took them 3 hours to pull down the old 160 litre tank and install a new 300 litre tank on the roof. So far we are happy with the system. We have more hot water than before, it is not nearly as hot as the old system, but plenty hot for what is needed (The old system had water which was close to 90 degrees Celcius and the new is appx 60 degrees).

It has an electric booster installed for cloudy days, but once summer is here I should be able to turn that off completely. And an extra advantage is that it has cleared out some space on the side of the house.

While we were travelling in Denmark and Italy we did a large number of Jump shots.

Here are some of the coolest ones we did.

First in Denmark




















Then Italy

After Lake Como it was our last day and Italy and was time to go home. We had to return to Milan that evening to fly back to Sydney next morning.

We decided to detour around the lake and possibly stop at some of the villages along the way. At the top end of the lake we came to a T intersection. I told kim that Switzerland was one hour if we turned left and Milan was 2 hours to the right. I asked her if she felt like a quick dash across the border before returning.

Most of the borders to Switzerland (and Austria) are located on the top of the mountain passes since the Mountains was what defined the borders the old days. The road up to this mountain pass was very narrow and full of blind corners. Kim developed stomach cramps on a number of occations on the trip and we eventually came to the conclusion that it was the tension when driving on these roads.

The scenery on the way up there was stunning. It was nice and cool climate and we were soon above the tree line and could see patches of snow on the mountains surrounding up.











The style of houses changed from being traditional italian to be more swiss looking.



Eventually we got to the border. Unfortunately the officer at the post didn't have a stamp to stamp Kims passport.



We had lunch at the border and then returned toward Milan. We had dinner at the southern end of Lake Como and arrived at our airport hotel at 10pm.



I had to return the car to the rental company at the Airport. Fortunately the hotel had an efficient shuttle bus service that made it easy to come back to the hotel. Unfortunately I forgot the cover for my phone in the car so I had to make the trip twice and was pretty knackered (and grumpy) when I eventually got back.

At 6am next morning we were back at the airport returning to Sydney.

After the Riviera we drove up to Lago di Como (Lake Como). This was the only place on the trip where we hadn't organised accomodation prior to us arriving.

When we arrived we initially used the TomTom to find us a B&B, but it kept taking us up into the hills on all these narrow streets with blind corners. We therefore instead decided to drive up along the shore of the lake and just check out whatever hotels we came past.

We ended up finding a place for a reasonable price in Argegno. It was right on the lake next to the passenger ferry and our room was facing the lake....perfect!





For dinner we drove to Menaggio a bit further up the lake. Parking was impossible because there was another festival happening so I ended up doing another illegal parking (If you are in Italy you do like the Italians).










Next morning we went down to the ferry and bought a day ticket for the central part of the ticket. This enabled us to take the ferry and hop on and off whenever we felt like it.

This meant that we we easily could get to other places on the lake such as Bellagio and Varenna. It also meant that we were able to look at the expensive villas from the lakeside.













On the way back in the afternoon we stopped at Tremezzo at one of the large villas that was open to the public. The villa was surrounded by a beautiful garden.












In the evening we were tired (and I was finally developing some sort of a sun tan evident from the sandal stripes on my feet).

After Pisa we headed to the Italian Riviera, also called the Flower Riviera. I asked Kim to find us a nice spot along the coast for lunch and she picked Lido di Camaiore.

When I was a kid I went to the italian riviera quite a lot with my parents. My mum and dad met eachother here in a town called Diano Marina, both working for the same travel company as travel companies. We used to stay in caravan parks along the coast and I don't remember the place being very busy (but I may remember wrong).

When we arrived to Camaiore we were met by beaches full of hotels (whom had each closed of an area of the beach for themselves), umbrellas and people boiling in the sun and tanning oil.



After lunch I decided to drive along the coast to our hotel in Sestri Levante...this turned out to be a mistake. After 30 kilometers full endless beaches covered in umbrellas, of dodging pedestrians and cyclists, traffic lights and people parking to go for a swim I decided I'd had enough and headed for the motorway. This part of the riviera is really not very nice and I was looking forward to go somewhere with a bit more charm.

Sestri Levante was the only place we could find accomodation. The hotel was up in the hills far away from the coast line, it was expensive and absolutely nothing special compared to all the other places we were staying during our trip.

In the evening we drove to a town called Rapallo for dinner. The city had closed off the roads around the water because of a festival, so it was really nice to sit at the water eating seafood and watch people.




After dinner we went for a walk along the water down to the area where the festival was taking place. We were sitting there for a while listening to the music and enjoying a perfect evening.

When we came back to the car to drive home it turned out that we'd received a parking ticket (20 Euros). We were parking in a valid parking space and I thought we were outside the hours wheer we had to pay....but obviously not. I'd done lots of illigal parking elsewhere on the trip so didn't feel too bad about it.




Next day it was time to explore Cinque Terre. This is a national park along the costline with 5 small villages accessible only from the ocean (There is a trainline now). We drove to the only one of the villages that can be accessed by car Monterosso and parking right next to the village area.





From here we walked down to the water. It turned out that the trains weren't running between the villages so the only access was by boat or walk. We didn't have time to walk so bought a day ticket for the boat.



While on the boat we did a bit of planning and decided to go to the furtherst village Riomaggiore first and from here walk to the next village Manarola. From here we would take the boat to Vernazza and then back to Monterosso.













Cinque Terre is a beautiful part of the Italian riviera, and although there is a lot of tourists there it doesn't feel overcrowded such as many other places. When we vere having lunch along the beached the previous day I was dreading that Cinque Terre would be as crowded as that.

In the evening we decided to drive to Portofino for dinner. We arrived there (along all these small narrow streets) around 7pm. Although Portofine if a nice place it doesn't beat the villages at Cinque Terre in beauty. The place is expensive in all respects and there isn't a lot of shops and restaurants, it is mainly fashion and expensive jewellery being sold there. Obviously catering for the Euripean rich who dock here in their expensive million dollar boats.





We therefore decided to go back to the centre of Sestri Levante and have dinner here.

When I was a child I spend a lot of summers with my parents in Italy. They used to work in the Northern part of Italy as travel guides and as a result we generally headed that way during the summer time with our caravan or with a tent.

When I was a baby my parent took me to Pisa (I have to trust them I an don't remember) and also up into the leaning tower.

Kim and I was planning to drive from Tuscany to the Italien Riviera and I asked Kim if it was ok to make a short stop at Pisa for me to have a look at the tower some 3X years later.

Our Tom-Tom navigated us by the backway into the city and within a short timefra we were at the tower. We had a look for a parking spot and literally found a spot less than 100 metres from the tower (so far pretty fortunate with the parking).

It was really cool to have a look at the tower. They have started allowing people to enter the tower again, but when we got there they next timeslot was 6pm in the evening (8 hours later) so we instead took some photos and bought some T shirts for Kims family.

Of cause we had to take the classic photos of trying to straighten the tower.





And a couple of nice ones





And then there was the silly ones








And then some photos from the beautiful architecture of the tower and the church next to it.

While Kim and I was in San Gemignano in Tuscany we spent a day just driving around in the beautiful landscape. Even though we just missed the harvest it was still really beautiful. It is full of all these rolling hills, Vineyards, Sunflower fields and old Italian houses.























Driving was fun and I could easily have spent longer time just driving around there exploring small villages etc. I would love to go back there during spring when all the flowers are out and the fields have been planted.

On the first day in Tuscany we decided to drive into Siena and have a look around.

Our first impression was that parking was going to be a problem. There was some large tourist carparks on the outside of the city walls changing an exorbant amount of money per hour. We were planning to have dinner in the city and was planning to be there for most of the day and eventually we found a spot in a parking area that didn't have any meters. There was some italian scribling underneath the sign and we hoped that it didn't say "Reserved for residents and permit holders".

Anyway, eventually we made it inside the city walls and was met by 8 storeys of escalators from the walls to the innner city (You wouldn't want those fat Americans loosing any weight while on holiday).

We went around to some of the tourist attractions and there was unbeliveable queues everywhere. We started queuing up to get into the large tower at the main square and for 30 minuted the queue didn't move. Eventually we gave up and couldn't be bothered.





Instead we decided to wander around the city looking at the old buildings and at shops which is really nice.



Siena is known for the annual horse race in the center of the city. It was amazing to look at the area and suddenly realise why the horses often go flying into the barriers when they get around the corners of the race course.

The details of the houses is incredible. Everything is decorated. A metal spike is not just a skike any longer, but a instead formed into a dragon, a snake or a swan.








In the evening we were going for dinner at an italian restaurant called 'Cane e Gato' (Kat and Dog). It was recommended to Kim by one of her colleagues who had also warned us that it was a bit on the pricey side.

At the place we were staying I found a book about Tuscany where it said that the degustation was 50 Euros (Appx $95 AUD). When we arrived we were given no menu's or any price list. The girl (Who turned out to be the daughter of the owner, who himself was in the kitchen with his wife) showed us our table.

We were told what was the degustation menu consisted of and got started. The food was quite nice...all ingredients that were in season from the surrounding country side. The pastas were home made and everything was very delicious.

At the end Kim and I was discussing what the damage was...a bit of a surprise when we were presented with a bill of 175 Euros ($320 AUD). This was a bit more than we expected.

Fortunately we didn't have a parking ticket when we got back to the car (This would have been the icing on the cake).

Another late night finishing dinner after midnight and then 45 minutes drive back to San Gimignano.

After Verona we drove to Tuscany to a small medievil town called San Gimignano. It is a very small town where in the medievil days they were competing who could build the most 'high-rises'. This means that today the town is full of all these tall towers (There used to be a lot more back in those days).






The town is full of tourists during the daytime and at night the town is again taken over by the locals including the werewolves from the surrounding area.

We were staying inside the old city walls, so for the most part we were safe except for the odd werewolf.









They also have the world champion in Gelato...normally I don't belive marketing gimmick like this, but I must admit that the gelato was very nice.



At night time once the tourists were gone it was an amazing place. The towers are rising into the night sky and I had a lot of fun taking photos of the towers just using the ambient light.

We arrived to Milan in Italy from Copenhagen in the evening. The first thing we did after landing was to pick up our rental car which was a small Fiat Panda (Never, ever rent a large car in Italy...some streets only accomodate snall cars) and then drive to our Hotel. The Tom-Tom nagigator software on my mobile phone turned out to be exceptionally useful on our trip to find our way around.



The next morning we drove towards Verona and at lunchtime we had a look at our map and noticed that we'd drive right past Lago di Gardia (Lake Garda). I asked Kim to plan a diversion somewhere for a lakeside lunch.

She chose Sirmione which is a long peninsula on the southern side of the lake.



I used to stay at Lake Garda with my parents when I was a kid. The water is bright blue and it is a beautiful place.

We then continued to Verona early afternoon and found our bed and breakfast which is about a kilometer from the city centre. The road up there was very narrow and anything wider than the Panda would not have been able to get through.

As soon as we had gotten settled we walked down into the city centre.



We had opera tickets for Aida in the old coloseum in Verona in the evening, but had to first pick up the tickets. The tickets were quite pricey so we had chosen to get ticket on the upper stairs with almost everyone else.




It meant that it was a bit less confortable and that we would have to enter early to get a good seat. But it also meant that we were sitting up higher which is better for taking photos.



The performance was amazing. There was approximately 500 actors on stage (and 4 horses) and ther used about a quarter of the coloseum as the stage.





It was a beautiful and warm night with a brightly lit full moon.





The performance finished around 1am at night and from there we walked to one of the squares of Verona and had some coffee (Places were still open).

The next morning we did a bit more exploration around Verona. Kim wanted to see the romantic balcony of Romeo and Juliet (Or Donald and Daffy Duck as I called them as they are just as real as the imaginary Romeo and Juliet)



Since we were there we also had to rub the right breast of the Juliet statue there for good luck.




In Daffy's house they also has a lot of interesting art work.







Verona is an interesting city. They have a whale bone suspended from one of the gates...apparently the legend says that it will fall down upon the first 'Just' man who passes under it (and kills him??). Unfortunately (or fortunately) it didn't fall on neither Kim or I.



The city is full of old buildings with interesting architecture

Today the Rockstar (Andy) and the Prong went climbing at Berowra. The news media had gotten the hint of the occasion and the paparazzi were there in full force taking photos.



The bureau had told us that it was going to be a cool day, but it turned out to be rather hot for Berowra (29 degrees) and around lunch time the face was pretty much in the sun...so it was skin cancer territory.

We started out by me leading on an easy(iere) climb called "The Wall Thing 18" ...very pleasant climb with a fairly reachy finish. We then did (I led) the "Boundary Rider 19" which was equally pleasant with an extremely long reach to the anchor and the first time I went for it I missed the hold on top (I had no idea where to aim) and peeled off giving myself a rockstar manicure in the process (This is when you feel off all your skin on your hands to the point where it starts bleeding).

We then did "Mental Fatigue 18" and by this time the face was getting hit by the sun and warming up. The sun was in our eyes and it was hard to see where to go. Last time May did this climb she peeled off half way up. This time there was a significant amount of blood stains on one of the holds despite it being a fairly simple and straightforward climb with good protection.

We started getting hot now and the Paparazzi had left so we decided that we didn't have to show off any longer and decided to do a direct variant to "Mental Fatigue" (sopposedly grade 20) on Toprope...very pleasant but would not have been very good on lead as the first bolt was up very high.

The last climb of the day was "Palm Sunday 21" this was the highlight of the day even though we did it on top rope. Next time I go to Berowra and have a good day then I'll definitely come back to this one and try and lead it.


Editors note: It turns out that the paparazzi weren't taking photos of the Rockstar and Prong. The reason why they were there was because Paris Hilton was there showing off her latest outdoor collection...seriously...who gives a sh..!

Saturday morning we drove out to the Blue mountains to spend the day there climbing (Unfortunately Andy couldn't go on an overnight trip).

When we got up there it was cold, covered in clouds and drizzling. We decided to have a coffee and breakfast to check if it would clear up...and fortunately it did.

We were planning to go to Shipley, but after studying the guide we decided to go to Bardens Lookout instead.



It was completely dry and it turned out to be a day with a perfect temperature and we did some really nice and varied climbs (I would tell you the climbs but someone stole/took my guide book during the day). We started on a grade 16 (Karinya I think) for warmup, and then moved to a very pleasant grade 18 (Jolly Good Fellow). I then had a go at a grade 20 (Dr Do Little) with a very reachy and balancy move up the top which almost made me fall off (Andy had a hard time on this move).



We then did a grade 19 (Little Triggers) and by this time my strength was gone so I only just managed to lead it (almost came off clipping the top anchor as I was drained). The climbs are fairly long at Bardens Lookout and I don't have a lot of endurance because the climbs in the gyms are too short.

Phil had a go at a grade 21 (Hang on to Yourself) and was really struggling on it and came off 4-6 times one of which was captured on video and once he came off upside down. Eventually he got through it and I toptoped and cleaned it (With a lot of grunt and swearing).

Download video of Andy Climbing 1
Download video of Andy Climbing 2
Download video of Andy being Lowered
Download video of Phil Falling

As tradition dictates we played golf with Sasha on new years day. And he had booked a time at Brighton Golf Club (Moorebank) at a civilised hour (1.30pm).

Kim and I hadn't played for about 10 months as we had been too busy with all the other things in 2008 (see the rest of the blog postings).



I think we played a fairly decent game considering the time since we'd last played but both Kim and I were fairly tired after the 18 holes. It was a hot day with temperatures in the mid thirties and the course was fairly hot...so we drank lots of water as we went.

Every year both Kim and I have been in the Sydney harbour area to watch the fireworks on New Years Eve.



But this year we decided to have a quiet new years eve just the two of us with a visit to the movies and then a nice dinner at home.



We did however watch the fireworks from our balcony at midnight and it looked just as spectacular as previous years (I borrowed the photo above from another site).

Between Christmas and New year we drove with Kims family up to Smiths Lake (300km North of Sydney). We rented a house on the lake up there.

We hired a tinny (small aluminium boat) a couple of days and went fishing and managed to catch a lot of breams (a lot too small to keep).





Kims dad loves fishing and he quickly found out that in the morning and evening the fish were at the shore just outside the house.

In the evening we cooked nice dinners and BBQ's and the cookaburras came to the balcony around dinner time to check if there were leftovers. We had a bit of fun with them as you can see.



In the evenings we played Blackjack (Kim and I cleaned up) and had nice food and wine.



Chong (The husband of Kims sister) showed his more feminine side.



The rest of the time we spent at the beach playing in the waves and playing with Kims sisters kids.

Christmas day was celebrated with Kims family at her sisters house.

A lot of people were there and everyone had been asked to bring some food. Kim had cooked Red Duck Curry the day before while I was preparing the Christmas Eve dinner.



Again...lots of food, playing table tennis, jumping the trampoline and all the kids got to open their presents.

Christmas even was celebrated in the traditional Danish way in the evening of the 24th December.

Kim and I had invited some friends over to out new house and prepared the traditional roast duck, ris-a-la-mande and large tiger prawns for entrees.



It was a nice evening and we didn't finish until well after midnight and all of us were really full by the time we finished dinner. There was a couple of kid and after dinner they got to open their Christmas presents.

Every year on Kims dads birthday we celebrate with the family. Every couple brings a couple of dishes of food and we all share it.

On our honeymoon in Bali I really wanted to do this scuba dive that was recommended to me by my friend Andy. It is this old wreck of a US cargo ship (USS liberty) that was torpedoed by the japanese in 1942 and then beached to save the men and the cargo.



The wreck has since slided back into deeper water (during a volcanic eruption in 1962) and it now in 5 to 27 meters of water just off the coast.



I did two dives on the wreck while Kim was snorkeling in the surface on top of the wreck and it is without a doubt the most amazing scuba diving experience I've had. The ship is huge and you can swim through the cargo hulls and there is an amazing variety of fish and corals on the wreck.

I saw a 1.5 meter barracuda, a 1cm tall seahorse, a garden of eels and a great variety of other fish including a large school of travelly.



I had my personal dive master for the day and I got him to take some photos and some video with his camera while we were diving. On the first dive we went all the way around the wreck (max depth 27 meters) and on the second we went through the wreck itself.



Kim had a really good experience as well and really enjoyed the 30 degree warm water and managed to get her bum burnt while snorkeling for several hours.

I think we'll both go back there if we get the chance.

Click here to download video of me feeding fish

Click here to download video of me diving

Our Honeymoon day after the wedding went to Bali in Indonesia. We did have some hesitation going there considering that the Bali Bombers had been executed the week before and that the Australian government discouraged all travel there.

The plane up there (and back) was only 25% full so plenty of space to get a good sleep.

We stayed in Nusa Dua Westin....a nice hotel although the rooms are a bit small.

On the first day we slept in and later in the day drove to Kuta to have a look around and do some shopping. Later in the evening we went to Jimbaran Bay for dinner. This is a whole beach where all the restaurants have put their tables and chairs out onto the beach itself...very romantic but quite expensive compared to local restaurants.





The second day we hired a car to drive us to Ubud in the hills, Monkey Forest and later in the day down to a small place called Tanah Lot. Especially the last one was very nice around sunset and we ended up not getting back to our hotel until 8.30 in the evening much to the dismay of our driver.





Dinner took place near the hotel and we found that the value of the food/prices was much better here.

A couple of days later we went for another drive (In between we went to Tulamben...see posting below) up to some beautiful lakes and temples up on the north of the island as well as rice paddies and we had a really nice trip despite driving with the most grumpy driver.







Time was running out and Kim felt that she hadn't spent enough time shopping so the last two days were spent shopping and sitting at the pool and on the beach.



One evening we booked a really nice restaurant called "The Living Room" in Seminyak and I booked the whole outdoor area (cost a fortune) just so that we could have a romantic evening in the garden just the two of us with personal waiting staff.





The week was way too short and we never got to do everything we wanted to do so I have a feel we will be coming back in the future.