6 People 6 Months

The sunset from our apartment in Bangkok Stepping out of the airport in Bangkok was like walking into the blast of a heaters fury, like breathing in a warm potato smoothy. So many new smells and sounds! We were pretty exhausted from our journey, having woken at five in the morning at Klaske's place, saying a sad goodbye, and then practically running to the train station with all our luggage through the deserted suburban streets to catch two trains, and three planes to Thailand. We arrived almost exactly 24 hours later with hardly any hiccups except that I left my dearly beloved cell phone on the plane in Oman! (I think it slipped down the back of the seat in front of me.) I'm praying that it will be tracked down though. I do feel rather sad without my camera, email, Viber and WhatsApp plus my books I read on my phone. Boohoo. We were picked up at Bangkok airport by a driver connected to the dentist we had come to see here. Josh felt very grateful that he wasn't driv...

Salisbury Cathedral Josh has been reading a mammoth sized book called Sarum, about life at Salisbury from the beginning of time right through the ages till now, so we had to visit this famous site before we headed to Kent to catch up with family. An evening walk to the great Stone Henge of Salisbury Some of you may know that the famous Stone Henge of Salisbury are visible from the road but you have to pay quite a lot to park at the only parking lot further down the road and then walk over. We got there after open hours so we couldn't park there, but found a lay-by further down the road where Josh and the girls made their way through paddocks and barrows - ancient burial grounds that are scattered around the Salisbury plains -  to the stones. I was on cooking duty so was kind of pleased I didn't have to brave the windy rainy dusk that approached quickly. When they got there it was all fenced off and there was a private tour happening anyway, but they had a good...

The giant stone circle at Avebury. Just behind the hills you can see the mound of soil piled up in a giant circle behind the stones. The 9 meter ditch is behind that. It’s hard work trying to fathom a building made in the 1100’s, so seeing stone age villages and touching massive standing stones placed by mysterious people in Avebury over 4000 years ago blows my mind. Mind you, the rocks and cliffs all around us at any given destination could easily be that old. Still, it inspires awe to be sure. The standing stones in Avebury were said to have been placed by neo-lithic people and the reason for their use is unknown. They dug a huge earth moat in a full circle around the meadows about 1 km wide 9 meters deep and placed giant stones of various shapes in a circular fashion around this, with a few smaller circles inside that. (It’s much bigger than Stone Henge, using many stones placed a few meters apart.) We took a walk around the stone circle and then through the little vi...

Our first night in beautiful Wales - overlooking the Isle of Man We got a great quote out of one of our daughters as we entered Wales. This one always has her ear buds in her ears when we’re driving, and as we shouted “Hey! We’re in Wales!!”, she leaned to look out of the windows at the fields going by and said “Whales?! Where are the Whales? I don’t see any Whales!” That night we drove to the coast and stopped to make Leek and Potato soup at the beach looking out over at the Isle of Man. We were treated to a painted sky of blues and pinks as the sun went down over the island and hundreds of wind turbines seemingly growing out of the sea! It was quite a sight to see so many sprouting from the horizon. (Sorry they don't seem to show up on the photo very well..) I fell in love with Wales very quickly. I don’t know what it was exactly, but maybe just the simple fact that I hadn’t put in too much thought into what it would be like. But the scenery was stunni...