It’s been two years since Al passed away. The time has gone by very quickly but we miss our friend and the memories frequently pop back into our minds. V an I had a quite moment on Red Sqaure. We would have loved to have been able to share this trip with him. Love to all the Pietersens, fom both of us.
Just got word from Arne – the German guy who fed us in Norway. He made it through epic conditions to Nordkapp on his bicycle. Well done sir! We’ll have to try something like that one day.
– Posted from my iPhone
Happy Birthday to our good Fin-boertjie friend Nico. Hope you had a great day Nico. Love from both of us to you and the clan.
– Posted from my iPhone
If anyone has time and If anything interesting is happening out there (tech, world news, coup in Thailand etc etc please post comments about it. When we get online we just sync the blog and research the next destination. Don’t have much time to check all the sites and blogs we love (Boing Boing, Pharagula, Gizmodo, BBC News, Engadget, Bad Astronomy etc etc). Starting to feel disconnected – maybe a good thing? Tomorrow we are heading out of Beijing so not sure when will next be able to post or check in.
Thanks all 🙂
– Posted from my iPhone
Okay – I have spent the morning sorting some pictures and working on the ‘Count de Money’ spreadsheets while V has been researching where we are going next. Working with Excel in Chinese was not easy (been without Open Office since a virus had a little fun with my memory stick). Dad will be helping me get the graphs updated sometime soon. In the mean while I have finished tagging and sorting photos up to Helsinki – which means I’m only 3 countries behind ! I need another 5 hours solid in front of a PC to catch up the rest but we have run out of time here in Beijing.
We are popping out for lunch and then heading for the train station. I suspect we will not have a decent internet connection (or time for that matter) to update for a while. Our plan is to head for Datong, then Xian, maybe Chengdu, then the Three Gorges Dam, Shanghai and down the coast to Hong Kong. We have to be in Hong Kong by the 18th July. Let’s see how all that goes.
Bye for now – Simi & V 🙂
UFO in China closes airport! Sweet. We’ll be passing near there on the way to Shanghai tonight. Maybe we’ll see ET in a rice paddy 🙂 Will keep an eye out for alien body parts but could be hard to distinguish from local delicasies.
– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi
Today is our day 🙂 It may seem silly to count since we have known each other for around 11 years, but it’s our second anniversary ! Just want to say you are amazing my V and I love you more every day. Let’s never stop travelling this planet together. X. (PS When I go to the edge of space with my Helium balloon you can wait on the ground).
– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi
Fantastic news !!! I am now the exceptionally proud brother of a Bona fide Doctor (PhD). Not sure if there is some title I get just for being here – maybe like a Royalty thing ? ;). Kidding aside. Congratulations brother. We could not be more chuffed. Enjoy the success you have worked so hard to achieve. Wish we were there to help celebrate !
So… What’s Next ? 🙂
– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi
We just got news that congratulations are in order. Our friends Vikki and Tim officially became parents on the 28th September. Lots of love and every best wish for the family from both of us. We are so thrilled for you guys.
Welcome little Deagan Ty Metcalf to the show that that never ends.
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We can hardly believe it. 5 months ago today we left Manchester and haven’t stopped moving since. It’s an odd coincidence that on that first day of our adventure we spent the night on a ferry crossing the North Sea to the Eurasian continent and tonight we’ll be sleeping in a junk on the South China Sea (Ha Long bay) at the far eastern end of the same land mass. We have had an amazing time but it really feels like we are just getting warmed up. Our little 10kg packs are holding up just fine and their contents have been adequate (to be honest we have hardly been into the bottom two thirds of those packs since leaving Mongolia). We are both in good health except for minor colds and distractions. This traveling business is hard work and we are in need a ‘long weekend’ off – that’s what Thailand is about in about a month or so.
Then there’s my V. You would think that spending 24 hours a day together for that long would leave one of us wanting to drown the other in the nearest bucket, but you would be wrong. It is amazing to travel with her. A match that is perfect. Bring on the next 5 months I say 🙂
Love you rexie. x
[Pictures: 5 ! … 3-in-one tea and Glenmorangie.. Things we can’t live without (besides each other)]
– Posted from my iPhone
Love from us both. Hope you had a wonderful day. We were thinking of you.
– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi
Finally got around to uploading videos and photos. [UPDATE: Photos tagged to 4 Feb] Still have to tag all the pics but if you are really bored check out the sub-galleries under ‘New Zealand’ or just skim the posts to find related photos.
For a laugh you can click the ‘Videos’ category to the right (or click here) to get a page with all posts that have poor quality video clips (we last uploaded videos before we got to Railay, Thailand).
Fixed the silly Menu text popping through images but have still got a bit of work to do on the blog (eg. That iPhone wordpress app update really made a mess of image alignments).
Sylvie (one of the group at Uncle Tan’s) was kind enough to upload and provide a link to the photos they took on the river safaris. You can view them by clicking here
Don’t miss the amazing critters that Jeroen shared with us from the dives at Sipadan. The guy an amazing photographer – lots of pics Click Here BTW the comments are mine, we have no idea what half the critters are called.
AND the pics that our Dive Master Shannon sent us Click Here
More soon
– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi