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After another false Google pin 📌 🙄, we ended up at Lake Liyu and had a walkabout.  It was cool seeing guys training for the dragon boat racing in really slim boats.  We watched a few go for a swim 😀😀 Then, we drove to our hotel for two nights Read more…

We left Kenting and headed north via Route 199, a hilly, twisting, fun road. We dropped off to the coast for a break on the beach. Back up over the hills and back down along the coast to our accommodation which had its own hot springs 🙂   We soaked in Read more…

So we collected our hire car in heavy rain at the airport and headed South.  We didn’t really have a plan – apart from head South to nicer weather. We drove for a few hours and decided to stay at a hotel near the highway.  What another love hotel??  Honestly, Read more…

We were still in Japan when people were asking “why Taiwan ” and we were saying we’d had some lovely students from there so why not try it…..    To be fair when we asked the students what to do in Taiwan, most said eat !!!  Although that was the same Read more…

We collected a rental car and headed South out of Seoul to the lakes and mountains.  We stayed at a cheap (£20 a night), possibly “love hotel”, on the outskirts of Chungju City.  We headed into the city to locate tourist information but no joy.  Information is quite tricky to come Read more…

Many Koreans (and Japanese and Chinese) come to Jeju Do to be near the stunning coastline and escape the heat of the cities.  We came here to escape forecasted snow in Seoul but it was far from warm – more like the IOM really – strong bracing cold wind! Thankfully, Read more…

Before we left the airport in Japan, we could already feel some of the hustle and bustle about to come our way in Korea.  More pushing and shoving, for example.   We landed in Seoul and stayed that night close to the airport while we got our bearings.  The next Read more…

Lessons, lessons, lessons. Can be tiring for our old limbs sometimes !! We both find it so rewarding still though when you see that moment something clicks and you know you’ve created another skier or boarder 😍😍  or just made them think “damn that green is so easy now – Read more…

Lots of snowy days around the 10th December meant more pistes started to open up, and the lessons started in earnest. Luckily, most of the first few days’ lessons were just half days, which was a good way to break in the legs (and brain 🧠  tbh).  Pete lucked out Read more…

We started our visa process in June this year so thought we’d get our visa much earlier – wrong!  It was all very last minute and we basically made it to the Embassy with 30 minutes to spare to pick up our passports and visas before flying out early the Read more…

True to the forecast, there had been heavy rain overnight and the blue skies were no more.  We drove away from Theth with heavy hearts – although Pete was quite excited to have no slow drivers in front of him, just an empty twisty road of fun.  Our usual 3.5 Read more…

Rather rudely it decided to rain in Albania,  did it not know we were here on holiday trying to fit all the sights in? 😉 This is when its good to have fluid travel  plans aka no real plans. So we started planning to try and have the forecasted wet Read more…

Albania?  Why Albania? Is it safe there? What is there to see there?  These were the questions we were asked when we announced our holiday plans. In fairness, we didn’t know what there was to see apart from coastline like Croatia and lots and lots of mountains.  We had bought Read more…

Sorry Pete here, so expect more pics than actual words/descriptions in this post………. Janet’s obviously been busy, so the posts have slipped 🙄  sea kayaking, her travel agency is getting more and more bookings ( you could say its starting to takeoff 🫢 ), had a holiday to Cyprus to see Read more…

Tokyo was a cool 13 degrees and we had to get out jeans, jumpers and even rain coats the first evening we arrived. We loved the familiar feel, the clean and plentiful toilets and convenience stores and the politeness. It was nice to be back! We travelled about 1.5 hours Read more…

Having enjoyed the sea breeze, and the cooler morning air, we were in no rush to leave our homestay on Tanjung Simpang Menhayau Beach. We spent our last morning on our gorgeous shaded balcony, listening to the sea lapping against the sand, and then headed South towards Kota Kinabalu (otherwise Read more…

So it was back along our favourite road 🙄👀🤦🏻‍♂️once again,  just for good measure we stopped at the ATM, once bitten twice shy…….   topped up with fuel we arrived back at Sepilok mid afternoon and booked onto the night walk at the rainforest experience nearby. Chilled by the pool with Read more…

We drove another 30 mins East to Kinabangtan River for some wildlife river trips. Being spanners 🤦🏻‍♂️🙈  we didn’t have enough  cash with us for the trips….   Borneo takes cards nearly everywhere  (whereas cards were hardly ever accepted in the Philippines ) so we’d got complacent….   We had a nap then Read more…

So we left Sepilok and headed for the port of Sandakan, getting there around 4pm the roads were carnage, with lots of one ways and drivers obviously keen to get to where they were going for their end of Ramadan feed !!! After a few attempts, we found the hotel Read more…

Sepilok has become famous for its orangutan sanctuary which opened in the 1960s.  They take orangutans in who have had their future threatened through loss of habitat or orphans who had been kept as pets.  The sanctuary have a nursery area where new comers are encouraged to develop their skills Read more…

We knew our time in Sabah would be during Ramadan but not sure how much that would affect us.  Our first evening we landed at Kota Kinabalu airport and collected our hire car.  Back to driving on the left and upon our first fuelling stop discovered how cheap petrol is Read more…

Having received an email to inform us that our ferry to Manila would leave 6 hours late but still take the 18 hours, we knew we had to make a plan B to still get our flight to Kota Kinabalu at 16.15 the next day.  We sat in a little Read more…