The Boyles have landed!

mystified in Manly!

This photo makes me laugh so much! Ok so we are in Australia we must go to the beach! So here we are "Manly Beach" - what do we do now! 4 of us already have suntans, 2 of us do not like to be anything other than fully clad in public, and the public would prefer that 2 of us remained fully clad, 2 of us don't like sand in our socks, 4 of us think that trying to stand on a board and being knocked off by big dangerous waves (ok they look big and dangerous to us!) looks completely pointless and none of us can really swim! 

WE DO NOT BELONG HERE!!!!!!!

The cure? - Wine, beer, ice-cream and chips! Instant transformation from awkward family silence to the Boyles in balance again!

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Its like one of those spot the difference competitions!

Except this one should be pretty easy!!!  

Tammy the tour Guide

Well spotted! Here is Tammy the Tour Guide. If you come to Bangkok you have to look up this company tour with tong. What a great morning we had escaping from Bangkok to see a couple of well trodden tourist spots but with Tammy what a pleasure! 

Floating Market Trader BBQ on a canoe

Roasted Frogs on a Stick

Coconut pancakes

Train Market

Fresh veg galore

Great morning exploring an authentic market full of incredible seafood and veg produce but all built on a railway track. Every time the train comes in the traders have to partially dismantle their stalls to avoid being dragged away by the train. Then onto the Floating market - a well known tourist haunt but brilliant all the same with an incredible array of the usual tack but some amazing food mostly based on seafood soups and coconut with fresh veg chillies and herbs - cooked, served and consumed on small teak canoes on a maze of canals.

All rounded off today with me winning the prize for being the first to be properly and justly shouted at because I was the definitely the most annoying!! Great!!!!!!

Bangkok Drug Bust

"You have got to be F******G joking" catch phrase returns as my concerned looking teenage daughter Kim hands me these sachets telling me that she found them in our Bangkok Hotel bathroom! Phone the police - flush it down the bog, snort a line?!!!! 

"Kiddin on!" she smirks - turns out snorting "Fairy - non bio" would not be such a good idea - seems that our Thai Hotelier shares Kim's wicked sense of humour by packing some washing detergent in very suspicious packaging!

Keeping calm!

Visiting Bangkok requires the patience of a Buddhist, which as you all know I absolutely don't have! As a result I have decided to embrace the chaos to fully appreciate and absorb the wonderful sights, sounds and smells this fabulous place has to offer.

So far this has stood me in good stead, through the relentless bartering at Patpong market, including the constant pester power of touts asking if we would like to see a "Ping Pong show"!!! The girls ask me what this is  : o ............

I even stay calm at the awful traffic and the insistence of the tuk tuk drivers that we take detours to visit various tailors, jewellers and tourist shops so they can get paid in petrol vouchers- we feel sorry for our driver with horrendous rheumatoid arthritis and his synovitic joints. I don't even get irate when a car hits our taxi (against my door!), resulting in us having to wait for nearly an hour for the police to sort it all out.

But the relentless heat and humidity is causing me to get fractious and insanity hovers when i have to wander around the Grand Palace wearing my only (wooly) jumper to cover my shoulders. Oh how i dream of weather back in my beloved Glasgow! Thai people don't know what they are missing!

Tina

"Daddy, daddy I need the toilet!"

After standing in the inevitable Heathrow queues with the usual commotion of families off on their summer travels I had to laugh when Kiran commented on how much of a pain travelling with kids must be. 

It doesn't seem that long ago when standing in a very similar queues with 1000 people in front and  behind I would hear the stress inducing sentence "Daddy, daddy I need the toilet!" or  worse "Daddy, daddy I done a poo!"  or experiencing the reflex cupping of hands trying to catch a volley of vomit from one of my offspring and only managing a finger sieve of partially digested breakfast! The thought "You have got to be F****G joking" coming out of my mouth before it could be suppressed,  raising Schadenfreude smiles amongst my fellow travellers that I now relish as a spectator.

Today we have the distinct pleasure of travelling with a 20 year old who can smile with us and whose honed student drinking habits managed to sniff out a free vodka cocktail promotion in duty free. An apt celebration to travelling with your kids!

The Eve of Oz

So after several of years of planning and saving we are on the eve of our mega Oz trip. 

Dinner conversation tonight was not about where we were going on what will we be doing it was "OK who is going to get shouted at first?". The voting was tight but "The queen of the last word" Carla is the odds on favourite! Followed closely by who is going to be the most annoying and the less said about the winner of that the better!!!!

Having been amazingly pre-organised by Tina -  We have had the luxury of spending the last hour or so reading over our previous blog entries and apart from being impressed by my own literary prowess (NOT!) we have had such a laugh from the kids entries. I am so pleased that Tina and I forced them to write something - a few memories caught in words by their younger selves, their personalities shining through in a way that could never have been captured by any camera or video - priceless. 

I am not really looking forward to fighting with them again to put some thoughts down about this trip but I know the fight will be totally worth it!!!

Please note that in my brain the new blog title picture is how I picture the trip - 4WD and fighting the desert elements. I will be carrying this picture in my mind the whole way to offset the reality of Winnebago's, Campsites and of course the odd 5* hotel.

As always we will be really pleased if anyone can take the time to leave a wee comment or two - they really enrich what will become a precious memory!

First stop Bangkok!

India never fails to amuse you.

Almost 100% of the things you see here are most probably illegal in Britain.  I mean, would the government ever allow 3 men to hang off the back of a little tin car? Or allow you to blare your customised car horn every second? The driving is absolute chaos! Our driver, Ravi, almost crashed countless times because some idiots were driving on the wrong side of the road. I can’t even add up the incidents that resulted in me clenching my fists and shutting my eyes tight. Indians drive like those 3 years olds who do nothing but play video games carelessly.

However, the wildlife and plants here are fantastic. The plants were so intriguing: we saw banana trees, mango trees, coconut trees, a pineapple plant, pea plants, chili plants, cocoa beans, coffee pods and millions of tea bushes. Walking through the spice shops was insane; the aroma of cinnamon, cardamom and different teas always flooded your senses. Every spice imaginable are in the shops, and to think that they were local produce was even more amazing. India is one of few places where you’ll turn round to find a monkey preening itself at your hotel doorway, or where you’ll look out your hotel window and witness an elephant tearing up palm leaves for a snack. We’ve met cows, massive spiders, water snakes, butterflies and turtles.  Despite these amazing, exotic animals, the one thing we all despised were the annoying mosquitos.  Having to swat them away every moment was definitely off-putting, and the result of getting bitten was awful with the ever-lasting irritation, especially with the hot sun beating down on you.

On the other hand, you feel like royalty here. In the small villages, you will get toddlers waving to you, wanting to shake your hand. The adults smile and say hi, and they sometimes want to take pictures of you. It’s crazy; people in Milngavie will most likely greet tourists with a dirty glare. You also commonly get served the best food you will ever taste. Throughout our journey, we ate genius creations with random things, like cabbage, infused with fresh coconut and varied spices. We also tried a sweet, red banana, which is only found in Kerala. Our breakfasts consisted of masses of local fruits and homemade yogurts, accompanied by fresh orange, pineapple and watermelon juices and even coconut water.

Today is our last day here, and I will definitely miss the chaos. I don’t think any place can beat the natural, sometime slightly dysfunctional, sights and atmosphere in India.

Kim