Sundown

One of the worst feelings of the trip..leaving the islands.

Still, not a bad parting view though.

Driving those little boats back and forward everyday must be a pretty sweet wicket.

Deep purple

Yet another thing in Fiji that can hurt you...at least you can see these ones coming.

Handyman

This bloke can literally make anything out of a palm tree or a coconut....pretty impressive although he does have a captive audience - the island was only about the size of a football pitch.

bula

And they say England is a small Island

Representing at 2,000ft above sea level

After a long climb to the summit of Australian Blue mountains you come across a strange wooden chair, where you’re supposed to sit, rest and enjoy the views.

But, in the euphoria of victory after a 1,190ft climb, most people can’t resist taking the opportunity to scrawl a few words somewhere on the knarled old wood.

There’s northing particularly profound on there, mostly stuff like Ian of UK, NUFC or Paul loves Sarah forever and so on, just a small mark to note the achievement.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight to see that some young hommie had taken the time to big up not only Tupac shakur but also the Snoop D.O double gizzle.

It was a bit like getting to the top of Everest and finding a gang of chavs huddled round a children’s play area.

I can only think it was someone having a laugh because I can’t believe some playa would go to the trouble of a three hour train rise, two hour drive and huge trek just to throw out some props to a couple of the biggest Gs in the game.

Maybe he ran out of space but I can’t believe he ‘forgot about Dre’ and what about Biggie and Big Pun.

A friendly parrott

In the park.

Strange chinese parade

This was some kind of protest against chinese oppression of the fen gong religion - or something like that.

We stummbled across it in sydney's china town.

The thing I like about it is the fact that all of them have gone to so much trouble to make it as realistic as possible, then the guy at the front puts on his pristine white Nike trainers.

A must-have accesory for any violent, communist soldier.

Exactly 3 seconds

There used to be a coal mine at the bottom of the blue moutains which is now a tourist attraction.

One of the big things they have is a kind of train that takes you down to the bottom, but it's so steep it's almost vertical.

Originally the track was just a series of carts which would haul coal to the top, but eventually people started hitching a ride on them to avoid the equally steep walk back to the top.

It's hard to explain just how steep this is, but we were both hanging on for dear life as the tiny, uncovered train trundled down the mountainside.

Apparently when the train first opened to the public one of the first women to take the trip asked the drive what would happen if the brakes failed..."in exactly 3 seconds this train would come to a complete halt" he told her.

What he actually meant was that teh incline was so steep that it would only take 3 seconds for the train to come off the track, hurtle groundwards and immense speed and use the bottom of the ravine as it's brakes.

Holding up the roof

Pinar was determined that I took a picture of her doing this classic 'lifting the roof' pose.

Top of the mountain

The weather did clear up later on and we got some amazing views - after a lot of hiking.

The blue mountains really are in the middle of nowhere. All you can see is miles and miles of forest. At the top you're above the cloudline and we saw flocks of parrots flying between the trees below.

A lot of the original European settlers moved up to the mountains becasue it was cooler and their crops would grow, so there are lots of familar trees and houses which are still there.

At one point we caught an original london bus to the main town up there, apparently it had been shipped over from England to Perth then driven the length of the country to the top of the blue mountains.

I was surprised it was still running but knowing London transport there's still some poor soul stuck on the top deck thinking the 43 to Fulham is running really slow.

Bad weather

It wasn't quite so sunny when we went to the blue mountains in Sydney. It wasn't too great at ground level but once you got right to the top of the mountains the weather closed in even more.

I'm standing with one of the three sisters and Pinar is doing some sort of Bruce Forthsyth impression as the usual viewing point is totally obscured by clouds.

Vineyard in NSW

Plenty of sun...and plenty of grapes

More animals

In all honesty, the Emu was the one you would really have to watch out for. They are the most angry, aggresive animals I've ever seen. No wonder Rod Hull used to get so flustered, and his was just a tiny one!

Party Tyne

If you believe what you read we just wasted our time with all the traveling.

The new Rough Guide to Britian has rated a night out in Newcastle as the top activity for tourists coming to the UK.

That must be why the bridge is so crowded in the photo.

Saying that, the guide book also says that Britain is argumentative nation of cynics, deterimined to rip everybody off, with seedy, bland and graceless attractions.

For anyone thinking of visiting the best tourist attraction in Britain...check the picture...this is our Summer!

The Rough Guide to Britain's top 35
1 A night on the town, Newcastle upon Tyne
2 Surfing, Newquay
3 Oxford
4 London's markets
5 Whale- and dolphin-watching
6 Castle Howard, Yorkshire
7 Kinloch Castle, Rùm
8 Snowdonia
9 Edinburgh
10 Coasteering (a combination of rock scrambling, cliff-jumping and swimming)

Full story: http://travel.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1801982,00.html

Koala time

sydney harbour

That's why so many people want to live there I suppose!

Classy ozzy furniture

Thought this was funny, just the thing for above the fireplace.

Living the dream

Fellow traveller and millionaire philanthropist Rob Fell surveys his new yacht at St Tropez harbour.

If anyone else has any travel pictures send them over and I'll post them up.

Message from our sponsor: shop at www.hotbunk.com for all your travel needs!

potential drink driver?

Here's Pin in Fiji, trying to endear herself to the locals with a new hat.

I didn't notice at the time but look at the registration of the van behind.

the caves

There are loads of caves around NZ and we went down into the cave system at Waitomo. Some of it has to be done in a boat as a lot of it is flooded. The highlight is probably seeing the gloworms.

They look nice in the dark but in the light you can see the lights are actually created by long strings of snot that are illuminated by a bright light to help the worms catch flies.

Interesting fact: gloworms have no anus. The light they create helps burn up the food they eat. Ironically, once they come out of the cacoon and become flies, they have an anus, but unfortunatly no mouth - so they only live a couple of days.

cats and dogs

At the tiger sanctuary in Thailand.

If the mother dies they use another animal as a substitute mother, usually a dog or bizarely a pig.

It's a wonder they don't tear each other to pieces but as the sign said "see how animal kingdom live together in harmony".

Happy Birthday Pinar!

28 today.

Here she is with the world's biggest bear!

signs

South East Asia is full of strange signs, especuially if they've been translated into English.

One of the funniest ones I saw was a badly-worded warning against falling intop the squating toilets at Bangkok airport toilet, but I wont go there.

These ones were odd enough. No spitting (fair enough) but no sitting - the sign was on a seat.
The other one is for a pig show, of which I also have a video. I actually did see 'pig calculate in 5 language'....and it was very good....but very surreal!

Home

10 hours in the air and 3 more by train.

Even though it's over, I'll try and put a few more of the pictures we couldn't upload while we were away.

just want to be a teddy bear

This is a shop inside ceasars palace that sells cuddly toys. Only problem is, they're just about full size!

They look pretty good but I'm not sure who would want or need a full size wolly mamoth or polar bear - how would you even get it home?

view from our hotel window

Shark Reef

I said in a previous post how big the casinos are. Well, Mandalay Bay is one of the newer ones and is even bigger. As well as all the other stuff I mentioned this one also has a conference centre and a massive reef built inside.

It's weird seeing sharks in a tank full stop, but when they're in the middle of a casino it's even crazier.

We've been to a few shark aquariums on this trip but none had the real big whoppers that this place had. ome of them were bigger than 10 feet apparently.

The animal theme seems to be catching on as the Mirage has a dolphin show (inside) MGM has a glass case with lions in (on the gaming floor) while another which I can remember the name in has those white tigers that ate siegfried or Roy (I can't remember which).

The heat is on

All the talk here at the moment is about the heatwave currently hitting Nevada and Arizona.

Now, it's normally pretty hot here anyway as it's part of the desert but for the last week it's not dipped lower than 104 degrees (40 C).

Yesterday it hit 111 degrees (43 degrees C) and I can honestly say it was the hottest I've ever been. You could literally only walk a few yards and the mteal rims on my sunglasses got so hot that they started burning into my skin and became to warm t0 even touch.

I had a book (inside a bag) but it was so hot that the plastic spine that keeps the pages in completely melted. It's not predicted to get any colder for at least 2 more weeks and meanwhile the roads are melting and water running out.

They've had to shut down the casino waterfalls as you can see from the picture.

Somehow, despite all this, I've caught a cold! The only way we can explain it is the ice-cold air condiioning they use.

1st official photo

We just picked them up but they are so big that I can fit one on the blog.

We also got a custom-made DVD which we've just watched and takes some beating, especially the intorduction they made for us.

"bizim buyuk gun cok mutlu olduk. cok mersi hepsiniz. Merhaba shenay ver hipisin kibrisli" - is that right? bilmem bilmem.

Pinar's Vegas

This is a black and white version of the photo's...

Just to say we had great day/night... I got pretty emotional during the ceremony, and cried.. couldnt even say them properly haha but got them out after a little while...

Anyway, cant believe we're married now... still feel all excited and happy... we extended the trip a couple of days more so we could have a little honeymoon..

Thanks for all the texts from everyone, and cant wait to see you all...

Mr & Mrs

Pinar ouside the chapel in the castle and both of us standing next to the moat.

Pinar is wearing her wedding dress, bought from Macey's, while I'm sporting the classic scaramanga/Roger Moore-era 007 safari suit, complete with flower and silk in the top pocket.

Wedding dinner

Here we are having our wedding dinner. Very nice, but VERY expensive...still at least we didn't have to cater for many people!

Thanks to the Rev. Richard Lee Conrad, who did the honours by the powers vested in him, not by God or the magistrates but by the Nevada gaming commission. Sweet.

By way of a footnote, americans in vegas love any excuse, in fact they postively look for one, to put both arms in the air and shout 'woooooooo'. It's hilarious and intensely annoying in equal measure, but they do it for anything....a win on the tables, a good sports result or just cause they feel like it.

As we got married some of the americans around us started wooooing over us, as did a few who saw us standing at the bar or going into the resteraunt. It's a strange way to congratualte us but we'll take it. They were all surprisingly nice and plesant about it.

PS. At one of the tables I heard a guy, who I presume had won some money shouting: "woooooo, woooooooo alright, alright.....that's right, hardball, hardball baby, I told you, I told you baby, that's right woooooooo...wooooooo god dammit....beers up, beers to the sky wooooooo". He was shouting that just about as loud as you could possibly shout it so I'm not sure if he was talking about our wedding or if he had won a dollar at cards.

Annoyingly Pinar has started doing it now at the slightest prompting. I always try to get them started off by doing one little wooo and getting everyone else to start going crazy.

Pinar, with her hair and make up done

Order of the day

1. First we had the ceremony and the legal formalities.

2. Back to the room for champaigne.

3. Pinar had a go in the casino....even on her wedding day?!

4. Had a meal at the camelot restaurant.

5. Went over to Luxor for some drinks.

6. Went to to beautiful Mandalay Bay hotel to see a show and do some dancing.

PS. You're probably not reading this but thanks to all the americans, canadians and brits who congratulated us and bought all our drinks without even knowing us....espacially Russ and Victoria from British Columbia, Canada.

Honeymoon in vegas

Just like that terrible movie starring Sarah jessica Parker and nick cage we're now having 'a honeymoon in vegas'.

As you can see, here I am celebrating in my suit, elvis glasses (with sideburns), cigar and bottle of bubbly right after the legal ceremony. Pinar wouldn't let me wear it during the actual gig.

Thanks for everybodies messages of support and we're both very happy.

As so many of you have got in touch I thought I better answer some of your questions in one go here, rather than send individual texts.

So here's the answers:

Yes, we do have 'official' pictures but they're not ready yet.

No I wasn't really dressed as Elvis, Tommy Lee or any of that....it was a JOKE.

Yes, you can see the wedding, as they made us a DVD which you can all watch, copy etc.

No it wasn't a drive-thru chapel. The hotel has it's own little church called the Canterbury chapel.

No we're not mad or crazy as most of you seemed to suggest via text. This isn't something we take lightly or just fell into overnight. Because of our situation, we couldn't have a traditional English or cypriot wedding anyway, so this had actually been at the back of our minds for a while.

Because of the religious stuff it only left the option of a registry office wedding and (with no disrespect to people who do that) it just wasn't for us and we wanted something a bit more special to us.

We're really sorry that you all couldn't share our day, particulalrly both sets of our parents who we missed dreadfully on the day, but we know you were there in spirit especially when things got a bit emotoional immediatly after the ceremony.

Anyway,we just couldn't see any other way of doing this and all went well and we had a great, fantastic day.

You can see the hotel, casino and wedding chapel here:

http://www.excalibur.com/weddings/

(PS. look at the website and the medievil theme wedding. I suggested thos one to wind her up and she was ACTUALLY CONSIDERING IT!!)