Siam Reap to Pnom Penh 4 July - Maverick scribed by John

The family are travelling from Siam Reap to Phnom Penh today in Cambodia. Their plan was a boat trip but as the rains are a month late there isn't enough water in the river. So they've booked a van for the trip but when it turns up it is just a car an not enough seats so they won't agree to get in. The driver is very angry but the family head to the bus station and get on a very old looking bus for a 6 hour ride to the capital city
.
Looking out the window I see lots of very traditional stilt houses with thatched roofs and woven walls as we pass through the countryside. The road is so rough I can hardly hold onto my perch as we go through 2 hours of roadworks. It's so bouncy that one of Johns fillings falls out! He's not happy.

Everyone arrives shaken up at the bus station and get into tuk tuks to the hotel at which point the heaviest rain anyone has seen starts to pour from the sky. The tuk tuks have roll down fabric sides that zip together to keep my feathers nice and dry. Arriving at the hotel, it is very smart. The 'room' has 6 different spaces in it - 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. The best bit is that there is a washing machine!  John finds an emergency dentist and gets his beak fixed for $US75 which isn't bad for X-rays and at 5pm on a Saturday then everyone heads out to a traditional dance evening.

We arrive a slightly late as we go to the wrong address first but are soon entranced by an amazing set of dances which tell stories of local life. My favourite was the Peacock dance - but I'm biased! There was a stick dance where a rhythm of  loud 'clacks' was made by 2 performers banging long poles together just after the dancers had cleverly hopped in and out between the poles. No one got their feet trapped, even when it got faster and faster!

After the performance everyone is hungry and the family find an place that has 'English Pub Food' the menu looks ok but the Toad in the Hole is disappointing as the toad, I'm told, was too solid. It didn't even look like a toad I the first place if you ask me. John had burger, sausage, egg, chips and beans which bought a smile to his face. A short walk along the street and we are back at the hotel and ready for bed

A Day of Temples 3 July Angkor Wat. Maverick scribed by Lucy

Squaaaark! It's me again, the amazing flying kakapo! or just Maverick. I am really getting sick of that screaming chicken,and the really weird part is that all the children back at my hometown in Glenorchy really want a chicken like it! They must not realise how annoying it is. Anyway, that isn't relevant, I'll tell you what happened today...

Today we woke up, had breakfast and went to some temples.

The end

Toni: "Maverick, stop being lazy and write in more detail."

Maverick: "squark, squar, skwaark!"

Toni: "Stop making excuses, you can't even have a tooth-ache."

Maverick: "Squaaaaark!"

Toni: " Or a feather-ache. That's it, enough excuses, if you don't cooperate I'll set the chicken on you."

Maverick: " Squark! " *sound of claws tapping the iPad screen

A Day of Temples Mark ll

Squaark! It's me, the apparently lazy, but actually amazing and in disgrace kakapo, Maverick.

Today we got up out of bed and headed to breakfast. For breakfast Lucy had toast and crossoints and some other stuff like that. Everyone else had American breakfast. (Bacon, eggs, toast, jam, butter and sausage.) After breakfast we got ready for a day of temple exploration. (Personally, this didn't sound like a great idea at the time) At about 9:30, our tour guide James came with a minivan. (Now there are two humans called James,) and took us to the first and the biggest temple, Angkor Wat.

Not so small James, Lucy and Toni didn't have hats so, donning their umbrellas we all paraded down the bridge. Did I mention that Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat? I guess not. Anyway, while walking down the bridge, a monkey ran along the bridge as well. It was quite a small monkey, and I suspected that this was not the last monkey we would see today. After crossing the bridge, we came to the entrance of the temple.

We saw two pools on either side of the entrance in some grassy fields below, (the temple was higher that ground level.) also, there were some horses wearing a decorative halter and saddle. There were a sorry looking bunch, looking hungry and bored, Some people even paid to sit on their  backs while their photo was taken! In other words, those horses were just unfortunate.

 Anywho, at the entrance the bannisters were stone, like the rest of the temple, though when the bannisters ended A snake with seven heads rose up from the bannisters, James said that the bannisters were actually seven headed stone snakes. He explained that the seven heads each stood for one day of the week. Then we walked inside. It was amazing! The carvings were (almost) perfectly preserved and I think the temple was safe, I'm still alive, so I guess that's fine. Many of the carvings were about war or women. One of the most famous carvings is about two gods fighting over a giant snake with giant armies. That temple was huge! After leaving that temple we went to the second temple.

 Monkeys were everywhere! We were told not to go to close to them because the monkeys were unpredictable, meaning that sometimes if you tried to pet them, they would literally rip you to shreds. They were even more dangerous than a wild pig. Passing the monkeys, we came to the entrance to the Bayan Temple. To start off with, this temple was much, much smaller, and it didn't have a moat. James the tour guide said that this temple's roof was burned down in a war. So there wasn't a roof anymore. This temple also had snake bannisters. At some points there were face-towers things.

There were places you could stand and three of the face towers would line up. This temple was a Hindu temple where as the first temple was a Buda temple. This temple Was also in repairs, and many parts of the temple were crumbling. The carvings here represented healing, princes and getting ready for war. (Well, that's what it looked like to me.) Toni, John and Lucy looked around some more while Big James took James and Sam to the toilets. Then we hit the road again.

The last temple... Some people say that you save the best for last but I say that all of these temples were fabulous. The last temple was rather interesting I must say, in fact, if you have seen the movie 'Tomb Raider' it is the temple where they find the second part of the triangle of time. (Spoiler alert!) in other words, it was a cool temple where people were restoring places and giant trees were growing everywhere. In this temple there was a place where a tree was growing and in the roots there was a natural gap where in the rock behind, it looked like a women was peering out between the roots. After looking at the parts of the temple we could see and looking at the worlds biggest trees, we got in the minivan

and drove home.

The Part of the Day that Didn't Include Temples      

We swam and had dinner with a friend.

The end

Maverick: Squaaaar, Zzzzzz Squaaaar, Zzzzzz

Toni: "I warned you Maverick."

Chicken: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH ( watch video to actually hear chicken. )

Maverick: "Squaark! Really? I was just having a nap!"

Toni: "Maverick I warned you, so write the rest of the blog!"

Maverick: " Ok, Ok, keep your feathers on, I'll keep writing it."

The Part of the Day that Didn't Include Temples Mark ll

When we arrived at the hotel, we had time for a quite swim before meeting a friend at dinner. (Of course I didn't swim, chlorine is so bad for my feathers. ) When the kids had finished swimming we all got dressed for the occasion, (even me)

Toni bought some kakapo pins in her bag, and we were ready to go. Sorry, I should explain the kakapo pins. Toni bought about fifty mini kakapo pins with her when we started the trip and has been giving them to people who we meet. So anyway, we got a tuk-tuk and went to where we were meeting our friend, who, by the way, was called Scott and yes, he was from Scotland. When we got to the place we planned to have dinner... Disaster struck! The place we were going to have dinner was closed! Luckily, we managed to get hold of Scott and organise to have dinner down the road.

We had dinner at a place called Palm Leaf or something like that. The dinner was pretty good and we enjoyed seeing Scott. We had ice cream for dessert, and then just talked, and talked, and talked. Then we took a tuk-tuk home and went to sleep.

I guess that that is all I will write for now and *yawn I'm really tired I guess I'll just lie dow... Squaaaar, Zzzzzz

Squaaaar Zzzzzz

Hoi An - 6 July Maverick scribed by Toni

After a busy day of traveling yesterday, we were already for a lie in.  Well, that is as much as you can when the street callers wake you up at 5:00 a.m. Apparently in this seaside village they call all the Vietnamese awake to start the day and get them all motivated to make the best of the coolest part of the day.  We all dosed until around 7:30 am - even me and I’m supposed to be nocturnal.  We plied ourselves from our hard wooden beds, showered and came downstairs for breakfast.  Hung, the owner along with his father cooked us a yummy feast of eggs and bacon, salad and fruit accompanied by the best bread so far on the trip.  Lucy sneaked a few crunchy pieces with pineapple jam to me – total yumminess.

Full of breakfast it was time to hit the beach.  We passed by the small restaurant opposite the hotel and I sat and watched as the children ran in an out of the surf for the next 2 hours until my feathers were soggy and I am quite sure my old Kakapo skin received a little too much sun. 

A light lunch of spring rolls and salad (plenty for me too).  Now in Hoi An, one should take it easy in the middle of the day, as it is apparently to

hot – I kind of agree, aside for this being my sleep time, 38 degrees is not too appealing. 

At this point a great discovery is made.  The in-house entertainment system. Each room is fitted with satellite TV as well as a movie hard drive box with lots of box office hits – if this is a kosher system, this would be awesome for Kinloch Lodge.  The kids settled down to Tomb Raider to see the scenes set at Angkor Wat, and Toni and John watched this as well. 

As the sun cooled down to a more liveable 35 degrees it was time to hit Hoi An by taxi.  Hoi An is a living World Heritage site where the preserved part of the city is just for people on foot and on bikes.  To make things more pleasant for tourists and to encourage more relaxed buying classic piano hits are piped through the streets.  There is something very weird about listening to Czardas, though I guess Chopin fits with the French Heritage.  Whether it has been cleared up for tourists or not, Hoi An is a lovely place to spend time.  The people here are very relaxed and friendly.  The atmosphere is glorious with little lanterns everywhere lighting up all the streets and curio shops.  One still needs to bargain hard here as prices can be very different depending on where you go and your bargaining skills.  Toni is not feeling great today, her neck is really sore after too much time on a bus and a very hard bed and a not great pillow.  Perhaps she is just getting old!

After much walking around the beautiful town though not looking at any of the actual sites several hours passed.  Lucy bought some purple pants for $8 and John continued his pursuit of a very large belt to ensure his very large trousers stay up.

John and the kids relented and ate burgers, fries and pizza whilst Toni stuck to Hoi An noodles.  A quick taxi back and everyone was glad to relax and fall asleep for the few hours until the next assault on the ears….

Bangkok 1 July - Maverick scribed by Toni

Good morning world.  As a large parrot I need my space and this is a concrete jungle!  Oh for the trees… Bangkok is apparently not nearly as bad as used to be according to Toni.  She remembers smog filled streets and traffic chaos, as cities go this isn’t too bad.

As it is 1 July, Toni has a bit of administration to do – mainly wages as we need to pay our wonderful staff back at Kinloch.  This is a bit of a complex thing to do as the access key for logging onto the cloud with Netpay is sent to Toni’s mobile so this means that Portia needs to email Toni straight away before this expires.  There are three new fabulous casual staff to add and 4 pages of input for each one.  John is going a little stir crazy waiting for Toni and personally I need my morning walk as well.  Toni points out to John that this is an extra day and we should use this to catch up.

The afternoon is spent sorting out Lucy’s phone.  A rather unfortunate incident of water in the bag in the minor splash zone at Water world, Universal Studios caused Lucy and James’s phones to stop working so consequently they were without their cameras.  James’s phone luckily dried out though

Lucy’s phone would not budge.  What service, straight to Samsung customer service to have it looked at.  They determined that it would cost more than the phone was worth to replace this, gave us a quotation and consequently we hit the ‘Power Mall’ to choose Lucy a new phone.

During this process the kids were introduced to Vietnamese food in the massive food hall.  I quite approve of these tasty treats.  Lots of interesting flavoured nuts and veges wrapped in clear pancakes.  Too much hot sauce turned me into a turbo-charged parrot and this was much needed as the process of getting home left a lot to be desired.  John left early to grab the visas rather than hang out with the children looking into phones.  By the time the kids were ready to go, they queued for a taxi for 20 minutes and gave up.  Hit the MTR, then gave up and walked faster than the traffic down the road towards Sukhimvit.

Eventually the traffic started to move and cabs became available so it was 45 minutes through traffic back to the Charming Apartment.

Straight to the rooftop to the pool and to watch the sun setting over Bangkok ready for another day.

Dinner was had at a street restaurant with a Korean style chicken BBQ.  No-one wanted to stay up!

Royal Palace Cruise Halong Bay 11 July - Maverick scribed by Toni

Now if you are going just 150 kilometres one might expect that if you leave at 7:30 a.m. one would expect to arrive in a couple of hours, though this is Vietnam.

We woke to pouring rain and a more relaxing 27 degree temperature.  I made sure I was up as by now, I am thoroughly used to this wonderful French bread and bits of Strawberry jam that Lucy sneaks to me under the table.  I am going to need lots of encouragement as Kakapos may not fly, though going on a boat is even more foreign to my Ultra Ancient feathers.

After breakfast a taxi takes us all to the office of Royal Palace Cruises and we are sent straight onto the bus at 7:50 am so we can collect up the other guests who are off cruising with us in Halong Bay.  For an hour we cruise the streets of the Old Quarter in the pouring rain collecting bedraggled tourists running or sporting umbrellas trying to make it from their hotels to the bus without getting wet.  After about an hour we are finally heading to Halong to board our bus.  By about 10 a.m. having been on the bus for 2 hours and having been given water, poor little Sammy is desperate for a wee and had to wait another 40 minutes.  

We stopped at a horrid big tourist shop so that those who hadn't been to the markets could buy lots of things at ridiculously inflated prices filling the coffers of the corrupt rich whilst leaving the locals working long hours in virtual poverty.

Another two hours and we finally arrive at Port.  Port chaos ensues! Line up!, follow the guide, don’t stray! Must do this, cannot do that! – 5 hours after the horrid drive with scratchy kids, getting on a little boat we wonder what we have let ourselves in for. Needles to say there wasn't a lifejacket for me and the guide expects me to fly if I get in to trouble, Oh well, hopefully we won't capsize.  Now the family soon realise that "This is not Read Journeys!  The thing that is keeping me going is that it should be good as there are really good Trip Advisor reviews.  Just for the records I am not only highly opinionated, I am very well read and I always do my research.

Finally at the boat, we are given our keys and a refreshing towel and we eventually eat lunch at 2:00 p.m.  Lots of veges for me and all sorts of seafood and things for the family.  With food finally in them moods improve and the children are ready for kayaking.

Sam and Toni head out in one kayak whilst Lucy and James head out in another and John accompanies a young Israeli boy away with his parents. Being on a kayak is heavenly I can see out of the front over Sammy's splashing paddles and we head towards caves, past floating villages and towering limestone cliffs.  I have to say this is parrot awe!

The kids are hanging out for a swim and as soon as we get back to the boat, they are allowed to swim and jump off the boat.  Bombs and dives ensue and a refreshing swim is had by all

After showers it is again time for getting to know everyone prior to dinner.  We are all summoned to the sunset drink to welcome everyone.  We meet a lot of people and we find we have the United Nations of boats, Jake and Keri from Australia, Julie and Graham (English) from France another couple from France, Jamie and Ahmed from London, Phil from South Africa and his girlfriend  Cristina from Spain, Marion and Paul from Ireland, Kim and her family from America (Vietnamese) and a family from Israel.  OK – no South Americans though plenty of variety.

After dinner we are promised karaoke and partying and we all sigh with loathing.  Dinner is delicious though everyone is so tired, that the rooms beckon and very quickly everyone is asleep.

As a Kakapo inauguration into boating, I have to say, that whereas I can never see  myself as a pirates parrot, I could definitely welcome the odd salty excursion.  Night night everyone – I am off in search of the local delicacy for parrots of crunchy cockroaches.  Sleep tight.

Bangkok 30 June - Marverick scribed by James

Squuuaaaarrrk

Maverick reporting here in Bangkok for the second day. The khicken has been little use to us and has nearly been forgotten I kan't wait till they send off that wretched beast. We had breakfast cereal with fruit ,yoghurt and muesli without fruit.

Later after breakfast we all went to terminal 21 which is really kool they have nine floors with a cinema an top and all the floors are different kountry's the ground floor is the Karibbean then the floor up is Rome and the third floor is San Francisco and the fourth is Paris and so forth. We spent the half the day there mainly shopping and returned home.

The kids started kocktail hour at six o'clock like usual then the adults followed. After kocktail hour Toni and John set out to get some street food and returned with baby korn and deep fried prawns with vegetables. After dinner John and James got the keyboard connected to garage band. Toni was impressed because of no delay in between the iPad and keyboard.

At Nine o'clock the family had gone to bed but not asleep you could hear the boys telling stories and the parents still planning the trip but around half an hour later the apartment was silent apart from the snoring that was like thunder but overtime I as well fell asleep on my perch.

Phuket to Bangkok 29 June - Maverick scribed by John

Squaaarkk! 5.30am early start for the family who pack up in under 10 minutes, eat left over dinner for breakfast and crawl into a taxi to the airport. John has preordered pancakes on the plane for the kids, sandwiches for the grown ups but nothing for me - not even a handful of birdseed......

John has spent ages online looking at best way from airport to Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok where the humans need to apply for visas. The express train he was planning on goes from the new airport. Seems we're at the old one, now used by cheap airlines. Oops. Anyway we get to go on a bus and a skytrain both of which fly high above ground level on huge concrete supports 2 or 3 levels high.

John has read up on where to get passport photos for the visas, but the place doesn't exist. By the time the forms are filled in and the photos taken the office closes for lunch which will mean an extra night in Bangkok.

For some strange reason, the family decide to walk to their apartment. It doesn't seem far on Johns map. Eventually they give up and get a taxi which takes ages to find it. John doesn't seem too happy.....

The humans need food and set off to find nourishment and walk around in circles for a bit before sitting down at the 'Happy Parrot Cafe'. As a fellow parrot I'm ashamed to report the food was dreadful!

The afternoon turns out much better and everyone cheers up. John hands in the visa forms and finds much shorter way to the apartment, Toni and the kids find a huuuuge shopping centre themed after an airport! Phone internet access is restored, provisions purchased and everyone is reunited once again.

The roof of the building has a handy swimming pool which the kids enjoy. The tower next door looks like the building from the end of Ghostbusters, which is appropriate as everyone goes out the cinema that night. Everyone stands up for the Kings anthem and then we watch Jurassic World which reminded me a bit of my home back in the days of the Moas.

Late to bed at the end of a long day that finished much better than it started. Night night all.