Time Flies, Lots Happens & Some Special Visitors Arrive

Above - Dubai Madinat lunching on the canal. FS, B2, B3, Jakey, Poppy and B4.

Above - December: Poppy John, B1, B2 & J enjoying some golf at the Palm Sports Resort, Al Ain.

Above - Craig De Randt as Mr. C with B3, J, B1, B2 & B4.

Above - Chrissy morning, pressie time and the boys have hit the jack pot it seems. Mary watches on with excitement.

Above - B3 can't believe his luck and is over the moon that Santa delivered a new bike.

Above - NS and PJ washing the camp pots in a falaj system at Wadi Damm. The falaj is basically the irrigation system running through a palm oasis plantation, we camped the night at the mouth of the Wadi, and whilst it was the only sandy patch in site the sleeping was still a little rocky.

Above - Our majestic camp site in the foothills of some Omani mountains on a misty morning.

Above - PJ with 5/7ths of his grand kids posing in the rock pools at Wadi Damm.

Above - PJ enjoying the cool Wadi pools and waterfalls, Wadi Damm.

Above - B3, B2 and J checking out the 'Bee Hive Tombs' estimated at being built 3500 to 2500BC. Located in the Western Hajar mountains, the tombs are a must see if you find yourself this way.

Above - A spot of trekking through the Western Hajar mountains.

Above - Frosty the Snowman Archie. Year 1 school Xmas concert.

Above - FS, Mally & Lisa with their satellite class getting ready for the Xmas concert.

Above - Sand boarding stack! Maddy, B4 and Michael come flying off the board half way down the dune.

Above - Al Ain U/6 Champions Trophy winners of the Abu Dhabi Youth Tournament. Case, Sherrif, Callum, B3 and Katie.

Above - Try scoring machine B3 bolting for the line chased by the Dubai Hurricanes defence.

Above - Al Ain U/14, 7-a-side Plate Champions, Al Ain Youth Tournament. Coach Piers, Jnr, Taylor, Thomasi, Cosi, Villi, Lachie, Owen, B1 and Delton.

Above - Al Ain U/10 team. B2 front row, third from right.

Above - MOvember, NS and B4 changin' the face of men's health forever.

Above - Kings of Leon concert following Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix; Mick, NS and Karla. Mick is really 6'5", just standing on his knees here!!

Above - Steve Tyler old school rockin' at Aerosmith's last ever concert, closing concert to the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. Smoke machines, fireworks, lights, leather pants and all...awesome!

Above - Yas Marina Circuit, F1 race won by Vettel, Aussie Mark Webber came 2nd.

Above - Halloween in Oyoun Village, B3 (at back), B4, Tommy, Maddy and Ailsa, using cuteness to scam lollies from neighbours.

Above - B4 pirate, Lovis under sheet ghost, B3 grim reaper, B2 Joker.

Above - Lorraine's 30th; bar wench and punk rocker Guy.

Above - The police arrive to breakup the party! FS on bike patrol.

Above - First of 2009/2010 school year. B3 (year 1), B1 (year 8), B4's first day at school (nursery), and B2 (year 5).

Above - Traffic jam in Oman.

Above - Wadi Madbah, biggest waterfall in UAE, not massive but a nice waterhole for swimming in 45c summer weather.

Above - Paintball skirmish for B1's very late b'day party.

Above - Sabrina, FS and Rachael "Are you a Runner Too" Rice after just completing their 22km run through the summer heat of June...43c even during the evening. Has not run a metre since!!

Above - More relaxing than running. Chilling out on a weekend to Fujairah Beach. RR and FS.

Above - Mussandan peninsula, view from the Dhow.

Over the last 6 months I've taken to a fortnightly ritual of heading down to the nearby Indian Barber shop for a haircut and shave. Sounds very simple, it is; it's a nice little perk of living somewhere where there are more barbershops on a single street than there are flies at the local camel market. Don't get me wrong, when i say i go every fortnight for a shave, it doesn't mean I'm not cutting my whiskered face before work each morning, and a haircut is probably an exaggeration, being that the hair on the barber shop floor at the completion of my service would be lucky to give a balding mouse some transplants. But here in lies the perk of the whole thing. You see, the UAE is synonymous with promising much more than it could ever deliver and more often than not, one is left feeling a little short changed, ripped off or maybe having paid for a quality that will never be there. On the other hand, you occasionally find these little gems, such as our little Indian Barber shop, where they know and greet you by your name, the same guy looks after you each time, and yes, the piste-resistance, the glassed off booth, like being seated in the owners box at a Man City game or maybe it's more like being put into a quarantined room in the hospital with a case of Swine flu...either way, you feel a little special.

So, for 25 dibs (about 7 aussie bucks), i get to have my noggin shaved from 1.5mm to 1mm, and whilst i know the job was completed in the first 45 seconds with the electric shaver, my barber man does his best to pretend he is then feverishly snipping loads of hair with his scissors for a further 10 minutes, i close my eyes and think back to the good ol' hair days where this would have actually been the case with 'Bob the Butcher' down on South Creek Rd, doing his best to give every Sydney northern beaches kid a bowl cut and straight fringe (at 14 years old this was compensated by the chance to read the stick mags in his waiting room). Just as I'm about to fall asleep in total relaxation, a sprayer is used to waft fine particles of water across my face in preparation for the facial shave. The cut-throat blade is then produced and like Edward Scissor Hands cutting an ice sculpture, Mr Ayub the Barber Shop Man has a two day growth under control and my face feels like a babies bum.

So where i am going with all this? Back up to my first sentence and the point is, we've actually begun to get into some sense of a routine with our hectic lives here. The quick synopsis of the last 6 months would have me saying that all the boys are all at school and going relatively well, FS is busy teaching at the same school and whilst only being part time, is spending more hours there in a week than she's paid in a month, but she loves it! I've had the opportunity to work on some nice projects

A couple of highlights since returning to the UAE from Thailand have been: FS and Rachael 'are you a runner too' Rice completing their half marathon run. After about 4 months of training (long gossip sessions with intermediate spats of jogging thrown in), they completed the feat one summer evening in temps of 43c. Not a single step of jogging has been completed since, instead the training sessions replaced with shopping sprees??

We've done heaps more little trips including a couple of weekends to Fujeriah's beaches and into Oman, camping a bit in some isolated Wadis and plains, of course the only hassles with camping in the middle east, is the lack of avaliable fire wood, meaning most of the packing room in the car is filled with pre-bought piles of timber to ensure a nice camp fire for the marsh mallows. Wadi Damm remains our favorite spot to date.

A few trips into the desert outside of Al Ain with our mates has provided plenty of laughs too; one highlight being Guy and Lorraine taking their new 4x4 just metres off the dirt road into the sand, only to get bogged. Of course a good friend's misfortune like this is always a great excuse for a laugh and provides plenty of fodder for future ribbing. Adding insult to injury was FS leading a cheering squad during the rescue.

We weren't without our own sand bogging or two either; a quick dune bashing session with the kids after fishing at an isolated oasis saw me get my 4x4 bogged down to both axles and past the doors! After about 4 hours in the hot sun and finished of all our water, we were eventually semi rescued by a passing Pakistani guy who gave us his water, enough to keep us going until FS arrived with Mick 'i like wearing riding chaps' Mcdermott whose contribution was to catch everything on camera as future fodder no doubt.

We waived farewell to some of our friends who's contracts had ended in this largely itinerate environment, sadly this included FS's partner in many crimes, RR. The Rices and Ricicles leaving the UAE for the jungles of Africa, but of course this just gives us the excuse to travel there and say G'day and learn a bit of Swahilii.

The new school term started in September with B1 heading to yr8, B2 into yr5, B3 to yr1 and B4 joining the school in nursery. This is probably the only time we'll ever have all 4 boys at the same school together. B4 earnt the monicker of Part Time George, as the school is particular of all it's students attending fulltime, we chose to send him only 3 days a week and spend the balance at home with FS or with Mary.

The boys started rugby again with the UAE league coinciding with the slightly cooling weather. All the boys are playing good rugby, with both B1 and B2 being named captains of their respective teams and B3 turning out to be a try scoring whiz in the U6's. The rugby club has been a real blessing and a driving force behind keeping some of the homely aspects of living abroad.

Work wise i've been lucky enough to be involved with some great jobs including the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 circuit; lots of impossible deadlines and ridiculous demands all being made worthwild come race day/s. A great spectacular to be a part of, i'd highy reccommend anyone to go to at least one F1 event if given the chance. The post race concerts were great too, including Beyonce (i didn't actully go to see her, instead partying with our good mate Lozza at her cracking 30th/Halloween party), but was stoked to see Kings of Leon and Aerosmith, hanging out with Mick and Karla.

We setup the Middle East Mos for MOvember and raised a tidy 2 grand aussie for the cause. Funny thing was that as the tach' grew i found myself increasingly fixated with licking my lips brushing the hairy catepillar...unfortunatly FS was hardly licking her lips or salavating at the thought of kissing me with a MO, so come December 1 it was straight down to Mr. Ayub the Barber Shop Man for a shave.

The closing of the decade was rounded out for us with a visit from Poppy John and Jakey Ju. We were obviously stoked to have them come stay with us after a year and half since we were last back in Oz. It's a pleasure to have the oppurtunity to play host and tour guide, but most importantly just to hang out and catch up. Jake was full of questions and thought everything was "weird". Poppy couldn't believe how big the 4 boys were, standing on his tippy toes everytime he was near Zach. A back to back test revealing B1 a couple of inches taller! I took Poppy to my Barber shop, but obviously they weren't used to cutting anything other than a bald spike; as Linc said over the video phone during a Xmas day call, "he looks like a dunny brush". We took Jake to see the pet camel we 'bought' him a couple of years back, and the boys enjoyed riding around on 'Frank's' hump. All in all a great trip and we hope to see more family and friends coming over this way soon.

So 2009 is kaput and 2010 looks to have lots on store. We're busy making plans for a few trips including Uganda and Kenya in February and dependant on the work being here, will try to hang around to maybe see another year out and get in some more exploring and new experiances! Hope to see you all here soon, happy new year!!

Sawatdee Krap

Above - Snake-charmer or lunatic with 3 Cobras.

Above - Gold Temple, Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Above - Typical long boat transport with high powered prop blasting through the Khlongs (canals) of Bangkok. Known as the Venice of the East because of the network of khlongs, Bangkok has held firmly to many of it's long held customs including floating markets.

Above - Tuk Tuk travel. Made for 2 or 3 little Thai people, we seemed to squeeze our amazon sized family in some how; the driver and front wheel were sitting 3 feet in the air though.

Above - Celebrating FS's birthday in Chaing Mai Old City.

Above - Local boys swimming in Khlongs; Thaiboxing shorts and undies being the chosen swim wear; these kids would fearlessly dodge the passing boats with the huge outboard props.

Above - Spot the tourists, B2, FS, B3, B4 (back) and NS. We had to hire the pants as shorts weren't allowed to be worn into the Palace grounds.

Above - FS & NS Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Above - Chaing Mai Taxi service, bargain a ridiculously low price to go wherever you want and then lob into the back. Perfect for the big family, and more roomy than the Tuk Tuks.

Above - Budda, The Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Above - 2million steps later we finally reached the top of the Temple at Doi Suthep. Notice B4 asleep in my arms for the climb up. He conveniently woke just at the last step!

Above - MuayThai Kickboxing night. Ring-side seats, wooden benches, Singha beer and great action, a must for any Thailand visitor.

Above - Just like a scene from Indiana Jones. B3 takes grip walking the swing bridge.

Above - Feeding time before the jungle trek.

Above - Elephant Trekking. B1& B2 lead B3 & FS across the river.

Above - River rafting; a couple of small rapids further down stream really tested the strength of the ties holding everything together, but some how we made it back down stream albeit totally drenched.

Above - B4 & FS, Bamboo bridge crossing at the Maewang Waterfall.

Above - Leading a movie star life...FS reads her next script.

Above - White water warriors.

Above - River Kwai, whistle the tune with us....lala, la la la la, la la.

Above - B1 rattling along the Kanchanaburi Rail high in the Thai jungle.

Above - 5 stooges, another awesome waterfall.

Above - Located deep into the jungles surrounding the outskirts of Kanchanaburi, we ended up spending the night on a floating barge during a heavy flood which was pretty freaky, but the backdrop scenery was amazing.

Above - B2, B3, B1 and NS waterfall swimming, Erawan National Park.

Above - FS & NS hurtle down the rock waterfalls in Erawan National Park. The large catfish below would immediately start nibbling our feet, leading FS to jump on and nearly drown me in her efforts to get to the rocks. Funny stuff at the time.

Above - View from the breakfast table, Koh Samui.

Above - Jet ski action, B3, NS & B2, Chewang Beach.

Above - Traditional Thai dance, Koh Samui.

Above - Robyn, FS, B1, &B2 lighting the beach lantern and ready for take off.

Above - Head Dip Madness. A little scary to watch but a bloody amazing show at the croc park. These guys are seriously mad, heavy scarred with lacerations and missing fingers from less manageable crocs. No second chances with the head dip trick though!

Above - Snake Wrangler NS with friendly Burmese Python.

Above - Croc Hunters, B3 & B2.

Above - I'm a Virgo, 5'6", have great legs, B-cup boobs, Long dark hair, love to dance....oh, and i have a penis. LadyBoy dance troupe!

Above - Robyn and FS enjoy a beach massage, Chewang.

Straight from the airport home from Maldives, to grab FS and the boys, then back to the airport to fly out for our much waited trip to Thailand, yeh baby! Finally getting to test run our back packs, FS and i feel like 20 year olds embarking on our gap year trip around the world, of course not too many 20 year olds have their 4 kids in tow, and B1 thought we were just very embarrassing!! All the kids had their own back packs, albeit that B4's was purely for toys and B3 was carrying the dirty laundry pack.

Despite a bit of jet lag, we checked in to our hotel in Bangkok and then headed straight out to check the scene, using the SRT (railway). We had a general plan of where we wanted to go but had only booked our first couple of nights in Bangkok and our last week or so accommodation on Koh Samui Island, meaning the filling 2 or weeks were pretty fluid.

It's just got to be noted from the outset, that the Thai people are some of the friendliest, happiest, funny and easy people on our planet. Over the entire trip, through jungles, cities, beaches, temples, the poor, the rich, the dancers, the waiters, the market stalls, the side walk pros, the taxi drivers and the monks, everyone had a smile and would go out of their way to help or talk to you about their country; of course a few baht always helped the cause.

Our first few days in Bangkok were great fun, and what a cool city to travel in. We rode the long boats through the khlongs, checking out the floating markets, making offerings to the huge catfish that swarmed nearby to canal side budda temples. We stopped at a tiny zoo, where human/wild animal interaction was a little too full-on, from B2 getting to wrestle a large python, turning my head to see B4 climbing the 4 foot high wall separating him from a 20ft croc, to B3 about to hand feed a black bear and then finding FS in hysterical laughter at the masturbating gibbon. Still in Bangkok, we visited the Grand Palace, which was a great insight into the workings of the Buddhist faith, their beliefs and practises.

We were surprised one evening coming back from another fanbloodytastic meal, at the huge numbers of people out exercising in the public parks. Coming from the UAE, where you hardly, if ever, see anyone running or walking a dog or generally even outdoors, this was a real standout. Just as we're admiring the masses going through their routines, the Thai National anthem started blaring from all the park speakers. Absolutely everybody came to a perfect stand still, like silent statues. It felt like one of those internet stages where people prearrange themselves to simultaneuously stop in a train station. Turns out this occurs every evening at 6pm.

A couple of days later we catch the overnight train from Bangkok station to Chaing Mai, a 15hour trip, but great fun on the train, with the seats converting to bunks for a night of ZZZzz's. Of course there were heaps of back packers (early 20's) doing this trip, as it's cheap and rough, so it was a bit of a chuff to throw our backpacks around, embarressing B1 of course. FS is so excited, and keeps talking about travelling through Europe and UK as a family of backpackers...B1 rolls his eyes at the thought...I quickly convert that when travelling with a family of 6, there is no such thing as cheap and cheerful, even taking the backpacking route, but like FS though, I can't wait!

I was expecting a city of buildings and surrounding industial areas when we reached Chaing Mai, so am just so pleasantly surprised to find that Chaing Mai, built around the moted 'Old City' is mostly low rise and very very laid back, and sooo inexpensive. We stay in Chaing Mai a little over a week, but frankly could have stayed for several months very happily.

Our days are spent mostly travelling the outskirts and jungle regions surrounding Chaing Mai, such as an hour or so north, we took some elephants through the jungle, just amazing creatures with unbelievable agility and balance, even on the steepest and muddiest slopes. B4 was in uncontrollable fits of laughter every time the elephants trumpeted a fart. We then took a bamboo raft back down stream. This is in the middle of nowhere, and seeing a few farmers working in their nearby rice feilds was the only civilisation we encountered, before the shear cliffs with clinging jungle became the back drop again. We finished the day with a few hours guided trekking, coming across the 'Karen' tribe, not actually Thai nationals the tribe comes from China, but are supported by the Thai Gov't to grow rice instead of the old school crops of Poppys,for opium production. During the walk we also come across the Maewang waterfall which is magnificent for a cooling swim.

Other days we went white water rafting, a day at the zoo and a bit of chilling out too, just to recharge the batteries. Fran snuck off for a couple of massages, one noteable one being run by the women's prison for rehabilitating former female prisoners. Essentially this is just a good system of giving the women training for reentering society, rather than turning back to crime, and it seems everyone in Thailand gets a massage near daily.

I too went for a massage at a reputable establishment in Chaing Mai, hoping to ease some of the accumulated soreness from our adventures to date. "Sawatdee Krapp, just a 1 hour body and shoulder massage thanks", i request before as with everything in Thailand, we negotiate a fair price for the service. Ahh yes, time for a bit of relaxation and a nice soft massage. Laying down on the mat, nothing could have prepared me for the onslaught of knees, elbows, shins and what ever the hell else was being used to grind my joints and muslces to powder. So much for relaxing, it took every ounce of concentration to stop myself from screaming like a girl who'd fallen off a bike. Thorough wasn't the word; painstakingly i was worked over every vertebra, joint and muscle for over an hour and half (she must have been working on a tip), the head rest was wet with perspiration from the pain...it could also have been tears, i don't really know. When my body was reduced to nothing more than a skin covered rag doll, she announced the massage done and ask if it was good. I slowly rolled over, my eyes falling back into their sockets, my hand wiping away the sweat from my brow. I achingly dragged myself upright to see the massuse smiling, waiting to hear my response. "yes, it was lovely, i enjoyed it very much Khop Khoon Krapp", i ly to her. I end up paying more than we agreed anyway; not because there was any obligation, i was just gratefull i could still walk after such a pumbling.

We spend most of the evenings visting the markets after a great deal of Thai cuisine, and manage to get to a MauyThai kickboxing tournament which is great fun to be at. B1, B2 and B3 came with me and especially liked the 'special'fight where 4 guys are placed into the ring, all blind-folded and only allowed to hit as if doing dog-paddle. It makes for a hilarious specticle, most of the guys tripping over themselves or attacking the ref.

It's sad to leave Chaing Mai, but we take the train back to Bangkok and head straight out to the River Kwai, visiting the war memorial of the 9,000 POW's that died building the railway line and infamous bridge over the River Kwai. We head a little further up the road of Kanchanaburi to the also infamous Death Railway, and take the train up into the highlands. The scenery is spectacular, nearly everything is engulfed by the jungle and we pass winding rivers in flood. Our only dodgy accomodation of the entire trip is spent actually on the flooding river. We board a barge with a few thatch cabins clinging to the timber floats and assume this is where one of the river boats will collect us from. We are literally in the middle of the jungle and the fella simply gives us a couple of keys to the thatch rooms. This IS the accomodation we realise, and FS is so panickied by the thing that she straps B4's bubble to him for the entire evening. We travel up to the Erawan National Park which has some amazing waterfalls where we swim and slide down the rocks into crystal clear pools filled with huge catfish. The water is quite cool and a welcome relief to the humid jungle.

Our last week in Thailand, we fly down south to the island of Koh Samui. A great way to round out an adventure packed holiday, by lounging on the beach and taking advantge of all the great facilities of the resort where we stay. Fran's mum, Robyn flies in from Australia to join us, or was it to take advantage of the great shopping bargains? Robyn is a notorius shopper; and short of plastering posters picturing her face all over the island, all the hawkers and market stall owners knew her on a first name basis by the end of the week.

Ko Samui really is a relaxing time, and besides a couple of visits to snake and croc parks, we spend most of the time swimming on the beach, sipping cocktails and eating out.

What a great place!! And as they say in Thailand, "Khop Khoon Krap".