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Over the last few weeks Thomas has been extensively traveling through Asia.
Shanghai
A short trip in Shanghai. He spent three days there, working on presentations, workshops and a proposal. There was not a lot of time for sight-seeing but he managed to see the Bund by night.
Singapore
Thomas has been several times in Singapore before. So this city did not offer a lot of new impressions. (Maybe the biggest one was to arrive after a long flight and realizing that no hotel room had been booked. The situation could be resolved and he got a place to stay.) Again a two day workshop. He did take some pictures of the more iconic views of Singapore. To be honest, they were all taken from the hotel as there was zero time for anything but work.
Hong Kong
A larger project proposal brought Thomas to several times to Hong Kong. He stayed in the olden part (i.e. Hong Kong proper) and worked in Kowloon. As a consequence the commute offered some impressions to take a few snapshots.
Furthermore we had a chance to meet up with the local team (and ate in a really good restaurant. Watch the sizable crabs and fish from the restaurants aquariums.) We also spend a little bit of time in the Ozone, a bar in the 118th floor of the ICC. Great views from Kowloon to Hong Kong.
Many of the pictures had been taken from the hotel though.
Thailand
A quick visit to Thailand was another first on the list. While there was not a lot of time to see things, it was an interesting place full of nice people. Took few pictures, the most memorable impressions were the many altars throughout the city, the fact that the King and particular the Queen have been on pictured all over the city. People can leave wishes of good health at many locations for the couple. Lastly a picture of the Churning of the Milk Ocean. The sculpture is depicted in the airport in Bangkok.
Melbourne
Last but not least we finally managed to go to the Ferries Wheel that had been erected at the Docklands. The day was not perfect with some rain, but we all enjoyed the peaceful motion and view over Melbourne from the tallest wheel in the southern hemisphere.
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When in Switzerland we had to also visit one of the neighboring countries. There was only time for one so we decided on going to France. Paris! We drove one day from Engelberg to Paris where we had accommodation and a parking reserved. Worked out fine (Note: download google maps are fantastic for trips like these!)
In Paris, the only thing Sydney really wanted to do was to visit the Eiffeltower. We did so and Christy had us booked to have a meal at the restaurant (Restaurant 52). It was marvelous albeit a bit touristy.
The next days we saw a few of the sites, namely the Louvre (from the outside) as well as Notre Dame (from the inside.) We also hopped onto one of the ferries that toured up and down the Seine allowing us to see some of the sights from the river. Occasionally we would take a break, have some dessert and then head back onto the ferry. This was a perfect activity for a rainy day, and raining it was often as can be seen in the pictures.
We also managed to see Champs d'Elysee with the famous Arc the Triomphe. Of course a visit to this street requires to say hello to some of the famous brands. We saw Louis Vuittons which did some seem interested in helping Christy. Soon we left, having "saved" a lot of money by not buying anything.
From the food side we enjoyed some street food, in particular the crepes once we had found a place close by where we could get them.
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It has taken quite some time, just about six years, but we finally made it back to Switzerland to see some family. We got to spend two weeks; two great and memorable weeks.
As always, the trip was very long. This time we flew from Melbourne to Dubai to London to Zurich. This is about 20h of flight or almost 1.5 days of travel. The trip was uneventful. Sydney loved the traveling as always. She jut bunkers down, armed with her iPad and snacks she spends the time watching movies and playing. She does not really sleep; she does not complain and is just her happy herself. That meant she was easy to travel with.
For Christy and me it is getting harder as we get older. Oh well, in the end we all made it an arrived in the evening in Zurich. Having rented a car we drove up to Engelberg where set up camp for our adventures. Christy (and Sydney) loved the location. As we drove up into the mountains snow started to fall (and it got cooler and cooler.)
In the next days we regularly had breakfast with the family before heading out to do things. Being in Engelberg we had to go up to the Titlis (3000m / ~ 10,000ft), to the Glasi, to Lucerne and many more places.
We hope you enjoy our pictures as much as we did when they were taken.
(Note: click on the pictures to see them in full size)
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After a satisfying break in Fiji last Christmas we decided to go and visit there this year again. Again, we chose to break the vacation into two parts. For the first week we stayed in a new hotel. We called the Shangri-La (Old Fijian) our abode. Sydney liked the kids club there and also enjoyed our daily swim time. Sydney and Thomas spent daily a good hour to play around in the sea. (After all she must not swim in chlorinated pools due to her ongoing ear problems.) We were so busy playing in the water that we did not even get our snorkels or masks out.
Christy's birthday fell Into this first period. On this day we hired a (cab) driver who got us to activities that were off the beaten path. This way we got to
- Zip line
- Hike to and bathe in a waterfall in the jungle
- Have a mud bath followed by a massage (for Christy) and
- A great meal at the Hard Rock Café in Nadi
before heading back to the hotel. It was a fun and activity filled day. One of the next days we hired the same driver and visited Sigatoka where we had lunch in a local restaurant.
(note: be patient, buffering the movie takes a while)
On Christmas Day, of course after having opened the remainder of the gifts, we traveled to the Plantation Island Resort. This time the arrival was not as smooth as last year. They "upgraded" us to a pool site studio which we did not want. After all we had requested a quiet place and Sydney would not be able to go to the pool anyway.
After a lot of back and forth we got a place that was suitable. Jill came to visit and stayed until after the New Year. Turned out fine. We managed to finally unpack our snorkels and masks. We went to several snorkeling excursions and even managed to go to a dive trip.
Less exciting was Sydney getting sick. Thanks to Christy having been prepared, Sydney got antibiotics immediately which helped her recovering very fast. In the meantime Christy got however sick. We assume this was food borne and took a lot longer to remediate.
On the 8th of January our vacation came to an end. We took the ferry to Port Denarau where we arrived after a choppy ride. We got our luggage and separated from the group to go back to the Hard Rock Café. We had another meal before Johnny, our driver from the first week picked us up and drove us to the airport. On the positive side, Thomas' loyalty status allowed for a quick fly by through check-in. The flight home was fraught with challenges. We were seated in between a row of young kids whose father let them go wild and a teenager who had his own problems. The former kept poking Sydney and me; they also threw stuff. The latter kept calling the stewards and thrashing around in his seat. It did not help that one of our neighbours had a terrible air of sweat. We made it, again benefited from the loyalty status and passed through the long lines swiftly. We got our luggage (quickly again! Thank you for our luck on this) and headed home.
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During our time in Fiji we also managed to go scuba diving once. Below a movie sequence from our dive in 20m (~65ft) deep water. We used the new GoPro (Hero4) with a red filter to capture the flick. The movies were then combined using GoPro's Editing Software.
(sorry, this player takes a while to buffer the data first)
We spent about 40 minutes under water. The weather we swell with great light and visibility. The corresponding recording was crystal clear and also resulted in brilliant colours as a result of using a red filter for the first time.