The final leg - Thailand

After originally planning to do a bit of travelling around South East Asia we changed out minds and decided on a beach holiday for a rest before we got back to New Zealand. We stayed 2 days in a hotel by the airport as Justin got sick then we made our was to Ko Samet Island which is to the East of Bangkok. This Island is not super touristy like most of the others and is where a lot of Thai people holiday.

Getting there was a bit of a mission! We got the hotel shuttle back to the airport where we were told we could catch a bus. At the airport they told us we needed to bus all the way into Bangkok city to catch another bus so we asked someone else and they said we could get a bus from the airport but we were at the wrong terminal. We caught a shuttle to the right terminal.
Unfortunately the bus we wanted to take had been cancelled and the next one wasnt for another 4 hours so the lady told us to take a different bus part of the way then transfer.
So we ended up getting a bus to Chonburi, which dropped at off the the "bus stop" (a lady sitting on the side of the road at a desk) We then got in a van which took us to Rayong (a lot faster than the bus). From there we had to "taxi" (sitting on bench seats in the back of a ute with lots of other people) to the pier town Ban Phe. We bought tickets for the ferry and were then taken by a motorbike with a side tray to the ferry!
We ended up squeezed onto the ferry sitting up the front with everyones goods from the mainland (I was sitting beside a bag of smoked fish)
We eventually got to the island and had to climb off the ferry onto another boat and then onto the jetty! An eventful trip but worth it as we got there much earlier than if we had have waited for the direct bus from the airport.
We walked down the one long street of the island and bargined a price for a little bungalow with a fan.

Over the next 8 days we sat on the beach and went swimming a lot, watched fire shows at night time and on one day hired a scooter and explored the rest of the island. We were staying in the main part of the island which has shops and a few hotels as well as the biggest beach.
The other parts of the island have 1 or two hotels at each bay and no shops. The roads were shocking, I can see why the only vehicles here are scooters and 4x4 utes!
I got a head cold and slept for a couple of days which is not fun in the crazy heat here.

Overall it was a very relaxing time and we are glad we decided to have a rest before coming home instead of pushing ourselves through some more of South East Asia. Laos, Veitnam and Cambodia will just have to wait for our next trip!

On the ferry back to the mainland we met a Norweigian couple who had bus tickets back to Bangkok which they were no longer using so they gave them to us. The trip back was long and slow but direct and airconditioned!

We checked back into the hotel by the airport and then left the next day. Arrived back in Christchurch with a welcoming party consisting of Mulie, Margaret and Mark.
After stopping in at Aunty Judith's to say hello and drop off all our gear we heaed down to Oamaru for another week of rest and to tell all our stories before we had to go back to work!

Turkey

Due to flying EasyJet, we landed at an airport in the Asian part of Istanbul but we were staying and sightseeing in the European part so we caught a shuttle to our hostel. The trip took a couple of hours, including taking a ferry to avoid the congested bridges...the traffic here is crazy, especially driving around the old (touristy) part of Istanbul where the roads are all narrow, everyone drives fast and there seem to be no road rules at intersections.

Once settled in at our hostel, which is very basic but very close to everything we want too see, we realised we had left 2 bags in the shuttle. After a bit of detective work with the help of the hostel reception we managed to track them down.

That night we booked our trip to Gallipoli and had a taste of real Turkish delight - it doesnt have chocolate on it here, and comes in a few flavours (rose, mint, lemon to name a few) We then spent the evening at the "night cafe" on the basement level of our hostel. The night cafe is open from 6pm till 6am. We were the only ones there so we got talking to the owner and found out lots of interesting stuff about Turkey. We also had our first taste of Turkish food with a Lamb shish kabab and a lamb pide. Both were delicious. Justin also tried the one and only Turkish beer (Efes) and I had an apple tea (they drink a lot of that here).

Breakfast was served every morning at the hostel and consisted of traditional foods including fresh bread, jam, olives, cucumber, boiled eggs and cake.

Our first sight seeing stop was the 'Grand Bazaar' which is a large covered maket with 4000 shops! Very easy to get lost as it has lots of little alleys and about 20 entrances. They mainly sell scarves, rugs, pottery, jewellery and rip off clothing.

The mosques play really loud prayers over load speakers at certain times of the day. Some men stop and get out their prayer mats and pray on the street.

We walked around Hagia Sophia and Aya Irini mosques and around the gardens of Topaki palace. There are a lot of cats on the streets here!

We also saw an Egyptian Hippodrome (a monument) which dates back to 479BC

The next day was suppose to be our Gallipoli trip but they forgot to collect us so we rebooked on the next day tour. Instead we revisited the Grand Bazaar as well as going to the 'Spice bazaar' same idea as the Grand bazaar except they sell turkish delight, herbal teas and spices.

We tried some baklava (another traditional Turkish food) it is a sweet pastry. We had a walnut one and a pistachio one.

Also went into the Blue Mosque today. It is very beautiful and impressively large! The mosques have a caged off area in th back where the women sit while the men pray.

GALLIPOLI
This morning we did get picked up for our tour and found ourselves on a bus with around 20 people, mainly Australians. The drive to Gallipoli is just over 4 hours.

Our guides name was Hasan and he was really passionate and informative which was great.

Our first stop was ANZAC cove which was the main supply landing for the campaign but not actually where most of the ANZACs landed. This happened further road the coast at North Beach which is where the hold the ANZAC day commemorations.

After looking through a cemetery on the way our next stop was Lone Pine where 2000 Australians and 4000 Turks died fighting in trenches that were sometimes only 8 metres apart. Some of the trenches were still there and we got to walk around them.

Next was Shrapnel Valley, the main supply road to the ANZAC front line.

The last stop was Chunuk Bair. This was the objective of the campaign and was taken by only 1000 NZ soldiers due to a hesitation by the British. It was eventually taken back by Turks when the NZ numbers got down to 47. After this the British decided to evacuate from Gallipoli.
Chunuk Bair is where the NZ memorial is and we laid poppies.
We finally got back to our hostel about 11pm and we were leaving the next day.