When we woke up the sky was clear and we could see across to the glaciers and mountains. We knew it!! Today would be our skydive day at last! So with this in our minds we were up early and went straight to Lake Matheson where there were less sand-flies trying to attack us. We enjoyed a walk around the lake and then contacted Franz Josef Skydive to see if they had a slot for us that morning. We were booked in for 11am.

We got to the skydive office before 11am, filled out some forms and signed our lives away! Note they do not take responsibility for any personal accidents/death! Eek! We opted for a photographer each with DVD footage of our dive, this would be a one in a lifetime experience and we wanted to keep a record. We felt pretty relieved when a 50+ year old couple booked on to the 15,000ft and a 60+ year old lady who booked onto a 12,000ft dive. If they could do it…Well so could we!?

After nervous chat we piled into their van and were transported to the airfield which is in between Franz Josef and Fox Glacier accompanied by a hip hop beat! When we got to the airfield we met our tandem dive instructors, it all got a little confusing at first as Helen’s instructor thought we were on the first dive and started prepping only to then find out we were on the second dive. It seemed to distress him more than us, we would be very prepared by the time we got on the flight. This did mean though that being in the second group we weren’t due to take off for another 45 minutes or so… More waiting!

After the first group went up we sat and watched the little plane going upwards and eventually we picked out a few of the parachutes opening coming down for the last part of their dive. It wasn’t long before they were all back at airfield and we could tell from their expressions that they loved it – these were the oldies aswell!

So now it was our turn, we got prepped once again; Helen was with Mark a 6ft8 giant who was like a cool uncle, whilst Dave was teamed up with Crusher, a 30-something adrenaline junky. We were paired well!

We had a brief chat with the camera-men and felt like we were being interviews for a reality TV show. All geared up we loaded onto the plane, with 7 of us boarding including the pilot. It was pretty cramped inside the small body of the plane but Mark was very calming and helpful, he did a good job at explaining everything to Helen and as they were strapped on pretty close she felt secure, along with the knowledge that he’d already done over 10,000 jumps in the last 15 years. Dave and Crusher were calm and having a good chat as the plane started to ascend. We enjoyed a fantastic flight over the Franz Josef Glacier and mountain range which took around 15-20 minutes, all the while cameras in our faces and nerves gathering more and more.

At 12,000ft a German girl was ready to go, she had a female instructor with her and they were sat in the doorway waiting for the door to open. As it did she looked terrified and uttered ‘Oh God…Oh God!’ over and over, Dave and I looked at each other and started laughing. It was a nervous laugh but her face and tone was hilarious! We were just thinking…Oh Shit! It’s us next! And then we got the 2 minute countdown, Helen was to jump first, the adrenaline was racing and we were both instructed to wear the oxygen masks. Again Helen felt calmed by the big man right behind her.

It was time to jump and the door opened, Helen and Mark were on the doors edge with the cameraman in her face sat on the wing, it was one last shot before dropping out of the plane and then they went. Dave just watched as Helen flew out of the plane below. Meanwhile Helen was already into her free-fall, looking up to find the photographer right there in front of her face. It felt really weird to start with, nothing like a roller coaster, just the fear of dropping out at 15,000ft. But when free falling it felt like we were still in time, except for the noise rattling around our heads which was the sheer force of air.

Not long after Helen was out and free falling Dave was in the air too, spinning with Crusher and trying to take it all in and enjoy the moment. We both did this to the max, and we think from our DVD footage this is pretty clear. What the hell all those hand gestures were about we don’t know, we were just trying to interact with the cameramen and enjoy it as much as we could.

After around 60 seconds of free-fall it was time for the parachutes to go up, this wasn’t quite as jerky was we thought it was going to be. Waving goodbye to the cameramen we were hoisted upwards and then we were gliding. This part of the dive was much calmer and equally as exhilarating, we had a parachute guide to the sights around us and neither of us could quite believe it was happening. We both had the chance to steer the parachute and feel the force of changing direction. And we could both see each other as we were making our way down.

Landing the dive was fun, legs up in the air and then we were on the ground. When you’re attached to the tandem instructor it all becomes so easy. After a few giddy moments we were chatting away to the camera-men once again and then having a few more photos taken. It was all over pretty fast but we absolutely loved the experience and watching the DVD over and over makes us laugh every time. We think this is something everyone should do in their lifetime! The Franz Josef Skydive team were excellent to work with, really informative and made the whole experience fun and very worth while. It was a sting to the wallets at $599 each but it was well worth it for the experience, the sights, the DVD and the dodgy facial expressions captured on the photographs.

We hope you enjoy the movies! Merry Christmas from us both!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3) Photographs and DVD footage of the free-fall were produced by Skydive Franz.

We started the day with our customary Luang Prabang breakfast; JoMa’s cinnamon and raisin bagel with jam, followed by oats, fruit and yoghurt. Our pick up was at 11.10am and off we went to the airport. The whole process was very smooth indeed and by 2.30pm we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Bliss.

A taxi took us from the airport to Julie’s guesthouse in the south-east area of the old town in Chiang Mai. They had a few rooms available and saving cash we opted for a triple for the night at 270 baht between the 3 of us. We spent that day sorting out things for the next few days of our trip with the most important on the list being a good cooking class. Helen has done the class in one of the many schools before and so we wanted to do one that was a little different. We booked a full day class for the 3rd with the Thai Farm Cooking School, costing us 1900 baht each, a little more pricey than some but with the experience of cooking at the farm and getting away from the city for the day. Other things we looked into were possible elephant sanctuary’s and buses to Pai. There are so many tours to choose from half the time it’s just a case of getting the price you want to pay for a tour that looks good value. The food choices in Chiang Mai are very good with a wide range of thai and international restaurants to choose from. We opted for a local cafe style restaurant for some long awaited authentic Pad Thai and Papaya salad.

We booked minivan tickets from Julie’s for 180 baht each to take us on the morning of the 4th so we had a few days to play in Chiang Mai before the next part of our adventures. We took in more temples, this time in Thai style design, and recognised some elements that have been taken into some of the temples we saw in Laos. We picked up a Thailand Lonely Planet second hand and paid more than we should have, only to realise this later on and we found a few useful camera accessory items from Paantip Plaza near to where the Night Bazaare starts from the east side. We explored the busy night bazaare and bargained for a fake north-face rucksack, hoping that it lasts! We asked at Julie’s about swapping to single rooms but they were very vague and we couldn’t help but think they had rooms available but were waiting for people booking treks and tours with them to use up the room allocation. This happens a lot in Chiang Mai.

The cooking class took place on the 3rd and we were picked up from Julie’s as part of the package. Our tour guide Tommy talked us through the day and explained that he would also be our chef for the day too. He was a real charmer with the ladies and had a good sense of humour to go with it. We started the tour by going to one of the markets a little out of town, we were really surprised by the organisation and cleanliness of the market. Tommy talked us through traditional Thai foods used on a regular basis, rice, sticky rice, fish sauce, coconut, curry pastes and so on. We then explored the market ourselves for a short while before continuing onto the farm. A couple on the tour bought some deep friend insects and frogs and managed to pass them around on the bus causing intrigue and disgust.

The farm is really nicely located around 45 minutes from Chiang Mai, we were introduced to the vegetable gardens and talked through the various herbs, fruits and vegetables growing there. Our first task was to make curry paste for our curry of choice, Dave chose green curry and Helen yellow curry. We bashed away with a mortar and pestle for around 10 minutes until all ingredients were nicely combined into a paste, some of which were chillies; fresh and dried, kaffir lime, galangal and garlic (many more went into each one!!) turmeric being the one that makes the yellow curry go yellow!

Once the pastes were made we went into the kitchen and started on the mains. We all chose from a selection of 3 different dishes per course and so have 5 in total to cook. We chose different options on purpose so we could try different things. The mains being green and yellow curry, a soup either traditional Thai or Tom Yum, a stir-fired dish, papaya salad, a noodle dish and a dessert. By the end of the day we had cooked and eaten most of our food including the dessert and we had pad thai and noodle dishes ready to take away and eat later on. It was a good course and we’d recommend this school to anyone looking for a cookery get away.

We enjoyed Thai massages that evening along with a few people who had joined us on the course. This is something you must do when you come to Thailand; have a Thai massage. Helen opted for an oil body massage which was very good indeed, and Dave enjoyed a more hardy traditional Thai one, both costing in total 400 baht. Not bad! We went to a salon called Panna which is located near to the eastern gate and we liked the idea of doing a one day massage course and looked into this for when we would be back from Pai.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

No lovely photos to spoil you with on this post…just a little bit of info about our day of travel! Enjoy!

After a good nights sleep in our four person dorm we rose early to shower, grab some breakfast and set off towards the airport. We eventually hailed a taxi and soon arrived 30 minutes later at the departure gate. It’s all fairly well signposted at the airport, however as we only had an online booking reference number and no paper work we wondered if we needed to get our tickets from somewhere before check-in. We were told to just go to check in our bags in the usual way and we were issued the boarding cards. Easy! The airport is fairly large with a good selection of stalls to buy things, if a little expensive.

We booked the flight from Kunming to Guangzhou through ctrip.com which cost 330RMB plus 50RMB tax and 70RMB fuel tax, so 440RMB (£44) in total for a 1.15hr flight was really good, could well be cheaper than taking the train and saves loads of time. It was far cheaper to fly to Guangzhou than Hong Kong and then we would make our connection through to Causeway Bay where our accommodation was booked.

The flight was very good and took off only five minutes late. Once airborne they offered free apple, orange juice and water etc and then they started issuing food! We were surprised by this as the flight was so short and it was actually very good. Dave had beef and rice, Helen had Egg and tomato noodles, both with a side of cold noodles, bread, water etc. Very shortly after eating we arrived, collected our baggage and proceeded through customs with no passport checking involved.

Guangzhou has very recently hosted the Asian Games and a big air-show, so lots of international people will have passed through and required additional information on travel arrangements. We asked a few people behind desks about getting to Kowloon to which we got blank expressions and one guy said he had never heard of it! We were informed that we would need to get a bus to the train station and then get a bus or get a train to Hong Kong. We found a more official looking desk who were more helpful but still appeared less than knowledgeable and we were directed to a bus that would take us to the main train station where we would be able to get a train, so we proceeded. Once we found the station from the drop off point we tried to buy a ticket. No trains go direct to Hong Kong from here, only Shenzhen and then we would need to get another train! All very confusing and annoyance was starting to bubble to the surface.

Finally we found out that we needed to go to the East Train Station not the main station where we would be able to pick up the Kowloon Express which takes you all the way! The East Station is THREE stops on the underground metro down from the Airport!!! We ended up having to get the metro to the East Station and then buy the tickets from the Kowloon Express office. Faffing to and from bus to train station and then back took us around 2 hours  and should have only taken 20 minutes! Buying the tickets once we were at the right place was simple enough and then the obligatory passport checks and X-Ray scanning of baggage takes place.

Finally we boarded the train and settled down to a two hour train journey to Kowloon. From here we got a taxi to the main land island of Hong Kong after some translation over the taxi drivers phone with someone who could speak English and told him where we wanted to go. We got dropped off just around the corner from the guest house and we proceeded to find the building with no problems.

We were staying at the Alison Guest House on Causeway Bay, it was well located to shops and an underground station. The room was small but adequate with a double bed, small wardrobe, desk, kitchenette and new looking bathroom. Once we unpacked and spread out our belongings we went to explore the local area which was very busy, lit up to feel like 11am not pm. We stayed out for an hour or so before going back to bed.