During our stay in Thailand we headed out to the hills to have lunch at Monsoon Valley Winery. I was surprised that there was a winery here, never having been to one in Thailand before.
Monsoon Valley Hua Hin
There is also an elephant sanctuary situated here and you can take a small minibus out to see them. We had left it too late to book a tour though.
Anthony and I were delightfully surprised by the magnificent scenery that surrounded us.
We were seated outside on the verandah and had a lovely view over the extensive vineyards. It was exceptionally hot though and I was still recovering from a flu virus! There was a fan nearby which I had positioned to blow on me.
Stunning views from our table on the verandah
The menu was full of delicious dishes and when they arrived did not disappoint. Starting with a charcuterie board followed by coconut flakes and dried shrimp in grape leaves and grilled prawns and pineapple fried rice. We enjoyed every mouthwatering morsel.
You can’t tell that I have a fever!
Enjoying a crisp cold white wineA multi coloured sculpture of an elephant made from wood
The Monsoon Valley Restaurant
Another creative sculpture
What a wonderful way to wile away an afternoon, good company, great views and gourmet food. I would definitely recommend a visit if you are ever in Hua Hin.
Far Reaching Panoramic Scenic All Encompassing Wide-ranging
Simple, but tricky! I’ve searched through my archives and here’s my pick.
Far Reaching
My live-in gardener trimming back our neighbour’s trees
Panoramic
Taken from the balcony of our room – Ribadesella, Spain
Scenic
Samosir Island, Lake Toba
All Encompassing
Kalgoorlie Goldmine, WesternAustralia
Wide Ranging
A wide-ranging selection of vessels crossing Hong Kong Harbour
Thanks to Paula @ Lost in Translation for this fun and interesting challenge. It’s great to see other bloggers selections too, which I had a peak at first to get inspiration before I did mine!
Who receives post in the mail these days? We never get anything exciting just bills and junk mail. I remember when I first moved to Hong Kong and I wrote to my mum and dad and friends once a week, and my return address was “Poste Restante”, Hong Kong. I used to go often with my passport to the General Post Office and wait with excitement to see who had written .. or who had not! Poste Restante is a general mail service worldwide where letters are sent to the General Post Office awaiting collection by the recipient. Has anybody ever used this service?
A Glimpse of My Week
Starting with our dinner date last Saturday, I had booked a table at a restaurant that was also a music venue. When we arrived we were seated right at the back but on a high table. This turned out to be a good thing as the music was so loud. The menu was fairly limited so I treated myself to a dessert, Lime Cheesecake with a Gin and Lime syrup. There was a gluten free option so I went for this. The keyword being “option”! How hard would it be to use gluten free biscuits. It was a wonderful venue though and the band were great.
“Where’s the cake”
View of the outsideArtistic ceiling and chandelier
Play at low volume!
Monday and Friday were also dinner dates, Monday a girls’ night and Friday with friends.
A birthday celebration for Vivita! Enjoying cocktails on the terrace of a newly renovated hotel in our local town of Claremont
On Friday there was a special dining night at the golf club (I don’t play golf, just a social member!) a Latin American themed menu with tables on the terrace. We enjoyed the temperature and the wonderful evening sky.
Pre-dinner drinks
Dusk
Also on Friday I finally caught up with a very good friend for lunch, and when we checked our diaries couldn’t believe that it had been five months since our last lunch. Where does the time go? We had more than enough to talk about in the short time we had.
Every other Wednesday I play bridge socially at the golf club which is followed by a lunch with the ladies who are playing. I’ve just joined this group so I’m gradually finding out about all these new friends.
Lunch with a view
Well not much else to report, Anthony’s passport finally turned up three months later! I did return to my “dancing in a line” on a Wednesday evening – a year later… I hope the steps come back to me eventually! They have learnt an awful lot of new dances, it was hard to keep up.
The day didn’t bode well for exploring South Devon as Storm Eunice raged outside our bedroom window. We had arrived the afternoon before to our Bed and Breakfast in Hope Cove for two nights. Barely able to open the car door I tried to walk to the seafront to take a photo of the enormous waves pounding the sea shore and was nearly swept off my feet. The next two days didn’t seem like they were going to be much fun at all.
Hope and Anchor Bed and Breakfast
From the dining room window
Hope Cove
Hope Cove is a small sheltered bay in the South of Devon. It seems to have retained its relaxed lifestyle and is ideal for families with its sheltered sandy beaches. Although with the storm raging not quite so calm that day!
Anyway not to be deterred we set out to Salcombe with friends who were also staying with us. Salcombe is known for its outstanding beauty and is a popular holiday resort in the summer. By the time we reached there the rain had stopped and there were glimpses of sun and blue sky. It was fairly easy to find parking, so off we set to explore.
South Sands Beach, SalcombeBoat Shed
“Take Notice, Whoever is found cleaning fish, or creating any other nuisance at this watering place will be prosecuted according to the law”Ice Cream anyone?
Alleys and Sidewalks in Salcombe
Cafes, Pubs and Restaurants line the narrow streets of Salcombe, making it very difficult to chose a place for lunch! Dear Husband inspecting the menu, sadly not to his liking.
Colourful houses of SalcombeLifeboat MuseumIn search of lunchCourt HouseSalcombe Harbour
Lobster Pots
The four of us reunited after many years
We all voted Salcombe a great success and so happy that Storm Eunice seemed to have passed. After a very delicious lunch we headed off to Kingsbridge for more exploring.
Arriving back at Hope Cove around 5pm for a quick rest before dinner that night and to catch a glorious sunset.
Sunset at Hope Cove
One thing to note about this part of England is the narrow and windy roads. Usually only one car width wide and you never know who might be coming around the corner! There are small alcoves built into the hedge lined roads for you to reverse or pull into. The locals must get very frustrated with slow drivers as they are constantly “tail-gating” to make you go faster. Quite nerve wracking for the driver. We did have a few encounters and it’s especially hard at night as it is pitch black. In the summer months the traffic must be horrendous.
I hope you enjoyed our trip to South Devon and I will be posting more about our return journey back to Essex.
This week Patti at P.A. Moed has set the challenge of “Going Wide”. This means taking photos with the wide angle lens on your camera. Most of the time I use my Galaxy S10 which has three cameras including the wide angle lens. I find that it generally takes very good photos. I do own a Canon Powershot but to take above average shots I think I would need a tripod.
Below are some I’ve taken over the years.
Taken while crossing a bridge in TasmaniaPosing on the sand dunes in FuerteventuraAnother from FuerteventuraOverlooking Mt. Aso, JapanBetween Banff and Canmore, Canada
A challenge I haven’t taken part in for a while. As the weather is so good in Perth at the moment I thought I would post some wonderful views from the past.
Taken just a few weeks ago during our trip to Pemberton. Although I have to say this bench doesn’t look comfortable in the slightest!
Further North for this one, Badgingarra, WA, on the hunt for wild flowers.
Overlooking Meelup Brook, Nautraliste, WA
Thanks Xingfumama for hosting this lovely challenge
After our visit to Melbourne was over, we flew into Sydney for three nights. This was to catch up with relatives and friends that we hadn’t seen for a few years.
We stayed in the Oaks, Goldsbrough Apartments in Darling Harbour. Very well located and within walking distance to the CBD, Darling Harbour and the new Barangaroo wharves.
One of the things we noticed about Sydney after Melbourne was the contact tracing. Everywhere was so much more vigilant than Melbourne, with people outside making sure you checked in or restaurant and bar staff asking before they served you.
Goldsbrough Apartment Complex
It was originally designed as a wool store by William Pritchard in 1883. This building caught fire in 1935 and burned for two weeks, but was rebuilt by Stuart Brothers the original builders. In 1995 the building was converted to apartments. The outside was kept to the original Victorian outlook but the inside is to my mind, something like a prison! Fairly well appointed as a one bed apartment with spectacular views over the city. We were on the 11th floor.
Looking down to the ground floor apartments
My dear husband commented “I wonder when lights out are”
Over the next three days we met up with friends and relatives and also did – for me anyway – large amounts of walking. Compensating for the large amounts of eating and drinking we were also doing.
Our walk from the apartment to Waterfront Park, Pyrmont took around 20 minutes.
Looking over at the new Crown Tower in BarangarooAnzac BridgeGlebe Island Bridge
Old and New Architecture Enormous rusted steel spheres, saved from the former CSL Sugar Mill, located on the former site.
The Glittering Lights of Sydney
From our apartment
Darling Harbour Views
Walking around Sydney
On Pyrmont Bridge
Flags flying on Pyrmont Bridge
QVB Building
Crossing over on Sydney Harbour Bridge on the train
Barangaroo harbour and wharves was only in the early stages when we were in Sydney last, now it’s completed and another feather in Sydney’s cap. Sadly the rooftop bar in the Crown Casino is only open from Thursday to Sunday. We found this was the case with many of the restaurants. Also we saw many bars, cafes and restaurants that had closed for good. The places that were open had the minimum of staff, so the wait was long for the food.
Empty boats on the wharves awaiting tourists
Finally a well deserved happy hour!
I really enjoyed staying in the Pyrmont/Darling Harbour area with the waterfront restaurants and cafes so close by. The harbour front was buzzing and lively during the day and night. I hope business picks up soon for the businesses here.
And then it was back to Perth where we thought we had escaped quarantine, but unfortunately not. I think this will be the last of our interstate trips until they have stopped closing the borders.
After four days of no long walks, the boys had had enough and I came down to this in the morning.
It was Maddy’s Birthday today and a day out at the River Tamar Wineries was on the itinerary. After letting them have a bit of a lie in from their late night, we set off around 11 am. We took the West Tamar Highway and our first stop was Grindelwald. From the name you can would be correct in thinking it was modelled on a Swiss village. Built in 1989 by Roelf Vos, a Dutch immigrant to Tasmania, for his wife after they visited Switzerland. The story is that she loved Switzerland so much the he built a village just for her!
As you can see the weather has cleared up beautifully.
There is a hotel here and a few activities for kids around. It’s very quaint but I don’t think I could spend a night here.
Our next stop was Marion’s Vineyard, established in 1979 by a Cypriot and Californinan couple with stunning views across the Tamar. There is no restaurant here but there is a beautiful area to enjoy a bottle of wine and a cheese platter. As we had reservations for lunch elsewhere we just did the wine tasting. If you buy a bottle the tasting is free. We had acquired quite a taste for Tasmanian wine so we did buy a few bottles between us.
It was such an interesting winery with lots of quirky decor in a taverna type setting.
This painting was on the wall inside the bar area and I just loved it. Can you recognise all these characters? Hubby knew them all of course, Laurence and Maddy had no idea, I knew most.
A stained glass image of the barn at night. The barn is pictured in the featured image.
The essential rusty tool exhibit, all Australian wineries have one!
From here we drove to our lunch venue, Timbre Kitchen, located in Velo Wines. When our waitress handed us the menu we wanted to order nearly everything on it! It all looked so delicious and of course once again I forgot to take photos of the food.
Naturistic lighting
After a most enjoyable lunch, there was still enough time left to visit another winery for some more tasting! With so many wineries to choose from it was hard to pick just one. In the end we opted for The Swinging Gate. We were lucky to get a table as it was very popular with the wine tours, bookings are recommended. This time we were served at the table for different tastings and given a sheet of paper to mark down our verdicts.
I thought the “waste not want not” attitude to various items of furniture was a great idea, hence the doors on the wall.
A view from The Swinging Gate of Domescape Glamping in the Vines.
And really that was all we had time for, most of the wineries close at 4pm. A relaxing drive back to Launceston and tonight was our last night in Tasmania.
