There’s a reason why I don’t like the French

 The day has arrived for us to once more “waltz our Matilda” and set off on adventures new. This time we head east to Asia and New Zealand. Swampy’s sister, the infamous LynNZ is getting married and has very kindly asked us to attend her special day. It seems she has fallen deeply madly in love with a bloke called Kevin from the local prison. At first we thought this was just one of those crazy infatuations with a bad boy like they have in the states. You know the ones where a young lady falls in love with a serial killer they have never met and  marries them under  the loving gaze of a clergyman and twenty seven heavily armed guards. It turns out that Kevin is a manager at the prison and not an inmate which isn’t half as interesting and a little disappointing. However Kevin is the love of her life and we will be honoured to be there when she ties the knot. We have heard so much about him and can’t wait to finally meet him. LynNZ reliably informs us that Kevin is eager to meet us too and has been watching Peter Kay shows on repeat to try and get used to our “language” and avoid any confusion.

The trip has been planned for months and everything was sorted without a hitch up until the eleventh hour. Our first carrier, Air France, has decided to change and cancel our scheduled flights during the course of past week. What should have been a 2 hour layover in Paris has now turned into a 7 hour marathon before our onward flight to Singapore. I personally think they know it’s me and are trying to make me spend as much time on french soil as possible. Also Singapore has just instigated an electronic arrival visa which I only found out about by accident 2 days ago and it has been a pain to arrange. Not to be outdone New Zealand has also instigated an electronic visa. The NZeTA. I requested them online at the same time and Crispy has hers but mine is still pending approval. If it doesn’t come through in time before our onward flights  Crispy may have to fly to New Zealand on her own whilst I dig out my faithful pith helmet and head into deepest Borneo for a week to kill some time. It’s only a six hour sail from Singapore to Borneo  and I can easily make it back in time catch up with Crispy on her way back.

Once in Singapore we will spend an amazing 3 nights in this great city. I’ve got plenty of little adventures planned to keep Crispy busy. After Singapore it’s onto New Zealand ( if my visa is approved) for a week or so. I don’t think there will be much adventuring there as it’s Crispy’s time to catch up with her sister and our expanding antipodean clan. It will be fantastic to just kick back and meet everyone again.

From NZ it’s back to Singapore and a connecting flight to Bengaluru, India. From Bengaluru the plan is to overland through Karnataka taking in the sights before finishing with a week on the beach in Goa. However………India in its wisdom have yesterday decided to demand 72 hour COVID 19 PCR tests for any international arrivals coming from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and, you guessed it, Singapore. Honestly you can’t make it up. This means we will have to try and arrange PCR tests in New Zealand before we fly to India. If we can’t then India is a no go and we will have to sort another route home. There are several options open to us but fingers crossed we can sort the tests. Crispy was looking forwards to Jungle, monkeys and leeches but she’s a good old bird and will be more than happy with any alternatives.

Ah well. These things are sent to test us and I’m sure something will work out.

We have arrived in Singapore after a very very long days travelling. We arrived and cleared customs with ease, caught the MRT to our hotel in China town and have had some fantastic food from the hawkers market in Maxwell road. It’s only five minutes from our hotel and one of our favourite places to eat, no pics today as just too tired. Ill try and make up for it tomorrow.

Bare and Crispy, signing off,  Chinatown, Singapore