Travel Blog Posts
September 22nd 2010
Vietnam! The airport arrival was a little unorganised. First we queued up...big queues! Then I started thinking...what about my visa? Visa On Arrival? I hadn't picked one up anywhere...so I left Jane and Lauren in the massive queue and went over to a quiet counter and asked "Visa On Arrival?" and was pointed to the counter next door that I hadn't noticed on the left at the bottom of the escalators. I had to fetch Jane and Lauren back out of the queue (still massive) and hand them our passports and paperwork, no words were spoken but the woman pointed to the spots on the VOA applications where the photos should be and I pulled out a set of large photos and small photos and gave her a choice of size. She was happy with the ... read more
September 18th 2010
Day 1 The holiday started with a private limo ride to the airport. From our house it's only $90 which is actually cheaper than getting a taxi! I had also enquired about getting the limo from Jane's mum's place and it would have cost $70 (only $25 in a normal taxi). The ride was great and the sound track was Gold FM with a good selection of 80's hits including Billy Idol and Twisted Sister. Melbourne Airport has plumbed new depths of how to inconvenience travellers and it's a nice touch that they seem to have followed Auckland's lead of hiding the departure cards where you can't see them - behind you as your attention is drawn towards the immigration officers in their little forts. Luckily I spotted the counters to fill in the cards when ... read more
December 9th 2007
Tourist Traps Today we did the tourist traps. After yesterday’s unsuccessful attempt at buying boardshorts, we started the walk down Legian Street again…but we got a headstart by jumping into a taxi and going a few kms first before walking. Initially we just planned to go to the WaterBom park but we spotted a slew of surf shops on the way down there so we got out a bit early. We wandered into RipCurl and at first, they weren’t sure if they had board shorts for girls! But then they understood what we wanted and we found a rack of suitable stuff for Loz. Loz was happy and a purchase was made. We wandered down the street a few more blocks looking and browsing - but it was really same-ol-same-old. We were still quite a way ... read more
December 8th 2007
Suckers! The day after Wayne’s 40th I was feeling decidedly seedy. A good sleep in, a hearty grease-laden breakfast of egg and bacon and taking it real quiet was in order. A couple of Panadol sealed the deal. Later on around 1pm, we decided that we’d try find Lauren a new set of board shorts and headed off up the road in search for a shop. We bumped into an equally seedy Wayne and Cathy headed back the other way - said some quick hellos and made some rudimentary plans for later, or maybe the next day. Near Legian Street, we were approached by a bloke with what looked like a fistful of cards trying to hand some to us. We didn’t see the harm in it and so Jane and I took one each. The ... read more
December 8th 2007
Leaving the Intercontinental was like having a warm safety blanked snatched away. It had felt so safe and protecting and familiar - yet plastic. I have been entertaining the idea that it’s about time to stop staying at 5-star resorts and start searching out unusual accommodation instead - places that haven’t yet succumbed to the tendrils of marketing agencies. We had such an experience back when Lauren was 4 years old. We’d stumbled upon a great deal to travel to Borneo and stay in a (yes…5 star) hotel for 8 days for a shade over $1,100 per person for *EVERYTHING*! When telling people where we were off to, they would say “Borneo? Where’s that?”. There was very little information about what we were headed into - those are the types of holiday I now long for. ... read more
December 7th 2007
Shopping Trip to Ubud All great journeys are paved with good intentions. US$40 to hire a driver for 8 hours includes car and petrol - cheap! The plan was to drive to Ubud and spend the day there shopping, checking out galleries, restaurants and maybe some cultural shows. Dancing First stop, major touristy Begong and Keris dance centre about 10km from our villa and about 20km short of Ubud. At first when the driver pulled over, there were lots of official looking people waving traffic to park on the wrong side of the road…what’s going on here? All the people are getting out of their cars/vans? Is this like a military checkpoint or something? I’m not carrying any ID with me - I read somewhere that you should carry your passports and visas with you, but ... read more
December 4th 2007
Bali Belly Lauren and Jane have been have a slight taste of Bali Belly. Nothing too serious at this stage - not sure what could have caused it. My strategy of sticking to cooked-only food and heaps of alcohol seem to be paying dividends so far. 4WD Safari Waka Land Cruise safaris took us up into the hills today. It was our first real encounter with all the traffic conditions and types of people that Bali had to offer. We were picked up in a Land Rover fully kitted out for a serious expedition - there was no mistaking that our ride had arrived, that’s for sure. We met up with a British couple from a hotel in Nusa Dua. They were closer to the UN Conference action than we were - they said it was ... read more
December 3rd 2007
Bali, a tropical island at the end of the Indonesian archipelago. Lots of Aussie tourists love to come here for a cheap holiday, not so much so these days since the Bali bombings a few years back. Schapelle Corby is their most famous resident at the moment because her boogie board could really get you boogying ;) Why have we never been here before? I guess it’s too close to home really…it’s in Australia’s backyard and there’s too many Aussies here. We like to go a little further out of the way - off the beaten tourist track. So why are we here? Our friend’s are hosting a set of 40th birthday party celebrations. Wayne (the best man at our wedding, and I was best man at his wedding) has his birthday on Dec 7th. Cathy, ... read more
December 30th 2006
Today our goal was to find a helicopter and take a tour of the Rockies in it. We had a brochure and a phone number. But they weren’t answering - or were incredibly busy. So we drove. Valemount is back in British Columbia and the base of Mount Robson Helitours. It took us a while to find their operation, but it was in the obvious place right where there are two large helicopter company signs (neither which say Mount Robson Helitours). So we went in and the place was shut up tight with a few cars around and no-one in sight. Oh well… From our last tour through here, we met a guy called Mike Wiegele who ran a heli-skiing outfit and I had also seen what he’d done with the place since on a recent ... read more
December 28th 2006
Escape From Edmonton Edmonton "Maul" + Boxing Day Sales = Bad Idea! We really would have loved to spend a day at the water park and it might have been a good idea too in hindsight as we had quite a time trying to locate accomodation in Jasper! But the trick with the waterpark is that it has an early bird special that is more a "mid-day" special ideally engineered to force families to spend an extra night in Edmonton to get great value. If you rock up between 12noon and 4pm it's only $11...before or after that time entry is nearly $40...big difference! So we cut our losses and scarpered...next stop Jasper. Never use cruise control in cold environments! Driving to Jasper from Edmonton is very uneventful. Wayne got a bit of a shock when ... read more
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