Esther_and_Allan

Welcome! Last time we were in London it was Winter. Wet and miserable. I was looking forward to the 'other' London. For the first 5 days of our visit we had wet and miserable weather!! In fact it was so bad that parts of the country flooded. A father was clearing a drain when his foot became trapped in it and he died of hyperthermia. Tragic. The newspapers were full of stories about the rain, and stories about the terrorist attempt at Glasgow airport and the arrest of the participants including those in Australia. But there were also stories about the start of Le Tour de France of course! Amy complained that our newspapers weren't nearly as interesting as those in London (although I think she was referring to the reports about the romantic attachments ... read more

Bonjour (or bonsoir - whichever applies), OK, well maybe I'll stay here (instead of the Cotswolds)!! We've spent 8 full days here, and there is still more we would have liked to see. Our apartment (in Rue Rambuteau) is in a perfect position. We are about 30m from the Rambuteau Metro station and the Pompidou. The street is full of fruitiers, cafes, small general stores, poissonneries (fish), patisseries, boucheries (butchers), and boulangeries (bakeries). The courtyard in front of the Pompidou is alive with buskers and homeless people! Just beyond that is the Marais shopping district including Les Halles. It is also not far to walk to Notre Dame and the river. We've had a fabulous time. I must say, though, that the French are disgustingly slim. Most of the overweight people are tourists (you can ... read more

Dear friends and blogbrowsers, We arrived in Bangkok feeling rather grimey after our overnight train trip from Chiang Mai. We had a breakfast of iced coffee/chocolate and pastries at the train station. It had been weeks since I'd had a good coffee! We had some time to kill (5 hours!) before we could check into our hotel. There was a tourist information centre at the railway station that was quite helpful and suggested we go to see the Golden Buddha as it was walking distance away. We checked our bags into the locker room and went for a wander. For those of you who've not been, the Golden Buddha is 505 Tonnes of solid gold!! It had been covered with an outer layer so that invaders (Burmese) did not know that it was gold. The ... read more

Sa wad dee ka from Chiang Mai, We are staying here in a small guest house “T-Room Guesthouse" for about $20 per room. It is ... but quite adequate. The beds are as hard as rocks - but perhaps that is Thai style?! We are staying within the city walls - in the south east corner, just far enough from the main road and restaurants to be delightfully quiet, but on the edge of an area with many other guesthouses with lovely open-air breakfast/dining rooms facing the street (ours doesn't have that) and many different types of small restaurants, internet cafes, laundry services and massage rooms. In the other direction are Thai homes with people working as tailors, etc, and small local shops. It is quite charming. On arrival at the airport we had to ... read more

NOT FOUND... read more