John Sweet

Writing this from my balcony at the Kantary Bay Hotel in Phuket. These are my reflections of the past few days Three days as a backpacker on Phi Phi Don Island It all started with a long term promice that I would meet my old pal Roy on his 60th birthday in Phuket 33 years ago when we were backpacking around Thailand. We spend months on a then deserted beach called Naiharn in a bamboo bungalow for less than $1 a day. Our budget was $5 so that left plenty for lobster, sun oil and hammocks and we then made a pact to stay in touch in life after Phuket. Since then we have travelled to over 50 countries each, many of them together. On Roy's 50th we met up in Rio de Janerio, by then ... read more

Natural tidal turtle pool During our stay in Nungwi we took a stroll along the beach past the boat builders and came accross a sign advertising a natural aquarium. Our interest was peeked and after paying a small fee we entered an enclosure where 17 turtles of all sizes up to 100kg had been resqued from nets where they had been entangled and put into this tidal pool where they are kept safe and fed. We were able to swim with teh which was an awesome experience, you can even hold onto their shells and be towed along the surface. Masks were provided and this was one of tyhe highlights of our trip to Zanzibar, not to be missed if you go there.... read more

Zanzibar here we come Having previously joined a number of exotic diving holidays with Pro Dive in Port Elizabeth, South Africa it was with excitement that our trip to Zanzibar loomed. This time I was going with my family, Julie my wife and Emma, my thirteen year old daughter to experience the fun of the spice island off Tanzania. Leaving Port Elizabeth on Friday we were obliged to stay in a friendly B&B overnight in J’berg due to our early morning flight to Zanzibar. 1-Time flight was not the most confident building exercise one would want especially for nervous air passengers. Firstly on entering the aircraft we could hear the captain arguing with mechanics and then after sitting through a delay to take off we were informed that we had to disembark due to technical reasons. ... read more

After a couple of weeks diving in the Red Sea and a stint in dahab, am now back home with Julie, my wife and Emma, my 12 yo old daughter. As much as I enjoyed my diving its always nice to be home again with all the comforts that go with it. On reflection it was a shame that most of the divers went down with some sort of stomach bug which curtailed our dives by 50% in my case. It is very difficult to avoid getting the squits when you have no control of the cleanliness of the kitchens, and you do not have a choice of food. Either you eat what you are given, or you go hungry. Although we all drank the bottled water provided and did not even clean our teeth with ... read more

One of the excursions which is offered is a trip at sunset into the desert by camel. What happens is that a tour opperator will find enough interested parties to book a number of camels for the excursion. The party will be ferried to a departure point about 30 minutes away from an oasis, where all are allocated a friendly camel to ride into the desert. Each camel is linked to another and you plod into the sunset amongst while perched atop. The only really tricky part is getting on and off where it seems as if you are on a roller coaster. Once at the oasis, a camp fire is already going as is your evening Beduin meal of goat, which has been buried in the sand over coals for a few hours. Its very ... read more