Left Melbourne on the 5pm flight to Bali with Jetstar, had a cheap upgrade to business and it was a perfect flight getting in at around 9.15pm. Took a Grab to Jimbaran and were there in no time to Del Cielo Villas sitting high up on the hills of Jimbaran...perfect spot for a cold beer after our flight. In all the years we have been coming to Bali this is our first time in Jimbaran.....to stay that is....have been to restaurants here. I think it has been perfect for a week just to do nothing but relax and do a few walks. Though there are a lot of high end hotels here and their restaurants are rather xxxxy we found plenty of lovely places to eat at reasonable prices.....but not where near the quality or choice ... read more

Left Paris early Thursday morning....trains to Charles de Gaulle...taxi too expensive like 80 Euro....ridiculous! So on packed peak hour trains....3 large suitcases....no aircon on trains.....nearly expired arrived to check in an hour later! Flight was very short 45 minutes. Bus from terminal to hire car company...that took another hour....take a number system...they must go through hundreds of cars each day it was packed! Finally on the road had a good run down the M25 to Faversham...booked into the Railway Hotel right in town for the festival...didn't realise how involved the Railway Hotel was in the festival...their carpark became a music stage all weekend...SO NO PARKING here.....not a huge town so parked our car around near El and Deans for the few days there. El and Dean invited us for dinner Thursday night which was lovely...we had ... read more

Got away from the chateau around 10am heading to Puy L’Eveque for an overnight. 5hr drive today through beautiful countryside, chose no freeways just windy country roads and pretty villages, arriving in Puy L’Eveque around 3pm which gave us plenty of time to explore the small town situated on The Lot….very pretty and we stayed in a very old B&B run by a nice English couple. A beautiful town that should be visited more. All pics are on previous post. Thursday left Puy L’eveque around 10am and drove around 3hrs Castillon la Bataille….we decided not to do freeways….just the whole way on country roads through beautiful villages…which you do not see on the freeways…..it was fantastic….watching the changing landscape from the Langguedoc-Roussillon region…which is quite rocky and sparse to rich soils and lots of farming of ... read more

Well we arrived safe and sound in Paris after a very, very long flight……always a chore…hate the long flight but lounge access does help! Straight out of the plane at 8.30pm to hire car company and drove 40km out of Paris for a head start for Saturday am, 540klm drive down south to Puy-en-Velay…..six and a half hours later arrived in this very spectacular town and our lovely hotel The Dyke Hotel run by a young French couple and they were so, so friendly and gave us lots of advice about the town….right on the edge of the old town. Spent the afternoon walking the town with a visit to the Rocher St Michel D’Aiguilhe (the rock of St Michael)…big walk up 288 steps to the top of it….well worth it for the wonderful view. Then ... read more

After an eight hour flight we finally arrived in Phuket International Airport, we had previously booked a transfer from Phuket to Patong which takes about 40 minutes but having been an accident in the hills it took an hour or more and we finally arrived at our hotel at about 9 p.m. large rooms and a beautiful rooftop pool with the breeze blowing everyday to cool things off a bit. It has been around 30 degrees everyday and 24 overnight, the weather has been absolutely perfect and we enjoyed the lovely breeze as we walked around each day. This holiday was for total relaxation so we've done lots of walking around 10K everyday. We haven't been to Thailand for over 26 years and now we realize why we haven't.... Patong is a shithole but there are ... read more