Page 4 of Latetravelbug Travel Blog Posts


North America » United States » Arizona » Grand Canyon April 7th 2014

We got to Grand Canyon later in the evening, checked in the Lodge and took a walk to Canyon rim for our first sight of the Canyon at sunset. We took a bus ride to a couple of view points but where ever you look from it is so magnificent. I have seen the canyons in South America, often deeper than the Grand Canyon, but Grand Canyon was an owsome sight. Its huge breadth and the vivid rock formations offer an awesome sight that you have to see to appreciate. There were a lot of tourists around the place but one thing that was strange that we could not contact the outside world on the mobile. In the end we had to sit in the lobby of the hotel and use Wifi and Skype to let ... read more
Trail Down
View from Tower
Grand canyon 2

North America » United States » Texas » Dallas April 1st 2014

1. To the USA and Dallas Unlike my earlier trips the reason for the trip was to see the extended family who are all scattererd around the USA. As a higher conentration was in the south and west I decided to limit the trip to the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,Nevada and California. We had previously been to Indiana, New York and the GreatLake states. There was time limit of maximum 15days as Thankam could not avail of more days of off work. We booked the most convenient of flights to Dallas leaving Dublin at Nnon and reaching Dallas in the evening approx 7 PM. There would still enough day light left to get to our first stop in Frisco. We were cleared with ETA which was a pre-requisite under the Visa waiver programme. The ... read more
tornado near Dallas
at Sally & Shajan's
Joshwa

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok May 30th 2013

Bangkok and local tours It was dark when we landed in Bangkok from Hanoi. I was told the best way to the hotel was by train. Took the skyrail link to Ramkhamhaeung. The rail link was about 20m high in the air running all the way up to the center of the city, so had to climb down a lot of steps with the luggage. The heat (39ºC) and humidity (> 95%) is the same as in Vietnam, only the area is generally looks a lot richer. The first tour arranged had some confusion regarding pickup for the tour and had to be postponed. I did not want to use my Irish phone for fear of high charges, so first thing to do was to buy a Thai sim. For €8 you get 100 minute calls ... read more
Golden Buddha
Around the temples area
Miniature Angkor Wat1

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Ayutthaya May 26th 2013

Bangkok: Ayutthaya & Kanchanapuri The hotel I was staying was away from the center of Bangkok. So I had to get a taxi to the collection point for the tour before 0630hrs. The tour group left the city around 0730hrs. After a two hour drive we arrived at Ayutthaya. Before we got to the Bang Pa-in palace we visited a couple of pagodas which were constructed in the late 13th century but destroyed and reconstructed after Thailand's war with Burma (Myanmar). On the way one could notice a lot of new, what looks like beautiful ornate pagodas which we were told were actually crematoriums. The guide was the best I had in my tours, very witty, once I could understand what he was saying. I was very disappointed when we were first given the brochure for ... read more
Palace Chinese Style
Seat of happiness
Ruins of temple complex

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap May 25th 2013

Angkor Watt and Siem Reap A couple of days prior to arrival in Bangkok, I got an email from the tour operator that they are discontinuing the Angkor Wat tour as they were not happy with the performance of the tour. But they offered to transfer me to another program who was supposed to be good and do it in my budget. I was very apprehensive at the news but reluctantly agreed to it. First of all I had to go the new operator in the center of the city at 0430hrs from where the tour started. When I reached the proposed place I could not find anybody. The city was fully awake with people having their breakfast on the roadside already (or was it a late dinner ?). Contacting the travel agent I found that ... read more
Angkor Gopuras
Angkor tourists
Angkor Wat

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi May 21st 2013

Halong Bay The whole purpose of coming to Hanoi was to see Halong Bay.. The bus picked me up at 0800 hrs, collected a few others and we headed off to Halong Bay before 0900 hrs. It was slow progress as there was lot of traffic moving slowly.after an hour and a half we stopped at an artists' center. There were a lot of statues of great quality and also a hadicrafts emporium and jewellery making workshop. The quality of worknanship was of high caliber. One could see the artists at work. There was also a lot of embroidery work in progress on dresses and poster art. As buying nothing on the tour had to be strictly adhered to I did not buy anything. It took us another two hours to get to Ha Long. After ... read more
Back view from boat
Settling for the night
Titos Island

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi May 20th 2013

Even after travelling in different parts of the world the airport security never ceases to amaze me. Every airport is slightly different, you can never fully anticipate what what you exaclty need to do. May be that is intentional to keep those targetted guessing, I don't know. Some places you can keep your computer in the bag, other places they have to be scanned seperately. Some require you to take everything out of your pockets, even your hankys before the body scan. In other places you can even wear your belt with a large buckle. In Cairnes I saw a guy putting his duty free through the scanners without any doubt. I myself had forgotten to drink the water in the bottle and it had nearly a litre in it. It did not cause any problems ... read more
Bridge to pagoda in lake-Hanoi
6 buddhas at evry lelel
Music at the academy

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Cairns » Cairns City May 14th 2013

Cairns, North Queensland. The trip to Cairns almost nearly did not happen. I had booked with JetStar at 0900 hrs from Sydney and being a domestic flight assumed that I have to go to the domestic terminal. Little did I understand that it was a flight to Osaka in Japan. Luckily I had given myself plenty of time that I could take a transfer bus to the international terminal and still make the flight. The Airbus 330-200 was barely half full, I presume they get more passengers from Cairns. The landing was in windy conditions. I hope the wind abates by Tuesday for the trip to the Great Barrier Reef. After checking into the hotel reconfirmed the tour as required. Took a walk to the quay to familiarise myself as to be in the morning of ... read more
Rainforest pond
Sky Rail colourful Locos
Railway bridge 1

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Sydney Harbour May 12th 2013

I never had a heart for cities. The Great Barrier Reef was my main target in Australia. But the flight was through Sydney. I decided to stay for a couple of days and see at least the two of the iconic structures structures of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Flight from Christchurch to Sydney was with Air NewZealand, a comfortable 3.5 hour journey left me in Sydney airport before noon. As directed by Lisa (Sydney expert) took the train to Central, changed for Kings Cross and walked to Challis Lodge. The lodge appears to be an annex to an old convent, with wooden floors etc, kind of done up for tourists. As I had only two nights here I was not too concerned with with the stay. However the place was clean, quiet and ... read more
The Opera House
Opera House Lobby
Fountain in Philips Park

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch May 10th 2013

Goodbye NewZealand. The time has come to say goodbye to this extraordinarily beautiful island. It had to end some time. I had the most wonderful 10 days here. Being an English speaking country made it all that more easier and enjoyable as you could talk to locals and understand the commentaries much better. I was very skeptical about going on a tour with Haka Tours as it was targeting a younger group, below 30s and was a bit afraid that I would be left out while the others went on bungy jumping, para gliding and freefall jumps. The alternative was to tour with older people probably Chinese or Japanese. That is another thing you notice, the number of Chinese tourists. With the increasing number of middle class what happened with Japan in the 70s and 80s ... read more
New Zealand 2
New Zealand 3
New Zealand 4




Tot: 0.168s; Tpl: 0.008s; cc: 15; qc: 86; dbt: 0.1093s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb