So I’ve just completed my fourth annual cycle of volunteer English teaching for the Sem Pringpuangkeo Foundation, covering one week in Chiang Mai and another week further north in Chiang Rai. Classes proceeded more or less consistently with those in previous years, so I won’t bore you with those details, given they are outlined in several of my earlier blogs (last year's reports are after the Pattaya blog). Suffice to say that the one difference this year is that now I have been formally trained in English teaching, and had the benefit of using teaching material adapted from the texts I teach at Macquarie English School in Sydney, it made the whole job just a little less stressful. For those that don’t know Chiang Mai, despite its hilly surrounds, the main part of the city is ... read more

My three hour bus trip from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai was uneventful, and relatively comfortable, given I took the ‘first class’ option for the princely sum of AUD6. I decided to stay in the same hotel as last year, called the Laluna Resort, and I can only assume that the presence of a swimming pool allows it to use this title. Still it was comfortable, clean and well priced. The only minor difficulty with my Chiang Rai stint was that the classes were actually held in the Foundation’s offices at Mae Lao, which is about 25kms from Chiang Rai. So to allow me to commute back and forth each day, the Foundation loaned me a motorbike for the week. However, in contrast to the sleek looking silver, red and blue bikes I saw all ... read more

It was not my intention to add any further blogs from this trip, but a couple of unfortunate experiences with Russian immigration at Moscow Airport on the way home have prompted me to document the events in the hope that it may assist other travellers entering Moscow in the future. The main gripe was our treatment at the hands of the Russian immigration people at Domodedovo (Moscow) Airport, despite our carrying out visa instructions exactly as advised by the visa representative at the Russia Embassy in Sydney. Just by way of background, we had booked a total 4 weeks overseas holiday, comprising 2 weeks in Russia on a cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg, and 2 weeks in Hungary and Croatia, but because our air tickets were from Sydney to Moscow return, we had to fly ... read more

So here we are now in Hungary, a rare new location for me. And what a change after a couple of weeks in Russia. Not that the latter was not interesting and enjoyable, but for all the recent changes, it is still not a carefree and happy place. Not too many smiles, no great willingness to help, with attitudes sometimes as cold as the weather. Whereas in Budapest, you feel as though the veil has been lifted. Almost summer weather again, a vibrance about the place, and greetings, smiles and offers to help from everyone. But first things first. To get there, we had to first fly from St Petersburg to Vienna, where we stayed overnight, and then we took a 6 hour hydrofoil trip down the Danube to Budapest, via Slovakia. Getting out of Russia ... read more

Actually, it is not only without a paddle, but I’ve got to say very comfortable thank you! We have travelled almost 2,000km over the last 5 days, in which time we have straddled 5 different rivers (incl the Volga, the longest river in Russia), 3 large lakes (incl Ladoga and Onega, the two largest lakes in Europe) and a reservoir, and dropped a total of 120 metres via a series of 14 different locks. While travelling on inland rivers is clearly different from travelling on the ocean, or even around the coast, it has still been remarkably smooth sailing throughout. And to add to the pleasure, the weather has been very kind, with clear skies and sunshine each day, and minimal wind, albeit starting the day around 8 degC and peaking at around 12-15 degC. Given ... read more