1st February 2012

My travels are going to slow a bit this year as work commitments mean that I need to concentrate on updating the coding of the City Directory sites. I have already cancelled the planned trip to Vietnam in April and am unlikely to go on the next four trips on my itinerary despite the fact that I have already booked and paid for them. I have just got so far behind with my work that I need to really apply myself for a few months.

I will still be going to Sydney in July and will probably do a local trip or two (Koh Samet - Koh Chang maybe).

I am considering the purchase of a stuio apartment in Hurghada, Egypt, but will probably wait to make any decision until after their election process has finished and I have made another visit.

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17th January 2012

Air Asia just sent me an email to announce they are now flying to Sydney from Kuala Lumpur - they had promotional fares advertised but I actually found a cheaper fare outside their promotional period - I decided to take advantage of the cheap fare (Mr Cheap) and have booked to fly from Bangkok to Sydney return (via KL) in July this year - the total cost of the flights is $401 including seat selection and meals.

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14th January 2012

My trips away were good I liked Krabi and may visit again one day. I have just created a Photo Gallery of my Krabi, Thailand trip.

My day trip to Nong Khai was a non event really apart from being one of those days when things don't go to plan - the 8.50am train I had planned to catch was running three and a half hours late so I caught the bus which took two hours to get to Nong Khai (it's fifty kilometres). Nong Khai is fairly small and just a bland Thai town. Despite the fact that it is on the Mekong River you could easily pass through the town without knowing that as the town backs onto the river with no parks or walkways along the river and very little access at all.

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11th January 2012

Today I spent the day just wandering around Udon Thani - whilst I have passed through Udon Thani several times I have only ever spent one night here before and never explored the town.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived last night was how cool it was - it is several degrees cooler than Krabi and was around 17 degrees C on arrival. I checked the weather forecast and it will be between 17 and 25 degrees C each day I am here.

I was quite surprised to discover that Udon Thani is both larger and more modern than I had imagined. There is a large Central Plaza shopping centre in downtown Udon Thani that is being refurbished and enlarged so that it will soon be double the size. There is also a new shopping precinct near Udon Thani railway station that has a variety of shops (including a Tesco Lotus Supermarket) and restaurants. I came across quite a few musical instrument shops around town which is unusual for Thailand.

Tomorrow I am planning to go to Nong Khai (on the Thai border with Laos) for the day - I again have passed through there several times before on my "Visa Runs" to Vientiane in Laos but have never actually visited the town - I will probably go by train as I have not done that before.


               

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9th January 2012

Today I went on a day trip to the islands around Krabi, departing from Ao Nang Beach - it was a group trip by longtail boat visiting four islands and also snorkelling over a reef near Chicken Island - First stop was Poda Island and the sea was clear and warm and the sand clean and soft - After an hour and a half on Poda Island we moved on to Chicken Island (so called because it looks like a chicken) after boating around the island we stopped over a reef close to Chicken Island for an hour of snorkelling - then on to Tup Island which is also connected to Koh Dam Khwan by the strip of beach - it is possible to wade across between Tup Island and Chicken Island as long as it is not high tide. After an hour or so on Tup Island, which included a Thai lunch, we started the trip back to Ao Nang Beach which incuded a one hour stopover at Phranang Beach and Phranang Cave. The cliff face at Phranang Beach is quite impressive and there were several people climbing the vertical cliff next to the cave. This trip was good value and all of the locations visited were worth seeing - the trip only cost 500 Baht (about $17) which included hotel pick up and drop off and incuded entry fees and lunch.

Yesterday I spent most of the day on Ao Nang Beach which is the main beach for Krabi - I am staying in Krabi town as the hotels are cheaper (I came across one hotel in Ao Nang that charges $1,200 per night!) and it is not as touristy as Ao Nang Beach. There is nothing special about Ao Nang Beach, the beach itself is just a simple strip of tan coloured sand, although it is family friendly as the sea is calm and sheltered - the town at Ao Nang is a typical Thailand beach tourist area - it appeared to me that the bulk of the visitors to Krabi use Ao Nang as the departure point to visit the surrounding islands rather than the destination.

Tomorrow I fly back to Bangkok and then straight on to Udon Thani for a few days.


                   

                   

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6th January 2012

During the Christmas and New Year period I did not go anywhere (stayed in Jomtien, Thailand) and did some work instead - I created mini mobile friendly websites for some of the city directories:

mobi.sydney-city-directory.com.au

mobi.london-city-directory.co.uk

mobi.new-york-city-directory.com

mobi.melbourne-city-directory.com.au

mobi.brisbane-city-directory.com.au

mobi.adelaide-city-directory.com.au

I also created a small (very basic) new website as an introduction to Sydney (I was bored one day)

welcomesydney.com

Tomorrow I make my first trip for the year - I am going to Krabi, Thailand, for a few days and then on to Udon Thani (also Thailand) - The Udon Thani trip was initially booked as a "Visa Run" to renew my visa in Laos but as I now have a long term visa I am just going to stay in Udon Thani and have a look around.

After spending the past three years based in Thailand I am starting to get the urge to move on - during my three years living in Jomtien I have visited a lot of Asia:

All over Thailand - Bangkok, Jomtien, Pattaya, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Koh Samui, Ubon Ratchathani, Narathiwat, Udon Thani and Hua Hin

Most of Cambodia - Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) , Kampong Cham, Tuol Sleng ("Killing Fields") - Choeung Ek, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville
 
 Most of Vietnam - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Dalat and Nha Trang

A lot of Laos - Vientiane, Huay Xai, Pakbeng, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Pakse

Two trips to China - Guangzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Beijing (Great Wall) and Xian (Terracotta Warriors)

Philippines - Manila and Boracay

Three trips to Indonesia - Bali

Several trips to Malaysia - Penang, Butterworth, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Bharu and Kota Kinabalu (in Borneo)

Sri Lanka - Colombo, Matara, Narigama, Galle

Myanmar (Burma) - Yangon (Rangoon)

I still have a year to go on the lease of my apartment but I will be moving on once that expires.

I have a few places in mind that I may go to live (in no order):

Malta - Where I lived for six months in 2008

Portugal - Where I have never visited

Vietnam - Where I have made several visits including a month long stay in Nha Trang

Cyprus - Where I lived for three years as a child

Egypt - Where I went on a group tour in 2008

As I am a British Citizen I can live in the following countries without any visa or residency issues:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Britain, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway

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24th December 2011

Today I took another trip to Koh Larn (a short ferry ride from Pattaya) - The beaches over there are better and cleaner than either Pattaya or Jomtien although still crowded.

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16th December 2011

After putting so much effort into the completion of the USA Photo Gallery I decided to keep going and have now completed the Vietnam Photo Gallery - the Vietnam photos were taken over several trips I have made to Vietnam and cover Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hanoi, Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Dalat and Nha Trang. The Vietnam Photo Gallery is the last one and so all the photo galleries are now complete.

All future photos will be put into "Trip Photo Galleries" as I have decided it is to hard to add photos to a completed gallery.

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15th December 2011

I have finally finished the USA Photo Gallery  - The first portion (from Page 1 to Page 19) contains photos taken on my 2003 world trip to take photos of the cities featured in City Pages  Business Directories (Top City Photos) - The second portion (from Page 20 to Page 44) contains  photographs from my five month 30,000 kilometre Motorhome "Road Trip" around the USA in 2007 (I have culled a lot of the original photos - all the photos can be seen at USA Tour Photographs 2007).

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11th December 2011

Home in Jomtien after my trip to Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) - Overall I was disappointed with Yangon despite having no great expectations. It reminded me a lot of Sri Lanka (I didn't really like Sri Lanka) with nothing unique to set it apart. The city is a relic of a bygone colonial period and is crumbling all around. The people are friendly and some even speak good English. There seems to be quite a variety of ethnic backgrounds and the bulk of the population looks more Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi than South East Asian (probably another reason Yangon reminded me of Sri Lanka).

I am sure there are many places in Myanmar worth a visit but I only visited Yangon so I cannot comment on other places.


                       

Catholic Church    Government Building    Downtown Pagoda    Yangon Railway Station    Golden Pagoda  

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6th December 2011

There is no chance that I will finish the USA Photo Gallery before I leave for Burma tomorrow as I am not even half way through yet. At the current rate I may not be able to finish it until close to the end of December.

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1st December 2011

Today I have started working on the USA Photo Gallery which is the largest of all the photo galleries (Around 500 Photographs) comprising of photos taken mainly during my world trip to take photos of the cities associated with the City Directories in 2003 and the five month RV road trip I made around the US in 2007 - I hope to have it completed before I leave for Myanmar (Burma) next week.

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29th November 2011

Arrived back in Jomtien this afternoon after bus-flight-bus from Surat Thani. Whilst I did not really like Koh Samui I did like Surat Thani - even though I only stayed there overnight I felt this town is a good example of authentic Thailand rather than the tourist areas. I visited the local night market and sampled a variety of food. I have already booked another trip to Surat Thani in February and I will be only visiting Surat Thani and the local area.

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28th November 2011

My overall impression of Koh Samui is that it is rather dull and ordinary without any character of its own. Whereas Phuket has a lot of character (in fact Patong Beach is a bit "Over The Top") Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui is the lifeless and boring. It is probably alright for "Resort Dwellers" (people that go on holidays and spend their entire holiday in their resort without any contact with the local town or population, but if you like to experience the locals and their culture and customs I could not recommend Koh Samui.

I am now in Surat Thani where I am staying overnight before flying back to Bangkok in the morning. The trip back from Koh Samui was fairly easy - Songthaew from Chaweng Beach to Nathon Pier (45 minutes/80 Baht), Seatran Ferry from Nathon to Don Sak (1 1/2 hours/130 Baht), bus from Don Sak into Surat Thani town (1 hour/100 Baht). I am staying at the My Place @ Surat Hotel which is good and in the centre of town ($13/night).

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27th November 2011

I am in Koh Samui for a few days. I flew from Bangkok to Surat Thani with Air Asia and then caught a bus, a ferry and a mini bus to get to my hotel at Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui (you can fly direct to Koh Samui with Bangkok Airways but the fare is many times the price).

Chaweng Beach is the biggest, most popular beach on Koh Samui and all I can say is that at the moment it is almost deserted. I think all the news media coverage of flooding in Thailand has caused a lot of people to cancel their plans to travel to Thailand despite the fact that none of the tourist destintions have been affected at all.

My first impressions of Chaweng Beach are not good - the beach is ordinary, the restaurants are ordinary and there seem to be even more annoying Indian tailors than most other areas of Thailand. There is virtually no public access to the beach (I only found one small soi leading to the beach) with hotels and "Resorts" built all along the beach.

The best thing so far has been my hotel - it is very good - it is called the First Residence (apparently used to be called the First House)

www.samuifirsthouse.com

I got a great deal - the advertised room rate was $127 a night and I am paying $23 - it is a modern clean three star hotel with a pool and a restaurant. My room is large, has a balcony, includes cable TV, A/C, Mini Bar, WiFi etc. - the hotel has 50 rooms but I have only seen a few other guests so far and nobody at the restaurant.

The only advice I would give anyone planning a trip to Koh Samui would be to suggest they go to Phuket.

I purchased a second camera a couple of weeks ago for times when I cannot be bothered to carry my large camera (Sony DSLR with 18-200 Tamron Lens) around - the new camera is a Samsung WB 700 - it has an 18X optical zoom, HD video recording and 14.2 megapixels - it is a pocket sized camera and I bought it from Hong Kong for around $240 - so far it seems OK (the photos below are the first I have taken with this camera).


                             

Don Sak Port  -  Coast Near Don Sak  -  Hotel Swimming Pool  -  Hotel Room  -  Chaweng Beach  - Chaweng Beach South

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15th November 2011

Yesterday I finally got my Burmese Visa - When I went last week they were closed for a Burmese public holiday (I forgot to check). Luckily I was able to pay extra and get it done on the same day which saves having to stay overnight or make another trip into Bangkok.

There is no flooding in the main Bangkok city area and I even went looking around on the outskirts of the city to see if I could find any flooding - there is no flooding anywhere near the main airport, there is no flooding between the airport and the city (as viewed from the airport train) - the Chao Phraya river at Saphan Taksin (BTS station) is not flooding although there are signs it was over the bank by about half a metre recently - at Mo Chit (BTS), which is in the direction of Don Muang airport, there is a small amount of water across some of the road (about 50mm) with signs that there was up to a metre at some stage. There is still flooding in the suburbs of Bangkok.

Today I also finished the Stockholm (Sweden) photo gallery.

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7th November 2011

I am going into Bangkok on Wednesday to get a visa for Myanmar (Burma) and I do not know the status of the flooding etc - The Bangkok Post the other day had several articles about the flooding but did not give any details of the status within Bangkok. The news is still saying that the water level is rising daily but will not flood central Bangkok. Strangely when I left for Bali more than a week ago the news said the water level had peaked and was falling.

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30th October 2011

I am in Bali, Indonesia, for a few days mainly to just laze on the beach or by the hotel pool. Having been here three times before I have done most of the tourist things. I think this may be my last visit as I am starting to get tired of the constant vendors hassling me every few steps. Also the whole Kuta Beach area is starting to look old and run down - there are several construction sites along the beach road but I think it will be a few years before the place looks any better. I was here in January this year and they are still repairing the same potholes in the roads that they were fixing then.

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13th October 2011

Well I now have a 15 month "O" "Retirement Visa" combined with a multiple entry re entry visa - so I am able to stay in Thailand until January 2013 which is also when the lease on my condo expires. The process was very simple and invonlved opening a Thai bank account depositing 800,000 Baht and then getting a letter from the bank showing I had the money deposited, filling out the immigration forms and that was it. The visa agent took the forms to immigration for processing so I did not even have to visit them.

I am now able to leave Thailand and return whenever I like and if I do not want to leave for a period of 90 days I must visit the local immigration office to confirm my address.

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11th October 2011

Yesterday I visited a local visa agent and discussed the options for me to stay in Thailand. I asked if I could get a 12 month "O" multiple entry visa and was told I had to do that from outside the country. The woman told me I could get a retirement visa as long as I was fifty years old and that I could do that from within Thailand - I have arranged to visit them again on Wednesday and will probably get the retirement visa with a multiple enrty "re entry visa". I am still unclear as to the requirements and limitations of this visa but will see how it goes.

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5th October 2011

Well I am back in Thailand but as I do not have a visa I can only stay for 15 days before I have to leave again so I plan to do a standard visa run to get another 15 day extension. I then go to Bali at the end of the month and then Myanmar in November - when I fly out of (and back into) Thailand I automatically get a 30 day visitor permit so I may have to do this many times.

The only real problem I have with the Thai visa rules is that no one appears to know what they are. The Thai embassy websites and immigration etc only have the basic information as to the types of visas and how to apply.

Below is a few photos I took in Vientiane, Laos.


                          

  Swollen Mekong River -  Fude Miao Chinese Temple -  King Fa Ngum Statue  -  King Fa Ngum Statue

More Laos Photos

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The above photos were taken in Malta where I spent six months during 2008



The above photos were taken during my flying holidays of Australia in 2006 including My Solo Flight Around Australia

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These photographs were taken during my five month Motorhome tour of the USA during 2007

More of the photos from that trip can be seen at: USA Tour Photographs 2007

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