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
----
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.
----
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.
----
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).
----
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
----
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.
----
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.
----
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.
----
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).
----
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.
----
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.
----
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.
----
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.
----
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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