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Post by shrjeff on Jul 13, 2019 11:22:32 GMT 2
iceland is surpassing my expectations of scenery!!
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Post by rikita on Jul 13, 2019 11:58:16 GMT 2
thanks, sophie!
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Post by rikita on Jul 13, 2019 11:59:00 GMT 2
always wanted to go to iceland ... one day, i will ...
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 14, 2019 21:21:43 GMT 2
have a lovely holiday, Riki!
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Post by Netsuke on Jul 17, 2019 3:39:22 GMT 2
Much as I love my location, and my job, when you are told to take a weeks holiday in the middle of winter (to fit around others dates) , hate skiing and it's peak season so super expensive, hate the humidity so you drip and scratch your way through a week, the option at the moment is stay home and hibernate. Bah humbug as a certain character may say. Yep, living at the arse end of the world means either an expensive flying trip of some fourteen plus hours and then you need a good two or three days for the jet lag to go by which time it's almost time to fly back, another very expensive happenstance, OR stay home. You could fly to Cairns or Darwin though, the climate is right. June/July is the best time to visit both and I speak from experience. Much cheaper too. |
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Post by kuskiwi on Jul 17, 2019 8:38:54 GMT 2
^ all good places but think I will stay home ànd either hibernate or stagnate.
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Post by Scrubb on Jul 18, 2019 6:01:27 GMT 2
We are doing our annual trip west/south, starting next week. I can't wait!! We are going to two places in the BC Rockies, for about a week of hiking and forest walks and maybe some downhill biking, before driving down to Montana for a week of skydiving (Mr_S), reading (me), bike rides (both of us), going for runs (me), visiting with old friends (both of us), etc.
Last year we tried to fit in too much in too few days - went to 3 different spots in the first week that were far apart. I got to visit sophie, which was great, but it was overall too much driving and not enough time anywhere we stopped. This year, we aren't going nearly as far and we're only stopping 2 places (before Montana).
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Post by sophie on Jul 18, 2019 22:49:57 GMT 2
And I won’t see you here this year...boo hoo!
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Post by Scrubb on Jul 19, 2019 4:58:43 GMT 2
No - but we're possibly going to be spending all of February there!
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Post by shrjeff on Aug 2, 2019 17:59:45 GMT 2
starting to pack for tirana, albania, next week...
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Post by shrjeff on Aug 3, 2019 8:56:15 GMT 2
No - but we're possibly going to be spending all of February there! trying to get my head around february in van as an escape from the cold  |
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 12, 2019 19:09:36 GMT 2
Hey, my SIL in Victoria has flowers starting to bloom in Feb every year! Sometimes the hummingbirds stay over the winter! That's a huge difference from here!
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Post by shrjeff on Aug 13, 2019 9:49:05 GMT 2
all is relative, meanwhile we're going home from tirana, albania, this afternoon... egads, two months before our next trip, amazing!(a cruise from southampton, england, to venice!)...
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 13, 2019 19:50:48 GMT 2
We are having a couple of days in the Cotswold. Anybody who has been here will know how beautiful the villages are. Mrs Faz's youngest now lives here and her village is having a garden open day this weekend so we are slaving in the garden. Tomorrow is forecast to be heavy rain so we are not looking forward to gardening in the downpour.
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Post by sophie on Aug 19, 2019 13:53:53 GMT 2
Off to the Great Bear Rainforest today. Probably no internet for a few days. Hopefully lots of bears.
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Post by kuskiwi on Aug 19, 2019 20:40:14 GMT 2
Messing around with some ideas for a Christmas break as work has a shutdown then for 2 weeks. Not sure how daughter would take the news though so nothing confirmed .
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Post by Netsuke on Aug 30, 2019 6:19:20 GMT 2
We are having a couple of days in the Cotswold. Anybody who has been here will know how beautiful the villages are. Mrs Faz's youngest now lives here and her village is having a garden open day this weekend The prettiest place in all England, Baz. I loved it and yes, the villages are beautiful. |
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 30, 2019 10:20:13 GMT 2
We live in Chipping Sodbury, just at the edge of the Cotswolds. It is not so pretty as the Cotswold villages - the stone our cottage is built with is not that gorgeous honey colour - but that means we do not have a mass of tourists.
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 31, 2019 5:03:16 GMT 2
We're booking a trip to INdonesia (Raja Ampat) and Taiwan for Nov/Dec!!
I might, maybe, possibly, also fit in a brief trip to Switzerland in late Sept/early Oct.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 31, 2019 10:35:30 GMT 2
Next weekend we are going to Brugge for Mrs Faz's birthday. We commonly call the town Bruges though it is not French speaking. Last time I visited I spoke to the waiter in French but he was having none of it. If I couldn't speak Flemish then he preferred English.
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Post by Voy on Aug 31, 2019 14:36:31 GMT 2
Love love love Bruges ! if you go there, give the Memling museum my love !
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Post by Netsuke on Sept 1, 2019 1:10:13 GMT 2
Next weekend we are going to Brugge for Mrs Faz's birthday. We commonly call the town Bruges though it is not French speaking. Last time I visited I spoke to the waiter in French but he was having none of it. If I couldn't speak Flemish then he preferred English. You could surprise the waiter with this tongue twister we learnt at school, Five Flemish fishermen fetched fresh fish from Flanders for Friday. |
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Post by kuskiwi on Sept 1, 2019 7:45:28 GMT 2
Anyone been to Laos? Tinkering around with a possibility of going over the Christmas period (but will need medical clearance first so not getting too excited).
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Post by shrjeff on Sept 1, 2019 8:31:29 GMT 2
we enjoyed lao - kind of thailand with an overlay of french influence... that said, we prefer thailand...
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 1, 2019 13:05:29 GMT 2
I agree with Jeff about preferring Thailand. Luang Prabang is the jewel that everyone goes to. It has charm but I imagine will be more crowded than when we were there 10 years ago. From LP we took a small boat up the river Ou to a village whose name I have forgotten. We had a thatched hut for US$2 a night (with facilities to match). Nice walks in the countryside around it. We got to Luang Prabang by boat down the Mekong from Chiang Khong. Actually Chiang Khong is on the Thai side and the boat left from the Lao side but I'd have to get out Mrs Faz's journal to find the Lao name. You have a choice of boats. The fast boats do the trip in a day but the noisy engine can damage your ears. The slow boat takes 2 days with a night stop (unpleasant for most people) in Pak Beng. We watch travellers disembarking at Luang Prabang, stiff from the cramped seats and grim faces as it wasn't the Mekong trip they imagined. The third possibility is the Nagi Express. www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1015984-d12882350-Reviews-Nagi_of_Mekong_Cruise-Chiang_Khong_Chiang_Rai_Province.htmlWe took this when it tried to do the trip in a single day. The boat itself is very comfortable and good food was cooked on board. But to do the journey in one day was not possible so we had an "interesting" time being put ashore when night fell and completing the journey in a truck. I emailed the company very politely about our experience and said I would be writing about it for Lonely Planet. I think they got the impression I worked for LP and I got a full refund, delivered in cash to our hotel when we reached Vientiane. From Luang Prabang we took a small boat up the Ou river to a village whose name I have forgotten. We had a thatched cottage for US$2 (facilities to match) and had enjoyable walks in the country. We flew from Luang Prabang to Vientians. Did't like the town. Then we took a minibus over the border back into Thailand to Chiang Khan where we stayed at Mut Mee. www.mutmee.com/index.htmJulian, who co-owns it, is a bit of a pain. His Thai wife, who combines a teaching job with cooking in the evening, is charming. There was also a New Zealand man working there plus, of course, lots of Thais. I hesitate to recommend places but I did this to IanUK and he spent a week at Mut Mee and loved it. I can give you more details about our trip if you decide to go. |
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Post by Netsuke on Sept 1, 2019 13:26:13 GMT 2
Baz, I went on the Nagi of Mekong from Houi Xai to Luang Prabang - a two day trip on a slow boat.
We stopped at two villages along the way, both very different from the other. Our overnight in Pak Beng was very pleasant.
We also made a stop at the Pak Ou Caves and visited both the lower cave (Tham Ting) and upper cave (Tham Theung). I was one of the few who made it to the top cave, most gave up by the half way mark!
The Captain steered, his wife was the cook and his son was the first mate! Plus our tour guide. Very comfortable, delicious meals and very friendly. Well worth it.
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 1, 2019 13:46:30 GMT 2
Netsie, I think we went on the Nagi before they sorted everything out. They tried to do it in one day but it was not possible. Now the Nagi stops at Pak Beng I think they organise a decent hotel rather than the crummy guesthouses the slow boat travellers use.
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Post by kuskiwi on Sept 1, 2019 20:29:36 GMT 2
Thanks. All great info. I'm actually looking at a river cruise with pandaw as my old intrepidness disappeared along with my own joints and my lung and bladder capacity.
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Post by Netsuke on Sept 2, 2019 1:39:52 GMT 2
Netsie, I think we went on the Nagi before they sorted everything out. They tried to do it in one day but it was not possible. Now the Nagi stops at Pak Beng I think they organise a decent hotel rather than the crummy guesthouses the slow boat travellers use. I made the trip in 2011, Baz, and Nagi booked its customers into the Phetsokxai Hotel (Pak Beng). I loved it, traditional, beautiful timber everywhere. I don't know if they still use the same place now though. Another of the things I liked, they booked you into your accommodation in Chiang Khong, and collected you the next day, took care of your passport, visa etc while you enjoyed the local cafe on the Thai side. They handled the border crossing, all of it. No hassles, no problems. All taken care of. Adisak was the Thai representative, and Phet was the Lao guide. If you go to google and type nagi of mekong Blossomflowergirl the page will come up with several YouTube videos about the Nagi Mekong cruise - mine are dated June or July 2011. The one dated July 2011 is a collection of photos taken on the cruise. The others dated June 2011 were filmed as the boat was moving. And when you've watched the video, if you click on my name and picture, you'll be taken to my YouTube page with my other travel videos. WARNING: They won't win any Oscars! |
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 2, 2019 10:48:43 GMT 2
Ah Netsie, we were on the Nagi a bit before you. I feel we were guinea pigs and they learnt from our experience. I wanted to cross over into Laos and spend the night there before catching he Nagi in the morning. However we were told to stay in Chiang Khong and we would be contacted at the immigration post before we crossed the river. So we booked a guesthouse and next morning went to the river crossing and stood round at the immigration post when it opened at 8. Nobody approached us. Nobody looked like a Nagi representative eagerly searching the few waiting westerners. Nobody held up a notice saying Nagi or our names. So we gave up after 15 minutes and crossed over into Laos. Then we asked where the dock was and walked swiftly to it. The Nagi had left. What to do? Then we heard someone calling a variation of our name and found the man. He said he had been in Chiang Khong and didn't see us.  ? Why didn't he have a sign? Why didn't he call out our names? Anyhow he got on his mobile phone and got in touch with the Nagi which put in at a village only a couple of kilometres downstream. He drove us there and we got on the boat. This probably meant the Nagi then ran 30 or 45 minutes behind schedule. In those days the Nagi didn't stop anywhere on the journey except once for a police check. Dusk fell and it was very tricky to navigate. All the skipper had was a flashlight which was obviously not enough to see rocks and rapids. So he pulled into the bank and we all had to scramble up a slippy mud path to the top (luckily our packs were half the size of anybody else's). At the top we stood around in the dark until a truck arrived and drove us the half hour into Luang Prabang. The driver then tried to deliver us to our various accommodations. There were two Australian girls who had lost all sense and were swearing at the poor man as if the Nagi's delay was his fault. In the end we got down and went in search of the guesthouse we had booked. By now it was going on 9 and our room had not been kept for us. In the end we found somewhere else. Next day I emailed the Nagi owners and related all this and, as I said, we got a full refund. |
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? Why didn't he have a sign? Why didn't he call out our names? Anyhow he got on his mobile phone and got in touch with the Nagi which put in at a village only a couple of kilometres downstream. He drove us there and we got on the boat. This probably meant the Nagi then ran 30 or 45 minutes behind schedule.