Travel Blog

After flying back to BKK I jumped in to a taxi and headed for the province of Rayong which is south of Pattaya, and very lovely and chilled indeed. The flight was two thirds empty and only took 70 minutes. Five nights here at the Novotel then up to Pattaya…

We were all excited to be finally heading to Ho Chi Minh City. I say all but Fiona is Scottish so it was a stretch for her but she did the best she could. So eager to get there we'd elected to skip lunch. On the way into HCMC our…

On Tuesday we left early as we had to be at the Vietnamese border by 12pm. The traffic leaving PP was atrocious. We had a four hour journey and many of us were trying to sleep but every now and then the bus would hit a pothole violent enough to…

Like many inhabitants of Southeast Asia, Cambodians don't buy a family car: they buy a family motorbike that can accommodate up to six people. Remaining "slim" is therefore a requirement for outings on the family transportation device. One way to retain the sylphlike physique is through a diet of insects…

Three days in Cambodia have left us all with a sense of awe for this relatively small nation in Southeast Asia which is still recovering from the brutality of the Pol Pot regime. There are now 15m people living here which is less than a quarter that of Thailand. Back…

Our cycling group met on Sunday afternoon in the hotel lobby. There are 14 of us: 6 men, 8 women ranging from 21 to 63 years old and already I sense some blog worthy moments ahead. Our tour guide is a Thai chap named Tom. His English is only passable…

At the boarding gate at Heathrow I was struck by the number of single middle-aged men who didn't look like they were going on a business trip. And I was one of them. I tried my best NOT to look like a sex tourist but it wasn't an easy task…

We sailed into Messina on the northeastern tip of Sicily on Tuesday morning looking forward to our day on the largest island in the Mediterranean. The top five are Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, Corsica, Crete. Sicily is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Messina which at its narrowest is…

Saturday was our final sea day and if the highlight was having my torso smothered in seaweed, fitted with electrodes and connected to a power supply with the aim of instantly losing an inch from my waist, then the low point was being talked in to a game of scrabble…

Rhodes After a sea day we stopped at Rhodes which is the largest island in the Dodecanese Islands which are a group of 15 larger islands and 150 smaller ones. Other than Rhodes, Kos and Patmos are the most well known. The tip of Rhodes is only 12 miles from…

Overnight we had sailed north to Haifa which is Israel's third largest city and the name Haifa is a female name meaning slender (unlike the English term Heifer meaning not so slender).  I was booked on another tour only this time Brenda and Susan had abandoned me and found a…

Ashdod is the main port of Israel located about 25 miles north of the Gaza Strip. We were booked on a tour (I think the whole ship was booked on a tour) and we headed about 50 miles inland to Jerusalem.  Israel is a small country with 8 million people…

Friday 21st was a sea day followed by a gala dinner. We had 5 new table mates and to say it didn't go well would be an understatement. After dinner Brenda, Susan and I had a post-mortem about our dining experience in the hot tub. I drank a little too…

After a sea day we arrived back in Greece at the port of Katakolon which is only 20 miles from Olympia where the Olympic Games began in the 8th century BC.  We were not booked on an official tour but were reliably informed that there were a number of options…

We stopped at the Italian port of Ravenna and I was torn between the Ferrari museum in Modena in one direction and the Republic of San Marino in the other. San Marino won (which is something you don't hear very often). San Marino is the fifth smallest country in the…

Slovenia lies at the top of the Adriatic and is the most northerly of the six or 7 former Yugoslavia regions. Kosovo would be the seventh but it is not recognised by the UN and is claimed by Serbia despite a desire for independence.  We disembarked the ship at our…

News came through that Venice was experiencing its worst flooding in 22 years as an "acqua alta" hit St Mark's Square caused by high tides and strong scirocco winds. I'd already been woken in the middle of the night by a lightning storm and high winds and we were expecting…

We sailed into a breezy Split this morning with the prospect of a rainy overcast day. It actually turned out quite nice and it never ceases to amaze me just how much nicer places are in the sunshine.  Me and the the old folk (Barbara 79, Brenda and Larry 63,…

Bari is an industrial port and capital of the Apulia region of Southern Italy. It's the first of 6 stops in Italy so the solos and I sauntered around the old town visiting all the main sights of Bari. The old town is a warren of narrow streets and a…

Not on the original itinerary, Albania was added when the troubles in Turkey began some months ago all because passenger safety is the most important thing to Holland America! Anyway, Turkey's loss is Albania's gain and by the look of it they need all the tourist dollars they can get. …