Travel Blog

We arrived in Tahiti in the early hours and from quite a distance away the shadowy outline of the hills and peaks was quite breathtaking. Tahiti is the main island of French Polynesia and is a sprawling metropolis compared to the other islands we'd visited so far. We docked at…

Nuku Hiva is the second largest island in French Polynesia (Tahiti is the largest) and has a population of a whopping 3,000 most of whom are the size of a small family hatchback. French Polynesia is split into several island groups including the Society Islands, the Marquesa Islands and rather…

Today we reached our first Pacific island, Nuku Hiva in the Marquesa Islands of French Polynesia. I'd almost become so used to being at sea I wasn't sure I wanted to get off. During the first few sea days I thought I'd learn how to play bridge which is basically…

Our first stopping point was at Peurto Limon (Lemon Port) in Costa Rica and as we hadn't booked a official tour, Karla and I jumped into a taxi and had a private tour lasting about 3 hours. Our driver Manuel spoke excellent English and was very friendly and informative which…

The flight from London arrived at Miami International at 2pm and I was on the ship by 4pm which was good going. The taxi driver from the airport to Port Everglades was from Haiti and came to the US 30 years ago using a dead persons birth certificate which he…

On Thursday morning I flew from Brisbane to Hong Kong and something told me it would be a good idea to get to the airport over 4 hours before departure. Whatever that "something" was needs a good talking to. I couldn't even get into a lounge... I'd been scared into…

On Saturday I roused myself at about 8am (still legal in Australia) and got ready for the drive back down south. I had 1200km to drive in total before flying from Brisbane to Hong Kong on Thursday. I had no idea how far I'd get but Rockhampton, where I'd stayed…

After the Lady C lift encounter I got chatting to a couple in the bar from Australia who asked me about the crowd that had assembled to see the celebs go off for their party. It turned out that they attend Ascot every year for the whole week and were…

Sydney is a very nice city especially where I'm staying in circular quay near to The Rocks. My room has a great view of the cruise terminal and the harbour bridge and I'm staying at the InterContinental (think of the points). Sydney is Australia's largest city but only by a…

I left Melbourne on Thursday morning and headed for the airport to pick up the car to be greeted by an enormous queue which was quite divine. I've ended up with a Rav 4 and I declined the satnav for 15 dollars a day (I've got the car for 21…

The flight from Bangkok to Melbourne was only 8:40 despite the itinerary saying 10 hours and there were 100 empty seats at the back so I was glad business was full because I would have resented paying an extra grand on such a low occupancy flight. The only gripe was…

Thailand has a population of around 70 million and its total area is a little over twice the size of the UK. 93% Buddhist - China has more Buddhists at 20% of the population but it must be second in terms of numbers of people. Thailand is the only country…

Wednesday Krabi was one of the locations used in The Man With The Golden Gun - Scaramanga's private island and they have tours to "Bond island". I thought I was going to miss out on this place after spending an extra day in Singapore with Karla and it really was…

Monday - I left the hotel in Penang and headed for the ferry terminal hoping it wouldn't be but first sight of  the boat made me apprehensive. Long, thin and low slung and not the most seaworthy of specimens but in for a penny - I'd only paid 10 quid so what…

Penang is split into two parts: a section on the mainland and Penang Island off the west coast of Malaysia and the other side of the island is a body of water called the strait of Malacca which sounds terribly exotic. Penang' nickname is the pearl of the orient and…

Wow! What a place. Staying at the Mandarin Oriental and my room overlooks the Petronas Towers - well I say overlooks but in reality it's the other way round. The staff here are fabulous and they all call me Mr Patrick. Sometimes a little too attentive as I don't need…

Alvin (trainee Buddhist minus the chipmunks) has just dropped me off at the bus station and I'm now on a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur which takes 6 hours. My intention was to go by train however I was advised by more than one person (two) to use the…

Two stops in Borneo or bor-nay-owe as my American friend says (I've been picking her up all week on her pronunciation) the first in Sabah called Kota Kinabalu and the second in Brunei. Sabah is part of Malaysia and it was so well developed by comparison to the Philippines. It's…

Two more stops in the Philippines to use up the pesos - Boracay and Palawan - two islands the first of which has beautiful white sandy beaches and is like a large Maldivian island just with 10 million people. The second, Palawan is much bigger and I spent the day…

Yesterday we did Manila and it's a fabulous city with an old section called Intramuros with lots of cultural history stuff (right up my alley). Cathedrals, churches, museums, forts - forgotten all the names. I declined the shore excursions offered by the ship and went freestyle and jumped into the…