HERE AND THERE

From Chiang Mai in the north to Koh Samui, an island in the bay of Thailand. We've been to Phuket* before but not to Koh Samui. Koh Samui is smaller than Phuket and has almost 3 million tourists per year, mostly from Germany, the UK and Thailand. And while we were there, from Israel. So many Israeli tourists. Is it Koh Samui or Ko Samui? Take your pick. We saw both. Our air tickets were for Ko Samui. It's less than two hours by air from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui. The airport at

I have been looking forward to writing this post. It's got sticky rocks, plenty of elephants and some seriously interesting food. Our guide's instructions were to wear shoes that can get wet. Our feet were wet the entire day! Bua Thong Waterfall (also called the Sticky Waterfall) is about 60 km north of Chiang Mai. It's a beautiful place up in the hills, very popular with tourists because the rocks in the waterfall are 'sticky'. The rocks have a rough surface caused by a mine

We are getting the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, an 11 hour journey. Not overnight — we chose to do the daytime trip so that we could (a) see the changing landscapes and (b) have a rest day after our busy Bangkok time. It worked really well on both counts. Chiang Mai is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second-largest city in Thailand by population (about 1.2 million). It is 700 km north of Bangkok in a mountainous region. T

We've headed about 80 km north of Bangkok for the day, to the historic city of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (I do love visiting UWHSs.) Ayutthaya flourished for about 400 years, between the 1300s and 1700s, as the capital city of the Siamese Kingdom. It was built on an island of rivers, far away enough from the sea to prevent warships from other countries reaching it easily. At that time Ayutthaya was one of the world’s biggest cities, with sophisticated technolog

One member of our travelling party (not me) is a keen market-goer so today it's train market and floating market day! Okay, I have to admit, they're fun destinations. We start at Ban Laem Railway Station, about 80 km south of Bangkok, in a little village where even the dogs take it easy. We travel about an hour by train to the Mae Klong Railway Market. The market stalls are laid out next to the rail lines. When a train enters the market, stall-holders have to pack up their go

It's not the first time we've been to Bangkok.* Still, how much could have changed in 30 years? We're staying in a hotel on the Chao Praya River. It's 33 °C and humid, which makes a welcome change from Melbourne's chilly winter. (Although we have all come down with congestion, runny noses and coughs in response to our endless battle between humidity and air-conditioners.) About 6 million people live in the city of Bangkok, the largest city by far in Thailand (population 71 mi

It's not the first time we've visited Byron Bay (in fact it's the third), but I've got such good material from this trip that I've decided to put it all together. Timing? A special birthday to celebrate and special visitors to meet for the first time. And of course an opportunity to visit our older son. But first a bit about location. Byron Bay is in New South Wales, just south of the Queensland border. From Melbourne it's a two hour flight to the Gold Coast Airport and a 45

A hop across the Gulf from Koper and we're in Venice. Cruise ships no longer dock in Venice itself, so our cruise ends and we disembark the ship in Fusina, an industrial port. We're staying for a few days in Venice. Our hotel has sent a driver to fetch us, and he deposits us at the single parking area on the island. We wheel and heave our suitcases from the parking area to our hotel, across what felt like 25 bridges, but what turned out later to be four.* This was our immedia

Heading north in the Adriatic Sea, along the Croatian coastline, and our next stop is Koper, Slovenia. Slovenia is tucked in between Croatia and Italy, with a tiny 45 km coastline of its own. Koper's old name was Capodistria, or Capo d'Istria, in its Italian past. That's more familiar! It's history is closely tied to Italy, and Trieste is only a half-hour's drive away from Koper. Koper is on the Istrian pensinula (hence Capo d'Istria), the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Se

We're still on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, this time in the port of Split. Split is the biggest Croatian city on the coast, with a population around 200,000. It's the most visited town in Croatia and according to our local guide Dragan, the most historic region in the country. I liked the early morning light on this Croatian ferry. There seems to be a theme emerging with our morning tours along this coastline. First, we start off at a lovely little restaurant/historic sit

We'll be visiting two cities in Croatia over two days, Dubrovnik and Split. But one at a time. Our local guide Maria told us that Croatia is a small but beautiful country. Small it may be, but it's much bigger than Montenegro, our last port. Croatia has a population of 3.6 million people (six times more than Montenegro) and more than 1200 islands. Another destination for nautical tourism? Absolu-toot-ly. We disembarked in Dubrovnik and could see the old walled city. Any Game

From the boot of Italy we've sailed east across the Adriatic Sea, ignored Albania and docked in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro. I've never been to the Balkans before. Much of my knowledge of this part of the world comes from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia broke up into six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia. We've sailed into some beautiful places on our various cruises, but the

And we're back in Italy! On the heel of the Italian boot! This is where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea. Brindisi is in the region of Puglia (or Apulia). Couldn't resist this glorious map below. c.1941 Puglia, Apulia, Italia, Italy Pictorial Map by Prof. G. De Agostini, Artist Nicouline, Vsevolod Petrovic Puglia has a distinct culture within Italy. People were living here more than 100,000 years ago; in the Bronze Age, this was the first 'industrial' area on the contine

After our grey day in Valletta, our day in Kefalonia has been bright blue! Yamas! We are so excited to be back on a Greek island, and a new one (to us) at that. When we visited the Greek islands in September 2023, we were in the Aegean Sea east of the Greek mainland. Now we are in the Ionian Sea, on the west coast of Greece, closer to Italy than Turkiye. Kefalonia is one of the seven (or nine, no one seems sure) Ionian islands. Corfu is one of them. Gerald Durrell's books abo

We had to skip the port of La Goulette, Tunisia, because of the heavy fog that settled over the water ALL DAY. All we saw was blue and white. The Tunisian port officials require 2 km visibility for ships entering the channel: the fog allowed less than 1 km. So no Tunisia. Boo. We sailed east and docked in Valletta, Malta. We're on the main island Malta; the other main islands are Gozo and Comino, which we didn't see. Malta is a very small country, just over 300 square km. Alm

We're still in Italy, on the island of Sicily. We've disembarked in the port of Trapani, pronounced Trah-puh-ni, not Truh-pah-ni, as I'd been saying until now. Trapani sits on the western tip of Sicily, about 100 km west of Palermo and about 1000 km south of Rome. Legend says that Trapani was formed when Demeter dropped her sickle while looking for her kidnapped daughter Persephone. The sickle fell into the sea, creating a city in its crescent. Why, you ask, was the Greek god

We depart from Rome on our cruise and our first stop is the Amalfi coast. Here we are at anchor, on the ship, having breakfast with the town of Amalfi in front of us. (You can hear the clink and clank of breakfast utensils.) The Amalfi coast is south of Rome and south of Naples, the regional capital of Campania. The Sorrentine peninsula juts out into the sea for about 10 km, and small towns and villages lie along the very picturesque, very very steep coastline. Technically (a

It's been 43 years* since we last visited Rome. We're back for another visit – together with a gazillion other tourists. Talk about overtourism. (Yes, I realise we are part of the problem.) While the stunning sights are still stunning, everywhere we go we have to fight our way through crowds. Other problems are construction and renovation projects with large hoardings in front of famous buildings, detours through narrow uninteresting roads, and massive traffic jams. Apart fro

Our carefully planned trip to Rome had included a few days in Dubai, to visit our Dubai family. But this itinerary was derailed by the deranged Trump war in the Middle East. So we're travelling (the longer and more expensive way) via Singapore and Frankfurt instead – the route less likely to be interrupted by missiles. Flying across peaceful Afghanistan and Georgia ... ! Our flight to Frankfurt was with Lufthansa, whose primary hub is Frankfurt Airport. Frankfurt Airport is t

We've been to Lord Howe Island before, in 2024.* We liked it so much that we have returned: not only to the island, but to the same accommodation, Pinetrees Lodge . They did a great job last time so they deserved a return visit. Lord Howe Island is about 800 km northeast of Sydney across the ocean, and is part of New South Wales. No passports needed. Has anything changed in the last two years? Not much, as far as we could see. Lord Howe Island has a permanent population of 40