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Cyclo, Saigon, Vietnam

21 Ways To Stay Safe in a Taxi

How often did I get the advice to take a taxi to be safe. It started as a teen, because we didn’t have a car I often took the last bus home, and walked the last 20 minutes. When I went overseas again I had the well-meaning, but un-aware, advise me to make sure I…

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northland new zealand

Combining Cold Canberra and Warm Samoa – Sorta

Living at the arse-end of the civilized world – New Zealand – if you love to travel you end up being pretty familiar with the going airfare rates to get out of here! New Zealand has had one of the most appalling summers on record. I don’t think Wellington hit 25C all “summer” – it…

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Songathew Koh Lanta Thailand

World Health Day: Health and Ageing and Travel

It’s World Health Day today and their theme is ageing and health. My theme is ageing and travel!  Maybe because I’ve just turned 50 the topic is something I’ve been thinking about recently! In fact more than that – I’ve actually been making quite a big effort to lose some weight. Why? Because I do…

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Christmas Eve Singapore 2005

Fitting Travel Into Real Life

Yesterday I talked about how very, very few of us can travel for ever – even those of us who have the ultimate job flexibility of working for ourselves.  Maybe its just me – but I picked my first career because it would take me to interesting places (geology) and my second one so that…

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No One Can Travel For Ever – But You Don’t have to Give Up Travel

I read a rather sad post the other day over at Nomadic Matt’s – This is Where the Journey Ends  Matt has been travelling, pretty much continuously, for as he puts it 68 months. Now he’s quiting – or so he thinks. Actually I salute his stamina – I’ve never travelled continuously for more than…

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Flying long haul - view from the plane

How To Survive A Long Haul Flight

As a New Zealander I am used to starting and ending my trips with a 12 – 14 hour flight, you get used to it, almost. However there are some tricks that I’ve learned along the way. Choose your seat, if you can, in advance. Even if costs a little more its worth it for…

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northern ireland, snowy landscape

Tricks The Airlines Play! Bundling Connecting Flights Isn’t Always Cheaper!

Although I will happily travel to see snow – I hate the cold and wet winters of New Zealand. So time to book a holiday to the tropics – and Samoa is our most likely destination this year. Now Samoa is a destination growing in popularity with New Zealanders so I’ve been keeping an eye…

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Deal of the Week – Travel Agent FAIL !

Reading the Sunday paper’s travel supplement my eye was caught by the “Deal of the Week” by a well-known high street travel agency. Phuket FROM $1339 for 8 days share twin.  What caught my eye – was that the dates to travel included the same dates as we are travelling to Thailand, indeed to Phuket, next…

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Booking a Hotel Online – Travel Tips That Work

When I first started traveling  the only way you could book an overseas hotel was either via your travel agent or directly with a very expensive overseas fax or by a via slow  mail correspondence  (not email!). The major problem for me was that the price of a hotel room was always at  least $100, even…

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Why Does WikiTravel Fail As a Travel Guide

While researching Travel Guides on Amazon  – I came across a number of publishers that are using the content from WikiTravel. Now there is nothing wrong with that – its not illegal as the Wikitravel content is covered by a share and share alike copyright – which allows anyone to reproduce it so long as…

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