Weather in Phuket, Thailand

Patong Beach, August, Phuket

Content last updated – November 2016 – please contact me  if you have an update!  Let’s face it if you are planning a beach holiday in Phuket – the weather is pretty important. Most of us do not want to be dodging showers on the beach, or worse, tropical downpours! Phuket does have a wet…

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Koh Lipe Beach – Working on the beach NOT

Koh Lipe, Krabi Thailand

I’ve used a version of this photo for a while as my “gravatar” around the Internets. It was taken outside our 800B resort on Koh Lipe in southern Thailand. Its a bit of a joke.  You’ve heard of the dream – working anywhere, living anywhere? Well Koh Lipe is not the place to indulge it.…

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I’m Older – Can I Still Travel The World?

Louvre Museum, Cafe, Paris

From time-to-time I dog sit for friends of mine. They are “older” – both officially retired. How hard can it be, after all they should be slowing down right? Hmm wrong – sometimes they go on a shorter trip – maybe a cruise. But this year is a couple of months tripping around Europe! Why…

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How To Survive A Long Haul Flight

Flying long haul - view from the plane

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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Langkawi Cable Car, Malaysia

Langkawi Cable Car, Malaysia

Its pretty unusual seeing women wearing head scarfs getting into a cable car. Its even more unusual to be doing it your self it shorts and sweating! The locals had their cardigans and jackets though – because at the top of the Langkawi cable car – its actually surprisingly cool – over 700m above sealevel…

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Rail Cruising: Self Drive Railway in Rotorua

Well this is cool  – New Zealanders are quite good at inventing new ways to make money from tourists – the bungy jump is of course the most famous one. But this is the newest: self-drive on a railway with a petrol-hybrid smart car! The rail cruiser was designed to run on a disused stretch…

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Waitomo Caves: Returning After 28 Years

approach to the Waitomo glow worm cave

”They” say its not a good idea to return to a place of happy memories. My memories of Waitomo’s Caves were vaguely happy, they may indeed have been very happy, but thanks to a rather large amount of alcohol that was consumed on that trip, the details are fuzzy. Twenty-eight years later I figured it…

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