Today was a day of travel, starting with, as usual, a great breakfast. ‘We love having you stay Mr Dave and Mrs Sara. Thank you for staying from Australia, please come to visit us again’. It could almost have been called a fond farewell, as the staff who have looked after us for the past…

Laos was a French Protectorate between 1893 and 1953 (apart from briefly being under Japanese rule in 1945) and hence, as in many parts of south-east Asia, there is a significant French influence. For example, French is spoken by a significant number of people in Laos. French is used as a diplomatic and commercial language and…

Dave and I are a little bit addicted to overseas travel, and, as many of you would know (especially if you have been following this blog for a while) we like to get to as many countries as possible. Dave keeps a list of countries, in alphabetical order, to track our progress.  When we accepted…

The reason we are in Thailand is because my brother organised a house swap in Hua Hin, about 150km south of Bangkok, and invited us along. The reason we added Phuket to the trip was not what you may think – for the sun, beaches, resorts and shopping. Rather we came here for one reason…

People regularly ask me to either recommend a restaurant, or to tell them how I choose restaurants. If you happen to be listening to ABC Riverina this coming Thursday @ about 9.35 am (you can listen online, if you have the time or inclination), then thanks to a pre-record, ‘choosing a restaurant’ will be my…

I omitted blogging about a couple of short holidays we had late last year (a few days is never long enough to get into the routine of blogging) but as this break is just over two weeks long I thought I would bite the bullet and record our meanderings. On Friday night we decided to…

Day 12 – Monday 18th March should have been our last day in Sri Lanka. Will, Emma and Victoria did catch the plane back to Australia, unfortunately Dave and I didn’t. Dave’s still not very well. By mid-morning yesterday we decided it was time to get a doctor. The reception people here helped me find one who…

After a swim and breakfast we packed our things and headed to reception to checkout and get a transfer to Colombo. I had booked the transfer online for a pretty good price so was a little anxious that it wouldn’t turn up. A 10 seater air conditioned van did turn up, 10 minutes early in…

Another great buffet breakfast to start the day (with real pork bacon yey!). there was so much to choose from including a whole cereal and juice wall! After breakfast, most of us headed on the bus back to the centre of Galle, about an hours drive south of our hotel. Galle is a fort city – established by…

There is so much to catch up on – an amazing couple of days! On Wednesday we started the day with the longest breakfast buffet I have ever seen. I do like a good buffet breakfast! We met at 9am and had a drive around Nuwara Eliya. Its is known as  ‘little England’ and you can definitely…

Another busy day today! We started a little later than usual, enjoying a wonderful buffet breakfast on the 4th floor over looking Kandy. There were four Chef stations – one cooking eggs any way, one slicing freshly baked bread, another with an omelette station and lastly a pancake station. Happy days! The view from the breakfast…

Day 4: Sunday 10th March. Again we beat the wake-up call, after a reasonable night’s sleep. Our guide is getting used to us all being a little tardy (well some of us, not my family) and we got away about 15 mins late at 730am.  The early start was so we could get to the…