Posts from ‘My travels’
My travelling year on Instagram.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Earlier this year I discovered Instagram. It’s a FREE iPhone app that adds filters to your happy phone snaps and turns them into professional-looking photos that a hack like me would have no idea how to take. It’s also a caring, sharing App that you can share with your Instagram friends and, if you want the world to see your genius, send to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr. The photos are also tagged, so you can brag about where you are in the world. I took a few shots with Instagram on my trips this year and these are my favourites… (read more)
The Laundry Boat Express.
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
After I finished my tour of duty in Vietnam with SNV I had a few days off before heading home. I went to a cooking class, had a massage (and no, not one with a happy ending!) and went on a 3-day cruise of Halong Bay. The cooking class (with Hidden Hanoi) was fantastic. There were only three of us in the class and we cooked up Vietnamese spring rolls, BBQ’d pork balls, fish sauce soup with green papaya and fresh bun noodle. We spent almost three hours cutting, dicing, slicing and cooking then I ate my body weight in food. It was the best… (read more)
Off the beaten track in Vietnam.
Monday, June 27th, 2011
I’ve just got home from another wonderful trip through the wilds of Northern Vietnam. Like my visit last November I was doing some work for SNV, a Dutch NGO. From Hanoi we travelled by car up into the Northern Highlands through areas that don’t get too many tourists. Last time I helped design four logos, write a few taglines and whip up a couple of brochures and a website, and this time we were just as busy. We did logo design and straplines for the remaining four provinces, plus whipped up a lazy three brochures in two days back in an ad agency in Hanoi. On this jaunt up north we visited the province of Cao Bang – pronounced “Cow Bung’. I suggested ‘Cowabunga, dude!’ for the strapline… (read more)
Travel highlights of 2010.
Friday, December 31st, 2010
It wasn’t a big travelling year for me compared to last year, but the few overseas and local trips that I took were full of great highlights. From staying at five-star resorts (with our own private butler) to skiing untracked powder (in Australia no less) to dining with locals in the mountains of Vietnam (oh, except the smoked pig’s intestines part) to snorkelling with a dole of turtles (that’s the correct collective noun I believe!). So, without further ado here is my Top Ten Travel Highlights from 2010 (in no particular order)… (read more)
Vietnam: The romance of parrots.
Saturday, November 13th, 2010
I just got back from a wonderful and very interesting trip to northeast Vietnam where I was doing some voluntary work for SNV. I flew into Hanoi and from there travelled by car up into the Northern Highlands through areas that don’t get too many tourists. My job (along with marketing expert and fellow Aussie Judi from Noosa) was to get a good feel for the region then design four logos, write a few taglines and whip up a couple of brochures and a website. Also along for the ride was… (read more)
Good morning Vietnam!
Monday, October 25th, 2010
I’m off to Vietnam this week. I’ll be doing some volunteer work for a Dutch based NGO and probably also drinking some Bia hoi. I’m not helping build a school (and if I did it would fall over in a week), but I am helping bring more tourists into the relatively untouched Northern Highlands. I’ll be visiting Lao Cai and Son La province (and some other places that I can’t remember), then I have to come up with creative concepts (this is where my advertising background comes in) for a logo and tagline for the Northern Highlands and three provinces. Should be great fun and… (read more)
I’ve been to Bali, too.
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
I never wanted to go to Bali. I steered clear of the ‘Island of the Gods’ because I always thought it was more like ‘Island of the Yobs’. I imagined Bali to be full of seriously inebriated Aussies in Bintang singlets drinking buckets of iridescent cocktails in the Fair Dinkum Bonza Koala Bar. Okay, that pretty well sums up the crowd at Kuta Beach, but I’ve been to Bali three times in the past 18 months and become totally intoxicated by the place (and that intoxication had nothing to do with iridescent cocktails). And, if it wasn’t for my new book that I am writing (re-tracing the original Lonely Planet South East Asia on a Shoestring), then I may not have gone to Bali at all… (read more)
Say cheese.
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
I think I’m a pretty good photographer… then I see work from real travel photographers and I realise that I’m at best just better than average. I actually studied photography for five years (as part of my graphics degree), but I just don’t know all those little ‘tricks’ that can turn an average photo into an amazing photo. But there is help. Friend, and fellow Australian Society of Travel Writer member, Ewen Bell (that’s one of his photos above, not mine!) has recently started a website called Photography for Travellers and… (read more)
Pelicans and Paradise.
Monday, January 11th, 2010
I discovered paradise today. Okay, I didn’t discover it personally and my brother has been coming here for years, but Pelican Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. Pelican Beach is actually a tiny island about twenty minutes by boat from Hervey Bay in Queensland. My brother Bruce (along with his family) took us out there on the way to Fraser Island. And, best of all, we had the entire island to ourselves… (read more)
Swamp eels and other highlights of Thailand.
Monday, April 6th, 2009
I have been quite slack on the blogging front, but I do have a very good excuse. I have been in Burma (or Myanmar if you want to get technical) for 10 days and just before I arrived in the country the government decided to close down the entire country’s internet for a few weeks so they could do some ‘maintenace’ work. I couldn’t update my blog or check my emails and, worst of all, I couldn’t check the football results (which actually worked out okay because both my football teams – Collingwood and Manchester United – lost!). So, I’ve got a bit of blogging to catch up on. I thought I’d start with Highlights from Thailand and (read more)