Or…the beer that made binge drinking famous. Well, at the Sapporo bier garten it does at least. Attached to the brewery is a massive beer hall where you pay around $40 to eat – and this is where the bingeing comes in – drink as much as you can in 100 minutes. A mini-grill is set up on your table then the waitress proceeds to bring out plates of marinated mutton and vegetables and bottomless mugs of beer. I went with a Japanese fellow who could eat, drink and smoke at the same time. He managed to drink $40 worth of beer in the first half hour.

Chingis is Mongolian for Genghis – as in Genghis Khan. Yes, Chingis may have raped and pillaged his way across Asia (and beheaded a few hundred thousand people along the way  just for kicks), but that didn’t stop the Mongolians naming their countries premier beer after him. You don’t really imagine Mongolians making good beer (their national tipple is fermented mare’s milk after all), but this ‘German’ style lager is one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Or maybe it just tasted so good after drinking all that mare’s milk.

The beer at the Augustiner Bräu Kloster Mülln (trying saying that after a few beers) in Salzburg, Austria is brewed by monks. After a night of guzzling this fine drop I staggered back to the hostel with a bunch of fellow backpackers through the quiet backstreets of Salzburg belting out ‘Do-re-Mi’ and ‘These are a few of my favourite things’ at the top of our well-sozzled lungs. This, I imagine, must happen on most nights in Salzburg, which would help to explain why the locals hate The Sound of Music.

I picked up this coaster at a Russian Mafia owned karaoke bar in Moscow. I only had one beer because it cost an arm and a leg (not literally – although I bet the mafia have taken a few arms and a legs in their time). You can read the entire story in the Russian chapter from my Karaoke World Tour blog.

I picked this one up in Antwerp, Belgium. Apparently the ‘forbidden fruit’ wasn’t an apple – it was a frothy mug of Hoegaarden beer. Their tag line is ‘Let yourself be seduced’. And with 8.8% alcohol Adam wouldn’t have had much problem doing some seducing.

Okay, I did to pick up this coaster from the Davy Byrnes pub in Dublin, but I can’t remember much of the night at all. Either could the author James Joyce by the sounds of it. He wrote about the pub: ‘He entered Davy Byrnes. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in a leap year once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.’ I think he drank a few more pints than I did when he wrote that.

This is an old one – when Germany had an East and West (although I did pick up this coaster – and drink this beer – in London). The nice thing about this beer is that you can get plastered (it’s ’strong in alcohol’) while staying nice and trim (it’s a ‘diet’ lager).

I got this on the Carlsberg brewery tour in Copenhagen, Denmark. I met a couple of English guys on the tour (who had done the tour before) and had worked out how to get lots of free beer. ‘Stick with us,’ they said to me, when the tour finished. While everyone sat down at different tables for the free tastings the guys waited then jumped on a table filled with old ladies. The ladies didn’t touch their beer, so we had the lot. It was hard work, though. First of all we only had 20 minutes to drink it all and – for me at least this was a challenge – it was only 10.30 in the morning.

I went to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich once. That was enough. Yes, they make a mighty fine beer and the oompah music has as much oompah as other beer hall oompah music bands in Munich, but there just aren’t many Germans there. I spoke to a waitress who told me that she hadn’t served a single German customer the whole night. It was full of drunk and obnoxious Aussies. I could have stayed at home and been in bar full of drunk Aussies. I preferred the Löwenbräukeller, which was full of drunk and obnoxious Germans.

I’ve had many an afternoon or evening sitting outside the The Bulldog ‘Palace’ in Amsterdam with a large bottle of Grolsch. The ‘cafe’ is in Leidseplein (one of the main squares) and it’s great spot to watch all the freaks. And in Amsterdam there are plenty – although most of them are just spaced-out foreigners high on grass and space-cakes in a desperate dash for a munchy fix at McDonalds.

In Minnesota, beer coasters recommend that you ‘Pick up a local honey’. So that’s exactly what I did. Then I married her.

Next time on ‘Travels in my Shoebox’ I’ll take you on a journey through my collection of funny-money banknotes…

I flew Business Class (or the rather flash-sounding ‘Club Class’) with Uzbekistan airways and the only difference between Cattle Class was that we got a linen tablecloth with our ham and salad roll.

My name may have been Bryn Thacker and Indonesia ranks as one of the worst countries for air-safety records, but boy are they cheap. And at least Merpati have been around a while and they haven’t run out of planes yet. Oh, and ‘Say No To Drug’ – they just don’t specify which one!

The ‘Treasure of Myanmar’ was actually very nice. The plane was relatively new, we departed right on time and the very full plane landed in Bagan (from Mandalay) to let just two of  us off, while the rest flew on to Yangon.

This was one of the most surprising flights I’d ever been on. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much from Ethiopian Airlines, but the plane was brand new, the food was excellent and the service was impeccable. They could teach a few other well-known airlines a thing or two (not mentioning any names United Airlines).

Pan Am. Remember them? I took this flight from London to New York in October 1989. The flight number was originally PA103, but they changed it to PA103 after the Lockerbie bombing in December 1988. I’d always wanted to fly Pan Am because I had a Pan Am board game where you raced each other around the world. It was that game with all the exotic place names that got me interested in geography and travel.

It’s always a worry when the whole plane breaks into rapturous applause when the plane lands. The plane may have been a little old, but hey they did do a lovely pasta salad and chocolate mousse.

I do have about another 200 boarding passes, but I won’t bore you any further. There is, however, just one boarding pass that I really want to add to my collection. It’s this….

Eva Air in Taiwan have Hello Kitty planes where everything, and I mean everything, is Hello Kitty themed –  from the fuselage to the flight attendants, cushions, check in, baggage tickets, and even the food is Hello Kitty themed (I’m talking pink spaghetti and kitty shaped buns). Here’s what to expect…

The interior of the plane.

The scary Hello Kitty food (although the Hello Kitty hosties are cute!)

And what’s even scarier is that this is the pilot!

Coming up next on ‘Travels in my Shoebox’ is my beer coaster collection!

The last one is hard, isn’t it?

There he is!

This is my first week as a ski guide for Top Deck ski on the Schilthorn above Murren in Switzerland (I’m on the left). Those early 90s ski jacket designs had a lot to answer for!

This is the same resort (in Wengen) at the end of the season in 1994. This was a fancy dress day (I’m on the far left with the nice shorts – and nice legs!). The fellow next to me spent most of the day skiing in a pair of speedos, swimming cap and swimming goggles!

Ah, the old weekly fancy dress party! Arabs were popular on this night – or more likely people forgot to bring a fancy dress, so they used their towels and bedding!

Don’t forget to post your pic and don’t forget to like my Facebook page. I’d like that.

On just about every one of my 20-odd trips around Europe as a tour leader we would visit the traditional fishing village (or traditional twee tourist village) of Vollendam in Holland to get a group photo. Everyone donned the traditional ‘national’ costume. For men, that was baggy pantaloons, red and white striped jackets and little black fisherman’s caps, while the women wore ’seven-coloured’ skirts and white lace bonnets. And both sexes wore those podiatrist’s nightmare wooden clogs. Inevitably the biggest and most yobbish of fellows would dress in the women’s costume and take great delight in fondling each other’s foam breasts. I can’t talk, though. After my sixth or ninth group photo I got bored with the pantaloons and started wearing the pretty lace bonnets and, anyway, I look quite fetching in a dress. Here are just a few photos from my rather impressive collection. Can you spot me in each shot?

I look hot with my red flaming hair...

Only three of us are not from Hong Kong…

Our training trip group shot – where I picked up a buxom driver called Steve…

I’d given up on women’s costumes and started eating plastic fish…

And finally resorted to downing large jugs of grog!

Do you have any funny group photos from your travels? Whether you were on a tour or with the bunch of mad Canadians that you travelled with in Thailand. Well, if you ‘Like’ my Facebook page and post a group photo from your travels I’ll pick a random winner who will receive a signed copy of the original ‘Rule No.5: No sex on the bus’. You’ve got till the 21st of April to post a pic and have a chance to win!

When it comes to cities, Paris had been the top city for members for a long time (back then with 20,000 members), but they have been overtaken by New York (which jumped up six places) with 76,994 members. My home city of Melbourne has dropped two places, but is still in the Top Ten with an impressive 27,000 members (it’s impressive when you consider that there are over 86,000 cities and are above cities like Los Angeles, Madrid, Rio and Beijing – which comes in at No.38 with 13,509 members.

A few more oldies have joined in the past few years as well. Less than three years ago there were 9,000 members over the age of 60 and now there are over 35,000 (including 778 over 80). Of the 365 languages (strangely down from the 1,268 three years ago) the most widely spoken is English with 2,776,689 speakers, while there are 152,569 Chinese (Mandarin) speakers. Now, I just have to get every single one of them to buy my book and tell their other 1.3 billion friends to do the same.

For all of Chinese fans I’ll post the link to buy the book when it hits the shelves in Beijing. And for all my German fans you get a Kindle version of the book here and my Slovenian fans can get it here.

And to sign off, here’s to show you how far the couch surfing website has come – they even have a rather slick promo video…

Here’s the Jetsons-esque interior:

And while I’m here talking about restaurants with a great view here are some of my favourite restaurants from my travels (with a view and that added something special):

The Piz Gloria restaurant on top of the Schilthorn in Switzerland has it all. The revolving restaurant (made famous as the headquarters of Blofeld in James Bond movie ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’) affords you (throw in a bunch of superlatives) views of the Eiger (made famous in the Clint Eastwood film ‘The Eiger Sanction’) and the Jungfraujoch and alps as far as the eye can see. Then there is the ‘James Bond breakfast’ (with a glass of champagne). Then after a couple of them drop into the steepest black run in the Murren ski area.

They got the name right here – this is Vertigo restaurant and Moon Bar on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel in Bangkok. It’s hard to beat this view particularly when you have a table right on the edge. The food is amazing and the waiter gives you a torch to read the menu as you sit under soft candlelight – just to make that drop look even scarier. Don’t  eat here if you have a fear of heights.

Here’s a view with a great story. The Cataract Hotel in Aswan, Egypt (built in 1899) sits high above the Nile surrounded by gardens and splendid views of Elephantine Island and a flotilla of Feluccas. There are four restaurants, but the best view is from the Terrace Bar – which also has the cheapest food and you don’t have to wear a jacket and slacks like in their main restaurant. And it’s where Agatha Christie sat to write her famous novel, Death on the Nile.

Choice! This is the view from the Skyline restaurant in Queenstown, New Zealand. After a day’s skiing at the Remarkables (the peaks in the distance) you make your way up the restaurant by gondola then after the ‘Taste of New Zealand’ all you can eat buffet and few Marlborough Sav blancs take the scary luge ride back down to Queenstown.

You can choose from countless restaurants on the island of Santorini in Greece and they all have ‘that’ view. Throw in a sunset, fresh grilled calamari with a Greek salad and a couple of ouzos and you’re in heaven. Then step and repeat the next night.

Yes it’s a tourist magnet, but I do love the Restaurant Tram in Melbourne. And for a visitor there are great views of Victorian Terrace houses in Albert Park, the sunset on the Esplanade in St Kilda, the buzz of Acland Street and a hooker or two on Fitzroy street. And considering the tiny kitchen is moving with you they serve up a great steak.

Does anyone have their favourite restaurant with a view?

Ma Pi Leng Pass, Ha Giang, Vietnam
The north-west province of Ha Giang is as north-west as you can get in Vietnam. Only a dumpling toss away from China this is Vietnam’s wild frontier with secluded mountain villages and one of the most spectacular mountain-pass drives in the world. The gorge road between the delightful towns of Dong Van to Meo Vac snakes its way precariously on the edge of towering cliffs of bright green. It was good that the scenery was so stunning because you didn’t notice the sheer drop next to the narrow road without safety barriers.

Dumplings, Singapore
I was in Singapore for the Singapore Writer’s festival and one of my big highlights was eating dumplings at Din Tai Fung restaurant. This Taiwanese based restaurant is famous around the world (the two Hong Kong restaurants both have one Michelin star!). There are 12 Din Tai Fung restaurants in Singapore and I had to see what the fuss was all about. Well, it was certainly worth the fuss – their dumplings are hands down the best, tastiest and juiciest dumplings I’ve ever eaten. And, the great news is that there are three Din Tai Fung restaurants in Sydney. I know where I’ll be heading when I go up to Sydney next.

Manly, Sydney, Australia
Talking about Sydney, I took Beth up to Sin City a few months back and she absolutely loved it. And with a day like we had it would have been hard not to. We began the day with a stroll through the city down to Circular Quay, then jumped on the Manly ferry across Sydney harbour (which has to be one of the most spectacular commutes in the world for those lucky enough to live in Manly) and when we got to Manly had fish and chips on the pier overlooking the harbour. After lunch we hired a tandem bicycle and rode up to North Head then all along Manly beach. We then caught the ferry back to the city as the sun dropped. it was perfectly romantic, even if I did do all the peddling on the tandem.

Disneyland and Universal Studios, Los Angeles, USA
I went to both of these 22 years ago and it was fun, but not as fun as seeing my 9 year-old daughter’s face when she almost wet herself on Splash Mountain (well, she did get very wet but that was the splashing from Splash Mountain), and when she squealed with delight on the Simpson’s ride at universal Studios (I did a bit of squealing myself, too, actually), or when she squeezed my hand so tight when King Kong jumped on top of the tour train on the Universal Studio Tour and when I finally, after all these years, I let her have Fairy Floss (or Cotton Candy). The dentist bill will be more than the entrance to both parks!

Cooking class, Hanoi, Vietnam
I’ve always wanted to do a cooking class in my travels, but never got around to it.  I’m so glad that I finally did one, and best of all, it was absolutely wonderful. The cooking school belonged to Hidden Hanoi and we spent hours (there were three of us) cutting and dicing and pestling and frying and grilling to make ’simple’ street food. The spring rolls were the best spring rolls I’d ever eaten (even if I do say so myself). I did try to make the three-course meal at home, however, and it took me all day to prepare and my spring rolls looked like squashed piles of mess (although the four glasses of wine I had while doing all the slicing may have had something to do with that!).

Isla Mujeres, Mexico
This is as idyllic as it gets. There was white sand beaches, swimming with dolphins, downing margaritas as big as my head, staying at the perfectly divine Villa Rolandi hotel, cruising around the island in a golf buggy, romantic lobster dinners on the beach, Coronas in the jacuzzi, Mexican eggs for breakfast right on the water and, oh, it was also my honeymoon!

A veritable feast of feasts, Ubud, Bali
This was my third time to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and, yes the events are fantastic, and the venues are wonderful, and the crowds are great and Ubud is a beautiful town, but the highlight for me is the food. As a guest at the festival we are invited to banquets every single night. Every night we were presented with tables laden with local specialties including my favourites such as Babi guling (roast suckling pig), Sate lilit (minced seafood satay, served wrapped around a twig of lemongrass), Urutan (Balinese spicy sausage), Opor ayam (chicken cooked in coconut milk) and the list keeps going (and so did the size of my stomach). I staggered home every night (although the bottomless glasses of wine may have helped there as well).

Kayaking, Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
After taking the prerequisite overnight boat cruise around Halong Bay I stayed at this tiny ‘resort’ (see below) which I shared with four other guests. I then spent the entire afternoon paddling around (and under) the countless magnificent limestone karsts and isles that rise out of the clear waters away from the maddening crowds. I even found my own private little beach that I only shared with a few empty bottles and couple of crabs.

Winter fun in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
It was very warm winter as far as Minnesota winters go (it was a mostly around a balmy -3 instead of the usual -20), but we still did lots of fun winter things like skiing (at Welch village which is only 40 minutes out of town), tubing (which is sooo much fun and one day jasmine and I had the entire Tubing Park to ourselves – see pic below), building snowmen (or more like a snow dwarf – or whatever the politically correct term is now for small people), snow fights (Jasmine will say that she won, but I got her a beauty in the back of her head), and my favourite thing – setting off a giant box of fireworks on new years eve in a snowstorm!

Hotel Esencia, Xpu Ha (halfway between Playa del Carmen and Tulum), Mexico
Para, Para, Paradise…. Chris Martin must have been singing about Hotel Esencia. Every tiny detail was just perfect. There was the perfect white sand and warm aqua water, stunningly designed room with private pool and great little touches like an iPod full of cool latino music, brewed coffee on call, and a free minibar stocked with funky Mexican beers. The ‘Mexican’ breakfasts were to die for and the gourmet Mexican cuisine in the gorgeous restaurant was even better. The beach was perfectly quiet with our own little grass hut with table service for lunch and cocktails. And to top it off I was there with the most wonderful girl in the world!

And it is was so beautiful that I have to show you another shot of that beach…

I’ve got a few fun trips planned for 2012 (if they all come off) including Morocco, Argentina, Vietnam and Newcastle (no, not upon-Tyne but Newcastle upon-the NSW-coast.

So, do you have a travel ‘highlight’ of 2011 or any great trips planned for 2012?

My fat head period…

With hoop earring and strange hoop around mouth

My first trip OS passport (wow, don’t I look young and all innocent)

My first passport (okay, it’s not me but they are some impressive ears)

One shocked baby passport photo

One shocking hair passport photo

Just plain shocking passport photo

Ummm….

Here’s me looking like David Beckham – no hang on it is Becks!

Do you have a funny passport photo? If you’re game you can post it on my Facebook page here.