Already for some time on TV is showed Australia tourism advertising campaign “Come walkabout”, but till today I didn’t know about website they created for trip planning. Until today I accidentally visited it and would like to share that link with you as it is really nice and informative web site. Although the routes are not very detailed described, but you can find main highlights in Australia and most importanly get idea about how much time you need to see at least part of this country. A lot of people overstimate and try to plan too many things for couple weeks visit without realizing how huge Australia is.

“Come walkabout planner” cover most of country, except I am missing Coral Coast (Exmouth, Monkey bay) in the West, but probably this gap also will be filled. You can download and print suggested routes with short destination descriptions. So check it before you next trip to Australia.

I am not surprised when officer in airport asks me for random(?) bag check. Usually I have big backpack, wearing not the cleanest clothes on after a long trip, so I can go directly to custom officer after collected my checked luggage. But last I was on short trip and had only small bag. Landed on Monday morning and was rushing to the office as had some urgent job to do. Again I was stopped by custom officer. It didn’t took much time to check my small bag, but I asked him, why I was stopped and the answer was: “I saw you was moving very fast towards exist”. Lesson learned: don’t run in customs area, it won’t help you leave airport faster.

It was packed, but you still could get ticket to the one of those boats. I felt sorry for that couple which missed trip because probably workers in hostels gets payments from one of company and don’t sell tickets from others. Can’t confirm this, but I don’t see any other reason why receptionist didn’t call to another company. Or may be it is not only me but locals are confused too because it is a little bit mess with information about those ferries? So in case somebody will tell you – no tickets to Phi Phi island from Phuket, go directly to Rassada Pier and check for tickets there.  Also you can see the boat which you gonna board, as I am not sure I would love to spend 1.5 hours in the sea on boat like this one:

Gladly at least in Auckland airport you don’t need to pay this fee, but keep 25$NZ in you pocket if you are flying out from any other airport in New Zealand.

After staying couple days in Ao Nang on my last day I decided to visit probably nicest beach in area – Hat Phra Nang. Although Lonely Planet calls Railay(Rai Leh) most stunning beach location in all Thailand I would name it nice but not the “most”.  Ok is not about this today. How you can get there from Ao Nang? Only by long tail boat.  It takes about 15-20 minutes and cost 80BTH at the moment. You can go from Ao Nang directly to Hat Phra Nang beach or go to Hat Rai Leh West and then walk to Hat Phra Nang beach. It is about another 20 minutes walk, but I would recommend to do that walk to see how different is Hat Rai Leh East side of peninsula.
Day was not the best for beach. It started raining, so didn’t stay on the beach more then half an hour. Was no any long tail boats on Hat Phra Nang beach so I went back to Hat Rai Leh West. It looks was no shortage of long tail boats here.

I showed my return ticket to Ao Nang and guy pointed where I should wait. Long tail boats go when there are at least 8 persons. In Ao Nang it took about 10 minutes till was enough people to go. But different story in Railay. The couple I met in waiting area was waiting for a boat more then an hour.  It was strange because boats were leaving almost every five minutes. I didn’t realize there are at least two different companies which transfer people from Ao Nang to Railay and back. I did wait less then an hour, but situation wasn’t very pleasant – I needed to catch bus to Bangkok that afternoon, another couple was going to airport – and boat owners even didn’t discuss possibility to go earlier.  It was happy ending and I made on time to my bus, but don’t make mistake I did – don’t buy return ticket (it is not saving you any money anyway)  and check which boats will leave earlier (i.e. more people are waiting) before buying your ticket.

NZI Sevens 2009

NZI Rugby Sevens is an annual international sevens tournament held in Wellington in February. But it is not just rugby and the Wellington NZI Rugby Sevens is like no other weekend. All city looks like big party and every year it becomes bigger and bigger. So even if you are not into rugby, but are traveling in New Zealand during this time schedule your trip to be in Welly during that weekend. It usually happens on first weekend in February, but double check official website for exact days. This year it starts…today.

Sydney Festival 2010 is over, but other events start in February. From February 12 until 28 Sydney celebrates Chinese New Year – Year of Tiger.  Will be a lot different festivities in Chinatown and over venues. A highlight of the Festival will be spectacular Twilight Parade on 21st of February.  Straight from Twilight Parade head to The Domain as on the same day at night will be shown finalists of World’s largest short film festival – Tropfest. Go there early as place fills up very quickly if it is not raining of course And the last big event at the end of February – Mardi Gras Parade. It will be as always huge parade of theatrical and spectacular floats on Oxford Street.

After looking to already submitted photos I notice people are missing one big point – it is book cover, so picture should look good in portrait orientation. Of course you can crop landscape photo to make it fit into portrait format, but with a lot of pictures this not gonna work.

Another issue I saw in submissions: people in the pictures. Probably not everybody heard about such thing as signed model release. So better don’t submit photo if you don’t know person in the picture and don’t have possibility to get signed this form from them. It can be too complicated with publishing of such picture.

But before you start browsing through your pictures go to travel guides section in your local book store. Just stand in front of it check covers. Not only Frommer’s, but others too. Like Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and etc. Look at it and you will know what sights or scenes you shouldn’t submit as you probably won’t find same place captured twice on cover of these books. So don’t submit what is already printed.

So let’s go and good luck. I am going to check my photo archive too.

Fake VIP bus stop in Krabi,Thailand

Next day in afternoon guy picked me up from guest house and dropped in some coffee shop on edge of Ao Nang. There another mini bus should pick up me and transfer to Krabi from there bus goes to Bangkok. Never travelled with bus in Thailand before, so didn’t have any expectation how it works and wasn’t worrying much about it, as after 20 minutes mini bus came and dropped all passengers including me somewhere in Krabi. Place doesn’t look like bus station at all. But bus was were and a lot of other people also were waiting for it. No worries. Only after talking with another guy I met there I understood it is fake (not government run Transport Company) VIP bus. What I can do now? I must in Bangkok tomorrow. Bus wasn’t full and I had two seats available. Not bad, as usually in such private buses they have more seats then in real VIP bus. Which means less leg space. So far so good, except driver was smoking and all bus was full of smoke. At night when we stopped for a break a could look at real VIP buses. Not much difference from outside, except serial numbers and company title on it. But inside it was much cleaner, had working TV and probably could find other cons, but I will check it next time I come to Thailand.

Fake(left) and two real(right) VIP buses in Thailand

This time I arrived safe and sound to Bangkok and actually it stopped near Khao San Road there a lot of hostels are, so no need to take taxi from bus station.
My experience with fake VIP bus in Thailand was not such bad, but want to know everybody about it. Next time I at least will know about it’s existence and will think should I take it or not. Price I paid for ticket was higher then real VIP bus, don’t know what insurance they have in case of accident and most unpleasant thing happened – at night somebody checked bags left in bus storage unit and even didn’t bother properly to close bags after they opened them. Nothing was stolen, but it is not very nice feeling when you know somebody went through your stuff. So don’t ignore warning: “KEEP YOUR VALUABLES WITH YOU”.