Photos from Nelson, New Zealand
Easter 2011 coincided with ANZAC day so we had the day to explore the surrounding areas of Nelson - beautiful weather for late April!
Easter 2011 coincided with ANZAC day so we had the day to explore the surrounding areas of Nelson - beautiful weather for late April!
OK this blog started off confused - a mixture of travel notes and tips - but now I know what I want it to be - a photo blog - I really like this platform - posterous.com for photos - but not so much for other things. Its easy to use when I'm on the road too because I can just email words and photos and voila they are up! I also really like the view which allows you the reader to see the pictures easily.
Hey for all those that asked - well Allyn anyways - here are some pics of Prague in the snow! Keep watching - I am planning a mega post on how to dress for -10C - lots and lots of layers! anyway have to run - more pics to take!
Well after 11cm of snow in Paris in one day - the next day the sun came out and we had our first (and so far only) blue sky day in Europe! We saw the tail end of the massive travel disruption as the train was very packed and the suburban train out to Versailles ran very slowly. Versailles closed the previous day because of the snow - so there were lots and lots of tourists - we finished early as the Gardens and the smaller palaces were closed - so we added the Eiffle tower onto the trip - this too closed with the snow - they couldn't salt the decks (think about it) - but it had reopened by the time we stood in the queue for 1.5hrs to get up it! However it was worthwhile as the view was clearer than a summer's day - no heat haze!
Just for Sue who wanted to see the snow - taken from the window in the Louvre looking towards the Tulieres Gardens - there was actually 11cm there heaviest snow fall for ages and thousands had to camp in the city cause every bus lines was cancelled. We got back to our hotel with little drama - and didn't realise how bad it was until the next day with the local papers had the headlines of "paris paralysed " !
Ahhh - we will always have Paris in the snow - and yes its a long way from the tropical pool in Koh Lanta . Actually we arrived on the Eurostar to gentle snow! I love that particularly when we hadn't booked any accommodation because of the risk of travel disruptions! Fortunately there an awful lot of hotels within 2 minutes of (careful) walking distance. The first one was full - the one next door was not - and at Euro55/night including an ensuite, super fast WIFI and a really large room (by European standards ie 2 beds one queen) - its a pretty good deal! They seemed surprised when we came back down and paid for another 2 nights.
Well having spent quite a lot of time doing not very much on the
beachs of Ko Lanta we got to the bit smoke of Krabi. Krabi is not a
tourist town - its the provincial centre, and most of the tourists
stay at the beach about 20km away. But we decided to stay in town -
first off- it was raining - not exactly the freezing stuff of Europe -
which we are looking forward to (?) - but rain none the less which
does make the beach less appealing.
Well we make the big move from one warm tropical beach to another - actually it was quite a trip - over 3 hours by speed boat. The boat connections are good - even from a small island like Ko Lipe but rather than go back to the mainland we got a direct speed boat to Ko Lanta - it wasn't exactly cheap - nearly NZ$100 each - but saved a day's travelling. And we got to laugh at the funny tourists. We picked up several more groups from tiny islands - which have one resort and no jetty. In one case we just backed to beach and the people had to wade out - actually about upper thigh deep - this makes for great pics when people are trying to do this with roll-along luggage. Do yourself a favour if you decide to hit the Thai islands - get a backpack if you are going somewhere without a pier!
Sand, sea, warm, good food, cold beer - yeah its tough but we are trying our hardest to support the local economy you know. I haven't actually been to this part of Thailand before - the Andaman Islands - it was too expensive for me as a poor backpacker - and its still quite (relatively) expensive - we are paying less for accommodation B700 (about NZ$24) but that's without a/c - with a/c would be double that. In fact we sleep quite well with the fan on full and during the night and the tiled bathroom is really luxurious - no hot water but who needs it! At low tide the beach gets quite shallow but most of the time its pretty much picture perfect (see pic) the sea really is that colour (the only downside is that that wireless internet doesn't extend as far as out bamboo hut so I have to use the netbook at the beach front and the glare is too much for any photo editing! )
Daily (maybe) updates from the road
