Author: Bill

Every year the staff of Tondoon Botanical Gardens in Gladstone decorate the entire park in lights. Trees, displays, light shows, light art, you name it, if it has to do with light, it’s there. Nancy and I went there to see what the hype was all about and we were amazed. I took a few pictures but they fail to capture the beauty and effects of the hundreds of thousands of lights, reflections, and effects presented. There was something for everyone but definitely attracted children. We had a great time, enjoyed everything and plan to go again next year.

So that was just a small sampling of what there was. An amazing event and show. Hope yoou liked it.

Nancy and I were put in charge of organizing a group campout for our church this coming August. One of the areas or campgrounds suggested to us was Cania Gorge National Park. There is a small campground there where our church has camped before. I looked it up, talked to the folks who run the campground and booked it sight unseen. Feeling I needed to check it out, we invited our family to join us for our annual 4th of July celebration at the park. Andy didn’t get any time off (I guess the Aussies just don’t recognise the significance of our Independence Day!) but managed to take a day and a half of vacation. So, we all trooped out there on the 4th, set up and commenced to celebrate the 4th. First thing I would like to point out is that we are in the middle of Winter here in Oz so it was not real hot. The second thing is we usually get rained on when we camp over the 4th. Getting the picture here? Cold … wet. Okay. Here’s our camp, all set up:

We got set up before dark. Got a fire started and Nancy, Candy, Sammy, and Christian all started with the 4th of July fireworks … that would be sparklers and light tubes … all they allow here.

Before it got dark we did have the traditional meal of hotdags and hamburgers, potato salad and beans … all served on red, white, and blue plates, utensils, and napkins. It felt so patriotic!

The next morning we all decided to go hiking. Cania Gorge is a spectacular gorge with steep rock walls, big trees, and plenty of vegetation. There were many trails to choose from so we picked several short ones that linked up and did them. No one in the group is a serious hiker but we do like hiking and seeing nature. There is a great deal to see but in pictures it’s just rocks, and trees, and dirt so I’m not going to point out which is which. Our walks:

That night we enjoyed relaxing and recouping by a bonfire and some yummy chow. It didn’t rain much so we escaped that part. The hiking was fun. Incredible views once you got up above the floor of the gorge.Australia has very rugged terrain. The valleys and gorges are steep and deep, usually covered in heavy vegetation.

Saturday morning I drove out to Cania Gorge lake to do some fishing. Didn’t catch any fish but I did take some pictures:

The campground also has a kitchen that provides a fridge, stoves, a microwave, and tables if anyone camping needs these facilities. It also provides a place you can wash you dishes, pots, and pans.

You can’t see it but there is a quite a bit of seating available there as well.

One of the neatest features of the camp is the bird feeding. Every day at 4 PM the hostess comes out with a bunch of corn and bird feed. King parrots, Lorikeets, Apostle birds, Magpies, Crows, and Cockatoos all pile in for the feast. They eat from your hands, stand on your head, and enjoy the feast. An interesting sight indeed:

That was it. We woke up Sunday morning to a nice warn sun, took down the camp and went home. A successful 4th of July weekend.

Nancy and I first visited the Hawaiian Islands when I we met there during my R&R week from Vietnam in 1971. We had five wonderful days together and I went back to finish my tour and Nancy returned to Wisconsin. Since then we have been there a couple of times either on vacation or some sort of business. We did fly to a couple of the Islands on past visits but decided we wanted to see the major islands all in one trip. Norwegian Cruise Lines offers a week long trip that takes you to four of the Islands with stops and a chance for an excursion at each stop. As we hate packing and unpacking, flying, finding places to stay and places to eat so we thought a cruise would solve most of those problems. So, we booked a seven day cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. We did not pre-book any excursions. We wanted to see what was offered at the time we got there, and we were not sure if we were even going to take any. We were going there to relax. Here’s what the cruise looked like:

And, here is what you are supposed to see, at least on O’ahu:

So that’s basically what we did. We went there with an “Aloha Attitude” so we were determined not to try and do everything there was to do at every stop. We ended up getting off the boat twice and had a very relaxing and enjoyable time … in spite of being on a cruise ship.

The Spirit of America (Norwegian Cruise Lines) has been doing this trip since 2015 … every week, all year long. It is one of the few ships doing passenger cruises that is registered in the United States and consequently, by law, crewed by a majority of American citizens. Now, if you have been on other cruises you probably found most cruise ships are crewed by non-Americans. Also, if you have spent any time in America, especially near a tourist activity (except Disney World) you have noticed a difference in attitude between the foreign cruise crews (yes, a homonym) and American service personal. Same thing on this cruise. Service was good, could have been better. Servers were good, could have been better … at least by cruise standards. That said, because we are not fussy people and are perfectly competent to care for ourselves, we did fine, had a good time, and saw what we wanted to see.

Because we travel a great deal and have been disappointed several times by airlines not getting us to where we were going when they said they would, we booked into Hawaii a day early and spent our first night there in Honolulu. Yes, that does add to the cost of the trip but not as much as missing the first day or two of a cruise and being bounced around and wind up on an abbreviated cruise all stressed out and fatigued. We arrived in Honolulu early but by the time we went through immigration, got our bags, found a taxi and rode to the Hotel, it was close to noon. The hotel was gracious enough to allow us to check in early so we did. We ditched out stuff, put on some comfortable clothes and walked down to Waikiki Beach. It’s Winter here in Oz and while there is no snow, it is cool, relatively speaking. Waikiki was warm and sunny. We spend most of the afternoon walking along the beach front, looking in stores, watching the surfers, and enjoyed a nice dinner. Our hotel was close to the beach but our room was a “mountain view” so we looked the other way. Not bad but not the beach. Here are a few interesting views:

We had a pleasant arrival, nice dinner, and turned in early ready for our trip the next day.

So, here we are at the next day. Took a cab to the port and boarded the ship. Boarding was quick, easy, and simple. Everyone was pleasant and we were aboard just after 12. What they don’t tell you is that when you board early to avoid the rush, you wait for hours for your cabin to be ready once you are on the ship. As we were in our “Aloha Attitude” we just said “No Worries”, got a couple of Tequila Sunrises, found a deck chair, and vegged out till our room was ready. Easy Peasy!

While you are waiting for your Tequila Sunrise and cabin, I will show you a couple pictures of the ship and our cabin:

Our first stop was in Maui. We didn’t get off the ship. Too popular means too crowded. Remember, we came here to relax … Aloha!

Next stop was Hilo … didn’t see anything on the itineraries that interested us so we continued Chilling on board … but we did find going into the harbor interesting:

When we got to Kona we decided to get off the boat and see what there was to see. We disembarked and took a taxi to the local market. Interesting … yes, Nancy did find things to buy there, I was shocked!! We walked and shopped for a couple hours and headed back to the ship. Kona:

It was an interesting trip. Nancy got to buy some “Souvies” and we were back on the ship. As you can see from the picture of our itinerary, we now have a long trip to the North and Kuau’i. While we were enroute we decided to do a trip to the Waimea Canyon State Park when we got to Kuau’i. Waimea Canyon may look familiar to you as parks of “Jurassic Park” were filmed there. When we docked in Kuau’i the next morning we filed out and got onto out bus. This is the part I really dislike about cruises … excursions by bus! I don’t like big crowds of people on a tour … more than four is a big crowd. Here we had about 25. The thing that save this one for me was the “Rogue” bus driver. He said he had been in trouble several times for going “off track” on his tours but he was going to do it again. Loads of useless but colorful information as we drove along. He grew up here so now we know his life history … interesting. The tour was good. Here’s the Canyon:

The driver took us on a quite a tour to supplement the canyon tour but, I must admit, it was interesting and scenic. No one else on another excursion got to see all we did. I’m okay with that.

So then it was back to Honolulu. We pulled in the next morning and prepared to disembark. That also went quite well with no waiting in some holding place till it was your turn. If you didn’t have checked baggage from the night before, you could walk off any time. We only had two roller bags so we didn’t turn them in the night before, had a nice leisurely morning, and walked off at about 10. Caught a cab to the hotel, and checked in. Due to connecting to Australia we needed to stay overnight and catch an early flight out the next day … Boo Hoo! Same hotel but the Waikiki side. More pictures from Waikiki (mostly from our balcony:

We found it to be ironic that “our” ship was doing one more turn around Hawaii as we were preparing to leave. It was even more ironic it was right at sunset with the sun right behind it. The perfect ending to an interesting cruise. Hope you enjoyed coming along.

A shorty here. Nancy and I decided to try taking the Caravan out going a ways on the first day, setting up, staying there for few days, then going back home. We have never really camped like this as we are usually on the move every day with only an occasional longer stay. We decided to try caravanning as the Aussies do and spend more time at one place and less on gas. We picked Coolum Beach because it was a nice drive south of where we live, we had not seen that area before, and it sounded interesting. Also of interest was meeting a couple friends we had met on our 2022 Christmas cruise around South America. So we made reservations at a Caravan site next to the ocean and off we went.

We got a leisurely start on Wednesday morning. We had packed everything we thought we would need the night before, I had hooked up the caravan and all was ready. We had some coffee and took off South to Coolum Beach. It was about a 5 hour trip (450Km) with our usual stop for a bakery sweetie and coffee (a flat white) at our usual place along the way in a little town named Childress .. they have a great bakery there.

We got there early enough to get set up with daylight to spare. Another reason we wanted to spend a few days in one spot is that we bought a patio for our caravan and wanted to learn how to set it up in a campground. We put it on once at home but that’s under ideal conditions. We wanted to practice the real thing. We got the patio because the caravan is quite small and if it’s raining or in the evening and we need to stay inside it get pretty confining. The patio is completely enclosed and adds about 80 Sq Feet of living space hooked right onto the caravan. Not a lot of pictures here but you might be liking that.

There might be a couple more pictures of it later. Meanwhile, the next morning we decided to take a walk on the beach. We are still on the lower edge of the Coral Sea.

That was exciting. We had a luncheon date with our friends that we met on the cruise so we polished our shoes and headed north to Noosa Heads where they live. We had a wonderful time and spent all afternoon talking and catching up. They have a beautiful home right on the green of one of the holes of the golf course they live by. The fairways drives straight up towards their home so you can watch players from tee off to putt. Great time, great people.

So we spent the remaining days just relaxing and practicing taking it easy. Not a normal thing for us but we are learning. Here are some random shots around the campground of different Aussie camping getups. Some are quite unique.

We were forecasted to get rain and it did. We were worried about taking everything down in the rain or when it was still wet. Fortunately Saturday was sunny and breezy so in the late afternoon we took everything down, packed it up, had a quiet evening, and left Sunday morning. Trip home was uneventful and we logged in another successful campout.

See, I told you it was short! Next up is our cruise around Hawaii. See you there.

I call this a Mini Cruise because it has all the properties of a big Cruise but was on a small ship and didn’t last very long. We were on a ship, we were in big waters, we made several ports of call, we had entertainment, and we had drinks. We also had a cabin but shared it with about fifteen other folks because there was just one cabin. So, what kind of cruise was this?

We took the Curtis Island Ferry from Gladstone Marina out to Curtis island. The ferry runs on a published schedule nearly every day and serves those people who live on several of the small islands off the coast of Gladstone, campers who wish to camp on the south tip of Curtis Island, and trades people who go out to the islands to build, repair, maintain the buildings that are on the various islands. We took the ferry just for the fun of it. We wanted to see where it went, what the Gladstone harbor was like, what the islands were like, spend an afternoon doing something different, and getting some salt air and sunshine.

The cruise lasted about three hours, had five stops, and we had a great time. The ship was a fair sized ferry that could haul maybe ten cars or so, had an upper cabin that had seating for about thirty people, and surrounding open deck space where yuou could enjoy the sea breezes and sunshine.

I’m not going to provide much more narrative. The pictures and a few captions should pretty well explain everything. I think there will be a wrap up at the end. Here we go:

That was our cruise. While we didn’t have a meal, Nancy did have a Corona and I had a Bundaburg Rum and Coke on the way back. We spent most of the time out on the upper deck, me taking pictures and Nancy enjoying the breeze and views. We had a delightful time and went to the Auckland House for dinner. All in all a good day in Gladstone.

Here’s a little info from Google about Gladstone harbor and the Islands we went to:

Gladstone Harbour is a locality in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Gladstone Harbour had a population of 29 people.  There are three towns in Gladstone Harbour, all on Facing Island: Northcliffe, Farmers Point and Gatcombe.

Although predominantly water, the locality includes Facing Island and Quoin Island (both of which are partially developed) and a small undeveloped part of southern Curtis Island which may be a separate unnamed island at high tide.

Facing Island is 14.2 kilometres (8.8 mi) long and protects the harbour from the Coral Sea.  There are two passages from the harbour to the sea. The North Channel exits the harbour between the south of Curtis Island and the north of Facing Island, while the Gatcombe Channel exits the harbour to the south of Facing Island and Boyne Island.

There are three small towns on Facing Island:

• Northcliffe at the northern tip of the island 
• Farmers Point at the north-west of the island 
• Gatcombe at Gatcombe Head at the southern tip of the island

None of the towns are fully developed with typically half the blocks being undeveloped.  Nonetheless the number of houses on the island is still high relative to the population, suggesting many houses are not permanently occupied but are “weekenders” or holiday homes.

The actual harbor at Gladstone is actually quite significant. More from Google:

Gladstone’s primary industries are mining-related. The Port of Gladstone is the fifth-largest multi-commodity port in Australia and the world’s fourth-largest coal-exporting terminal.  The port consists of a number of wharves and terminal facilities. Boyne Wharf is used by the Boyne Island aluminium smelterand was opened in August 1982.  The western harbour basin has been expanded, primarily to allow increased exports of liquified natural gas (LNG). Furthermore, in 2016, a plant was constructed on Curtis Island to produce and export LNG, a construction project that contributed heavily to city’s population and housing boom. Major exports include coal, alumina, aluminium, cement products, sodium cyanide and ammonium nitrate.  Each year 50 million tonnes of coal passes through the port, making up 70% of the total exports.

Gladstone harbour is within the World Heritage Area of the Great Barrier Reef and has historically supported a thriving seafood industry.  In August 2011, a Fisheries Queensland spokesman said they received reports of fish with milky eyes.  A spokesman from the Gladstone Fish Markets claimed that diseased fish were still being caught in large numbers in November 2011.  Losses to the local seafood industry have been estimated at A$36 million a year.

Gladstone is also a tourism destination, with cruise ships regularly docking at the port.

Sorry about the commercial but we are pleased to be part of Gladstone and have enjoyed our first year here. Looking forward to more. Thanks for coming along.

Winter is coming so the north is starting to cool a bit.  Time for the Grey Nomads to start touring the northern part of Australia.  Still seems backwards to me but that’s the way it is here south of the equator.  During the late Spring, Summer, and Early Fall, any travel north of the Tropic of Capricorn is considered foolish, especially if you don’t have air conditioning in your caravan.  We do, thank goodness, so our trip last December up to Cairns was tolerable.  Our sailing adventure in the Whitsundays, much farther south, was hot, even on the water.  Now that Winter is approaching, we have decided to take the caravan out to a town that we have come to admire as a stepping off point to the Outback … Longreach.  Our plan is not to proceed past Longreach, but get there, spend a day, and return using a different route.  Here’s our route.

We traveled out to Longreach some 9 or 10 years ago with a rental car just to do some exploring.  We were visiting our family for a couple months and decided to give everyone a break and Nancy and I took a week off and take a trip.

Our first stop will be in Emerald.  Emerald, and the small town of Sapphire just beyond it, host the largest natural gem field in the Southern Hemisphere.  People come here for a day, week, month, or years of “FOSSICKING” (looking for gem stones).  Some people come out here and file a claim and stay for years.  We just want to see the area and maybe pick up a Ruby or a Sapphire that’s just laying around waiting to be picked up.  So Emerald was our first day’s destination.  We got a good start out on Wednesday morning. took the Dawson highway through Calliope and when we got to Biloela we turned north on the A5 to catch the A4 west to Emerald and Longreach.  We were in no particular hurry but made good time and arrived in Emerald early enough to do a little exploring after we unhooked and set up the caravan.  There’s a big dam and lake just south of the city, Fairbairn Lake and Dam, so went out and eyeballed that a bit.  Then we went back into town to find a huge easel with a picture of some flowers.  Van Gogh has a couple of these around the globe, one in Goodland Kansas. It’s 80 feet tall, and atop it rests a 32×24-foot representation of one of Van Gogh’s“Sunflower” paintings. It’s about a half-mile off of I-70 and the others are in Aries, France.  This one, apparently the folks of Emerald decided to be original, is of a bouquet of Sun Flowers, also by Vincent Van Gogh.  We did find it and it is nice … and very BIG.  From there we went back to camp, freshened up and went hunting for a place to eat dinner.  We did that, turned in early and got a good night’s sleep.

The next day we proceeded west to Sapphire looking for Jewels. Quite a small town, lots of junk laying around. Mostly mining claims. People come in. stake a claim and start mining for jewels. We decided to take a shortcut and found a place that would sell us some aggregate that we could sift and pick the jewels out of. It’s a tedious process and the jewels are quite rock looking so you need to know what to look for. We spent a couple hours with a pleasant lady who talked and helped us through the process. We ended up with some jewels that we found. Quite a few of them really but discovered it was only the first step we had taken.

So I bet that was disappointing. Here’s the rest of the story. In addition to the one container of jewels you saw, we had several more of different sizes and types. What we need to do now is to ship them to a jeweler in Thailand that will cut and polish them for us. Some that had inclusions or cracks we will just tumble and make shiny rocks out of that look like jewels but not cut to Jewel specifications. When we have this done, I will add them to this post so you will be able to see the before and after of our efforts. I think we collected several hundred thousand dollars worth of jewels once they are cut and polished … we’ll just have to wait and see. Right now they just look like gravel to the untrained eye.

After spending the better part of the morning there in Sapphire getting rich and learning all about Fossicking (you can Google “Fossicking” and learn all about Fossicking in Australia) we left and pressed on westward to Longreach. We arrived fairly late so we set up camp and drove downtown looking for dinner. Here are a few pictures of downtown Longreach.

For dinner we went to the local RSL, (The “Returned and Services League” of Australia, known as RSL, RSL Australia and RSLA, is an independent support organisation for people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force.) much like the US American Legion, which serves a fine meal and operates a nice tavern where many people go to eat and socialize. They are found in many communities and are open to the public to stay solvent. After a pleasant evening that included a great dinner we went back to the campground and turned in. that night we both dreamed of the riches in store for us once we get the jewels we found tidied up.

The next day we decided we were going out into the outback and finding a place they called “Starlight Lookout”. It was about 60 kilometers out into the outback so we took along an extra cup of coffee and off we went. As expected, about two kilometers out of town the pavement stopped and we were on various kinds of dirt roads. Not to be deterred we pressed on, past the herds of cattle, bands of Emus, and loads of nothing. About five kilometers from the location we ran into some flooding across the road. The advice in Australia regarding going through flooded areas is this. “If you have not crossed here before and there is water across the road, turn back.” It can be hours or even days before someone comes along to help you of you get stranded and there is no cellular service anywhere near. The condition of the road can be changed substantially by the water running over it so you never know what is going to happen once you venture out into the water. Even with posts marking the side and depth gauges (I have pictures of them in other posts) you have no assurance you will make it. Most locals have a SATCOM telephone or at least a long range UHF radio in their vehicles. We had neither so, we turned around. Here’s the trip.

To abate your disappointment I am posting some photos I lifted off the internet of the Starlight Lookout.

Once you get out into the outback, just like any other remote area, you have no ambient light and millions of stars come into view, the milky way looks milky and the sky is beautiful. We imagined the starry night that follows the sunset here at this spot must be quite spectacular. There are a quite few pictures of this place on the internet. Just google “Starlight Lookout, Longreach” for a peak.

That evening we had dinner in a different tavern … and before you all think we are drunks and live in taverns, that’s what they have in most towns to eat at … Taverns. Most of them have a bar, a bistro or restaurant, and the pokies. (Pokies are the room where they have all the slot machines that you “Poke” money into). This tavern had a dining room they called the Captain Starlight room. We thought it might have something to do with the spot we tried to get to that day so we read about it. It turns out that Captain Starlight was a cattle rustler named Henry Readford who stole about a thousand cattle near Longreach and drove them south nearly two thousand kilometers to South Australia where he sold them. He avoided detection and capture by driving the cattle at night using the stars for direction … a skill he had learned form local Aboriginals. The story can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Readford The men who accompanied him were so impressed he could navigate by night that they named him … “Captain Starlight”! Just like our western lore, there are thousands of stories of life in the outback. Anyhow, we enjoyed a nice dinner and returned to camp to get some rest before starting our trip back home.

We planned to use a different route going south from Emerald to a town named Rolleston, then catching Highway 60, or the Dawson Highway, east to Biloela and home. Our plan was to spend the night in Rolleston which was about half way. We got a couple coffees to go at the local bakery after we packed up the caravan and headed east to Emerald. It was a nice day and everything was going well and we made good time. We made a couple pit stops and a couple for gas and soon we were headed south out of Emerald towards Rolleston, our destination. I started raining … it was till early … I asked Nancy how she felt about spending the night in a damp campground listening to the rain on the caravan roof … we started coming across areas that had flooded and looked like they were about to be flooded again … once an area floods, all you can do is stay where where you are at until the waters recede … we put “home” in the GPS and saw we could be home by seven that evening … we decided to go for it and pressed on. We made one last stop for fuel in Banana and were home just after seven. The rain had continued most of the way. We went directly to “our” local tavern, parked on the grass across the street, and had dinner there. We were home a little before nine and slept in our own beds that night and after the 980 kilometer dash home, we were ready for a good nights sleep.

That was out rip to Longreach and the outback. It was a fun getaway and we will do many more like that now that it has started to cool off a bit. Stay tuned.

OMG !!!!! I almost forgot!!! After we got back from our trip out to Starlight Lookout (almost) we drove around Longreach a little just soaking up the local flavor. If it wasn’t so far from anywhere I would move there. As they say, “It’s not in the middle of nowhere, but you can see nowhere from there!”. Anyhow, one of the things we checked out was a little museum at the airport. We didn’t actually go into the museum (if you read my intro, we are not museum people) but I did take a couple of pictures. Few people know that Longreach, little ole Longreach way out in the outback, is the birthplace of Australia’s biggest airline, Quantas. Yup …. you can look it up right here: https://www.qantas.com/au/en/about-us/our-company/our-history/early-years-1918-1938.html

Here are a couple pictures I took. I took them only because there was a Boeing Aircraft there … my favorite aircraft maker (despite recent problems.

Okay … that is it. No more Alibis.

One last time we entered the New Delhi International Airport, processed through all their security points and boarded our airplane. It was a short ride. When we arrived in Nepal we agin went through all the security stations as well as the Immigration point. Again, I had completed most of the work on line before we left home so we didn’t run into many problems. Then out the door to find our driver that the hotel had sent. First, I would like to share a photo of the motorcycle parking lot at New Delhi airport.

So we flew to Kathmandu in Nepal. We were met by our driver and had an interesting drive to our interesting hotel.

We checked in, walked around a bit, Nancy discussed tours with the manager, had dinner, a good night sleep, a tasty breakfast, and we were ready to go.

Again Nancy had hired just a car. We were going to a chairlift in the hills, a couple temples, and an old part of town. The driver was a young man, very polite and knowledgeable, who provided all kinds of information as we toured around. Off we go.

Kathmandu is someplace I always thought would be a cool place to visit. It is. Most people come to Kathmandu to either trek in the hills around the city or as a staging point to go to a Base Camp and some eventually to Mt Everest. You cannot see Mt Everest from Kathmandu. It’s about 150 Kilometers to Base camp from Kathmandu and another 80 Kilometers to Everest. You can drive only part way. It was not our intention to see Everest, and we didn’t. We did take the lift to the top of a large foothill and enjoyed the view of the mountain range surround Kathmandu, which sets in a very large valley. Here’s our ride.

From here we went to a couple of temples. Many, many monkeys at one, the other had some artwork that caught Nancy’s eye. So, the drive there, the temples and square. ***Hang in there, we are almost finished!!**

Ok … Those were the temples. Now the downtown old square. This was a historical part of town with some temples and a museum. Our Guide encouraged us to go through the museum so we did. That was also the end of our day.

Interesting drive back to the hotel. We spent the night and had a late checkoout because our flight to Bali was in the early evening. We just kinda vegged out till we went to the airport. Our Driver had called in sick and some other guy showed up who spoke very little english so we decided we didn’t need to see any more temples. Here’s the drive back, the departure and Singapore Airport.

At last, we get to Bali … we got in early so we had to wait for a while to check in. We took the opportunity to take a stroll downtown for old times sake … little has changed but the little shops come and go. We had dinner at Gracie Kelly’s which is an Irish pub affiliated with the hotel we stayed at. The dinner marginal but the beer was good. The next day we were there it rained in the morning so we had a slow start. For the afternoon we reported to the pool and hung out enjoying the sun and warmth and good service.

Well, we didn’t surf and the flight was good. On time and no hassles. Got back to Brisbane, bailed out our SUV, drove home. The trip was over, we declared it a big success and now I have the website updated. Life is good.

On the 29th of February we flew back to Bangkok from Chang Rai to catch an international flight to New Delhi. Due to our experience with airlines I book ample time between connections. We also had left the bulk of our luggage at the Bangkok hotel because of the flights and flight restrictions we had flying to Northern Thailand. The flight from Chang Rai to Bangkok was uneventful … the taxi rides from the hotels to the airports are always far more exciting. We arrived in Bangkok early in the afternoon, reclaimed our luggage and checked in to our hotel. We had an early out the next morning so we wandered down to our favorite Irish pub, had an early dinner and called it a day.

On the 1st of March we were up early and to the airport. Security on departure was tight but we managed to get out. Getting into India was interesting as the security was crazy and the VISA paperwork, although I had already completed most of it, was tricky. I had our VISA’s so it was just a matter of getting them to stamp the passport. I’m not sure if they couldn’t believe I had successfully navigated their VISA website or they just didn’t trust Americans but everything received close scrutiny. Nonetheless we made it through, found the car the hotel sent to fetch us, and we were off. A few pictures of the hotel and surrounding area.

We spent one night at this hotel but we were coming back. We had booked a flight to Agra for the next day, then to Varanasi from Agra, then back to Delhi where we would spend two and a half day before flying to Nepal. So, on to Agrta and the Taj Mahal …. but first the ride there.

We flew to Agra, but had a stop in a little town called Lucknow. Crowded there as well but we made it to Agra.

So we finally made it to Agra … only to discover that the city of Agra shares the airport with the Indian Air Force. Unlike in America and most other places, the military has priority over everything (it’s a security thing you know) and we had to be bussed off the base and were dumped outside the gate. There was a big gaggle of Tut-tuts, taxis, and oportunists waiting there for us but we had a car from the hotel … except he didn’t show up. We finally found a taxi driver who knew where our hotel was and off we went … here’s the ride.

Ok, so now we are at Agra. We were transported from the airport to the hotel by a very professional sounding individual so we negotiated with him to provide a tour of Agra for us the next day. He agreed and said he would bring a friend who was a guide. Even better! We checked into the hotel and spent the evening there having dinner and an afternoon tody. The next morning we met our driver, and his guide, and we were off to see … The Taj Mahal, The red Palace, and whatever his tour included.

Our first destination was the Taj Mahal. Our driver said he would pick us up at 6 AM so we could see a sunrise over the Taj. Apparently the sun has a coloristic effect on the marble of the Taj and is something you want to see. So we got up and met him at 6 AM. We didn’t make it. It was Sunday and some group had scheduled a marathon race across the city which blocked many of the streets and we spent a lot of time waiting to get through.

We got there after sunrise … but, it was a cloudy day so it made no difference. We wouldn’t have seen the effect anyhow.

The Taj Mahal is an impressive structure. Built as a mausoleum for a rulers 3rd wife (the first to bear him a child) it is impressive, well kept, clean, and well organized. Unfortunately, to get there you need to deal with the local schtick and stand in lines (one for foreigners, one for Indians) ((which I didn’t mind but all the Indians were getting in the foreigners lines because it was shorter.) Something I did not expect is the presence of monkeys. They were everywhere outside the Taj (a park) but nowhere inside. Once in, it was great.

That was the Taj Mahal … number 1 bucket list item for Nancy. Got’er done! From here we are going to see the Red Fort. This is the fort that the ruler that built the Taj lived in as he defended his territory. The Taj, the Red Fort, and another Mausoleum were all designed by the same architect … whose mausoleum we will also see. Going to the Red Fort and touring the red Fort.

From the Red Fort we went to the Architect’s Mausoleum. Much the same kind of stuff. Interesting to look at, at least the first 20 times or so.

We also made short stops at a rug factory and a ornate vase company. I stayed in the car and took a nap. They didn’t allow pictures because of the children they had working there (little fingers can make more knots you know).

That wrapped up Agra for us. We returned to the hotel, had a very nice dinner, and readied for tomorrow’s trip to Varanasi and the Ganges River.

We had to fly back to Lucknow to connect to Varanasi (that’s why no luggage). The flight leaving Agra was late departing and we were told we might consider getting a cab from Lucknow to Varanasi because it looked like we were not going to make the connection. NOT GOOD NEWS!! A five hour cab ride, at night, in India, is not on any recommended way to get there list. We did make the connection. The airline, “Indigo” leaned forward real hard and escorted us through the multiple levels of security, hijacked a bus for us, and we made the plane. Whew!!

The next morning we got up, had a little breakfast, grabbed a car and driver, and we are off to see the Ganges, Old Varanasi, and the local medical University. Here we go:

We made it to the Ganges River. These streets are quite interesting as you can find almost anything yoou can imagine being sold. Food, clothing, dogs, electronics.

The Ganges is a sacred river in India. Every faithful Hindu visits the Ganges once during their life and bathes in it. Then, when they die, the family or friends or someone takes the body back to the Ganges, has it cremated, and the ashes are thrown into the river.

Day to day the river is teaming with boats carrying people and cargo. Quite the activity. It was better than we thought it would be but we didn’t take a dip. We walked along the river for quite a distance. Every so often a street would extend down to the river with wide steps. These were Ghats. I would guess for conveying people and goods up or down between the street and the river at one time. Most of the river bank was paved.

From the Ganges we walked through old Varanasi. Not much different from what we had already seen but the streets were narrower and there were even more shops. Varanasi is one of the contenders (contention being between historians) for being the oldest, continuously in habited cities in the world, 2000 BC. Hang on!

From here we went to the medical university. Our guide wanted to show us the temple they had there. I couldn’t take pictures inside but took some outside. Many are from our car window but they are often the most interesting … but don’t make the best photos.

That was the last stop on our tour of Varanasi. We returned to the hotel, took a little nap, had a mediocre dinner (We stayed at a Hilton in Varanasi. It was a big let down. The staff was lethargic, the food was marginal. If you didn’t have the buffet you had to wait 30 to 45 minutes for any other food, and the management did not seem to care). After dinner we got ready to fly out the next day and went to bed. Last time I stay there by golly!!

We are going back to New Delhi for three days. Much more time than we need there but when we planned this we decided we would need a day off by this point so that’s what we did.

The next day, the 6th of March, we had a late afternoon flight to New Delhi. It was a direct flight so we had no worries about connections. We got back to New Delhi (we used two different airports in New Deli, one on each side of town), got a cab back to the hotel, recovered our stored luggage, had dinner in the hotel dining room, and turned in. In New Delhi we stayed at the Crown Plaza. Hotels are not very expensive in India, nor Thailand, so we tried to stay at better hotels. One less thing to fret over. The Crown Plaza was the absolute opposite of the Hilton in Varanasi. The staff was awesome, management ran things professionally and efficiently, and the entire place was comfortable and welcoming. The next day we took off. Other than going down to eat breakfast and dinner we never left the room. We just lazed about reading, catching up with email and the news, and resting. We were both happy we had scheduled in a day of rest. The next morning, the 7th, we were up and ready to tour New Delhi. Nancy had arranged for a car, had told the concierge where we wanted to go so he could explain that to the driver, and we were off. No guide this time, just seeing the sights. We were going to visit a very old Muslim Minaret, The Gate which is the capitol building complex, and another Red Fort … in that order. We had some idea what these places were but not sure how they would turn out. Here we go to the Muslim Minaret and beyond.

So now we are at The Gate. This area was built to be the Capitol area when the Capitol was moved to New Delhi. Anyone know what the old capitol of India was? It strongly resembles Washington DC Mall. It is a long, narrow strip with ponds, memorials, and gardens. The Capitol sets on one end of what is referred to as “The Ceremonial Axis of India” and The Gate, a War Memorial on the other end. From Wikipedia “

India Gate
India
For the dead of the Indian Armies who fell during World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War
Established	10 February 1921
Unveiled	12 February 1931
Location	28°36′46.31″N 77°13′45.5″E India Gate (Delhi)
Designed by	Sir Edwin Lutyens
13,313 engraved names, 12,357 Indian[1] and honours 70,000 fallen soldiers of undivided India[2]

The India Gate (formerly known as All India War Memorial) is a war memorial located near the Kartavya path on the eastern edge of the “ceremonial axis” of New Delhi, formerly called Rajpath. It stands as a memorial to 74,187 soldiers of the Indian Army who died between 1914 and 1921 in the First World War, in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the Near and the Far East, and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. 13,300 servicemen’s names, including some soldiers and officers from the United Kingdom, are inscribed on the gate.^[2] Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the gate evokes the architectural style of the ancient Roman triumphal arches such as the Arch of Constantine in Rome, and later memorial arches; it is often compared to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and the Gateway of India in Mumbai.” Our driver anted to show this to us. He dropped us off and walked through the underpass to see it. Quite impressive.

Very interesting place. India was a British colony during WWI which is why all these Indian soldiers got to die in a far off land.

We left The gate and drove to the Red Fort of New Dehli. traffic was heavy and the driver explained it was a holiday and many people were out. When we arrived at the Red Fort it was so crowded that we decided not to try and see it. It was built by the same arcetect as the Red Fort in Agra and for the same guy so we assumed it would not be all that different. We finished the drive and went back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s trip to Nepal. Here are a few last pictures of down town New Delhi, at least the part concerned with government.

See you in Nepal. Hope you enjoyed India.

*** Note from Bill *** I split this out from the other post in Thailand because it was getting too large. Everything slows down and it get really frustrating.***

So here we are in Chang Rai. A good sized town and much more developed than up North at the Golden Triangle. We enjoyed visiting the Karens and have now arrived at our hotel. It turns out that the hotel is really a resort and is quite nice … don’t mind that a bit. Here’s some pictures from around the resort … The Legends.

Nancy did her thing with the host and booked a tour for the next day. It included a car and guide (same guy) to take us on it. We were to see several temples and museums. As it was a private tour we could add or delete as we pleased. So we did. Here’s the tour and some pictures from it.

The Lady Buddha was huge, China seems to be building some sort of conclave here. They are also building a large housing area for older people as well as a large hospital. I assume for older Thai’s but who knows. The view from the Lady Buddha’s eyes (from inside her head) is very impressive. Both the White Temple, and the Lady Buddha are fairly new being built and opened within the last ten years or so.

Now we come to a different kind of place. This guy was also an artist who started using unusual stuff in his art. The setting are strange but interesting. I viewed his art show as more of a museum than any thing else. See for yourself.

That was that and that’s about all I have to say about that. Lunch was included on the tour so our guide took us to his favorite local restaurant for lunch. Not sure what it was we had but it was pretty good and I’m still alive so it passed my two basic tests.

After lunch we went to the Blue Temple. They had two museums there … we went through both. On the walk in, there were a bunch of beautiful Orchids along the path.

We slapped the mat at this point and told the guide we had seen enough very beautiful things today and had us take back to the hotel. We had dinner there, our last night and left the next morning. We flew to Bangkok, spent the night in the same hotel we had stayed in before (we left our big suitcases there and traveled North with a Back Pack worth of clothes). We left the next morning for New Delhi, India. Our tour of Thailand was finished. We had an interesting time, enjoyed seeing so many different things and met many interesting people.

First stop on our four country Bucket List Tour. Arrived in the afternoon, picked up by a hotel car, taken to the hotel and checked in. Nancy arranged a couple tours with one of the Bell Captains and we went to our room, checked in, then took a walk downtown to see what’s what. Found out you shouldn’t drink the water so we hydrated with a couple local beers.

They must have worked well as we never suffered from dehydration or food poisoning.

Our first day out, after a good night of sleep, we went to the Grand Palace where the King of Thailand lives. Thailand has had a spattered mix of kings and civil leaders in its history. If you are into that kind of detail I recommend you look it up. Quite involved and way too long for me to describe. Besides, I’m sure you are aching to see my pictures! Here we are at the Grand Palace. We were picked up by a driver and driven to the palace. As we walked in this little old lady offered to be our guide for a small sum of money. Her english was good so we said “Okay!”. She took us in and proceeded with her three hour tour. Very ornate, extremely decorative and a great dal of fine detail. Quite interesting. The first few pictures are on the drive from the hotel to the palace.

We went to another Temple. The Temple of the Sleeping Buddha. Not nearly as opulent or well kept but worth a walk through.

Those were our two tours for the day. We did not have a guide during the second temple but much was the same as the first. Thousands of temples in Thailand … all a little different but basically the same. All interesting to see … at least the first hundred or so.

So fearing the heat, humidity, and dehydration we went back to the hotel. Walked around a bit and found an Irish pub … just what you would expect in Bangkok. Had some refreshment and a bite to eat.

We had a pleasant dinner at the hotel and turned in. That was our first day in Bangkok, Thailand. Interesting place. Next up tomorrow … the Train Market, the Floating Market, and an elephant ride. Stay Tuned. More posts coming.

Here we are, another day in Thailand. Today’s activities were booked by Nancy a couple months ago. She wanted to ensure she would get to ride an elephant while we were in Thailand. Many places have stopped providing elephant rides due to pressure from animal rights people and organizations. They claim it is cruel to the animals so most “camps” now provide an opportunity to feed, bath, and walk with an elephant but not ride one. Nancy found a tour service that would provide an elephant ride and assured her the animals were well cared for, loved, and not abused. So, Nancy booked a full day tour (the only choice) that included the Train market, the Water market, and an elephant ride. We were told to meet the tour at a specific intersection in Bangkok and we would be whisked off on an exciting full day tour of Thailand.

We took a cab to the appointed spot at the appointed time and met up with our group of about 5 people. We had about an hour drive to a location where there was a very large market that had a set of train track running right down through the middle of it. We were kinda dumped off at the edge of the market and told to be back to the dump off spot in one hour. I don’t think anyone knew what was going on or what to do. Nancy and I walked into the market and strolled along looking at all the stuff they sold and figured out (from a train schedule) that the train comes through every 30 minutes or so, then returns. Most of the market stalls that were next to the tracks had a row of chairs that you could sit on to watch the train go by. We had no idea what kind of train it was so when everyone looked like they were getting ready for a train to come by, we rented a couple seats and waited. Soon, all the merchants with stalls along the tracks started taking down the awnings they had in front and making sure everyone sitting on their chairs were behind a line. No one stayed in their chairs, they all walked out onto the tracks to see if they could see that train coming. Soon it did. A full sized train, not long, maybe ten cars, but full sized engine and cars, with people in them, slowly went by. As it neared people would return to their seats behind the line, sit down, and wave at the train as it passed. When it had passed, the merchants reassembled their awnings, put their displays back out front, and life went on. Have a look!

Ok then … we made it back to the van by the appointed time and we were whisked off to see the Floating Market. I wasn’t sure what to think after the train market so I just waited to see what would happen. Another drive through the country and we came to the “Little Venice” of Thailand. Situated on the edge of a large lake, canals were dredged out and people started selling things along the edge and from their boats. Many different kinds of boats and most anything you can think of to buy. Before the pictures of the Floating market are a few window shots as we wheeled our way across rural Thailand.

That was the Floating Market … interesting. So those who had booked the elephant ride, or wanted to go because everyone booked all three adventures, were loaded up in the whisk van and taken to the elephant camp. There we queued up on a platform and prepared to step up onto our seats on top of an elephant. The driver, or Mahout, sat in front on the back of the elephant’s head. We sat in a seat saddled onto the elephants back right behind the Mahout. The Mahout was friendly and talked during most of the ride describing his life, how he cared for the elephant, etc. Interesting. Let’s have a look!

And that was the end of our ride. Nancy had her elephant ride … I’m happy. Happy wife, Happy life you know! From dismount we were given the opportunity to buy 400 pictures of our ride. Wd declined and loaded up in our van, went back to the Floating market and picked up those on our tour who chose not to abuse elephants and drove back to Bangkok. Another interesting day. ON the way back to the hotel we saw this German restaurant so we walked down to if and had dinner. On the way back from dinner we stopped to make sure Fitzgerald was doing okay. All is well.

The next day was Sunday. We decided that as long as there was a church very near by offering an English Mass we would do that to start our day after a quick breakfast.

After Church we took a Taxi downtown … the new part of downtown that hosts one of the tallest buildings in the world. The Cube. We took an elevator to the top and viewed Bangkok.

There was a large glass floored area you could walk out onto and look down. Camers were not allowed but phones were so I took some pictures looking down.

So that’s The Cube. Nancy wanted to see China Town and a big gold Buddha they have there so we took a taxi to China town. Traffic was heavy and our taxi driver said he was not going any further. He pointed in a direction and said China town was that way and not very far. It was that way but a bit farther than he indicated. Anyway, we found it. The trials and perils of travel and all that you know! Here’s some pictures.

China town was not like any China Town we found in the US or other countries. It was basically just another big market. The temple was interesting with an interesting history of the Buddha. Thailand has many temples housing giant golden statues of Buddha but Wat Traimit houses a giant statue of Buddha made of pure gold. Although the statue is several centuries old, its identity was only revealed only 67 years ago. It weighs 5.5 Tons. Go to telegraphindia.com to read MUCH more about it. An interesting history.

This was our last day in Bangkok, for now. Tomorrow we fly up to the Golden Triangle. Don’t miss it.

Here we are at the Golden Triangle of Thailand. Its called the Golden Triangle because three countries come together when two rivers (The Mekong and The Ruak) converge. Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Laos, and Thailand are all in this one little corner. It’s called “Golden” because the area was used heavily by drug smugglers and dealers and a great deal of money and gold passed through. We had planned to spend three days up by the Golden Triangle but when we arrived there we found there was not really a great deal to see there and the other stuff we wanted to see was back in Chang Rai. So I cranked up booking dot com and booked two nights in Chang Rai. We would be much closer to the temples we wanted to see there and close to the airport when we flew back to Bangkok. We arrived at the Golden Triangle fairly early so we walked around a bit and found there was really no where to go. We booked a driver for the next day to take us up to the Golden Triangle site, let us tour a bit, then drive us back to Chang Rai. We had dinner at the hotel, took a ride to the center of the community we were staying in and walked around in the market, then returned to the hotel.

The next morning, after breakfast we proceeded with our plan and our driver took us to “the Golden Triangle” which is really just a gathering of businesses, Temples, and concessions. That worked though because we ended up having an interesting morning.

The next morning we grabbed a bit of breakfast, met our driver, and we were off to the Golden Triangle. We took our bags with us because we planned to spend a couple hours touring the Golden Triangle then head south to Chang Rai.

We drove down to Chang Rai which was about an hour drive. along the way, Nancy had read up about a village where they had long Necked Karens and she wanted to see it. This scared me a bit due to all the bad press about Karens lately but I put my trust in Nancy and we went there.

That was the long necked Karens. The path was about a kilometer long linking up the three villages. The Karens were all selling things they had made. I looked like they lived there. From here we were taken to our hotel which was a very nice resort. Nancy arranged for a driver and some tours for tomorrow and we settled in for the evening. I’m going to end this post here. It is getting too long and slowing down. I will pick up from here with a post call “Chang Rai and the three temples”.