The Passionate Traveler

Sydney - a Really beautiful city The first time is always special. No, I am talking about travel. You can ask any seasoned traveller, and they will always remember their first overseas trip in graphic detail, no matter how long ago it was. Later, travel all starts to fade into a blur and you forget the details of the many later trips. Hence the reason for my blog - to write down as much as possible before I forget the details!  When I met my wife Marie, I was already quite a seasoned traveller, and she could not believe that I could not remember on which flight I had seen which movie, or how many times I have been to Paris. Her first trip was to Thailand. A very good place for a first trip. If you ask her now how many times she has been to Thailand, she might take a moment or two to answer. SAA Jumbo in their old colours My first overseas trip, and the start of my love affair for travel, was in the dim and distant past in 1982! There the photos I have used in this post ar...

Mt Bromo - the small smoking one After my very interesting trip to see the sulphur mines at Mt Ijen on the Island of Java in Indonesia, my next stop was to visit Mt Bromo. This is another spectacular group of volcanoes in East Java, not too far from Mt Ijen, and well worth a visit. We ( my driver and I) departed from Mt Ijen and drove to a small town close to Mt Bromo. I staying in a lovely small guest house and in the evening we visited a home (a friend of the tour guide) for a wonderful home cooked Indonesia meal. Really most enjoyable and an interesting experience. Village close to Mt Bromo The next morning was a very early start to get to the view point for the icon early morning photos of Mt Bromo. This is truly an amazing sight and even the best of photos do no do justice the the amazing sceptical as it gets light. There is a massive old volcanic crater. Within the old volcanic crater are three newly formed and still forming active volcanoes. Mt Bromo (the smaller o...

Eating good food. The joys of life! Singapore is a small island city/country. The population in Singapore is a mixture of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian cultures. There is also a strong influence from Europe. This all adds up to a great diversity of food. Eating is also a very important past time in Singapore and there are many local food stalls were a great variety of food can be found. Many of the big shopping malls also have food halls. If you can't find something to eat in Singapore, you will not find food anywhere. Thinly sliced pork belly Best food ever at a conference I recently visited Singapore to attend the International Union of Microbiological Societies which was held in Singapore in 2017. This was the 3rd IUMS congress which I had attended. The one was in Turkey and the other was in Canada. At both of these big international conferences, there was not much in the way of food. Conferences have become big money spinners and cost a lot to attend. Some con...

In past posts I have told you how much we enjoyed our two trips to Cancun in Mexico. Undoubtedly, the highlight of both trips was our visit to Xceret ( www.xcaret.com).  This is really an amazing place and just spending a day there is not nearly enough.  There are day tours (or multiple day tours which is probably the best option) from the hotel strip in Cancun. Beautiful Xcaret buses come and pick you up. The buses all return after the end of the cultural show in the evening. So, what is there to see and do in Xcaret? Well, just about everything. It is built on the coast, so you have the most amazing ocean views. There are quite a few beautiful bays with white sandy beaches, so if you want to come all the way to Xceret to lie on the beach, you can do so, but that would be a serious waste of time! There is also a hammock bay with hammocks strung between coconut palms, If you have ever slept in a proper hammock, it is the most amazing thing! Just remember falling coconu...