World Travel reviews

Ways to Travel - hats off to Matt!

2008-07-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Mattt has been travelling the world and financing it selling his videos of himself dancing in different places.
I was so riveted by this video (there are many others too). I really am impressed by this happy seeming traveller. This post isn't a travel review, rather a "TRAVELLER REVIEW" meaning i am reviewing the way a person travels.
I just had to include this. Watch and enjoy!
Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

Koh Rok - a snorkelling Paradise

2008-07-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Paradise is Koh Rok! - this island is reachable by boat in a very short time if you are situated on Koh Lanta Yai island in Krabi Province, Thailand.
This island is a priceless Gem; still in pristine conditions, crystal clear waters, and white powder-sand virgin beaches make Koh Rok an irresistible outing whilst staying on the Andaman side of Thailand's Southern Coastline

The Snorkelling is absolutely fantastic and will give you an unforgettable enjoyment!

above pic; snorkelling on Koh Rok island. please visit Lanta Island Tours to see the album of pics from this set
Links, info and pic sources;
Siam Fishing dot com
lantaislandtours.com
www.kolanta.net
Thailand Reviews

Bangkok Thailand - City of Angels

2008-05-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

update 10th July 2008!
Bangkok has been voted world's best city in travel poll.
According to a Poll published by Thai Newspaper and Television channel "The Nation", Bangok is the World's Best City.
Bangkok was voted the world's best city for 2008 and the Galapagos were picked as the best islands in an online poll by Travel + Leisure magazine, winning over last year's winners Florence, Italy and Bali, Indonesia.

US-based magazine readers also voted Singita Sabi Sand, at the Kruger National Park, South Africa, as being the world's top hotel while Singapore Airlines grabbed the best airline award again.

It was the first time ever, for both Bangkok, and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, that they topped their respective categories, commented Nancy Novogrod, editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure.

Last year, Bangkok was ranked number 3 and the Galapagos number 8. The 2007 winners of best city and best island -- Florence and Bali -- fell to number 5 and number 2 respectively.

Singapore Airlines was voted number one, followed by Emirates, Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific.

Last year's number one hotel, the Oberoi Udaivilas in India, fell to number 4 this year. Singita Sabi Sands was voted the number two hotel in 2007.

The results were complied from votes by magazine subscribers in an Internet poll which went live between January and March. Travel + Leisure will honour winners on July 24 in New York City.

Top 10 cities :

1 Bangkok, Thailand 87.61
2 Buenos Aires, Argentina 87.24
3 Cape Town, South Africa 86.59
4 Sydney, Australia 86.49
5 Florence, Italy 86.24
6 Cuzco, Peru 86.15
7 Rome, Italy 85.12
8 New York, US 85.03
9 Istanbul, Turkey 84.61
10 San Francisco, US 84.42

Top 5 Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific

1 Sydney 86.49
2 Melbourne 80.35
3 Queenstown. New Zealand 79.95
4 Perth 77.78
5 Hobart 77.38

Top 10 Asia :

1 Bangkok, Thailand 87.61
2 Kyoto, Japan 84.27
3 Chiang Mai, Thailand 84.14
4 Hong Kong 83.69
5 Udaipur, India 83.51
6 Shanghai, China 81.83
7 Siem Reap, Cambodia 81.15
8 Beijing, China 81.05
9 Hanoi, Vietnam 80.87
10 Jaipur, India 80.78

Top 10 Europe :

1 Florence, Italy 86.24
2 Rome, Italy 85.12
3 Istanbul, Turkey 84.61
4 Paris, France 82.59
5 Krakow, Poland 82.14
6 Prague, Czech Republic 81.81
7 Venice, Italy 81.74
8 Barcelona, Spain 81.32
9 Vienna, Austria 80.99
10 Salzburg, Austria 80.63

Top 5 Mexico and Central and South America

1 Buenos Aires, Argentina 87.24
2 Cuzco Peru 86.15
3 San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 82.19
4 Rio de Janeiro 80.15
5 Antigua, Guatemala 79.92

Top 10 Africa and the Middle East

1 Cape Town 86.59
2 Jerusalem 84.39
3 Fez, Morocco 80.77
4 Marrakesh, Morocco 80.46
5 Cairo 80.23
6 Dubai 78.86
7 Tel Aviv 78.60
8 Amman 74.52
9 Tunis 71.93
10 Alexandria 70.72

Top 10 Islands :

1 Galapagos Islands 87.64
2 Bali 86.32
3 Maui 86.09
4 Kauai 85.87
5 Tasmania 85.00
6 Easter Island 84.78
7 Hawaii 84.66
8 Santorini 84.52
9 Great Barrier Reef Islands 84.42
10 Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia 83.82

Top 3 Asia :

|1 Bali 86.32
2 Phuket Thailand 82.64
3 Penang Malaysia 81.67

Top 5 Europe :

1 Santorini, Greece 84.52
2 Dalmatian Islands, Croatia 83.50
3 Sicily, Italy 82.92
4 Ischia, Italy 82.41
5 Cyclades, Greece (Santorini rated separately) 82.40

Top 3 Mexico and Central and South America

1 Galapagos Islands 87.64
2 Easter Island, Chile 84.78
3 Ambergris Cay, Belize 78.08

Top 20 Hotel Spas:

1 Wickaninnish Inn Tofino, Vancouver Island, Canada 92.66
2 Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, Thailand 92.19
3 Lodge at Pebble Beach California, US 90.94
4 Four Seasons Resort Nevis, US 90.88
5 Maroma Resort & Spa Riviera Maya, Mexico 90.79
6 Esperanza Resort Los Cabos, Mexico 90.63
7 Auberge du Soleil Rutherford, California, US 90.37
8 Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris, France 90.28
9 Camelback Inn, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa Scottsdale, Arizona, US 90.14
10 Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands 90.10
11 Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa Maui, US 89.66
12 The Oriental Bangkok, Thailand 89.58
13 Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa Asheville, North Carolina, US 89.51
14 One & Only Ocean Club Paradise Island, Bahamas 89.47
15 Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, US 89.42
16 Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, US 88.75
17 The Peninsula Chicago, US 88.64
18 Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch Beaver Creek, Colorado, US 88.62
19 Hotel del Coronado San Diego, US 88.16
20 American Club Kohler, Wisconsin, US 87.99

--The Nation 2008-07-10

Bangkok, Thailand.
The City of Bangkok is a City of extreme contrasts. From mediaeval-like sweat-houses and streetside karaoke-brothels to ultra-modern shopping malls and skytrains is the norm here.
For travellers and tourists, there are a massive array of worthwile places to go and things to do and see.
Some of the highpoints of Bangkok's charm include;
Shopping malls, Nightlife, Markets, Eating out, river cruises & Temple/Museum tours.

Pratunam clothes Market

Pratunam Market is the best known secret in town for cheap and stylish clothes. Tops and t-shirts, ladies shirts from 50 baht up to 200 baht is the general price. What you pay 90 baht for here (about 3 dollar US), you pay 150 for anywhere else! Pratunam Market is situated on the petchburi road just around the corner from the World Trade Center.
It is a bazar style market with hundreds of alleys criss-crossing each other to create a maze-like effect, leaving the shopper dizzy and disorientated. Wear comfortable shoes as a few hours with the throngs of merchants and shoppers haggling for prices, and delivery boys tussling for space to walk with the multitude of people wandering through the endless alleys of stalls, may make your feet ache (as well as your head).If you get sick of it all, you can cross the pedestrian bridge on Petchburi road, and enter the refreshingly air-conditioned "Panthip Plaza", a 6 floor shopping mall dedicated to computer and games/dvd/mp3 multimedia products. Both original and pirated content seems to be on sale there. Famous (or maybe better said "Notorious"), for their knowledge (and subsequent abuse thereof) of Computers, the "Sian Panthip" is considered to be the expert on PC related troubleshooting in Thailand. He is also feared for his tendency to remove your decent hardware (whilst "repairing your PC"), and replacing it with a cheaper substitute, without your knowing. :(

Buy two or more.

If you want to haggle for a really low price it is recommended to buy 2 or 3 items of clothing from the same dealer. This will induce the seller to reduce the price drastically.This is the normal procedure in Pratunam market; profits are minimal for the merchants, and therefore the sale of many items per day is needed in order to rentabilize the profits.

New York City Tour offers

2008-05-28T14:27:00.001-07:00

New York City Tours and Sightseeing

City Sights NY Sightseeing is possibly the number one choice in sightseeing agencies in New York. They have a fleet of buses running their tour circuits, which you can join or leave as and where you wish to by simply taking one of the stops on the route to "hop-on and hop-off".
The company's buses are all double-decker models, a pure luxury is the top floor only seating arrangement. This ensures that everybody has the opportunity to enjoy the best views that New York City has to offer you.
Citysights NY offers to show it's clients all the best tourist and leisure attractions, famous neighbourhoods and other places of curiosity and Historical interest.
Included in some tours are such wonderful and exciting attractions as local harbour cruise, helicopter rides, shopping and Museums, and of course the famous Night tour that stops in Brooklyn to view the world famous "Manhattan Skyline".

Amongst some of the most interesting packages on offer are the Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn and top of the Rock Observation deck tours (you can find this under points of interest on their homepage.. New York City Sightseeing Has simply too many to list and discuss all of them here, but let's just take, for example the Uptown tour on offer by this company.Some of the stops on the itinerary are;

Central Park

Central Park Zoo

Lincoln Center

Harlem

Apollo Theater

The Guggenheim Museum

Museum of Modern Art

Frick Collection

metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of Natural History

Columbia University

Grant's Tomb

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Museum of the City of New York

The Schomburg Center

Seems like a lot of food for thought with all those Museums there.
Up to five variations of helicopter rides are available.Nine different Harbour cruises on offer. Check out the Movie sites of the City, Harlem Gospel, or if you are a fan of the TV Show "Sex and the City", then you are in for a real treat with New York City Sightseeing's Sex and the City Hot Spots tour. For those who wish a little more of a placid experience, there is also the Philadelphia & Amish country bus tour and the Freedom trail Boston tour. On the double decker City bus tours, the "Downtown" tour package has a varied selection of plus options, where you can add a particular sight to see to the tour. For example, you might take the Downtown tour + Liberty statue, or Madame Tussauds or Manhattan helicopter ride (don't forget a government issued ID or you won't be able to take the helicopter ride).

CitySights NY operates every day from 8am to 10pm depending on the tour. Please note that schedules are subject to change. If you buy tickets online you save $5 per ticket
Otherwise tickets are available from
Times Square - Broadway between 47th Street and 46th Street 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.

Empire State Building - 34th Street and 5th Avenue 7th Avenue between 52nd Street and 53rd Street Northwest corner of 49th Street and Lexington Avenue
If you want to reserve tickets and have them mailed to you, you can contact CitySights' reservation department on 1-877-486-8769 or you can apply by email to info@citysightsny.com