Rest and Relaxation on Phi Phi Island
No matter how light your backpack might feel that first day you wear it, after months of travel every time you have to put it on will cause deep groans of displeasure. No one was designed to carry their worldly possessions on their back and that’s a fact! Backpacking is one of the best life experiences that people can have – cramming yourself onto buses with an ungodly amount of other people, haggling over the smallest amount to get the cheapest hotel room possible and eating unidentifiable food simply because it doesn’t break your budget. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
There are times though after long periods of travel and being pedantically frugal that you stop and think ‘you know what – I deserve a treat’. Thailand’s island of Phi Phi Don is just the place for that treat. There are a number of beautiful beachside resorts catering to those lucky enough to already be enjoying cheap holiday deals. It’s not difficult to find a reasonably priced room in one of these resorts where you can shrug off your backpack, take a long warm shower and sleep in the most comfortable bed you have found in months.
Phi Phi is located a 45 minute ferry ride off the coast of Phuket on the Krabi Coast of Thailand. If you haven’t heard other travellers ranting and raving about how amazing it is, then you can’t have been listening hard enough. Phi Phi is the Thai island that everyone dreams of. No roads means you get welcome respite from the manic Thai traffic and the beaches, surrounded by limestone kaarsts are breathtakingly beautiful. The infrastructure of the island was almost completely destroyed in the 2004 tsunami but brave and determined locals and tourists have very nearly restored it to its original state.
The island is surrounded by warm, crystal clear water and practically untouched coral reefs which mean that diving and snorkelling are often the activities of choice. Many arrive here and, if they aren’t pressed for time, can spend a week or two just chilling out and regaining their strength for their onward travels. Phi Phi is just the spot to make the most of a healing Thai massage which will relieve any of those stubborn aches and pains that backpackers are so prone to.
It’s not all about relaxation – Phi Phi has quite the party scene! Although nowhere near as hardcore as Koh Phangnan, where the notorious Full Moon Party is held, Phi Phi more than stands its ground in the party stakes. There are a number of late night bars where you can drink and dance the night away.
On your travels you will stumble upon a number of places that make you want to stick around. Hopefully your itinerary will be flexible enough so that when moments like this arise, you can put your bags down and really get to know a place. Thailand is a wonderful place to spoil yourself without spending too much of your valuable cash.
photo by Darcy McCarty
Read MoreGetting to Florence on a shoestring
Back in 1982 when I was doing my third and final year at art school I decided, along with a good friend, who was to become my working partner for the next 25 years, to go and visit Florence in Tuscany. If I were doing this now I’d be searching online for cheap car hire. But back then we were both penniless students so the only way to do this was to book ourselves a European student rail card and find ourselves a tent. The tent, a rather moth-eaten exhibit that had clearly seen better days, was kindly lent to us by another friend who assured us that it could accommodate two adults quite comfortably. Since the friend was one of the tallest in our year, we took him at his word and blithely assumed that it would provide ample room for two reasonably short blokes. So off we went with our rucksacks.
If memory serves me right, the first train we boarded was at Charing Cross. From here we set off for Dover and thereon hopped on the ferry to Calais. From Calais we had a great deal of trouble finding the right train to take us to Milan via France and Switzerland. But exhausted, we finally located a large, grey, dusty hunk of train that belonged to the Italian State Railway. This looked promising, so having lugged our sizeable rucksacks (which weren’t much smaller than their owners) all this way, we finally boarded the train that would take us to Milan. Once inside, we were both pleasantly surprised. The carriages were large and relatively opulent, compared to their feeble English counterparts. We slid open one of the solid doors, shut it behind us with a reassuring clunk and plonked ourselves down.
It was the first time I’d been on an Italian train, and I have to say that I was jolly impressed. The carriage was spacious, had rather comfortable leather seats with foot rests that could be pulled out to rest tired feet. Better still, we had this space all to ourselves. When the train began to move it did so gracefully and noiselessly. It positively glided. This was our home for the remainder of the day and night and we both slept like two proverbial logs. In the morning we woke up in the Swiss lakes. There could be no nicer place on earth to wake up and feel alive. The views were breathtakingly glorious. When we finally arrived at Milan, we were both sorry leave to the comfort of our temporary home.
The next Italian train was an altogether different experience. Its carriages were smaller and grubbier, and its seats far less comfortable. Worse still, it was packed to the gills with people; and when it finally decided to move it did so falteringly. In fact, it’s the only train I’ve ever been on that would crawl along for a couple of miles, stop and then reverse for half a mile, before continuing in the same vein. The entire journey was like this, and it took what seemed like an eternity to get to Florence. But arrive we eventually did.
I seem to remember that we walked in the searing midday sun all the way from the station to the small campsite situated close to the Piazza de Michelangelo. And of course, it was here that we finally discovered that the tent was barely large enough to accommodate the average sized pigmy. Needless to say, I have never been camping since.
Alex Pearl is a freelance copywriter and author of the teen novel, ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds.’ His royalty goes to Centrepoint, the UK charity for homeless youngsters. Alex also writes this blog: http://rhubarbrabbit.blogspot.com
Photo by Argenberg
Read MoreConvenience Can Come At a Price Now And Then
As a dad to a toddler, I am learning every day what works for us as a family traveling the world. “what works” is a fluid term, as it changes by the month. What Cole can be pushed to handle, and what he expects from us is regularly being upgraded. At this point in our parenting lives, we have come to grips with the idea that we are going to pay more for travel than we did before, but in ways that surprised us.
In many ways, having a child traveling is like having a VIP pass through airline queues, being favored through immigration (who wants to sit there processing paperwork with a baby bawling beside them?). There are many ways that having a child this young has sped our travel experience up quite a bit. However, one must abandon the idea that you can reasonably haggle a decent taxi fare when you are on the other side of an overland border crossing. If the driver says it’s ten bucks and you know it should only cost four, but your toddler is screaming the blood curdling scream of death beside you, guess what? You are making one tuk-tuk driver extremely happy on that day.
The bottom line is, at some point, we knew we were paying for convenience. Getting around this has been a challenge for me, as someone who doesn’t want to give up on haggling for what I think it a fair price, and also doesn’t want to stress about our budget. We’ve looked into travel tours, which is the ultimate in “paying for convenience” as you pay one fee, and all thinking is done for you. In most cases, you just show up where you need to be at an appointed time, and all planning, thinking and transportation is done for you. It’s great for those with money to burn but without the mental energy to put into forming an itinerary, and believe me, it’s attractive. The problem is, it takes power away from us parents to be able to drop everything wholesale once we know Cole has been pushed to far.
Believe me, we have not gone to more places than many people go to in their lives, all because it wasn’t in Cole’s best interest to push, just for the satisfaction of saying that we have been to a place. These package tours will be a great option for us at some point, but Cole is too young for us to take advantage of it as I type this.
I don’t want to scare anyone from traveling with their kids. It’s unbelievably rewarding to experience the world with him, and I would not change a thing. I just know it’s important to keep his needs as our top priority, and at his age, this means ponying up a little more money than I would otherwise have the freedom to haggle for. I promise you though, you will not regret a penny spent traveling with your kids when you know that you have looked after them and made their journey as comfortable and exciting as you can possibly provide.
The ride is pure bliss.
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What Happens When The Worst Happens?
I was raised on worse case scenario planning. It’s in my blood. My mother is a professional worrier, who actually came up with a scenario that troubled her deeply that went something along the lines of:
“What if you are in Egypt and some man there teases your son until he cries and then hits him and then he hits the man and then he goes to Egyptian prison or beat up by an angry Egyptian mob?”
I can’t even compete with that level of virtuoso worrying. Thankfully, I am trying desperately hard NOT to worry about… whatever might go wrong. There are just too many things. I mean, I had heard that being airlifted out of certain areas of the world in order to get proper medical attention could cost upwards of $30,000. That is honestly more frightening to me than the idea of getting international travel insurance, especially when we are talking about growing our family.
Dwelling on the off chance that catastrophe will strike can be paralyzing, but for those who are thinking of taking the leap into world travel need to understand, accidents will happen, wherever you are. Staying at home or traveling the world, getting hurt is just a process of rolling the dice on any given day, with every decision that you make.
That we decided to travel means that these accidents will happen far from places where we can expect to have an emergency room conveniently placed. You are lucky when you travel to parts of the world where the cost of health care is low but the quality of that care is high. That is uncommon. Most places in the world which have a high level of care come at a price, or, you get what you pay for. Meaning, the cost is low, but you may be put back together with bubble gum and duct tape (If you are lucky enough to have duct tape available wherever you might be).
This is why the wife forbids me from speculating about worst case scenarios. I can do it all day. It’s in my blood. I’m all worked up now. Time to start researching what sort of health care options there are available to us and go plan some sort of overland African safari. I’ll try not to think about Jackals and Tigers and stuff.
I’ll let my mom handle that.
photo:
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Vancouver Is A Walking City
I’ve been to more than my share of cities, and always appreciate when I encounter one where you can be deposited almost anywhere and still get around without a car.
Seattle, Dallas, these are driving cities. You need to know your destination when you want to explore those cities. It makes the discovery of new, unexpected things very difficult, cumbersome. Vancouver is the breath of fresh air that reminds us why cities don’t have to be impossibly hard to deal with.
After we were engaged, we made our way north to Vancouver and checked into a hotel just a stone’s throw away from downtown. A little bed and breakfast, cozy, romantic, just what we needed. The next morning, without any sort of guidebook or the ability to connect to the internet that exists today, we just… walked. Our only real objective was that we wanted to hit Chinatown. And we did that, with no directions, asking for help, nothing but walking joyfully and paying attention to signs.
Even the areas that seemed like slums that exist between Chinatown and downtown feel safer in Vancouver, or maybe it was that we felt invincible, knowing we were headed to our destination. Maybe we were just punch drunk in love.
Chinatown in Vancouver is as authentic a Chinatown experience as you can have without going to New York City. Possibly more, considering the vast Asian population that exists in that part of the world, the closest you can get to Asia and still be in North America. Vendors peddling every dried fish you could imagine and a dozen that you could not imagine. We purchased a small set of bowls and a set of chopsticks after an hour or two spent window shopping, then made our way through Gastown, which we didn’t register until we had been there for awhile, simply assuming we were in a “super pretty part of town”.
The next day, we went west, and rented bicycles and took them around Stanley Park. The combination of being in love along with endorphins turned Vancouver into a magical city for us, and the fact that we could reach all of these places by foot, head off to a movie, drink copious amounts of coffee in whatever cafe we choose, sit around monument steps eating sandwiches while watching jugglers juggle and old men play chess, well, it made the entire place worthwhile.
Did I mention I love Vancouver?
photo: kennymatic
Read MoreThe Bahamas and its Casinos
The Bahamas have been a popular tourist destination for many years. Travelers from all over the world visit the Bahamas to relax, embark on an adventure, or learn about the culture. These beautiful, breathtaking islands offer much more than sight-seeing. With all of the activities and entertainment options on the islands, it’s impossible to be bored on your vacation. One of the most popular options for a night out in the Bahamas is a visit to the casino. Imagine playing your favorite casino games while surrounded by natural beauty and elegance! It certainly beats gambling in an online casino.
The Bahamas is home to four grand casinos. Two of these venues are located on New Providence, and the other two are on Grand Bahama. The first casino on New Providence is the Atlantis Casino, which can be found on Paradise Island. The Atlantis is the largest and most elaborate casino in the Bahamas. This casino offers slots, roulette, craps, and blackjack. In addition, there are also lounges featuring live entertainment. Why would you play online slots when you could visit the Atlantis and gamble in style?
The second casino on New Providence is the Wyndham Nassau’s Crystal Palace Casino. This gigantic gaming establishment features 51 blackjack tables, more than 750 slot machines, 7 crap tables, and 9 roulette wheels. The Crystal Palace even has a baccarat room!
The casinos located on Grand Bahama Island are the Casino at Bahamia and Our Lucaya Casino. Both of these casinos are elegantly decorated and feature a variety of gaming options. However, neither of these is as large or impressive as the Crystal Palace Casino or the Atlantis Casino.
It is legal for all non-residents who are at least 18 years of age to gamble in the Bahamas, so any tourist of legal age can enjoy these exquisite attractions. Gambling in the Bahamas is much like gambling anywhere else in that the odds of winning are similar and the rules of the games are comparable. For more information about any of these casinos or the games and entertainment they offer, you can visit the online casino games.
Along with these outstanding casinos, there are also a variety of other activities and entertainment options available in the Bahamas. Whether you are an adventurer, a shopper, or a gambler, you can find something to satisfy your desires on a trip to the Bahamas.
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