Category: Travel
-
Shanghai Wrap-up
Shanghai is not really a good tourist city. It only has a few attactions for the tourist, and then all that is left is shopping. Add to that the “annoyance factor” of the constant “want to buy Rolex” and “we are art students”, and Shanghai hardly seems worth visiting. In a nutshell: Half a day for…
-
Arrived in Perth
I arrived in Perth, around lunchtime. A package of film is on its way to my hostel, by reliable Fedex. It will arrive on Monday. I have a tracking number! Hoorah! What is ironic is: the cost to Fedex the package overnight (but really two days, considering the international date line) is not much more…
-
Riding Busses in China
Here is one of my China posts, from my backlog of drafts. In China, busses are a primary means of transportation for most people. Busses range from city busses up to large coaches, similar to Greyhound. You haven’t really travelled in China unless you have ridden a local country bus. The kind that stops in…
-
Australia: Don’t Mind the Flies
Forget about putting another shrimp on the barbie. The slogan for Australia (at least the Northern Territory) should be: Don’t Mind the Flies! (The other alternative: Australia: Our Postal Service Sucks!) In the towns it’s not quite so bad, but once you get out into the wilderness, you are swarmed by flies whenever you are…
-
Alice Springs
I arrived in Alice Springs, yesterday morning. I went to pick up my next campervan. They were very slow serving customers. There were three rentals ahead of me, and it took 1:30 before I was served! The vehicle reserved for me was having problems, so they upgraded me to a camperized Toyota Land Cruiser. It…
-
Back In Darwin
I’m back in Darwin, a day earlier than planned, for two reasons. The first is that, while Kakadu Natl Park, Litchfield Natl Park, and the rest of the “Top End” are interesting, they are mostly a lot of the same thing. Once you’ve seen the few different types of scenery and critters, then there is…
-
Kakadu National Park
I went straight from Darwin to Kakadu National Park, in my 4wd pop-top camper. I have seen plenty of wallabees (small kangaroos), but no crocs, yet. There are some river “croc cruises” where they hang some meat off the side of the boat, and make the crocs jump for it. I may try this on…
-
Tablelands
Yesterday, I took a full-day tour of the Tablelands. This includes a lot of rainforest, sugarcane farms, dairies, a waterfall, a lake (in a volcano cone), and a crazy Spaniard’s castle. The group was rather unsociable. There was a family of four from Northern England who communicated to each in an unintelligible mumble, two Australian…
-
Great Barrier Reef
Today, I snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef. There are countless tour operators running boats to the reef. I went with SilverSwift. They have a fast boat, and maximum of 70 people. Today, we had 52. It takes 1:15 to get out to the reef. The water was choppy. Five or six people were puking!…
-
Chengdu Kite Fliers
I have a backlog of China photos and stories to post, so I’ll continue to post China material from Australia. All over China, kite flying is a popular activity. I’ve seen kites in every city I visited. These particular kites are in the People’s Park in Chengdu. You can see three kites, and the Monument…
Michael Chmilar's Travels 