Ama Dablam, Nepal

This blog about my travels is now four years old.

I started this blog exactly four years ago in the dining room of my son in Sydney. He had just set up the domain name and busily went about teaching me how to blog. He was a good teacher for I was soon off and away with blog entries. And I haven’t let up in the intervening years. I try to post every day but during the last two years I have also been trying to complete my Master of Arts in Creative Writing which has impacted on how frequently I have been able to write articles here. I’m also in the last stages of completing the writing of a novel for children as part of those studies. It has all taken a lot of my time.

During the life of this blog I have written about many places, including a visit to Thailand and trekking in Nepal. By far the majority of the nearly 600 articles are as a result of travelling here in Australia, including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and my home state of South Australia of course.

I’d like to thank all my many regular readers, those who have occasionally dipped into various pages and especially those who have taken the trouble to leave comments. I value you all – you people make this blog a worthwhile endeavour.

A special thanks to my son Sim’ who looks after the background administration of this and my other blogs, keeping them ticking over nicely.

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

Scene from our lodge in Monjo, Nepal

Trevor’s Travels reaches a significant milestone in its journey.

This is post number 500.

I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my travel experiences and photos with all of my readers. There are plenty more to come and I would encourage your to leave comments where appropriate.

For those who have come recently to this blog for the first time, let me share some of the highlights. Here is a list of some of the most popular articles that have appeared over the last three years:

• Travels in Nepal
• Travels in Thailand
• Parks and Gardens of Australia
• National Parks – in Australia and overseas

And don’t forget my photo gallery here – with over 2200 photos taken by my wife, my son and me.

A photo of me with Everest in the background

Railway viaduct near the River Kwai, Thailand

Our final stop during the bus trip to the River Kwai was the railway viaduct. This was an impressive engineering feat for the day and the conditions. What amazed me were the harsh conditions forced upon the Australian (and other) prisoners of war. In the oppressive heat, energy sapping humidity and terrible illness they continued on with the construction. How some survived astonishes me. When I visited it was mild, low humidity and with a slight breeze. I tried to imagine what they went through. Their amazing resilience and courage was incredible.

True heroes are made in times like that.

Related article and links:

• Visit to the River Kwai, Thailand

• My photo gallery

Railway viaduct near the River Kwai, Thailand

The bridge over the River Kwai, Thailand

After my visit to the War Memorial we continued on to visit the bridge over the River Kwai. I was not sure what I expected. What disappointed me was the commercial aspect to everything. T-shirts, caps, tea-towels, postcards, jewellery, food stalls and all sorts of tourist oriented items.

Boat trip on the River Kwai, Thailand

After a train trip over the bridge we had an exhilarating boat ride on the river. At the end of the ride we visited the JEATH Museum. This was a sad and run down building much in need of renovation. The paintings, memorabilia and newspaper cuttings on display showed the abject horror of the sufferings of the soldiers, all prisoners of war, who constructed the Death Railway. How they suffered. Sombre, sad, and confronting.

Related articles:

• Visit to the River Kwai, Thailand

Australian War Memorial and Cemetery, Thailand

On my last day in Thailand I went on a very long bus trip to the River Kwai. We had a very interesting tour guide. He was a lad when the Death Railway was being built by prisoners of war from Australia and several other countries.

Our first stop was at the War Memorial and Cemetery near the River Kwai. The vast majority of soldiers buried here were from Australia. They died during the construction of what became known as the Death Railway. This was a very sombre experience. No-one in my family is buried here.

I was very impressed with the standard of upkeep of this cemetery. The lawns are immaculately kept, as are the gravestones.

You can read more about my time in Thailand by clicking on the archives link.

Related Articles:

• Photo gallery
• Archives of my blog entries about my visit to Thailand

Elephant ride in Thailand

After the walk to the waterfall in the Khao Yai National Park, we continued our drive through the park to a lodge just off the main road. Here we had a wonderful traditional Thai lunch, complete with the fruit we had purchased at the market in the morning.

After lunch we went on a ride on an elephant through the rainforest. This was very relaxing and a good way to see the forest up close. An elephant’s back is not a great bird watching platform because it is continually lurching from side to side. Despite that I was able to identify a few species as we stumbled our way back to the bus.

Related Links:

• Archives of articles I’ve written about Thailand.

• My photo gallery.

Waterfall in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

After we visited the rice farm and that uncomfortable ride in a buffalo cart, we travelled up into the mountains to visit the beautiful Khao Yai National Park. As we drove through the rainforest we were on the lookout for various animals, like elephants and tigers. We didn’t see any but elephants had been walking on the road just a short while before us, as evidenced by the huge blobs of their droppings everywhere.

At one point we stopped at a little shop and picnic ground. After a short break we went for a long walk down the valley to a waterfall. The walk was very interesting but the waterfall wasn’t worth all the effort – especially the walk back out. The steep climb out was quite demanding. It was also quite still and humid and I was saturated by sweat by the time I arrived back at the bus.

I was quite disappointed by the lack of flowers and birds. I saw very few of either. I guess we were there at the wrong time of the year.

Okay – so the above photo is a bit dorky. I tried to take a shot of myself with the falls in the background. I managed to cut off half of my face. Oh well, never mind.

Related articles:

• My photo gallery

• Archives of my travel blog

Buffalo cart ride in rural Thailand

During my bus tour of eastern Thailand our guide had arranged for our bus to stop at a small farm. The farmer had kept several working buffaloes and we had a half hour cart ride through the rice fields on his farm. Even though there were some cushions to sit on, I found the experience very uncomfortable. The sun was hot and it was quite humid – I’d hate to be there when it was really humid during the summer. Besides, a jerking, lurching buffalo cart on farm tracks is not a good bird watching platform. I saw quite a few birds but couldn’t identify many of them.

After getting out of the cart at the end of the ride, I had very stiff legs because I am not used to sitting cross-legged for half an hour. It was very pleasant to get back into the air-conditioned bus with its moderately comfortable seats. Goodness, I’m a soft tourist!

To read my journal written at the time click here.

To see more images of my time in Thailand click here for my photo gallery.

Related articles:

Archives in the category Thailand.

Market place in rural Thailand

On my second full day in Thailand last December I went on a full day bus tour to the Khao Yai National Park. This tour I had booked over the internet before leaving, not knowing for sure whether it would be worth doing. As it turned out the day was very interesting. I was able to see some of the rural parts of Thailand and various aspects to life in the smaller villages. One very interesting part was the visit to a rural market place in one of the villages.

Market place in rural Thailand

The vibrant colours, the cramped conditions and amazing aromas of the food available to the local people was almost overwhelming. In a way it reminded me of the Adelaide Central Market, but with many different kinds of food available. I’ve never seen live frogs for sale in Adelaide, but then I may not have been looking too carefully.

Our guide was careful to explain the foods with which we were not familiar, and we were able to taste several different kinds of fruit for the first time. The guide bought some fruit to add to our lunch menu later in the day.

To read more about my experiences on that tour click here.

To view more images on my photo gallery click here.

A temple in Bangkok, Thailand

The river life in Bangkok is, like the rest of the city, quite frenetic. There seem to be boats going in all directions. River traffic is very busy, but despite that, taking a cruise on the river is an excellent way of seeing a different side of this bustling city.

A temple in Bangkok, Thailand

For a more comprehensive coverage of my experiences and thoughts on this cruise, click on the link below. To see more photos, click on the link to my photo gallery.

• River Cruise in Bangkok, Thailand
  

• My photo gallery