Trevor's Travels

A Travel Blog About Australia

1 Comment »12th April, 2007; Category: Australia, Travel Blogs

There are literally thousands – possibly millions – of blogs about travel. Travellers find the blog an excellent vehicle for sharing their experiences with family and friends, not to mention the world. This is what I have been doing on this blog over recent months as I share my experiences and photos taken while in Nepal last year.

Another type of travel blog would be people living and working in another country for a time. This was my daughter’s experience when she went teaching in England in 2005. Read about her time on her blog called Rose’s Prose. Someday she may find the time to complete her narrative and bring it up to date.

A similar blog is called Outback Dobbs, a blog written by an American living and working in Melbourne, Australia. This blog includes many fine photos of Australia. It’s well worth a visit.

The frustrations of travel at Easter time

No Comments »11th April, 2007; Category: Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, Botanic Gardens

Long weekends are nothing but trouble for travellers. I think this is so all over the world. I wrote yesterday that we took our daughter to the Adelaide Airport to catch her flight to Ireland with sixteen of her students. Lucky girl. Lucky to be going to Ireland that is, not lucky to have so much baggage going with her. Well, actually, it might just be a lot of fun. They seemed like a nice bunch of kids – as teenagers go.

We had no trouble getting to the airport as we had to be there quite early – before the traffic had built up. Adelaide’s traffic rarely gets into gridlock anyway, even on Easter Sunday. The start and finish of the holiday weekends can be bedlam on some roads. After leaving her at the airport we had a picnic lunch at Henley Beach in Adelaide’s western suburbs. Lovely spot. Not too crowded despite the warm spell late in the season.

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

On our way home we decided to visit the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens for afternoon tea. It is a lovely spot we’ve been to several times in the last few years. The trees would be turning to their colourful autumn hues I thought as we drove through the hills. I anticipated being able to get some great photos. Approaching the entrance gate I knew instantly that this was a mistake. Not only were the car parks full, but the entrance roads were blocked by parked cars for quite a distance.

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens in winter

At least we got to drive through the car park before leaving again.

The photos on this page are from previous visits, one in the summer and one in the winter.

Related articles:

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens – part 4 (with links to the first three parts)

Farewell at Adelaide Airport

2 Comments »10th April, 2007; Category: Adelaide

Last Sunday we travelled to the Adelaide International Airport to say farewell to our daughter. She was on her way to Ireland for two and a half weeks. We would have liked to have gone with her, but for the “extras” she was taking with on this journey. Those “extras” were sixteen of her students.

The view from Adelaide Airport

Our daughter is a high school teacher at Clare High School in the mid-north of South Australia. As part of her work there she organises the international programme in her school. She has already taken a group of students to Japan on exchange. She has also coordinated a visit by Japanese students to Clare.

Clare High School delegation to Ireland

This is the first time the school has organised an exchange to Ireland. In 2005 when she was teaching in England she visited St Joseph’s school in Spanish Point in county Clare. This was preparation for the visit this year. I think she is a very brave girl with the responsibility of organising such an exchange.

The parents I talked to while waiting for the time to board the plane all agreed that it was a wonderful opportunity for their children to participate in such a programme. I couldn’t help but think of the stress it must have caused her. Goodness, I used to get paranoid about organising a day trip excursion to the beach or wherever when I was teaching.

Adelaide International Airport

Just as a little aside, I noticed a large sign in the airport entrance while there. Adelaide International Airport, barely two years old, was voted the second best airport in the world recently. In small print there is a rider to that claim. The award was for airports with 5 to 15 million passengers annually. Still, little old Adelaide is pleased with its recognition.

Adelaide International Airport

Street Food Vendors in Kathmandu

No Comments »9th April, 2007; Category: Kathmandu, Nepal

Food vendor in the streets of Kathmandu

One of the things that amazed me about both Bangkok and Kathmandu was the huge numbers of street vendors selling food. In fact, one of the guides on a bus trip I took in Thailand said that he and his wife rarely cooked their food – they most often bought their meals from the street vendors. His apartment was too small to have a kitchen anyway. While I didn’t ask anyone in Kathmandu about this aspect of life, I daresay it would be true of many parts of the capital city of Nepal too.

In fact, it may well be true of many larger cities of the world, especially in the inner and more populated parts of cities. I just haven’t travelled enough to make judgments on this sort of thing. In rural Australia where I live to eat out is the exception, not the rule. Most people here cook their own food and eat at home. To go out for a meal is a special treat, though that concept is changing in our larger cities.

The food vendor in the photo above was unusual in what he was selling. He had pop corn for sale. His bicycle was converted to make it a mobile kitchen complete with a gas bottle and gas ring.

Beautiful Kathmandu

No Comments »8th April, 2007; Category: Kathmandu, Nepal

Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu

The building in the photos on this page caught my attention due to the beautiful paint work and the interesting architecture. These buildings are a part of the Buddhist Stupa complex within central Kathmandu. While many of the buildings in Kathmandu – and other parts of Nepal for that matter – look run down and poorly maintained, these looked immaculate.

Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu