Snow in London

Once again England had a late winter, and we had a couple of huge dumps of snow that actually settled.

Snow never fails to make me feel like a kid, although the slipping and sliding isn't a good look...much nicer to be indoors watching it snow than having to be out in it....to say nothing of hte havoc it plays on the British rail system.

I confess, the night before this particular dump, they were predicting a snow fall. I woke up at 1am and went and had a peak out the window...sure enough there was a blanket of white. I squealed excitedly to myself and went back to sleep. Ah..the magic of snow!

Beware of your privacy when using online booking systems!

I am in the middle of an infuriating and entirely unsatisfactory experience with Malaysian based booking agency www.MariMari.com. This company is operated by Orient Travel and Tours, which also operates www.holidayasia.com.

My father and I had plotted for months to meet in Singapore over new year, and surprise my mother for her 60th birthday. Mum knew she was going to Singapore, but had no idea I was flying in from the UK to meet them for 4 days. Bring on the chilli crab!

Dad (who's surname is also Surplice) booked his and Mum's accommodation at the Raffles The Plaza hotel through www.marimari.com. In a second and unrelated booking, and with slightly different dates, I booked into the same hotel through MariMari's site.

Marimari confirmed my parent's booking via email, and then in a second email to my parents the same day, mentioned that they were also happy to confirm the booking for a Ms Melanie Surplice. That email had the gall to ask if we were related! Do they ask all the Mr Smith's or Mr Lee's who put bookings through their system, if they are related?? Mum happened to read the email and instantly put two and two together. Thank you MariMari for stuffing up the surprise!

When it came to my attention that MariMari had compromised my privacy by disclosing my name in another unrelated booking, I sent an email to the marimari staff member who I had been dealing with. I was subsequently told that she had resigned. How convenient for MariMari...

The new reservations manager then emailed me to say that they had read all the email correspondence and couldn't understand what the problem was. ARGH!!!

I wrote another long email and pointed out exactly what the problem was...ie, that YOU DON'T DISCLOSE OTHER PEOPLE'S NAMES IN BOOKINGS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. This is just entirely unacceptable business conduct. In many countries, it is also an illegal breach of privacy. Not so in Malaysia, I'm told. But more about that later.

I wanted MariMari to fix their gross error, and compensate me in some way for stuffing up the surprise.

I also said that if they didn't resolve the situation satisfactorily, that I would, amongst other things, blog about it, contact key travel and IT journalists about it, and notify the various tourism authorities about this unacceptable conduct.

MariMari came back and offered me what they suggested was a "token gesture" for the "inconvenience" they had caused their "valued" customer. They offered my parents and I each a refund of one night's accommodation. Pathetic I say! The surprise cost a whole lot more than the SING180 worth of accommodation they offered us, and frankly, I was insulted.

I stay in hotels all over the world and have never experienced anything like this. Were it not peak season, I'd have cancelled the booking straight away, but at the risk of not finding accommodation in Singapore over new year, it's just not worth it at this point. I will certainly never book any accommodation through marimari.com again.

I'm still in dispute with this company.

Stay tuned for the next installment...

Vinopolis - a wine-taster's delight

Wine tasting at Vinopolis is a fabulous way to spend an afternoon - just make sure you don't have to function responsibly after you leave.

We did the Vintage Wine Tasting tour and got to sample some awesome wines from all over the world. The benefit of wine-tasting at this place, is that you can try wines you may not do otherwise (I'm biased, so I tend to favour Australian wines). This particular day, we tried everything from Argentinian wines to authentic portuguese ports and some great reserve wines.



Set beneath the arches of an old Victorian viaduct, just behind Borough Markets at London Bridge, Vinopolis is a great venue for wine-tasting and corporate venues alike - Factiva held a customer event here a couple of years ago, and the unique nature of the venue makes it an unforgettable experience. Check it out!

Christmas markets in Vienna

Anne, Kelly and I decided earlier in the year that we'd like to go to some Christmas markets (Christkindlmärkte), and chose Vienna.

It was my first time in Vienna, and the stunning architecture jumped out at me as soon as we started our first day's sightseeing.



It was cold and overcast, but a cheeky early morning gluwein helped to warm us up. A festive atmosphere wafted through each of the markets we visited, amidst smells of mulled wine, hearty fried foods and various versions of boiled frankfurts.

I loved the handicrafts and hand-made Christmas decorations, which came in just about every colour and festive theme imaginable. If I ever have a white Christmas (which is still on the wish list), I'd love to be sitting around a tree decorated with Austrian decorations.



One of the most frequented Christmas markets is the "Christkindlmarkt" on the square in front of the City Hall. I loved how the old City Hall building and vivid blue sky provided such a dramatic backdrop to the already colourful markets.


























The Christmas markets and our weekend in Vienna was fab, as was the schnitzel!

A weekend in the Big Apple

"I want to be a part of it, in old New York"...

Ahh - the Big Apple never fails to dazzle. I was in the US for a work trip in early November and got to spend the weekend in Manhattan before heading down to Factiva's head office in Princeton, New Jersey.
















I arrived late on a Friday night and stayed at the centrally located Hotel 31 for a couple of nights. As is typical of New York hotels, you get tiny little rooms unless you're prepared to spend BIG bucks! In any case, Hotel 31 was clean and comfortable and most importantly, reasonably close to the big sights like the Empire State Building and 5th Avenue.

With the US dollar losing ground against Sterling, New York is a shopper's paradise, and my mission seemed to be to single-handedly fuel the American economy for two days.

The country was a few days out from its mid-term elections, so campaign-mania pretty much dominated media coverage of every one of the 10,000 cable channels (ok, so that's an exaggeration, but there is nothing subtle about US election campaign advertising). That was mildly amusing for about an hour then simply got tedious...

With a five hour difference between my body and NY time, I got up really early to a perfect autumn day. The sky was cloudless, and it was a perfect opportunity to go up to the top of the Empire State Building. The queues were minimal, and instead of taking a couple of hours to get up to the observation deck as it did last time, I got up the top in 15 minutes. It's definitely worth going as early as possible to beat the crowds.

The view was stunning, and it was also worth paying for the self-paced audio tour to get a commentary of what I was actually looking at. The view from the top really puts the island into perspective. other than Hong Kong, I have never seen so many skyscrapers! I think it's the sheer scale of the city - the towering building and the interetsing shadows they cast, that amaze me the most about New York.

Shopping was next on my agenda, and I was desperate to get to Century 21 - a huge department store that many people had recommened. I've tried to get to Century 21 on two seperate previous visits to NY, and as a result of two unfortunate unscheduled shop closures, have never actually set foot in the place.

I jumped on the Metro and headed down to the Century 21 shop located just near Ground Zero. I never saw the twin towers when they were standing, but I've been to the Ground Zero site a couple of times, and I still feel physically sick when I walk around it. It's eerie - just to imagine what it would have been like to have seen the buildings, let alone the horror of seeing them go down, and all the carnage it caused. Ugh....makes me shudder.

Fortunately, Century 21 was open, and was packed with tourists and locals. As soon as I walked in the doors, I knew that it was worth seeing this place. There were floors and floors of clothes, accessories, bags, shoes and homewares that really demanded several weeks inspection as opposed to the few hours I could spare.

Ok - it was just a department store, but everything seemed so cheap, and there was just so much choice. The queues to the change rooms were truly horrific, so it was worth getting a good solid trolley full of clothes before investing the 25 minutes in the queue to try them on.

I left with several ahem...bags, and decided to dump it all back at the hotel before heading out for the next spree. Judging by the inquisitive looks I got on the Metro, I wondered if I had gone any way to my mission of supporting the US economy for a day. It felt like it.

The fabulous 5th avenue is always worth a stroll. I would love to know how much money is spent on that strip in a single day or year, given that some of the smaller pieces in Bvulgari or Tiffany & Co. would probably buy me a couple of flats in London. *sigh*.

Drooling aside, I passed the stunning Trump Tower and had a peak inside. I reckon the Starbucks on the mezzanine level of that building has it made. What a nice little earner. Much Donald Trump merchandise was available in the foyer - DT branded pens and cufflinks, shirts and books etc. It was an impressive building, but I don't know if I'd want Trump Tower branded all over myself....

Every shop I went into the rest of the day was packed, and the change rooms queues were infinitely long. It seems like everyone in the city was there to fuel the US econony as enthusiastically as I was.

I'd arranged to have dinner with a couple of friends, and we had a yummy meal uptown, at BlueChili, an Asian fusion place. The cocktails and food were particularly good, although it took a while to realise that one of the funky cascading water features was actually splashing off onto one of the nearby funky white seats, to form a funky shiny puddle that changed hues as the mood lights transitioned from red to green and blue. Noice!

The next day was packed with more shopping and a very long walk from the hotel up to Central Park. It was also the day of the famous New York marathon, so the helicopters and crowds were out in force.

It was a fab weekend! You've gotta love the vibrancy of New York - the brashness of the people, and their passion for bagels, bling and all things big!

The joys of security checks!

Ugh! The new security arrangements at British airports are somewhat of a nightmare. With the additional time you now need to add to get through security checks (complete with limited toiletries in a see-though sealable plastic bag, it makes a one hour flight to Ireland a 4-5 hour deal by the time you leave your house.

In any case, it seems that the new rules afre here to stay for a while, so worth getting familiar with!

New Explore brochure available

Drool. Several emails this week alerted me to the fact that the 2007/2008 Explore brochure is out now and on its way to me in the post. I can't WAIT to browse through its pages.

New and interesting tours that instantly caught my attention included the 15-day part-train based journey through Moldova, Crimea & Kiev and the 8-day trip through Austria, Slovenia and Italy. I know pretty much nothing about Moldova, which makes me want to visit the place all the more. And any trip that involves hiking through the Julian Alps would be stunning...I'd say Spring would be a great time to do that tour, when it's not so hot.

My dream tours from the brochure are any of the expedition voyages, which truly do look like "trip of a lifetime" experiences. My dilemma is: one lifetime, so many trips of a lifetime to fit in. Hmm...methinks I need to start saving.

The 34-day Patagonia, Pacific Islands & Panama Canal sounds entirely awesome. I have wanted to see the Chilean glaciers and fjords ever since I saw my first glacier in Norway. The fact that the cruise mosies by Argentina and Peru is an added bonus.

My ultimate dream expedition, which isn't new to the 2007/2008 brochure, but one I've drooled over in previous brochures, is the 24-day Spirit of Shackleton cruise around the Falkland Islands and then down, down, down to the Antarctic Peninsula & South Shetland Islands. My father has often warned me that the seas in that part of the world are horrific, but I think the experience of setting foot on Antarctica truly would be a "once in a lifetime experience" - and one of the things I'd like to do in my lifetime. *sigh*. One day.

Categories: Tours

Drinking my way around Oxford...hic!

I'm spending much time in and around Oxford these days (well, weekends, anyway) and have been introduced to some lovely river-side pubs.

The Head of the River (see pic), just near the Folly Bridge in the centre of Oxford is well worth checking out, as is the Trout Inn, in Lower Wolvercote, just on the outskirts of Oxford.

Cheers to Antony, and my new drinking buddies, Di, Andy and Rob!

PS. Just on drinking, which is a national past-time here in the UK, the Beer In The Evening website is a great resource. Foaming with features like profiles on what seems to be thousands of UK pubs, a pub crawl generator, ideas for pub crawls (I'm thinking the animal theme looks good) and a list of beer festivals, there's something for every boozer.

Travel Writing advice from Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet's Guide to Travel Writing is a great resource for aspiring travel writers. They profile a bunch of seasoned, professional travel writers and give some practical advice about how to pitch and place travel articles in markets like the US, UK and Australia.

Like any books on writing, the main theme is to practice! Write. Lots! It's the only way to refine your craft.

And in the mean time, I shall keep blogging about travel and waiting for my dream travel writing/documentary production job to come flying through the door. *sigh*....must be time to book another trip!

Categories: Books

A new way to present travel pics

For anyone that loves photography and the digital revolution, Photobox.co.uk is a brilliant site, and was a fantastic recommendation from one of my digital camera-toutin' mates.









As well as letting you upload digital prints and share albums with friends, the PhotoBook feature is hugely cool.

Creating a PhotoBook is pretty much idiot proof - simply upload your favourite pics, choose one of 5 colours for your PhotoBook's cover, and then drag and drop your pics into one of a bunch of page layouts. The page layouts accommodate up to 4 photos, and they cater for combinations of landscape and portrait shots. You can add captions too. A 20-page album starts from £20, you can add extra pages in sets of 2 for £1.20, and postage and delivery is minimal.

For my first (test) album, I created a summary of my travels in 2005. I reckon it took about an hour to create a 22-page album one Saturday afternoon, and they said it would arrive by post in 3 days. True to their word, my PhotoBook turned up on time, and I was mightily impressed. I chose a black cover, and was really pleased with the quality of the matt paper and binding.

My photos looked great! I think the presentation hides a multitude of sins, and the general "wow factor" of seeing your pics in an actual book is pretty impressive.

PhotoBooks would make beautiful gifts for weddings, anniversaries, baby memories, holidays, and pretty much any other photos that youwant to tart up and preserve in style. I was thoroughly pleased with the service from Photobox, and the quality of the albums (and reprints, which I also saw examples of). So, if you're looking for a funky way to present your next travel snaps, check it out!

Categories: Photos/WIWT Archives

A refreshing approach from Explore

I had an experience last week that personally proved to me that companies who take the time to engage with bloggers can start to truly get to know their customers in a way that database segmentation or direct marketing campaigns could never achieve.

On this blog, I have written about some of the tours I’ve done lately with Explore. My experiences with the company have been entirely positive – the tours I did around Iceland and Croatia with Explore this year were excellent, and I would not hesitate to recommend them to family and friends. Explore tours are well organized, great value for money, FUN, and have a great combination of structured and free time. What really appeals to me is that they get to some really obscure places. I plan to do more Explore tours as time and money allow – and no, they are not paying me to say this!

What impressed me about Paul, the “ECommerce Bod” from Explore who emailed me, was that he offered help in getting me more information if I needed it, offered some information about their affiliate program (which I may or may not pursue, but it wasn’t a hard sell), and shared some personal observations about Lake Bled, Slovenia, where we’d both visited recently. It was clear he knew his stuff. He was authentic – and that’s important.

When I replied, he continued our conversation about the rather scary cable car that scales the cliffs surrounding Lake Bohinj en route to the ski resort that overlooks the entire valley. Talk about great views! He mentioned that the next Explore brochure was coming out soon, and to keep an eye out for more tours. As if I need any encouragement!

I thought it was cool. And relevant and appropriate. It makes me feel like the people at Explore are actually interested in what their customers are saying about their company – good or bad. They talk to me about stuff that interests me, and not in polished corporate speak but with a friendly, conversational tone. The tours themselves are great, but this personal touch, way after the fact, is really refreshing.

He also said he’d keep reading my blog. So, Paul, if you are reading this, thanks for your emails, and I hope you get to do one of the Explore train tours soon.

News.com.au's travel section

News.com.au's online travel section is one of my favourite travel resource sites. I like the way they incorporate "proper" travel articles, travel resources, and a travel blog, with all sorts of travelling tips and tricks.

I'm also loving the fact that they published two of my recent photos, one of the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, and one of Split's Harbour in one of their Reader's Holiday Snaps galleries. My pics are #6 and #7 in this gallery. Well...I'm excited!

A quick zoom around Ljubljana

Day 3 of the long weekend, and we headed up to Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana for a wander round the city before the flight back to London.


We really didn't have much more than a couple of hours to wander round the Old Town, but it is like most European old towns - quaint and crowded.

Small markets lined the river, and a broader market area occupied a large square beside the Town Hall. It wasn't actually market day on the Monday we were there, but a few stalls remained opened, and we got to sample delicious honey brandy, Slovenian wafers and delicious smoked meat. The find of the day was cherry honey - it has the consistency of honey, but is a dark, rich ahem...cherry colour and tastes like cherry.

I suspect I have a huge part of latent European in me, because I love European old towns like Ljubljana's.

Ironically, we found a great Italian restaurant and had an amazing entree of pan-fried goose liver and main meal of creamy scampi pasta, which seems to be a specialty in Eastern Europe.

We then found a fabulous Slovenian chocolate shop, and sampled some delicious rose dark chocolate. Yum-O.

The taxi ride back from Ljubljana to the airport was horrendously scary. The driver thought we were running late for our flight (we were just running late for the 2-hour check in deadline), and decided to propel us along the highway at beyond 100 miles per hour. I was watching the needle on the tacho climb beyond 100 miles per hour and decided it was best I stop looking.

Waiting in Ljubljana's airport was the usual end-of-trip yawn, but we did spy a guy (suspiciously looking like he was on a stag do), with both arms in slings, and looking rather sheepish. We pondered whether he had had a bad parachuting experience, had come off a mountain bike, or had simply fallen off a pub stool - all of which is possible in the adventure-filled Slovenia!

Beautiful Bohinj

Day 2 of the long weekend in Slovenia, and we set off for Bohinj, about 45 minutes by bus out of Lake Bled. Even in August, the flowers were still out in bloom, and it was a splash of colour everywhere we looked, with huge sun flowers springing out of almost every garden and red geraniums overflowing from window pots.

















Pulling into the the small, alpine-like town, we came across a prominent statue of some Slovenian explorers looking up over the mountains they sought to traverse. Further round the road, Lake Bohinj revealed itself, with the gorgeous Church of St John punctuating the backdrop of pine trees.

We stocked up on food supplies and set off for an easy walk around the lake. The track was well marked (and rather crowded) and we stopped in a lovely clearing for our makeshift picnic. Bees continued to dive bomb our food and drinks, although we managed to remain unbitten.


The scenery around the Lake is ahem...stunning. Sometimes it's hard to find new superlatives! What is amazing, is the colour and clarity of the water - it's a blue in some parts, clear green others, and pure turquoise in yet others. Everything was green, but I can imagine the valley would look amazing in Autumn as the leaves were changing colour.

At this far end of the lake, is a caravan park and cottages, and a range of kayak and boat hire facilities. About 2 kilometres walk from this part of the lake, is a cable-car up to the Vogel ski resort which overlooks the entire valley.

The ski resort is serviced by a rickety chair lift, which actually looked too old to be running...and it was a bit odd that it was running with no apparent supervisory staff. I guess Europeans are used to chair lifts, but it did look a tad dangerous...

The views from the top of the ski resort are fabulous. You can see right bck down across the lake and valley, and over the mountain tops in the distance. Some of my more adventurous travel buddies decided to take the near-vertical climb/track up to the Black Lake as we rode up in the cable car on the opposite side of the valley. We watched the massive black storm clouds roll in over the valley, and hoped they'd not over-committed themselves...they eventually all made it down safely.

From the cable car, we wandered through a crowded campsite and waited for the little boat to take us back across the lake to our start point.

As we waited for our travel buddies to climb back down from the Black Lake, we had a quiet grappa and watched the peaceful world of Lake Bohinj go by.

It had a very different feel from Lake Bled - it was busy, but not as commercial; less built up and probably more "rural" than the town surrounding Lake Bled.

It was definitely worth the visit, and I would go back again in a heart beat. I tend to stay in cities when I travel, and this trip reminded me that getting out into the countryside is definitely a great way of experiencing a different aspect of a country.



Categories: Slovenia

Bring on the superlatives for Slovenia's Lake Bled

Slovenia was the destination of choice for the August Bank Holiday weekend. The weekend had been planned well in advance, and the final party of 10 comprised of some Aussies and Brits, a Norwegian, a Canadian and a Kiwi – a mini United Nations if you will.

















I can’t believe I booked flights on an airline called Wizz Air…the service was entirely fine, but just the idea of getting on anything branded “Wizz Air” made me check my insurance policy a couple of hundred times. And the Wizz Air planes were painted fuchsia and hot pink…pink is my favourite colour, but somehow planes seem less credible when they’re hot pink…

Anyway, we arrived in Llubljana’s airport, stocked up on Tolar (the local currency), and found our transfer bus down to Lake Bled.

Hotel Jadran came as a recommendation of friends who had visited Lake Bled the summer before, and we were not disappointed. A first floor lake view room afforded stunning views of the lake, Bled Castle and Church of the Assumption, that make this place famous. Oh, superlative check coming up, but the scene was straight out of a postcard with the towering mountains in the background. I can only imagine how beautiful it is in winter.

















Numerous hotels and restaurants surrounded the lake, and kayaks and small punt-like boats drifted round amongst gaggles of geese and ducks.

Lunch was a simple but tasty affair - Slovenian food is similar to Croatian food, with a big dose of Italian influence. Pastas, risottos and meat dishes were the main choices everywhere, and you could get a solid lunch and a pivo (beer) for about $£10. One of the yummy specialties was deep fried cheese - we weren't sure enirely what sort of cheese it was, but served with tartare sauce, was delicious.

We continued a lazy walk round the lake, through some local markets and past the gorgeous church. A steep, windy path took us up a 100-metre cliff to Bled Castle, where we saw two weddings and had a spectacularly scenic pivo to celebrate.

Bees were rampant everywhere we went in Slovenia, but they seemed particularly enthusiastic around Bled Castle, and insisted on dive-bombing our beers all afternoon.

Categories: Slovenia