Thailand

Our first trip abroad since we moved down under. Destination: Thailand. We chartered a boat and "sailed" the Andaman sea. Apart from the first and last day we needed the engine ...this sea is calm as a lake ...in November at least. Very relaxing time with nothing to do all day around but snorkelling. We`ve seen fishes everywhere but mostly the same species....I hope the Great Barrier Reef is better. Anyway we saw a turtle, some dolphins and a WHALE ....that was kind of unbelievable, early in the morning close to Racha where sea depth reaches 50-60m. The islands were mostly nice except the most famous ones like Phi Phi, Phi Phi Lee and James Bond where the mass tourism was amazing ...in the bad way. At the end of the week we stayed for some days in Bangkok and managed to visit Ayutthaya and the Royal Palace. Ayutthaya was bit bad but the public transport was a nightmare...for 65 km we needed like 4 hour on the way back ...plus the flees and stuff. I personally did not like Bangkok much....too hot&humid, a permanent traffic jam and kind of chaotic. I guess some people could appreciate this .... Please enjoy the photos ...

Road trip in USA

Few weeks ago we went on a two week trip to USA and Canada. Despite the main purpose of the trip was business (we attended to two conferences, one in Corvallis, Oregon, and the other in Vancouver) we took some holidays as well! The first part of our "road trip" took place between the conference in Corvallis and the one in Vancouver. For two days we drove along the north West coast of the States, through Oregon and Washington to Seattle, where we took a shuttle to Vancouver. The scenery was beautiful, we got to visit some of the locations were "The goonies" was filmed and even slept in the town where Kurt Cobain was born! My main regret is that we couldn't eat more of that delicious clam chowder... mmmmmm don't miss if if you ever go there!! After the second conference we flew back to San Francisco where the second part of our trip started. The plan was to drive through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and the Sequoias NP only that this time we rented a convertible... purely California style... and that really made our trip!!! Really, once you've done a road trip through the mountains in a convertible... you don't want to do it any other way! Despite we only had three days to enjoy the parks it has been one of the best trips I've ever done. The landscape was astonishingly beautiful. A new and more impressive scenery awarded after every turn...and the sequoias...there're no words to express how it feels to stand in front of one of those massive thousands year old trees... even less when there are dozens of them!!! Overall, an incredible experience.... an we even saw a bear!!! To finish our trip, a short drive trough Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Beach just before dropping the car at the airport. The states have never been on my "places to visit" list, but after this trip, I cannot wait to go back!!! ...... ......

Mt Hotham - skiing downunder

Here the proof ...Australia has snow and ski runs. Lucky us..this year was one of the best, heaps of snow. Unfortunately we arrived at the base of the mountain during a snow storm so we had to wait for a convoy to escort us up the mountain to the resort ....It took us around 4 hours from Melbourne to base (~350 km) and another 4 hours for the remaining 30-40km to Hotham resort. First day was cloudy, windy and snowy but good enough to enjoy skiing. The second day was sunny and warm...which means that by noon half of the runs were quite wet. Still we had a great time!! Check the pictures:

Fraser Island

Short trip to UNESCO World Heritage Fraser...

Kuala Lumpur

Hace un mes y pico que fuimos un par de semanitas a España y de camino paramos un par de días en Kuala Lumpur (Malasia). Como dicen las guias turísticas de las grandes metrópolis asíaticas, Kuala Lumpur es una "ciudad de contrastes"... vamos que lo normal es que a un lado de la calle te encuentres un rascacielos modernísimo y al otro una barriada de casas pobres llena de monos que rebuscan entre la basura. Una ciudad bastante caótica, sin apenas aceras por donde andar (pero con avenidas con 4 y 5 carriles para los coches!). Dos dias fueron suficientes para ver lo más emblemático de KL: el centro y sus jardines, las cuevas Batu y, como no, las Petronas. Ahí quedan las fotos: