Chad Is Everywhere

It's only fair that Amalfi gets it's own posting dedicated to itself. After all it was the town that had hosted me for 4 nights on the Intrepid Tour . It may not get the accolades of Positano in fame. But to me it was the best place to base the majority of the Amalfi Coast stay in. Positano although beautiful, and a closer connection to Capri, was very hilly, and well seemingly even more over priced, and less connected. Perhaps too the glamour of being the most well known destination, the focus of the Americans we overhead on the local bus had jilted me. I may not have been out overnight in Positano however the impression was it was a place you walk down the main street only once or twice and otherwise stayed in your accommodation as it's quite a hike back up the hill for most guests. This was not the case in Amalfi. Most of the accommodation was towards the town centre right down in the town square. There was quite a connection to the town square with many cafes, restaura...

  For 2 nights our Amalfi Tour was based in Agerola . For some this may seem like an unusual choice of accommodation by a tour company. One of those cheaper nights out of the way. However it made perfect sense when you get a full appreciation of the landscapes your dealing with around the Amalfi Coast. Agerola is a tiny bit inland when you look at a map of the Amalfi district. So yes you're not really on the coast. But the coast here goes pretty much vertical to this area. In the past when tourism might have just been about being at the beach, or at the coast we were told the communities like Agerola missed out on tourism. But now with the popularity of the Amalfi Coast has meant there is a growing demand, and presumably a very successful series of developments or programs have been made to ensure this community doesn't entirely miss out on the tourism market. Agerola was our setting as the town provided the perfect launching pad for two days of walking. The first was ...

As a purely cultural stop on the road towards Mont Saint Michel I inserted an overnight stay in Cognac. This stop was on one of their more important festivals of the year. It was something to do with street art. I'd be lying to say that was what attracted me. Anyway after lucking out with the Martell Cognac brand for an English tour my hotel was able to find an English tour with Hennessy. Being the only distiller of the 6 or so main cognac distillers I would take I decided to pay the little bit extra for the XO & Chocolate tour. Little did I know was the fact that this was the Golden Ticket. I ended up the only person on my tour of about 8 Europeans, and 20 or so package tour Chinese who paid for the better quality nip at the end. Everyone else just got the 2 nips of the standard cognac, and some other drink they produce. Heck the Chinese were on a classic tour, shoot and shuffle timetable. They weren't even staying to savour the drop so much.  I on the ...

We have arrived into Valencia yesterday afternoon. Found there is a reason the festival tomorrow is not called the "Running of the Tomatoes". It's too f'king hot. Oh my, nothing like a balmy 40 degrees to cleanse the body of any liquid. Of course first stop was the beach. Luckily we didn't arrive until after 3pm. Otherwise it would have been sun dried tomato for me today. Last night we ventured out for some Tapas. And finished with a nice liquor. 

My friend loves whisky. I mean really really loves whisky. Which when it comes to organising a trip down to Tasmania to visit my brother Steve comes in handy. He wanted to visit a few distilleries. Said he knew a few people who would be keen to show us around. As I learnt they were very keen to have him visit. His word of mouth as the lead taster of a few local whisky societies would help get a foothold for their whisky. This is very valuable grassroots marketing when you're a fledgling industry only just starting to the profile to start a boutique Whiskey Tour Tourist Trail. What it meant to me was that we received the extensive tour everywhere we went. I write a travel blog for my own memories. If I don't write things down like this article I would struggle remembering all I visited. I don't want to forget in 30 years time I was one of the early ones who followed the Tasmanian Whisky Trail. In about 3 years time do not want to forget about asking for a bottle of the...

Forget Sleepless in Seattle. I have a new movie concept. Delayed in Da Nang! Of course playing the role of me in the blockbuster will be Bruce Willis! Trademark the saying "Oy zoy oy motherf3r... !" Oy zoy oy basically means OMG. The spelling is not like that. Just the sound. It's as close to a swear word as we've learnt. Which suggests just how much Vietnamese we've learnt. Our train onto Nha Trang was supposed to be at 11. Arriving in time to get some dinner and go out for a drink. So much for that idea. A 4 hour delay meant the train didn't arrive until after 1am.  In time only to find 2 rats chasing each other around the train carpark whilst waiting for a cab to the hotel. Can't fix it. Just roll with it! After a short sleep it was straight onto our highlight tour of the trip. A boat ride to one of the island villages off the coast, and then lunch and snorkeling.   Of course by day 2 of Nha Trang the tour group had found it's own favou...