Travel Mad

After a fast and furious 2 week holiday to visit my family in New Zealand, I now have almost a week of relaxing and soaking up the sun on the gorgeous island of Ko Lanta, in Southern Thailand.

Following a 10 hour flight to Bangkok, a 90 minute flight to the southern city of Trang and a further 3 hours of bouncing through the streets of Krabi Province in a minivan and catching two ferries we finally arrived at our resort on the island of Ko Lanta.

Two days later, we have not even ventured out of the resort. Why would you?

Our days so far have consisted of waking to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach just 20 metres away and wandering off to breakfast for some fresh pineapple or watermelon, and then hitting the beach or the makeshift bamboo huts on the beach for some respite from the sun while we slurp back yet another pineapple lassi. (Lassis are made of yoghurt, milk and a fruit of your choice and are one of the culinary delights of Ko Lanta!) Following a light lunch we might have a dip in the sea before heading back to the balcony of our hut for a spot of reading or snoozing.

As the sun goes down and the sky becomes a pale blue and pink hue, the cicadas start singing their songs and soon its time for another gorgeous dinner at a table on the beach.

Food

Breakfast is not the culinary highlight of Thailand. However, almost everything else is. The fresh fruit juices, the lassis and the seafood is all superb. My first night I sampled the tiger prawns which were huge and tasted like they had barely stopped breathing before coming to rest on my plate.

Massage

Obviously after all this action I decided to treat myself to a one hour Thai foot massage, which incidentally includes the legs as well. Thai massage concentrates on the circulation points and can be a tinsy bit painful at times but that's a good thing isn't it? Lathered up in oil and tiger balm its hard not to start dozing off.

If you want complete respite from the 24/7 madness of city life I would definitely recommend Thailand.

Whenever friends announce they are leaving the UK to return home, I get a slight sick feeling in my stomach and then it all becomes a rush - a rush to spend as much time as possible together before they leave. With only 3 weeks notice of my friends impending departure, we booked a last minute weekend to Brussels.

I have never harboured a desire to visit Brussels and going by various comments from workmates and friends, neither have they! Nobody ever asks you why you are going to Paris, so why Brussels?

Here are 10 reasons why Brussels is worth a visit:

1) It's only 2 hours from Kings Cross St Pancras by Eurostar

2) Superb neo-gothic architecture in Grand Place and gorgeous cathedrals on every corner

3) Easy to get around (walkable or tubes for further afield) without the crowds of a bigger city

4) Random musicians playing on every street corner - violins, Andean flute playing and even a reindition of "I'm leaving on a jetplane" which was very timely for us!

5) Friendly, helpful mutli-lingual locals - our cab driver managed to list of a multitude of things to do and places to eat in Brussels all in the space of a 10 minute cab ride to the restaurant.

6) Great raspberry beer (for the non-beer drinkers!)

7) Waffles! (Available in little yellow vans around the city centre)

8) Moules et frites. (I have never seen such a wide range of mussels available in one restaurant - mussels with white wine, mussels with cream & garlic, marinated mussels and the list goes on!

9) Good, efficient service.

10) And of course, chocolate and the delightful chocolate shops!

Essentials

Price: £176.00 per person through lastminute.com. This included Eurostar ticket and one night accommodation in the Hilton.

Costs: Raspberry beer = $3.10EU

            Mussels & Chips = $19.50EU

            Waffles = $4.10EU

            Latte = $1.50EU

Tips:

The area around the Grand Place is very touristy and the guidebooks and locals say the food is pricey and not very good. For the best taste and price walk a few blocks away from Grand Place to the area called Ste-Catherine.

For more info see: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/belgium/brussels

www.lastminute.com

As I leave the Lello bookshop in Porto I tell the owner, “This is the most beautiful bookshop I have ever seen.” Before I can finish he interrupts me with a big smile, to say “the most beautiful in the world”. And he’s not far wrong.

While not mentioned in my guide book, going by the number of people swarming around the entrance to the bookshop taking photos it is pretty well-known among tourists.

Being something of a book enthusiast myself, I am always keen to discover a new bookshop, whether home or abroad. And so, on overhearing a conversation from a rather learned-looking American couple at the tourist office in Porto about an “amazing bookshop”, my curiosity was piqued!

After negotiating the steep mediaeval streets of Porto by foot (while locals hang smugly out the side of the city’s 1920’s trams) my first attempt at seeing the bookshop was limited by it being Sunday afternoon and closed. With one day left on our short trip, the bookshop jumps to the top of the must-see list for Monday.

After a good strong European coffee and a custard-filled pastry on Monday morning I dash off, leaving my boyfriend to devour more coffee and pastries in solitude.   

 After a 15 minute scamper up, down and across the decaying back streets of Porto, I finally enter the 128 year old building, also known as the “Cathedral of Books”. The strong odour of wood greets me as I stop barely three feet inside the shop to gaze around in wonder. Books lie side by side in ancient floor to ceiling bookcases and the intricately carved wood celing is broken only by a bright red staircase which winds itself voluptuously up through the three storey building. Standing at the bottom of the staircase, I glimpse the colourful, stain glass window at the top of the building.  

Looking back at the floor I notice a single thin railway track at my feet. A large wooden trolley sits on the track a few metres away piled high with books ready to be delivered to their rightful place.

Tourist and locals alike meander dreamily among the books, admiring the architecture, and taking photos.

The bookshop’s owner for the last 20 years is Antero Braga and while he’s not exactly young, he shows no signs of waning enthusiasm for the shop. “I love this work, it is not work for me, it is amusement for me,” he says.

Having been a bookseller for the 40 years I learn that Mr Braga is the third owner and that the shop houses no less than 18,000 titles, in a wide range of languages.

On leaving the bookshop I almost collide with an old lady, her head wrapped in a threadbare scarf and her long blue skirt sweeping the pavement as she totters back and forth outside the bookshop begging. I wonder if she has been inside the bookshop.

Inside of Lello Bookshop 

To find the Lello Bookshop on a map, please click here.

To all of you travellers (and non-travellers) PLEASE if your camera gets damaged or broken and needs repairing DO NOT use Camera Clinic in London. 

I have had a terrible experience with them which has resulted in me not having had a camera for almost 5 months now!

In short, my lens was jammed and I was recommended them by Jessops in Westfield, and so I dropped my camera off to them on 11 May 2009. They said it would take 10 days to fix. it took double that time and when I picked it up on 13th June 2009, I paid the £94.30 and took it away only to discover on my way home that it still was not fixed, in fact the lens appeared even more jammed than before.

I rang them and was unable to get it back to them until July. The man who owns the business, Paul Chan, told me it would take one week to fix as it was a re-repair and re-repairs were "given priority". It is now 25th September 2009, and 30 or more phone calls later, 2 written letters threatening court action and I still do not have my camera back. Every time I ring, they say it will be ready on "Monday" or the "enginner is sick or away", they don't seem to know if its fixed or not.

All I can say is please pass this on to everybody you know (living in London) - this matter has caused me so much stress and continues to do so. I love travelling and I love taking photos and not being able to record my travels properly for the last 5 months has been very frustrating!

PS. Google Camera Clinic and 4 people have posted negative reviews about them and so obviously I am not the first customer to be treated like this. 

As a child my family owned a large-enough boat to house three rowdy children, an exhausted mother and a strong-willed father for the compulsory 3 week summer holiday every year and random sunny weekends throughout the year. This was life from the age of six right through my teenage years up until I “rebelled” by spending drunken New Years Eves

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