HERE AND THERE

One member of our travelling party (not me) is a keen market-goer so today it's train market and floating market day! Okay, I have to admit, they're fun destinations. We start at Ban Laem Railway Station, about 80 km south of Bangkok, in a little village where even the dogs take it easy. We travel about an hour by train to the Mae Klong Railway Market. The market stalls are laid out next to the rail lines. When a train enters the market, stall-holders have to pack up their go

It's not the first time we've been to Bangkok.* Still, how much could have changed in 30 years? We're staying in a hotel on the Chao Praya River. It's 33 °C and humid, which makes a welcome change from Melbourne's chilly winter. (Although we have all come down with congestion, runny noses and coughs in response to our endless battle between humidity and air-conditioners.) About 6 million people live in the city of Bangkok, the largest city by far in Thailand (population 71 mi

It's not the first time we've visited Byron Bay (in fact it's the third), but I've got such good material from this trip that I've decided to put it all together. Timing? A special birthday to celebrate and special visitors to meet for the first time. And of course an opportunity to visit our older son. But first a bit about location. Byron Bay is in New South Wales, just south of the Queensland border. From Melbourne it's a two hour flight to the Gold Coast Airport and a 45

A hop across the Gulf from Koper and we're in Venice. Cruise ships no longer dock in Venice itself, so our cruise ends and we disembark the ship in Fusina, an industrial port. We're staying for a few days in Venice. Our hotel has sent a driver to fetch us, and he deposits us at the single parking area on the island. We wheel and heave our suitcases from the parking area to our hotel, across what felt like 25 bridges, but what turned out later to be four.* This was our immedia