Travel Blogs

In this month's Talking Travel series we chat to Matt Watson of the adventurous Watson5. Over 86 days, 4100km, 8 towns, 15 "homes", and 500L of bottled water, Matt toured Turkey's ruins (and ice cream parlours) with his wife and young children - aged 5, 3, and 18 months! The family's blog of the three month journey continues to attract visitors interested in their balance of cultural travel and child-friendly holiday.

The Watson family waiting for a dolmus in Cesme

Tell us about your trip and what led to the decision to take your family to Turkey.

The opportunity to travel occurred after I sold my business. My wife and I decided it would be great to make the most of the time off work and take the kids away to show them what a wonderful and diverse world we live in. The destination we picked was Turkey as it had everything we were looking for: magnificent landscape, incredible history, and a culture which is very family orientated and child friendly.

Initially some friends doubted that the trip was a good idea. Looking back, is there anything you would change? What do you think your family gained from the experience?

We had a mixed response from family and friends when we told them of our plans, it was either one of great excitement or utter horror - no in-between.
The trip was quite well planned 'though we didn't book anything outside of the first few weeks. We wanted freedom to travel about without having a fixed itinerary and this worked well. There's not much I would change, some things got the better of us but that's life when you're travelling whether you have kids or not. I wouldn't take a car seat for Bella if we did it again, as it proved cumbersome to carry around along with luggage and 3 children.
As far as what the kids got from the trip, they amazed me with their resilience to long haul flights and lengthy bus trips. The opportunity to try new foods, culture, religion, and language they all adapted to and accepted. Their interest in the mosques and ruins surprised me. A year later they still count to 10 in Turkish, recreate cave houses of Urgup at home playing, talk often about camel rides, hot air ballooning, scorpions, and the friends they made.

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We arrived in Siem Reap ready for a new adventure. It began right off the bat with an intimidating customs process. We handed our passport and 20 american dollars over to a customs agent. Then we waited as our documents were passed through a string of ten agents ending with the most official looking person stamping them before they were handed back to us. After customs, we were on our way to our hotel. As we drove through the streets of Siem Reap we got a glimpse of a completely different lifestyle than we had seen on this trip. For the first time we were seeing people living without what we would consider modern comforts and it was different.

Cambodia can’t hide the devastation of it’s war torn past, but the people show promise for the future in their drive, hard work and kindness. Much has been written of the sad history that Cambodia has endured. The worst of it came during the terrible reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. They wreaked havoc on the people, religion, and the economy by killing almost two million Cambodians, destroying religious sights, and abolishing currency. Now free of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia is slowly putting itself back together. The country is now attracting tourist by the plane loads and transforming its economy to compete with their savvy neighbors.

Siem Reap is a shinning example of this trend of change. Angkor Wat provides the perfect tourist attraction to create a mountain of jobs and downtown Siem Reap gives tourist a place to unwind with food, drinks, and shopping. The people of Siem Reap have an energy about them, eager to please and eager to sell you something. As this village outgrows itself and transforms into a jet setters city one thing is certain, the future looks bright.

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The day after the trek we had an early morning pick up to begin the 8-hour journey to El Calafate, our next Patagonian stop. I woke to discover sore muscles I didn’t even know I had and was a little concerned that after 8 hours on a bus I may not be able to get up again!

El Calafate is across the border in Argentina so we all had to pile out of the bus to get our passports stamped… once as we were leaving Chile and again on arrival into Argentina. Bizarrely these two stops are about a 15-minute drive apart!

El Calafate’s main draw, or perhaps only draw, is its proximity to Glacier Perito Moreno, one of Argentina’s biggest sights. Although El Calafate is just a purpose built tourist town catering to the hoardes of people that pass through to see the glacier, I think it does the tourist town thing very well. All centred around a buzzing main street with cute souvenir shops, cozy coffee and chocolate shops, alpine-style pubs and too many restaurants to choose from.

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We arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) last night 30 minutes early. Since all passengers boarded the plane, they pulled away from the gate early and took off. It was shocking compared to our experiences in the US. Once through customs, we took a taxi to our hotel. Getting into the taxi, the driver should have given us the "Please keep your arms inside the ride at all times" speech because it was like a roller coaster. While we thought Bangkok was crazy, Saigon is on a whole new level.

The first thing we needed to do was eat dinner. Following the advice of a guidebook, we walked to what we thought was a group of food stalls with plenty to offer. Unfortunately, it was more like a big restaurant. After 15 minutes of waiting, we were handed a 20 page menu. After waiting for another 15 minutes to order, we were told they were out of many things and we can only order from a few pages. Naturally they were the most expensive items on the menu. Irritated, we left and wondered back towards our hotel, stopping at a few places to review various menus (several of which included items we either never heard of or would not have considered eating such as duck tongue). Luckily, we stumbled on a place that was amazing. The noodles were perfect and the beer was really cold.

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On day ten of our 12 days in Tibet, we saw him. His image hung where the ceiling beam met the wooden pillar. We were sitting in a small house, in a small village outside of Lhasa, where the homeowner sold noodle soup and tea. His smile, radiating peace and inner happiness, and his glasses, were instantly recognizable. We looked at each other. Could it be? Our guide saw the object of our focus and in a small, indescribable gesture, indicated that we were right. Despite the risks involved, there on the wall, was a tiny picture of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

On day one of our 12 days in Tibet, we handed over our backpacks to the Chinese border guards dressed in Army attire. They were opened and examined, and we were asked, “Any books?”
“No, I mean yes,” I replied, removing my dog-eared copy of The Kite Runner.
“Where does it take place?” he asked.
“Afghanistan,” I replied, not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing in the soldier’s mind. I was given my book back, and after a thorough examination of my passport and visa, I was ushered into Tibet, with exactly as many stamps as I had the day before, but with many more questions.

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Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!! How did that happen? How can it already be the end of our vacation? It has been so wonderful, every minute of it.  Even the weather has treated us like guests of honor.  We had nothing more then a couple of 2 minutes showers throughout our scorching hot vacation.  The other great thing about the sun sticking around is that it meant warm showers at the end of each day.  Our last days in Los Roques last year were dampened by cold showers sponsored by BBB, Big Blue Bucket, the good old sun powered water tank on top of the posada.  This year, it was nice and warm everyday.  Although, the shower pressure was so weak, you could literally see drops falling off the shower head instead of a constant water flow.  Makes for long showers when you have sand from your ear canal all the way down to under your pinky toe nail!
So in a nutshell, here's what happened in our last vacation days.

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In this month's Industry Interview we chat to Mark Hodson, co-founder of 101 Holidays. A travel writer by profession, Mark spent 12 years working as a full-time freelance travel journalist at The Sunday Times in London before launching the popular travel experiences site. He co-founded the successful sister site 101 Honeymoons a year later. Mark also shares his travel recommendations on Google+.

Mark in Chile's Atacama Desert

You worked in journalism straight out of university; how did you break in to travel writing?

I’d like to say it was all part of a well thought-out masterplan but like most things in life it just happened. I had a well-paid job as a sub-editor on a national newspaper at 23 and - faced with the bleak prospect of a long career in an office gazing at a flickering screen - I quit to go travelling. I managed to spend three consecutive winters in Asia and Latin America, returning to my former employers in the summers to top up my bank balance.

It was a great life but not one that appealed to me long term. I wanted to return to London but realised I no longer had a taste for office life. So I started writing articles about some of the places I’d visited and posted them to various travel editors (this was in the early 90s, before email).

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When we weren’t getting thrown out of planes or lugging it up sand-dunes we did quite a few other things in Namibia; best shown in photo format me thinks. :-)

1. Largest Baobab Tree

Largest Baobab tree in Namibia. While we did get some lovely photos taken of Mike and I in the tree; even some very arty black and white ones, we couldn’t resist the group jumping shot. Hilarious. (From left to right: Sam, Chris P, Graham, Vicci, Me, Mike, Kat. MIA: Chris D, Hussain and Alex). We (illegally) bush camped near-by on our first night in Namibia and fortunately didn’t get busted.

2. Chris Brit's dam photo

Bush camp at Dam on our last night in Namibia. Noteworthy/memorable for two reasons: Firstly needing to put both very large rocks inside the four corners of our tent and to use multiple tent pegs for the first time on the trip to avoid getting blown away – think desert sandstorm. And secondly for having breakfast while watching an incredible sunrise over the dam. I thought I would include a photo of the actual dam and not another photo of a sunrise as would be my usual inclination.

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Living on board the world’s largest cruise ship has some similarities to other large ships and similarities to large all-inclusive resorts but it truly is quite unique. The sheer size of the ship means that there is a tremendous variety of activities and venues all operating simultaneously and all creating their own din of noise and buzz of activity. Just to add to the frenetic atmosphere many venues play loud rock music to pump up the level of hype and encourage the party atmosphere. Below is a picture of a Parade on the Promenade featuring all the nationalities of the crew.

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We woke at our KOA campground in Queeche, Vermont and decided to grab some breakfast in a nearby town. We headed for the border town of White River Junction VT and enjoyed a quiet coffee and eggs, got our fill of liberal magazines, papers and bumper stickers and sadly, saw more flood damage to a local bridge whose pylon had been shifted in the huge wave of water and was being fixed by a giant crane.

We then crossed the White River into the state of New Hampshire....one more state and we're back on the east coast! Wow! We crossed the bridge into a town called Lebanon which was very cute and neat and tidy. This whole area of the country just has a lovely small progressive town feel to it, people take pride in the buildings and houses and from what we saw....education, as we drove through the town of Hanover - home to Dartmouth College. The college campus was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Oxford in Cambridge, England. We have hit the heart of New England.

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Once again we had to drag ourselves out of our extremely comfy bed at silly o’clock in the morning to go to the airport. After an extremely smooth journey we arrived in Auckland at about 6pm, hopped in an airport shuttle, and were at our hostel by 7. Much to our delight as we walked into our room, we realised that we had been upgraded; instead of the standard double with shared bathroom that we had paid for, we had a ‘deluxe studio’ apartment complete with kitchen, t.v, sofa and bathroom. After settling into our apartment we ventured out into the late afternoon sunshine to get our bearings and find some food. Our hostel was really well located and it only took us 5 minutes to walk into the CBD. The city was very spacious and clean. We soon arrived at the Viaduct Harbour area of the city where there were several restaurants and bars.

However we opted to go in search of a pizza place and so trekked up Queen Street. We eventually came to a quirky pizza bar in the upstairs section of an ‘old’ building’. It was centred around New Zealand Rock Music and as such all of their pizzas were named after Kiwi bands, none of which we had heard of. We were pleased to learn that NZ is cheaper that Australia. We were able to have 2 large pizzas, a draught beer and a cider for grand total of $44, around £22. After filling ourselves with much craved pizza we strolled back to our hostel. On this journey home we realised that NZ isn’t as warm as Australia so were a little bit chilly in shorts.

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Wow, Fiji. What can be said? Not much to be honest, it is just paradise on earth! I know im not eloquent enough to do it justice...but sure ive never been known as a quiet one so I'll try and describe it anyway.

We had been enjoying the New Zealand section of our trip so much that to be honest, we hadn't planned ahead for Fiji at all. So a few days before we left New Zealand we called into a travel agency to see if we could blag a package/transfers etc for the 2 weeks we would be in Fiji and we were in luck. So our Fiji trip was for the most part planned and arranged before we'd even left New Zealand which was very different then the rest of our trip to date. Knowing exactly where we'd be every hour and day for the next 2 weeks seemed strange, we normally dont know where we'd even be staying one night to the next but we planned on doing nothing but relaxing so it was a welcome change.

It was a short flight to the city of Nadi on the main Fijian island where we landed without any hassle at all and were transferred to the hotel where we'd be staying overnight before moving on to the outlying islands the following day. This was the first time we had stayed in a 'proper' hotel in some time, and we immediately felt the difference. We were on a package holiday for 2 weeks now, not so much travelling anymore. It was bitter-sweet!

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Thailand is known more for its wild parties than wild animals, but away from the fleshpots of Bangkok and Phuket the country is blessed with some extraordinary natural treasures. We planned our fortnight in southern Thailand to include some of the area's wildlife hotspots, and we weren't disappointed.

The chain of karst mountains that we had seen earlier in our travels in Vietnam and Laos raise their heads again in southern Thailand. They stretch all the way from Guilin in China to Sarawak in Borneo, and are the eroded remains of an ancient coral sea that was thrust up when the Indian and Eurasian plates collided. The limestone peaks are at their loftiest in Khao Sok National Park, reaching to more than 3000ft, and it was here that we spent New Year.

The park was created in the 1970s to protect the rich tropical forests that cloak the hills, a dense jungle older than the Amazon rainforest. Subsequently, the creation of more National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the surrounding areas mean that Khao Sok is now part of the largest tract of old-growth forest in Southeast Asia. So vast is this protected area that it still holds viable populations of wild elephants, tigers and gaur. I decided this was the place to watch wildlife in Thailand.

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Well 5 months after starting out on our trip it has already come to the end of our Latin American adventures. Even though we are excited about the next travels, we are still sad to be leaving such a great area of the world. We had so many incredible experiences in the brief time we were there, met some great people and will have many memories to keep for the rest of our lifetime. We will be back, as there are still lots of things we still need to do.

We thought that it deserved making a top 10 (limiting it to 10 was tough) of our favourite memories from the 5 months as well as pointing out a few of the small things that we noticed which makes it truly unique to travel in Latin America. If you have been to South or Central America before, hopefully you chuckle at a few of these which you encountered; otherwise, if you are heading there, you have this to look forward to.

TOP 10 HIGHLIGHTS

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In this month's Talking Travel series, we chatted to regular TP contributor Glynn Hammond (aka nzhamsta). A prolific traveller and blogger, he has mapped over 40 trips and shared more than 2000 photos. Glynn is an avid believer in making the most of travel opportunities, having spent his life balancing work with long trips overseas, and takes his inspiration from the Mark Twain quote: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Glynn with the Great Sphinx

Most recently you spent four months travelling through Europe and the Middle East both on organised trips and also on your own. What do you like about organised travel and what do you like about making your own plans?

I like to use organised travel for places that are less “easy” to travel around independently. Some of the Middle East falls into the “easy” category (Dubai, Oman (wonderful place by the way), Egypt), whereas in other places it falls into the “less easy” (on this trip, Syria). The use of an organised tour can eliminate all the headaches regarding transport, accommodation, arranging guides and so on. The downside is that you are with a group and that does not suit those people who do not like being herded, having to be ready by a certain time or be left behind, group meals and so on. The make up of the group is also very important.

The trip went to all the places I wanted to go (with the exception of the Western Desert oases) and was well organised with a decent standard of transport, accommodation (notwithstanding Egyptian plumbing), guides and food.

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