joecooper's VirtualTourist Home Page

Hello everyone!

Let me introduce myself - I'm English and live in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Right now I'm settled, living with my fiancee Christine and working as a Financial Adviser. I graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a BA (Hons) Business Studies in 2002.

After that I went to China for 10 weeks to teach English and travel. I also lived for one year in the Netherlands whilst doing work experience as part of my course. I have big ambitions with regards to travelling. I have already seen quite a bit of Europe and Asia. My dream trips are to travel extensively around South America and the Far East, possibly living in those areas for a year or more.

Unfortunately work means a good two-week break each year is about all I can muster at the moment. Still, I make the most of this time. I'm also of the opinion that if people will travel half way around the world to see the area I live in, I should make sure I take advantage of it myself too! This first picture was taken about 20 minutes drive from my house. The other photos here are in no discernable order but I just felt like putting them up.

Notes about my pages

Travelogues: Please look out for my travelogues on all my pages as they are an important extension of the information I provide on the main pages.

Photos and images: Where possible I have used my own photos but in some cases I have used pictures off the net. I've only just got my own scanner - one that scans 35mm negatives automatically, to save time! So, i've started to put my own photos up and this has spurred me on to tell people about what they show - I have a lot to catch up on! I have literally thousands of photos which I'd like to get scanned and on the web.

My top 5 trips

1. China 2002
2. Italy 2001
3. Thailand 2005
4. Croatia 2003 & 2004
5. Slovenia 2000

These are the places I am going to concentrate on building my pages as soon as I can! Apart from Slovenia, which is pretty much complete.

Recent trips!

October 2005 - Weekend in Edinburgh
July 2005 - Week in Barcelona
February - March 2005 - Two weeks in Thailand

Planned trips!

May 2006: Long weekend in Cornwall, UK

September 2006: Two weeks in Sri Lanka

My top 10 dream destinations

It's hard to choose one above the other but this is roughly my top 10 that I want to see before I'm claiming my pension!

1. Peru
2. Bhutan
3. Ecuador
4. Mexico
5. India
6. Australia
7. Russia
8. Greece
9. Egypt
10. Mongolia

My favourite travelogues

These are the most amazing, outstanding, and/or interesting travelogues on VT in my opinion either due to photographic or written content or both. I've only just started this list so if you have a good one, I'll add it once I've seen it!

lexnrena's Ice Lantern Fesitival on their Harbin page
joecooper's Postojna Caves on my Slovenia page
lukec's New Year Decorations on his Ljubljana page
o00o's Aurora Collection on his Norway page
SirRichard's Trans-Siberian series on his Russia page
SirRichard's Drawings South India on his India page
Amadej's Slovenia series on his Slovenia page
FreeCloud's Cheng Du series on her Chengdu page
Helga67's Venice travelogue on her Venice page
margaretvn's China on her China page
SilverVelvet's Abandoned Buildings Travelogue on her Detroit page
darthmilmo's Peru Series (Lots!)on his Peru page