Durfun's VirtualTourist Home Page

We went to Krakow in April 2005 to celebrate my brother's stag.

Looking up information on Krakow led to my accidental discovery of VT, and the rest is all here ....................................

So, that's the quick story about the birth of 'durfun'
>>> motto is to have ALL 'DUR (the) FUN' in life !! <<<

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TO SEE THE PHOTOS OF MY BROTHER'S WEDDING REGISTRY, INDIAN CEREMONY, & GRAND RECEPTION, PLEASE REFER TO MY LONDON PAGES >>>

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*** Please be patient with me, I'm scanning old pics from my earlier travels ***

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My trips for Feb/Mar 2006 were:

1. Laos
2. Cambodia
3. Vietnam (meeting in Hanoi, courtesy of Jonny, JonnyVN from HCMC!)
4. Singapore
5. Malaysia (meeting in KL, courtesy of 'sporty' Chia, chiabh)
6. Thailand (meeting in Bangkok, with Nick, expatbangkok)
7. Jordan



I had VT meets in Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok; I think they're a wonderful idea, because other than just touring a place, you get to meet & chill out with the locals, and get further 'insider' tips from them!!

In fact I started off properly by attending my very 1st one - on the 21st of Jan 2006, in London. Jennifer ( Jenniflower) had planned an elaborate weekend to receive her friend keida84. IT WAS A TOTAL SUCCESS, ABSOLUTELY FAB PEOPLE AND GREAT FUN.... can't wait to have many more of these !!

Interested parties should check out the pages on vt meetings.. [i only started doing so very recently]


Trips for May 2006 were:

8. Spain (Euromeet2006, courtesy of Carmen, Carmela71 and Stace, Beach_dog!)
9. Portugal (meeting at the Lisbon Castelo, courtesy of Antonio, a2lopes)


And for July 2006 they had been:

10. Bulgaria (meeting in Sofia, with Yana, sarakohen, Gergana, Black_eyed_girl, Velislava, vivian76, Vency, vpeykov, Hanny, Hanny, Lilia, Childish, Christina, ChristinaNest, Vladimir, dvoretzky, Nina, hekate; in Plovdiv with Krassimir71)
11. FYR of Macedonia (meeting in Skopje, with Mirjana, Mirianamak, Mirjana, Mirjana51, the elusive & mysterious Vangel, VBB)



Fabulous London meeting on the 19th of August to welcome Vinka (Vinka), and Zdenka (Nykaenen) from Croatia. By pure chance, we had two other foreign VTers in London at that time & so they too joined us - Ida (Dyesebel) from Switzerland, and Dragana (viddra) from Serbia. Now, surely that can only happen in a busy capital like London!


Trips in 2007:

1. Romania - March 2007 !

2. Croatia - December 2007!
3. Slovenia - December 2007!


Trips in 2008 (another 'heavy' year :)

1. Sweden - June 2008!
2. Norway - June 2008!
3. Denmark - June 2008!

4. Berlin, Germany - September 2008!
5. Finland - September 2008!
6. Estonia - September 2008!
7. Latvia - September 2008!
8. Lithuania - September 2008!

9. Milan - December 2008!


To check out my travels / photos / tips / etc, do visit my albums or travel pages.

HAPPY V-TOURS ....

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SOME KEY SIGHTS IN LONDON & THE SOUTH EAST

The lavish & stylish palace of King Henry VIII, with it's stunning royal apartments & enormous gardens.

Many other royals since also had this place amongst their residences.

Hopefully many of you would know of Henry VIII, who was coerced into marrying his sister-in-law, Catherine of Aragon, following his brother's death. He always struggled with this, being a devout religious man.

Eventually, to gain Henry a male heir, his aide Thomas Cromwell's solution was breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, thus establishing the Church of England (Protestants, having protested!).

After the death of Henry's 3rd wife, Cromwell convinced him to marry Anne of Cleves, whom Henry resented from the start. Eventually, disenchanted, Henry had Cromwell executed.

Cromwell had by this stage become a very powerful Finance Minister, & had this Palace built for himself. Henry felt jealous of it's overt grandeur, and sensing this, Cromwell presented it to Henry to appease him. However, this did not save Cromwell from the block (the very man who suggested Ann Boleyn's execution!)

Other facts Henry is (in)famous for:
(a) having 2 of his 6 wives beheaded, the 1st of which was Anne Boleyn, mother of the famous and successful Elizabeth I.

(b) suggesting the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots (Mary de Guise's daughter) to his own son Edward VI, when both were still infants. The motive was to thus acquire the Kingdom of Scotland. Mary de Guise was against this, and had young Mary raised in France, thus flouting a Treaty (and bethrothal) signed with Henry, becoming the target for several attacks by England.

Edward never ruled for long, and after Mary Tudor (daughter of Catherine of Aragon), and unfortunate Lady Jane Gray, Elizabeth I was coronated as Queen of England.

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This was taken in the lovely landscaped gardens of Hampton Court Palace.

To some extent, especially with the Long Water, these gardens bear some resemblence to La Chateau de Versailles.

Notice the shaped trees in the background, in the photo on the left.

Perfect place for a family picnic.

This place is definitely worth visiting; roughly 50 miles South East of London.

There are preserved remnants & foundations from medieval times here. On display here is the world's first wooden equestrian statue!!

By tradition, this place was always presented to the consort of the ruling King. Towards the end, ownership moved over from the Royalty to other Aristocrats. Latter owners have their roots in Virginia, USA.

The last owner and occupant, Lady Bailee, of the Standard Oil aristocracy, donated this enormous estate to The National Trust. What a noble lady!

There's a lovely portrait of her with her two elegant & attractive daughters in one of the rooms.

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Jenniflower had arranged this meeting in Piccadilly for that Saturday.. and 88 VTers turned up from all over the world.

What a great experience it was to share stories with such a motley 'crew'!

Stephanie (VT-mum) had come over to this meeting from California with her hubby Gerry.

Carmen ( Carmela71 ) & Stace ( Beach_dog ) took it upon themselves to arrange the forthcoming Euromeet in Marbella for 5th-7th May 2006.

It was more like Stace pushed Carmen into doing it by announcing that she had happily & willingly volunteered...

Poor Carmen, there was no backing out now, considering the 88 witnesses!!

Plenty of notice, so all the diaries came out...

During my South East Asia tour, I arranged a VT meeting in Hanoi for the 16th of March & even had attendees lined up, when Hien, ( hientonkin ) suggested going to a "propaganda art book launch" that Jonny ( JonnyVN ) had posted in the Vietnam forum..

I couldn't understand what that could have been about, so I checked out the weblink. What Alan Duong (Mosaique Living Rooms' co-owner, other partner is Donald Berger) had achieved impressed me, so I diverted the VTers to this place!!

What a great evening it was!! Superb themed bar, knock-out drinks, and mouth-watering finger buffet!!