Mikebb's VirtualTourist Home Page

I was born and educated in Sydney, Australia, a city built around a fabulous harbour and a beautiful climate.My school was on the harbour edge and the view took in the famous bridge, harbour ferries and the extravagant world famous Sydney Opera House.
With this setting I still managed to graduate, and after leaving school I spent much of my free time playing Rugby. This gave me my first overseas trip when my rugby club went on a 3 week trip to New Zealand - Just Fabulous. I have since returned 5 times.

Over the last 4 years we have concentrated our travel on Asia, Europe and the East Coast of Australia. For our next trip in May to July 2007 we have purchased Round The World air tickets with stopovers at Sun City, South Africa, Paris, then to the United States and Canada for the majority of our time. Joining a 13 day coach tour from Boston up to Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, down to Toronto, Niagra Falls and back to New York where we will have a week on our own. Then off to Calgary and onto Banff for a week's timeshare exchange into the Rocky Mountain Resort in the Banff National Park, very exciting, then onto Vancouver for 7 days, a 7 day cruise to Alaska and then home with a 4 day stopover in Honolulu and a 3 day stay in Auckland , New Zealand. Hopefully a trip of a lifetime.

I moved to Perth, Western Australia when I was 27 and from then on through my work travelled extensively throughout Australia, including the tropical areas of Darwin and Kakudu in the Northern Territory. I was in Kakudu during the wet season when small creeks overflowed and the land will be covered by water up to 20ft high for as far as you can see.

Australia is a vast country surrounded by water, two of the major oceans are the Pacific which faces the east coast ( Sydney & Brisbane) and the Indian Ocean which faces Western Australia. WA is the largest state of Australia, resource rich, but with huge areas of rugged terrain which are very attractive for tourists.

During 2007 we took a 9 week Round the World holiday, saw some fantastic countries and had a great time. Also included are pages from our recent visit to Vietnam during February 2008. Click onto the Underlined Destination and you will be transferred direct to that page. Pages completed and under constructionfrom are:

HCMC Vietnam
Da Lat Vietnam
Paris France
New York City
Banff Canada
Lake Louise Canada
Canmore Canada
Vancouver Canada

SOME INTERESTING AUSTRALIAN PAGES

QUEENSLAND

Brisbane
Noosa Heads
Fraser Island
Hamilton Island
Airlie Beach
Surfers Paradise

NEW SOUTH WALES

Byron Bay
Coffs Harbour
Nimbin
Port Macquarie
Terrigal
Manly

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Perth
Mandurah
Albany
Walpole
Busselton

2008 TRAVEL PLANS

Bangkok & Vietnam (HCMC) for 19 days during February and March.

Ireland 10 days August
London 3 days late August
Belgium based in Brussels for 5 days, plan day trips to Brugges and
Aachen in Germany
Portugal, 7 days early September
Coach Tour Spain, Portugal and Morocco, 16 days mid September
Athens and Greek Isles, 8 days start of October.

From our Perth base we have visited many countries and cities in South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand including Puket, Hong Kong,Bali, Phillipines. All fabulous places and people.In 1993 we visited Europe for 8 weeks, England, Scotland, Spain, France and Switzland. Most enjoyable but only scratched the surface.

Australia being our home country has not been overlooked and we have visited most parts of the country. The North West of Western Australia is yet to be seen, a very rugged and beautiful part of Australia which I believe is a "Hidden Gem". Tourism is rapidly expanding in the Kimberley catering for all travellers from backpackers to those who can afford the luxury yachts which cruise the beautiful coast and into the many rivers. I have pages on many of these Australian destinations.

During 2005 we took a 9 week trip through Europe from late August with a stopover in Hong Kong before arriving in Munich(3 days), Budapest (7), Vienna (7), Prague (7), Italy (18), and Croatia (11).

The trip to Europe has come and gone , it was a great experience never to be forgotten and we met some fabulous people along the way. Most of the 9 weeks we were doing things on our own and were amazed at the number of people who stopped us in the street and offered assistance, they could see the confused look as we struggled to read the map correctly.

We always felt safe night and day and never really had a problem communicating with people, we found the younger people nearly all spoke English.

The Lonley Planet guide book given to us by good friends was most valuable and helped us decide some sites to and not to visit, it gave us the confidence to arrive at an airport and forget getting a taxi to our accommodation, use the public transport, but first buy the 3 or 7 day transport pass. Goodbye taxis, more money to enjoy ourselves.
With all the photos and sightseeing the task of completing VT pages is enormous, but all will be compled very soon.

After being home for 3 months we set off overseas to Thailand in February 2006 with a group of "Orchid Fanatics" from Perth , web site Iinet.Net on a 17 day holiday to Bangkok and Chaing Mai. February is a great time to travel to Thailand, the weather is beautiful, No Humidity and it is the dry season. We had a great time riding elephants, rafting, Chiang Mai Flower Festival, River Kwai, river cruises, Thai food, markets and shopping.
Having been home for 10 days I soon had new thoughts of travel and yesterday booked a week at Noosa Heads, Queensland during August, my intention to then slowly drive down the east coast to Sydney.This holiday has been extended as I have booked flights to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays on the Great Barrier Reef. We have now returned from this fabulous holiday and pages have been completed on Noosa Heads, Brisbane, Hamilton Island, Long Island, Airlie Beach, Fraser Island, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Terrigal etc.