balhannah's VirtualTourist Home Page

Even though I was born and have lived in Australia all my life, I still love seeing Kangaroos.

I love all the Wildlife, the colouful Parrots and the other types of Birds.

It amazes me, the number of different varieties of Birds that have "Found" my garden, a lot of them returning every year.

My 1st taste of Europe was this year, and what a good time I had, visiting lovely, interesting place, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have completed my pages on..........

Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi
Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai

in THAILAND.

My Chiang Mai page is quite large, with some nice "Off the beaten track" sights to see and do.

THE NETHERLANDS, and my visit here was to see the beautiful
Keukenhof Gardens

They were in their last week, but still lovely, a must visit even if you are not a gardener!

Broek in Waterland what a little, unknown, gem of a town this is, one of my all time favorites, I just loved wandering around here, even though it was a cold, wet day.

My other completed towns with tips are
Edam Volendam,
Utrecht,
Delft, Hoorn,
Apeldoorn,
Aalsmeer,
Leiden,
Zaanse Schans
Amsterdam Enkhuizen

ENKHUIZEN is another of my favorites, plenty to see, and a great open air Village to wander around.

BELGIUM....I visited Brugge & Gent both cities that deserve more time!

My next stop was TURKEY............Please have a look at my large
ISTANBUL page, it has the usual sights and nice "off the beaten track" ones as well.

Other pages completed in TURKEY are.........
Selcuk Ephesus Kusadasi Pamukkale Bodrum Dalyan Datca Icmeler
Marmaris
Canakkale and Gallipoli

I have written about Gallipoli the way the Tour I was on visited the sights, so you will know what you get to see.

The CAPPADOCIA AREA and the Towns and surrounding areas of GOREME & UCHISAR.............What an amazing, MUST VISIT area this is.

GREECE........and here I visited the
Islands of Rhodes

Town of...Lindos

Island of.... Kos

Both of these Islands were beautiful, and I could return easily to either of them.

So please have a browse of these new 2009 pages, I hope you enjoy reading them, and that they will help you plan your upcoming holiday to any of these places

Now that I have finished writing all my Tips, it is my chance to "Virtual Travel" and enjoy the pages of other Members, visiting places I have never heard of, and probably will never, ever get to in my life time!

This site was quite a find..........It is interesting, even if I'm not planning a holiday.

I unexpectedly found this site one day when I was researching for a holiday.

I have met virtually, lots of friendly and interesting people who I can communicate with, and we all have one main thing in common, TRAVEL! and often, other interests are the same as well.

For me, It's a never ending journey of enlightenment of "World Places"

Thanks to all those Members, for taking the time to write the tips for people like me!

I get to travel the world on the cheap!!

I like gardening and flowers, so on my pages, you will find gardens to visit, and Travelogues with photos of lovely Gardens or Flowers.

New pages on Australia are of the TOOWOOMBA CARNIVAL OF FLOWERS - 2009
Stunning private gardens and Public Parks, many events on, you really need a week to see all the gardens and to see all that is on offer!

And an "Off the beaten track" National Park, called the "WARRUMBUNGLES" located near COONABARABRAN is beautiful, take a look, you have probably found the names intriguing already!

I also am continually adding Towns & Things to do to my QUEENSLAND - NEW SOUTH WALES and AUSTRALIA pages, so check back now and then to see the new additions.

My Husband & I enjoy travel, with myself being the more adventurous of the two of us.

Our children have married and left home, so we are getting to live our dream, just a little bit........
We have just starting venturing overseas as we have seen a lot of Australia, and think its better to go now while we are still healthy and able to get around without problems.

Australia is a long way away from most places, so our Airfares are a large hunk of our cost. Because of this, we try to see a lot in the longest time that we can spare.

How I would like to live nearer other countries, like you lucky ones in Europe, we would be travelling every weekend.


We are both from the country, and enjoy country life rather than city life, so, we tend to get onto the back roads at home and overseas.

Don't be frightened about driving in Australia, the roads are quiet especially around these areas, not like overseas. If you have one, go!

We both enjoy seeing Birdlife & Wildlife.

When we built our house, I planted the garden to attract birds.

At that time, all we had was a couple of hundred water birds that came when the floodplain in our paddock had water.

Beautiful! Black and White Ibis, variety of Ducks, Water hens, Black Swans, Pelicans, Cormorants, Spoonbills, Egrets, and other water Birds.

At a certain time of the year, a pair of Jabiru Storks come, these are mainly found in the Northern Territory. We've also had Magpie Geese, a big Black and White Goose.

NOW, the garden has lots of native Flora and lots of Birds of all types.

Brightly coloured Parrots, Honeyeaters, Wrens, Finches, others, too many to list.
The Blue Fairy wrens come to the back door, the Magpies feed out my hand. At the moment they have babies, so are busily feeding them.
Mother Magpie has become very "game" and actually walked inside to me at my Computer! They are not dumb!

We are lucky living here, and in Queensland, as Winter is usually sunny, and a lovely time to sit, enjoy the sun, and relax.

Travel in Australia is with a Caravan, a great way to see this big country, and an added plus, you can stay right by the seaside, for a fraction of the price.

There are so many Australian places I could put on the VT site!

Trouble is, I haven't many photos, and those I have were not taken with a digital camera, and I find scanning a chore.

Countries visited so far:

ALASKA (USA)
BELGIUM
BORNEO (MALAYSIA)
BRUNEI
CAMBODIA
CANADA
GREECE
JAPAN
LAOS
MALAYSIA
NETHERLANDS
NEW ZEALAND
SINGAPORE
THAILAND
TURKEY
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
VIETNAM

Meeting other people and sharing experiences.

SCENERY

Lots of beautiful scenery, but some standouts were,

GLACIERS IN ALASKA, so many, so close together

BRYCE CANYON, U.S.A. so pretty

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, U.S.A. different

WATERTON NATIONAL PARK, CANADA outstanding beauty

MONUMENT VALLEY, U.S.A. beautiful colour, huge Mesa's

PAMUKKALE, TURKEY called the "Cotton Terraces" stunning

CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY amazing, so different

SCENIC FLIGHTS

Misty Fjords in ALASKA.

Kakadu in AUSTRALIA

Grand Canyon in AMERICA

LASTLY~~~~~~~~Boy! Sometimes it gets to be a bit of a chore trying to write all these new tips, and putting photo to tip! I have finished now!

Well, If you read some and enjoyed them, or perhaps they were helpful, I hope so!
I'd love to hear a comment about my page, that really makes my day, and is the incentive for me to do more !

Have a great day, and enjoy your next Holiday,
" Who ever you are" and "Where ever that may be!"