New Zealand Mirror Travel

Archive for August, 2009

One of the best travel tips for people thinking of going on any kind of trekking or adventure vacation with friends or family is to first consider whether their personal enthusiasm for this style of holiday is shared by the rest of the group.

The following story of a family’s holiday nightmare in Thailand provides an example.

The family had enjoyed a few days of a beach resort holiday in Thailand when the husband suggested that they go off on a jungle experience, organized by one of the trekking and adventure tour operators. His wife was not enthusiastic but decided to go along with the proposal because she knew that this was something her husband had always wanted to do. Their seven year old son sounded as keen as his dad and their five year old daughter seemed happy enough with the idea too. The other family member was a two-year-old boy.

They booked up with a reliable tour guide and set off three days later, The seven year old had become even more enthusiastic and promised his mum that he would deal with all the nasty snakes and spiders for her.

After a grueling seven hour drive, during which time all three kids had been travel sick on several occasions, the family finally arrived at their destination, a lodge in the jungle.

They were greeted by a number of snarling dogs who looked as though they desperately needed a good meal of European children to fatten them up. Mum was immediately panic stricken but Dad and the tour guide reassured her that they were in no danger and the family continued safely towards on to the lodge.

This building was a large, wooden hut on high stilts with a straw roof. Immediately below it, there was a small lake that looked as if it should provide a perfect home for crocodiles. Inside the lodge, accommodation was about as basic as it can get.

Dad was more than happy with everything however and informed the rest of the family that anything more grand would have spoilt the back-to-nature experience. Mum was not amused.

Luckily, only one overnight stay in the lodge was involved. As night fell, the crescendo of jungle sounds increased. Mum laid awake becoming more and more worried about the children who were in the next room. Very soon the jungle noises were accompanied by the sound of the children crying. Dad got up to fetch them, returning with three very frightened children who spent the rest of the night in their parents room. It was just as well, because within an hour a new sound was keeping everyone from going to sleep. Mum and the children listened in horror to repeated loud bangs on the roof-beams accompanied by ear splitting screeches. Dad explained that the source of this noise held no threat for them. It was only monkeys, he informed them but his explanation did little to reassure the rest of the family.

There was little sleep for anyone that night except the two-year-old, who slept fairly soundly after the move to mum and dad’s room. Mum found it hard to believe that she slept at all and was relieved when the sun finally rose and shone its light into the room. She untangled herself from under the mosquito net and looked around the room that had seemed so menacing in the dark. But her relief was short lived and her scream awoke the rest of the family. There in the middle of the floor, only a few yards from where she had been sleeping, was a large, tropical spider. It wasn’t quite the last ordeal she would face before they left the lodge. Waiting for her in the bathroom were two gigantic tree frogs.

The long journey back to civilization was uneventful apart from further episodes of travel sickness. Mum refused to talk to her husband for the entire length of the journey. Back at the beach resort, the relationship improved a little over the remaining few days of the holiday but not enough for Dad to ever forget the best travel tip he had learned for a very long time: don’t take your family on a wilderness excursion unless they are genuinely as enthusiastic about going on one as you are.

To find out a nice destination for the next vacations, tourists more often than not, research a lot and only then come to a decision. Europe is such a destination which has all the beauty, architecture, history and culture that one can think of. Also, it is highly exhaustive and provides ample opportunities to be stupefied. The tourists can enjoy a great time in their holidays by taking up Europe travel tours and cherishing the wonderful moments.

Europe has ample places where one can visit and also find something of interest. Many countries are included in the continent of Europe like Cyprus, Denmark, Bolivia, Latvia, UK, France, Germany, Hungary etc which are regular for people who have a craving for natural beauty along with architecture, history as well as culture. Travel tours to Europe can be taken up easily since they are pre-set and pre-defined and makes it easier for the tourists. Travellers can choose the most preferred travel tour according to their interest as well as suitability of budget and time. Also, Europe travel tours include the most favoured destinations of travellers and provide them a glimpse in beauty and human skill as well.

Through Europe travel tours, the travellers can get everything arranged beforehand. All the bookings of flights, hotel reservations, taxi bookings, sight seeing, etc are also done beforehand. This removes the inconvenience of the travellers as well as acts as a way to save money too. Any countries and destinations can be visited through these travel tours according to the interest of the tourists.

Europe travel tours cater to the tourists of every category. They may take up luxurious trips or opt for the bare minimum but a great experience which will be cherished for life is assured to the travelers.

This article is about the Chongqing travel, China travel guide, China vacations and China travel tips. You can find some useful information in it if you are planning your Chongqing, China travel now.

There are 4 municipality (directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Government) in China and they are: Beijing, Shanghai,Tianjin and Chongqing. Chongqing is the biggest city in South-West China. It occupies 82,300 square kilometers and its population is 30,220,000. Here is some useful info for your Chongqing, China travel: Tel area code is 023 for Chongqing; Zip code is 400000; Tel for the Chongqing Tourism Bureau is 89033055; Chongqing Tourist Complaint Telephone is 96927.

Language of Chongqing:

The Chongqing people speak Sicuan dialect but you will find no problem in communication if you speak Mandarin Chinese here. Chongqing is one of the 4 municipality of China and Mandarin Chinese is the official language of Chongqing. ( More info about China travel guide, China vacations, China travel tips at Travel2ChinaInfo Dot Com )

How to get in?

You can get here by train, by bus or by air. I will recommend you to get in by air because Chongqing is called the “mountain city” in China. You can save a lot of time if you choose to take the plane. There are airlines connecting Chongqing with more than 40 big cities of China. The Chongqing Jiangbei Airport is about 23 kilometers away from the downtown of Chongqing. The cost is about 50 rmb if you take a taxi from the airport to the downtown of Chongqing. Another option is the airport bus and the cost is 10 rmb.

The traffic condition of Chongqing:

Because Chongqing is the “mountain city” of China, you will not find bikes here. This is very different with other big cities of China. The public transportation is very advanced here in Chongqing. You can get anywhere you want by city bus, tourist bus,subway or taxi. Here are some useful Chongqing, China travel tips: (1). ALTO is the most popular taxi car in Chongqing. Its flag-fall price is 5 rmb and the cost is 1.2 rmb for one kilometer. The VW Santana is another choice for the taxi service in Chongqing and the cost is 1.6 rmb for one kilometer. (2). In Chongqing, you will need to pay for the high way fee if you go through a high way by taxi. The cost is 10 rmb for each time. Another extra fee for the taxi is the waiting fee: 0.6 rmb for every 5 minutes. (3). The city buses are in the same price in Chongqing. (4). The city bus with air condition will cost you an extra 0.5 rmb AC fee, comparing with the city bus without AC. (5). The Chongqing subway can take you from the Chongqing Zoo to the Daping. The train goes through the downtown of Chongqing and the cost is 8 rmb for one person.