As the Mackerel Islands transfer boat skimmed across the azure waters with spray bouncing up and splashing a fine mist of water, it finally seemed like we had left work behind. Way in the distance behind was the town of Onslow and in front an island paradise, northwest style, coming up. Let the relaxation begin!It had been a hectic last few weeks with training new managers, packing up and parties. For four years Coral Bay had been our home and workplace and we ha...

WA Tourism had a promotional and marketing event to show off the best of WA called the extraordinary taxi ride. This involved firstly, two competitions. One was to find the perfect taxi driver to drive the length and breadth of WA and the other to find participants to be the passengers on various lengths of the journey. Tourism ventures were offered the opportunity to donate accommodation and tours, for which our employers did both. So on a beautiful, near perfe...

We found the most beautiful spot to spend the last two days of our trip, Yangshuo in South West China. A rural town (city?) of around 30,000 it was definitely the smallest urban area we had visited while in China. People from Yangshuo consider themselves to be country folk and several night time disco's blared out a hip version of "Thank God I’m a Country Boy" to emphasize this mind set. Visitors come to Yangshuo for the stunning picture postcard scener...

Shanghai became part of our itinerary due to The Bund making an appearance as one of the "Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die" in a book we have. We are still not sure if in our opinion it really rates that high but of course all travel is subject to your individual experience at the time. The Bund is the old Wharf area of the river with historic opulent buildings dating back 100 or so years.These in turn are dwarfed by the high rise behind.We arrived in S...

This story should be called...How Avan & Heather, 18 Chinese, and 125 Germans cruised the Yangtze."Morgan" said each person arriving to our round table for 10. This was our first morning to breakfast on our cruise. Awkward smiles and a few single words between us (given the German's spoke little English and we can’t go much further than “Morgan” and “Danke ”) set the scene for the next three days of meals. We are on the “Y...