Raymond's Travel Page

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Raymond's Folk Song Page: For all my performances on YouTube, Information on original and traditional folk songs, etc.

And here is my YouTube Channel.

Recent Trips:

Our latest trip: back to the Phillippines, this time to Mindanao.

We had an unexpected trip to Perth for Chinese New Year (Feb 2008). You can read about it here.

We went to Taiwan for the Christmas break. (21-28 December, 2007)

After returning from Australia in August, 2007 we had a break from China and went to Cebu in the Philippines.

This Website is about our travels before we moved to Hong Kong. For more recent information please go to:

Hong Kong - Our current home.

This is where you will find the latest articles and photos about our life in Hong Kong and travelogues of our many trips to mainland China.

For example: Our latest trip to China:

We wanted to go to Kunming, but couldn't make it so we made yet another trip to Yangshuo and did all the touristy things we missed on our other trips.

Sulawesi Journal (2003)

Dylan's Blog - Three Months Away (2005)

On our way to France in 2003, we stopped off in Indonesia to explore Sulawesi, in particular the fascinating culture of Tana Toraja.

Dylan and Rachael's trip to Canada, USA and Japan. Lots of pictures and comments.

France, Spain and Morocco (2003)

After working in Brunei and before working in Hong Kong, we had a chance to live in France. I did not keep a diary of our whole stay there, but the record of our trip to Morocco is pretty much complete.

Story: The Wardrobe (Paris)

My New School Website Now that I've changed schools, I've moved the site over to here.

This story describes my first - and last - attempt at being a handyman. When we bought a wardrobe and arranged delivery, we expected it would arrive as a ready-made piece of furniture.....

Story: Watch Your Wallet!

This story came about when my wife and I were talking to Jim Clarke, a journalist friend, about our experiences with pickpockets. He challenged me to try writing about it in the form of a bit of journalism. Not sure how successful it is, but it was interesting to try.

Review: Opera des Rues (Paris) 2003

We attended two of a number of events in this festival of opera in the streets. It turned out to be yet another reason why Paris is our favourite city.

Raymond's Stories I used to write a lot more than Travel stories, but most of it was way back when I was in my teens. In those days I was an avid reader of Horror stories and Science Fiction, so most of it is in that genre, though there are a few more realistic stories. I don't know who would want to read it, but I'm putting it all on the net anyway. There is probably some good stuff among the rubbish.

Story: The Holy City (India)

Story: The Trishaw Man (India)

I kept no journal of our trip to India, and can't even remember what year it was. However, some of the things that happened to us there remained in my memory strongly enough for me to write these two stories some years later.

Comment from a reader: I was so absorbed in your story of India that I truly forgot where I was--it brought back a flood of memories from our summer in India and Nepal. I could practically see these characters in action--so familiar in the Indian landscape. We mixed an occasional good hotel (for example, the island in Udaipur, and a palace in Jaipur) with government rest houses, which we had become familiar with while working in Sri Lanka. We were "kidnapped" by a trishaw driver in Delhi, but had a great sunrise excursion in Varanesi, a wild taxi ride ouside of Khajuraho, where the taxi broke down and we eventually went with tri-pedocycle to our hotel--too bad you missed the temple carvings there--and a taxi that almost became a boat during a flood near the temple of the sun on the East Coast. Thank you so much for a great experience--you are a terrific writer!--Elizabeth Hanson-Smith (http://www.oocities.org/ehansonsmi) @ 03/01/2004 03:16:

Myanmar Diary (2002/3)

On the way back to Australia from Brunei, Yoong and I had a very enjoyable trip to Myanmar, which we found to be a friendly and fascinating country.

Comment: from a reader: Yours is the best travelogue I've read. Great route. Thanks for the facts. 12-18 through 12-21 kind of had it all - perfect Burma. My wife have been 3 times, but in the past when 7 days was max. I'm printing yours for a trip in May and June. Thanks very much, Charles Kemp

The Brunei Years (2000 - 2002)

Letters from Brunei

From August 2000 to December 2002 I worked in Brunei for CfBT, who provide teachers for local schools. It was very different from our experiences in Singapore and Hong Kong. Living in Kuala Belait, people had to make their own entertainment, and I got involved with a four-man folk group. About twice a year we held a folk night, which was always well attended as no one had much else to do.        I did not keep a journal in Brunei, but I did write letters home, extracts from which may be seen here, along with a few photos and an account of the Belaiters' International Tour.

The Waterfront Coffee House (Labuan) 2001

My first attempt at a restaurant review, written after our trip to Sabah in April, 2001. It was a bit like Fawlty Towers!

Kalbar Journal (2001)

I find it easier to keep a journal on the rare occasions when I travel on my own, I suppose because I am alone for much of the time. I did this trip during Brunei school holidays. Yoong was in Singapore for a wedding, so I took the opportunity to explore the wilder parts of Borneo.

Driving (and Eating) through Sabah (2001)

When we lived in Brunei, we spent our holidays exploring Sarawak and Sabah. At the end-of-year break in 2001 we decided that we would risk taking the car to Sabah, where we had already been earlier in the year by ferry. It was one of the few trips we have had where we didn't have to rely on public transport.

Europe Journal (2000)

We travelled, via Bali and Thailand, to Germany, where we spent a month, Poland, where we spent another month, France, where we spent several months, then to Belgium and the Netherlands and back to Melbourne, ready for my next job - in Brunei.

Comment from a reader: Loved the lowdown on Poland. Were traveling there in June and will make use of some of your info. I looked in vain for insider info about Oz, our next destination, but, sniff, sniff, found none. Help us out here! Thanks. Nanette

The Singapore Years (1993-1999)

Our First Month in Singapore (1993/4)

This is an account of the beginning of our six-year stay in Singapore. After that I found that life was just to busy to be able to keep a journal going and gave up on it. However there are a number of photos showing school life and our life in general in Singapore.

Teaching at Chestnut Drive - A Foreigner's Experience

This article was written for the Chestnut Drive 30th Anniversary School Magazine where it was published in an abridged (censored?) form.

The Glasses Case - An e-mail story

This is a true story, told through e-mail. It consists mainly of e-mail letters between my brother, Alan, and myself, with some contributions from my wife, Yoong. I have subjected this correspondence to minor editing, to eliminate some irrelevant material.

Sumatra Diary (June, 1994)

In our first year in Singapore, Yoong was working for the Hourglass Watch Company. Because of her proficiency in French she was sent to Switzerland as part of a team organising a deal with the watchmaker, Daniel Roth . While she was enjoying first class travel in Switzerland, I took my holiday roughing it in nearby Sumatra. Not all of this diary has survived, but these extracts give a reasonable account of my first experience of solo travelling since 1975, when Yoong had to fly to Singapore with a sick one-year-old Dylan and left me to explore on my own for a few days.

Turkey Letter (1999)

Rather than keep a journal while travelling, sometimes we just wrote letters home to the family. Thanks to the miracle of word-processing I wrote this as a letter to send to different family members, adapting it to suit the different interests and attention spans of each.

Bali and Lombok (1992/93)

On our earlier travels we didn't seem to have time to write journals, but travelling in Indonesia tends to be slow and relaxed, so I that was an exception. The problem is, these also tended to be the sort of holiday where nothing much happened, so the journal would turn out to be little more than an account of the meals we had!

Vietnam and North-Eastern Thailand (December 1991 - January 1992)

We didn't keep a journal of our trip to Vietnam, but we took photos, so here they are, rescued from the floods that hit our storage in Melbourne, with a few notes from memory.

A Trip Around the World (1985) by Dylan (12 years) and Kit (10 years)

When Dylan and Kit travelled around the world in 1985, their parents made them keep a diary.  The comments they wrote about Malaysia, Singapore, China, France, Portugal, Great Britain and Ireland tended to be rather minimal. It was only when they got to the USA and Disneyworld that they really became enthusiastic. There adventures are recorded here - now on Travelpod. "I'm not so sure that I want the whole world to know that you guys raised two little spoilt brats that were incapable of appreciating world wide travel and cultural diversity." Dylan, at 32.

My Parent's World Trip (1985)

While our children wrote about our world trip, my father wrote about my parents' trip in the opposite direction. (We met up halfway - in Paris.) So I didn't need to write anything!

The Travel Bug When I married at 23 I had never travelled outside Australia. My first trip overseas was on my honeymoon, when I went to Malaysia, to see my wife's family, to Singapore, to see my wife's sister and to Thailand, to see various things we had never seen before and never wish to see again. When we returned we realised we would never be the same again. We had caught THE TRAVEL BUG. Over the years, as soon as the holidays came, we could never stay put. We had to be off travelling somewhere. We made trips to Indonesia, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Fiji, New Zealand, India, Nepal and Vietnam. We had the extraordinary situation in my job where, after ten years, I could take long service leave on full pay, or double the time on half pay. This allowed us to take two extended holidays. In 1980 we went to Europe for the first time, for five months, zapping from one end to the other on Eurail passes, from the Fjords of Norway to the Greek Islands, via Yugoslavia, which has since fallen apart. Then in 1985 we did a five-month round-the-world trip, including six weeks in China and six weeks in the USA. On both occasions we dragged our two children along with us. In 1985, my parents also did a world trip, travelling in the other direction. We met up with them halfway round - in Paris. Living in Singapore, we had a perfect base for exploring different regions of Thailand, as well as Laos and Cambodia. Although we prefer to travel independently we found it more economical (in terms of time and money) to take short package tours to Korea, Japan and China (Kunming). In the longer holidays we made trips to France, Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) and to Turkey. In the early years we took lots of photos. We had more photos than we knew what to do with - cupboards full of albums and boxes full of memories. Now, of course, it can all be digitalised and kept on a disk, but we haven't yet caught up with all this new-fangled technology. Eventually I found that a good way to remember the details of our trips was to try to keep a journal, not always possible when you are frantically sightseeing until exhaustion sets in. I started doing so on one of our more relaxed trips - to Bali and Lombok. Between the jobs in Singapore and Brunei we had a chance to travel for six months, to Europe, in particular Germany, Poland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, with stopovers in Bali and Thailand. Living in Brunei, we found it hard to get away from Borneo, so we took the opportunity to explore Sarawak, including the island of Labuan, and Sabah. When my wife flew to Singapore to attend a wedding, I did a trip on my own to East Kalimantan. And when we finally returned to Australia we couldn't resist dropping in on Myanmar on the way back. In 2003 we returned to Europe, where we spent most of our time in France, including a three-month stay in Paris and a trip through Spain and Morocco. Once again we took advantage of stop-overs to explore Sulawesi, on the way, and Southern Laos on the way back. Then, in August 2004, we moved to in Hong Kong, where we  lived in a hotel for two years, while I worked at Holm Glad College.  This gave us the opportunity to travel in mainland China. So far we have visited Beihai, Yangshuo and Xiamen and a whole month trip to Xi'an and Sichuan in the summer holidays of 2005. Then it was Hainan Island during Chinese New Year. Then Guizhou Province, one of the most underdeveloped areas of China. The next trip was around the urban areas of Southern Guangdong. The last trip was back to Yangshuo to catch up on the touristy things we didn't do on our first two trips there. We have just about had enough of exploring China, so our last trip was to Cebu in the Philippines. And we recently went back to Australia, where we had an unplanned trip to Perth. We are here for another year, having changed schools and moved into an apartment - The Grandiose! Then it will be time to settle down and enjoy our grandchildren.