AUSTRALIA is brilliant in springtime, full of crisp days free from the humidity and sweat of Phuket.
Why is it called Down Under? Things are topsy-turvy here, especially when it comes to the relationship between men and women. The country currently has a female Prime Minister, Britain's Queen is still the Head of State and the Queen's representative in Australia is also a woman.
The two states we are visiting, New South Wales and Queensland, like Thai provinces except much larger, are also run by women.
The flight on V Australia is excellent, with two meals served along the way. The aircraft is new and the crew are friendly. In Brisbane we switch to Virgin Blue and head for Sydney.
Tonight the work starts, with Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation chief executive Paiboon Upatising flying in from Canberra, Australia's capital, where he has already been doing some business.
Australia is big - three times the size of Western Europe - so flying is an essential way to get around.
With a couple of hours to spare, we head for Bondi, the famous Sydney beach. It's a broad arc, without so many swimmers at this time of the year as in Australia's summer, which begins - this being Down Under - in December.
There's a sense even at the beach that you are in a big country. Yet while Australia is very big it's also extremely dry away from the coast, so the population is only about 20 million.
Australia also has its problems with unwanted immigrants, coming by boat, and like Thailand really doesn't have a solution, except to detain or push back the boatpeople.
We get some good news: the number of agents wanting to greet the Phuket team has grown from 80 to 120 - a sure sign of Phuket's pulling power in Australia at the moment.
There is one big negative, though. People from Phuket on this trip all say the biggest problem that Phuket has from an Australian perspective is the tuk-tuks.
Phuket needs to have a tourism base of people who keep coming back to the island. But those who are ripped off by the tuk-tuk drivers don't come back.
Australians are used to cheap public transport and Bali provides intense competition for Phuket, so anything that spoils a person's holiday on Phuket leaves them with an alternative that's even closer to Australia next time.
The hotel in Sydney where we are staying is very comfortable but it has no wi-fi, only cable Internet connections, and I've left a key plug at home in Thailand. The result: I can buy a connection, but it will cost me US$5 for each 30 minutes.
That's pretty much in tuk-tuk class. Every country, it seems, has its tourism rip-offs.
Phuketwan is travelling with the Phuket tourism road show as a guest of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation
Why is it called Down Under? Things are topsy-turvy here, especially when it comes to the relationship between men and women. The country currently has a female Prime Minister, Britain's Queen is still the Head of State and the Queen's representative in Australia is also a woman.
The two states we are visiting, New South Wales and Queensland, like Thai provinces except much larger, are also run by women.
The flight on V Australia is excellent, with two meals served along the way. The aircraft is new and the crew are friendly. In Brisbane we switch to Virgin Blue and head for Sydney.
Tonight the work starts, with Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation chief executive Paiboon Upatising flying in from Canberra, Australia's capital, where he has already been doing some business.
Australia is big - three times the size of Western Europe - so flying is an essential way to get around.
With a couple of hours to spare, we head for Bondi, the famous Sydney beach. It's a broad arc, without so many swimmers at this time of the year as in Australia's summer, which begins - this being Down Under - in December.
There's a sense even at the beach that you are in a big country. Yet while Australia is very big it's also extremely dry away from the coast, so the population is only about 20 million.
Australia also has its problems with unwanted immigrants, coming by boat, and like Thailand really doesn't have a solution, except to detain or push back the boatpeople.
We get some good news: the number of agents wanting to greet the Phuket team has grown from 80 to 120 - a sure sign of Phuket's pulling power in Australia at the moment.
There is one big negative, though. People from Phuket on this trip all say the biggest problem that Phuket has from an Australian perspective is the tuk-tuks.
Phuket needs to have a tourism base of people who keep coming back to the island. But those who are ripped off by the tuk-tuk drivers don't come back.
Australians are used to cheap public transport and Bali provides intense competition for Phuket, so anything that spoils a person's holiday on Phuket leaves them with an alternative that's even closer to Australia next time.
The hotel in Sydney where we are staying is very comfortable but it has no wi-fi, only cable Internet connections, and I've left a key plug at home in Thailand. The result: I can buy a connection, but it will cost me US$5 for each 30 minutes.
That's pretty much in tuk-tuk class. Every country, it seems, has its tourism rip-offs.
Phuketwan is travelling with the Phuket tourism road show as a guest of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation
That's pretty much in tuk-tuk class. Every country, it seems, has its tourism rip-offs.
Very poor Chutima better you stay in Phuket with your head in the sand. How you can compare the two I'll never know.
Posted by Phillip on September 21, 2010 12:26