Brian Thacker's Blog, page 9
March 19, 2014
Lonely Planet and Bellbottoms – The Movie.
A movie about the Tony and Maureen Wheeler’s first trip across Asia in 1972 (the beginning of the Lonely Planet empire) is in the works. Apparently it will be a ‘romantic road movie’ starring Tom Hanks and Gwyneth Paltrow. Okay, I made the last bit up, but budding director Fergus Grady who optioned the Wheelers’ 2007 memoir Unlikely Destinations: The Lonely Planet Story is planning a ‘travel road movie romance set in the 1970s’. Tony Wheeler will act as a consultant and producer. I personally think they should make a movie about a travel writer revisiting the trip taken for an old Lonely Planet guidebook – and I have the perfect book to base it on!
When Tony and Maureen landed in Australia in 1972 they looked like this…
But, I think to really get that 1972 vibe for the movie they should really be dressed like this…
February 10, 2014
A VW Combi, a Stormtrooper and me.
Yes, that is my new adventure everyone! I’m going to drive around the world in a Combi wearing a Stormtrooper outfit. Okay, I’m not really but I am speaking at the Australian Adventure Travel Film Festival in a couple of weeks and I’m sharing the bill with, amongst others, a film about the Combi and its role as the traveller’s wagon of choice and a talk from a fellow called Jacob French who walked from Perth to Sydney wearing a Star Wars Stormtrooper suit. I spoke at the festival last year and the three day festival, which takes place in Bright, Victoria, was jam-packed with great films and talks from adventure travellers that make my adventures look like a walk down to the shops. The setting is stunning, particularly the night screenings, which is in a park on the Ovens River. You simply bring a chair or rug and, best of all, it’s right next to the Bright Brewery, so you can take a few frothys down with you. So, if you are in the neigbourhood on the weekend of the 14th to 16th Feb do drop in. I’m appearing on Saturday at 4.00pm where I’ll be talking about my 10 greatest travel adventures of all time (which will still look lame against the guy who sailed around the world in a bathtub – or something just as silly). You can find the details here.
For my friends and readers in Melbourne who you can’t get to Bright then you can catch me this Wednesday night (12th Feb) at the Toorak library (maybe someone will drop their wallet!) at 6.30pm. I’m doing my 1974 slide show followed by a bit of wife swapping. You can find the details here.
January 28, 2014
And the selfie capital of the world is…
I love taking pseudo-arty Instagram photos when I travel, so I was interested to see which were the most ‘geo-tagged’ cities in 2013. According to Instagram, the ten most popular geo-tagged cities worldwide are:
1. New York
2. Bangkok
3. Los Angeles
4. London
5. Sao Paulo
6. Moscow
7. Rio de Janeiro
8. San Diego
9. Las Vegas
10. San Francisco
Have you geo-tagged yourself in any of these cities? I’ve only geo-tagged myself in two – which is probably a good thing.
When it comes to specific locations, however, eight of the top 10 specific locations are from the United States. I wasn’t surprised to see Times Square in New York coming in at No. 2 and Disneyland at No. 3, but I was surprised with the most popular photo destination for Instagram in the entire world. It’s not a major tourist attraction like the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower. It’s… the The Siam Paragon Shopping Mall in Bangkok, Thailand. I was not only surprised, I was also intrigued with what made this shopping mall so interesting. Well, nothing it seems. I checked out the ‘geo-tagged’ shots on Instagram and it really is just a rather non-descript mall and the shots are made up of mostly really bad selfies. Oh, and a monkey. Here are a few random shots to show you how exciting it is:
I’m so hip that I do two selfies – even if they are almost identical.
Ah, the old lie on the floor, mirror image, peace sign selfie.
Famous the world over – the pout AND the peace sign.
I love…um…that concrete pylon over there.
This fellow has either had enough of shopping…or selfies.
And here’s that monkey!
January 20, 2014
Travel highlights of 2013
I’ve been away from my blog for some time (okay, a whole heap of time), but I do have a good excuse – and it’s my first travel highlight of 2013 (see below). There wasn’t a lot of travel for me in 2013, but I still managed a couple of overseas trips (no new countries, though, sadly) and a few jaunts in and around Australia. So, without further ado here are my Top Ten Travel Highlights of 2013:
Luca, Melbourne, Australia
On February 18th 2013 I began a great adventure. My wife gave me a little boy. Yes, I know it’s not really a travel highlight, but it is one the of the most exciting journeys you can possibly take. And he is a little traveller already. Luca is not even one yet and he has been on 12 planes – and I’m very happy to say that he is not one of those screamers!
Luca on his first flight – Melbourne to Sydney en-route to meet his grandparents in Minneapolis.
Wine Crawl, Sonoma, California, USA
After seeing the film ‘Sideways’ I’ve always wanted to visit the Wine Country in Northern California. So, I was rather excited when my wife and I were invited to a wedding (my wife was the bridesmaid) in a vineyard near Sonoma. The wedding was beautiful, but my favourite part was the next day where the wedding party went on a winery tour – with most of them in a ridiculously long stretch Hummer no less. We drank lots of wonderful wine sitting under trees in gorgeous little boutique wineries, ate lots of cheese, played Bocce, drank some more wine and felt just like I was in the movie Sideways (except I’m not a bitter frustrated writer – just a frustrated one).
Roll out the barrel, roll out the barrel of fun!
A hot, and somewhat tipsy, game of bocce between wines.
The Drive In, Taylor Falls, Minnesota,USA
The Drive In Restaurant opened right around the time when Ritchie Cunningham was hanging out with the Fonz. And not much has changed since 1956 – except a 25 cent hamburger is now $4.79 and a 20 cent root beer is now $1.99. But there were carhops (girls in 50s skirts coming to your car to take your order), 50’s music, root beer in frosted mugs, and good old-fashioned, and delicious, hamburgers. I had a ‘basket’ that included a hamburger and fries – and I managed to spill sauce all over the inside of our hire car.
‘Specials’ include a ‘Pizza Burger’, ‘Bison Burger’ and the enticing ‘Chuckwagon’.
A VERY cute carhop – AKA my Wife.
Sky Bar, Jakarta, Indonesia
This wasn’t quite an authentic Indonesian experience when we dropped in for dessert at the the 56th floor Sky bar and Restaurant in Jakarta, but I loved it. I loved the view, I loved the impeccable service, I loved one of the best chocolate fondants I have ever devoured and I loved the sheer decadence of ordering a bottle of dessert wine that was the equivalent in price to 30 Bintang beers down on the streets below.
The view – before the decadence began.
Sculptures by the Sea, Sydney, Australia
I’ve always wanted to see Sculptures by the Sea, which began in 1997, and I finally got the chance in 2013. And it was well worth the wait. The sculptures are set amongst, in and on the top of the stunning coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama. There were too many great sculptures to show and talk about, but here are a couple of my favourites…
This sculpture probably has some deeply significant meaning, but I just like the skeleton on a bike on a pole!
The whole world gets turned upside down. No matter where you stood you got a moving, and quite moving, upside down view of Sydney.
Mt Buller, Victoria, Australia
What a perfect day and way to spend my birthday. Our dad/daughter trip began the day before with a bit of extreme tobogganing followed by a huge Austrian dinner in front of an open fire. We woke up on my birthday morning to an overnight dump of snow and clear blue skies. My 11 year old daughter even sang happy birthday to me on the chairlift.
The birthday boy (Photo by Jasmine Thacker)
San Francisco, California, USA
I’ve been to San Francisco before, but I only have fuzzy memories of it. And that’s not because I was getting high in Haight-Ashbury – it was 24 years ago. So, it was lovely to return with my wife and bubba and do all the tourist stuff again. We did the cable car, drove over that bridge, clam chowder on Fisherman’s Wharf, gorged at Ghirardelli chocolate shop, ate great Mexican and then got stoned out of our heads in Haight-Ashbury.
That bridge and that fog.
Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia
This was my fourth trip to Fraser island, but this time was extra special for two reasons. It was my wife’s first trip to Queensland and it was Luca’s first ever swim. My wife told me that she was disappointed she didn’t see any dingoes on the beach and I said was it was probably for the better because we wouldn’t her screaming ‘The dingo’s got my baby!’
Luca’s first swim – with the daughter and the wife.
Chilean cooking class, Melbourne, Australia
You don’t have to leave home to travel to another country. I was invited along to a Chilean cooking class by Chilean Tourism and the moment I walked in I was transported to a bar in Santiago – albeit one with a whole bunch of kitchen benches and stove tops in the middle of the room. While we stood around the pots and pans a two-piece band played Latino Smooth and we downed pisco sours and ate empanadas. By the time the cooking class started we were quite jovial. After our brief ‘class’ we were sent off in small groups to our kitchen benches to try to replicate the rather complicated dishes. I was rather impressed that my ‘Magallanic walnut crusted lamb cutlets’ turned out so well – I downed three glasses of Chilean red while I was doing the prep work.
The Chilean Cook and his musical accompaniment.
Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, USA
It’s handy having a relative (my wife’s uncle) who lives in a big flash house right on the banks of the Mississippi River. My fun-packed family day at Uncle Bob’s included high-speed motor boating, a gentle kayak up the Mississippi, jamming on Bob’s guitar collection and, in between all this, sitting on the back porch gorging on pulled-pork rolls, brats from the grill and local brewed beers. Bob said come and stay anytime you like. I’m moving in next month.
Not a bad view.
I’m not sure what my travel plans are for this year. Possibly trips to Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, New Zealand and who knows where else – that’s what I love about travel!
One thing I am sure of for 2014 - I’m going to regularly update my blog. I promise!
Happy travels everyone.
