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From stunning coast line to a generous smattering of tropical islands, Thailand has long been a behemoth contender in the exotic destinations arena. Many a backpacker has plodded their flip flop on a Thai sandy beach, revelling in the best the world can offer in cultural, lively and picturesque travel. It’s brilliant for backpackers from a budgetary angle, allowing you to find cheap holidays around a relatively large country, making the many attractions around Thailand easily accessible. But this presents a problem, with so much on offer you may find yourself a little swamped when it comes to planning your itinerary.

For the party and hedonistic scene, Ko Pha Ngan and its full moon party or Ko Samui will be pushing for your money, with Chiang Mai or Ayuthaya being contenders to satisfy your desire for experiencing a bit of culture. But if you really want to tap into the laid back, beach living lifestyle whilst still being spoilt for choice for beach front restaurants cafes and bars, Ko Tao is a fantastic option. The island manages to strike a happy medium between keeping you entertained at night without preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep, whilst also creating a relaxing and picturesque scene during the day.

A lot of this is due to Ko Tao managing to maintain a low profile in terms of development. You won’t find the travelling grumblers moaning about it being ruined in the same ilk that other locations such as Phuket in Thailand have been. This is partly thanks to its small size, you can pretty much see the entire Island’s profile in the ferry approach, and there aren’t that many roads on the island. The infrastructure is all pretty basic, and the best way to get around is often strolling along the beach front at Sairee or hiring a mountain bike.

Location
Ko Tao is in the Gulf of Thailand and is well connected to the ferry routes servicing Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan, two islands that feature in many travellers Thailand holidays. You can get here easily by bus, plane and train from Bangkok, and its proximity to the other two islands makes it incredibly easy to factor it into your trip.

Sitting in the shadows of Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui has actually worked wonders for Ko Tao, as these two islands more than satisfy the local need to party loud and late. Ko Tao therefore has resisted the urge to become just another party destination in Thailand, so if you’re looking to avoid this or nurse your resulting hangover, it’s a great place to head over to.

Claim to fame
The small island first became known as a mecca for diving enthusiasts and beginners with its shallow shores and nearby reefs. Learning to scuba dive may be out of many backpackers’ budgets, but it is worthwhile bearing in mind that this is one of the cheapest locations in the world to get your diving certificate. Because it started as a diving location, it isn’t awash with cheap food stalls or provisions for budget backpackers, but as it is now a popular location for this type of traveller you can easily find a cheap drink and place to stay.

Food and Nightlife
The lack of the nearby hustle and bustle on other islands has allowed a laid back beach front scene to develop. You will not be pushed to find a place on a sun warmed bit of decking where you can order typical delicious Thai food whilst gazing out to sea with the odd long boat spluttering about. This means that you never feel rushed in the restaurants by a demand for places, thus creating the perfect opportunity to order a long drink and chat or wile away the day and late afternoon. It’s also a great location for the sea foodie, as obviously being an island this is a particular specialty here.

As the day gives way to the night scene, there’s no apparent change in set up along the beaches apart from the appearance of fire dancers and extra cushions outside the bars on the beaches. This gives a slower more relaxed feel to the night, as it isn’t overrun by crushed buckets and swathes of dancing revellers. This does not make it entirely quiet though, the fire dancers create the excitement and there are still a few larger bars along Sairee and Mai Haad beaches offering the usual dance steps, beach area and late night tunes.

Beaches
Being so small Ko Tao keeps it simple when it comes to beaches. This size makes it perfect for hiring a long boat if you’re looking to pick out the smaller and more isolated bays which are mainly along the East coast. The West Coast is dominated by Sairee beach, which runs the majority of the length of the island. It is a beautiful crescent shape, offering views at both ends of headland jutting out. It’s also where you’ll find the majority of the islands restaurants and nightlife, as well as accommodation and dive schools. You can check out this all out in the view offered by the approaching ferry and jetty you offload onto.

The island of Ko Nang Yuan is very close to the shore and creates an interesting focal point on Ko Tao. It is a snorkelling and diving hotspot, as well as a unique beach location that can only be accessed by boat taxi from Ko Tao. If you’re looking for truly impressive photos, then this is the spot to head to!

Author Bio – Matthew has been travel blogging since the end of a RTW trip in 2011. Thailand was one of his favourites, and he has now booked his Flights to Australia to continue his travelling later this year.

In his mid-fifties Hardie Karges suddenly finds himself at a crossroads in his life, career, and relationship, so decides to do (again) the one thing that he does better than anything else—travel. That means cashing in some frequent-flyer miles and heading to South America, specifically the four southernmost countries that he has yet to visit. ‘Ah, that felt good.’ So two months later, that crossroads is still there, but there is no obvious path, indeed more like a half-dozen of them, one for each continent. So he decides to finally put into action a plan he’s had for some time, to go to every country in the world. The result some two years later is a hundred countries visited for a personal total of 139, almost three-fourths of the world total.

Thus from this humble beginning, Karges’s desire to visit every country in the world, does this book derive, growing and expanding and taking on its full meaning only after most of the real work, the travel and simultaneous writing, had already been done. That’s when he realized that the entirety of all these episodes seemed greater than the mere sum of the individual parts. As a writer who decided only late in life to “get serious about writing,” it comes as something of a revelation that maybe his best effort so far came about only when he was doing something he loves, traveling, so that in effect two major facets of his life are coming together as one.

These are the tales of Karges’s travels in that intense period of “hyper-travel,” a combination guide and narrative, with only one qualification—he doesn’t tell how to do it. That’s your job. He tells how it’s done, by someone who’s done it for most of his life. This is a guide for people who hate travel guides. This is the one-stop guide that will give you both glimpse and insight into half the world’s countries, all recently visited, all applied to the same criteria of critique. This is the guide that tells you the cultural, geopolitical and historical context of a country, not where to eat or where to stay. This is the guide that tells you which countries just plain suck. The happy ending is right around the next corner.

Veteran blogger and traveler Hardie Karges made his first trip out of his home country USA at the age of twenty-one, a trip to the neighboring country of Mexico in the winter of 1975-1976. The next year he went to Central America and stayed almost three months, the following year South America for almost four. He was hooked. Thus began a career in the import and export of folk art and handicrafts from around the world. He has now been to some one hundred forty countries, has published poetry, made videos, and writes blogs on travel and world music, in addition to his personal blog.

Hypertravel: 100 Countries in 2 Years is his first full-length book.

Holidaymakers planning to spend some time in London this year will always find plenty to do to keep them busy. With a world-famous theatre district, internationally-renowned restaurants and many historical attractions to see, you’ll never be bored on a trip here.

It also has a vibrant art scene, so it is well worth taking a tour of the most famous galleries in the city.

However, guests staying in cheap London hotels may not always know where to start when it comes to deciding which venues to visit, so why not read our list of the top five galleries to explore while in London this year?

The National Gallery

One of the most famous galleries in London, and with good reason, as it is home to paintings ranging from between the 13th and 19th centuries.

Visitors can now come to the venue free of charge, which will make for a budget-friendly day trip. It is also open 361 days of the year, so you have a good chance of being able to head to the gallery at least once during your holiday.

There are more than 2,300 works of art in the National Gallery, making it one of the best places to see the history of western European art in the world.

Some pieces that you might have heard of include Sandro Botticelli’s Venus and Mars and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks.

Tate Modern

For fans of contemporary art, there is perhaps no better place to visit than the Tate Modern. This was opened in 2000 and, since then, it has become one of the most important art venues in the country.

You will be able to see international works from the 1900s, in addition to modern British art.

Walk through different rooms and learn more about Surrealism, Minimalism, Post-war innovations in abstractism and figuration, as well as Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism on a visit here.

You will also have the opportunity to see some of the many temporary exhibitions that are held here, with 2012 seeing the Photography: New Documentary Forms display, among others.

Serpentine Gallery

The Serpentine Gallery might be another venue you want to visit if you like to look at contemporary art and more than 800,000 people head here every year.

If you join the crowds and attend the free gallery, you will be able to see permanent exhibitions by Ian Hamilton Finlay, while there are a number of temporary displays put on here all the time.

This year, the gallery will showcase work by Yoko Ono, with the widow of The Beatles’ John Lennon putting on a show with a collection of her pieces.

The Queen’s Gallery

For a memorable experience, a visit to the Queen’s Gallery could make for the perfect day out.

Located in Buckingham Palace, this is a unique type of exhibition centre, showcasing displays from the Royal Collection, in addition to pieces by world-renowned artists.

You might want to peruse the paintings and treasures held by Her Majesty, or you could take a look at temporary displays. One exhibition being put on at the gallery this year is Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist.

Visit the gallery between May 4th and October 7th and you’ll be able to see some of the artist’s famous anatomical drawings.

National Portrait Gallery

To finish your trip to London, why not head to the National Portrait Gallery? This exhibition centre was opened in 1856 and now has more than 160,000 portraits from the last 500 years.

This is one of the largest collections of art in the capital, so you are sure to find something that interests you here.

As well as permanent displays, you may wish to head to the gallery in 2012, as a number of temporary exhibitions are being held. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People, for instance, will be held until July 22nd giving visitors the chance to see 14 portraits of people painted between the 16th and 17th centuries, whose identities remain unknown.

There are so many opportunities to enhance your knowledge of art history, so why not book a trip to London today and you can walk around some of the city’s best galleries with ease?

With London Summer Olympic Games 2012 around the corner, Rio Olympics 2016 are getting closer.

The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the biggest carnival in the world with almost five million people attending in 2011. Since 1723 the carnival has been put on 46 days before Easter to prepare for Lent. People flock to the city to join in the street celebrations and watch the incredible costumes, dancing and floats go by. Accommodation for Rio Carnival fills up quickly – the key is to book early to get the best beds at a decent price or it can get expensive.

How Rio Carnival began…

It was the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the God of wine, that started it all off. The Romans liked the idea and took the festival as a great excuse for some drunken revelry. The Roman Catholic Church turned it into a festival for Ash Wednesday and it quickly evolved into a week-long celebration of indulgence before the 40 days of abstinence before Easter. Since then the Carnival has developed from once being a street fight with brawls and riots involving mud, water and food, to a masquerade ball to a costumed street parade. All these influences have ended in the Rio Carnival as we know it today.

Rio Carnival is now a huge event that’s televised around the world. The country stops for a week and the festivities run all day and night. Reports state than 80% of the country’s annual beer consumption is washed back during this week and it’s also when 70% of the country’s tourism happens too.

The Samba dance off

One of the main aspects is the Samba school dance off. Each participating school nationwide chooses a theme for their production and the costumes, floats, music and choreography interpret this. Each school could be made up of thousands of participants and a good few floats uniting in their quest to tell a story with their production. As they progress in the school they’ll be put nearer the front with the ‘comissão de frente’. These are the people who set the theme for their school-mates to follow. There will usually be one or two dancers on top of the floats while more will stay on the ground dancing around and working the crowd to impress the judges in their allotted 80 minutes.

The samba schools are not just musical groups – they are neighbourhood associations providing a variety of community needs, including health and educational resources.

When and where is the Carnival held?

The Carnival begins as soon as the year’s King Momo is crowned by Rio’s mayor on the Friday. That night a children’s parade starts things off innocently before the dance, theatre, arts and music get going on the Saturday. Sunday and Monday are the big days, culminating in the top six Samba schools competing on the final day.

The main parade is in the Sambadrome in downtown Rio, but there are always local events in the streets, including a huge ball at the Copacabana Palace and Beach. Everyone joins in in whatever way they can. They bring their percussion instruments to join with the batucada style of samba that is danced in Brazil and they all know the moves to dance along.

Getting around

Taxis are the simplest way to get around Rio during the carnival, although it could be quicker to walk with the amount of people in attendance in the centre. You can of course take the subway to the Sambadrome too. Admission to the Sambadrome is anywhere between $200-1000 – although there are some agencies that can arrange for you to actually be part of the parade, making it free.

The carnival is much safer than it used to be with security stepped up a notch. Plain-clothed police and security officers will be everywhere, but of course, make sure you still keep to the usual safety rules that you would in any situation full of people.