Thailand's Child-friendly, Romantic Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand - Swans On The Bed!

Swan decoration for the wedding anniversary, at the Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand.

Our son had researched child-friendly hotels with play areas indoors and outside, abundant high chairs, kiddie menus in restaurants.

 We first stayed at Katthani Hotel, Phuket, which was more spacious and more expensive. 

Then moved to the better for the budge Sunwing hotel which was nearer the airport, 30 minutes way instead of  40 minutes away, we thought.

The Sunwing bedroom was delightful. Two members of my family were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The hotel had made a pair of swans on the bed from white towels with interlocking necks to make a heart shape.

The toilet paper edge was fanned like a concertina fan.

The ground floor room had a sunken patio in the front with seating semi outdoor. (Open on the front.) A dining table and chairs were provided.  

This was their second wedding anniversary and they now have a toddler. They chose this hotel because it is child friendly. It has indoor play areas. Outdoor play areas. Swimming pool slides. A ballgame area for the older children to play football inside what looks like an outdoor tennis court.

Beach

The public beach is well equipped with parasols and chairs to hire. My only objection is that they were piled up blocking my view of the sea from the area by the bar of the hotel's poolside bar which was near the beach.

Price

Considerably cheaper than the gorgeous and glamorous Katathani (see my other post) in Phuket. 

Side trip from here was to a huge  magical restaurant with colourful ceiling, kiosks around it serving all kinds of food, and light shows.

My family moved to this hotel from the Katathani to be nearer the airport for the return flight. Even so, the traffic was so slow that it took up the spare half hour we had allowed. 

The Sunwing entrance is huge but a bit disappointing. A bit like an airport. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

No grand restaurant. Fast service in the cafe style restaurant which served good food in what felt like a school hall. 

The indoor kiddie area was great for the toddler.

Elephant statue

Elephant statue, Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Reach from Beach bar Restaurant

My view of the beach was blocked by stacked chairs.

Pool at Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Guests in Thai hotels included Russians. Signs were in the Russian language. In 2023 Russians have a restricted number of destinations where they can go, so Thailand is a good option for them.

Useful websites

https://www.sunwingkamala.com/

How to fold a swan and heart from rolled up white towels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5_8esWTrwA

How to fold toilet paper into a fan - toilet paper origami.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXBrbDlnmHs

Please share links to your favourite blog post.

Zoo Reviews : Write Parody Animal Reviews For Fun Whilst Travelling + Cute Photo Captions

Problem
How to brighten up a visit to a zoo, or even sitting on a park bench, or seaside bench watching the birds.

Answer
Spoof  Zoo Animal Reviews
Oregon Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens have been doing this. What a great idea. Amusing.

An amusement for teens and tourists. Rate the animals or species at a zoo. Some zoos have started this and got attention. Create a game for the family or a school trip or charity event. Give a prize or vote for the best caption or review.

Fun Photo Captions
You could even do it to brighten up captions on your holiday snaps. I find it easier to write an advertisement than a review.

Cat : Self-cleaning.
Cockroach: Pre-historic model.
Dog: Noisy.

Fox in garden in London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Elephant: Difficult to find a large enough parking space.
Fox: Runs well.
Magpie: Smartly dressed.
Rabbit: Buy one, get twenty free.
Robin: Very friendly.
Snake: Handle with care.
Spider: Useful for decorating corners.

Spider. Useful for decorating corners. Available in brown, black or mixed. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The old jokes are the best: Zebra - horse designed by a committee.

Use it as NLP to get over your fear and disgust - perhaps not.

USA
California Academy of Sciences
Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens
Monterey Bay Aquarium - @MontereyAquarium
Oregon Zoo - @OregonZoo ; rateaspecies
Tennessee Aquarium - @TNAquarium (On the Chatanooga riverfront)
http://www.tnaqua.org

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5504799/Zoos-post-hilarious-Amazon-style-reviews-animals.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Informative and amusing. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Handy Portuguese Words On Wine Bottles, some of which you will easily recognize and instantly learn

Portuguese flag

Problem
How will I learn and remember Portuguese? Where will I need it and where can I practise it, hear it and keep up and augment it?

Answer
Learn it the same way you would eat a mythical elephant sandwich, one small bite at a time.

I picked up a card about D'Oliveiras who produce Madeira wines on the island of Madeira where they speak Portuguese.

Where and when would you need Portuguese?
1 In Portugal, in Europe, perhaps staying at a Pousada hotel.
2 In Brazil, South America.
3 In the island of Madeira.
4 In a Portuguese restaurant.
5 In a wine shop looking at Portuguese wines, buying Madeira, Port, Mateus Rose or other Portugues wine.
6 On the island of Macau which has a huge number of visitors, presumably because of the Casino - and the Chinese love gambling.
7 In a hotel or restaurant of any nationality when reading the wine list and ordering a bottle of Portuguese wine.

That's not all. Wikipedia said:
Portuguese (português or, in full, língua portuguesa) is a western Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe.^[5] It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea and Macau in China. As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India;^[6] in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka; in the Indonesian island of Flores; in the Malacca state of Malaysia; and the ABC islands in the Caribbean where Papiamento is spoken, while Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based Creole. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation may be referred to as "Lusophone" in both English and Portuguese.

Portuguese - English
Avenida - avenue
casa - house
e - and
exportadores - exporters
horas - hours
ilha - island
Janeiro - January
Lugar - place (think of the English word location)
museu - museum
Outubro - October
Praça - Square
produtores - producers/growers
rua - street
Santa - saint / holy

English - Portuguese
and - e
avenue - Avenida
exportadores - exporters
growers/producers - produtores
holy - santa
hours - horas
house - casa
island - ilha
January - Janeiro
museum - museu
October - Outubro
saint - santa
street - rua
wine/s - vinho/s

Useful Websites

http://duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language
https://translate.google.com/

https://www.visitportugal.com/en/destinos/madeira
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/madeira-wine-two-hundred-year-old-found-fortified-cellar-new-jersey-liberty-hall-union-a7835881.html
http://www.kean.edu/libertyhall/about/history

duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/port-and-portuguese-wine-labels-and.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-ask-for-food-and-drink-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/learn-your-first-ten-words-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-do-you-say-please-in-portuguese-is.

visitportugal.com

visitbrasil.com

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

earwormslearning.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English, learner of 12 other languages.
Please see my other travel blog:
http://www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

How fast is your train? Get an ap!

Problem
How fast is this train? Is it as fast as it seems? Are we running on time? How can I impress colleagues, friends, strangers, the kids?

Answer
There are free aps (paid for by the advertising) which tell you your speed. They work pretty fast.

How do they work? By global positioning. I imagine you can use this on the motorway where (UK) signs telling you they can work out your average speed.

(I always thought those worked by an analysis of where you start and end and therefore the average speed over that distance in that time.)

You can also get a free altimeter as part of this speed ap or separately.

Story
My relative used the ap to measure the speed of the Stansted airport train, coming home to London. The train ran at 78 miles per hour. The London overground train was 38 m.p.h.

What Could You Measure?
You could also use it on a horse or elephant or camel. The system is working on the GPS, doesn't even know whether you are on a train or on horseback.

You can also measure your running, jogging and walking speed.

You could measure your child or toddler riding on a suitcase, granny on an electric cart, the electric cart zooming you around a railway station or an airport.

Measure your car, the bus, the long distance coach.

What about a plane? You are told to turn off your phone on the plane during taking off and landing. But at certain times mid-flight you might be told you can turn the phone on again. Usually on the planes which have a screen on the back of the seat in front there is a screen showing your distance travelled and estimated time of arrival and speed and height.

In a car the driver can see the speed on the speedometer. I often find I do not want to keep taking my eyes off the road. If you have children in the back they can keep you updated on your speed. This could be an amusement. Also help you keep within the speed limit.

Hours of fun for everyone.

Stansted Spelling
Whilst typing I was wondering how to spell Stansted. Somebody told me, "There's no second a. Stansted. Berkhamsted. They are all the same. Unfortunately, Hampstead Heath has a second a. However, you can remember is as the exception with the words Hampstead and Heath have matching end vowels.

Tips
https://appadvice.com/appguides/show/speedometer

Author
Angela Lansbury

Learn Welsh words for animals: bear, bird, elephant, horse, sheep

Problem
How do I remember them?

Answer
By similar letters.

Welsh - English
arth - bear ( Think of ARth beAR or Arth(ur) the bear)
aderyn - bird (Think of a b(c)de - ryn
ceffyl - horse (think of see 2 foals grow up to be horses c e f f y l)
eliffant - elephant (think of  eliFFant and ElEphant double f in the Welsh, twice E in the English)
dafad - sheep (think of the double e in the English and daft sheep with double letters a and d)

English - Welsh
bear - arth
bird - aderyn
elephant - eliffant
horse - ceffyl
sheep - dafad

To learn how to pronounce Welsh words, go to
www.duolingo.com

For information on Wales see my previous posts and
www.visitWales.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher. I have more posts on the Welsh language, visiting Wales and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Romanian words for animals

Problem
How to learn Romanian fast? Why fast? When you have a trip or holiday planned, how do you learn Romanian fast?

Answer
Pick words which sound similar. Even if you don't have much use for some to the words, they will stick easily and with a growing vocabulary you will increase confidence, urge to learn more, and urge to read signs and menus and brochures.

Animals
d e l f i n
e l e f a n t
i n s e c t a
p i n g u i n
v u l t u r

These words look like a child's attempt, or a modified script. I hardly need to translate them. However, as a reminder I shall make another list, which might also help somebody for whom English is a second language.

Romanian - English
d e l f i n - dolphin
e l e f a n t - elephant
i n s e c t a - insect
p i n g u i n - penguin
v u l t u r - vulture -actually, Duolingo lists it as an eagle, but at least you know it's a bird. Eagles swoop on live prey. Vultures stick to safer dead items.

English - Romanian
dolphin - d e l f i n
elephant - e l e f a n t
insect - i n s e c t a
penguin - p i n g u i n
vulture - v u l t u r

For more words and phrases see
www.DuoLingo.com
You can use this website, which is free, on a computer, laptop or mobile.

For travel information on Romania see
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and foreign languages.

Holidays From Hell - Stories For You To Tell in Traffic Jams

Problem
What do you do when you are stuck in a traffic jam or stranded on a plane runway for hours?

Answer
Tell stories of other holidays from hell.

Stories
My Travel Disaster Stories
Fire Alarms
In Scotland at the Achiltibuie hotel, a fire alarm went off in the middle of breakfast. We all had to abandon our buffet breakfast and go down the steps onto a terrace lawn. We could hear the fire engine blaring up the steep hill to the top of the hill where our huge hotel commanded a great view. The chefs were also evacuated, standing on the terrace in a group with their white hats. Also evacuated, a bride and groom - the bride in a long while - night-dress.

Flood
At Swanwick Writer's Holiday in Derbyshire, one year the site was flooded after heavy rain. The accommodation blocks were separate from the main blocks with classes and evening entertainment and the lounge and bar. Going back your feet were up to their ankles in muddy water and frogs were jumping about.

In Germany our car was broken into in Koln (Cologne).

Another car was broken into in Prague.

A third in the zoo car park in Madrid - after a group had mugged us in Marbella stealing my leather handbag and contents.

I was stuck in mid-air on a three person chairlift in a ski resort in the USA.

Worst of all, in Corsica I was on a bus which broke down on the way to the airport to go home. We were all closing the road from the broken down bus when a car came over the brow of the hill and knocked me down. 1984. I had multiple injuries including ribs broken in two places, a broken collar bone, a cracked shoulder blade, a head injury which left me bleeding from my ear, with everything spinning around more than 100 times when I tired to sit up. I ended up in a hospital in Corsica where they did not even speak French, my only other language, but Italian dialect. I tried talking to the woman in the next bed fro a day. She said nothing. Eventually I asked somebody to translate. He explained that she could not talk because she had had an operation on her jaw.

Theft
Singapore - my shoulder bag was stolen, containing a British passport, a Singapore citizens card, money, my new UK iPhone and my Singapore handphone.

Here are some fearsome photos from the internet in the Daily Mail online newspaper. My favourite is the frogs in the toilet. But that was after a flood.

Tips
If you like to convince the family or friends that your problems are not as bad as you thought, print out a copy of one of these photos, keep it concealed, then bring it out as a distraction. When your car breaks down, you can look at the picture of the elephant straddled across a mini car.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4283256/Hair-raising-capture-travel-scenarios-gone-wrong.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Easy To Remember German Language Words

Problem
How do I remember German words?

Answer
Look for similarities in spelling.

Story
I am learning German free from the internet using Duolingo both on a laptop and on a mobile phone. However, typing up the new words and how to remember them, on my blog, helps to reinforce the memory. Recognising the German is easier than translating back from English to German. I have to look at the word and talk to myself as if I were teaching somebody else. You might try doing the same, silently if you are on the train or in a public place, out loud if you are at home or in an empty office.

Tips
German - English
Affe - monkey (an affable ape monkeying around)
Elefant - elephant
Der Hamster - the hamster
Kamel - camel
Die Schildkröte - turtle (not just a small tortoise but a huge shield-cracking turtle; note the capital letter , the k instead of c, and the double dot on the o, like the eyes of the turtle)
Eine Giraffe - a giraffe
Tiger - tiger
Ein Wal - a whale
Wolf - wolf
Zebra - zebra

English - German
camel - Kamel
elephant - Elefant (the German spelling is almost the same, but the complicated ph is simplified to f, and the German word starts with a capital letter because it is a noun)
A giraffe - eine Giraffe (same word except that the Germans use capital letters for the initial letter of a noun)
monkey - A f f e
The hamster - der hamster
tiger - Tiger
The turtle - Die Schildkröte (note the extra c in the German Sh and the capital letter)
wolf - Wolf (the wolf - der Wolf)
A whale - Ein Wal (same word simplified, without the h which we don't pronounce and the e which we don't pronounce)
zebra - Zebra

Author
Angela Lansbury, author and teacher of English, languages, public speaking.See my other posts on languages and travel. Please like, follow and share.

New Plans For Crossrail Trains and Stations In London; please copy Singapore and Hong Kong

Free event takes place in London on Friday September 23rd, at the Building Store in London showing plans for Crossrail. The new Elizabeth Line will open not next year but the end of the year after, December 2018. But here's a chance to see preview, and possibly influence the decisions. The line is set to link up London and transform stations from Haringey over in the east to Hillingdon in the West on the Heathrow side of London.

Major historic stations in central London will also be enjoying a re-fit. Streets now shrouded in scaffolding will emerge in their new glory, sparkling new and clean.

I am happy about the development, and hopeful that the new stations will provide state of the art artworks, entertainment, traditional history and modern design, and safety measures.


New pictures out of Crossrail plans. They are having a meeting in London to display the plans. Meanwhile, a few photos are online.

I looked at the escalators and felt nervous. We have had escalator accidents on London underground, in undergrounds and shopping malls in Singapore and China.

What are the causes? Children, drunks, daredevils, suicides, accidents. People caught in steps, falling, leaning, jumping, riding over rails, sliding down the handrails and edges. Teens and students sit on barriers chatting and eating ice cream or taking photos with legs having over concourses above stairwells and atriums.

Exits
I am also concerned about quick exit in the case of emergency, and signs to exits.

Singapore Safety Measures
Singapore has constant videos in four languages with subtitles on avoiding troubles. I watched videos about gaps, leaning on doors, getting bags caught caught in train doors.

Signs everywhere tell you how to alert staff, how to escape. (I did see emergency escape pictures on trains in Wales.

Singapore also has signs showing where to find alternative transport in an emergency.

Also signs to lifts for those with baby buggies, sticks, wheelchairs, suitcases on wheels.

Advantages Of New Stations and Routes
What is planned for Crossrail? You can visit their Facebook page.

In addition to the advantages for commuters, after the lull during building works shopkeepers will have more customers. People buying and selling property can expect that the new stations and train services will make property more saleable, quick sales, less stress, properties only empty briefly between sales and rentals, and prices for home owners and investors might rise.
In Singapore the development of the new train lines has been a delight. Good signs tell people to give up seats to the pregnant, and elderly.

The art on Hong Kong stations is wonderful.

I look for modern stations, shops and eating places on the move, free clean toilets. See my previous posts on stations in Hong Kong and Singapore and London.

Best station sights and sites?
London
Paddington
- see statues of Brunel;
and loving couple, not kissing goodbye but hello - the statue is called The Meeting;
Baker Street
- Murals of Sherlock Holmes inside Baker Street station and a statue of Sherlock Holmes outside.

Hong Kong:
The apple on the concourse at a station.
Videos on the airport express - like riding in a plane. All you need to add is a running commentary on the sights through the windows.

Singapore Stations (MRT)
Tanjong Pagar
- Modelled after Finland's Helsinki Central Railway station. Four statues outside. Inside, arched ceiling and six tall oblong coloured panels showing ships and houses and landscapes and the four characters and industries - like a cathedral but modern.

Little India
- Drawings of elephants on corridor walls.

Botanical Gardens
- Panels around entrance about the trees and plants in Singapore.

see www.remembersingapore.org (Tanjong Pagar station)

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/news-and-information-about-crossrail-events

See my posts on London stations, Welsh stations, stations in Hong Kong, and stations in Singapore.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Hindu Temple In Singapore - more pictures

Each time I look at my photos I see something new. today I noticed that the statues below are grey upon grey, all the elephants (elephant gods) look similar, but the figures above are in different poses. The white or cream statues are not coloured but against a coloured background, each one different and contrasting with the next coloured background. 

Like places of worship for all religions, it functions as a meeting place, a place of worship, a work of architecture and a work of art. Eventually it also becomes a piece of the history of the community.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Photos copyright Angela Lansbury.