Guido de Oz guide
On 17 November 2003 from Reuver, The Netherlands | comments closed
I am already proclaimed an “OZ-specialist-guide” by my travel organisation Australian Backpackers. And I have not even been in Oz yet!
Website philosophy
On 14 November 2003 from Reuver, The Netherlands | comments closed
This website has been designed with speed and maintainability in mind. Speed means that the pages should be small enough to load reasonably fast on computers with a slow internet connection. For this purpose the graphics were kept to a minimum and the design is clean and sober. Maintainability implies that I should be able to update this website from any computer with an internet connection, without installing any software. This is important because I am relying on internetcafé to update my site during my trip. The easier the better.
To achieve this, I installed and configured two software packages:
- pMachine for posting experiences. pMachine is actually a weblog tool, but with a few customisations it fits my goal perfectly. Visitors can leave comments on my entries and join my mailing list to receive e-mails about website updates. More advanced: a RSS feed is generated to publish my experiences on any website.
- Gallery for uploading and displaying photos. I have been using Gallery for almost two years now, and this open-source photo gallery software keeps getting better and better. Visitors can view the photos in different sizes, in a slideshow, and add comments to a photo.
Also, I have tried to make this site as much standards complaint as possible, making extensive use of CSS for the site layout (especially for the Experiences). However, this could mean that this site does not display very well on old browsers. In that case, upgrade your browser! Anyone still using Internet Explorer 4 or Netscape 4 or less should be banned from the internet anyway, because they are blocking internet progress. This site has been tested with Internet Explorer 6 and Mozilla 1.4, and works fine in these browsers. Some feedback is always welcome though, that is what the comments are for 😉
I booked my flight, again
On 10 November 2003 from Reuver, The Netherlands | comments closed
I thought everything was going okay with the preparations for my trip. I got my insurance papers and some useful presents at my official graduation ceremony last Wednesday. But on Friday the travel agency called and they told me that Thai Airways had changed the conditions of my flight. With this ticket I would not be able to change the dates for free and I would not be able to change the city to depart from in Australia. This was one of the main reasons I booked my flight with Thai Airways, along with the fact that it is a Star Alliance airline, so I could get a lot of frequent flyer miles at Lufthansa.
After a weekend of thinking things over and getting my priorities straight, I decided to change my flight to Cathay Pacific. It is actually a better airline, and they allow me to take the overland route from Singapore to Bangkok on my way to Australia, a stopover in Hong Kong on the way back, unlimited free date changes and one free route change. Especially the latter was really important, since I don’t have a clue yet from what city in Australia I will depart. The price of the ticket also stays the same and I even got some airport tax back. Unfortunately Cathay Pacific sucks with regard to earning frequent flyer miles. Oh well.
Check my trip: a detailed online view of my trip. In short:
19 November 2003: Amsterdam – Hong Kong (1 day later) – Singapore
14 December 2003: Bangkok – Hong Kong – Sydney (1 day later)
09 February 2004: Sydney – Auckland
21 March 2004: Auckland – Melbourne
open: Melbourne – Hong Kong
open: Hong Kong – Amsterdam
I also got confirmation from the Australian Government that my Working Holiday Visa has been granted. I applied for it online 2 days ago. I love the internet!
