Currently in Chile our adventurous Jane is heading to Peru tomorrow, and is by all accounts looking forward to the change. She’s been promised excitement…

“People have told me the craziness factor will be upped. Chile is too normal. I feel more at home in crazy places seeing as I’m crazy myself ”

Although she gives details of her plans for Peru, which include the spectacular Machu Picchu, Jane tells of what ‘normal’ stuff she’s been up to in Chile. This has included learning the Spanish for moon and mountain while having conversations based around nodding and smiling lots on buses. On a grander scale though, there has been some spectacular imagery,

“We also had the best sunset I’ve ever seen, the sky turned all manner of colours and it lasted for ages. You see a lot of sunsets whilst travelling, I don’t remember noticing all that many back home. I’ve also waited for the sunset on a number of occasions, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before.”

To read more of what Jane will be doing in Peru and what she did in Chile read her full post here.

Intrepid STA Explorer Isla has given Chiang Mai the once over and is quite a fan,

“Chiang Mai’s old city is surrounded by a moat and many of the streets are quite twisty and narrow so it’s all very olde worlde and I like it a lot.”

Now with over 300 odd temples, the risk of ‘temple fatigue’ as Isla called it was high, so opted for the forest temple Wat Umong and Wat Suan Dok, which is where the ashes of the Chiang Mai royal family are held.

After this there was time to jump into a graduate art exhibition before heading to what Isla describes as one of her favourite things in the city – Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders,

“At 300 Baht, the entry fee seemed a bit steep. But it was quirky and brilliant. Wonderful, you could say […] and there are cases and cases of mosquitoes. Imagine that: 1) catching a mosquito and 2) preserving and cataloguing them.”

There was more to be done in Chang Mai, and Isla as ever was ready to get involved. It’s all in her post; most notable maybe is the Flight of the Gibbon…

Travelweekly.co.uk are a website with their digital finger on the pulse, and have today announced STA Travel’s plans to launch live web chats with holidaymakers live from mid-June onwards.

“A number of staff in the agency chain’s Manchester call centre are being trained to work specifically on offering advice and selling to customers on live web chats.”

This move has come in the wake of much increased traffic to the site of late, and with web bookings making around 12% of overall sales for STA Travel, group managing director John Constable was keen to point out that this was not all about sales though.

“The new function will give users an option to chat online to a destination expert, and is aimed at improving service levels rather than being a hard-sell tool. It’s very much service orientated and about how we differentiate ourselves in the travel sector”.

Would it be a service you would be interested in using? Let us know below.

You can’t keep a good traveller down it seems, and hot on the heels of excitement and adventure, STA favourite Romy Khaiba has picked on Alice Springs as his latest destination – and is headed there all full speed thanks to a ‘campervan relocation’ scheme.

“Looking at the details, the price is amazing, we would get a $160 fuel allowance and have four days to get to Alice Springs, enough time to stop off at Uluru on the way, quality!!”

However, and despite having to put down a terrifying $1,000 bond as security for the van (be careful Romy), and having been fed a particularly poor Chinese, there was still time for one last notable Adelaide highlight….

“Off to bed after watching an amazing programme with an Ozzie lad called Josh. It’s called “The Man Show”, BRILLIANT!!!”

In amongst waking with a bevy of tittering Swedes, sky-diving from 15,000 feet and hanging out with dolphins – it seems our Jane has had a rather wonderful time wandering through New Zealand. Although she had previously found kiwi country ‘a bit boring’

“…by the time I’d left Bay of Islands I’d changed my mind and fallen in love with the place a bit. Having said that, I won’t be rushing back any time soon.”

And so onto Chile, where the language barrier may have proven a problem, but not an insurmountable one thanks to a children’s English-Spanish dictionary, which Jane ‘mainly bought for the pictures’. First impressions -

“So far I have observed that Chileans like hotdogs, smooching in parks, smooching in shopping centers, smooching in the street, inappropriately tight clothing, singing, heavy metal, singing along to heavy metal, and pisco sour, which I have yet to try, would you believe.”

More from Jane, and smoochy Chileans, soon, and thanks to rockNviv for the rather appropriate image.

Summer’s taking its time to rear its beautiful golden mane over the British Isles, but elsewhere in the world is always bathed in perennial sunlight if the television is to be believed, and thus the Times Online’s guide to Ibiza could be an important read.

Six island insiders, amongst them a DJ in Pacha and Chief of Police in San Antonio, share their particular nuggets of wisdom. From where best to ‘join in with hippies drumming at sundown for free’ to the best ‘tapas restaurant with traditional Spanish pulses, vegetables and meats’ – there’s plenty to inform you.

If you fancy a read, head over here – and feel free to leave your comment with them, or in the box below.

Bex has been enjoying herself in Chiang Mai, despite her problems with the over-zealous scheduling placed upon her, and has been having fun with all of her pals, including developing slight envy over those who work at the more exhilarating end of the travel industry (myself included I should imagine).

“Sunday we got picked up and went rafting and it was soooo good. We went with a company called The Peak who are brilliant, really professional but lots of fun, they have the best job in the world.”

It hasn’t been all high octane stuff though, despite the odd ‘drinking games’ session and chanting, and during the temple stay which ‘Bex was really looking forward to’, they met

“a really sweet monk [who] taught us how to meditate. I don’t know if I did it quite right but it was very calming and it was good to have someone teaching us how to do it properly. Mike fell asleep.”

If it wasn’t for the flying ants, things sound pretty perfect for Bex!