The end has come. After 4.5 months of travelling together, Ammun and I were ready for one last week of relaxing on Indonesia’s Gili Islands before heading back to rainy England. We arrived on Gili Air way later than planned so the sun was already going down but we jumped straight in the pool anyway […]
asia
Exploring Balinese Mountains, Markets and Rice Paddies
Indonesia is an impressive country. Its 17,000 islands span across two continents and are home to several religions, the most dominating one being Islam. With 260 million people it is the 4th most populated country but you’ll find more than half on the island of Java which is the world’s most populated island. Some pretty […]
How Singapore Became My Favourite City
Once upon a time there was a Sumatran Prince who saw a lion on an island and named this island Lion City. This Lion City was then developed into a fishing village and Singapura (Sanskrit for Lion City) was born. The area has changed quite a bit since then and it turns out there’s no […]
KL’s Bright Lights and Towering Skyscrapers
My first impression of Kuala Lumpur (more affectionately known as KL) was somewhat distorted. After just over a week in Myanmar where the buildings are run down, wifi is sparse and toilets are questionable, we were relieved to touch down in a big, clean city. Our uber picked us up from the airport about 1.30am […]
Floating Between Villages on Inle Lake
As we drive past men standing majestically on the end of little wooden boats, their skirts flowing in the breeze and their leg wrapped around the oar as they paddle along, we could only be in one place in the world: Inle Lake. Despite being told that we would get in between 2 and 3am […]
Exploring the Thousands of Temples in Bagan
We’ve climbed the Temples of Angkor in Cambodia and we’ve been dazzled by the Grand Palace in Thailand but, to me, nothing compares to the temples in Bagan. The bus here felt long but wasn’t too bad. Getting on and off I also had someone carry my big rucksack for me for the first time […]
The City of Gold: Mandalay
We arrived in Mandalay bright and early after our luxurious VIP gold-class bus from Yangon. We had TV screens so I watched 2 films, played a game and listened to some 2007 chart toppers. At 6am we checked into our hostel which seemed clean and nice but we couldn’t have a bed yet so we […]
Yangon: The Run Down City Filled With Tradition
‘This is Burma’ wrote Rudyard Kipling. ‘It is quite unlike any other place you know about’. More than a century after he said this, I still believe it to be a valid statement. It is a country where men wear skirt-like longyi, women are covered in thanaka (traditional make up made from tree bark) and […]
Songkran aka Thai New Year
I love national holidays. I don’t just mean bank holidays which means a three day weekend and a four day working week. I love national holidays that bring a community or a nation together to celebrate something like Halloween at home or Hogueras in Alicante or New Years Eve in London. Ammun and I managed […]
The True Thailand in Chiang Mai
After two weeks island hopping in very westernised islands filled with western people, it has been really nice to return to cities where I can witness Thai people just going about their daily lives, doing everyday things. I really feel like Ammun and I have got the true taste of Thailand in Chiang Mai and […]