You see a lot of people talking about how travelling and backpacking for a prolonged period of time changes them. I'd like to talk about how I think travelling did the exact opposite. I didn't change. In fact, travelling prevented me from changing... Just think about it. When we are younger, generally speaking, we have a… Continue reading How travelling ‘didn’t’ change me…
From Rinjani, we really wanted to visit the South of Lombok and the Kuta (yes same name as in Bali) beaches. But it was quite far to travel in one go, so we stopped briefly in Senggigi on the West coast, just North of Mataram, the capital. My knee was still extremely sore, so we… Continue reading Resting in Senggigi
From Gili T we took a fast boat to Bangsal on Lombok's main island. We wanted to climb the volcano of Mountain Rinjani as the view from the top is said to be stunning, as well as viewing inside the volcano where there appears to be 'a volcano in a volcano' surrounded by a sulphurous… Continue reading Snapping my ACL climbing Mount Rinjani
The fast boat arrived from Padang Bai in to Gili Trawangan (Gili T), one of 3 small flat islands off the coast of Lombok, fairly late in the day. It was funny watching lots of holidaymakers arrive alongside us struggle with their massive suitcases that were not very practical for island living! There was no… Continue reading Turtles in Gili Trawangan
After not really feeling like we saw the 'real' Bali so far, we headed out on a bus East to Padang Bai. Here is supposed to be more chilled with lots of Balinese temples in the foothills of Gunung Agung. After a slow, albeit short, journey on the bus, we checked in to a room… Continue reading Learning to Love Bali in Padang Bai
We took a minibus from Kuta to Ubud and arrived quite late. We checked into a place that had been recommended to me by several people, Happy Mango, but we found it to have little of the atmosphere and friendliness that I'd been promised, so the following day we moved across the village to Sania's… Continue reading “Culture” in Ubud
After almost a month solo travelling in Malaysia, and this time it was really solo - The whole time travelling up til then I met people who tagged along with me in a little group. We travelled together and hung out. Sometimes only for 1 or 2 days, but still. It means that often, when… Continue reading Spontaneous Trip to Bali…
From Georgetown I decided to take a bus to the city of Ipoh, not a place in Malaysia that is well-renowned for tourism, but it was only a short journey away and the bus was cheap! The bus dropped me at a bus-station that was quite a way out of town, but I didn't feel… Continue reading Living like a local in Ipoh
Crossing the border into Cambodia was both relaxed and stressful at the same time. A Cambodian visa technically costs $20 at the border, but it is almost impossible to pay less than $26 due to corruption. However, the forms were easy to finish and all-in-all our border crossing took about 5-10 minutes! Incredibly fast compared… Continue reading Easy river living in Kampot
After an amazing time in Chiang mai, I decided to begin my journey into Laos and China. On my last day in Chiang mai I visited the Chinese embassy with a visa application form I had completed at home. I found the embassy easily and got my ticket for a queue position. Are an hour… Continue reading The only farang in Chiang Dao
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