We couldn’t decide whether it was worth returning to the Longji rice terraces as our previous experience wasn’t a great one. We arrived on a cold January day 8 years ago and the guesthouse we booked wasn’t where it said it would be on the map which meant we had to hike all the way…
Author: laurenwinslowllewellyn
Returning to China | Navigating Guangzhou and eating bizarre food
After a brutal travel journey that lasted 39 hours and consisted of us living like Tom Hanks in The Terminal at Kuala Lumpur airport we finally made it to Guangzhou in China. It’s our second visit to China, the first of which was in January 2016 and we’re so excited to be back. Due to…
Swimming with nurse sharks in the Maldives
Quite remarkable how we could pick the worst weather day in a 16 day holiday to do the one tour of the trip. But alas, that’s how we roll apparently. We’d actually been meaning to go for a couple of days but our host said he didn’t have a boat available the first day and…
Budget travel in the Maldives | Sunsets, storms and sharks
It’s time for us to travel to the second local island on this trip so we’ve opted to stay on Huraa until 1pm when we can catch the very reasonably priced $10 speedboat back to Male and we’ll just have a one and a half hour wait until our public ferry to the next atoll…
Returning to The Maldives to explore more local islands
Finally, we’re back in paradise! The last time we visited the local islands in the Maldives was in 2018 and we loved it so much. It feels great to be back, although prices have definitely increased since our last visit when the same resort day trip which cost $30 is now $200 for example!! To…
How to travel Oman with a 2wd car and tent | Top tips and prices
We spent 14 days exploring Oman with a little rental car and a tent. In this post I’ll share all my top tips, how much we spent and the must see sights to see with a 2wd drive car. This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may receive a…
Nizwa’s goat market, wadis and mountain drives | Oman
Our final days in Oman had a mix of activities and the first of which was the Nizwa livestock market. It takes place every Friday and this tradition has been happening in the same location for hundreds of years. We had to arrive early to catch the action so we were joining the crowds at…
Oman’s dramatic mountains and a crazy night camping on them
It’s time to explore the mountains of Oman! We’ve been driving alongside dramatic peaks and I can’t help but feel if it was America for example there would be a parking lot with hiking trails, not with lots of infrastructure or paved paths, just rugged but accessible. Oman kinda feels so untouched that it’s like…
Date palms, mud brick houses, castles and dressing up as locals | Oman
The bad weather is finally behind us so we started driving towards the mountainous region of Oman, stopping first at a wadi for a hike along a very interesting route, following the village Falaj (irrigation system). It was basically a large concrete gutter with water gushing through the middle and a flat section on either…
Desert storms and flash floods | Wahiba Sands and Wadi Bani Khalid
It’s time for us to explore another wadi in Oman and this time we’re heading to Wadi Bani Khalid. It’s said to be a lot more developed than Wadi Shab but we were still excited to check it out. This time we didn’t arrive early in the morning, we just rocked up at 1ish which…
NON STOP TRAVELLING 