The Longji Rice Terraces |China

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…

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…

Wild swimming in Taiwan’s clearest rivers

Craig woke me up at around 1am saying “we just had an earthquake!!” I was fast asleep and didn’t feel it but Craig felt the room shake for just a few seconds. Our phones had emergency messages on them from the government warning us about the earthquake and to take cover. It was 5.1 on…

Exploring Taroko Gorge | Taiwan

Hualien sits on the east coast of Taiwan, set on the shores of the bright blue pacific ocean and backed by forested mountains. Just an hour bus ride away is Taroko Gorge, a place high on my list for Taiwan. We arrived in Hualien by train and took our first afternoon easy with a stroll…

First impressions of Taiwan | Hot spring hotel in Jiaoxi

Taiwan is home to 260 summits over 3000m, more than 50% of the land is covered in vegetation, remote hot springs can be found beside raging rivers and there’s endless beaches with great surf…need I say more? It’s been on our list of places to visit for a few years and now it’s finally time…