Senja is an area of Norway I’ve longed to visit. It’s the second largest island in the country, shaped like a piece of jagged coral reef and home to some of the most dramatic mountains that drop directly into the sea. As luck would have it we were invited to join our host on a…
Tag: culture
How to visit The Maldives on a budget
What if I told you that you don’t need to win the lottery to be able to visit The Maldives? It all depends on how you travel the country, you could spend $10,000 a night for a water villa on a resort island OR you could pay as little as $30 for a nice en-suite…
The good, the bad & the ugly on Feridhoo Island | The Maldives
I found Feridhoo Island by chance, it’s one of the more recent local islands to open its doors to tourists and from what I read it had a desert-island vibe thanks to hardly any other tourists, an incredible beach and some of the best house reef to snorkel. Some people had also stayed on expensive…
The worlds most beautiful train journey | Ella to Kandy, Sri Lanka
When we read that the train ride between Ella and Kandy was said to be one of the most beautiful in the world we had to see if the rumours were true. The journey would take 7 hours and a seat in second class costs just $1.30 or 70 cents for third class…it was a…
Exploring tea plantations at Lipton’s Seat | Sri Lanka
The 6:40am train took us from Ella to the town of Haputale which sits on a dramatic ridge-line surrounded by lush green hills and tea plantations. School kids were hanging out the doorways enjoying the cool breeze as the train casually chugged through the hill country and after an hour we arrived in Haputale. We…
First impressions of Sri Lanka | Unnawatuna and Galle
Sri Lanka seemed like the perfect add-on to our latest backpacking trip around Asia. We loved and hated India so this country seemed like a good compromise with a colourful culture, plenty of curries but way less crowds. So we flew from Myanmar to Kuala Lumpar, waited 8 long hours in the airport and eventually…
Exploring an Abandoned Amusement Park in Yangon | Myanmar
Most people come to Yangon to visit the temples but we had seen our fair share already so we looked for something different to do in the area. By chance I spotted an abandoned amusement park on my map so we set out to visit it. The park was built in 1997 right next to…
Fishermen, shrines and village life on Inle Lake | Myanmar
Like the sheep that we are, we followed all the other tourists to Inle Lake, set in the lush green Shan mountains. The lake isn’t visible from Nyaung Shwe where most people stay so a boat trip is required to visit the lake. We hired a private boat and driver for about $12 for a…
Exploring the Temples of Bagan | Myanmar
There’s something very special and yet very creepy about exploring the ancient temples of Bagan at sunrise. It’s eerily dark and quiet outside with just the sound of bats wings flapping over your head and the scurrying of rodents on the stone floors as you walk inside the temples. Narrow stairways lead up to the…
Monks, Pagodas and Sunsets in Mandalay | Myanmar
Mandalay is a big city with plenty of sites in and around the area. We’d spent two days out of the city, exploring the Mingun pagoda up the Irrawaddy River and also in the waterfalls to the east. So on our final day we took the free bicycles from our hotel and whizzed around the…
First impressions of Myanmar and exploring Mingun Pagoda
We had the opportunity to visit Myanmar back in 2009 but we decided not to as we ignorantly thought the only reason to visit was to see pagodas. We’d seen our fair share of temples already in South East Asia so Myanmar was missed off our itinerary, but now, almost 10 years later we are…
Rainy season on a beach in Koh Chang | Thailand
As we stepped off the plane in Bangkok we were hit by a wall of heat and humidity. It was wet, our skin instantly felt damp and after a long day flying from Uzbekistan we probably smelt damp too. The temperature was 10 degrees cooler than the Stan’s yet the humidity was quite stifling. It…
