The scenic area of Xiaoqikong wasn’t in my guide book or on travel blogs, I ended up finding it from scanning the map of China and being drawn in by the intense blue water. It turned out to be fairly easy to reach, involving two high speed trains and then a taxi for the final…
Tag: nature
Meeting the locals in traditional Dong villages | China
Zhaoxing is a traditional village, all made of wood and home to the Dong ethnic minority group. It used to just be a special place where a few western tourists came to see a real Chinese village but with the high speed railway being built it’s brought with it the domestic tourists. Luckily the village…
Exploring the karst peaks along the Li River | China
The city of Yangshuo is nestled between the dramatic karst peaks that spread across this scenic corner of Guangxi. It’s a place we really enjoyed on our last visit, hence us deciding to come back and even stay in the same hostel. The hostel was based a bit out the city so the patio area…
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…
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…
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. CAR RENTAL Firstly, the car, we booked through Discover Cars was £370 for 14 days including…
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…