Asia
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Beautiful Places #7: Tioman Island
More specifically, Juara village on Tioman Island off the east coast of Malaysia. The setting here is pretty much the definitive paradise island, a modest and peaceful village with glorious sandy beaches backed by palm trees swaying in the cooling breeze, probably the warmest sea water in which we have ever swum, and wildlife providing wow moments every day. We arrived on Tioman after a city break in Kuala Lumpur followed by several days strenuous trekking in the humid jungle at Taman Negara so were ready for a beach break. As well as the gorgeous beach, Juara provides several interesting eateries, mostly just shacks attached to the private homes of…
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Photo #20: The Reality Of Poverty
No matter how much you know before you get there, the poverty you will witness on your first trip to India will still shock you to the core. So many people live on the city streets that there are entire runs of pavement which have become temporary homes, and every sheltered area such as a flyover or an underpass is occupied by families. This photograph captures a typical scene, and the very fact that it is typical, is itself shocking. Multiple families live here, on an active railway line, running for cover as each packed train rumbles through, right in the heart of Kolkata, just yards from 5 star hotels…
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Photographic Memories #19
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #19: The Sundarbans This photograph is special to us because of the moment it represents, possibly one of the most exciting travel moments of all our experiences to date, capturing an auspicious point in one of our most adventurous journeys. At this stage of our first trip to India, we had now left behind the amazing cities of Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Kolkata, and were…
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Haggling & Bartering: Our Guide
We have often read, in posts by all kinds of travellers including the most experienced, that they don’t enjoy or feel comfortable with the practice of haggling over prices in bazaars and markets in certain cultures. On one level, we find this really surprising, as we have had great fun doing this in places as disparate as Turkey, Morocco, India, Jordan and even Singapore, and without fail we have enjoyed the whole experience. On the other hand, we think we perhaps do understand what it is that the British in particular don’t like about the practice. So here’s our 5-minute guide to how to enjoy. Firstly, don’t think that you…
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Beautiful Places #1: Nong Khiaw
All travellers are finding themselves reminiscing during this travel hiatus. It’s good to reflect on places which were so beautiful they left not just a lasting impression, but also the distinct feeling that you didn’t stay long enough. Here we look back at some of ours. Like many places of incredible beauty, Nong Khiaw isn’t the easiest to get to. In reality the only sensible option is to make a visit to Nong Khiaw whilst based in Luang Prabang, and even then it’s a fairly lengthy bus journey between the two places – bus journeys which can be just a little bit cramped and uncomfortable. Take it from us though,…
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Photographic Memories #11
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories…. Photo #11: A Sri Lankan Welcome This photograph recalls one of our most humbling experiences in all our days of travel so far. In August/September 2015 we travelled across Sri Lanka from west to east, making our way from Colombo to Trincomalee, via Kandy and Sigiriya. On our first day in Sigiriya we were introduced to Mangala, one of the few local tuk-tuk drivers able to…
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The Difference A Year Makes
It’s not always easy to stay positive and optimistic during this COVID lockdown, a mood not helped by an extremely dreary English winter as our weather does its absolute best to justify its bad reputation. Whilst some parts of the UK have witnessed significant snowfall, our South East corner has been deluged with what seems like incessant rain, borne out by this detail: January brought 151mm of rainfall when the historical average for that month is 50mm. Three times normal, and it feels like it, too. Many days have been simply too wet to take a walk, and the countryside is now so saturated that the fields and footpaths are…
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Were We Safe? Take A Look…
Travel isn’t about staying in your comfort zone, sometimes you just have to seize the moment to embrace a new experience. It’s not always about safety belts, health and safety and life jackets. Here’s just a few of those occasions… We spent a whole day like this, sat on a blanket on a roof rack, clinging on to the struts for dear life as Khaled took us to various viewpoints in the desert. All the other similar rides were in the back of a pick up, but not Khaled, he just stuck us on his roof rack and sped across the sand, much to everyone’s amusement. If you’re out in…
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Photographic Memories #10
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #10: Family History Like the poor soul remembered on this war grave, our surname is Sharman; this is the grave of my father’s cousin, Roland. The plaque is one of many hundreds of memorials in the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi in Thailand, built to commemorate those poor souls who perished during construction of the infamous Death Railway as they laboured as Prisoners Of War in…
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Photographic Memories #4
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #4: Thai Sunset Capturing a sunset on camera is something every traveller has done numerous times, but of all our sunset photos, this is probably our favourite. Michaela hasn’t done any doctoring of this photograph, not even enhanced any colouring, what you see in the photograph is exactly how it was. Just to make it even more special, we were drinking some very strong and very…
