Most times there will be a language barrier but this shouldn’t stop you from trying food carts. At first, we would move cautiously up to the food cart, looking at each other, whispering ‘do you think it’s safe to eat? What is that?’ and then point to something asking ‘how much?’ If you do ask how much, it may cause the street vendor to stop, think, and decide to tell you an inflated price. We now confidently walk up to the cart, have a look, put two fingers up, nod, hold out some cash, and hope for change. Just pretend you know what you’re doing! At times you will need…
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15 Photos from 27 days in Northern Laos
The first trip through Laos started in the northern town of Muang Khua, then took us down the Nam Ou river to Nong Khiaw, through the capital Vientiane and ended with the Thakhek motorbike loop in central Laos. Below is an unedited selection from the Laos photo gallery that we captured during our 27 day trip through this beautiful country. We started in the north east town of Muang Khua and after much negotiating caught a boat down the Nam Ou river to Nong Khiaw. We stopped along the river bank at a small village and found these curious children playing on the river’s mud bank. Our trek in northern…
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Money Matters in South East Asia
Money is obviously important everywhere and anywhere, but especially when you’re moving from one place to another, and changing currencies. Here are a few things we discovered about money as we traveled.
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Excuses To Not Travel
We come across a lot of people who after hearing that we just decided to pack up and leave home to travel South East Asia, tell us that they wish they could do it. I then give them a list of reasons of why they should do it, and they then give me a list of excuses on why they can’t. Here’s my response! I Have No Money Bull. You have money. You just don’t know how to use it. You obviously have enough money to buy a computer and to buy the internet to read this. You have money, you might not have enough to travel using planes,…
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AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
Just a little, quick, tiny, minute, update to let you know what we are currently up to. And boy, it’s a wowzer! We left Koh Tao a three weeks ago to come to Europe for a few weeks to visit Lionel’s family in Switzerland and my family in the UK. The lack of updates is due to catching up with family, catching up with deliciously, heavy food, and sheer laziness. It is ridiculously freezing, and while we’ve had a few ‘sunny’ days – it is nothing like Thailand! (Though it is currently monsoon season over there so we left at a good time!) We are constantly cold here, wrapped up in…
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Koh Tao – Don’t Not Come and The Day We Saved A Turtle
Just wanted to post an update re: current murderous situation on Koh Tao. We are fine. Yes, it was pretty close to us, but considering it happened on the longest, busiest stretch of beach on Koh Tao where the majority of locals, foreign locals, and tourists stay, everything is in close proximity. Especially on an island about 21 km². It’s a horrid situation, but not believed to be a random attack which makes us feel better. For now, business is as usual. On the upside, this morning I was filming a diving video for a few fun divers and we stumbled across a turtle that had its’ fin stuck in…
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This Is What We Do – A Diving Video
Here’s an underwater video I shot for Sairee Cottage. Lionel is side-mount diving with a colleague. Side-mount diving is diving with two tanks either side. That’s double the air, and potentially double the dive time. You look cooler (very important in diving), and you can squeeze into some pretty cool crevices!
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Turtle at Lham Tien
I’ve finally discovered how to get screen shots from the footage I shoot, so here’s some from this morning’s dive. I had finished my safety stop, surfaced, and was heading back to the boat when someone yelled, ‘turtle!’ Of course I had to drop down and get some shots.
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Mowing the Grass
This is how Thailand does it.
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You know you’re back in Thailand when..
…There’s a bin of used tissues next to the toilet. I forgot that some countries have workable plumbing so that the toilet paper can actually be flushed down the toilet! This is rare in Thailand (and Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia) where you need to use the toilet paper and then put it into the bin so not to clog up the toilet. I was surprised when I got to Changi Airport in Singapore and found NO WASTEBIN WITH ACTUAL HUMAN WASTE in it! Amazing!* However Singapore has something that’s more annoying/scary in their bathrooms. Automatic flushing toilets!! Pretty much every public toilet in Singapore is automatic and I’ve been flushed out…
