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TWO GREEN BACKPACKS

Travel blog on traveling South-East Asia on a budget!

  • Countries
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Countries
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • Cambodia
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Singapore
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • period cup JuJu brand
    'She Can't Swim',  A Day in the Life,  Pre-Travel,  Toilets,  Travel Guide

    The Essential Item to Pack for Backpacking SE Asia

    June 1, 2018

    I’m baaaack! I know it’s been radio silence for a long time on this travel blog, but that’s because Lionel and I haven’t been traveling. We’ve been settled on Koh Tao now for a while. This month was actually our 5 year anniversary of starting our PADI Open Water scuba diving course. In December this year, it’ll be our 5 years of actually living and working on Koh Tao as dive professionals! Crazy how fast the time has gone. I’ve slithered back out of the water that is now my home to talk about something that has radically changed my life recently. The thing that I believe is an essential…

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    emma No Comments

    Related Posts

    Hard Day at Work

    March 15, 2016

    The Diving on Koh Tao

    January 21, 2016

    Studying Hard, or Hardly Studying…

    February 6, 2014
  • Attractions,  Diving,  Ponderings,  Pre-Travel,  Top Things To Do,  Travel Guide

    Money Matters in South East Asia

    November 27, 2014

    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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    emma 1 Comment

    Related Posts

    Go to the Cinemas in Ho Chi Minh – Check!

    June 25, 2013

    Kep, The Sleepy Colonial Ghost Town

    June 14, 2013

    Elephant Valley Project – E.L.I.E. – The Local Perspective

    June 17, 2013
  • Should I Book Accommodation Ahead?
    Accommodation Reviews,  Pre-Travel,  Travel Guide

    Should I Book Accommodation Ahead?

    April 27, 2014

    Should I Book Accommodation In Advance? No – often you can negotiate a cheaper price when you are face to face wth the owners. No – you can see what the room is actually like before you pay. How clean, how bright, what’s provided, etc. Yes – often you are guaranteed a booking, though not always.. We are in SE Asia after all. Yes – popular, low cost, very clean, highly rated Trip Advisor places may be booked out, especially in high season. Our Experiences Our first stop was Malaysia and I was feverishly looking up TripAdvisor, hostelbookers.com, hostelworld, booking.com, Airbnb, etc. for cheap but clean accommodation. I was going…

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    emma No Comments

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    Angkor Reach Guesthouse – Phnom Penh

    June 20, 2013

    Perhentian Kecil Accommodation: The Best Options On A Tiny Island

    April 29, 2013

    Palm Beach Bungalow Resort at Koh Rong

    June 6, 2013
  • Pre-Travel,  Travel Guide

    Why We Traveled, and Why You Should Too!

    April 26, 2014

    We got to a cross-roads in our relationship and in our lives, about two years ago. We had good jobs and a bit of money. We could have invested the next few years climbing up our career ladders, purchased a house and a lengthy mortgage to go with it, or we could spend our money and go traveling. 100 points for guessing which path we chose! We did jump into it not really knowing what to expect, but one year later, we’ve come to realise we made the right choice. If you’re wondering if and why you should travel, here’s some of the reasons that made it worthwhile for us.…

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    emma 1 Comment

    Related Posts

    Got me some Travel Pants But Not the Elephant Pants

    April 21, 2013

    Seven Injections, a Blood Test and a Tooth Filling

    March 28, 2013

    Selling Furniture via Email!

    March 23, 2013
  • Ponderings,  Pre-Travel

    Image Size Management

    October 18, 2013

    For the first few months of our blog, we used to upload images in their native size, which is 4K. This is rather insane and I have now decided that it is not something we want to do for several reasons: 1. Upload & download bandwidth cost 2. Upload time 3. Readers really don’t need 4K images The first step was to stop the madness. So, since late August we have been batch re-sizing our images using the Photo Editor app for Android. We copy the images we have selected to add to the blog into an upload/ folder. Then we batch process them to a maximum width or height…

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    lionel 3 Comments

    Related Posts

    Children in Cambodia

    June 20, 2013

    Australian Open in Thailand

    January 23, 2014
    A beer on the beach, Thailand

    Goodbye Island Life….

    September 23, 2018
  • Pre-Travel

    Six Months is Up! Yikes!

    October 6, 2013

    Just renewed our travel insurance with World Nomads. Can’t believe we are only two days away from the end of our original 6 month cover! It seems so long ago that we were reading up about different travel policies and then finally, last minutely, deciding on the Explorer Package with World Nomads. Also, a Happy 26th Anniversary to my parents for on the day our insurance policy is renewed!

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    emma 1 Comment

    Related Posts

    Camberwell Market Melbourne

    Camberwell Market: Hiring A Stall & Selling Your Stuff

    March 10, 2013

    Selling, Storing and Sadness

    March 11, 2013

    Seven Injections, a Blood Test and a Tooth Filling

    March 28, 2013
  • Ponderings,  Pre-Travel,  Travel Guide

    Data Management – Photo Backup While Traveling

    October 2, 2013

    When we set off on our several months long trip to south-east Asia, I always expected us to take A LOT of photos. I had heard horror stories of people that lose or have their SD cards stolen during the last week of traveling, loosing all of their photos. This was not a risk I was willing to take, so I planned for some redundancy. After just over 5 months, naturally the megabytes are mounting up and we are getting low storage warnings on our TF700 Asus tablet, Emma’s iPhone and sometimes even the camera’s SD cards. In total that is 16GB (iPhone), 64GB (tablet) and 64GB (2x 32GB SD…

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    lionel 2 Comments

    Related Posts

    The Motivation to Blog…

    June 23, 2013

    Australian Open in Thailand

    January 23, 2014

    Children in Cambodia

    June 20, 2013
  • A Day in the Life,  Pre-Travel,  Vietnam

    Regrouping in Ho Chi Minh City

    June 27, 2013

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    lionel No Comments

    Related Posts

    The Diving on Koh Tao

    January 21, 2016

    Don’t Be This Guy! – At A Cinema

    March 6, 2015

    The Day I Killed A Goat

    November 20, 2013
  • Pre-Travel

    Off the Beaten Track, my arse!

    April 23, 2013

    We like to think we’re non-tourists. That we’re getting off the beaten track, but no way Jose. There’s complaints about the hot weather, the need for air-conditioned shopping centres, the constant hunger for the big brand, fast food joints. And that’s all from Lionel. And me. But we’ll get better at this.

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    emma No Comments

    Related Posts

    Selling, Storing and Sadness

    March 11, 2013

    Regrouping in Ho Chi Minh City

    June 27, 2013

    Got me some Travel Pants But Not the Elephant Pants

    April 21, 2013
  • Don't Be That Guy,  Pre-Travel

    Got me some Travel Pants But Not the Elephant Pants

    April 21, 2013

    You can spot them a mile away. The traveller who just started travelling, and thinks they’re a traveller, but really, they’re just the weirdo in hippy, flow-y pants. Treading the path that thousands have treaded before. Usually they come in a repetitive elephant motif, and can be bought for a buck or two at the market. The funniest is when you see friends traveling together in matching pants, but various colours. Mine? No elephants, but still ridiculous. My main aim? To not wear butt-cracking shorts in religious or more conservative areas in SE Asia.  

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    emma No Comments

    Related Posts

    Don’t Be These Knob Shiners – Play Your Music Elsewhere

    March 4, 2014

    Don’t Be This Guy! – At A Cinema

    March 6, 2015

    Don’t Be This Stingy, Smart Arsed Teenage Boy.

    October 6, 2013
 Older Posts

Hey! It’s Emma & Lionel

Two Green Backpacks

We quit our jobs in 2013 to travel South East Asia on a budget for 3 months. This turned into 5 years. Now we are scuba diving instructors on a tiny island in Thailand… with no plan to go home.

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We quit our jobs in 2013 to travel South East Asia on a budget for 3 months. This turned into 5 years. Now we are scuba diving instructors on a tiny island in Thailand… with no plan to go home.
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