Western Australia: Skipping Singapore to fly to Perth Ah, Western Australia. Western Australia wasn’t initially on our travel plans when we set off from the UK. The plan was to go to Singapore and fly to Sydney from there. However, fellow travellers in Malaysia urged us to visit Western Australia. Intrigued, we changed our plans. skipped Singapore, and flew directly...
Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre first opened in 1964. It is 25 kilometres west of Sandakan in the state of Sabah in Borneo. It was the first official orangutan rehabilitation project for orphaned baby orangutans. Many are rescued from logging sites, plantations, illegal hunting or who have been kept as pets. As a...
Namibia: is there anybody out there? Namibia is roughly the size of the United Kingdom and has a population of under 2.5 million. While navigating from the North to the South, you can drive for hours seeing no one other than the odd passing tourist. That is striking enough. More surprising I found, was that the further south we travelled, it became more, well –...
Christmas in Cambodia Cambodia Christmas, well! So – apologies, it’s been a month since the last blog but things got well and truly knocked off course. So much so – I am writing this from Borneo! The last you heard, we’d been to the orphanage in Cambodia. We had a great yet humbling time seeing the kids again, and all of that. Ya-ay. Then, once we...
City of Ghosts Vietnam- Not on the usual tourist trail City of Ghosts – not what you expect to see on your tourist itinerary for the day. As indeed, it probably isn’t. Most tourists bus off to see the historical highlights of Hue, the former imperial capital city of Vietnam. Meanwhile, I had spied a colourful looking place on the internet while googling ‘what...
Kais Kids: finally returning When planning this round-the-world trip, two things were top of my list: one to go back to visit my friend from Death Row Dan in South Africa, and the other to return to Kais Kids orphanage in Cambodia. Over five years ago, I wanted to do some solo travelling and ended up volunteering at a rural orphanage in Cambodia called Kais Kids...
World Traveller Monday morning For the world traveller, Monday morning does not bring with it that general feeling of utter dread. The start of another working week. I enjoyed my last job, but who wants to get up at stupid o’clock and go battling the masses on the London Underground to get there? So, this Monday morning I realised the change has well and truly set in...
Leg it: What happens when you fall down a sinkhole Down, down the rabbit hole, Alice went No, I am not talking about drugs, I just like Alice in Wonderland. So anyway, I have waited a few days to get my head around this story. But yes, it is true. I did disappear down a sinkhole. At least my entire left leg did. Now, I don’t know how this happened. No, I...
Mbunza visit: otherwise entitled the dug-out canoe fiasco So, we just got out of this dug-out canoe, from a crocodile and hippo-infested lake, with a Mbunza tribesman. I say got out. That’s a simplification of the situation. First, I was pushed by Iain from behind, then pulled by the tribesman from the front, before finally kind of, falling out. Tumbling if you like...
Huangluo Long hair village: where they all have, well, long hair Welcome to Huangluo Long Hair Village, an ancient Chinese village renowned for its unique tradition of long hair (some as long as 7 feet) and its belief in rice water’s magical properties. As we explored this remote village, we became immersed in a world of age-old traditions, captivating stories and...