Malawi

June 29, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

Not a country on many peoples holiday lists, I should imagine.

The border post between Zambia and Malawi was housed in one building, with a set of desks to depart Zambia and another set to enter Malawi. I think this is the first time I’ve come across this set-up at a land border.

We were at the border for a while, mainly waiting for the truck to be cleared, but we eventually set off into Malawi. My first impressions were that the villages seemed bustling (and more solidly built than in Zambia), there were some quite fancy brick houses with fences and security quite close to the border, and then eventually the scenery gave way to hills as we approached a national park.

The road up to the national park was ok but as soon as we entered the park, it deteriorated significantly. We were merely driving through the park but did spot a family of elephants including a small baby elephant less than a year old (which you can tell as it will still fit underneath its mother’s body whilst standing).

The potholes were truly incredible and the road got increasingly dusty. As it was quite warm, the ‘air conditioning’ in the overland truck (opening the windows) meant the dust was in the truck and, increasingly, in my lungs. I soon developed a hacking cough.

By the time we arrived at the accommodation in Ngala on the shores of Lake Malawi, the sun had already set. Fortunately we were staying here for 2 nights and I had given myself the day off the following day to relax after a week of long and bumpy drives since Vic Falls.

I also needed to do a bunch of admin as, due to upcoming travels to Canada, I have had to cut short my Africa trip, and my intended travel to Uganda to see chimps and gorillas will not go ahead. I used the occasionally solid WiFi to arrange the cancellation and rearrange my flights. The battle with my insurance company will come when I get home…

Ngala is on the shores of Lake Malawi, one of the largest lakes in the world. Big enough that you can’t see the other side, and you get waves crashing in to the shoreline. After my admin was dealt with, I spent the rest of the day under the shade on the beach, reading and relaxing. I was very glad of this day to rest up and recharge my batteries for the rest of this trip.

The usual early start the next day as we drove north. The roads were somehow even worse, but we still past more colourful villages. As we drove, I noticed a lot of the villages had water pumps, and there were satellite dishes and football posts everywhere, and so many people wearing football shirts. Football is like a second religion here.

Driving through the villages, there were lots of cries of ‘muzungu muzungu’ from the children – they were excited at seeing the white people in their villages!

The scenery became more dramatic with the land rising steeply by the lake as we arrived at Chitimba for an overnight stop. It was so beautiful on the beach at sunset, with the mountains in the background.

Our brief visit to Malawi concluded the next day, on possibly the worst roads so far – the truck needed repairs when we got to Tanzania! Overall I thought Malawi was a very pretty country, and I’m certain I wouldn’t have got here without doing this overland trip.

Onwards to Tanzania and an immediate change in the quality of the roads!

Vic Falls and Zambia

June 25, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been to Victoria Falls before, about 3 and a half years ago, in a yet-to-be-written post. At that time it was November, and the river flow into the falls was fairly low. Now it’s June, the rainy season has recently ended and there is so much water in the falls that you can see the misty spray from quite some distance away.

The border crossing from Botswana into Zimbabwe was relatively straightforward (and the process has certainly improved in the last 3 years, the visa was handwritten last time, this time it’s a little sticker with a QR code). We arrived at the hotel in Victoria Falls at lunchtime. I had a light lunch as myself and 2 others were going for High Tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel in the afternoon. Absolutely delicious and with the spray rising from the falls as the backdrop – idyllic!

High tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel, featuring the falls in the top left

Dinner that evening (my 4th meal of the day!) was local Zimbabwean food cooked by a ladies cooperative. There must have been at least 15 things to try so I only took a little bit of each, apart from the worms!!

Later that evening we enjoyed a local dance show, Simunye theatre, which told a story of community and belonging in Africa. I loved the dancing and the puppetry.

The next morning I went to view the falls properly. Quite a steep entrance fee to the park, $58 USD, thankfully the card machine was working! (Not always the case in southern and Eastern Africa as it turns out…)

There is a walking route with various lookout points along the side of the falls. There really was so much more water here than last time. If I’m honest I was a bit underwhelmed last time but this time definitely made up for it. I was also extremely glad to have brought a plastic poncho with me as, at various points, the spray was so vociferous it was like having several buckets of water tipped over you!!

After getting soaked and drying off, we looked for somewhere for lunch and happened upon a lovely riverside restaurant (Baines restaurant) where we had a nice salad and refreshing mocktail.

After lunch I headed back to the hotel as I was transferring over to the Zambian side of the falls that afternoon, to Livingstone.

This marked the end of the first leg of this trip, all the way from Cape Town. A driving distance of approximately 3,500 miles in 20 days. Whilst a couple of people from the tour were continuing on with me, most people were leaving the trip here.

We crossed over to Livingstone, Zambia in the late afternoon and arrived at our riverfront hotel, where again I could see the mist and spray of the falls in the distance. The next leg of the trip didn’t officially start until the next morning so I spent the evening with a couple of glasses of vino at the riverfront bar.

An early start to meet the new crew in the morning – pre 7am. After some formalities we hit the road towards Lusaka. As we drove east, the scenery changed from bush, to small colourful villages, and eventually some hills. It feels like a long time since I’ve seen hills as what I saw in both Botswana and Namibia was largely flat open desert and savannah.

After a long, bumpy driving day, we arrived at our overnight accommodation just south of Lusaka.

Another early start the next day to beat the traffic as we drove through Lusaka (actually not busy early on a Saturday morning) and continued east along the Great East Road.

The scenery became more dramatic as we entered the Great Rift Valley, and our bumpy ride was increasingly accompanied by lots of fires in the bush and on the hillside as the locals make charcoal. That, along with the dusty roads, started to irritate my throat.

After another long driving day, we overnighted in Petuake as we were continuing east to the main sight in Zambia on this itinerary, South Luangwa National Park.

We eventually arrived at the park after a 3rd long driving day, though we did arrive in time for a spectacular sunset over the Luangwa River. This was the first place on this leg where we were staying for 2 nights, in some actually very solid safari tents with en suite bathrooms, flushing toilets and a lukewarm shower.

The following morning I chose to do a walking safari, which were pioneered in Zambia. We were accompanied by a guide and a young gentleman armed with a gun in case we encountered any animals which may have harmed us. Thankfully the gun was not required! We learned about the trees and plants and termites. And we saw a lot more animals than I was expecting, including wild (painted) dogs which are a very rare sighting. The guide even said that in his 15 years of walking safaris, he’s never seen wild dogs during the safari!

We were back at the camp for lunch and had a bit of time to relax in the afternoon before we had a sunset safari drive back in the park.

A lot of the ‘usual’ animals on our evening drive. We were just about to stop for a sundowner when the driver spotted a few jeeps parked up obviously looking at something. We headed off to see what was happening, and when we got to the other jeeps there was a leopard peeking out from under the front wheel of one of the other jeeps. She was eyeing up a lone impala. We must have watched for a good 20 minutes as the leopard patiently watched the impala, slowly moving into a ditch to remain hidden. I think the impala could sense the danger as it did eventually move out to more open land. The leopard then settled into the ditch to regroup, and we left to have our belated sundowner drinks in the dark.

The night sky, however, was a bonus. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury all visible in a relatively straight line, and as the sky got darker, many more stars appeared. Living in a city suburb with a street light right outside my front door, I don’t often get the opportunity to see the night sky like I have done throughout this African adventure. It really is spectacular to see. And despite having my DSLR camera with me, I’ve yet to capture a good view of the night sky here on camera.

The following day was another pre dawn start as we headed towards Malawi.

I really enjoyed South Luangwa, but you have to be prepared for some long journeys to get there. The roads in Zambia are not the best, lots of potholes which slowed us down considerably (though Malawian roads would prove to be even more challenging!!), but it was interesting to watch the scenery change and to see the colourful villages as we headed through the country.

Kyoto

April 12, 2026 ~ Cat ~ 1 Comment

A bus and 4 trains from Kawane and we arrived into Kyoto at lunchtime. The train station in Kyoto is absolutely massive, like an airport really, and it has quite a spectacular roof. We went for lunch at a shopping centre attached to the station where there was a ramen floor with lots of small restaurants, holding probably no more than a dozen people each. You ordered from a screen and waited your turn to be seated.

Rainy views of Kyoto and Kyoto tower from Kyoto station skyway

After refuelling we headed to the hotel and had some free time. It was, sadly, raining but I couldn’t just sit in the room so my roommate and I went for a little walk to nearby Nijō-jō Castle. Inside there are these incredible paintings of trees and animals, including leopards which the artists had never seen in real life and were drawing based only on hides. They also have ‘nightingale corridors’ which sound like nightingales as the floorboards creak as you walk along, which was to deter intruders. Really cool. Unfortunately we hadn’t quite given ourselves enough time before both the castle closed and we were meeting up with the rest of the group for a walk through Nishiki Market on our way to dinner.

Our leader on this tour is a bit of a foodie and is taking us to lots of different places to try as many different types of Japanese food as possible, which I am extremely grateful for. Tonight we went Gyukatsu Kyoto, for breaded katsu beef steak (gyukatsu), which you can then cook to your own liking on the table in front of you.

After dinner it had just about stopped raining and we walked past more cherry blossom-lined streets, into the Gion district which is where Geiko and Meiko’s (geishas) work. However, due to tourists being too intrusive, you no longer see them wandering around the streets so we didn’t see any in person. The evening finished with a drink on a rooftop bar with great views over the city.

The next day was a reasonably early start (sadly still in the rain, the poncho came in handy) to take the train out to Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine. This shrine is dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, and has hundreds of scarlet red/orange torii gates which look so picturesque. The writing on them looks really cool as well, though apparently it is just the names of people and companies who have sponsored each of the torii gates!! It’s a good idea to get there early as it was very busy despite the rain. The torii gates create a long walkway up the hill and the further up you get, the fewer people you encounter.

We went to a sake museum after this, to escape the rain and learn about how sake is made. We also had a tasting afterwards of 3 different sakes. I’ve actually never had sake before, and if I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure I like it. I preferred the more fruity ones, there was quite nice melon-y flavoured one, but I think I’ll stick to wine given the choice!

After lunch in a food hall in the basement of Kyoto tower, we had a free afternoon. It was still raining, and whilst most of the group retreated back to the hotel, I went to visit Sanjusangen dō, temple containing 1000 Buddhas. It’s really quite the sight as you walk into the main hall where all the Buddhas are lined up in neat rows, the length of the room. No photos inside but outside in the gardens, the blossoms are out so armed with my poncho and brolly, I wandered though the gardens for some photos.

On the way back, I made a pit stop in Nishiki market for some candied strawberries. It’s strawberry season here and these strawberries were so sweet even after cracking the sugar-coating. Delicious!

That evening for dinner I had eel, cooked over charcoal. This was my first time eating eel and I’d imagined it would have a texture similar to squid, but it was much more like a white fish in texture. I really enjoyed it. The restaurant, like most I’ve been to in Japan, is very small, often sitting at counters, and maybe holding slightly too over a dozen people in total.

This was our last evening in Kyoto – an all too brief visit as there is so much to do and see here. I already feel like I will come back here one day to see more. Kyoto is a big and busy city but I really liked it.

Hong Kong and Macau

April 3, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

5 nights in Singapore and now 7 nights in Hong Kong…this really is the relaxing part of my trip!

A slightly over 3 hour flight from Singapore and I arrived into Hong Kong, and easily the longest immigration queue of my trip so far. Thankfully it was moving and it may have been 15 minutes of a snaking queue before I was through with my little bit of paper which tells me I can stay until September if I wanted to.

The airport in Hong Kong is out west, and my hotel is on Hong Kong Island. The quickest way on public transport is the Airport Express train which goes to Hong Kong station on the island in about 25 minutes. The cost is $120 HKD / £12 (thankfully not quite at Heathrow Express prices!). I also had to take the metro a couple of stops to where I was staying in Sai Ying Pun, but overall this was a very straightforward trip to my hotel. The easiest way to pay for transport, and a whole heap of other things, in Hong Kong is via the Octopus card. You can buy physical cards in 7-Eleven’s or download the Octopus for Tourists app which allows you to add the card to your digital wallet and top up from the cards you already have in your wallet. In my experience this is an essential card to have in Hong Kong as all the transport and a lot of shops and restaurants accept this, as well as the laundrette I used.

One of my reasons for coming to Hong Kong was to catch up with a uni friend who I last saw 10 years ago on my previous chunk of time off work when I also came to Hong Kong. And it’s also on the way to Japan which will be my last stop on this leg of my sabbatical travels.

We managed to meet up on my first evening and went for a catch up over a very relaxing foot massage. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for over 10 years, it really was like no time had passed at all. I travel mostly on my own (if I was waiting to meet someone to travel, I would never leave my house! If you want to come with me on a trip, please holler!), but it has been really fantastic to catch up with a number of people on this long trip. And to meet all the new people I’ve met, who I will hopefully see again at some point.

I spent most of the next day with my friend too, it was so good just to hang out, meet her kids and catch up.

The following day I’d booked a food tour in the afternoon. If you’ve been reading this blog through my SE Asia travels, you’ll know I enjoy a food tour, I think it’s a really good way to get a more local experience, and give you a bit of confidence about the local food. The one I’d chosen was a local dim sum tour, and was half the price of every other food tour in HK on Viator. It was based on HK Island and we went to some very local stops including the Sheung Wan Market which was a supremely local food court. There is no way I’d have found this on my own. 3 hours later and I was very full!

With having a week here, I had been looking for some day excursions, and plumped for a day trip to neighbouring Macau the following day. Like Hong Kong, Macau is a special administrative region of China. It is not mainland China – certainly from an immigration point of view.

After taking a ferry over in the morning (about an hour), and going through immigration, we met with the tour guide in Macau. We started by going to the Kun Iam statue on the waterfront. This is a large statue dedicated to the goddess of mercy. Afterwards we drove past Macau Tower and saw some people bungee jumping off it (no thank you!) before heading to A-Ma Temple, one of the oldest in Macau. It was very busy with tourists and lots of burning incense.

After a buffet lunch, we went to the ruins of St Paul’s, and then walked through the old town where you can really see the Portuguese and European influence in the architecture. The town square could be anywhere on the Mediterranean!

Our last stop of the day was at the Venetian casino. Casinos are banned in mainland China (and Hong Kong), so everyone comes to Macau for the casinos. It’s like a mini Las Vegas. Except that this version of the Venetian is larger than the one in Vegas. It was extremely busy with Chinese tourists.

We got back to Hong Kong via the HZM (Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau) bridge, a 55km bridge and 6km tunnel which join Macau and Hong Kong. A very impressive feat of engineering!

This was a pretty full-on day trip – 12 hours in hotel and I was pretty tired by the end of it, though very happy I’d decided to go to Macau.

I should have had a bit of a rest the following day but instead I’d devised myself an itinerary for Kowloon. First up was Wong Tai Sin temple, which was overrun with tourists so wasn’t the best experience. I took the metro a couple of stops down the line to Chi Lin Nunnery which I’d visited on my previous trip to Hong Kong in 2016. It was so much more peaceful here, way fewer people, and I had a lovely time wandering around the temple. I also went to the neighbouring Nan Lian Gardens and then got back on the metro to head to Mongkok for some lunch. I picked a very quiet rooftop bar for a quick bite to eat before heading back into the madness of Mongkok, and the Ladies Market. And after that I headed back on the metro to Kowloon Walled City Park, which was formerly an incredibly densely populated part of Kowloon before it was demolished in the 1990s. I had planned to visit the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade which gives great views of the Hong Kong Island skyline but I was pretty tired after 2 long days on my feet so I headed back to the hotel and called it a day.

After a lazy start the next day, I headed to the Victoria Peak tram to take me up Victoria Peak. I was quite fortunate it was a relatively clear day, and so got some great views of the city skyline from the top. I can’t really get over how many skyscrapers there are here, and how tightly packed they are. After taking the tram back down, I walked a short distance to the Central Mid Level Escalators which are a very helpful way of climbing the steep streets in the Mid Levels on Hong Kong Island. I took them most of the way to the top and then walked back to my hotel through local neighbourhoods which were fairly quiet in the mid afternoon.

After a quiet evening, I had a quiet final day where I did make it back to Kowloon to walk along the promenade and take in the views.

And that was it for my visit to Hong Kong. This was the longest I will spend in one hotel in my whole year of travels. It was really nice to not have to repack my bag every other day, and also to spend a couple of days not hot-footing it around all the sights. And most of all, so great to see my friend after such a long time. Now off to Japan for the final part of this section of my travels

Singapore

March 25, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

A slightly over 2 hour flight from Bali and I’m back in Singapore for 5 days. Several people had told me that the half a day I had on the way south from Malaysia to Indonesia wasn’t enough (they were right) and so I was back, to spend the longest amount of time in one hotel since Adelaide in mid-December (it’s now the middle of March).

My flight arrived mid afternoon, and having booked a hotel near a metro station that was essentially on the one line from Changi airport, I’d arrived to find that due to engineering works, I would have to take a slightly more convoluted journey. An hour or so later, I had reached the hotel a 2 minute walk from Lavender station feeling quite pleased with myself for navigating the metro. You can pay for Singapore’s metro using contactless cards at the gate so no need to worry about getting tickets from anywhere (though there were manned ticket booths at the stations too).

After sort of unpacking and making use of the air con (low 30s and humid in Singapore), I headed out to Gardens By The Bay in the evening and by the time I’d got some food and meandered around, I’d inadvertently timed it very well for the Garden Rhapsody music and light show which happens every evening at 7.45pm and 8.45pm. I called it a night after that as it had been a fairly long travel day.

The Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay with Marina Bay Sands hotel in the background

I started the next morning with a walk through nearby Kampong Glam. It was quite peaceful wandering through the narrow streets in the morning, this area comes to life in the evening.

Next up I headed to Raffles Hotel for the one drink I had to buy in Singapore, a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar. I was there by 11.30am and found only 2 people in front of me in the queue. Advantage of being a solo patron is that I ended up sat at the bar! Obviously it’s a thing to do here, and it certainly comes at a price (£31 for one drink including tax and tip), but it was pretty cool to be sat at the bar, sipping on the most expensive drink I’ve ever bought, and eating as many of the ‘free’ monkey nuts as I could manage. The queue was snaking round the corner when I left at 12.30pm.

I then wandered towards Little India, and stopped off at a hawker centre for a delicious laksa (£2.50!) for lunch. After spending the afternoon in the AC in the hotel room, I headed to Orchard Road, full of shopping malls, and a quick walk up the very pretty street of Emerald Hill. Back to Kampong Glam for dinner in the evening.

The next morning I went back to Gardens by the Bay to visit the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Tickets for both of these cost $46 SGD. I loved wandering around both of these and getting some houseplant and garden inspiration for when I’m back home!

After some chicken satay for lunch, I continued my botanical day by heading out to the Botanical Gardens. I’d planned this slightly poorly and arrived in the mid afternoon heat. After a very slow wander to a cafe in the centre of the gardens, I had an iced tea and slice of cake before calling it a day and heading back to the cool AC in the hotel.

One of the things I’ve been missing food-wise on my travels in Asia is cheese. And one of the missions I gave myself for Singapore was to find cheese (my other mission was to find shampoo/conditioner for curly hair, only partially successful). My cheese mission was successful and I put myself into a cheese coma!

Considering the prices here, this plus my iced tea was only £25 – not bad!

I needed to walk off the cheese so I headed out to East Singapore in the afternoon, for a walk along the East Coast Beach, and through Katong and the very pretty Peranakan Houses. Not a lot of tourists make it out this way, and it was a very nice, peaceful walk through the neighbourhood and to the nearest MRT station to get me back to my hotel.

On my final day I decided to head to Sentosa Island. Sentosa is essentially an island resort for the city. There are gorgeous beaches here, as well as Universal Studios, an aquarium and a bunch of hotels. I took the monorail over and walked up the beach path to Siloso fort which is the remnants of one of the many forts which in the past fortified Singapore, and free to visit.

After a slow wander back along the beach (it was again a very hot day, I am hoping I will see some benefit from all the walking in the hot humidity when I get home and go running again…), I had Singapore chicken and rice for lunch before heading back to the mainland. There are heaps of shopping malls in Singapore, and whilst I still don’t have any room in my bag, I did enjoy wandering around some of those in the Marina Bay area. I got a bit excited about seeing an M&S Food – I just about resisted the Percy Pigs – for some reason they seem to import the milk from the UK which seems slightly mad…

It was definitely worth coming back to Singapore for a few days. Aside from the obvious tourists sights, I really enjoyed some of the quieter places in East Singapore too. It’s pretty expensive here though and a bit of a shock to the system after the last couple of months in SE Asia. You can keep costs down by eating at hawker centres and taking the metro/MRT (I’ve no idea how they work out the ticketing, I used my debit card at the gate each time I used the MRT which I did fairly extensively over my 5 nights here, and it cost me £10 in total which included getting to and from Changi airport). But definitely worth spending a few days here and I’m sure I’ll be back at some point, if only on a layover.

Bangkok again and Northern Thailand

February 8, 2026 ~ Cat ~ 1 Comment

Back to where I started a month ago, in a nice hotel with a rooftop bar and pool in the heart of Bangkok’s Chinatown. I had 4 nights here which is the longest I’d been in one place since the cricket in Adelaide before Christmas, almost 6 weeks ago. I didn’t have many plans here as I’d already been to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho on my previous visit (and I’ll get to go to Wat Pho again when I join my next trip heading south).

I made it to Lumphini Park (using the metro) and spent time wandering around the streets of Chinatown. I particularly enjoyed meandering through the arty neighbourhood of Talat Noi. I also went to an enormous mall at Siam Center and despite not being in the market for anything being sold there (mostly designer stores and, for some reason, cars), it filled a couple of hours wandering round. I also did another street food tour, this time in the evening, which was a different experience as Chinatown was much busier.

We’ve reached the part of the trip which I hadn’t actually booked when I left the UK. I’d left a couple of weeks here and a couple of weeks in the middle of March for a bit of flexibility. In the run up to Christmas I started looking at options and knowing that on the G Adventure trip we were going straight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on the train, I thought it would be interesting to take a slower route north so I found this trip on TourRadar which helpfully started at the same hotel that the G Adventures trip finished at.

The guided part of the trip started on day 3, bright and early as we left Bangkok at 7am to travel north to Ayutthaya, at one time the capital of Thailand. It is essentially an island surrounded by rivers and we saw 3 temples and had a boat cruise on the river.

The first temple, Wat Phananchoeng, contained the biggest Buddha I have ever seen indoors, it was so big it actually caused me to gasp when I saw it.

People included for size context, at Wat Phananchoeng, Ayutthaya

We also went to Wat Yai Chaimongkhol which has a Buddha head embedded into a tree and finally to Wat Mahathat before getting on the boat for about an hour’s cruise around the city.

We continued to head north and ended the day in Kamphaeng Phet. This was a nice riverside location but felt fairly off the beaten track and not sure there were many other westerners apart from me and the 2 French ladies on my trip. Their English was as good as my French so we were all very thankful for Google Translate as we enjoyed a drink together in the evening.

The next day we went to Lampang, visiting Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, with another glistening pagoda and naga staircase. After lunch we visited San Kamphaeng Road, outside of Chiang Mai, which is home to a number of shops selling various locally produced wares including gems and jewellery, lacquerware and silk. All of the places we stopped were receiving bus loads of tourists.

We then arrived in Chiang Mai for a 2 night stay. I headed off to the night markets for food and a bit of shopping – a replacement skirt and a fan!

The following morning we had an early start (7.30am) to head out to Doi Suthep, which we visited on my previous visit. As this was early on a Saturday morning rather than the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, it was a much quieter experience, and there was a slight chill in the air which I found very pleasant but the locals all had their jumpers and coats on!

It was so peaceful walking around with hardly anyone else there. We were back at the hotel by mid morning and had the rest of the day free. As we didn’t have much free time in Chiang Mai on my last visit, I headed into the old city and to some of the Wats that had been recommended. It had become quite a hot day by this point so it was a fairly slow meander punctuated by lunch.

Another trip to the night market for dinner and a relaxing evening before heading off early the next morning back south to Sukhothai. On the way we stopped in Lamphun, to visit Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, another gleaming gold structure which is a thousand years old.

We continued south and arrived in Sukhothai in the mid afternoon. Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam, and is now a historical park with the ruins of hundreds of temples. It’s possible to cycle between the ruins (motor vehicles are not allowed within the park) but I was not quite dressed for cycling (I had a long skirt on suitable for the temple in Lamphun) so took a golf buggy instead, definitely a better option in the heat! The temples here, some ruined, some having been restored, are in the Khmer style and again I could see some similarities to Angkor.

After overnighting in Sukhothai, we had a long drive back to Bangkok the following day, broken up with a visit to Lopburi, previously famous for the macaques roaming the streets, they’ve now been rehoused just outside the city. We also saw a couple more temples to round off the trip.

We arrived back in Bangkok in the early evening. I’m really glad I decided to this short trip. Whilst I am now a little templed-out, it was very interesting to visit these historic places, which had far fewer tourists at them than the temples in Bangkok. I enjoyed Sukhothai in particular and would recommend anyone coming to northern Thailand to include it in your itinerary.

Now for a few days R&R on Koh Samet before the next trip starts…

Cambodia

February 1, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

My second new country of this trip. We left Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning to try and get to the border at Bavet before the rush. This proved a success and there was no queue as we were stamped out of Vietnam. We walked with all our belongings perhaps a couple of hundred metres to the Cambodia border. As with Laos, I was getting a visa on arrival (it is possible to get an e-visa in advance but you had to print out the confirmation and as I have been travelling since early November and wasn’t sure if I’d have access to a printer, I decided to go with the VOA). I was the only one of the 16 of us needing a visa on arrival (30 USD plus 5 USD stamping fee in cash, no passport photo needed despite what the UK FCO travel advice suggests, could be different at an airport), and as with Laos, I was through the border before most of the rest of the group. And another lovely full page visa in my passport!

We then walked a short distance to pick up our bus in Cambodia and started driving towards Phnom Penh. There is essentially one road from this border post to the capital, and for the most part it seemed lined with shops, stalls and small businesses. The noticeable thing for me was the amount of plastic littering the roadside which made me a little apprehensive as to what state Cambodia would be in.

We stopped for lunch after a couple of hours at a roadside diner, and I had pho (after somehow completely missing it in Vietnam). Pretty tasty.

We drove another couple of hours and arrived in Phnom Penh in the middle of the afternoon. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting in Phnom Penh but it greatly exceeded any expectations I might have had. It sits on the Mekong and as we crossed the bridge into the city, we were greeted by lots of modern, tall buildings, well-maintained streets and public areas and it was very clean with no real sign of the plastic that had littered the roadside most of the way.

After checking into the hotel we had a cyclo tour of the city. Cyclos are 3 wheeled bicycles with a large seat up front for the passenger, which gives you a headlight-level view of the city. We were taken to Wat Phnom, the palace and then dropped off along the river in time for a sunset cruise. It was really interesting to see the city from this angle and I enjoyed the mixture of architecture styles.

We then had about 90 minutes sailing along the Mekong and admiring the views of the city as the sun set. It was pretty glorious to be honest. The Mekong has featured heavily through my journey through Indochina, starting at the Thai-Laos border and sailing for 2 days to Luang Prabang, seeing it again in Vientiane and then again at the delta in Ho Chi Minh City, and finally here in Cambodia. It is so important to life in this part of the world and seeing it through several countries affirms that.

Sunset sailing on the Mekong, Phnom Penh

The next day we went to the S-21 Prison in Phnom Penh, and to the Killing Fields a short drive outside of the city. We had a local guide with us who spoke to us about the atrocities that the Khmer Rouge had committed, and told us of his own experiences during these times, which was incredibly powerful and emotional to hear.

Only a handful of people survived S-21 prison and one of those still alive today was in the grounds of the now museum, sharing his story. It was incredible to be able to meet this gentleman, Chum Mey, who is in his mid 90s.

Whilst learning about the murderous atrocities of an horrific regime isn’t perhaps on many people’s holiday/travel agendas, I think it is an important and necessary visit to make, and many parts of that morning will stay with me for a very long time.

I needed some time to decompress in the afternoon. I probably should have consulted the itinerary a little more closely when I booked this trip as this day was also the anniversary of my husband’s death. Always a difficult day and certainly compounded by what we heard about in the morning.

We ended the day, and our short visit to Phnom Penh, on a happier note on a rooftop bar to watch the sunset. I think I’m losing count of the number of amazing sunsets I’ve seen on this trip, and I’m sure there are many more to come yet.

The next day we headed off to Siem Reap. We had a stop off in the morning at a service station which aside from the usual service station affairs, also had a stall selling various fried critters. I did have a go at some of them (mostly crunchy and fried with garlic and soy) but some were a little too large…

We stopped later for lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking a lake. I had chicken and veg in a lotus leaf which was very good.

We arrived in Siem Reap around mid afternoon, and headed out on a tuk tuk tour of the city and countryside. We saw a large mural in the city which has been painted to reflect the experiences of the recent conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, as well as receiving a blessing from a monk in a local temple before driving out to the countryside for some street snacks and yet another awesome sunset. The tuk tuks were all driven by ladies and it felt good to be supporting the ladies in building jobs for themselves.

The next day was the first of 2 days spent in the Angkor complex. On the first day we visited the Bayon temple, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm.

There is a lot of restoration work going on but it is amazing to see these structures, a lot of which date from the 12th century. The detail in the stonework in the galleries is truly incredible.

We had a free afternoon and I spent the time relaxing before we went to an Apsara dance show and dinner in the evening. Certainly aimed at tourists, the food was a 5 course tasting menu of Khmer food which was delicious. The dinner was accompanied by various traditional Apsara dances and some martial arts. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

I was up early the next morning as this was my one chance to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. We left the hotel at 5am and drove out about 20 minutes to the temple complex. It was still pitch black when we arrived and sat ourselves by the moat. Whilst the sunrise itself was disappointing due to it being cloudy, it was pretty incredible to see Angkor Wat emerge out of the darkness.

After breakfast which the hotel had kindly packed for us, we had a tour around the Angkor Wat complex which was very impressive to see up close. At this time in the morning it also wasn’t too busy and the temperature was reasonable too.

Again, some renovations ongoing, but to see the craftsmanship in the stone work and the galleries was really special. It is absolutely worth seeing in person and if you get the chance to come to Cambodia, you should certainly spend a few days here.

After a final evening in Siem Reap, my short time in Cambodia had come to an end and we flew back to Bangkok the next day, back to where I’d started my Indochina journey almost a month earlier. It’s been an amazing journey through 4 countries and I’m grateful to have had the time to be able to do this trip. One of the things I’m trying to do in my extended break from work is to do trips that I can’t fit into a couple of weeks’ holiday, and this certainly ticked that box!!

Now for a few days downtime in Bangkok before heading back to see a bit more of northern Thailand…

Hue and Hoi An

January 26, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

We arrived on the overnight train in Hue on time but I’d be lying if I said I’d had a restful night. The train was newer than last time (all toilets were western rather than squats) but the mattresses were still as solid and it was still a very jiggly journey not massively conducive to sleep…

We arrived at the hotel too early for check in but early enough for breakfast. After breakfast we headed off to see the main sites in Hue, starting with the Citadel, a huge fortified imperial city built in the early 1800s. Large parts were destroyed during the Vietnam War and there was restoration work ongoing around the site. Indeed I didn’t remember some of the buildings we saw this time from my previous visit and the tour guide said that some of the restorations had been completed quite recently.

We then headed out to the Thien Mu Pagoda, a short journey south of the city. I did remember this from last time! I think the photos I took last time kept it in my mind. By this point the morning was warming up, and getting more humid.

Some of us had then opted for a motorbike tour (as a passenger I hasten to add!!), which included visiting the Royal Tombs (also under renovation and we didn’t see them all), an ancient arena previously used for elephant and tiger fighting, driving into the countryside and past rice fields, and learning about growing and harvesting rice which an absolute staple with every meal.

We were back at the hotel by mid afternoon and had the rest of the day free before dinner. I think Hue has gotten more lively since my previous visit. There was quite a bustling restaurant and bar area and after dinner a few of us spent the rest of the evening sat on the roadside on the tiny chairs drinking beer and people watching.

We set off the next morning, driving south over the Hai Van Pass on our way to Hoi An. It’s a pretty spectacular drive climbing up over the hills (mountains?) and if anyone has seen the Vietnam episode of Top Gear, you might remember this part. We were blessed with some pretty good weather to see up and down the coast.

We arrived into Hoi An in the late afternoon. I’ve said elsewhere before that Hoi An is the prettiest place I’ve ever been and I still think that is the case despite the hoards of tourists making it less peaceful and relaxing than last time…

The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site and you need to buy a ticket to enter (120,000 Vietnamese Dong / c£3.50) which lasted for the duration of our stay in Hoi An. The ticket also includes entrance to up to 5 specific monuments/temples/museums/cultural experiences out of more than 30 in the old town.

In the evenings, Hoi An really comes to life with all the colourful lanterns and riverboats, as well as the night market and the many bars and restaurants up and down the riverfront. We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river and then spent the evening listening to live music in an Irish bar.

We had 2 full days in Hoi An. I visited one of the cultural performances in the old town in the morning – one of the 5 specific entries with the old town ticket. It was interesting to see the traditional costumes and dancing during the 30 minute show. We then had an included lunch at Oodles Of Noodles, a project supported by G Adventures which helps children living on the streets by giving them hospitality training, English lessons and providing accommodation in order to help them create a life and future for themselves. We also visited this restaurant last time and it’s such a good initiative that really makes a difference. The food was delicious too!

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the old town, in some of the temples, over the Japanese bridge, and up and down the pretty lanes. Hoi An was impacted by heavy flooding as recently as last October but you’d never know as everything was clean and tidy.

On the final day in Hoi An I treated myself to a 90 minute hot stone massage for the bargain price of £12!! If you ever come to Hoi An, you should be treating yourselves to multiple massages at these prices! I also had some fantastic Vietnamese food in a local restaurant. I really think Vietnamese food might be my favourite cuisine I’ve had whilst travelling.

I really enjoyed revisiting these parts of Vietnam. Hue was more lively and fun than I’d remembered, and Hoi An is just so pretty, despite there being too many tourists now (of which, I do realise, I am one of those!!)

Next stop is a flight south to Saigon…

Hanoi and Halong Bay

January 24, 2026 ~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

We arrived into the airport in Hanoi in the late afternoon after a 45 minute flight from Vientiane during which time we were thrown a fairly decent sandwich. On the descent, you could see the smog hanging low over the city, and the air quality was ‘very unhealthy’. After inhaling quite a lot of dust and pollution in Laos, my throat and lungs were not very happy…

I’ve been to Vietnam before, in 2017, and in fact I am doing the exact same route with the same company. It has been interesting to see how things have changed in the last 9 years. The first noticeable difference was the number of cars on the roads. Last time they really were few and far between (due to high import taxes and lack of access to credit), with almost everyone driving scooters or motorbikes. There are so many more cars now (due to easier access to credit) and a lot of large EVs too. This makes crossing the road even more tricky as, while the scooters can weave around you, cars aren’t quite so nimble. I also felt that they are less willing to stop for pedestrians. Not that the traffic actually stops, you very much do just have to walk into the road with a sense of purpose and don’t stop until you get to the other side!!

After checking into the hotel, we went for dinner (Bun Cha for me) and then for drinks on Hanoi’s Beer Street

Bun Cha – minced pork meatballs in soup with white vermicelli noodles

The next day started with a trip to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Despite his wishes to be cremated and scattered around Vietnam, he was embalmed for people to proceed past him every day. A bit of an odd experience if I’m perfectly honest. We also went to the palace which is alongside the mausoleum and saw the stilt house that was built for Ho Chi Minh as he preferred this than the grander presidential palace.

Afterwards we went to possibly one of the newer ‘sights’ in Hanoi, Train Street. This is a narrow street which the trains from Ga Ha Noi pass through on their way out of the city. It’s lined with cafes and coffee shops and has definitely become something for the ‘gram.

We had an egg coffee, a Hanoi specialty, whilst we waited for the train to come through. When it’s on its way, the ladies come out of all the cafes and blow their whistles to clear all the tourists off the tracks (as it’s sort of a regular street when the trains aren’t there) and then the train chugs slowly past.

A free afternoon meant I retraced some of the things I remembered from my last trip, including a walk around Hoan Kiam lake, which had lots of beautiful plants and flowers in bloom, as well as a lunch stop at Banh Mi 25 which has become significantly more popular since my previous visit. Great banh mi though!!

In the evening we went to a Water Puppet Theatre show. Water puppets are particular to Vietnam and the puppetry was very interesting to watch even if I couldn’t really follow what was going on as it was all in Vietnamese!

This evening marked the final night of the trip for most of the group who had booked a 2 week trip from Bangkok to Hanoi (I am on nearly a month’s loop back to Bangkok), and we also met a number of new travellers who would be joining for the Vietnam leg of the trip. After dinner in a local restaurant, the Thailand and Laos crew enjoyed a final night on Beer Street to say our goodbyes.

It was a relatively early start with the new group the following morning as we headed the 4 or so hours out to Halong Bay for an overnight junk boat stay.

As we did last time, we had a stop at a workshop for disabled people, mostly women, where they are taught to sew and embroider. The artwork they produce is fantastic but as I’m not going home for 3 more months, I didn’t purchase anything.

We arrived in Halong Bay (the city is increasingly resembling Gold Coast with high rises and hotels) around midday and got on our junk boat which would be home for the next 24 hours. The weather was perfect, blue sky (unlike last time) and pleasantly warm. As we set sail we were served a delicious lunch which ended up being many different dishes being brought out for us to eat – more food than we could all manage.

Our home for the night and Halong Bay views

We sailed through the bay and past soaring limestone karsts on our way to Ti Top, an island with a viewpoint some 400 or so steps upwards. Much much busier than last time but still worth the views

After a gentle row around a bit of a lagoon, it was back to the boat for an incredible sunset, and more delicious food for dinner.

The following morning was a fairly early start to go to the caves, and then afterwards we had brunch whilst sailing back to land.

We drove back to Hanoi and arrived mid afternoon. I opted to do a food tour for the few hours before our overnight train south to Hue. Lots more delicious food and finished off with an egg coffee with an added shot of rum!!

I hugely enjoyed revisiting both these places. I really like the hustle and bustle of Hanoi’s old town even if it is completely exhausting trying to cross the road! And it was very special to see Halong Bay with beautiful clear blue sky.

Onwards on the night train to Hue…

Darwin and Townsville

December 9, 2025 ~ Cat ~ 2 Comments

There is slightly over a week between each of the first 3 test matches so I am taking the opportunity to see some other bits of Australia that I’ve not been to before. First up was a 3 hour 40 minute flight from Perth to Darwin. After struggling at the bag drop alongside Mike Atherton and Steven Finn, the flight was uneventful and I even had a spare seat beside me – result!

I arrived in a sticky Darwin in the early evening, and after a brief wait for the Uber pricing to reduce slightly, I arrived at my hotel, which is the biggest bargain accommodation so far. Outside of the cricket and my side trips in Perth, I have been staying in hostels to keep the cost down. I am being a little picky but have generally been paying slightly over £30 per night for shared accommodation. This place (DCH on Mitchell) was £38 per night for my own en suite room. Not too many frills at the hotel but the room was clean and had a fridge and TV, the AC worked, and there were toiletries in the bathroom so all in all, a very good deal.

The sun was setting by the time I’d arrived, so I had a brief walk around Darwin and its waterfront. The city centre is pretty small and easy to walk around. I was expecting humidity here and I was not wrong, but it possibly wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared. A cyclone had blown through only a few days beforehand which may have tempered the heat and humidity a little bit. There were several trees across the city that had been uprooted by the winds.

I only had 1 full day in Darwin, which I think is plenty to see the city. But you can easily spend longer in the region with a car, enabling easier access to the national parks.

I took an Uber to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory – probably only a 10 minute drive but humidity. An interesting (and free) museum with a number of thought-provoking exhibits including some Aboriginal Art, an exhibition on the 1974 Christmas Day cyclone which essentially destroyed Darwin, and maritime exhibits with examples of different types of boats used in this part of the world, including Indonesia and SE Asia which are much closer to Darwin than other Australian state capitals.

I was particularly struck by the introduction to the Aboriginal art exhibits which started with the words ‘in so-called Australia…’. The other very noticeable thing almost everywhere I’ve been so far is the acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land and their ancestors. I don’t recall so much of this in my previous visits to Australia, or maybe I wasn’t paying so much attention…

After a very good lunch at the museum cafe, I walked back to the hotel, via the Botanical Gardens which were, unfortunately, closed due to the impacts of the cyclone. I did, however, manage to sneak in to some bits, which helped make the hot and humid walk slightly more direct!

After making it back to the hotel and some AC, I spent the afternoon chilling out before another walk to the waterfront and then a very reasonably priced (and good) sushi dinner.

My very brief visit to Darwin was over the next morning as I headed back to the airport for my flight to Townsville.

I was at the airport way too early, partly as a result of basically only ever taking international flights. You’d be fine rocking up about 90 minutes before a domestic flight here, no one has yet looked at my ID on the 2 internal flights I’ve taken so far, and there are no liquid restrictions in hand luggage.

I arrived in Townsville mid afternoon after a 2 and a half hour flight. As I was staying with a friend in Townsville, she came to pick me up from the airport, and after dropping my bags at her place, we went for a late lunch on the Strand. After lunch (by now late afternoon), we had a lovely walk along the Strand, which is fairly well shaded so the heat and humidity wasn’t too bad for me at this point. In the evening, we drove up Castle Hill for views of the city.

We went to Magnetic Island the next day which is just a 15 minute ferry ride from Townsville. Maggie Island, as the locals call it, is a beautiful little island off the coast with some great beaches and hiking trails. There is a hop on hop off bus (for something ridiculous like $1 each for a day ticket) which runs between the ferry terminal and Horseshoe Bay and allows easy access to the main sights. We did the Forts Walk, along with quite a few other people. This is an approximately 2km hike up to some WW2 fortifications. It was very humid so it was a hot and sticky walk but well worth it for the views.

After lunch we headed back on a mid afternoon ferry to some cool and refreshing air conditioning. The AC is absolutely vital here, I’d dread to have to deal with the heat and humidity without it. Apparently I’ve visited at a less than ideal time for the humidity, next time I shall visit in the winter!

The next morning I met up with an old school friend who lives out here and had been in touch when I’d posted on Facebook that I was in Australia. It must be more than 20 years since we saw each other and it was great to catch up and hear how he’s settled into life over here. Just slightly different to Colne!!

My brief visit to Townsville was over that afternoon, and I boarded the Spirit of Queensland, a long distance train which runs 3 times a week in both directions between Cairns and Brisbane. It was running an hour late by the time it arrived into Townsville, but we eventually boarded and I settled into my Railbed seat and enjoyed watching the scenery pass by. The weather got more moody as we headed south and there were the occasional flashes of lightning. Dinner was served in the early evening (complete with gratis alcoholic beverage) and then the staff came through to change the seats into beds at 8pm (for those wanting an early night) and at 9pm (also for those wanting an early night…). The train makes stops probably every 90 minutes or so through the night before its scheduled arrival into Brisbane at 9am so I wasn’t worried about having to wake up in the middle of the night for my stop. By the time we were awoken at 6am to return the beds to seats for those of us still on board, we were running nearly 3 hours behind schedule. Breakfast was served at around 7.30am and we eventually trundled into Brisbane at 11.20am. Thankfully for me, the delay wasn’t a problem and was actually an advantage as I was able to check in to the hostel when I arrived.

It might sound odd but the train was genuinely one of the things I was most looking forward to in Australia. A 20 hour (well 22 hour) train ride, with plenty of legroom, bed, entertainment, dinner and breakfast cost me about £155. I really enjoyed watching the scenery pass, being able to lie flat (even if I didn’t really get that much sleep), and arriving at my destination without the various stresses of air travel. There wasn’t much phone signal outside of the stations so not being able to look at my phone every few minutes was also quite refreshing!! Trains will feature again at various points in my travels and I’m already looking forward to them.

After a couple of hot and humid destinations, I was glad to arrive into a slightly more manageable Brisbane for the next week or so…stay tuned for my next post to hear all about that!

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