In 1974 a poor farmer named Mr. Yang was digging a new well in his field when a head rolled out of the earth landing at his feet, followed by an arm, hand outstretched, as if trying to grasp him. He ran in terror believing his ancestors had returned from the afterlife to punish him. […]
We took a short flight in a small plane from Yangon, met with Wyn our new guide and were soon on the road to Mandalay. A surprisingly good road, more like a UK dual carriageway, but as she explained Mandalay is the centre of the commercial world for Myanmar with a 300 mile direct access […]
Ayers Rock and Uluru, it has two names. In 1993, a dual naming policy was adopted that allowed official place names to consist of both the traditional Aboriginal name and the English name. ‘Ayers Rock / Uluru’ became the first official dual-named site in Australia’s Northern Territory. Our flight from Sydney to Uluru (for simplicity […]
Kauai is the fourth largest and oldest of the Hawaiian Islands. Known as ‘The Garden Isle’ it has a perimeter of 90 miles of secluded coastline with lush vegetation, majestic valleys, captivating cliffs, tropical rainforest, waterfalls, rivers and breathtakingly beautiful beaches. Kauai is the result of volcanic eruption, with a crater in the centre of […]
We had been planning our once-in-a-lifetime adventure for nearly a year; 10 months travel around the world visiting 15 countries to explore the history, landscape, wildlife, people and food of each destination across South America, Australasia, the Polynesian Triangle, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Our adventure included some of the must-see attractions of global travel; […]
We travelled the world visiting 15 countries in 10 months but nothing could have prepared us for the horror we found during our visits to the security prison and the killings fields, that day in Phnom Penh. Pol Pot established Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge controlled state, and took over the Tuol Svay Prey High School […]
On our journey to pick up the boat at Pakkoku taking us down the Irrawaddy river to Bagan, I asked our guide Wyn about a rather peculiar practice I had noticed with the locals in Myanmar. Every morning they paint their faces with a yellow substance, looking like very poorly applied make up, some add […]
Lake Titicaca was a ‘must-see’ destination on our world tour of 15 countries in 10 months. But we found there is only one way to travel from beautiful Colca Canyon to Lake Titicaca; that’s the roller-coaster road over the volcanic mountains up to 4,910 metres and down into Puna, the elegant city on the banks […]
Our world tour of 15 countries in 10 months included 52 flights one of which was from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado to be met by our driver and transferred to the banks of the golden brown Madre de Dios River. We boarded a long-tailed boat for a 45 minute journey deep into the rainforest to arrive […]
The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest in the world, some parts of it have never seen rain. It is the oldest in the world at 150M years and the highest in the world – we visited some parts at 4,600 metres. It is also simply huge at 1,500 sq km and has many […]
I’m not entirely sure the Australians quite get Christmas, at least not the way the British do. There are very few decorations in the towns. No lights wound around lampposts, draped over trees or suspended across streets. No Christmas Markets where busy villages are pedestrianised for late night shopping, sweet mince pies and hot mulled […]
The last of the 15 countries we visited in our 10 month adventure was Japan and specifically the village of Koyasan on Mount Koya, the most sacred place in Japan. It is also remote, so after four hours of travel by subway, local trains, the wonderful bullet train, the Nankai Electric Railway, a bus and […]
If you drive south from Port Douglas, Australia, hugging the coast on the Captain Cook Highway towards Cairns, you arrive at the Thala Beach Nature Reserve – where the World Heritage Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. The Nature Reserve Hotel is located high on a private peninsular jutting out into the Coral Sea overlooking […]
Neither of us had been on a cruise before, we had always been put off by the thousands of people disgorged onto a small town or island. So the concept of small ship cruising that would provide a more authentic, personal and less commercial experience was very appealing, particularly as it would allow us to […]
Siem Reap literally translates to ‘Siam Defeated’, Siam being the former name of Thailand. It is the gateway to the Angkor region, itself a mega city in the 12th Century, supporting 0.1% of the world’s population making it the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire which […]
The Galapagos are 16 volcanic islands and hundreds of islets in the middle of the Pacific Ocean straddling the equator 950 km from the South American coast. Our five day cruise was on La Pinta, a ship accommodating just 48 guests accompanied by 4 experienced Naturalist Guides hosting excursions during the day and presentations on […]
