Udawalawe National Park
We set off before the sun had risen after a milky cuppa (a Sri Lankan favourite) in a jeep with a family of four from France. The jeep was a homemade safari jeep, with comfy seats welded into the back of a pick up, none the less it did the job. We weren't inside the park two minutes when we came acr...
Bundi
Chaotic and intense do not apply in this town, with words such as tranquil, laid-back, enchanting and extraordinary much more appropriate instead. Picture a large desert hill, with a small town nestled into its base, a town with hundreds of narrow lanes creating a maze of homes, shops and temples, m...
Ranthambore National Park
Ranthambore National Park is one of the biggest and most renowned national park in Northern India. The park is located in the Sawai Madhopur district of southeastern Rajasthan, which is about 130 km from Jaipur. Being considered as one of the famous and former hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jai...
Pokhara
En arrivant à Pokhara on est allés au shop de Sita la femme népalaise de Cédric, un pote à Cédric le slackliner de Dublin, qui tient un shop de bijoux en macramé dans la rue principale de Pokhara. On a discuté 5 minutes puis, complètement crevé de la journée ayant commencée à 5h pour voir le lever d...
Hiking the Annapurna Circuit
We rose in the dark to get the bus to Besisahar. Fooled into thinking we were getting a tourist bus we soon realised our expectations were a lot lower than the reality! We all squeezed into the bus. Sitting next to the driver on a bench with Hugo's legs wrapped around me we held on for the four hour...
Bimalnagar et Bandipur
En chemin pour Pokhara depuis Kathmandou on s'est arrêté à Bimalnagar. Nous avions en effet repérés là-bas un super site de grimpe alors on a décidé de rester quelques jours. Sans regret: le site était magnifique, nous avions une super vue en face sur l’Himalaya et les voies étaient belles. Je me su...
Ubud
We headed to South West Bali for our last few days; and stayed with a wonderful family just south of Ubud. Their home was like an art gallery, as the father was an artist beautiful canvass lined the walls of every room. They had built a little wooden chalet for guests to stay in, carefully adorned w...
Amed
We landed on the black sand beaches of Amed, North East Bali to visit a friend of Hugo's; Nico, who works at Fun Divers School. Although we were in Bali, it felt more like France - the majority of tourists in the area were French and everywhere we looked adverts and signs were displayed en francais!...
Flores to Bali
The next morning, the journey began again. We took a boat with Wanau Adventure company, from the port of Labuan Bajo for 3 nights to Lombok - another island about 600 km away. The boat was like a budget cruise, with a few little cabins and a covered deck with mattresses for everyone to sleep on. We...
Flores
We landed in Labuan Bajo, North West Flores on a Thursday. We had a couple of days to explore prior to getting a boat from Flores all the way to Bali on Sunday. Hugo came down with a high fever and our first evening we did little more than watch the sunset at Amelia Viewpoint; a beautiful hilltop on...
Jungle Trekking
Hugo and I went our separate ways for a few days as he wasn't up for the 16 hour bus trip across the country. Exhausted after the journey, (which had kept me awake all night as the driver enjoyed blaring music at full volume with all the windows open) I arrived in Bukit Lawang. I stayed at a hotel b...
Banyak island bliss
Randomly we met a few people on our boat returning from Lake Toba and they told us about their next destination - beautiful untouched islands off the west coast of Sumatra. After a few minutes of them telling us about it we decided to scrap our plans entirely and join them! It took a total of 2 days...
Lake Toba
After a long journey and almost a day in the airport of Singapore we arrived in Medan, Northern Sumatra. We were immediately landed into the chaos of Sumatra. While driving, there were no official sides to the road, the cars swerved as they pleased along the bumpy tracks. The city of Medan was vast...
L'ascension du Mt. Kinabalu
Après une nuit dans notre hôtel pas cher et un peu crasseux avouons-le à Kinabalu, on a recherché un bus pour aller à mont Kinabalu, et attendu quelques heures près du bus pour attendre que le but se remplisse un maximum pour partir. L'occasion de se manger un énième roti canai ! Une fois sorti du b...
Borneo
From a shiny Singapore we landed in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo and were immersed once again into the chaos of Asia. Buses heaved along with open doors, motorbikes scooted to and fro and horns blared. When we finally got to our hostel we didn't know what to do with our time in Borneo, overwhelmed with all...
The wonder of Singapore
Singapour n'a duré que 5 jours mais a été mémorable. On a logé chez une amie, Betty, une française que je connais de Dublin et qui maintenant bosse ici. Singap est de base ultra-facile pour se repérer, obtenir des infos etc. et en plus de ça le fait d'être avec elle connaissant déjà bien la ville a...
Kuala Lumpur
After struggling to find decent accomodation near our climbing spot we decided to look elsewhere and found Natashmn, a local Malay living beside the Batu Caves to Couchsurf with. She lived in this incredible brand new apartment towering 23 floors high overlooking the city of Kuala Lumpur. She welcom...
Kecil Island
After having the full Asian experience - aka. A night spent on the toilet vomiting our guts out from a bout of food poisoning we gladly got on a boat to the Perhentian Islands. They are a group of small coral-fringes islands on the northeasten coast of West Malaysia close to the Thai border. We stay...
Penang
Aprés des aurevoirs tristounets à l'aéroport, 3 avions, et 22h de vol, je suis enfin arrivé à Penang, une grande île de 300km2 au nord-ouest de la Malaisie, réputée pour ses plaisirs culinaires, sa capitale cosmopolite Georgetown, et son petit bout de jungle. Il fait super chaud, et humide. Et mon c...
Xuay Xai to Luang Prabang
The sign behind the drivers head, said the bus was strictly licensed to seat 24 passengers. No one seeemd concerned that there were 36 passengers, and a ton of luggage on the roof. The bus groaned on and in no time we were hurling down windy roads with sick bags being flung out the window every few...
Laung Namtha
Our bus journey to Luang Namtha ended up being a total of 7 hours even though the distance was a mere 200 kilometers. The locals on the bus were awfully car sick and spent most of the journey getting sick in plastic bags then flinging them out the window. This country still hasn't realised the destr...
Nong Khiaw
Out next stop was Nong Khiaw, a small little town surrounded by high peaks and divided by a chocolate covered river. Our first evening there we met Martha, a Welsh girl who joined us for dinner on Mama Alex's. The next morning the four of us headed on a tour with Tiger Trail your company to the "100...
Luang Prabang
Our first day in Luang Prabang was as action packed as you could make it. We rode at 5am to take part in the alms giving ceremony in which monks of all ages walk their way to the monasteries and the local people line the streets to hand them food on their way. After visiting the Way Xieng Thong Temp...
Life in Ha Giang
Although I only spent a few weeks at this small family run hostel I felt that I learned a lot. My daily chores were few, mainly interacting with guests, teaching people to drive motorbikes or helping at the reception desk. But they gladly took me in as part of their family and we all sat down togeth...
Ha Giang Motorbike Loop
My hostel kindly allowed me check in at 5am when my bus arrived so I could head back to bed for a few hours. The next day was spent recovering from the horrendous night bus but the hostel staff were the nicest Vietnamese people I'd met so far which made it somewhat easier. They invited me to join th...
Cat Ba Island
I took the bus in the afternoon to Cat Ba Island, the largest of 2000 limestone islands situated in The Gulf of Tonkin. These beautifully shaped islands rise up from the blue green ocean and form the famous Halong Bay. Halong Bay is located on the northeast side of Vietnam, a three and a half hour d...
Phong Nha
It was 'only' a five hour bus ride to Phong Nha, a huge national park in Central Vietnam. It's famous for it's 400+ caves yet only 35% of the actual national park is discovered with the majority of it covered in dense impassable rainforest. Until recently the national park was strictly controlled by...
Hoi An & Hue
I arrived in Hoi An early after a long overnight bus from Nha Trang. I joined a few other sleep deprived backpackers and headed for breakfast in the town famous for its Banh Mi (filled bread roll). In this small little town we were surprised to hear that it hosted over 400 tailors. Walking down the...
Da Lat
Next stop Da Lat. It's a small city up in the mountains at an altitude of 1400m. The air was a 'cool' 28 degrees and it was lovely to be able to walk down the street without beads of sweat trickling down your arms, even though the locals were bundled up in hats, jackets & scarves! The city has a rea...
Mui Ne
Quick stop at the Seaside of Mui Ne. It wasn't on my itinerary but Marion, a French girl I met in Ben Tre convinced me otherwise. A day at the beach seemed like a welcoming break from the humidity and mosquitos. Most of the day was spent either in the warm water of the southern Chinese Sea (which is...
Ben Tre
I headed for the countryside, desperate to escape the madness of Saigon. A three hour bus ride South brought me to the little town of Ben Tre, one of the riverside towns on the Mekong Delta. The coffee coloured waters winded their way along channels lined with water palms and bamboo huts nestled in...
Saigon
I landed into the chaos of Saigon city, the constant hum of ten million people jetting about. The Saigon ninga scoots about with a horn as their third brake. It's a world away from Killarney. Yet home isn't far away with Paul Murphy and Pa Donohue living here. I met them everyday and they introduced...