Though the lotus silk weavers sounds like some sort of company name, I was fairly surprised to learn that it was a literal title and was even more surprised at how silk, that was strong enough to weave, would come from a plant. We were greeted by another guide off of the boat and taken … Continue reading Inle Lake – Part II →

The next morning we were greeted by our driver at the hotel and after a 10 minute walk we came to a small area of the river that was holding around 6 boats along it. The first obstacle was having to get to his, as he was 3 boats in with no way to get … Continue reading Inle Lake – Part I →

One of the joys of travelling through a country rather than over it is that many of the cheaper options are by land, meaning you can spend a lot more time seeing your surroundings while you move from one place to the next. This is about one of the only joys though, as all of … Continue reading Nyaungshwe →

Once we’d taken enough of the sunrise, we returned to the taxi to quicken the time of getting to the hostel and catching up on sleep. Unfortunately, with the early arrival we found ourselves waiting a little while until a room could be available, although it didn’t feel like too long after we walked into … Continue reading Bagan →

With a plan to end up back in Thailand for the Christmas period, we set out for the next country. Unfortunately, the time of year meant that monsoon season had begun in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. This obstacle steered us into visiting a country we hadn’t initially anticipated on seeing, Myanmar. Myanmar … Continue reading Yangon to Bagan →

One common thing you can find around Ubud, and likely most of Bali, is the massive exposure to social media. Lots of the tours and day trips typically advertise that all of the places visited are for Instagram, although to hire a private driver to take you around can be expensive. Fortunately, the owner of … Continue reading Ubud – Part II →

Getting back to Bali wasn’t too bad – a boat trip from Gili Air to Padang Bai and then a bus to Ubud. We arrived in the afternoon and found the homestay amidst a bustling market street, very familiar to what we had experienced in some of the busier cities and towns so far. The … Continue reading Ubud – Part I →

We got to the dockyard in the morning, praying that we wouldn't have to lug kilos of luggage onto a public boat again. Luckily the company kept its word and we were shown a smaller more private boat that could take around 12 people. What we hadn't anticipated was that the only way onto the … Continue reading Gili Air →

When you find yourself in Lombok, the typical progression is to head out to the Gili islands; at least that’s what most of the shuttle bus companies advertise. The Gilis are a group of three islands: the biggest being Gili Trawangan (or Gili T.), the second Gili Air and the smallest being Gili Meno. Of … Continue reading To the Gili Islands →

Getting to the island of Lombok took a while: a long wait at Denpasar airport followed by boarding for around half hour then on top of that, a further half hour wait until the runway was clear. All for a flight that took only 15 minutes. It felt absurd that getting on and off the … Continue reading From Kuta to Kuta →