I rarely write posts like this, but in the wake of the brutal murder of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao I feel compelled to write about the topic of safety for young female travellers, particularly …
8 Things that Might Surprise You About Living in Mumbai
All these points are specific to how I feel about Mumbai, where I live and work. I am not an authority on what living in another Indian city is like. Of course, I am also well aware that my …
Slum Tourism: Life Inside the Real Dharavi
The monsoon rains have waned, swelling Mumbai’s air with thick, sticky summer heat. It was in heat like this that I started my tour of Dharavi— the slum that was once considered the largest slum in Asia, and the area …
My Top 5 Wow-Factor Destinations
According to the dictionary, spectacular is an adjective that means ‘beautiful in a dramatic and eye-catching way’; synonyms of which are striking, picturesque, breathtaking, arresting, glorious, and my two favourites, sublime, and awesome. Awesome as in the Romantic poets’ …
Unwinding in Udaipur
India has blessed us with a number of long weekends recently, thanks to a large number of festivals and celebrations. Most of these holidays I have spent either recovering from busy working weeks, or getting to know Mumbai better—although I …
Pigeon Purge
Before I moved to Mumbai I read many blogs about living in India, and became an avid reader of Rachel, the Hippie-in-Heels. She writes a regular feature called ‘This Is India’ in which she shares amusing anecdotes about what …
Making Myself At Home In Mumbai
It has been a while since I last wrote anything on this blog – over a month in fact – and I can’t quite believe how quickly my first month in India has passed.
When we arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji …
So Long, Sweden! I’m Going To Miss You.
Four years ago I moved to Sweden; a country often associated with long, cold, snowy winters. But, little did I know that after the harsh winter Swedes are rewarded with beautiful summers where the sun shines all day long. In …
The Eden Project: A Rainforest Without Bugs!
If you want to experience the rainforest’s exotic flora and fauna, but are terrified of bugs, then the Eden Project is for you!
There are many cool things to do and see in Cornwall, but the Eden Project is highly …
7 Great Ways To Spend Summer in Stockholm
Stockholm is a summer city; its leafy parks, rocky beaches, and swathes of Baltic water that swirl around the city’s 14 islands all seem to have been designed for long summer days where the sky barely darkens.
Emerging from a …
Finding History and Nature in Gorgeous Gotland
In my last post I write about Visby, a perfectly preserved medieval town and UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Swedish island of Gotland; but the colourful labyrinthine alleys of this Baltic-blasted, cobbled town are not the only thing worth …
Surprising Skopje, Macedonia
One thing travelling teaches you is the element of surprise.
Cities long-hailed as great places to visit can disappoint (Vienna, I’m looking at you), and places often ignored, turn out to be some of the most beautiful and inspiring (hello, …
What to do in Skopje When It Rains
You’ve just flown 3 hours south after a long, dark and exceptionally rainy Scandinavian winter, in the hopes of finding some spring sunshine only to step off the plane into colder, greyer, and wetter weather than you left behind.
That’s …
The Time I Didn’t Make It to Anjuna
[mks_boxquote align=”right” width=”400″ arrow=”0″]These were the days before the technology revolution: we had no laptops, not even a regular phone. We didn’t even have a watch between us. We were two foreign females, alone in the middle of nowhere, …
Life Advice From ‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’
**Warning** This post contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen The Secret Life of Walter Mitty turn off the computer right now, go and see it, and come back later.
From the first moment I saw a trailer for the …
My Upcoming Summer Plans
Now that the light is finally shining at the end of Sweden’s long, wintry tunnel, I am feeling the urge to climb out from under the thick duvet I have hidden under for the last 6 months and plan …
10 Awesome Movie Locations Around The World
When I travel I don’t deliberately seek out places that have been used as film locations, but every now and then I happen to stumble into one. Here is a round-up of the 10 best movie locations that I have …
Stockholm Winter Blues. Or, What Happens When the Snow Doesn’t Come.
Stockholm is a truly stunning city; that much has been established by pretty much any traveller to set foot on the cobbled stones of the Old Town. In the short summer months, boats chug across sparkling inlets that separate each …
25 Signs You’re a Long-Term Expat
I have been an expat for almost a decade. After a year in Tokyo waaaaaay back in 2002, I left the UK permanently on July 27th, 2007, when I moved to Vietnam. Since then I have also lived in Tenerife, …
The Highs and Lows of Searching for the Northern Lights
[mks_boxquote align=”right” width=”150″ arrow=”0″]”An obsession consumed me, and the more I saw, the more I wanted”[/mks_boxquote]Relentless blasts of icy wind grasped at the exposed skin of my cheeks, the only flesh not covered in layers of wool and …