I always imagined that drinking vodka is a national pastime in Russia so imagine my surprise when I discovered that it is almost impossible to find a local bar in St.Petersburg!
Of course, this is based entirely on my own …
St.Petersburg – No Visa Required.
According to the St.Petersburg Times officials are concerned about the lack of tourism to the city and measures have been put into place to address the problem. In early April of this year visa rules were changed to allow ferry …
A Few Hours in Helsinki – Photo Essay
We had a few hours to spend in Helsinki after taking the Silja line ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki and then planning to take the St.Petersline from Helsinki to St.Petersburg. The weather was clear and sunny, if a bit cold.…
Climbing the World’s Most Perfect Volcano
“A wise man climbs Mt. Fuji once, only a fool climbs twice” Japanese Proverb.
Consider this the writing of a fool for I have climbed Mt. Fuji twice.
At 3776m or 12,395ft, Fuji-San is the highest mountain in Japan. …
My Saigon Ink
Getting a tattoo while travelling. Great souvenir or terrible mistake?
Personally I think that it is a great idea and I had one done while I was in Vietnam. The downside of travelling for prolonged periods of time is …
Chaul Chnam Thmey – Khmer New Year
Cambodia is quite possibly my favourite country on my travels so far. There is just something about the rural countryside and its proud people that I love to return to time and time again. I have mentioned Sihanoukville before as …
Tokyo from the Air
Tokyo is a vast urban jungle that stretches as far as the eye can see. From the ground it is a complex web of buildings, bridges and train tracks that criss-cross for miles and miles. The only way to fully …
The Working Women of Vietnam
Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. Especially in Vietnam.
But they do it with a smile…
And the men of Vietnam?
Please do not think this post is intended as sexist in any way. I will even up the …
Read Your Way Around The World
Travel books don’t necessarily have to be books written by travellers, most of the books that have inspired me to travel are novels in which the setting is important to the atmosphere of the book. As a child I was …
My Top Five Asian ‘Chill-Out’ Destinations
Travelling is all about taking time out of the craziness of modern life to experience new cultures, meet new people and to reflect. Here is a selection of my favourite places for peace, tranquility and some much-needed soul refreshment. So …
Miss(ing) Saigon
I was inspired by a post about Saigon that I read on another travel blog recently. So here is my very own tribute to the place that I once called home. These are some of the things that I loved, …
The Arctic Journals #4 Aurora Borealis
“The Aurora blazed all of a sudden into brilliant life… a thousand miles high and ten thousand miles long: dipping, soaring, undulating, glowing, a cataract of glory.”
This is Philip Pullman’s description of the Aurora Borealis in ‘Northern Lights’, the …
The Arctic Journals #3 Cross-Country Skiing
There are two things that I have always disliked: sport and being cold. For this reason I have never understood why people want to go skiing. Skiing holidays baffle me, why would anybody pay a lot of money to go …
The Arctic Journals #2 Northern Lights Apartments
We were met on the road by Patricia Cowern, owner of the Northern Lights Apartments and Arctic-Color gallery in Porjus, who greeted us warmly and led the way to our cabin. The complex comprises of 4 wooden cabins aptly named: …
The Arctic Journals #1 A Long Journey
At 19.22 the train pulled out of Stockholm’s Central Station and our 17 hour journey into Swedish Lapland began. Our destination: Porjus, a small village approximately 100km north of the Polar Circle, and our mission: to seek the enigmatic Aurora …
Stockholm on a Budget
‘Stockholm’ and ‘cheap’. Two words that you don’t often hear uttered in the same sentence. It is common knowledge that tourists’ hard-earned cash doesn’t stretch that far in the Scandinavian countries, making visiting them an expensive …
Snow Days
Anybody who has attended or worked in a school in the UK will know how exciting it is when the winter brings the first snow, not so much because we love snow but because of the prospect of a Snow …
Fika Fridays – Swedish Cake Break!
Anybody who knows me will know that Fridays are my favourite day of the week. I love Fridays. Not because the weekend begins or even that I only work for 2 hours, but because Friday is cake day or as …
Don’t Stop BIS-lieving!
This is my tribute to my friends at BIS, the school I worked in during my time in Vietnam. It’s good to remember the fun times 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NULMiA9z8U…
Beating the January Blues
Christmas is over, the New Year’s resolutions have already been broken, and the beautifully glistening snow had turned to brown mulch – January has well and truly set in but things are not all bad. We are now embarking on …
