Swimming in a Sumatran volcano

From Bangkok we hopped across the Malacca Strait to the huge island of Sumatra, the world’s sixth largest and the westernmost tip of Indonesia. After the relative development of Thailand, Sumatra was a bit of of surprise. The taxi from the airport to Medan was stuck in traffic for almost the whole journey. The streets were…

Lounging in Lipe, pouring in Phi Phi, paradise in Phuket

Today we have a guest post from our friend Ally who joined us in Thailand with her partner Karina. Over to Ally: Our trip to Thailand was a special one this time. Having first been here as a scrubby gap yah backpacker, then a few work trips to Bangkok and a short holiday in Krabi since, I…

Christmas in northern Thailand (and a surprising day trip)

After nineteen hours of travelling (including three flights) we finally arrived in Mae Hong Son in the northwest corner of Thailand. Our joint love for the country (and southeast Asia in general) is well-known and we had been excitedly talking about this part of the trip from the start. So we had very high hopes…

Oceania summary

We passed the six month mark in Oceania when we lost a day crossing the International Date Line. I cannot believe it has gone so fast. It feels like only yesterday that we arrived in Panama City. We spent nearly six weeks in four Oceanic countries (French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia)…