Asia

Everything you Need to Know About Railay Beach

When we decided to travel around Thailand earlier this year, choosing a beach destination was a struggle. There’s so many to choose from! Well, I guess that’s a good problem to have. We narrowed our options down to three places, Railay Beach, Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe. In the end, because of their close proximity to each other, we decided to spend a few days at Railay...

Zip-Lining in Chiang Mai – Our Flight of the Gibbon Experience

If you have a few days in Chiang Mai and you want to get out of the city and do something a little bit different and a little bit adventurous, the Flight of the Gibbon Zip-lining experience might be just what you’re looking for. After almost a week and a half enjoying Chiang Mai, we thought we should head out and see some of the surrounding countryside. The Flight of...

A Detailed Guide to the Ancient City of Ayutthaya

The city of Ayutthaya was the second capital of Siam (the former name for Thailand) after Sukhothai. It was lucky enough to have an ideal location close to China, India and the Malay Archipelago. Ayutthaya became the trading capital of Asia and the largest city in the world. From 1351 to 1767, the Ayutthaya Kingdom was thriving. International traders visited...

Our Complete City Guide to Bangkok, Thailand

I will always remember the first time I set foot in Bangkok. It was fifteen years ago and it was my first time in Thailand; in fact, it was also my first time in Asia. At the time I wasn’t well travelled and I was so looking forward to visiting a new country with a culture different from my own. But I can’t say it was love at first sight when we arrived in Bangkok...

How to Spend One Day in Mumbai

On our way to our hotel from the Mumbai airport, our driver pointed out a huge skyscraper to our left. This is the home of India’s richest person, he said. It’s 27 storeys high, it has three helipads, swimming pools, underground parking for 160 cars and hundreds of staff members work in the building. All that for a family of five, he added. This building stood high...

Learning and Burning in the Sacred City of Varanasi

It was a beautiful warm night as we walked back to our hotel along the banks of the Ganges river. We’d just seen the Ganga Aarti ceremony which is performed in Varanasi every night, on the foreshore at Dasashwamedh Ghat. To reach our hotel we had to pass the Harishchandra cremation ghat. Compared to Manikarnika Ghat (Varanasi’s main cremation ghat that can burn...

The Taj Mahal

A Visit to Agra, The Home of the Taj Mahal

Agra is a very popular destination for tourists visiting India. Although the city itself is not particularly notable, it does have one key landmark that people flock to see – the Taj Mahal. Looking out from our hotel room in the afternoon, it seemed as if the Taj Mahal, that we had just visited that morning had suddenly disappeared. That’s because, like many...

Bengal Tiger in Ranthambore National Park

The Thrill of Tracking Bengal tigers in Ranthambore National Park

We sat in our jeep in total silence, parked high up on a dry, grassy hilltop in Ranthambore National Park. Below us lay the wide expanse of sector six, one of the park’s ten designated safari zones. This was the best spot to listen for the tell-tale warning cries that might lead us towards our prize, the magnificent Bengal tiger. When we’d booked our trip months...

Pushkar, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Pushkar is a small town in Rajasthan, about two and a half hours from Jaipur. It’s built around a holy lake called Lake Pushkar. The story behind this lake is that it appeared when Brahma dropped a lotus flower, which is why it’s called Pushkar. Pushkar means “holy flower” in Hindi. Pushkar is a very popular pilgrimage destination...