One of the highlights of any trip to Myanmar is a visit to Bagan. Bagan is an ancient city built on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River, in the heart of Myanmar. A long time ago it was the capital of a powerful ancient kingdom. Nowadays, its archeological zone is home to the largest concentration of Buddhist temple ruins in the world. It’s also one of the most visited...
It had been a long time since we’d set foot in a hostel. After months of backpacking around Australia in my twenties and many bad experiences, I’d kind of put the hostel world behind me. But after our recent stay at the 5FootWay.Inn Project Boat Quay, my opinion of hostels has definitely changed. It turns out that they’ve come a long way in the last ten years. My...
As we began our descent into Yangon, we gazed out the plane’s windows and were amazed at Myanmar even before touching down. The first thing that we noticed was the huge number of golden pagodas scattered around the landscape. Some were small, some big, but they all shone so much in the bright sunshine that they were easily visible from up above. This definitely...
No visit to Sri Lanka is complete without a visit to the Sigiriya Rock Fortress. Sigiriya Rock is one of Sri Lanka’s wonders, and it’s a must-see attraction on any visitor’s itinerary. Sigiriya, meaning Lion Rock in Singalese, is an ancient city in the central Matale district of Sri Lanka. It’s easy to spot this two hundred meters high rock as you drive through the...
Sri Lanka is one of the best places in South Asia to see wildlife. In fact, that was a key reason we wanted to go there. Being animal lovers, we’ve always wanted take a safari to see wild animals in their natural environment. We haven’t yet made it to Africa, so Udawalawe seemed like a great alternative. We were keen to see elephants, but we wanted to avoid the...
Osaka was the last stop of our two week trip to Japan, and we had originally planned to spend two full days there. However, we made a last minute decision to stop off in Himeji along the way, to check out the newly restored castle. We ended up spending a good part of the day in Himeji, arriving in Osaka late afternoon. That only gave us a single day to explore the...
After our visit to Hiroshima, our Japanese trip was sadly coming to an end. We had to make our way to Osaka for our final two days, before flying home from Kansai Airport. But there was one final place to tick off the bucket list, Himeji Castle. After five years of intensive restoration work, Himeji Castle had finally re-opened its doors to the public. The castle is...
Miyajima is a picture-perfect island off the coast of Hiroshima. It is the best day trip to take if you want to escape that bustling city. Miyajima is really easy to get to and has so much to offer in terms of culture and local traditions. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, Miyajima is one of the most popular tourist’s destinations in Japan...
After our stay in Kyoto we hopped back on a bullet train, this time headed towards Hiroshima. Our ride on the Shinkansen was under two hours long, direct and as always very pleasant. Because we left Kyoto bright and early, we arrived in Hiroshima just before 10 am. That let us spend a few hours in Hiroshima itself, before catching a ferry to Miyajima Island in the...
On a night out when we’d all had a few too many glasses of champagne, my best friend Charlotte decided that for her 40th birthday we’d all go to the Maldives. What a great idea I thought! A week together on a beautiful island in the middle of the Indian Ocean sounded like a blast. What started as a drunken idea quickly became a reality when a few months later...