A friend recommended John Gray’s kayak tour and when I read that it included seeing dinoflagellates (bioluminescent plankton) I knew that we had to go. (You may have noticed my love of glowing things from Japan.) So off we headed to see Phang Nga Bay’s marine limestone karstic islands. These dramatic islands burst vertically out… Read More Kayaks, karsts, kratongs and cool creatures
The kids had planned for a week in Phuket, which is a fair while so we decided to break it up a bit. The first couple of nights were in Phuket Town, the busier and more central area, one of our rare hostel stays. It was quite cosy, but a good base for walking to… Read More A rainy day in Phuket
While we’ve been away, there have been a lot of countries that don’t have good English on their signs and menus. Some of them are understandable, like orage instead of orange, or mortobike for motorbike, but we have also found a lot of very weird ones! For example, the pineapple frizz smoothie: The shovel (for… Read More Typos in different countries (by I)
Vietnamese food is versatile and delicious. As well as popular dishes like bánh mì and phở, we tried many foods there. A bánh mì is a traditional Vietnamese food, usually a bread roll with vegetables, meat, and sauces inside. In Hanoi, the local kind of bánh mì is Hanoi style, with subtle flavours, airy bread… Read More Vietnam delicacies (by Z)
The kids selected an evening tour of Bangkok, alas it was more a city tour with food than a food tour but we still enjoyed it. Like all good tours we had a range of transportation types, including a sunset river ferry to the spectacular Wat Arun. We tuk tuked (not sure that’s actually a… Read More One night (tour) in Bangkok
(From the title, you probably expect this post to be a lot more exciting that it actually is, so either stop reading now or lower your expectations!) Every city has its quirks and in Bangkok there were some things that puzzled us. The first is: more than one sign about vomiting in public bathrooms (like… Read More Paddle boats, vomiting and guns
With our family’s love of Thai food we obviously had to do a cooking class – and one that included a green curry (the kids’ fave). So, we booked ourselves in to make: We ate each course as we went, which I was very relived about because with this afternoon class we’d deliberately not had… Read More Cooking up a storm
It’s common in nice hotels across SE Asia and the Pacific to place fresh flowers to float in a pretty bowl as decorations. Frangipanis, hibiscus, jasmine and more that I don’t know the name of. This trip we haven’t stayed in many hotels so don’t see it so much. However, in the north east of… Read More Floating flowers 🌺
As the kids really love Thai food, we’d decided early on that Thailand would be a big part of our SE Asia adventure. With the family’s spice tolerance at an all time high, and promises of green curries and lychee sodas we were all quite keen for our month in the land of smiles. The… Read More Green curry dreams
Obviously, one of the reasons you visit Italy is to eat amazing food! Alas, it is not always all pizza and pasta… (the Italian equivalent of sunshine and rainbows) The pasta section in any supermarket is always huge with amazing variety compared to supermarkets we’re used to. We even found tennis racquet pasta! Not that… Read More Other Italian food
Country Hoppers 