Travel photos and journals from across Asia [1997-2025]
We had planned to do very little on our first day in Yogyakarta (pronounced locally as Jogja), so the pool at the Puri Pangeran hotel made a good excuse for just that. In the afternoon we took a walk to Malioboro Street which is the main tourist strip for shopping. I was expecting something similar…
After speaking to other travellers who had done the hikes we decided to avoid the crowds on jeep tours at the lookout point and make our way across the “black sand sea” to Bromo itself for sunrise. The National Park fees for foreigners were steep to say the least at 900k/$70 for all of us…
The Bromo Tengger National Park is a pain to get to and from so we did a little research online and mulled the idea of using one of the many tour companies that offered overnight trips there. As with anything booked online in Indonesia the prices quoted were outrageous; between 5 and 6 million rupiah…
My Thai bank cards were useless outside of Thailand so we’d booked a flight via an agent on Gili Air from Lombok to Java with Lion Air for 1.2 million Rupiah (plus 15% agent commission). The ride to the airport took under an hour and by early afternoon we’d landed in a very wet and very…
Again, boat rides and any form of transport involving westerners is heavily regulated and accordingly price hiked. We booked a boat over to Lombok and van ride down the coast to the resort town of Sengiggi for 300k for the four of us. Before we even landed on the beach on Lombok the taxi bandits…
It was time to move on so we headed to Padang Bai the next morning to get on the fast boat to the Gilis. The tourist boats are all tightly, almost mafia, controlled and heavily price regulated costing up to 700k ($55) per person in high season, luckily the guys in our hotel got us…
Flying directly from Bangkok to Bali was the most cost effective method of getting the four of us to the area of Indonesia we wanted to explore on this trip. Air Asia took us to Denpasar for $370 USD after a couple of days in the Thai capital to break up the long rail journey…
It was time to get back on the road so we hired a car (Honda Jazz this time) for a few days, bid our farewells to our hosts at Homestay Chiang Rai and headed east towards the Laos border. Our final destination was the Phu Chi Fa viewpoint but we thought we’d take the scenic…
It was time to leave Chiang Mai and head north, we’d booked a VIP bus to Chiang Rai for the following morning, costing 270 baht each for the 3 hour journey. Buses have improved a lot since I last took one in Thailand (which is well over ten years ago), instead of being limited to…
October means time for another road trip, and the tribe wanted some chilly weather so we decided to head northern Thailand and Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for a couple of weeks. We booked on Air Asia from Don Muang as Kan Air from Hua Hin was over double the price, and with four of…
A long weekend meant only one thing; road trip time. The road to Ranong from Chumphon is still being repaired; it has been under construction as far back as I can remember travelling on it which is well over ten years ago. That said, the drive was pleasant enough as most are when you get…
It was that time again … a road trip beckoned, so I decided to find a province not too far that I had yet to explore. A friend of mine has a teaching job in Nakhon Si Thammarat (NST to the locals) so I ventured down there to have a look. The city itself is…
Air Asia had no direct flights from KK to Bangkok so instead of wasting a day at the hellish KLIA2 for the transfer we stayed in the city for a couple of nights. For anyone that hasn’t been to KL the airport is 70km away from the city so be prepared for a long ride…
The flight from Johor to KK was uneventful though the scenery as we descended on the northeastern coast of Borneo was quite spectacular. We’d booked a two bedroom apartment out of town via Booking.com for around 160 MYR per night, what we’d saved on not staying in town would be used to rent a car…
Our kids are growing up fast so we decided to take them to Legoland in Malaysia before they enter the dreaded teens phase and no longer want to do such things with their parents! Tickets for the park were booked online a couple of months in advance, not cheap at 880 MYR for the four…