Travel photos and journals from across Asia [1997-2025]
Around Mandalay Not every day on the road is an adventure waiting to unfurl and offer wild new experiences. Today for example is the second time on this trip I’ve had a bad belly and need close proximity to a comfortable latrine (five feet away at the moment). Coupled with a slight fever, zero appetite,…
It was time to leave the eclectic streets of Yangon and head north so I decided that a better way to see Burmese life would be from the open window of a train rather than a night bus or flight. The ticket cost just under ten dollars for ‘upper class’ which was one up from…
The weather looks favourable today so I’m taking a walk to Shwedagon Pagoda, one of Southeast Asia’s most impressive monuments to religion. It is around 3km from my digs, so I venture through the Indian quarter first to reach the approach road which belies the sheer size of the stupa, it is still over a…
A short ferry ride takes me across the Yangon River and into the Dala Township which was virtually destroyed by cyclone Nargis in 2008. Today it is the poorest part of Yangon and home to 2 million people, many of which live in simple wooden shacks perched over squalid waterways and ever-growing piles of rubbish….
Circular Railway Yangon’s circular train runs on rickety narrow gauge rails from the city center, out past the airport and suburbs, and into rural lands surrounding the capital. The loop takes three hours, stops at around 40 stations, costs just a dollar, and is a great way to see life outside of the city. Children…
Ever since my first foray into Burma in 2005 I had a deep desire to return to this mysterious land to the west of Thailand. First impressions from 20,000 feet are of an emerald green landscape dotted with tiny wooden villages and meandering coffee brown rivers. Descending to land in Yangon seemed premature as there…
To commemorate ANZAC day on April 25th eleven riders journeyed to Kanchanaburi to spend a couple of days there. To avoid Thailand’s treacherous highways we took the back roads along the coast and through the salt flats, then across country from Ratchaburi, via Chom Beung to Kanchanaburi. The town was filling up as Aussies and…
We’d exhausted our list of things to do on Penang and I’m not one for sitting on the beach, this one had more jetskis and touts than holidaymakers. I can only take a couple of hours lazing round the pool also – it was time to get on the road again. The three hour ferry…
It was time to leave the steamy streets of Georgetown and head round the coast to the tourist beach resort of Batu Ferringhi. I found a two bedroom managed apartment on booking.com for about a hundred Ringgit a night that sounded better than the star hotels and all the hassle that comes with them. The…
A road trip was long overdue. A road trip is always long overdue so this time we decided to avoid the increasing hassle of air travel and take a train to Malaysia. Tickets on the single-class sleeper from Bangsaphan to Butterworth cost 1079 for adults and 875 for kids so it made sense and avoided…
My travel bug was far from full and feet were still itching following the premature end of our Indonesia trip so I decided a little walkabout was needed. It had been around 14 years since I visited Thailand’s northern provinces and with flights being so cheap I jumped on a plane to Chiang Mai. Thailand’s second…
Since we only had a day remaining the only way to get to Lake Toba was to be a day trip from Berastagi. I’d always wanted to go there so couldn’t miss out being this close. Our driver took us through rustic villages and fertile fields but one disturbing observation was that rubbish is a…
At 1300 meters above sea level Berastagi was cold to say the least, and our reason for venturing up here was a geological one, the two active volcanoes of Sinabung and Sibayak. I’ve always wanted to climb an active volcano and this was the chance. Sinabung was off limits since it erupted last month causing…
It was time to leave the north and head to Medan to work out what to do with our remaining days in Sumatra. Our original itinerary should have taken us to Bukit Lawang next, a jungle retreat on the edge of the Gunung Leuser National Park famed for its Orangutans. Time was now against us…
Would like to have spent a little more time exploring Banda Aceh but I really came here to get to the idyllic tropical island of Pulau Weh, an hours ferry ride off the northern tip of Sumatra. The main reason for coming to this island, I admit, is a selfish one; the lure of the…