Posts/Entries
All posts/entries, for now, from over two decades of global travel. And a few colourful tags, too.
Railay Beach, Krabi, Thailand
A beautiful isolated series of beaches & a perennial backpacker favourite whose karst cliffs also make it popular with the rock climbing community.
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Thailand’s second city, the largest city & capital of the north, a photogenic cultural hotbed & jumping-off point for many northern attractions.
Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Tigers. Stunningly beautiful creatures. And in Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, you get to spend time in an enclosure with them.
Golden Triangle, northern Thailand
As I type I'm in the Akha Hill guesthouse situated in the mountains 23 kilometres outside Chiang Rai, itself a 3-hour bus ride north of Chiang Mai. I'm in extreme northern Thailand, in the so-called Golden Triangle region not too far from the border with Burma (some...
Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand
I've spent the last while in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, taking a look around. This is (almost) extreme northern Thailand, not too far from the border with Burma (some call it Myanmar). Having a look around didn't take long. There's not a whole lot to see (the town...
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok is the the capital, largest city and chief port of Thailand, the city that has dominated the country's urban hierarchy, as well as its political, commercial and cultural life, since the late 18th century. It's also one of the leading cities in Southeast Asia,...
KLIA Layover
One thousand three hundred eighty-eight days. That’s a long time & that is how long it has been since I last travelled in earnest, meaning the last time I lived out of a backpack, used a guidebook & lived to a daily budget. It has been that many days since I...
Gwanghwamun Gate, Seoul, South Korea
Gwanghwamun is the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest & most important of the Five Grand Palaces of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). The gate, marking the southern entrance to the palace grounds, is located at the top of Sejongno,...
Boracay Island, Philippines
Still somehow the king of the Philippines’ many beautiful islands, little Boracay (9 kilometres long by 1 kilometre wide), right in the epicentre of the Filipino island party scene, attracts hordes each & every year but yet somehow still manages to re-build itself...
Jeju-do (Island), South Korea
“Visiting the tube is a cold (very cold), wet &, sporadic colourful lighting aside, dark experience. But the reward for walking/stumbling that aforementioned 1 kilometre in cold darkness? You get to feast your eyes on a 7.6 metre lava column, the largest known lava column in the world.”
Manjanggul Lava Tube, Jeju Island, South Korea
Jeju Island is a small volcanic island in the East China Sea off the south coast of the Korean Peninsula. In 2011, & at the end of a 4-year initiative, the island was selected as one of the New7Wonders of Nature, a list voted on by the public through a global...
The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), Korea
”A poignant bridge to nowhere; rusting Korean War remnants; a polished but deserted train station; infiltrating The Third Infiltration Tunnel; & trying to espy the illusion of activity in a North Korean propaganda village.”
Seoul, South Korea (2008)
I'm back in Seoul, South Korea, on this my sixth visit to the country since my first back in late December 2004. It almost feels like home at this stage. There's very little new here, except for my camera. Yesterday I bought my first ever 'serious' camera, a Canon...
Aleppo, Syria
The UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Aleppo is Syria’s largest city, although not the capital (that's Damascus). Having been inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC, it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, an ancient...