tuk tuk no good

Flying cheaply during Christmas time + Welcome to winter in Poland

Surprisingly, flying back to Europe from Asia in time for Christmas wasn’t as expensive as we expected. I spent a lot of time on Skyscanner checking different routes and dates. We eventually settled on Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok with Airasia and Bangkok To Warsaw (with a transfer in Kiev) with Ukraine International Airlines. This all cost us just over $500 USD. Not too bad. [Read more…]

Things lost on the road

Wrapping up a year of travel, I thought I would make a list of things I have lost this year.

  • four toenails, thanks to Rinjani
  • my iPod
  • my swimming costume
  • a beanie
  • my consumption of meat
  • my Australian identity (After spending four years living outside of Sydney and a good part of this year in Vietnam, I now feel a whole lot more Vietnamese than Australian.)
  • a fear of squat toilets and peeing in nature (When we were waiting for our bus to Danang, I asked a woman where the bathroom was. She brought me to the side of the road and we peed on the grass along with three other Vietnamese women, while a bus pulled up next to us.)
  • caring about what i look like (Though this may come back upon arriving back in Europe. Right now I am too used to wearing the same thing everyday and not wearing any makeup.)

Oh Hoi An

I really can’t believe that after spending more than half a year here, I will be leaving Vietnam in a little over a week. Hoi An is probably the place I will miss most. [Read more…]

More mistakes made in Vietnam

After spending over a month in Hanoi, our plan for our last weeks in Vietnam was to ride down to Hoi An via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, spend a week or so there, then head down to Saigon for our flight to Warsaw. A final bike trip to nicely wrap up our year traveling. [Read more…]

A visa mistake

If you’re ever unsure about how long you will stay in a country and have different visa options to choose from, always pick the longer option! (If the price difference isn’t too drastic.) We learnt this the hard way. [Read more…]