I know, I know, I shouldn’t even be thinking about going home yet… we’re having an amazing time travelling the world and have several months until we have to catch our flight back to the UK. But bear with me, because there is a reason I’m thinking about it so early on and it makes perfect sense, to me at least.
I’m pretty sure that all of us have suffered with the dreaded ‘post holiday blues’ at some stage, even those Monday blues after a particularly good weekend can be hard to deal with.
The coffee addiction that I picked up in Vietnam and that Rob has nurtured for basically a lifetime continues. We went to Malaysia on a whim after seeing flights for £20 each and decided we’d spend a week relaxing and working, in a desperate attempt to earn some more money before visiting Japan.
We were forecast heavy thunderstorms, grey skies and almost constant rain, but when we arrived we actually found most days provided us with at least a few hours of beautiful sunshine.
We never really go shopping while travelling so this was a bit of a turn up for the books. Occasionally we might replace some of our grotty worn out clothes at a market or head to the food hall in a fancy shopping mall, but generally speaking we’re not big on wandering round the shops. In Taiwan though, we stumbled across some of the coolest department stores we’ve ever seen.
We’re thrilled to announce today that we’re going to be contributors in an exciting new initiative over the next couple of months – working together with Project Beta – Taste The World, supporting Action Against Hunger. In light of this, and to give you all a break from reading about our cooking classes, today’s Foodie Friday is just a short post about exactly what we’re going to be doing and more on this great cause.
This post is inspired by some of my favourite bloggers, whose writing inspires me to improve my own and whose posts always make me think. A Rosie Outlook is one, who posted just the other week about how to feel grateful and how to cherish the little things that happen to cheer up your day.
I was browsing twitter one sunny afternoon In Chiangmai when it suddenly occurred to me that I follow quite a lot of luxury travel bloggers. Sitting there in a side street cafe drinking my Chang and chop-sticking away at a plate of 60-baht Pad Thai, I somehow found myself scrolling through image after image of exotic beaches and boutique 5* hotels.
You don’t tend to hear a lot of positive reports about Bangkok in our experience. Renowned for everything from temples and palaces to seedy go go bars and night markets, it’s well known globally for its reputation as a party city for backpackers and for some of the more outrageous elements of its nightlife.
We weren’t sure what to expect when it came to budgeting for Myanmar – whilst we knew it had a reputation for being more pricy than neighbouring countries, we were keen to track our spending and see how our final costs turned out. Our travel style is probably mid range backpacker, so we’re keen to find bargains and not waste money unnecessarily but don’t mind paying out for a decent meal or day out.
From our pre-trip research we were expecting to encounter a multitude of challenges whilst travelling Myanmar – from having difficulty finding ATMs, to poor infrastructure and a serious language barrier. Whilst it’s certainly fair to say that this amazing country isn’t as well developed as neighbouring tourist destinations like Thailand, it’s far easier to travel than we expected. There are some fascinating aspects of tradition and culture to learn about in Myanmar and it’s a thoroughly interesting place to travel.
So we made it – January marked the anniversary of us spending 6 months travelling the world together! As always, I can’t quite believe we made it at all, let alone that we made it this far. Originally when we decided to travel we’d planned to only be away for 6 months… but this soon extended to 8 months as we added some destinations we just couldn’t miss…
Let me start this post by saying that in no way do we claim to be perfect when it comes to travelling sustainably – the air-miles we’ve racked up on this trip alone are testament to that. It’s one of those ‘on trend’ phrases viewed by many as an excuse for people to get on their high horses and lecture others – and can be a controversial topic to blog about.
So it’s the end of another year and it’s time to do as all good bloggers do and publish our round up of 2016. It’s been a bit of a strange one, for us as well as it seems to have been for the world at large.
Thought I might try to get into the habit of doing these round ups, time flies by so fast and it’s nice to sit back and take stock now and again. Every month would seem to much I think, but every couple feels a lot more manageable and means I’ll have more to talk about.
I’m writing this from our Starbucks in Cusco, following a 24 hour journey to get here from La Paz in Bolivia. We’ll just be staying here for a night this time before we take another night bus – our 3rd in 6 days – to go and explore the Peruvian Amazon.
Wow, we’re finally here! Well, we’re at Gatwick airport, enjoying some food while we wait for our flight… 3 hours to the airport, 3 hours to check in / security / take off and fast getting used to long waits in transport hubs 😉 but really, at this moment in time, it’s all just part of the fun!