In Vientiane we visited Buddha Park. I’d read about this being originally built as a local place of worship, but which is turning in to a quirky tourist destination. Hundreds of huge Buddhist and Hindu concrete statues all congregated in one area; it sounded right my street! I’ve read advice that you can hire a scooter and get to the park that way, but the bus sounded so easy that we decided to go with Read more…
Whilst in Vientiane we went to the COPE Museum, where we learnt about the huge number of unexploded bombs still leftover in Laos after the Vietnam War (which they refer to here as the American War). I think there are 250,000 bombs left today, which is just crazy considering Laos wasn’t actually involved in this war. The museum was a real eye-opener because although we have already seen bridges, gates and even souvenirs made from Read more…
As backpackers we are used to looking for the cheapest option, sorting transport directly and mixing with the local way of life. This is basically impossible to do in the tourist town of Puerto Iguazu, but please read on for some tips to make your stay a little less painless than ours. For information on the falls themselves please read my post on the Argentinan side; here. PUERTO IGUAZU VERSUS FOZ DO IGUACO | We Read more…
Iguazu Falls was one of the sights in South America which really lived up to the hype. They are absolutely incredible! Argentina gives you a view of the falls; from below, above, opposite and close-up! From what we saw of the Brazilian side you just have a viewing platform. It does look as though it would be an impressive view, but it’s not the big day hike that you get from the Argentinian part. We Read more…
We took a sleeper bus from Huay Xi to our first stop in Luang Prabang. This was a bus, with beds! It was basic; two levels of mattresses held in place by rails but it was comfortable and we were able to get a bumpy night’s sleep on the way. When we got on the conductor showed me my seat (bed!). I asked where our other bed was and he gestured to my bed. Confused! Read more…
Our plans to visit Guadalupe came from reading See Colombia’s famous Las Gachas post on the area. We are keen to include ‘off the beaten track’ locations in our list of destinations and this seemed like a fantastic addition. We took an overnight bus from Santa Marta, and got out at Socorro. This seemed like the closest we could get on a major bus and there wasn’t too much information available to say otherwise. When Read more…
Tayrona National Park is considered to be one of the most beautiful parts of Colombia. We came back to Santa Marta after Minca and the next morning we were up and flagging down the local bus. Our first local bus experience was great! As long as you are on the bus route it will stop wherever you are; the bus conductors hang out the side shouting “TAYRONA!”, “TAYRONA!”. You get on, get forced in to Read more…
Cartagena is on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It’s a very tourist orientated city, which was our first stop in Colombia and actually our first stop on our entire South America trip. Although this eased us in to the Colombia and South American culture we quickly realised as we travelled on that Cartagena didn’t really reflect what true Colombia is. We found Cartagena to be more of a holiday destination than a backpacker one, which will attract Read more…
Hi, I’m Hannah and (ten years behind everyone else) I have realised the benefits of blogs, be it travel, health or anything else I fancy I love to read other people’s thoughts and how they have put them to paper. I see lots of yummy mummys and make-up based bloggers, but nothing from a running enthusiast, nature loving, chicken-loving, travelling, 30-something girl who has thought about writing for a while, and has now decided to Read more…