One woman's journey through the world
The short list of must-visit places I had for the Philippines when I arrived in December ended with Coron, a place I’d read about more than fifteen years ago. It has the same stunning limestone cliffs as El Nido and apparently some beautiful beaches but neither of those had any appeal for me. I was there for one reason: WWII shipwrecks. I’m not a war buff nor a huge fan
The Bacuit Archipelago is considered one of the highlights of any visit to the Philippines: limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea as in HaLong Bay but without much litter and with great snorkeling. El Nido, at the northern end of Palawan, is the best base for exploring the area and the tour industry is booming. There are four standard island hopping tours with tours A and C reputed
Having sped through Kong Lor cave in a longtail boat in Laos and wandered on foot through countless caves in New Zealand and multiple SE Asian countries, I wasn’t entirely convinced that the Underground River in Palawan would live up to its hype. But to be in Puerto Princesa and not check out this place, voted one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, would have been a wasted opportunity
“Typhoon warning 1 has been issued. We have rooms available tonight but I don’t think boats go any more. I don’t think you can come.” So said the voice on the other end of my phone just before I ran out of credit and the call cut off. I was sitting in the back of a taxi, stuck in rush hour traffic in Iloilo (pronounced eelo-eelo), nearly 2 km from
Dive Eat Sleep Repeat. That’s the accurate logo of Khao Lak SCUBA Adventures, the company with whom I booked a 4 night, 4 day liveaboard of diving in the Similan Islands off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. With 15 dives including one night dive and two sunset dives, the day really did go from sleeping to diving to eating and doing it all again. Exhausting but well
Almost certainly Myanmar’s most touristy area, Inle Lake won three nights of our time with my parents, and for good reason. It’s a beautiful place with – at least in August – delicious tomatoes and surprisingly good local wine. Plus temples, stupas, markets, floating gardens, multiple ethnic groups happy to sell you their wares, fishermen still willing to pose for photos, traditional artisans demonstrating their craft for all who stop
I like caves – big ones more than small ones. I also like boats – mid-size ones the best but small or big will do. Not surprisingly, the idea of taking a 7km boat ride through a cave was one that appealed to me. So much so that I went completely out of my way to get to KongLor cave in Central/Southern Laos. Also spelled Kong Lo, I’m going with
Along the lines of blackwater rafting in New Zealand, I’ve wanted to see the floating market on Vietnam’s Mekong River delta since I read about it more than a decade ago. Vendors live in their boats on the river, selling fruit and vegetables to locals in large quantities. Each vendor erects a bamboo pole at the bow with a fruit or vegetable tied to it showing what she sells. A
When thinking of Cambodia, diving is not the first thing that comes to mind. But continuing our trend of diving wherever we can reasonably fit it into this trip, we blocked out two days to spend a few hours breathing canned air in the Gulf of Thailand. Dive shops are based in Sihanoukville and on the islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. The islands are about 1.5-2