“Do you have anything that is banned?” said an Uzbek security guard, poking his head around my train cabin’s door as I sat waiting, one of the only people on the train who was travelling all the way to Tashkent. “Nothing banned” I said. He gave my case a cursory…
Many people are surprised to learn that tourists to Australia – for any amount of time – need a visa. For many countries, it is a simple e-visa, no embassy visits required – but it’s important to remember to get it well before your trip, as they take a few…
Scandinavian Sweden is a much-loved holiday destination for nature and cultured travellers. However, if it is your first time to Sweden, there are some things that you might want to know about the country. Don’t fret, because we’ll take you through all of the need-to-knows for planning a trip to…
It’s 2020. International travel is off the cards for now, so when I returned to England after getting a repatriation flight home from Mexico, I moved back to the West Country. I’ve spent a lot of my adult life here – living in Bristol and Bath in my late teens/…
When I was 15, my father moved to Mexico City, having been transferred there for work. I spent the remainder of my teenage years living half in the UK, half in Mexico (ok, it was more like 3/4 in the UK, 1/4 in Mexico, but that doesn’t sound as good),…
Last time I wrote on here, I was in Mexico, planning to self-isolate for a while, then once it all blew over, head out and see some more of this beautiful country. Just over a week ago, this was still my thinking. Now, I’m sitting on a sofa in my…
A few weeks ago, I arrived back in Mexico for the 16th time. I’ve been to this country more times than any other – even France, which I can reach by car and train from where I’m from in just over 2 hours. The first 12 trips to Mexico weren’t…
I arrived in Byron Bay on a night bus from Sydney one September morning. The subtropical town had just come out of winter, so it was still jacket weather, but was starting to get warm. I remember walking down Johnson Street, ecstatic that I’d finally reached the town that I…
Malaysia is a really special place. It’s got a wealth of culture – due to its strategic position between east and west, and north and south, it has influences and many people from India, China and Britain. It also has some older influence from Portugal and the Netherlands. While this…
An archipelago of over 7,000 islands, sitting to the east of South East Asia, tourism to the Philippines is increasing. But it still doesn’t get quite the same amount of tourist attention as Thailand, Indonesia or Vietnam. This is going to change though. People are starting to realise how wonderful…