*Note: I visited Kuta Lombok again in February 2019, following the devastating earthquakes that hit Lombok in the summer of 2018. I’m happy to report it’s business as usual in Kuta. I love Kuta Lombok. I didn’t think I would but that beautiful little corner of the world totally managed to steal my heart. I’d…
Despite the fact that I’d visited Bali five times in the past five years and lived in Jakarta I’d somehow never traveled to mainland Lombok before. I’d tinkered with the idea of visiting Kuta, Lombok (not to be mistaken for the party town of Kuta, Bali), once or twice but I always figured it was solely a…
I first heard about Phu Quoc years ago, during my very first backpacking trip around Southeast Asia. Despite the fact that I spent an entire month traversing Vietnam, I never made it to Phu Quoc during that trip – and I always regretted it. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot about how quickly Phu…
It’s no big secret that I have a thing for tropical islands and beautiful beaches. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve spent the majority of the past four years based in the tropics! And in that time, I’ve had the chance to visit quite a few of what I think are some of the best islands in…
When I first heard of the Con Dao Islands in Southern Vietnam I was immediately obsessed. Admittedly, I knew next to nothing about them, but the pictures looked pretty damn amazing. So, without doing all that much research, I booked a spur-of-the-moment flight there just a couple weeks ago. What can I say? I’m a…
Like most backpackers I’m always a bit concerned about visiting islands because I always seem to spend way more money than usual when I’m on them. Let’s face it, things are just more expensive on islands. Personally, I wasn’t sure what to expect price-wise when I visited Koh Rong in January. I’d heard that the accommodation is of…
The first time I rode a motorbike I was terrified. I was vacationing in Hawaii when my family peer pressured me into renting a scooter. Though my family views me as both a laid-back hippie and an adventurous traveler, I am actually a pretty anxious person. So I was petrified as I swerved my scooter onto the highway and…