11.00 Jesus, it’s so pretty. I didn’t expect it to be so pretty. No matter how many travel guides or blog posts I read that said that Hong Kong was a predominantly green and mountainous island I couldn’t reconcile it with the neon-lit, vertical glass, dirty streets I had seen, and fallen in love with,…
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I just bought a cup of coffee and it went something like this: Barista: “Next, please.” I step up and he says, “how can I help?” Me: “Hi. Can I get a regular cappuccino please.” Barista: “Are you taking out or sitting in?” Me: “Sitting in, please.” He turns away to make the coffee. As…
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‘Don’t step on the moss’ is Ahmed’s only advice as we slip and slide up a steep, muddy bank, away from the road that runs from the base to the summit of Gunung Brinchang Mountain and towards the 200,000 year old Mossy Forest. Avoiding stepping on the spongey, khaki-coloured floor of the mossy forest is…
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Ahmed only stops talking to take a breath and he seems to breathe considerably less than I thought was normal. Driving in the same erratic, I’m a cat, I’ve got nine lives style I had become accustomed to in South East Asia he drives us up winding mountain roads to the Boh Tea Plantation in…
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2015 happened and like every year before it I look back on it now and see only a blur. All of the joy and excitement and pleasure of one of the best years of my life (so far) has dissipated into the ether. It’s over and the only proof I’ve got that it happened at…
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For my first attempt at a ‘Day in the Life of’ blog post I chose a day spent travelling between one place and another, Pangkor Island and Taiping City in Malaysia. If I had written this the day before there would have been very little to report as I spent so many hours reading a…
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Here is a route map for my three week trip to Malaysia in September 2015. I need to be clear that this route map by no means represents a complete tour of Malaysia. My time in Malaysia in September was chaotic, spontaneous and fuelled by copious amounts of beer and satay. We decided where to…
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It’s early, maybe 9am so it’s not too hot yet and there’s a nice breeze coming down from the ceiling fan in the terracotta-tiled café where I’m eating a breakfast of noodles and Muslim-friendly beef bacon. I’m in Taman Negara in Malaysia, the world’s oldest rainforest and yesterday I turned thirty years old. I…
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