Transport
The mode of transport you use on long distance travelling can really enhance your experience. Train travel in particular has its own excitement – pulling out of a city feels so auspicious, as does arrival by train in a new place. Locally, using the services of local buses, trams and metros will help you get the feel of a place. And so you learn to live like a local, and if you’re lucky, you get to meet people too. Systems can be difficult but people are so often helpful – if it’s confusing, someone will help you out. On longer journeys, the use of public transport gives you the opportunity to study the terrain at leisure, you can watch the world pass by as you move through the different areas. Busy towns give way to open fields; mountains and lakes. Stations too are stimulating places. The manic activity of bus and rail stations is great to be part of. What at first seems chaos soon becomes clear. Just sit back and enjoy.
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Into Africa: Sometimes Things Don’t Go To Plan
Very often there is something special about a port town, a feeling of frontier, of moving on, of adventure. Despite the fact that a large percentage of those passing through spend at most a single night in the town, there is a certain excitement about such places and we’ve regularly found them to be lively, vibrant towns with an air unique to their situation. And then there’s Algeciras. Gateway in and out of Europe it might be, but make no mistake, Algeciras is as scruffy and ugly as it gets. No wonder everyone passes through quickly; I am reminded of Bill Bryson’s comments about Dover. A quick ride on Seville’s…
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Into The Pyrenees: Mountain Hikes And Marvellous Trains
After a run of apartments we’re now in a middle sized family run hotel in the beautiful Pyrenees mountains in Vernet-les-Bains, a quiet and ancient hot spring spa village nestled among the towering peaks. We arrive with the mountains basking in the glorious afternoon light of bright sunshine, then watch in delight as the evening casts the mountains as yet darker shadows against the darkening sky. Overnight, cool mountain air fills our room through the open door to the balcony – it feels so long since we felt cool air – and by morning the silent giants form a blurred jagged line in the misty light. Mountain views from a…
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Southbound Again: Wine Into Water
It’s getting pretty hot now. The dashboard temperature gauge blinks up to 37 on the drive back across country and we are hearing whispers of a Mediterranean heatwave which could at the very least break the 40 barrier in the coming week, so the vaulted ceilings and tall windows of our next apartment are a welcome sight. This place must have been a truly grand townhouse in its day. Built in 1735 and not converted to apartments until 1980, it’s our guess that the original owners, a family named Roques-Guilhem, had the 18th century equivalent of big bank accounts. The airy living room is a blessing: since leaving Paris two…
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Black Bulls, Roman Ruins And A Missing Ear: From Aix To Arles
It was a waiter in Aix who first gave us the idea. “If you love Aix”, he said as he put down our sparkling golden beers on the table, “then please go to my town, Arles. It is even more beautiful than Aix”. Well, it’s going to have to go some to achieve that, but maybe we should give it a go – why not? And so we hatch a new plan. Counter intuitively, all the websites tell us it’s quicker to make the journey between the two towns by taking one train down to Marseille and another back up country to Arles, which feels a bit like going from…
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Southwards To The Lavender Fields: From Paris To Provence
If one of our hopes for this adventure was to find quaint provincial towns with ancient and historic centres, then as we carry our backpacks from the bus station through the winding narrow streets to our apartment on the third floor of an ageing town house, we are overflowing with the feeling that we’ve hit the jackpot straight away. Welcome to Aix-en-Provence, where the squares are oozing splendour in the hot afternoon sun while the ancient plane trees which line its boulevards offer shade to anyone with a bit of time to spare. The bells from the clock tower resonate down the tight streets as we find our way to…
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Characters On The Buddha Train – Part 2
Things are taking shape on the Buddha train. Little Miss Selfie has put herself into her self-indulgent limelight and is convinced that everyone loves her as much as she loves herself. The group as a whole is falling into two definable entities, the Punctuals and the Dawdlers, those of us who are always on time and those for whom time seems to be an abstract concept even when the entire group has a schedule to stick to. Bob is a great guy, Ben hugely personable and exceptionally good company, whilst Patrick is emerging as someone who could teach the Buddhists a thing or two about respectful conduct. He can’t pass…
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Characters On The Buddha Train – Part 1
We started our recent journey around South East Asia with what was effectively a “train cruise” visiting some of the most important places in the life of Buddha. During our posts we touched on some of the characters we met on that train. Here we delve a bit deeper into those experiences in a 2-part post about life on the Buddha train…. We’d never done it before, been on an organised trip like this, so we were probably the ones sticking out like sore thumbs as we tried to gauge some sort of assessment of our fellow passengers. Who would be on a “train cruise” through India tracing the story…
- Asia, Cambodia, Independent travel, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog, World food
Kampot: A Different Kind Of Town
The train is almost definitely not our best option for getting to Kampot, given that there’s only one train per day which leaves Phnom Penh at 7am and takes four hours to do just 150km, but my love of rail travel wins and so we skip breakfast and make our way to the station early enough to beat the traffic jams which create the daily morning gridlock. An ambling train journey through drier and more agricultural terrain eventually delivers us to the little town of Kampot nestling on the banks of the Sangke River, just a few miles from the coast. The smiley little guy introduces himself as Pat as…
- Asia, Cambodia, Independent travel, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog, Wildlife, World food
Tonle Sap: Going Off Limits & Sleeping With Toads
This next part of our South East Asia trip is one which we’ve been looking forward to with such anticipation, not just recently but before the original curtailed trip three years ago. Why? Because we do love pushing the boundaries of the comfort zone, and this short adventure will surely do that. It starts when Var, our guide and companion for the next two days, collects us from Siem Reap and we climb into the nicely air conditioned 4×4. And when we say “companion” we mean it – Var will be sleeping in the same room as us tonight. “I will explain all we are going to do” he says,…
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On To Saigon Or Whatever It’s Called
Day 35 of this trip and we cop out for the first time. Up until tonight it’s been local food all the way….Indian, Nepalese and Vietnamese dishes, local specialities, street food, even a frog on a stick for God’s sake. But Can Tho is different: the restaurants aren’t quite as inviting, the atmosphere is less accessible, and the street food we’ve tried is unpopular with locals and close to inedible. So we cop out and find an “ordinary” restaurant, The Lighthouse, which, perish the thought, does steaks and stuff. For the first time since we entered the country, we eat some non-Vietnamese food: Michaela’s is a French dish, mine Belgian.…
