Finding the good in Canberra!

Moving on, slightly reluctantly from Melbourne, I headed to Canberra. Canberra is situated in an area called the Australian Capital Territory. It became the country's capital in 1911 but building and development work was a slow process continuing to the present day. The first Parliament House was completed in 1927 and Lake Burley Griffin, which the city is designed around, was completed in 1963.

I visited the National Capital Exhibition which provided me with all of this information, through interesting exhibits, photos and video presentations. I had no idea before I came to Canberra that it was designed so specifically for a purpose and that it is so recent.

Many feel Canberra hasn't got much to offer and that it lacks character. It certainly lacks historical buildings however it doesn't lack history, albeit more recent history. There are also some up and coming 'hipster' areas which might bring more backpackers in. Generally if you aren't interested in museums, history, art or hiking in the bush then there's maybe not much for you.

There are numerous museums, exhibitions and galleries most of which are free. Aside from the National Capital Exhibition, there is the Australian War Memorial Museum, which is a beautiful dome-shaped building full of names and poppies, the National Australian Museum, which is massive and has a very well-planned open space outside (ask the guides to explain it to you), each installation or structure had a meaning, and the National Gallery which is full of mostly modern art and Australian art. In this area is also the high court of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery, all of which sit on the beautiful Lake Burley Griffin.

The Old and New Parliament Houses are also landmarks not just in Canberra but Australia. The Old Parliament House is now a museum for Australian political history and democracy, while the New Parliament House which sits on a hill makes for good photos of the straight line down to the Old Parliament House, ANZAC parade, the War Memorial and lastly Mount Ainslie at the end. There are also botanic gardens and numerous national parks and city nature parks and creeks for swimming.

During my visit there was a multicultural festival, so the city was full of people. Apparently it's not normally like that. There was delicious food from many countries and music. I particularly enjoyed the aboriginal performances with their singing and dancing which imitate animals and the elements.

Canberra has a few of vegan cafés and I met two vegan girls while I was there. There was also a student atmosphere during weekdays in Civic (the main city centre) as it was the beginning of term for the universities including the well-known ANU - Australian National University. ANU runs weekly free lectures for the public. I also enjoyed a bit of eccentricity at the Phoenix pub's monthly open-mic 'poetry' evening.

Vegan cupcakes (the ones on the right half) YUM!

Melbourne - every day is different

The famous blue tennis court, under blue skies and accompanied by the Yarra river and botanic parks are welcome escapes from Melbourne's busy shopping areas and high rises. Despite it being a big, bustling city, I loved it.

A view of Melbourne from the path along the Yarra River.

There are no days of boredom. From the museums, art galleries and exhibitions in the state library and arts precinct to very cheap places to eat (mostly vegetarian and Hare Krishna), to cheap entertainment such as watching the tennis or short documentaries on the big screen at Federation Square while relaxing in a deckchair, open-mic nights and free weekly cinema at Southgate (which I never got to). There's also the Queen Victoria market, which often has leftover fruit & veg lying around afterwards for the taking.

I stayed in an Air BnB a couple of nights right across from Southern Cross station, which was on the 29th floor and had a shared pool and sauna. Clean and cheap hostels in Melbourne are hard to come by. My best experience was at King Street Backpackers which was also by Southern Cross station and provided free wifi and breakfast. Many of the hostels are full of 'longtermers' who are working in the city on their working holiday visa which can make it very cliquey and difficult to meet people.

Melbourne is a big city but feels like a small one. The tram system makes everywhere very accessible and people talk to you and help you rather than always seeming like they are in a rush.

There are some delightful 'bohemian' nooks such as Fitzroy and Brunswick, packed full of vegetarian cafes, coffee shops with scruffy sofas, 'op shops' and vintage clothing shops. You can gaze out the window of a coffee shop watching the eclectic characters and fashions go by.

St Kilda, Brighton and Port Melbourne are seaside suburbs with chilly South Pacific waters, countless gelato shops and lots of sunbathers during summer. I stayed until after 10pm to watch the fairy penguins coming home to their nests under the rocks of the pier. There were a lot of spectators waiting and volunteers in luminous vests to advise us not to sit on the rocks or use flash photography.

When the penguins appeared (one by one, in contrast to Philip Island where they return in a group), small groups huddled around them, often not more than a metre, trying to take un-blurred photos in the dark without flash. I have to admit I was part of that huddle. And I got maybe one photo that isn't blurred. Nor is it a clear photo. But they seemed undeterred by us and slowly flapped around before hobbling between the rocks. Then another huddle appears and I quickly join that huddle!

I also did an overnight road trip with my brother to the Twelve Apostles. Here giant limestone columns stick up out of the crashing waves. Apparently there never were actually twelve but it was just a name given to them. The number of columns increases due to erosion of the cliffs creating arches and new creations when they break off from the land, or decreases due to collapsing columns. We stayed over at a very clean hostel in Port Campbell and watching the Australian Open final with a whiskey and wine!

The Twelve Apostles

Later I went on a day tour run by Bunyip to Wilson's Promonotory or 'Wilson's Prom' as the locals call it. It was very beautiful, white sand silicon beaches, giant blue waves crashing in, cliffs and small mountains to climb. I can imagine it would be a beautiful place to spend a weekend camping, but for a day trip it was quite rushed.

Wilson's Prom. Photo taken from the top of Mount Bishop

Island Life: Krabi region, Lanta, Langkawi

Starting in Ao Nang beach, Krabi, I began ten-days of beach and island time. In Ao Nang I stayed in Glur hostel which was a 25 min walk to the beach. The hostel beds were raised on separate platforms with your own wardrobe and curtain. This was a nice chill out hostel for me, one evening there was torrential rain so I stayed in, watching Aladdin in the common area!

Krabi, although not an island but a starting point for visiting the islands, is quite touristy but a day trip to Railay Beach was just what was needed. Apparently Railay is normally quite crowded but it was relatively quiet when I was there. The water is clear and blue (if the sky is blue) and the sand is soft. The limestone cliffs and islands as a backdrop are quite impressive. You can also climb up one of them to reach a viewpoint of the bay and climb farther, a perilous journey or so it sounds, to reach a lagoon. You have to climb down a vertical cliff to get to the lagoon and then of course climb back up.

I was quite disappointed with myself but also with the weather. It had been raining the two days prior to my visit, meaning that the climbing (scrambling really) route was very wet and slippery. There was a sign of course saying not to attempt it in these conditions. Nevertheless others were going up in flip flops and slipping a bit. I was wearing my hiking boots so I gave it a go. Unfortunately a combination of them being too wide to fit in any footholds and it being very slippery and my fear of not being able to get back down, despite there being a rope which was also slippery, caused me to give up after about 5 metres. I'm sure that had I been with friends such as my hiking guide, Ieuan, I might have managed it and seen the amazing view like the one an Argentinian man showed me on his iPhone after coming down.

Next stop was a ferry to Koh Lanta. Lanta is a very chilled out, relaxing island with not too many bars or high rises, or a McDonald's. A lot of the locals still live where they always have lived and sell whiskey bottles of 'gasoline' outside their houses for 40baht. Sitting with a mai tai and a pad thai and enjoying the sunset in one of the beach huts became an almost daily tradition. Even if it is alone, the peace and time to think was a treat. I was surprised to see so many other solo people lying on the beach and leaving your bag while you swim seems to be safe. I often stayed on the beach or on the beach bar until sunset. The best sunsets I've ever seen, and I couldn't believe how well they came out in the photos.

Another common thing to do in Lanta is a 4 islands boat tour. You head out on a traditional style long tail boat and stop off at Koh Ma and Koh Cheuk for snorkelling. A lot of people don't find the snorkelling that great, however I've never really done it before so even though I couldn't use the breathing tube and decided just to hold my breath, I found it really interesting. There were nemo fish, ones with stripes like zebras, bigger shiny blue ones and little timid silvery ones and sea urchins. No idea what their real names are. After that we went to Koh Mook to swim through the 80m long dark cave to reach a not so secluded lagoon with many other tourists. We then reached Koh Ngai or Koh Hai for lunch. Never before had I seen such clear blue water and white sand. It really did seem like a paradise, although there are only a few places to stay and not that many places to eat, which for me would prevent it from being paradise!

Koh Ngai

Koh Ngai - our longtail boat

Koh Mook - swimming through the 80m long cave to get to the lagoon

Another great thing to do in Thailand is a cooking class. In fact I met people who did a cooking class in every asian country they visited. I did mine at Time for Lime in Koh Lanta. This is a well known restaurant and cooking class on the island. The lady who runs it also runs the cat and dog rescue centre. The cooking class was so much fun. The teacher, Mia, was a jovial, joker who poured out her enthusiasm as we ground spices and chopped with giant knives, and sqaushed or 'kill it' as she would shout. We also got to decorate our creation and present them in coconut bowls and with banana leaves. This class was very vegan friendly with fish sauce kept separate and tofu used instead of chicken. I can't wait to get home with my Time for Lime apron and recipes!

After that I spent just over 3 days in Langkawi, a northern Malaysian island. This island is very different to the Thai islands. For a start, most of the food is Indian or Malay and some Chinese. They are also a lot less pushy than the Thais or the Vietnamese. The people are predominantly Muslim. You can often hear the calls to prayer coming out of speakers on the streets and there is no local beer; mainly just carlsberg.

Langkawi has one of the oldest subtropical rainforests in South East Asia and this area has been recognised by UNESCO. There are three rainforests. The one I visited is named the Kilim Geoforest. I went on a mangrove river boat tour. The mangrove trees are fascinating with their roots growing above land.  We saw monkeys and some people were feeding them bread so that they would swim towards the boat, not great for protecting the natural ecosystem. We also saw eagles, a giant lizard and a lot of bats hanging in a cave.

Kilim Geoforest Park, full of mangrove trees, rivers and wildlife

In my last evening I went on a rainforest evening trek. The trekking was quite easy. The guide Jerome of Dev's Adventure Tours was very enthusiastic, informative and made it very interesting. We saw flying lemurs which only awake in the night, giant red squirrels, and termite mounds (both active and inactive). The active mound had a snake hole not far from it and Jerome told us that the termites and the snake have a symbiotic relationship. He also showed us the snake bite scar he got from a venomous snake! The inactive mound had become so because the queen died. The worker termites apparently seal up any holes in the mound and leave, in respect for their queen and it becomes a sort of shrine to her. The trees had termite tunnels and lines going quite far up. We learnt a lot about the flora of the forest as well.

If you want to spend extr money in Langkawi you can do the sky cab and skybridge where you see the forest canopy and views of the island. Aside from nature, the shopping is duty free, and the beach and beach bars with bamboo mats, candles and shisha are fun. It's not really an island for partying. I met some great people there.

I then moved on by ferry towards the Malaysian mainland but only made it so far as Georgetown on the island of Penang, which has a short bridge or ferry to the mainland.


Georgetown is like another world. Quiet at night, but busy during the day, with tourists taking photos of street art and old colonial buildings.Some areas are very run down. There is a large china town as well as a large 'india town'. I really did feel I was in india there. The Malay people speak Malay but for the most part they speak their own dialect of chinese or indian and tend to stick within their respective community. It felt very strange to be in a place with two distinct races and nationalities living so close. However this gives rise to the streetfood and diversity of the food in Georgetown, which is renowned. I had some really good curry platters and tofu dishes and also found some vegetarian cafes.

Some of the street art

I briefly popped into Fort Cornwallis, the fort built in the late 1700s by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of the city, during the rise of the British Empire. 

Fort Cornwallis, the fort built by Captain Francis Light, the English founder of Georgtown

Some of the old colonial buildings. Some parts of town were very run down.

My particular favourite cafe was the Sushi Kitchen on Gat Lebuh Acheh. This place is a quiet oasis near a busy main street, where tourists pile onto the Clan Jetties. They keep the door closed to maintain the atmosphere, so you just need to push it open. I had a delicious tofu noodle stirfry for lunch, and came back for sushi for dinner! Both were absolutely delicious. The owner Milk, who is also vegan, was so kind and took me to a nearby hawker stall which served a lychee dessert.

Vegan Sushi

Vegan lychee dessert at a hawker stand

The clan jetties occupy a section of the Georgetown port. They are a form of shantytown build by the chinese over the last century. They are still occupied today by various families. There are different names: Tan Jetty, Chew Jetty etc. They also now have electricity and running water though I did see some outdoor toilets, where it was just a hole opening out to the rocks and sea below! They live tax free as they don't live on the land.

One day I took the bus out to the Kek Lok Si temple. Someone called it a sort of disney land for buddhists. I could agree. The colours were vibrant, and almost tacky, with shops selling incense, buddhas, sandals, bags. There was also a vegetarian cafe within the complex. I climbed the steps up to the top of the white temple, pictured below. It was a cloudy, misty day and there was a great view of part of the city, beneath the mist.

Day 1 in Laos

'Same same but different' - a favourite saying in SE Asia ... And some interesting meal descriptions on menus...

Same; still Asia, but different to Vietnam. Today in Vientiane was very quiet, slow paced, no more beeping of horns. But tonight the city came alive. I went to a terrace bar to have Beer Lao and watch the sunset over the Mekong river. Suddenly after the sunset a group of locals starting dancing and doing aerobics on the riverfront. Apparently it's 3000kip to join in (about 25p). Unfortunately the beer had taken effect by now but tomorrow I'll be there in my leggings! I spent the rest of the evening at the night market singing in my head, 'I think I better leave right now'...before I buy anything else.

Hoi An, Hanoi, anagrams and surrounding sights

The last 12 days or so have been jam packed. There has been an overnight bus ...

 ... champa temple ruins called My Son (more photos), a historic Chinese/French/Japanese style village, bicycle tour of handicraft village (Hoi An Free Tours), Vietnamese ice coffee, watching a Vietnamese music & dance performance. It has been wonderful to spend some of this time with two Canadians and an English girl.

The My Son ruins were fascinating because they are so ancient and so many traditions and spiritual beliefs are represented. The detail still left on these stones was amazing. Each symbol has a meaning and there are different sections built during different eras. During the 'American War' as they called it, in the 1960-70s, Vietnamese people would hide here. There were giant bomb craters and bullet marks in the walls. Sadly a lot of the pillars and buildings were bombed and left in ruins. Our guide's father was hiding here during the 60s but thankfully survived.

Hoi An was absolutely beautiful with the lanterns at night by the river, the Japanese bridge lit up, and the beautiful old colonial buildings. Unfortunately it seemed to be rainy season and a rain poncho was definitely required!

Hoi An is so beautiful at night. The sights and smells are wonderful. Something I love about Vietnam is that there is incense everywhere. Wedged into the pavement cracks, in cafés, in hostels, on car bumpers, even in trees!

I spent one morning on the Hoi An Free Tour. It was an amazing experience led by our enthusiastic guides Vy and Cuc. It is run by Uni students who want to show tourists around and also improve their own English. They took us to a near by island and we visited communities who were producing straw mats at home, wooden boats, and rice noodles among others. We gave a small donation to each. It was amazing to see how the locals live and work. 

After a short flight to Hanoi, I treated myself to a private room in a hotel  for £10 and enjoyed a bath and free toiletries! Hanoi is a crazy busy city, especially when coming from Hoi An.  Some sights from the roads there:

Entire families on one motorbike, the kids without helmet

Backseat motorbike passenger sitting on wooden chair...or passenger holding boxed TV

Motorbike driver groping female passenger

Women with every inch of their body covered, complete with mouth/nose mask or surgical style mask.

A short retreat was required. Took a visit to Ha Long bay with the two lovely Canadians, with 'Ha Long Party Cruise'. Maybe not so much of a retreat but great fun and much better than being stuck on a junkboat after dark (5pm) with Middle Aged couples or honeymooners! Some new card games & drinking games were learnt but most importantly some beautiful sights were seen and snapped. The food was pretty good too! We stayed the first night on the boat and the second on a private island with hammocks, kayaks and karaoke! Met some more lovely people on the boat from many nationalities.

In Hanoi, we also visited the Ho Chi Minh museum, passed by his mausoleum thought unfortunately it was closed for annual 2 month maintenance. I'm not sure if it is maintenance of him or of the building!

Nearby we went to the Maison Cetrale prison which he french set up to detain 'political prisoners'. Captured US fighter pilots were also kept here. I was surprised at the good conditions in which the US prisoners were kept here; also the forgivingness of the Vietnamese towards the Americans.

Lastly I took a trip to Mai Chau for 2 nights. Initially I had wanted I go to Sapa to trek and see the tiered rice paddies however when I realised the rice was harvested in September and it could be dry foggy   and wet, I decided on another hilltribe village called Mai Chau which lower and further south.

Mai Chau was interesting, beautiful also and very green. I enjoyed the 3 hour walk/hike (there were some hills) through the villages and also the cycle on very old bicycles with no gears. Thankfully that route had less hills.

Unfortunately the guide wasn't very good and had to keep asking locals for directions! Somebody's bike got a flat tyre too. The evening was a highlight - when we watched a performance of traditional music and dance. At the end we all joined in! The dance with the hopping between moving bamboo sticks was particularly hard!

The end of Mai Chau was my lowest time so far. I left the trip a day early as the guide just put a downer on everything and it appeared I would be doing day 3 (a motorbike ride to nature reserve) alone with just the guide. Apparently this was a privilege but I didn't feel comfortable with it.

Unfortunately my iPhone fell through the gaping and flimsy bamboo floor of the upstairs bedroom and smashed onto the concrete below. Thankfully all that was required was a 30 minute / £35 repair at a shop in Hanoi.

The bungalow where my phone smashed through the floor onto the concrete below

Next - onto Vientiane, Laos