Riding from the port to my hotel I couldn’t help but smile as I sat in the back of the motorbike-tuk-tuk. It felt good to be back in Koh Lanta. I had just arrived from the tiny island of Phi Phi, and I was in Phuket before that. Phi Phi feels claustrophobic if you don’t […]
Notes on Koh Phi Phi – Backpackers return, and the rehabilitation of Maya Bay
The Phi Phi Islands (Koh Phi Phi) are an island group in Southern Thailand in the Andaman Sea, in Krabi Province. The two biggest islands in the group are Ko Phi Phi Don and Ko Phi Phi Le. At the height of the tourism boom in 2019 they had become more famous for overtourism. Phi […]
Notes on Phuket – There are worse places to be in quarantine (or, it’s fine I suppose)
The “Phuket Sandbox” was a program to let international visitors back into Thailand after the country had been closed for international travel during the pandemic. Instead of being locked in a hotel room for a week, you could stay on the island of Phuket for a week before being allowed to travel anywhere else in […]
Notes on Kep – Fake beaches, ruined villas, crabs (of course), and a cool cafe of Cambodia
Kep is a province in Southern Cambodia, facing the Gulf of Thailand and surrounded by Kampot Province. It was actually part of Kampot Province up until 2008 when this little corner of Kampot was carved out to become the smallest province in Cambodia. [Kep Province, shown within Kampot and Cambodia (map via Wikimedia.)] I’ve not […]
Notes on Kampot – There’s been a vibe shift
Kampot is the capital city of Kampot Province in southern Cambodia. The city title doesn’t seem fitting for a place that is often described as sleepy. In Australia we would call it a big country town. It has a population of over 30,000 people, so it does earn its city status, and it feels more […]
Notes on Koh Rong – An island in transition
Koh Rong is an island off the coast of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. Its undeveloped beaches have been a backpacker favourite for years, offering an unvarnished island travel experience that is slowly disappearing in Southeast Asia. Despite a few previous visits to Sihanoukville, I had never been. I was in Sihanoukville at the start of 2022 […]
Notes on Sihanoukville – After the gold rush
Sihanoukville is a beach/port city on the coast of Cambodia. From an international tourism perspective, it was known as a backpacker haven and for retired expats drinking in girlie bars. In the space of about five years, Sihanoukville was transformed almost entirely into a Chinese casino resort destination. I was last in Sihanoukville in January […]
Notes on Phnom Penh – Revisiting after the reopening
Cambodia was one of the earliest countries to reopen without quarantine in Southeast Asia, and I just so happened to need to do a visa run from Thailand. That was enough reason to pay an overdue revisit to Phnom Penh. This trip to Phnom Penh was in December 2020, and I saw in the new […]
Notes on Ko Samet – The closest beach-break island from Bangkok
Ko Samet is an island on the Eastern Gulf Coast of Thailand, approximately 220 kilometres southeast of Bangkok. It’s technically not the closest island to Bangkok, but it’s the closest nice island to Bangkok (and much nicer than the closest beach to Bangkok). It’s this proximity that has made Ko Samet synonymous with boatloads of […]
The desolation of Khao San Road
Khao San Road is the famous backpacker street of Bangkok. This road and surrounding streets is the budget travel hub of Southeast Asia. In normal times it is a spectacle like no other place in the world. When the Covid-19 virus reduced travel to a trickle in March 2020, Thailand closed its borders to international […]
