‘Can’t we just watch a video?’ ‘But it’s the last lesson / week / term though Sir!’ As soon as the students get a sniff of the summer hols the questions come thick and fast. ‘We’re playing games in other classes though’ ‘Can’t we have a fun lesson?’ What? Our lessons are always fun… It […]
We travel to the port of Tagbilaran by bumpy tricycle, take the boat back to Cebu, a local ferry across the estuary again to Mactan home of Lapu Lapu, a jeepney up the road, call my Dad for his birthday, some quick food at the mall and in a cheap but nice hotel near the […]
Most of the Philippines’ provinces slowly bowed down and surrendered to the Spanish, all but Mactan Island, led by Chief Lapu-Lapu, adjacent to Cebu Island. This is where we are to take our boat to Bohol. He led his people to fight against the invasion, killing Ferdinand Magellan in a battle, no less, and slowing the Spanish […]
The only thing I know about the Philippines as we fly from Bali is that there was once a famous boxing match in the capital, ‘The Thriller in Manila’; and that when we were booking our trip the lad in STA said it was ‘the next big thing’. We almost kind of stuck on three […]
Surfs up dude My only experiences of surfing before now was East Coast England – cold water surfing. Wet suit. Wet suit hood, shoes, gloves, and chilly bum bums. Scarborough. Bamburgh. Cayton Bay. Beadnell. And I’d loved it, but it was cold, And I wasn’t very good, and it’s at least a two hour drive […]
Are you, like, even a traveller yah? If you don’t go to Bali ? With white sand beaches, yoga retreats, surfer dudes, palm groves and waterfall walks it promises to be the perfect instagram opp stop. And blooming eck there’s a lot of insta action. Search #bali or #yogaubud and there so many picture perfect […]
Thailand is the classic cliche travelers destination, from the original 70s hippies on the banana pancake trail (so called as locals began to make banana pancakes as for western travellers as an antidote to traditional Thai brekkies), to ‘The Beach’ inspired hedonists of the 90s; all full moon parties, cocktail buckets and mushroom shakes, to […]
Rural rides. Cool Caves, The hills and Hanoi. It’s fun that’s a fact. (See below haha) Another exciting prospect of Vietnam was the prospect of rural reclusivity for us. After the joy of walking in Nepal right at the start of our trip, and though we had seen beautiful scenery and enjoyed some stunning beaches […]
As I mentioned in the last blog, think of Vietnam and we think of the US / Vietnam war of 1960s/70s. Sweaty jungles and muddy faced soldiers. But I don’t know my history and I also want to look into the war for myself. We watched ‘full metal jacket’ on a YouTube clip (no Vietnam […]
In the same way Cambodia was unknown to me aside from some pretty ignorant generalizations; my knowledge of ‘Nam consists of having watched a handful of Hollywood war films depicting the US/Vietnam war, largely from the American side. I did enjoy ‘Platoon’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Hamburger Hill’ and ‘Thin Red […]
