On Saturday, Carlos leads an expedition into the hills around the volcano. I want to go to see the lava and stuff, but Carlos tells me it’s too dangerous, and anyway the top of the volcano is off limits to the public…
Officially it’s ‘Bua Tong Waterfall’ but Orawun tells us all the locals call it ‘Sticky Waterfall’. It’s a really hot Chiang Mai day. Getting into the water is awesome. It’s cold, and clean, and surrounded by thick, lush jungle…
People party for days, get drunk, run around in the streets chasing each other with water guns, but it’s all good humored. There’s no sense of malice. People are respectful of each other…
Less is usually more, when it comes to gear, but some things are so useful, you just got to have ’em! Every item on this list is worth it’s weight, ten times over.
How to wash your filthy, stinky clothes when you’re on the road (and not waste $ on laundromats!): 1. Get a sturdy plastic bag and put all your dirty clothes in it. 2. Find a nice public toilet with a hand soap dispenser (the best one’s are in swanky shopping centres). 3. Fill up the…
Travelers Dilemma ( #2 ) Sometimes you stumble into a place and it’s beauty makes you feel as if you could spend the rest of your life there. Paradoxically, if you followed those sort of impulses you would not be a traveler and you would not have discovered the place you yearn to remain in.…
One of the crazy cool things about being a nomad in Australia is all the beautiful, hidden away camp sites I find everywhere I go. This one is just off the Bruce Highway, on the banks of Barratta Creek, about 10 km NW of Ayr. It’s free, unofficial, wilderness camping, accessible in a car or…
The Sawyer Mini Filter is really small (fits in a bag about the size of a pair of socks), and the whole kit weighs only 60 grams (2 oz). The filter can be used in several ways, but the simplest is to screw the filter unit straight onto the top of an ordinary plastic water bottle. The Sawyer Mini is super simple to use: 1. Fill bottle with dirty water 2. Screw on filter 3. Drink clean water, straight from the bottle..!
The five most useful gadgets in my backpack. You need this stuff..!
It’s Loi Krathong all over Thailand right now. Central to the festival ritual is the making and floating of Krathong: little floral rafts that you place into the river or sea. Focus Gallery Cafe , here in Chiang Mai, ran a Krathong making workshop yesterday. Anna and I went along and made us a couple…
Been working hard for the last few months so it was time for a bit of R+R. Putty Beach, on the New South Wales Central Coast, is the perfect place. I’ve camped here before, and it is a trampers paradise. Beautiful beach, friendly locals, easy hitchhiking, convenient general store for re-supplying, and most importantly,…
Rock pools @ Jervis Bay NSW, Australia.