I recently spent a couple of days wandering the town of Myeik in Southern Myanmar. Since then, this place has been described to me as ‘a shithole’, and ‘industrial’, but I have to disagree. Myeik may have industry around it, but the city centre was, like all Burmese towns, bustling and friendly. A main road…
‘Come, come!’ the man urged me as he handed me the razor. The boy cringed as I gently touched it to his already-bleeding scalp. I carefully scraped away a few tiny bits of hair and tried to smile prettily for the camera. It was my very first day in Burma (on this trip, anyway)…
As if living in Vietnam was not already an adventure….after 3 and a half years, I have left Vietnam and am on my way, on the next epic journey. Those of you who know me know that I have done this several times before. And yet this time it feels different. Although I’m not sure…
I’m about to head back to Burma for the third time. You might ask ‘WHY? If you’ve been there twice, do you really need to go back AGAIN?’ The answer is yes. Yes I do. Because I LOVE this country. Shwedagon Paya in Yangon. I first visited Burma in 2008. I’d been told…
One question us travelers get asked a lot is “How many countries have you been to?” The problem is, I don’t know how to answer that question. Ok, so for me, depending on how I count, it could be anywhere between 33 and 43. (Yes, I actually wrote them all down and counted them…
“Mot, Hai, Ba, YO!” we all shouted as we clinked our tiny glasses together and downed another shot of rice wine. I fought back my grimace and put on a polite smile as my glass was refilled yet again. ‘Jenny’, Ha leaned over and whispered, ‘you’re a woman, so it’s really ok if you…
In my latest post about AWE ’13, I mentioned that we started off with a food tour. Our host was Charles of Food Tour Malaysia, who has an absolute wealth of knowledge about not just Malaysian food but also history and culture. Sharing food experiences was a great opportunity for many of us AWE…
In November 2013 I went to Kuala Lumpur for the Asian Women’s Empowerment conference, (now AWE Connect) and I’m so glad I did! It was a weekend full of inspiring speakers and friendly, enthusiastic women working on all kinds of ambitious projects. I left feeling like I could do anything. The whole thing kicked…
A while back I posted about my trip to Luang Prabang, Laos on the September long weekend of 2012. You’ve read about the market tour I did there with Tamarind Laos Cooking School, so now it’s time to hear about the cooking class! They drove us to their base outside of town, complete with…
Vietnam’s National Day is September 2nd, which is the day in 1945 when the Japanese surrendered after occupying the country during the Second World War. The previous French occupiers were still around but while they weren’t looking, here in Hanoi “Uncle” Ho Chi Minh gave a speech in Ba Dinh Square declaring Vietnam an independent…