Life in Burma is a lot different to Thailand, it's like stepping back into the 1950s! People cycling around on bicycles, wearing traditional clothes, driving trishaws and horse drawn carts, it reminds me a little of Africa with all the huts and markets. That's one side of it; and then there's the rich families who attend schools like ours, drive jeeps, pay huge tuition fees, eat at fancy western cafes, own iPods, iPads etc! There's a class divide like nothing I'v...

Sight seeing

So in the past week I've had the opportunity to visit a little town outside Chiang Mai called Chiang Dao. Little known to tourists as it's not in the lonely planet! We took a local bus there which stopped at every little village along the way so it took two hours instead of one! The seats were obviously meant for thais, it was a normal sized bus but rows of three seats on one side and two seats on the other side meant very tiny seats! We arrived at Chiang Dao in ...

I love this city! Where else in the world would you be able to get a meal for less than €2, a cappuccino for less than €1 and fill the tank with petrol for €2.50 (granted it's a small tank and I have to refill every second day or so!) Not to mention living in a country where it's cheaper to eat out than cook your own food (and Thai food is awesome) and to top it all the weather is great everyday! But I do miss some things...obviously most of all everyone a...

Musings on packing for a long term backpacking trip.... Despite having looked up numerous lists of what to pack for round the world trips etc, I still missed out on bringing some things that would have come in handy (thanks to mom and dad for sending over lots of packages with things I realised I needed) Things I've realised I should have packed but bought over here: A scissors - essential item, used for customising clothes (eg when the Thai laundry system tur...