Slow Travel
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Essential Tips for a Magical Experience in Morocco
Morocco is magical. Souks. Spices. Sahara. Sunsets, and sunrises. Shy smiles reflected in the warmth of a freshly brewed cup of mint tea. Morocco is one of those places that leave an indelible mark on your memory. Led by our wonderful guides from Siroco Tours, we spent 10 magical days travelling from Chefchaouen to Marrakech, and experienced so much warmth and hospitality throughout our trip. If you’re planning a trip to Morocco, these tips might just make your trip a little more magical! 1. Take the time to get lost in Chefchaouen If you search for things to do in Chefchaouen, you might be fooled into thinking that there really…
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Discovering the Secrets of Balik Pulau with Matahari Cycle Tours
Balik Pulau has a secret. The Penangites might not want you to know this. And the truth is, few Malaysians probably do. Ask people where they can find Penang’s best Assam Laksa, and you will probably be directed to Air Itam, or Penang Road. But the best answer to this question lies in the town center of Balik Pulau. How did we stumble upon this secret? This story begins on one special Sunday morning when we dragged our butts out at the crack of dawn to go cycling with Matahari Cycle Tours. Cycling with Matahari Cycle Tours Our tour started out in a little carpark, where we were assigned bicycles that had been calibrated…
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A Walking Tour Helped us Fall in Love with Old Havana | Review
Old Havana Walking Tour with Cuban Adventures I have a confession. Unlike most first-time visitors to Havana, I didn’t fall in love with this city. Far from it. Havana felt like a city stuck in its past, obsessed with its revolution. So when the hour hand struck twelve, and Yanet was nowhere to be found, I muttered “Cuban time” under my breath. I had to remind myself of the need to understand that punctuality is not a virtue that is keenly observed in this country. It happened a few days ago at Playa Giron, where we waited half an hour for our bus ride to the dive site, and just yesterday,…
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Afro-Cuban Religion Tour in Havana | Review
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Afro-Cuban Religion Tour in Havana | Review
Some will tell you these are practitioners of black magic. You would see them on the streets of Havana. African women, dressed fully in white, with a glass-eyed black doll dressed in yellow between them. Juxtaposed by the immensely colourful backdrop of their set-up, they call out and beckon to you, asking to read your fortune. But, swindlers they are not. As with most things in Cuba, religion is a complicated affair. These women are practicioners of Santeria, the syncretic religion that has its roots steeped in Afro-Cuban history. Brought by the African slaves who were imported to Cuba from the 16th to 19th century, it is a fascinating practice…
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A Walking Tour Helped us Fall in Love with Old Havana | Review
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A Guide to Fitzroy: Melbourne’s Hipster Neighbourhood
Lonely Planet barely talks about it and it’s not on TripAdvisor’s top 10 things to do in Melbourne, but ask any Melbournian where the hipsters gather and they would definitely direct you to Fitzroy. Home to the creatives, you could easily spend a day or two getting lost in alleyways blooming with street art, uber chic cafes and beautiful indie boutiques. I had the pleasure of calling this neighborhood home for 4 days while solo travelling, and fell hopelessly in love with the many hidden gems that Fitzroy had to offer. For a comprehensive list of what to eat, drink, and do in this awesome neighborhood, our hipster guide to Fitzroy is all…
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A Love Letter to Airbnb
Dear Airbnb, I love you. I truly do. You have changed the way I travel and experience every country, and for that, I’m truly grateful. I will never forget my first encounter with you. Sweeping views of Table Mountain, an infinity pool that blended almost perfectly with the Atlantic Ocean, an apartment built around a natural geological formation – you were perfect for our honeymoon, and we enjoyed a million dollar view for the fraction of a price we would pay in a hotel. We felt safe there, despite the many warnings we’d heard about South Africa. From then on, we were sold.
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The Art of Slow Travel (Or, How I Realised I’ve Been Travelling Wrong)
I’ll repeat that again: for the last 2 decades, I’ve been travelling wrong. But wait – you’ll ask – is there actually a right way to travel? Honestly, the answer is no. Travel is one of those things arguably more personal than your preferred type of lingerie. It is intensely dependent on how quickly you want to move, who you want to move with, and how much you want to move out of your comfort zone. Everyone has a different threshold for these things, and the truth is there is nothing wrong with that. But I’m talking about myself here. For the longest time, I’ve been a very … efficient traveller. I…
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Eating with Guillermo & Christina in Barcelona
We first chanced upon Guillermo & Christina’s Market and Paella Cooking Tour on the EatWith website and decided this was definitely something we wanted to try since ET’s mum loves cooking (and we love eating)! This turned out to be one of the best experiences we had in Barcelona and we would recommend this EatWith experience to everyone who visits this wonderful city.
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Forget the Bucket List [Reblogged]
This is an article I’m sharing from the blog of a wonderful couple, Brad & Mesi, whom I got to know while volunteering in Peru. It really resonated with me, because just a few weeks ago, I tried my hand at coming up with a bucket list, and I really wasn’t very happy with it because everything on my list seemed to either come from some Tripadvisor/Lonely Planet Top 10 compilation or was an aggregate of other people’s unfulfilled dreams and wishes. Most items involved oft-overhyped “must-see” tourist hotspots like “Have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower” that honestly proved to be rather uninspiring and underwhelming. So reading this was a really refreshing…
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Awesome Apps to Help You Travel Like a Local
The school year is finally winding down, and that can only mean one thing: THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING. ET and I are super excited to be going on an Epic Europe Adventure this November with our families. Our itinerary will cover Barcelona, Amsterdam, London, Iceland and finally Munich in about a month. One might think that the natural inclination when travelling with parents is to just hop on a tour bus and let the guide do the thinking. But we have a strong aversion to “checklist tourism” i.e. going on big tours where we are just herded from one tourist attraction to another. ET likes to wander around, sit at cafes…
