Ayers Rock, known to the local Aborigines as Uluru, had been top of my list of things to see in Australia.
Why wouldn’t it be?
A chance to see the desert of Central Australia, one of the most sacred of Aboriginal sites and something that looks like a freak of nature – a huge rock in the middle of flat lands.
I spent 3 nights in the Ayers Rock Resort, saw Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the Kings Canyon. This post covers my experience of Uluru and Kuta Tjuta.
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They say that building relationships is an important part of life. It’s known to be crucial to our social, as well as spiritual well-being. Everyone, at some point, would have felt the importance of close friends and family in their lives. Some would have come across the necessity for strong relationships in business too – more so, the further up the ladder you climb.
Building relationships isn’t normally at the forefront of most long term travellers thoughts. Before I went travelling, I read “The Lonely Planet Story: Once While Travelling”, which is essentially the story of how Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of the Lonely Planet, started their business many years ago. The takeaway I had from the book, was the number of people who they met on their first journey, from England to Australia, that re-emerged as significant friends/colleagues in their lives.
Through my travels, I’ve come to realise how building relationships can be just as important and make your journey on the road orders of magnitude deeper.
In this post, I’ll describe what I mean by relationships, why it’s important to do it as you travel and the how you would go about building them.
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Although getting to Luang Prabang with a slow boat was an experience in itself, once I got there, I was pleasantly surprised by the discrete waterside town.
It could be because I had no expectations about the place.
It could be because the attitude of the people was spot on – letting you get about your business but happy to serve if you need it.
It could be because the scenery was more unspoilt than I had seen until now.
Either way, my three days in Luang Prabang was a warming one. Here’s what I did…
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If you ask backpackers what their worst travel fears are, losing your backpack is undoubtably amongst the top five.
After almost three months of travel, I counted myself lucky for not having hit any major bumps on the road myself. However, on the simplest of flights between Luang Prabang (Laos) and Hanoi (Vietnam) my airline lost my backpack. Already having pre booked onward travel through the country, it was a race against time to work out what happened and how to get it back.
This post tells the story of how it happened, how I felt and how I eventually, thankfully, got it back. […]
As soon as I arrived in Chiang Mai, I could feel it was a town that was going to grow on me. Having come from the chaos of Bangkok, it was refreshing that Chiang Mai was a walkable town full of activities and character.
The character of the town seemed one of trust, health and skills. The small streets were lined with welcoming guesthouses, food sellers, laundrettes and second hand book shops. Cycle and motorbike hires were common and meant the whole town was in easy reach. It was the kind of place I could easily spend a couple of weeks.
I learned how to give a Thai massage, how to rock climb, watched some live Muay Thai, zip lined through the forests and used it as my jump-off to the Elephant Nature Park, whose office is in the town. […]
