Flashpacker Family 2012 – A Year in Pictures
Despite travelling for almost ten years, 2012 was the first year in which I blogged about my travels. What a difference it has made to how I travel! I’m so much more conscious of what I’m doing, photographing, eating, seeing. I’ve begun thinking in terms of blog posts. I research travel completely different. Knowing now [...]
Lessons from the Road of Life
Since we’ve been a family Lee, Reuben and I have visited six countries together. From each of them we learnt a little about ourselves, our family and how we want to live. Picking up a way of being from the culture, being inspired by a community we were visiting or learning the limit to which [...]
Living It Up In Kuala Lumpur
The Petronas Towers Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Towers are some serious good-looking buildings. They dominate the skyline of central KL. They’re astounding and glamorous from every angle: From the playground… From the hotel room… From right underneath… And from afar… Choosing a Hotel in Kuala Lumpur If there’s one place to splurge on fancy [...]
Tips for Travelling to the Perhentian Islands
The Perhentians are two wonderful islands off the mainland of east coast Malaysia. They offer spectacular snorkelling in the clearest, bluest water I’ve ever seen. It really is a little slice of paradise. They’re certainly not the cheapest spot to enjoy island-life in South East Asia but they offer something just a little more special [...]
The Perhentian Islands – Paradise Found
After a week’s break in Penang hotels, it was back to the beach bungalows for us for the final time on our two-month journey. This time we were going to the Perhentians Islands – a set of two islands off the east coast of Malaysia. Getting to the Perhentians from Penang was easy. We hopped [...]
Eating Out in Penang
Food is a big deal in Penang. The locals are very proud of their cuisine. There a restaurants, food courts and hawker centres everywhere. Hawker centres are a fantastic concept. Picture an outdoor food court where you can pick and choose from Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian cuisines. Plates of food are cheap, at around [...]
A Week in Penang
Penang is the island you come to when you don’t feel like being on an island. It has all the amenities of a big Asian metropolis but is compact, charming and diverse. Penang is a place where cultures and times somehow blend. Crumbling old colonial buildings sit below super modern skyscrapers. There are a mish-mash [...]
Penang Butterfly Garden in Pictures
One of Reuben’s all time favourite books is “Beautiful Butterfly”. It’s simple, cute and colourful. Who is going up and down in the tree? Dragonfly flutters by. Follow me. Watch the beetles go round and round. Birds pop up, high above ground. With his fondness for this little story, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend [...]
Southern Provinces – The North Korea of Thailand
Nakhon Si Thammarat to Hat Yai On our last night in Nakhon, we stumbled across an outdoor fairground. It was a little beaten up but the rides were cheap and toddler-appropriate. The whole thing was a bit “North Korean” – set up from a large amount of people but virtually empty. Actually, the whole of [...]
Planning for Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore – Four Days to Go
We’re on the countdown to our first big trip around Asia. Four more sleeps to go. I am now (slightly) regretting booking the Emirates flight from Brisbane to Singapore that leaves at 2.30am. We are technically leaving on Thursday 26 April but I need to drill into my head that we’re actually leaving on Wednesday [...]
