Tag: Laos

International Women’s Day: Women Around the World

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Today is International Women’s Day. I’m a very lucky woman. I’m in a relationship with a man who is feminist and I work in a job with equal pay between men and women. What’s more, we have more women in leadership roles despite working in an industry which has more men. Yet, not everyone is so lucky. I only found out while researching this that in 32 countries, women need their husband’s permission to apply for a passport. International Women’s Day (IWD) is a time for us to call out gender inequality. One of my favourite things about travelling is the …

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“You’re Living Your Dream & This Shit Should Be Fun”

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Ain’t nobody want to see you down in the dumps because you’re living your dream and this shit should be fun. The title of the blog post comes from a new Ed Sheeran song, Eraser. Granted, he’s talking about his life as a high-flying, global singer-songwriter. Alas, I am not. But the line is relatable and something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while: Living The Dream. We’ve met a lot of people on our travels who said they were so envious of our lifestyle. We’re “living the dream” they’ve said. Travelling and working combined is certainly a blessing, …

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Helen’s 10 Best Hikes and Climbs in the World

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When travelling, I often find myself doing monstrous hikes that put my unfitness into perspective. That being said, hiking is one of my favourite things to do while travelling. No matter how strenuous the hiking is, the views are usually pretty spectacular. From my current location in Mexico, all the way to China and the UK, here are some of my top hikes across the world. Teotihuacan, Mexico Our most recent hike was both epic and tiring. Teotihuacan is an ancient city (about 2000 years old) found about an hour outside of Mexico City. There are two big temples to climb: the …

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Is Vang Vieng Worth Visiting?

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Where is Vang Vieng? Apart from its location, I literally knew nothing about Laos before going there. After deciding it was on our itinerary while in South East Asia, I started reading up on the country. A place which soon appeared on my radar was Vang Vieng. Located near the capital of Vientiane, over the years, Vang Vieng has earnt a reputation for being an alcohol-drinking, drug-taking, Friends-watching, river-tubing town for foreign tourists. The whole situation got out of hand a few years ago as numerous tourists drowned due to excessive drinking while tubing. Many locals feel like the original culture …

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When Four British Couples Meet in Laos

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The only time I’ve ever travelled as a group is when I was 17. It was a post-college trip to Corfu after finishing our A-Levels. There were 28 of us. Naturally, being 28 people we didn’t do everything together all of the time. There were smaller friendship groups within the big group, but it was still really nice to have so many people to hang out with.   Since 2014, I’ve travelled solo and, of course, with Mitch. Group travel is not something I’ve done since those two weeks in Corfu. Until now. Mitch and I boarded the 5:30am bus …

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