• New Zealand,  Oceania,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Akaroa (New Zealand): encounter with Hector dolphins

    Part 1: Travel Diary Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diary The sale of farm products in “honesty box” The road from Christchurch to Akaroa is, at the beginning, nothing extraordinary. We are just happy to come across a farm selling eggs (between NZ$5 and NZ$6 a dozen) and manuka honey. It’s very easy to spot this kind of farms, they put signs on the side of the road with the list of products sold. For eggs, people usually come with their cardboard, but for tourists like us, they give free cartons. When it’s marked “free range”, it means that the hens have access to the outside Either the…

  • New Zealand,  Oceania,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Christchurch, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura (New Zealand): Travel Diaries

    After 10 hours of flight from Kuala Lumpur (imagine the number of hours of flight from France!), we land in Auckland … …. to catch a plane 4 hours later to Christchurch. Checking prohibited or restricted items at customs is going better than expected. Like Australia, New Zealand is very fussy about customs. However, we took care to throw away any food, any item containing honey, and to declare ourselves as pestiferous (dirty shoes, items in contact with non-potable water, contact with wild animals during the last 30 days). We were expecting to be quarantined for weeks to prove that we were not infected with Ebola, and in the end…

  • Asia,  Malaisia,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): small stopover before New Zealand

    When you take the round-the-world ticket, there are mandatory stopovers, because the airline alliance in question does not operate a particular flight live. Kuala Lumpur is one of them. As we take Malaysia Airlines from Singapore to Auckland, Kuala Lumpur has been added to our itinerary. For 20€/person, this stopover can be transformed into a stopover. So why not? We are very tired when we arrive in Kuala Lumpur and the hot humid climate not helping, we take an Uber from the airport (the Klia Express costs more at two than an Uber) and spend the whole day sleeping and eating at our hotel (it is very good luckily) We…

  • Asia,  Singapore,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Singapore (part 2/2): the sweet life

    Part 1 & practical tips on Singapore here. As soon as we get back to Singapore from Batam, we head to the Botanical Garden. Emilie is waiting for us there. She is on a business trip in Singapore and we find it super funny to be, like that, on the other side of the world We spent a lot of time at theOrchid Garden in the Botanical Garden. While the garden is free and ideal for jogging, the Orchid Garden part isn’t free and for 5$SG, you get your money’s worth. There are orchids of all colors, photo corners for the selfie pros, cool houses with air conditioning to grow…

  • Asia,  Indonesia,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Batam (Indonesia): dream stay in Elysia Nongsa

    Batam is an Indonesian island located only 1 hour by boat from Singapore. We didn’t know it was accessible from Singapore until we met Feng 6 months ago (before our world tour). We met Feng via Couchsurfing He had only been learning French for 3 months but he was already fluent in it. He is extremely smart, so he only needed 2 hours to understand my job (how to create a structure and manage Adwords campaigns). It was also Feng who encouraged me to learn Spanish to fully enjoy our trip to South America. Seeing how well he mastered French in 3 months, I told myself that it was quite…

  • Asia,  Singapore,  TDM,  Travel Journal

    Singapore (part 1/2): one of the four dragons of Asia

    Singapore strangely reminds us of Hong Kong, for its very western side with half-Asian half-European rates. Hong Kong and Singapore are nicknamed “Asian dragons”, as well as South Korea and Taiwan. But unlike Hong Kong, our first impressions are 10 times more positive: the people are super nice and smiling, and the country is remarkably clean Part 1: Travel Diaries Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diaries We take the last flight in Asia except round-the-world ticket from Ho Chi Minh City to land in Singapore. From Singapore, our next 5 flights (long haul) will be covered by our round the world ticket. This is the technique that many…

  • Asia,  TDM,  Travel Journal,  Vietnam

    Nha Trang (Vietnam): a big seaside resort

    Nha Trang is one of the most awaited destinations of our world tour, I went there twice, years ago, and I kept excellent memories of it. The return to Nha Trang this time is like a slap in the face as the city has changed so much and has become a tourist destination Part 1: Travel Diary Part 2: Practical Tips Part 1: Travel Diary We left Mui Ne at 8am by bus to arrive around 1pm in Nha Trang (bus with couchettes please) It rains for part of the trip. There are storms in progress and planned for a week, not in Nha Trang but in Central Vietnam. On…

  • Asia,  India,  Myanmar,  Nepal,  TDM

    Stray dogs in India, Nepal and Myanmar

    During our stays in India, Nepal and Burma, we are struck by the number of stray dogs we come across in the streets. This is a scene that we no longer see in other Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam or China, where dogs are eaten and teams supplying the dogs to restaurants “clean” the streets by kidnapping all the dogs that have the misfortune of hanging around in the street, whether they belong to someone or not.Fortunately, the religious fervor observed in India, Nepal and Burma also has a consequence in saving the lives of many stray dogs. They don’t hurt them, but they don’t take care of them either.The…

  • Asia,  TDM,  Travel Journal,  Vietnam

    Mui Ne (Vietnam): the paradise of kitesurfers

    I have always dreamed of going to Mui Ne. It was spoken to me as a destination so far away and difficult to access (no airport nearby) that for a long time, I thought it was on an island lol 😀 Mui Ne, which is 5 hours from HCM city, is known for its sand dunes, its kitesurfers (it is rare to have beaches with so much wind in Vietnam) and incidentally for its seafood. I was a bit disappointed by the beaches of Mui Ne because I forgot that this city was known for its dunes and not for its beaches. I don’t know why my brain added “clear…

  • Asia,  TDM,  Travel Journal,  Vietnam

    Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam): transportation hub

    The cheapest flight from Manila lands at 0:20 am in Ho Chi Minh City. Usually, we always take care to arrive in a new city before 7pm, but Ho Chi Minh city is an exception (1) because I am Vietnamese, and (2) because Ho Chi Minh city is a city that doesn’t sleep. Why is the city (formerly Saigon) named Ho Chi Minh City? There are several cities that can bear his name: the capital Ha Noi, his birthplace (Nghe An) and Saigon. But it was Saigon that was chosen (40 years ago – 1976, one year after the liberation of the South), to bear his name, for several reasons…