How to keep that backpacking feeling!
When we got back from backpacking everyday life/reality set in - we rented a flat in London, we got ourselves jobs and the next thing we set to? Saving up for more holidays of course!
For me, having a holiday to look forward to helps maintain the work/life balance - its about having something to look forward to. Plus it’s the excitement of researching and then booking…
I don’t know why but its become a bit of a tradition now; as soon as we book a big holiday, we go out and celebrate by eating the cuisine of the country we’re heading to; we booked a trip to Vietnam so we’d eat Vietnamese - you get it. I’m not suggesting that this happens EVERY time otherwise we’d be eating a lot of fish and chips (love a UK seaside break!) but when the big ones get booked its a dead cert.
We wanted to keep the long haul trips going and would often try and eek out every inch of our annual leave to get as much time as possible - going away over Christmas and New Year was one of our favourites - you get a good 2-3 week break by taking 10 days off, love it! That and Easter - a good time to head to SE Asia too, so it worked well weather wise too.
Our 2-3 week breaks saw us comfortably cover the below itineraries and as always we’d wholeheartedly recommend these if you’re looking for inspiration';
SOUTH AFRICA & ZAMBIA - We did an exploratory tour taking in Joburg, Kruger National Park for safari, Rafting down the Zambezi River (which I won’t lie, scared the shit out of me and honestly thought we wouldn’t survive on CHRISTMAS DAY!!), Kayaking and swimming in Victoria Falls (EPIC!), classic Cape Town visit with a trip up to Table Mountain then hired a car to take us along the Garden Route; cheeky visit to Stellenbosch and Robertson regions for some wine tasting, a quick bungy jump off of Bloukrans Bridge and a chill out in Glentana and Port Elizabeth for some well deserved beach time.
ZANZIBAR - Whilst it seems that Zanzibar is always tagged on to a safari trip, we actually did our entire 2-weeks here and it is totally worth it as there is so much to see/do on this stunning island. There are loads of different aspects to it too - yes it’s a lot of beach time but I’m a big fan of that. We arrived on the tiniest of planes which was an experience in itself when you can see the pilot! Stone Town was our first stop and I found this place fascinating because of the people and the culture - it wasn’t what I was expecting but in a good way. We had dinner in the most amazing rooftop restaurant, learnt to dance Zanzibar style and went on a spice tour understanding how many there are - literally tonnes! We then headed out to the coast and took in Nungwi in the North, Pongwe in the East and Paje a bit more South East. We went on a boat trip out snorkelling around the other islands and I swear I’ve not seen clearer water like it - unbelievable. This trip was in 2008 and I can still remember saying to my husband how gorgeous it was.
CAMBODIA, VIETNAM & LAOS - We went on this trip with 2 of our best friends who were doing their own RTW trip and as we only covered off one of these countries backpacking we decided it made sense to cover these countries off altogether. Plus its not often you get the chance to experience this wonderful world of travel with friends. We flew into Siem Reap and of course explored the wonder that is Angkor Wat - it was incredibly vast with SO many temples to see. I’d suggest the sunrise or sunset trips purely for the photos. From here we went to Phnom Penh where we visited the Killing fields; whilst absolutely harrowing to see/hear what happened it was incredibly interesting and worth a visit. Then we made our way to the island of Phu Quoc which is a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia - this journey was done by bus, tuk tuk and moped - picture 4 mopeds with 2 people and a backpack each crossing the Cambodia/Vietnam border, probably one of the most weirdest journeys I’ve ever done! But we reached paradise - beach side hut and all the deep fried goodness you could eat! We spent Christmas here and it’s safe to say we had a blast! From here we went to Can Tho to see the floating markets on the Mekong Delta and then onto the mental city of Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) for the Cu Chi tunnels (another fascinating experience) and trying not to injure ourselves crossing the roads with all the mopeds! We then took in Mui Ne and Nha Trang for some seaside fun (boat trip - natch, sand-boarding down some sand dunes, visited a fishing village and drank some rice wine - not recommended and ate some delicious sea food!), before heading to one of my all time favourites Hoi An. It was just so pretty! Lots of canals and bridges all lit up by lanterns in the evening. Here we did a cooking course which I’d totally recommend doing - you start by shopping for the ingredients at the market and creating everything from scratch - brilliant experience! We then made the small trip to Ha Long Bay; I don’t think any of my words will do it justice - just go! Thousands of limestone islands topped by rainforests - spectacular! We took a junk boat for 2 days, 1 night and you get to see so much in that time. Again this was one of my “pinch me” moments…
Last on our agenda was Laos - now this was definitely less cultural and more friends holiday vibes!! Yep, we travelled to Vang Vieng to go tubing down the Nam Song river. If you’ve been you know what I’m talking about - you spend a whole day slowly tubing down the river and stopping along the way to either do a river swing/slide or to have a few beers…it was a LOT of fun! Surprisingly I have very fond memories of this trip considering how much beer I drank…great way to end an amazing trip and one we reminisce about often.
Now it was time to grow up and become semi-responsible by getting hitched and we weren’t going to do things the traditional route…