WELCOME TO TARA LET'S NA!

20 March 2026 It was a two hour flight from Xi’an to Shanghai. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong airport to arrive at - Pudong instead of Hong Qiao (which was only two metro stops away from our hotel). So, we had an hour-long journey to cross the huge, sprawling mega city, but at least we did not have to change stations to get there. The Mercure Hotel was conveniently located between the Hong Song metro station and the Livat Shopping Mall. It was a comfortable business hote

14 March 2026 Arriving at Xi’an airport on a flight from Chongqing, we decided to use public transport to get to our hotel, some 40km away, rather than taking the easier but more expensive Didi solution. It was straightforward enough to locate the subway station at the arrivals terminal but we could not make ourselves understood to the station staff as to which train we needed to take. Somewhat in desperation, we rang our hotel, the WOW Victory Hotel ; their customer repre

9 March 2026 We flew from Dali to Chongqing and took a Didi ride from the impressive airport to the Glenview Hotel in the city centre (Jiefangbei). The view from our room on the 31 st floor was reminiscent of Manhattan, except that here, everything was on an even larger scale. One can quickly run out of superlatives to describe it. Little wonder: Chongqing is considered to be the world’s biggest city, with over 34 million inhabitants, and occupying an area larger than Aus

6 March 2026 We picked our way through the crowds milling in and around Kunming railway station, then passed through the stringent passport and baggage security checks before finally slumping into our reserved seats. We were on the fast China Railway train to Dali, just over two hours away. It departed right on time, like a Swiss train. But this was even more impressive because the population of Kunming alone exceeded that of the whole of Switzerland. China continued to ama

3 March 2026 The two hour flight from Vientiane to Kunming was with China Southern Airways, our first exposure to a Chinese airline and we were duly impressed – efficient, friendly, punctual. Kunming Airport was huge, it was like being in the middle of a gigantic airplane hangar. We passed through Chinese Immigration without a hitch and were relieved when our Chinese Uber App – Didi - worked first time, so that we could book a ride into town. We were off to a good start. It

28 February 2026 We had expected great things from Luang Prabang; it was reputed to be a picturesque town, possess a strong cultural heritage and contain examples of well-preserved Lao architecture. We looked forward too, to seeing evidence of its colonial European past, and as the religious capital of Laos, visiting impressive temples with Buddhist monks go about their daily business. It did not quite live up to those expectations. Strolling through the town centre someti

24 February 2026 We boarded at Houy Xai after completing the Laos immigration formalities at the Thai/Laos border. The wooden boat was long and narrow with open sides and wooden benches set around tables. We shared ours with Juergen, whom we would get to now pretty well over the following two days. In all, there were about 30 passengers on board, considerably less than the number that generally crowd into the cheaper public boats plying the same waterway, although of simi

21 February 2026 After spending some days amongst the familiar towers of Kuala Lumpur, it was time to hit the road again and begin our journey to the Mekong River, which we planned to use to enter Laos. We flew to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, a city which we had already discovered from a previous trip, a few years ago. We even stayed at the same hotel, the DUM, which had lost none if its cool; we wandered around the night markets, sampling the delicious local cuisine a

5 January 2026 After a somewhat busy year, we had decided that we would prefer a stress-free celebration this year to close out 2025. What better way to do that than to take a leisurely cruise? No shopping, cooking, hosting, cleaning... just a focus on some relaxation in a festive and fun atmosphere. And so it was that we boarded the Norwegian Cruise Line ship, Sun , on 20 th December in Singapore. Before us lay a 15 day trip taking in Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines

21 June 2025 In so many ways, greater Cartagena is much like any other sizeable South American city we had visited, especially ports – bustling, colourful, noisy and, in places best avoided by tourists, potentially even a little bit nasty. With a population of almost one million, its streets are clogged with traffic, its skies are scraped by high-rise hotels and offices. And its cracked footpaths are crowded with people selling everything from papayas to newspapers and lott

14 June 2025 Our primary reason for coming to Ecuador was to visit the Galapagos Islands but of course, we still had to pass through the capital city to get there and back. So, we checked it out and then decided to prolong our stay there by taking a road trip by bus to Cuenca , a distance of about 500km to the south. Quito was the northern capital of the Inca empire, bordered by Mt. Pichincha (4776m) to the west and an enormous valley to the east. It was always an importan

7 June 2025 We thought that after Peru, anything else we would visit in our last month on this continent could not possibly bear comparison. Of course, we had listened to our friends (both wildlife enthusiasts to be fair) raving on about the Galapagos, a must-see they had insisted. We worked out the budget needed to cover a week there - the airfares, the hostels, the tours, etc. and wondered if we could really afford it. It would be the costliest week of the whole trip. But

2 June 2025 After now having “done” the Machu Picchu and enjoyed Cuzco’s marvels, it was time to hit the road again. We could have flown to Lima and found ourselves in Peru’s capital city a short hour later. However, we wanted to explore more of this fascinating country first and so we hopped into our trusty red bus and headed off into the night, destination Arequipa. It was the first stop in an itinerary which would take eight days before we arrived in Lima. Arequipa The b

19 May 2025 Mount Fitzroy is wonderful. The Iguazu Falls is stunning. The Atacama is arrestingly surreal. But Machu Picchu (“old...

18 May 2025 In a continent with more than its fair share of both natural and historical wonders, what we witnessed in and around the...

14 May 2025 We took our first ride with PeruHop from La Paz to Puno . This was the hop-on, hop-off bus company with which we would...

11 May 2025 The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flats and is located in southwest Bolivia. We took an overnight bus from La...

5 May 2025 It was a steep climb from the sea level of Arica into the high altitude of the Bolivian Altiplano, almost 4’000 metres at...

5 May 2025 I admit it. Arica was a mistake. It took us a 10 hour bus ride to get there from San Pedro when we could have gone directly...

2 May 2025 We flew to Catama Airport, some 1600km north of Santiago and from there, a one-hour bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama. The...