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On my favourite evening on Caye Caulker I did nothing at all. I pulled up a plastic chair on our guest apartment's balcony, and watched palm trees sway in the wind as fishing boats got smaller and smaller and reggae music wafted from a bar down the street. A local we had met a few ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

The sun was melting into the Caribbean and my pizza melting into a paper plate when Caye Caulker taught me its first lesson. After a long day of travelling from Chetumal, our sundown arrival called for an easy meal, and only after ordering did I realise my wallet was missing. It was over a mile away ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

When I arrived in Split after backpacking for weeks across the Balkans, I noticed an interesting shift. Whereas in other places I would meet mostly travellers with backpacks (especially inland), here in Split I saw an equal number staying in the hostels carrying rolling luggage. The audience for Split seems basically (*cough*) split into two ... … [Read more...]

Sat on the floor of San Pedro Belize's immigration office, I had no idea that five months and six countries later, I'd be eating Christmas dinner with the same group of travellers in Colombia. Chaotic border crossings and confusing travel days always make for the best memories in hindsight, and are often the start of ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

There are ways of romanticizing Cairo, but I want to be clear from the get-go: it is, on the whole, a rather dirty and ugly city.  The suburbs in particular, which I usually witnessed from a taxi window, are absolutely littered with plastic waste. Just about everywhere the dominant colors are beige and brown, the ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Hidden away on the South Sinai coast, Dahab is the kind of place I didn't know Egypt had. In a land where most tourists will cruise the Nile on a luxury boat (often as part of a package holiday) or stay in a commercial Red Sea resort, Dahab is the exception. It's a chill, small-scale, ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Entering the Giza archaeological zone for the first time, I'd been bracing myself for the worst. For years I'd been hearing how the world's most famous monument is actually far from a revelatory experience — instead described time and again as an absolute nightmare gauntlet of sellers, scammers, and touts. I took a breath and ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Visiting Cairo for Ancient Egypt's wonders used to mean traveller's whiplash — wonder one moment, frustration the next. Egypt's awe-inspiring past would constantly collide with the harsh reality of stuffy, antiquated museums and a deplorable situation at Giza, where you'd have to run the gauntlet of incessant touts and scammers — barely able to take ... … [Read more...]

When many people who haven't yet travelled to Asia think of Vietnam, their minds instantly flash to images of chaos. The Vietnamese eat dogs. It's a lawless and dangerous country. The traffic is a complete free-for-all and you'll get mowed down if you're not careful. All of these ideas are rooted in truth, but those ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

I've lived in Vietnam for over a decade and love my home city of Saigon, but even I admit that Hanoi is the country's best city for tourists. It's just so culturally vibrant, walkable, and full of gorgeous natural features like pristine lakes and lush green parks. It's also got great food, lots of the ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Although I took to Google images to see what awaited me in Samarkand and other destinations along my Central Asia route, I decided not to do the same for Bukhara. Instead, I asked around and was curious to hear people's descriptions of a place I had heard so much about – yet did not know ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Despite having not done too much research for my solo trip in Central Asia, there was one destination I knew needed to feature on my vague itinerary. That was Samarkand. Time and time again, I had heard fellow travellers describe it as one of the highlights of their journey, and a quick Google image search ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Stepping out of the $1.50 taxi I took from the airport to Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, I couldn't believe my eyes. This was not the image of Uzbekistan I had pictured in my head. The city felt incredibly modern, with a European feel that reminded me more of Monaco or Paris than of ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, completely surprised me – in the best way possible. While I did not exactly know what I expected, deep down I imagined another large post-Soviet City, but my first impressions made me question everything I thought I knew. Instead of feeling like I was in Central Asia, it felt ... … [Read more...]

Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, completely surprised me – in the best way possible. While I did not exactly know what I expected, deep down I imagined another large post-Soviet City, but my first impressions made me question everything I thought I knew. Instead of feeling like I was in Central Asia, it felt ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Download these handy smartphone apps before going on your next trip. www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

From waking up surrounded by shiny modern skyscrapers to staying in the thick of it in Chinatown (the heart of old KL), where you choose to base yourself in sprawling Kuala Lumpur can really make a difference. Even after countless visits to KL, Chinatown is still my personal favorite area to stay. This chaotic and ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]

Visiting Singapore is a totally different experience than travelling anywhere else in Southeast Asia. Most of the tropical subcontinent (including huge cities like Bangkok, Saigon, and even Kuala Lumpur) has a laid-back, rustic, budget-friendly feel that I'm a huge fan of. Singapore is quite the opposite. Wherever you look, you'll see cutting-edge amenities, clean streets, ... Continue … [Read more...]

Vung Tau strikes a balance you don't find much in Vietnam: laid-back beach town and booming city that's distinctly Vietnamese. It's got amazing food, walkable neighbourhoods, and spectacular city-meets-sand-meets-blue sea activities. It's clean and modern, but it also feels unfiltered and authentic. It's sort of like a more compact, more culturally pure alternative to Da ... … [Read more...]

Have you heard of Hat Yai? For most, it's a mandatory transit point in Southern Thailand when heading to Malaysia. However, very few travelers stick around to actually explore it. More than ten years ago, I was one of those people who just passed through and only grabbed a quick breakfast in between my rides. ... www.indietraveller.co … [Read more...]