Sights & Activities - vork in the road

5AM Muang Mai Market

Who is awake at 5am on a Saturday morning in Chiang Mai? In Thailand you don't go to the supermarket for the best fruits, vegetables and meat. You go to one of the many markets where farmers sell some of the freshest produce you've ever seen, straight from the back

Sights & Activities

Blast From the Past: Chernobyl

In the early hours of April 26, 1986 a test carried out on Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not go as planned: safety procedures were not followed and alarms were ignored. Several explosions destroyed the reactor and blew tonnes of radioactive matter into the environment.

Sights & Activities

Noryangjin Fish Market

Seafood lovers visiting Korea should not skip the Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul. Early-risers are treated to the freshest seafood and fish, but the market is open 24 hours a day so you can visit at any time. It's a great place to gaze at the strange creatures that inhabit

Sights & Activities

Gobi Tour: Party in a Turtle

Hidden somewhere in the Mongolian Gobi desert is a turtle. A concrete turtle in whose shell a restaurant serves some of the finest Mongolian cuisine in the region. One night the turtle started blasting heavy techno music into the empty desert. This night happened to also be the night I

Sights & Activities

The Canadian

Canadian, the ~ 1 Friendly and apologetic person, inhabitant of Canada. 2 4,466 km transcontinental train journey from Toronto to Vancouver. I am no stranger to long train journeys. In 2013 I traveled from Vietnam to the Netherlands by train, an epic trip of more than 16,000 kilometers. Trains

Sights & Activities

A Bizarre Tour in Banda Aceh

Remember the image of this boat? On December 26, 2004 an earthquake, followed by a powerful tsunami killed an estimated 170,000 people in Aceh province on the Indonesian island Sumatra. The capital city, Banda Aceh was almost completely swept away by the tsunami. This fishing boat saved the lives

Sights & Activities

Bosu Book Street

In a small alley in southern Busan lies a hidden gem well worth a visit: Bosu-dong Book Street. You probably won't be spending a full day here but it's a welcome change from all the fish and food at nearby Jagalchi and Bupyeong markets. It all started in 1950 after

Sights & Activities

Tea Country

Tea. I'm not a fan — nor am I a fan of coffee for that matter. Still, it's impressive to see how a single plant brought by the British in the 19th century has shaped Sri Lanka. Hundreds of tea plantations have transformed the landscape in a green ocean of tea

Sights & Activities

Towering Marble Walls in Taroko Gorge

Colliding tectonic plates have contributed to the stunning scenery along Taiwan's East coast. This is where steep mountains meet the bright blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and where rivers have crafted deep gorges over the course of millions of years. The most famous of all is Taroko Gorge, where

Sights & Activities

A Day on the Pingxi Line

Searching for things to do in and around Taipei I stumbled upon the Pingxi Line. I like to travel by train and when I read that one of the stops is also known as ‘cat village’ I knew I had to go there. Trains and cats are both awesome, so

Sights & Activities

Discovering Taipei

Taipei felt very laid-back compared to the chaotic beehive Hong Kong where I was just hours before. I ended up staying in Taipei for four nights, giving me plenty of time to have a look around. As usual I was woefully unprepared when I came to Taiwan, so the following

Sights & Activities

Remote Delft Island

Delft, also known as Neduntheevu, is a remote island in the Palk Strait in northern Sri Lanka. The island is named after the Dutch city of Delft and, as always, there is also a Dutch fort on the island. We visited the island when we were in Jaffna, the biggest

Sights & Activities

Sunday Walking Market in Chiang Mai

Every Sunday traffic is banned from one of the main streets in the old, walled city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Hundreds of street stalls turn this street into a busy market where you can buy anything from t-shirts to paintings and from sushi to fried crickets. The market

Sights & Activities

Sri Lanka's Ancient Capital Anuradhapura

Once upon a time there was a prince in India who annoyed the people in his father's kingdom so much that they demanded to have him executed. Instead, he had half his head shaved and was kicked out of India. This prince, Vijaya, eventually ended up in Sri Lanka where

Sights & Activities

A Wonderful World

_How many wonders does it take for something to not be so wondrous anymore?_ I wonder when I reflect on my visit to Ha Long Bay. In 2011 Ha Long Bay was voted one of the seven new nature wonders of the world, a feat of which the Vietnamese are

Sights & Activities

Fast, Faster, Fastest

In only six years China has build the largest network of high-speed trains in the world. Shiny, ultra-modern and very comfortable bullet trains travel between cities at speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour. In fact, tomorrow I'll travel on one of these trains from Shanghai to Beijing, a

Sights & Activities

Hue City Tour

During the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century Vietnam the Nguyen dynasty ruled over Vietnam. The emperors of this family lived in Hue and resided in a ‘forbidden city’ akin to the one in Beijing. From Da Nang I travel on one of the most scenic railroads