Exploring Phuket’s Little-Seen Old Quarter

Sip milky iced tea while listening to melodic jazz from a street café. Haggle over homemade batik at a Malay fabric shop. Just a few reasons, says travel journalist Leigh-Anne Hunter, to ditch the beach for a day and wander through Phuket’s fascinating, but little-seen Old Quarter...

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Meet the Dancing Inmates of Cebu, Philippines: Where Getting Locked Up Abroad Is a Laughing Matter

If you've been to prison abroad, chances are you don't consider that experience the highlight of your trip. However, a short stint in Cebu's Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center has emerged as the exception to the rule thanks to the dancing inmates of CPDRC...

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Nepal: Where Gods and Mountains Meet

"Amongst mountains has always been a special place for me. When things seem confused or out of order, a walk in the mountains has always helped me to calm down and realise the insignificance of my man-made problems. Looking up at the high peaks piercing the clouds, their sheer beauty and grandeur makes me feel like a small part of an awesome natural order that is slowly unfolding out of my control." When S.E.A Backpacker's Editor, Nikki Scott, embarked on her first ever backpacking trip, her love of misty mountain tops led her to the magical Himalaya of Nepal and the highest peaks in the world...

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Event of the Month: Don’t Miss! The Bali Spirit Festival, 20th-24th March

Let’s face it – everyone loves a good festival. Live music, culture, yummy food stalls, blazing hot weather (unless we’re talking Glastonbury, of course… but hey, we’re in South East Asia!). Karen Farini, Deputy Editor of S.E.A Backpacker find out all about the tantalizing BaliSpirit Festival...

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Four Months on a Bicycle in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi

Backpacker and travel writer Nathan Edgerton spent four months travelling on a cheap bicycle the entire length of Vietnam from the biggest city in the South to the capital in the North. In this article, Nathan gives you many reasons why travelling on two wheels is way cooler than four...

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The Gap Year Fear! Taking the plunge into the unknown. In need of a safety net?

Deep in your heart you know that taking a gap year is the thing you want to do most in the world – yet you can’t quite bring yourself to make the jump. What if you never do? Can you imagine if you’d never had that first driving lesson or very first date? Sometimes, all you need is a gentle push, a helping hand; support; a good safety net, something to set you on the path to an experience of a lifetime…

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A Quirky Side to Thailand… 10 Unexpected Highlights Overlooked by Backpackers

A glo-paint smeared body, bucket in each hand and a night of dancing and debauchery? A perfect palm-fringed, white sandy beach, waves lapping into shore as you sip a fresh coconut juice? Or perhaps, it's the chaos of Bangkok; the colourful markets, bustling streets and glitzy shopping malls? What does Thailand mean to you? Here we present to you a different side of Thailand, a quirky side and 10 unexpected and unusual places that are often overlooked by backpackers...

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Travel Blogger Relay Competition: Our Top Three Travel Memories!

With Olympic fever now dominating the planet, the S.E.A Backpacker Team decided to embrace the competitive spirit and try to win some medals ourselves! The event is the Travel Blogger Relay invented by lowcostholidays.com, who are asking travel writers all over the world to put forward their ‘Personal Bests’ – in travel memories! Each blogger will share their three best travel memories on their own website before passing the baton onto a fellow blogger who will then list their top three travel memories and so on... The team in the longest chain of bloggers by the end of the competition will win the race! So, without further ado, here are the TOP THREE travel memories from the S.E.A Backpacker Team...

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You Know You’re a Backpacker When…

Call yourself a backpacker!? With scruffy hair, dozens of bracelets tied around your wrist and mismatched flip flops, you certainly look the part. But have you truly entered into the South East Asian backpacker spirit yet? Have you left the old, (clean) 'you' behind to discover a new 'travelling you?' Someone who is a lot less fussy, a load more spontaneous and maybe, just maybe a little wiser? There are times during your travels when you will even shock yourself with how well you have adapted to your new backpacker lifestyle! If you nod in agreement to any of these twenty-five statements then you are well on your way to earning your backpacker stripes...

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Why The 7,107 Islands of The Philippines Should Not Be Overlooked!

New Zealand-born Anna Cleal is the Director of a brand new, pioneering company ‘Flip Flop Tours,’ which aims to give backpackers their first taste of the Philippines! She talks about how some backpackers may be put off visiting the 7,107 islands due to fears of safety, lack of travel information or general laziness to leave the landlocked circular South East Asian trail of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia! Here she tells us about the amazing travel opportunities for backpackers in the Philippines and dispels any doubts people may have about visiting the country...

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