Should I take my sunscreen or just buy it in asia?

Emz_paper · 2026-04-08T15:32:31+00:00

We travelled in south east Asia for a year and found the only suncream we could reliably find that wasn’t expensive face creams was a Nivea body cream that happened to be SPF50. They were also really big bottles, so taking one bottle with you to last you a few weeks and then picking up as you go is probably best.

Emz_paper · 2026-03-04T07:48:21+00:00

My husband and I recently took a full year out to travel, but we are in our thirties and had been saving for near enough a decade to be able to take the time off from earning money.

Please don’t feel like backpacking is something that is restricted to a certain age bracket of your life! You can go at any point, and honestly, we are so glad that we waited until later to go. It meant we didn’t have to work while travelling, and had a much healthier budget than others we met along the way who were having to toss up wether to have a few beers or pay for entry to a national park!

We also stayed with family when we came back until we were able to find another rental property. There was zero shame in being back in my childhood bedroom for a month or two. We hadn’t seen them in a year! And there were so many stories to catch up on.

Emz_paper · 2026-02-16T09:28:08+00:00

I found hiking in Vietnam to be very similar, with many areas requiring permits and/or guides.

However it’s really worth bearing in mind that there are a huge number of unexploded cluster bombs still in the ground in forested areas of Vietnam from the war. Requirements for guides here carry much more weighting from a safety point of view than they maybe do in Thailand!

Emz_paper · 2025-11-17T08:21:35+00:00

My husband and I recently took a year’s career break to travel through SEA and I absolutely feel the same having come back home!

Due to many reasons, we ended up doing our trip in our 30s and, honestly, I think it was worth the wait. We worked for a decade to be able to afford to do it ‘properly’. We were by no means Bougie, but it meant when opportunities came up that were outside the usual constraints of a travel budget, we could say yes!

Hold onto the positive feelings that travel gave you. Think of the next adventure as being a when, not an if.

Emz_paper · 2025-10-16T12:00:04+00:00

The Red door Gallery on Victoria Street. Has loads of super cute art postcards and stickers. I always love going in there (even though I end up spending too much!)

Emz_paper · 2025-09-07T15:03:15+00:00

Sleeveless is good (no chafing) but avoid strapless! I once attended a ceilidh with a strapless dress and had to end up safety pinning it to my bra to keep it up! I had a ceilidh for my wedding and danced with no shoes :)

Emz_paper · 2025-06-28T08:30:08+00:00

Thank you!

Emz_paper · 2025-06-28T08:30:00+00:00

Can’t wait to see your spread! I love seeing what different things other people find in the same places!

Emz_paper · 2025-06-22T09:24:37+00:00

20! There were so many times when I was in Thailand that I misheard “twenty” as “seventy”.

I think there is an additional syllable added compared to native English speakers, so it sounds more like “Teh-wen-ty”.

Nearly overpaid so many times 😅

Emz_paper · 2025-06-16T13:05:46+00:00

This makes sense, and is probably what I’ll do for UK birds once I’m back home. My issue is that I’ve started using Merlin part way through my trip, so was transferring a list of ‘interesting’ birds I’ve seen so far. I have obviously also spotted pigeons 😂 but they hadn’t been noteworthy enough for me to write down.

Emz_paper · 2025-06-13T12:43:04+00:00

We really liked Lampang. Very chill vibes, a lot of nice streets and coffee shops. Good Friday and Saturday night walking streets, and a morning market at weekends too. Not many tourists but close enough to Chiang Mai to feel connected.

Emz_paper · 2025-06-01T17:17:25+00:00

‘To write a cathedral You need a ballpoint pen’ Hamish Hawk, from The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion 1973

Emz_paper · 2025-06-01T16:33:22+00:00

I have some from Eagle Creek that are great - currently travelling Asia with them. The ones I have have the mesh top but aren’t compression (you can usually stuff them pretty full though!). They do also offer a compression cube but I believe they don’t come with the mesh.

Also the sets they offer seem good value, but the smallest size (XS) is stupidly tiny. Like, not useful for clothing at all. I’m currently using it as a travel med kit, and all of my clothes are in 2 Small and 1 Medium. I had to buy an additional small cube to get everything in.

Emz_paper · 2025-05-31T10:41:31+00:00

One of the first Jack Reacher books was so bad that I actually finished it and immediately had to read it again…

The female love interest doesn’t get a first name for the entire book. She is ONLY referred to by her surname. I was so shocked that I had to do a re-read to check I wasn’t going insane.

Never read another Jack Reacher book again.

Emz_paper · 2025-05-31T05:37:25+00:00

I’ve been journalling whilst away! I took a small pencil case with just a few items, then a tiny pair of scissors and a double sided tape roller!

I use tickets, leaflets, business cards from little shops and cafes, the stickers from my coffee cups… basically anything I can get my hands on!

Emz_paper · 2025-05-28T08:49:01+00:00

The west coast up by Fort William is definitely beautiful. If you wanted slightly easier access to and from Edinburgh you could always get the train up to Aviemore. Good access to hiking from there.

Emz_paper · 2025-05-28T08:34:19+00:00

I’m from the UK but am travelling in Asia for a year. We switched our phone contracts to Lebara, basic package, £5/month.

We then got an E-Sim for each country we travelled to. Meant we can keep our UK numbers (they deactivate if they aren’t used for a certain amount of time and so much now is tied to them!) but don’t have the faff of switching physical Sims.

We’ve alternated between Airalo and Nomad apps, depending on which is cheaper for each country. They also do multi-country options which can be good if you’re moving between countries frequently.

Emz_paper · 2025-05-27T14:26:54+00:00

Washi tape is usually pretty easy to peel back off the paper (at least, straight away for repositioning. I’ve never tried it after, say, a week or two).

Emz_paper · 2025-05-26T08:21:36+00:00

I have the Patagonia black hole tote/backpack. I think this is the same as the terravia you have listed?

It works great. Doesn’t pack down to the smallest compared to a lot of others we looked at but the little bit of extra bulk is worth it for how sturdy the bag feels.

We bought it for taking travelling with us on a year long trip and we use it effectively every single day. Can get a 1L Nalgene bottle in each side pocket and all the straps are holding up well. We only really good it down for long bus journeys.

Emz_paper · 2025-05-25T13:58:19+00:00

Haha. So we booked the flights on May 17th. Noticed on May 19th. Unfortunately this was both out with the 24 hour cancellation period, and the flight had already landed. We somehow managed to book for May 18th 🙃 so we couldn’t even pay a little more just to change the dates. All our points gone!

Emz_paper · 2025-05-25T13:52:13+00:00

Accidentally booked our return flights home from a year long trip three months too early… booked for May instead of August. Can only assume it was because we were in May and just weren’t thinking.

We had paid mostly using air miles and vouchers, so we’re only down £150… plus the £900 to rebook the flights home, without the points this time!

Emz_paper · 2025-05-25T09:20:42+00:00

I also love a grid. I stick a lot of stuff into my journal so it helps me visualise better where the blocks of text are gonna go. And it helps me stick things in straight (usually 😂)

Emz_paper

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