Category Pages For: Destinations

Day-to-day blogs about the places already visited

HCMC - Bizu Hotel View Right
  OCTOBER 2015:   Click here to read our Vietnam Retirement Reviews. Read about Vietnam Visa. OVERVIEW: In District 1 there are lots of recreational activities which is why District 1 is also known as the “sleepless district” where a great deal of entertainment keeps you awake all night. Foreigners from all over the world can be found here – so the chance of meeting new expat friends is higher than in other districts. Pham Ngu Lao street is a westernised road where there are a lot of western-style restaurants, coffee shops, bars and other services for foreigners. Thanks to the high density of foreigners, there […]

Saigon – Vietnam – Information

AUGUST 2015: Click here to read our Indonesia Retirement Reviews. OVERVIEW: I enjoyed my short stay in Padang Bai but it was time to look south to Nusa Lembongan. As with Sabah and Padang Bai, this was High Season (the european July & August summer holidays) and I was expecting to pay top prices. GETTING THERE: The waitress at the Beach Inn told me that her uncle ran a Fastboat and that he could get me to Nusa Lembongan for IDR100k. When will I ever learn… I jumped on the back of her scooter and she took be to him. I […]

Nusa Lembongan – Indonesia – Information

AUGUST 2015: Click here to read our Indonesia Retirement Reviews. OVERVIEW: The last time that I was in Padang Bai, it was a whirlwind visit – I was on my way to Gili Air by fastboat. It felt a bit weird being back again after all this time (December 2014); I admit it, I was tempted to jump on a fastboat to Gili Air to say ‘hi’ to everyone. But, I resisted. Padang Bai is a reasonably attractive stop by Indonesian standards: it sits on a small bay (bai) and has a nice little curve of a beach. It is a […]

Padang Bai – Indonesia – Information

AUGUST 2015: Click here to read our Indonesia Retirement Review. OVERVIEW: It is no revelation that Bali is already a Retirement Location for many expats. I came back to Bali because I wanted to look outside of greater Kuta to discover what ‘gems’ might lie around the island. Gili Air has already made it to my Retirement Locations shortlist (albeit as a part time destination as part of a retirement location ‘suite’). GETTING THERE: I used CHEAPFLIGHTS.COM to book an Air Asia flight direct from Kota Kinabalu. The one-way ticket was NZ$145  / US$94 / €87 / £61 inclusive of 20Kg of checked in baggage. The flight was […]

Kuta – Bali – Indonesia – Information

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysian Retirement Reviews. GETTING ON TRACC: Pom Pom Island is idyllic. A desert island paradise. You can walk around the whole island in 30-45 minutes. You can kayak around it in just over 1 hour. And, as I found out on my penultimate day, you can snorkel around the reef crest in about 2.5 hours. If you haven’t done so already, click here to find out how we ended up as Tropical Research And Conservation Centre (TRACC) Volunteers on Pom Pom Island in the first place. To find out more about TRACC Borneo, itself, click […]

Pom Pom Island – Malaysia – Another ...

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysian Retirement Reviews. WARNING: At the moment, the trip to TRACC Pom Pom Island (that I describe, below) is not yet suitable for GRANDPAckers. The appropriate facilities are not yet in place. Read here for more details. However, when TRACC get their facilities right, this trip is definitely worth putting on to your ‘bucket list’. YOU SAVE YOUR LIVING ALLOWANCE: So, you are GRANDPAckers and it has been 4 months since you went on the Andaman Sea Liveaboard SCUBA Diving trip. You live in a GRANDPAcking Retirement Location where you (typically) have about 35% of […]

Semporna – Malaysia – Information

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysian Retirement Review. OVERVIEW: In summary so far… I didn’t like KK, nor Labuan, nor Kudat… things weren’t looking good. I was thinking about giving up on Borneo completely. In the end, I decided to ‘hang in there’ and it was a choice of heading back to KK to catch the over-night bus to Semporna or to catch the bus from Kudat to Sandakan. A opted for the latter as it got me closer to Semporna anyway. GETTING THERE: The Sandakan Express Bus leaves Kudat at 9:30am, costs MYR60 and arrives in Sandakan at about […]

Sandakan – Malaysia – Information

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysian Retirement Review. INTRODUCTION: For more general information on things like getting to Sabah, prices, and communications please read my post on Kota Kinabalu. GETTING THERE: Kudat is near the ‘Tip Of Borneo’; I thought that it might be worth checking out. I walked to Padang Merdeka bus station from my hotel; it was only a 5 minute walk. I read that the bus to Kudat left at 9:00am, so I turned up at 8:30. Just as well… as it left at 8:30. The price to Kudat was MYR25. It took 3.5 hours to get there. […]

Kudat – Malaysia – Informaton

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysian Retirement Review. OVERVIEW: One of the main reasons why I went to Sabah was to have a look at Pulau Labuan. Pulau Labuan is one of the three ‘duty free’ islands in Malaysia (Langkawi and Tioman are the other two). Labuan is also being touted as the ‘next Penang’. Langkawi and Penang have both already made it into my list of Retirement Locations. I just had to go and have a look at Labuan. I, also, had wider hopes for Borneo… especially because of its ‘nature lovers paradise’ marketing and because of the many […]

Kota Kinabalu – Malaysia – Information

JULY 2015: Click here to read our Malaysia Retirement Review. OVERVIEW: I went to Labuan because it is one of the 3 ‘duty free islands’ of Malaysia (the other 2 are Langkawi and Tioman). Labuan is, also, touted as being the ‘undiscovered’ Penang and there are rumours that they are planning to build a bridge connecting it to mainland Sabah (as they have done with Penang and Butterworth). Is Labuan going to be a ‘perfect merger’ of Langkawi and Penang in years to come? I needed to find out… GETTING THERE: I took the Ferry Express from Jesselton Point in […]

Labuan – Malaysia – Information

MAY 2015: Click here to read our Cambodia Retirement Reviews. OVERVIEW: For more background on Sihanoukville (‘Snooky’), please read this. I decided that central Snooky wasn’t for me. I wanted to find a ‘decent’ beach location and also get out to at least one unspoilt island. To that end, I picked on Koh Ta Kiev as my first target island. I was advised in Kampot not to try and get there in 1 day but to stay at least 1 night in Otres Beach (where you catch the ferry to the island). That suited me fine as I had also […]

Otres Beach – Cambodia – Information

MAY 2015: Click here to read our Cambodia Retirement Review. GETTING THERE: I was booked in for 2 weeks in Kampot. My plans for Cambodia included a couple of weeks in Kep before moving north to Sihanoukville (‘Snooky’). As Kampot and Kep are only about 20km apart, I decided to rent a scooter from where I was staying (the Vibola Guesthouse) and take a day trip down to Kep to “suss it out’. It was an easy ride down National Highway 3; that makes the road sound like a motorway… believe me, it is not. The traffic was very ‘light’ and not […]

Kep – Cambodia – Information