The Mudge family boathouse in Broom Point, Newfoundland. The three Mudge brothers and their families fished from the site from 1941 until 1975, when they sold the property to Gros Morne National Park. With the family's generosity, the buildings have been restored and visitors to the park are welcome to enjoy them.

About. Kathryn and Daniel will post a ‘Snap de la semaine’ irregulary, but at a rate of one per week. It is an original photo not otherwise on the site—it might be fresh from our camera, a new scan of some old film, a product of our fooling around with Photoshop, or a file from the archive that we haven’t posted yet.

"Snap de la semaine: Broom Point, Newfoundland" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Photo by MorrowLess (Creative Commons)—not the actual bed!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was positively horrified and in tears.

Based on a recommendation we got from a lovely Australian couple we met in Thailand, we decided to spend some of our last few weeks abroad in Malaysia.

While about to cross the boarder from Hat Yai, Thailand to Malaysia an incident occurred (I’ll save that story for another blog post). Regardless, it caused a fight between Daniel and me. Moreover, it caused a two-and-a-half-hour delay in our arrival to Penang.

So, rather then getting in at 7pm, we arrived at about 9:30pm and it was dark. Really dark. I started to panic on the way into Penang thinking about where we would stay that night. We hadn’t booked anything (thinking we’d have daylight and time enough to search a place out).

Daniel asked the minivan driver (a rather tough, scary looking Thai dude) where a good place to stay was. He smiled at us and told us he’d take us to a nice place owned by one of his friends. My panic level rose. We were eventually driven down a dark alley and let out in front of an old, rundown, horrible-looking backpackers hostel.

It evoked memories of Alex Garland’s description of the Khao San flophouse in which his protagonist (Richard, later played by Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself—except it was in Penang’s equivalent of Khao Sarn—down a sidestreet from Lebuh Chulia.

‘Here we are!” exclaimed our driver through gritted teeth. Sitting outside of the hostel were about five or six shirtless, beer-drinking men with three scary looking dogs. No other backpackers could be seen. I desperately tried to get Dan’s attention and to discretely whisper to him ‘Let’s get out of here. I am NOT staying here”. He ignored me and paid one of the men for the night. I was horrified that he had paid before seeing the room we would be sleeping in.

I could tell that he too was horrified, but was going to make us stay here to spite me. One of the men walked us down a dark hallway (think cave), opened the door to our room, and left.

I remember the room being like that which you would see in a horror film. There were bars on the tiny window (which would trap us inside if there were a fire) and the window only led to a tiny courtyard (which would be no good anyway even if we could get out).

There were two single beds with bare, sagging mattresses that looked and smelled like they had just come out of a dump. There were holes all over the walls and two ceiling fans hanging out of holes in the ceiling by a single wire right over the beds.

The bathroom was super tiny, grimy, and there was no hot water. The best part was all of the messages carved into the headboards of the beds by previous guests. One read ‘Watch out for the bats at night’, another told us to ‘Get out of here!’. Another said ‘I had sex in this bed’ (something that was definitely not going to be happening om this unforgettable night, and several nights hence).

By this point, I was fully in tears and telling Daniel that it wasn’t too late to leave and find a better place for the night. I didn’t care about the money, despite travelling on a bit of  a shoestring.

Well, I didn’t end up getting my way and I vowed that if we got out of this alive we would never stay in a place like it again! We survived the night by rolling out our sleeping bags to cover the mattresses, sleeping in our full clothes, with shoes still on, and being careful not to touch anything in the room.

I didn’t even use thebathroom once—and in the morning we checked out unshowered and went to another backpackers hostel for breakfast. The man serving us asked where we had stayed and when we told him he shook his head and said ‘Don’t stay there, they have peepholes’. To be expected, of course, but I had felt like my worst fears had just been validated.

The Eastern & Oriental Hotel

Thank God I hadn’t showered! Whether or not he was right, the place was horrible. There is a reason why the night there had only cost us the equivalent of C$3.00. Daniel nows admit that it was one of the worst places he’d seen (even after backpacking and staying in various, cheap and suspect hostels throughout Asia).

We spent the next two nights in Penang in absolute heaven at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel (room pictured above), one of Asia’s finest, as we figured we deserved it and decided to splurge! Of course, the credit card still has yet to recover. And that was five years ago.

Every had such a terrible hostel experience that you felt you must share it with the world? Weigh in and let us know. Also, if anybody can guess the name of the hostel above, let us know and share in our misery!

"The lumpiest mattress in Penang" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

From the beach—Lanta Yai

Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

—Benjamin Disraeli

Thailand is a fascinating place. When we set out on our travels there (2004), we wanted to get somewhat off the tourist track. We did an amazing trek in Chiang Mai first before setting off to find a not-so-touristy island in the south. We found a magnificent place called Koh Lanta Yai, located in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand, between the Phi Phi islands and the mainland. It wasn’t remote, but was also not nearly as built up as Phi Phi. There’s a local flavour (the island is muslim) and a quiet charm here that is lacking in tourist hotspots like Ko Samui and nearby Ko Phi Phi.

This was our style—laid back, friendly, and you could ride a motorbike and not see another tourist for miles! Lanta is relatively less developed with most of the accommodation available being basic bamboo huts—but that is changing. There are few paved roads on the island—mostly to the north—and they deteriorate into mud towards the southern end. But again, this was six years ago!

From the mountains—Lanta Yai

I remember one night we went out to a ‘bar’ there. The owner and ourselves were the only ones in there (this was during the Christmas season—high season!). While enjoying a nice chat (and drink) three young men from South Africa came into the bar with a confused look on their faces. They asked us where all the parties were and where they might go for a night out on the island.

Ban Saladan, the main town and port, is located at the northern tip of the island. Aside from some excellent seafood restaurants, there’s not too much in the way of evening entertainment. We had a good laugh with the South Africans when they learned that this was pretty much it; it looked like they wanted to catch the next ferry back to Phuket!

The main beaches are located on the west of the island, the largest being Klong Dao, Pra-Ae (Long Beach) and Klong Khong. There are other, much less accessible, beaches at the southern end. We ended up returning to Koh Lanta Yai about eight months later (during low season). A gigantic, new resort was under construction on the beach near where we had stayed (Pra-Ae) and longer expanses of dirt roads were set to be paved in the near future.

Our accommodation

Up-and-coming tourist destinations are often hard to find. Those who already know about the next best place are determined to keep it a secret, so that it remains undiscovered. Of course, we don’t begrudge them for that. However, by the time you hear about this great place, it is overrun with hordes of hairy German guys in Speedos. Ironic, huh?

It kind of makes me sad to think of what Lanta may be like now. Is it completely overrun by backpackers, with their big frame bags and utili-pants that have straps and clips and zippers everywhere—the ones like me? Are those quiet, relaxing nights a thing of the past? How many new resorts have been built there in the last six years? I’m not sure if I want to know.

"Koh Lanta Yai—unforgettable" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Photo by Daniel

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to see the world, experience new places, and meet people from far away. Several years ago, I was lucky enough to see just a tiny part of the world.

When I finished university, my husband (then boyfriend) and I promptly left our homes in Canada and moved to South Korea to teach for a year. He had just come back from traveling around Asia and I was ready to do the same thing!

Luckily for me, he was willing to leave everything once again and join me. I felt like it was now or never.

While the adjustment was difficult at first—very difficult—I can now say with certainty it was the best decision I’d ever made. Spending a year in Korea was amazing (despite the culture shock). Moreover, we were also able to get away to other places in Asia (Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia). I have seen things I never thought I would and am so thankful for those unforgettable moments while abroad.

When we returned to Canada after just more than a year away, we were ready to settle down. We bought a home and found work. Before long, however, both of us began to think of traveling again.

At first we talked of taking a few exciting trips whenever we could, like going to Machu Picchu in the mountains of Peru or going on a safari in the grasslands of Tanzania. Before we’d realized it, we began seriously talking about going away for a full year. Rather than taking a few trips here and there, we are hoping to consolidate them into a year long adventure! Again!

Having just a taste of the world has whetted our appetites for more. So, six years after we first left to go away for a year together—here we are again. We’ve begun to make preparations for our next year-long getaway! So exciting! So much to do!

We are just now in the planning stages and don’t plan to leave for two more years. But as we’ve come to realize, time goes by so, so quickly and that is why we have begun to prepare so far out.

"For as long as I can remember…" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!