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Chris + Elli: World Tour
  • Chris Keeley
  • Elli Thomas
  • Chris Keeley
  • Elli Thomas

Chris + Elli: World Tour

Around the world in a year and a bit Read more
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  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Menjangan Island

    January 20, 2024 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Snorkelling around Menjangan island - part of the Bali Barat National Park and home to an incredible array of sealife in its coral reef.

    Menjangan means deer and indeed there were plenty keen for a taste of our lunch.

    The underwater photo isn't ours... but if anything it was even more amazing than that and we know think we'll have to get ourselves a gopro for more underwater adventures    Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour
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    Mount Ijen

    January 23, 2024 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We woke up at 00.30 to climb Mount Ijen, an active volcano in East Java which has the biggest acid lake in the world in its crater, and is home to sulphur deposits, which produce a rare phenomenon of "blue flame" - where the sulphuric gas combined with oxygen and sparked by lava produce a blue fire.Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour
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    Mount Merapi

    January 26, 2024 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Took a ride up to Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta's local volcano, which erupted on Sunday. It was very foggy and we saw absolutely nothing but we had a fun (if slightly stressful) day out 🤷‍♀️

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    Borobudur Temple

    January 27, 2024 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Went to visit Borobudur Temple, which is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It's 8th/9th century though was only used as a place of worship for about 100 years before it was abandoned and overgrown. It has 72 stupas and 9 levels and takes a very long time to walk around the whole thing. We did get to the top, and while we haven't yet reached enlightenment, it was a very impressive sight.

    We also became local celebrities and rapidly lost count of how many visitors asked for selfies with us, and were interviewed by a class of students from Kalimantan, who were very surprised to hear that Elli is older than Chris (most irregular) and asked us what our favourite food was.    Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Yogyakarta Airport

    January 28, 2024 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Some surprisingly cultural experiences for an airport. Had to wait to go through security due to the daily national anthem, and a bizarre cartoon

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Kuala Lumpur

    Jan 29–Feb 4, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    We arrived in KL on Monday night after some last minute decision making about where to go next, in the end buying the flight on the same day(!) We spent a few days chilling out in central KL, eating a lot of very fabulous Malay and Chinese food, enjoying life in a cosmopolitan and international city and being boggled at the size and extent of their shopping malls and how you can fit 6 storeys of parking into every residential tower. We actually loved it and would happily come back againRead more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Mee Tarek Restaurant

    January 30, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Normally a restaurant wouldn't be worth a footprint, but this place was something else.
    Ordered on an app, drinks and first food arrived in 2 minutes, the final plate was here in 5 minutes. All cheap and vegetarian too!Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Batu Caves

    February 3, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Visited the Batu Caves, a complex of Hindu shrines set in limestone caves just outside KL. Lots of steps and worth it for the amazing rock formations and temples, despite being super busy!

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Malacca

    Feb 4–6, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Took the bus to Malacca City, which is a frequent stopping off point between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and for good reason it seems: it's a UNESCO World Heritage site and has a long history as a port town and has been occupied by the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British.

    Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the centre of town is closed to traffic and hosts a huge night market which has an amazing variety of food, things to buy and performances. We ate a LOT and our feet hurt a lot by the end.

    Not much happens during the week but we did manage to eat some of the other local delicacies - roti canai (roti with dahl); chicken rice balls (pretty much what it says on the tin) and cendol (a confusing but delicious dessert made of shaved ice, palm sugar, coconut milk, jelly noodles and beans).    Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour
    1Life's a beach
    View from our towerThe lights aren't on and nobody's homeAn empty water park1Like that escalator to nowhereThe developer's ginormous modelA maze that's designed to be seen in promos (it's a terrible maze)1(de facto) private infinity poolThe boardroom and attached kitchen1This freaked Elli outI've heard of train carriages...CNY with our adopted family

    Forest City, Johor Bahru

    Feb 6–10, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    We spent a weird and very wonderful few days in Forest City, an almost deserted new city. It was built by a Chinese property developer on an artificial island near Johor Bahru (just across from Singapore).

    The town centre and the first phases were opened in 2016 but thanks to the chinese investment crash, geopolitics and Covid, it still only has 6000 residents. We were very happy to join them, and rented a luxury apartment in the landmark tower and enjoyed a few days with a private infinity pool, terrace, gym and club house as our playground.

    Until our last couple of days we saw mostly staff - the place is immaculately managed and tended by an army of staff despite the lack of anyone to enjoy it, and even though no one would pick us up in their golf buggy "buses", we enjoyed foot slogging round the island and seeing if we could spot any crocodiles.

    We ended up staying for Chinese New Year's Eve and what an amazing experience - suddenly the beach, water park and our terrace was filled with families visiting for the holidays and our neighbours very kindly invited us to their amazing CNY buffet and then for fireworks on the beach, which were unhinged.    Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour
    Monkeys in the trees while hikingView from the top of the hikeHappy New YearFood theatreDurian anticipationLots of photos were takenScooter accident witnessing #2

    Georgetown, Penang

    Feb 10–17, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Came to Penang for Chinese New Year, braving the travel rush in some slightly last minute plans to meet our friend Ash in Georgetown. We had to fly in the end as every bus and train was sold out(!)

    We rented a little flat for a few days and ended up staying for a week, enjoying a bit of wandering around and quite a lot of learning to somersault in the swimming pool, drinking lychee Soju and trying to visit Hawker centres after they had closed for the day.

    We also underestimated the challenge of climbing Penang Hill with no lunch (a 700m ascent), had a surprise meeting at the top with a good friend of the Norwegian traveller Thor Pedersen (whose book Elli has been reading), and an evening visit to the amazing Kek Lok Si temple all lit up for Chinese New Year.    Read more

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    Padang Besar

    Feb 17–18, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    An overnight stop in a border town. We arrived on the last train to Padang Basar, and the bridge to town was closed, so we had to walk all the way around, through a pitch black underpass, as we had intentionally spent most of our cash so couldn't pay 2 quid for a taxi.
    Next morning we got there early for the shuttle train across the border, then it was 2 hours late. Should have got a shared van! Fortunately we got very lucky with connections afterwards for the next day of travel, so it took about 24h all in from Georgetown to Koh Lanta in Thailand.    Read more

  • Chris + Elli: World Tour

    Bangkok

    Feb 27–Mar 2, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Bangkok is the classic passing through city for travellers. So we took the night bus from Krabi and here we are passing through, for a few days, featuring a lot of lazy days, more sushi than you would normally expect from two people in Thailand, and going out in the evenings to experience Bangkok's incredibly confusing nightlife and insane taxi drivers.

    ("Please tell me if you are scared and you want me to slow down. I have lost my shoes and can't use the brake.")    Read more

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