We’re itching to get back to Asia when travel finally returns so, when the Tourism Authority of Thailand asked us to share memories of our time in the Land of Smiles as part of their #ThrowbackThailand campaign, we were happy to oblige. With that in mind, here’s a look back at our experiences volunteering in Thailand and projects we’d love to volunteer with in the...

Want to save money on accommodation while you travel and spend time with cute pets? Then house sitting is the perfect solution. I’m writing this post from a spectacular farm house in rural Portugal where we’re currently looking after dogs and pigs. Over the last three years we’ve also house sat in a lavish Spanish villa and all over London, which has saved us thousands of pounds in accommodation and satisfied our pet cravings. So, how do we land all these great opportunities? Here are our top house sitting tips.
During our first three weeks in Spain we drove miles around the country, up to the misty vineyards and mountains of the Basque region to the medieval hub of León and across to Barcelona, a city we quickly became obsessed with. After all that sightseeing we were relieved to head down to Alicante for a rest at our week-long Spanish house sit.
Causally throwing a banana chip into my mouth I leaned out of the stationary tuk-tuk and craned my neck up towards the cave above, waiting for the million-strong swarm of bats to flood out of its entrance into the gathering dusk. A boy of about eight or nine, bare-foot and messy-haired, wandered past our vehicle and I smiled as our eyes met. My banana chips captured his attention and for a moment I began to stretch my arm out to offer him some before remembering: we’re not supposed to give things to kids, especially not here in Cambodia where child-begging is such a problem.
At the beginning of our trip we were looking forward to getting some volunteering experience on the road; something we'd had little time for during our hectic lives back in London. However, our first six months on the road flew by in a whirl of adventures and by the end of it we hadn’t managed any volunteering at all – the closest we’d come was to visit the BAWA animal shelter in Bali, Indonesia. Fortunately, the perfect volunteering opportunity arose during our trip to the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand where we learnt we could help out with their Dog Rescue Project.
We learned a lot about the plight of Thailand’s elephants and got up close to these amazing creatures during a trip to the Elephant Nature Park  - here's the story of our day there.

The Plight of Thailand’s Elephants

There’s a huge contradiction in the attitude towards elephants in Thailand; on one hand they’re revered as sacred animals that helped build the country and win wars but on the other, they’re beaten and abused in the worst ways. Historically, wild elephants were domesticated in Thailand for logging work, however, after this was banned in 1989 they became surplus to requirements and many were either abandoned in forests, sold over the border to Burma where logging is still legal or used instead to make money from tourists.

On arriving in the Philippines we headed straight for the beautiful island of Bohol in search of chocolate hills and tiny primates – here’s how we spent our whirlwind week on Bohol.

We decided at the last minute to spend a few weeks in Malaysia and this was one of the best decisions we have made so far on our trip. We spent most of our time in the jungles of Borneo searching for wild orangutans and along the way had some amazing adventures and spotted so many other wonderful creatures. Although we didn't have much time left after our stint in Borneo we managed to squeeze in a few days in Kuala Lumpur, where we ended up feeling quite at home.
My only plan for our three-week trip to Malaysia was to find wild orangutans in Borneo. I’ve long dreamed of seeing these incredible human-like creatures in their natural environment and was prepared to do whatever it took to achieve my goal. Our search for the so-called man of the forest took us deep into the jungles of Borneo; we sailed down rivers and spent hours trekking through tropical heat to try and catch a glimpse of these secretive and endangered primates, but did we succeed?