Travels with Reehan

reflections from a life that was never meant to be

Latest posts...

October’s been a surprisingly crazy month – have had tonnes of visitors here in Shanghai, which is weird cos I tell people not to come as it’s a pale shadow of it once was and I’m...

Pamir Highway

BACKGROUND The Pamir Highway is one of the intrepid adventurer’s holy grails. A 1200km road trip through the Pamir Mountains – sometimes referred to as the ‘roof of the world’ thanks...

Angola

Sri Lanka in Feb 2018 was one of my fave ever trips, as much for the place itself (which I’m sure I’ll talk about at a later date) as for the friends I made whilst there. I organically ended...

Athens

Three reasons for this post: 1) My phone of five years is gradually dying, so I’m conscious of the need to upload Covid-era pics (most pre-2020 travel stuff is on my dormant-but-secure Facebook);...

Battambang

I’ve been missing Cambodia a lot lately. Obviously, I left a big part of me behind upon departure in 2015. But my early years in China were filled with positivity and endless excitement, as well...

Mount Fuji

Made a typically eleventh-hour decision to climb Mount Fuji last week. It was actually my second choice for a July getaway (hopefully I’ll have reason to post about my first choice in a couple of...

ASIA

feat. Central, East, South, and Southeast Asia + transcontinental straddlers

AFRICA

currently with only sub-Saharan nations, but very much to be continued...

THE AMERICAS

feat. South and Central America, and hopefully one day the Caribbean too

THE 'WEST'

for anything that I find interesting in the cultures most similar to my own (rarest updates here)

Latest antics...

The Pamir Highway. #🇹🇯 with a splash of #🇰🇬 and hints of #🇦🇫.

Impossible to adequately memorialise a journey like this with 20 pics on IG.

Hit the blog for complete galleries and info. Link in bio.

The Pamir Highway. Dushanbe, 🇹🇯 --> Osh, 🇰🇬 in 7 days. A trip that I first looked into way back in 2019. Better late than never, eh.

Pics and trip report coming soon.

Song choice due to our driver's obsession with Rihanna's original. 😂

And with that, I think I've visited every Asian country that was on my list. What next? 🤔

#🇯🇵 #🗻 #⛩️

Bet you can't do five days in Japan like I can.

More details on the blog. Link in bio.

Climbing Mount Fuji. Messed up the timings completely, but still a fun adventure. More pics and words to come soon.

#🇲🇽

Valladolid, Chichén Itzá, Cancún, Teotihuacán, Mexico City. More deets on the blog, link in bio.

And with that, I've finally caught up with the photos from March/April. Where to next? 🤔

#🇬🇹

Antigua, Acatenango, Lake Atitlán, Flores, Tikal.

More details on the blog. Link in bio. (Bonus post: my stopover in San Ignacio, Belize, while on my way to Mexico!)

#🇳🇮

San Juan del Sur, Granada, Ometepe Island.

More details on the blog (also feat. the drama of not getting into Honduras and having to jump on a boat to El Salvador). Link in bio.

#🇨🇷

Mainly La Fortuna, Arenal Volcano, and Monteverde.

More on the blog, link in bio.

#🇵🇦

Panama City, Guna Yala (San Blas Islands), Boquete.

More details on the blog. Link in bio.

Everyone that I met on the way made out that this hike would be absolute murder.

Turned out that I murdered it.

There's something pretty damn spectacular about smashing three consecutive hikes at altitude in the space of twelve hours. And there's something even more spectacular about sleeping in a threadbare cabin on a massive (inactive) volcano with the thunderous eruptions of the mighty Volcan Fuego to lull you into slumber.

Less spectacular is my phone camera at night, which does not at all do justice to what I witnessed. Someone crowdfund for a new one plz.

Thanks to @acatenangolocaladventure for taking great care of us, enabling us to achieve all three hikes, and for providing a vegan menu up there! ❤️

A magical trip to the paradisal San Blas Islands / Guna Yala. Every image I ever had of Caribbean idylls became reality in one day. An honour to be welcomed into the home of the indigenous Guna peoples who own this land and, quite rightly, protect it from commercialisation and the scourge of capitalist development. A dream.

#sanblas #sanblasislands #gunayala #panamá #panamatravel

#🇹🇷

Always felt like I'd have made a first-rate librarian during antiquity. And here is me in front of the reconstructed Library of Celsus for proof. 😏

Ephesus was such a marvel. Almost bypassed it due to budgetary constraints and mixed reviews, but it was everything I wanted it to be and more. (Hot tip: get in at 8am as soon as the south gate opens; all the stupid tour groups start flooding in from the north at around 9am so you get the place almost to yourself which is incredible.)

Keep scrolling to the end for a couple of shots from what remains of the Temple of Artemis, a 35 min walk from the main Ephesus ruins. First time I've laid eyes upon one of the Seven Ancient Wonders. 🤩 A great way to end the main trip. From here it was a couple of nights with friends in Izmir to wind down before beginning the 30hr trek back home.

Turkey is so full of wonders that I feel like I didn't even scratch the surface. Sadly, it's also going through severe economic (and political) struggles atm, and now is probably not the time to be backpacking here given the exorbitant costs of, like, everything. Hoping I'll get to come back one day, but more importantly hoping for more stability, security, and (far) better governance for the people of this fascinating land. 🙏🏾

“Why the fuck am I doing this.”

ME – while suffering various calamities during the last 15 years of globetrotting

ABOUT

The world-spanning adventures and reflections of a feral, Brown, vegetarian, clothing-averse Brit who went wildly off-piste at a young age and decided not to find his way back.

Further, heavily-redacted details below for the perennial procrastinators among you.

QUESTIONS?

My expertise is limited – and I don’t recommend that others travel like I do – but if you need advice about visiting China (where I’ve been based for a decade) or any of my most recent trips then feel free to get in touch.