Aussies heading back to Vietnam with VietJet

Australians, especially boomers, seem to be spending money on travel like there is no tomorrow. Let’s hope they’re wrong.

Words and images: Roderick Eime - traveloscopy.com

All kidding aside, we are certainly travelling again. We’re spending big and we’re going overseas, despite some expensive airfares. Where are we going? We seem to be travelling closer to home, especially to the South Pacific and Southeast Asia more so than Europe or the Americas.

Peleliu 1944: Hell in The Pacific

Following the trail of famed Australian war photographer and cameraman, Damien Parer, we explore the jungles of Peleliu and awaken some restless ghosts.

Just as the morning sun began to bake the sand and rubble beaches of tiny Peleliu, two divisions of US Marines set off from their ships toward shore in waves of motorised landing craft. Intelligence had told them to expect only moderate resistance, but they were in for the surprise of their lives.

Fatu Hiva: For the Love of Nature

One of the 20th Century’s best known explorers and ethnographers began his celebrated career on a far-flung outpost in the Pacific Ocean in 1936 with his new bride and not much else.

French Polynesia is nowadays a world famous location for honeymooners who spend their languid days in 5-star over-water bungalows, getting endless massages and drinking colourful cocktails with little umbrellas. But not the newlywed Heyerdahls. They had every intention of eschewing the trappings of civilization and returning to a simple life ‘back to nature’ on the most inaccessible yet fertile island they could find.

Anik Palace Hotel. Emerging luxury in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh recalls its colonial luxury with emerging brand, Anik Hotels. John Savage gets embedded.

Tourism took a mammoth hit around the world during COVID-19, and no popular destination was more affected than Cambodia which has suffered more disasters than most.

The Anam Resort Paved The Way To Luxury On Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Peninsula

The Anam is the first five-star colonial beach resort in Cam Ranh and a sanctuary of contemporary luxury that harks back to a bygone. John Savage indulges himself.

With an infectious smile as wide as Cam Ranh Bay, the Anam journey had started. She said her name was Pinky and she was at the airport with a welcoming smile, a sign bearing my name and a luggage trolley. She walked me over to a sleek black Merc for the 15-minute drive to The Anam Cam Ranh, one of the first five-star resorts in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh area.

High in India - A steaming Darjeeling

(c) Werner Fritthum

For more than 130 years, a tiny train has laboured up from the plains of West Bengal to the lofty Himalayan tea plantations. Follow the tracks of the famous ‘toy train’.

words and pictures by Roderick Eime


“One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput.” - Lawrence John Lumley Dundas, Earl of Ronaldshay (1876-1961)

Stroking Strath. An easy and popular day ride from Adelaide

The Adelaide Hills presents a multitude of of riding and driving opportunities. The Southern Route to Strathalbyn is, you'll quickly find, one of the most popular as rider, Rod 'Rowdy' Eime discovers.

I know, I know. You’ve heard me blather on and on about the myriad riding opportunities within cooee of Adelaide. So, let’s move on and take that to the next level and create some history. And you read it here first.

A Journey on The Overland

A lot can happen in 60 years. 

As I sit comfortably in my Red Premium seat on the Adelaide-bound Overland intercity train, I fondly recall the several previous journeys I took when it was an overnight express.