Travelfish correspondent Stuart McDonald

Stuart previously lived in Thailand and Cambodia for around eight years between them, where he worked as an under-paid, under-skilled language teacher, an embassy staffer, a newspaper web-site developer and various other stuff. Before all those non-travel jobs he authored two travel guides, one to Vietnam and one to Thailand. He still spends a lot of time travelling and can sleep anywhere, anytime - even on the road to Bokor. His favourite read is The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. He spends most of his time in Bali, Indonesia.
Website: http://www.travelfish.org

Posts by Stuart McDonald:

• Serangan’s Turtle Centre and beaches revisited

  First published: 03 Oct 2011
  

  What to do on a sunny Bali Sunday with kids? Visit the turtle centre on Serangan Island of course! We’ve written about this under-visited attraction before and it makes for a perfect half-day outing from anywhere in south Bali — especially if combined with a meal out on the nearby beaches. The Turtle Conservation and … read the full post

• Money-changing scams in Bali

  First published: 01 Oct 2011
  

  So yesterday afternoon I decided to finish off a decidedly ordinary week by running out of money. On the final day that school fees were due. This is a more common occurrence than it should be at Casa Travelfish and we even have an emergency money frame with $100 in it. So I broke the … read the full post

• Which is the best boat service from Bali to Nusa Lembongan?

  First published: 18 Jul 2011
  

  Nusa Lembongan is a beautiful little patch of an island just off the east coast of southern Bali. It’s famous for its surfing, sunsets and snorkelling, and is growing in popularity among those looking for a less crowded, unadulterated flavour of Bali. But the big question: how to get there? It’s an island, there’s no … read the full post

• Bali’s eastern Bukit beaches

  First published: 12 Jul 2011
  

  The Bukit peninsula at the southernmost tip of Bali is home to some of the most stunning beaches on the entire island. We’ve already written at length about some of the best beaches on the west coast of the Bukit, from Dreamland down to Nyang Nyang, but the Bukit is a big place and there’s … read the full post

• Sample Bali taxi fares

  First published: 23 Jun 2011
  

  After we did our initial post regarding taxis fares from Bali airport, we’ve had many more inquiries about fares for specific routes. So, keeping that in mind, here are some of the more popular requests for taxi prices in Bali. Note these are eitherfrom the airport board (and so covered in the previous post as … read the full post

• Legian beach Bali mini-guide

  First published: 22 Jun 2011
  

  Wedged midway between Bali’s numero uno tourist pit Kuta and fashionista hub Seminyak, Legian beach occupies a somewhat comfortable middle ground — slippery and sleazy one moment, old school beautiful the next.

• What makes a good guesthouse room in Asia part 2: everything else

  First published: 20 Jun 2011
  

  After examining what makes a good bathroom in Southeast Asia, for the second and final piece in this series I’m looking at, well, the rest of the shebang. And while the bathroom is especially easy to get totally wrong, crappy hoteliers are no slouches when it comes to the rest of the joint. Let’s start … read the full post

• What makes a good guesthouse room in Asia part 1: the bathroom

  First published: 13 Jun 2011
  

  In the last almost seven years of running Travelfish.org I’ve personally reviewed more than 2,500 places to stay in Southeast Asia. Sure some have been flasher joints, but the vast majority have been at the budget end of the scale — the sort of place you’d most likely get some change from a crisp $20 … read the full post

• Green School’s Bali bike riding club

  First published: 12 Jun 2011
  

  Bali’s Green School is a spectacular campus set just outside Ubud. Nestled in a river valley among rice fields the school is surrounded by village paths and backroads, which, as it turns out, make excellent fodder for a bit of cycling around Bali. With that in mind, some of the more pedal-minded parents have put … read the full post

• Canggu beaches, Bali

  First published: 08 Jun 2011
  

  Canggu is a beach and ricefield area out to the northwest of Seminyak. It’s famous for three things: the surf, the ricefield views and the private villa rentals. Given private villas in Canggu generally fall outside the reaches of the meagre Travelfish.org budget, we just spent a weekend traipsing around looking at everything from cheap … read the full post