INDIA, March 28th 2005

Namaste !
Here we are just about to set off to Rajasthan from Mumbai (Bombay) after almost 6 weeks of serious horizontal living on the beach in Goa...concentrating on our extreme relaxation on Calangute Beach, stuffing ourselves with beans on toast and other british culinary delights ... with Jim's Mum and Keith, and then our friend Lee made it over for two more weeks of...er...relaxing .... More

INDIA, March 28th 2005

Namaste !
Here we are just about to set off to Rajasthan from Mumbai (Bombay) after almost 6 weeks of serious horizontal living on the beach in Goa...concentrating on our extreme relaxation on Calangute Beach, stuffing ourselves with beans on toast and other british culinary delights ... with Jim's Mum and Keith, and then our friend Lee made it over for two more weeks of...er...relaxing .... More

LAOS, February 1st 2005

Sabaidee !
Here we are .. back in Vientiane before jumping on the bus to Bangkok to catch our flight to India.... A full month in Laos with many ups and downs... but a happy end indeed ... We'll definitely have to go back to Luang Nam Tha in the North East another time...
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THAILAND, January 25th 2005

Happy New Year ! Well, what can you say.
We were luckily in Cambodia when the Tsunami hit, on the coast at Sihanoukville. Originally we were meant to be in Thailand but time didn`t allow it. Our friends Dave and Delph were on Ko Mak, in the Gulf of Thailand.
Tomo and Kyoko however, were on Ko Surin and were hit by it on Boxing day morning. ...
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CAMBODIA, December 11th 2004

We entered Cambodia by boat along the Mekong river which took us all the way to Phnom Penh. Much less developed than Vietnam in a lot of ways, the whole countryside seemed deserted, flat green planes, endless rice paddies only punctuated by the odd white cow, buddhist stuppa or figure on the bank of the river.
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VIETNAM, November 23rd 2004

It's biblical moped traffic in Hanoi and Saigon, having lunch on little plastic table and chair sets on the pavement while all life is lived out in public and at volume... well, Vietnam was excellent.
The coffee and Baguettes were a blessing every morning, the people had a bit of a cooler attitude which was kind of refreshing and, contrary to the near universal complaints and bad image the country seems to have with many travellers... ... More

THAILAND, October 27th 2004

Stopovers:...Bali...Kuala Lumpur...Bangkok...
Time to change direction and get a move on. Unfortuately we're not gonna have enough time to get to Australia, though it saves us a fortune and we will be getting over to India in Feb instead
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INDONESIA, September 2004

From Dili, the plan was to go straight to Gorontalo, port of entry of the Togean islands in Sulawesi ....
but of course, we had to spend a couple of days in beautiful Kupang, West Timor and then another couple of days in Surabaya ... before getting to Gorontalo .. where unfortunately we just missed the weekly boat (doh, the guide book said there were two) ... anyway, we got there eventually ...
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EAST TIMOR, September 2004

A short stay to get a new visa for indonesia ... in the newest nation on earth ..
had a lovely time discovering the city of Dili, East Timor's history and hearing stories from the locals as well as the residing foreigners.

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INDONESIA, August 1st 2004

Just arrived in Jakarta, start of the Indonesia leg of our trip. Plan to stay in Indonesia for up to two months (but only got a 30 day visa...). So, visa runs aside, plan to travel through Java by train visting Yogyakarta, Borobudur, Bromo mountain then on to Bali, hopefully in time to meet up with Takashi, Yoshi and Alex from Japan. Next were gonna head to Flores for some serious relaxing, snorkling and following up on Karens contacts from her VSO days. Finally were planning on heading up to Sulawesi to...er...well get more sun, sea, snorkling and sate .... More

BRUNEI, July 29th

Got to BSB alive after a life threatening ride from Miri with a crazy driver. A little sad to leave Malaysian Borneo and the nice Kelabit people who welcomed us despite the SAR operation taking place while we were visiting. We're in Brunei to catch our flight to Jakarta... and looking forward to the wonders of BSB ... mosques and 6 star hotels .... and the deserted amusement park .. cos I doubt we will be checking the Proboscis monkeys there ..
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MALAYSIA, Sabah, Sarawak, June 24th 2004

Malaysian Borneo ! A bit of excercise after the big chill on the ever so idyllic Filipino beaches .... so, we'll start with Climbing Mount Kinabalu followed by relaxing in the nearby hotsprings, before paying a visit to the Orang utans in Sepilok and exploring the Kinabatangan river with Robert Chang ...
We're also going down to Kuching to attend the Rainforest World Music Festival ... and up to Bario !
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PHILIPPINES, May 17th 2004

Straight to the immigration office in Manila to get our visa extended from 21 days to 59... to explore the remote regions of Palawan... in the South West of the archipelago ... El Nido has countless gorgeous white sand beaches and a variety of colourful marine life .... We were tempted to get the ferry accross but got dissuaded after reading the news of the spooky disapearance of the Manila-Puerto Princesa ferry.. leaving no trace and so no survivors behind .... !?
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HONGKONG, May 13th 204

A very quick stopover in HK to take in the sights and catch up with old friends. Got the Ying and Yang of the city by first staying in Kowloon and settling in to Chun King Mansions (infamous crumbling and corrupt block of flats..now more infamous for hosting the SARS outbreak)...then saved by Chris to stay in his fanastic appartment near the Peak, Hong Kong Island overlooking Happy Valley Racecourse.
Enjoyed the cityscape, trams and nightlife that Chris showed us to and wished we`d had a bit more time... More