We set off after breakfast to head to the Drak Yerpa Monastery, we drove out of Lhasa city and the somewhat crazy traffic and set off for the mountain road. As we started to get higher the views just got better and better with snow capped mountains in the distance and the city below. We stopped on the mountain pass about 40 minutes in to the drive for a photo opportunity. There is a section of the road just covered in prayer flags and paintings of what look like ladders on the rocks to symbolise the steps to nirvana. Once a prayer flag has been placed somewhere they cannot be removed, they’re just left to nature and over time, the colours fade and the fabric disintegrates. I got off the mini bus and just looked in ... read more

Today, I left Nepal and set off for Tibet. As a group, we were collected from the hotel around 9am to go to the embassy and collect our passports and permit to enter Tibet. Our flight was due to leave at 11:30am so it was a little bit tight in terms of time. Our guide left us waiting in the mini bus while he went inside to collect them, he returned to us around 10:15am and we still had a way to go to get to the airport and if the exit from Nepal was anything like the entrance it was about to be a complete nightmare! We entered the airport and went to the check in desk and were told that any batteries or aerosols in our check in luggage had to be removed and ... read more

I had a pretty lazy morning catching up on some sleep, tucked into some momos for lunch - they are amazing steamed dumplings packed full of spices and flavour - a couple of strong coffees to set me up for my afternoon tour. I was picked up at 3pm and the first stop was The Great Boudha Stupa, this was a few km’s away from the hotel but didn’t take too long in the minibus. We stopped on a main road and we’re told “we’re here”, initially, I was a little confused as all I could see were commercial buildings, what seems to be typical potholes the size of a house in the road and loads of rubble and dust and no sign of any world heritage site! Our guide took us down an alley way ... read more

After doing some epic packing, I set off from Kota Kinabalu for what would be a 40 journey to get back home. I boarded the plane in Kota Kinabalu with very mixed emotions, very glad to be getting back home to family and friends and of course my cat, who I missed so much, but, also disappointed to be leaving a place I'd fallen in love with. I flew to Singapore for my connecting flight (after a 10 hour lay over). The flight to Singapore was a little over 2 hours, it went pretty quickly, I arrived in Singapore and went to the transit area for a ridiculously long wait until my flight back. Shortly after arriving, I booked myself on to the free tour of Singapore from the airport. To kill some time I had ... read more

After seeing the orang-utans and sun bears at sepilok, I was taken to the Sim Sim jetty in Sandakan for a boat journey to the Abai Jungle Lodge. The boat journey took just over an hour and was a bit choppy in parts. I arrived at the lodge and was taken to my room which I'd been warned was basic and had no air-con, I have to say I was really quite pleasantly surprised, the room was lovely and although there was no air-con there was a huge fan on the ceiling which did a lot in helping cool the room. The lodge is situated the river, surrounded by thick rainforest. I had a little time before my first boat ride up the river so walked round the jungle boardwalks around the lodge to see if ... read more