The following day was my only day of rest for the whole trip, I had no snorkelling trips planned and would be spending it lazing round the resort. My plans were changed somewhat as I did intend to do some snorkelling on my own around the reef that borders the island of Mabul but it rained virtually all day so spent the time just chilling. Mabul Island is full of contrasts at one end is the local village which consists of shacks on stilts and little electricity or plumbing to speak of. At the opposite end is the Mabul Beach resorts which are luxury chalets on stilts again but this time over the coral reef itself. Then in the middle are the Uncle Chan’s, scuba junkies and the homestays / longhouses. I couldn’t fault scuba junkies ... read more

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Taman Negara – I was up early, jetlag or not to catch the bus from Uncle Hans, to be found in Chinatown unsurprisingly. My destination was Taman Negara, which is purported to be the oldest rainforest in the world (130 million years old). The journey initially involved a drive of 4 hours from KL to Kuala Tembling and then a 3 hour boat journey up the river to Kuala Tahan. Most of the occupants of the bus/boat had taken the package that Uncle Hans offers which is 3 days 2 nights but I didn’t see the point in travelling 2 days to spend just 1 day in the park plus I wanted to do some exploration on my own so just paid for the travel and a night jungle walk.The journey in the boat was bum-numbing ... read more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKAzaoBks8 We were heading back to Reykjavik from Akureyri in a roundabout way as we still had two days left. The drive took us across northern Iceland travelling west and then down the western coast. Throughout this portion of the drive we noticed that decorating many of the deserted farmhouses was what appeared to be Banksy graffiti! Not too far after setting off we were distracted by signs for a seal museum, we weren’t sure what to expect from this i.e. whether it would have anything to do with seal hunting. We weren’t particularly bothered with the seal museum but we had read that seals could be seen off the coast nearby to the museum. This did result in a 2 hour detour across quite rough gravel roads but we had plenty of time. After what ... read more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH2mpLarvsg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU8Wvx1lR2E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wxqwonpFkU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL5V-Y0LLoQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnBlLZGcqW4 After our night in the Hi Hostel in Hofn we were back on the road again and set off again for a full-days drive to the North. Weather wise this was the worst day of the trip so I was glad that it wasn’t wasted as would be in the car most of the day. It rained all day and our route through the mountains was enveloped in mist. We were driving from South East Iceland up the East coast to our destination at roughly the northernmost point just 60km from the Arctic circle in Husavik. This part of Iceland is sparsely inhabited and we only passed a few cars outside the main towns. It took over 6 hours to get to our first destination which was Dettifoss which as ... read more