23 March 2013 At 04h30 in the morning, sitting at KL LCC, after getting in after midnight thanks to that wonderful and almost never on time budget airline Air Asia, it is hard to get excited about going to Vietnam. Just a warning to fellow travellers, buy your taxi coupon before you exit the arrival hall or you will be f#*#ed. KL Low Cost terminal has become a nightmare. Transport syndicates prevent you from just catching a cab outside the door like you once could, and the place is so crowded now that even if you did get your coupon in the right place, you will stand in a very very long queue and taxis are not guaranteed even if you have the coupon. This terminal is horrible. Almost as bad as Manila. We have just ... read more

Verdant, primary, vital, alive, wild, flourishing - all these words seem too small to describe the rain forests of Malaysian Borneo. 60m tall trees with whole ecosystems living in their branches and on their stems. The sounds of birds and insects at inconceivable decibels. The only species of great ape found outside of Africa (besides us of course); hundreds of mammals, rodents and reptiles. Impenetrable rampant lushness.... This is nature at its most basic and beautiful; its most diverse and dynamic. Awesome!!! Then, we take a corner and suddenly, as far as the eye can see there are oil palm plantations. Generic, homogenised, dead spaces growing bio diesel and cheap additive oil for the food and cosmetics industries. F*#k!! Yes, it's green, but it is sterile. No animals; no birds; no other plants except a single ... read more

Verdant, primary, vital, alive, wild, flourishing - all these words seem too small to describe the rain forests of Malaysian Borneo. 60m tall trees with whole ecosystems living in their branches and on their stems. The sounds of birds and insects at inconceivable decibels. The only species of great ape found outside of Africa (besides us of course); hundreds of mammals, rodents and reptiles. Impenetrable rampant lushness.... This is nature at its most basic and beautiful; its most diverse and dynamic. Awesome!!! Then, we take a corner and suddenly, as far as the eye can see there are oil palm plantations. Generic, homogenised, dead spaces growing bio diesel and cheap additive oil for the food and cosmetics industries. F*#k!! Yes, it's green, but it is sterile. No animals; no birds; no other plants except a single ... read more

7-10 March Manila Manila is the tenth largest city in the world with a population of about 21 million - not counting the people who live on the street, I imagine. It would be interesting to see statistics on those numbers. They must be very high. Manila is also not your average South East Asian city. Actually it feels more like a Latin American city. Probably the mix of Spanish and American influences. The Philippines was a Spanish colony for 300 years before becoming an American colony and it is the only country in SE Asia (besides the new East Timor) which claims Christianity as its "official" religion. Also, unlike other SE Asian cities, the cuisine is just awful. A little known fact is that much of Manila was laid to waste during the Second World ... read more

Some more Cape Town pics. It really is a beautiful city, and these are some of the best beaches on the planet...... read more