My husband and I are often asked by friends at home "What is the favorite place that we have travelled to?" It is a question for which we have only one response: "There is no one special place; every place we have travelled to, particularly in Southeast Asia, has offered something unique, something interesting, something memorable." We frequently return to this question in conversation, and have yet to find an answer, always responding instead with our own question "How do you explain this to someone who has never been here?" This has, in fact, become somewhat of a daily meditation that presents itself every time we are gazing upon, or experiencing, another small miracle or more evidence of the beauty that surrounds us. So, even though it is inexplicable, I will attempt to offer a few ... read more

A few short years ago, if someone had told me I'd be dropping into a black ocean armed with only a flashlight for illumination, I'd have said "Not likely"! But then again, that is pretty much what I said only days before jumping off a cliff to go paragliding in the Himalayas three years ago. My proclamations are obviously not trustworthy, as I definitely jumped off those cliffs in Nepal - not once, but twice - and I completed two night dives earlier this week on our second trip to the Bunaken Marine Park in Northern Sulawesi this year. I am not sure what I was expecting - I think I was hoping mostly not to be too terrified - but I know that I was not expecting the world of spectacular colour that I discovered. ... read more

As I reported in my last post, getting to this remote destination on the planet was not easy, and I suppose if it were, the atmosphere might not be the same. We enjoyed the quiet, the calmness, and the island mentality still predominant even though there are a few dive resorts on the island. Really there is nothing else to do here. People come here to dive. Period. But what a stunning experience it is to dive the Bunaken Marine Park - and we barely scratched the surface, as there are about fifty dive sights spread around three islands, and we only dived nine of them. We have dived several locations in Indonesia, including the outstanding Komodo Marine Park near Flores where we swam last year with the oceanic giant manta rays, but never before have ... read more

Just hours ago we were in a very touristy area, with a few older travellers, but predominantly a young demographic gathered to learn how to dive and party on after. We spent a good forty five minutes in line with a zillion tourists leaving Koh Tao on the same ferry as us this morning. But when we arrived on the mainland, almost all of them disappeared into a number of waiting buses and continued on to Bangkok, while we chose to stay in the town of Chumphon, to pick up our flight tomorrow morning. We realized on the half hour ride inland to the city, with only about ten others on the near empty bus, that Chumphon is not a tourist destination. Just a regular city. Clean, nice enough, but not situated on beaches, or near ... read more

Although we had planned and - atypically for us - even pre-booked travel and accommodations to come to this part of yet untravelled southern Thailand for weeks in advance, we almost did not get here. The day before we were to pick up our flight from Canada to Bangkok, we learned of the unprecented rainfalls that were creating disastrous flood conditions in the very area we were scheduled to arrive in five days. To substantiate the concerns, upon arrival in Bangkok we received a notice from Air Asia that our flight to southern Thailand had been cancelled because that airport was temporarily closed as the roads from it were not passable. So a bit of a dilemma ensued. But after a few inquiries we were told that the weather seemed to be improving, then Air Asia ... read more