Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900; it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific. Tonga has a land area of about 750 square km, which makes it a bit smaller than metropolitan Melbourne. It’s 115,000 people live on 36 of its 169 islands. Tongans are huge, friendly and poor. With [View Full Entry]

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Delhi First impressions 15 June 2007 We arrived at Delhi Airport to find that our hotel taxi didn’t show, so we were left to the mercy of the touts. They didn’t swarm us as I had expected (as they do in Manila) but had a good try at ripping us off. Our first tout asked 800 rupees and we agreed to go with the second guy for 350 rupees (USD7.50). The guy was as dodgy as I expected. He got us in a car with another bloke and drove incredibly slowly while talking on the phone to some friend and to [View Full Entry]

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For anyone who is interested in what I've been up to for the last six weeks, here's a quick description of my day (they were all pretty much the same). 0600 A slight disturbance in my sleeping pattern as Net, my Thai girlfriend gets out of bed and heads to the morning market 0700 A slight disturbance in my sleeping pattern as Net returns from the morning market with fresh fruit, vegetables, juice, and eggs. 0800 Wake up to the smell of breakfast, give Net a kiss, and wake up Anand in the next bungalow for breakfast. 0810 Breakfast of [View Full Entry]

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On the first morning of my trek I met my guide, Sook, at my hotel for breakfast. He was a good guy, very earnest, and just passable in English. More importantly, he was trilingual in Lao, Punoi, and Laosang, which would cover most of the areas in which we would be trekking. He also had a most irritating habit of laughing if he didn’t understand me and laughing again whenever I rephrased the question in simpler terms. We got along well though, and I avoided strangling him because he was such a nice guy. After breakfast we walked to the market [View Full Entry]

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The following morning I got to the bus station at 7:50 to find that their were no seats on the bus and even the plastic stools in the isle had been sold out. Being a once daily service, this meant a day in Udomxai, which even the guide book, usually pretty positive, described in less than glowing terms. I wandered up the main street (actually, the only street) and found myself agreeing with the guidebook. On a more positive note, I found the best hotel in town and booked myself in for a $15 night of comfort, aircon, room service, and [View Full Entry]

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Kuta Beach “Dead” is the best way to describe this place at the moment. It’s a bit like Melbourne during a football final: everything is open but nobody is home, except in the odd well patronized joint, and the mix of (non-Indonesian) Asian and Australian seems pretty even - more so than in Sydney. The hordes of Western Australians have been replaced by a few Koreans and other Asians, with a lot more Javanese than previously, according to a well seasoned couple I met who have been to Bali more than twenty times. Nevertheless, cash heavy west coasters are hard to [View Full Entry]

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Orangutan Sanctuary at Sepilok One learns a lot about people when watching orangutans. Especially some of the people I know. I spent this afternoon at the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in north east Borneo, watching our cousins feed on bananas. They were all juveniles and aged: the rest were out hunting fruit in the forest and creating havoc in sugar cane plantations. At 3pm the local rangers bring out a few bunches of bananas and other assorted goodies to a viewing platform to bring the orangutans for us tourists to gawk at and for the orangutans to gawk at us [View Full Entry]

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Sipadan and Mabul One of the "ten best dive spots in the world" according to the literature. Certainly some of the best diving I've done. 14 July Heading to the oil rig I met my dive buddy, Juliana, for the fourth time at the pick up point for the Seaquest drilling platform. This time we recognized each other. The previous two times on Mt Kinabalu and at the Karaoke bar we were familiar but it didn’t click into place. A one hour high speed boat ride from Semporna took us to the island of …. and the converted drilling rig about [View Full Entry]

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The Kilabantan The longest widest crocodile infestedest wildlifest junglest river. I guess I had to go. 11 July I woke in Sangatan to find power restored to the city and had a leisurely morning before catching the bus to Mile Sixteen, where Uncle Tan’s guesthouse and office is. I met the other dozen or so backpackers who would be joining me on the trip, paid my money, and jumped onto the bus for the three hour drive to the Kinabatangan River. Amongst my fellow travelers were Mark from Singapore who also amused himself by taking photos with his digital SLR, thre [View Full Entry]

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I arrived on Labuan, a tax free island that caters to the oil industry, to meet "Alex" who had promised diving work for $500 a day. (See ) My first call got through to his answering service, so I left a message saying where I was and giving my contact details. My next calls over the next two days didn't even get the answering service. I sent an email to Alex and Teresa and found that they were in the same situation and had just left the island in disgust. I waited around for another day, enjoying the cheap beer [View Full Entry]

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