Tana Toraja, most definitely an area of outstanding natural beauty. We enjoyed Tentana, an area 10hrs north by car. However due to sectarian troubles between Christians and Muslims travel in this area is not recommended by the Home office. We were unaware of this, thankfully, so spent a few days enjoying the scenery of rolling hills covered in forests and cocoa plantations, the friendly people, and the absence of tourists. By this time we had ‘chummed up’ with team Dutch, a lovely Hollander couple we met on the Togean islands and found a shared sense of humour. We drove south t [View Full Entry]

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Well. Aren't we glad that we gave ourselves the most time our visa would allow (2months) in this beautiful archipelago? Beautiful beaches, beautiful coral, delicious food, hills covered in jungle, and enough 'HELLO MIISTER' and 'HELLO TOURIST' comments to last a lifetime. We arrived into north sulawesi and promptly took a boat even further north to bunaken island, a national park and 'world class' diving centre. It was a beautiful place, with a coral drop off 30m off the beach where the beautiful hard and soft corals suddenly plunged from 2m to a deep blue depth....pretty exilharating. Ther [View Full Entry]

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Malaysia. A country of smiles, order, great seafood, crystal clear waters and BLOODY EXPENSIVE beer. That is correct my friends, we did 3weeks without a cool alcoholic beverage between us. And what an achievement that was. We went from the border straight to the prehension islands on the north east coast. The trip on speed boat over to the island was 'interesting'. 12 of us boarded a small speed boat with a small awning just as a storm was approaching. first mistake. we set off at a fair old whack, the wind and the rain started, along with waves which caused [View Full Entry]

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So, Cambodians are friendly and they are bright, very switched on individuals. Everywhere you go people are trying to sell you stuff, but they do it in a very nice way. Their english is often faultless and very up to date, an interesting change from India where people speak 1950s style english 'actually sir i think that you will find the people running helter skelter when they hear of this news' and other such like... They are a people constantly trying improve themselves. maybe this is due to their past, but vietnam and laos have not had an easy ride. perhaps [View Full Entry]

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So I wanted to go back to see a bit of Vietnam, and Tim wanted to see the south of Laos - compromise, we meet in 2weeks time in Cambodia. I got a bus from Vientiene in Laos over to Vietnam, with the destination of Hoi An in mind. I couldn't face putting myself on a bus direct to Hoi An - 22hrs, as we'd just spend the previous 3 days doing 10hr bus trips to get down from northern Laos. So i thought i'd be clever and cross to Vinh, and then get a bus/train south. Stupid idea. I ended [View Full Entry]

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our love affair with india has ended, and asia has begun. a few days were spent in the megatropolis that is hong kong - interesting place, great sushi, great public transport, and lots and lots of lights. then a few days in the north of vietnam before we decided to head west into Laos - 22hr bus journey ensued. although the journey was far from fun, we spent our 22hrs constructively making friends with our companions, this was beneficial to us for the festival that awaited us on our arrival. what a beautiful and friendly place it is, and we visited [View Full Entry]

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so, we left the lovely nepal and headed for the literary and intellectual centre that is Kolkata. we found this to be an extremely friendly and easy city to spend time in. the food was amazing, we managed to eat plates of biryani and masala dosa (pancake with bean and chilli mixture) for 10rs (approx 20p) a plate, and enjoyed espresso cafe culture, even though it was 30 degrees. from there we decided to take a tour of the Sunderbans tiger reserve which happens to be the largest mangrove forest in the world. it was a fascinating insight into one of [View Full Entry]

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so, on a last minute decision, and prompted by a promise to meet us from a guy we had befriended in Kashmir (from here on called Preeno - a nickname we made for him, Nathan>Nate>Nate Dog>Pre-Natal>Pre-Natal Home Dog - shortened to Preeno), we decided to head north to the mountainous country of Nepal (previously known as the Kingdom of Nepal, until a few years ago when the young prince killed his whole family - put a bit of a dampener on things. Now the maoists are in government and things are looking up). Our journey over the border from india was [View Full Entry]

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anyhow, we arrived in Delhi safe and sound, and stayed in Parhaganj - main bazaar, bustling, in the centre. no motor rickshaws allowed as the streets are too narrow, so we squeezed ourselves, 2 rucksacks and the slug (yes, we still had our 6ft snowboard bag) onto the back of a cycle rickshaw. full respect to the driver, he did well, although i was pretty afraid of getting electrocuted as the slug was often dangerously close to overhanging wires.... we had a fun few days in the big smoke, mostly trying to sort out sending all our snowboarding stuff home, which [View Full Entry]

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So people, sorry for the delay in keeping you all up to date, but things have been pretty busy out here. we left kashmir no problem, just after spending a night on a beautiful houseboat with some friends we met in gulmarg, on Dal lake in srinagar. it is an amazing place, with mountains reflected in a mirror lake,suprisingly clean by indian standards. had a great experience flying out of Srinagar airport- going through the indian 'system', again. this airport is 'very high security' due to the kashmir/pakistan issues. this meant that we had luggage scanned and us patted down before [View Full Entry]

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