simjam

Bloody hell. After running out of superlatives in the last blog, I find myself sitting here again wondering exactly how to put the past few days into words. I mean I’m having an absolutely amazing time, but it’s getting seriously hard to convey it. Having finally bid a fond farewell to paradise, I soon faced a torturous day of travel that included my first flight being delayed by an hour and which meant that upon arriving in Manila, I literally had seven minutes to make my connecting one before the gate shut. In my haste, I took a wrong turn, ended up outside and then bolted back in, paid the terminal fee again and scampered through the other passengers who were standing around sipping coffees, chatting and generally getting in my way. I did finally manage ... read more

So here I am sipping an icy cold beer on the island of Negros and I suppose I’ll start this blog like I seem to have started so many in the past. Life is hard. Truly. Beautiful beaches, stunning islands, snorkelling among pristine reefs, meeting wonderful people and a really amazing experience today that seems to have etched a permanent smile upon my face. After a long, tedious and extremely drawn-out two-day journey by plane, taxi, ferry and finally on the back of a motorbike in the torrential rain, I arrived in a secluded little spot on the north side of the island of Siquijor. My home for the next four days was one of only two basic but ever so lovely little huts perched on some rocks overlooking the Mindinao Sea. The only sound was ... read more

Well, I am sitting here drinking a last Bintang as the sun slowly sets over the Bali Sea to the left and the full moon rises to the right. Not a bad way to spend one's final night in Bali. The slow ferry from Lembar in Lombok to Padangbai was a fairly eventless five hours, except for the odd local being desperately and violently seasick over the rails and I arrived just after dark. Padangbai itself is the main harbour on the east coast of Bali, but despite the large number of public ferries, speed boats and the like, is actually quite a nice little town once you get away from the port area and I spent a couple of days here doing little besides snorkeling and wandering aimlessly around the town. And I have to ... read more

Well, I’m sitting here in a little stilted lambung with 360 degrees views of hundreds upon hundreds of vividly green rice paddies as it pours with an absolutely ear-shattering, monumental, torrential rain. I understand that Australia’s been copping a fair bit itself, but I truly don’t believe I’ve ever seen it rain quite like this before. Thankfully the locals have constructed extensive and elaborate canal systems which diverts most of it away, or else I fear to say that this village would long ago ceased to exist, a sort of Indonesian version of Atlantis. I’ve found myself in the tiny little village of Tetebatu, perched on the slopes of Gunung Rinjani where I’m apparently the only tourist in town. Indonesia’s second largest volcano at nearly 4km high, Rinjani dominates the landscape in Lombok and indeed, when ... read more

Apologies first of all. I had intended to include photos of this wonderful tropical paradise that I’ve called home for the last week. But alas, the internet connection here is operating at pre-1990 levels and the potential for uploading photos, despite my perserverence for the last few hours, seems futile… Anyway, I am sitting here now on the bamboo verandah of my very own little bungalow, looking out at the beach as the dark clouds of the daily monsoonal storm roll in, accompanied by the constant low rumblings of thunder and the continuous flashes of lightning..Gili Air, literally and I guess appropriately meaning ‘water island’, is a tiny fleck of land just off the northwestern coast of Lombok. Stretching almost one whole, entire kilometre from top to bottom and about the same across, it is home ... read more

A week or so ago, we departed Sibu on the ferry and slowly made our way into the delta and eventually the South China Sea, on our way to Kuching. It’s a smallish town with a heap of character that has managed to retain much of its colonial architecture as it was spared the extensive bombing that much of northern Borneo was subjected to during WWII. Back in the mid-19th century, the independently wealthy and dapper Englishman, James Brooke, just happened to dock his armed schooner at Kuching at a time of native unrest. Sensing an opportunity, he quickly managed to quell the rebellion and the previous landlord, the Sultan of Brunei, had little choice but to crown him the Raja of Sarawak. Britain concurred, knighted young James and for two more generations, the Brookes ruled ... read more

Brunei Darussalam, which means Port of Peace (and apparently even though they have spotted great white sharks here, there is no recorded incident of anyone having been taken thus far which goes some way to supporting this notion) is ruled by, and let me try and get this straight…His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang-Di Pertuan of Negara Brunei Darussalam. Oh, and besides being the Sultan, he is also the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Finance. Which should simplify things considerably when dealing with matters of state. But apparently doesn’t. Due to considerable offshore oil reserves, Brunei is doing very well for itself, although what they’ll fall back on when these run out is a bit up ... read more