50 pence just bought me a copy of 'South East Asia on a Shoestring' by Tony Wheeler. (Its not the original guide but a 1981 update) The first thing that is striking is the limits of the book - we're not going to Cambodia, Vietnam or Laos - these countries were all fighting at this time and were seriously off-limits. And Communist China? No chance! In Tony's words: ''If you want to carry on towards Europe...Chiang Mai is effectively the end of the road'' The Cold War was blowing through this part of the world in 1980 and the borders that us travellers are so keen to cross now were the Iron Curtains of the time - the Limits of the explorable world for westerners. Burma still had a seven day visa limit and the guide ... read more

I live in a country where if you drive in a straight line for 3 hours, chances are you'll end up in the sea. England is a small island and we're not used long journeys, in fact Brits are pretty suspicious of large distances - because we don't have any! The looks on people faces when i told them we were going to the Alps on a coach veered from a stare that said 'That will hurt, you absolute fools' to a frown that said 'Thats not possible , you absolute fools'. But the deal was there - £199, coach, hotel and half board - the snow was there - 12 inches in the past week - and it was the last week of the season... I was going to be there! We Rolled up to ... read more

Seasonaires are an odd bunch. Bright, young things, following their dreams to the mountians and spending six months of winter working in menial jobs so they can be there, every day, skiiing or snowboarding. How amazing it must be, back home, to announce to your friends and family 'I'm off to do a season, eh?' How great it looks to us as we arrive in our chalet and they tell us tales of 'last weeks powderdays, eh?' and how they are 'going out to hit some sweet spots this arvo, eh?'. (BTW, Nearly every seasonaires voice has the ozzie/kiwi habit of rising at the end of a sentence, known technically as a Terminal Incline and has the effect of making even the most boring statements into the most enthusiastic question... Dinners at eight-thirty, eh!! You want ... read more

"No, you're not on the passenger list." said the check-in guy, stuck his bottom lip out, and leaned back in his seat as if he was going back to sleep. Zanzibar airport desks are little more than corroding wooden desks set against the side of the road with scruffy, faded signs advertising defunct plane companies and a chalk board to list the departures. The board had yesterdays date at the top. And my ticket was really a corroding peice of paper with 'J&Js Travel' printed at the top and some scruffy handwriting underneath and was no more than a reciept for eighty dollars i had handed over to an old guy in a shack on the beach a few days ago. But I had paid for this flight, and I had to get to Kilimanjaro to ... read more

So, I flew to a country that was: Engaged in a border war with its neighbour (Cambodia), A terrorist insurgency in the south (muslim extremists set off bombs almost daily - http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6FC576282bpOmKZwOXl25-yEYGQ ) Has an opposition party causing riots in the capital and attempting to overthrow the government to install a non-democratic regime (the PAD have their own television channel) An exiled former leader who stole the nations wealth and who is now residing in my own country and city (Wakky Takky in London town) Yet nearly everyone on travelblog would agree that Thailand is still a safe place to go to through all of these problems. People in Bangkok told me how they hated the PAD - the economy has been hard hit by the other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong ... read more