tomlewsey

Getting tired. 11 months into our grand trip, and it's taking it's toll. Sights and places that previously would have had us ooohing and aaahing now barely get a second glance. Northern Thailand, Laos and Cambodia have left us templed out. The islands and beaches of Thailand have left us beached out - and Vietnam just left us exhausted with the bartering effort of it all. So, to remedy this malais, there was only one thing to do. With a quick reworking of our itinery, we jettisoned the over developed beach resorts of Bali, and headed off to the exotic shores of Sumatra. Sumatra, like Borneo, conjures up images of a vast, remote wilderness - of exotic creatures, dangers lurking from everywhere, smoking volcanoes, and primitive tribes running around in loin cloths and blowpipes. Well, actually, ... read more

There is a popular book on the backbacker circuit at the moment. Written by an American journo about Phnom Penh during the 1990s, it's subtitle says it's all - Guns, Girls and Ganja. Although it's nowadays a safer and more accessible place, and has become a popular tourist destination due to the amazing temples at Angkor Wat; it retains it's edge of craziness, and it's history over the last 30 years probably explains a lot - the turbulance in Cambodian politics over this period makes Germany in the 1930s look positively boring in comparison. We arrived in Cambodia from the slow boats of the Mekong Delta, and a border post so sleepy in the midday sun that they almost forgot to extract a bribe from us for our visas. We then discovered the unsubtle back surgery ... read more

A word of advice - if you are ever considering how best to undertake the journey from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam; I have one word for you: FLY! Even the dubious pleasures of Lao Aviation (who's ancient soviet planes dont have any electronic guidance systems, fly by sight, and co-incidentaly dont publish their safety record) must be preferable to the journey we took. Starting at 5am, the first section was from Vientiane (a capital city, dont forget) to a remote rural town, where we were told we could get a connecting bus over the border. The first leg was in a bus that was so old, it looked like something out of the Flintstones. The rough, bumpy, hot and cramped 9 hour journey went by very slowly - although we did have the distraction of ... read more

I saw a horribly worrying statistic a few months ago - apparently nowadays, more people from the UK visit Thailand than Spain each year. I had a nasty image in my mind of football shirt wearing hoards, the "more earrings than a-levels" brigade dominating the streets of Thailand. Thankfully, this hasnt come true - although we have only be travelling in the North, and havent visited the more touristic areas in the South, where the tsunami only brought a temporary halt to the onslaught, and where the beaches are yet again full of roasting pink package tour flesh. We are heading there in a couple of months time, so we'll see the real situation then.. Anyway, back to our trip. The heat, humidity, pollution and traffic chaos that greeted us in Bangkok wasnt a great sign, ... read more

And so to proper Asia. As we left Singapore for the Malaysian mainland then jumped on a plane, we were heading for real adventure at last - Borneo. The name conjurs up images of headhunters, dense jungle, unpleasant Japanese POW camps, misty mountains, and untamed wildlife. So with this image in mind, I was surprised to find a large, developed city with around 3000 mobile phone shops in the form of Kota Kinabalu. With it's shopping malls crammed with people fueling the Asian economic miracle, it wasnt what I had in mind. Luckily, after a couple of days arranging things, I had what I wanted - firstly in the news that cerebral malaria and TB are very real health threats here, secondly in the discovery that even in our 3rd millenium, the waters here are still ... read more