Day 72 Pangandaran to Yogyakarta (Mon 13th Sept) Just another travel day today. We drove past Jakarta, which took hours! The amount of traffic in this country is incredible, but at least some of the roads are properly surfaced here. We also managed to get in before dark tonight for a change. We ate dinner at the hotel and had a relaxing evening. Actually, the only remotely interesting thing that happened all day was that we discovered (by way of a rather odd conversation to begin with) that Ali had been going to the toilet backwards. Since Iran. No wonder she never had enough room! Okay so I know Asian toilets are a little different, but really...this provided entertainment for quite a while and Lynn and I couldn’t stop laughing. Who needs a TV anyway? Day ... read more

Day 67 Jambi to Palembang (Wed 8th Sept) So another early start today but I was at least feeling a bit better, despite the rather large goose egg on my head. We spent the day travelling and watched a couple of movies. Now Die Hard and Lethal Weapon have a few things in common, but one just happens to be that they are both set at Christmas time. So we decided to have a Christmas party at dinner tonight. Obviously. Arriving in Pelembang we took a walk down to a shopping complex to get some tinsel and balloons and buy our secret Santa present. Of course with a limit of 10000 (€1) it was actually harder than you would imagine. And the shopping was a bit odd too. You selected an item, and a worker took ... read more

Day 64 Penang to Melaka (Sun 5th Sept) Breakfast today was lovely and it was a day for catching up on sleep. I managed to stay awake to take pictures of the bridge as we got to it, but then promptly fell asleep, along with everyone else on the coach. All that we missed seeing was a whole lot of plantations of what seemed to be palm trees. And boy were there a LOT. Our lunch stop today was Kuala Lumpur. It was on the Ozbus itinerary at one point I believe but wasn’t any longer. We left early this morning from Penang because everyone wanted a chance to go in to KL. The city is really interesting to drive through. It has been over 5 years since I was there and you do forget some ... read more

Day 58 Bangkok to Koh Samui (Mon 30th Aug) Well, as mentioned previously, it was a rather early start today. The coach was to depart at 0500, so I made sure to be back at the hotel by 0415, in order to shower and pack before leaving. Actually I made it in just before Helen got up so it worked out well. We made it down to the lobby in plenty of time, only to discover that Matt and Norma were the only others there. Turned out Stephen and Tomas were just running a little late, Lynn slept in, Heather was being sick after her big night, Ali was packing and when she was phoned, she told Matt that Jo never came home. A little bit of chaos to start our morning off right. So Matt, ... read more

Day 50 Kathmandu to Hetauda (Sun 22nd Aug) A very late start today, as we didn’t leave the hotel until 1100. So we all managed a leisurely breakfast, at which point Lynn, Jo and I met the new tour leader. Matt had joined the group yesterday while we were away and so he introduced himself at breakfast and went over with us any information that he had given the others yesterday. He seems like a fairly laid back guy and should fit in well with the group. It’s nice to know there is someone there to sort out any difficulties for us (despite being capable of taking care of things ourselves, it is just far more relaxing to have someone else do it - and who cares if this makes us lazy)! So after leaving Kathmandu ... read more