Myanmar transport authorities have been taking lessons in providing customer comforts - from the Spanish Inquisition (or some other torture specialists of similar ilk), I am convinced of it. Thankfully, it was but a short ride to Bagan. 12 hours squeezed into a mini bus, knees around my ears (due to a design fault in the engine positioning that only a man could have thought a wise idea) and no cushioning in the seat, was quite sufficient to ensure a certain empathy on my part for your average tinned sardine. As ever however, I was made incredibly welcome and baby sat the entire journey by my traveling compatriots. I may not find these journeys comfortable but heart warming they most certainly are, the small children who happily chase the bus for miles if you wave and ... read more

*Disclaimer: Have lost all photo's up to Inle Lake, sorry* Only spent one full day in Yangon, possibly I have not given the city it's due in leaving so fast but although it has it's charms, it's a city. I got very lost everywhere I went and just needed to be somewhere smaller. On arriving at Yangon airport an exceedingly nice taxi organising lady decided she liked my face and gave me a cheap price for one of her taxis, alas though, none of her taxi drivers appeared to like my face as (to a man) they were steadfast in their refusal to take me (how very lowering!). Got there eventually though, by dint of paying one extra dollar. Phew! Went to Shwedagon Pagoda that night, a vast glittering complex of temples around which the city ... read more

Yes indeedilly, no word of a lie, a swimming with sharks I have been! Bull nosed sharks (for those techies amongst you) about 2.5-3m in length. Words simply cannot do justice to the feeling (well, not when I am the composer of said words alas), breathtaking about sums it up. No photo's to prove it so I've pinched one of a very similar shark for you all to marvel at. I could, almost, boast of having swum with a turtle as well (he was swimming round white rock same time I was) but, it being my naturalist dive, I was too focused on the corals and tiny beasties to see him. As you have probably guessed, I did manage a spot of diving during my stay on Koh Tao. Had worried that I may not pass ... read more

Typhoon Ketsana has a lot to answer for, curses to all weather Gods! I have been rained out of Siem Reap and am most disappointed. Oh woe is me. Arrived Thursday evening to find the whole city calf deep in murky brown water, hurrah for my omnipresent good luck! My moto driver (curses to him too) delivered me to a hotel which was most certainly not the one I had asked for, however the thought of jetting back off through the floods did not appeal so I bit the bullet and took an overpriced (and distinctly grotty) room. Quietly sipping a beer and ruminating on my bad luck (very selfish of me when locals were sitting eating their dinners with a foot of water sloshing round their feet, but there I was indulging) I was jolted ... read more

Sunday arrived, my first full day in Phnom Penh to do with as I wished. The sense of freedom was incredible. After much humming and hawing I decided to make Tuol Sleng my first stop as it was a walkable distance from the hotel, not such a wise move as it happens but we all live and learn I suppose. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum comemorates the crimes committed within it's walls during Pol Pot's reign, were Toul Sleng was converted from an innocuous School into Security Prison 21. A place of interment, interrogation, torture and (eventually) death. The classrooms were converted into cells of varying sizes, the information leaflet advises the smallest of these was 0.8 x 2 meters (each of which housed one prisoner, or two if mother and child). Clearly my spatial awareness has ... read more