After a brief stop back in KL, I travelled down to my final destination in SE Asia - the Republic of Singapore. Crossing the border was a doddle (despite my transit bus nearly leaving without me on the Singapore side), as was reaching my hostel on the MRT. I'm no transport geek, but I do appreciate a good rapid transit system, and Singapore's MRT is a model of efficiency and cleanliness. The walls of the tunnels feature screens which project still images that transform into a moving image as you pass in the cars. Durian fruit is banned (but then again so is all food and drink...). The escalators operate on go slow until you approach them... then they magically speed up. And there's a neat touch-screen ticketing system which keeps a S$1 deposit until you ... read more

The rough plan I had in my head for my time in Malaysia involved finding a nice tropical island and relaxing for a while. I wanted to go to the Perhentians on the east coast, but all the info I could get said they were still closed for the monsoon season and wouldn't open until 1st March (info which was actually totally wrong!). So instead I decided to head to the island of Penang on the west coast to kill a few days, and to sample the culinary and cultural melting pot of Georgetown. Sadly, a combination of ailments made it painful for me to walk, and my head spun in the heat... so my visit to Penang wasn't quite what I planned when I set off! Penang island has an interesting history, being one of ... read more

My short vacation to KK had recharged my batteries, so I was ready to get stuck back into the project on our return to the village. And I didn't have to wait long... the next day we all packed our bags and headed off back to Supu for a three night camping trip, to cut new trails and mark and map those already cut by us on our previous visit. This time, however, the numbers made it a full-blown expedition... Rosli, Albert, Nosali and Din from MESCOT, plus all eight volunteers. It goes without saying that the boat was pretty full! Luckily, we had time to purchase a new tub of Cloud 9s before setting sail. We set up camp in the same place as before, albeit this time the scale had grown to accommodate the ... read more

After seven months of travel, it was time to put down my backpack for a while and do some work. I've been interested in the plight of the world's rainforests for some time, and had been particularly enchanted by the island of Borneo. This trip was the ideal opportunity to explore this great natural resource, and the length of my trip encouraged me to spend a month as a volunteer somewhere on my route... so I chose Borneo. My placement is with a community organization called MESCOT, who operate from a small village called Batu Puteh, on the Kinabatangan River in Sabah, northeast Borneo. MESCOT comprises about 400 local people who turned from working on logging operations (both legal and illegal), cocoa and palm oil plantations to tourism and conservation projects. The organization is now providing ... read more

The next stop on my tour of Cambodia was one of the must-sees of my entire trip - the temples of Angkor. I planned to spend three days exploring the complex, which is vast to say the least. Established by the Khmer kings back in the 9th century, Angkor contains hundreds of temples spread across a huge swathe of the Cambodian jungle. Much of it lay abandoned until it was rediscovered by French botanists and explorers in the 19th century. Now, it stands in various states of decay... some temples have been fully restored, some left almost to nature, and others are still undergoing extensive restoration for their protection or reinstatement. The nearby town of Siem Reap served as a great base, with cheap accommodation, great restaurants and friendly people on hand to help. I arrived ... read more