When you travel for a long time there are nearly always bound to be low points but all you can do is try to make the most of it. Coming to the city of Sorong was one of these times. We'd spent 12 days on the island of Kri where the snorkelling had been great as predicted but circumstances had caused us to make the decision to leave early. A whole week before our flights back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in fact. After leaving Kri our first jumping off point was the town of Waisai on the bigger island of Waigo. Also know by the locals as ' Raja Ampat'. We had hoped we might meet up with other travellers and join together to get a boat from there to the island of Gam. Thus, by ... read more

We boarded our flight to Makassar, Indonesia and said goodbye to the civilisation of Malaysia. A short overnight stop in an airport hotel and we were back at Makassar airport at 1am to fly to Sarong on West Papua. I was feeling a bit apprehensive as we had no arrangements in place and nowhere booked on any of the islands. We had read many stories of people booking a room in a homestay only to be told when they got there that there was no record of them. We figured we could go to the information centre in Waisai and take it from there. I stood gazing into a large aquarium when the only other European besides us came over and asked me where we were going. He was Irish and called Paddy. He explained that ... read more

Chan Cha Lay. A pretty sounding name for a pretty little hotel. We are right in the heart of Krabi Town but despite that we have found this lovely little hotel that probably dates back to the 1960s when backpackers first come to Thailand. There is a lovely little garden and a space to sit outdoors. The shower/ bathroom is open to the stars so looking forward to a shower tonight. Although I just saw a family of monkeys run past the open wall of the bathroom so had better watch out, they may try to join me! We have now been in Thailand for almost a month. Even though we have travelled around Thailand several times before we always manage to find new little gems. We started off slowly this time spending two whole weeks ... read more

One of the reasons some of the Thai islands remain unspoilt is because they are difficult to reach. This was certainly true about Ko Phra Thong. Actually getting to the island hadn't been too bad, an agent at Kurriburri had provided a taxi to the port and arranged the boat and a 'taxi' pick up when once on the island. All had gone smoothly apart from the fact that we'd had to wait for the tide to come in in order for the boat to get close enough to the shore. The port was set in mangroves and we'd stood and waited an hour watching the water level gradually rise. However leaving the island was a different experience altogether.Mr Choui had promised to organise transport off but when we enquired the evening before we were due ... read more

At last!! We've finally manages to put photos on!! We have just spent 15 days on one island. That's quite unusual for us to spend so long in one place. We made many new friends while we were there, a family from Finland travelling with a 13 month old boy, an American family with 8 year old Lily to mention but a few. We also spent time with the boatman ,Jak and his wife Som, who took us on a tour around the whole island in their air conditioned car. Luxury! Usually around here air con means an open truck of some sort with the wind blowing in your hair. We spent many a happy hour in the Green Coffee shop together swapping experiences of places travelled to in the past sipping a cold beer. Days ... read more