And so, some two months after I departed Indonesia for a little downtime back home in Singapore, I'm back on the road again, and this time I'm embarking on what I hope will pan out to be the grand East Asian tour that I've been planning in my head for some time. And what better way to start East Asia than of course going straight to the heart of the Chinese dragon, and its ancient capital of Xi-an. So it's been almost two years since I last left China, memories of the daily border crossings I did between Zhuhai and Macau to save money on accomodation still fresh in my head. Having already spent some time in the southern provinces the last time round, I decided this time to pay a visit to what I suppose ... read more

Moving on from Tentena, I continued my way north towards what I presumed would be one of the highlights of my trip -- the Togean Islands. But first there would be the small matter of a 6h drive to Ampana for an overnight stop, before another 4h boat trip to Wakai, the unofficial capital of the Togeans. From there, it was a fairly quick speedboat transfer to Pulau Kadidiri, my intended destination and where I would hunker down for a few days. Quite a lot has been said about the Togeans, the location's relative remoteness, serenity, and of course, natural beauty. With its relatively untouched corals and clear, still waters, the islands are of course a boon to diving enthusiasts, several of whom I met at the resort where I stayed. Not being much of a ... read more

And so after the relatively brief arrival and layover at Southwest Sulawesi's capital Makassar, it was time to get more serious and start the arduous journey northwards through the rather inhospitable terrain of the inner regions of the island. This was also something that had played on my mind ever since I started planning for this Sulawesi trip. I have, of course, not forgotten the painful, cigarette smoke-filled 18h intra-Sumatra journey from Bukittingi to Parapet, and reading about others' experiences with the difficult bus journeys in Sulawesi, I tried to prepare myself for the worst. This 9h first leg from Makassar to Rantepao in the Tana Toraja ("Land of the Heavenly Kings") turned out to be pretty easy after all. It was a nice, big air-conditioned bus with comfy seats and most importantly, no smoking, which ... read more

I have an early morning flight to catch before the shared minibuses start running from Patong to the airport, but I refused to charter a private taxi from the Phuket mafia which would have cost nearly as much as the flight itself. So my solution was to spend the night somewhere close to the airport, so that I could just hoof it there the next morning. Conveniently, the quiet beach of Nai Yang served this purpose, though I hadn't counted on the ongoing high season unexpectedly jacking up accommodation rates for my single night's stay (THB1000!). I definitely busted the budget on housing on this one, and the savings I earned from stiffing the Phuket taxi mafia and going public instead almost entirely evaporated with the extra I paid compared to an additional night back in ... read more

Moving on from the cultural centre of the island back towards the Andaman beaches, I checked out the next two most-developed ones after Patong, namely Karon and Kata, just a few kilometres south of their hedonistic cousin. Definitely not quite the remote, remote beaches that I somehow made my way to in the Visayas in Central Philippines, but Karon and Kata still rank very highly in terms of quality. The very wide beaches are reminiscent of Kuta in Bali, and the sand so fine and clean that it does indeed actually "squeak when you walk on it" as claimed in the Wikitravel entry. Karon and Kata are lower-key than Patong, and away from the full blast of the package Chinese tourists. They're not quiet beaches by any stretch of the imagination, but do allow some kind ... read more