Hello! Having already witnessed one magnificent volcano in Java, I decided to skip the famous Bromo mountain (which I'd heard was looking a bit ashen these days anyway) and headed straight to Yogyakarta, where I was to stay until the end of my trip in Indonesia. Yogyakarta (Yogya) is Java's second city: Jakarta represents the grey and polluted financial powerhouse, and Yogya the vibrant centre of Javanese arts, culture and heritage. Unlike Banyuwangi, Yogya ...

Hello! I arrived in Java by ferry to a city called Banyuwangi, right on the East coast. I had planned to leave the next day to head to a turtle project in the Meru Betiri national park, but after chatting with a tour guide and making some phone calls I realised that the convoluted trip to the remote beach was just too much of a logistical nightmare. It would have been a fantastic place to visit, and I would have certainly seen some Green or Loggerhead turtl...

Hello! It had been a while since I was last in South East Asia - 2006 in fact - but upon stepping out of Denpasar airport in Bali it all came flooding back: of course... the chaotic traffic, the tiny roads, the mopeds, the deadly holes in the pavements, the thousands of identical shops all same same, but different. For some reason I had assumed that Bali would be quite plush and modern, given its long-endured status as the number one overseas destination for...

Hello! The Gili Islands are essentially three tiny blobs of sand just off the North West coast of Lombok, the most westerly island in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago. They have only been inhabited since about the 1960s, and despite the substantial development on Gili Trawangan (Gili T) all three still retain a great deal of rural charm. There are no roads, cars or mopeds allowed on any of them, and the only express transportation available is by horse-drawn ri...