An early start to the airport to get the three hour flight to Alice Springs from Sydney. Caught up with sleep on the flight and arrived in a world full of backpackers and hostels. I think this is what the planet mars would look like if it was populated, laid back, red and hot! Lots of Indigenous people hanging out around the streets and looking a bit tired. I have come to realise that every Australian city and town has a Botanical Garden to visit, lots of cac...

Thought I would have a relaxing journey from Melbourne to Sydney, got the train which turned into an eleven hours overnight journey of contented sleep and views, a very good journey. Met by Russ at Manly ferry port after a very choppy journey from Circular quay in the centre of the city through the harbour and out to sea before turning back inland to Manly. Got on the wrong train at first and realised when we appeared out of a tunnel into the fab view of the Ope...

After the heat of the past months it is really nice to get a cool breeze blowing around my legs and to be back in trousers after so so long in shorts, I never thought I would be so welcoming of a cooler climate. After a little hiccup where I went to the wrong airport in Kuala Lumpur to get the plane and then had to get a speedy dodgy taxi ride between airports I got to check in just in time to get on board, strangely I did not find it stressful, just a bit enter...

A really quick flight from Singapore with Air Asia and a quick visit of three days in Kuala Lumpur to finish my time in SE Asia. This is a proper city with all the chaos on the roads and the dynamic mix of cultures and new and old buildings. The centre looked like a big building site where they are building extensions to the subway and new buildings are going up. The Petronas Twin towers are the highlight, once the tallest building in the world they stand erec...

Just to show its always a good idea to be flexible with travel plans! I was sitting in my hotel in Bangkok ready to get my night train to Koh Tao to do some scubadiving when I thought I would check the medical conditions for diving, what I found fundementally changed my plans for my journey, because of a lung condition I had in the last few years there is an absolute instruction that I catagorically cannot scuba-dive! So feeling like I had just made a life savi...