In the planning of this trip I looked at a lot of websites and a lot of pictures. This means that it is possible to mix stuff up. This is probably why, in my mind, the train we were going to be on had white reclining seats and aircon in 'Upper Class'. The reality was a bit different, though not awful. The seat did recline a bit and resembled old fashioned airplane business class seats, for people with very small bottoms. The worn and stained upholstery was c...

We came to Myanmar because years of a repressive junta has prevented globalization making it as bland as other rapidly developing counties have become. No Starbucks, no KFC and even the Scottish restuarant hasn't made it out yet. It was important to remind ourselves of that when we walked past the big dead rat in the middle of the street, it's guts on display, or breathed in the smell of sewage from the not quite open, but not quite enclosed sewage system. Des...

3 times a week I run 7.7km in a little over 40 minutes. The route from the park gate to the top of Mount Kinabalu at 4095m is 8.7km. How hard can it be? ************************ Walking up a big hill is an odd thing to do. It's going to be hard and often it's going to be cold and or wet. After expending huge amounts of energy getting to the top, it's great to spend a few minutes admiring the view then it's time to come down again. On a bad day, weather eve...

J & J in the J I really didn't think the body could hold enough water to enable rivers of sweat to run from every pore simultaneously until I walked around the jungle in the Danum Valley. And I've been to Darwin in the wet season.*********************** After leaving Sandakan we drove to Lahad Datu where we picked up our transfer to the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, deep in primary rainforest. The trip involved 30 mins on normal road, then 2 hrs or 77km on grave...

Poverty: it's a bad thing. I'm not talking about the 'I can barely afford to smoke, I only drink the specials in the pub and Chesney's going to have to live with a fake Chelsea strip this year' type poverty we see in the west, rather the 'I live in a rat infested slum, not sure if I can feed the family and I will die if I get sick' type poverty that 100s of millions in developing nations suffer. It is fantastic that the slow spread of wealth is improving the lo...