Lombok 29th March-2nd April After spending two days in Bali planning the safest way to get to Lombok, we boarded a Garuda plane for the 22 minute flight.We giggled as the cabin crew announced, ten minutes into the flight, that it was safe to leave your seat and use your laptop, only to switch the seat beat sign back on four minutes later as we were about to land. Relieved to have landed safety, we were collected by our hotel and whisked to our accommodatio...

Brunei 23rd March Jo Apologies, this blog is only of any interest if you have previously visited Brunei. To the shock of the expat community I decided to take the public bus to Brunei, for a trip down memory lane. Had the town of Kuala Belait (KB) grown? Did it sell more than plastic bowls and fabric? Was my old house still standing? All these questions needed answering. The journey from Miri involved a bus change at the border. It went very smoothly as there...

Miri, Malaysia - Jo 17th March- After visiting so many well-known destinations in India, I headed somewhere a little more obscure in Malaysia. Miri, an oil town in Sarawak, Borneo, is rarely top of anyone's must visit list, but my friend, Charlotte, has lived here for the past eighteen months and it was also a chance to revisit some old haunts from when I lived just across the border in Brunei. Back in 1994 Miri was described in the Lonely Planet as 'a seed...

Borobudur 21-23rd March Nikki I will update this once home, currently camping at Starbucks in the airport. Suffice to say, Borobudur at sunrise was a fantastic experience. We walked in the darkness with chanting all around. There was no quintessential pink sunrise but it was quiet and almost mystical with very few tourists there at that time. If you are keen for more historical info, good old Wikipedia can furnish you with that much better than I can. Go. For...

Yogyakarta 19.3.10-21.3.10 Nikki After a couple of confused looks it dawned on me that everyone refers to this place as Yogya (pronounced Jogja). I'd not only been referring to it by the full name but pronouncing it incorrectly as well! Life here is mellow on the surface but frantic underneath; there are apparently very few Western tourists around at the moment so everyone has to battle for their slice of the tourist dollar. You only find this out as you're...