Arrived onto the hot tarmac in Bali - our last truly tropical spot of the trip - and were looking forward to soaking up some sun and cooling off in the sea for a whole six weeks.Bali is famous for it's waves and Chris had his suf board ready to go at the earliest opportunity. We drove away from the city and into the rice fields through the beautiful green countryside and back to the West coast at a small village called Medewi. There we spent a few days where ...

Landed at the chaotic city of Manila, and checked into our hotel with a view of the Bay and the US embassy. With the upcoming elections we didn't want to stay for too long, so booked ourselves a flight straight away bound for the beautiful and popular island of Boracay, with just a small backpack of beachwear each. It's surprisingly easy to hop around here, and they were certainly used to receiving tourists who didn't know quite what their plan was! T...

As one friend said - this is a big one to tick off -? and it certainly is big at over 6,000km long. It's also very steep in parts and our thighs were aching for about two days afterwards having done a two hour walk around one small section in Badalang. We'd chosen precisely the wrong week to come here unfortunately as it was a Chinese national holiday, and with millions descending on this and many other main attractions, the experience was often less plea...

We enjoyed my birthday in Bangkok, spending the morning feeling good in the gym and spa of a nearby hotel, then venturing into one of the many busy shopping malls next door, buying some fantastic cheap shoes! Escaping the city streets in the evening, we headed up to the 64th floor of the state tower for a fabulous meal looking out over the bright lights, and drinks in the open air illuminated rooftop bar. It wasn't cheap but it was amazingly memorable. We e...

The water really is as bright blue and the sand as white here as you may have imagined or seen in the magazines. It's a beautiful country, spread out over some 1,200 islands. It is a strange holiday destination in that you are cocooned from the real country, most tourists going straight from the airport to their chosen resort. So we were glad we had a day to explore the capital Male, to try and get a feel for the place and the locals. We stepped off the plane...