Rebecca Mayoll

Cairns - Papua New Guinea - Micronesia (Chuuk and the outer Islands of Yap) - Palau - Philippines - Malaysia (Borneo) - Indonesia (Kalimantan, Java, Sumatra) - Singapore -Malaysia - Thailand.

This is the journey required when you make a bet to get to the Pyramids of Egypt from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia without flying.

During 1/12 years and barely a third of the journey I have bailed one sinking yacht 4 days away from land, discovered a WWII Zero wreck, spent 2 days half-naked to fit in, had 2 dance offs with lady boys, descended to 59m to view mines and tanks within a sunken war vessel, suffered tooth, stomach and ear infections, multiple bowel... well, you know :) Found work twice when the cash flow was tight, been invited to the homes of Indonesian, Philippino and Malaysian families, gained 3 burn scars, spent 6 hours with fully wild oragutans, 6 minutes with whale sharks, avoided the MILF (Philippino terrorist group) and crossed the equator 3 times... and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

What have I learnt? To value your roots and all of the people that make your experiences!

I have just entered a techno phase, in other words have just bought a laptop. Now the diary can elope into a blog. The journey continues with Prue and I (1 has become 2, who'd have thought there was someone equally as crazy just around the corner) perched in the Golden Triangle awaiting a China visa and a cargo boat to transfer us along the Mekong River.

My advice is to stop reading before you get bored. Heres to plodding Northwards and Westwards!