Tom: Hi all! Two nights ago we landed in Balikpapan, which is the on the south east coast of Kalimantan - Indonesia's portion of Borneo island. This has been a nice change in our itinerary, as we didn't think Borneo would ever be on the cards, but thanks to Steve and Kath here we are! To be honest, we're not here to trek through dense jungles and boogie with orang-utans (Malay for "forest person"), as this is more of a social visit. You might therefor...

Tom: Well this is different!!! We're now in Jakarta, staying in a 5 star hotel in the city centre courtesy of Nil's rather awesome uncle. I have to say after 9 weeks of penny pinching we had forgotten that these kind of living conditions existed, and we didn't realise how smelly we were and how bedraggled looked. Basically after a 19 hour bus journey to Jakarta from Yogya, during which the bus broke down three times and the buses' dynamo had to be replaced, we w...

Tom: Greetings from Java! We arrived on the principal island/state of Indonesia yesterday (at 3am) during our most epic journey yet. It was a 26.5 hour belter starting on Saturday morning from Gili Meno at 8am, and arriving in Surabaya at 10:30 the following morning, taking 3 boats and 3 busses in the process. We were contemplating continuing the journey onward towards Yogyakarta (which would've taken 9 more hours), but there were no busses available so we settl...

Nil: We're in Gili Meno and it's beautiful! I feel I'm getting a proper Robinson Crusoe experience, this island doesn't have traffic, police or too many tourists, pristine beaches, a small community run by its village chief, and lots of sun! I'll let Tom elaborate on our walk today because I want to tell you about the boat ride to here, the reason for this is because Tom doesn't remember it, being too seasick to even concentrate on breathing! The boat ride, f...

Tom: For now we can forget the Gregorian calendar - the year is now 1932, and we wish you all a very happy new year! Two nights ago Nil and I had our very first Hindu new year, and it was pretty cool. Firstly we hadn't realised that loads of effigies had been made - we had 10ft she-devils, rats, an Avatar character, and one smaller effigy which starkly resembled Brain from "Pinky and Brain". We assembled in the local football field, where the music was...