After some emotional goodbyes in Auckland, our flight went pretty quickly despite it being the longest of the trip. We arrived in Hong Kong in relatively good shape and breezed through immigration. The train to downtown Kowloon took around 25 minutes and we got our first glimpse of the mountain-surrounded city. Like in London, passengers sat in silence, for the morning commute. Outside, misty inlets and tree covered hills rushed by before buildings grew in number...

We arrived back in KL for our final night in Malaysia. We were sad about leaving this country that has given us so many incredible memories, from diving in the Perhentians, drinking rain in the rainforest and the apes of Borneo. The people who live as a community, as family regardless of race, colour or religion and who made us feel so welcome in their city, town or village. The cuisine has been incredible too, from the street markets to the spotless air conditio...

Jan blagged us the last two seats in the first fast boat from Gili Trawangan. The company had clearly over booked and we stowed away with a large group from the US. We got to the coastline of Bali in around 90 minutes, the minivan from the shore took around 3 hours. It was stress free though as we were being dropped at our hotel, let it take as long as it takes. The roads of town were solid with traffic, the maze of the one way system didn't seem to be as effic...

The Gilis were another one of those places that, even from the very early planning stages of the trip, we were very excited about. They're usually rated in the top 5 places in the world to dive. The small speedboat took less than 45 minutes to reach Gili Trawangan from northern Lombok. We cruised up to the beach, the sea was glassy, the beach was white. We jumped onto the shore and we quickly realised this was not paradise. The road was lined on both sides with ...

We arrived in Lombok quite late. The journey to the hotel took around 90 minutes with a cabbie that spoke little English except "David Beckham" but told us at least 10 times per minute that we were headed to Senggigi. The hotel was nice and quiet, set in lush gardens and about 10 minutes from the beach. Perfect. By the time we'd reached the room, we'd been up for 18 hours, we'd climbed a volcano and were simply exhausted. Night night. After a good night's sle...