Having been really proud of myself for managing to go to the station in Yogya and buy a ticket to Jakarta all by myself, I was taken down a peg or two when it came to actually catching the train. I got in the carriage marked 'Executif 2', the one I needed, only to find someone in my seat - when I asked the guard whether I should get them to move or just sit somewhere else, and he told me that I was actually in 'Executif 6' and that I needed to be 4 carriages down...

Yogyakarta is a confusing place - for a start it seems to have four names for itself (Jogjakarta, Yogyakarta, Jogja and Yogya - I've gone for Yogyakarta/Yogya because I like Ys better than Js) and because the main streets are linked by lots of little gangs (alleyways) which are very easy to get lost in! I really enjoyed my stay here, it's much more chilled than Bali was and it has a very nice 'cultural' vibe to it. On my first day here I took a trip to Borobodur...

Anyone expecting to find the 'paradise island' that Bali is portrayed as should stay well away from Kuta beach. It's more like a landfill site than a beach, and surfing there was a truly stomach-turning experience. The sea is absolutely full of rubbish, and everytime I got caught by a wave crashing down on me, I emerged from the water with a plastic bag or a crisp packet or something else equally gross hanging from me - yuk! I thought I might just be being a bit ...

The first thing I learned in Kuala Lumpur is that you should always check that the airport terminal you are flying into is actually on the same site as the airport it is part of - it was only on landing in KL that I found out that the 'low cost carrier' terminal is actually 5-10km from the main KL international airport. Which wouldn't have been a problem if Michael, my host for the weekend, wasn't picking me up from the main airport - eep! Luckily his wife had re...

The first thing I need to say from Hanoi is sorry to all the people I promised Kim-cooked Vietnamese food to when I got home - I didn't manage to do the cooking course I'd planned on doing, due to all the course we founds being a) too expensive, b) too meaty, c) too undersubscribed or d) ideal in terms of price and dishes, but less promising when we ate lunch there and found the food to be a bit rubbish! Shah and I actually spent the best part of our first day in...