Knowing we were pushing our luck we opted for another bus trip- this time we were heading south of KL to Melaka, another UNESCO heritage site. And much to our surprise, we are now counting two comfortable bus rides in a row although there were no video players on our latest ride. Our basic hotel was just 1 street removed from the famous Jonkers St, and the whole area was a collection of architecture frozen in time- most of it from the Dutch colonial period. The n...

We had to make a quick stop in Singapore as it was about the only reasonably convenient location in Asia to arrange our travel visas to Mongolia- the laws of bizarro probability would seem to suggest that the more important the tourist dollar would be to the local economy, the more difficult the bureaucrats make it to actually get in. Preparing a visa might be a 5 minute exercise on a bad day but that doesn't stop government employees from turning it into a m...

Before getting into our adventures in Bali, I have to ask our loyal reader- what in the name of Maple Syrup is going on in Canada?? We only get sporadic exposure to English news programs and, not too surprisingly, it's Asia-centric and Canada, if ever, rarely rates a mention....until recently. It started off with a bizarre story about a Miss Canada competition which seemed to imply that Canada's best looking woman was actually a man (even DH, who spits at...

The Torajan people of South Sulawesi are well known for two things- their very unusual homes and their almost obsessive preoccupation with death and the related ritualistic funerals. My philosophy on death has always been quite simple- if you don't think about it, talk about it, or plan for it, then it just won't happen (perhaps a touch unrealistic but it keeps me in a happy place), so being surrounded by the concept for days has me well outside my comfor...

After the relative comfort and familiarity of NZ and Australia, it was time to 'dive' back in to Asia and the area around Manado in northern Sulawesi offers up some of the best diving in the world. Sulawesi is one of the less visited islands of Indonesia which, of course, is part of it's appeal. It should be a requirement to visit an island where the local population, recognizing the world class underwater experiences that are possible in the surround...