We clearly enjoy spending time in these hill stations because we have found ourselves in another one - this time the heavily visited Cameron Highlands area. Hill stations were established during colonial times for the specific purpose of a minibreak (to borrow a great British term) to higher elevation to escape the heat of the cities, and the Cameron Highlands actually delivers in terms of providing a much appreciated respite from the hot Malaysian temperatures....

A return to Malaysia was a must for Troy, as he fell in love with the food last time we were here, particularly because he felt this was one of the only countries in southeast Asia that would make it spicy enough for him. As well, last year we only visited the Malaysian side of Borneo, and the city of Kuala Lumpur, so there is still much of peninsular Malaysia to be explored. Penang (pronounced more like, "Pee-nang", and not so much like the yummy Thai "panan...

It is the return of the earache - previously seen in Indonesia last year, and most likely again brought on by too many underwater excursions. More rest time. Koh Phangan had two immediate reference points for us before arriving here. The first is that the island is known for its infamous Full Moon beach parties that are apparently the stuff of legends. We are purposefully not here on a full moon. (We have since learned that Koh Phangan likes debauchery so...

It's hard to choose between Thailand's many stunning islands, but your choices just might be dictated by the rainy season. Generally, the rains are most severe from May-October on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand, and the east side of the Gulf of Thailand, which left us choosing the one area we haven't yet visited - the west side of the Gulf. Koh Tao is known to have some of the cheapest diving experiences in all of southeast Asia, and so it was a great ch...

Taichung was the base for our last "must-see" destination in Taiwan - Sun Moon Lake, the largest lake in the country. Unable to buy our transportation/visitation pass ahead of time in person from the bus station for reasons we couldn't quite understand, we anxiously showed up day of at 6:00 am for a 7:45 am bus and breathed a sigh of relief when we gained two passes (seriously - the weekends at this place are apparently swarming with tourists and as we had alrea...