Seven Travel Lessons Learnt From Bitter Experience
1: There is a Time and a Place for Hallucinogens That time and place is not a Moroccan beach patrolled by men in hooded cloaks...
Tagged: Travel
The Sunday Six: Ways To Offend The Locals in Asia
1: Point Your Feet At Someone In Thailand, Laos, and much of mainland South-East Asia, feet are considered “low” and dirty. So you need to...
A Very Young Country: Timor Leste
Timor smells different from Flores. It has that red dust scent with hints of gum, a dryness in the air, a scent more Australian than...
The Sunday Six: Things You Might Not Know About Bali
1: Everyone Has The Same Names If there’s one thing you’ll notice on Bali holidays, it’s that everyone seems to have the same names: Nyoman,...
First Impressions…
It’s a big bike. A very big bike. A tall, chunky trail bike, so high my feet would barely touch the ground, its heavy-duty engine...
The Painted Lakes
We climbed through clouds and rain to reach the crater lakes at Kelimutu, Flores. Sacred to the local people, who believe that souls return to...
On the Up in Flores
It is a bright, sunny day and a beautiful ride. I’m starting to feel that the jinx that has befouled our overland mission from Bali...
A Tight Corner
Eating cold fried eggs and soggy white bread in the convent, under the scrutiny of a spreadeagled plastic Christ and an increasingly baleful Pope, Z...
The Great Hot Springs Disaster
The rhythms of life at the convent in Ruteng do not encourage sloth. The sisters start their day early, in their cells up the hill,...
The Sunday Six: Hanoi With Kids
1: Play at Ho Tay Waterpark We defy any child visiting Hanoi — and plenty of adults, for that matter — not to enjoy the...