It’s been a while since the last post. We’ve been largely incommunicado. We’ve been on a boat, or underwater. We arrived at Cebu airport after a couple of hops to KL, then onto the Philippines. We taxi’d to our hotel (opting, after queuing for a white cab for 45 minutes, to pay the extra for … Continue reading Philippines week 1 – underwater
It’s 5 days later, and we’re in Indonesia. Transferring from Bali, we caught a domestic flight to Labuan Bajo, a small fishing town on west of the Island of Flores, in the Nusa Tenggara region of Indonesia. This would be our base for the next few days as we explore Komodo National Park, the land … Continue reading Indonesia… Here be dragons
It’s our 10 year wedding anniversary. We were due to fly into Bangkok and stay at an airport hotel, but we decided to celebrate, and so binned the airport hotel and booked into a Marriott in central Bangkok. We arrived at 2pm and went out for an excellent Thai lunch. A swim in the hotel … Continue reading Big trouble in little Thailand
Bhutan is a small country that most would struggle to place on a map. Sandwiched between Tibet, India, Nepal and Bangladesh it is nestled in the Himalayas. With only 800,000 inhabitants, it is sparsely populated and growing at a very ponderous 2% per year. Bhutan was named by the British, meaning ‘High Land’ (or locally … Continue reading Bhutan – Days 1-4
The Land of the Thunder Dragon. That’s a pretty bloody awesome tag line for any country. It’s also the land where the government constitutionally operates to maximise Gross National Happiness. Before coming to Bhutan, we had a feeling we’d like it. However, it started off a bit rocky. We arrived at Kathmandu airport (another hairy, … Continue reading Bhutan – Arrival
I’ve got a lot to say about China, so feel free to skip this post. Before I jump in, I want to say up front that I found China to be a friendly, progressive, and fascinating land. The below is pulled together from my observations and conversations, and is not in any way intended to … Continue reading China – Epilogue
ArushaDriving back into Arusha on our return from the Serengeti, we started to get a feel for how people live in Tanzania. A country of 55 million people in a country four times the size of the UK, Tanzania benefits from Safari and sunshine tourism from all over the world. However the local economy remains … Continue reading Arusha and Zanzibar
Our last full day on Safari. We survived the night. I was woken up about 6 or 7 times by the howls, the roars and the tent break-in attempts. Shona slept through the lot. We had a breakfast in the main 'mess' tent and got underway. I asked Frank whether he could show us any … Continue reading The Serengeti – Day Two
The next two days are spent in the Serengeti. Unlike Ngorongoro, the Serengeti is a wide open plain, stretching from Tanzania into Kenya; 14,750 sq km in size. It's big. As we leave the Ngorongoro park areas, the land looks increasingly arid; brush land, sparse with trees and shrubs and very flat and dusty. Shona … Continue reading The Serengeti – Day One
Leaving the lodge early on the 26th, we headed back into the Ngorongoro conservation area; back up the windy, bumpy road and disappearing into the cloud blanketing the rim of the crater. Passing by the descent route into the crater, we continued along the rim, before dropping down the other side into the vast plains … Continue reading The Masai
Travels with Sklaroffs 