Again, it appears I neglected to contact anyone for about a week at this stage, so this is from memory... Everyone told us we'd want to get out of Makassar as soon as we could but personally, I quite liked it. It's a midsize city, modern but not trying to be too westernised, or pretend to be anything it isn't, and it's on the sea, which is always cool. The feel of the place reminds me a little of Phnom Penh! We had a stressful morning trying to figure out wher...

Arrived in Makassar after a SWEATY 51 hours - hot, sticky, smelly and dirty, but both pretty exhilarated! Can't even begin to describe the experience, so many people for so little space, and toilets which would make you gag! I honestly can't do it justice with just words, you'll have to wait for pictures. It's like you're cattle - rows and rows of thin beds (normally 12 sharing 5 bed spaces), rubbish everywhere, people throwing up, food likeyou wouldn't imagine ...

The PADI is completed! Got another 4 dives in the bag, saw turtles and all sorts, and it waspretty cool to indulge in the 'diver life' for a day or two... Internet is terrible on the island, but can do a quick update. Not much to say about the time doing the course itself - a bit of diving, plenty of cheesy americanised educational films, and you finish the day and crash out pretty exhausted at 4! I finished the 3 days feeling pretty worn out and run down - bit o...

I'm miles behind on the blog again now, so once more I'm going to use my facebook updates to the family to recap everything. Kicking off with Bali, where I headed straight after Singapore to meet up with Tom Smith, my old friend... Thought i'd let you know I've arrived safely in bali, met up with tom no problem (other than he told me the wrong flight and I was just leaving the airport when he arrivd an hour later than I expected!). hi guys! All is going we...

So now, I'm back up to date with the blog, and writing in the present. If you didn't see my post (location was Pai, Northern Thailand), I basically explained that I've just recently filled in the last month of the trip using facebook messages sent to the family, and a bit of memory - seemed the easiest way to do it - so if you haven't seen them go back and have a look - the one from Pai is the first catch up one! Had a lovely couple of days here in Singapore,...