I always considered Australia as the main event of my travels. Asia was really just getting lost on the way, although other than India I had a fantastic time. The flight to Australia was the first point when I realised things to be different. As opposed to the bus and train journeys through asia, and even the flight to singapore, this was the first real travel where I was surrounded by westerners. I could actively feel the asia defences that I'd built up over t...

Killing a week in Laos before I go to Australia turned out to be one of the funniest weeks of my trip so far. I was travelling alone for all of a day before meeting some more really great people. Laos turned out to be a real unexpected dream. An early 7-hour bus journey from Chiang Mai wasn't the most enjoyable start but it was bearable. At the border my first task turned out to be helping a french guy cross the border using all that my schoolboy french had to o...

Well, after a number of failed attempts I am finally able to update you how I'm getting on! Since my last post I've travelled through Malaysia and Thailand, up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. And it's been great fun along the way. The first tour group got on really well, we travelled, ate, swam and drank together all the time. We visited a Muslim homestay in Malaysia for 2 days - the family lived on an Island in Malaysia's first dam, we trekked through ...

First report of 2009 and I'm now in Malaysia, having spent 10 days or so in Singapore. I met up with the group I will be touring with for the next couple of weeks on Sunday night. joining me are 2 British guys, 8 from Australia and 1 kiwi. If the past 2 nights are anything to go by there's going to be tonnes of laughs enjoyed by all. Time in Singapore was really enjoyable. Instead of staying in hotels in india, I was in hostels and so had more opportunity to ...

I can't beleive how long it actually is since I was in Agra! Almost half my total time away so far has passed. And there's a fair bit to report on too... As mentioned in my last post, I travelled to Amritsar in the Punjab state of india, on a 17hr train ride - glorious! I wasn't sure how much difference it would make being closer to the himalayas but the sun was still shining, which made the sight of the Sikh golden temple there hugely impressive. It's an incred...