Daily life on the Sungai Mahakam, Kalimantan

The mighty Mahakam River (Sungai) flows 980km from the centre of Indonesian Borneo in the district of Long Apari to its mouth at the Makassar Strait, where it embraces the Celebes Sea. The sprawling, rapacious city of Samarinda, a longtime backpacker magnet, lies 48km from the river mouth. Its equatorial climate makes for a swift [...]

Through the ocean mist in Labuanbajo

The Komodo trip, though exhilarating and worth every penny, damn near broke me. I touched down on terra firma with a nasty eye infection, scabby arm and exhaustion from lack of sleep. The plan to hook up in the evening at Paradise Bar for a session to celebrate the trip was short-lived. My eyes were [...]

At sea, in search of the Komodo Dragons

Since my early teens, courtesy of the infectious enthusiasm for wildlife of David Attenborough (yep Nick I too realised my schoolboy error), I’ve dreamt of seeing the Komodo Dragons. However, my geographical dyslexia prevented from realising that on our travels we would be passing through the very region where these pre-historic looking beasties dwell. My [...]

Gili T let me be your fantasy

We’d heard about the Gili islands from many people we’ve met on our travels and also from friend on Facestalk. The Gilis consist of three tiny islands of the north west coast of Lombok, the island that lies at the western tip of the Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia. I did some research on the travel [...]

Staring into the eyes of the king of the swingers on Sumatra

I’ve been looking forward to Indonesia for a long, long time. When we touched down at Medan airport in Sumatra, I was a happy man. It was time to explore a continent so diverse and immense that even 12 months here wouldn’t scratch the surface. The briefest of touch downs in Malaysia Our stopover in [...]