Full Fathom Five…
There is a sepulchral magic to a shipwreck. Viewed from underwater, with russet filigrees of sea ferns flourishing on the fractured edges of a shell...
Category: Adventures
Learning to Dive
We are still in Coron. That’s Coron Town, the meandering if unbeautiful little port of Busuanga Island, not Coron, the island, across the way. As...
El Nido
After a few weeks in the Philippines, one becomes almost inured to beauty. Almost, but not quite, for El Nido, in the north of Palawan,...
The Fear Factor
Can intensive, sweaty, pulse-pounding vertigo count towards one’s recommended 30 minutes cardio? If so, I need no more exercise for at least a week… I...
The Joy of Tubing
Tubing, or floating down a river in a tractor inner tube, is what brought us to Vang Vieng, Laos, where the locals have made a...
Messing About in Boats — Part 3
We’d clearly got lucky with our choice of stopping places the day before, because my firm belief that hardly any village in Laos will be...
Messing About in Boats – Part 2
It is pretty much a given, in rural South-East Asia, that falang (and, I guess, locals too) in need of a bed for the night...
Messing About in Boats – Part 1
They don’t call Si Phan Don Four Thousand Islands for nothing. At this time of year, with the Mekong nine or ten feet below its...
Best Train Journey Ever? #1: The Bamboo Train
Z will contentedly nap on motorbikes, ride the tailgate on pickups, sit on the edge of a boat and stand up in the back of...