The signed photo that hangs proudly at the Fancy Guesthouse. With news Elton John is about to release his 33rd studio album (entitled Wonderful Crazy Night*), there’s one lingering question that remains tantalizingly unanswered for fans: Did he or did he not stay at a 2-star guesthouse while in Cambodia a few years ago? According…
Category: Southeast Asia
Skyscrapers & Jungle – Kuala Lumpur In 2015 – My Top 50 Photos
From the Helipad Bar, downtown KL. One month ago today I touched down again in the city I grew up in. My family was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from June 1983 to December 1990 before returning to Auckland, New Zealand when I was nine years old. Even after a quarter of a century, it’s amazing…
Return To Nazri’s Place – Top 50 Photos From Malaysia’s Tioman Island, 2015
Nazri’s Place, Air Batang, Tioman Island. This time exactly two weeks ago I was in the middle of a sweat-drenched 10-kilometre walk on an island Time Magazine once described as one of the 10 most beautiful in the world. Sure, that title was bestowed back in the 70s and Malaysia’s Tioman Island has dined out…
A Monk, A Motorbike Crash & A Mad Mission To Deliver School Books – Adventures In Laos 2010
Phosit’s school and its soccer pitch, near Vang Vieng. The following is based on an email I sent to family and friends nearly five years ago in June of 2010. It details how a motorbike crash in Laos became a defining moment in several months of backpacking throughout South East Asia. And beware of fake…
Java Top 50 – My Favourite Photos From The Most Populated Island On The Planet
It’s exactly five years since I set foot on the most populated island in the world, Java in Indonesia. For a slither of land that’s comparable in size to New Zealand’s South Island, Java is somehow home to 143 million people as opposed to the South Island’s one million*. And yet Java remains one on…
My Top 50 Cambodia Photos From 2008 and 2010 – Why To Be Optimistic About This Country
Angkor Wat at sunrise, 2010. Four years since I was last in Cambodia and six years on from my first visit, I thought it was time to compile my favourite photos from those two adventures. Cambodia gets under your skin. A country with so much tragedy, so much darkness and even today, so much corruption….
How Does Myanmar’s Bagan Compare With Cambodia’s Angkor Temples? My NZ Herald Series Part 3 + 15 Favourite Photos
Here is the link to my third and final New Zealand Herald travel article on Burma / Myanmar, this one all about Bagan. Bagan – a temple-filled plain, bordered by the Irrawaddy River and ringed by jagged mountains – is regarded as the premier tourist destination in Myanmar. Nobody is really sure of the…
Sunset In Bali – My 10 Favourite Photos
I’ve noticed lately that some people claim to be sick of endless social media sunset photos. Well here are some more! If you’re already thinking of where to go for your winter holiday later in the year, then maybe these Bali sunset photos I took in 2012 might sway you. I love Bali, particularly…
What Makes Myanmar’s Inle Lake So Remarkable – Part 2 In My NZ Herald Series + 25 Favourite Photos
Cage-net fishing, Intrepid tour of Myanmar, Inle Lake. Part two of my New Zealand Herald series of articles on Burma / Myanmar was published this week, this one on what makes Inle Lake so remarkable. Located in central Burma, this is a place where everything is floating – floating villages, floating markets, floating…
My NZ Herald Myanmar Series Part 1: Yangon’s Crumbling Colonial Architecture & Chaotic Streets, Incl. 30 Favourite Photos
The Shewedagon Pagoda Yesterday the New Zealand Herald published part one of my three-part series of travel articles on Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Thanks to Intrepid Travel, Flight Centre and Student Flights, I had a 15 day Intrepid tour of what is really the last undiscovered country in South East Asia. The tour began…
The Commodores 1975 Instrumental Named After An Island In The Philippines
For the people of the Philippines reeling from the devastation of typhoon Haiyan (2000 estimated dead, 600,000 homeless, two million in desperate need of clean water), here is the Commodores song named after the Philippine island (and city) Cebu. In the mid-70s the Commodores fame spread far from their Alabama homeland and made them superstars…
15 Favourite Photos From Koh Chang, Thailand
A snorkeling / island-hopping trip off the south of Koh Chang. At the end of 15 days in Burma / Myanmar I thought it would be fun to have a week in Thailand and decided to head to an island I’d never been before, Koh Chang. Thailand’s second largest island after Phuket, Koh Chang didn’t…
