It’s now a month since I flew back into the country. England is January freezing and licking its financial wounds following the credit co…

My final bus journey is a time for reflection. National Express from London to Rochdale in five hours. There are to be no rest stops be…

Flying into Heathrow by night is a wonderful and strangely affecting experience. Geordie band Maximo Park have a break up song named �…

Dom isn’t budging from the ticket counter in Delhi airport. I’m quite happy to stand by and await the result of the wrangle. The Virg…

I will leave Kathmandu with fond memories, but these will not really be for the place itself. A bustling, polluted heap of a city, Kathmand…

The tiny Yeti Air plane rushes off the edge of the sheer drop that marks the end of the short, shallow slope of the runway at Lukla. My s…

The afternoon sees us striking for Namche Bazaar, the way is longer than I remembered. Throughout much of this leg of the return we walk …

Rejoice and maketh ye merry - I can eat! Praise little baby Jesus, the three wise men, the lowing cattle, Mary, Joseph and even the donkey.…

I take the long way round to Pheriche village, missing the turning that would have sliced a third from my journey. I end up having to m…

I tramp the road down the steep valley towards the village of Pangboche, my target for the night. I have to take regular breaks, my energy …

It huuuuuuuuuurts! It really huuuuuuuuuurrrrrrts! My head feels like someone has taken a house brick and is forcing it down with tru…

The excerpt below is copied direct from my notebook. Aside from a slight altitude-spawned headache, I'd experienced no real problems up…

The writing on the metal box reads: “Hello!!! This is Good Toilet.” There is an arrow pointing off to the left. Rebecca, whom I m…

If ever there was a species ripe to be branded evolutionary losers, pandas are it. A trip to Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre c…

“Bzzzzzzzz,” I say to the Chinese barber, gesturing in a hopefully clipperesque fashion. “Number two please.” I hold up two finge…

I had heard that purchasing tickets at Xi'An train station was a tall order due to the limited English language skills of the ven…

Like many travellers, martial pottery was the only reason I visited Xi'An. The terracotta warriors of the First Qin Emperor have long h…

Doesn't matter if you're a package tour oldster or an off the beaten track hipster, there's only one sight that is compulsory if you're…

I'm amazed that the undeniably enterprising Chinese missed a clear opportunity to add to their impressive medal tally at this Summer's …

You can still make it - go, go, go! I sprint down the empty station platform just as the whistle sounds. I can see a female guard at the ne…

Hmm Shanghai... on the surface here's a city that's charging headlong into the future, fuelled by China's economic muscle, a freshly-mi…

Beautiful is a word that is tossed around too easily in travelling circles, in the same way that the sobriquet of “genius” is a…

I was held to ransom in Honkers. The Chinese government, in its infinite wisdom, had increased Visa prices for UK citizens earlier in…

As I wander down to the immigration queue I'm still recovering from the ordeal of the flight from Bangkok. I'd like to make it clear th…

The woman in the Tokyu shopping mall pant section delights in showing me a range of male undergarment options. I'm not used to intensive cu…

I notice El Roacho as soon as I come through the door of my Phuket Town hostel room. It's sitting on the outside of some netting, whi…

Three days after the event and Craig is still mock-miffed about the spring roll I pilfered from him on a boozy night out. Mugging l…

The most notable thing about Krabi Town was the Good Dream hostel, which I can highly recommend. It's owned by an American guy named …

I'm sitting on a chrome bar stool in a dimly lit pseudo-Irish pub playing Connect 4 with a Thai bar girl of about 20, who speak…

Alcohol and I have a love-hate relationship. I love it, it hates me. I can be what is commonly known as “a mean drunk” and …

Well Toto, looks like we're not in Laos any more: “You come back my room. If you too tired to screw you lie on bed and rest ok…

Bugger, bugger, bugger - I really should have bought petrol from those little Lao girls in the last tiny villag…

The woman in the motorbike hire place charges me five dollars for the broken wing mirror. No worries, I expected it to be more. I…

There is a sign hung around the neck of every traveller who ventures beyond the borders of his or her own country.  …

What do you eat on a three day motorbike loop of Southern Laos? Noodle soup of course. It's cheap, tasty and, most importantly, easy to pur…

I parked the bike up in Tat Lo, hauled off my helmet and heaved a sweaty sigh of relief. I'd completed my first solo motorbike trip w…

"You ride moto bike before?" The Lao mechanic looks uncertain as if, given the choice, he'd rather not let me loose on his shiny red Honda 100 cc m…

There's something strangely provincial about Vientiane. Strolling the tranquil city centre streets, even during the rush hour, is&nb…

Christ what a whirlwind! My four days in Vang Vieng were the epitome of rock 'n' roll travel. I partied like it was 2099 - snorting…

A bus, a break down, a flat bed truck (flagged down by Demi) ride, a crammed minibus, several landslide stoppages*, a flood…

When I lived in Sheffield, I grew heartily sick of the increasing number of massive gas-guzzling 4x4s that had co…

After about another hour of tramping through Laos mud and with no sign of the jeep as yet, we came to a river crossing. Here there was a sti…

Cold balls of sticky rice and shrimp crisps make for an unorthodox breakfast. Still, if you're looking for ener…

The 9 strong backpacker rabble (apart from a 20 year old Russian guy Demi who chose, that's right chose, to walk the 37km distan…

Getting through the Vietnamese border was the easy bit. It still took a fair old while though; the Vietnamese value their bureaucracy second …

I decided to take on the little-used, only open since last year, Vietnam - Laos border crossing at Tay Trang for a few differen…

The mountain town of Sapa turns out to be a microcosm of my month-long trawl through Vietnam. It's pleasant and at times the scenery is…

It's Sunday and I'm sweating my way through the noisy afternoon streets of the Old Quarter, flip flops slapping loud. As usual I'm sti…

"Don't you get lonely travelling on your own?" asks Plain Jane from the other side of the restaurant table. She's one of three German …

There are display cabinets filled with the skulls of victims in one of the rooms. But it's difficult to empathise with bones; they could ha…

The deluge of tourists that has fallen onto Siem Reap creates a whole bundle of money-making opportunities for local entrepe…

I quickly learn that Siem Reap is an ocean of hassle. In retrospect, Medan seems like a paddling pool by comparison. The moto and tuk …

When I finally meet up with Laura and Julian, it's all a little surreal. The last time I saw them was seven months ago, waving goodbye as I drov…

In the end I spent all night in the airport. This time around KL had a distinct "been there done that" kind of vibe to it. Even the ple…

There is little to say about my time on Perhentian Kecil, except that it was beautiful, I met some lovely people, read 3 or 4 books, watched plenty…

"Excuse Me." The voice comes from down the hill, over my shoulder. I stop and turn and see a twenty-something Malay bloke following me up the ste…

I somehow managed not to puke on the ferry. I just couldn't countenance spending another day of convalescence in the grimy claustro…

The heavens open as we return to Medan, massive black clouds roil overhead spewing thunder, lightning and water. It's less like h…

It's not every day that I declare a hairy ginger dwarf with a pot belly and exceptionally long arms to be beautiful. …

As the bus pulls into Medan's southern bus station, Amplas, touts swarm around its doors like a stream of ants rushing to halt and …

Occasionally on this trip, I meet people that make me consider my own ethics and whether or not I'm a "good person." I don't mean good by a…

Danau Toba is perhaps too big to fully appreciate as a whole. Like its southern cousin, Maninjau, Toba is a volcanic crater lake. The diffe…

We endure almost two sweaty, tedious hours sat on the back seat of a bus in Bukittinggi waiting to begin a tw…

In the cauldron of the college classroom, questions just keep on coming: "What do you think of terrorism? Are you not afraid of it in Sumatra?"…

"Is this Bukittinggi?" I ask the bus driver when he returns from his coffee break. "We are at Bukittingi, yes?" He glances at me uncertainly th…

As the ferry crawled the final distance into the dock in Dumai I checked out of the window to see what kind of place I’d pitched up in this t…

Since I've been on my own, each time I travel with someone for more than a few days, I get a little bit attached. I invest time in g…

The Petronas twin towers are two of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. They dominate the KL skyline with elegant aplomb, …

After the tranquility of Juara, jumping off the bus in Kuala Lumpur (KL) was an awakening ruder than one of Snoop Dogg's sof…

Pulau Tioman isn't paradise, but it's a lovely spot to do nowt nonetheless. Yeah, yeah, I know I was in Fiji less than a w…

Singapore's name was, according to my second hand book swap Lonely Planet, originally derived from the Sumatran words for lion an…

Blah, blah, 5am wake up, blah, blah, silence in taxi, blah, blah, slow, grinding check in, blah, blah, blah, coffee flavoured Pepsi, blah…

What kind of image do you conjure up in your head when people mention the men of Fiji? For me it's a brick shithouse rugby giant with limbs like tree…

Despite my recent time spent in Patagonian bus bootcamp, 13 hours with my arse welded to an economy seat in a passenger jet still f…

Singer, intellectual and all-round Sheffieldian legend, Jarvis Cocker, once wrote about love: "It's not all chocolate boxes and roses, it's…

The final destination on my five month meander around South America, Santiago hasn't really offered any surprises in the few days I've been he…

When I arrived in Santiago with Jack, a traveler I had met in Pucon, we had both just been robbed by thieves getting into our ground floor room thro…

Pucon was pretty much a disaster from start to finish.First of all, I never got to climb Volcan Villarrica, the principal reason for my visit. After …

It took a 25 hour, 3 bus journey from Ushuaia to get to Comodoro (64) Rivadavia.  A 25 hour, 3 bus journey that included the cros…

The question that most people have about travelling to Ushuaia is simple: "Is it worth it?" It's a question that I've asked myself pretty ofte…

If I were a religious man I'd say 50 hail Marys or something similarly respectful to the big man/woman/being of non-specific gender in the sky for th…

If towns were people, El Calafate would be a 50-something moneyed tourist all togged up in spanking new Gortex walking gear that´s about as …

If the Disney Corporation ever need a new site for a resort in South America then they could do a lot worse than just buying up Calafate wholesale. T…

Rio G (as absolutely no-one calls it) is a grey, grey place, reminiscent of a permanently out of season English seaside town. During t…

I arrived in Puerto Madryn hoping for a National Geographic wet dream moment involving flippers, teeth, blood and blubber. I am of course t…

When I was about 19 and my brother 29, My auntie Mavis and her man friend Maurice came to visit us in Rochdale. Maurice was (and s…

I skipped over Mendoza like a flat stone across water. I Arrived Sunday morning off the night bus, dishevelled and a little confused as to why t…

The last 48 hours have been a little weird.  First of all, I discovered that I have been entirely wrong with my beliefs abou…

I´ve got to be honest and admit that I was a little disappointed by Buenos Aires (BA). I´ve met loads of people who fluted on a…

Look, I can"t be bothered to go on too much about how beautiful, majestic and downright enormous Iguazu Falls are. I may wel…

3.00pm - Get on Bus, set up camp with wine bottles and daypack safely stowed at my feet. 3.01pm - Meet Julian the German, who will be sitt…

The change didn´t happen as soon as we crossed the border, but after shifting a mere 5 hours south in our (luxurious, air conditioned) Del…

I can´t say that I will be crying to see the back of Bolivia. Don´t get me wrong, it´s a beautiful country with fantastic and varied scenery …

I had one of the most pleasurable moments of my trip here in Oruro. It didn´t involve a girl, or (much) alcohol, and it wasn´t big or clever but no…

There´s only so long you can handle places like Loki, a somewhat infamous chain of hostels in Peru and Bolivia that appear to exist solely t…

Rurrenbaque or Rurre as the locals refer to it, probably because they can´t pronounce the full title either, is a sleepy little jungle t…

I´m now on my own. Andy doesn´t have time for a trip to the jungle so he´s now legging it South at some speed. As for me, I´ll be …

Before arriving in Copacabana, ensure that you have some money, of any denomination. There is no cash machine here. Andy and I had only an emerg…

Puno genuinely surprised me. We had been told that it was a drab, featureless transit town, good only for grabbing a connection to the Boli…

Visiting Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, is reputed to be a platinum highlight of any middle-class backp…

Lima is the capital of Peru, but also a capital of scam and we, but of course, were on the receiving end of a well-practiced sting&nbs…

Trujillo is a drab Peruvian coastal city of about half a million. We were done over here for 20 dollars. Two guys, a greasy haire…

OK so Ecuador is done and dusted and it was a hell of a three weeks with more ups and downs than Debbie does Doncaster (The Deluxe Double D Edition).…

My daypack has been stolen. It contained 300 quids worth of gear and it´s all gone. My Ipod, fleece, sunglasses, swiss army knife, first aid kit,&…

Well I´m actually writing this in Peru after the event - but I just wanted to place this entry in my favourite destination in Ecuador…

After a couple of rain lashed days back in Quito, we´ve shifted South to the town of Latacunga. This place is a decent base to get out to&…

A big old place set within walking distance between the Old and New towns. Rooms are fairly basic and can be a little dim. However they are generally…

As we motored our way down the river in a dugout canoe, I finally began to get a sense of why we had made this trip to the North West of Ecuador…

From Borbon we moved inland to the village of Selva Allegre, riding on the roof of a truck/bus hybrid thing. I kind of enjoyed it, it"…

Ibarra is the largest town in Ecuador north of Quito. However, this does nothing to prevent it from being a pretty tedious place.…

Otavalo is a very pleasant market town just north of Quito. On Saturdays it hosts one of the largest artisan and food markets in South Amer…

There are many ways to get ripped off in South America. Marie and I seem to have found a knack of stumbling upon them. So far, we´ve been ripped off…

I´m very pleased you can´t see me now. I´m scarlet from rampant sunburn. Oh dear. I guess that´s Lesson One - don´t underestimate the …

Have been driving around like a fool for the past 3 days trying to collect everything and move all my stuff back from Sheffield. Despite the&nb…

As of today I’ve got two weeks to get my sorry backside into gear and sort out pretty much everything for going away. I finished work la…