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

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 p...

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...

"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...

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

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

A bus, a break down, a flat bed truck (hitched by Dimi) ride, a crammed minibus, several landslide stoppages*, a flooded en...

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

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 stilt...

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

The 9 strong backpacker rabble (apart from a 20 year old Russian guy Dimi 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 only t...

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

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 ...

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 s...

"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 Germa...

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 ...

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

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

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 dr...

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 p...

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 plen...

"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 s...

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

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

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 an...

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...

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

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

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 ...

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...

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...

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 s...

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...

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

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

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 tr...

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

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

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 ...

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 th...

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. Afte...

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 cr...

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 of...

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 ...

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 a...

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....

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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 si...

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) D...

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 scener...

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 ...

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...

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

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 b...

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 eme...

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

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

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&n...

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

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 Ecuad...

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 t...

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 general...

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 Ecuad...

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, i...

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

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 Am...

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 o...

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 th...

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&...

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 ...