CALIFORNIA The land of plenty, you would think. I would anyway. But my eyes were already torn open by the veterans, junkies and bums of San Francisco begging on the pavements. Yes, to an extent this is a problem of every big city. But the sheer scale of veterans begging on streets just shocked me. Can you imagine fighting for a country that will discard you and let you slip into drug abuse and onto the street? I realise though that I tend to concentrate on the rough edges of

NADI F@*! Fiji!!! This is going to ruin the rest of our trip and dry up our budget! Yes, first thoughts were not promising at all. It has appeared to me like we have landed in a ridiculously expensive up market destination, where you can't simply get out of the claws of chain hotels. My AirBnB homestay in Nadi town has cancelled on us upon arrival on the airport, so we were forced to seek a hotel while we find ground under our feet. Booking.com turned out to be a good bet and

AUCKLAND 'Well, this is a big village!', was my first thought and possibly the first words too when we've arrived in the suburbs of this New Zealand metropolis. Truth to be said I've Airbeeandbeed us a room quite far off the city centre, but they could have turned some street lights on! The thrill turned nightmarish when our autumn evening stroll has been interrupted by rain and we have arrived on our hosts door step soaking wet. Must have been quite a sight. Auckland looked

AUSTRALIAN ROAD TRIP She was a Mitsubishi LS300 'Hippie Camper'. With purple and yellow flower and butterfly 'tattoos' on her white body. We have picked her up in the suburbs of Cairns and drove her south immediately after a short introductory to the driving cabin, living space, kitchenette and battery charging instructions. We drove past the city one last time and stopped for supplies in a local supermarket. BBQ food will be on the menu for the next 16 days, so we are shoppi

NUSA LEMBONGAN We have left Amed hoping that my Australian Visa will arrive in time we get to Denpasar. Majka's, of course, was in time while mine must raised some alarms and I had to send in additional 'paperwork'. The plan was to wait out our early morning flight on the airport. Once in Denpasar, it was obvious that we needed a new plan as my Visa was nowhere yet. Denpasar was not an option, Nusa Lembongan however is a small island close enough and sounding good enough to s

KOMODO ISLANDS Once we run down Kawah Iljen and returned to the parking lot by 8.30 am, it already felt like a good days work has been done. But the day has just started. We still had to catch a bus, cross to Bali on one of the infamous Indonesian ferries and then ride to the 'capital' city of the island, Denpasar. On paper all looked doable and I hoped that we can still enjoy the afternoon in the city. Wrong! We got to our desired accommodation no sooner than 6pm, tired and

PATHEIN I can't see a package tour bus pulling up in Pathein any time soon. This town is famous for its umbrella workshops, but most check those out while on Inle Lake. I'll tell you right away we have not made it to any of those either. Instead we've used Pathein as a short stop over to break the journey to Yangon and get off the pancake trail for a couple days. We have found a cheap (and unimpressive) guesthouse on Jail Road. Next to a giant jail as you might have guessed

PHONSAVAN After 9 days in Prabang it was the highest time to leave. Wish there was more time to explore the northern hill tribes, but Majka is not so keen on trekking the jungle and finding a bamboo shed with no running water at the end of the day, and there is no time either, since we want to spend the Christmas on the beach. However, northern hill tribes, brace! I'll be back if I can. Since we are heading south there were 2 options we considered. Either go to Vanh Vieng, th

LUANG PRABANG Crossing the Vietnam-Laos border at Tan Can is really no hassle. In fact, I don't think anyone would notice if I just walked past. It may be because we have arrived at lunch time that the border police told us to hang about for an hour or so, but even after that they've looked pretty chillaxed. It cost us $31 per head to get our Visa on arrival and didn't take longer than 10 minutes. Good few hours later, 1am next morning, our bus stopped and the driver informed

HOI AN Spending a night on a Vietnamese long haul bus is a strange sensation, you can't wait for the journey to end yet when it does it sort of takes you by surprise. The bus suddenly stops and before you're able to blink an eye your luggage is dumped outside and the driver shouts '...leave now, quick!!!'. I remember this feeling from my military service which leaves me wonder why did I pay for this bus journey?! Yeah, the soft westerner has spoken again. All the 'stress' is