As usual looked for cheap flight from Johor Bahru, this time booked a flight to Kota Kinabalu for thirty odd dollars. When talking about Kota Kinabalu, any traveller would like to climb the Mt Kinabalu, highest peak in South east Asia. One needs to be relatively fit to climb it though. Met couple of travellers [...]
The Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra Indonesia is one of the last places on earth where the endangered sumatran orangutan lives freely in the wild. Bordered between North Sumatra and Aceh province Mount Leuser National park covers over nearly 8000 sq km of forest area. Bukit Lawang a small village in North Sumatra [...]
The picturesque town of Berastagi is situated in Karo highlands in North Sumtra. It is a cool mountain retreat with busy markets, Dutch traders established it to escape from heat of capital Medan. The main attraction of Berastagi is to trek the Volcano of Gunung Sibayak and Gunung Sinabung. The indigenous Karo Batak culture is still intact even [...]
Phobjikha valley is a glacial valley located at an attitude of 3000 m. It’s a bowl-shaped valley against the backdrop of the Black Mountains in Wangdue Phodrang district, Bhutan. Valley View This valley is known for the Black headed cranes. During winter the people of Phobjikha Valley await for the return of Black-necked Cranes, they [...]
Malacca is one of the most vibrant city in Malaysia. It has a varied history, having been colonized by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. One can find these influences in food, architecture and even the language. Every backpacker coming to Malaysia makes it a mandatory stopover. I have been to Malacca many times but each visit [...]
Rasdhoo is a tiny Island about 500 meters long and 600 meters wide. It's one of the inhabited Islands of Maldives. Situated few miles away from Ari Atoll, Rasdhoo is known for it's crystal clear beaches, reefs, some rare underwater species like manta rays, hammerheads and many more. An hour's ride by speedboat from Male brought [...]
When in Maldives, people tend to skip the capital Malé and go directly to resort islands. But it's always nice to explore the local life of a country. We landed in Velana International airport, Hulhule island. Once you step out of the airport exit gate it's all ocean, water looked crystal clear with lot of [...]
I was fortunate to land in Jogja in spite of volcanic activity(of mt.Kelud) in Java. Large volume of ashes were spewed by the volcano forcing most airports in java to close down. One could see ashes piled on both sides of runway during landing. After coming out of the airport, hitchhiked for a bit to [...]
Situated in South China sea "Tioman archipelago" is known for it's live corals and marine nature reserve. Tioman has given me some fairy tale stories to tell and some to forget. Tioman has more than 7 inhabited islands and patches of tropical rain forest. During my first visit i stayed at Salang. It's more a chilled out [...]
Merapi is an active Volcano situated near Yogyakarta. It is one of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Stratigraphic analysis reveals that eruptions in the Merapi area began about 400,000 years ago. Typically, small eruptions occur every two to three years, and larger ones every 10–15 years or so. The summit is 2968 m high. The [...]
