I haven't explored the town much, yet, but my neighbourhood, the university, my flatmates, my courses are all wonderful – and exciting.

There are old stone buildings in shades of grey that show the signs of age. Moss grows a dozen shades of green but the streets are clean; trees abound. I live in an...

First things first: I've changed my tickets - delayed my return home for a week. I'll be back on July 27th (instead of the 18th) - it's only nine extra days, but it will give me a chance to do some exploring outside of Kathmandu without neglecting my work here.

Life has settled into a pleasant...

So I'm not at Danum anymore.

The second day there I started – and I swear I'm not making this stuff up and that I'm not a hypochondriac whatsoever – coughing up blood.

There's some signs of ill health that you can easily brush aside as the cost of travel – an infrequent cough, a bit of extra...

Tadlo - on the Bolaven Plateau in Southern Laos: beautifully pastoral, gorgeous waterfalls, cute children, and a five-day party (Pi Mai Lao!)

Don Khon - one of the Four Thousand Islands in the Mekong between Laos and Cambodi (Don Khon is on the Laos side - the smallest/quietest of the three...

I leave for Danum Valley in about an hour.Two weeks of trekking for orangutans and camping in the jungle!

I never did find a trekking partner - but instead of the Joseph Conrad style hacking through the virgin jungle with our food and water on our backs that I had pictured when I made plans...

"Changing rapidly? I'll tell you - " said the Australian-who-wasn't-one-anymore (we can call him Herc, instead - later, he'll ask us to), with his characteristic smile-wink (head tilt and eyebrow raise included - it was a marvelous gesture/facial expression that I immediately wished I had the...

I'm back in Vientiane - hopefully at the end of all passport troubles (complications).

I picked up yet another new new passport this morning at 8am sharp as the Embassy opened - having arrived in the city at 6am, dropped my bag in a dormitory room at Sabaidee Guest House, taken a cold shower,...

A group of us from the boat had managed to get rooms in the same guest house in Luang Prabang and spent the next several days just hanging out. It was nice to be part of a group, for a change.

We (Olivia, Ruth, Louise - the British girls - Martin, Benny, and I) hired a tuk tuk to take us to the...

Women drive motorbikes one handed, pink and yellow umbrellas held aloft with the other.

Café tables are continuously filled, clusters of people leaning forward to trilingual conversations while assembling bottles of Beer Lao, cigarettes inevitably accentuating all hand gestures. Hands wave along...

It was the second day down the Mekong and the God of Thunder was asleep on the back of the boat. The Three Graces were getting sunburnt on the bow before returning inside to play cards. Apollo flicked his cigarette ash into the river in synch with his twitching foot. Huckleberry Finn, who'd been...

Huay Xai was pleasant enough. I suppose.Or would have been - if not for my own naivete.

I'd be lulled by the easy camaraderie of locals and farangs in Thailand and had thought to look after only my physical safety in Huay Xai - rather than cautiously judging and weighing all of the implications of...

A white haired man with a mane and careless beard, dressed in a crisp white shirt and red tie clasps his hands together before his face; the large rings on his knuckles catch the light and antique aviator sunglasses obscure his eyes. Billy Holiday shifts to Miles Davis. I've ordered what is, for...

The boat ride up the Mekong was wonderful - spent the whole time chatting away, made friends, and relaxed. I’ve been in Luang Prabang a day and a half now and I’ve got to sort out where I want to head next… in another day or two… Until then, I’m going to keep hanging out with my “boat...

I saw the dentist yesterday who verified that my wisdom teeth were indeed coming in (had come in) and that they were problematic; I have a "very very very small jaw" and the teeth are "quite large" and coming in "transverse" - "very problematic". There is no question that they have to be removed...

… I’ve been sick.That “cold” didn’t shake itself and I’d been running low-grade fevers on and off for the last few weeks, utterly sapping my energy. And, thanks to a bad case of dysentery, I lost ten pounds week-before-last.

When I last said I was going to You Sabai, I actually ended up...

So there's two more days worth of Burmese adventures I meant to write up... Highlights involve an intense trek (for me, and my weak lame lungs - it was only six hours of hiking while I was sick) to several Hill Tribe villages, a water buffalo market, and a waterfall outside of...

Having lost my towel in Pai at the Reggae Festival (no, I can’t explain how that happened; I didn’t touch the inside pocket of my bag all evening and it was securely nestled inside - nothing else went missing from my bag, not my wallet, not my camera, nothing but the towel - and it simply...

I woke the next morning before my alarm - and hit snooze for several hours. For the first time since I’d left home I had absolutely no desire to go out and explore the town I was in; no compulsion to wander the streets and no wish to meet people. I tossed on the bed, turned the fan on and off,...

Tachilek is the sort of town where the architecture far outshines the furnishings."It's a border town," I'd been warned, "don't expect too much."

I'd pictured a Tijuana, full of embroidered sarongs rather than piñatas, tinsel Buddhas rather than dayglow Christs; when I arrived I felt more like I'd...

(Can’t send emails so trying another method - this was/is a “Dear Mom” message.)

I’m still in Burma - Kengtung is wonderful, I decided to stay a few extra days so I could do some trekking to the Hill Tribes, plus met a few other travelers in the guest house and we’ve been hanging...