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An Indonesian Klotok Proboscis monkeys sit in the trees, high above us, and look down nonchalantly. They’re probably wondering what is this strange contraption floating along the river beneath them. It’s not an unusual sight – dozens would pass the monkeys every day – but it does have a strange noise. It’s not like the ...

Battambang Bamboo Train, Cambodia Ker-bump. The carriage goes over another joint in the track. Although to call this a ‘carriage’ is misleading. Ker-bump. I’m hurtling and hurting down a railway on nothing more than bamboo. It’s almost like a raft on wheels, this little contraption. Ker-bump. And at about 50 kilometres an hour, I finally ...

Circle Line Train, Yangon, Myanmar “You should try the circle line train in Yangon,” I remembered someone telling me. “It’s a great way to see a slice of local Myanmar life,” I believe was their explanation. Well, as it turns out, they were right. Oh, so right. I jump on board the train with three ...

Crossing the Andes by bus When the combined Argentinian and Chilean armies crossed the Andes mountain range into Chile into 1817, it would lead to the downfall of Spanish control and independence for the country. When I did it, it would just lead to another stamp in my passport. Oh, and a bunch of nice ...

Tips for travel in Paraguay As the bus drives along the bumpy dirt road, I look desperately out the window. Through the haze of the red dust being thrown into the air, I look for a sign. Not a mystical symbol of guidance or anything that ethereal – I’m talking about an actual sign. You ...

It was when I was about halfway across the road that the lights changed and the cars started to charge. Never mind that I was stuck in the middle of seven lanes of oncoming traffic. This is Buenos Aires and if you’ve got two feet and no steering wheel, then you’ve got no right of ...

Visiting North Korea Arriving at North Korea’s Pyongyang airport, you need to relinquish more than just your phone and GPS devices. You also have to check-in any preconceptions you have about North Korea because everything you think you know about the country is about to be challenged and, in many cases, greatly altered. We’ve heard ...

This isn’t the usual sort of post that I write, but I needed to share the stunning experience I had with some friends in Thailand. There are certain days when you wonder how you’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by such amazing natural scenery. This was one of those days. We’d been staying on ...

It was on the third night of driving that I finally gave in, my eyelids heavy and the rest of my head throbbing from a lack of sleep. Despite wanting to stay conscious, fatigue beat good intentions in what had become quite a battle of attrition… and I fell into a slumber, rocked by the ...

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the vibrations in the van began to take hold. I remember saying something like ‘that doesn’t feel right; maybe you should stop driving…’ And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the van came to a screeching halt on the ...