FILIPINOS - friendly, fun & unforgettable

So good to be back in the cool of the Cordillera Mountains in northern Philippines, six or more hours north of Manila. The average temp is about 8 degrees lower than the rest of the Philippines. It's merciful relief from the relentless heat & smog of the lowlands around the capital city. The air is fresher & clearer here, I can breathe again now after days of heavy sinus problems due to the ponderous pollution hanging over the densely populated Manila.

I never usually spend much time in Manila, sometimes l just hit the tarmac & then head straight for the hills. Manila is not one of my favourite cities & their public transport system is limited. Jeepneys are a cheap way to get around & a fun experience for the frst few times. But it's difficult to travel very far without really knowing your way around. So without local help it's easy to get lost, frustrated and give up by just getting a taxi.

The Philippines doesn't really cater for backpackers & there are very few hostels. And the few that do exsist are generally below par compared to other Asian countries. And also cost a little more. So it was with great delight that l found 'Where2Next', an awesome backpackers hostel in Malate, in central Manila. It was cool, clean & comfy and I liked it as soon as l walked in. The staff were welcoming & hospitable.  A happy haven from the chaos & squalor of the streets of Manila. It is now my preferred place to stay and thoroughly recommend it.

I had arrived too late to head straight for Baguio so was forced to find accommodation in the big city, Manila has a population of over 12 million. Most Filipinos speak excellent English.
 The staff at 'Where2Next' were helpful with their local knowledge  and if they weren't exactly sure, they  didn't hesitate to google it and provide accurate & valuable information.  There is a female dorm as well as mixed dorm and private rooms. A welcome find, close to the bay, major malls, cheap food vendors & a few tourist sites. I ended up staying longer than planned and met some truly great travel mates & shared a few Red Horses, a local beer with a 9% kick.
 l hope to cross paths with them  again somewhere in the world. That is why I love technology now, though l fought off the need to be online & on facebook for so long. Now l love it! Now l can keep up with everyone's whereabouts, exchange travel tips & info as well as making arrangements to guarantee path crossing.

The people of the Philippines are very hospitable & very big hearted. They are the reason why I keep returning here. They are exceptionlly polite & good manners are expected. Filipinos are quick to laugh also and they are all blessed with the talent to sing. Karaoke is a national pastime & plays on a much higher level than most. Extremely entertaining & a great fun with a few Red Horses. Unforgettable!
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Cuisine in the Philippines is hit & miss, and more miss than hit. After wondering why l had never seen a Filipino restaurant anywhere abroad, l realized the answer after my first buffet experience here. Lonely Planet says Filipino food is not as bad as foreigners say & not as good as Filipinos say. But this country has purple sweet potato ice-cream with a stripe of cheese through it. Need l say more?


I had forgotten how good the buses were in this part of the Philippines, surprisingly. The bus to Baguio was clean, air conditioned, stopped every couple of hours for breaks, was showing American movies along the way and also had reasonable wifi! The 7 hrs were easily filled in with my current book, my journal, sudoko and a snooze. But by the last hour, it always becomes uncomfortable, no matter where you are.
Baguio was named the Philippines summer capital, by the American occupation. It's a stepping stone onto the higher & more remote mountain towns of Sagada, Bontoc & beautiful Banaue.

 Life can be very difficult for many Filipinos.  A tuk tuk driver was once surprised to know that l had never experienced a day of hunger, a day without food. I don't even like to skip breakfast!
 It made me rethink a few things.

And with so much corruption & greed amongst their own people, they individually just seem to get on, focusing on feeding their families. And even though most Filipinos have very little, they are happy to share. They are hard working & passionate people. It is always a pleasure to return here, I am welcomed back like family. Their smiles are wide & generous. They are the reason I always come back here.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS CLUB - Phnom Penh

The FCC, Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia , is an iconic old French Colonial building, from where the world first heard of Pol Pot's last stand in the jungles to the north. Then known as Kampuchea.
During the time of the Pol Pot regime, the capital Phnom Penh was a virtual ghost town. Then in 1997, the FCC opened and a journalist remarked that it meant that Cambodia was back in business.

I had been searching for the famous public bar for years, not realizing that I had walked past it a hundred times. I had heard it was the best place for a cold beer at sunset, overlooking the mighty Mekong River. And I also knew of its historic significance. So it was a wonderful 'find' when l found it.

I had been refused entry to the Royal Palace . Last time I went there, it was acceptable to where a shawl around your shoulders. Now they insist on a T-shirt, price $2. It wasn't the price that deterred me, it was the thought of putting a T-shirt on over my dress. The heat has been stiflingly oppressive and l was just totally unable to don another layer.

So l set out determinedly to find the FCC and and a cold beer. I asked the local Khmer people all along the Riverside Boulevard, but maybe because of my accent, or maybe because it is a very Western type of establishment, no one knew what I was talking about. Until I asked a tuk tuk driver sitting directly outside the FCC.

I loved it immediately. It's an old French Colonial building dating back over a century.  It reaks of old fashioned charm & character with large breezy verandahs over-looking the Mekong. Big fat comfy leather chairs & shuttered windows add to the ambiance. And vivid old framed news photos adorn the walls.

Back in the day, it was a place of foreign intrigue where the international press met with dignitaries & informers and then revealed to the world about the crimes & terror of the regime, the genocide & on-going civil war. Hard-arsed heavy smoking journalists banged away on type-writers while outbursts of gunfire could have been heard in the distance. Fear & uncertainty were drowned in nights of heavy boozing & the odd firing of a gun from the verandah out over the lawless land. It was the wild east.

Being a quiet afternoon, Rattana who has worked there for 10 years, kindly gave me a tour of the building as well as the Heritage Mansion at the rear. Live music, art performances & movies play there on most nights.

Meanwhile back at the 'F' there is a fabulous restaurant serving Khmer & Western favourites. Happy Hour is from 5-7pm so l returned  with some friends later, to enjoy the atmosphere and the view of the sunset while lapping up $1 beers.
I have now at long last, found my favourite bar in Phnom Penh.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

ANGKOR WAT - what can l say?

ANGKOR WAT - what can I say?

'Breathtaking' is not an over statement when attempting to describe Angkor Wat. In fact there are not enough words to describe the gob-smacking magnificence of Angkor Wat & all its surrounding temples. When the French naturalist, Henri Mouhot, first visited there in the mid 1800's, he described it as,
 "A temple that would rival Solomon, erected by some ancient Michelangelo. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome."

Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century. It was the centre-piece of the mighty Angkor Empire, an all powerful & consuming empire that dominated most of SE Asia but little known by the Western World. The city of Angkor was a mega-city, the largest ever constructed in all of human history & remained so until the Industrial Revolution. It supported a population of about one million inhabitants with complex systems & waterways.

Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman ll.  He overthrew the previous king, his uncle, and seized the throne for himself at the age of fourteen, inflicting the lethal blow himself. The ambitious prince then pronounced himself god-king & went on a building spree that had never been seen before and still has the experts baffled. Maybe an attempt to prove his worthiness of the divine title.
Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure built on the planet & was constructed  in about 35 years. Compared to the Gothic medieval cathedrals in Europe that were built around the same time that took over 50 years and were smaller in every way.



Archeologists, architects and engineers are in awe of what was achieved by this lost empire. The precision was perfect, no mortar was used in its constuction & it has stood for nearly a thousand years.  The artisans were master craftsman. The Angkor Empire reigned for about 500 years and historians are still scratching their collective heads for the reason of its downfall. There are many theories but no real conclusions.



Angkor Wat and the 700 other temples built throughout the empire, were originally dedicated to Hinduism. Then later to Buddhism. And back & forward again, depending on king at the time's religious preference. The most famous other temples in the area would have to be Ta Prohm & the Bayon. Ta Prohm featured in the movie 'Tomb Raider.' It has been slowly been eaten up by the jungle and there is intense restoration work in progress to try & save it. The huge gnarly trees & roots are the site's main feature and though destroying it, it actually creates a timeless ancient beauty as well. Extremely photogenic, the temple has become iconic of Angkor.
The other most photographed temple is the Bayon. A temple of about 50 towers , mostly bearing 4 faces, facing in all compass directions. Believed to be the omnipresent face of King Jayavarman Vll, another king who aggressively built his mark in history. The serene half-smiling faces stare out through the centuries in their stony silence. It is quite striking!

Every temple in the area is unique & well worth the visit. Climbing around like Indiana Jones in the Cambodian heat can be exhausting. There is a point of being 'templed out.' And everyone's point is different and everyone has a favourite temple. For me it is Anglor Wat.

I love to go there & just sit & feel Angkor Wat. It's  magnificent majesty seeps into your soul. I can almost hear the ancient chanting, the tinkering of bells and see the colour & splendour of pageantry. I try to imagine how it appeared in its prime, bejeweled in gem stones & gold.

For some reason that I cant fathom, the Pol Pot regime managed to leave the temples of Angkor Wat untouched. And Im so grateful that it did.
Over a million people a year are now visiting Angkor Wat. Eventually tourism will have to be restricted tp protect the temples. I am so glad I enjoyed the opportunity to see them before that happens.

CAMBODIA - charming & challenging

Cambodia is so hot at the moment. The monsoon is threatening with a reprieve. The Khmer people perservere in wearing jeans, long sleeves & hats. I realize they are not as affected by the heat as we sweaty Westerners are. In fact not one drop of moisture forms on their brow. But I know, like most Asians, they are protecting their skin from its darkening rays. Unlike us who grill ourselves brown for the desirable 'I've just been to Barbados' tan. In our culture, a tanned skin is a status symbol, a sign that we have the time & money to loll around. Where in Asian culture, a tanned skin means you are a labourer, someone forced to work out in the sun. So it's a reversed status symbol. In fact, milky white skin was prized in Western culture until the Industrial revolution. But once the masses became pale from labouring in factories or down mines, white skin lost its glean. And eventually,the obvious signs of holidaying by the sea became the status symbol of the wealthy.
And while Westerners are rubbing in tanning solutions, Asians are unfortunately bleaching their skin. Im not convinced that it works anyway, like Im not convinced anti-wrinkle cremes work. But the young Cambodian girl in the photo paid the equivalent of 2 weeks wages for the treatment!

Meanwhile it is wonderful to be back in Cambodia, especially Siem Reap. It's an easy town and the people are gentle & hospitable. Prices are so cheap. Four of us went out for dinner to a lovely restaurant, the Golden Temple. We all enjoyed a 'more than ample' Khmer style meal, a couple of cold beers each, and the bill between us was about $16.

I hve been visiting Cambodia for nearly ten years. Each time l return to Siem Reap it feels like it has doubled in size. The main attraction of course are the Temples of Angkor and more than a million people pass through the temples every year. What an amazing legacy was left to the people of Cambodia. Tourism has provided  some welcome employment for a struggling economy after the military regime of Pol Pot. I was surprised to know that there are criminal trials still in process in Phnom Penh, in an attempt to finally try & convict some of the generals of the regime for crimes against humanity. But with all the corruption & lies, the Cambodian people do not believe there will ever be any justice.


I enjoy coming back here to visit Jimmy's Village school. Jimmy is an exceptional young Khmer man who teaches English for free, to possibly about 100 Cambodian kids. It's an after school class, there are 3 clsses every night. The children attend from Mon to Fri, and then Sat is fun day. Jimmy's mum does a big cook up of noodles & the desks are pushed aside and the singing & dancing begin
s. Not ony traditional Kmer music but also K-pop & Katie Perry. The children have become quite confident in themselves & their conversational English. Jimmy encourages anyone visiting Siem Reap to please come along & help teach the children English. Even for just 1hr.  Jimmy's English is excellent but not perfect.

The children love to hear about where tourists are from and what their life is like, what their favourite food is, ect. It's an amazing opportunity to share some time with these enthusiastic children who have already spent the day at school, helped their parents with chores and then walked into town, willingly, for the chance to attend an English class. Jimmy explains to them that English is the torch that will lead them out of poverty. I guarantee you will be impressed & enjoy an unforgettable experience. It's a win/win!


MY favourite guesthouse isdifficult to remember (only joking) It's The Siem Reap Hostel. Extremely well managed & maintained by Australian/Khmer owners who understand just what a backpaker is looking for. There's a cool pool which is a welcome luxury after a hard day at the temples. The pool is near the bar & Happy Hpur is fro 5-8pm serving 50c beers & $1.50 cocktails!! There is now a comfy cinema showing interesting documentaries about Angkor as well as popular & new relese movies. And of course there is the mandatory 'Tomb Raider.'
 Great atmosphere, great people, costs from $7 pn. Female dorm S9. And as always I am meeting the most amazingly interesting women who are volunteering here. Absolutely inspirational, compassionate & a bunch of fun!
There's lots to do in Cambodia as well as lots to be done.

KUALA LUMPUR - KL - my kind of town

I love KL. The capital of Malaysia is a relatively new city, first founded in the 1850's with the discovery of tin.

KL is easy & I like easy. It has an efficient transport system, almost on the same lines (so to speak) as Singapore. It's cheap & much faster than a taxi which can come to a gridlocked halt during rain or peak hour. And it always feels like peak hour in KL.

Shopaholics are well catered for and everything from very reasonably priced name brands to cheap faux brands are on offer in malls & markets across town. One massive shopping mall, Times Square, has a roller coaster inside.

Petalling Market in Chinatown is famous for its faux everything. A  must-see tourist attraction, best seen at night when all the red lanterns are lit and the atmosphere is fun & crowded. Not the best Chinese food in town funnily enough. The best Chinese food is in Jalan Alor.
A whole street of mostly Chinese cuisine where the restaurants spill out into the street, filled with delicious & exotic aromas. Pick any restaurant, they are all excellent.

KL is a diners delight with a rich array of choice due to its many ethnic groups dominated by the Chinese & lndian. And it's all as cheap as chips. The lndian food is literally gob smacking. Truly traditional and untamed.

Malays make up about 60% of the population whom are all Muslim. But all religions are practiced & accepted.       Mosques, temples, pagodas & churches add to the         spectacle of KL.

Alcohol is more expensive in Malaysia than in other neighbouring nations.. This may be due to it being an Islamic country but l am assuming,  One of the many reasons I love KL is the free drinks on Ladies Nights around the city. The best being at the Sky Bar at the top of the Traders Hotel. Every Wednesday evening between 6-9pm, free Sangria is poured for all the ladies. The bar offers by far, the best view of the Petronas Towers in KL. It's worth going even if you pay for the high price-tag drinks. But it's even better when they are free & it includes a million dollar view!

Petronas Towers are the icon of the city & dominate the skyline. They are of Islamic design and in 1998 they were the tallest buildings in the world. Viewed from anywhere in the city, they demand your attention.


I also love KL because most people speak English, being once an English colony. Bahasa Malay is their national language but Mandarin, Tamil & English are widely spoken. I like easy.
 I also like the fact that the sun doesn't rise until 7am. So civilized! The days & nights are equally about 12 hours most of the year round. I love equatorial Asia. Also civilized are shopping hours, generally from 10am to 10pm, 7 days a week. Malaysians are definitely consumers and the malls & markets are busy every night with locals & tourists.
Kuala Lunpur hosts an awesome night life though good live music is difficult to find.

All round, KL would have to be one of my favourite cities.. There is always something happening. And due to the diversity of ethnic cultures, there are so very many colourful & fascinating festivals to celebrate. It's a 24 hr city & there is nothing it doesn't offer

I usually suggest anyone coming to visit Asia for the first time, to start in KL. It's a good balance of Eastern & Western culture. Less of a culture shock than flying directly into Delhi or Bangkok. And the money is Ringett which is 3RM to the dollar. No huge maths or need of calculators to do the conversion.

.Because of the amazingly reasonable prices offered by Air Asia, KL is fast becoming the hub of SE Asia. The Air Asia terminal moved to the KL International Airport last week. It's sort of become my second home. It's my kind of town. KL is easy. And l like easy!

PENANG - kicking up my ankles

Arrived in Penang feeling hung-over from the night bus trip without actually drinking a drop. I dont travel well on night transport but it saves on time as well as a few bucks on accommodation. I get both envious & furious when l hear someone snoring loudly & contentedly before take-off.








Anyway after then catching the first ferry over from Butterworth to Georgetown, I watched the dawn sky lighten over the Malacca Straits. Not my favourite time of day & not even the beauty of Penang at sunrise alleviated my irritability. I just wanted to find my hostel & shower. That's when l slipped & turned my ankle.
I went down like a bag of excrement. There was no one around to help scrape me back up, nor any taxis around at that hour on the quiet streets of Georgetown. Those are the times when it hits home that I am actually travelling ALONE. So I was forced to hobble painfully & so slowly to find The 80's Guesthouse. It's a fairly new establishment, rating well & thought I would give it a try. The staff greeted me so compassionately and as there was a bottom bunk available, they kindly checked me in immediately.

The 80's Guesthouse is situated on the infamous Love Lane. The street is so named for the many mistresses in the old days, kept by wealthy business men, in that lane. Im sure there must have been a brothel or two as well. Nowadays, it is a lovely trendy street with many historical guesthouses.
Oh if only those walls could talk!!

Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, partly due to its unique architecture & townscape. An interesting mix of Chinese & British colonial styles surrounded by modern towering buildings.

 The 80's Guesthouse is a heritage house converted into a guesthouse. While retaining it's antique century old vintage charm, with exposed beams, 12 ft ceilings & timber stairs, it has also added some some modern amenities with large tiled showers, wifi & air-con in bedrooms. Staff are so very helpful & hospitable. I am so very grateful that they helped me get to hospital for x-rays. That was an experience on its own! But anyway, no fractures, thank Shiva! Just a sprain but so friggin painful!



My sight seeing was limited with the sprain but I have visited there many times. Georgetown has a wonderful charm & the back lanes are loaded with historical character & modern art. The food is the best in Malaysia, particularly the Chinese food. The street food is gourmet & so very cheap. A bowl of my favourite Hor fun noodles costs 5RM ($1.70) Seafood is fresh & bountiful and Penang is the where the spicy laksa first originated.


 The back lanes of Georgetown are uncluttered by traffic & easy to walk, when you dont have a sprained ankle. Being an island, it occasionally catches a sea breeze & is slightly cooler than other parts.
Quaint restaurants & antique shops are around every corner. As well as colourful temples of all denominations and rowdy produce markets.
A great place for Chinese medicines & I bought a liniment there that is working a treat & I'll be back dancing on tables in no time.
Penang was the first British colony in SE Asia & a fort was built in the late 1700's. Penang has been a famous trading port for centuries being on the Malacca Straits, a safe body of water formed between Malaysia & the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was the main trading route between India & China.
 It is now one of the major shipping channels of the world connecting the Indian & Pacific Oceans. One quarter of the world's oil passes through the Staits of Malacca.




Immigrants from all over the world were enticed to Penang with the promise of free land. Legend has it, that a British ship fired silver dollars from its cannon, deep into the jungle as further incentive. Many of the first setlers died from malaria and the island became known as the 'White man's grave.'

The legacy has been an amazingly colourful island with a mosaic of ethnic & cultural people. Festivals are diverse & many. Cuisine is extraordinary. And there are many really interesting museums & galleries.

Penang has much to offer the tourist. The east coast of the island is popular for its beaches & 5 star resorts.

 I recommend whilst in Georgetown, stay at The 80's Guesthouse. An extremely comfortable & friendly backpackers hostel on Love Lane, costs 35 RM pn for a dorm. ($12)