Sorry for the Group Email

We arrive in a clean, safe, quiet city, and are immediately out of our depth. Click here to see whether we’ll ever re-integrate into society. Also: what next for us and SFTGE.

The truly interesting part of our trip has come to an end, and we’re on a kind of backpacker hiatus in Sydney. Still, SFTGE has had its fair share of readers. Click here to find out how you arrived.

Five months, 15,000 miles, and over 6,000 photos. One fake driving license and a multitude of cockroaches. Countless trains, buses and boats. We must have learned something. Click here to find out what.

We cover the last few hundred miles of our trip to south-east Asia in a few days, stopping in Yogyakarta and, via train, Jakarta. We tried to breath through our mouths the whole time. Click here to find out why.

We get away from the hassle of Bali and Lombok and head to one of Indonesia’s various active volcanoes. Find out if we fell in/drowned in lava/got hit in the head by falling volcanic rocks by clicking here.

We leave Bali behind and head to Java, Indonesia’s most populated island. We enjoy another contender for “worst bus journey ever”, and get, in the most non-violent and slightly-our-fault kind-of-way, robbed. Click here to read all about it.

I stood in knee-high waves for hours before I took a good picture of a surfer. If you’re heading to a beach this weekend, learn from my mistakes by clicking here.

Our hotel in Kuta was lovely. The pool was deep blue, clean and refreshing. Our room was large and shady, and the New Yorker installed next to us was surfing his way around the world.
Oh, and there was a scorpion in the bathroom.
When we left London, I was afraid of anything with more legs and [...]

We leave Senggigi and get ourselves some wheels. Worn down wheels with defective lights, yes, but wheels nonetheless. See how we fared in the world’s worst rental car by clicking here.

We get out of Bali and head to Lombok, 25km away and across the ocean. We visit the world’s least-seaworthy ferry and reach the end of our tethers with the touts. Click here to see why a little cynicism can be a good thing.

We get somehow say goodbye to endless surf, excellent food and beautiful beaches, and head into the interior of Bali. Find out how we got on in what may be the world’s worst rental car by clicking here.

We visit Bali. Sun-drenched tourist trap or exciting resort town of surf, bars and relaxation? Also we try surfing: find out how many gallons of salt water we swallowed by clicking here.

We visit what may be Asia’s cleanest city. The competition is, admittedly, not that stiff, but we have a whale of a time in a place where chewing gum is banned and zebra crosses are actually heeded. Click here to see how we got on.

Consumer products aren’t built to last and customer support is dead, you say? I disagree, although bringing all of my broken gear to Malaysia might get old. Click here to see how my camera went from dead to living.

We arrive in one of Asia’s biggest and most populated cities. Mostly we choked on the smog, but click here to see why Asia’s largest shopping mall is worth a visit, and how to fly with the parakeets.

We go for a small walk in the woods that ends up with blood, sweat and tears. We dodge leeches, elephants and monitor lizards and, somehow, survive. Click here to find out how.

We reacquaint ourselves with curry in Malaysia, which may have the best food of any country in the world. Also, we mingle with the butterflies in the air-conditioned Cameron Highlands. Click here to see how we got on.

The morning after we arrived in Langkawi, my camera, having sulkily refused to respond all night after getting thoroughly drenched, showed a flicker of life. I un-expectantly flicked it on and it rewarded me by coming to life. I hesitantly tried a shot. It clicked away and produced a perfect image. This was little short [...]

We wave goodbye to Thailand and head to northern Malaysia by way of a suicidally fast speedboat, held together in parts with duct tape. Find out how wet we got by clicking here.

We visit one of Thailand’s least-visited islands in search of some peace and quiet. And all we had to do to get there was take an eight hour bus trip through a terrorist hotspot before negotiating a series of pickup trucks. Find out if we broke down and sobbed on the side of the road by clicking here.

The trip from Koh Phangnan to Phuket is a complicated one. We started in the morning in the back of a pickup truck, rattling around on our way to the port at Thong Sala. From there we took the ferry to Chumporn, at which a large bus was waiting to take us to Surat Thani. [...]

We visit paradise, and come away a little less than impressed. Plus, find out why Khao San Road is hell on earth by clicking here.

We make like good tourists and visit the Angkor Wat temple complex which, in case you’ve missed the hype, is deeply impressive. Plus, we visit the Cambodia Landmine museum. Click here to find out just how many landmines were distributed across the country.

We get out of Ban Lung and head to Siem Reap. Ahead of us: an overcrowded, fake Mercedes minibus, a big bus without the required number of seats, and yet another cartographical shortfall. Find out if we made it at all by clicking here.

We get off the beaten track and visit Ban Lung, capital of the Ratanakiri province, Cambodia. Find out what to do when there are no tourists around by clicking here.

We keep up our death and destruction tour of the region with a couple of cheery visits to a torture museum and Cambodia’s infamous Killing Fields.

We visit the War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi tunnels in Saigon, Vietnam. Click here to find out just how mentally scarred you can expect to be after you visit.

We stop relaxing at Mui Ne and get the bus to Saigon. Loud music, motorcycle touts and giant cockroaches ensue. Although whether a cockroach would be less concerning if it was small is debateable. Click here to see how loud we screamed.

We get out of Hoi An and head to the seaside at Mui Ne. First, of course, we have to face two buses for a combined total of 20 hours. Find out if things get any easier by clicking here.

We buy some trousers that don’t zip off in the middle. Also, find out just how much heat exhaustion will make you vomit, and find out where the best restaurant in Hoi An is. Click here for the lowdown.