I seem to be doing a lot of travelling in South East Asia and Australia this year. This is where I’ll be going in 2007
I’ve suddenly had a whole bunch of travel commissions come together which makes for a very hectic schedule for this year. Needless to say I am still pinching myself that I get to do all this, but each trip seems fairly solid on the agenda. Here’s where I’m going in 2007 so far:
March: Myanmar – Bagan, Yangon and Mandalay
I’m working on a big article for a magazine that links together the ancient religious ruins in several South East Asian countries. I’ve been to see the ruins I’m writing about in all the countries except for the 3000 temples at Bagan in Myanmar. It’ll be my first time into the country and I’ve been wanting to go there for years.
March: Thailand – Similan Islands dive trip
This is to test out my new underwater camera strobe before I go to the Philippines. I’ll be diving with my friends at Phuket Diving Safaris, whose boat I’ve been on several times before, so this is a quick practice run to make sure everything is OK with my underwater camera setup, which I’m still finding hard work to master. Lots of learning still to do.
April: Philippines – Sogod Bay and Tubbataha Reef
This is another first for me – I’m going out to do a liveaboard trip to the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, with Expedition Fleet for Asian Diver magazine. The reef is not only a protected marine park, it’s also so unique it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. Before I go on the liveaboard I’m heading to Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte to see if I can spot some whale sharks – Sogod is a hotspot for seeing them apparently. With all this underwater activity, not sure how much I will see of the Philippines above water, but I doubt this will be my only trip out there.
May: Australia – Perth and Exmouth
My dad is 60 years old this year, and he is a life long scuba diver. Clearly it runs in the family. Given he’s been diving for so long, dad has seen pretty much everything there is to see underwater, except for…a whale shark. The biggest fish in the world has eluded him thus far, so me and my mum are going to resolve that by taking him on a whale shark snorkelling trip in Exmouth. I did this before when I was backpacking in Australia in 2004 and it was, frankly, mindblowing. I wrote up the whole Exmouth whale shark experience on Divehappy.com, Travelhappy’s sister website
August: Australia – Adelaide and the Neptune Islands
And two months later, I’ll be back in Australia again to go diving with Rodney Fox to see the great white sharks. This is also for Asian Diver magazine, and I’m hoping by this point I might be semi-competent with my underwater camera so I can get some good photos. That’s if I don’t drop the thing in sheer blind fear when the sharks turn up…
Beyond August, I have no plans, but I think that will be quite enough for now…
If you have been to (or live in!) Myanmar or the Philippines, do let me know if you have any tips for first time travellers there. I’m going to post some more details of my itinerary for both places next week, as I figure that they might be useful for anyone planning similar trips.
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