I managed to pack in a lot of travelling around AustralAsia in 2007 – here’s a rundown of where I went and what I wrote about it along the way.
This year has been the year I’ve travelled most since first leaving the UK and spending 18 months travelling through 2003 and 2004. Being based in Bangkok makes it surprisingly affordable to get to most other destinations in Asia thanks to the rise of budget airlines. Most of my trips this year were related to writing for magazines, so unfortunately I couldn’t really write about those trips in much depth here on the blog. Print media understandably tends to get pretty upset if the article they’ve commissioned starts appearing online in rough form before it’s actually made it into print. Even so, there are a fair few good posts here on Travelhappy worth recapping.
January and February – Hibernating
The beginning of the year was quiet as I was recuperating from Christmas and New Year back in freezing cold England catching up with family and friends. I wrote glowing reviews of the London hotel we stayed in (St Gregory’s in Shoreditch) and Etihad Airlines too. For London Bangkok flights they are hard to beat on the price/value ratio. Check Kayak.com and Kayak.co.uk for price comparisons between Etihad and other major airlines on the London-Bangkok route.
March – 3000 Buddhist Temples In Burma
March saw me heading to Burma for the first time. I was a little anxious about heading into this deeply troubled country (see Six Tips To Deal With Being Scared To Go Travelling) but I needn’t have worried. Burma’s travel circuit is well trodden and, more importantly, the Burmese are unfailingly courteous and friendly. For a solo traveller, it’s a fantastic place to go. Having said that, it’s important to plan your Myanmar trip thoroughly and also ensure you get your Myanmar Visa before entering the country.
Giant Reclining Buddha of Yangon
My main reason for visiting Burma was to see Bagan, where over three thousand Buddhist temples are scattered across a vast plain. My article The Legacy: Angkor, Bagan, Sukhothai, which compares and contrasts the three ancient Buddhist temple complexes of South East Asia in Cambodia, Burma and Thailand, was subsequently published in Asian Geographic magazine in October. (You can see previous articles I’ve written about Sukhothai and Angkor Wat too if you’re interested). While at Bagan, I also took a visit to the magical temple at the top of Mount Popo, which is like something out of Harry Potter. Back in Burma’s capital, I visited the Giant Reclining Buddha Of Yangon. I also read a fair few books about Burma, including Justin Wintle’s biography of Aung Sung Suu Kyi and Land Of A Thousand Eyes.
April – Exploring The Philippines
Off to the Philippines, also for the first time, on assignment for Asian Diver magazine to write about Tubbataha Reef. I spent a few days beforehand in Sogod Bay in southern Leyte, snorkelling with whale sharks before heading out on a liveaboard boat to Tubbataha, which is an isolated reef right out in the middle of the Sulu Sea, so exposed it’s only divable for 3 months of the year. The Asian Diver article hasn’t been published yet so I can’t say much more about it, except I’d certainly put it on your dive agenda if you’re going to the Philippines.
May – Meeting Mum, Dad and The World’s Biggest Fish In Australia
I returned to Australia after a three year absence to meet up with my parents and head back to Exmouth in Western Australia. I’d visited Exmouth during my original backpacking trip in Australia in May 2003 – it’s a tiny town a thousand miles up the coast from Perth, the capital of WA, and it’s surrounded by hundreds of miles of bleak but beautiful outback. My parents had come over from England as it was my dad’s 60th birthday and even though he’s been diving for over 40 years, he’s never seen a whale shark, the world’s biggest fish at up to 12 metres. Exmouth is one of the few places in the world you’re guaranteed to see them in season, and sure enough we came face to face with a 8 metre beauty. The grin on my dad’s face is something I’ll always remember. The three of us also did a spectacular daytrip into the Outback around Exmouth with Ningaloo Safari Tours which was excellent and definitely worth doing.
June – Scuba Diving Paradise in Palau and Hello Hong Kong
I got a last minute offer to visit Palau for a dive trip and then stopped off in Hong Kong on my way home to visit friends. Palau is an incredible place for scuba diving, continually rated as one of the world’s best, and it didn’t disappoint – I was only out there for three days but we had a blast. I wrote up my thoughts on the Palau trip on Divehappy. While I’ve written bits and pieces about Hong Kong since, I’ve still not managed to really articulate what a fantastic city it is. Yet.
Great White Shark, South Australia
July – Great Frights With Great Whites In Australia
Back to Australia for perhaps the single greatest highlight of the year (sorry mum and dad) – cage diving with great white sharks off South Australia, with Australian shark legend Rodney Fox. Rodney is a something of a hero in Australia as one of the few people to survive a great white shark attack back in 1963. After making a full recovery, Rodney pioneered research into understanding great whites and also led shark conservation efforts too. Today his son Andrew runs a justifiably famous operation to the Neptune Islands off South Australia and Rodney was on board our trip as guest of honour, telling war stories and also supervising our incredible encounters with the sharks. Unfortunately the article I wrote for Asian Diver has not been published yet, but there are some video clips I shot of the great whites and an interview I did with Rodney Fox for Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine.
August – Slept.
September – Down In Davao
Back to the Philippines to write a story on Davao in the south of the country, an emerging dive destination but also with a lot to offer above water too, not least Mount Apo, the Philippines’ tallest mountain. I took these photos of the amazing mantis shrimp while there. I can’t write much else about Davao until the story in published.
October – Bali Hai
I spent most of October in Bali on assignment, which again I have to stay schtumm about. I’ve written previously about Tulamben in north east Bali as a great dive spot.
November – In Search Of Batman
I managed a quick trip to Hong Kong again (as Bangkok – Hong Kong flights are pretty cheap) hoping to catch some Batman movie making action, but that was about it.
Hat seller, Hanoi
December – Amazing Koh Lanta and Hanoi Christmas
Finishing off the year, I spent a week on Koh Lanta, catching up with my best mate Rob with whom I’m setting up the dive company AmazingLanta.com. Inbetween the pair of us figuring out business stuff, I got some great diving in on the Lanta liveaboard MV Flying Seahorse and spent some excellent evenings in good company having a few beers on the beach. (We’ve been documenting the diving around Koh Lanta so far this season on the AmazingLanta.com blog). 2007 came to a close with a Christmas week in Hanoi, Vietnam, sampling the city’s finest restaurants. New Year’s Eve will be spent in Bangkok, very quietly after the usual festive gastronomic excesses. (Also because it’s one of my best friend’s birthdays tonight so it will no doubt be suitably apocalyptic).
It’s going to be hard to top a year like 2007…
I hope all of you have a great New Year’s Eve wherever you are, and that 2008 will be whatever you wish for. Me, I’m hoping for more diving and more travelling 
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