Vagabonding in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, without plan or destination.

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Akko is old. Very old. It was inhabited without interruption for over 4000 years. It did get destroyed and rebuilt a few times but it still feels that old. It reminds me a bit of the medina of Marrakech, with the same maze of narrow alleys and markets,  except better maintained and cleaner. The main…

I am still amazed how close everything is in Israel. In a few hours you can go all the way up or down the coast from Tel Aviv. Caesarea is an hour north. It’s an old town dating back before Roman times that was turned into a fairly large city by the Herod.  Many large…

Asia – images of elephants, pagodas, monks in orange robes, and noisy scooters. But not this time. I am in Jaffa, Israel, at the western edge of Asia. It’s easy to get here, there are no formalities of any kind and none of the interviews and inspections I was expecting. Israel is far nicer to…

Time to say goodbye to the Philippines, this was only a brief vacation and it’s time to get back to work. One last look at Manila from the plane, on my way to Bangkok. Bangkok is a convenient stopover on the long flight home, and I have friends here I can say hello to. Bangkok…

Went back to Manila. It’s a monster of a city with an unbelievable traffic problem, but the oldest part of it, walled Intramuros, is a (mostly) quiet oasis with restored historic buildings, narrow streets, and a much slower way of life than outside. Part of it is given over to tourists, but just a few…

Malapascua is still unspoiled, beside the few dive centers at the beach most of it is still villages, fields, narrow sandy paths, and friendly people. I have walked for many hours on the island and chatted with people. They went through difficult times after the taiphoon, but there is a smile on everyone’s face. But…

Malapascua is a small island off the northern tip of large Cebu Island. Like on Boracay, diving is king here, but it’s no party island. No McDonald’s, no souvenir shops, no fancy resorts, no crowds of tourists. Apart from a few motorcycles, there are no motor vehicles on the island. You can walk all around…

Left Boracay. Beautiful place that reminds me in some ways of Bali away from Kuta and the Australians. But it’s also clear then the Filipinos lack the Balinese’s sense of beauty. Time to get away from the beach crowds. From Caticlan it’s a long van ride along the coast of Panay to the town of…

There is a large airplane not far off White Beach in Boracay, at a depth of close to 30m. They floated it there from the airport and let it sink. Unfortunately it flipped and is now upside-down. One can look into the cockpit and the cabin, see the toilet hanging from the ceiling, and admire…

Boracay is a small island but one of the most beautiful destinations in the Philippines. The sand is white, the weather is balmy, people walk barefoot on the two-kilometer beach promenade shaded by palm trees. There is a dive shop every fifty meters, and the dive boats have trouble finding a spot to park on…

Sabang is a typical beach town. Laid-back, slow, sunny, and not very crowded (a fact that has the shopkeepers very worried). The big business here is diving, and keeping the divers supplied with alcohol in the evenings. I went out with a very relaxed long-haired dive master ate South Sea Diving who has been here…

The Philippines consist of many islands and countless beaches. I am going to visit a few, beginning with Puerto Galera, the galley bay. Getting here from Vigan took 15 hours by bus, van, and ferry. This is going to be a short post because I need to catch up on sleep, but I still wanted…

I don’t like Vigan food.  It’s mostly deep-fried greasy animal pieces, like pork belly and sausages that resist description. I don’t see people visiting the Philippines for the food. Vigan,  the city,  is very pleasant. Its entire downtown has completely preserved Spanish colonial architecture.  A Spanish traveler I have met has felt right at home,…

Another short seven-hour gut-wrenching bus ride up the mountains brought me to Sagada, a tranquil village in fantastic scenery that just so happened to be in the middle of a festival with competitions, music, and other events. They have UNESCO-protected rice terraces nearby, waterfalls, and caves. I spent much of the day hiking, although frankly,…

Manila is a huge, congested, and noisy city filled with smog, so I caught a bus North to escape to the hills. Baguio turned out to be a small, congested and noisy city filled with smog. I think it’s the jeepneys: essentially an ornately decorated stretch jeep with a long passenger cabin, emitting great clouds…

There’s trouble in Bangkok. Protesters want to overthrow the democratically elected president, an emergency election was disrupted, the major traffic arteries are blockaded, a state of emergency was declared in Bangkok, and the army is patrolling the streets. Sounds dangerous, does it? Well, no. It might have been if this were Tunisia or the Ukraine,…

Sail Rock is a small rock pillar north of Ko Pa Ngan, and perhaps the most popular diving site here. Fish are so plentiful that they formed tornadoes around me so large that they obscured the light from the surface. I was hovering in huge clouds of silver and yellow fish, among them barracudas a…

Many of the best diving sites are around Ko Tao,  the smallest of the three large inhabited islands here. My dive boat was fairly large (larger than the one in the photo),  with a lower “wet” deck for the equipment and an upper “dry” deck for rest,  meals,  and sleeping. Diving is mostly corals, but…

Samui is all about beaches and water sports. Tomorrow I’ll leave on a dive boat for a few days, seeing various parts of the islands.… Read the rest

Colombo is Sri Lanka’s largest city, and it’s pretty useless as a tourist destination. Nothing much to see there, just asphalt, heavy traffic, polluted air, highways and train tracks that block most of the feeble ocean beach, and no sights or even restaurants, unless you count KFC and other foreign fast food joints in the…

A dagoba is not,  in fact, Yoda’s swamp retirement home. It’s a domed shrine, usually holding some Buddhist holy object. Elsewhere they are known as stupas, chedis, chörten, or by other names. The archaeological zone of the town of Anuradhapura has two of the highest, at up to 74m, but other than that it’s no…

There was a volcano once at Sirigiya. It eroded away long ago but a 350m tall basalt plug that was the magma chamber still stands. Naturally a Buddhist meditation place was built on top sometime around the 5th century,  and now there’s tourists crawling all over it. Fortunately, I was there before the crowds arrived.…

Left the mountains to see Sri Lanka’s ancient ruins, beginning with Polonnaruwa. There is an extensive site with many large monuments, most dating back 800-1000 years. There are palaces, Buddhist stupas and shrines, but also the foundations of hospitals, monasteries, and even market stalls, giving a good sense of the layout of the ancient city.…

Ceylon is the name the British used for Sri Lanka. Their tea plantations are still here, scenically covering the hills and valleys of Sri Lanka’s mountain region. Next time you buy an expensive small package of exquisite Ceylon tea, think about how it was scooped up from a huge pile on a factory floor here.…

There’s a train from Kandy that scenically winds its way up and down Sri Lanka’s Hill country. The views of the tea plantations in the steep valleys are fantastic, but the train isn’t -  it’s so packed with people that it makes the Tokyo metro look like a golf course. I am amazed that nobody…

Kandy is up in the mountains of Sri Lanka. Not sure I like it much -  lots of traffic, bus diesel fumes, and very narrow sidewalks with fences on the sides so cars aren’t bothered by human obstacles. They clearly don’t want pedestrians. But otherwise Sri Lanka feels like India 2.0. Much cleaner, far more…

Trivandrum is a major transport hub and international airport in southern India,  but it doesn’t have very much to offer to tourists. The main temple is closed to non-binding and the palace next door is closed to everyone,  except the museum. So we went to Kovalam for the day.  There is some debate on which…

Kanyakumari sits at India’s southernmost point,  and gets its fame from being the place where the Arab Sea,  the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal meet. People say that only here you can see dawn and sunset at the same point, a statement that needs so much qualification that it really doesn’t mean much.…

Varkala’s beaches have become a major attraction. The main beach is huge,  with fine white sand, warm water, good surf, and lifeguards waving red flags that are cheerfully ignored by everyone. Most swimmers are men; if women go into the water they are fully dressed and stay at the edge. India is still quite conservative.…