We visited Sumatra in 2013. It was a brief stay, with just four nights, purely to see the orangutans in the Gunung Leuser National Park. Our tour included the transfers from/to Medan airport and included nights in Bukit Lawang and Tangkahan as well as two nights camping in the jungle. It was a bespoke tour because of our timings through Expedition Jungle with a similar itinerary to this one. Continue reading Sumatra, Indonesia: Orangutans, elephants and jungle trekking
Category Archives: Asia
Mumbai, India: it’s not just cricket
I travelled with a friend of mine for a long weekend in Mumbai to watch cricket. I’d always wanted to watch the sport in India and England’s 2012 tour gave us the opportunity. The Wankhede’s a magnificent venue and it gave us the chance to see the representatives of the world’s most populous cricketing nation on their home patch in front of their hero-worshipping crowd. Continue reading Mumbai, India: it’s not just cricket
Along the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges
I took a Yangtze River cruise in 2007 from Chongqing to Yichang. It was a time when the government was flooding areas along the riverbank because of the Three Gorges Dam project. There were numerous markers along the 195km stretch that showed where the new water level would be and many villages and farms would have to have been relocated.
Throughout almost the whole journey the ship was wrapped in a blanket of mist, fog, fug as small riverside villages gave way to ugly industrial cities where tower blocks rose unevenly and untidily from the earth like teeth from an old sailor’s gum. Continue reading Along the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges