KOCHI, KERALA, INDIA: the land of palms

KOCHI, KERALA - INDIA Sitting at dinner alone sipping a Cosmo with a random selection of String Quartets and Trios playing on the hotel soundsystem whilst waiting for another sublime Indian meal to arrive, I can finally reflect on the day. Wow! I didn't expect it to be this fulfilling but it was exactly what I expected and thought of India. The last few days had been a bit of a warm up but today was what I was waiting for. Talk about a magnificent day. I had booked a tour online because I really wanted to see the Kerala Backwaters...

MANGALORE, INDIA: temples, churches and a near miss of imprisonment

MANGALORE, INDIA My sheer excitement of entering India for the first time clearly got the better of me because you know that annoying feeling when you want to sleep so much but you end up waking up before your alarm clock goes off because of some sort of anticipation? Well, that was me. I woke up, perky, bright-eyed and jumped out of bed to peer out the window. For a minute, it felt like i was sailing down the Saigon River. Industrial, murky waters, a faint smog across the sky at 7:30am. Our ship moored and it still seemed industrial. We headed...

PULAU WEH INDONESIA: Diver's heaven

Pulau Weh, Sabang, Indonesia I’m not a diver. After this trip, I wish I was. I love snorkeling and am always up for an adventure so was happy to tag along as Aaron had been to the Lumba Lumba resort before and had said great things about it. So, he was in charge of the day and had organized a car that picked us up from the port to head to Pulau Weh, Gabang Beach. Indonesia really intrigues me. A few days back, we were in Medan and that was interesting enough with the mosques and batik markets, developing and fairly dry. our ride to...

INDONESIA: The 15 year old Sultan

BELEWAN, MEDAN, INDONESIA In my travels over the past few years, I've been able to see many different parts of Indonesia. Bali is of course one of my favourite places in the world but we must not forget that Indonesia consists of over 10,000 islands. With different dialects, religion and varying cities, I've been able to experience places like Semarang, Bali, Central Java and today, Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.  Having been focusing on my shows, I didn't have much time to research on what it was that was the 'must-dos'...