Eating on Bali, Indonesia

Bali is perhaps the best known of Indonesia’s 17,000-plus islands. Despite the terrorist bombings of October 2002 and October 2005, more than a million visitors continue to land at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai airport each year in search of sea and sand. But what I like most about Bali are its restaurants, especially those found in Seminyak, a coastal town situated north of Kuta, and those in Ubud, about an hour’s drive inland. At prices so low you’ll feel almost exploitative, you can eat Western food to rival that found in the best European restaurants, as well as traditional Balinese cuisine that you’ll not encounter anywhere else in the world. I would especially recommend the following: Gado-Gado (Seminyak), Warisan (Kerobokan), Three Monkeys (Ubud), and a roadside eatery which I seem to recall being called simply Indonesian Food (Seminyak). And of course you can’t leave Bali without sipping a cocktail with the ‘beautiful people’ at Ku De Ta (Seminyak).

A Friday night in Davao, Philippines

Separatist abductions, bombings and shootings tend to keep even the most adventurous travellers away from the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao. But not all of Mindanao is overrun by insurgents and terrorists. Davao City is relatively safe, mainly on account of its no-nonsense mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ answer to Dirty Harry. The city is well worth a visit–provided you can handle a late night.

I landed at Davao airport late on a Friday afternoon and, after checking into a hotel, the Apo View, decided to step outside for a bite to eat. I didn’t make it back from Rizal Street for another eight hours. It was a great night of cheap beer, live music and amicable banter with the street kids, who all insisted on calling me ‘Joe’, short for G.I. Joe, apparently. The party was showing no sign of slowing when I went back to my hotel in the early hours.

Laotian buses

Laos is the worst country in Southeast Asia in which to travel by bus, as I discovered during my last trip, when forced to stand for five hours straight in the aisle of one as it bounced its way along the dirt tracks of the Golden Triangle. I had congratulated myself when, earlier that day, I raced across the bus station at Udomsai after the four-hour trip from Luang Prabang to catch the first available bus to Luang Nam Tha, where I planned to arrange one of the treks in the Nam Ha conservation reserve I had read so much about. Admittedly, I experienced a brief moment of guilt as I settled into the last available seat, pretending not to notice as my former travelling companions were told by the ticket office that the next bus wouldn’t be leaving for several hours. But at least I was on my way.

Two hours later, I was standing by the roadside watching as the driver and more mechanically minded passengers than myself attempted to repair the engine. It soon became apparent that their efforts to bandage the leaking radiator with bamboo leaves would not get us moving again. So I soon found myself reunited with my travelling companions from the morning’s trip to Udomsai. Only this time it was they who were comfortably seated. Appropriate, perhaps, that I was forced to climb aboard their already overcrowded bus after it stopped to help. The remainder of the trip to Luang Nam Tha was a punishing exercise in endurance that I never want to repeat. There must have been 20 of us packed into the centre aisle, gripping the baggage rails, as the bus careered its way to our final destination. Still, the trails of the Nam Ha reserve were worth it.

Tioman Island, Malaysia

Malaysia’s Tioman island does not get the plaudits it deserves as a place to dive in Southeast Asia. There are scores of dive sites off the island’s north-western tip, each with its own attractions. Drifting above a dozen pairs of colour-changing cuttlefish at Chebeh island was the personal highlight of my most recent trip. True, I’ve been to more spectacular places, but you can’t beat Tioman for a short trip from nearby Singapore, where I’ve lived and worked for the past 18 months. A flight from Singapore’s Selatar airport on an ageing propeller-driven Dash 7 will get you there in half an hour. Then it’s half that time again on a boat to Salang, the best beach from which to organise your dives.

Nemo fish or, for the purists, Amphiprion percula