Welcome to the Asia & Pacific page.
Here are ome tanalising snippets of available articles, all of which can be tailored to your requirements. 
Email for more information about these and other destinations/story angles or forthcoming adventures.


INDIA

In The Pink in Rajasthan

Think pink if you will be in India for Holi, because of all the powders thrown and water splashed during this free-for-all festival of colour, red/pink is the longest lasting.  Sacrifice some old clothes, or buy a white shirt and pants, and accept that you will sport punk-pink hair at any business meeting or social event scheduled within three weeks, for Holi is as fun as India gets and should not be missed...

Himalayan High - Sikkim
Twenty to five in the morning and my tent crackles with frost as I unzip.  There to greet me is Orion, reclining on a mountain range painted black across a sky turning apricot and blue at its eastern extreme.

Cold reaches in and grabs my fingers, which are ungloved so I can write.  Breathing produces vapour clouds like cartoon speech bubbles.  At least my legs are warm, protected by double long johns and sleeping bag.  My top half, too, layered in a thermal top, shirt, two polofleece jumpers and the down jacket that World Expeditions provided for moments like these.  Welcome to the north-east Indian state of Sikkim.


SOLOMON ISLANDS

Pushing Up Daisies
Sixty-five years after American amphibious craft rumbled ashore and disgorged their human cargoes on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal, yellow and pink daisy-like flowers bloom around the 6-wheel vehicles, ferns flourish in their rusty corners and crevices, and fig trees poke limbs through their turrets. 

In time, tropical plants and humidity will reduce these relics of the famous Guadalcanal campaign to a kind of metal mulch, but for now they are integral exhibits on a World War II tour out of Honiara, the Solomon Islands capital.

VIETNAM


Going Remote in Vietnam - North West
Crickets anyone (behead, stuff with ground peanuts and fry)?  Silk worms (plunge into water and stir fry with pomelo, a woody grapefruit)?  With no need, yet, to supplement our survival rations with insects, we limit our purchase from the Black Thai women to a bag of innocuous looking pink water apples.  Sign language and some basic translation by our guide completes the simple roadside transaction.

Two days into a 4WD journey through Vietnam’s mountainous northwest, our interest in the Hill Tribe people is equalled by theirs in us.  And part way through a limited mobile wardrobe, I have attire to match theirs; my navy, red, yellow and green plaid shorts amuse everyone!

North-South Food Trail
Backpackers who breakfast on banana pancakes from Bangkok to Bulawayo, and five-star tourists who start each day with an American buffet, deny themselves one of life’s great adventures.  Tucking into foreign food can take courage, but there is no better way to get into a country’s soul than via its stomach.  And that’s why my friend and I decide to eat our way through Vietnam, starting in the capital...


Go to Top of Page
 
All text and images on this website are copyright © Melanie Ball, 2009.
No material here may be reproduced in whole or part without prior written authority.

  Site Map