A sabbatical. Cultural education. Time to ‘find yourself’. Seeing what’s ‘out there’. Something you ‘just have to do’. Whatever Julia Roberts or Shirley Valentine might say (why do all middle-aged women own that film – it is awful…) what these flaky excuses for travel amount to is the happy realisation that riding elephants, canyoning down waterfalls and getting fat on roti pratha is more fun than sitting behind a desk. If only for a little while. So, that is what I did.

Armed with zero Spanish skills, the wanderlust that comes with working at a travel magazine (not Wanderlust), and a vague hunch that somewhere out there sits an orangutan so highly evolved it could teach me how to finally conquer the monkey bars, I opted for Asia. And, like so many blogger-explorers before me, decided my impressions of the place must surely be original, glittering, full of insight. Or at least a semi entertaining way to kill ten minutes for anyone sat behind a desk because they are yet to quit, move to Asia, write a blog and inflict it on other people sat behind desks… Either way if you click on ‘Adventures’ above you’ll find a few tales. Enjoy.