Days Fifty Five, Six and Fifty Seven - To be Pacific..

Sorry about the lack of communication for the last few days, just have been so busy trekking and crossing oceans.

In three days we've covered 303 miles (170 on day 55, 86 on day 56 and a cracking 47 on day 57). We have got to an island east of Taipai, not sure where though as the name is in Chinese!

Heading north - Japan is in our sights.

Oh forgot to mention that we have hit that 10,000 mile mark - pretty brilliant, if I do say so myself.

We just need a rather large push if we are going to cover the rest of the distance (approx 9000 miles) in 23 days AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Days Fifty Four and Fifty Five - Bubble tea and sympathy

Too many cream buns in Manila threw our schedule out! We didn't do any travelling at all on day 54.

Hero of day 55 is Adam Grice, who singlehandedly covered 289 miles for us! We made it to Taitung County in Taiwan.

Interesting fact of the day (well interesting to me anyway!):

The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato seen in a south-to-north direction, and therefore, Taiwanese people, especially the Min-nan division, often call themselves "children of the Sweet Potato. There are also other interpretations of the island shape, one of which is a whale in the ocean (the Pacific Ocean) if viewed in a west-to-east direction.

We went to a tea house specialising in "Bubble Tea" - a Taiwanese speciality. Bubble tea comes in a variety of versions. I decided to stick to the orginal (and best) - which consists of hot black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk, and honey - YUM!

Day Fifty Three- Thriller in Manila?

We travelled 268 miles to stop off in Manila.


Had a quick look in the San Sebastian cathedral -(Engineering design from Gustave Eiffel. Metal parts came from Belgium and later shipped and assembled in Manila in 1891). We aslo stopped off in the rather fancy Manila Hotel (see left) for high tea.



Eventully we left the island at Bolay, but this was one journey too far and we only got a few miles. We are now 6 miles from the nearest island.

But we did make 561 miles in total - so I think that is pretty impressive.

Day Fifty Two - Catabang what a picture!

144 miles today. Only a quick note today, too tired, just too much walking. Hoping to break the 10,00 mile barrier tomorrow.... here's hoping that with the wind in the right direction, and me in the right mood, we might actually make it.

Stopping off in Catabang tonight....

Day Fifty One - Panicking in Panakan

We have moved onto another island in the Philippines, Palawan Island. Rather incredibly this small area is a melting pot of 87 different cultural groups and races.

According to my travel guide "The world's largest pearl, known as the Pearl of Lao Tze or the Pearl of Allah, was found by a diver off the Philippine island of Palawan in 1934 and is stored in a museum in that country.9.45 inches in diameter and weighing 6.4 kilograms and currently valued at $60 million. Wilburn Cobb, claimed to have witnessed a native diver who had been seized by the jaws of a giant clam, which in turn contained an enormous pearl with the image of a turbaned face thought to resemble Mohammad. The Muslim tribal chief labeled the treasure "The Pearl of Allah". At the time of discovery of the pearl, Cobb offered to buy the pearl from the tribal chief. The tribal chief rejected the offer saying that nothing paid for by the sacrifice of a human life could be bought with money. Cobb returned to the village two years later to find the chief's son dying of malaria. Cobb saved his life and as a token of gratitude the chief gave the pearl to Mr Cobb". Actually the story is rather interesting, including tales of Confucious, Chinese Emperors and Jonny Johnny Weissmuller - yes - Tarzan! For more info go to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_of_Lao_Tzu

We covered 126 miles today - not bad eh? We decided to stop off in Panakan.

Day Fifty - Perambulating in the Philippines

Another fine day of walking. We managed to cover 248 miles over land and sea and have crossed into another country. We finally rested in Balabac Island, which forms part of the Philippines.

This island is rather special, as it is home to various endemic species - the Grey Imperial-pigeon, the Philippine Cockatoo, the Blue-Headed Racquet-tail, and the Palawan Hornbill. The Philippine Mouse Deer (or Pilandok) can only be found in this island. It also is home to the rather brilliantly named Molbog people - their name comes from "murky or turbid water".

I'm really looking forward to my stay in the Philippines, most of the food sounds amazing, with a real Spanish influence (Arroz Valenciana − a Filipino version of the Spanish paella and my favourite, Leche Flan - caramel custard made with eggs and milk) , some of the food sounds terrifying ( Balut - essentially boiled pre-hatched ducklings. These fertilized duck eggs are allowed to develop until the embryo reaches a pre-determined size to be boiled; Betamax − roasted dried chicken blood served as little cubes; and Soup Number 5 - made out of bulls testicles and penis- shame I'm a vegetarian! - then again we eat pork scratchings and deep-fried Mars Bars in the UK - so who am I to judge?).

Days Forty Eight and Forty Nine - More orangutang fun

We were so taken with the orangutans we didn't want to move too much this weekend. So we only covered 43 miles in this time (43 on day 48 - a big fat 0 on day 49!) and so we we had more time to spend with them.

Well as we were visiting the orangutans we had lots of time for eating (hurrah!).
Malasian cuisine is so great as it benefits from the mixed heritage of Malaysia: Malays; the influx of Chinese during the Ming Dynasty who married Malays and are called "Nyonya," and three centuries of Chinese and Indian migrants. We devoured the national dish of Nasi Lemak- a rice cooked with coconut milk and served with anchovies, nuts, cucumbers,a slice of egg, a chili paste known as sambal and a choice of curries. For pudding we had "Han Chi Peng" a fried sweet, salty doughout which looks like Swiss roll (as well as banana fritters for greedyguts here)!

Day Forty Seven - Hanging with the orangutans

Travelleing through the Sarawak, one of the two Malaysian districts on the island of Borneo we finally got to see the orangutans in the conservation areas.

According to my travel guide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak
"Sarawak has more than 40 ethnic groups, each with their own distinct language, culture and lifestyle. Cities and larger towns are populated predominantly by Malays, Melanaus, Chinese, and a smaller percentage of Ibans and Bidayuhs who have migrated from their home-villages for employment reasons. Sarawak is rather distinctive from the rest of Malaysia in that there is only a small community of Indians living in the state. "

We covered 444 miles in total - unfortunately my map doesn't tell me where we are at the moment.....

Days Forty Five and Six - where are we again?

Sorry about the delay in writing up the reports - a wee bit under the weather. I'm just not used to all of this hard graft!



We crossed the sea and are now on the island of Java. We stopped off at Pontianak, which rather excitingly is on the equator (I wonder which way the water goes down the plughole???). The people of Pontianak also seem rather happy about being on the equator, so much so that they built a monument to it (see photo on right).

We travelled a total of 226.5 miles (69 day 45, 157.5 day 46)
and finally rested in the town of Melusa.

I'm gutted as I have got my geography wrong, oranutangs are found in Borneo and not Java, so I think we aren't going to see them..... oooh hang on, I think we are on the island of Borneo (all of these islands are confusing me!)...

Day Forty Four - Where on Earth?

After much rowing, we travelled a decent 90 miles. We were determined not to spend another night in the boat (I for one, can not manage any more dry crackers). With this in mind, we managed to get to an island - unfortunately it is so small it doesn't have a name on the map. I have calculated, however, it is 161 miles off Pontianak on the Indonesian island of Java.

Day Forty Three - Shopping in Singapore

Hurrah, I am leaping for joy, surrounded by my lovely goodies - yes we had a stop in Singapore.

If you are interested, the name Singapura is derived from the Malay words singa ("lion") and pura ("city"). According to legend, this name was given by a 14th century Sumatran Malay prince, who, landing on the island after a thunderstorm, spotted an auspicious beast on the shore that his chief minister identified as a lion (however it now appears that lions have never lived in Singapore, and that it would have been in fact a tiger - they are all the same to me.....).

After some rather tasty mock duck for me, and for the more adventurous - stingray barbecued and served on banana leaf - we decided to leave and head on our way.

In total we covered 252 miles and once again find ourselves bobbing in the sea...

Day Forty Two - Strolling in Sumatra

We covered 156 miles today's star is Harry Rossiter who contibuted 118 miles. We stopped off in Pekanbaru, and carried on for another 59 miles. Unfortunately have no idea where we are now!

I've decided to change route. The lure of shopping in Singapore is just too great, ok it may take us a bit out of the way, but you can't blame a girl can you?

Day Forty One - Lazy bones

No one could really be bothered today - except Greg Hull. He managed a majestic 40 mile contribution, getting us to Rao, whilst the rest of us just lazed about eating (I know, you've missed my food descriptions ;) )

We ate padang cuisine of this region. Padang food is served in small portions of various dishes, in a way similar to tapas. So the tables were laden with with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavored foods such as curried fish, fried tempeh, stewed greends, chili aubergine, curried beef liver, fried chicken, rendang, a spicy meat stew and of course, sambals, the spicy sauces ubiquitous at Indonesian tables.

We dared each other to eat durian fruit - only Tom was willing. Can I say it was possibly the worst thing I have ever smelt (and I am including my sister's socks in this)! Many hotels ban guests from eating durian in their rooms as it smells so putrid. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling said “... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away." I don't care that it is meant to taste like custard and almonds, I just wasn't risking it....

Day Forty - Half way point

Well, it seems to have gone so quickly, but we are already 40 days in, with 40 left to go! 8120 miles in total - have to step up a gear (myself more than most!) we have lots more sea travel to go... I know I hate the sea as well (boring, boring dry crackers).

We covered a brilliant 587 miles today - with a special congratulations to Martin Roscoe, who helped Leeds City AC win silvermedals in the National Cross Country Relays.

We landed on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia and had a quick stop off in Medan, and admired the majestic Great Mosque of Medan, built in 1906.

We soon cracked on and made it to just outside Panyabungan.

I hope to get to Borneo next, to see the Orangutans and then to Malaysia.

Day Thirty Nine - still moving

We made 115 miles today and find ourselves just 3 miles beyone another Nicobar Island - only 126 from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Day Thirty Eight - Island hopping

We managed a pretty respectable 101 miles today. I think we have made it to Kondul, another of the Nicobar Islands, the village we are staying in is called Kola-Rue.

Not far of Indonesia now...

Day Thirty Seven - All at sea - again

So once again we are at sea. Thanks to 100 miles from Lynsday Reid and partner (poor things, they made up this distance at a detour in Paris, whilst we have been bobbing about on a raft, they have all my sympathy....) we covered 271 miles. We are 27 miles off the tiny island of Car Nicobar ( Pu in the local language), which was devastated by the 2004 Tsunami.

Day Thirty Six - On dry land again...

Today is a milestone - we have travelled over 7000 miles (7045 to be exact).

Our paddling was rewarded and we made 269 miles, to the Andaman Islands. 12 miles out of the brilliantly named Wimberleyganj. There are 576 islands in the group, 26 of which are inhabited.

I've got lots if interesting facts from my trusted travel guide about the Andamans. From 1788 these islands were used as penal colonies by the British. The Andaman colony acquired notoriety following the murder of the viceroy, the Earl of Mayo, when on a visit to the settlement on 8 February 1872. This was location of the second concentration camp in the world, the first being in South Africa after the Boer War, and was founded by the British to suppress the Indian independence movement. It was here that in 1943, that the flag of Indian independence was first raised.

Those literature buffs amongst us recognised that a key scene in The Sign of Four, the second book in Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes series, takes place at the British penal colony in the Andamans. The book also introduced an Andaman islander to London, who uses his blowpipe and poisoned darts to deadly effect in the great Victorian capital. Doyle's vivid depiction - written from a late Victorian perspective - is still the most common source of information on the Andamans and their inhabitants available to the general public worldwide.

Days Thirty Four and Thirty Five - Bobbing in the Sea

Due to horrific bouts of seasickness, we haven't managed to move very far in the last two days. It must be bad when I have to make a contribution to the paddling! On Day 34, with my partner in crime Liam (dressed in a bright red afro - had to be seen to be believed), we managed a measly 6 miles.

Day 35, due to another heroic effort from Greg Hull, we pushed on for another 59 miles.

We are now 170 miles from the Andoman and Nicobar Islands and 431 miles from Tavoy, Burma. I hope we get there soon as I am getting fed up of eating dry crackers....

Day Thirty Three - Running with the tigers

Managed a magnificent 658 miles today, with a brilliant effort from Carrie Jackson and gang.

As planned we made it to Kolkata (Calcutta) and stopped by St Paul's Cathedral. It was really weird, finding this gothic cathedral in the middle of India.... an obvious legacy of the Raj.

Gorgeous "street foods" kept us sustained on this epic leg. My favourites are beguni (fried battered aubergine slices ), kati roll (flatbread roll with vegetable stuffing), and phuchka (deep fried crêpe with tamarind and lentil sauce) - luckily I'm doing so much walking, or I would be rolling around!

Before stepping off terra firma, we stopped off at the Sunderbans National Park, a Bengal tiger reserve. Very impressive to see the work which had been done to "control man-eating tigers ", the number of causalities has been reduced from 40 to 10 per year.

So we set off on our first major sea trip. We are now bobbing somewhere in the Indian Ocean -by using the compass and the stars I have calculated that we are 187 miles from Bassein, Burma.

Days Thirty One and Thirty Two- Not time for chatting

Just so busy with the travels, I haven't had time to write up the log for a few days.

We have managed to cross into another country - India.

Managed 119 miles on day 31 and 62 on day 32 (so a total of 181 miles).

Aiming, like Phileas Fogg to get to Calcutta or Kolcata as it is now called.