When we were first planning our trip Indonesia held my attention the longest. It promised so much; volcanoes, multicoloured crater lakes, mighty Komodo Dragons- the works. And it hasn’t disappointed.

At times the travelling hasn’t been easy; in our accommodation we’ve had rats the size of terriers, slugs, cockroaches, in fact all kinds of bugs, some we couldn’t describe even if we tried. On Komodo, our bed hatched a plague of black flies and the only way to get through the night was to turn the lights out and pretend they weren’t there!

But then if the best things in life were easy to get, would they really be worth having?

We have seen some amazing things. Staying on Komodo was very cool. Most people are pushed to go to Rinca – the island closer to the mainland - and thus cheaper for tours to take you to. But for us that would be like going to China Town in London and claiming you’ve been to China.

By staying on the island and not doing a day trip we were left alone by the guides. This meant that we got to see the dragons being fed – something that officially doesn’t take place anymore – and we got to see one walk right up past our accommodation.

We got to see a huge manta ray, a cuttlefish and an impressive octopus while diving out of Flores.

We got up at the crack of dawn, not once but twice. The first to see the sunrise over three lakes, each of which has a different, un-natural looking colour. They change over the years as minerals are dissolved into the water but when we were there, the colours were bright blue, thick coffee brown and black – amazing. And well worth waiting around till after the tour groups had left when we had the place to ourselves.

The second time was to see the world’s largest (depending on whose tourist information you read) Buddhist temple – Borobodur. This is an incredible pyramid structure that is rightly viewed at sunrise. The light gives the place a truly spiritual ambiance. You can almost imagine Buddha sitting up there with the Christian God, half a dozen Pagan Gods and Allah (it’s a big cloud) all looking down and then looking over at Buddha in utter jealousy.

The last part of our trip involved visiting Jogjakarta, which is in the middle of Java and described as the countries art capital. Sadly, it was damaged badly in an earthquake two years ago and is only now starting to recover. We stayed in the main tourist area and there was a distinct lack of tourists.

In Jogjakarta we decided that it was time to stay in a nice place where we could be sure we wouldn’t have to share our room with any other beasties – it’s bad enough that the Call to Prayer here starts off with the sound of a zombie invasion. We stayed in a really nice – very middle class – place called Ministry of Coffee – well worth a visit, if nothing else they have free wifi.

We’re now back off to Thailand to see the parts we missed the first time around. We were going to China, but given that my two pet hates are spitting and smoking, plus people who can’t queue – we decided against it. I really think China is a place you go at the start of a trip when you’re feeling refreshed. Twice now a Chinese man has pushed in front of us in a queue. Both times at an airport, the first walked to the front of a very long queue and put his bags on the scanner in front of us – I took it back off and told him to wait his turn (not calmly of course, I seem unable to stay calm in the heat for more than two minutes). The second time we were at the front of a taxi queue with a ticket for the taxi and again a guy just walked up and handed over his ticket. I took it back out of the attendants hand and gave it back to the man telling him to wait! I then told Alex to avenge me as it won’t be long before someone punches me out for my rudeness (some would say standing up for my rights but it depends how you look at it).

So all in all China will have to wait for another time – roll on Thailand :)

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