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An hour's bus ride from the Taipei main train station is the Yangmingshan national park. It has a short but moderate to challenging level hike to the Mount Cising Peak, which is at 1,120 meters (3,396 feet) representing nearly 2,000 feet elevation gain in the hike. To get there, a bus stop right across the main train station offers the bus number 260 which runs every 20 minutes. The bus is pretty clean and efficient, and the fare is only 30 NT$ which is about $1. Once at the

Before the Dubai's Burj Khalifa was completed in 2010, the Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world and is first one to cross half kilometer in height. I walked in its direction from the Taipei main railway station and it was a seven kilometer walk away. I took it as an opportunity to see the Taipei neighborhoods as I made my way to this iconic building. It was a hot day with 92F temperature but the roads were full of people. I saw a glimpse of the building from far

In many places around El Nido, one can see signs of four tours, A, B, C and D. Each is a full day trip in a boat to the open sea and includes 5 stops to some the innumerable small islands off the coast, each about half to one hour boat ride away from the other. I signed up to do Tour C which includes helicopter island. Overnight, it rained very heavily and by the morning at the pickup time, it had let up. However the coast guard had rescinded the permission for Tour C and the

The Island of Palawan, which is between Manila and Cebu on the western side of the country, is a very green island spanning about 250 km from south west to north east and has the area named El Nido at its northern tip. I rented a scooter and decided to check out the beaches on this side of the island. The first beach is the Vanilla beach towards the south side of El Nido. It has a beautiful densely wooded small island about a kilometer away. There are ziplines running from t

About two hours on a fast ferry from Cebu is the relatively big island of Bohol. It has a geological formation that is unique. From Cebu there are ferries to at least two ports of Bohol, Tagbilaran and Tubigon. The latter leaves Cebu at 7am and reaches by 9:30. About 50km from Tubigon, in a tuktuk takes you to the starting point of the geological attraction called Chocolate Hills. As soon as you enter the area, you have to pay 100 Philippine peso fee to enter. The first choco

About 100km from Cebu airport, on the eastern coast of the island is a small village called Oslob. Getting there is very slow due to the constant stop and go due to broken roads or construction activity. When there is no traffic to deal with, one can focus on the beautiful green vistas, heavily wooded forests, and the serene views of the Cebu strait with many small fishing boats. Arriving in Oslob fter the long drive with many small towns with almost no tourists around, you a

Just 2 km from the big island of Davao in Philippines, is the Samal island. From the Davao ferry terminal, a 20 peso ($0.35) ticket is charged per person on the car ferry to head over to Samal and it is a short 15 minutes ride. The waters are calm and there are many huge ships anchored around the ferry terminal area. Approaching the island, you can see that it is aptly named as the garden island because it is densely forested. There are scooter rentals as well as the ubiquit

Davao, the main city of prior Filipino president, is a mix of modern buildings as well as older structures. Lots of new late model cars are seeing along with traditional transportation. There are a lot of areas with trees and greenery, mountains and the sea (Davao Gulf) is close by. Just off the coast is the Samal island, which was occupied by the Japanese during World War II. There were so many Jeepneys plying the road providing reasonably priced transportation along predef

Kalsubai is a peak near Igatpuri which is a smaller city near Mumbai, India. It is a 5,400 feet elevation peak with a trek that is attractive to hikers. About an hour from Igatpuri, the start of the hike is near a village named Bari. The entrance to the hike goes through a small road along the homes of the paddy farming villagers. To come to the point where the hike gate is visible, you have to pass through a small stream of water, which was so overflowing to about hip depth

Brunei is 72% rainforest and has a National park named Temburong that is reachable via the new Temburong bridge. I did a one day rainforest tour which picks up all attendees from their hotels at 8am and assembles them in the rainforest lodge by 9am. With a safety briefing, signing waivers and answering medical fitness questions, we were off for the exploration. A longboat carried 3 explorers and a guide and took us through the Sungai Temburong river for almost an hour, deep i

On the huge island of Borneo, which is part Malaysia and part Indonesia, about 1% of the land area is occupied by the country of Brunei, a prosperous nation which levies no taxes on it's citizens, provides free education and medical services and has $2/gallon gasoline. Brunei has a monarch ruling it since 1968 and it has huge proven oil reserves. Bandar Seri Begawan is Brunei's capital city. The Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is seen on the currency and all the restaurants and store

In a temple next to the Ubud palace, a performance depicting a story from the Hindu epic Ramayana is offered in an open air courtyard. About 500 tourists were in attendance when I went. It was a 4 act play followed by a fire dance. The story was that, Ravana, the demon king from Lanka abducts Sita, the queen of Ayodhya. Rama, her husband, and his helpers including the monkey brigade, create a bridge to Lanka and march to kill Ravana. Ravana goes to Sita where she is kept capt

Uluwatu Temple (Pura Luhur Uluwatu) is one of six key Hindu temples, Bali's spiritual pillars. its location on a steep cliff right next to the Indian Ocean makes for a very serene and picturesque backdrop. Surrounded by a dense forest, the entrance needs a fee of about 50,000 Indonesian rupiah for foreigners. You are required to wear a sarong before entering, which is provided freely. Located about half hour from Kuta or Bali, the Tempe is surrounded by a dense forest and had

Rinjani is an active volcano in the Java sea, with an altitude of 3,726 meters, over 12,000ft high. Many years ago, I had climbed Mount Batur, and was very happy to be to see its giant caldera. Since I was close to Indonesia, after my Kokoda trip, I decided to climb Mount Rinjani, which is in Lombok Island, an island east of Bali. To get to Lombok, I took a flight to Praya Lombok airport from Jakarta and it stops at New Yogyakarta airport. Air travel in Indonesia is very comm

Today was supposed to be an easier day, but it was made more difficult because yesterday we only made it to Templeton one while we were supposed to walk approximately two more hours further to Templeton two campsite. So the day started at 5 AM with a wake up call. Things were a little off for me today. After packing the tent, and letting the porter Jackson take it, I discovered that I was missing my eyeglasses. I kept the eyeglasses usually in the tent pocket and that’s wher

Today was supposed to be the longest, hardest of the 8 day trek. We were woken up at 4:30 AM and had to hit the trail by 5:30 AM with the expectation of reaching camp by 7 PM. My solar battery was completely drained and I was hoping for a sunshiny day. Getting ready is a chore. It almost takes one hour. The method I use is to take out the snacks for the day and put it in the front pocket of my day pack. The water purification tablets go in the front pocket of my shirt. The t

To a beautiful moonlight, I woke up at 4 AM and got ready for the day. It was supposed to be a long and challenging day with two long climbs. Breakfast was at 5 AM and everybody started filing around with their tent packed and ready to leave by 5:30 AM. The moon was full and bright. A local villager hut was playing a popular Tina Turner song at high volume as we started the hike. As the sun was not out yet and it was dark we walked briskly and in a couple of hours reached a v

We all got a wake up call at 5 AM by the chef and soon we were at the breakfast hut for breakfast. Some of the Aussie friends had delicious breakfast items to share including quinoa puff cereal, and satchels of gourmet espresso coffee. After hanging out for an hour, and wishing Hector a happy birthday, we all started the trek, but not before taking a group photo with the beautiful rainforest background. The porters walking next to us keep making jokes amongst themselves and

Thank God there was no rain last night. We woke up at 5AM and were served a breakfast of cereal, baked beans and coffee. There were crispbreads, honey, jam, and assorted crackers available too. People repacked and shed extra things they had brought. Hector was abandoning about half a kilogram of almonds and goji berries. That seemed such a waste, so I took it off of him. My pack was not that heavy. Every rest break and tea break we got during the day, I got a kick out of off

Early morning on June 4, the whole team of 12 trekkers met for breakfast, seven Australians were in a group headed by Hector who was their personal health and life coach. An ex-military Chilean person, he was as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger and I learned later that he had met Arnold in person. Two others were also from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Dubai and myself. After a hearty breakfast, we loaded our backpacks and day packs in the transport bus, handed over o