A Very Buddhist Birthday

35 today and another blinding & bizarre birthday on tour! Running a private tour of Taiwan and spent last night in a lovely hotel in Tainan with Tot, opening my pressies at midnight. Today we headed out to Foguangshan, Taiwan’s largest Buddhist Monastery, a huge complex stretching across the bamboo-clad hills, dotted with shrines, statuary, lanterns and orchids. We were shown round by a lovely, lively nun, radiant with inner belief. We meditated for 7 minutes that somehow managed to feel like 7 years (and yet 7 seconds at the same time) and then headed up to the giant gold Buddha which overlooks the complex as the sun was setting. It was here that the nun took it upon herself to sing “Amitofah Simon” to the tune of Happy Birthday. Afterwards we headed for a vegetarian feast at the monastery teahouse where a birthday cake was rustled up and my 35th was firmly sealed into my memory banks! To cap it all the monastery is only half-an-hour’s drive from our house so I headed home for a night with Tot; thanks Arlene & Don for being such lovely guests!

(2)007: License to Travel

Just got back from a brilliant week in Laos and Cambodia and can’t wait to get back to them, particularly Cambodia. Bit of a whistle-stop trip, but the laid-back charm of Luang Prabang made five days feel like five weeks, and however you long you spend at Angkor it will never be enough, so three nights was fine for an aperitif. Memories of Laos are a blur of orange robes, brilliant blue skies, glistening gold stupas, the rich ruddy tones of the Mekong, stunning sunsets, smile after smile and wonderfully decaying colonial architecture.

Cambodia was all about Angkor and Preah Khan was the highlight for me. OK so it’s decaying and overgrown and the carvings may not quite be up to those at Angkor Wat itself, but it has the whole Indiana Jones/Lara Croft thing going on, without the crowds to be found exploring the gargantuan roots at Ta Prom. A week might not seem like a long trip, especially when you’re used to several months at a time, but the absence of work really made it feel like a break and gave me the chance to reflect on what an incredible year it’s been:

January: France, February: England & Belgium, March & April: Australia, May & June: China & Tibet, July: Taiwan, August: Thailand, September: Philippines, October: Taiwan, November: China, December: Cambodia & Laos

I’ve always been a Bond fan so it’s fitting that 007 should be a big year, but couldn’t really have predicted quite how big. 2007 has seen the completion of my first solo book, an Adventure Guide to China for Hunter, the publication of the latest Australia Rough Guide for which I happily traipsed around the Northern Territories and Western Australia in a fully kitted out camper (see The Wilds of WANT) and my first Frommer’s assignment for which I traveled the length of the Chinese Silk Road (see Silk Road Rocks), took the new rail link to Tibet and spent time in Inner Mongolia.

This year I’ve also married my longstanding sweetheart, Tot, got a dog, moved into a house, started running tours of Taiwan for those seeking “The Other China” with Grasshopper Adventures and my sis has just had a baby.

And so to 2008 – a year of, you guessed it, more travel; a Taiwan tour and Borneo in January, the UK in February, more Taiwan tours in April and May, the US and Canada in September and our first Silk Road photography tour in October. I can’t wait!