I’m on the way to Sabah now, for a week of diving, meeting new people, and learning about new developments in the area. It’s been a while since I’ve spent any significant time in Sabah, so it’ll almost be like visiting for the first time.
Specifically, I’ll be visiting Sipadan, Mabul and Mataking…all of which […]

Finally, I managed to have Thai food for dinner. We went to a place known as pad thai pratuphi for pad thai, certainly among the most popular of well-known Thai dishes and one of my favourites.
It’s a small local restaurant near the Grand Palace. The restaurant is really famous and always packed. It’s also […]

One thing that’s common to all trade and consumer shows is how rapidly they end.
One minute, the exhibition hall is filled with people, the low rumble of background chatter, and booths crammed with equipment, brochures and other knick-knacks.
But as witching hour approaches, a barely perceptible, but omnipresent low-level hum inevitably resonants through the […]

There are other shows going on in the same venue as the dive show, including one devoted to food. I couldn’t resist taking a quick video of this unique method of making tea. Sure makes a plain old tea bag seem dull.
I wanted to spend some time taking photos of this talented tea twister, […]

Despite my constant whining about wanting to go out for Thai food, we ended up eating a late dinner at a Japanese restaurant last night…the obvious choice given that I’d just travelled all the way from Japan to Thailand for the dive show.
Everyone else was happy, so I made the best of it, […]

I’ve been at the Thai Travel and Dive Expo since Thursday. Like all shows, the days are long and tiring. Spending lots of time together with the same people for so many hours a day requires strong friendships and a lot of mutual respect.
I’m 100 percent certain that my friends are happy to […]

Finally made it to Narita, the international airport near Tokyo. It’s incredibly inconvenient. For a 09:30 flight I had to get up at 04:30 (but I overslept ’til 05:00). For all of Japan’s hi-tech achievements, it can be an awfully inefficient and illogical place.
I’m sitting in the airline lounge now, laptop computer out, hooked […]

After nearly three months without heavy-duty travel, I’m off again, this time to Bangkok first for the Thailand Travel and Dive Expo, and then over to Sabah, Malaysia. Packing is such a hassle already under normal circumstances, but it’s an even bigger headache than usual given my upcoming itinerary.
I need to fly on Asia […]

I’m not a big drinker, but I’ve recently received a couple of presents that I’m really looking forward to imbibing.
The first is a bottle of Chateau de Bordes Jacques Morel 1967 vintage Armagnac, a present from Stéphane, whom I met recently in Papua New Guinea.
Stéphane had quite a few problems with his […]

If you’re trying to improve your underwater photography, one of the most useful things you can do is take photos on land. Doing so helps you get comfortable with your camera, with composition, technique, etc., and often leads to ideas for things to try underwater.
One thing I’ve been playing with recently is software to […]

After much procrastination and many false starts, I’ve finally managed to update my main website!
Because I update this blog regularly, I’ve redesigned my website as a portfolio. For a start, I’ve put together five galleries, comprising recent photographs of humpback whales, marine organisms with their mouths open, reef scenes, fish and miscellaneous critters.
I had […]