Islands of the South China Sea.

Though it feels like we just got to Taiwan (I guess we sort of did), we're departing again early tomorrow morning. We had a great time here-- so great that I spent more time just enjoying myself than blogging-- and have firmly made up our minds to come back in June, to spend at least one year here. This will be a return to an old home for Bordeaux, but a new one for me, and I'm looking forward to the opportunities it will present.

Our last time in Asia, we were based in Bangkok, which we used to great effect as a base for exploring continental Southeast Asia-- we covered lots of ground in the Mekong river basin, from the far reaches of Thailand, all the way down Laos, across Cambodia, and up the length of Vietnam.

This time, I'm hoping to get to know the islands of Southeast Asia. The quirky individuality of life in Taiwan has really given me an appreciation of island life, and I'm now eager to see what it's like on the neighbouring atolls. I'm hoping to explore new spaces, like Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the islands of the Straits. Altogether, the South China Sea makes up a strangely disparate community-- from the wild spaces of Borneo, to the gleaming emporiums of Singapore, to the high rises of Hong Kong.

We're getting an early start tomorrow: we're heading to Sabah, on Malaysian Borneo, for about two weeks before we continue on to visit family in ZA and the USA. We've done a little research, but we're doing this pretty blindly, to be honest. We're open to what we encounter, and looking forward to new suprises. Blogging will of course be irregular, but I'm looking forward to sharing a little of it with you as we go.