I thought I might have visited every country in South East Asia now, and I was going to do you a well informed, rounded view of the whole area… but alas, Google informed me East Timor is part of SE Asia, and I forgot about Borneo, so scrap that idea, I’ll do ya a top 5 adventurous activities instead…

I recently enjoyed a couple days on a motorbike in the Highlands of Vietnam and I realised my travel highlights invariably involve some kind of active endeavour; man made structures are never highlights… Angkor Wat, Macchu Picchu… all very cool but not highlights if I’m honest.

So here we go:

1. Cycling round the temples of Bagan in Myanmar

1000 temples. Go your own way do your own thing and cycle and wander temples without a tourist in sight for days on end. Read about it here. I loved it.

2. Motorbike in the mountains of Vietnam.

I hired a guide / driver for this one. The views were stunning, the people were lovely. Of course I had to visit the obligatory Pagodas along the way, complete with camera wielding Chinese tourists by the dozen… but aside from that this was something so very different I loved it.

3. Kayaking in The Philippines

Palawan is the final frontier of this wonderfully diverse country which has even more wonderful people. The Philippines’ equivalent to Halong Bay in Vietnam but without the beer swigging gap yahs was a stunning place to Kayak around for a day with 2 others . Stopping off at deserted beaches without another sole in sight was unforgettable. I think we had beers… If we didn’t we should have.

4. Climbing a live volcano in Indonesia

I will never forget this – we hiked to the top of a live volcano, in the dark (in order to get sunrise) and leaned INTO the volcano to see the bubbling red hot molten lava at the bottom. The guide held onto me as I leaned in though, so it was all very safe.

5. Running the Singapore marathon

C’mon you didn’t thing you’d get away without hearing about this again did you? It was 5am, it was Christmas, it was 25 degrees and 87% humidity. And it was 26.2 miles. it took me 4h 40 minutes. My slowest time but biggest sporting achievement. I will never stop going on about this. It’s only a highlight in retrospect, of course. Read about the full horror here.

So there you go! My active highlights of SE Asia minus Borneo and East Timor.