Southeast Asia and Oceania

The argument

We left home in mid-December and did not come back for ninety-four days. The trip ran in two long arcs joined by a single 26-January flight from Bali to Melbourne: first a southeast-Asian winter through Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Bali; then an Oceania summer down the east coast of Australia and across to the South Island of New Zealand. The shape of it was patient. Almost five weeks in Australia alone, the longest single-country leg we have ever made, from Melbourne’s laneways to a small boat over Hardy Reef. We came home three days after the WHO called it a pandemic, into a country that closed its airports five days after that. None of that was visible from the South Island in the second week of March.

Trip shape

MY 7d

SG 7d

TH 13d

ID 16d

AU 35d

NZ 14d

Pace · photos per day

The signature

14 March · a day on Doubtful Sound

Day ninety of ninety-four. A small boat on the deeper of Fiordland's two famous sounds, the one you have to want.

The day: A morning ferry, an afternoon at the head of the fjord
The route: Across Lake Manapouri, over Wilmot Pass by coach, then onto the water
Not taken: Milford - the postcard, the bus-tour circuit, the one we left for someone else
Where we were: Four days from home, though we did not yet know what home would look like when we got there

Milford is the easy one. Ninety minutes from Te Anau, every coach stops there, every postcard begins there. Doubtful is the long way in. You cross Lake Manapouri to get to the road, then ride a coach over Wilmot Pass to find the boat, and only then are you on the water, deeper and quieter than anywhere a tour bus can reach. We made that choice in the last week of three months on the road, the same instinct that keeps recurring in our trips: the canonical name is rarely the better day.

Frame data

Duration: 94 days · 93 nights
Reach: two hemispheres · Bucharest to Banks Peninsula and back
Countries: six we lived in: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand · plus Istanbul and Jeddah on the way
Anchors: Kuala Lumpur · Singapore · Ko Yao Noi · Bangkok · Kuta · Tegallalang · Melbourne · Sydney · Sunshine Coast · Brisbane · Whitsundays · Christchurch · Lake Tekapo · Fiordland
Path shape: a long out-and-back across the east · home to KL to Singapore to Thailand to Bali to Australia to New Zealand, then home again through Singapore
Photos: heaviest in Australia, then New Zealand and Thailand, then Bali and Singapore close behind, with Malaysia the shortest opening chord
On foot, in the watch: one logged hike on 26 December, the MacRitchie TreeTop Walk in Singapore
On wheels, in the watch: one logged ride on 1 January, a 26 km loop around Ko Yao Noi with 449 m of climbing

The return chain ran Christchurch → Auckland → Singapore → Istanbul → Bucharest, four segments stitched together as the world began to close behind us. The Singapore stop and the Auckland connection were not unusual hubs for a flight from the South Island; the long chain itself is the signal, four legs taken inside three days as airline schedules thinned. The 4 January transit up the Chumphon coast from Phuket to Bangkok and the 13 March drive west across Southland to Te Anau were both deliberate ground moves planned into the route, not disruptions.

The six legs

Malaysia · the warm-up in Kuala Lumpur

15 → 22 Dec · 7 days

Photos: 720
Shape: one city, one base, days that radiate out and come back
Anchor: Kuala Lumpur
Pace: easing in

17 December was the first real day. The towers, KLCC, Bukit Bintang, all of it walked through in one long sweep that ended at the Petronas footbridge after dark.

15 Dec · the long way out, Istanbul and Jeddah layovers on Turkish and Saudia, barely a frame between airports before sleep
16 Dec · landing in Kuala Lumpur, the heat that hits you in the jetway, a first easy evening to find the city’s pulse
17 Dec · the big day, Petronas Towers and KLCC and the city centre in one steady arc
18 Dec · settling in, the two halves of the Golden Triangle taken at walking pace
19 Dec · a morning up at Batu Caves, the painted steps and the cliff, then back to KL by lunch
20 Dec · the planned-city day in Putrajaya, lake bridges and pink mosque domes, back to KL by evening
21 Dec · a softer rest day in KL, the body catching up with itself
22 Dec · the short hop south to Singapore

Singapore · the Christmas city

22 → 28 Dec · 7 days

Photos: 1,562
Shape: one city, dense and lit, walked from one end to the other
Anchor: Singapore
Pace: the camera barely down

Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, two of the densest days we have ever shot. Marina Bay glittering, Orchard Road in full holiday dazzle, the Supertrees lit at dusk. The camera could not put it down.

22 Dec · into Singapore, the city already strung with lights for Christmas
23 Dec · a full day working the bay and the centre, the energy building
24 Dec · Christmas Eve, the day everything in this city seems to be made for: Marina Bay, Gardens by the Bay, Orchard Road in full holiday dazzle
25 Dec · a softer Christmas Day, the city taken at a gentler pace
26 Dec · out to MacRitchie Reservoir and up onto the TreeTop Walk, seven kilometres and a small climb through the canopy, the only logged hike of the whole trip
27 Dec · a last full day in the city
28 Dec · onward to Phuket

Thailand · a quieter island, then the temples

29 Dec → 10 Jan · 13 days

Photos: 1,796
Shape: an island week, then a city week with one heritage day
Anchor: Ko Yao Noi for the new year, then Bangkok
Pace: beach reset, then city and temples

New Year’s Day on Ko Yao Noi, a 26-km bike loop around the island with 449 m of climbing through inland palm and rubber. The next afternoon, a longtail out into Phang Nga Bay, the karst islands rising one by one out of the water. Then a deep Bangkok day at the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun in one slow temple circuit, and the day-trip out to Ayutthaya, the old royal capital fallen quiet under brick.

29-31 Dec · the Ko Yao stretch begins, a deliberate not-Phi-Phi choice. Six nights on Ko Yao Noi between Phuket and Krabi. The camera mostly down, the days walked between the beach and the dirt road behind it
1 Jan · the New Year ride, a 26-km loop around the island on borrowed bikes, almost four and a half hours and 449 m of climbing through the interior tracks before a quiet evening back at the beach
2 Jan · the longtail morning, a slow afternoon south through Phang Nga Bay, the karst islands of Hong and Panak rising out of the water, hands on a paddle instead of a shutter for most of it
3 Jan · a last quiet day on the island
4 Jan · the long transit back to the mainland up the Chumphon coast, almost seven hundred kilometres on the road, almost no photos
5 Jan · the deep-Bangkok day, the Grand Palace and Wat Pho and Wat Arun walked end to end as one long temple circuit
6-7 Jan · more Bangkok, the city walked rather than ticked off
8 Jan · the day-trip up to Ayutthaya, the ruined royal capital an hour north, with Bang Pa-In on the way back, the standout outing of the leg
9 Jan · a last day west of Bangkok through the Samut Sakhon canals before the Bali flight
10 Jan · out to Don Mueang for the flight south to Denpasar

Bali · the beach week, then the green interior wakes us up

11 → 26 Jan · 16 days

Photos: 1,680
Shape: a quiet Kuta week, then a pivot inland to Ubud and Tegallalang, with two big touring days that change the leg's gravity
Anchor: Kuta first, then Tegallalang and Ubud
Pace: slow at first, then opening out

21 January and 24 January, two of the loudest days of the trip, three days apart. First the highland loop around Lake Bratan and down to the Jatiluwih rice terraces and back through Pura Taman Ayun. Then a second sweep into east Bali, out to Tirta Empul and across to the foothills of Mount Agung.

11-17 Jan · a Kuta beach week on purpose, the camera mostly in the bag, the sun doing the work of acclimatising us to a new hemisphere
18-20 Jan · up to Tegallalang and Ubud, the green interior of the island, the trip starting to wake back up
21 Jan · the day Bali opens. The highland loop around Lake Bratan and Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, down through the UNESCO rice terraces at Jatiluwih, and across to Pura Taman Ayun at Mengwi before the road home to Ubud
22-23 Jan · gentler days from the Ubud base, resting between the two big arcs
24 Jan · the second big day, east through Tirta Empul at Tampaksiring, then out via Tembuku and Susut to Rendang under Mount Agung, the leg’s reach toward the east of the island
25-26 Jan · winding down to Kuta, then the flight across to Melbourne

Australia · the long centerpiece

27 Jan → 2 Mar · 35 days

Photos: 4,119
Shape: down the east coast in a steady line, Melbourne to Sydney to Byron to the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane to the Whitsundays
Anchor: five cities and a reef week, each held long enough to feel lived-in
Pace: the trip's wide-awake stretch

1 February along the Great Ocean Road, the limestone stacks at the Twelve Apostles holding the light. 13 February in Byron Bay. 15 February up the Sunshine Coast. And then the twin Whitsunday days at the end of the month, the second of them a small boat out to Hardy Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef.

27-30 Jan · settling into Melbourne, the laneways and the south bank of the Yarra, the city worked at walking pace
28 Jan · a wine day out through Coldstream and Gruyere in the Yarra Valley, the only side-arc out of Melbourne
31 Jan · the Docklands afternoon, the waterfront walked end to end before the road south the next morning
1-2 Feb · the Great Ocean Road in two days, the Twelve Apostles and the limestone coast at Princetown and Port Campbell and Peterborough, then back along Lorne and Apollo Bay and out to Port Fairy
3-11 Feb · Sydney as a base. The Opera House, Bondi, the Harbour Bridge. A day out through the Hunter Valley vineyards around Cessnock. The Manly ferry day on the tenth. The Blue Mountains and Katoomba on the eleventh
12-13 Feb · Byron Bay, the only stretch on the north coast of New South Wales, lighthouses and a quieter shore
14 Feb · the Gold Coast clip on the road north, an hour of high-rise beachfront on the way to the Sunshine Coast
15-19 Feb · the Sunshine Coast arc, Noosa and the Noosa hinterland, Rainbow Beach and the long sand on Fraser Island out at Eurong and Happy Valley
20-25 Feb · Brisbane as the next base, the city and the corridor north toward Caboolture
27 Feb · the move up to the Whitsundays, an evening clip on the Mackay coast at Bucasia on the way through
28 Feb · the outer-reef day, a small boat out to the Hardy Reef pontoon, snorkel water over coral, the boat ride home longer than the swim
29 Feb · the Whitehaven Beach day, the white silica sand at the heart of the island group
2 Mar · across to Christchurch via Sydney

New Zealand · down the South Island

2 → 16 Mar · 14 days

Photos: 1,850
Shape: a clean line south, Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula to Arthur's Pass to the Mackenzie Basin to Otago to Fiordland
Anchor: Christchurch, Akaroa, Lake Tekapo, Dunedin, Te Anau
Pace: steady, then the deep day at the end

14 March on Doubtful Sound, the small boat over Lake Manapouri and the coach over Wilmot Pass and then the long quiet hour at the head of the fjord. Of Fiordland’s two famous sounds we took the harder one to reach.

3 Mar · into Christchurch, the city still rebuilding itself after the earthquake, the Avon and the new cathedral
4 Mar · out across the Selwyn plains and onto the Banks Peninsula, the long winding drop down into Akaroa
5 Mar · the alpine crossing through Arthur’s Pass, the limestone tors at Castle Hill, the dark stream at Cave Stream, the village in the pass itself
6-7 Mar · two quieter days back on the Banks Peninsula and the Akaroa coastline
8 Mar · a return to the Akaroa side, the harbour at Onuku and the long morning at the heads
9 Mar · into the Mackenzie Basin, Lake Tekapo blue under the church on the shore, then up the road to Aoraki / Mount Cook
10 Mar · south along the coast past Moeraki and the boulders, on into Dunedin
11-12 Mar · Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula, with a long side-run south to Kākā Point
13 Mar · the long drive west to Te Anau and Manapouri through Tuatapere and the Southland coast, more than four hundred and fifty kilometres in a day
14 Mar · the Doubtful Sound day, Manapouri to Wilmot Pass to the head of the fjord
15-16 Mar · transit days, the last New Zealand frames before the long way home
16-17 Mar · the long way home, Christchurch through Auckland to Singapore to Istanbul and finally to Bucharest, four flights stitched together as routes around us were already closing

Cross-leg memory

Facts visible only at trip scale.

How close it ran: Home on 17 March, six days after the WHO called it a pandemic, five days before Romania closed its airports
Where we stayed longest: Australia, almost five weeks down the east coast
Where we shot hardest: Singapore over Christmas, a city built to be photographed at night
The four loud days: Christmas Eve in Singapore, the Jatiluwih rice terraces in Bali, the Great Ocean Road on 1 February, the Whitsundays at the end of the month
Sydney twice: First a long city week in early February, then a single transit night on the way to Christchurch
What we logged: One hike at MacRitchie on 26 December. One cycling ride around Ko Yao Noi on 1 January. Everything else we walked, we walked without the watch
Two hemispheres: From the eleventh of January onward, every night was below the equator

Off-path · per zone

Kuala Lumpur ~5% well-walked by every visitor to the region
Singapore ~5% a famous Christmas in a famous city
Ko Yao Noi ~40% the quieter island, chosen instead of Phi Phi
Bangkok ~5% the city every Thailand itinerary touches
Ayutthaya ~15% a UNESCO heritage site, but still a real day-trip out of the capital
Bali Tegallalang / Ubud ~5% the rice-terrace photograph everyone has seen
Melbourne + Sydney ~5% the canonical Australian pair
Whitsundays ~20% everyone with a boat passes through here
Sunshine Coast / Fraser ~25% off the international coach circuit, more domestic than foreign
NZ Tekapo / Fiordland ~5% the South Island’s signature stops
NZ Dunedin ~30% less travelled by visitors from abroad
NZ Doubtful Sound ~35% the long-way-in alternative to Milford

This was a canonical tour by design. We took the famous cities and the famous shores, and we stayed long enough at each one for the place to settle into us. The two small acts of contrarianism were the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island week instead of the standard Queensland tourist axis, and the Doubtful Sound day instead of Milford. What made this trip ours was not finding hidden places. It was the breadth, and the time.

Hike highlights

#	Day	Where	km	ascent	Likely identity
01	26 Dec	Singapore · MacRitchie	6.96	165 m	Jelutong Tower via Tree Top Walk Loop and MacRitchie Reservoir Golf Link Trail

View all trails →

Negative space

absent Tasmania Almost five weeks in Australia and we never crossed Bass Strait. The east coast asked for all the time we had. Tasmania became a 2026 trip instead, deliberately.
absent NZ North Island Wellington, Auckland, Rotorua, all of it unvisited. This New Zealand leg was the South Island only. The north waited for 2026.
absent Cambodia We could have made the southeast-Asia loop overland through Indochina. We did not. The route went straight from Thailand to Bali by plane.
absent Vietnam We could have made the southeast-Asia loop overland through Indochina. We did not. The route went straight from Thailand to Bali by plane.
absent Laos We could have made the southeast-Asia loop overland through Indochina. We did not. The route went straight from Thailand to Bali by plane.
absent Hong Kong One of the great Asian hubs. We did not stop there on this trip.
absent Japan One of the great Asian hubs. We did not stop there on this trip.
absent Uluru We stayed on the coast for all thirty-five Australian days. The inland Red Centre was a different trip, and not this one.
absent Red Centre We stayed on the coast for all thirty-five Australian days. The inland Red Centre was a different trip, and not this one.
absent Milford Sound Of Fiordland’s two famous sounds we took the other one. Doubtful was the longer way in and the day we wanted.

Coastal Australia, the big eastern-Asian cities, the South Island of New Zealand. Inside that frame we were thorough. Outside it, on purpose, the inland deserts and Indochina and the North Island all waited. The Tasmania and North-Island absences eventually became their own 2026 trip. Our journeys have a way of finishing themselves across years.

Numbers

Loudest day: Christmas Eve in Singapore, Marina Bay through to Orchard Road
Longest stretch: Almost five weeks in Australia, the longest single-country leg we have ever made
Quietest signature: 14 March on Doubtful Sound, a small boat at the head of the fjord
First frame away: 15 December 2019, between Otopeni and Istanbul
Last frame away: 17 March 2020, the Istanbul layover on the way home
How far we flew: Roughly fifty thousand kilometres in the air, through Istanbul and Jeddah, plus all the internal hops down the Australian coast and across to New Zealand
On foot, in the watch: One hike, the MacRitchie TreeTop Walk on 26 December
On wheels, in the watch: One ride, the Ko Yao Noi New Year loop on 1 January, 26 km and 449 m of ascent