"I am having bargain diamonds. You are wishing to see?" With hepatic yellow eyes and last week's turban sagging about his skull, the man who sidled up next to me at the Calcutta post office seemed liked a Bengali version of Old Man Steptoe.

The Hidden Paradise of Borneo

When the fast-disintegrating remnants of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet finally reached the shores of Borneo in 1521, the famous Italian author and voyager, Antonio Pigafetta, described the undiscovered land and its people with wonder.

The history of Borneo extends way beyond these earliest European annals, some 40,000 years beyond, when nomadic tribes from Asia ventured south along the land bridge and settled in the various regions of the world's third largest island.

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Ask anybody over thirty-five what they know about Cambodia and the most likely answer will be "Pol Pot", especially if they recall the The Dead Kennedys' unholy 1980 cult hit. On the other hand quiz someone younger, and you're more likely to turn up "Lara Croft" or "Tomb Raider".

Cambodia, sometimes known as Kampuchea, certainly has a chequered and tragic past extending, not just back to the late 20th Century, but hundreds of years to the time of the enigmatic Khmers and earlier.

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Tim Cope's Diary Entry of 3 December 2004.

Thieves, so close to disaster, back onto the steppe….

"I stepped outside just to check the horses again. I wasn’t really worried- I had been checking them every half hour since sunset and felt comfortable around the railway workers with whom I was staying. "

Note: "Young Adventurer of the Year", Tim Cope, departed to Mongolia on May 31 (2004) where he began his next journey.....10,000km in 18 months, on the trail of Ghengis Khan from Mongolia to Hungary by horse! He has now covered the first 1400km through Mongolia and is beginning to tackle Kazakstan heading into winter. Visit Tim's website for full details.

Tim Cope Journeys