Port Vila

Vanuatu must be the nicest Pacific island nation (although I quite enjoyed New Zealand - does that count?) There are good roads and everything seems to work pretty well ... they speak English and they have French chefs! What more could I want? It's pretty hot and humid but I'm used to that and after the dreary weather in Wellington - this is quite a change.

I'm here to work with the Vanuatu National Training Council - and some people from Samoa, PNG, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. From Sunday, I am facilitating a workshop to help develop vocational literacy courses in these countries. Before that I've got lots of meetings with people who work in skills development here. They've also arranged to take me out to a rural training centre - looking forward to that - I always enjoy meeting students and seeing how things happen in situ.

Go here if you want to learn more about Vanuatu!

Bangladesh

Arrived late last night in Dhaka after a long, long flight. I spent 8 hours in Changi airport in Singapore which must be the most beautiful and interesting airport in the world.I was last at this airport in 1988 so it's changed a bit! They really cater to transit passengers with gardens, massage and beauty services, kids playgrounds, computer games areas, free internet cafes plus the usual assortment of high-end retail. They even offer a free city tour – which I was going to take but then the weather was terrible and I got sucked into shopping! There is a butterfly garden and a Koi Pond garden both are full of orchids – absolutely stunning. Can't show you the pics because I brought the wrong camera cable L