Ask Rob your travel question!

Rob finds transport in Indonesia very cramped

I want to persuade you to try the unfamiliar. I'm talking about local buses, trains, trolleys, and subways. And, when you're ready, elephants, camels, tuk-tuks, matatus, ox-carts, jeepneys and all the other unusual "vehicles" whose colorful drivers are eager to show you their world.

Sure, some types of local transportation can be a little intimidating at first, but those are the ones that invariably produce the most amusing memories. They are part of the essence of real travel, not to be missed.

Picture yourself swaying from village to village in northern Thailand, balanced on a crusty elephant back. Or imagine careening through an Indonesian town in a minivan called a bemo. This is no American bus where passengers stare straight ahead. The social life of the town continues nonstop inside a bemo, and you're included. Don't know exactly where to get off? A half dozen voices will tell you; someone may get off with you to show you where to go from there.

Believe it or not, in India I once hired a camel to ride to the airport to catch a plane. What could be more appropriate in a land of contrasts?

For exposure to rugged beauty seen from a bus window, it's hard to top the two-day cliff-hanger in the Himalayas from the Vale of Kashmir to Leh, capital of Ladakh.

Then there's the nine-hour trip from the humid lowlands of Ujung Pandang up to the cool plateau of Toraja-land on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is where people build their homes in the shape of great ships as if ready to sail back to their ancestral homeland to the north.

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Traveler's Tool Kit by Rob Sangster, offers practical tips on how to travel absolutely anywhere. Click here to order!