Spending time in the Caribbean during the Christmas season is quite an experience. For those of us used to mounds of snow at the side of the road during this time of year, warm days, a cool breeze, and being able to sit outside by the pool or on the beach is a bit bizarre.

To be perfectly honest though, it's not too hard to adjust.

I finally finished putting together some photos from my trip to South Africa.

I added a link in the header to a section called 'quick facts'. If you have ever asked yourself:

• What currency do they use in Afghanistan?
• What languages do they speak in the Pitcairn Islands?
• What's the population of Iraq?
• Where the hell is Wallis and Futuna?
• What is the internet country code for Uzbekistan?

then this feature is for you. Answer these burning questions and more with quick facts!

I had just survived the four hour, 170km trip from Tana to Antsirabe - my first by taxi-brousse. Upon arrival, I was swamped by locals trying to sell me food, watches, TV antennae, spark plugs, and a host of other useful-looking devices. It took the driver quite a while to get my backpack out of the tangle of the roof baggage, and during this time I chose a pousse-pousse guy to take me downtown. A pousse-pousse is essentially a very colourful rickshaw and I had about a half-dozen to choose from. They all looked about the same to me, so I chose the guy who asked me first. This was a mistake.

I've finished putting up pictures from my trip to Madagascar.

When you log in, a box will appear on the left hand side of the page with a link to the photo gallery. Again, if you have log in problems, please email me and I'll sort it out.

Why do I make you sign up and log in? This is how I can control who has access to the pictures because I have limited bandwidth. The whole website is hosted by me on a personal machine and I am the only one with access to the user database. Your email address will not be folded, spindled, mutilated, or sold to the highest bidder. I promise. [Here's my Privacy Policy.]

My next projects are to get the pictures from South Africa up and then to write some more stories about my trip to Madagascar.

I hope everyone has had a great start to the new year [aside from the cold for those of you in the deep freeze].

Talk at you later.

One of the only ways to get to Swaziland when you don't have a car is by 'black taxi' - the South African equivalent of Madagascar's taxi-brousse - because any buses that run are on bizarre schedules.