Some light reading for those seemingly endless hours on the plane!

There has always been a cloak of mystery over the Knights Templar and, what are supposed to be their modern-day successors, the Freemasons.

The American author Dan Brown, best known for his book "The Da Vinci Code", has just published a book, "The Lost Symbol", which is doing for the Freemasons what its predecessor, "The Da Vinci Code", did for the Catholic Church's Opus Dei — showering new fame, and new fictions, on an age-old brotherhood which has been accused of everything from conspiring with extraterrestrials to practicing sexual deviancy to engaging in occult rituals to running the world — or trying to end it.

I've bought this book for those seemingly endless hours on the plane and as bedtime reading during my forthcoming travels in Indonesia.

Only a few more days to go to my Bali trip ...

... and I need to bed down my share investments so I can forget about them while I am away, espcially since we're into October which is one of the most peculiarly dangerous months in the stockmarket (the other are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February).

As I sat here, twiddling my cufflinks, I came up with this brilliant idea ...

Totally off-the-cuff, as it were!

Just a few more weeks and I'm back on a REAL holiday!

Whetting my appetite!

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It's still some time before I set out on my next tropical adventure but pleasures are always greatest in anticipation, aren't they?

This time I'll cross the Wallace Line as I hope to travel from Bali to nearby Lombok and the tiny Gilis, and then on to Komodo and Flores. Nothing is booked and nothing is planned - except for my first night in Bali with my old friends at HARRIS Tuban - as I want to take each day as it comes and live entirely in the moment. However, I may have to prebook the 5-day PERAMA-cruise as I am getting a bit long in the tooth for deck passage and would prefer a cabin to myself.

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Bali here I come ...

Yes, I'll be JETSTARring away again in October 2009. This time it'll be Bali and Lombok and the Gili Islands.

Stay tuned for more on this travel diary!