If Japan is your only destination, return fares to Kansai airport start from £544 with Japan Airlines (tel: 0845 776 7700). Train or bus into the city is about Y1,800 each way.Further informationThe Japan National Tourist Board (tel: 020 7734 9638, web: www.jnto.go.jp) offers advice and maps and advises on how to arrange a volunteer guide. This can take a couple of weeks to arrange, so book well ahead. Nara's City Tourist Centre (tel: 0742 22-3900) is near Kintetsu Nara train station.. Ten kilometres inland from the beaches at Bentota lies an old rubber plantation that has been transformed into a garden jungle of erotic sculpture and art. Its name is Brief Ten kilometres inland from the beaches at Bentota lies an old rubber plantation that has been transformed into a garden jungle of erotic sculpture and art.

Its name is Brief. It is the artistic labour of Sri Lanka's most famous artist, writer and bon vivant Bevis Bawa, who died in 1992. A mix of Singhalese, Portuguese, Dutch and Scottish, he was aide-de-camp under the British, and at Brief he was the flamboyant host of exotic parties.His life and his garden twist together the threads of modern Sri Lanka. The garden is a personal vision of desire with its twisting jungle paths, urns, fountains, mosaics, abstract and mythological sculpture. A Buddhist moonstone appears at the beginning of an immaculate terrace that leads to homo-erotic art.His homosexuality is never overtly mentioned. No one will take you to see the huge stone phallus placed down an overgrown path, its tip stencilled with the anonymous features of a lover. People simply smile, slightly abashed.The large, sensuous face of the artist in his miniature kingdom is already a relic, reclaimed by the jungle.

This is Sri Lanka at its best ­ uncontained and only partly tamed.¿ The only scheduled airline that flies direct to Sri Lanka is SriLankan Airlines. Through Flightbookers (020-7757 2000), a return flight in April costs £469.10. Trailfinders (020-7937 5400) is offering a return flight on Gulf Air for £452, via Abu Dhabi/Muscat. Amid the fertile farmland of northern New South Wales, the town of Nimbin sticks out like a tie-dye T-shirt. The main shop in town is the Hemp Embassy "drug education and information centre".

On the street outside are several vintage Volkswagen Kombi vans, many elaborately decorated with themes inspired by Bob Marley lyrics. The Hemp Museum opposite has rooms devoted to Aboriginal culture and another fine example of a Kombi van embedded in the floor. A few doors down, the Rainbow Café - a bustling health-food restaurant - markets itself as the place where a million joints have been smoked. Most of the other shops seem to have disproportionately magnificent displays of crisps and biscuits Amid the fertile farmland of northern New South Wales, the town of Nimbin sticks out like a tie-dye T-shirt. The main shop in town is the Hemp Embassy "drug education and information centre".

On the street outside are several vintage Volkswagen Kombi vans, many elaborately decorated with themes inspired by Bob Marley lyrics. The Hemp Museum opposite has rooms devoted to Aboriginal culture and another fine example of a Kombi van embedded in the floor. A few doors down, the Rainbow Caf? a bustling health-food restaurant ­ markets itself as the place where a million joints have been smoked. Most of the other shops seem to have disproportionately magnificent displays of crisps and biscuits. Nimbin used to be just another New South Wales farming community.