finally, it clears from wales, butjogs a little towards the east. 50 london and norwich will get a few spots of rain, showers and strong winds continuing in western parts of scotland. a mild night and another mild day on the way tomorrow in the southeast east temperatures once again hitting the mid teens.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: as plans to ease lockdown in england start to be revealed — residents in care homes will be allowed indoor visits by a member of their family or a friend, from next month. a court in russia has upheld an earlier decision to jail the opposition activist, alexei navalny, for nearly three years. president biden is set to declare a major disaster in texas — as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure.

the duke of edinburgh is expected to stay in hospital over the weekend and into next week for observation and rest. and, reality star kim kardashian files for divorce from her husband kanye west, after seven years of marriage. now on bbc news, lucy hedges takes a look back at some of the show�*s bestjourneys to south asia, including when henry golding tried to collect coconuts in kerala, in the travel show. this week on the travel show. taking on the tuk—tuks in sri lanka. the best thing about driving a tuk—tuk is that you can take in all the gorgeous scenery. climbing for coconuts in kerala. this is tough. and a journey of a lifetime in pakistan.

it feels quite serious now. i don't know what condition my friend is in. hello from greenwich park in london. now while we all keep dreaming of the travel we will be doing when things return to normal, today we are taking a look back at some of our best trips to south asia. over the years we have had plenty of adventures and for me, personally, one of the highlights was a trip to the beautiful country of sri lanka in 2020. on the streets of its bustling capital city, colombo, the tuk—tuk is king of the road.

numbers havejumped eightfold in 15 years and i went there to see what impact it is having on the city and how tourists are nowjumping in the driving seat. so there is actually over1 million tuk—tuks here in sri lanka and it definitely shows because these things are everywhere. that's a pretty high number for a country ofjust over 20 million people. the prospect of good money has prompted many young people to become a driver here. and it is notjust the pros. driving a rented tuk—tuk is increasingly popular with tourists as well. tourists need a local driving licence to drive a tuk—tuk here, but also some practice. this definitely is not as straightforward as i thought it would be. i think i need some assistance! thushari has been a tuk—tuk

driver for four years. female drivers remain a rare sight in sri lanka but times are changing. so the horn is my friend? all right. so they are your top tips. i think i am ready for the road. thank you. you really feel the lack of suspension. and there are so many potholes here. once you reach that level of comfort with driving, the best thing about driving a tuk—tuk is that you can take in all the gorgeous

scenery and on my left is the beautiful ocean. but the gentle ocean breeze is not enough to disperse the emissions produced by the millions of vehicles on sri lanka's roads. air pollution in its capital city regularly exceeds levels recommended by the world health organization. ten years ago, the government banned the import of the most polluting rickshaws, the 2—stroke engines. but several hundreds of thousands remain on the roads. pollution definitely is not as bad as i thought it would be but it is definitely palpable. in fact i think ijust ate some. as part of the global fight against climate change, sri lanka has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. sasiranga de silva won a un reward for creating a simple kit that converts petrol tuk—tuk

engines to electric. sri lanka is a beautiful country but recently we noticed the pollution levels are going and so the level of respiratory diseases are going high there so i thought, you know, as an engineer, i would do my best to contribute to bringing emissions down in sri lanka. what do you think it would take to get your conversion kit up and running and produced on a mass scale? tuk—tuk is a low—cost product so the conversion price has to be as low as possible for the drivers to afford it. i have been doing so many research so i can downsize the battery and reduce the cost. the issue of affordability will decide whether electric tuk—tuks are ever developed on a mass scale. but who knows, the spirit of innovation and a smattering of political will may be just enough to clear the air in colombo.

definitely fun, but one thing i will be happy to leave to the professionals in the future. that might also be what henry was thinking back in 2016 in india's coastal state of kerala when he got to find out the hard wayjust what goes into picking coconuts, something still done there mostly by hand. that was unbelievable! you are so strong. that was so good. how high is this? 30 metres. and he did it like it was a sunday stroll. he's been doing it 30 years, this one. he's 53 years old. so you are half or more of my age so i should be able to do this quicker than you i don't think that will be the case. how many coconuts does he normally collected a day? a0 a day.

some homestays in kerala are now teaching tourists the art of coconut tree climbing. let's see if i am up to the challenge. i want to hoist myself up, but my arms, theyjust will not obey. i think i am going to rip my pants! this is tough. the numbers of climbers like prasalan have fallen dramatically as the younger generation have gradually moved away from manual jobs. it is a bit of a marathon. you need to think of it as a marathon. you have about 20 good metres to climb and if you run out of strength halfway it will not be pretty. oh, i think that is it for me.

how does he do it?! my feet, i tell you, i think it is because i have soft everything. i am a wimp. you are much stronger than i am. the coconut industry is worth billions of dollars so the decline of manual climbers has called for modernisation of sorts. that looks so much easier than what i was doing. the state government has tried everything from competitions to prize money to find a machine that can entice people back into thejob. this one invented by a localfarmer has proved relatively simple to operate. just right there? 0k. left there and here? on my way up. it is definitely much easier.

i may have spoken too soon. it is much tougher than it looks. left one, relax. you have much less stress on your toes and your hands themselves but getting the motion right makes it a little nervous... whoo! it does make it a little easier, i must say. but i would like to put it to the test. the old method versus the new one. what do you think? we try it? all right. over here we have the traditional

coconut tree climbers who will be using their ropes that they have around their legs and whatnot. on this side we have the mechanically assisted. let's find out who is fastest. three, two, one, go! they are pretty much neck and neck at the moment. mechanically assisted are going a little bit faster. he has caught up on the time, he has caught up on the time. there we go. and they are switching. he's got tired. he is doing well. yeah! to the winners go the spoils! there you are!

is it good? how does victory taste, boys? henry in southern india, back in 2016. now, we're heading to pakistan where, two years ago, we heard from two adventurers who had been to the country's mountainous northernmost region to experience this part of the country in a whole new way. and it was quite the journey. i am john rider. and i'm edmund le brun. and in 2018, we set out to raft down the length of the hunza valley in northern pakistan and as far as we can tell, nobody�*s done this before. the river passes through a really interesting part of pakistan, right up near the border of china.

it is a very ancient trade corridor the passes north to south, the old silk road. a combination of mountains, people, history, culture. it is a fascinating place. the trouble with rafting a river for the first time is that you really have to scout every hundred metres because you really don't know what's around the corner. there were many moments going down the river where we encountered sections that we knew that we couldn't navigate. we actually found out that they were too difficult to raft the hard way. that was quite scary, actually. once it's upturned, there was nothing for him to catch hold of. i lost my raft, just pfft! went all the way downriver, sped away. been tipped out of the boat.

and the weird — current — the currents are doing really weird things. ok, i'm going to go chase it. soon as i set off injohn�*s raft in pursuit of my own, i realised that that was a bad decision. the water was getting rougher and, sure enough, i hit a corner... 0h! ..losing the second raft. so i managed to swim to the bank and suddenly assess the situation and there we are, northern pakistan, and we have lost both our rafts, all our bags. i then didn't know wherejohn was. ok, this feels quite serious now. i haven't seen ed for almost 2.5 hours. i don't know what

condition he is in. so i've just got to the road. i've got — what's your name again? azerdine. he is helping me. but there's no sign ofjohn. people often assume that, you know, we felt was a security concern there? and actually, security was the furthest things from our mind. the key is always doing research before you go because some areas are incredibly dangerous and just five kilometres away, it is completely safe. so after i'd lost my raft, i did not find john for five hours. yeah, a very tired john on the other side of the river. we found the rafts eventually. it took us — i think it was about four days in total. everyone we spoke to offered — offered to walk up and down the river or offered their car. it was really quite overwhelming, the amount of generosity that we received.

but what the rafts did give us was the sense of adventure and through that, we actually uncovered a side to pakistan which we really never see on the news. what an experience! now, still to come on the programme — ade tries his hands at conservation in the maldives. and rajan tests out his aim in india. get out the way, everyone. here we go. wow! now we're getting there! now, backjust before the pandemic last year, ade went to visit the stunning maldives.

officially the lowest nation on earth, its beautiful beaches are constantly under threat from climate change and the effects from tourism. ade went there to find out what the local people, and some tourists, are doing to protect the natural world there. coral reefs do notjust look great in holiday photos, they also contain more biodiversity than any other ecosystem on the planet, so it is essential that they don't disappear. even though they cover less than 1% of the ocean floor, they are home to over a quarter of all the world's fish species. so here in the maldives, there is an ongoing programme to restock damaged reefs. so actually, coral is an animal. an animal? exactly. not a plant? no, actually it's related to jellyfish and anenomes in the oceans. so what we have — what we see here is a colony.

it's many individuals called polyps, that they live all together and they help each other to build this skeleton. what we actually do, we pick up some corals that are broken, because of any reason, and they are on the sand, so they will die because they will covered with sand. so what we will do is just keep this healthy part from the coral and put them back on our nursery. our nursery is around 5—6m depth and with a sandy bottom, the best method is to use these ropes, hanging on metalframes. ok, i want to try to attach a piece then. so let's see. i will put it through here. hold, like this, and then fasten it? yep, as much as you can, so it will not fall. this mustjust take hours to do. well, no, actually the process is quite fast. and actually, we need to do it faster as well, because they need to be underwater. so basically, what you are doing here is replicating nature?

exactly, we just help to make this progress faster. so not mother nature, sandra nature! exactly! it is heartening to know that tourists are engaging with these conservation projects. and even if i never come back here again, it is good to know i have left a mark — hopefully in a positive way. wow, you're looking like a proper action woman, sandra. you're ready to go? yeah, everything is ready now. cool so what are you going to do, exactly? now i am bringing this rope onto the nursery. i will attach it over there and it is perfect conditions for them to grow properly, so we don't need to do much more. cool and i've noticed it says bbc travel show. yes, this will be your baby corals, your effort to help the maldives. let's go for it. let's go! see you later! yeah, take care. good luck!

what a beautiful place! finally, we are heading back to india where in 2017, rajan went to shillong in meghalaya to try his hand at a traditional local sport and see if he could hit the target. this is called teer, derived from the hindu word for �*arrow�*. a target is mounted and 50 archers have just a few minutes to hit it as many times as possible. the significance of the sport dates back to the early 1800s when khasi warriors defended their homelands not with guns or swords, but with bows and arrows.

i am aiming for the target, obviously, which is, which one of them? the small one. the small one there, ok. now, why is it going to the ground like that? show me. get out the way, everyone. here we go. don't move! wow! now we are getting there! spectators get involved by taking bets on the number of arrows that hit the target. and crucially, it is only the last two numbers of the total score that matter. meghalaya became one of the few states to legalise gambling in 1982. people here are very superstitious? they'll dream about their dead family, a dog, a cat, and they will try to make it into numbers. so i have 200 rupees

of my hard—earned money here. i want to go and gamble. can you show me how to do it? yeah. come on then. so let's go to one of these counters. namaste, hello. hello to you, sir. i want to gamble on a lucky number, yeah? yeah. two digits, lucky number. i want to go for 39. 39? yeah. and i'm going to put... 100. ..100 rupees on 39. can you fix it so i win? all chuckle. it depends on your fortune number. it depends on my fortune? i had a dream last night. i had a dream that... you can dream anything. that a strange dog walked past me and that dog had the number 39 on it. is it the kind of dreams people have? oh, who knows. wish me luck! it's a tense moment

as the numbers are counted... 310, 320... ..and my dream turns out to be a shaggy dog story. seven... 97 was the result. still, two of my lucky numbers — nine and seven. rajan in india, back in 2017. well, that's all for this week, but here's what's coming up next week. mike is off the coast of tanzania, exploring a coral reef that scientists say could be a game—changerfor some endangered species. underwater was magnificent. it was like a fantasy movie. do join us for that if you can. but for now, keep safe and keep inspired by following us in all the usual places on social media. so from me and the rest of the team here in london, it's goodbye.

hello. some very big contrasts in the weather today between east and west of the uk. in the west it has been poring over night, strong winds as well. there is more rain to come through the course of this afternoon. eastern areas are in for some sunshine and mild weather. this is the satellite picture. it shows the cloud streaming almost down to the cloud streaming almost down to the subtropics, moving northwards, and when they hit land that's when we will see a lot of rainfall. these are heavy, rain bearing clouds and

particularly wet in the south—west of england, and wales, especially in the south. there is an amber warning from the met office, valid for the whole of the afternoon. by then we will have seen in some spots possibly even 200 millimetres of rain. you can see those southerly winds, very moist air spreading across western parts of the uk. moving into the north west of england, scotland and northern ireland. but missing the east of the country, where we will see some bright and sunny weather, with temperatures in london and norwich reaching 16 celsius. not a bad day in hull as well. so this weather will continue towards the west for a time into this evening, and finally the rain will move towards the east. central and southern england, london and norwich is in full some rain, thankfully for wales the weather front will move away and you will see some clearing skies. a mild night. the milder air is with us into sunday. this is the air mass,

the mild air is across the south—west, and that's where we will see the mildest temperatures on sunday. sunday will start cloudy with some rain, the chances are it will brighten up. towards the west we will see some clearer skies, and there will also be some showers. this is where we will have cooler weather, around 11 celsius. closer to 15 in the south—east. next week, the weather will remain unsettled in the weather will remain unsettled in the north—west of the country, whereas the south—east will be closer to this high pressure, centred across the alps, so this means the fine weather is expected in places like london where temperatures could reach 17 celsius, whereas in the north—west of the uk it will always be a little unsettled. goodbye.

this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. as plans to ease the lockdown in england are revealed. residents in care homes will be allowed indoor visits by a member of their family or a friend from next month. the russian opposition activist alexei navalny appears in court in moscow, where his prison sentence is upheld. president biden is set to declare a major disaster in texas as he unlocks federal funds for a state paralysed by a severe freeze and a huge powerfailure. the duke of edinburgh is expected to stay in hospital over the weekend and into next week for observation and rest. and reality star, kim kardashian files for divorce from her husband ka nye west after seven years of marriage.