INDIA | Wednesday, 26 Aug 2009 | Views [100]
4 am starts are never fun, but I was very thankful that I had had the foresight to hire a porter to hawk my bag back down to the bus stand for me. The stand was packed and completely incomprehensible as usual but I asked someone who pointed out the ... Read more >
Tags: bus, river
INDIA | Monday, 24 Aug 2009 | Views [88]
The night bus to Shimla was “semi-deluxe”, which should be read as completely ordinary. It was however uneventful and I managed to snatch a few minutes sleep in between potholes and hairpin bends. It arrived literally at the crack of dawn – just past ... Read more >
Tags: mountains, trekking, temple, history
INDIA | Friday, 21 Aug 2009 | Views [177] | Comments [1]
As I waited for the train to leave the platform a tall Sikh with a large sword sat opposite me and promptly lay down to sleep. I'm no expert but it didn't look like the deadliest or most ostentatious of swords although, along with his clothes and turban, ... Read more >
Tags: mountains, temple, religion, cooking, yoga, live music
INDIA | Monday, 10 Aug 2009 | Views [79] | Comments [1]
I knew it was going to an interesting journey when the fight developed as the crowd on the platform pushed forward, preventing those on the train from getting off. Nowhere seems to be immune from this phenomenon. And in India there's no point in waiting ... Read more >
Tags: train
INDIA | Sunday, 9 Aug 2009 | Views [98]
Many guesthouses in India have telephones but seem rarely to deem it appropriate to answer them. Thus I arrived in Bikaner train station undecided as to where to go because nowhere would pick up the phone. As I was giving the hotel one more chance ... Read more >
Tags: rat, temple, camel
INDIA | Friday, 7 Aug 2009 | Views [151] | Comments [1]
Having no hotel booked in Jodphur the rickshaw wallah took me to a place in the back streets. I didn't feel confident that Pushp would be a good place. Why would someone name their guesthouse after a push up? In fact, Pushp is named for the ... Read more >
Tags: festival, fort, party, family
INDIA | Wednesday, 5 Aug 2009 | Views [229] | Comments [1]
The combination of sleeping aids did their job, much to my surprise, but I found myself waking up in Jaisalmer to the din of hundreds of touts and rickshaw wallahs shouting in through the bus windows. I never enjoy this part of travelling but you just ... Read more >
Tags: desert, camel, tour, fort
INDIA | Friday, 31 Jul 2009 | Views [175]
Udaipur is a picturesque city set on a lake where a large part of Octopussy, the James Bond movie, was filmed. I had booked rooms in the Udai Niwas hotel right beside the main temple, in the middle of the old town. Even from the rickshaw ride into town ... Read more >
Tags: sun, religion, history, lake, lesson, music
INDIA | Tuesday, 28 Jul 2009 | Views [86]
It was an auspicious start to the day. As I ate breakfast there was a beautiful hindu song on the radio with a hypnotic, repetitive mantra. I had been reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. The author had been struggling to concentrate during ... Read more >
Tags: train, stupid
INDIA | Monday, 27 Jul 2009 | Views [132]
The unmistakable stench of a combination of human excrement and decaying rubbush hit me as soon as I alighted the train. It was only a three hour train ride. My first, in Sleeper class was just fine but not quite as well equipped as AC class. Khandwa ... Read more >
Tags: bus, fort, monsoon, traffic jam, random
INDIA | Saturday, 25 Jul 2009 | Views [91]
The Plaza Hotel on Station Road, Jalgoan was so clean I felt I could have eaten my dinner off the bedroom floor. In India that's really saying something. The manager explained that they are Jain people so cleanliness is very important to them. I silently ... Read more >
Tags: doctor, hotel
INDIA | Thursday, 23 Jul 2009 | Views [188] | Comments [1]
Expecting the unexpected and prepared for anything I was in Mumbai's hectic CST station a full two hours before the train was scheduled to leave. I plonked my conspicuous rucksack down in the middle of the station and sat on it, joining the crowds ... Read more >
Tags: cave, monsoon, tour
INDIA | Tuesday, 21 Jul 2009 | Views [162]
The
sound of heavy rain on plastic woke me up. I was disoriented at first,
wondering first where Claire was and second where I was. Then it clicked.
London (or quite possibly in a holding pattern around the M25). Mumbai. I
looked out the window to ... Read more >
Tags: tour, cave, crazy people, scam, religion, train
INDIA | Sunday, 19 Jul 2009 | Views [83] | Comments [1]
India was always going to be an experience of sensory overload, but not just for the usual culture shock-related reasons – the key to the beginning of my Indian travels is contrast. I was coming from Singapore, a model of modernity, order and efficiency, ... Read more >
Tags: city, monsoon
SINGAPORE | Sunday, 19 Jul 2009 | Views [256] | Comments [3]
It was long before dawn when the nicest coach in the world crossed the bridge over to the island state of Singapore.When we saw the customs complex it was immediately clear that this would be a lot more organised than anywhere else in SE asia. It was ... Read more >
Tags: city, fast food, live music, camera, island, fast food, massage
MALAYSIA | Wednesday, 15 Jul 2009 | Views [245]
We turned up back at the Mayview Glory in KL well before 6am. They were full so we couldn't check in till someone else checked out. Too tired to be imaginative and overwhelmed by the menu in the expansive cafe next door we guiltily settled for a ... Read more >
Tags: camera, taxi, shopping, tower, religion, sightseeing
MALAYSIA | Thursday, 9 Jul 2009 | Views [272]
A supremely confident muslim woman in a headscarf ushered all the bleary eyed tourists off the bus in Kuala Besut at about 5 in the morning. She lead us towards the harbour and to an office where they sold boat tickets to the island. She was rushing ... Read more >
Tags: diving, snorkelling, island, beach, wildlife, hut
MALAYSIA | Friday, 3 Jul 2009 | Views [136]
The flight touched down at Kuala Lumpur's Low Cost Carrier Terminal, or LCCT for short. No-one had mentioned that the timezone had changed so we thought the flight was an hour early, but in fact it was us who was out of kilter. It couldn't have ... Read more >
Tags: city, shopping, cinema, kenny rogers!!
THAILAND | Wednesday, 1 Jul 2009 | Views [370]
It's a very easy system when you get a ferry in Thailand. They give you a colour coded badge with the destination written on it, each destination has a different colour. If you so much as look at the wrong queue or try to go in the wrong direction someone ... Read more >
Tags: ferry, jungle, wildlife, trekking
THAILAND | Thursday, 25 Jun 2009 | Views [134]
The crossing over to Koh Pha Ngan was ludicrously rough. People were puking their guts up into the sea at the stern of the catamaran while it see-sawed in and out of the waves. It was too rough to sail but the boat was full to bursting and there was ... Read more >
Tags: island, beach, hut
THAILAND | Sunday, 21 Jun 2009 | Views [170]
Once I had finished the course I wanted more. The sensation of being underwater is incredibly addictive. Terry suggested that a good way to feed the habit would be to do the next course, Advanced open water. You get to do 5 dives, each with a different ... Read more >
Tags: diving, island, beach, quad bike, party, fire
THAILAND | Wednesday, 17 Jun 2009 | Views [123] | Comments [1]
The bus though was a pleasuredome of luxury compared to the insomniac 'sleeping bus' we had been used to in Vietnam. We were originally thinking of taking a train to Chumpon and then a night ferry over but Lompraya were offering a bus and a high speed ... Read more >
Tags: diving, boat, trapeze, island
THAILAND | Saturday, 13 Jun 2009 | Views [90]
The Air Asia flight touched down in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport early and our bags were waiting for us at the carousel. The girl I had persuaded to smuggle my pen knife into Thailand for me came good and handed it over once she picked up her bag.... Read more >
Tags: flight, decision, dentist, movie
VIETNAM | Thursday, 11 Jun 2009 | Views [117]
Following the tour crowd off the bus from Halong Bay lead us to the Blue Star Hotel on Bat Dan Street. They tried to give us a really pokey windowless room for $12 but on declining a much better room with Air Con and wifi became available for the ... Read more >
Tags: heatwave, fan, power cut, movie, moped tour, mausoleum, barber, guard, history
VIETNAM | Monday, 8 Jun 2009 | Views [85]
We didn't get much sleep due to the generator but we got enough. It turned out that the $65 couple's AC didn't work anyway. After a simple breakfast we stopped for 10 minutes to allow those who wanted to jump off and have a swim. The American and English ... Read more >
Tags: singing, bribery
VIETNAM | Sunday, 7 Jun 2009 | Views [160]
Day two of the Halong bay tour started surprisingly similarly to day one. Claire was in the shower when the phone rang. The voice said ”Finish! Leave hotel now!” I looked at my watch: 7.10 and we had been told to meet at 7.30. Ignoring what had been ... Read more >
Tags: tour, island, trekking, island, beach, boat, canoe
VIETNAM | Saturday, 6 Jun 2009 | Views [140]
It was an inauspicious start to the trip. We had slept through the alarm and were awoken by a heavy thumping on the paper thin bedroom door. The thoughtful receptionist had given us a 20 minute headstart before the promised air conditioned minivan ... Read more >
Tags: tour, island, boat, mate, cave, passport, karaoke
VIETNAM | Friday, 5 Jun 2009 | Views [146]
The
first impressions of Hanoi in the taxi were that of a French city. It
was after all the colonial capital of French Indochina so it
shouldn't have been too surprising to be passing through ... Read more >
Tags: city, moped
VIETNAM | Wednesday, 3 Jun 2009 | Views [150]
It
was only a four hour journey to Hue from Hoi An but we still had the
bizarre “sleeping bus” to semi-horizontally not sleep in for
the journey. We allowed ourselves to be taken to the suggested
guesthouse ... Read more >
Tags: hangover, citadel, history, culture
VIETNAM | Sunday, 31 May 2009 | Views [175]
We
lucked out with the bus to Hoi An – it was quite a bit more modern
and seemed to have been designed with passengers in mind unlike its
previous incarnations. This time there was a space for your bag
rather ... Read more >
Tags: tailor, beach, bike
VIETNAM | Thursday, 28 May 2009 | Views [400]
We
had decided to do an island tour from Nha Trang - the punters on the boat were an
eclectic mix of English gap year types, Filipino engineers working on
the soon to open Nha Trang Marriot and a few locals ... Read more >
Tags: beach, boat, bar, island
VIETNAM | Monday, 25 May 2009 | Views [200] | Comments [3]
As
usual, the bus was late. After half an hour of waiting patiently in
the travel agency we went across the road for some beers, their
arrival, of course coinciding with that of the sleeping bus to Nha
Trang, ... Read more >
Tags: beach, omelette, scam, casino
VIETNAM | Friday, 22 May 2009 | Views [318]
Crowds of overpriced baguette-wielding hawkers thronged around the bus as the rucksacks were crammed into its belly. They had a captive market and knew it – expensive la vache qui rit baguettes for breakfast it was then. The return trip to Phnom ... Read more >
Tags: moped, history, tunnel, religion, temple, crash, home
CAMBODIA | Monday, 18 May 2009 | Views [205]
As with Laos, we had been learning that time is a bit of a variable concept in Cambodia, so we weren't worried when the minibus failed to pick us up at the agreed time. Perhaps it was a ploy – the owner (what he owned was not mentioned, I assumed ... Read more >
Tags: tuk tuk, temple, hospital
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 14 May 2009 | Views [121]
The storm had blown itself out by dawn and we left Don Det, as we had arrived, on a long tail. The holidays were over and the aftermath of the rains were very much in evidence in Nakasang on the mainland. The dusty street had turned into a mudbath ... Read more >
Tags: border, history, museum, storm
LAOS | Tuesday, 12 May 2009 | Views [168] | Comments [2]
The Champasak Palace Hotel in Pakse was built by Prince Boun Oumna Champasak with, supposedly, a room for each of his concubines. Also known as the thousand room pavillion, it's built in Laotian style, looks a bit like a wedding cake, has 1 King ... Read more >
Tags: holiday, hotel, island, river, hammock, wildlife
LAOS | Wednesday, 6 May 2009 | Views [117]
The
bus, or a tuk tuk was supposed to pick us up at the GH between 1 and
1.30. At 2 the GH owner came over to us and called up to see what was
going on. Within minutes a tuk tuk arrived and we were taken to the
bus ... Read more >
Tags: bike, swim, bus, arch
LAOS | Saturday, 2 May 2009 | Views [184]
An early jumbo took us from from the airfield to the bus station. The road to Vang Vieng was steep and windy but the full volume Thai power ballads entertained. We arrived early, suddenly and a tuk tuk whisked us off on the hot dusty roadside to Phoom ... Read more >
Tags: tubing, injury
LAOS | Tuesday, 28 Apr 2009 | Views [395] | Comments [1]
The 7.30 “AC” bus from Louang Prabang to Phonsavan left at exactly 8.30 and had quite a big hole in the floor under our seats. It was a comfy enough but windy journey punctuated by the obligatory noodle soup shop in a non-descript market town. Of the ... Read more >
Tags: guest house, war, uxo, tour, history
LAOS | Sunday, 26 Apr 2009 | Views [131]
A
tuk tuk brought us up the bank of the Nam Kong river in the morning
and we walked across a fabulously rickety bamboo bridge to a Hmong
village, beginning our trek. It was blisteringly hot and Tan, our
guide kept the ... Read more >
Tags: river, trekking, kayak, animism, mot, visa, chess
LAOS | Wednesday, 22 Apr 2009 | Views [203]
There
are various strategies to finding a guest house and most of ours
involved avoiding the hawkers as much as possible. We had liked the
sound of Mekong, a place by the river mentioned in both LP and RG. A
For Sale sign ... Read more >
Tags: sok dee guesthouse, attempted robbery, visa, injury, waterfall
LAOS | Sunday, 19 Apr 2009 | Views [126]
Songkran
was finally over so we could walk the streets without fear of iced
water attacks. We were going to Laos and just had time to drop off
our boxes to be sent home before the bus was due to pick us up. The
trip ... Read more >
Tags: boat, visa, border crossing
THAILAND | Thursday, 16 Apr 2009 | Views [142]
By the time we got back from the trek we were too tired. even for a massage, so we sold out and grabbed a pizza and watched a movie in bed. This was followed by a catch-up day – lots of internet and blogging for me while Claire did a few chores ... Read more >
Tags: massage, new year, festival, temple, culture
THAILAND | Friday, 10 Apr 2009 | Views [443] | Comments [2]
Choosing a trek in the North of Thailand felt like a bit of a lottery at the time. Every seemed to offer the same thing – 3 days 2 nights of a jam packed agenda including visiting a hill people village, doing an elephant ride, bamboo rafting and ... Read more >
Tags: trekking, tribe, culture, cave
THAILAND | Wednesday, 8 Apr 2009 | Views [173]
Claire was still feeling dodgy the following day so we went looking for a local remedy. The proprieter of the Corner Cafe, where we'd been a few times came good in her suggestion of ginger tea – seems to be a great cure for a upset tummy. ... Read more >
Tags: market, massage, sick
THAILAND | Monday, 6 Apr 2009 | Views [266]
i The restaurant was closed, had a for sale sign outside and Jane and Steve were nowhere to be seen. We decided for one to have a look for a place to stay while the other minded the bags. Walking down the street it was clear there were absolutely ... Read more >
Tags: culture, food, drinking, boxing, mot, israeli, ladyboy
THAILAND | Wednesday, 1 Apr 2009 | Views [206]
On
our last day in Bangkok we were just about checked out when an
enormous thunderstorm rolled in and opened on the city. It was more
ferocious than spectacular – simultaneous bellowing thunder and
lightning combined ... Read more >
Tags: storm, train, temple
THAILAND | Monday, 30 Mar 2009 | Views [236] | Comments [1]
We
woke up late and hungover and struggled out the door so as not to
completely waste the day. We were heading for Jim Thompson's house –
the home of a an ex CIA agent who practically single handedly revived
the ... Read more >
Tags: hangover, palace, cia, buddha, chinatown, boxing
THAILAND | Friday, 27 Mar 2009 | Views [155]
It
was time to sample some legendary Thai food so we stopped in at a
restaurant which had a menu – not feeling brave enough for street
food just quite yet. Claire went for the red curry and I for the
hotter green.... Read more >
Tags: phone, guest house, teak, temple, haircut
THAILAND | Thursday, 26 Mar 2009 | Views [122]
Bangkok
is known as Krung Threp to the locals – the city of angels. Our
arrival in the massive and massively modern Suvarnabhumi airport was
straightforward after the three hour puddle jump to Sydney and a
quick ... Read more >
Tags: hectic, temple, tuktuk
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