Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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Dear All,

We would like to send you very warm and humid Christmas greeting from bustling Bangkok! We made the decision to leave Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and head for Thailand a couple of days ago on a whim. We had already booked an overnight train to Varanasi, but when we couldn’t alter our flights to Bangkok on 21st January, geography influenced our move. We were unsure as to whether we would also be welcomed by toxic pollution in Bangkok (Kolkata was quite extreme - the mice also rode on cockroaches in our rooms!) but we have been pleasantly surprised. Nina has been wandering around since our arrival beaming from ear-to-ear, delighted with the blend of old golden temples and new sky scrapers.

Especially for Christmas, we have upgraded. We are now spending £12.00 a night to live in luxury with a hot shower, air conditioning, clean bedding and TV in our room. The hotel even has a rooftop pool! The biggest joy is going to be the delivery of clean machine-washed clothes though! We collect at 13:00 today. Thailand is geared more towards Christmas - especially the backpacker area - but we also made our own effort last night spending 300 Baht each (about £4.00) stuffing a stocking! I got to wake-up to an English tabloid and Nina got to eat Ferrero Rocher.

India was fantastic and exhausting. The country is so overwhelming to the senses that it manages to be stunning and magical in one moment, then foul and infuriating the next! We both love the extremes of India, but at the moment are looking forward to having more time to commit to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. In the past month, after leaving Chandigarh (visiting Shimla in 5-star luxury with our Indian hosts!), we’ve been to Amritsar, Pushkar, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Mumbai, Anjuna, Benaulim, Fort Kochi, Alleppey, Munnar, Pondicherry, Mamallapuram and Kolkata. Highlights have been the magical Pushkar, an overnight camel safari in the Thar Desert, the palaces of Udaipur, visiting almost every beach along the coast of Goa on a moped, paddling a canoe around the backwaters of Kerala, hiking in the tea plantations of Munnar (seeing wild elephants!) and marvelling at the stone carvings in Mamallapuram.

Anyway, can’t waste time writing an epistle, Bangkok is waiting outside! If you want to see some photos of our trip thus far, just go to Nina’s Facebook account. You can search for her account with ‘Nina Dahl’. If you haven’t got an account, just create one at www.facebook.com and request access to Nina’s account.

Merry Christmas!

With love,
David & Nina x

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