Blogs from Asia - page 12999

Rain in Rajasthan, no camel trek, no camera

Asia » India » Rajasthan March 16th 2007

Just wrote a whole long intro to this blog and then the computer stuck and I lost the lot. :-(( Firstly, I am really grateful to Mike, my travelling companion over the last week (more later), for this blog entry still having photos, as my camera was lost/stolen in Jaisalmer (more later). He has kindly copied all the photos he took during the time we travelled together. So as Mike was behind the camera, this means I'm in more of the pictures, which is a good or bad thing depending on which way you look at it... I'm just coming to the end of my time in Rajasthan, I've been here almost 3 weeks, and about to make my way up to the Punjab, to Amritsar. So, rewinding a couple of weeks, if I can recall ... read more

rooftop cafe, Heaven Guest House, Jodhpur

Buy a knife.. or a gun..

Asia » Singapore March 16th 2007

Chivalry

Ahhh.. last night went out for the usual Thursday end-of-week drink session with me buddies.. I started asking them, hey, should i bring my Tibetan dagger along for the trip? It's no Ka-bar.. but it's a Ka-wa! haha.. Kawa is a branded dagger in the Yunnan/Tibet region in China.. made of tibetan steel that can 削铁如泥！shave iron like mud.. dun play play.. they say dagger too small.. and the dagger's more like a ceremonial/souvenir dagger.. melvin then suggested taking adrian's Lord of the Rings sword.. the reforged sword of Isildur.. dunno what new name.. a double handed broad sword.. that should earn some respect.. heh.. Then they said no lah.. cos they'll most probably be carrying guns to rob you, if you encounter them.. so mel suggested, why not buy a gun?? TING! light bulb appeared ... read more

Chang Mai and Hill Trek.

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai March 16th 2007

night train to chang mai

DR Drea AKA Ted

We toke the over night train from bangkok up to chang mai . air conditioned and a bit like a morgue. the buffet car though was amazing. they close at ten but around half eight turned off the lights , cranked cheesy western music right up and just left us with a string of crappy coloured lights hanging from the ceiling and a banner saying happy new year, plus there's no windows. the noise was amazing what an experience. kinda made the night. got to Chang mai early doors and had a free day so went up to to the elephant conservation centre. they had a two day old baby elephant and put on a bit of a show. moving stuff, painting and the like. next morning we went up and up in to the hills. ... read more

NT's for Rupees

Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata March 16th 2007

Sunset over the Ganges

Becks14

Kolkata. Day 3... Marriage proposals: 0 Curry dishes eaten: 5 SO, i arrived into Kolkata from Taiwan March 13th...of course i got the flight that was arriving into India at 1am. Probably the most scared i have ever been in my life. As the escalator to gate E1a in Bangkok went up, over and on its way down into the waiting area i clearly realized i was a) the only female and b) the only non-Indian waiting for this flight. I have never had nerves like this before... As the plane touched down into Kolkata i was wondering why i had chosen such an unpopular tourist destination...also wondering if the man scheduled to pick me up was really who he was supposed to be. 2am i got out of the airport into a sea of men ... read more

Musings of a Musical Mind

Asia » China » Beijing » Chaoyang district » Central Business district March 16th 2007

Latest series of Scrubs on DVD

Mewwitt

The dreaded day has come and gone. March 15, which was supposed to be the day the government shut off our heat, was not the shut-off day after all. When I woke up that morning, I tentatively felt the air in close proximity to the heater in my room; it was still warm! I felt elated and threw open the window to share my happiness with the world. Sadly, my neighbors weren't as thrilled as I was; they paid no attention to my joyful proclamation and went about with their daily business undisturbed. The government-regulated heat has been both a blessing and a curse. Of course, I consider myself lucky to avoid heating bills; unfortunately, I cannot regulate the actual temperature of the apartment apart from opening the windows to let in the cool night air. ... read more

Time for a new entry?

Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » Hyderabad March 16th 2007

Poulsen425

Well, March is officially halfway over. Pretty weird. This month is really flying by. I've got a few papers I should be writing right now. Lots of trips coming up--group trip with CIEE to Mysore and Bangalore. The weekend after that Gabriel and I are going to try and squeeze in a trip, and then Good Friday weekend I'm going back to Pondicherry with a group of friends to stay there for a few days. I'm looking forward to getting out of Hyderabad for a few weekends. The past few weeks have gone well--nothing too out of the ordinary. Been trying out different South Indian restaurants around town, and have found some excellent food. South Indian food is great, but Punjabi food will probably always be my favorite. There's a restaurant called Punjabi Rasoi that's about ... read more

Monkeys stole my trousers, and other tales from Asia

Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Railay March 16th 2007

Welcome to Cambodia

Adele and Rob

As arrivals into new countries go, this was not the most auspicious. We were about 10 miles into Cambodia when our bus's engine abruptly died and refused to be coaxed back into life. The random pile of belts the driver salvaged from the engine bay suggested that we were going nowhere fast. And so it proved: minutes stretched into hours, the shadows grew longer and we repaired to a bar down the road with our fellow passengers, the better to watch the sunset. There was no point in getting stressed: we'd done enough of that at the border crossing from Vietnam, which involved more paperwork than your average mortgage application. At last a replacement bus turned up. It didn't look like much, but it was hard to tell in the dark and anyway, beggars couldn't be ... read more

Last Port In the Philippines

Asia » Philippines » Batangas March 16th 2007

Group Photo

Bennyb

Hey Guys hows it going out there ? So ya I found out that there is a wireless connection at the back of the ship so ya that would be why so many updates in the past few days..... I am sitting here on the childrens play ground writting you this. So ya hope you enjoy the pics !... read more

The End of Rajasthan

Asia » India » Rajasthan March 16th 2007

boy inside meherangarh fort, jodhpur

levir

Later this evening I'm boarding a train to begin a 45 hour or so trip by train and bus to Uttarkashi, where my course begins on the 20th. I will at least have a 10 hour or so break in Delhi, but in spite of how appealing the mountains sound right now, I'm not looking forward to the process of getting there. Rajasthan has been a good enough introduction to India, I suppose. It sees more tourists than any other state, and at times it was quite beautiful. Other times were markedly less than spectacular. It rained the last 24 hours or so that I was in Jaisalmer, which I gather is extremely rare outside of the (meager) monsoon season. I had no complaints until night fell, when the "storm" (as it was described to me ... read more

Jaipur

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jaipur March 16th 2007

Jim21

Just a quick message (as this internet cafe is rubbish) to let people know i am now in Jaipur, where my project starts in two days. We came here via Agra where the taj mahal is. It is absolutely beutiful. I could have sat there and looked at it all day. Anyway better go. Will wrtite more when i get to a better place. Jim... read more

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