Jambo! India 3 Sothern India was so refreshing after the trials of the central plains. The people were so chilled out; it felt like a Caribbean island! I love the idiosyncratic movement / swivel of the neck the Indians use when talking, its very endearing. Goa is a beautiful resort with a Portuguese influence in its numerous Catholic churches dating back from the 1500's. Their patron saints, St Francis Xavier died in 1552, but even in 1622 his body had never decomposed, until the Jesuit community decided to divide it up as relics among their different missions. I hope he wasn’t [View Full Entry]

---

---

Namaste, McLeod Ganj: The Himalayas have been just amazing. McLeod Ganj with all its Tibetan influence was a fascinating place. The many monks exemplify the kind nature of the Tibetan people. I gave English lessons to some refugees, and hearing their stories of fleeing across the mountains to Nepal and into India were incredible. 'Tunga' told me of how he fled with a group of 29, including one baby. On one occasion they had to walk within 30 feet of a Chinese military post in a mountain pass in the early hours of the morning, and how they feared if the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Namaste (‘The God in me sees and honors the God in you’) Incredible India indeed. Everything about this vast country is incredible, including the poverty. A recent UNICEF report calculated some 57 Million undernourished kids in India (Africa 41 Million, between the two they account for 2/3 of the 146 Million malnourished kids worldwide). There is no shortage of food on this planet, just the lack of will to distribute it properly. I hope and pray that the present round of world trade talks (WTO) will cut a fair deal for developing countries to enable them to trade their way o [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sawat dii, Well Hello from Thailand. Such a beautiful country. On my train trip over the River Kwai (Death Railway) I got to have a jant on an elephant. Even better, I got to bath one in the river, or should that read she bathed me :) Magnificent creatures. The group spend a night sleeping on a raft house, and then a boat trip up to the infamous bridge. You can see where the allies successfully bombed two sections, which are now rectangular in shape compared to the original oval sections. There were numerous WW II graves for the 20,000+ soldiers [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello there, Cambodia & Vietnam have been very beautiful countries with truly wonderful people. They make do with the few resources that they have, and are very ingenious with how they utilise the many bits and pieces. Teachers earn only $25 / month ( <1% of the Irish rate), which will give you an idea of the scale of the economy over here. While travelling through the countryside, it was like travelling on a time machine through Europe as depicted in 16th century oil paintings, with wooden carts, hay stacks and basic timber housing. The Temples / Walled Cities at Ankor [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello From Cambodia! Melbourne was lovely, very relaxing after the hectic pace of enjoying New Zealand. Got to attend the Closing Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, and check out the suburban cul de sac where they film ‘Neighbors’ :) While landing at Bangkok’s airport I was struck by the presence of a golf course on the grass between the runways, with mopeds queuing up to cross the runway! Otherwise Bangkok was surprisingly ‘western’. Lots of fine ‘high-end’ shopping malls that I would normally have associated with cities like New York or Pa [View Full Entry]

---

---

'G-Day’, A curious thing happened while flying from Honolulu on a 8 hour flight to New Zealand. I departed on a Friday night & landed on a Sunday morning! Saturday March 4th did not exist for me, all because I passed the International date line from East to West! New Zealand is such a beautiful place to be. The scenery in the country is not unlike Ireland, with green fields, and lots of cows and sheep. The towns, cities & people are very ‘English’. I had a week on both the North & South Island, and managed to fit in a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi there, I have landed in Auckland, NZ, and have just finalised my itinerary for the next two weeks. Hawaii was great. I would love to have spent more time there, but I guess I¡¯ve said that about pretty much all of my destinations. Got to get within inches of some Humpback whales off the island of Maui, an idyllic tropical island. The boat was required to stop 100 yds from the whales, but the female took a shine to the boat and 3-4 males were in hot pursuit. Each of them weighed about 40 tonnes. On the main island, I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Howdy, I've made my way across Canada, from Cape Spear in Newfoundland to Vancouver on the Pacific Coast in British Columbia. Canada travails 6 time zones from East to West (GMT -3.5 to -8). While in Toronto I spent some time with my sisters. I don't mean to brag, but my niece Ciara is one of the cutest little girls on the planet (see photos below). My sister Sandra joined me out west. We flew to Calgary and spent a night at The Chateau Lake Louise, where upon check-in, we were informed that our room had been upgraded to a 'Fairmont [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hi all, Whaoooo... It feels great to be seeing all the cities that I talked of visiting for years. California really is one of the most beautiful places to live in the world. Gorgeous beaches, fantastic weather ( +25'C in Feb!), fine houses, cars, boats, highways, parks, museums etc etc... My first destination was Orange County where I participated in a 3 day 'Ayruvadic' programme at a centre run by one of my favourite authors, Deepak Chopra. The centre is located at the renowned 'La Costa' resort. I went for a swim in the ocean, but even the South Beach in [View Full Entry]

---

---