Arrived in Thailand from Mumbai - what a change..... Had a chilled out few days in Kata - Phuket, lazing on the beach for xmas! We were both really surprised at how expensive it was here, especially after just coming from India!!! We blew our month budget within the first two weeks - oopppsss! Christmas was quite odd, although it did manage to rain which made it slightly more like home! Had a fantastic meal at Mom Tri's on xmas day, but was strange not being with the family :( We met Rox's Mum, John and sisters (except Pezza) on [View Full Entry]

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A bit more about Pushkar!! A pretty small place, built around a lake! Its a dry state so no alcohol, nor eggs bizzarely! Peter managed to find somewhere that done shepards pie - a veggie of course! This was perfect for his delicate stomach! The next day we had time to explore and went to visit the Brahma temple but didn't bother going in as it looked like a tourist trap so we wisely stayed away! Around town there are loads of men trying to give you little flowers that you put in the lake to bring good luck to you [View Full Entry]

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In bikaner western rajastahan, Pete went to the Karni Mats temple which is a temple full of rats,they are worshiped here and there is a holy food offering that is covered in rats saliva, this is claimed to beng good fortune but Pete strangely enough didn't eat any! Rox chose to wait at the hotel as she is scared of rats but after seeing the pictures agreed with Pete that they look quite cute as they were quite small. The gross bit of this trip was the fact that the floor (that you had to walk on bear foot) was full [View Full Entry]

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Our photos should be up now...... We arrive at Bandhavgarh National Park mid afternoon and managed to get a jeep safar in, this was very cool, we got to see barking, spotted and samba deer, elephants and most impressive of all a male tiger! It started of about 80ft away in some tall grass - its lucky they have guys on elephants tracking the tigers or you'd never spot them! We watched for about 10mins why it looked at us and licked itself, once it was satisfied with its self groominh it came down the hill it was up - [View Full Entry]

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We went to meet the group, this was a much bigger group 24 of us all on an overland truck through India. We went for a group dinner and out for drinks,got to know few people better even a guy here from upminster who was born in Colchester - small world. We had a long drive ahead to Chitwan national park, we got to see the truck for the first time his name is Archie...its really good has few tables on it and a fridge.I struggle to even get on it as the step is so high up off the floor [View Full Entry]

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All excited about our boarder crossing, untill we had to trapse with our back packs for like half and hour to get there.... Went through ok and made it onto the Friendship Bridge. Here there is a red line painted half way along it signifying the boarder.... as we crossed a Nepali guy shouted to us 'Leaving China" and waved his hands.... Probably how most of us felt.... It was bizzare it actually did feel instantly dfifferent as we crossed the bridge, the army guys were smiling and friendly (although they still looked scary) and everyone seemed a lot more lively [View Full Entry]

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Monday 10th - Our trip to everest today, Rox woke feeling ill....not a good start plus an 8hr drive climbing to 5000m - poor Rox. We stopped for lunch and had curried rice......... little did we know Rox would be seeing this again! Lots of stops on the way - passport checks... Our first sighting of Everest was really cool we were so lucky the weather was perfectly clear. Pretty damn impressive. A few photo stops went by and then we made it to base camp - hmmmmm what can we say, not quite what we had anticipated. Just a desolate [View Full Entry]

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Thursaday 6th contined...... We drove over three passes all nearing 5000m.....incredible views when driving over snow topped mountains. Our tour guide actually walked over these mountains to get into India to study Buddhism in Dharamasala, he had to walk over the mountains as the government would not grant him a visa to leave Tibet....he walked at night and slept hidden in the day. At the top of the first pass we stopped in the most spectacular place, a massive lake formed in a valley between two joining mountains at about 4800m....so unbelievable it was perfect completely untouched, its ca [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 2nd - This morning we had a late start so we ventured to the market, well, we stepped outside our hotel into the middle of it... We brought some sheep wool innersole for our trekking boots, they're really comfy and only 50p each... Our day trip was to the Potala palace, to get in here we had to give in our passports and go when the government, plus we were only allowed to spend an hour in there... But lukily our guide managed to get some more time, but got told not to talk about politics inside.... Again we werent [View Full Entry]

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To view our photo's go to; http://picasaweb.google.com/benstanlio Thursday 30th - last night we finished of the day with a traditional Tibetan meal consisting of yak yak and more yak, which was lovely, probably the best on the trip so far! mostly traveling today, but were both glad to leave our hotel that we had last night in kangding, was pretty grotty! After having a shower Rox went to use the towel and found it to be full of blood stains, the beds were also full of stains - nice!! Had lunch at the road side, which was nice - vegetable [View Full Entry]

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