We started this in Mumbai... Well folks - this is the last one!! We've got 2 days to go and to be honest we can't wait to get home and see you all again. India has got a rather raw deal at the end of this trip. We had planned to stay for at least 6 weeks but other places were soooo exciting we spent much more time than we had expected there. So we've spent three weeks trying to get to grips with small areas of this massive country. We started in Amritsar - a hit! Here the Sikhs did [View Full Entry]

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We warn you now we have loved Pakistan and that can be seen by the forthcoming verbosity! Since you last heard from us we've covered some ground. From Osh we took the 24 hour bus journey back over the Irkestam pass to China with the same one-eyed driver who had somehow managed to get us there. This journey was uneventful except for the fact that the driver unloaded our bags at the border and left them there. This incurred a 4 hour trip and $50 taxi fare back to the border the next day to collect them. We spent a couple [View Full Entry]

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We have spent the last 3 weeks loving Kyrgyzstan. We are now back in Osh, where we wrote the last blog, after a trip covering some of the most beautiful spots in this country. Osh is the southern capital and is heavily influenced by the large Uzbek population who live here. Ramadan has been an interesting time to be here, with the Mosques busy and people observing the fasting. Kyrgyzstan attracts a small but growing number of travellers, and we soon hooked up with a few like-minded people to explore. Our first stop was the appropriately named Arslanbob (see below). This [View Full Entry]

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Well despite it seeming like an age ago we will start where the last one left off. We did indeed go to see our newly emmigrated friend Wendy in Rayong, Thailand. We had a great time enjoying her luxurious pad, bath, TV, Kitchen, Air-con, Swimming Pool etc. We met up with her new colleagues and got involved in a lot of the introductory events and banter - so much so that I think some people thought that we were actually going to be teaching at the school, and may even now be wondering where we are and why we are not [View Full Entry]

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From the hustle and bustle of Bangkok we travelled east by VIP bus (a double decker coach with air-con and lurid interior decor complete with flashing lights and pelmets) to the Cambodian border on Thai high quality highways. At the border things changed in many ways. We suddenly hit signs of abject poverty, children and amputees begging and a noticeable deterioration of the road system - i.e. there wasn't one. We spent 7 hours on a bus being bumped around covering the mere 150km journey to Siam Reap. Rumour has it that a Thai airline is paying off the Cambodian government [View Full Entry]

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As normal we should excuse ourselves for not having blogged for ages. Sorry! We are now in Bangkok, Thailand suffering in a muggy heat that is comparable to what is going on in the UK at the moment. We finally managed to drag ourselves away from Mongolia, and headed down through the Gobi desert, through Inner Mongolia (China) and into Shanxi and indeed Shaanxi Provinces. We stopped in the fairly industrial city of Datong, which though nothing special itself has 2 of China's most impressive tourist site within easy distance. First we went to visit the Hanging Monastery - this monaster [View Full Entry]

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This might be a long one... Shanghai turned out to be a lot of fun. The moderness of it all was totally at odds with Yunnan before it and Beijing afterwards. The skylines were the main attraction, particularly at night. Although watching the boats on the bund was also a compelling. From Shanghai we took a very comfortable train overnight to Beijing. Carrie immediately felt at home and transported us swifly to the youth hostel where we based ourselves for a week while we waited for our Mongolian visas. Beijing was very interesting and provided lots of good touristy and non [View Full Entry]

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Right, we have forced ourselves to get up to date, so having gobbled down another bowl of rice - here we go with our latest exploits.... Firstly: Taiwan This was a slightly random destination determined by Trailfinders. We arrived puzzling how we had lost Saturday and how exactly the date line thing worked. As we had no guide book for Taiwan we had to figure it out ourselves. Taipei (Capital city if you believe Taiwan is an independent country) is a large modern city, very clean, very well organised with lots of people. We adjusted to Asia and the jetlag by [View Full Entry]

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Sorry Guys, this one got delayed by the fact that, despite it being the technology capital of the world, Hong Kong has no internet cafe!! Anyway here it is and we will write up our exploits in Asia so far in the next day or so. Also photos to follow. Ole, ole!! Mexico has been fantastic for many reasons.... We spent nearly two weeks there and could have stayed for a year... (as with everywhere else). We went first to the Yucatan peninsula and stayed in a hut on the beautiful white beach of Tulum. We swam in aquamarine seas, stretched [View Full Entry]

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Hello! We've had a very busy few weeks travelling up through Central America. Our last efforts were from Costa Rica and since then we have travelled up through Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and we're currently in Mejico, country number 13 - phew!! Nicaragua: We headed straight for Granada, rather than Managua (the capital for all you pub quizzers and v dubious). Granada is a very nice colonial town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. From there we visited Isla Ometepe in the middle of the lake. Now you woudn't think a boat ride across a lake would be that bad - [View Full Entry]

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