Due to our bargaining and pure tightness over the last three months we are left with a few spare rupee's in our pocket to blow lavishly in our final few weeks so Chandigarh was left in the dust of our taxi ride to Dehra Dun. It wasn't really meant to be a one night stopover but the town didn't really hold much appeal so we checked into a posh place, didn't really do a lot just planned our escape to Mussoorie which was one hour by a local grueller. Our arrival to Mussoorie was met with a monsoon battering. Mussoorie is [View Full Entry]

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Amritsar; boiling hot, dusty and chaotic but home to the wonderful Golden Temple. Being one of only free attractions in India we were able to visit the temple at several times of the day. The first time was in the middle of the day which was not the best time as it swarms with hundreds if not thousands of pilgrims. As with all temples off came the shoes on went the head scarf and as this is a Sikh temple you have to wash your feet before entering. Like the Taj the temple and complex are made of mainly marble with [View Full Entry]

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The bus to Naggar was so crowded people were sat on the roof, luckily for us we've become seasoned pro's in the battle of boarding buses so we were happily seated for the journey. We were planning on staying actually at Naggar castle however it gets quite busy during the day, we didn't fancy people peering into our windows and the like so we opted for the hotel next door. The village is very small but there are views of the hills and mountains from every which way and other than a few cow's moo-ing the place is nice and quiet. [View Full Entry]

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About a month ago several bombs went off in Jaipur and on the morning we had planned to get a bus over there to complete our tourist trail of the golden triangle we heard Gujjar protestors were blocking roads and train tracks from Agra. We decided to give Jaipur a wide berth and head back to Delhi and have a re-think. The new plan was to head straight into Himachal Pradesh and explore the valleys and mountains a few weeks earlier than planned. The dusty bus journey from Chandigarh to Shimla was awful, we had to change buses three times and [View Full Entry]

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After a delayed, boring flight we managed to arrive in Delhi at 9.30pm and were faced with a dilemma; do we go in a taxi and try to find a hotel in a dark, strange city or do we ask at Indian Tourism in the airport about accommodation. The latter seemed like the easiest solution so we headed straight for the counter in arrivals. The guy asked us roughly what we wanted to pay then said the cheapest hotel near the centre was R1590. The pictures looked a bit rough but it was fast approaching 10pm, we were tired and wanted [View Full Entry]

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Kumily home to the Periyar wildlife sanctuary is thankfully situated at a highish altitude (1000m) and was a nice escape from the heat in the valleys. We arrived by bus as a continuation of our game plan to keep traveling short distances and were met by an auto-rickshaw who whisked us away from the town and to our accommodation, Coffee Inn, about three hundred yards form the park entrance. It was a quaint gaff that had a garden which doubled up as a restaurant over looking the park. The food was really nice however whenever we decided to eat there we [View Full Entry]

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It's never great to land late at night in a strange new place though it seems to happen more often than not. Based on our previous experiences with indian immigration we made a dash for the front of the queue at passport control however our plans went belly up when we found ourselves waiting at the baggage carosel for half an hour for our bags. We headed straight for the prepaid taxis booth and were led to a car. I must say the barrage of "sirs" and grabbing for our bags never happened and unlike China everyone seemed quite unimpressed by [View Full Entry]

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Alas our time in Singapore was a little disappointing, not only had we chosen accommodation which was really far from town but it was also smack right in the middle of the red light district. We stayed in Geylang five years ago and had some fond memories of the place so decided it would be a nice idea to go back there however it is now seedy and not somewhere I would recommend. Our road was literally a cattle market, at night girls would line the pavement while gangs of men would walk up and down until they found one at [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a day bus, it took 10 hours but was a far better option than the sleeper bus. The bus dropped us right in the heart of traveller district and as usual we were hounded by touts the moment we got off the bus however we walked directly to the guesthouse we had in mind and were in a room within 10 minutes of getting off the bus and in a restaurant with a nice cold beer a further 5 minutes after that! Between spending a few days wandering around HCMC we found time [View Full Entry]

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We were told that the word "Vietnam" translates to running or moving south which coincidently fits very nicely as a title to this blog. After spending too much time in the north we had to whistle stop down through the central areas quickly so the rather brief sequel that follows reflects just that. You wouldn't have thought Hue was once the capital of Vietnam, so calm and peaceful, very different to Hanoi. The city and the surrounding area contains lots of important historical sites so after checking in to the very friendly Binh Dong 1 we set out towards the citadel [View Full Entry]

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