Cockle - Nick C

Hi and welcome to my travel blog!!!
Im an English guy from Essex who has spent the last 5 years living in Sweden.
I have travelled extensively in Israel, Egypt, India, Nepal and parts of Europe.
I now have the travel bug again and have decided that there is more to life than widescreen plasma tv's, cinema effect surround systems and 24mbs broadband connections :)

Extremely outspoken, very opinionated, rather sarcastic and always controversial......

Now living and working in Vietnam and loving every second of it :D

E-Mail tropicalgardener@hotmail.com

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Joined on: August 28th 2007
Last Login: October 26th 2009

Blog Entries: 33
Photos: 808
Recommended by 1

TB Code: [blogger=46288]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Cockle, order by Date newest first.

By Cockle
February 3rd 2009

Ohh I do like to be beside the seaside...... Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Vung Tau

Declaration of love.....
ewwwww, give me a bucket......:s

... even if it does mean working your way through the Vietnamese traffic, the trip down to Vung Tau was well worth it! We only have a few days left before school starts again, so we decided to give our bikes another run out, facing the gauntlet of the Hanoi-HCMC highway and all the dangers that are associated with it. Of course, we all had to stop for the regulation munching of Pho (Faa) being as Mark is addicted to the stuff, mind you, I suppose its better than my addiction to beer and palm trees, (I would like to point [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
January 28th 2009

Big cats and useless hats...... Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Dai Nam

Pho Bar
Almost everybody eats Pho for breakfast. I wasnt in the mood today!

Damn!!! I got sunburnt something rotten today. Despite me wearing, what my dear mumsie would term as 'sensible clothing' (and no im not refering to a pair of bell bottomed jeans she bought me back in 1977 and 'still' haven’t managed to grow into yet!) I still came away from our day out looking like a Swedish crayfish after an hour of boiling away with several sprigs of the finest Swedish dill. I burnt my head too... God knows how, I had a cap on all day long! Even my esteemed colleague Mark was made to suffer in a similar way.... [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
January 18th 2009

Riverboat escapades......... Asia » Vietnam » Southeast

Waiting to board!
The food turned up fashionably late of course!!!

Well, after teaching for 5 weeks, the Tet holiday, or the Lunar New Year is finally upon us and we now have 3 weeks to do whatever we want! The teaching work here is only what I can term as amazing. The students are all wonderful and a joy to teach and for the first time in my life I can actually say that I have found something I thoroughly enjoy doing and that maybe now, finally, I seem to have found complete and utter contentment in everything I do. So, all that was left for me to do was head [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
December 14th 2008

Back on the road again...... Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Bien Hoa

Class Halloween
I think my expression says it all!

Well after 5 months of unexciting, non-travel related experiences, ive decided that it is well and truly time to get back on the open road and start blogging again. Of course im going to start by having a moan, well..... gripe I must and gripe I will!!! I do hate long haul flights! So, in my wisdom I thought I would split my flight up into 3 sectors, to give me a rest between each flight. (The real reason is because im a cheap skate, but i’ll keep that one just between you and me!) So, after a 7 hour flight [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
June 7th 2008

Financial Ruin!!! Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu

Bodnath Stupa

Ive been robbed!!! Ok… well not literally maybe, but by walking through Kathmandu it certainly feels like you have been…… Everywhere you look you are surrounded by shops and bazaars selling absolutely everything you don’t want or need and yet the unbelievably cheap prices simply compel you to dive into your wallet time and time again …… you need to have the will power and thriftiness of my ex wife ( I was going to say, stinginess, but she probably reads these blogs and that will only get me a slap!!!) to get through this place unscathed, mind you, that [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
June 3rd 2008

I cant see a bloody thing! Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling

Proof that im here....
because you cant see anything else...I could be on Clapham Common for all I know...

It’s a scam, a travesty and a complete con. Yet again I travel somewhere to see the Himalayas and every time I get there these blasted places are blanketed in cloud. Darjeeling is well renowned for being the tea capital of India and im not at all surprised! Any tea would taste good here, especially when its only 15c, the entire town is covered in a foggy blanket and it rains all the time. Allegedly there are supposed to be mountains around here somewhere. In the shops you can find postcards that show a view that is probably 500 miles away, [View Full Entry]

The famous and well known 'Dog in the Box'

Yes, ive been looking at this fog for a few days now!!!

By Cockle
May 30th 2008

The Big, the Beautiful and The Brave Asia » Nepal » Chitwan

Splash....Nellie having fun....

Ok, yes I know they are cute, a straightforward visit to the zoo always brings about the onset of ahhing and cooing every time the elephants come out and do their stuff. However, to roll about, swim or get closer than 10ft from these impressive beasts, is in my eyes, bonkers, and you have to be somewhat half baked to do this as the thought of being squashed like a pancake is enough to make me keep my distance. Yet Chitwan National Park and the local town of Sauraha give you the chance to do all these things. Our elephant for [View Full Entry]

Stream crossing on the way to our Homestay.

By Cockle
May 25th 2008

Im in Paradise..... Err yet again.... Asia » Nepal » Pokhara

Prayer Flags over the Pokhara Valley

Well, I know ive actually said this before, but if I want to change my mind then that’s my perogative, haa! So, here I am in Nepal and all I can say is thank God! Nepal is like a breath of fresh air after the dirt and pollution of India. It is so clean here, the people are polite and extremely friendly, the scenery is beautiful and the only thing that spoils it are the Indian tourists that come here and bring their dirty habits with them. If the Indians want to live among piles of rubbish in their own country [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
May 18th 2008

Id rather eat Swedish pickled herring than be here! Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi

Why travel to far off exotic places
in the search for exotic items, when you can find human skulls in Varanasi???

Oh gawd...here we go again…. I really do think its time to get out of India and explore pastures new. Varanasi 'The city of death' is supposed to be the spiritual centre for all Indian Hindu’s where life and death are concerned. People from all over the country come here to die, they even have a building where people come to stay, spend their last days and literally 'check out'. Of course, if you haven’t done so within 15 days then you are respectfully requested to leave…… However, in retrospect, I suppose the main reason why people come to Varanasi to [View Full Entry]

By Cockle
May 14th 2008

Extortionate Bills and Oval Wheels Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Yes I know.....yawn....we have all seen this picture a million times before....

Ive finally arrived at Indias premier attraction, The Taj Mahal in Agra. The Taj is admittedly very beautiful, although I must confess that I haven’t been completely blown away by it. While most people know the story behind the building of the Taj, I will repeat it briefly for those of you who don’t. First the Essex version….. Once upon a time there was this kingy like geezer who’s missus kicked the bucket, he was well miffed and after bawling like a baby for a few days he builds this chuffing great building and stuffs the ex ball and chain in [View Full Entry]

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