http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Cockle/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Cockle en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:59:36 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:59:36 +0000 Well a few months back I decided to head off to the seaside for a week and take a well deserved rest from teaching. Problem is I've been too lazy to blog recently due to the fact that I'm surrounded by what is to me the horticultural equivalent of pornography yes my glorious and beloved palm collection stacks of cold beer and an entire harem of 6236 beautiful Vietnamese women. Anyway now http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Nha-Trang/blog-416097.html ... 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 HanoiHCMC 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Vung-Tau/blog-369849.html Damn I got sunburnt something rotten today. Despite me wearing what my dear Mumsie would term as 'sensible clothing' and no I'm not refering to a pair of bell bottomed jeans she bought me back in 1977 and 'still' havenrsquot 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 di http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Dai-Nam/blog-368071.html 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 f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/blog-364748.html Well after 5 months of unexciting nontravel related experiences I've decided that it is well and truly time to get back on the open road and start blogging again. Of course I'm going to start by having a moan well..... gripe I must and gripe I willI 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 re http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Bien-Hoa/blog-353833.html Ive been robbed Okhellip well not literally maybe but by walking through Kathmandu it certainly feels like you have beenhelliphellip Everywhere you look you are surrounded by shops and bazaars selling absolutely everything you donrsquot want or need and yet the unbelievably cheap prices simply compel you to dive into your wallet time and time again helliphellip you need to have the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/blog-286786.html Itrsquos 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. Al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Darjeeling/blog-286787.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Chitwan/blog-286785.html Well I know ive actually said this before but if I want to change my mind then thatrsquos 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 c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Pokhara/blog-286782.html Oh gawd...here we go againhellip. 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 Hindursquos 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 co http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-286781.html Ive finally arrived at Indias premier attraction The Taj Mahal in Agra.The Taj is admittedly very beautiful although I must confess that I havenrsquot 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 donrsquot. First the Essex versionhellip.. Once upon a time there was this kingy like geezer who http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-286777.html Being as im currently playing catch up with my blogs this sort of puts me in a position to reflect on recent current events ie the not too distant batch of cowardly attacks by those pathetic Islamic militants on innocent civilians.Its quite disconcerting to think that only 36 hours previously Heather and myself were walking in some of those areas where the bombs exploded. Other travellers who w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaipur/blog-286775.html Once a city becomes a major movie location then this usually means that your going to be bombarded with all kinds of tacky merchandise and sales patter regardless of the fact that the movie was never a major hit and that the film in question was shot here over 20 years ago.Im referring of course to the James Bond film Octopussy which used many of the local hotels as filming locations. Everywhere http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Udaipur/blog-274533.html This isnt one of the most impressive cities ive visited over the last few weeks although it does seem that as I move further North the cleaner the cities tend to be. Is this because all the rivers run Southwards A modern day metropolis in the state of Gujarat Ahmedabad just gets on with its day to day routine like every other city in this part of the world. There isnrsquot a great deal t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Gujarat/Ahmedabad/blog-274532.html After visiting what feels like 600000 temples or there abouts even the thought of visiting another one no matter how impressive it is is enough to want to make you self immolate yourself So there was I thinking that maybe I would start to suffer from the dreaded 'Cave Overload Syndrome' after my visit to Ellora however as you saw from my previous expressions of mirth and glee visiting thes http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Ajanta-Caves/blog-274530.html Yes ok I know I said id had enough of temples and the like however the caves at Ellora really are something else. Around 30km from Aurangabad you will find one of Indiarsquos crown jewels. Getting there is another thing as every bus that goes this way seems to be packed with locals who seem to use the buses just for the sake of going for a ride. Since ive been here in India ive always tried t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Ellora-Caves/blog-274527.html Well fortune has smiled on me yet again. Thanks to the renowned inefficiency of the Indian rail network I didnrsquot miss my stopThe journey from Hyderabad to Aurangabad involves you waking up at 345am or thereabouts so that you donrsquot miss your stop at 405am. I set 2 alarms as I usually do but they simply didnrsquot go offhellip..either of them which left me feeling well miffed http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-273728.html It doesnrsquot rain it pourshelliphellip then again I suppose how long can you get away with travelling in a developing country before getting some ailment or anotherLimited to one foot for the last day or so ive been hobbling my way round Hyderabad much to the amusement of the indigenous population determined not to allow some expired freshwater mollusc remnant to have the last laugh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Andhra-Pradesh/Hyderabad/blog-273511.html Ive come to the conclusion that the domain of the blog must surely be confined to that of solo travellers or couples who share the same barmy blogging interest.Ive spent so much time drinking beer socialising and getting to know ferrets over the last few days that I now get the feeling that I am letting my fan club down 3 people and a 15 year old cat called Edward that I better take my proverbi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Hampi/blog-270096.html Sometimes it really pays literally to get sidetracked and quite simply spend the day somewhere that you never intended to go anywhere near in the first placeI was seriously debating the logic of spending 6 hours on a bus just to see one small town however the bus was air conditioned and I didnrsquot have anything else to do so I decided to bite the bullet dump my main rucksack in the cloa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-270095.html