Hmmm not sure what to put here. Planning to travel through India then Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos. Hopefully I'll get to China and Japan towards the end. All that in 5 months, hmmmmm....
Yes you're right there is no pleasing some people. But what is an englishman (/scotsman) if he can't moan about the weather! We have moved over the border into Tamil Nadu after a litlle more difficult journey than we were hoping for. The guide book indicated that you could either walk (6 hours) or get a jeep most of the way between Munnar and Kodai. However for some reason (we haven't been able to get a definitive answer on this as everyone gives us a different reason) the trail is closed. So we had to get a taxi all the way round as there didn't seem to be any buses that ran between them (although there seem to be plenty running from Kodai!). We left at 8am and didn't arrive until 5pm but we had a ... read more
Since my last entry we went further down the coast to Kochi. Its quite a nice slow paced town but there were far too many tourists there (mainly americans) and it began to grate on both of us. Plus it was REALLY hot and we both started getting grumpy with being hot all the time. So we decided to journey up into the mountains to cool off for a few days. Munnar is a great place and it only took us 3 1/2 hrs to get up here by taxi from Kochi. There are cardamon and tea plantations everywhere. There are stunning views around every corner but because almost every space is covered with tea it doesn't seem real. The bright green tea leaves shining in the sun with the paths cut in between where the ... read more
Kannur is our first stop in Kerala and its been a great introduction. Our train journey down the coast from Mangalore was much the same as the one to Mangalore but just with increasing numbers of palm trees. It is very beautiful and unspoilt countryside and the train is a great way to see it away from the busy roads. One thing that struck us almost immediately is that Kerala is very clean. All the cars, trucks, and even the autos seem to be cleaned on a daily basis. Most people are dressed in clean and freshly pressed clothes and the streets are all swept clean of rubbish on a regular basis. The people here also seem to take care in ensuring that at stays clean by not dropping litter. Also the people here are very ... read more
Well I've not had much of interest to tell you as we've pretty much been doing sweet FA! Lying on the beach, swimming, and generally relaxing. Its been far too hot to do much else though to be fair! We're now back on the road though and it was a bit of a shock to the system after the relative luxury of Goa. The train down to Mangalore was a bit of an adventure as it was just a local train where you have fight your way onto the train with everyone else as there are no reservations. We managed to get on relatively easily helped by some very nice guys from Mangalore who had been up in Goa for the weekend. We set off two hours late which was a bit of a shame as ... read more
Well we just arrived in Goa after a couple of days in Mumbai. I really liked Mumbai but it was quite expensive (comparitively) so we decided to move on. We were a little shocked on the way in by the shanty towns. It seemed like every spare piece of land has had something built on it from a tent made from plastic sheeting to a 2 storey brick built house. All of which are built illegally and are causing huge health problems for their inhabitants. They are gradually trying to clear these and redevelop them but with around 40% of the population living in these places it will take a massive effort to provide replacement housing. The city centre itself was completely different to any other the other cities we have been. Its very modern and ... read more
I had a feeling that the "Sleeper" bus would be a bit of an adventure and I wasn't disappointed. When we arrived in Ahmedabad the agent told us that our bus was at 9pm so we should be back at his office for 8.30. That gave us a couple of hours to check emails and get some food. We wandered down the street and after a while it became very apparent that very few people spoke english, 99% of the signs were in Hindi or some other non-Latin script. We later discovered that this was common across the whole of Gujarat. I'm not complaining that they didn't speak english, it was just a very strange experience going somewhere where you can't even recogise the letters used in the words let alone the words themselves. At least ... read more
We just left Mount Abu which was absolutely beautiful. It was peaceful and calm and pretty much hassle free. We did a trek yesterday for 12 km / 5 hrs around the mountain and through the nature reserve. We saw monkeys, wild boar and lots of birds and found out loads about the local area. Our guide Charles was great and even invited us back to his house for a drop of rum and to listen to his bad danish music and generic chart dance (Saturday Night by Whigfield!). But we realised if we stayed much longer then we wouldn't leave! It was quite strange being in Mount Abu mainly because its really a resort. Its kind of like Rhyl or Skeggy for Indian's. Peddalos on the lake, amusment arcade and ice cream shops on top ... read more
Its quite a relief to get to Udaipur and it hasn't dissapointed. There is a lot less hassle here than in the other places we have visited in the "tourist triangle" and the pace of life seems a bit more chilled. The town is built around two main lakes, with two smaller lake in between. Our hotel is by one of the two small lakes and so is fairly central. It isn't amazing but its not bad. We walked round the city palace today and went out to some gardens on an island in the middle of one of the lakes. We sat there for an hour or so and just enjoyed the sun and the peace and quiet. We get rid of our driver tomorrow and even though we got scammed along the way I ... read more
Before we even checked into the hotel yesterday we were taken to another "friendly" travel agent and it was suggested we go on a Camel trek. Neither of us were particularly bothered so we said no. It was amazing how quickly the price came down! We ended up paying about half the orginal price just because we weren't that bothered about going! Checked into the hotel which is very nice (but it should be at the price we paid!). And then pretty much straight away went out on the Camel trek. Neither of us had even asked how long it was or anything but I was a little worried when our camel driver(?) said it would be 3 hours before we got to where we were going to have dinner. On the way we stopped and ... read more
Jaipur again is a very busy city. It seems very dirty even compared to Delhi. We rove through a couple of nice areas yesterday but in general it has been dirty and very polluted. On the way in we stopped at the "Monkey Temple". It was a bit of a trek up past a series of temples and up e steep hill but once you got to the top there were amazing views over the whole of Jaipur. Today we have been to the two hill forts (Tiger & Jahgir). These were huge and also gave great views over the city and surrounding area. We didn't go to Amber fort as we ran out of time. We just saw an procession going down the street and followed it for a while. From what we could gather ... read more