The bus journey to the region of Cappadocia was unfortunate because of my spectacular miscalculation in travel time. I first travelled to the large city of Antalya with its multi-story, 150+ platform bus station but could only get a connecting bus to the village of Göreme (central in the Cappadocia region) at 16:00 that afternoon. That seemed feasible and I figured that we should arrive at around 23:00 which was late, but there would still be enough places open to get a room for the night. Instead I was dumped at a petrol station outside of Nevsehir at 02:30. It was [View Full Entry]

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I mentioned before that the Turks like to travel in style and I can report that this extends to the bus companies too. Mercedes Benz appears to have had a field day here with almost all the bus companies using new luxury air conditioned Mercedes Benz coaches. I guess it’s a kind of arms race – first one company ups the ante by buying a luxury coach and soon all the others have to do the same to compete. You get a comfortable reclining seat and shortly after departure complementary refreshments are served (water, coffee, tea, cola, cake, biscuits) and again [View Full Entry]

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You can take a bus to just about anywhere in Turkey – buses are to Turkey what trains are to India – it is how this nation travels. However, I learned of a rail route that would take me in a similar direction and after my mostly pleasant rail journeys in India, I decided to give this one a go. It wasn’t going to be straight forward though, but that was fine; it would just make the journey more interesting. My destination was Selcuk (pronounced Sel-chook), near the western shore of Turkey. I first needed to catch a ferry and from [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul was a real surprise, especially after a few weeks in India. Istanbul is large, busy, modern and wealthy. It felt strange to see modern cars again; luxury German brands like Mercedes, BMW, Audi and VW. And clean, the streets were so clean. People dress smartly, yet conservatively and the shoes (especially the men) are smart pointy Italian leather shoes. Elegant spires of mosque minarets add to the fantasy landscape of the urban centre surrounded by water - it seems that there’s one mosque at least every few blocks. They lend (to my ears) an otherworldly soundtrack to the city as [View Full Entry]

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From Jodhpur I took an overnight train east to Agra to visit that most iconic of Indian monuments, the Taj Mahal. It was going to be a couple of long days now as my time in India drew to a close. We left Jodhpur at 19:30 and I settled into my top berth in 3AC class (three bunk beds with air conditioning). The good thing about the top berth is that you can lie down whenever you please as the lower two bunks are used as seats during the day. I didn't sleep very well, but then I rarely do on [View Full Entry]

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The bus climbed a steep winding road as we left the hot plains of Rajasthan and headed towards my next stop, a village called Mount Abu. A place completely different from anywhere else I’d been in India and I’m very glad I decided to visit. Mount Abu is the highest point in Rajasthan and as we climbed the temperature steadily dropped to a comfortable 22 0C. The hills were covered in tall trees and black-faced monkeys sat in groups along the roadside. Before long it started to rain and then we were in the clouds, misty swirls everywhere and the edge [View Full Entry]

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The short hop on the train to Ajmer was fine, but I wasn't planning on staying there. Ajmer was merely a staging post to get to Pushkar. I caught a government bus from the bus station and we took a mountain pass into the valley next door. Government buses are extraordinary vehicles. I’m not entirely sure what holds them together but the bottom half of the bus appears to be independent of the top half which sways and rattles with each bump and turn. They’re very full too, only leaving when all seats and all standing room is occupied. Pushkar is [View Full Entry]

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I walked from my hotel early in the morning (05:00) towards the main road to flag down some transport to the railway station. Before long a small van pulled up and after some haggling on the price whisked me to the station. The train journey to Jaipur was good. The train arrived right on schedule (06:00) and I settled into a comfy chair (like a basic aircraft cabin chair complete with fold-down table) in an air conditioned coach. As soon as we set off an attendant came around and served everyone mineral water and a pot of tea and later we [View Full Entry]

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To fly from Bangkok to New Delhi takes a mere 3 hrs, a pleasant flight with good entertainment and food aboard Jet Airline’s Boeing 737-800. It would however be a further 6 hours after landing at a wet Delhi International Airport before I arrived at my hotel at 03:00 in the morning … welcome to India. First impression from the plane before landing at 21:05 was how dark the city was. After the bustling metropolises of Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Saigon which are lit up like Christmas trees, Delhi only had a few isolated pockets of street lights emitting a dim [View Full Entry]

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Instead of flying straight on to India, I delayed my flight to Delhi and headed towards some islands off the coast of Thailand. First stop was Ko Samet, a small island about 6hrs drive by minibus & 40min ferry from Bangkok. I also later visited Ko Chang, a much larger island further east. First though a few days spent in Bangkok where I visited the Chatuchak market. An amazing spectacle attended by around 200 000 vendors and customers every weekend (they hand out maps to tourists when you arrive). There was a dizzy array of goods for sale from live animals [View Full Entry]

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