Jimbob82
James Grant Joined: July 8th 2007
Logged in: June 8th 2009
Logged in: June 8th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
19/10/08 Today was a day of rest. Said goodbye to Raj and checked out a cover band, Nepalese style!!!! Very funny. 20/10/08 After breakfast at a Student Cafe we headed off on a walk to the World Peace Pagoda with Jo. Some kids started to follow us and show us the way, eventually they said it would cost us Rs.100 so we left them and went into the jungle on our own. We eventually found a nice walking path and could see the lake on our right so we knew we were headed in the correct direction. Suddenly the path stopped and we had to fight our way through the jungle and it got thicker and thicker. Lots of spider webs ensued and unfortunately for our sandaled feet, leeches!! After some trekking we finally hit the ... read more
Day 1 Besisahar - Ngadi Distance- 13km Elevation- 890m Up Early. Caught bus to Besisahar at 6.30am. Met kiwi Raj on bus who would then join us for the trek. Sat on bus roof with Drew, he almost fell off over a bump. We both shit ourselves but eventualy found it funny. Arrived in Besisahar and started the trek. Crossed our first bamboo bridge on the road to Khudi, need to get used to balancing on these! Arrived in Bhulbhule, got permits stamped and started the real trail. Day is bloody hot and sweating like a fountain, passed our first of many donkey trains. Scenery very tropical, not what I expected, no snow capped peaks yet. Stopped in Ngadi for a drink and ended staying the night. First taste of Dal Bhat (Lentil soup and rice),quiet ... read more
25/9 Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac at Kathmandu was a relief, there at last. The airport is very unflattering, small brick building, stiffling hot amd no air-con. Adam and I join the que for or visas. An hour and a half later and a dozen different counters we are on the way. It seems it takes 6 people to organise a visa. Pay one, another sticks it in your passport, another signs it and another stamps it. We collect our bags and make for customs, what customs? Walk straight out the terminal into a multitude of taxi drivers joustling for our business. We settle on the airport service to save being fleeced and make our way to Thamel, our home for the next few days. Our taxi is a snall clapped out old van, ... read more
Glasgow
Time is now counting down until I leave the UK and head off on the next big adventure and what trip would be complete without visiting Scotland. Our family has it's origins in Scotland from around the highlands near Inverness and Loch Ness, but more on that later. We embarked on our journey very early on a Monday morning, flying into Glasgow due to cheap flights from Ryan Air and after a few hours of looking around and enjoyin the sun in St.George's Square it was time to bus it to Inverness. Well, what a bus ride! The scenery was beautiful (for the bits I actually stayed awake for!) and the guy behind us decided to drink and talk to himself or anyone who would listen for the next 4 hours. I drowned it out with ... read more
Heads up
After waiting 3 hours at Sabiha Gokcen Airport for Nick (a guy Emily worked with) we finally made our way to the shuttle buses that would take us to Istanbul. After maybe 5 minutes on the bus Nick and I found ourselves sitting in a police station being questioned in broken English, we had no idea what was going on, why we were taken off the bus and how long we would be there for. After 1 1/2 hours, many arguments and a mobile phone being passed around we were on our way. It turns out the shuttle was operating illegally and a taxi driver dobbed them in. We ended up getting a free ride to Istanbul in the end. Upon arriving in Istanbul we found Emily and Megan, and got stuck into some well earned ... read more
7 Broadhurst Close
First things first, finally it snowed in London. We thought it wasn’t going to happen but out of nowhere it got exceedingly cold and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Anyway, back to the reason why we are here, Barcelona. Work were kind enough to give me 4 days in a row and I decided that I was not going to sit about in London or spend my weekend somewhere cold in England (I found out that it snowed again and 10 times better than the other week!). Shaun, Krystel and I made the voyage to Spain on Friday afternoon and before we knew it we were in a bar drinking Sangria. Once our bags were in the room we had a wander around the town and made our way up La Rambla, ... read more
Temple Bar
Just thought I would pop in and do one of these blog things. Well London life has been going as well as could be expected, busy with work etc. But every now and then it's good to get away for a few days. As it was my birthday last week (thanks for messages, cards etc.) I decided a weekend in Dublin might be a bit of fun and a welcome break from London Town. I also happened to choose a busy weekend to go as the 6 nation rugby Ireland V Scotland was on, plenty of kilted scotsmen! Emily and I arrived Friday evening about 5 hours before Shaun and Krystel were due to land. After finding the hostel (not to be recommended) we headed out for a quick look at Dublin, which is a beautiful ... read more
Nice
Well how do you sum up an epic journey through Europe? After lost credit cards, car break-ins and split heads there can't be anything else left, or can there? Well folks the trip was nearing to an end and it was time to head back to France on the home stretch. We headed to Nice for more Med relaxing and certainly weren't disspointed. Nice is nice. We stayed in a rockin' hostel full of drunkiness, oh yeah. It was also Rugby world cup final time. We headed to the local square for the France V England final, only to have a dull crowd and France lose, boo hoo. The next day bought on better things, Ev, Fin and I hired roller blades and skated along the beach front while Shaun went to a muesum. We were ... read more
Manorola
Well I decided not to conclude my adventures just yet Italy needs a chapter on it's own. The drive from Geneva saw us cross through France and witness the awesomeness of Mont Blanc, it is huge! We then headed past a magnificent glacier and into a massive tunnel that heads into Italy. I was the lucky bugger to be driving so I got the first taste of Italian traffic. WELCOME TO TORINO! We decided to stay in Torino (or Turin) for a night but had no map of where to go, just some directions in the Lonely Planet Guide. After 3 mega death round abouts with no rules what so ever and a endless drive through shitty streets we decided enough was enough and on to Cinque Terra down the coast. Our journey had already been ... read more
More hills
Well it has been a while since the last entry and even since we were in Innsbruck. I will try to remember all the events to date and if I miss anything I'm sure one of the boys will fill me in. After 10 days in the Munich area we headed back to Austria and stayed in a very cramped room in our hostel. It was no bigger than a broom closet. Ev and I decided to hike along one of the mountains so we left Shaun and Finno behind and caught the cable car up to start our 4 hour journey. We started off walking along nice flat terrain but as there was a difference of about 500m altitude (made that up) we knew we had some climbing to do either there on on the ... read more
