Nepal is like India on holiday. :) It has the same Indian flavours, cows on the streets, women in bright saris, men clustered around chai shops in the morning, but they are all watered down a bit, diluted. Everyone isn't in such a hurry to get places and even though the traffic may seem chaotic it is nothing compared to Indian streets. The people are also more friendly and laid back, prone to easy genuine smiles. Combine this with some of the most stunning scenery on the planet and you have a pretty interesting place in which to spend a few [View Full Entry]

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While traveling through India I learnt a lot about myself. It is often stated that travel has this effect but from all of the countries that I have been to, India has been the biggest "test" to put it bluntly. :) I found myself in situations that I had never experienced before, and sometimes discovered that I reacted to these situations in a very different way to what I would have expected. Put simply traveling in India reveals your limits, or perhaps a better explanation is that it stretches you in new ways. How much frustration and physical discomfort are you [View Full Entry]

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Burma has suffered immensely over the last century. First there were the three Anglo-Burmese Wars with Britain. Then World War II with the Japanese and British fighting for control of Burma. Finally in 1947 Bogyoke Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi) met with the colony's executive deputy chairman of the Governor's Executive Council and signed a pact which stipulated self-rule within one year. Unfortunately Aung San was assassinated by a rival political party before this happened on 19th July 1947. There followed a period of political upheaval where the country passed from one party to another and there [View Full Entry]

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Two years on and I once again find myself starting off a year abroad in Thailand! This time I had the pleasure and privilege to travel with Clara (AKA Claz) who was my "buddy" while I was studying in Vienna. The only complaint that I came up with after 5 weeks of travelling together was that she was too nice! I'm sure if you asked her the same question she would rattle off a plethora of very reasonable and truthful complaints about me, so thank you for putting up with me Claz! :P After crashing Michael's Valentines Day in Singapore and [View Full Entry]

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After a long break from travel following my year in Europe I once again managed to escape (only for a month), and decided to explore a bit closer to home. Initially the trip to NZ was going to be relatively small with Justin and me meeting Dan in Auckland and travelling around together but when the rest of our friends heard about it they decided to join too! So it went from 3 to 10 and ended up being one of the best holidays I've been on, but now I'm getting ahead of myself... Jumse, Deadman, Katrin and I arrived in [View Full Entry]

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This will probably be my last blog for a while so I decided to give you all a break from my treacherous writing skills and instead let the story be told through the photos. Thank you for all of your comments over the last year, they definitely make all of those hours spent in internet cafes worthwhile! [View Full Entry]

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Says one man as we walk through the Grand Bazaar and are continually invited to enter different shops. Another common call is "May I help you spend your money" :P Turkish people are extremely friendly and for the most part it is very genuine. We shared many an apple tea with shop owners without spending a penny in their stores. We were given a 30 minute lecture on the ins and outs of carpet making and then got up, said thank you and left the store. The shop keeper instead of being angry with us gave us advice on how to [View Full Entry]

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Before I begin I would just like to say sorry for my title... I am quite tired after a sleepless night on the train from Ljubljana to Budapest so Im going to use that as an excuse for a total lack of creativity and imagination... :P Bled Like everyone says, Bled is one of those truly beautiful settings. It doesn't seem to matter about the weather or what mood you are in, you will always remember it as a very special place. I had wanted to visit it sometime during my Slovenia visit and when I met 3 cool guys in [View Full Entry]

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This trip was awesome but was also a little melancholy as with my time on exchange dwindling fast it really highlighted the differences between Austria and Australia for me. It is only 2 months now before I have to leave this beautiful country and I'm already starting to get sad... At least it has jolted me out of my complacency and I will definitely do my best to make the most out of the time that I do have left. Firstly the most obvious difference is the landscape. I was constantly awestruck whenever I had a rest and just looked around. [View Full Entry]

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Cruising down the Autobahn at 220km/hr I was a little surprised to see Miro pull out his mobile phone and begin to sms someone, occasionally looking up and braking heavily just in time to avoid a collision with the car in front... As if this wasn't enough to put us on edge he had told us only minutes before that he was from Slovakia and had a job as a meat worker. With thoughts of ending up in pieces in his boot we buckled up, put on our friendliest smiles, and did our best to keep the small talk going. Jasper [View Full Entry]

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