Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi (again)...... Agra Reading over the various blog entries that we've made since leaving the UK I can't help but notice that the word "awesome" appears entirely too many times. But the Taj Mahal is awesome. We also did a quick day trip to Fatehpur Sikri which is just outside Agra & home to a massive old palace built by/for (?) Emperor Akbar. Very cool crumbly old place. Very hot day. A worthwhile and inexpensive trip. Orchha Hmmmm...... "Temples surrounded by thick jungle and only recently discovered", "An [View Full Entry]

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by Kerry Trauma! I have learned an expensive lesson by not taking out separate insurance for loss & accidental damage of my valuables. So far it has just been glasses related. First I lost my Armani sunnies. This was very traumatic. Think I left them on a wall at the beach :( I decided not to replace them as one of my 2 pair of glasses are those that double as sunnies by darkening in UV. So I'm waiting to find a cheap pair in a shop where I believe the UVA sticker is real. Then, I was smacked in the [View Full Entry]

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needs more photos but it's long overdue so recklessly publishing without! (written.. well started.. by Graham at 10.30pm in the Cozy Bangkok Place Hostel, Bangkok, waiting for the washing to finish, 2 bottles of Singha down, midway through a bottle of Chang, considering whether or not to open another bottle. Kerry's in bed, tired after several days of illness, now resolved by a trip to Bangkok International Medical Centre, more on that later....... Added to by Kerry some days later) Woo Hoo! We love Bangkok.....but enough of that for now. Just one more catch up blog to [View Full Entry]

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(written by Graham in an internet cafe, 12 hours before our flight to Thailand) We'll let the pictures do the talknig for this entry (partly because we didn't do much besides eat, drink, sunbathe and swim and partly because we're behind on blog entries so need to crank this one out quickly). In summary........ Palolem South Goa, lots of restaurants, nice, sparsley populated beach often shared with stray dogs and cows. Stayed 5 nights in total, sunset strolls aplenty. Food - great pizza and pasta at Magic Italy, great steak at Cool Breeze, awesome curried king prawns on the [View Full Entry]

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By Graham We weren't planning on heading into Tamil Nadu but, after a couple of weeks of beach and swimming pool, decided that we should at least TRY and do something cultural. A short 6 hour bus ride from Kumily got us to Madurai, the most impressive of the many temple towns in Tamil Nadu. It's one of the oldest cities in south Asia and the central Meenakshi temple is truly a sight to behold. By the way, Indian buses are brilliant. Some of my best memories of India will be of haring across mountain ranges and deserts in the middle [View Full Entry]

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(by Kerry ) So, after leaving the Himalayas we headed back down to Delhi to take a flight to Kerala for some serious seafood consumption and chill out beach time. Cochin (BI - 1ish) Managed to arrive in Cochin on Friday 1st August, officially an alcohol free day across the state so post-travel beers were out of the question unfortunately. How gutted were we!!! Apparently the 1st of every month is the same. Weirdos! Cochin was ok but to be brutally honest we were a little under-whelmed by it - it was OK, just not the amazing place that we'd read [View Full Entry]

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So, we escaped Delhi as soon as we possibly could. The phrase "culture shock" couldn't be more appropriate for how I suspect the majority of people who visit India's capital feel for the first 24hrs post landing (we weren't the only ones - about 24hrs after landing, just as we were adjusting to the pace of things, we met a very well travelled French judo instructor who had just stepped off the plane and was visibly shaking). It is a truly mental city and, without wanting to sound too judgmental on a public blog site, a difficult place to rationalise when [View Full Entry]

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So.. we left Hong Kong almost three weeks ago now (16th July). Time for an update! Firstly.......extra special thanks to Vince & Nancy for not only accommodating us for 3 nights but also chauffeuring us to and from Hong Kong Island every day, feeding us, doing our laundry and generally making us feel very special indeed. We appreciate this even more considering that they're expecting a new baby fairly soon. Criminally, we didn't get any photos of Vince or Nancy (too busy talking and catching up to remember to pull the camera out) - apols guys! As you can probably tell [View Full Entry]

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Ok, so after our India entry a confused Ed asked how we managed to get to India via Hong Kong. It was apparent that an update was needed for China so we set aside a day to blog (and chill..) Our Itinerary Beijing - 3 nights Overnight train to X'ian (12 hours ish) X'ian - 3 nights Overnight train to Chengdu (14 hrs) Chengdu - 2/3 nights Evening flight to Guilin (90 mins) 1 night in Guilin (to sleep) then bus to Yangshuo (1 hour) Yangshuo - 3 nights Overnight train to Shenzhen (12 hrs) Walk to Hong Kong (Lo Wu [View Full Entry]

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So it's 11:20 and we've been in Delhi for 9 hours. Graham is still resting but I couldn't sleep any longer so here's my first impressions... It's hot. We arrived at the hostel at about 3.30am after a 45min wait for our baggage and a 20-30min taxi ride. The dark 2 or 3 alleys leading to the hostel were stinking & littered with bodies sleeping when we passed by. The main street leading up to it where the driver had parked wasn't much better - less people but with cows & their associated smell instead. Thankfully our driver got out and [View Full Entry]

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