I flew into Kathmandu from India on 28th September and was picked up in the airport by the owner of the trekking company that I had booked the Annupurna Circuit trek through. During the day I was given a brief about the trek. Afterwards the owner took me shopping for trekking clothes as my rucksack was mainly packed with clothes for hot weather. In the evening he took me to a local Nepalese restaurant. ANNUPURNA CIRCUIT TREK The trek is about 320km and is known for being the best trek for scenery and cultural diversity. It crosses to the north of the main Himalayan range and crosses a 5416 meter pass. During the trek there is view of the following snow capped mountains: Dhaulagire 8167m Annapurna I 8091m Annapurna II 7937m Annapurna III 7855m Varahashikhar 7847m ... read more
The night train from Kolkata was comfortable, but I did not get more than about three hours sleep as there was a lot of snoring around me. The train arrived two hours late at Gaya in the morning on 23rd. After bargaining with the rickshaw drivers to take me the 13km Bodhgaya at a fair price and a bumpy ride, I finally arrived at my planed destination. Bodhgaya is where Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment beneath a Bodhi tree and so became a Buddha. Buddhist pilgrims from around the world visit this place and there are Buddhists temples build by several nations here. The main temple is very beautiful. On 24th I went back to Gaya to take the train to Varanasi. The train was extremely cold as the air-con must have been on full power. ... read more
On 18th Sep I flew from Bangkok to Kolkata (changed name from Calcutta in 2001). I was picked up in the airport by a driver in uniform, which was arranged by my friend Paritosh from London Business School (LBS). My other LBS friend Biji came and greeted me in the airport, but had to leave as his son was in hospital. It took about 45 min to get to Paritosh’s apartment/palace. I spend the afternoon relaxing and played football in the garden for two hours with their two sons and three of their friends. In the evening we relaxed and had dinner. Paritosh had taken the day of work on 19th and we decided to go and be tourists, as Paritosh had not really seen Kolkata. It was our plan to take a river cruise, but ... read more
I ended up staying at the resort in Ko Lanta for 6 nights despite my concerns about there were no other guests. I had such fun with the staff. They took me to a local bar to watch the Manchester United vs Liverpool football game, which Liverpool won 2-1 (about time we beat Man Utd). After the football game we played snooker for a few hours. I played volleyball everyday with the staff and also had a few games of petong. On the last night I got invited to the staff party, which they have before the main season start. We had a barbecue and afterwards we all went to a bar. I left Ko Lanta on 16th and it was a bit sad to say goodbye to all the staff as they were such fun ... read more
On 2nd September I had a relaxing day in Chiang Mai. In the evening I went out for dinner with Ron for Thai Hot Pot, which was really good. After dinner we went to a bar with live music, which was an experience. The lead singer in the band was a ladyboy, singing heavy metal songs and also playing the guitar. What a laugh….you have not seen a real heavy metal band before you have seen one with a ladyboy lead singer!!! It ended up being another late night and Ron was as usual a fantastic host - thank you Cinnamon for introducing him to me (he is such a laugh). On the 3rd I flew from Chiang Mai to Puket. I had to stay one night in Puket town before taking the ferry to Phi ... read more
The 24th was a day of traveling on our bike down to Vientiane, but we decided to stop one night in Vang Vieng. We did not do much in Vang Vieng apart from play a bit of cards and have a nice Indian meal. On 25th we got up early to travel down to Vientiane to return the bikes. My travel buddy Alberto was staying in Laos another week, before returning to Barcelona so we went out for our last dinner. He was an easy guy to travel with and we never had any disagreements apart from whether to turn left or right! The 26th I flew from Vientiane via Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai in North Thailand. In the evening I meet up with a friend (Ron) of my friend Cinnamon (from London Business School). ... read more
We drove to Luang Prabang on 21st in the morning, which took about 2 hours. The roads were much better than the mountain areas where we came from. It felt like driving on a motorway. Luang Prabang is very touristy compared to the where we came from. It is though nice to be able to have a sandwich for lunch instead of rice or noodles. We visited the Royal Palace Museum, which was interesting. The monarchy was abandoned in 1975 when the Communist came to power. I have also visited 7-8 temples which are enough for this time. On 23rd I got up at 5.30am to watch the sunrise procession of monks receiving alms. I had bought some coffee to give them. Most people gave them rice or bananas. In the afternoon we drove 30km south ... read more
On the 18th I felt like the Queen until I got to our guesthouse.... We left Vieng Xai to drive to Vieng Thong. We did not really want to stay in Vieng Thong, but it was too far to drive to Nong Khiaw in one day. When driving through the small villages the children were shouting Sa-bai-di (hello) and waved at us, so with one hand steering the bike and the other one waving back like the Queen. It is obviously not often that they see tourist on motorcycles in the far Northern part and it put a smile on the children’s faces when we waved back. The guesthouse is the worst I have stayed in so far. There was no shower apart from a bucket of dirty water; the toilet was a hole in the ... read more
The morning of 15th Aug, we went to see the Plain of Jars 25km outside of Phonsavan. The jars are made of stones and weight between 600kg to 1000kg and are said to be over 2000 years old. It is not know what they were used for, but a few theories think they were used for rice storage or as wine fermenters. After a club sandwich for lunch, we jumped on our bike as we had a 240km journey ahead of us to Xam Neua (North East). The drive took us up to the mountains and the views were stunning. It was very slow driving as there were so many curves. At 5pm we were at Nam Noen where we could have stayed, but we decided we could make the last 90km before it got dark…... ... read more
The 12 started with the alarm clock ringing at 5am, as we had to catch a flight from Hanoi to Vientiane in Laos. There is not much to do in Vientiane apart from eating and drinking (which I seem to be quite good at!) On the 13th we meet with the guy we rented 2 cross motorbikes from. When I saw they were both Hondas I felt very happy, as they are supposed to be the most reliable bikes here. He showed us how to change the tire if we have a puncture....I hope we don't, as I have not got a clue on how to do it. If it happens we will hopefully find some locals that can help us. In the afternoon we rode from Vientiane to Vang Vieng which is about 160km and ... read more