I certainly got my fair share or massages in Laos, I have had a very relaxing couple of weeks. We arrived in Changi Mai early and slightly sleepy after taking the night train from Bangkok, I spent the day visiting a few temples. I hired a tuk-tuk and he proceeded to take me to a temple I had not requested to go to, after that shaky start we were back on track. All the temples were fairly new, bright colours, highly tacky to my eye. The highlight was some road side Phad Thai delicious. I spent the rest of the afternoon at a day spa; manicure and pedicure and of course a Thai massage. Love those things they bend you all over the place and put some real pressure in. In the evening the group went ... read more

Tibet was phenomenal; the landscape, people, monasteries blew me away and surpassed all my expectations. I am afraid my limited vocabulary and lack of adequate describing words will lead to this wonderful place not being portrayed as well as it could. But I will give it a go. Our flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa was on a crystal clear day so the view of the Himalayas and the mighty Everest was perfect. Arriving in Lhasa I was shocked with how ‘Chinese’ it had become; it was very distributing. But the Chinese have been occupying Tibet for more than 50 years now, so I suppose I should have expected this. Early evening Elke and I went for a walk around Barkhor, a medieval pilgrim circuit. There were 100’s of Tibetans circling the circuit in a clockwise direction ... read more

First thing first, I made it, brilliant! But it was a bit more of a trial that it should have been for two reasons. I had bacterial diarrhea (as diagnosed by a Doctor who happened to be on the trip), the entire time bar one day. This basically meant that I had no energy as I was pretty much losing everything I ate/drank and I was struggling at the back of the group, completely exhausted when usually I would not be. Secondly it was freezing and I was not completely prepared for sub zero temperatures, even wearing everything I had in my bag … still cold. I will try not to mention these factors too much through the account of the trek, but as you can imagine my travel journal reads like a journal of motions ... read more

The rain didn't stop on my last day in Goa, and then when we reached Agra it turned into the hottest day I had experienced in India; roasting. I didn’t do much in Agra (since it was my 3rd visit). I did visit the Taj again at dusk; there were tones of India tourists posing for cheesy / romantic photos. That evening I met up with Jo, Steph and Nicole from volunteering, it was so lovely catching up with them and having a good gossip over some chai. On the way back to my hotel I accidentally purchased another ring (aquamarine, my birth stone, in a sliver clasp setting), I let a rickshaw driver take me to a shop, but only I let him know I wasn’t going to buy anything. It was a ‘pee your ... read more

Went a bit crazy in Jaipur buying jewels! Made a huge and slightly risky purchase of a custom designed ring, yip I am now a ring designer. It is white gold with an oval sapphire in the center, on both sides two tiny diamonds and then a small square emerald; all in a clasp setting. Luckily when I picked it up the next day it was exactly as expected, now I am praying that they are actually real precious stones, tehehe. I’ll get it appraised once I get to Sydney. After making the purchased I raced put to Tiger Fort, which looks out over Jaipur, I missed sunset but was told it was a bit average any way. There was a great view of the city below; it is a lot bigger and more sprawling than ... read more

In the past week I have gone from the arid Thar Desert to lush hill stations, from stifling heat to rain and mist. We left the Golden City of Jaisalmer (with a bus full of sickly people, lucky I did not count among them) and headed for the Blue City - Jodhpur. The home of the riding pant - seriously. Our hotel was miles from the action and decidedly grotty, I think it was chosen for the pool, which was the size of 3 double beds; I still had a dip mind you, fully clothed. The Fort we had come to see was massive, and similarly to Jaisalmer, it was perched on a hilltop. However, this Fort was surrounded by blue painted houses. The priest caste or Brahman’s use to paint their houses blue, but more ... read more

Made it; an 8hr local bus ride, great result given my earlier belt of food poisoning. The day was steaming; it felt like you were sitting in a sauna especially when stopping for traffic and picking up passengers. When I got up it looked like I had peed down the back of my pants; my arse to behind my knees was WET from sweat, nasty. This is potentially too much information, but I think it accurately portrays what a hot box that bus was. We arrived at our Haveli in Mandawa around 4.30 and the bus ride turned into a distant memory; the Haveli was gorgeous! The rooms surrounded a fresco painted courtyard depicting maharajas and Hindi gods, there were antiques, little enclaves and a roof terrace where we had dinner. It reminder me a little ... read more

I have been dealing with more monkey antics, which to be honest is entirely my own fault. I had carefully left fruit outside, since we have a no food policy in the room due to mice. At 6am we heard some rustling, and then all hell broke loose. There were around 20 monkeys screaming, yelling and jumping around trying to get a piece of the action. A very rude awakening. That afternoon, Friday 11th August, we headed up to Mcleod Ganj, the kick off point for the weekend trek in the Lesser Himalayas. There were more than the usual amounts of hippies wandering around as the Dalai Lama was due to conduct teachings the following week. Thankfully we left early Saturday morning. With 30 odd people trekking it was going to be an interesting experience, one ... read more

The volunteering got off to a slow start as we were only allowed to work in the mornings for the first week, not quite sure why this was, maybe iDEX didn’t wanted anyone to be over whelmed. But it left some of us completely under whelmed, especially those who left work to come here rather than straight from Uni. It appears we have also arrived, on force, in the middle of school holidays and festival season; in the 3 weeks I am actually in Palampur there are 2 festivals. Some people who are doing a 4 week stint are only doing a total of 24hrs volunteer work, if they only work in the morning. Afternoon work is not compulsory, and you can choose to do workshops rather than volunteer. There are some here who are treating ... read more

Just back from a grand weekend in Amritsar. We (Virginia, Nikheel, Surinder and I) set out just after 9am on Saturday, in a very heavy rain storm, hello monsoon! The driver thought he was Peter Brock, swerving past cows chewing their cud in the middle of the road, dogs wandering about with no respect for objects bigger than them and massive road slips… plus of course on coming traffic. After 6hrs 30mins on the road, we arrived in Amritsar a little worse for wear, checked into our hotel and within 15mins we were racing for the Pakistan / Indian boarder, Wagah Boarder. I seriously didn’t think the van we were in could reach 95kms per hour, it did. The driver was tooting like a man possessed. We didn’t really know what to expect at the boarded, ... read more