John & Gilly
The original crazy kids are off on their travels!!LJ Gilly
Well we thought we'd set up this site to keep you amused whilst we are climbing up mountains and being extreme!!
Hopefully by now, you know we are lovely so you will want to read our site!! We have a map (which should be on the next page) of our trip and a few photos which we will add to as we go on....and on!
Our route is:
Fly to Delhi
Short rest then off to Nepal
Trekking through the Himalayas for 3 weeks
Maybe Bhutan
Back to India for mid-December
Meet LJ's parents for India in style trip!
Go to LJ's godfather's pad in Kerala (thanks Dave!)
Off to SE Asia (fingers crossed on bird-flu!)
- Thailand
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Vietnam
- Indonesia
Then to Perth to see Rob & Emma
Then Africa
Overland from Cape town to Mt Killimanjaro
(did I mention we are climbing it?)
Then home and back from Maz & Micky's wedding in June 2006.
It sounds fun hey? But we are going to miss you all so much ;o( so you MUST email your news!
Take care xxxxxx
Travel Blog Posts
June 7th 2006
Luckily we quickly found a truck complete with a great bunch of guys to take us from Cape Town up through Namibia, we decided to do things in style and armed with our pillows, duvet and large box of fine SA wine we set off....After shivering in Cape Town (see its not all beach weather you know!)we soon got to baking hot, barren and empty Namibia which really was like being on another planet. Our first major place was a the huge Fish River Canyon where after a stroll around we tucked into fine food and mugs of sherry! We ended up staying in the town where Brad and Angelina where having their baby, but we were disappointed that they didnt accept our offer of afternoon tea - some people hey? As we ventured north, out ... read more
April 27th 2006
Leaving dusty Australia behind, we flew to the surprisingly lush green South Africa. It's very European looking and in places a little like the land of my fathers (Wales). I actually met my first Welshies since November but that’s another story. On arrival in Jo’Burg we soon realized that the stories about how dangerous it was were probably true. The city was very intimidating, security guards with guns, high security fences and lots of razor wire and no wondering around at night. Our plan was to head down the coast to Durban and finish in Cape Town. Although Durban was less slightly scary, we were stopped by a local who informed us that as we were walking down “the most dangerous road in Durban” maybe we would like to get back to the beach - who ... read more
April 5th 2006
Our camper van extravaganza began in Broome where we quickly picked up the lingo including “throw a few prawns on the barbie”, as well as “streuth” and “bonza”, but the winning line was “flaming galaa”. We were greeted with extra humid weather with blue skies, which cunningly disguised what was in store for us…. After a chance listening to the radio we heard a murmur about a cyclone forming off the coast of Broome. After a suitable R&R, we decided to escape and head west from the oncoming CYCLONE GLENDA. We were soon laughing at our agility….but this was short lived as the cyclone followed us down the coast! Our escape options were severely restricted and with no path east or west we headed south into the Outback…to arrive at TOM PRICE the highest town in ... read more
March 23rd 2006
Well after our last episode we left you somewhere in Vietnam probably running from dodgy taxis and scooters honking at every opportunity. Keen to leave the chaos of Saigon we headed to the Mekong Delta and went on a lovely wooden canoe to tour the floating markets. It was really bizarre seeing boats of potatoes and pineapples floating past, not sure it will catch on at the Thames, think Sainsbury’s can breathe easy! From there we took the fast boat to Cambodia, although fast was a rather inaccurate description of the journey which seemed to take the best part of a day! The border crossing was quite smooth and straightforward (especially after we had been told to slip a $5 note inside our passports - who said anything about corruption?). We arrived in the capital Phnom ... read more
February 12th 2006
Our arrival in Bangkok meant one thing to me….Pad Thai’s all round!!…I was in Thai food heaven, no more Indian curry and hello clean and calm Thailand! We made our way North to Chiang Mai where I persuaded LJ to do a cooking course to ensure an infinite supply of future pad Thaïs. We created a feast of fish cakes, green curry and pad Thai and left full and happy campers. From there we crossed the border into Laos to do some serious banana smoothie tasting and began an epic 150km bus ride on some of the worst roads in the world. With no leg room and chickens all around us the 12 hour journey was enough to help us forget our concerns about Bird Flu! Luckily for us there were 7 other westerners on the ... read more
January 11th 2006
Well after waiting eagerly, my folks finally arrived in Delhi and to help ease them in to the vagaries of India I had booked us all into a fancy 5 star hotel (against our wishes of course!). It was a tough life cocktails by the pool, air conditioning and a bath...ahhh! Next up was helping my dad celebrate his 60th birthday, so we had the best curry and Kingfisher beers we could find (plus a cake of course!). We soon left our Delhi bellies behind and headed to Amritsar the place of the Golden Temple which was well.... very gold, rather cold and to top it off we had to don fetching orange mini-turbans! It had been my dad's dream to come here and luckily it was worth the trip especially seeing the 30,000 person a ... read more
My Little Skinny Indian Wedding
Published: December 21st 2005Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » Hyderabad
December 18th 2005
Returning from Kathmandu to the mad hustle and bustle of India was always going to be difficult for us…but to go from Bhutan, the most chilled out place I have ever been, turned out to be a nightmare!! Being back in India is pretty hectic and the cities are like London on fast forward!! Calcutta turned out to be loud, leery, and suffocating. To make matters worse we seemed to spend 2 days working out how to get out of the damn city - Indian Challenge Anneka Rice! Our destination was a very hard to pronounce beach town in the south east and the event…a real Indian wedding between Victor (one of my work colleagues) and Florence. We hastily arranged outfits for the occasion I went for an Indian look with a cross between a dress ... read more
December 10th 2005
Bhutan is like the land where time stood still! Mobile phones have just hit the streets here and TV’s are barely out of their boxes in this Himalayan paradise. Bhutan although shunning the western thirst for gadgets and commercialization does have great ambition and is a sort of trendsetter in its own right - one of the few countries to completely ban tobacco and the proud owner of the largest book in the world (just a whisker taller than me!). Also we soon noticed in our luxury hotel that the restaurants were keen to set a world record for the fastest time to serve a 3 course meal, the 7 staff serving us managed an impressive 33 minutes on our second night!! The service is extraordinary at breakfast I was offered tea countless times by numerous ... read more
December 7th 2005
Hi Everyone, thanks for all you emails.......keep them coming! Just come back from a 20 day trek in Everest, superb but bloody cold! Decided to follow in Edmond Hillary’s footsteps (just missed the small matter of the summit). After 8 days of walking through villages and not seeing any mountains we started to think we’d made a wrong turn somewhere. We popped into a school for directions and then thought we should make a huge donation. Unfortunately owing to the stock at the local random hut we only managed to summon together 20 pens for the 150 children (still they were very high quality pens). The trail to Everest was pretty amazing, but rather too much up and down - we worked out that we were climbing the equivalent of Ben Nevis every day. Amazing what ... read more
The best 70's funky leaving do ever!!
Published: December 7th 2005Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » London City
October 23rd 2005
Wow!! Thanks for such an amazing farewell! Started in Old Street in a bar where everyone wondered why we were dressed in 70's gear. Then we went to a cool restaurant followed by Carwash where we danced our socks off!! Thanks so much for a brilliant night! We'll miss you - email us ;o))) ... read more
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