Hopefully it’s not too shocking for you all to see the less than chisled body of me in the bath…but my God it was heaven in there!!! I hadn’t had a bath for over 9 months and it was one of the things I had been craving!!! That together with the red wine!! That was followed the next morning by the second item on the cravings list...a bacon and egg sarnie.....gorgeeeeeous!!! After 329 days away I was finally back in England. Writing here, back at home, it already seems hard to believe that I did it and I have been away [View Full Entry]

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My last couple of days in India, and on my travels around the world were spent in Delhi. I slept in after the exploits of yesterday and the day in Agra, and was not overly up for traipsing round all the sights of Delhi. That said, when I got downstairs the owner offered to sort me out with a car and a driver for the day, and for a pretty reasonable price, so I agreed. That meant a nice day, at my own pace, with no hassle from rickshaw drivers, seeing the sights that I wanted. It was great!! Not quite [View Full Entry]

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Today was one of the longest and hardest days of travel that I had. That includes the nightmare time during those long days in Bolivia! I was up and on the move at 4.30 to catch a train for the 4 hour journey from Jaipur to Agra; home of the Taj Mahal. When I arrived I was, as ever, accosted by the usual gaggle of rickshaw drivers. The first stop was to the main train station to get my ticket booked to Delhi for that evening. I had followed the advice of all the travellers I had met along the way, [View Full Entry]

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An early train at 6am took me the 5 hours from Jodhpur to Jaipur. I had left the others heading off to another destination so was back on my own. I was taken from the station to a great hotel called Atithi where the guys are so helpful and accommodating. It was nice to get there and relax and do nothing after the long day yesterday. The place only cost 250 rupees a night (about 4 quid) and I had cable TV in my room. That meant that in the evening I could get some nice food delivered to my room [View Full Entry]

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“Trust me” the guy said, “this bus is a better bus for tourists, there are no stops, there is no loud music, it has comfortable seats and only takes 5 hours”. So, following a 6.5 hour journey, in some of the most uncomfortable seats I have been in, and with no sleep due to several stops and loud music, I arrived in Jodhpur! The heat was incredible, we are now into the 40’s. Still with Daisy, Rosy and Martin, we made out way to the Cosy Guesthouse, a great place tucked away down a narrow alley in the centre of the [View Full Entry]

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Mumbai, or Bombay as most of the people here still call it, was my first experience of India. Things might change later, but for now, I am loving it. After arriving in the hotel pretty tired out, I got up the next day to catch some of the sights. India was always going to be a speedy, hectic trip from one place to the next. With not much time to see it all, I didn’t have time to dwell in to many places. I resisted the numerous calls and invitations to use a cab for the day and decided to walk [View Full Entry]

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HUE I got to Hue (which rhymes with way) after taking 4 hours to go 150km. Very frustrating but something that I should be used to by now. On arriving I was surrounded by the usual gaggle of hawkers trying to get you to stay at their guesthouse. I have grown accustomed to this by now, and have devised a cunning plan to save myself hassle. This basically involves several responses that can range from "no thank you", to "f*** off and leave me alone". That combined with going and hiding in a coffee shop for a while seems to [View Full Entry]

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I flew into Danang in the afternoon and caught a mototaxi bike 29km to Hoi An. The only reason I had heard of Danang previously was from Southpark where the Vietnam vet on the show says nothing else through his electric throat mike than Danang. For some reason that warranted a visit! If you haven’t ever seen the show you’ll have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. Errr…anyway. Hoi An. This is a cracking little town that was a base for the French when they were running the show here. The place is filled with old French colonial buildings [View Full Entry]

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Mue Ne was the next stop. The idea was for a couple of days relaxing in what the Lonely Planet calls a, ’peaceful…lovely spot with swaying palm trees’. Whilst not exactly incorrect, it was so peaceful to the point of being dead! There were indeed palm trees, but these lined a beach that was about 2m wide. After a couple of nights that included cockroaches in my room and a rat running across the floor of the small outdoor restaurant we were eating in, I decided enough was enough!!! I left Joakim and Katrin, and headed to Dalat. Dalat is a [View Full Entry]

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'Nam baby! Here at last. Vietnam is one place that I have been really looking forward to coming to and it didn’t disappoint. From Phnom Penh I took a slow boat down the massive Mekong River to cross over the border at a tiny immigration office on the river bank. We transferred to another boat and made our way past the floating houses and people driving around in their small wooden boats wearing the conical hats that are typical for Vietnam. Our destination that night was the border town of Chau Doc. There is not much to be said about this [View Full Entry]

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