Since I was last in touch at the beginning of November I spent a month livng in Mexico City with Sarah, a friend from university, and her housemate Mandi. I loved my time in Mexico City, I thought it was a great place - easy to get around, loads to do and really good fun. Because it has grown so much so quickly and swallowed up surrounding villages and towns, there are parts of the city that have remained as quaint, sleepy villages even though they are near the heart of one of the world´s biggest metropolis´. If you read the guidebooks about Mexico City there are dire warnings about how polluted it is, that its completely gridlocked, how bad the crime is and how you should never get in a taxi after dark. However, I ... read more

It seems somewhere along the line I've picked up some of Palin's genes and that one world trip has not been enough. So its off to Latin America for a planned 9 month adventure. First stop is Mexico, where I'll be spending the best part of 2 months before moving onto South America. My flight arrived just before dawn, and so my first view of Mexico City was an unending sea of lights. Its obviously a big place, hella big, but its also incredibly easy to get around because of the metro they have. Because of its size there's lots to do and always something going on. The centre of Mexico City is called the Zocalo and its apparently the second biggest city square in the world. The centrepiece is possibly the biggest flag that I ... read more

Upon arrival in Delhi I felt reasonably well equipped to deal with the inevitable scams and touts that are par for the course in this part of the world, having absorbed lots of advice from fellow travelers that had already visited India. Straight away the taxi journey from the airport into the city provided me with an introduction to this aspect of travel in India, as even though I'd pre-paid for my taxi from an official booth the driver and his mate in the front seat still refused to take me straight to my destination and wanted me to check out his "friends" travel agent that could easily sort out my onwards tickets!! (sound familiar anyone whose visited India?). Anyway after 15 minutes of discussion and me trying to explain that I hadn't just got off ... read more

Leaving the Western level imfrastructure of Thailand behind, my journeys started getting more exciting. Firstly, a two day slow boat got me into Laos and I docked in its main city Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site with a stunning array of features both man-made and natural. I went cliff diving into the pool at the top of a many tiered waterfall, and hired a very funky “Grandma” bicycle in order the explore the incredible array of Laotian temples dotted around the city. Leaving Luang Prabang I had my first taste of the native long-distance transport as a Songathaew (pickup truck with two benches running along the flat bed, containing all manor of fruit, vegetables, rice sacks and live animals as travelling companions) and finally a river boat took me north to the ... read more

Heading north from Singapore we stopped over for a night in Melacca, where it hammered down with rain, but that didn't bother us too much as we had happened upon the “Traveller's Lodge”, a plush guest house with full air-con, wet room and 3 beds all for just a tenner. The three of us were definitely hoping that this was a sign of things to come! In Mellaca we headed out for a great comedy meal at a place called Capital Satay. Basically, in the centre of your table is a burner and a big pot of Satay Sauce, and towards the back of the restaurant there is a fridge containing a massive variety of slightly indistinct foods on wooden sticks which you take and cook in the Satay Sauce in front of you. Not really ... read more