Varanasi 29/01/11 - 31/01/11 Holy Cow!!! Where to start? Well lets start with cows. This place is even worse than Siliguri for cows. They are everywhere, not one place is appropriate! We even saw one walk up and down the train station platform (5 platforms not a tin pot station). They walk down the little lanes, sometimes charge, they appear to have acquired their own ghat, they sit in the central reservation of roads, the roads could be made of their dung and they can even walk down steps (I thought they couldn't do that sort of thing! I'm going to start the cow diaries! Anyway as for Varanasi, it is not as bad as the LP makes out for touts but you do get asked if you want a boat about 20 times per ... read more

Siliguri to Darjeeling Siliguri officially sucks. Do not stay there unless you have to. To get to Darjeeling you have to get the train from Seldah station to New Jaipuiguri (NJP) and then get a shared jeep from Siliguri (around 4 km from NJP by auto rickshaw Rs115) to the hills (100rs for each seat - we bought the 4 back seats!!) We really wanted to go to Darjeeling but we found out from our hotel that the area was on strike. Darjeeling has these strikes or 'Bandhs' frequently as they are fighting for an independent state from West Bengal that they call Gorkhaland. During the strikes there is no movement of transport along the main highway linking Siliguri / New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to the hills of Kurseong or Darjeeling. This also means the Sikkim province ... read more

India Kolkata 20/01/11 - 24/01/11 44 rupees to 1USD Budget $30 per day including accomodation. Well where do you start? This place is mental, you see it all on the way in from the airport! The excitement at the sight of the cute yellow 'Austin Ambassador' taxi soon wears off as you are taken on the ride of your life. The traffic on the roads of India takes no prisoners as the cars swerve around each other, beep incessantly and every  stop is an emergency stop. We cannot understand why anyone would want to be a taxi driver in Kolkuta as the roads are always gridlocked! Our taxi from the airport, 5km away took over 2 hours! (260 rupees from the Pre-paid taxi desk in the airport) Trying to cross the roads are also a nightmare ... read more

Luang Prabang 08/01/11 - 12/01/11 The six hour journey by minibus (100000kip per person) arrived at an out of town bus station. We then took a shared jumbo tuk tuk thing to the centre of town for 10000each (heavily negotiated down from 20000kip each).  We were recommended the 'Sengphet Guesthouse' on Th Hoxieng. You will be proud as this place was the cheapest yet at $12.50 per night! The room was small but clean and the bed was extremely hard but included a bathroom / wetroom, free tea and bananas. The shower was the hottest most powerful we have experienced for a while so it was great apart from the poor drainage!! Luang Prabang seems to suffer with a terrible sewage system as evidenced by the intermittent smells and our guesthouse was no exception (just don't ... read more

Vientiane 31/12/10-02/01/10 The capital of Laos. You would think it would be a crazy place full of beeping traffic (like the rest of Asia) and people rushing around. But no, it's very relaxed, hardly any traffic with attractive little side roads to walk around. The centre looks out onto the waterfront and over the river you can see Thailand. We arrived on the morning of NYE on the sleeper bus! Got a shared jumbo tuk tuk to our hotel in town. We stayed in Hotel Ramanyana on Lan Xang near the Patuxai monument. It was a bit of a panic reservation on Agoda as we were finding that places were booked up for new year. I wouldn't recommend staying there. Was $45 for a basic, comfortable room but the hotel was 25 minute walk into town ... read more