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Bob & Vik
Years of staring at maps, debating routes, saving money and boring anyone in earshot with constantly changing plans finally culminated in our D-Day. 28th August 2006. The day that Vik and Bob went global. Occasionally Bob
Having made it to New Zealand without taking a single flight, we reached the conclusion that neither our finances nor our sea legs could stomach another container ship journey so we've cheated and taken a flight from New Zealand to Bangkok. From Bangkok we hope to stick with the overland theme and take a route home through Southern Asia: China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey...
UPDATE
We cheated again (due to ever dwindling funds, Pakistan and Iran will have to wait until our next trip) and took a flight from Mumbai to Istanbul but the rest of the journey to Scotland was completed by train or bus - the finish line has now been crossed - we arrived home on February 2nd 2009 and hope to finish writing the blogs one of these days!
Our Journey
Scotland Edinburgh (home) - England Newcastle - The Netherlands Amsterdam - Germany Berlin - Poland Warsaw - Russia Moscow - China Beijing - Shanghai - Japan Osaka - Hakuba - Nagano - Hakodate - Otaru - Hakodate - Nikko - Tokyo - Kyoto - Kashikojima - Shimaisobe - Matsuyama - Hiroshima - Beppu - Ogata - Oita - Kobe - Kyoto - Nara - Kawaguchiko (Fuji) - Tokyo - Osaka - China Shanghai - Hangzhou - Xian - Chengdu - Kunming - Dali - Lijiang - Kunming - Vietnam Sapa - Halong Bay - Hanoi - Ninh Binh - Hue - Nha Trang - Hoi An - Dalat - Saigon - Cambodia Phnom Penh - Sen Monorom - Kratie - Phnom Penh - Siem Reap - Battambong - Thailand Bangkok - Chiang Mai - Laos Huay Xai - Luang Nam Tha - Nong Khiaw - Luang Prabang - Vientiane - Thailand Nong Khai - Bangkok - Khon Kaen - Bangkok - Malaysia Butterworth - Georgetown - Khota Bharu - Pulau Perhentian Besar - Jerantut - Taman Negara - Kuala Lumpur - Tanah Rata - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore Singapore - Australia Brisbane - Glasshouse Mountains - Hervey Bay - 1770 - Rockhampton - Mackay - Broken River - Hydeaway Bay - Townsville - Wallaman Falls - Paronella Park - Cairns - Innot Hot Springs - Georgetown - Normanton - Mount Isa - Three Way - Alice Springs - Uluru - Kings Canyon - Coober Pedy - Port Augusta - Adelaide - Tanunda - Murray Bridge - Mount Gambier - Portland - Port Campbell - Geelong - Melbourne - Gundagai - Sydney - Port Maquarie - Brisbane - Sydney - Adelaide - New Zealand Auckland - Waiheke - Auckland - Kauaeranga Valley - Waiheke Island - Mokoroa Falls / Goldie Bush Walkway - Russell - Whangamumu Scenic Reserve - Cape Reinga - Waipapakauri Beach - Ahipara - Opononi - Tane Mahuta - Matakohe - Mount Auckland Auckland - Waiheke Island - Cathederal Cove - Hot Water Beach - Whangamata - Wentworth Valley - Wainui River - Tauranga - Rotorua - Waikite Valley - Orakei Korako - Tongariro National Park - Wanganui - Upper Hutt - Wellington - Martinborough - Wellington - Picton - Motueka - Saint Arnaud (Kerr’s Bay) - Kaikoura - Sheffield (the best pies in NZ!) - Arthur’s Pass - Hokitika - Franz Josef Glacier - Fox Glacier - Wanaka - Queenstown - Te Anau - Milford Sound - The Divide - Invercargill - Okawa - Pounawea - Nugget Point - Dunedin - Moeraki (Katiki Point) - Oamaru - Timaru - Rakaia Gorge - Christchurch - Great Barrier Island - Mount Cook - Rakiura Track (Stewart Island) - Kepler Track (Te Anau) - Milford Sound - Routeburn & Greenstone Tracks (Glenorchy) - Rob Roy Track - Wellington - Christchurch - Akaroa - Hanmer Springs - Christchurch - Thailand Bangkok - Laos Pakse - Don Khong - Don Khon - Pakse - Attapeu - Vietnam Hue - Hanoi - China Nanning - Yangshou - Guilin - Leshan - Chengdu - Tibet Lhasa - Yamdrok-tso Lake - Gyantse - Shigaste - Shegar - Everest Base Camp - Old Tingri - Zhangmu - Nepal Kodari - Kathmandu - Pokhara - Birethanti - Gandruk - Ghorepani - Birethanti - Pokhara - Kathmandu - Baktaphur - Kathmandu - Pokhara - Birethanti - Ghandruk - Chhomrong - Dovan - Deurali - Macchupuchhre Base Camp - Annapurna Base Camp - Bamboo - Chhomrong - Tadapani - Ghorepani - Birethanti - Pokhara
- India Varanasi - Delhi - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Agra - Alleppey - Fort Cochin - Agonda - Mumbai - Turkey Istanbul - Goreme - Pamukkale - Selcuk - Istanbul - Romania Bucharest - Hungary Budapest - Austria Vienna - Germany Frankfurt - Belgium Brussells - England London - Scotland Edinburgh (home).
Travel Blog Posts
December 31st 2008
As she stepped across the threshold of Aunt May’s house into the land of Oz, Judy Garland wasn’t seen to sniff her own armpits and wince in disgust. Neither did she curse the curry stains and samosa crumbs on her clothing or run her fingers through greasy unwashed facial hair. But then Dorothy travelled in style. She’d clearly booked ahead thereby avoiding the somewhat slower and less comfortable option of Indian Railways Kerala Express which runs from Delhi in the North to Trivandrum in the South and so spent her travel time asleep with just a friendly mutt for company. Had young Dorothy spent 45 hours as we did, trapped in a compartment the size of a small garden shed with an Indian Freedom fighter who hated the British, a drunk who kept inviting her back ... read more
December 28th 2008
Do you like India? It’s a question all the Indians we meet like to ask after “which country?”, “what is your job?” and “is she your girlfriend?”. I’ve thought about the answer to this question quite a bit and had plenty of time to consider a polite enough response that doesn’t involve lying (diplomacy is something I am hugely successful with - why they haven’t yet involved me in the Middle East Peace talks is beyond me), yet when we do eventually encounter it my “umming” and “erring” usually gets in the way of me telling them that I find India to be “interesting…”. Those three dots after “interesting” are important. They betray the truth of a thousand caveats. They are the “but”, the “however”, the story that I don’t quite have the time or bottle ... read more
December 10th 2008
Pokhara - Birethanti - Ghandruk - Chhomrong - Dovan - Deurali - Macchupuchhre Base Camp - Annapurna Base Camp - Bamboo - Chhomrong - Tadapani - Ghorepani - Birethanti - Pokhara 1. I Bow to the Linguist in You The creators of the Nepali language were worried that they’d never be able to come up with enough words for a full language so they started doubling up fairly early on. For this reason the Nepali (and Indian) word ‘namaste’ (meaning ‘I bow to the God in you’) is used as both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and may, in certain circumstances, be used as ‘good luck’. Such a versatile word is pretty useful for someone as useless at languages as me and I took it upon myself to help the Nepali people, in that special way that only ... read more
November 11th 2008
Kodari - Kathmandu - Pokhara - Birethanti - Gandruk - Ghorepani - Birethanti - Pokhara - Kathmandu - Baktaphur - Kathmandu - Pokhara No border crossing we’ve been to has said “you are now in a new country with an entirely different culture” quite like the Chinese-Nepali one. The Chinese border post between the Tibetan hillside town of Zhangmu and the huddle of shacks that forms the Nepalese village of Kodari is a state-of-the-art, modern piece of grand Chinese architecture boasting x-ray machines, smartly uniformed guards and a fully integrated computerised passport scanning and identification system. The Nepalese border post on the other hand is a rickety barn with bars on the windows, a squat toilet visible from the immigration queue that even the flies are disgusted by and a staff consisting of local guys ... read more
October 30th 2008
Lhasa - Yamdrok-tso Lake - Gyantse - Shigaste - Shegar - Everest Base Camp - Old Tingri - Zhangmu This week Occasionally Bob's special guest is… Bob's Mum “Quickly! Quickly”, the carriage attendants said as they excitedly grabbed our unpacked belongings from our compartment and threw them out the carriage door onto the platform. It seemed we’d missed the wake-up call. The rest of the train was empty, the occupants having disembarked and dispersed en-mass so that we stepped from the train, bleary eyed and a little startled, to find an empty station. A few cleaners, some bored soldiers and, in the landscape framed between the clean grey platform and the concrete station roof, our first real sight of Tibet: a horizon of rocky hills being slowly coloured by a rising sun. It was beautiful. I ... read more
October 20th 2008
In the evenings Yangshou is characterised best by the brash neon that lights the narrow café, restaurant, bar and souvenir shop lined streets of its ‘old’ town and by the foreign tourists who walk with an awkward John Wayne style shuffle between these gaudy Western-Chinese fusion establishments. During the day, the done thing for any visitor wishing to truly appreciate the landscape for which Yangshou is best known is to hire a bicycle and head off along any one of the many tracks and paths that wind their way along the rivers and between the rice paddies squashed into the spaces and slopes beneath the dramatic, knobbly, limestone karsts. But with it’s extremely basic back-of-a-fag-packet map and inadequate descriptions, the Lonely Planet; which is the false bible by which most pancake-munching backpackers guide themselves around the ... read more
Trapped in the Back of a Drug Baron’s Van Waiting to be Murdered
Published: October 10th 2008Asia » Vietnam » Central Highlands
October 3rd 2008
Too Good to be True vs Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth? The people running the ‘public’ bus from Attapeu in Laos to Kon Tum in Vietnam didn’t inspire great confidence. The ticket office doubled as the Vietnamese trading hub of Attapeu - a slightly seedy, shades of black market restaurant called the Thi Thi, a place where everything on the menu seemed to come with sheep intestines or snake. As I enquired about the bus service, lifeless snakes bobbed in jars on the counter next to me, pale dead eyes trained on nothing in particular. I’d read a couple of blogs by people who had passed by this way a few months or years ago and so I had expectations about the price. I had expected the price to have gone up but ... read more
October 1st 2008
Bangkok - Pakse - Don Khong - Don Khon - Pakse - Attapeu As I retrieved Vik’s rucksack from an overly confident tuk-tuk drivers vehicle I banged my head on a typically well positioned and unfeasibly rusty Laos road sign. There was an audible “oooo” from the group of drivers who surrounded us. “Happens to me all the time; that was nothing - in Scotland we put barbs on the signs so you reeeally know when you’ve hit one” was the kind of message I was trying to send out to the assembled group as I attempted to compose myself. Unfortunately mild concussion, blood in my hair, on my hands and a concerned wife asking me how many fingers she was holding up were probably telling a very different story. This was not the best position ... read more
September 8th 2008
Occasionally known for our naturally gloomy outlook, Scots find winter is a time of darkness and cold; of biting winds and seasonal depression relieved/forgotten in those sacred days around the end of December and beginning of January when it’s socially acceptable to pack tightly into 70’s décor clad, sticky carpeted pubs and drink until thoughts of the cold are replaced by a cheer that is communally found at the bottom of every glass and bottle. It’s a time to be indoors and curl up beside an open fire with a good book/copy of FHM and a healthy slug of your favourite single malt, whilst wearing a knitted sweater so thick and itchy you can’t honestly be sure if they detached the sheep before they began knitting. What we lack in natural optimism, we like to think ... read more
"FREE Babes and Boars Calendar for Every Reader!"
Published: May 10th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
April 11th 2008
Mount Cook - Rakiura Track (Stewart Island) - Kepler Track (Te Anau) - Milford Sound - Routeburn & Greenstone Tracks (Glenorchy) - Rob Roy Track Country walks usually fall into one of three categories: walks to waterfalls, walks round or along bodies of water or walks up mountains. As walkers we look at the descriptions guidebooks give us and think “hmm, this walk goes to a waterfall - that could be impressive” or “this one goes round a lake - that sounds nice” or “great, this one goes up a mountain - could be cold and treacherous”. Rarely do you find a description of a walk that just “goes into some trees past some pine cones and a hole and some other stuff”. That would be dull. Where is the water and/or gradient in that walk? ... read more
Occasionally Bob
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Map Legend: 12%, 34 of 263 Territories
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