http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Paul-Casey/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Paul Casey en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:44:48 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:44:48 +0000 The New York Timesrsquo number one destination in the world for 2008 washellip Laos. Itrsquos shaping up to be Indochinarsquos next hot spot to have the culture seekers and global nomads like ourselves heading here in droves to sample Laotian life and shift down a gear.In Hanoi Vietnam we got a taxi to the bus station with another couple who informed us that the bus journey to Vientia http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-460581.html After spending a few days in Hong Kong we organised to fly with China Airlines to Taiwan. My uncle Michael and his wife Silvia live in Tainan city with their two children Conor and Daragh. We planned to spend the weekend in Taipei and then head down south to see them. I have Taiwan and Timbuktu on my goal list of places to visit since I was about five And here I am now about to visit the first http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/blog-457928.html Welcome to Hong Kong home to over seven million people all packed in like sardines on a few tiny islands After disembarking the flight filling in the by now pervasive swine flu forms and a quick passport check we found ourselves in an ultramodern airport Wow indeed..To get to the city centre we didnrsquot even have to put a foot outside the airport the airport express train virtually http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/blog-455547.html Cont'd from New Delhi and Agra India Part 1 . We continued on our five week trip of India heading east towards the cities of Varanasi and Kolkata and then over to the west coast to Mumbai and Goa.Varanasi We werenrsquot sleeping soundly for long though Life on Indian trains is a sight to behold and from 6am onwards there were guys up and down the carriage selling everything from biscuits t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-452434.html India is without doubt the most diverse nation we have visited on our trip around the world todate. Its population is the second largest in the world with well over a billion inhabitants rivalled only to China. Within its geographical borders there is a mindboggling variety of languages cultures ethnic groups beliefs and lifestyles that few continents possess let alone any one country. Ind http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-452428.html It was only a few short steps across the Friendship Bridge from Tibet to Nepal yet the change in faces personalities and culture was dramatic. We wandered with the crowd down a narrow lane way. A taxitout pointed us into a building where we were supposed to get an entry visa. After 20 minutes a few forms later and a quick temperature check for swine flu with a thermometer you stick under your http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Annapurna/Annapurna-Circuit/blog-448565.html Tibet is located in the southwest of China it is the highest region on earth with an average elevation of over 16000 ft. The Tibet Autonomous Region is known locally as the roof of the world. It is without doubt one of the most remarkable places we have visited in Asia. It offers fabulous monasteries breathtaking high altitude views of the some of the worlds highest mountains as well as an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tibet/blog-431658.html We finally boarded the train to Xirsquoan after a week in Shanghai. This was going to be interesting as we were the only westerns on the train. I'm guessing everyone else got the 12 hour train except for us two eejits who ended up on the 24 hour train. Anyway we settled in with our new cabin mates a Chinese father and daughter. For two people who had traveled all the way from Greece to China http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-428618.html Damn We had spent too much time in frigginrsquo STARBUCKS of all places and suddenly realised we were supposed to be boarding the train from Beijing to Shanghai in two hours. There was a bit of a rush back to the Hutong in the dark and a frantic attempt to get a taxi. Luckily this went without a hitch and we raced into the train station just in time. You need to get to the train station earl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-428411.html Got a taxi with a bunch of others to the train station to board the train to Beijing at 8am. This was the final leg of the TransSiberiaMongoliaBeijing train. We boarded the train excited to see who the two lucky passengers would be that would be sharing our cabin with us. Two guys from Slovakia had the honour. Thankfully they had perfect English and it wasnrsquot long before I was fully bri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-424513.html After boarding the train to Mongolia in Irkutsk we bumped into a tour group some of whom were Irish guys who were on a tour crossing Russia Mongolia and China. We were all in the same train carriage along with some other people from the hostel we had just stayed in. We ended up sharing our cabin with a Russian woman who had no English and an American guy called Stephen. He was enroute to China http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-424507.html Getting on the TransSiberian rail network was amazing. We got onboard and settled in for a 70 hour plus journey. Luckily we only had three in the cabin and not four. Space is always a premium especially on a longer journey like this. We had visions of drunken Russian soldiers swigging vodka and roaming the train but this did not come to pass. Apart from two Germans in another cabin we seemed to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/blog-424505.html We got the train to St. Petersburg from Vilnius in Lithuania on Monday night at 630pm. Itrsquos always anxious times when arriving in the station to try and figure out the platform train number carriage number and cabin number especially when everything is in a different language. However this time around we were more prepared and I used my secret weapon Google translator to assist me. We bo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-418439.html Buying tickets in Warsaw central train station for Russia is not the easiest thing yoursquoll ever do be prepared for your blood pressure to rise significantly You have no idea what the people selling the tickets are saying and they pretty much just nod at whatever you say. After some intensive discussions sign language though we managed to book a ticket on the Moscow train which is over 2 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Vilnius/blog-418382.html From the moment we arrived at the station in Budapest to head to Krakow the problems started. For some reason we didnrsquot have a night car reservation meaning a cabin donrsquot ask why we thought we did but somehow the whole thing got lost in translation. The Hungarian train attendants were not impressed and we got dumped into ordinary runofthemill 3rd class. This is a carriage with http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Lesser-Poland/Krakow/blog-416731.html After leaving Sarajevo we headed up to Zagreb for a few days. Wersquore trying to make it a bit closer towards the top of Eastern Europe i.e. Hungary Poland before our InterRail tickets run out which sadly means we'll have to give the Croatian coast a miss this time.The train was an older train. Aircon came in the form of opening the window in the carriage and then opening the window in t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Central-Croatia/Zagreb/blog-416233.html After getting another train....this time to Hungary from Croatia we arrived in Budapest. The hotel was 200m from the train station which was handy and we were checked in in no time. Budapest is impressive. The city is actually divided in two by the Danube River on one side is the Buda district and the other is Pest.The local currency is the Hungarian Forint. One EURO 240 Forint and rising. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/Pest/blog-416503.html For a change we took the day train out of Serbia....mainly because it was the only train available to get out of Belgrade to Sarajevo. We had to detour though Croatia for a few hours so we were expecting plenty of entertainment with our friends in passport control. While waiting for our connecting train in Croatia we bumped into a fellow InterRailer and world traveller extraordinaire He was 62 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/East/Sarajevo/blog-413354.html We took the overnight night train to Serbia. Realising that we had no money on the train we panicked as we thought we needed a visa to enter Serbia. 'Take credit cardrsquo doesnrsquot really cut it at the border at 4am. Visions of being dumped off the train and having to wait over night at some forgotten station in nomansland began running though my mindhellipDoahLuckily when the polic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Serbia/West/Belgrade/blog-413337.html Travelling up from Sofia to Bucharest in Romania was quite an enjoyable journey. There was some beautiful scenery along the way to admire and it also gave me some lsquome timersquo to catch up with reading after a busy time in Sofia pottering about. We travelled first class and before you conjure up images of fabulous dcor with champagne and wine on demand take a nostalgic moment to wander t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/Muntenia/Bucharest/blog-412185.html