http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Rob-W/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Rob W en-us Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:35:48 +0000 Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:35:48 +0000 Following Cambodia and Thailand earlier in the year another short trip was in order to ensure that this year's holiday quota was used for interesting purposes. Instead of going on my own this time I went with my friend from school Richard. Flying via Helsinki to keep the cost down Finnair delivered us in a safe and timely fashion into Delhi the only downside was that it was 1am in the morn http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-200462.html Lots of sea sun and great food. A quick week with Malin and Jim before heading home. Well worth the journey. Bali is great. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-192130.html Since being back in England for almost a year it was nigh time to go on holiday again i thought. Sadly just a short trip of two weeks this time It is however an undoubtedly superior feeling to be back in Asia in contrast to get excited about pensions in Guildford. I arrived in Bangkok and spent three nights there visited a few markets temples and did a bit of shopping. There food is always consi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/blog-165847.html After a long and very cold air con overnight bus trip from Bangkok to Khao Lak I arranged to go on a Liveabord dive trip into the Similan Islands. The boat left in the evening of the morning I arrived so I was exhausted when we started out but soon reovered. I have never done a Liveaboard before it was a brilliant way to dive and see the Similan's. I went with Siam Dive Adventure their bo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Similan-Marine-NP/blog-54832.html After an overnight bus journey from Bangkok to Nong Khai I crossed the Thai Laos Friendship bridge over the Mekong River and into Laos. A short bus ride and I arrived into Vientiane the capital city. After sleeping for most of the the day I had a look around there is not much too see apart from the river and a few temples. Life in Laos relative to Thailand is a lot slower for example there i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-50252.html Its been a long time...Yeah I know what can I say Although I have been in Thailand over two months and whilst I have been stuck on a perfect tropical island most of the time I have not just been anchored to a beach for the entire duration. That is not strictly true but I will try and relay what I have been up to on this this strange little island to the best of my abilitiesI have only been to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Chang/blog-35655.html So after an arduous 2 day journey out of India to Nepal I finally arrived in Pokhara only to be struck down by food poisoning never mind... Before the horrific onset of the liquid conditions I did manage to get chatting to a couple of English guys called Gerry and Daren who were in Pokhara obtaining their Paragliding licences' I was exceptionally interested in their accounts of flying and so the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Pokhara/blog-32037.html Ok I am back in India now After a massive and cold 30 hour train journey from the pleasantly warm climate of Mumbai I finally arrived in a freezing Varanasi at dawn yesterday. Varanasi is on the Ganges a river that sources far up in the Himalayas and flows eventually out into the Bay of Bengal through Bangladesh. It is a very large city of over 1 million people with the main attraction to th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-30267.html Copenhagen is home to 1 million people including all the suburbs and is a really cool city. The weather was amazing when I was there which according to Katrine with whom I stayed my friend from India is unusual for this time of year. There certainly is plenty to do here you need a big wallet though as it is even more expensive than London There is a law that no building can be higher than 5 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-21286.html The Taj Mahal meaning crown palace is situated in the industrial town of Agra about 200km southeast of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. I was compelled to get up early and see the Taj Mahal at sunrise as this is the best time to see it apparently I was not disappointed. I entered through the east gate at 6.30 am. The Taj Mahal is the resting place of Emperor Shah Jahan's second wife Mumtaz Mahal who di http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-17400.html Where do I start 11 days ago I arrived in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh the summer capital of the state knowing I was bound for the mountains but with no plan. The journey on the train from Delhi was amazing especially when I changed to a smaller train that ascended the mountains up to Shimla passing through 103 tunnels. Taking 5 hours the journey was amazing and full of great views of lush gre http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/blog-17313.html Since I have been Kerala for one week and have visited a lot of places I am going to write about my experience of the whole place rather than do individual entries on each. My first port of call was Ernakulam Cochin which is a major port and the largest city in Kerala. Arriving at 6.00am made for an enjoyable change as at first light there was no one around to hassle us and we were able to wal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/blog-15351.html Kanchipuram Kanchi is located about 50 km south west of Chennai and is famous for two reasons temples and silk. There are over one thousand temples in and around Kanchi we did not see them all three was enough The second reason was the main driver for our visit. We heard of an charity organisation called the Rural Institute for Development Education RIDE whose aim is to take children out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Kanchipuram/blog-14369.html 200 km south of Pondy lies Tranquebar a former Danish colony. As I am travelling with two Danish people it was a natural destination for us. Nothing however could have prepared us for what we saw there. 40000 people in Tamil Nadu alone we killed in the Tsunami and it was the worst affected state in India Tranquebar was one of the villages hit it is very close to the sea and the land lies ve http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Tranquebar/blog-14368.html Pondicherry Pondy was French colony until 1954. There is plenty to do here although no beaches in the town. The restaurants are great and there is a lot of choice including many French restaurants. The main tourist part of Pondy contains many buildings that are in French style although it is still very Indian town. It does however have a uniquely French feel similar to that of the south of Fra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Pondicherry/blog-14360.html Hampi is an incredible place one of the most extraordinary I have ever visited in my life. The world heritage site is a small village set around a linear bazaar with a popluation of 1000. The surrounding area contains the ruins of an old city that at its peak had a population of 500000 so Hampi feels very small in the shadows of it's heritage. It does have however a fantastic vibe and is so http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Hampi/blog-13650.html It was raining in Goa when we arrived however this is to be expected as the Monsoon is everywhere. It is the first time I have taken a long train journey but it was actually quite good and comfortable and we did not get bored I am sure that the novelty will wear off soon thoughhellip We took a small bus crammed with 80 people to Colva where Jim arranged a very good value hotel whilst I drank http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/Colva/blog-12680.html We arrived here yesterday morning and it was raining quite a bit my first impression of India was seeing a dog run across the runway in front our plane after we had landed The airport was very sparse and it is very humid everywhere. After filling in about 4 forms and waiting in as many queues we finally managed to work our way out of the airport only to be told that the hotel I had pre booked f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-12162.html