We have spent the last few weeks travelling in a vague circle around Sri lanka's hill country, south and west coasts. We have seen a variety of environments, sampled delicious food, met many friendly people and have found Sri Lanka to be a truly beautiful country! We arrived in Colombo after our flight from Kerala to find it busy, hot and with crazy traffic - nothing we hadn't seen before! Our guest house was an old colonial mansion just set back from the busy road. Perfectly acceptable but we were faced with a shocking bill at the end of our stay [View Full Entry]

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Kerala is gorgeous! I was excited to get here and start exploring after all that time relaxing in Goa and it felt so good to be on the move. Since arriving in Ernakulam we have been moving down the coast pretty fast and it is exciting to always be heading somewhere new. We spent the first two days trying to decide what kind of boat trip we wanted to do on the backwaters, whether it be spending more money on our own private houseboat or going on a ferry with a load of tourists. Whilst trying to make up our minds [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Goa after a short flight from Mumbai. We had planned to get a taxi to Panjim and then try to get a bus to Arambol and the all important beach the following day. However, on looking at the taxi prices we realised it wouldn't cost much more to go straight to Arambol from the airport so we jumped in a taxi and off we went, very excited that we would soon be walking over soft golden sands! We arrived just after 5pm and were surprised to find it a struggle to find a room. It was much busier [View Full Entry]

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We have spent the past four days or so travelling to Goa from Udaipur. First we took a night train to Ahmedabad and spent a day or so there. I didn't find Ahmedabad a particularly nice place to be. According to the guide book it is, or certainly was, in the world's top ten most polluted cities. We can now vouch for that. It is a hazy smog ridden industrial feeling city. Walking down the streets you are watched more intently than usual (even for India). It is like they don't see many white people here and they don't really care [View Full Entry]

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Hello! We are currently in Udaipur having a wonderfully relaxing time! The reason we came to be here rather than the other places we had planned on is down to Jaipur really. I can't say I enjoyed it there although I'll admit I saw some interesting things (as well as some things I would rather I hadn't seen!) but it was certainly an experience! I think I will always remember Jaipur as the place where I had just a few too many near death experiences! The first occuring not a minute after we got off the bus on arrival, when a [View Full Entry]

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We are in Agra. Although it is a very touristy thing to do we felt we couldn't go to India without visiting this city and in particular it's most famous landmark the Taj Mahal. We have splashed out on a nice room with clean blankets, nice soft bedding and a clean bathroom with hot water and western toilet. Even a television. It is a bit of luxury and a sanctuary away from the hassle of Indian streets. Still at a reasonable fiver a night though mind! We have done plenty of walking in the past few days after we spent our [View Full Entry]

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So, first impressions of India were not good! After a long bus ride to Sonauli, we decided to get another bus straight to Gorakhpur so that we would be able to get the train to Varanasi the following morning. As we crossed the border, i'm not sure what we were expecting but what we found was very similar to parts of Nepal. Dirty, crowded and pushy! We were shown in the direction of the bus we needed and after a lot of confusion concerning currency and swapping from one bus to another, we were on our way. We arrived in the [View Full Entry]

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We have spent the past seven days trekking the Annapurna region of Nepal. It has been an exhausting yet memorable experience. We left Kathmandu in the early morning and 'enjoyed' a 6 hour bus ride along winding mountain-side roads to Pokhara. The bus was pretty old and a little dodgy on the brakes which was concerning as we passed a truck that had fallen down the mountain and lay in a sorry heap at the bottom. Enhancing the experience were several vomiting children and a chill wind whisking through the ill fitting windows. After meeting our guide we then got a [View Full Entry]

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Well, where to start? It's been a confusing and bewildering few days and there are a lot of thoughts swimming through my mind! So, from the beginning... I had been wondering when it would hit me, this whole "travelling thing." Well, about an hour before we left for the airport it did! I suddenly turned in to a nervous wreck! Pacing back and forth, biting my nails, weeing like there was no tommorrow and repeatedly running up and down the stairs to check I hadn't forgotton anything! This nervous energy lasted until were in the car and had been on our [View Full Entry]

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It's January and we're all set, A kind of nervous excitement bubbles along inside of me. It is a strange feeling almost leaving on a trip you’ve been thinking about and planning for such a long time. It still doesn’t quite feel real, probably because of the head down organising approach of the last few months. I think that there will soon be a moment of realisation, perhaps at the airport or on the flight out itself? So we have booked a place to stay in Kathmandu and the plan is, like most, to take part in some kind of Himalayan [View Full Entry]

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