Sammy J

Back in Delhi to get ready for my next trip I get caught up in Holi Day - a religious festival celebrating the changing of seasons and colour and where the locals throw bright coloured vegetable powder over each other and any one else on the streets - needless to say I ended up pink and green! My final trip in India takes me north of Delhi where we head out to Shimla which was once the summer capital of India, where the British viceroys and their government would retreat during the monsoon months to escape the stifling heat of the plains. Set amongst spectacular rolling hills and spread across a number of peaks we take a walk through the extremely clean streets before heading to Mandi. Situated on the Beas River, the town was once ... read more

DELHI TO KOLKATA Arriving in Delhi, India I immediately notice the difference from Aus and NZ. There’s so much noise, the streets are crowded, there are car horns blowing constantly….. I didn’t want to leave my hotel room - what happened to all the space and peace… but needs must and I head out to meet my new group. We go to the cinema to watch Slumdog Millionaire - an extremely apt film to see at the beginning of my trip to India. We visit Old Delhi where horse and cart, camel and cart and the odd elephant walking down the street are normal everyday occurrences, along with cattle just sat around every where on the roads. That night we take an over night train for Jaisalmer. The Thar Desert is right on our doorstep and ... read more

My four weeks around New Zealand starts in Auckland and a visit to the Skytower with views from 328m. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city with a population of one million people - it should be noted that the entire population for NZ is around 4 million - less than that for London alone! There’s a lot of space! The following day we travel to Hahei where the highlight was taking a scenic coastal walk followed by a trip to Hot Water Beach where we dug holes in the sand which filled with - you guessed it - hot water, and spent the afternoon sitting around in the thermal pools - all thanks to local volcanic activity - though every now and then a wave would catch us off guard, cooling us down just a bit ... read more

We head southeast to Argentina's Lake District, Bariloche. The town sits on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi. Here we take a cable car to a lookout point, Cerro Campanario to see one of the world best views as voted by National Geographic - pity it was cloudy, windy and extremely cold! Bariloche is also renowned for its chocolate and there are huge shops selling hundreds of flavours of chocolate including chocolate covered with chilli powder, pepper and other strange commodities - personally, after sampling a few, I don’t recommend them and chose to purchase sweeter alternatives. From here we headed to Buenos Aires, where there were great boutique style shopping districts where you could buy gorgeous shoes and dresses. Which was just what we needed for our night out where we took part in a ... read more

We travel through the Peru/Bolivia border and head to La Paz via Copacabana and get onto a ferry to cross Tiquina Strait. At around 3,600 m (12,000 ft) La Paz feels like the top of the world. It's not far from it and vies with Tibet for title of highest capital in the world. Although Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia, La Paz is the centre of commerce, finance and industry. The city is renowned for its many markets, including the Mercado de Hechiceria or Witches' Market where they have weird and wonderful stalls which sell everything from potions to incantations made from herbs, seeds and unidentified bits and pieces to cure any ailment. Our next port of call is Cochabamba where we take a city tour by bus and visit the Archaeological Museum which ... read more