Sarahv1

Yesterday, did a tour of some of the temples in the area. Saw about 6 or 7, most of which involved a thoroughly knackering walk up very steep flights of steps. The temples ranged from almost derelict, unused looking buildings, in the middle of nowhere, to brightly painted, end of the pier bandstand- esque buildings, thronging with people clanging bells and chanting. Also in the middle of nowhere. Had a bt of a scare at one of the derelict looking places. I was charged by a rather vicious, huge, King Monkey, who bared his teeth, growled and ran towards me, menacingly. Luckily, the taxi driver jumped in front of me and shouted at him, and he ran off, but it was a pretty close thing - I could almost feel his horrid yellow tomb stone teeth ... read more

Mooched around town yesterday afternoon, visiting the market outside of the twon walls. Lots of brightly coloured turbans, saris, fruit and bowls. Not to mention the plastic tat that seems to characterise markets the world over. On the way back to the hote, spent some time sat at a rooftop cafe, the Taragarh in front of me, the tangled little pastel and biscuit hued streets below, punctuated every so often with a hanging basket of bright pink flowers. The town was starting to wind down for the day, and it was fab just sitting there, sipping my strawberry milkshake (which, I'm pretty sure, was a nesquik - I haven't had one of those since I was 3, but some things never leave you). this morning, I went to the Maharao Raja Bahadur Singh Museum, which seemed ... read more

Landed in Delhi airport at stupid o'clock yesterday morning. There's nowhere to sleep at the airport, so sat chatting to a 60 year old Geordie hippie, who seems to have spent the last thirty years bummim around the globe, and is now working for a buddhist organisation, and dividing his time between himachal pradesh and the frozen wilds of canada, having apparently left the Toon long behind. Wasn't able to get a retiring room at the station, so had to stay awake until my train left. Was absolutely knackered, but still managed to fit in a visit to Huyaman's tomb. The other person in my train compartment was an Indian dentist who, having a brother working as a doctor in Sheffield, wanted to discuss the state of the NHS. So I'm knackered and discussing politics. Arrived ... read more

The jeep from Siliguri to Darjeeling took three hours. There was only the driver, myself and one other passenger. There were lots of uniforms along the road, and we were stopped several time, at roadblocks, where soldiers peered into the back of our vehicle. "It's funny," the Driver said the first time it happened, "it's almost as though they think we're hiding someone in the car." I found out later that some big cheese was on the run from prison in siliguri, and being hunted. In Darjeeling, hotel checked into, I went for a wander, to find something to eat. I sat on the terrace of a litte cafe, overlooking the Mall, planning what to do next, when I noticed that, inside the cafe, staff were rapidly moving furniture away from the windows. A waiter came ... read more

Flew out from London on Thursday afternoon to Kolkata via Dubai. As we climbed above Dubai for the last leg, I wondered (no, seriously, I was pretty sleep deprived at this point) whether there were more light bulbs than people in the world. Below us, the neighbourhoods of Dubai were marked off by millions of the little buggers, some static, some winking, flashing, alternating between on and off. Looking forward to seeing Dubai by day on the way back. In order to combat the sleep deprivation, I'd booked the first night in a fancy pants hotel in Kolkata, way over my budget. At breakfast, one of the waiters told me that we were in one of the poshest areas in Kolkata, and that some Government minister lived nearby. Then he smiled, as if on cue, and ... read more

Yesterday was Ronda, one of the white villages clinging to the side of a steep gorge. It rained quite a lot while I was there, which put a damper on things (literally), but I did manage to see a couple of things, including the Municipal Museum (bit kiddified, with loads of rather tame audio visual aids) and the bullring and bull fighting museum. I know sod all about bull fighting, but the vull ring and museum were really interesting. At the entrance to the museum is (what I think is) the head and horns of a pre- historic bull. By the size of it, the animal itself must have been absolutely huge, and the horns looked pretty lethal. In a case a little further on were heads of famous bulls, stuffed and mounted. These again were ... read more

Arrived in Cordoba this morning. Is a journey of less than an hour, but had to go through rigourous security checks at the train station, having my bag x- rayed etc. Cordoba fro Seville is on the line to Madrid, which is where the bombings happened a few years back, so imagine that´s had an impact. Cordoba is really lovely, and I much prefer it to Seville. The little back streets have been designated a World Heritage Site (or similar), and you can see why, especialy in the Juderia. The lanes are narrow and cobbled, with white, islamic influenced buildings and, apart from the rather discreet signs advertising restaurants, and the odd (and very annoying) car trying to manoever its way through a landscape that wasn´t designed with it in mind, you could almost be back ... read more

Hello. Writing this from an internet ´cafe´, that smells of wee, and is situated down a little back street, behind a cake shop, on the Avenue de Constitucion. Arrived in Seville yesterday evening. Sped through Customs - I´m used to long queues, shuffling forward slowly to a booth where some hatchet faced, gimlet eyed, stalinist uniformed bod scrutinises my passport for a frighteningly long time. Smiling and looking innocent of all misdemeanours is useless, as I´ve never had a photo taken yet that didn´t look like something off Crimewatch, and my passport photo is no exception. Anyway, there was none of that. Sped right through. The hotel is lovey, really funky. Lots of twisty turny little corridors leading to outside courtyard seating areas with little fountains. It´s all very Moroccan, and reminded me of a riad ... read more

Back in Chiang Mai after spending a few days in Mae Sariang. MS is lovely - a really rustic little town. I was in a guest house on the river, and was nice to sit out on my littl (actually quite large) teak veranda, reading and watching the local farmer herd his cows through the river on the opposite bank. I had hoped to pick up a trek from there, but it's low season, and most of the guides appeared to have packed up and gone on to more seasonal employment elsewhere. However, there were a couple of little villages within walking distance, so I saw a bit of the locale, including gatecrashing a temple festival, and forcing some poor women to let me shelter from the rain in her house because I though it was ... read more

Yesterday morning did a mini solo trek to a couple of the Akha villages within walking distance of Mae Salong. Tea is a big thing around there, and passed several pickers, all wearing their straw cone hats, working in the fields. Made a decision to avoid the Karen (long necked women) villages, which were a bit further afield, as it just seems a bit tacky- passed a couple of posters on the drive up to mae salong, advertising a couple of karen villages, and they looked like circus posters. I have also chickened out, so far, of spending a night under sticks (and probably with livestock) in a village, tho may build up to this later in the week. Yesterday afternoon, went to visit the Chinese Martyr Museum, just outside mae salong. Most of the exhibits ... read more