We crossed the border into South Australia which at first didn't really look any different from the road. The first town was called Coober Pedy which is an old (and still current) opal mining town. As you approach it you see all the devistation the dynamite blasts have caused to the landscape and it feels really strange after being in the midddle of the bush for so long! Lots of the town itself is under ground as it gets ferrociously hot, up to 50 degrees so they dig out houses, churches, golf courses, hotels etc under the earth to keep cool. [View Full Entry]

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We made it to a hot hot australia from nepal for a relaxing xmas in Darwin!! It was weird though lying by the pool sunbathing on xmas day, its just not right is it, and there was no turkey or xmas pudding either!! Just one big barrrbie!! After xmas we hired a chubby van and began the mammoth the long drive through the northern territory... we started off going via Kakadu national park, Steve got to act like the wildlife good guy he is by rescueing a long necked turtle from the road, there is amazing wildlife everywhere!!... We arrived the [View Full Entry]

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Forgot to write this before we left Nepal but after Steves man flu we took a couple of days away from Kathmandu and went to royal chitwan national park in the search for a tiger! Alas, we didnt find a tiger but we did ride on a elephant and see rhinos, mugger crocodiles, a wart hog, tons of birds and a gharial in the water next to our boat which was a bit daunting! The park is really big and we only got to see a fraction of it on our jeep safari but it really is amazing to see all [View Full Entry]

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We finally made it to Agra the home of the world famoud Taj. We arrived in the morning so didn't go straight to the Taj as we wanted to catch it at sunrise. We went to visit the Agra fort on the first day instead which is really lovely. The building is amazing and the builder of the Taj was held prisoner there overlooking his magnificent structure! There were loads of cool wild parrots flying around too! The next day we got to the Taj about 6.00am to face the massive queue. The pollution is very bad in agra even though [View Full Entry]

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It seems at bit of a long time since I wrote this as it was hard to find a computer in India and then we have just got back from trekking in Nepal but i'll try and remember what we did!! Steve was sick this first day so I did the city palace alone and then again the next day. It was really quiet the day I went as it was the day before Diwali but when we went together it was packed!! The palace is really beautiful with lovely grounds on the famous lake with great views of the famous [View Full Entry]

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We only had one day here before we flew to Kathmandu so we decided to do the really touristy thing of taking a 1 day all in tour from dawn till dusk! It was actually really fun! We started off with a dawn boat ride on the ganges which is horribly polluted but we did see a dolphin, it was alive, not a plastic model!! We got to see people swimming and washing and generally life there as well as the funeral fires! We then took a walk through the narrow streets to a hindu temple and mosque conveniently built on [View Full Entry]

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The boss from the trekking company was there to meet us from the flight which was really nice and took us to the hotel where we could try to make our backpacks as light as possible to start trekking!! The next day we had a whirlwind tour of the major sights of the city which was ace. We saw the main buddhist temple with all its prayer flags and the cool eyes. We got to visit a painting school which was fun to see although i think 120 usd for a piccie is horribly steep!!! We also went to Durbar square [View Full Entry]

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Wow!! How cool was that!! The trekking was hard work walking up and down all those hills but the views were amazing, we were so lucky with the weather, we hardly had any cloud apart from one afternoon on the way down!! Things didn't start to well as we were held up in a road block for 7 hours on the first day as some locals blocked the road. A driver had killed a motorcyclist and the locals accused the police of steeling 15,000usd from his body and they were shutiing the road till they got it back, all very dodgy [View Full Entry]

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We met loads of lovely people on the train, all Indian, we saw no other tourists. There was on older couple, the guy was an amputee and then a couple who had an arranged marriage 10 days before. They actually seemed very happy!! Being India they kept plying us with food and tea, and also an apple!! With 3 hours still to go of a 20 hour train ride I knew something was amiss!! 3 hours in a train toilet in India is not very pleasant!! I was so sick it hurt:( Thankfully after 48 hours in bed I feel much [View Full Entry]

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We caught the train from the hectic Delhi railway station to Amritsar. We took the more expensive Shatabdi express and it was actually really quite good! All the food and drinks were free. Looking from the window of the train we took loads of pictures but really they only seek to highlight further poverty. Amritsar station was a choatic experience, those pesky rickshaw drivers do like to follow you around especially if you don't know exactly where you're going. 'But why don't you trust me?', because I don't know you!! Anyway, we actually managed to take the free bus to the [View Full Entry]

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