Shakirah and Erik
Finally!!! We leave on February 28th 2005 to embark on a world wide adventure...Still trippin
India-Nepal-Thailand-Cambodia-Lao-Vietnam-Singapore-Australia-New Zealand-Fiji-United States
Travel Blog Posts
September 5th 2005
It’s not the season for dogs We hit Laos in the middle of the monsoon. At our first stop in Vang Vieng, it was constantly raining for the first 3 days. We met a handful of other travellers on the porch of our guesthouse who informed us that it had been this way for the whole week. Half of them gave up and went to Thailand the following day whilst the other half were tubing enthusiasts who saw through the rain. Erik and I settled for village and cave walks and ventured into the surrounding areas. It was either that or sit in one of many restaurants constantly showing episodes of Friends. We met a very admirable Canadian couple who were bicycling around SE Asia. Before this they had been bicycling around India, so we had ... read more
August 17th 2005
After some difficult goodbyes in Siem Reap, we got on the road to Phnom penh. We spent a few days here and based ourselves in the lakeside area; a backpacker part of town soon to be bulldozed as the land is apparently too valuable to be wasted on budget guests. It was a little run down, but had a lot of personality. It appeared to us that they were trying to change the face of tourism for a much cleaner image of Cambodia, other than that of child prostitution and shooting ranges where you can buy a cow and blow it up with a B-40 grenade launcher. We squeezed in a lot of things during our short stay, but little did we know that a visit to the bank would be one of our Phnom penh ... read more
August 4th 2005
So we won't bore you with another one of our tragic bus nightmares, but what we are going to say about the entire bus ride from the Thai border to Siem Reap is: - all girls require a sports bra for this ride!! We spent our first night at The 13th Villa where we met William "Bill" Simonsen, a retired Canadian/American expat who soon became a good friend of ours. He was now living permanently in Cambodia and was working towards building a new school for disabled orphans. The DOVE (Disabled Orphans Vocational Education) centre which Bill part funds, is currently located near the Angkor temples where we were invited by the Head teacher for a chicken dinner and viewing of students work. The new school is planned to be complete within the next year. The ... read more
July 16th 2005
Landing at Singapore airport was a surreal experience for us. Being the most expensive airport in the world it took us by surprise. Carpeted floors, shiny toilets... I mean we’d hardly seen any road markings for 4 months. We spent approximately 4 hours there, which was far from enough and we didn’t even find the 'free' swimming pool, maybe because we spent too much time at the 'free' Internet place (n.b. at Heathrow it’s one pound for 10 minutes!!!) Oh, and not to mention some good shopping too. Then the treat continued as Singapore airlines flew us to Bangkok. Every seat had its own good sized private TV screen where you could choose from the latest films, your favourite series or just play some video games. Enough promoting. I looted the toilet too. When we got ... read more
July 2nd 2005
Time flies and so do we Kathmandu After a relatively quick 2 day wind-down recovery from the trek, we headed straight to Kathmandu. old, dusty and fascinating were our first impressions as we once again stepped off the bus to a bunch of screaming rickshaw drivers and guest house owners wanting to give us a good deal. Our flight back to India, Bombay was leaving from here so we only had a few days to spend and considering that Durbar square had over 40 temples to see, we definitely weren’t short of things to do. Walking through the narrow winding roads and enjoying the Nepali city life kept us busy, we also visited the monkey temple where the monkeys were up to no good; slapping Erik on the head when he got too close with the ... read more
June 22nd 2005
After meeting a lot of other backpackers who had recently been to Nepal, our decision to come here was made easy, especially because we were now up for some serious trekking. Once again it seemed like the city of Delhi always had a way of luring us back in, so we had yet another two day stop here in 40 degree heat to get things organized. We went to see Star Wars episode III and hung out with Steve and Gemma, a couple from England. They took us to Delhi’s revolving restaurant and we all agreed that the food and Delhi’s night time view was nothing to rave about. But none the less we had an enjoyable night and ended up in a slightly polished English style pub to while the hours away. Erik and I ... read more
May 29th 2005
Kheer ganga In order to get to Kheer ganga we first had to make our way to Manikaran which was a 5 hour bus journey from Manali. This town was a sight for sore eyes. One night was enough time spent before heading to Barshani to start the trek to aprox. 3000 m. We began with a huge thali breakfast (Indian dish that comes in a variety of combinations) before setting off. We got lost 2 or 3 times in the first hour as locals kept pointing us in the wrong direction. We finally found our way after a great deal of hassle and soon caught up with a Mexican couple, Alma & Sergio who trekked with us. It took us 6-7 hrs to reach Kheer ganga. During that time we got chased by dogs, saw ... read more
May 18th 2005
Manali cream and the Dalai Lama We had some small business to attend to in Delhi; Erik had to get his teeth fixed. A consultation, an X-ray and a cap on his broken tooth for the ridiculously cheap price of 500rs/£6/80kr. After that we planned to leave the city in the evening, but of course our bus was cancelled, so much to our displeasure we ended up staying an extra night. We finally got to Manali after a 15 hour bus journey and it felt great to be able to breathe the fresh mountain air. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took my first glimpse of the Himalayan range as I woke up on the bus. The views on the way up were truly incredible... I’ve seen pictures before, but it’s nothing compared to the ... read more
April 28th 2005
Wow, an amazing 1900+ people have read our travel blogs so far, and we're still about 8 weeks behind with our updates. But don't worry, we're slowly getting there and those of you subscribed will be getting a whole lotta updates during the next couple of weeks. We're currently in Thailand but do read on about our past shananigans in India. I also want to say a big hello and hugs to all London based friends, thanks for all the emails I've received so far, I'm thinking of you xx Pushkar is one of India’s seven holy cities and it’s overflowing with temples and holy sites. This is where thousands of pilgrims come every year to visit Pushkar’s holy lake. An even more usual site is the amount of tourists that visit the city, which is ... read more
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