It's now been a month since I arrived at the Martial Arts Academy - for anyone needing a recap I'm here to learn some Kung Fu for a couple of months before the next leg of my trip which will be to Thailand in February. If I wrote this blog a couple of weeks ago I'd probably have picked a title like "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Prison Break" - it was certainly a shock to the system having got used to being a lone traveller. Firstly it is bitterly cold here - snow blankets the hill on which the academy perches, [View Full Entry]

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I really hadn't thought this through - there was me thinking I'll spend four months travelling in a tropical climate, forgetting China is in fact a very big place - just like the USA where you can have freezing Alaska or sunny Florida. I'm now a few hours' drive away from the Russian and North Korean Border, right up in the top-right corner if you like - it's bitterly cold here! I landed in Beijing (now eight hours ahead) on Thursday in sandals and flimsy linen trousers; by the time I got to my hotel via rickshaw I was like a [View Full Entry]

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…and I thought I was going to make it to China without getting it! I arrived in Goa late Friday evening, by Saturday I didn’t feel 100% and went to bed early... the last 48 hours have been both delirious and inconvenient but I’m back on my feet again today. I’m very lucky my Dad has some contacts here and has put me up in a luxury holiday resort - so I’ve at least been able to suffer the ill effects in style! After my last post I travelled by overnight train to Delhi - a unique experience sleeping on the [View Full Entry]

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I hope you’ve guessed from the title that a lot has happened in the last week! I left Udaipur to travel to a place called Mount Abu, a mere 7 hours’ bus journey away. Before the morning was through I’d learned the hard way that you never ask an Indian a leading question: when I arrived at the bus station I’d found a wise-looking old man standing beside a bus. “Does this bus go to Mount Abu?” I asked him. He nodded and replied “Yes”, so I climbed aboard. Only when a fellow passenger frowned at me in a later [View Full Entry]

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I had to create another section for this - I'm meant to be leaving Udaipur tomorrow morning for a place called Mt Abu (although just heard the bus has "broken"!) No matter how hard I try I can't absorb the history of this city in terms of Maharajahs' dynasties. I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who hoped for a more cultural style of reportage - but all I can think is 'This is where Roger slid down the bannister' or where Q landed in his hot air balloon - heh heh: "There's no time for that now! Later Perhaps..." This place is [View Full Entry]

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A week has passed since I landed in India and I am now in the heart of Rajasthan, the searingly colourful desert region that borders Pakistan in the North-West, in a city called Udaipur. This is the one place on my travels that you will all have seen - in the (Roger Moore!) Bond movie Octopussy - something the locals are keen to remind you of from the moment you arrive: practically every hotel and restaurant shows the movie several times a day. I left Mumbai on Thursday last week, taking the “express” train to Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur - a mere [View Full Entry]

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Day 3 and time to get my blog going! Mumbai is an incredible place, you can't begin to take it in in a couple of days. I am amazed at the contrasts - some fantastic architecture (old and new) yet at the same time complete chaos and stark poverty. The people here are extremely friendly and eager to help which has been very reassuring, and thankfully English is a main language here. The taxi drivers seem to navigate like bats, using their horns as a kind of echo-finder. There appears to be no order - on the few roads where there [View Full Entry]

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