So we left Bangkok (via the nicest bus I've ever seen, nicer than a lot of the places we've stayed!) and we arrived into Chiang Mai about 9hrs later. Chiang Mai is quite a large city but it has a really cool and really laid-back feel to it. We deliberately headed north quicker than we'd initially intended because we had heard that there would be a festival taking place in Chiang Mai that was worth checking out................ ... it was AMAZING. The festival is called "Loi Krathong" and the idea is that everybody gives thanks to the river goddess by releasing [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Thailand! So we took a 12hr train from Goa up to Mumbai...and arrived to find that either the accommodation was too expensive for our (minuscule) budget or it was booked out. So we headed out to the airport having decided that we were more prepared to sleep out there for free than in some dank, over-priced, hovel. Well that was our first mistake. The airport, it would turn out, has absolutely nothing to offer anyone, not even a restaurant, let alone a comfortable lounging area. So, as we resigned ourselves to the prospect of sitting on the cold, tiled [View Full Entry]

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Getting to Goa was a chore worth mentioning briefly- We took a 16hr sleeper train from Jodhpur to Mumbai: so far so good. It was as good as a 16hr train journey can be... Then we spent 2hrs in the blistering heat and humidity of the hottest place in creation (i.e Mumbai) trying in vain to book a train, before relenting and buying an over-priced bus ticket leaving later that evening. So one substandard lunch later and we were preparing to board the bus...or so we thought... Ultimately, we arrived in Goa 21hrs later, having waiting 3hrs on the foot path- [View Full Entry]

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Jaisalmer- my favourite city so far! We took a 6hr bus journey from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer without knowing very much about the place but on the recommendation of loads of people we had met... What greeted us on arrival (besides the usual crowd of rickshaw drivers and hotel owners) was a city that actually looked like a giant sand castle! It is absolutely amazing! We checked into a lovely hotel (only 80c a night- for a double with two balconies over-looking the fort!!) and booked onto a camel safari leaving the following morning at 6am. The camel safari brought us into [View Full Entry]

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So we left The Pink City and headed for the blue one by bus (awful journey altogether involving extensive standing, bribery, ignorant people speaking hindi and needing to use the toilet for 7hrs!)... But we made it. We checked into a "hotel" that more resembled an abandoned warehouse, where we stayed for several nights without seeing a single other person, let alone staff. But when we did eventually meet the family running the place, it turned out that they were very nice and very busy, preparing for a wedding...that we got invited to!!! We had all hoped that we might get [View Full Entry]

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We left Ranthambore and the Tiger Reserve early and took a train to the Pink City (and capital) of Rajasthan- Jaipur. We had heard mixed reports on the city and were surprised to find it's quite cosmopolitan (as Indian cities come). We eventually found our hotel (much to the digust of our rickshaw driver, who had hoped to take us to his friend's place and rip us off in the process) and settled down to a day of relaxation and eating delicious samosas. On day #2 we hired a rickshaw for the entire day and were driven around all the sights [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Bharatpur by bus (only an hour anf a half of the usual mayhem!) and discovered that the town of Bharatpur is not particulary nice and, is a bit of a no-mans-land. It's very dusty, very hot and has very little to offer besides the bird sanctuary. There are also camals and wild pigs (which fight constantly with the wild dogs) EVERYWHERE. We made our way to a gorgeous little hotel called The Jungle Lodge and checked in to a really nice room looking out onto a veranda and a lovely garden. The only drawback, we soon found out, [View Full Entry]

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We left Delhi by public bus and endured 6hrs of bad roads and dusty air before arriving in Agra that night. We took a rickshaw to Taj Ganj, an area only about 2 minutes from the Taj Mahal itself and had no trouble finding a decent hotel, with an impressive view of the Taj from it's rooftop terrace. Agra, we had been warned, is not a town worth sticking around in and we soon realised that the standard of the food was enough to drive anyone away! But we were lucky to find one nice, family owned, restaurant with a fairy-lit [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Delhi following a near 10hr train journey which we had all managed to get plenty of sleep on, thank god, and were met by a guy who escourted us hassle free to our hotel. Good start. Our hotel was really nice (a/c and a tv!!) and was just off the Main Bazaar, only in a MUCH nicer area. We met up with our friend Tariq (who we had met in Srinigar) for lunch and it was great, like meeting an old friend (we spend way to long just talking to each other Im thinking!). Then we visited the [View Full Entry]

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We were sad to be leaving McLeod Ganj but excited to be heading off to a new location. We were up and out early as the journey from Dharamsala to Amritsar would take us about 9hrs by public bus. The journey was problem free thankfully and, we arrived in Amritsar late that evening. We made our way via rickshaw to the legendary Golden Temple and were surprised to find that the city was very clean (by Indian standards, i.e. no open sewers, city centre landfills or piles of burning rubbish by the roadside), had fewer touts than the other cities we [View Full Entry]

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