Not much to report today, we had nothing planned and so chilled in bed, having a long lie in and dragging ourselves to breakfast in time to catch the last of the scrambled eggs. As we ate, we were watching new tourists arriving - Dutch, English, Aussie - and I had this sudden feeling that we'd been there too long, as we sat at the table like we owned the place. We were in danger of 'settling'. We had to sort Koh Samui tickets. Steve and Katie, the Australians we'd met on the sleeper train from Agra to Varanasi, had recommended [View Full Entry]

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The first of April was a non-event. We spent most of the day on the phone to HSBC customer care in England, trying to ascertain precisely why Maya had been locked out of her online banking manager and, more importantly, when she could expect it to be reinstated. As it happened, she was basically told there was nothing that could be done until she got home. Tough shit. Applause HSBC. Luckily, Maya's mother is still able to manage the account from England and so we're saved, but no thanks to the 'world's local bank'... We chill in the evening with a [View Full Entry]

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Maya awakes early and spends her morning catching up on the diary on the porch. I waver between sleep and waking, interspersing vivid tropical dreams with sections from Will Self's 'Book Of Dave'. I honestly couldn't tell you which is the more psychedelic. Faced with two such enjoyable engagements, however, I'm reluctant to join Maya in the land of the living. Eventually I do, persuaded mainly by being bodily tipped onto the floor and left floundering by she herself. Maya's been watching a hippy man desperately attempting to re-enact some dodgy, half-baked version of Tai Chi. This is one of [View Full Entry]

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This place is like a steam cooker. Its like some all-powerful deity has taken a whole lot of high-rise buildings, some palm trees, some flash cars, lots of Thai people and a few sweaty and ill-prepared tourists, chucked them all in an oven set to max, and slammed shut the lid. This is the hot season in Thailand, and even the locals are complaining about the heat. The humidity is incredible too... gasping in warm exhaust fumes in a futile attempt to taste fresh, cool air, we only succeed in inhaling what feels like dense water vapour. Thankfully, almost every contained [View Full Entry]

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We're extremely tired, Maya more as I at least managed to get an hour's sleep at Singapore Changi airport whilst waiting for our connection to Bangkok. The flight passes without incident, and its yet another glowing experience with Singapore Airlines who we haven't been able to fault for any reason so far. Some of the other passengers, however, are rather more strange that we're used to. Enormous bearded Englishmen, often with beer guts that protrude like badly-smuggled basketballs from their inadequate T-shirts, leer openly and lecherously at the pretty Singaporean air stewardesses over t [View Full Entry]

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The bazaars of Thamel, the district in Kathmandu where we were staying, are definitely tourist-orientated. We'd been advised to head for this backpacker-friendly area but made it there ourselves, quite by mistake, and found our hotel to be right on the edge of Thamel. Shops along the narrow, cobbled streets sold all kinds of hippy clothes, jewellery and other bits and pieces. We were aiming for Durbar Square, site of many temples and palaces, but with no map or guide were just following our instincts. But it was a lovely warm day to be browsing the shops and searching the rooftops [View Full Entry]

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The owner of the hotel in Pokhara woke us at 6am in order to get us downstairs in time for a swift coffee before heading off to the bus station. It isn't far, maybe a fifteen minute walk, but the owner offered to drop us off in his clapped-out old car which, considering the weight of our packs, was a real relief. We were still surprised to have made it there without breaking down though. I slammed the door on the way out and the handle came loose in my hand. The bus was a large, comfortable but ageing dinosaur from [View Full Entry]

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We wake early and are greeted with the kind of view people write poetry about... from the back window of our room the town stretches out and gently upwards, the houses mostly traditional brightly-painted Nepali with balconies, roof gardens and washing lines, and behind them the hills climb into the distance. And finally, behind that, there's the snow-capped Annapurna mountain range which climbs to 27,000 feet. Quite often the cloud and haze obscures the range, but a storm last night cleared the air and these monolithic ghostly shapes loom through the atmosphere with incredible clarity, the eas [View Full Entry]

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We'd celebrated our deliverance (again) heavily last night, combining beer with special lassi. Special lassi is just like any other lassi, a slightly sour yoghurt-based milkshake drink, but this had been pepped up with the very best marijuana which grows wild in the ditches and hedges around here. We'd been (good-naturedly) kicked out of the bar at some ungodly hour in near-hysterical laughter, and this morning our heads were aching badly. We walked into the village for breakfast, greeting all the villagers and the mahouts who were walking their elephants back from their morning baths. Aft [View Full Entry]

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We were extremely reluctant to leave Park Side. Over our three or four days there we'd really fallen in love with the park, and the hotel staff were all so friendly and helpful. But press on we must, and so Gopal drove us to the bus pick up point outside the village. The sky was a deep, clear blue, and the air here fresh and crystal clear. If Evian made air, it'd taste like this. The villagers waved, smiling broadly at us as they always do, and the children chased our truck for a while. We wished Gopal all the best [View Full Entry]

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