Cool, Crazy, Like a Banana in the Fridge So I have a theory... And it's that you can tell a lot about a nation of people by how they greet each other. For example: Australian: Q: "How you going?" A: Good, thanks! (Even though in the literal sense it could be claimed that our answer should be "By Car" or "Fast") British: Q: "You Allright?" A. Yes, thank you. (Even though every time I get asked this my initial reaction is to say - "Yes, I'm fine - does it not look like I'm allright!?" - eg Is my head [View Full Entry]

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Mzungus In The Mist So we left good old Delhi at 4 am in a Rickshaw and headed for the airport having had an awesome time in India overall. Our plane journey would take us back to Honkers and then on to Nairobi via Jo'burg over 27 hours. All good fun indeed Fawlty, particularly when your destination is affectionately known as Nairobbery and 1 in 3 people have been mugged or assaulted there! We pensively exited Nairobi airport (without a problem), headed to our new camp site to meet our new group for the next 3 weeks and spent the evening [View Full Entry]

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Strawberry Lassis and Banana Pancakes A bit late coming.. but better late than never! So the last 3 weeks of our time in India were spent in vast contrast to our first 2... No more dust, 40 degree temperatures and personal driver... Bring on the serenity of the mountains, hill stations, rivers, waterfalls and overnight buses. Yes, that's right - no more could we enjoy the life of "flash-packers" - we were now on true traveler's path and back to life as "back-packers"! So out comes the Lonely Planet, in comes the painful bus trips and onto the road of [View Full Entry]

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Ain't No Mountain High Enough - The Hampta Pass, Indian Himalayas After the blistering heat of Rajasthan we decided to head North to mountain country. The original plan was to head to Nepal and trek in the Annapurna range. However, at the risk of daylight curfews, political unrest etc we took the safer option and caught the 12 hour night bus to Manali - The capital of the northern Indian provence, Himachel Pradesh. We left hot and humid Delhi and after a run in with "waiter" who demanded a tip for good service (what ?), we woke up somewhere in [View Full Entry]

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The New Raj's of Rajasthan We didn't know quite what to expect from India. Leaving the comfort-zone of a relaxing 3 days in Hong Kong, we felt a mixture of excitement and intrepedation about our next 5 weeks - Deli Belly, Touts, Chaos, Forts & Temples and a 45 degree heat wave were the main snippits of information we were armed with. Well, there's nothing like taking a path less-traveled... Our first 2 weeks in India were spent primarily in the state of Rajastan on a pre-organised driving tour. And having our own car, driver and accommodation sorted in advance [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai, Huangzhou & Yellow Mountain As you can probably tell from our ongoing eunthusiastic tales - we've had an amazing time in China. This is finally our last installment for what has been an amazing, but very full on 25 days! But before I wrap up with the final leg of our journey, I want to make a note on Chinese food. And quite simply - it has been amazing. Of all the meals we've had, short of a few dodgey breakfasts, and the occasional oily dinner, we've had some of THE most yummy dishes we could ever have hoped [View Full Entry]

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From the Terracotta Warriors to The Great Wall in 3 Days Whilst we were loving the natural beauty, wildlife and urban landscapes of south and western China, by the time we reached Xian, there was a mumble amongst most of us... when will we start REALLY feeling like we're in China. Well, we got it. An absolutely exhilarating span of a few days hurtled us from Xian to Beijing and some of the most amazing treasures of over 2,000 years of history. No time for sleeping, most mornings we were on the go at 6am, for either a long bus, a [View Full Entry]

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Chengdu - Never Heard of It... Amongst our "Bottom 3" bus journeys was the the bus from Chongqing to Chengdu. 7 hours spent in seats for midgets with absolutely no legroom was not our idea of fun. However, this aside, Chengdu, that well known Chinese city of 5 million people rocked. We checked into our next hotel and spent the day exploring the city with it's countless rickshaws, restaurants and flourescently lit bridges. Chengdu is a modern day Chinese city with lots of old day culture. The 100 foot Mao statue which pays homage to the PRC's "Father" is pretty impressive, [View Full Entry]

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Gorges, Mah Jong & One Big Bloody Dam The more adventurous amongst us - (Yvette) made a mangement decision on behalf of the group to take the public bus to our sleeper train (from Guilin to Yi Chin) where we boarded the "Luxury Yangtzee River Cruise Liner". This decision was greeted with some disdain from the group but these non-believers were forced to eat their words you will be pleased to hear! As public bus journeys go, this ranks amongst my top 3. Imagine an clapped out old mini bus for 12 people with numerous ruck sacks taking up the [View Full Entry]

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Trains, Thai Chi & Chinese Officials So I've promised never to fill out Dom's custom's forms for him again. After kindly filling out both our forms on the ferry from Hong Kong to mainland China, upon disembarkment our tour group were kept waiting over 15 minutes - whilst Dom was interrogated in a small room by very serious and scary looking officials for an inconsistency in his name on the paper work. Oh dear!! In my defense however, I have to say that I have never been the best of spellers and when you have 4 names with confusing Italian [View Full Entry]

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