chimelleinoz

28/2 - 10/03 I've always had this vision of Goa as a kind of hippy-exotic-psychedelic hang out place. I had envisioned dance parties that would last for days and random guitar and bongo sessions on the sand with people with names like Sky and Zed. I think we may have missed the boat slightly though as we met more middle-class, middle-aged beer-drinking Russians than dance-til-dawn global ageless nomads. The closest I got to a dance party was during the pre-Holi celebrations where I managed to sneak into a roving street party blessing each house and then rousing the Gods with ear splitting drums. That said, we found a little haven in Goa called Palolem beach and very happily whiled away almost a week soaking up the sun and playing in the bath-warm water. Palolem is actually ... read more

12th Jan - 3rd Feb Keralans are very proud of their state and are quick to tell you that it’s “God’s Own Country”, the byline of its tourism campaign. Stepping off the plane in Cochin, it was easy to see why. Having left the cold smogginess of Delhi, we were greeted with a flawless blue sky, a balmy 30 something degree heat, a gentle breeze which ruffled the nearby palm trees and a general feeling that everything was going to become a lot easier from here on. I could hardly contain my excitement - especially when our guest house car arrived - a great big silver 4 x 4 with air conditioning. The contrast between the north and south was striking. Apart from the weather, there was greenery everywhere, the air was clear, the roads not ... read more

Several fellow travellers tried to prepare us for what India would be like. "INDIA, haven't you heard the saying? I'd Never Do It Again". We were promised though that after the initial shock and bewilderment, we would grow to love the place. So, armed with very low expectations, you'd think that our first encounter wouldn't have come as a surprise. To start with, we made the beginner’s error of buying a ticket that would bring us from Kathmandu all the way to Varanasi (with an overnight stop in Lumbini to pay respects to Buddha's mama). When we arrived in the dusty dirt bowl of a border town that is Sunauli, we went straight to the travel agent to pick up our tickets for the India leg. What had been billed as a tourist bus (the only ... read more

13th Nov - 6th Dec Getting off the plane in Kathmandu and driving through the bedlam of pink buses, tuk tuks, cows, fruit sellers and randomly wandering people was quite a shock after our 20 hour journey from England. We had a 5 hour stop off in Mumbai to change flights and we got a little taste of what India might be like when we go back (non-existant personal space, us having no clue what’s going on…). We had picked a hotel from the Lonely Planet and as our cab pulled up, the guy in the tourist information stand informed us that a tour guide would be joining us. He proceeded to sell us on his tour company whilst pointing out various landmarks - the such and such bridge… the so and so building…the municipal open-air ... read more

27/09 - 2/10 I must confess that my main reason for wanting to visit Botswana was because of a beautiful photo I had seen in a guide book of a Mokoru boatsman poling a dug out canoe through the Okavanga Delta. Other than that, I'm ashamed to say how little I knew about the culture and history of the country (ok....and also the precise location...yikes). Anyway, I guess this is what travelling is all about - putting something tangible to a name and fleshing out a point on the map with faces and colours and sounds. We had found Zambia markedly different from Tanzania in terms of safety and approachability of the people but the difference crossing into Botswana was even more dramatic. We immediately got the sense of a country that's very comfortable and ... read more