Hello So we have had a busy busy few weeks traveling around India - mostly with a day or two here and there with 12 hour train journeys in between. I'll try to give you an idea what we did in each place we visited below but be warned this might turn out to be an epic blog! Varanasi The first place we visited after Darjeeling. We found out it IS possible to fit three people and all their luggage in an Auto-Rickshaw (just) as we sped through the narrow streets to get to the ghat area where we had to [View Full Entry]

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Hello Sorry its been a while since we last updated our blog. We have now left Familia after a great couple of weeks there. It is in a rural area 1.5hrs from Kolkata and its really nice not to be in the madness of the city for a while! There are lovely grounds and we visited the school and the old folks home up the road - we were made to feel welcome everywhere we went. Spending Easter Sunday there was really great, there was a bonfire outside and the children put on a show before we painted some eggs and [View Full Entry]

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Hello from India! First things first- sorry we havent blogged in so long- for the last part of our south east asia trip internet access became scarce and we were just so busy! No we are at Familia in India, our first stop here in our last country. For those of you who dont know- its the charity orphanage and school where I (Izzy) spent some time in 2007. So Ive come back to visit and brought Katie along. Weve been doing some helping in the reception and year one classes- quite challenging as some of them dont speak English very [View Full Entry]

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Ok- so mega update time! We made it back to Bangkok from ChiangMai with no hiccups (another delightful sleeper train) and said goodbye to the Australians, our lovely tour guide Chai and our now good friend Helen! We had another night in air con heaven in Bangkok and met our new group for the remaining two weeks. There's now 7 of us plus our Malaysian guide Jepp. All friendly people and a nice crowd so far! We left the chaos of Bangkok via yet another sleeper train (although our last until India), which wasnt quite so comfy as it only had [View Full Entry]

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Hello! We are back having made it through the mountains by 4x4, foot, elephant, and bamboo raft! We stopped off at a village and a waterfall in the morning to break up the drive from our walk. Our guide tried to get us to try delicacies such as ant eggs, grasshopper etc at the village.. no thanks, though some of the guys on our trip did - nothing worth writing home about apparently! The villages have ladies out in force selling homemade water bottle holders, jewelery etc - its hard to say no, so we have brought a thing or two! [View Full Entry]

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Sat-waa-dee! Hello from Chiang-Mai! So a quick update before we head out into the mountains tomorrow for our three day trek. Got here this morning at around 7:30 having spent the night on a sleeper train from Bangkok- journey wasnt too bad although not exactly the worlds best nights sleep! The carriages are open and at first you have a large seat to yourself sitting across from each other, then this converts into beds (one up one down) lying lengthways to the window. Its quite a nice system and they give you fresh bedding/pillow and the beds each have their own [View Full Entry]

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Hi, Just a very quick note to let you all know we have made it to Bangkok fine and dandy :) We had a day looking round Singapore and managed to fit in a wander round chinatown and the Buddah Relic Tooth Temple/museum as well as a trip on the Singapore flyer (like the london eye only bigger) a walk round the botanic gardens and then a night safari! Singapore seems like a really nice city, lots of building going on there but there are alot of nice new buildings and despite the heat it seems really light and airy in [View Full Entry]

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Hello! and so, we are spending our last few hours in Sydney in an internet cafe- killing time before we get our shuttle to the airport to fly to Singapore! (very excited although we think there might be heavy rain there.....!) To bring you up to speed and to pick up where Katie left off after our last blog- We spent thursday on the famous Bondi Beach- the sand was gorgeous, so pure and soft. We didnt venture into the sea apart from to dip our toes- there are strong currents, shark warnings, jellyfish and fast surfers- all in all not [View Full Entry]

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Hello! So its been a while since our last blog as we have been busy busy seeing the sights! The first day we took a walk through the Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful, to the Opera House and then around the Quayside to The Rocks - one of the oldest areas in Sydney. Just had a look around really and wanted to see what was where! Ended up walking back to our hostel in Kings Cross (an 'interesting' area of night clubs/ hostels and nice restaurants) as we hadnt discovered where to get the trains and buses yet. Since then we [View Full Entry]

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G'day Bro! So we made it to Sydney no problems. Our Flight arrived just before 5 and then we caught a shuttle into the city and to our hostel The Blue Parrot in a bustling area called Potts Point. Had a much needed sleep catch up last night and now are off for a wonder and an explore! The internet is free in our hostel but as such it seems usually busy so far, so just snatching this time now to quickly update on our last few days. From the end of the last blog- we made our way up to [View Full Entry]

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