http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/lmh/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from lmh en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:50:02 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:50:02 +0000 After a busy morning in Hoi An mainly spent in tailor shops we had a last lunch with Ros and Michael before heading back to Da Nang airport and our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We had no real desire to visit this city but as we had decided to head into Cambodia via the Mekong River HCMC was on the way. It was busy much busier than Hanoi we had never seen as many motorbikes in one place befor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-459950.html An hours flight and a 45 minute taxi ride took us to Hoi An a very pretty riverside town. Hoi An is firmly on the tourist trail and has changed a lot since we were there last. We still loved it though On the drive from the airport it was very noticeable the road was now 4 lanes and was edged with large resorts a golf course and many signs advertising future developments. We visited Hoi An t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-458803.html We had a comfortable overnight trip on the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai the station closest to Sapa. A prebooked bus drove us up the mountain to Sapa very pretty trip though as the rice terraces had no water in them it wasn't as impressive as on our first trip in 2001.The bus let us off reluctantly in the centre of town it was obviously planning on taking us to a hotel which would pay him a fee http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-458786.html We were collected early from our hotel in Hanoi for the three hour drive north to Halong Bay. Once we left the city we passed big wide fields where rice was grown all empty now as they only have one rice season a year in this area. The farmers were however burning off the stubble from the rice crops and therefore the skies were shrouded in a heavy smoke haze. We hoped that the haze wasn't going http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-458329.html We were in Vietnam in 2000 and were a little hesitant about returning as we had heard that it had changed a lot. Hanoi was my favorite Asian city at the time and I didn't want to spoil my memories of it. However we had always wanted to enter China from Vietnam so decided to go back. We had applied for our Vietnamese visas in Bangkok but left applying for our Chinese ones until we arrived in Hanoi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-456254.html After our snail's pace trip via train to Ayuthaya we found a lovely new guest house Promtong close to the historical park. Ayuthaya is a World Heritage site as it was originally the capitol of Thailand and is dotted with dozens of temple sites in various stages of ruin. It is actually an island caused by the convergence of three rivers as they head towards the Gulf of Thailand. That afternoon we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ayuthaya/blog-455287.html Arriving in Bangkok we had a taxi waiting to take us to our pre booked hotel in the city too easy The hotel was close to the shopping delights and neon lighting of Siam Square so we walked down there. By this stage we were feeling like we had arrived on another planet everything was too clean and efficient after India. We had a touch of reverse culture shock for a few days I think. Next morni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-453554.html Arriving in Kolkata at 6.30am after a reasonable nights sleep on the overnight train we had a pretty scary taxi ride to our prebooked hotel. We were to discover that the taxi drivers in Kolkata were the worst ones we had seen in the whole of India. Most of their cars were decrepit in fact the government had already ordered hundreds off the roads only a fortnight before it was only the better on http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Kolkata/blog-449130.html We left Darjeeling and drove on really rough roads through many tea plantations to the Sikkim border. Heading north towards Legship on roads that were in much better condition we began our seven days in Sikkim. As usual our driver was lovely and he was also the best driver we've had the entire trip. This man handled the bends and traffic on the narrow roads brilliantly The scenery was lush http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Sikkim/blog-449135.html It was a long slow train trip from Varanasi to Siliguri the starting point for the trip up the mountain to Darjeeling from 11am to 7am the next morning We arrived feeling very tired and were immediately surrounded by touts all trying to pull us towards their jeep for the 5 hour trip to Darjeeling. I lost my cool and ended up shouting at them all to go away after 5 months in India it was onl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Darjeeling/blog-448206.html We changed taxis at the border the area was totally chaotic and I'm sure a lot of smuggling goes on undetected there. The immigration desk was a table in the main street we didn't even see any customs officers. Totally crazy people and trucks loaded up with goods everywhere and absolutely no order at all. Our new driver spoke hardly any English. It was a long drive to Varanasi we could hav http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-448085.html We left Tansen by hire taxi for the three hour trip to Lumbini the birthplace of Buddha and a tiny town close to the Indian Nepal border. The trip was stunning traveling along the edge of some very deep gorges lined with rice terraces and jungle. The road was pretty bad in places there were a lot of washouts and areas of landslide. We passed hundreds of buses one after the other and I'v http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Lumbini/blog-443241.html We decided to visit Tansen en route to the border our visa were running out and finally the birthplace of Buddha Lumbini which is very close to the Indian border. There seemed to be know direct tourist bus to Tansen and we weren't prepared to catch another local bus after our terrible trip from Bandipur. It wasn't particularly far only 140 klms but it took over 4 hours with a puncture st http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-443235.html We left Bandipur for Pokhara by a local bus. The driver was totally crazy he drove far too fast around the bends and there were many and we were getting concerned for our safety when the bus stopped and nearly everybody got off and went onto other buses. The only people left were us we were unsure whether the bus terminated there though it was supposed to go to Pokhara or whether everybody http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Pokhara/blog-442293.html We left Chitwan by tourist bus heading towards Pokhara but were planning on leaving the bus at Dumre. The trip passed through many tiny villages but still no views of snow capped mountains as the horizon was very hazy. Three hours of traveling before we arrived in Dumre a dusty roadside bazaar town through which all traffic between Pokhara and Kathmandu passes. There were dozens of buses parke http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Bandipur/blog-436731.html We arrived in Royal Chitwan National Park after a pleasant 5 hour bus trip from Kathmandu. As it is only the very beginning of the tourist season we were surprised at the long line of buses waiting to depart Kathmandu most were heading to Pokara. The closer we got to Chitwan the greener and prettier the scenery got. We weren't sorry to arrive as the buses were made for people much smaller the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Chitwan/blog-437260.html Bhaktapur is the city to go to Nepal if you want to see stunning temples. We loved our 48 hours there It was made even better by the fact that the main areas are traffic free though the odd motorbike still managed to find its way through. Our hotel room had a window seat which overlooked the main sqaure and in the evening when the day trippers left it was a wonderful place to sit. To get to Bha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Bhaktapur/Durbar-Square/blog-438377.html Our flight to Kathmandu took an hour and a half and sadly we didn't see any major mountains maybe from the direction we flew you weren't supposed to but we had been expecting to see some. After landing and going through customs and visa control One month visas cost US 40 each payable only in US dollars we were met by the driver from the guest house we had booked into. Kathmandu looked like http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/Thamel/blog-436702.html After considering catching the train from Jaipur to Agra and learning that it is regularly up to four hours late we decided to go by bus. A very easy 5 hour trip saw us at the bus station in Agra surrounded by touts and rickshaw drivers. We had already booked a guest house and asked an auto driver to take us there. When we arrived at the hotel I checked the room it was on the rooftop and led off http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-433424.html Our driver collected us for the drive to the towns of the Shekhawati region an area of Rajasthan just opening up to tourism. It is an outdoor art gallery full of havelli houses decorated with glorious paintings inside and out. The area is semi arid and we passed many small settlements full of mud and straw houses. It was very hot The Shekhawati region was once on the Silk Road and the painte http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Shekhawati/blog-430429.html