The previous nights indulgent excesses meant I did not enjoy the short journey from Royal Beach to Kathmandu one bit. Upon arrival in Kathmandu I said a half hearted goodbye to Kristina our truck (this would be the last time we would see her), ordered lunch at our hotel, realised I felt far too sick to eat lunch and then promptly went to bed (after familiarising myself several times with the toilet of course). As it would turn out, bed is a place I would become very familiar with whilst in Kathmandu. After sleeping most of the day I woke up shortly before it was time to leave for our final goodbye meal (this actually turned out to be one of many, many, many goodbye meals), despite sleeping all afternoon I still felt like a turd ... read more

While the jeep ride up to Darjeeling had been a real beauty, it was very much a nothing special Norma in comparison to the rather exceptional drive to Gangtok from Karmi Farm. The journey began with a descent to the valley floor on a steep zig-zagging road (all roads here are steep and zig zaggy), passing through forests we noticed the temperature rise and flora become distinctly more tropical as we descended. Upon reaching the valley floor we came to a bridge which crossed over an impossibly scenic river, this marked the border between West Bengal State and Sikkim state. We were advised to get out of our jeeps and walk across the bridge as Andrew at Karmi Farm had advised us that there were concerns locally about the strength and stability of the bridge, especially ... read more

From the moment we got into our jeeps at Siliguri station the journey to Darjeeling felt like the start of a new adventure, Darjeeling promised to be different to anything we had experienced thus far and there’s something about being in a crappy Tata jeep with an insane Indian driver and cheesy Bangra playing at full volume that gets the adrenaline pumping. The ride to Darjeeing took around 4 hours, most of which was spent climbing up hill on very narrow, switch back roads which clung to the side of the hill by their very finger tips, it was often best not to look out of the window as potential death seemed to lay around every corner, this was not a road that you would want your driver to misjudge. It became apparent very quickly why ... read more

For the next 4 nights and 5 days we would be bush camping in the remote hills of South West Orissa visiting local tribes enroute. I had mixed feelings about the next few days, I was looking forward to camping and getting away from the crowds and chaos of the plains and into the relatively tranquil and remote Orissa hill villages, however I was very much worried about not being able to shower for 5 days, a potential hygiene/stench disaster given the daily temperature was on average close to 40 degrees. My biggest concern of all though was that 5 days of ogling the natives might get a little repetitive, especially as I’m not a massive fan of ‘tribal tours’ in the first place as I find they can be a little patronising and voyeuristic. The ... read more

The drive from Mallaparum to Chennai was not a particularly long one, but we had left early as the truck needed repair work done on it in a garage in Chennai and thus needed to get there as early as possible. This normally would have been fine, but given that we were (most of us anyway) hideously hungover from the previous nights farewell party, an early start was most unwelcome. Already this was starting to be a bad day. Today was always destined to be a sad/bad day however as it was leaving day for many great people whom I had come to know and love. Today we would be saying a sad farewell to the legends that are Sally, Sarah, Bill, Carol, Colin, Marge and Luciana, as well as my very good friends Peter (room ... read more