http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/schwester/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from schwester en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:36:33 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:36:33 +0000 Tana Toraja most definitely an area of outstanding natural beauty.We enjoyed Tentana an area 10hrs north by car. However due to sectarian troubles between Christians and Muslims travel in this area is not recommended by the Home office. We were unaware of this thankfully so spent a few days enjoying the scenery of rolling hills covered in forests and cocoa plantations the friendly people and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-415658.html Well. Aren't we glad that we gave ourselves the most time our visa would allow 2months in this beautiful archipelago Beautiful beaches beautiful coral delicious food hills covered in jungle and enough 'HELLO MIISTER' and 'HELLO TOURIST' comments to last a lifetime.We arrived into north sulawesi and promptly took a boat even further north to bunaken island a national park and 'world class' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sulawesi/Makassar/blog-415031.html Malaysia. A country of smiles order great seafood crystal clear waters and BLOODY EXPENSIVE beer. That is correct my friends we did 3weeks without a cool alcoholic beverage between us. And what an achievement that was.We went from the border straight to the prehension islands on the north east coast. The trip on speed boat over to the island was 'interesting'. 12 of us boarded a small speed bo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-410058.html So Cambodians are friendly and they are bright very switched on individuals. Everywhere you go people are trying to sell you stuff but they do it in a very nice way. Their english is often faultless and very up to date an interesting change from India where people speak 1950s style english 'actually sir i think that you will find the people running helter skelter when they hear of this news' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Pha-Ngan/blog-406492.html So I wanted to go back to see a bit of Vietnam and Tim wanted to see the south of Laos compromise we meet in 2weeks time in Cambodia.I got a bus from Vientiene in Laos over to Vietnam with the destination of Hoi An in mind. I couldn't face putting myself on a bus direct to Hoi An 22hrs as we'd just spend the previous 3 days doing 10hr bus trips to get down from northern Laos. So i thought http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-399886.html our love affair with india has ended and asia has begun.a few days were spent in the megatropolis that is hong kong interesting place great sushi great public transport and lots and lots of lights.then a few days in the north of vietnam before we decided to head west into Laos 22hr bus journey ensued. although the journey was far from fun we spent our 22hrs constructively making friends w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/North/Luang-Namtha/blog-391551.html so we left the lovely nepal and headed for the literary and intellectual centre that is Kolkata. we found this to be an extremely friendly and easy city to spend time in. the food was amazing we managed to eat plates of biryani and masala dosa pancake with bean and chilli mixture for 10rs approx 20p a plate and enjoyed espresso cafe culture even though it was 30 degrees. from there we deci http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Kolkata/blog-389009.html so on a last minute decision and prompted by a promise to meet us from a guy we had befriended in Kashmir from here on called Preeno a nickname we made for him NathangtNategtNate DoggtPreNatalgtPreNatal Home Dog shortened to Preeno we decided to head north to the mountainous country of Nepal previously known as the Kingdom of Nepal until a few years ago when the young prince http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Annapurna/blog-385700.html anyhow we arrived in Delhi safe and sound and stayed in Parhaganj main bazaar bustling in the centre. no motor rickshaws allowed as the streets are too narrow so we squeezed ourselves 2 rucksacks and the slug yes we still had our 6ft snowboard bag onto the back of a cycle rickshaw. full respect to the driver he did well although i was pretty afraid of getting electrocuted as the slug http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-383275.html So people sorry for the delay in keeping you all up to date but things have been pretty busy out here.we left kashmir no problem just after spending a night on a beautiful houseboat with some friends we met in gulmarg on Dal lake in srinagar. it is an amazing place with mountains reflected in a mirror lakesuprisingly clean by indian standards.had a great experience flying out of Srinagar air http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Srinagar/blog-383271.html Dear allapologies for not writing for such a long time but communications electricity and water supplies are not necessarily reliable up here in the wilds of Gulmarg.we moved out of our cold damp hotel with the potentially dangerous gas heater into a lovely warm hotel POSHWANthats right because we're so upper class. the room has a wood burner a good hot shower and also get this HBO. i'm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Srinagar/blog-375770.html DEAR ALLIt has begun.......So a quick round up on where we are so far.Arrived in Mumbai in 30deg heat with rucksacks and...the slug as we have named our oversized annoyingly heavy snowboard bag. it is big enough to fit a dead body in trying to explain to people in mumbair what it contained was a bit of a loosing battle. anyway managed after half an hour in the midday sun with lots of smil http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Srinagar/blog-366275.html just an average day in the office at appleyards.....how am i going to cope without it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Kent/Sevenoaks/blog-363728.html