A taste of France and Germany, and an update from London Welcome to the inaugural edition of the European Excursions blog. It’s been a while since the last entry of the Asian Adventure, and it certainly feels like a lifetime since we arrived in England. We’ve settled into a more regular pace of life, and thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out with friends again. We haven't done too many touristy things here in England yet - after four months travel sightseeing was the last thing we felt like doing! Just living and enjoying getting to know London has been great. [View Full Entry]

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In Agra, the incomparable Taj Mahal exceeded every expectation. Perhaps more surprisingly, so did our final stop in Delhi. The final stretch of our Indian Odyssey took these weary travellers to Agra in the state of Uttar Pradesh and then on to the Indian capital, Delhi. We had most certainly saved the best until last, and as a result finished our Asian Adventure on an absolute high. We've had a while to think about what to write in this final Indian blog, we're still struggling for the right way to describe the magic of the Taj Mahal - there are simply [View Full Entry]

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Our entry into Rajasthan - the Land of Kings - marked the beginning of extraordinarily hot India (well over 40°) - fortunately it made up for this with some fantastic sights The cities of Rajasthan, with the hill-top forts and palaces at their heart, are synonymous with colour - the white city of Udaipur, the blue city of Jodhpur, the golden city of Jaisalmer, and the pink city of Jaipur - in direct contrast to the stark desert landscape of the state. The incredible setting combines with the chaotic, heaving, colourful streets to make Rajasthan a totally different experience to [View Full Entry]

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From the symbol of Modern India in Mumbai to the heart of Ancient India at Ellora... ...our visit to Maharashtra was marked by contrast - obscene wealth and abject poverty, aging colonialism and fierce nationalism, rampant commercialism and serene spirtuality. All in all, a place that was very, very, Indian! Following a reasonable sleeper bus ride from Goa (sweet sweet sleeping pills) we were deposited in an unknown location in Mumbai. After finding our bearings and booking some trains at the Chetrapati Shivaji Terminus - the erstwhile (Indians always use that word) Victoria Ter [View Full Entry]

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Drawn like moths to a flame, package tourists and sun-worshiping hippies have been pouring onto Goa's golden sand for decades We chose it as a place to have a holiday from our holiday - where the beer was cheap, the food was excellent, and everything was removed from the horn beeping, noisy, crowded, and ‘for the third time no I don’t want a rickshaw’ India. However, before ensconcing ourselves on a tropical palm lined beach (albeit one that had nothing on Waihi Beach) we spent a couple of days in the state capital Panaji, exploring the Portuguese flavoured old [View Full Entry]

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Karnataka - home to the Wodeyar Maharajah's royal city of Mysore and the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagar Empire at Hampi The change of state equaled a change of pace for us, now halfway through our circumnavigation of the subcontinent. Picking up the pace from our lazy sojourn through Kerala, we roared into Karnataka and the royal city of Mysore on an air-conditioned overnight bus - we actually got cold! Kick starting our first days of conventional sightseeing since Kolkata, we visited the magnificent onion-domed Mysore Palace shining in gold. Completed in 1912 and designed [View Full Entry]

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Kerala's state tourism agency calls it "God's own country - as close to heaven as it gets"... ...after switchbacking our way up the high eastern escarpment of the Western Ghats from the plains of Tamil Nadu and exiting the bus to discover temperatures more like a NZ summers day than monsoon India - we're inclined to agree! We didn't even have to use the fan at night! From day one in Kerala we were struck by the greenness of the state, where at least 80% of the land is covered in rubber trees and coconut and banana palms. So what better [View Full Entry]

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Tamil Nadu - a land of beaches and temples, where its ok for grown men to wear nappies, hold hands in public, and grow the most extraordinary moustaches As we headed into our second week of eating off banana leaves, using female urinals (in Amy's case that is...), and acclimatising to the Indian heat - we splashed out on fancy air conditioned tickets for our 30 hour train trip from Kolkata to Chennai. All of NZ$45! The train allowed us to bypass a chunk of central India (not to mention the states where trains get hijacked...) in search of the beaches [View Full Entry]

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From the Queen of the Hills to the infamous Black Hole - the Indian Odyssey begins! After an eventful exit from Nepal we finally made it to India - the land of cricket, curry and catastrophically high temperatures... Our circumnavigation of the sub-continent began in the hills of West Bengal - home to the town of Darjeeling and the finest tea on earth. Darjeeling is draped along a steep mountain ridge and connected with steep flights of steps, surrounded by tea plantations, and on a clear day (or so we were told) is backed by views of a 250km stretch of [View Full Entry]

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We didn't intend to write a blog about this, but we thought the story was worth sharing... It was supposed to be an easy journey from Kathmandu to the Indian border near Darjeeling - instead it turned into quite an adventure! Sitting in a french cafe in Darjeeling the morning after we arrived, eating eggs with chippolata's (and listening to Fat Freddy's Drop of all things) it kind of all felt like it never happened! The story goes something like this... After an uneventful 10 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Janakpur (a hot and dusty little town on the Nepali [View Full Entry]

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