Blogs from Asia - page 13002

Day 2: Udaipur. On the agenda today is to visit an NGO in Udaipur and a nearby village in which it operates. Shiva Mandir works with 500 villages in Rajasthan for the purposes of local empowerment both at the economic and social level, partly to limit seasonal migration, which is a major issue in Inddia. To mention a few, some examples include funding of cooperatives such cloth manufacturing using local traditional block printing methods, education programs in the field of health care, improving nutrition, and increasing immunization rates and efficiency of government run delivery of health care. After a brief office visit we head out to a village an hour outside Udaipur to meet with some of the residents and get more familiar with village conditions. The bus stops after 40 minutes of driving on ... read more

My overnight train ride to Sapa was more pleasurable than expected. Then train left a 9:50pm, I was asleep by 11:00 and before I realized what happened, I woke up in Sapa the next morning. Sapa's elevation is around 5200 feet so I immediately noticed the change in weather. Sapa was a whole lot colder than any place I've been so far. Luckily I picked up some extra warm clothes and socks in Hanoi so the cold was not much of a problem. Besides, the foggy mist that hugged the landscape created an creepy, yet peaceful atmosphere over the countryside. Sapa is certainly one of the most beautiful places I've encountered so far. I arrived in Sapa with no pre-arranged plans or tour group to be a part of. I figured I'd be able to easily ... read more

We don't really have words to describe how amazing the temples of Ankor were, so we'll let these pictures do the talking. Overall, a brilliant three days to end our time in Cambodia, we loved Siem Riep as a base - great people, accomodation and food (wonderful Khmer restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet). Cycled ourselves to the temples on days 1 & 3 (gallons of water needed in the searing heat - Rob's salt crusted T-shirt was minging), and hired a tuk tuk with driver from sunrise to sunset on day 2, which allowed us to visit the slightly more distant temples in the 'Grand tour', plus make the journey out to Banteay Srei 14 km away. Very grumpy driver but with the scenery it really didn't matter. Cath's favorite temples were the ones that were ... read more

Jiaxing Vervoer: Wij maakten een tussenstop in Jiaxing, om van daaruit de waterdorpen Wuzhen en Xitang te bezoeken. De bus die uit het Oostelijk busstation (qiche dongzhan) van Hangzhou vertrok, kwam in het Westelijk busstation (qiche xizhhan) toe in Jiaxing. Bussen naar Wuzhen vertrekken vanaf het westelijk busstation (7Y of 8Y50). Bussen naar Xitang vertrekken vanaf het noordelijk busstation (qiche beizhan). We reden vanaf het westelijke busstation naar het oostelijke, met bus 23. De rit naar Xitang kostte 6Y en duurde ongeveer een uur. Bussen naar Suzhou vertrekken vanuit beide busstations. wij vertrokken uit het westelijk busstation (26Y + 1Y verzekering - 1u15min) en kwamen toe in het noordelijk busstation van Suzhou (qiche beizhan). We logeerden in het Hua guang Binguan Adres: Zhongshan donglu 1413, 314001 Jiaxing Telefoon: 0573 - 3934 567 Ligg... read more

After our long wait in the Johdpur train station we were finally ready to board the overnight train to Jaisalmer, a fortressed town in the middle of the Thar Desert not too far from the border with Pakistan. We settled quickly into the familiar routine of getting comfortable on the high bunk beds. Getting out of sleeping bags and ensuring that all our our luggage was safely stowed under our heads or beneath our beds so it could not disappear whilst we slept. These overnight train rides can be at worst an absolute nightmare so I was pleased to arrive in the very early hours of the morning in our destination having slept for some of the way. We were however still very tired, groggy and grumpy when we arrived and were very glad that the ... read more