BeckyBilling

I caught my flight to Sydney with no problems and got through the stopover and onto Wellington. I arrived on time and was met by a friend of my step mum Sue's. She was lovely and I ended up staying with her for five days, doing a bit of shopping, heading down to the beach for some bracing walks and seeing some of the attractions of Wellington. The weather was pretty windy and there was a definite chill in the air, hard to get used to after very humid conditions with temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees! We went to a lovely looking beach, with gorgeous views which i could imagine would be excellent in the summer months. We also took a trip up Mount Victoria which gave panoramic views of the city below, it was ... read more

Lazing about on the beaches in Thailand, I was very laid back about the fact my visa was running out! After thinking through my options i decided on a little trip to Cambodia as money and time wise it all worked out. Air fares are cheapish over here but not cheap enough for me, so i got an overnight bus into Bangkok, with the obligatory stop at some random cafe and then a taxi transfer to another random cafe. I met a guy on the Bangkok bus who it turned out was also heading to Cambodia so we ended up on an organised trip to go over the border together. We were really lucky to get a good company as the border trips are notorious for problems and in fact we met a whole bunch of ... read more

I got a flight from Mumbai into Bangkok, Mumbai airport was pretty well laid out and it was all pretty quick to get through. I even managed to have my first KFC in 6 weeks, but it just wasn't the same! My flight left at 1am and I was so tired, not at all helped when they turned on all the lights and served a full dinner at half past two in the morning! Seemed very weird to me, but everybody else tucked in! Arriving into Bangkok was so quick; I was through to the meeting point only 20 minutes after I landed! I met the group leader for the tour that I’m doing, and she is ace. My group doesn't start for three days so I’ve been hanging out in Bangkok. The first night I ... read more

After a distinctly horrible 36 hours on an overnight train, i arrived into Agra. Showing that truely India is the country that never sleeps at 3am i was still besiged by tuk tuk drivers and managed to find an open hotel to get a couple of hours rest. I managed to find my way to the Taj Mahal for about 8am to miss the rush of tour groups that tend to arrive around 9am. I entered throught the South Gate which is the main entrance and has a huge 30m inscribed red sandstone gate. Walking through the gateway i got my first glance of the Taj, funnly enough it looks just like the pictures! It was very surreal standing in the gradens and looking down across the watercourses to the Taj, it is a picture that ... read more

As they was no train from Bangalore to Goa, it was suggested to me that I go on bus via a place called Hampi, a world heritage site set in ruins with many temples. In my wisdom I decided to get an overnight night bus to Hospet (the transport link to Hampi), in one way clever as saves me a nights’ accommodation as well as getting me half way to Goa. Unfortunately the only way to do this was to go on a local bus, this had no ac, cracked windscreen, about 10 passengers too many, coupled with the awful driving and worse conditions of the road, all in all led to a very bumpy, very hot ten hour journey which left me with a sore bum and about an hour’s sleep. Another short local bus ... read more