After another day of rest next on the agenda was a day titled Tibetan encounter. Craig was suffering from pretty bad food poisoning so he wasn't able to go, so it was just me and the guide Thupten. The Tibetan encounter day was extremely interesting as well as enriching. Apart from what I googled the night before the tour (so as not to seem too ignorant, and so I could ask questions to Thupten to get the best experience) I didn't know a lot about tibet apart from the 'free tibet' signs held my long haired hippies you see and that the Dalai Lama had to flee his own country and cannot return for fear of his life. There are three Tibetan refuge settlements in Pokhara and many more around the world (there are a lot ... read more

We travelled local style to pokhara..this meant we were on a small, overcrowded bus with Nepalese dance music blaring. We swerved and honked our way to Pokhara which was a 4 hour drive and tried not too look out the window and the extreme drop down to the river. Pokhara is a town which overlooks a huge lake, and is surrounded by the Annapurna mountain range. It is beautiful and lived up to all expectations we had had. It's a world away from Kathmandu..my advice if coming to nepal..get here as soon as you can. It's a little higher elevation wise so it was a little cooler than Kathmandu, the air was clearer and things were at a lovely slow pace. We stayed at lakeside which is where most of the travellers stay. People come here ... read more

Having dropped off Amana at her departure terminal(who incidentally passed backpacker bootcamp with honors) we boarded a plane to Kota Kinabalu (kk). We were starving at the airport and having seen the amazing food on offer outside our departure terminal we thought we may be getting a culinary treat (i.e mc Donald's) once we had checked in-no such luck, we made do with a packet of crisps and a snack on the plane. Kk is the main city in Borneo and we were flying here for two reasons 1) to spend some time with my mum and dad (caz and col) who very nicely had decided to come and see us whilst we were away and also 2) to go and meet/see some oraguatans. After a reasonable wait at immigration (not sure why we needed another ... read more

With an extra member added to Craig's Harem (Ellie), we headed for the ferry to take us off Koh Samui, back to the mainland and onto Koh Lipe. After buying bus tickets to what we thought would be at least a coach we were not loving the fact we were crammed into a mini van like sardines with many other people plus bags all piled around us and zero aircon. No air con would be fine but Adolf (as we nicknamed the mini van driver) refused to let us open any windows so it turned into a very hot sardine can. This plus the rally driving was a slightly hair-raising experience, after narrowing missing a crash he stopped and we piled out for a little breath of freshair. A young Euorpean guy headed straight for some ... read more

We arrived in Thailand and headed straight our for our first Thai green curry and a large Chang. We had been thinking about spicy flavours like these for a looooooooong time! Our first Thai meal did not disappoint on the infamous Khao San road and apart from the blowfish lamps the meal went without interruption. If you havent heard of Khao San road here is a brief synopsis - it is a long road with off shoot roads which are similar and is 1km north of the Grand Palace. It is a road which has developed into the backpacker 'ghetto' of Bangkok, offering cheap accomodation as well as an infinite amount of tatt shops selling and offering elephant trousers, massages, VISAs, currency exchange, postal services, pirated CDS, local fruits, juices, street food such as Pad thai, ... read more