The next day we set off together and walked along beautiful trails following a deep gorge up into forest and beyond to mountain Tibetan villages, snow covered peaks and glaciers lining the horizon, I completely switched off from my objectives and just enjoyed the here and now of it all, the simple life, the Tibetan homes that we visited and ate in. Imagine doing this in the west just walking into someone’s property and asking if we can come in and eat, they would have us arrested or shoot us....! The first place we came across was an old Tibetan house/farm very basic, mules, chickens, goats. A lively bubbly young Tibetan came to greet us, smiling and quickly showing us to a room which we could sleep in practically a part of the barn with a ... read more

In the morning I set off from Haba village. I found a trail that seemed to be going in the basic direction I needed to go. I weaved my way up slowly towards the patch of open ground high up on the mountain where the woman had described I should get to. Maybe two hours I walked past small settlements then into forest and a maze of local trails, doing my best to maintain my desired direction until I came across a major fork in the trail the left seemed to be going down to a big dry river bed the other straight up, normally I have some feelings of preference but this time I stopped could not feel which way I should be going, the feeling of getting lost came over me, doubt, hesitation I ... read more

I missed the early bus but arrived here later at around 3pm, a rough uninspiring looking, grey, dirty, road side town, so I quickly found and booked into a suitable similar room of uninspiring grey, dirty, cold and broken appearance, but I was feeling much closer to where I wanted to be, already the scenery had elevated either side and high mountains lined all around. I was eager for tomorrow there had been too many bus rides and not enough walking. I settled down in my room a cool breeze now blowing through the missing glass in the window I could feel the evening chill of the higher altitude here. I made a warm drink then snuggled deep into my sleeping bag and switched on the TV...wow it worked! I presumed it was there just to ... read more

After the train I wasted no time to head towards the border of Laos, so I quickly located and got onto the relevant bus. Hours passed uneventfully apart from when a Thai man came staggering over and sat himself down next to me. He tried to introduced himself, or at least that’s what I thought he was doing but maybe he was just waving his can of Chang beer around a lot and dribbling, he was carrying a small baby who also introduced himself by wobbling and dribbling a lot, both were now dribbling very well and came closer to try to bridge the gap between east and west, but maybe there is not enough saliva to describe such a huge divide in cultures, so he used his best native slurring instead, my Thai is very ... read more

I left France on the 19th November at around 19:19am, on board a flight bound for Bangkok in seat No 19a already an interesting sequence of numbers, which gave me a sense of significance, but what, why, when and how I still have not worked that out yet. I like to take notice of these little details in life as I am sure it comes up with these things just to test who is paying attention or not........ Life likes people with a sense of adventure; it comes out from hiding to meet us half way. So now it begins. I am feeling very lucky to be travelling again. Since the first time just a few years ago when some close friends of mine convinced me I should go to Sri Lanka with them. I ... read more