S.E. Asia in a Nutshell, sorry it's been a while.

Hello folks. Sorry it has been a while. I have been in South East Asia seeing the sights and having an amazing time. It has been an eventful few months, with six countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Loas) many adventures and lots of new friends. I done far too much to write about it all here but if you bear with me, I shall try to sum up some of the highlights. They might not quite be in chronological order as I have been sampling quite a few of the local brews. So here goes.

A Singaporean pensioner recited his poetry to me and then showed me where to buy cheap(er) beer.

Learnt that Hydrocarbons are our friends at the Petrosains Museum. Alas I am not destined to be a formula one driver.

Got abandoned by my tuk-tuk driver at a temple in Bangkok, even though I hadn't paid resulting in a free tour of the city.

Tried not to giggle as I had to stand during the Thai national anthem at the cinema.

Explored Angkor Wat and was a bit unimpressed by the main temple complex. Enjoyed the rainy temple and the tomb raider temple.

I learnt that drinking alcohol is a lot more fun when it is served in Buckets.

Crashed a bike into a tree Cambodia. I'm not destined to be a cyclist either - no Tour for me.

Went to a Tuk-Tuk drivers home for tea (Dinner) which included tarantulas and tarantula whiskey.

Stayed in a farmers house in Cambodian countryside, where there was three (three people) tarantulas in the toilet.

Played in the Cu Chi tunnels (Viet Cong tunnels) where I got a bat stuck in my hair and played on a big tank. Miraculously we got there in one piece, even though our taxi driver kept on falling asleep.

Stayed at a homestay in the Mekong River Delta which was apparently only accessible by canoe type boat (hat included) even though it was only 20 minutes bike ride from a main road.

Played pass the pigs on a night train floor in 'Nam.

Drank copious amounts of rice wine, snake whiskey, rice vodka (with 3 old men on the side of the road in Hanoi), 12p beer and all the other local delicacies in alchol that people around here have come up with.

I've learnt that I am a heathen and cannot appreciate Vietnamese Water Puppetry or any of the local traditional musics. I do have a soft spot for Chinese MTV though.

Swam in the amazing Halong Bay.

I queued from 07.15 to see Ho Chi Minh, it wasn't really worth it , he didn't do much.

Managed not to spend to much money in the various markets I've visited. Luang Prabang and Siem Reap night markets were my favorites.

Been woken up by various local temples/mosque at very ungodly hours in the morning.

Seen about a million Buddha statues..... same same...but different.

Stood in the rain for an hour waiting for some monks to turn up.

Went bowling at one in the morning as it was the only place to by a drink open.

Tubed in the Viang Vieng and bought the obligatory t-shirt.

Played with, chased and run away from lots of baby creatures, including baby tigers and elephants (one of which was a few hours old).

Loas tour guides know all the words to 'My Heart Will Go On' and will sing them to you.

Spent two days on a boat floating up the Mekong river. Musical statues is quite hard on a boat.

Ridden elephants twice.

Trekked in the jungle and stayed with what seemed like decidedly fake hill tribes.

Travelled by Bamboo Raft (it sank, it would have been quicker and dryer to walk down the river) and white water rafted.

Seen Blind Muay Thai and a ping pong show.

Got a drunken bamboo tattoo at 3 in the morning on a beach in Thailand.


I could go on and on. I will probably babble on about things I've forgotten when I rember them at a later date. Anyhow my hands are going dead and the beach is calling me.

A big thanks to all the people who have made this part of my trip so enjoyable. My intrepid buddies, I'm still missing you guys. The trekking guys in Chiang Mai, if I ever see a dog sat in the fire or a scabby cat I'll think of you. My Kuala Lumpur partners in crime, Malaysia is a lot more boring a place without you guys, perhaps I should have stalked you up to Thailand.

I've still got a couple of weeks left in S.E Asia. I'm going to stay on the Perithian Islands for a bit longer, then head up to the Cameron Highlands. After that Oz here I come.

I will try to keep up to date with my blog again.

Back in India - Delhi and Mumbai

Right, so I finally got round to leaving Nepal. I have to say it was with some trepidation that I headed of to Kathmandu airport, having only heard nightmare tales of strikes and over enthusiastic security checks (not helped by the fact I knew I was carrying naughty Indian currency which you are not allowed to take into Nepal). So I got to the airport far too early as it only took me 5 minutes to check in and get to security, I was even allowed to take my open litre bottle of water (but then it was 38degrees). Thankfully the airport had a large telly and plenty of chairs, so I sat and watched 'Big Trouble in Little China' surrounded by some very confused looking Nepalese people. The airport T.V's seemed to be avoiding the usual News channels.

Got to Dehli on time, got checked to see if I had swine flu. This came as a bit of a shock, as we'd heard about it in Nepal but obviously other items had taken priority in the news. The checks seemed to involve asking if we'd had a fever or a cold in the past week, so I'm afraid to say that I lied on all accounts to the customs officals. Yes I'd had a fever (came with food poisoning) and I've pretty much had a cold since I've been on the Indian Subcontinent (so does pretty much every traveller here due to the huge levels of air pollution) but really not going to tell you that, so I just tried not too sneeze or blow my nose till I was out of the airport.

I have to say I quite liked Dehli (all reports before I got there were of how horrid it is), I stayed in Paraganj (backpacker central) which seemed like a good spot to see the rest of the city from. My first afternoon I pottered about, bought my train ticket to Mumbai, which I was informed about twenty times I wouldn't be able to get and would have to fly, so was pleasantly surprised when without any begging for an emergency ticket, I got booked onto the fast train in sleeper class.

After no sleep what so ever (there was aparty going on in the street next to my hotel), I got up nice and early and went to the red fort. What can I say? Its a big red fort, worth seeing but would be a lot better if you were actually allowed to walk on the walls of the fort rather than just look up at them. I was so smug when after I looked round leaving the fort I got to walk past all the queues of people waiting to get in. I walked round old Dehli for a bit, looking at the sights and completely failed to find the metro stand so caught a rickshaw back. It was my first rickshaw since being back in India, its fair to say I'd forgotten how terrifying they are.

Next day met avery nice man a breakfast, who like me was all a bit tired of sightseeing, so spent the showing me things in Dehli that weren't temples or forts in Dehli. I got lost in an underground market and ate dinner at a cowboy / cricket (in India that makes sense) themed bar which happens to be the funniest and surrealist place I've ever eaten.

Got the overnight train to Mumbai, where the train surpassed expectations by giving me three meals and more exciting Tea Packs, bliss. Unfortunatly I had to share a compartment with a young family whose children didn't seem to be house trained and I kept on having to avoid the wet patches on the floors and seats, thank goodness I'd booked the upper bunk so I didn't get dripped on in the night.

So I'm back in Mumbai, where it is very hot (its colder than Dehli but alot more humid, so feels hotter). Been to a couple of museums that I didn't go to last time I was here and had been getting my last fix of Bollywood before I leave (I'm getting worried it might turn in to an obsession). Also spent some time hanging around in Leopolds having a beer.

Looking forward to flying to Singapore tomorrow, I am quite relishing the idea of enthusiatic sightseeing again. Oh and I've finally relented, as I'm leaving India, I've started reading Shantoram.

Kathmandu Again.

Hello Folks.

So after being poorly at the beginning of the week and feeling very sorry for myself, I decided to have a slightly more productive weekend. I know, watching Bollywood is a perfectly justifiable use of ones time but I've decided when I can sing along to some of the songs, enough is enough.

So after spending all day on Monday and Tuesday in bed I went sight seeing on Wednesday and Thursday. I'd met a bloke who'd I'd met in Pokhara and spent the time sightseeing with him.

We first went to the Monkey temple, it has another local name but I can't remember what it is. The reason for the monkey temple name is I presume from the number of monkeys that live there. Its a beautiful place with extraordinary views of the Kathmandu valley (thankfully it was a clearish day with not much smog but no mountain views).

Next day we went to a Hindu temple complex on the river, so we got to see some cremations, which was just odd. Art managed to rip the crotch of his trousers (yes, I don't know how either) so I spent half an hour talking to some Hindu Holy men whilst sewing (bizarrly they carry a needle and thread around with them), I then got quite scared by a man dressed as the monkey God, he was a bit freaky.

From there we walked to Boudha (which is either the biggest Stupa in Nepal or the world I can't remember) where I got blessed by a monk, which seemed to involve me being hit over the head with a plank of wood. I got to play in a giant prayer bell and saw a midget monk moving a massive prayer wheel (which was awesome but perhaps shouldn't have made me giggle quite as much as it did).

All in all a fun couple of days, I've spent most of today getting ready for the journey back to India tomorrow (I'm spending a couple of days in Dehli). I'm looking forward to moving on to South East Asia and starting a new adventure.

Sundance Music Festival Last Resort

So I traveled back from Pokhara at the end of last week. The coach was only an hour late! This was due the road being closed due to an accident (Nepalese people are very nosy whislt driving past wreckage - people were literally hanging out of the windows to get a better view). Got dropped of at a random bus stop in Kathmandu, was told it wasn't that far to walk and pointed in the right direction, so ignored taxi drivers insistence it was too far to walk (they always say that). About half an hour later got back to central Thamel, I was to discover that apparently people give you directions to be helpful even if they don't actually know. I went to the same bus stop to go to The Last Resort and it took five minutes.

Spent a day in Thamel ambling about, rented a sleeping bag, swapped books e.t.c. Then set of for The Last Resort and the Sundance Music festival. Got on the bus in Thamel even though some woman was moaning that she wouldn't get on because the bus was dangerous! My and Antoinette both decided that we'd rather be on a dangerous bus than listening to her moan for 3 hours. Found myself an Aussie on the bus that had no one else to share a tent with and established that he wasn't scared of spiders and doesn't snore (this was a lie) and agreed to share a tent with him, got to festival site and awaited a tent allocation (thankfully all the tents were numbered as they were all exactly the same and added bonus, they wrote your tent number on the back of you hand. Its like they knew I was going to get drunk or something).

Had lunch, started drinking and awaited with anticipation the music to start. It has to be said it didn't get of to the best starts, we couldn't work out whether people were soundchecking (no one - two - one - two here) or playing their actual set. All we knew was that they'd played the same song twice and it was getting quite irritating. It turned out that this was just the sound check and the music started proper. Low and behold we got to here the same song again. The groups were all alright, would have prefered it if there wasn't as much hanging about as they swapped over or adding yet more drums to the stage as it seemed to be. DJ came on (I was drunk by this point) seemed to play all of ABBA Gold and then some stuff I can remember dancing to but not what it was. A very mean Nepalese man for some reason I can't remember insisted he had a fitter arse than me and I spent a while asking all the men in the crowd if my arse was better than his!!! I went to bed soon after, I say I went to bed, I went to the toilet and never got past my tent on the way back. Got woken up in the early hours of the morning to listen to the funniest arguement / fight I have ever heard.

Next day whilst I was at a music festival, guess what it rained. It absolutely chucked it down. Some mean person told me that there were bacon sandwiches available (this would be unparralleled luxury), so out came the cagoule, I had a mission. The bacon sandwiches were a myth so I had to make do with a hard boiled egg and a cup of tea, whilst listening to a bloke do Johnny Cash covers.

Went back to bed till they kicked us out of the tent to put it down, so moved to a comfy seat in the bar where I could see and hear the music and waited for the bus back. Apparently whilst I was happily enjoying the music festival The Moaist part of the government had sacked the armed forces chief of staff, their opposition had quit the coalition government and people were protesting / rioting in Kathmandu. Yay for crazy parts of the world. After much discussions with people who live in Kathmandu, I discovered I was better of heading back to Kathmandu sooner rather than later, if I stayed at the last resort, there would be a good chance that in a few days the roads to Kathmandu will be closed by the police / army.

So I'm now back in Kathmandu. Thamel(area where I'm staying) seems to be largely unaffected at the moment, business as usual. There have been differences, my hotel has had both lots of huge security gates closed (first time I've seen any closed since I've been here) and there appears to be more UN vehicles in the car park. There are riots going on (the BBC tells me) so I'm avoiding going round the Durber square area.

I was going to make a descision today about when to travel back to India, but its finally happened I'm poorly, I have spent alot of the morning on the toilet and have decided to leave decision making until tomorrow.

Kathmandu to Pokhara

Sorry I haven't been on here for a while, I have been lazy, sorry that should be Lazy, with a capital L.

After the journey from hell I spent a week lazing about in Kathmandu (there was no way I was ready to go on another coach). did do some touristy stuff, I spent a day milling around Durbur square lot of temples) and went round the former palace. I did a couple of walking tours around the city and went on an adventure trying to find the immigration office. Mainly though I spent my time ambling around Thamel finding stuff to eat, in bars watching the local bands cover western rock music badly or in my room watching HBO or the Hallmark channel. In all it was the rest that needed from travelling. Also I was full of cold, so being lazy was required.

After a week in Kathmandu I have now come to Pokhara, Its on the banks of the Phewa Lake and has supposed views of the Annapurna Himalaya, unfortunately it is misty and I am yet to see them.
I got here yesterday (after a remarkable coach journey where we got here on time) and spent the afternoon looking round. This morning I got up early to see if was clear - it wasn't, then walked to the International Mountain Museum, a remarkably hard to find international museum. This was probably a lot better museum than the Himalayan Mountain Institute in Darjeeling (both on the same topic) but it acked the heart and fun of the HMI, also I seemed to be the only person in there which didn't help, perhaps I'm the first person to find it.

I've booked to go Canyoning in the next couple of days, which I can't decide whether it sounds great or terrifying. I'm might not yet go, I'm the only person booked and they need at least 3. Apart from that I have no steady plans for the moment, oh except for the weekend when I'm at the summertime music festival at The Last Resort (near the Tibet border).

Darjeeling to Kathmandu

Right, so where to begin. After my last post, I heard from the British Foreign Office that the border to Nepal would be closed on my proposed day of travel. Nobody in Darjeeling seemed to know anything about this, popular consensus seemed to be to turn up anyway and then if it is closed then bribe an official (I know, I seem to be living in a different world at the moment). So the next morning I set off bright and early armed with with dollars trying too look as sweet and hopeless as possible.

The journey from Darjeeling to the border was surprisingly easy. I had no problems finding a jeep to Silguri and we had glorious weather down the track. Got caught in a traffic jam, which was fun and meant I got to see the toy train up close (yes here trains get caught in traffic jams along with ever one else). Also spotted for the first time the genius road signs along the road to Darjeeling. "Drive don't Fly", "Donate blood at the blood bank, not on this road" and my favorite."Enjoy the ride, don't commit suicide", such happy thoughts as you're travelling down the mountain.

In Silguri failed to find a jeep to the border, but the first bus I happened to see was going there so got on that in stead. Fun bus seemed to consist of me and my backpack and locals all taking there produce to the local market. I never did work out what my feet were resting on. Got a rickshaw to the border, left India and after crossing what seemed like the longest bridge in the world ever got to Nepal. 20minutes later I was proud owner of a Nepalese Visa (no bribing required). Found my coach booth with an hour to spare, within 14hours I should be in Kathmandu at my hotel having a shower, I was feeling good about this. Got on the coach, not quite as deluxe as I'd been lead to believe (as in not at all) but I was in a good mood so this was fine.

First 3 hours of the journey were fabulous, travelling through Nepal, getting to see the scenery, sure the ride was bumpy but that's too be expected.

Then it started to rain. this wasn't too bad except that the bus wasn't exactly waterproof and it wasn't long till I was sodden (think Winhill wet or Glastonbury 2005 wet for those of you who where there), then they announced to the bus for us all to hold on tight because the driver couldn't see where he was going. After about an hour of this and stopping 4 times to move trees, power lines e.t.c. out of the road we got to the ferry place to cross the road. Here we joined the queue of about 200 coaches, cars, lorries that had all missed the last ferry and would have to wait till morning. So I spent the next twelve hours wet and cold trying to get some sleep on the most uncomfortable of coaches and weeing outside in the rain on the side of the road. My shower was getting further and further away. Also the man sat next to me seemed to be under the impression that he could have half me seat as well as his own, I wouldn't care (yes I know thats a lie) but he wasn't even bigger that me.

Unsurprisingly I didn't get any sleep. Thankfully during the night our coach people had arranged it so we would use coaches on the other side of the river, so rather than waiting for our coaches turn we could be on the first ferry of the day on foot. Whoop, somebody finally seemed organised. All the people of my coach managed to catch the first ferry, so we were the first coach to leave double whoop!

A couple of hours later my happiness dissolved. Apparently someone had been beaten up in a local village. As a precaution the local police had closed the road, so I spent 5 and a half hours sat in some tiny village on a coach that wasn't moving with solid traffic blocking the road in both directions. Thankfully we were allowed of the coach to wander round buy food e.t.c. I managed to find a phone and ring my hotel to tell them that I was running late but not to give my room to anyone, I'm on my way.

We seemed to make good time after that to Kathmandu, even though we got stopped by the police and searched about 20 times. We finally arrive in Kathmandu at 04.00 a mere 37 hours after the coach had set off, with an extremely grumpy Vic. I got a taxi to my hotel (which thankfully I decided to stay somewhere swanky so had no curfew) at which point they tried to tell me I had no room and would have to wait till 9 o'clock till people had checked out. After I stood showing them my receipt for booking and that I had already paid, it dawned on them that I meant for that night, not the next.

Anyhow, I never want to get on a coach again, but I'm here, I've slept. Had a shower for what seemed like an hour and watched tragic telly (Goal 2 - living the dream, no less), I've been for an explore and love Kathmandu so far. So feeling better about things. I plan to be lazy again tomorrow and then see about sightseeing on Monday.

Sorry for the long post.

Darjeeling

So after spending a couple of days being lazy and wondering aimlessly around Darjeeling and happening upon people I've already met, then going for tea and cake (its that kind of town), I finally got off my lazy arse and did something yesterday.

I went to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. To get there I also had to visit the zoo (joint access and on the same ticket), so after walking past some very sad looking animals (incl. a snow leopard, which I'm pretty sure I could take in a fight - with or without guild backing, Mark!) I got to the insititute. The whole place originated of the back of a certain Mr Norgays accomplishments. As such its kind of a little shrine to him and his fellow successful Sherpas, which is quite nice. The whole place is a bit run down but apparently the new museum will be opening soon. Got to see loads of the original equipment used by Mr Norgay and other succesful Everest, K2, Kangchenzonga (apparently they only stopped people climbing it quite recently) climbs which was quite cool.

Walked round the rest of the zoo, it seemed rude not to as I'd already payed and saw some more pretty miserable looking animals.

After the zoo I walked to the Happy Valley Tea Plantation, went on a tour of the factory (not much to see, seems like a pretty simple process) pointed out that I don't actually like Darjeeling tea (shock / horror) even if it is the stuff they sell at Harrods and therefore don't want to buy any. Had a walk round the tea plantation, which was very nice. I quite bizarrely had a Indian General pointed out to me and from the way the guide was acting I think I am supposed to have heard of him, needless to say I hadn't, oh well.

Today so far I have failed to find a Buddhist monastary. I'm going to try a different route and go to Observation hill where there are monkeys apparently.

I've booked my coach ticket to Kathmandhu for tomorrow, so should get there on Friday. I have the luxury of a hot shower in the hotel I'm booked in to, to look forward to. After spending nearly two weeks in a place where there is severe water shortages and a bucket of water to wash in, this is bliss.