Cameron Highlands

We are currently in the Cameron Highlands which are famed for their amazing hilly scenery, tea and strawberry farming.  Apparently they cover an area about the size of Singapore (thank you wikitravel).  We figured that if we stayed in Penang any longer we might never leave, so we should go somewhere else.  We took 2 buses from Penang starting at about 6am and arrived around 5pm.

Penang

We decided to get the hell out of KL and head to Penang which I understand to be the food capital of Malaysia.  We got off the bus and as per usual set about looking for somewhere to live.

Vipassana Meditation

We originally wanted to do a meditation retreat in Thailand when we were first there but ran out of time.  I had wanted to do something like this for a few years.  I met a guy at a house party a few years ago who was raving to me about this meditation retreat near Wales where you are silent for 10 days and just meditate.  Admittedly he was gurning like a bitch at the time so i took it with a grain or 2 of salt but it definitely stayed in my mind.  So I'd known it was something I had to do but I just hadn't wanted to take time off of work to it, but as fate would have it, it's something you can do in SE Asia.

Walking to the centre which is about 2/3 hrs out from KL.

Malaysia - KL

We didn't realise it but the wkend that our visa's ran out was a bank holiday and so everyone was legging it out of Bangkok for the break.  We were therefore forced to fly and bus it into Malaysia as trains were booked up.  We flew down to Hatyai in the south of Thailand and then got an overnight bus to Kuala Lumpur.  I actually managed to get to sleep on the bus and then was rudely awoken when we had suddenly arrived in KL at 4am.  Ouch.

Welcome to KL.

Koh Samet

As we had 15 days in Thailand,we decided to head to a Thai beach because it seemed silly not to.

Yes this really did happen.

Bangkok (again)

We boarded a bus at about 6.30am in Phnom Penh and started a 15hr bus journey back into Thailand to Bangkok.  I was sooo tired and then kept getting dive bombed by mosquitoes.  Not what you need at that time of day. We got into Bangkok at about 8.30pm in the end which wasn't as bad as I thought.  Immigration was painless and we got an ac minibus into Bangkok in which I actually had 2 seats to myself - Bonus.

Phnom Penh

We decided that we would miss out Vietnam and had head back into Thailand and down into Malaysia overland. We trekked back to Phnom Penh and spent only a couple of days here.  It's quite a busy crazy city.  The traffic is insane.  It took about an hour to drive just 10k through the city.  Mopeds and cars are forced to mount the pavement at peak times so as a pedestrian and a tourist to boot this took some getting used to.  It was almost like being back in India.  Andy almost got run over about a million times.

Sihanoukville

We left Siem Reap and headed to the coast via Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia.  We stayed here for one night and got the bus down to Sihanoukville which has a number of beaches on the Gulf of Thailand.  After a long old bus journey we finally arrived and after much bartering got a ride to Otres Beach which was apparently not so crazy built up and fairly quiet we set off for Otres.

Siem Reap

On first impression Siem Reap feels much like an Indian city.  The rickshaws and the beeping and the smells all felt like I could be in an Cambodian/Indian city. We found a big clean room with a TV for $5 a night which I was happy with.   There was still building work going on but it was fine because it seems every guesthouse we stay in has some form of building work going on...

Kratie

We eventually arrived in Kratie which was alright.  I couldn't really say much about it.  We were there only for a couple of days.

Don Det

Don Det is just one of the islands that are dotted about in the middle of the Mekong river.  You bus it to a certain point and then get on a tiny boat.

Vang Vieng

After much procrastination we decided to head south to Vang Vieng which has a reputation as the party capital of Laos.  I wanted to go just to see what it was all about and also because I'd heard that there  was a lot of beauty that was overshadowed by its unfortunate reputation.

Minibus of doom!

Luang Prabang

Our journey into Laos started with a sad farewell to Chiang Mai and a bus ride to Chaing Rai which is somewhere that we would have gone had it not been for our overstay drama.  From there we boarded a local bus to the border town which is where we would cross the river into Laos.  The bus journey kind of reminded me of our Indian bus rides in rickety old tin cans that may or may not get you there. Apart from a eccentric American who kept trying to smoke on the bus and rain leaking onto me it all went swimmingly.

Chiang Mai

The bus from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai took about 5hrs and was great as we were lucky enough to get a seat. We were set upon immediately by taxi drivers, songthaews, tour guides.  We managed to get in a crowded songthaew which is a converted pickup truck type affair which dropped us off nowhere near our guesthouse as we had been led to believe.  Thankfully the centre of Chiang Mai isn't too big so we managed to trek and find the Mojito House Guesthouse which was to be our abode for the night.

Sukhothai

I left Loei on a very rainy morning and headed to the bus station. I went to get on the bus and realised that the queue just stopped moving.  A few seconds later I managed to get on to discover the bus was rammed full of people.  I managed to find a space to stand at the back of the bus and realised that I was in for a long 4 hr bus journey.  The bus went on it's merry crowded way and I began the task of hanging on tightly as the mountainous route was so bendy.  After a couple of hours a lovely Thai lady squeezed herself up against the person next to her and gave me half her seat.  It was so uncomfortable but so much more comfy than standing.  I think I thanked her a million times!  Thank you again Thai lady!

Solo Travels! Khon Kaen and Muaeng Loei

After so many weeks of travelling with someone it was time to venture out on my own just for a week or so. Andy stayed in the comfort of Bangkok and I went North East to see what that was about.

Kanchanaburi

I dont know what it was that made me choose this as a destination.  I suppose I had watched the Bridge over the River Kwai and so thought it would be interesting to actually go.  Our route through Thailand is very much being decided as we go. We stayed at a guesthouse on the Kwai river which was very picturesque.  It was basic in that you had to flush the loo with a bucket but other than that pretty great for the money.

Thailand - Bangkok!

After leaving Port Blair I wasn't too sure what to expect from Thailand.  It is one of those places that everyone goes to so we figured that there must be something good about it.  Arriving in Bangkok Airport was an experience I can't quite describe really.  It was like we gone back to the future again.  Everything was so new and shiny looking.  You have to understand that we had just come from Port Blair which had 2 flights in a day and looked like a shack in comparison. It was kind of a relieved feeling in a way as I needed a change from India. 

Havelock Island

Check out time from the hotels in Port Blair are around 8am which is a shock to the system as we thought that 10am was bad! We sleepily made our way to the Ferry station.  There were a few Indian people there and Czech couple who were making their way back to Havelock. We waited until a ticket man came along to buy our tickets.  Everyone just crowded around him.  You have to be very rude to buy a ticket in India.  You must stand your ground even when someone is practically standing on top of you because if you yield you'll never get anywhere.  So we too shoved our money in the poor ticket mans face until he took it.  The Czech couple also found the queueing system tough so we didn't push in front of them.  I really miss politeness as I know it.  

Port Blair

I have been looking forward to The Andaman Islands for a while.  From what I hear and read we should be in for some beautiful scenery and beaches with crystal blue clear waters.  I was hoping for that in Goa but it didn't quite deliver on that.  We arrived in the airport in Port Blair and filled  out our entry slips and got our permits and off we went.

Chennai

We arrived late last night and it is difficult to get the feel of places sometimes I find when you arrive late.  We pre-paid taxi it to our dive of a hotel.  Well I'm sure we'll see worse but this is our worst looking and I think smelling one so far.  It is right next to a busy road so all I can hear are cars beeping constantly.  We were on a train from 9am until after 11pm to get here so any bed would have done last night.

 Home sweet home.

Alleppey/Alappuzha

We have left Green Palms and arrived in Alleppey to another homestay run by a guy called Matthew who has an almost insane nervous laugh.  He mostly speaks to Andy and laughs after everything he says even if it isn't remotely amusing.  I thought the more we spoke the less this would happen but that didn't happen.  He's very nice though and very helpful.

Kerala

After the craziness of Bangalore and Birthday Week, we have arrived in Kerala.  The journey here wasn't exactly as planned. As I mentioned before we left Bangalore, we were on a waiting list for seat  allocation.  This is something that has happened before, so we thought everything was going to be ok.  However 2 hrs before we were still a fair way down the list...  

Bangalore

We arrived in Bangalore at around 6am today.  So tired as I just can't seem to get into the hang of sleeping on the night train.  Missing Hampi already.  It's so loud and cramped and beepy here.  It's a business hub so has quite a Western feel to it.

Hampi

We have come inland now and landed ourselves in a place called Hampi which is apparently one of the traveller go tos when in this part of India.  It's a village in Northern Karnataka which is surrounded by ruins and temples.  We arrived and were immediately surrounded by hotel owners wanting us to take a look at their rooms. It is so cheap here.  You can get a room for 300 which is about £3.50 a night, which is alright.  As its'off season everyone is keen to get the custom. We got a room which is quite luxurious really.  A TV, hot water and cool.

Goa

We have arrived in the promised land!

Mumbai

It took almost 20 hrs spread`over 2 trains to get here.  I do feel like I had my first real Indian train journey as the 2nd train was not Air Conditioned and we had about 10 people trying to cram into what was a 3 person compartment. Nice.  Being sat by the window I got the full blast of Indian air and felt perhaps a bit too close to the scenery at times.

Pushkar to Udaipur (Lake City)

As soon as we sat down on the platform at the train station some dude came over and seemed to be bursting to say something.  He eventually mustered the courage to say hi to Andy.  He was absolutely beside himself with excitement.  I guess he was from the villages where they don't ever see many foreigners.  Really difficult to communicate with the obvious language barrier but we got the jist that he was very pleased to meet us.

Jaisalmer to Pushkar via Jodpur

We had to wait around until midnight for our train.  We spent a lot of time by the pool and catching up on sleep after we got back to the hotel.  This is the only pain of having bought the tour.  No control over your travel timings.  I felt quite envious of the Canadian couple, Foster and Briana, who has their own driver.   How lush, but I haven't a clue how much that was.  We only had one night in Jodpur.  We didn't really sleep on the train so we had to sleep when we arrived and then got a train at 7am the next day.  It seemed similar to other places but definitely had the worst roads!  So bumpy!  We did have the best food so far.  An awesome mutton curry.  Very rich though. I started taking my malaria tablets also.  Just waiting to see if I lose it.  Dun dun duh!!!


Jodpur to Pushkar
We arrived in Pushkar at some point in the afternoon after leaving Jodpur.  It is such a change of pace in comparison to where we have been.  It's quite a small town centre so quite walkable which was nice.  Loads of small shops mainly selling clothes and trinkets.  It is home to a crazy  amount of temples as well. 


I've decided to buy a pair of loose fitting lighter trousers.  I was`trying  to fight the urge to by hareems but I'm failing. I am such a cliche.  Every other traveller you see wears hareems.  Some well.  Some not so well...  

I took the plunge and bought a pair yesterday.  They are a bit more transparent than I would have liked. The shop keeper told me it was fine.  He had glasses that made his pupils seem more enlarged.  I think this is a tactic on his part.  I guess that the trade off you make to not constantly have a sweaty crotch.  Sorry...

I quite like Pushkar.  We discovered a little cafe called The Funky Monkey that does actual coffee.  I had all but given up hope of ever having a good coffee in India.  It is also so hard finding somewhere to just sit and relax.  People seem to congregate on road sides etc.  Finding this cafe was so good because we could just sit and watch the world go by for a bit and talk.

Jaipur to Jaisalmer

From Jaipur we made our way into the desert.  Jaisalmer has an interesting vibe.  Andy said it was Benidorm meets the Middle East, which I fear in a few years time  might not be that far from the truth...  There  is a huge amount of construction going on.  It fel like a place on the verge of becoming something else.  Quite a small town but the amount of hotels was really surprising.  I guess it is wanting to be the tourist capital of the North West.  Every so often you can hear the call to prayer over a tanoy system that can be heard over the entire town. I felt like I could be anywhere in the middle east and not India.  So hot as well and there were lightning storms pretty much every night.  Sophie and Pete are still on the same trail as us and let us bore them with our company. We were really excited about this stop because this is where we had the desert safari booked.

Desert safari.

We had to drive  for about an hour out of Jaisalmer in the back of a really fast moving jeep to a desert resort in a small town.  We arrived and waited for more people to arrive and in the end there were probably about 10 of us heading out.  Andy, Sophie, Pistol Pete and me headed out first on our camels into the desert.  My camel was quite big really and it's quite scary being that high up on an animal you can't control.  We each had a guide with us though which illeviates some of that initial anxiety. We trotted off into the heat with scraves around our heads feeling very Arabian nights.  My camel was a bit annoying though because it kept stopping to eat everything.  It literally didn't stop eating and pooing the whole way.  Then if it wasn't him it was my guide squatting and peeing all the time.  I didn't really know where to look because each time would take me by surprise. At one point my guide let go and my camel made beeline for a desert thorn tree and dragged me in there with it.  What can you do - jump off...  Anyway we got to the desert in time for sunset which was really nice.  A bit hazy but still good.

We headed back for food at the house/resort and Andy got to trott off without a guide.  I wasn't so brave.  However his camel was panting and out of breath most of the time.  I'm thinking it thought, the quicker I get home the sooner this man gets off my back.  The only bad thing was getting off the camels and having the guides ask for money.  It's tough because you've already paid for an experience and then you feel like you have to pay again.  We didn't cough up which makes you feel really guily and horrid because we imagine they get paid, but what if they dont.  But then I'm not rolling in it and it all adds up, so that wasn't a nice feeling. Dinner and music was nice though.  I even got to try the desert thorns my camel so dearly loved. We`opted to sleep out in the desert and it was really fun.  All we had was a bed frame and a couple of blankets.  They had billed it to us as a tented desert stay with lanterns etc, but that wasn't what we got. We didn't take a torch so it was scarily dark and there was no shelter from the winds so to breathe you had to cover your face.  It's that feeling when you're in the back of a fast moving vehicle with the windows open and you can't breathe.  Imagine trying to  sleep through that.  The stars were so clear though and we even saw 2 shooting stars.  They just felt so close.  We missed the first bit of the sunrise but it was still amazing to wake up in the desert apart from the massive desert spider nestled in our bed...  Although it wasn't totally as billed it was still an awesome experience.

Agra to Jaipur

Jaipur is probably one of my favourite cities so far. We stayed at the Sajjan Niwas hotel which was really nice.   It was maybe a bit more westernised in feel than the other  cities we have been to but still retained the Indian touch that makes all these cities unique in experience.  Our rickshaw guy who picked us up from the station was quite the character.  His nickname was Richie Rich and he explained that he could drive us around Jaipur and show us the real city not just the Tourist spots, so we agreed and for 500rupees for the whole day it wasn't a bad deal.  We saw the central museum which was a beautiful building.  I dont really get that excited about olg jugs etc but it was very interesting and had a range of paintings and weaponry that was good to see. Then a few other sites as well.  We ended this tour bizarrely with a trip to a Guru.  I can't remember his name, but he is apparently well known and very on the mark.  I dont know if I would do it again I have to say.  He went straight in told us things about our lives that were totally true.  It's strange having someone hold a mirror to our face like that.  Maybe not the best way to end our tour.  We felt quite emotionally drained! Just glad I didn't cry.

Anyway suffice to say we decided to end our tour and head back.  I dont think Richie Rich loved that much as he wanted to drag us to some markets so he'd get extra commission as is the general custom.  He  sulked all the way back to our hotel.  At that moment though I didn't feel too bad.

Agra

What a crazy ride to Agra.  Andy was sick the whole way here so when we arrived it was straight to bed for Andy. He looked so awful and all I could do really was just be there.  It's so frightening having someone be that ill and then being so far away from home.  He's taken antibiotics and they seem to be helping along with endless crappy movies and room service.  Thank heavens for that.  For the first time I am quite thankful for the pre paid tour as everything was just waiting for us when we arrived.

Day 2
Andy seems a lot better but tonight we have to get another train for 6hrs to Jaipur.  Fine normally, but when you have a dodgy constitution - not so much.  He's forced himself to accompany me the the Taj Mahal which I was really excited about.

I don't really get emotional about buildings but seeing it for the first time made me  feel so happy. It is such a beautiful building.  Even if you're not that fussed about architecture you have to appreciate the amount of work that went into creating it.  I'm floored!

Beautiful!

Other than that we didn't really see a whole lot in Agra.  I don't mind though as there didn't seem to be a lot else.  It was a bit less hectic than our previous destinations which was a welcome change.  A little less hassling it seemed but that was probably more to do with us not having having ventured out.  

Varanasi to Agra

Andy had a fever and a bad stomach last night and consequently looks quite zombie like this morning.  Unfortuantely we have the prospect of an overnight train journey to Agra ahead of us this evening.  His fever has gone down, so I'm hoping we'll make it there ok.  Fingers crossed and all that.  

Varanasi

I have to say, I'm so pleased to be leaving Delhi and so excited about boarding our first night train.  I've watched quite a few BBC documentaries about the Indian Railway, so I have an idea of what to expect.  We are in a compartment with 2 bunk beds either side.  Andy keeps saying hi to everyone because he's so excited.  It made me smile a lot.  As I stared wistfully out of my window waiting for the train to depart and thinking of the journey ahead.  Screeeech.  My romantic thoughts come to an abrupt stop as a man hops off the opposite platform and walks over the tracks and up to the train and gets his cock out and pees against the train.  Hmmm.  He is clearly not the only one though, as the station does whiff of it.  I think I'm just getting used to it now but it is a change from my norm.  Thankfully we set off ok.  I thought sleeping on a train would ok but that wasn't to be.  Anyways after no sleep again, we arrive in Varanasi.  Much the same really except not so built up.  But the same sounds and smells.

Mother Ganga
The reason I wanted to come here was to see the Ganges. I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't quite hack the idea of walking anywhere, so we just stayed in the hotel in the evening and watched HBO.  Dont judge me!  We even slept through our boat tour this morning.  Why on earth did we say yes to a 5am boat tour in our states- I dont know.  It's not too bad though as we finally made it to the Ganges.  It is as I imagined really.  Men and women bathing in the water and people just sat on the steps looking off into the distance.  I had watched a documentary about the Ganges ages ago and ever since then wanted to go.  In my vision though I would be wading in and splashing around.  Unfortunately my English constitution would have meant that I probably would have been ill for the next month if I'd done that, so I stuck to just taking photos:(
It was beautiful though witnessing how deeply this river was intertwined in people lives.  One boatman expalains that Indian people have 2 mothers.  Their 1st mother who brought them into the world and then Mother Ganga. We stayed until the evening and the moon was really bright and low in the sky.

The only thing was that we did stand out like a sore thumb and so kept being approached.  "Boat ride sir?/Shave and a massage?"  One man was so intent on shaving Andy that he practically had to wrestle his arm free from the man's hand.  I dont think I'm getting used to this yet.  I just tend to ignore people until they disappear.  Unfortunately it is Andy that gets most of it being a dashing tall white boy. People keep asking if I'm Indian, so I guess that does play a bit in my favour and not so much at the same time.  People will just bump me out of the way and one man even stepped on me to speak to Andy.  This is getting on my nerves quite a bit.  I'm patient but not that patient...  Poor Andy - he's handling it really well.  I think I would have had some kind of breakdown by now.

The Ganges!