Oops

Went to Malaysia then Singapore and are in Australia now.

Thailand

Our last night in India was spent at the Bangalore Octoberfest, funny stuff, not many people there but we settled in and drank some beer and listened to the live band which were called Pentagram. With that name i was expecting slightly more eye-bleeding metal than they produced but they weren't too bad. Then we went to the dance tent where there was a fashion show taking place. Not sure what that has to do with Octoberfest so we left. Next day was a flight to Delhi then transfer to the international terminal then wait around then fly to Colombo then fly to Bangkok. It took about 24 hours in total.

Surprised by how western Bangkok was and how modern compared to the backward smelly weirdness of India. We spent 3 days shopping and drinking and eating and it was a nice change. Then overnight bus to Krabi and suddenly surrounded by lots of holidaying Aussies and other backpackers...which is nice. From Krabi we got the longboat straight to Railay beach and found the cheapest hovel on offer. Turns out it was quite nice and we settled down to doing nothing much in particular on the beach. Awesome place, nice beach surrounded by limestone cliffs and islands offshore. We decided to do a half days rockclimbing which was great, Mei loved it too.

We ended up staying on Railay for 6 days before we caught another boat to Koh Phi Phi island. More lovely beaches and great food. The place has been re-built since the tsunami but lots more building is still going on. You can probably tell our traveling has turned into a huge beach holiday and we have by-passed most of the sights to see in Thailand...oh well. Snorkelling this morning, maybe some sea kayaking tomorrow, maybe spend a week here before heading to Malaysia next week.

Some photos

At the top of Thorung La pass











River crossing on the way back down from the mountains











View of the high mountains from Poon Hill









Just a little off the sides please











Hmmm, not that much of a trim

Back in action

I've been waiting to get to a computer where i could upload some photos but having tried a few times i've given up. This is a shame because i have some pictures of me after i went to a barber in Pokhara after the trek and got him to shave off my 3 week beard and also cut my hair as short as possible with a rusty pair of scissors, turns out that was pretty short. Also got a back and shoulder massage while i was there which is nice. We left Pokhara and got a local bus to the border town of Sunauli, this town is only there as a border town i think, it lies in both Nepal and India and it's a real dive. We stayed in Hotel Deep because i thought we should be trying to save money, it was terrible. Next day we walked across the border back into India and got a bus to Varanasi. The roads were awful and the bus broke down in some random town for a few hours, we didn't get to Varanasi until 11pm and some dodgy rickshaw man led us through the old winding streets to our hotel.

Varanasi is an awesome place, down by the river there is heaps of action and the old streets are like a maze. It's really mad and busy though and after 2 days we decided to head south. Our friends Paschal and Laila were in Mysore in South India so we decided to head there, the options were 55 hours on a train via Chennai or we could fly for twice the price. We decided to take the flight via Delhi and Hyderabad to Bangalore. We had a day in Bangalore before our bus left for Mysore, this was cool because Bangalore is the only place i've been in India that has anything almost western and it was nice to have some normality for a day. We got the bus to Mysore and arrived in the evening and met up with the guys. Mysore is the home of ashtanga yoga so we found a yoga place and decided to check it out. A tiny Indian man led the class and bascially beat the crap out of us for and hour and a half. It seemed everyone else in the class had been doing yoga for years and went to Mysore for several months for serious practice so we felt a little out of place. We ended up staying the in an old hospital around the corner from the yoga place, basic but cheap. The yoga place did great food so that was good. I decided to do a beginners course in the tabla while i was there for some reason. This was 10 lessons and was cool ahough i looked like a real hippy traveller with no hair and a set of Indian drums. We ended up staying in Mysore for about 9 days doing yoga before we'd had enough.

All of that yoga relaxation and chilling disappeared as soon as we had to try and get a bus ticket. The station there is mad and we decided it would be easier to get a train ticket and head back to Bangalore before heading on to Hampi. Train station is even crazier, people trying to jump on the train while it was still going. We ended up riding in first class with a second class ticket, the ticket inspector bascially charged us half of the upgrade fee and just kept the money himself, i guess that's a win win situation.

Back in Bangalore for the night and Diwali festival has started, Lonely Planet says it's one of the happiest festivals of the year. This is probably true but not if you are trying to get transport out of Bangalore, all trains and buses were full for 2 days but this is not very clear, they still sell you tickets and tell you to go and see someone else and apply for the emergency allocation. Possibly 2 of the most stressful days ever followed while we were stuck in bangalore, we eventually found the government tourist office and they sold us 2 bus tickets to Hampi. The time in Bangalore wasn't a complete waste, Mei managed to spend lots of time shopping and she assures me the jeans she bought are much cheaper than they would be in London or Sydney.

Hampi, after an overnight bus ride we arrived in the small town, famous for it's ruined temples and chilled out style. It's definitely cool and chilled out and the temples are better than i imagined, they're spread out for miles around the town and the landscape is covered in massive boulders. We discovered the mango tree restaurant which is along the river under a huge tree with great food. Only problem we've had here was yesterday morning i decided to go for a run, i haven't run for ages so though i might manage to if i went down the river to the quiet roads down there. I went out early in the morning and walked past the town out into the quiet, before i had a chance to start running a scary dog covered in scars and with a spiked collar started barking at me and then followed me down the road. It kept getting closer and i was pretty scared because no one was around, i picked up a rock amd a stick and it eventually left me alone. A bit further on i started running and straight away i saw a dog running toward me from the other direction, i turned and ran back and it stopped following. The 3 other dogs started barking and running towards me, these ones came right up to me and one started clawing my legs and biting me. I kept trying to walk past them but this dog kept biting me, only softly, i think it was playing but all i could think of was rabies. Eventually all 3 of them turned on each other and i took off back to town. I had a few red marks on me but no actual broken skin. I was a bit worried though so we got a rickshaw to the nearest doctor and he checked it out and said there was no broken skin so i would be fine.

Anyway, head back to Bangalore on the overnight bus today and then off to Bangkok via Delhi on Saturday. We have discovered there is an Octoberfest in Bangalore starting on Friday, sounds funny, i can't imagine seeing a field full of Indians drinking litres of beer.

Bye

Back from the mountains

Arrived in Pokhara after 17 days trekking around the Annapurna mountain range. Awesome trip, we had a guide and a porter to carry all of our stuff so it was much easier. The porter was great but his personal hygiene wasn't, normally i wouldn't care about this but now my bag smells like a Nepalese porters armpit. I've scrubbed it pretty hard and now it's airing out on the balcony at our hotel and i'm hoping for the best.

The trek was through small villages and we started in the low rice fields and climbed up to cross the mountains at Thorung La pass. This is at 5416m and is the highest trekking pass in the world. We had a few freezing days and nights as we got higher in altitude because there is pretty much no heating up there so it was just wear as many clothes as possible and drink warm tea.

There has been a major festival going on in Nepal for the last few days and for some reason this means they sacrifice lots of animals. On the last few days of the trek we saw quite a few chickens being killed and eaten (i ate a chicken eyeball and a chicken foot) and i also saw a small girl walking down the street with a water buffalo leg, i assume the rest of the buffalo went elsewhere. Obviously Mei loved it.

We leave Nepal tomorrow by bus and somehow need to cross the border back into India and on to Varanasi. There is a cow walking down the street outside the window, interesting.

Dirty and sweaty

We arrived in India on Sat and went straight into the Delhi traffic. Hot, smelly, dusty and noisy. The reasonable hotel we were staying in was a bit of a refuge and in the evening we walked around the busy Pahar Ganj market and also around Connaught Pl where we were shocked to see a Costa coffee which we had to visit and discover it was exactly the same as anywhere else, Mei was excited. She was less excited about Delhi itself, she really doesn't like it and thinks it might even be worse than Djibouti.

Next day we join a badly air-conditioned bus full of Indian tourists for a trip around Delhi. Stopped at the main sights like Bahai temple and Gandhi cremation site and parliament house. We thought it was funny that the Indian tourists wanted us in their photos but we went along with it. Lunch was tasty but sloppy with suspicious hygiene.

Next day i wake at 5am with explosive bottom, followed by chills and sweats and fever and fainting and lots of agony. Mei went to get a doctor after a few hours of destroying the bathroom but the hotel receptionist just gave her a tablet to give me and said i would be fine. I wasn't fine and the pain continued into the next day, a "real" doctor who was staying in the hotel appeared and gave me lots of "real" drugs and over the next 24 hours i improved to the point i could stand up and eat a piece of toast...yippee. Mei bought 2 plane tickets to Kathmandu to escape the horrors of Delhi and 2 days trapped in the hotel and somehow we made it here.

Kathmandu is pretty cool, still smelly and busy and dirty but in a chilled out way. We're leaving on an 18 day trek around the Annapurna range tomorrow, we managed to buy all sorts of prescription only anti-biotics over the counter so any more bugs that get us will be met head on. This trip might be a bit early considering Mei hasn't exactly had the healthiest belly since we've been here but we'll see how we go.

Lots of blackouts here which make things interesting. We just had our first beer of the trip, a large bottle of "Everest lager", couldn't be anything else really.

Nepal seems to be the place USB connections forgot so can't publish any pictures, maybe when we get back to the world leading IT power of India it will be better.

Intermission

Back in Wales for about 1 week before we head off for good. I clean the bikes and then pack them up again to be sent to be shipped with everything else we are sending. We see lots of people and say lots of goodbyes. Not really going to go into it all but lots of packing is done.

Before we fly to India we have a short trip to Prague, out last look at Europe. Off we go from Cardiff airport, arrive in Prague, go to hotel and then sleep for a few hours. This is to be the theme for most of our stay, after the busy time in Wales we both need lots of rest. Check out the castle and Charles bridge and all the usual stuff and have some nice food.

Think we've had enough of Europe now, time to try something else.