Mamallapuram 02 October 2011Arrived in Mamallapuram from Chennai on Friday after catching the Tamil Nadu Tourism HopOnHopOff Bus. Except that it wasn39t. HopOnHopOff that is. Well it is on Saturdays and Sundays but not...... Well we got here anyway.It is really quite a comfortable little place in a 39backpacker39sort of way. Once again our hotel is not of the 39rave over39 lu

Morning allAm looking forward to starting the Inca Trail tomorrow its a pity that we have had to spend so long acclimatising luckily I have had no altitude sickness at all Ill let you know if thats the same story at the end of the week. Amelia has to fly from Bueno Aires now instead of Chile so I may head over there with her not sure yet. That means we really have to start heading down to

Today we went Buddha spotting. We saw a tiny green one the Emerald Buddha at The Grand Palace and an enormous golden one the Standing Buddha at Wat Indrawihan. We nearly saw a Black Buddha too but the monks were too busy chanting and going about their business to let us in. We39d planned to visit Wat Pho next to see the Reclining Buddha and visit the massage school but they wouldn39t

After my week break in Slovenia I have finally made my way to Moscow and I decided to stay in Moscow for 24 hours before I make my way to SiberiaArriving at Moscow39s second largest Domodedovo Airport from Frankfurt was straight forward and easy and I was so proud of myself that the passport that I am holding is actually one of the very few passport which do not required Visa in to Russia

MUMBAIIIIIIIIII The flight was on time and we arrived exactly on time as well which was really good. The plane was well nice and they fed you and even had a choice of 60 movies on there as well. Didnt really watch anything but couldnt get to seep eitherTook ages for the bags to arrive but then the taxi straight to the gateway of idea was an eye opener for Leah I have to say. Massive pothol

So here we are I honestly cant even begin to describe how crazy India is We spent two nights in Mumbai stayed in the backpacker district of Colaba and visited the gateway of India and Elephanti Island where we looked at caves and avoided getting attacked by the monkeys We ate masala dosa for breakfast which was actually very nice There is a 9 day festival on so its was very noisy.I was glad

One more sleep to go... I honestly can39t believe how quickly the time has gone by in the last few weeks Injections work and shopping is finally all done. Ive said many goodbyes to lots of lovely people All that is left to do now is pack my rucksack easier said than done Deciding which clothes to take will be a nightmare I thinkI had my first ever Skype call to my cousin Sheila yesterday

I39ve been away from this blogging business for over a year now and am tentatively dipping my toes in the water again. Less words more frequency I don39t have as much timecommitment as I used toMy first academic conference was brilliant in parts but that39s of no interest to the greater public Berlin though should definitely be. I39ve been here a few times including living

I am already proving to be a slacker when it comes to these blogs it39s just so difficult to find the time. Ok so here39s goes Las Vegas in a short and sweet paragraph as I39m majorly tired...So we arrived after a fairly short flight to be greeted with plenty of mental casinosin the airport. I had to drag Ben away from these as I felt we would never actually get to Vegas itself. Even

My first exposure to Burmese food was some years ago when our Burmese language teacher at Chulalongkorn University Ms. Kitty would invite us out for some curry and noodles at a small restaurant near her apartment in the Ramkhamahaeng University area of Bangkok. Outside of that the only time I have ever been to another Burmese restaurant was in Chiang Mai and in Boston. Neither of these did li

Wakey wakey rise and shine 5am start today as we head for Shanghai airport in our hotel taxi much safer than travelling in a local taxi. At least our driver sticks to the speed limit even though driving on the wrong side of the road The airport is badly organised the information monitor instructs us that we need to go to D area to check in. There we discover that its in fact E area. We ch

I39ve been in Seoul for four nights now. Before Seoul I spent two nights in Jeonju a city in the southwest of the country. Jeonju didn39t have too much going on so I39ll keep it brief. There was a district right next to my guesthouse with several cultural and historic sites. Besides that it was just another city. There was a gate from when the city was walled in the past a few

Many thanks to my cabin mate Stan for sending me these photos he took as my camera got stolen later The train station is Permi II in Russia.

La segunda parte de mi andadura por Mongolia fue igual o mejor que la primera. La dinmica es casi siempre la misma. Nos levantamos a las 830h. ms o menos nos traen el desayuno recogemos los brtulos montamos en la furgo y listos.Al final le pillas el tranquillo a los viajes revientaespaldas en la furgoneta pero cuesta lo suyo. De hecho yo este da lo hice de copiloto porque no m

So after some time here we are getting quite use to the idea of haggling for pretty much everything that we need to buy. Of course some things you get the idea that the price is set grocery stores for example and museums for another. But something strange happened the other day when we were about to go into one of these museums. We noticed the price for tourists which were 500 shillings and the

Proud of my decision to fare to Beijing all the way on bike I left the heavenly island of Olkhon. The way back did not seem so awful as going there. I did 135 kilometer and slept 40 km from Bayandai. In the morning I was woken up by chattering and dangling buckets. Camping in Russia in August brings along a great risk of colliding with mushroom and berry hunters. I made it to Bayandai fairly easy

When Puang Madonna my fellow reporter preach when our pitching approved by the News Division Head I39m really excited. Can you imagine We will come to the island39s most often talked about two hundred million people in Indonesia. The island is so famous for its bestselling novel about the story of a young poor kid reach his goal. And islands to be written in itinerary by every foreign to

I can39t believe I39m finally here It39s been about 3 months of anticipation and now I am here. All my worries that I had before have disappeared. I39ve been here for 2 days now and so far I am so thankful that I decided to do this It really feels like an adventure. Thailand is such a beautiful country and with all my worrying before getting here I completely forgot just how bea

Today was our final day on our trip to the Great Ocean Road. After a restful night in our accommodation Greg Annette Nesan and Cheryl headed off for some sightseeing in the city on the tram. We found a nice cafe for some morning coffee and then walked to Flinders Street Station to catch the free tourist bus for a trip around the city. We got off at Queen Victoria Markets for some shopping then

The Emirates are quite crazy places. I have spent the last 5 days here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and often I cannot believe that I am in the Middle East. Many parts about this place are very Westernized for instance all the Western fastfood chains are present in abundance and when you go into a pharmacy nearly all the brands are familiar to me. On the other hand it is not uncommon to see wom