Today we left Chitwan and headed for the Indian border town Sunauli. The local bus ride was meant to take 2.5 hours but 6 hours later we arrived. Slight hick up on the way our bus broke down the throttle cable snapped. That did not stop us. The driverrsquos assistant took the throttle cable by the hand while the driver had control of the brakes and steering wheel worked surprisingly well. Wh

Today we caught the train to Varanasi. We had not booked any accommodation so joined Scott and Bianca on the ride that they had organised. Thank goodness someone was organised We were mobbed from all directions for this that and the other. The men stared at us like we were from another planet and took photos of us on their cell phones We sorted out our accommodation and vowed to be more organis

Today we flew to Mumbai. Mumbai is a really interesting place very cosmopolitan in parts and very poor in others. Shanty town settlements were erected next to modern designed buildings and people lived on every inch of footpath that was available outside the centre of the city. Compared to Nepal and Varanasi Mumbai seemed very modern and the centre of the city was relatively clean and ordered

This is where India holidays the place is packed with Indian tourists. Udaipur has two beautiful palaces on islands in the middle of the lake. We visited the large city palace which rests next to the lake before going for a boat ride to look at the other palaces which have now been turned into luxury hotels. A nice bottle of Cloudy Bay wine was 250 This afternoon we did a cooking course but

We are staying in a lovely old guesthouse with a view of the extremely green lake. It is run by an old man and his wife who must be in their late 70rsquos and their various younger relations. We walked along the narrow Brahmin blue lanes and havelis to reach Bundi Palace a decaying palace that has recently been cleaned up and opened to the public. Entry was through a huge marble elephant g

It's 2010 And I applied for my passport and passport card 2 days ago so it should be getting here within 46 weeks. I was surprised at how simple the process actually was. You just fill out a form called DS11 and it's only two pages. I went in to the main post office here in Altoona and got my photo's taken real quick and then just paid the bill. Just some advice for anyone who's going to do

Beste wensen voor het nieuwe jaar.Momenteel bevinden we ons in Valkenswaard na nieuwjaar te hebben gevierd in Belgie. Voor we gaan beginnen met lachen om de grapjes van schoonfamilie eerst even typen met de getroffen voorbereidingen voor 2010. Smile and wave. De standaard zorgverzekering wordt hopelijk stopgezet dat scheelt ons 100 per maand daartegen dienen we een wereldreis verzekering af te

We spent the morning of New Years day in Kings Cross. We finally saw a hooker in the area and she was very stereotypical fishnet stockings etc which was amusing as we have been to Kingrsquos Cross a lot now and hadnrsquot seen any. We then went campervancar shopping. As we had left it pretty late literally only one rental company had one vehicle left for us to rent. The good news was that i

Kathmandu greeted us with a culture shock as expected. Getting the visa for Nepal at the airport was fairly straightforward however once out of the airport we were very pleased to have organised a ride to our hotel. As we walked out of the airport hundreds of people tried to grab our bags offering the lsquobestrsquo deals for taxis and hotels. The traffic is crazy. There appears to be no roa

Happy New Year I have to admit that unless you are young and heading out to the bars New Year's is a little boring here. Everything is open as usual today and life goes on as a usual Friday. The only difference is that some international newspapers aren't available. But that's ok. I still wish you and all the world more peace more compassion more blessings and more understanding as we beg

This is a medieval city in the Kathmandu Valley. Durbar square is located in the centre and is loaded with temples and shrines and a huge palace that makes up the whole eastern side of the square. We really enjoyed Patan as it was not as hectic as Kathmandu and the children were really friendly always asking our names or posing for a photo. The only blip was witnessing a fight between two motorcy

The is another medieval city in the Kathmandu Valley and the best preserved. This place was also stacked with temples and shrines with some pretty interesting erotic carvings photos on request. While turning a corner we got a fright to see two headless buffalos with blood streaming from there necks down the street if I needed another reason not to eat meat this was it. We caught a local rusty

The next day we met up with the people on our Everest Base Camp tour. Chris from Wellington NZ and Louise and Dave from Chester in the UK. We were introduced to Padesh our Kathmandu guide for the day. He took us out to Pashupatinath. This is Nepalrsquos most important Hindu temple on the banks of the holy Bagmati River. The river is considered holy despite how polluted it is. The most interesti

Today was the first day of our trip up Everest and we were all keen to get underway. I had heard about the flight up to Lukla before arriving in Nepal and was excited to be finally getting up in the air. The flight was about 30 minutes and there were some good views of the Himalayas. Getting closer to Lukla we skirted over some mountains before diving through a hole in the clouds to get visual wit

Our life their lives Kutch Gujarat Hector Dsouza It was mid morning when we reached the outskirts of the village of Nirona in Kutch Gujarat. The nomadic rabaris tribe seemed to be in wait for us. We took our places in a make shift courtyard and listened to what our amiable guide Mahesh had to say. 039The tribe lives on the outskirt o

Today we left Kathmandu by local bus and headed to Chitwan National Park. The roads were appalling some of them not completed others with huge potholes not helped by truck drivers who decided to take a break who would leave their trucks in the middle of the road for people to go round. I decided not to look out the front window out of fear but Matt could not resist watching the dangerous and

Happy new year We got to celebrate it 15 hours before most of you reading this in the States. So we win Nha Trang has been really fun so far starting with the trip here. Instead of taking a boring ol' bus from Da Lat to Nha Trang we decided to ride bicycles. You actually don't bike the whole way the trip starts and ends in a minibus. The biking portion is 70 km with the last 34 km being ALL

Europe is all about romanticism be in its scenic beauty or the poems of Wordsworth. Barcelonarsquos old city is beyond doubt one of the most romantic and picturesque of Europe. Most of the tourists while traveling with family or in groups look for discount hotels in Barcelona. These hotels help them to save money that can be spent on more sightseeing entertainment or even covering more destina

Our last trip was in AmpawaBKK during Oct 17212009. We first went to Ampawa with our friends. It's the one hours drive. We've never been to Ampawa before..so it's kind of new place and experience for us especially the native floating market. We stayed at Baan Din Benjan resort for one night.

On the move again on New Yearrsquos Eve this time by car to Mysore in Karnataka. A great trip down the mountain side 36 hairpins in a row with great views of the extent of the Negrili hills. We werenrsquot expecting to drive through forests and reserves but there they were elephants and monkeys tigers too but a too shy to be observed this time. Within an hour the temperature zooms up to