Pokhara - Birethanti - Ghandruk - Chhomrong - Dovan - Deurali - Macchupuchhre Base Camp - Annapurna Base Camp - Bamboo - Chhomrong - Tadapani - Ghorepani - Birethanti - Pokhara 1. I Bow to the Linguist in You The creators of the Nepali language were worried that they’d never be able to come up with enough words for a full language so they started doubling up fairly early on. For this reason the Nepali (and Indian) word ‘namaste’ (meaning ‘I bow to the God in you’) is used as both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and may, in certai [View Full Entry]

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I remember watching a lot of late-night local TV programmes during my first trip to China. It was not by choice since local channels were all the hostels (that I stayed in) had. The content of the programmes best remains forgotten, but a particular advertisement has left a lasting impression for the most part because it was on almost every channel! It was an old school montage of scenic videos where in his most mellifluous voice, the narrator rhapsodized over the natural beauty and charm of Hangzhou, particularly, the West Lake. I have no idea how much of the city's immense [View Full Entry]

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Despite four years of startlingly bad luck - tsunamis, earthquakes, military coups, government corruption, nightclub fires, and the recent shutdown of the brand-spanking new airport by pro-democracy protestors - Thailand's tourist industry seems to be able to bounce right back. When we arrived in Bangkok just a couple of weeks after the latest setback - the closure of the main international hub into the country - you wouldn't have guessed that anything untoward had occurred. The main tourist drag, Khao San Road, was as happening and pumping as ever, even at midnight - in fact, that is [View Full Entry]

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A strange title but very suitable as you will see when you reach the end of the blog. The train from Jaipur to Udaipur ran almost like clockwork (if you discount an hour’s delay) and took 8 hours on a 2AC sleeper carriage - the second poshest class on the train...we know how to travel in style! It wasn’t that posh really, we had the bottom berths and an elderly Indian couple had the top berths and we offered to swap with them so they wouldn’t kill themselves climbing up and down the ladders. The rickshaw drivers outside Udaipur station put [View Full Entry]

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Straight from sunny Spain I headed into chilly Iceland. We arrived at Heathrow in good time although as we headed towards our gate we were a little bemused to see the people coming the opposite way wrapped up in furs and fleeces and still wearing their hats and gloves... was Iceland going to be that cold??? We had a good flight and a very easy, if slightly surreal, experience of walking through a practically deserted airport as we arrived in Reykjavik. We took a coach to our first hotel and the tour guide gave a valient attempt at pointing out things [View Full Entry]

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It was 8.20 am. Music by Philip Glass was being played very loudly through speakers attached to a laptop computer. I was sat in just my boxer shorts in the front room of my new house in Cirebon, working on my lesson plans for school. I was disturbed by the sound of loud noises from outside. I turned down the music, wondering if the neighbours were objecting to my taste in music. Then I twitched back the net curtains and looked out of my front window. Standing outside my house was a little woman who was shaking the locked gate. So, [View Full Entry]

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We continued on our little jaunt around the Southern Grenadines and sailed back up to Chatham Bay, a quiet anchorage on the west end of Union Island. It was a glorious trip- a stiff Caribbean breeze filled our sails and pushed the Rum Runner swiftly along the lush coast of Union. The west coast of Union is totally undeveloped, except for a couple of beach bars that the locals open on the weekend. And the anchorage is beautiful, surrounded by tall cliffs filled with cactus and dense scrub. The first thing we wanted to do was launch the kayaks and explore [View Full Entry]

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The morning call was at 3.30am to catch the sunrise at Gunung Penajakan (2770m) with Bromo on the foreground and Mount Semeru puffing black smock at the background. There were at least close to 70 jeeps racing to the Penajakan II viewpoint. As there were too many jeeps, some had to park at the road side and we had to walk to the submit. It was a tiring 30 minutes uphill walk with fairly steep trail. Some visitors choose to be ferried by ojeks. There were times when I felt like giving up because I have not fully recover from the [View Full Entry]

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