Nick’s world tour

A sleepless overnight minibus ride later, we’re in Chiang Khong, on the Thai side of the Mekong River. The dinner or free breakfast doesn’t materialise, and neither do any of the other ‘included things’ we are promised. We cross the river into Laos by longboat at around 8am, and hang around for what seems like ever until we are finally taken to the pier. Not containing the promised facilites (as by now we’d expected) we cram onto the last few wooden benches near the front. There’s about 50 people on the semi-open narrow slow boat, and we leave around 11.30. [read on]

I stay a day extra, as I can’t possibly miss the England match by being on a bus overnight. Though it was quite dull, and I wouldn’t have missed much after all.
I leave the island to catch a coach to Chiang Mai. I’m quite surprised it turns out to be a huge luxury double decker full of people from Bangkok- they are even more confused that it has stopped in what does look like the middle of nowhere to pick up one passenger! The bus stopped near to Chiang Mai (you never actually seem to get dropped off in the place you head for!) at about 6am the next day, and I head straight to the bus depot. I am heading west first, and will come back to Chiang Mai later.

[read on]

After an unintentional late night, I grab a one way ticket on a mini bus for Ayutthaya, a couple of hours north of Bangkok. Ayuthaya is an island at the confluence of a few rivers, and was once the capital of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Flight SQ62 touches down in the "City of Angels" at around midday, June 4th, in the year 2549. I get the 30 day stamp in my passport, and get my 'convict photo' taken US Immigration style. I must remember to ... [Continue reading this entry]

I found out that on the day I left Mumbai, I got caught in the official first day of the monsoon. I knew it was a little more than just a rain shower. Apparently 28 people died...It took over 3 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, what a start. It's been a great ten weeks here. I've done such a lot, but covered so little of the country. From the majestic forts of Rajasthan, to the peaks of the greatest mountain range on earth; washing ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well "Go" did go, albeit in a very shocking pink plane. But did it arrive at the domestic or international airports? The international is known as Chhapatri Shivaji, or colonially as Sahar. Whereas the domestic is known as Chhapatri Shivaji, ... [Continue reading this entry]

On Friday we all went our separate ways. In 5 days I'll be on a flight to Singapore, so tonight I head back to Jaipur on an overnight sleeper for one day, before flying down to Mumbai (well it was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Rajasthan. Every says, "don't go now, it's too hot". Well it was kind of warm, but not uncomfortably so. In Jaipur it was 45 degrees, but as you travelled further into the desert, and south, it became much cooler (well ... [Continue reading this entry]

About 2 months later than I intended, I was on a bus (having completely given up on Indian Railways) heading down to Agra in Uttar Pradesh. It turned out that this was a tour, and in fact we got taken ... [Continue reading this entry]