South Asia

Articles from this Category

Wettest place on earth

There was a bit more light this morning when I woke compared to yesterday.  But it was only 0530 when I checked my clock.  That’s because the weather wasn’t gloomy like yesterday.  With a 0745 report for my tour, I talked my way into having tea at 0720 in the restaurant, 10 minutes before it officially […]

Read more

Wandering around Shillong

My hotel room included breakfast starting at 0730.  I had semolina, potato curry, hard-boiled eggs and puri.  That all went very well mixed together even though I don’t think it was meant to be.  A banana made the breakfast complete. I explored the area around Lake Ward which was the centre of the colonial town.  […]

Read more

Arriving in the North-East

Above: View on the flight from Delhi to Guwahati. Having retired early last night, I was up before my alarm and left the hotel at 0615.  Delhi before dawn is a different world with people sleeping on the streets, stray dogs sleeping on the streets and hawkers starting to fire up their tea stalls.  Quite […]

Read more

Leaving Central Asia but going to the largest “stan” of all

Today I leave Central Asia but I’m headed to the biggest “stan” of all … Hindustan.  Also known as India or Bharat. As usual for me, when there is an early flight to catch, I didn’t sleep well.  Alarm was set for 0430 with a 0500 taxi.  At the airport, I got my boarding pass […]

Read more

To Kathmandu and flying off

Quite unusually, I didn’t get a good night sleep. For a start, being Friday night, the clubs were pounding out music and even though it wasn’t loud, it was enough to disturb me. Then it was a little milder tonight. My sleep was light and short, waking up at 0400. Perhaps it was the beer […]

Read more

A day of disappointments

My days in Pokhara had been hazy so far. For that reason, I opted not to make the effort to go to Sarangkot to see the sunrise illuminating the Annapurna range. After breakfast, it was obvious I needed to fill in some time. I kinda thought it would be a waste of time/money going there, […]

Read more

Shopping and a climb

I had allocated the morning for shopping and the afternoon for climbing up to the World Peace Pagoda. Nepal is heaven for buying old weather gear and active wear. I spent USD25 on replacing my Keens sandals which broke a couple of years ago, USD15 on a Under Armour compression top, USD15 on a Haglofs […]

Read more

What I’ve come for specifically

I woke at 0600 when it was still cold and dark. Today is the day I receive my Christmas present from Kim to do parahawking. I kept warm in bed till 0700 before slowly emerging from the covers and eventually left the hotel at 0900 after breakfast. It was a 15 min walk to the […]

Read more

Bus to Pokhara

I woke around 0415, an hour before my alarm. I lay in bed until the alarm, then packed up and headed down to reception around 0545. I had to find someone to let me out of the compound. The boy unlocked the gate and then led me through to the Black Olive (where I had […]

Read more

Kathmandu again, after only 4 months

Above:  Very strong caterers carrying a trolley up the stairs to an Airbus A320 at Kuching International Airport. With an 1145 departure, there wasn’t a rush to get going. I left the apartment at 0900 for Mum’s and headed to the airport with them. I dropped myself off and handed them the key and headed […]

Read more
Go top