Well, I'm now in India and I'm having a fantastic time, but gettinghere was a bit of a journey.

My flight from Bangkok was at 5am. I decided not to take a room and instead spend the cash on having a massage and my nails done. The last dayin Bangkok was great.

At the airport, I found that my flight had been delayed until 6. Icouldn't check in until after 3 so I just had to sit and wait for acouple of hours. Then I Checked in and had to wait another couple ofhours. I also found that I had to pay a departure tax, and I didn'thave enough baht, so I had to change money, which was also annoying,because the American dollar has fallen, while the Aussie dollar isstill going strong.

Anyway. The filght was miserable. It was full to the brim with annoying, immature indian men, and their was no airconidtioning. The men talked and laughed all the way and got in the way of the air hostess and talked down to her and though it was funny. I was generally tired and unhappy when I got to Delhi at about 9am.

It was freezing, like 10 degrees. I had to wait for a bus in the cold.The bus came and shuttled me into the city with about 100 indians andtheir luggage spilling the doors and windows. I went to the train station and waited in the office for foreigners to buy a ticket to Dehra Dun for about an hour before being informed that their were no tickets leftfor the train that I wanted to catch that arvo.

So I left and went across town to the bus station. Which was crazy. No one spoke english and there were no signs. Just people yelling and shouting. I had to approach millions of bus drivers to try and find the right bus. The bus itself wasn't so bad. But as soon as I fuond it, it left, and I thought I would have time to go the loo, so I had to travel the first 3 hours while busting to go to the loo.

It was crowded and they gave me a seat right behind the driver. Atfirst I though that this was great, becuase it had a great view, but I had forgotten that people in India don't indicate, they blow their horns. This was the loudest horn I've ever hear and I felt like my ears were bleeding after about an hour.

I finally got the the end of the line and then found a auto-richshaw to take me to skye's hospital. It was freezing and i travelled for about 1 hour in the open with the biting wind in my legs and face.

But I finally made it, and ever since I've been here it's been great. The hospital is far out in the country and the people are all very warm and welcoming.

It's so great to see Skye. She's having the most amazing experience. And we've been having so much fun. We went into town today and at ourselves silly, walked through the makets, and had a lot of laughs. People here just stare at us. So we've been staring back and pointing and giggling ourselves. It's great.

She showed me around the hospital where she was working. I went on rounds with some of the doctors. What they're doing is amazing. And what Skye is doing is amazing as well. She's really found a groove there. I certainly couldn't face a lot of the things that she was dealing with on a day to day basis. It was just so cool to see her working there.

We took a bus to the northern town of Mossourie, which was amazing. We traveled up in the evening and as we approached the top of the mountain, the lights of the city blended into the stars.

It was an amazing town with tiny winding streets. Yesterday, Skye and I rose at 5:30 and did an hour climb before sunrise, so that we could see it come up over the Himilayas. On our way up the hill we passed two churches as well as Sikh and Hindi temples that were both putting out calls to prayer. The Sikh one was quite amusing, as the man turned on the microphone, fumbled a little, cleared his voice and then proceeded to sing, all the while competing with the Hindi call. Despite not really nowing where we were going in the dark and being plagued by barking dogs, we eventually found a good vantage point.

We also went to visit a Tibetan shrine on another peak. It was a long walk, but truly rewarding. It was like looking at somebody elses holiday photos. We were standing on a mountain, looking out over snow covered peaks and surrounded by billowing prayer flags.

All in all. India is shaping up to be a lovely stopover.

7Back in Bangkok

So here I am back in Bangkok.

Vientiane had it's ups and downs. It was a dusty, kind of crummy town. The City itself was not much to look at. But I enjoy just taking my time, walking through the streets seeing what there is to see. Like their version of the Arch de Triumph, which is a huge concrete monstrosity overlooking the entire city. Even the view from the top simply reveals a rather drab outlook.

The vibe was not great, as were are just too many western men in this town. I try not to jump to conclusions, but it's hard. It seems that they're all there for one reason. It's kind of like Bangkok, without the millions of backpackers, but keeping the dirty old men. There are odd couples everywhere, in bars, cafes and at all the sights. The boys at my hostel were complaining that when they were at bars, the women were all over them. It was just an unhealthy kind of atmosphere.

I had a great adventure traveling out of town to see the Buddha Park. I decided to cut costs and catch public bus. I had no idea where I was going or where to get off, but I eventually made it out there. Situated right on the edge of the Mekong, the Buddha park is a collection of rather bizarre Buddhist images which depict different stories and legends.

While I was there, I met a very lovely boy called add, and his friend who was a monk at the adjoining temple. They were both very helpful in explaining some of the stories behind the statues.

Other than that, most of my time in Vientiane was spent eating. I enjoyed the most fantastic Tom Yam soup by the side of the Mekong, just as the sun was setting. This soup had prawns the size of my hand!

Upon leaving Lao, I decided not to join a regular tourist bus. While the trips organised for tourists are not too expensive, and everything si organised for you and made very easy, I was kind of tired of taking the easy option.

So I took the public bus to the Friendship Bridge, which joins Thailand and Lao. From there I took a shuttle buss over the bridge, and across the border. Then a bus to the train station on the other side, where I booked my own ticket on the train from Nong Khao to Bangkok. All of this probably saved me $10, when I could have been picked up from my hostel and driven from there, straight to Bangkok.

It did give me time to have a look around Nong Khao, which had some of the biggest markets that I've seen yet. Strangely, I ran into a couple, he was South African, and she was Thai, and I spent the afternoon having a drink with them at a cafe by the river. After spending a couple of hours with them, I was given renewed hope in these cross-national matches, and I left that even with a new, less cynical outlook.

The train to Bangkok was even an adventure. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get a sleeping berth for the overnight train, but I found that the seats were remarkably comfortable, and at least half the price. It was a 12 hour journey, and I was the only wester person in the carridge. I actually felt quite chuffed with myself.

Arriving in Bangkok, I caught up with Pete, who I haven't seen in about 6 months, as he's been building stuff for the Tsunami relief in southern Thailand. We stayed in Siam Square, which is a much more pleasane district of the city, as there are way less bars and backpackers.

Siam Square is the shopping capital of Bangkok. There are several huge shopping malls, which rival Westfield Parramatta in size, but totally outclass it with Asian quirkiness. The streets are a contrast of neon lights and great grimey street stalls. And the malls are an air conditioned haven.

Spending the last couple of days in Bangkok has really allowed the city and the people to grown on me. Away from the evil Khao San road, which is the main backpacker strip, I really feel like I'm visiting another city, not just the Gold Coast.

I've been using the Skytrain to get around, which is a very pleasant and cool way to travel, and remarkably clean. There are whistle toting guards that patrol each station and squark at people who dare to even chew gum.

We visited the markets in the north of the city, which were amazing. Once again, these were the biggest markets that I've seen in my life. The sold everything from fish, snakes and spiders to household goods and miles and miles of clothes.

It was also a good opportunity to sample the many different Thai desserts. Strangely, these are often served in a takeaway bowl, with a straw and soup spoon. They range from sticky rice to funny green worm things. Texture is the most important and defining thing here, as everything is just really sweet.

We visited China Town, where we were lucky enough to witness a street parade, that was promoting a new brand of worshipping incense. The had the whole deal with dancing dragons and so on. While the streets here are wide, they seem small and crowded because of the street stalls and the millions and millions of people.

Pete and I also decided to ride the Skytrain to On Nut, which is the end of the line. Disappointingly, all we found there was much of the same, more shops.

I made the effort to visit the Palace and the temple of the emerald Buddha and was not disappointed. They really were very impressive. Streaming with gold, the palace and the temple were magical. But what was really rewarding was wandering the streets in the area surrounding them.

I passed schools and busy cargo/trade areas. I tried many different street foods, encouraged by friendly Thais, who were encouraged by my curiosity. Food has been a gateway to meeting and interacting with many of the locals who are eager to share their favouites and explain their health benefits. I've even had someone try and explain to me that deep fried banana is very good for you and your happiness. I'm sure it's great for my happiness, but it's not doing wonders for my waste line.

Today I am just passing the time, running errands, finalising my shopping and taking one last look around the city. I'm quite sad to leave it, as the longer I spend here the more it grows on me and I come to like the people and places.

But I await with anticipation for the next leg of my journey into India.

Cup Chi Li Li

Well, this is what happens when you leave it too long between posts - you end up with too much ground to cover.

So, where to begin...

Luang prabang was a lovely town, situated right on the edge of the Mekong river. I stayed for 2 days. On the first day, I rented a bicycle and cycled around, visiting the temples and various other sights. The Palace Museum was particularly impressive.

On thew second day, I went with a group of people that I met on the slow boat to visit the caves and the waterfall located just outside the town. The caves were a bit average by Jenolan standards, but interestingly they had been filled with hundreds of images of Buddha that had been broken during numerous wars.

The waterfall was amazing. It was hundreds of meters high and fell into a series of pools surrounded by jungle, where we indulged in a bit of a swim.

While the town Luang prabang was lovely, it didn't have much of a night life, certainly not enough to satisfy my fellow travellers, so on Monday, 11 of us hopped in a mini-van to head south to Vang Vieng.

The drive was amazing. We were driving through the highest mountains that I've ever seen. And dotted all over them were tiny villages made from little bamboo huts. I made several attempts at taking a decent photo, but nothing I managed did it justice.

Vang Vieng was everything that every other backpacker said that it was. People from all over the world get stuck there and end up staying for weeks or months on end. It is also set on the side of a river and rocky peaks rise up all around. Days are spend lazing by the river, drinking beer lao, or tubing.

Tubing is one on the best recreational activities ever created for backpackers. For $3.5 you can rent a tractor tube for the day and be driven a fair way up the river and take you time floating down. The true genious is the riverside bars.

As you peacefully float down the river, bars will throw ropes or extend bamboo poles to pull you in for a drink. Many even have giant swings and jumps set up, and the main entertainment of the day is watching people land ungracefully into the water.

It's a beautifully relaxing way to spend the day.

I had to get out of that town, at the risk of spending the rest of my life there.

So now I'm in Vientaine. Only just arrived about 3 hours ago after Kyaking down the river from Vang Vieng. It was a hot day and I'm a bit burnt, but I'm looking forward to finding something interesting to eat for dinner

Cheers

Slow Boat to Laos

For the last 3 days I have slowly been making my way to Luang prabang, which is i the north of Laos. I left Chang Mai, and Selim on Wednesday and took a minibus to Chang Khong on the Thai/Laos border. I stayed one night in Chang Khong, which was a terribly dingy, uninteresting town and in the morning caught a ferry accross the Mekong to Huay Xai in Laos.

The mornings here are so foggy that when I first wwnt down to the river I could hardly even see 1 meter in front of myself and walking around leaves you with dew in your hair.

From Huay Xai I joined a boatload of tourists and several locals o a slow boat traveling down the river to Luang prabang. The boat was lovely, if a bit over crowded and gave ample time to read, listen to music, meet other travelers and think about life in general. The landscape that we were passing through was truly amazing. Towering peaks covered in dense jungle decending down to the waters edge where there were huge jagged rocks. We passed several villages that were miles from anywhere and watched locals going about their washing and fishing in the river.

After 6 hours on the first day, we stopped in Pakbeng overnight, which is by relative standards, a failry large town along the river, but in reality is is quite small and really only caters to the passing river traffic. I was lucky enough to book ahead from Huay Xai and get on of the few guest houses with electricity, but even then it was only until 10pm.

We had dinner in a wonderful little place that had only opened 2 weeks ago. Our host had just been married (at the ripe old age of 23), and had decided to expand his soup table into a restaurant. The kitchen was nothing more than a hut and his menu was hand written in english. After dinner he chatted with us about Laos and his former life as a monk. He had been a monk for 10 years!

Yesterday was much of the same. Traveling down the river for 8 hours. Very relaxing.

Arriving in Luang Prabang was very pleasant. I'm sharing a room with a Canadian girl, called Donna, who is nice and talks way to fast for my Italian friend, Gianny. Stangely, there is not one other Australian amoung us.

Luang Prabang is a great town, and the french influence shows through in lots of places. Particularily with the food, there is a lot more garlic and their are bakeries everywhere. But they still serve take away soup in plastic bags, it's great! But kinda tricky to eat.

Traditional food is noodle soup, which is fairly bland, but they use all the spices on the table make it to their taste. Another good one is spicey papaya salad. I'm eating my way around this country. I'm going to try and do a cooking course before I leave .

Oh my Budda!!!

I have not long returned from a 3 day "trek" in the mountains of northern Thailand.

We set of with a small group of seven plus our guide, Aekki to walk through the mountains and visit some of the hill tribes in the Pai area. We took a 2 hour drive from Chang Mai up into the mountians. On the way we stopped at a regional market to purchase the food needed for the trip.

As always I find the markets the most interesting of places. From pork crackling to fried grasshoppers, we tried it all. If it looked strange and wonderful, I sampled it, much to the delight of the locals.

We began our trek from the village of Karen, where we had a hearty lunch of Pad Thai and played with the local children before setting off.

The first night was spent in the village of Lahu, which is scattered accross the side of a mountain. Our bamboo hut had wonderful jungle view. While the day had been hot, th night was cold, but we were entertained by the local children and sampled the local "firewater" in an effort to stay warm.

The second day involved some serious walking up and down the magnificant mountains, to their scrubby tops and into their jungle valleys. We washed in a freezing waterfall and then rode elephants to our final resting place that evening in the village of the Lisu tribe.

The final day day of the tour included some more waling to spectacular peaks followed by a leisurely float down the rive on a bamboo raft to where our driver was waiting to drive us back to Chang Mai.

We had an excellent group with myself, Selim, James from Brisbane, Mark, Chloe and Brad from England and Anni from Sweden.

But our guide, Aekki, was exceptional. His favourite phrase was "Oh my Buddah" and he had a song for every occasion. His cooking was the best I've had so far in Thailand. We enjoyed some wonderful curries. But he really made the trip.

I write to you this evening from Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. Chang Mai is a lovely city, that is a great contrast to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

I met Selim in Bangkok on the 5th when I arrived late in the evening. I met him on the street in Khao San, which is heaving with tourists. We spent the next day touring the city in a Tuk Tuk. We worked out a wonderful little game with the drivers, where by if we allowed them to take us to partiular shops, where they would get a commision for bringing us there, and then they would drive us for free! It was a very cost effective way to tour the city, if you have the patience to pretend to be interested in each shop.

We then caught an overnight, 12 hour bus to Chang Mai and arrived at about 5am this morning. The most amusing thing about this was the bus showed a horrible B-grade version of the Mummy gone wrong. At least it was a good starting point for conversation with the people around us.

Today we rented a motorbike and rode it into the hills to visit a beautiful temple. At the temple we had a wonderful chat with a monk about the foundations of buddism. It is such an interesting philosophy and I hope that I can learn more about it as I travel through this country.

This afternoon I have had a full body Thai massage! It was amazing. It involved this little Thai woman walking on my legs and back and bending me into all sorts of wonderful positions.

As I had thought, the best thing here is the food. I'm going crazy! I can't help myself , I'm trying everything! Today I've had stir fry basil and Chichen, and some really crazy sweet and sour soup that had taro fruit in it!!! But winning my vote for food of the day has been banana roti, which I ate this evening at a fundraising concert for the hill tribe people. Luck I Have Selim to polish off everything that I buy and can't finish. My eyes are way to big for my belly!!!

All in all it has been a great start to the trip.

Greetings

I'm Kyle, from Sydney and I'm heading off on a big trip. I hope that you enjoy following what I'm up to on my travels and I look forward to hearing you thoughts.

Cheers

Kyle