Asia 2009

Got a up early on Thursday morning to catch our ferry off the island, which took 1hr 30 to reach Ko Samui. From there we got a short bus journey across the island to our hotel, which turned out to be a little beach hut right by the sea! It was so pretty and it made swimming in the sea easy! When we arrived the tide was out so we had to walk out to meet it, but that's how we spent the rest of the day! Coupled with reading on our little veranda, we were both very relaxed by the end of the day!

The next day we hired another scooter to go and explore the island, as there is more to do here than on Ko Tao. We drove all the way around the island in one big loop and saw various beaches and amazing vistas of nearby islands. We got our moneys worth out of the scooter, which cost 6 quid for 24 hours use! We came back in the early evening to get our swimming attire and then rode out to one of the nicest beaches, which we had found earlier in the day. We swam for a bit and then had our dinner of sandwiches and crisps whilst the sunset - it was ace! Perfect end to a perfect day!

We are now waiting to go and get another ferry towards the mainland to a place called Surat Thani. We should arrive there about 9pm and then we have to wait for our train at 1am (but the trains are always late, so we could be waiting a while!). Then we get to Butterworth in Malaysia at around midday all being well. We are staying one night in Penang and then travelling all of the following day down to Singapore!

Hope everyone is well,
Missing you all lots,

Lots of Love,

Chris and Alex xxx

We got an evening train from Bangkok to Chumphon, which was pretty uneventful, apart from the fact that everyone had gone to bed by the time we got off the train! We stayed one short night in Chumphon, as we arrived at the hotel at about midnight and had to get up at 5am in order to get our hotel pick up which takes us to the boat! The boat left on time at 7am the next morning, and it took about 3 hours to get to Ko Tao. The weather wasnt too great when we arrived but it started to cheer up as the day progressed. We found an ace place to stay, the guy who runs it is really friendly and gives out free drinks and chocolates - hes a bit crazy sometimes though! Ko Tao is so beautiful, its a typical tropical island full of palm trees and white sandy beaches. We went down to the beach on our first day here and we only swam in the sea for about 10 mins before we both went pink - we realised later that it was about 38 degrees - far too hot! We aborted and went back to the room to cool off a while. That night the heavens opened and the storm continued all the way to the next morning. Since then it has been a bit overcast, but humid at the same time. Good for me as I still burn under a light bulb, but Chris is missing the sun.

We hired a scooter today to investigate the island fully, which is about as big as a postage stamp. The furthest distance we saw on a road sign was 4.5km...tiny! Unfortunatly most of the roads are not paved so there is only so far we can go without getting stuck in the sand! We went all the way to the south of the island and have decided to go back later on once the tide comes back in - Chris is dying to swim!

Another thing is that the tide is very low at the moment so opportunities for swimming in the sea are minimal, but we have invested in goggles and snorkel in the vain hope that it will get better. We are off to nearby Ko Samui tomorrow, which is a lot larger than Ko Tao, so we are hoping that the swimming will be better around there!

Hope you are all well,

Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

Today we went on a day trip to Ayutthaya, which is the old capital of Thailand, but is now an ancient crumbling city. We got the bus very very early this morning out of Bangkok and drove north for about an hour and a half. We went with the organised tour group today, only because Ayutthaya is spread over such a large area and it was far to hot to navigate around with tuk tuks - never mind expensive!

We were taken around by our guide for the day, Mr Pok (who had a MASSIVE mole on his face with hair about 6" long coming out of it - sorry no photo), who explained the various ruined sites - including the largest bronze sitting Buddha in Thailand, various pagodas and temples and the ruined royal grounds. Amongst these is the famous Buddha head which is nestled within the roots of a tree. Basically as the ruins were on Cambodian soil, the Thai went in and destroyed their temples and toppled all the Buddha heads, which is a bit mean I must say! Anyway, the heads were scattered everywhere and one ended up in the roots of a nearby tree, which is where it now sits, whilst the tree grows around it! It looked totally ace, as though it had grown from the tree! At the last complex we saw there were lots of elephants as well (cue excitement), so we dawdled a bit watching them all plod around and unfortunately perform for the crowds. We were then taken for our lunch at at nearby restaurant (inclusive in the ticket), where we had rice and Thai curry with bananas!

After that we were taken to our last stop where we got a 'cable car' across the river to see another Wat, but this time it was in the shape of a little Roman Catholic Church - very odd to see monks worshiping in a church! The guy who had it built really liked the architecture of the Catholic Churches, so he had one built himself so he could worship Buddha! Why not? Either way its very small and cute, and we were glad we go to see it! After a quick drink we headed back to Bangkok, where we got stuck in traffic, but got back in one piece just after 5pm! All that for 10 pound each, not bad value for money!

We had noodles for dinner at a street stall for 60p again tonight - Chris wants me to mention it as he took a photo of the kind lady who fed us! Yummy noodles!

We leave Bangkok tomorrow on the train to Chumphon, where we are staying the night and getting a boat the day after to the island of Ko Tao!

Hope you are all well, missing you lots

Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

We got an overnight train from Chiang Mai, which was pretty uneventful and late of course. I don’t understand why, but Thai trains never run on time, all other transport does, just their trains they can’t seem to manage! We went straight to the hotel and spent the first day sorting out our Chinese visa, which we managed successfully in the end (after we wasted a taxi journey across the city to the Chinese embassy, only to find that it was closed!). Anyway, we ended up paying a bit more and getting a travel agent to get it done in 2 days, and it came through last night – so we both officially have the right to enter China! The only issue is we could only get a single entry visa, so we will have to reapply for another one when we re-enter china from Hong Kong! Complicated, but its all coming together! We also managed to sort out our Cambodian visa online!

The second day we spent looking around the old sights of Bangkok! We started by going to Golden Mount, which is a mountain of earth now covered in white concrete and is a shrine to Buddha. The pile of earth was originally all of the excavated earth from the various Khlongs (canals) which cover Bangkok. The king at the time couldn’t decide what to do with all the soil, so he piled it up to make a fake mountain, but then realised he didn’t have enough so the next king covered it in plaster and made it into a place of worship! Clever thinking! We climbed that in the morning, but the city was quite hazy so the views were not as good as they could have been!

From there we walked down the main boulevard in Bangkok down to the Democracy monument, where we nearly died trying to cross the 7 lanes of traffic! It’s a funny looking monument in the middle of the roundabout; its Art Deco meets Star Wars! Either way it was ace to stand in the middle and watch all the traffic sailing past. Their roads look so colorful because all of the government taxis are all bright pink, blue, yellow, purple or green! From there we got one of the many brightly coloured taxis, which are cheaper than tuk tuks, to the Royal Palace. The king no longer lives in the palace, he moved down the road to some 5 star accommodations, but the palace remains open to the public. It cost us 7 quid each to go in, which is quite steep for Asia, but it was worth every Baht. I can’t even describe how amazing it was; even the camera struggled to capture it. It’s basically a smallish complex of buildings, all of which are amazingly decorated with gold and multicolored mosaic mirrors. It was breathtaking. Inside the complex is the building which houses the famous ‘Emerald Buddha’, which is like the ultimate thing for Buddhists. It has a long bloody history and has been in various hands, but now lives in Bangkok and is visited by thousands of people every year. It’s only small though 66cm (2ft), and sits high on a plinth so you can hardly see it at all. No photos are allowed, so Chris had to take a sneaky one from the door!

We left the old section of the Palace and walked around into the new part, which was an interesting mix of French and Thai-style architecture. Really odd, the buildings were pastel coloured, with Thai style roofs on them, with some fantastic gardens outside the main doors as well! After that we left the Royal Palace complex and walked a little bit further down the road to Wat Pho (po), which was not only another intricately designed wat (temple), but also housed the largest image of Buddha in Thailand. He was 15 metres high and 46 metres long!!! It was amazing; we want to know where the largest one in the world is now!

After that we got a boat down the river to Wat Arun, which is another Wat, but a different style to the others. We didn’t realise but you can climb Wat Arun so you get a fantastic view of Bangkok. Little did we know the steps going up were actually the steepest ever built, so much so that I got slightly scared on the way down and we had to go down backwards! Luckily there was a handrail, but I have never been more terrified in my life! Then we got the boat back across the river and then changed and got another one all the way back up to where we were staying. We went back to the hotel to cool off for a bit before we went out in the evening on another boat back down the river to Chinatown! Unfortunately as it was the third Wednesday of the month (clearly something to celebrate in china), it meant that a lot of the shops were closed. We walked around for a bit and had the obligatory bowl of noodles for dinner followed by horse chestnuts (1 pound for 0.5kg!). We headed back after that deciding that we will go back another night when the markets are all back on! We are going back tonight infact so watch this space!

Yesterday we spent the day exploring the new shiny side of Bangkok. We got a boat all the way down the river, where we changed and got the sky train across downtown Bangkok. As its still in its infancy, it still has some teething problems, but the Sky train was pretty amazing. It cost us 60p to travel across the new part of the city you get amazing views and equally amazing air con for that as well! We got off when we arrived in the shopping district and ended up strolling into one of their many many shopping malls. Boy do they put ours to shame; all the major international designers were there – Versace, Gucci, Prada, and Dior. Chris and I walked around for a bit soaking up the air con and staring at all the pretty things for sale. In true British style we couldn’t leave without buying something, so we had an ice cream sundae each! Haha!

After that we got another taxi to the tallest tower in Bangkok, Baiyoke Tower II, which you can climb to the 77th floor and get an amazing view of the city. We thought the 4 pound entry was a bit steep (haha), but we forked out regardless as the views were supposed to be amazing. We managed to get there when the sky was clear as well so we got amazing views over modern Bangkok, it’s a blend of old and new, but they seem to have done it well so far. People say that in 10 years time it will be similar to Tokyo in style, we can see that, it looks very modern already! We stayed up there for a while and discovered that our ticket allowed us one free drink each as well, so we got another lift to the 84th floor and thought we were just going to get a bottle of water or a coke, but no! They said we could have anything on the menu, so we went the whole hog and ordered cocktails!haha!

After that we went shopping only quickly as we needed swimwear as we are going to spend the next few days on a beach. Once we got that sorted, we got the sky train followed by a boat all the way up river back to Banglamphu – the district tourists stay in. The heavens opened on the way back so we ended up buying an emergency umbrella and sheltering for a while! The weather is quite tropical here, we had amazing views in the afternoon from Baiyoke Tower, and then we ended up swimming back to the hotel only a few hours later! We had dinner on Kao San road – bowl of noodles for 80p, followed by a Starbucks for pudding! Bangkok is ace, we both really enjoy it! It’s such a shame that people only come here to get drunk, there is so much to see in this one city, 5 days is not enough!

Tomorrow we plan to go to Ayutthaya, which is an ancient city outside of Bangkok! Hope you are all well, sorry this one is so long – theres a lot to cover in this city!

Missing you all lots,
Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

We spent the first 2 days in Chiang Mai just catching up on ourselves really - sleeping, washing etc. As we are here for 4 days we didnt really feel the need to rush out and see everything straight away - much more relaxed! Plus it rained constantly for the first 2 days, therefore rendering sightseeing pretty pointless! We went sightseeing yesterday afternoon, after it had stopped raining and walked around the town, which is surrounded by a moat! Apart from the town itself, which is the second largest in Thailand, there are various Wats (temples) to see, which are scattered across the city. We were very impressed with the Wats and walked around for a while! After that it started to get a bit too hot, so we headed back to the hotel to cool off for a bit!

In the evening we walked to the famous night market, which spans the entire length of the main road, on both sides! It was amazing, we walked around for quite a while, but managed to resist buying everything as we cannot carry it! I bought some new sunglasses though, as mine currently lie at the bottom of the Mekong! Also I got rather excited when I discovered that Starbucks has reached Chiang Mai, so we kind of splurged a little bit (dont judge me, I havent had one in 3 and a half months), and then we accidentially stumbled into Subway and continued the western theme. We shant do it again! We have been good today and have reverted back to the local dish of noodles for 60p! hurray!

We have the rest of today in Chiang Mai and then we are off on an overnight train to Bangkok, which is where we will be for 5 days! Hope everyone is well, missing you all lots!

Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

Firstly - we have had our first virtually full day of rain in 3 and a half months....hurray! You have no idea how much you miss rain, its a pain in the bum when your in the UK though! We had a great time in Luang Prabang, and left early yesterday morning on the fastest most dangerous speedboat in the world. It does say in the guidebook that the speedboats on offer are really dangerous and tend to flip over at the smallest things, but its either a 7 hour white knuckle ride in a speedboat or spend two whole days on the slowest (and safest) boat in the world, with a stop in the middle of nowhere! We decided to risk it! We were both terrified, we nearly got out just before it left - but decided we can both swim so its ok! We had to sit crossed legged in the smallest space ever for the first 4 hours, right at the back of the boat so we couldnt hear a thing! We put ipods in after a while, and we introduced Motown to the Mekong!

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for lunch, and swapped positions so we were at the front of the boat - more splashy but more leg room! We were in the blistering sun as well, but we managed not to get too burnt - chris burnt his knee for example! This was interspersed with random rain showers as well, so we spent half the time covering our bags up and getting soaked and the rest covering ourselves up so we didnt get burnt! We got to the border at 4.30pm, and it closed at 5pm - cutting it slightly fine. We managed to rush over the Laos border and get another short boat across the border where we had to get another visa sorted for thailand. Stressful journey and we were both glad that its all over now. We managed to cut a day out the schedule, but i dont think we will be doing it again in a hurry!

We stayed for one night in Chiang Khong, which is just on the Thai border, then we set off this morning on a 7 hour coach south to Chiang Mai, which is where we will be for the next four days!

Hope you are all well,

Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xx

Hello all!

We got an 8 hour AC coach from Vientiane on 9th, which was really ace - a much better standard than Indian buses (sorry varun!). We chilled out in our hotel for the rest of the afternoon, which is just up from the banks of the Mekong! On the first day we walked around Luang Prabang and went to see the various famous Wats (temples) which cover this small town. It has retained its french colonialism so well that in the heat of the day you feel like you could be walking around a little french town. Its very pretty and very well preserved. It was far too hot, so we managed to get as much done as we could before it got too hot - we didnt really succeed as both of us ended up getting burnt!

Yesterday, we didnt really do much, just caught up with ourselves and stuff. In the evening we climbed Phu Si, which is a small hill which overlooks the whole town. Lots of steps to get to the top, but it was well worth it as the views of the valley and the Mekong were amazing! We manage to eat quite cheaply here as there is a night market everyday which sells all kinds of foods - from noodles to baguettes to dead insects - needless to say we have not yet tried the latter!

Today we went to see Kuang Si waterfalls, which were absolutely stunning! We had to get a rickshaw out of town early this morning, but it was well worth it! We swam for about an hour in the bluest pool we have ever seen at the base of the waterfall, the water was freezing so it was nice and refreshing! We are off to Huay Xai on a speed boat tomorrow, which takes 6 to 7 hours! It takes us up the Mekong to the Thai border, which is where we shall re-enter Thailand!

Hope everyone is well,
Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

Greetings from Laos people! Third country in three days! We cant keep up with ourselves anymore! We got our first Thai train overnight from Bangkok to Nong Khai, which is the town nearest the border to Laos. The train was much nicer than the indian ones (sorry varun), really clean and we got a little matress as well! The Thai are slightly too organised sometimes, as we had a man on board who made the beds when he wanted and promptly kicked us out at 6.30am the next morning. Brits cant cope being told what to do at the best of times, but its best to just agree when it comes to the Thai!

Once we arrived at Nong Khai we got a rickshaw to the border and waited a long time whilst forms were filled in and visas were granted. From there we got a minibus to the capital, Vientiane! We have been here for the past 3 nights now, and I must say we are pleasently surprised with Laos so far. Granted it is the capital, but its a lot more developed than we thought it would be - the roads are good and the city is clean! We were both expecting an extension of Bangkok, but its more a cross between french boulevards and small american towns with lots of open crossroads. We both really like it and have spent most of the time walking around! We hired a scooter today to view all the sights Vientiane has to offer, including Pha That Luang, Wat Si Saket and Patuxai (temples and an Arc de Triomphe lookalikey). The money is funny is Laos, as its completly worthless - one pound is equal to about 13,000 kip at the moment, so we keep getting confused with all the zeros! We are really enjoying Laos so far, and we are off to Luang Prabang next for a few days, so we will write again then!

Lots of Love

Chris and Alex xxx

hello again!

sorry its been a while since we last wrote, we get caught up in mumbai life everytime we go there! We had an amazing time in mumbai, we went shopping and generally just chilled out with varun and his family, it was really well timed and we enjoyed it a lot! On the last day, Ben and Dave (friends from uni for those of you that dont know) arrived on our last day for their own 2 week holiday! It was great to see them, we wish we could have spent longer in mumbai with them but our flights have been booked for a long time!

We spent one sad night in Calcutta, and then got our flight this morning to Bangkok! The flight was actaully 30 mins early (Thai effeciency), so we got to the hotel earlier then planned! So far first impressions are that Bangkok is very modern and full of white people. We have had a quick look around, but as we are coming back to Bangkok we dont want to get too stuck in! We are off to Laos tomorrow for about a week and then we are coming back down into Thailand for a proper exploration!

Other than that there is not much to report, apart from that we are both well and missing you all lots!

Lots of Love

Chris and Alex xxx

We left the hustle bustle of Kathmandu on friday evening and retreated a long way further up the hill to a tiny place called Nagarkot (7000ft up) . There is nothing to do in Nagarkot apart from sit around and soak up the glorious views of the mountains. Unfortunatly the weather was not great when we were there so the views didnt really appear, but we had a great time just relaxing! Our hotel turned out to be a little wooden cabin set on top of the hill, so it was a nice place to sit and watch the world go by! We have come back down the hill today and returned to Kathmandu.
We arrived back at the hotel in good spirits after a relaxing weekend to find out that our bus we would be getting the next day to the border has been cancelled due to a road blockade. Sigh. Since then we have been running around Kathmandu trying to simultaneously get our money back from the bus tickets and find another way out of the country. The only way we can do it is to fly, as we cannot miss our flight from Varanasi back to Mumbai. We have forked out a small fortune, but the plan has now been remoulded. We get a flight tomorrow afternoon from Kathmandu to Varanasi, where we will spend the night before getting our next flight the following morning to Mumbai. It has all come together, if a little haphazardly! So much for having a relaxing weekend eh?

I shall write a quick entry when we get to Mumbai, just to let you all know. After that the next entry will be from Bangkok!

Missing you all lots and lots,

Chris and Alex xxx

The trip to Nepal was a long and tiring one. Firstly our train was 3 hours late from Varanasi, meaning we arrived in the heat of the day in Gorakhpur. We got a very cramped bus to the border town of Sunali, where we passed through the immigration barriers, which were laughable to say the least! We got a taxi from the border straight to Kathmandu, which the taxi driver said would take 6 hours, but it ended up taking nearly 8! The road to Kathmandu was in a very bad state, and the pollution was the worst we have ever seen! We arrived late a night and passed out straight away, after a journey which took over 48 hours!

Our hotel is really nice, set away from the road, with a beautiful secluded garden, a very nice retreat! We spent the first day walking around Kathmandu, which we both really enjoy. It has a very relaxed vibe, and despite being full of tourists, it seems to have retained quite a lot of the Nepalese traditions. The Nepalese are really friendly people, and a lot less intrusive than Indians. On the second day we took a trip to Durbur Square, which is a large collection of temples gathered in an old square in the heart of the old city. The 3 main cities in Nepal – Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur each have their own Durbur Square, as the Kings at the time each tried to out do each other. The following day we took a day trip to visit the nearby cities of Patan and Bhaktapur, and discovered their Durbur Square's to be of similar style but the quality differed greatly. Bhaktapur was by far the most impressive and well restored , followed by Patan , which was smaller but the quality of the temples were remarkable! Kathmandu's Durbur Square is the largest but due to traffic and years of pollution, it has lost its former glory unfortunately.

Today we got up very early (4am) to get ready and get a taxi to the airport for our Everest flight. I don’t think words can really do it justice, but it was absolutely amazing! It was an hour flight and it took us in a loop right over the Himalayan Range, during which each passenger (there were only 16 of us – tiny plane!) got to go up to the cockpit. Chris obviously got very excited at this point, and ended up going in twice! The photos we got are pretty good, but seeing it for ourselves was the most amazing thing ever. Totally worth every single penny!

We got back to the hotel before 9am and had breakfast in the garden. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing in the garden and then we went up to Swayambhunath, which is a famous stupa sitting on top of the hill above Kathmandu. We sat up there and watched the sunset before walking back down the hill for a cheap steak dinner! I don’t think this day could be anymore perfect! Plus we get a lie in tomorrow before we make a move to Nagarkot, which is supposed to have stunning views of the Himalayan range, if the weather is good!

Hope you are all well, missing you all lots!
Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

We got an overnight train from Darjeeling, which was overcrowded and we were glad to be off it the next morning! Varanasi is not what either of us were expecting. For starters its full of small little streets which are full with people, market stalls and cows. We took a stroll down to the river last night where the banks have been converted into ghats (steps leading down to the river).
We wandered slightly too far and stumbled upon the famous 'burning ghat' where Hindus cremate their dead, after they have been submerged in the Ganges. It wasn't as graphic as we both thought, but we didnt go any further once we had seen a few dead bodies being carried up the steps. Tour guides were offering boat rides down the river, which basically stop right at the foot of the 'burning' steps so you can watch the funeral ceremony. Slightly too far I think. Further along the river is where normal prayers take place , so we lingered a while to watch the sunset puja (prayer ceremony).
Today we have been walking around Varanasi. It is much like any other pilgrim town, lots of people and bustling markets. Very hot here as well, about 38 degrees today, which is far to hot to be walking around in! Tomorrow we head off to Nepal, which we are both excited about. It will be a long journey, but we are hoping that seeing Mt. Everest will make it all worth it. After just over a week in Nepal we are coming back down to Varanasi where we are getting a flight back to Mumbai, which is where we will be for our last few days in India.

Missing you all lots,

Chris and Alex xxx

We got an overnight train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, the land of tea! Our hotel is just out of the main hustle bustle of the town, so we get an amazing view over the whole valley. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been great since we have been here; there is a lot of low lying cloud which has gathered in the valley. It has cheered up a bit today though! Darjeeling is very hilly indeed, more so than Shimla, luckily it’s not that hot here as well or we would be suffering!

We wanted to go on the little toy train which takes you on a 2 hour trip through the valley, but when we arrived this morning we were told that it was fully booked, and as we are leaving tomorrow we don’t have enough time left! A shame really, as we would both liked to have done it! Instead we took a trip to the Happy Valley Tea Plantation, which is the plantation who supplies the finest tea in the world to their main customer, Harrods of Knightsbridge. We got a tour around the factory and learnt all about the fascinating world of tea, a lot goes into that one little cup. Chris and I were shocked to learn that the tea pickers (all women), work 8 hours a day for 60 rupees (about 90p). Clearly they are not seeing any of the profits of their labour! After our tour we got dragged to the cafe, where we drank a cup of harrods tea for about 35p each! The finest tea is brewed in 5 seconds and you only add milk to lower quality tea apprently. There are 3 grades of tea, the highest being the most expensive (the property of Harrods). Tea bags are a mix of leaves and the shoots which are ground down into 'dust', therefore making them cheaper! Here ends the tea lesson.

We have spent the rest of the day walking around Darjeeling, watching the various inhabitants carry large loads on their backs all the way up the hills! Rather them than me!

We leave tomorrow afternoon to go to Varanasi, which is famous for where they cremate human bodies by the side of the Ganges. Could be interesting…

Hope everyone is well, missing you all lots

Chris and Alex xxx

Wow did we have a tiring journey to get back to India. We spent the last 2 days of Sri Lanka in Colombo, which was nice enough but there is not much on offer really. Its just a city like any other, but it was good to catch up on ourselves a bit. Times are hard in Sri Lanka, so the guesthouse we stayed at we ended up having it to ourselves! We got caught in a rather heavy thunder storm on the last afternoon (alas, we forgot umbrellas). We ended up getting completely soaked and trying in vain to dry out our clothes all afternoon, as we were flying that evening! We dried them enough to pack in the end, and head off to the airport at 11pm (we got up at 8am, and the flight is at 3.20am). The airport was a complete farce, we had to wait for 2 hours just for a check-in gate, and when we finally did manage to check-in, it was about 3am! We rushed through the various checks, all of which seem to achieve little, but still! When we finally got to the departure lounge, there was a final call for our plane to board, which was silly as there were at least another 50 people behind us in the queue! We were so flustered and tired at this point we just ran straight to the gate, on to the plane, to find out that it was about 30% full. Sigh! We couldn’t get off either as customs is conveniently placed right at the edge of the gateway! So we ended up sitting on the plane for another hour, watching all the various Indians climb on board with bags full of duty free! Either way, we were very tired by the time we set off, and hour later, at about 4.30am.

The flight in itself was fine and we arrived in Chennai just over an hour later. We tried not to sleep on the plane, as it only make you more tired, and we needed to keep our wits about us for arrival in Chennai. We got a taxi from airport to hotel and pretty much passed out straight away for the rest of the day, after being awake for about 25 hours! We had a lazy day in Chennai and got an early train the following morning to Calcutta. The train took 30 hours, and was very tiring. We ended up being about an hour late, which for a train that takes that long, is quite impressive!

We have only had yesterday afternoon and the whole of today in Calcutta, as we leave tonight on an overnight train. Calcutta is really nice, but very hot indeed. The old colonial buildings are really well preserved and seem not to look out of place here. The city is also cleaner than we thought it would be (its still obviously dirty, but by Indian standards its immaculate!). Yesterday afternoon we walked to the Victoria Memorial, which is a large building, similar in style to the Taj Mahal and Capitol Hill in America. We went to see it just before sunset, but were not allowed entry as it had closed early for easter, and would also be closed for the following day. Apparently it houses various statues of our royal family, but your not allowed to take photos so we couldn’t have shared it anyway!

After dinner we went back to the Victoria Memorial to see the sound and light show. This seems to be an Indian thing, which they basically tell you the history of the place or building, with various coloured lights and sounds! It was the funniest thing I have ever been to. It basically detailed the history of Calcutta in the cheesiest way we have ever seen, needless to say we felt like we got our money’s worth! After standing up for the national anthem at the end, we had to run out in laughter!

Today we have been walking around the city, madness in this heat, but you get a better feel for it! We saw various churches, the old post office, and all the other colonial buildings scattered in between the yellow-taxi lined streets. Amongst these was the relocated memorial to the black hole of Calcutta, which was basically shoved in a corner of St Johns Church, charming! We also went down to the river to get some photos and stare for a while at the Howrah Bridge, supposedly the busiest bridge in the world! Its hard to describe Calcutta, everyone imagines it to the stereotypically Indian (big, loud, poor and dirty), which it is, but the remaining architecture gives the city a really strange sense that your in London a long time ago. Along with yellow taxis everywhere (no rickshaws allowed), there are rickshaws which are still pulled along by men. Looks like tiring work, and seems to look very out of place now amongst all the cars and buses! Calcutta, thankfully, is the only city left in India with these types of Rickshaws!

We leave Calcutta tonight at 10pm on an overnight train heading for Darjeeling, which is where we will be for the next 2 days! The land of tea…here we come!

Missing you all lots,
Hope everyone is well,
Lots of Love
Chris and Alex xxx

We got a train to Colombo, which was possibly the most rickety thing we have traveled in so far. We did actually think at some point that the train was going to fall off the tracks! It was a tiny old train, and coupled with the tracks not being well maintained and going far too fast it meant the train was rocking side to side for the whole journey there! The only bonus was that we paid a little bit more and upgraded to first class, which basically means you get a bit more padding on your seat and air con. We were going to get another train from Colombo to Galle, but we decided against it after our first experience! We ended up getting an air con bus to Galle, which took another 3 or 4 hours. From there we got a short bus journey to Unawatuna, which is 10 minutes down the coast, and has the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen. Unawatuna also got badly destroyed by the tsunami in 2004, you cant really tell now, but there are lots of graveyards by the sea and some buildings were not rebuilt leaving only the foundations. Its an eerie thought that it was destroyed only 5 years ago. Unawatuna had a lot of aid during the crisis and was consequently rebuilt faster than other resorts! The shop keepers did not learn however, as they rebuilt their wooden huts back on the beach. We had dinner the other night with sand between our toes!

We spent the first day catching up on sleep, as we have had some very early starts in Sri Lanka. In the afternoon we went to the beach and decided that the sea and beach looked so clean that we should have a swim! We spent the rest of the day swimming in the sea, which was great fun, and something which neither of us have done in a long time! Unfortunately, we both managed to get rather sun burnt, something which we are both regretting now I can tell you!

The following day we got a rickshaw back to Galle to have a proper look around the town. Its a old fort city which was built by the Dutch, and as such is a strange mix of colonial Dutch and Sri Lanka architecture. There is not much in the way of specific sights in Galle, more just walking around the place to get a feel for it. We walked all around the fort and then got back in a rickshaw (called tuk tuks here) to Unawatuna and watched the sunset on the beach!

Today we got a bus from Galle to Colombo, which is where we are now! There's not much to do in Colombo, so I think we are just going to chill and get everything in order for when we fly back to Chennai, India, which is at 3.30am on 10th April. We shall write next when we are back in India. It may not be for a few days, because we are going straight through Chennai to get a 30 hour train up to Calcutta. So that will probably be where we next write from!

Hope you are all well,
Miss you all lots,
Chris and Alex xxx