Before I started travelling, I was reasonably worried I wouldn't like it. The only other time I'd really been travelling on my own, when I was 18 and travelled through Croatia and Albania for two weeks, I really hadn't enjoyed it. I had been borderline terrified the whole time, although of course I wouldn't have …
This area is changing very fast. The guidebooks are out of date and blog posts of only a few years ago are outrageous. All my journey times were 1-2 hours shorter than that of the Lonely Planet, and let me reassure you it's not a grassland path from Daocheng to Litang as it was when …
Continue reading Shangri-la, Yunnan to Chengdu, Sichuan: a Chinese road trip by bus and mini-van
So, a mere 14 hours after leaving my hostel in Kunming, I'm safe and getting dry in my hostel in Pugao in Yuanyang. Easy right? Oh Shit Moment Number 1: I'd successfully got the bus from my hostel and got off at the right stop, exactly where the subway station was supposed to be. But …
I was anxious before my journey from Hong Kong to mainland China. The plan? Go to the airport where I'd use the 'China Travel Services' agency to apply for my visa (HK$1700 not HK$500 like it would be in the embassy, but a painless 10 minutes of filling out forms, not the intense 4 hours …
Continue reading Hong Kong to Shenzhen, China: the nerves and surprising ease
Bizarrely and incredibly, considering how patchy the Sham Valley Trek had been, my parents were up for the Marka Valley Trek, a 7 day much higher altitude homestay trek, including one night in a tent at 4740m! We were much better prepared though, having done the Sham Valley, and also did this trek with a …
Continue reading Marka Valley Trek: we did it!!! Incredible rocks, mountains, animals and people
I had one of the most lovely 'last days' in Dharamkot hiking up to Galu Waterfall, about a four hour leisurely hike, with three friends - pretty much my idea of heaven. We finished the day off in the Tibetan restaurant 'Common Ground' in McLeod Gang. It was such a delicious comfy safe space, leaving was more emotional …
Continue reading McLeod Gang to Leh: crazy bus journeys, astounding mountains and high altitude
I woke up on Monday in Tiruvannamalai, a medium sized town north west of Pondicherry, having got a 3 hour, ₹88 (£1) bus here yesterday afternoon from Auroville. I felt all the normal discomforts of arriving in a new place, where do I have breakfast? How do I find an ATM? My charger had recently blown …
Kodaikanal was the first real 'Indian' town I've been to, Kerala and Varkala being so touristy it was easy to think you were in a European beach side town. I say this mainly based on the fact that, for the first time in my life, there were cows wandering freely on the street and you …
One of the really lovely things about being in Varkala, and at times a bit much as I needed a bit of time to be alone post yoga teacher training, was that the lady I'd travelled up with knew a whole group of people on Varkala - the kind of group that gains a …
Travelling Inside and Out 