A love letter to Asia

My dear Asia,

On our anniversary, I would like to tell you how much I love you! The last year has been full of ups and downs, twists and turns.  Sometimes I feel like you drive me insane, but in the end its the craziness that makes me love you more.

What I expected would be an 8 month fling, has turned into a life changing experience. From India to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, then to China, Vietnam and back to Cambodia, I have traveled by bike, bus and train, boat, car and plane. Beauty I expected, but what you have shown me is more than that. Your ideas free my mind and the attitudes I encounter nourish my soul.

Asia, you have not only changed my life, but changed me as a person, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I will love you, always, and forever.

Yolanda x

Vietnam, Kampot, and back to the island.

From the moment I arrived near the border with Vietnam I started to hear English again. It was a nice sound after 30 hours of silence and sign language. It was actually guys that had been on the bus from Nanning that in the seat swapping near the border both turned to me and said 'hello'. They were young engineers, practising their English and very friendly which was useful as even on the Vietnamese side all the directions were given to my bus in Chinese (I was still the only westerner).

On arrival in Hanoi I went straight to the backpacker district and stayed at the originally named Hanoi backpackers. Arriving there at 10pm, the place was in full swing with a packed bar and music blaring, but by the time I'd got myself showed and ready they were closing and heading on the 'pub crawl'. Bars in Hanoi are meant to close at midnight so a pub crawl means going to wherever the police haven't shut down yet. First it was a really cheesy club, the hair of the dog, then a bar where you had to knock on the shutter and be let in through the back entrance, up some stairs and through someone's house, but on arriving there were fantastic cheese toasties  :-)

Day 2 my friends from home arrived and were staying at one of their brother's places who had been teaching English in Hanoi so I checked out of the backpackers to join them. The people we stayed with were the friendliest bunch we could've hoped for. We were taken around and shown the best places to go - from seeing in the dawn at the local flower market, to a real Indian yoga class and even a London underground drum and bass night! If anyone reading this is up for checking out the expat scene in Hanoi I would recomend the facebook group Hanoi Masive for up to date info on everything from nights out to engligh teaching jobs.

Leaving Hanoi took longer than expected as a storm delayed my journey for two days. On the journey I met this lovely old couple that without speaking a word of english invited me to share their breakfast and join them in meditation and by the time I got to Hoi An it was beautful and sunny. I was able to walk along the river path which had been flooded a couple of days previously and take a complete tour of the oldtown before checking into the guesthouse everyone had recommended to me, the sunflower hotel.

The sunflower was where all the backpackers stayed, it was slightly out of town but had a pool, friendly staff and an amazing buffet breakfast. There were nearby Beer Hoi's and a friendly atmosphere. I can see why some people stay here a long time, I was there 2 nights, experienced Why Not? all you can drink and checked out marble mountain (which is one of the best cave/temples I've seen in Asia!) and was then ready for my journey down.

Not booking in advance, however, meant that trains and tourist buses were booked so I had to go on the local sleeper bus. The hotel manager actually said "the nice bus is booked, you''ll have to go on the not so nice sleeper bus" so I was pretty worried about my 24 hour journey down to HCM but it was fine! Nice bus, comfortable sleeper, and cheaper than the tourist bus.

In HCM I had one mission, find speakers for the bar. I initially had the idea of finding some sort of '80s boombox and roped in a fellow traveler (that had cycled to Vietnam from England via Turkey over the last year) to go on a mission to find one. Heading off in the direction of the electronics area we took a wrong turn and ended up on a back alley that had not much EXCEPT a little stall by the side of the road selling 90s boomboxes. The universe provides. Some may have thought this was fate, but nit quite having the $20 she was asking for one may also have been fate as when I explored further and found the electronics street the next day I was able to find xminis that were entirely more practical, yet less novelty. Although I would've loved to rock up back to the island with a boombox over my shoulder, the extra costs of getting batteries and a tape converter meant it just wasn't worth it.

Given confidence from my smooth bus journey to HCM I opted to ignore the tour guide advice that the best way to get to Kampot was via Phenom Phen and take a local bus to the border that had been recommended in a few blogs I read. The internet said the bus would leave at 9pm from the western bus station so the owner of my guesthouse recommended i get the bus at 7pm from the market. Bus number 2 would've got me there before 6pm but not at 7, so I got a motorbike over for $3. There are a few buses that go to the border so i was glad i had someone write sleeper bus on a piece of paper for me. Once I found the right stall it was easy, bus left at 8.30pm instead of 9 but I was early so that was fine and meant we arrived at 4.30am and I had time for a couple cups of tea on the other end before the border opened.

As I got off the bus, bleary eyed, a local guy offered me the ride to the border and bus to Kampot for $15. Just to the border would've been $5 and I may have been able to get it for $5 on a moto the other side too but may have been stranded and ripped off more so I was happy paying for a smooth transition at that time in the morning. It was a really smooth transition, he drove me through, had another coffee on the other side and the bus left for Kampot at 7.30am. In true Cambodian style it was a game of sardines on how many people you can fit in a minivan (we had 20 in a 10 seater on this journey).

On arrival in Kampot I headed straight for a guesthouse that I thought would've just opened, Arcadia Backpackers. It hadn't opened yet, which actually worked out great for me. I was able to help out a bit with the varnishing and get a free bed to stay in. The location was beautiful, right on the riverside so I was able to start everyday with a swim and by high season the place will have everything to offer from canoes to motor buggies!

From there I did a quick tour of Bokor national park. Our "tourguide" was more of a taxi driver than a tourguide as he didn't speak enough Engligh to give us any information about the region, but did have a fantastic collection of power ballads on the car stereo. We cruised Bokor singing along to Ronan Keating but had to wait until we got back to learn anything about why there was a deserted french casino in the middle of a national park.

I'm back on the island now and the winds have changed, high season is approaching and you can feel it in the air, things are going to get busy!

China

From the moment I got off the plane (still barefoot, you can take a girl off the island but you can't take the island out of the girl) I had a Chinese translator/interpreter, in the form of my cousin, who was able to tell me the best places to go, read menus and order for me. This made things very easy and I was able to spend my time with him discussing eastern philosophy, practising yoga and qi gong (and realising how similar some of the exercises are) and generally discussing life, love and the universe (I swear we worked out the answer at 6am one morning ...).

It wasn't until the train to Nanning that I faced China by myself. My first mishap was getting my ticket stolen in the train station and having to buy a new one, but the day did not improve from there ...

The weekend before my intended train journey Typhoon Usagi approached and the boats were canceled and when we arrived at the train station at 1pm in time to get some lunch before getting on the train it said the train could be about 3 hours delayed. By the time I got back from lunch they eye saying the train wouldn't be there until 10pm so I left and came back at 10 ...

10pm was when the gates opened and I could wait on the platform. I was the only foreigner in the room so stood out like a sore thumb and when at 3am people started to leave and I tried to find out what was going on, all I got was people laughing at the fact that I couldn't understand. Eventually I found someone at the information that spoke English and found the train was due to arrive at 5am. It did arrive at 5 but it didn't leave till 7.

Once I was on the train it was fine. I fell straight asleep and the delay meant that I didn't need to stop the night in Nanning, but could get straight on the bus to Hanoi.

Internet information that I had found on the Nanning bus ticket office was slightly out of date as there are building works going on outside the station so it was lucky that I spotted an Australian with a Chinese friend that was able to take me there and order my ticket for me.

I will attempt to do China by myself one day. It is yet another example of travelling somewhere just to realise that thereis so much more that I haven't seen.

opening a restaurant

When I arrived on Koh Rong 4 months ago I had no grand plans and certainly never dreamed that I would be opening a veggie restaurant on this Cambodian island, but that's what I've done!
It started with a painting, I was looking for somewhere to paint a mural as I had done in Thailand and Laos, and Vagabonds had space for me to paint. I was told they wanted a mermaid so I started sketching and by the time I met Dave, the owner, I had already begun painting on the wall. He quickly offered me free beer, food and accommodation to continue painting and with a free rein to paint what I wanted where I wanted it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
My role as in house artist quickly expanded as I offered to help out with everything I could in this guesthouse/bar and within a week I was manager!
As the business was just starting up (we had the opening party two weeks after I arrived) and wasn't really serving much food, Dave said we could experiment in the kitchen, but we couldn't order expensive foods such as meat. This gave me the idea of trying to make some good vegetarian food...
My parents are vegetarian and I was brought up working in vegetarian cafes in Glastonbury so I'm used to cooking vegetarian food but my first couple attempts at veggie burgers came out as sloppy pumpkin mess.
With everything else going on it took me until the end of June to get a menu written but as soon as that was done it was amazing how quickly we transformed into a restaurant.
There is already a good selection of western food on the island and Pan Mai and Tom, the two girls who work in the Vagabonds kitchen, could cook a full English breakfast with their eyes closed.
Introducing a vegetarian menu, however, meant a lot of new dishes that they had never cooked before, using different flavours than they are used to and a whole new style of cooking. The girls have done an amazing job of learning a lot of new dishes in a short space of time but it's tough work introducing a whole new menu in a week, let alone teaching stock control, efficiency and what needs to be prepared in advance. At the moment it's low season though so there aren't many customers and we can use the next couple of months to practice and really get it right for high season.
Yesterday we demolished one of the dorm rooms to build a new, bigger kitchen and moved the bar to create more restaurant seating so in the next few days we should be able to have a grand reopening party of our new restaurant!
So if your in Koh Rong at any time soon, come check out the menu, maybe even stay for a 'Yolanda special' - a baguette with marmite, poached eggs and cheese  :-)

5 things I love about my life

1. Having pink hair.

People say blondes have fun. Pink's have more fun. Fact.

2. Living on an island.

It feels cut off from the real world. No roads, no cars, just beach, jungle and sea.

3. Starting a businesses.

The whole island is young and developing. Most businesses here are less than a year old and it's exciting to be part of creating the scene. I started by painting on the walls and was managing the place before we opened so it really feels like my baby.

4. The wildlife.

Every night I fall asleep to the sounds of geckos and crickets. Wake up to chickens, a snake coiling itself around a nearby tree and a buffalo rolling around in the mud. I go for a swim and have to tread carefully around the giant pink starfish dotted on the ocean bed and barracuda coming for me. Swim at night and there is phosphorescent plankton. At work my dog bounds up to me with a million kisses, dragonflies hover around and a giant butterfly lands on my head. (Of course not all the wildlife is good, sandflies are the bane of my life and it's not possible to keep anti venom on the island as we can't keep it refrigerated consistently. There is always a price to pay for paradise.)

5. The people.

You meet some interesting characters travelling but the ones that have decided to live on a Cambodian island are certainly a rare breed.

A week in the life of the island

Last week was pretty eventful...

Monday: Met the minister of tourism for Cambodia.

The whole village and several businesses owners lined up on the peer at 10am to greet the minister only to find out he wasn't in that boat. A couple of hours later when we lined up again a speed boat arrived with a lot of important dignitaries. I shook everyone's hands then sat in a 2hr meeting, getting filmed for Cambodian TV looking interested and nodding along but not understanding a word that was being said. Lots of smiles and claps though so I guess we are doing something right.

Tuesday: Started first aid training.

As part of the Koh Rong Conservation project there are a couple of nurses on the island that are running a first aid clinic and offered free training to long term staff at the bars so that when they go we can man the clinic ourselves.

Wednesday: I was meant to learn about island fevers such as dengue, but instead got a fever.

It may or may have been dengue but whatever it was it wasn't fun. I did, however, move a mattresses and mosquito net onto my balcony so was able to lie down staring at palm trees for 6 days. You know you've found somewhere special when you can still be this happy when your ill with a fever!

A little poem about bangkok ...

Bangkok you've been epic, as usual, a blast.

Each time I return is more fun than the last

From buckets on Khaosan and scummy hostels, to red wine in the pool at 5 star hotels.

Markets and malls and cinema 4D,

tagteaming germans,

stop!

Roly poly!

Thank you to the friends that have made this the best,

now one night by myself to get some rest.

Then back to the island I shall go.

It's a hard life in Asia, don't you know!

koh rong

I came to koh rong on a quick visit and now I have no idea how long I've actually been here ... just over two weeks I think.

In that time I have become the manager of 'vagabonds', a beach front bar/guesthouse, painted several murals, and started teaching yoga.

The island is paradise. There is white sand, turquoise sea,  snorkelling, and drum and bass!

Most days I watch the sunrise, do yoga, and go for a swim before breakfast. It's the best way in the world to start your day!

Everyone here seems to be on a similar wavelength and I feel at home. I've always wanted palm trees in my back garden ...

Cambodia

No posts so far in Cambodia yet because I've been having too much fun!

Ban Lung and Kratie were pretty quiet but nice scenery, cheap and good to see real Cambodian towns rather than just tourist destinations.

Next was Phnom Pehn where we visited the killing fields and genocide museum. A day of quiet reflection as we learnt about Cambodia's atrocious recent history, it was difficult to understand how such things can take place but definitely a worthwhile visit.

Siem Reap was a lot more of a party turn than I expected. We did 3 days of Ankor wat which is one of the must magical places I've been to in my life, but 50c beers meant that we had to take a day off in between each temple day ... Definitely recommend Villa Anjuna for it's tripped out goan hippie vibe and beautiful garden but rooms are expensive and the German owners seem to be slightly falling apart at the seams. For a cheaper option Garden Village is only 5 dollars per room and 1 dollar for some of the dorms.

Sihanoukville was next and it is where most tourists in Cambodia seem to stay. We heard Serendipity has all the parties and cheap booze and Victory is full of prostitutes so stayed on chilled Otres (venturing onto Serendipity for a few drinks every now and again).

Now I'm on Ko Rong where the water is blue, the sand is white and most of the bars seem to be run by people back home so the music selection is like being back in Bristol.

Our boat over here had one of the best unexpected stops ever! We thought we bought the normal return ticket to Ko Rong but turns out that for the same price we ended up on a boat that gave us breakfast, stopped for 30 mins for us to swim and snorkel and then have us lunch before we arrived!

It's a popular thing to come out here and work at the bars for the whole season and I can see the scene only getting bigger. It's a good lifestyle, western staff work for no money but get their accommodation, food and drink for free, it's long hours but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. The smaller places like Otres and Ko Rong have building work going on all around and there are still plenty of undeveloped islands in the area...

Not sure how long I'm going to stay here this time but I can definitely see myself coming back for sure!

Don Det to Ban Lung

1pm Right now I am sat in a roadside cafe somewhere in Cambodia where no-one speaks English. Our bus dropped us off here saying we had to catch another bus, but didn't say when ...
Getting across the border was simple, one guy collected all of our passports and visas and we walked under the Laos border into no mans land, then limboed under the border crossing to Cambodia. Once in Cambodia, however, we had to wait for an hour to get our passports, then another hour for the bus to turn up. 30 minutes in one minivan and we were told to get out (at a petrol station in the middle of nowhere) and get on another bus that was already full. 10 minutes on that one and we got dropped off here ... hopefully I'll make it to Ban lung tonight!
2pm Just been told there is a bus from here to Ban Lung in 2 hours, as long as there is space and they accept our tickets it should be ok. would have definitely been faster to hitchhike...
4.30pm There were some busses that arrived but none would take us .... first got told 3pm, then 4 now 5. If one doesn't take us by 5.30 I think we're going to have to hitch. A foreigner arrived on a motorbike and let us use his phone to call the office number on our ticket but no,one on the line spoke English... he also told us we are 125km away from Ban Lung and it's one road that goes in that direction from here... Shouldn't be too hard  :-)
5pm woohoo! we are on a bus. didn't want to take our tickets because they were from Laos but we convinced him and are on. boom!
7pm Made it in the end. 4 hours late and minus 2.5kg of washing I left in don det, a cushion that fell off the roof rack on the first minibus and my neck pillow that I left on the 2nd bus but other than that safe and well!

Laos

I want quite sure what to expect from Laos and didn't really have any set plans of where I was going so ended up following the tourist trail... What I found in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng was that it was more expensive than I expected and a lot more touristy.

I celebrated my birthday in Luang Prabang so signed up for another cooking course to do during the day. It wasn't as good as the Thai cooking course in Chiang Mai, mainly due to the teachers, but was still good fun. In the evening we went to Utopia followed by the bowling alley, which seems to be what every tourist in Luang Prabang does every evening, so had a good group of people I had met along the way to celebrate with.

Vang Vieng I only stopped in to go tubing down the Mekong, which was great fun, but cost the equivalent of £5 when in Don det you could rent a tube for 70p ...


Don Det the accommodation was more basic than what I'd had elsewhere in Laos, palm leaf bungalows with outside toilets, but the views made it worth it - looking out into the Mekong at 4000 islands.

Our island was so small that it had no cars and only two dirt tracks, sunrise and sunset, both with fantastic views of their namesakes. On the first day I got up to watch the sunrise and every other day spent sunset floating in a tube down the sunset side of the island.

Other than one day spent keying around the islands and visiting 2 waterfalls there wasn't much to go and do from Don Det so I was able to spend my time in personal development. I signed up to a week long online course in project management at UCLA which I completed in a day, attempted to try to learn to ride a bike and spent the rest of my time on creative studies, drawing, painting and writing. If anyone reading this ends up floating down sunset look out for Herbert the robot locked in the bungalow window - he only wants some love!

Pai to Luang Prabang

When signing up for the 3 day journey from Pai to Luang Prabang (1,700 baht bought from darling's guesthouse) I found darling and the internet quite lacking in details of the journey so here's some timings:

We booked from darling's guesthouse and had a minibus (quite a nice one) pick us up from the reception at 2.30pm.
Arrived in Chiang Mai at 6pm, minibus from there to the border was meant to leave at 7pm, actually left at 8.30pm so was meant to arrive at 11pm, actually arrived at 1am.
Stayed one night in a guesthouse right next to the border, this night's accommodation was included.
Breakfast the next morning (at 7am) was also included, we slept through it, woke up at 7.30 to find most people already outside with bags, there was a bit of bread and jam left but we just opted for the coffee.
Check out was at 8.45am and I think we were pretty prompt in leaving for the border.
Short bus to the border, short boat over the river, 3 forms to fill out on the other end and $35 to pay for the visa (if your a Brit and can pay in US dollars, costs more in Baht and $42 dollars if you're canadian)
Had visas sorted and was in Laos by 10am, no security checkpoints or bag scanning like I would've expected for a border crossing. There was somewhere to change baht into kip at immigration but most places along the border excepted baht, US dollars or kip.
Slow boat left at 11.30 am and doesn't serve food so its advisable to buy supplies for the journey before getting on (it does sell beer but is 20,000 kip on the boat and 10-15,000 if you buy it before hand) don't do what me and Hayley did and stock up on loads of food only to leave it on the pavement and have to buy more.
Was meant to arrive into Pak Ban? (name of place tbc) at 5pm, actually arrived in at around 6.30pm. This night's accommodation was not included in the price of the trip, although we thought it was, and before getting on the boat the tour guide tried to convince us to book a place to stay with him that cost 500 baht for a double room. On arrival there however there are a lot of guesthouse owners trying to convince you to stay with them and although most will start at 300 baht for a double room with free wifi you can usually get them down to 200.
The next day the boat leaves at 9.30am but people were going down from 7am to get good seats so it actually left on time! Guesthouse owners send you off with takeaway breakfast, 3 baguettes goes down nicely.
Meant to arrive into Luang Prabang at 5ish, I think we were less than an hour late, maybe even on time.
Turning right from the boat are a row of guesthouses, most have fixed prices of 150,000 kip for a double room but a few can be got cheaper (we found a basic room for 120,000 for 3 people). All the cheap places with dorm rooms were booked out so if you can, wise to book ahead, and don't do what we did and accidentally book for the wrong night!

All in all the journey was quite jolly, had a few drinks and met lots of fellow travelers. Later that night at the bowling alley (the only place open after 11.30pm) we bumped into a lot of them along with others that we or they had met in Chiang Mai and Pai. Everyone seems to be doing very similar routes so as the journey goes on I think we will pick up more and more friends along the backpacker trail!

Life in Pai

After a 3 hour, incredibly windy, bus journey from Chiang Mai to Pai, we arrived in the pouring rain. We headed almost straight away to Darling's guesthouse as my friend assured us it was social, with a fire pit that everyone chills around and massive, "they always have rooms". After  dragging my bag across bamboo bridges and up dirt tracks we found out is was a bit busier than normal and got told to sit and wait while they worked out if there was space - 5 hours later we got a room! Darling is lovely (if a little crazy) she danced around and giggled while telling us about all of the people with reservations she turned away so she could give us the VIP suite, but by that point we were just glad to  have a room and not have to head back down the dirt track!

Over the next few days we explored the surrounding area, seeing waterfalls, sitting in hot springs, playing pool, dancing to reggae and eating lots of good food. Me + Hayley strung up our hammocks next to the two already on our balcony to create the ultimate chill out zone and fully settled into life in Pai.

This is definitely the type of place I could get stuck in for a long time but I'm half way through my trip now with only 2 countries covered - Laos is calling!

Chiang Mai

The beauty of Chiang Mai
is sparkles in a tiger's eye.
A land of elephants, temples, dragons and the jungle,
a good place to get a massage or a jade bangle.
Chiang Mai is where I learnt to cook Thai,
met new friends, now I'm off to Pai!

Bangkok

I never thought I would consider Bangkok to be clean but that was my first impression going from India to Thailand.

Bangkok airport is clean and modern with an easy train heading straight into the city. Even the taxi from the train station was easy - it was metered so we didn't have to hassle on a price and he even drove in between the lines!

I can definitely recommend http://www.theoverstay.com/ as a place to stay. It's a bit far from the Ko San Road (we got very lost trying to find our way back) but has cool graffiti all over the walls (such a creative vibe that I got back into painting and put a big faerie on the wall in our bedroom) and while we were there had live hip hop, comedy and d+b nights -  reminds me of being back in Bristol!

My favorite part of Bangkok (other than the cheap beer) was the Museum of Siam which has to be the best interactive history museum I've ever been to. The museum gave a complete history of SE Asia from a room where you could learn about archeology by using a brush on a screen and "uncover" artifacts that teach about the early civilizations to a life size cannon attached to a computer game in the "war room", cool videos on everything from Buddhism to trade routes, clothes from the 1920s that you could dress up in and finally a wall which projected your comments on the exhibition. 

Live Music in India

From Guns and Roses in Bangalore to a reggae festival in Goa, jam sessions in Hampi, and now Snoop Dog in Pune, I have had a good selection of live music in India!

We found out about Live from the Console in Goa while we were still in England as Bristol based band 

DUB MAFIA were playing but while travelling around India in the month before no one seemed to have heard of it, everyone that was going to Goa where there for Sunburn (a trance festival). The promoters could definitely learn a thing or two from the UK and initially this showed in the crowd  size - the place was basically empty when we arrived!

The first few acts were singer songwriters so it didn't really matter that there weren't people dancing, but the last of them, Sid Siddharth Basrur, had us all singing along to "make me a sandwich, with chicken and cheese, make me a sandwich, i'll make some watered down tea". After that Tough on Tobacco, Dubblestandart, Dub Mafia, and Julian Marley had us dancing solidly throughout the night and the place started to fill up (although there was still space to dance at the front).

Security was pretty tight at the Goa festival, they had guys with guns on a lookout point near the entrance and no smoking allowed anywhere in the outdoor venue (although that was only mildly enforced) but at the Snoop Dog gig it was ridiculous. Not only did I get searched on the way in, which is pretty standard, I also got searched again going into the toilets! They were also confiscating people's lighters and cigarettes but then selling cigarettes inside (but not lighters, you had to get a match from the bar person and give it back ...). Generally logic didn't seem to be present in the logistics of the organising. There was a bar to buy drinks but you couldn't take them out of the cornered off area, and security weren't even letting people take water into the dance area by the stage. The general vibe that the security team were creating, combined with some terrible djs as support acts made me very disapointed with the whole event initially but when Snoop Dog came on stage it made it all worth while. Again, the lack of people meant that we were able to be right up near the front and still have space to dance! Loved it :)

Gokarna and Hampi (Karnataka)

I have now spent almost a month between Gokarna and Hampi, where apart from a brief stint in Goa for New Year, I've generally avoided technology and spent my days very chilled.

On Om beach, Gokarna, we rented kayaks to explore the coast, seeing dolphins in between Om beach and half moon beach and then carrying on around to paradise beach where there were no guesthouses but a community of travellers were living in hammocks on the beach (and one guy selling coconuts and Snickers).

Since leaving Gokarna I have been told that the police evicted everyone living on paradise beach but this may have just been for the Christmas/ New Year period.

In Hampi there is even more to do. We spent one day exploring temples and ruins, but would've needed a lot longer to see it all. We spent must of put time on the other side of the river where all the tourists stay and rented motorbikes most days to explore the surrounding countryside. The countryside here is something completely unique - as far as the eye can see are massive boulders and palm trees and makes you feel like your on the set of the Flintstones. Most evenings could be spent climbing a massive pile of rocks to watch the sunset and listen to someone playing the guitar or drums.

Travelling around the local villages was the first place where I encountered children asking for pens, and sods law, I only had 2 on me and 20 children asking (even though I had intentionally brought loads of pens with me from England).

One downfall for Hampi was that during the Christmas season the police were imposing a 10pm curfew on all the cafes. Generally we were able to find somewhere that had paid them off but locals or anyone that looked Indian seemed to get a lot more trouble, with one Indian looking tourist even being asked to leave.

While we were there we also heard stories of what has happened in Hampi over the last 10 years. It was made a world herratige site, which you would think is a good thing, but it means that all of the villagers that had been living in the ruins have been moved out. They were given compensation but this did not vary according to the size of family and a lot of people that used to have quite a good quality of life now have a lot less. People that saw out last year also say that the ruins have lost their character without the people and it does seem that in trying to protect buildings the government has lost the culture ...

One final point to consider if you plan to visit Hampi is that power is scarce, with electric only being available for a few hours in the morning and evening. This was not much of a promblem though, and gave me an excuse to let my phone die and have no instrument for knowing what time it was, let alone the day.