The pollution in Delhi was the worst we’d experience by far during the early morning taxi ride to the airport. It looked like fog, you could taste it and it hit the back of your throat to give an irritating cough. We hoped the air in Uzbekistan was a little bit clearer. Despite getting to … More Touching Down in Tashkent
East Timor is so untouched it is a travellers dream; we had morning tea with the UN Pakistani peace keeping contingent and lunch with the President of the Democratico Party while he was on the national election campaign trail. We’ve seen a wild orang-utan in Borneo and stayed in a Bidayu tribe village high in … More 9 countries later…
With much blog catching up done we decided it was time to do some proper sightseeing. The first thing on our list was Swayambhunath (the Monkey Temple), the infamous Buddhist temple that sits atop a hill. We can see it from our balcony. It was only about 3km away so we decided to walk. After … More Kathmandu part 2
Nepal issues visas on arrival. After landing and filling out the visa form we joined the queue with every other foreign tourist. It took an hour, the slowest immigration queue by a long way. When you get to the front you pay your visa fee and get issued with 2 receipts, you stay in the … More Hello Nepal – Kathmandu Part 1
Flight 16 must be one of the most spectacular in the world. Both of our routes to and from Bhutan flew directly over the Himalayas. Unfortunately when we flew from Delhi the cloud was too high to see anything. On our way out to Kathmandu we got lucky… This time as we took off from … More Flight 16 – The Most Spectacular Flight in the World?
There was much confusion over the time of our flight out of Paro to Kathmandu. When we booked it the flight time was 2:45pm but it is important to reconfirm as Druk Air flights having a monopoly means they can basically just do as they like. Pensoc had made a call a few days earlier … More Farewell Bhutan
Pensoc and Sangay were an hour late getting up and ready which annoyed us as it meant that we missed the opening procession of the festival which Pensoc had suggested would be really good the night before. The Teschu (Buddhist religious festival) was what we were here to see although with the late departure we … More Being a Tourist – Wangdue and back to Paro
We retraced our drive back to Punakha and on the way managed to catch both an archery and darts match. We clambered down a steep muddy path from the road to get a closer look. We had really been wanting to see the archery (the Bhutanese national sport). There was a distinct smell of (alcoholic) … More Up on the Farm – Phojibkha to Punakha
We were up, dressed and out on the hotel balcony by 5:30am hoping for a clear morning. It was slowly getting light but a couple of peaks were visible. Pensoc only managed to show his face at 5:45 (not 5:30) so it was lucky for him it was cloudy else we would have been very … More Early Mornings and Erect Penises – Dochu La Pass to Phojibkha Valley
After breakfast we caught the school assembly from our balcony as it is held outside. School children regardless of age all wear traditional dress and lessons are given in English, as is school assembly. Today’s speeches were on dealing with change and working with others. We left Haa and followed the river north, the road clinging … More Museums and Markets – Thimphu
Marie & Emma's Travel Journal 