There's only one reason to go to Dharamsala and that's to get a bus straight to McLeodGanj. Fact. And the best way to get there from Amritsar is to bus it to Pathankot first and change buses there, and it was there I realised that I was sans phone. Ohhhh fuck. I mean, it wasn't [...]
The Blog
City Of The Golden Temple – Part 2
As I said in the last post, if you loiter long enough someone will approach you and bundle you into a tuk tuk to head to the Wagah border closing ceremony. If you're foreign, take your passport. You'll be dropped about a kilometre from where it takes place and you'll need to clear three security [...]
City Of The Golden Temple – Part 1
There's nothing like waiting for a train in India to make you feel like you've got three heads and 10 metre tentacles instead of arms. There I was, sat on my bag on the platform at Bareilly, when someone asked me where I was from. I looked up. Guys, I was surrounded. Literally 360 degrees [...]
I’ll Be Back
It was surreal heading back into Kathmandu. I'd come back to apply for my Indian visa as I'd heard they'd started issuing them again, and whilst it's possible to arrange it in Pokhara it's already more expensive for a British citizen than other nationalities because our government is a twat to them so they reciprocate [...]
Life In Pokhara
It wasn't all work and no play in Pokhara. There was lots of play. Sometimes too much play. So much play I don't know if my liver is ever going to forgive me for what I put it through. There are many fine bars that will happily assist you in the systematic destruction of your [...]
Unaffiliated Locals Of Nepal
I had literally no idea what to do with myself after the earthquake. My insurance company told me in no uncertain terms that I was no longer covered for trekking in Nepal and I didn't fancy being stuck up a mountain at 5000 metres with no way of getting down if altitude decided it wanted [...]
On Shaky Ground
Just before midday on the 25th April I was sat in the garden at my hotel in Pokhara when there was an almighty rumble. I thought it was just a truck about to come past, and when the truck didn't appear and the rumble didn't stop my brain couldn't quite make sense of it and [...]
Birthplace Of The Buddha
Well if you will insist on rocking up to Lumbini in April then the first thing you're gonna notice is how fucking hot it is. Seriously. It's oppressively hot. It's like someone smothered you with a blanket and you're forced to breathe hot, stale, still air. Except someone set the blanket on fire. It's really, [...]
Hunting One Horned Rhinos
Chitwan National Park, protected from poachers by army patrols and watchtowers, is where you go to gawp at one horned rhinos in their natural habitat, and it's not like most places where there's a high chance all you'll see is some birds and a terrified deer. At Chitwan, you're pretty much going to see a [...]
End Of The Big Adventure
That thing when you're shovelling your breakfast into your chops, unsure as to whether you'll be flying back to Kathmandu today or if you'll end up spending the next 24 hours trying to find some manner of entertainment in Lukla which would more than likely involve the slow annihilation of your liver. Me and Nat [...]