Shanghai

Posted on by

  Ahmad: We arrived into Shanghai in the evening and headed straight to the Captain Hostel, I had some really fond memories of the Captain Hostel (I had lived here previously) and was looking forward to being back. On arrival we checked in and got up to our respective dorms (no mixed dorm’s at the captain), we got ourselves sorted then headed up to the rooftop bar, the hostel itself hadn’t had a refurb in quite some time (I imagine since I was in china 7 years ago) and I was bitterly disappointed to see how far it had fallen. Continue Reading →

Beijing

Posted on by

  Ahmad: We were a little sad to leave Xian; we also had some real difficulty getting train tickets for Beijing. In the end only had ‘Hard seat’ tickets were available.

Xian

Posted on by

  Laura: We arrived at Chengdu train station expecting it to be chaotic but it was very well organised. Ahmad was quite disappointed to note that nobody was smoking or spitting and was suddenly fearful that smoking was banned on Chinese trains. We boarded and found our sleeper cabin which was very similar to Indian ‘3AC’ class. We were travelling on ‘hard sleeper’ which consists of 6 beds to a cabin among about 10 of these in one train car. You can travel ‘hard seat’ which is basically loads of seats in a train cabin, ‘standing’ where you just sit Continue Reading →

Chengdu

Posted on by

  Laura: We flew to China via Lhasa in Tibet and saw the most beautiful sight in the world for free! The snowy peaks of the Himalaya rising out of the clouds to meet a perfect blue sky. Apparently tourists often commission planes to do this but we just got lucky! We arrived at Chengdu Airport around 4pm and after hitting the ATM we found our pick up man from the hostel and made our way there.

Nepal

Posted on by

  Kathmandu Laura: After a lovely week in Darjeeling we reluctantly headed back down to Siliguri to make our way to the Nepal/India border town of Kakarbhitta. After getting used to the ‘english’ weather in the mountains, we were soon sweating like beasts on the ground. After Ahmad, Max and I got dropped off in Siliguri a man approached us offering to take us to the border for 60 rupees each. We knew it should cost 30 max but we were all hot so we agreed; after all it was only 85p! It took roughly an hour to get to Continue Reading →

West Bengal

Posted on by

  Darjeeling We stayed in Siliguri for one night and as it was pretty uneventful I will skip straight to the main feature! We caught a jeep from Siliguri to Darjeeling which wound ever so slowly up the mountains on a very slim road (that teetered too near the edge for my liking) for about 3 hours. It was unbearable weather wise in Siliguri but the higher we went, the more blissful it became. I cannot describe the relief we felt after being in a sweatbox for 7 weeks! I was excited to put a cardigan on! We were crammed Continue Reading →

Varanasi

Posted on by

  Varanasi The train from Amritsar to Varanasi was a memorable one. We took 3AC class and were seated with a doctor, a dentist and an optician (great in case of an emergency)! We got chatting to them straight away because they were intrigued by Ahmad’s family history and wanted to know about our trip. Within a few hours, chai was being bought left, right and centre and the doctor man was referring to us as son and daughter.

Punjab

Posted on by

  Amritsar We arrived in Amritsar pretty early in the morning and took a rickshaw to our digs, the Tourist Guesthouse. After staying in hotels and guesthouses for so long, this place was a refreshing change. You could stay in dorms and there was a common room so it had a very hostel like atmosphere. Our double room was 250 rupees (£3.50) and had loads of character so it was a complete steal! Immediately we could tell that Amritsar was a special place just from the local people we met on arrival and the hotel owners. The first day we Continue Reading →

Delhi & Agra

Posted on by

  Delhi Laura: The train from Hyderabad to Delhi left in the morning and arrived the following day. We arrived at a station a few stops away from the area we were due to stay at and took an overland train to New Delhi station. These trains are great, very cheap and everyone hangs out of the doors! We arrived in the Paharganj area and tried to find our hotel, the New King. Paharganj is a chaotic area consisting of bazaars where locals sell everything from pashminas and harem trousers to dodgy rolex watches and flutes! The streets are essentially Continue Reading →

Karnataka

Posted on by

  Bangalore We had originally planned on being in Bangalore much earlier and meeting up with a guy called Vivek (whom we met in Kenya). Unfortunately we had missed Vivek by 2 days and he had returned to college in the US. We arrived in Bangalore early in the morning and tried to find a hotel, after an hour of traipsing up and down the ‘happening’ area according to lonely planet (MG Road), we found a hotel it was nice but quite expensive, it was also the cheapest place in the area.