An early morning arrival in Kolkata, a repaid taxi journey to the backpacker area, being declined at every hotel because I looked Indian, two lovely cups of chai and numerous requests from a rickshaw puller to take me to see the sights later, I managed to check into a dormitory! My attempt at speaking Hindi was back in action! My time in Kolkata gave me the opportunity to get in contact with NGO’s (Non Government Organisation) in Nepal and arrange for my Nepa...

An early morning arrival in Kolkata, a repaid taxi journey to the backpacker area, being declined at every hotel because I looked Indian, two lovely cups of chai and numerous requests from a rickshaw puller to take me to see the sights later, I managed to check into a dormitory! My attempt at speaking Hindi was back in action! My time in Kolkata gave me the opportunity to get in contact with NGO’s (Non Government Organisation) in Nepal and arrange for my Nepa...

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A visit to a beach was on the cards, so planned to leave and head for Mamallapuram, a coastal town which was being recently attacked by the sea, a few of the buildings had just crumbled away. The heat which attacked us after we had been dumped off the bus in the middle of nowhere was unbearable. Sheltering from the heat in a two minute rickshaw ride (turned out we weren't quite in the middle of nowhere) we got a couple of recommendations for cheap places to sta...

As many of you already know, the back seats of buses, the rubbish suspension/driving over bumps in the road… But no, I had wedged my head in between the seat and the bags and was horizontal! It wasn’t the best sleep, but at least it was some sleep (with the occasional bump that flung my body in the air!). But before we were anywhere near Pondi, I experienced my first flat tyre. Everybody jumped off the bus, got eaten by mosquitoes, had a cup of tea and got ea...