After gaining the motorbike permit for Bhutan, we drove to the capital city of Thimpu largely along roads which were lined with teams of road crew - children, women and men breaking rocks, laying tar and fulfilling all their daily living needs next to the incomplete road. It fills you with pity to see the miserable existence that these families lead doing such backbreaking work. Even so, some stop to wave and give you a dirt stained smile. Through thick white m...

The capital city almost completely closed down for the day. It was reported that mobiles weren't working, that the internet wouldn't work and that the government would block the tv channels for the day also. Luckily this didn't happen, but to see the ghostly car-free streets for a day when usually there's traffic jams everywhere was quite a shock. It was April 10th, the day of Nepal's election and mumsy was arriving. The only car on the road was the tourist bus t...

The sun was blazing as it planted more kisses on my nose, the wind was forceful as it whipped our eyes and made us cry, our seats were... metal bars. As we sat on the roof of the bus on our way to the small village of Majuwa we had permanent smiles plastered across our faces. We shared the roof-top with Brian (a builder from Sydney), Bole (a sherpa and resident of Majuwa) and a couple of kids who just seemed to be there for fun, not actually to get anywhere. The ...

I think the emotion of surprise is my most favourite... or at least a close second to LOVE. It's such a raw, uncontrolled, unbiased emotion which is expressed in so many ways. On our journeys we are witnessing truck-loads of it and I never get sick of it, it still brings a smile to my lips and a thrill to my heart. It's special because since we appear so briefly in Indian and Nepalese people's life, zooming past on a red Royal Enfield, we are a subtle kind of sur...

Sri Lanka to Kovalam: Returning to India took some mental preparation... we found ourselves once again going to the beach. In Kovalam we were meeting Sim and Emi again who were there learning some of the Keralan martial art and massage. Emi practised her massage on Mendo (in a little cotton g-string) with me, Sim and the master watching on. The traditional massage utilised her feet and hands - it looked brilliant and from what Mendo said, Emi has some magic comin...