Morgalogue

It was a chance piece of good fortune that took me to Nepal. Unfortunately this came at the expense of my cousin’s bad luck. My Indian visa ran out, as planned, at the end of March when I was due to join him on a road trip through Thailand and Cambodia. A week or so earlier however, a temple employee in a pick-up truck had mown down him and his brand new chopper at a junction and he now lay in hospital with a badly broken femur. I left the bedside manner to his mum and decided to show up once he’d got the hang of his crutches and needed driving to the pub. So, a chance to see the mighty Himalaya beckoned. To quote a Willie Nelson lyric: “Fate frowned on him and then turned around and smiled at me”. (more…)

Travellers in India are pulled towards Varanasi like teenage inter-railers to Amsterdam. For a Hindu, it is as important a journey as a Muslim travelling to Mecca. Every year millions of pilgrims come to bathe in the Ganges, the holiest river in India that is worshipped as a god. Some come here to die, whereupon they will be cremated on its banks, assuring them a ticket to nirvana, a loophole in the cycle of reincarnation. It is literally, a once in a lifetime experience. (more…)

Aye … it’s happened to me too. The age of no more excuses. I’m staying with my cousin in Phitsanoulok in Thailand. He’s hurrying me out the door, so a short post - I have loads of stuff half written, which will no doubt appear over the following weeks. I’ve been trekking in Nepal and even managed to tick that classic ‘before you’re 30′ box : summiting Everest … OK, in a plane. 

The Sonkran Festival is about to kick off here - 3 days of nationwide drunken waterfighting - My cousins mobile is +66 86936 8633 if you’re feeling flush.

OK, hope you’re all well. Thanks for my present mum !!