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Category Archives: India
How not to get an Iran visa twice
Turn up to the Iranian Embasssy having just arrived in New Delhi and say you want to get a visa. Tell them your nationality (bad decision if British)
Also posted in Constructive Ranting Tagged iran visa bureaucracy new delhi india city cycling 3 Comments
Holi Smokes Batman!
Last week it was the Holi festival where people throw colourful powder and drench each other with water. I took a cycle ride through the Mehrauli area near the Qutab Minar monument just as the festivities were peaking in the morning.
Also posted in Expedition Journal Tagged celebration, colours, Cycling, festival, Food, holi, India, powder 1 Comment
Bureau (desk) crazy
I’m not talking about Ikea but the bureaucratic situation I face regarding visas. I’m in Delhi, I got a Pakistan visa about 2 weeks ago. I had applied for an Iran LOI (letter of invitation – required for the visa, through tour agency Stantours.com for a princely sum) and was waiting for the little code [...]
Also posted in Constructive Ranting, Expedition Journal Tagged Bureaucracy, Delhi, India Leave a comment
Frustration
Having arrived in Delhi, I had been wishfully thinking that I would pick up Pakistan and Iran visas again and make my way by public transport back to Turkey.
Also posted in Expedition Journal Tagged Borders, Bureaucracy, Caucasus, Challenge, Couchsurfing, Delhi, Embassy, Forgetfulness, India, Iran, Motivation, Music, Nepal, Pakistan, Productive, The Streets, Transition, Visas, Waiting Leave a comment
Cycling Nepal
I left Kathmandu and cycled through the smokey diesel traffic of the suburbs up out of the valley. I was not used to the mountains but glad to be back on a gradient and off the flat.
Also posted in Expedition Journal, Nepal Tagged Adventure, Biscuits, Botanical Gardens, Chang, Charity, Chay, Cleat Problems, Climbing, Couchsurfing, Dead Body, Delhi, Guesthouse, Himalaya, John Peel, Kathmandu, Maoists, Monkeys, Mountains, Mutton, Nepali Film, Old Men, Pan Masala, Rice, Saddhu, School, Siddharta Highway, Suburbs, Temple, Terai, Theft, Trees, Tribhuvan Highway, Valleys, Volunteering, Wild Camping 2 Comments
Donating a bike on behalf of Wheels4Life
I was taking photos of a beautiful sunset after a long day’s ride when I chanced upon a couple of Hindu nuns who were standing outside their school / orphanage.
Also posted in Expedition Journal Tagged Ashram, Bike Shop, Buffalo, Children, Cycling, Dharma, Donating a bike, English, Hinduism, Meditation, Motivation, Orphanage, Photography, School, Self-sufficiency, Students, Suburbs, Sunset, Temples, Varanasi, Volunteering, Wheels4Life 1 Comment
Memory Loss
I was in an internet cafe this morning, feeling crappy and depressed. I woke up this morning with a head full of heavy thoughts about my future travel plans, feeling worried. I connected my hard disk to the computer and as what often happens I spent a good hour wrangling with it to try and view [...]
8 Days at an Ashram
I feel a bit like I haven’t been telling the full story through the blog in terms of what’s been going on. This is mainly because I’ve had to do everything from internet cafes and time and expense are a factor. December involved a decision to get off the main highway and spend some time [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal, Scotland Tagged Agriculture, Banana Plantations, Bharoch, Cycling, Expense, Get Off the Highway, Hinduism, Internet Cafe, Pedalling, Photography, Pollution, Religion, Rest, Time, Towns, Villages, Wild Camping Leave a comment
Thoughts on a beach photograph
I just had a thought whilst uploading photos to Flickr. None of them exist in a physical form. I’m getting high on my own pictures. I think some of them are good but then I would wouldn’t I.
Also posted in Constructive Ranting, Expedition Journal Tagged Action, Beach, Body, Brochure, Carelessness, Coastal Development, Digital, Expression, Flickr, Getting High, Getting Lost, Goa, Government, Holiday, Karnataka, Local People, Marketing, Paradise, Philosophy, Photography, Physical, Practical Information, Reversal, Sand, Sand Castle, Sea, Thoughtlessness, Time, Toes, Tomato Sauce, Too Much Information, Tourism, Water, White Men, Work Leave a comment
Indian Food
Indian food is addictive. To start with it’s like ‘curry for breakfast,lunch and dinner’ – hmmmm…. But Indian food isn’t really about just eating for the need of it. It’s an experience of taste bud adventure pretty much every meal. In fact the whole Indian experience is a bit like a macrocosm of the eating [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal Tagged Acceptance, Addictive, Adventure, Aloo, Aromatic, Begging, Bikaner, Breaking Preconceptions, Buffalo, Burning, Carelessness, Chappati, Childlike, Children, Chocolate Brownie, Christmas, Chutney, Concoction, Confusion, Cool, Creamy, Curry, Detoxification, Dhaal, Dirty, Disgust, Donnie Darko, Douk, Eating, Entertainment, Experience, Farting, Food, God, Gormlessness, Happiness, Helplessness, Hot, Hotels, Hunger, India, Indian Food, Jainism, Lime, Macrocosm, Mangoes, Memory, Monkeys, Mountains, Nutty, Observation, Opium, Overload, Phlegm, Pickle, Pilgrims, Police, Pungent, Radish, Rangy, Raw Onions, Rice, Richie Hawtin, Rough, Rubbish, Sabzi, Salt, Shampoo, Sleeping, Smoking, Smooth, Smugness, Soup, Sour, Spicy, Spitting, Stomach, Sunset, Tasty, Tractors, Vegetables, Visions, Washing, Waste, Whisky, Wild, Wonderment 3 Comments
Gujarati Thali
I am in the Gujarat capital Amdavad spending a few days relaxing here before continuing on towards Mumbai. It’s a nice city to spend some time. I’ve been using couchsurfing here and my hosts have made the experience. I’ve visited a friend at the architectural university wandered about the lovely campus, attended some his lecture, [...]
Also posted in Expedition Journal Tagged Amdavad, Architecture, Atmospher, Bike, Brands, Campus, Clarity, Clothes, Coconuts, Confusion, Contradictions, Crazy, Cultural Differences, Development, Disk Brakes, Fanny, Friendly, Frustration, Fun, Girlfriend, Globalisation, Hypocrisy, Krishna, Market, Old City, Painting, Personality, Polluted, Poverty, Shops, Smelly, Time, Tolerance, University, Watches, Wealth Leave a comment
Travelling back from Georgia for Christmas