Well as promised, I ended up taking a holiday from travelling last week.
In fact, I stayed at a sweet old Catholic fella's house on an island in the old Arabian for most of it.
Now though, I'm in the middle of mad Delhi as it goes, and I'm chilling out in yet another top notch pad.
Can't be bad, eh?!
I mean, they even had some Deep Purple playing at the place as I was grabbing some scoff downstairs this morning.
And that was right up my street ;o)
But onto the scandal that's in the city now anyway.
And there was quite a bit of it knocking about when I visited the capital's post office yesterday actually.
Because not only had some cheeky sod who worked there already opened up a "poste restante" parcel they had waiting for me...
But he'd also managed to slash open my 100 quid rucksack (which was inside it) with a knife...
Have a good old rummage through all of it's personal contents...
And then tape it back together again as though nothing had ever happened!
Ha ha!
I was well shocked when I found out about it at the time!
But at least I did so there and then in front of witnesses I suppose!
And yes, I guess I did quite enjoy losing face in front of them by getting stuck into the heated debate that followed as well ;o)
Hmmm.
Having said this though, it didn't give me as much satisfaction as when I had a tv reporter come up to me in the street today...
Because do you know what question she asked me funnily enough?
"What don't you like about India Sir?"
And even though I think I disappointed her at first by saying that I really did like the place...
I must admit that it soon became a case of lights, camera, action when the old slashing the bag incident cropped up into our conversation!
Oh, and she reckoned I was going to be gossiping about it on a national news channel this evening as well ;o)
That'll learn 'em!
Ha ha!
Enough of me babbling on now anyway.
Because as I hinted last week, it's time for me to fade out of this little blog of mine I'm afraid!
As in a couple of days time I'm meant to be meeting my dad for a 9 day tour of the golden triangle up here ;o)
What a great experience it's been though, eh?!
In fact, it's hard to believe I'm due to be getting a flight back to the UK in 11 days time you know!
I mean, it hardly seems like two minutes since I gave the old boy my mobile phone last July and told him to look after it for a year!
I remember the day quite well actually, because I was well nerved up at the time!
But back to the present moment.
And before I do go and let this site start gathering dust with all the other blogs out there on the information superhighway...
And I then disappear off into a world of my own as I dream about touring Europe in a C-Reg Mk III in the future...
(Well providing I can work my leave allocation ok on that one!)
I just want to say one more thing to you all really.
And that is a big "thank you" for sharing my travels with me.
Because what with there being 9,763 hits on this site since I opened it up 2 weeks into my adventure, there is no way I did this on my own.
In fact, I'm taking the above as the biggest compliment I've ever had, and I mean that!
Oh, and one more final thing now(!)
If you haven't done so yet, and you are lucky enough to find the time and space in your life to go travelling for a while like I did?
Well I apologise, because these aren't my words (as they are the words of a friend):
But there's all shapes and sizes doing it out there you know.
So get out there and get rocking ;o)
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20 facts about my year away:
1) Total number of countries I either transited, visited or stayed in: 10.
2) Favourite country: China.
3) Total number of nights I spent on a bus/ferry/train: 18.
4) Longest time duration I spent on any one particular train: 6 days.
5) Most exciting place I visited: City of Zhengzhou, China.
6) The country's history I found most interesting: India.
7) Total number of towns/cities I either visited for tourist reasons or used as a functional part of my journey: 56.
8) Total number of different beds I slept in (oo-er missus!): 73.
9) Nicest border guards I came across: The Myanmar officials at the Thai/Burmese border.
10) Erm, "strictest"(!) border guards I came across: The Russian officials at the Russian/Mongolian border.
11) Total number of kilometres I cycled: 1,620.
12) Most impressive tourist attraction I saw: Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
13) Best feeling of the year: Getting a local stare at me with that unmistakable "What on earth are you?!" look (the one they gave to me if they had never seen a Westerner turn up on their doorstep before). Magic!
14) Best "travelling" experience I had: Making a mess of it at the Laos/Cambodian border.
15) Speed at which my Master could kick somebody: Off the scale. (I felt it before I saw it in one particular demonstation. Amazing. In fact he was the most programmed man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting before!)
16) Weirdest nightclub I visited: Heart of Darkness (Phnom Penh, Cambodia.)
17) Most beautiful girl I saw: An Indian Barbie for sale in a toy shop on the subcontinent.
18) Favourite 24 hours of my travels: My birthday.
19) Scoff of the year: Home made Chinese dumplings.
20) Beer of the Year: Beer Lao.
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Please click on this link to see a full version of the image entry called "Map" if you like (it shows the route I took from start to finish):
http://www.blog.co.uk/community/profile_photo_sizes.php?item_ID=2602835&size=o
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*THANK YOU EVERYBODY*
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For Isabella when she grows up
To Mum
xx x