We had 5 nights of our trip left in Mumbai so we decided to get a cheap hostel in the centre for 2 nights while we saw the city and a fancy one in the suburbs for the last 3 nights for a relax at the end of the trip. We arrived to our hotel in the centre at 1am after driving past lots of people and children sleeping in the streets and on parked cars. We were shattered from the day of travelling and ready for bed when we arrived but unfortunately our bed resemble...

After leaving our guesthouse at McLeod Ganj- (and realising too late that we had accidentally paid for an extra nights stay which was annoying but only cost £5 so can't really complain!) we clambered aboard our "deluxe" bus to Chandigargh. We soon found out that it was most definitely not deluxe- Gwenno was stuck to the seat by some chewing gum someone had kindly left and there was a very distinct smear of vomit on the window. Despite this we had no choice but t...

After a fantastic time in Manali we decided to see a little more of the Himalayan region towards the west of the country in McLeod Ganj - the home of the Dali Lama and residency of the Tibetan government. After spending months in the south east Asian Buddhist countries we were looking forward to seeing some more robe clad monks as well as the entertaining western hippies who have embraced the religion and now sport all manor of ethnic clobber and feathers in the...

Our journey took 10 hours with only 2 stops en route so we were ready for a shower and a relax when we arrived! Manila is known as a good basis for trekking in the Himalayas, and for jeep tours to the local Tibetan monasteries and tribe villages. When we arrived we were told that the mountain pass to these destinations hasn't yet opened as the snow hasn't cleared ( it's about 5000m above sea level) so we were not able to do the things that we had planned- a bit f...

We decided to leave Chandigargh in search of somewhere a bit quieter and a bit cooler so we thought we would head north towards the Himalayas. We had heard from a lady on our plane to Chandigargh that the best way to go north was by the 'toy train' from Kulka. This seemed like the best option as the train ride is meant to be very scenic whilst the roads are windy and busy. The day started off well with a tuk tuk to the train station and we caught the first train ...