Hello all!!

I have just found this really cool free travel blog website, so I thought why not just write on this once a week instead of sending loads of separate e-mails. I am currently in Sydney, Australia. I have now been travelling for a period of six months. I began my travels in India on September 22nd. This was rather a culture shock to the system, to put it mildly! I have never encountered so much poverty, pollution and over population in my life! I cannot really put my experiences into words, you just have to go and experience it for yourself. The smell off sewage, poverty and curry is constant as is the begging which is never ending. While I found India very difficult to travel alone by myself, I also took many positive aspects from my experiences of India. The most rewarding experience was to see the Taj Mahal, in Agra. I had just spent a week in New Delhi, after my two weeks in Goa with my mate Stephen Connor. After the train journey, of street children puuting their arms through the metal bars on the windows begging for money and the frequent arrival of street people with either no legs or eyes or some dis figuration comng into the carriage asking for money, I finally arrived 6 hours later to Agra. The next morning, I woke up for sunrise, and it is understandable why it is one of the seven wonders of the world!! The whole structure is made up of white marble and was created by the emperor Shah Jahan, who dedicated it for his third wife after she died giving birth to his fourteenth child! Honestly bloody contraception means nothing to these people! Haha It was a amazing experience and one I will never forget! It was worth the journey!

After India, I moved onto Thailand! After learning and gaining invaluable knowledge of a different culture, history and ways of life on the sub-continent and being very ''Michael Palin'' for the month, I then landed in Bangkok and basically turned into a true brit abroad! Haha

Consequently, after spending two months in Thailand on my last trip I had seen and done most Temples and activities so there was only one answer for this trip.........Koh Phangan!! and the Full Moon party and the several nights before it! I was pretty much pissed for the whole two weeks! Met a lad called Joel from near Reading on the way down from Bangkok, and he had already paid for a room and said I could jump in with him, so the offer of a free bed for a week will not be turned down by me!! Me and him had a quality week, got up stuff that I cannot really put what we got up to on this blog. However, I am sure you can use your own imaginations!!

After two weeks of drinking and sunbathing and basically not doing anything, I decided I needed a new adventure so I booked a flight to China!! Again I was a little nervous going China on my own, knowing there would not be as many backpackers like South East Asia. I flew into Hong Kong and stayed with my mate John Dillon, who was a friend from my hometown. He's teaching English out there, so I got another free week of accommodation. I stayed in his hotel room on the couch for a week and had a fantastic week! Went out in Hong Kong a few times, and the highlight of the week was spending a day on a boat in Victoria harbour! It was his mates birthday and they booked a table for at least ten of us, we basically sat in the sun all day drinking champagne and eating the five star buffet! This was another real highlight of the trip! After Hong Kong I moved onto Shanghai, which was amazing. I met a English guy called Alex and a Australian girl called Becks. Us three did lots of sightseeing and went to see the 8th best trance DJ in the world. Mario something I think.....cant remember a bloody song he played as I was well and truly f***ed!! haha a bit like the time I went to watch Dave Pearce in Newquay and do not remember being in the club all night but I got told they were both good, so........

Additionally, after Shanghai, I caught the train to Xian where I went to see the Terracotta Warriors which was amazing! Only six hundred of the warriors have been remade, there still lies another five and half thousand pieces scattered around! The warriors were found by a farmer digging for a well only twenty seven years ago! I wont go into detail about the warriors but basically in the Qin Dynasty, the thirteen year old Emperor at the time (yes thirteen years old!!) made over 700,000 workers create the army to help rule another empire in the afterlife!! or so the friendly Chinese woman told me! Whether she was billy bulls***ting me I was not so sure, but I've googled it! She was telling me the true, bless her little oriental cotton socks!

I then left Xian and heading north to Beijing! I had a fabulous time in Beijing, had some great room mates called sarah and Milan. The best part of my time here was walking the great wall of China! It was a sunny day in November but had a cold wind firing through the air. Again your little man Qin Shi Huang started the building of the wall in the Qin dynasty, which was carried on by the Ming Dynasty. Me and Milan walked along the wall for over three hours until it became just to cold to carry on. Most of the wall is destroyed or has been eroded over the years, which is going to happen I suppose as it is over 5,500 miles long!

After China, my next destination was Malaysia........