Nepal   India   Thailand

Check Info Pages for a menu of the info pages I link to in the following.  The pages on that menu are probably the most useful resource this website offers to intending travellers (apart from emailing me direct).

We returned home to Mandurah, Western Australia in early April 1998 from a four-month trip through Nepal, India and Thailand. We took along our two children then aged 9 and 11, travelling independently and on a budget. It was a real adventure for us and we thoroughly recommend anyone else taking their children to these destinations. Indians, Nepalese and Thais loved the children, especially as our 9 year-old daughter wore local clothes a lot of the time, particularly in India. It was a great way for us to meet people, the kids both made lots of local friends, again particularly in India, and as a result so did we! Indians, Nepalese and Thais were constantly and giving them gifts and having their photos taken with them, they'll be in photo albums all across those countries. The kids got so much out of this trip. See my info page on travelling with kids. This page links to certain appropriate photos, but see the links above for heaps more.

Also, I have some detailed info pages (see the links on the left), including basic backpacking advice and what to take, and our budget and other money matters. See the Info Menu page for more pages, or go to the links in the text below.

We traveled all through December 1997 to March 1998.   Times of travel were:

Nepal : Nov 30 1997 - Jan 7 1998

India : Jan 7 1998 - Feb 15 1998

Nepal again : Feb 15 1998 - Feb 28 1998

Thailand : Feb 28 1998 - 2 April 1998.

Nepal     India   Thailand

It was our second trip to Nepal, this time we were there for a total of 7 weeks. We'll have unforgettable memories of that incredible mountain Kingdom. We LOVE Nepal, we find it a friendly, exotic, charismatic yet really easy to travel destination. You can get really comfortable in Thamel, Kathmandu (useful info on Kathmandu), the backpacker's quarter, for instance. But you just have to walk a few 100 metres to the old city and you could have stepped back in time 300 years. The place is SO rich culturally, architecturally and visually. You just immerse yourselves in the place, oh its fantastic. Like just sitting high up on the Maju Deval temple (photo) in Kathmandu's Durbar Square for hours and watch life pass by. We also did that pre-dawn one morning and watched it come to life. Sights in Nepal range from the fascinating (sitting in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery with its colourful noisy ceremony) to the bizarre (weird dancers in a hidden corner of Bhaktapur, dancing to primitive music with weird masks and primitive bulky jewellery), to the totally awesome (seeing Mt Everest from our high snow-covered mountain ridge-top viewpoint is an experience we will never forget).- photo-Everest is right, info on our trek).

Kathmandu Valley is a fascinating place to explore. Full of amazing temples, villages and people. I would definitely recommend exploring the Valley as much as you can. We stayed in Bhaktapur for 3 days (photo), which we all loved, and visited the towns and villages of Patan, Panauti (photo), Dhulikel, Banepa, Nala, Nargakot and Changu Narayan on our Kathmandu Valley rim trek, ending in Bhaktapur (info on how we did it). This was easy to do totally independently. Also in the Valley we visited temples such as Dakshinkali, Budhanilkantha, Bodnath, Swayambunath, Namobuddha and others.  We spent a total of 4 1/2 weeks in Kathmandu and the KTM Valley, and it was not enough!

Himalaya trekking is a real highlight of course. We've been to both the Annapurnas (Jomson trek in 1991) and the Everest area. Now if you ask me what we liked better, I'm not sure. Maybe the Everest area just edges out the Annapurnas. We had a fantastic experience in Namche, we even got invited to a local Sherpa wedding.

Other destinations in Nepal included Pokhara, Royal Chitwan National Park (Sauraha), Lumbini and Sunauli. Other highlights included the thrill of personally meeting Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar maestro.

India    Nepal   Thailand

You need to remember that it takes a LONG time to get between places in India (unless you fly everywhere). India is hard describe, I know that's cliched but its true. We were there for 6 weeks. Full of contradictions; its dirty and magnificent, squalid and majestic, full of rip-off merchants as well as people in abject poverty who give you gifts, friendly and indifferent, deeply historic & spiritual and gaudy...etc. And the food, you have to make the pilgrimage to India for the food alone!

First and foremost, Varanasi was our favourite place in India. Also its not that far from Nepal, and you can get there from Kathmandu in 2 days by bus, or fly there direct in under an hour. And it had the best food too. It was oozing with character and culture, especially around the ghats on the Ganges (photo). And its not just the cremation ghats that are incredible (we'll never forget the sight of those feet sticking out the end of that funeral pyre), it's the whole area along the river. It's the old city, stretching at least 8 km by about half a km back, which is made up of those tiny, narrow, labyrinthine streets which you can spend hours wandering in, full of cows, people (all in bright traditional clothes) stalls, vendors, shoppers, bikes and so on.

In Agra, the Taj Mahal is indescribably beautiful! Of course we expected it to be so, but in reality it was 10X better than we could have dreamed. DEFINITELY do the early morning thing from 6am (costs R100 entry instead of the R15 after 8am) and the evening thing (if you hang around you can stay inside and watch the sun set over the place). It changes so much according to the light of the day, dawn is so magical (photo1, photo2). But don't forget other things in Agra. The huge Red Fort in Agra is 10 times more interesting and well preserved than Delhi's Red Fort. The Itimad-ud-daulah (the locals pronounced it Et-MUDdullah), the "Mini Taj" is also good. Also, we really liked Agra's old market, its nice to wander around in and absorb the essential essence of India! In fact, seek out markets in all the places you visit, they are amazing. Agra can get pretty intense though, as it is such a tourist Mecca, but we reckon its worth it.

Nearby is Fatepur Sikri, a deserted city 1 hour away from Agra, you can spend a full day there. If you have time, perhaps a visit down to Jaipur. The best places we liked in Rajasthan were Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaisalmer and Bikaner. These were great places!

Pushkar is a great laid-back place, a study in contrasts as it is a very important Hindu pilgrimage site as well as being a bit of a hippie hangout! Beautiful compact town clustered close to the lake (as the photo shows), with hundreds of temples everywhere. We also loved Jaisalmer so much we stayed for 12 days (including doing a 3 day camel safari)! Stay inside the fort as again it is the absolute heart of the town. In there are narrow cobblestone streets, markets, temples, and budget guest houses. Fantastic! More info on Pushkar.

We had a great experience in Udaipur, stay in a place on the lake if you can, there are a heap to choose from, from budget thru to luxury. In a lot of ways, the lake and the surrounding palaces in this old part of the city are the heart of Udaipur (photo). This area is also in spitting distance to the market area of old Udaipur too. I DEFINITELY recommend Lal Ghat Guest House. We had a great experience in Udaipur when I rented an auto-rickshaw off a driver and sent him home for the day while I drove around Udaipur (photo). We also visited Kumbhalgarh Fort and Ranakpur Jain temple from Udaipur (more info).

Jaisalmer was a fantastic place too, we spent 12 wonderful days in our little 1 suite budget hotel (Uncle Guest House) in the old Fort which dominates the town. Its best to stay inside I think, with its narrow, cobble stoned, vehicle-free streets. While we were here we went on a fantastic 3-day camel safari, sleeping under the stars, eating campfire food and encountering a desert village wedding (more info) (many photos). After we got back, the annual 3-day Desert Festival assaulted our senses.

Bikaner was a nice surprise for its friendliness and its fort. Finally to Delhi, which is a large city at full tilt (useful info on Delhi). We splurged on a flight back to Kathmandu for a final 2 weeks before heading on to Thailand.

Thailand     Nepal   India

Thailand was a great way to finish the trip, it's a very diverse country. Wonderfully friendly people with amazing food, culture and environment. We had some great experiences there. Ko Chang was a great low-key way to end the trip, we spent our time in an isolated part of one of the beaches.

We entered at Bangkok (useful info on Bangkok), and from there went up to Chiang Mai, on to Chiang Rai, back down to Phitsanalok and Sukothai, up and over to Nong Khai, the down to Koh Chang, and finally back to Bangkok. Chiang Mai is nice, but we actually liked Chiang Rai more. We had a FANTASTIC time floating down the Mae Kok River for 3 wonderful days on a bamboo raft from Tha Ton to Chiang Rai, drifting past workers in fields, forested hills, hill tribe villages and all sorts. We had 2 boatman who guided our raft along and cooked our meals, it was a real highlight of our trip. (photo of raft) (details on how we did it).

We really liked Phitsanalok and Sukothai, too, really friendly people, wonderful historical park at Sukothai. In both Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, we hired a jeep for a day each, it cost B800 (about Aus$32) for 24 hours plus fuel (which is B12 a litre, cheap). It was great as you can visit caves, elephant camps, the Maekong river and Golden Triangle towns of Mae Sai, Chiang Saen, follow mountain road, stop and buy watermelons, etc etc without having to worry about getting on or off buses or songtheaws (those share taxis which ply specific routes). If there is just the 2 of you (we had 4 of us), you could also hire motorbikes, very cheap. I recommend the Samoeng Loop out from Chiang Mai (as there are heaps of things to see along it), and a trip up to the Golden Triangle via Wat Doi Tung from Chiang Rai. Check the LP guide book for details of these.

After Phitsanulok and Sukothai we headed up to the North East and spent 5 days in Nong Khai on the banks of the Maekong opposite Laos. Finally Koh Chang was a great relaxing end to the trip (details of Koh Chang and how to get there) (photo of bungalow) before heading back to Bangkok then home. I would not recommend a visit to more than one island, Thailand is such an amazing diverse place that you could easily spend more time travelling around it.

Please email me, Ian Lockley, for more info on this trip, or feedback at lockley@southwest.com.au I can give you more specific advice or tips if you want it.

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