China (and Hong Kong and Macau)

Hong Kong

I left Lhasa on the two-day train bound for Chengdu, the highest train in the world. Tibet had left me without a proper Chinese visa – the ‘punishment’ for entering Tibet is to grant visitors less than three weeks in China, including Tibet. So it was going to have to be a quick skip through!

Tibet

The high, bleak landscape of Tibet.

From Nepal, there aren’t many places one can get to overland. I’d come from India, so Tibet it had to be – that land of snow I’d heard and read so much about but didn’t understand, at an average of some 4500m above sea level. After all the talk with polite refugees in Dharamsala and Nepal, the hype surrounding the Dalai Lama and the ferocity of Chinese official opinion, I had to see it for myself.

The Annapurna Circuit

Mountain view on the Annapurna Circuit.

No trip to Nepal would be complete without a trek into the mountains. For me, it was Annapurna and the surrounding massive peaks that were the attraction.

Nepal

The stupa at Boudha

It’s never an appealing option to take a night trip through Nepal’s mountainous countryside on roads prone to landslides, in a bus prone to failure, with drivers prone to long shifts with no sleep, so an overnight stay in Kakarbhitta was in order.

India (Part 2)

The Taj Mahal

I was back in the now much hotter but equally hectic New Delhi, hounded once again by its relentless rickshaw sharks and tourist touts.