I've noticed that its been a week since I blogged last; I think the decreasing frequency of my blogs is an indicator of how busy I am. Hard to believe that I've been in Beijing for three weeks, but time is just flying by.

Yet again, the my week comprised of waking up early, going to school, grabbing a bite to eat somewhere, and then back home to do some more work before dinner. Mandarin is keeping me very busy, and after my rapid initial progress, it seems like the language is becoming much much harder. Every day, I'm being taught more and more new characters, meanings, grammatical structures and idioms, and naturally, only about a small amount of what you hear will be absorbed by the brain. I persevere, in the hope that eventually, I may be able to attain a decent level of fluency.

Outside of school, I thought it would be a wise idea to do a part-time internship - as if I wasn't busy enough already! Looked on the expat websites and found something at a Mandarin school, who were looking to employ a foreign marketing intern to help them to attract foreign customers. Went for the interview on Monday, and I was amazed that I was able to communicate quite well in Mandarin for an hour, in a business context. They offered me the (unpaid) position and I started on Friday afternoon. So after a tough morning at school, I went to this office, and was given the thankless task of trawling through the company's English language website, correcting and changing Chinese-style English phrases like "Study Mandarin and your future prospects will be flowery" - taken straight from Google translations I think! Needless to say, it was mind-numbingly boring and not the best way to spend a Friday afternoon.

The weekend did pick up significantly after this. I went to a club on a Friday night, had a beer or five, and got to bed at three in the morning. Unfortunately, this thwarted my plans of waking up at 8 the next day, and going to the art district. Instead, I decided to go to another couple of temples, and Beijing's Houhai lakes.

I first went to the Lama temple, previously an imperial palace, which had been converted into a Buddhist temple in the 19th Century. [I think] The Lama Temple is Beijing's largest Buddhist temple, and as a result, it was significantly more touristy than the Fayuan temple (the one I visited last week). Upon entering the complex, I was welcomed by various stalls hawking the usual tourist rubbish, but inside, it was surprisingly calm. The highlight was probably the 18 metre tall standing Buddha, carved from a single sandlewood tree.

I left this place, went for a walk, and was pleased to discover that there was a nearby vegetarian restaurant. This is the second vegetarian restaurant I've found here (the first being near my school), and I had an amazing meal of noodles in a spicy soup, and jiaozi (dumplings to you and me). Suitably replenished, I walked a bit further, and stumbled on the Confucius temple. The architecture was in typical Chinese style, and there wasn't much externally, to distinguish it from any of the other temples I'd visited. In fact, both of the Buddhist temples, Beijing Mosque and the Confucius temple all had exactly the same colour scheme and building style - its only inside that there are any differences. For those of you who don't know, (or who have watched Russell Peters and think you know), Confucius was an ancient Chinese philosopher, who was a strong advocate of education. He established a number of schools and higher education institutions in ancient China, and this temple was basically a shrine to knowledge - slightly strange, I know.

By this time, I was competely templed out, and I think I won't be visiting any more temples until Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Laos, and Thailand! I got on the underground for a couple of stops, and went to a place called Houhai. Houhai consists of a large lake, surrounded by lots of bars, restaurants, old people playing Chinese Chess, Mahjong or practising Tai Chi, but its a beautiful area, that has a very pleasant atmosphere. It helps that the sun was shining while I was there too.

I had a Kung Fu lesson afterwards, which was amazing. After last week's clumsy display, I think I showed enough to demonstrate that there's still hope for me yet. The instructor taught us that you can immobilise an opponent using any part of the arm, from the smallest finger, to the wrist, to the shoulder, and surprise, surprise, I was the crash-test dummy for him to show everyone these moves! An hour later, aching all over, I went home for dinner, and a well needed rest. I got the inevitable call from a friend, telling me to come for a few beers, and as usual, I wasn't one to pass up such an opportunity. Eventually, I was dragged to a bar, but got home at the relatively early hour of 1am.

I was woken up at the ungodly hour of 11 in the morning by the sound of unfamiliar Chinese voices and the accompanying cloud of cigarette smoke. The Dad's sister's family had come to visit and it turns out that we (including me) were taking them out for lunch at 11:30. I hurriedly dressed and brushed my teeth, and was promptly rushed off to a nearby Chinese restaurant, where the Dad immediately ordered three large bottles of Chinese beer - all before I'd even had breakfast! The food was good, there were some slightly things that smelt and tasted slightly weird, but on the whole, I enjoyed myself.

The afternoon was spent studying Mandarin, something which I'd been putting off for the whole weekend. That's about it really.

I finished reading The Damned United - a fictional account of Brian Clough's 43 day stint as Leeds United manager. It was a fantastic read, and something I thoroughly recommend.

Until next week,

Nihal

PS, with the pictures, just click resize. For some reason, the first time you try to post a comment, it won't work, just click the "post" button for a second time and it should work (use Google Accounts)

So here I am, at the tail end of a great weekend, feeling more exhausted than when the week ended. The week was pretty non-descript, I worked hard, but didn't really get a chance to play hard, so I was ready to atone for that at the weekend!


On Friday, I went home and studied diligently until late into the evening (Mum, you should be proud!). The work is proving to be very difficult, and am ready to push myself, and have even moved myself into a higher class for my oral Chinese. Anyway, at about 10, I got a call from a friend to come out. I went to his flat, had a quick beer there with his flatmates, and then we went to some random Chinese girl's 21st birthday. Now, if anyone's ever seen that silly MTV show "My Super Sweet 16", this birthday was just like that (i.e. a spoilt brat whose parents have spent a lot of money to give them an extravagant party). This party was at the Ritz Carlton, and they'd hired out the function suite. There was about two or three guys with video cameras, and half a dozen photographers, recording everyone's every move. On a giant canvas, was a mural of the birthday girl, which she expected the guests to sign, and on the walls were plasma TVs with photos of her. Naturally the alcohol was free so we took full advantage!





After this, we went to a Chinese club called Mix. Now these clubs are about 20 times better than any equivalent club in Europe: think, lots of black glass, neon lights, cheesy Hip Hop music (not my preferred type of music but when in Rome...), and you've got the idea. In Ningbo, us Westerners were considered something of a rarity, and Chinese people would be honoured to offer us drinks, here in Beijing, we're such a commodity that no-one gives us a second look. Still, it was a great night. Got home about 3/3:30ish and crashed out!

Despite my late night, I still managed to force myself out of bed at 9 the next morning, in order to go sightseeing. Somewhat ironically, less than 12 hours after a night of excesses, I had decided to visit both a Mosque and a Buddhist temple! Perhaps it was in order to atone for the sins of the previous night?! At any rate, I took the half an hour bus ride to South Beijing, and had a short walk to the Mosque.

Its hard to find to find much tranquillity in Beijing, most of the time, the city is bustling, and all of the tourist spots attract either loud Americans, or large Chinese tour groups, wearing brightly coloured caps, talking equally loudly! However, on this day, I succeeded in finding not just one, but two spots of peace and tranquillity in Beijing. The Mosque was in the Muslim quarter of Beijing, which I didn't even know existed. To see it from the outside, you wouldn't even know that it was a mosque, there was a complete absence of domes and minarets, there was very little Arabic text, it was painted in the usual bright blues, greens and reds seen on most Chinese temples, and it retained the typically Chinese adornment of lions, dragons etc.

As I mentioned before, it was an island of calm in the chaos that is Beijing: I was able to hear the birds tweeting, and could walk around at my leisure, without hearing the sound of someone's mobile phone going off.

From the Mosque, it wasn't far to Fayuan temple, and I walked along, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of this very different region of Beijing. Outside the temple was a small park, frequented by children playing, an old man singing, and the odd monk or two, talking to a lay-person. I went into the temple, and it too, was a zen of peace and tranquillity. I had previously visited a large Buddhist temple in Shanghai, and it was something of a tourist trap, making vistors pay a large amount for entry, and trying to hawk jade figurines, incense sticks and various other things to these tourists. This was completely different, there was an active monk community, who were all too willing to smile and say "ni hao" to the few visitors that were there; at the same time, there were people actually worshipping at the various shrines. Buddhism and Chinese culture seem like a match made in heaven (despite the obvious problems with the Dalai Lama, Tibet and China - I hope I don't get in trouble for mentioning this!); the mythical Chinese figurines of the dragons, lions and other animals go perfectly with the Buddha statues and the general aura of calm brought by this religion. I was also amused by the fact that the monks were using mobile phones, and were riding around the compound on mountain bikes! I eventually managed to tear myself away from this place, and went to have a much deserved lunch at Pizza Hut (something I'd been craving all week!).


In the afternoon, I'd organised with a friend to go to a Kung Fu lesson, something that initially seemed exciting, but that became a more and more frightening prospect closer to the start of our lesson! We arrived at the gym, feeling quite apprehensive, looked into the room, and saw, to our horror, that there was no-one over the age of 10 in this class! We made a swift exit, going for a coffee. Resigned to not going to Kung Fu classes, we expected to just go home, but the Kung Fu teacher called me about 20 minutes later, explaining to me that the children's class had finished and that the adults' class was starting now. Reluctantly we went back the gym to start our class. Often, I do something like this on a whim, and this was no exception, but the class was fantastic, and I've now signed up for another four Kung Fu classes! My skills leave a lot to be desired, and I think that on more than one occassion, the teacher had to stop himself from laughing! No matter though, I'll persevere and hopefully progress with the Kung Fu.


That night, the mother told me to invite a few of my friends over for dinner, and I had done so. She had made Chinese hot pot, sort of like a fondue, but with spiced, boiling water instead of cheese, and using tofu, meats, and various vegetables instead of bread.

She'd even done a separate pot for me, so that I didn't have to use the one containing meat. We had a really nice time, and I felt very grateful for having such a nice Chinese family.






Post-dinner, myself and a couple of other guys made a beeline for the nearest sports bar, where we were treated to the joys of four hours of continuous premiership football. I saw the end of the Portsmouth-Everton game, simultaneously watched the Man Utd-Fulham game and the Spurs-Chelsea game, and watched the start of the Arsenal-Newcastle game. Bizarrely, it was Ladies Night at this sports bar (why the hell would you have ladies night at a sports bar?!), and the matches were not accompanied by commentary, but by the sounds of "We Are Family", M-People and various other ladies anthems!! This is China after all - there has to be a small downside to every situation!!


I eventually got back at three, fell asleep, dreaming of Gomes' saves and Modric's goal.


Which takes me upto the forthcoming week. Again, I will be studying hard, but will hopefully have an equally interesting weekend.


Hope everyone is well,


Miss you all lots,


Nihal


PS these photos just took me an hour to put in. I know the alignment is still rubbish but I'm fed up with dealing with these!!

Photos - Click on the photo to view it in full size

It took me about 40 minutes to figure out how to post these, and half of my photos didn't work, but here's a selection to whet the appetite!


The plastic paradise that forms part of Beijing's Central Business District, and the also where my school is.




Homework! (The most monotonous task in the world - writing characters out over and over again to memorise them!)




The bicicyle repair stall, close to my apartment block - an example of the "paesan" culture I was talking about.



Rush hour in Beijing:





The view from my bedroom window; if you look hard enough, you can see part of the outdoor "gym" I was talking about:



Beijing International Airport:



Globalisation at its finest!

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - I'm not sure why this is, but I think that I haven't really done anything of note in the past 4-5 days.

Mandarin lessons are getting harder and harder, and I'm convinced that even if I studied for another 10 years, I still wouldn't master this language! On average, we're expected to learn 20 characters a day, and this is tedious work, learning how to write them, learning their meanings, the grammatical rules behind them, and learning their sounds (which, more often than not, sounds like about 20 other words I've learnt). Oh well, I've made my bed and all that...


I went to a Chinese outdoor gym the other day. Now when I say gym, I don't mean dozens of treadmills and weightlifting machines, supplemented by flatscreen TVs and watercoolers. These outdoor gyms are amazing - they are basically garishly painted metal structures, placed in the middle of residential areas, that can be used by anyone; they look kind of like a children's play area, only with older people there! There's normally a couple of exercise bikes, a cross trainer style machine, and various other interesting looking objects. They are intended for use by anyone, but their main benefit is to give the elderly a place to keep active. Its a fantastic idea, that should be implemented elsewhere too, as it encourages people to stay healthy, seems relatively inexpensive to create, and is free for all to use. I strongly advocate introducing similar things in the UK, only that I know they'd only get vandalised. Again, when I'm able to post photos, I'll try and get a photo of one of these gyms/exercise parks.

Things with the family are good - I had a beer with the dad the other night, and the mum has relaxed a little bit. She made me pasta the other day, which was a really nice touch (it didn't taste great, but I ate it all anyway). She's even told me to invite my friends round for dinner.

I'm taking a Kung Fu lesson on Saturday, to see how it is. If it works out, you could see me returning as Bruce Ni (that was poor I know!)!

My Saturday night is revolving around Tottenham - Chelsea; the Saturday 3pm kick offs come on at 11pm here, meaning that they normally involve a bar, copious amounts of lager, followed by a club afterwards (result permitting). Fingers crossed.

I'm planning to do some sightseeing this weekend, so I will try to keep you posted.

Until then,

Take care,

Nihal

Damn computers!!

Sorry, the last post didn't let me put paragraphs in properly, but hope you can still read it!

This stupid blogger website is also not letting me put pictures up!

What to say..? I turned on the PC, intending to write another lengthy blog, but last night's alcohol has made my mind go blank!

I went to the Silk Street Market yesterday - the same one I've been to three times before. The place is huge - it has about 8 floors, and around 40,000 people visit there every day.

I used to like shopping, and think of myself as quite a good bargainer, but yesterday was quite a harrowing experience. People shouting at you from all directions, begging you to buy things that you don't even want. You go to a stall to browse, and the stall owner pounces on you, asking you about how many of the item you'd like to buy, and how much you're willing to pay for it. The stall owners are normally girls of about 18/19, and they'll use many different tactics for you to buy their stuff: initially calling out "handsome man"(!), but then actually getting quite aggressive, shouting prices at you, holding your wrists to prevent you from leaving.

I had one episode that left a particularly sour taste in the mouth - I went to look at a T-Shirt, was accosted by the stall owner who asked me how much I wanted to pay for the item. In truth, I didn't want the T-Shirt but quoted a reasonable price to elicit a response. The stall owner then succeeded in convincing me to up my offer to about double of what I originally said. Anyway, I finally decided that I didn't want the T-Shirt and left the stall, even though the price had been agreed upon, and she started saying some quite horrible things - that I had no respect, that I was wasting her time, that time is money, and that she didn't want to see me there again. I know that it was my fault for agreeing a price and then deciding against buying the item, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.

As I mentioned before, the exchange rate is still a nightmare - buying things is about one and a half times more expensive than it was last time. At any rate, I came away with a couple of pairs of trainers, a jumper, a pair of jeans, and three shirts for about GBP60. The same items would have cost around GBP500 back home, so not a bad haul I suppose!

I realise that I haven't talked that much about Beijing, but that's because I'm still quite undecided about the city. In truth, its quite an ugly place - it is filled with skyscrapers, but isn't quite the international metropolis that Shanghai, Hong Kong or New York is. Its quite easy to navigate around, the city is set out in a north, south, east, west format, with the central business district in the east, the main financial zone to the west, and various other things in the north and south.

Beijing retains this wonderful paesan culture - even though there are plenty of large supermarkets and chain stores, people prefer to buy their food from nearby stall owners. Outside our apartment block, there is a man that sells eggs and noodles, a shoe cobbler, and a bicycle repair stall. You can also see that jobs have been created where possible - most buses have a driver and two conductors, our apartment block has a woman that sits in the lift and presses the buttons for you(!), and when I went to the mobile phone store, there was someone that showed you the sim card, someone that dealt with the money and gave you a receipt, and a third person that took the receipt and actually gave you what you paid for!

The bus and train services are very efficient, and it gives you an idea of how they hosted the olympic games here last year.

What's surprised me most is the number of expats here - there's thousands of them! Everywhere you go, you see a Western face! All of the bars that we've been to so far have been expat bars, which is a little annoying. The plus side is that you have places to watch all of the English football games, even if they are on TV at stupid hours of the night!! I watched the Man Utd - Liverpool match yesterday (fantastic game of football!), and am debating whether or not to go and watch the Spurs - Villa game tonight (which kicks off at midnight!).

I still haven't really been sightseeing, but when I do so, I will provide pictures and a write-up.

Anyway,

Time to go and study!

Take care everyone,

Nihal

Just woke up after my first night out... feeling pretty rotten! I thought that I'd developed an immunity to hangovers, feeling fine after the infamous night of Dad's 50th! However, I think its something that the Chinese put in their liquor to make foreigners feel horrible!! I only had 3 beers, and I didn't even mix my drinks!!


Anyway, got two hours of Mandarin study to do, before going shopping, and then out again tonight.


Ciao

Hmm..

China is an amazing country at the best of times and an infuriating country at the worst of times. Today, we went for an amazing lunch, which was basically a wok filled with potatoes, and white cabbage cooked with chilli, garlic, soy sauce and some nice spices (I'm not really doing it justice), only to find that I had to pick dozens of individual peppercorns off every potato. We learnt our lesson though, and my friend found out the word for peppercorns so that we'll never have the same problem again! I know that this anecdote sounds relatively minor compared to my opening statement, but I will expand later!

I notice that the number of followers of this blog has more than doubled - I feel so popular!! I will try and make this as interesting as possible, aiming to omit the boring details.

So my life has fallen into a routine - alarm goes off at 7, I snooze for 5 minutes, get up, go to the kitchen, get told off by the mum for not wearing a coat because I'll catch a cold (she does this every day!), have a banana and a piece of toast, and get on the bus to go to school. Four hours a day of Mandarin is tough going at the best of times, and because I'm still jetlagged, it feels even harder! I go for lunch after the school, and generally get home about 2ish. I should be doing about 3 or 4 hours a day of self-study, but I've been so tired, that I've only been able to do about 2 and a half hours a day. My Chinese is improving at an amazing rate now, and I feel that I can both comprehend and say a lot more. I'm sorry to disappoint everyone, though, but there's no way that you can attain fluency in just 2 months. I know people that have been studying intensively for a year, and they still can't speak like a local. Learning Mandarin is significantly harder than learning any European language, as I have to memorise around 40 characters a day, as well as learning their sound and meaning. Not an easy task!

Last night, I thought it would be a good idea to go to football training with a friend that plays for a relatively good team in Beijing. Haria-Shah's aren't cut out to be footballers at the best of times (Mihir's knees being the prime evidence), but the fact that I hadn't done any strenuous exercise since December 2008 meant that I was in no physical condition to do any intensive training. The result: legs that have been aching the whole day, but the intention to start running quite frequently (note that I haven't defined frequently!).

Anyway, back to my rant: China is a country that runs on red tape and bureaucracy. I was only issued with a one month visa before I got here, and was told that I could increase it upon arrival. When I reached China, and asked the school about extending my visa, they told me that I had to open a Bank of China account, prove that I had at least 3000 US dollars in that account, and obtain a residency permit. This means numerous trips to the bank and other equally annoying places! I went to the Bank of China today, spent an hour setting up my account, did everything asked of me, only to find out that my new Bank of China debit card didn't work, and that I'd have to return on Monday to sort it out. Ridiculous!

People have been asking me how much Beijing has changed since the last time I was here. The truth is that I can't really say, as I'm based in a different district. However, I have noticed a couple of things - mainly that I no longer get stared at. I went to China expecting the same shameless stares that I got last time, but I'm somewhat disappointed that I'm no longer the object of people's fascination!! Maybe being in the nation's capital a year after the Olympic Games has something to do with it.

The weather has been mixed - the temperature is normally between 10 and 15 degrees Celcius, but there's often a really horrible wind with it. The mum tried to send me out of the house wearing a blue, woman's coat today, but I wasn't having any of that. Trying to establish credibility in a new city is hard enough, without wearing clothing intended for the opposite sex!

The mother continues to be as stiffling. Today, she sat over me for half an hour whilst I did my Mandarin homework - I was quite irritated by the end of it. And every day, she comments on my vegetarianism, asking me what I can eat, and still finding it as strange as it was 6 days ago!

Aside from that, not much has happened. I'm going to explore around Beijing this weekend, and should go for a few beers tomorrow which will be nice. I also have mountains of work to catch up on

Pictures will be uploaded soonish - still need to buy the relavent cable.


Also, Mum said that people had had trouble commenting. Its an annoying format, I know, but I think that you have to click the comment button, select Google Accounts, and sign up for it using your current email address (you don't need a Gmail address)!

In other news, I saw a cyclist hit by a car driver here, but fortunately no-one was hurt!

Lots of love,

Nihal

Welcome back to my blog for my three followers (of whom I am one myself) and the other casual spectators. I am writing to you from Beijing, where I am now a student and have a surrogate Mum, Dad and Sister!!

I suppose that I'll do this blog in the tried and tested chronological format, but if anyone thinks of anything more quirky, I'll try to implement it.

The flight was average - I got upgraded to World Traveller Plus, which was an excellent start to my trip. I have inherited, thanks to Mother, an aversion to sleeping on planes, and I tried my best to overcome this with a beer, a glass of wine, and a herbal sleeping tablet... Inevitably, this didn't work, and I was reduced to watching some average films, and some quite decent comedies. For those of you interested, I watched Transformers (very silly, very American and mildly enjoyable) and Burn After Reading (again very silly but a bit more enjoyable). I did somehow manage to grab a couple of hours sleep, and left the plane feeling relatively awake.

Arrived in the new Terminal 3 at Beijing Airport, and it looks fantastic. Efficient, clean, with polite staff - everything you'd want an airport to be. I will post pictures later, but at the moment, the family computer doesn't have an SD card reader so you'll have to wait.

So I arrived in Beijing, was picked up by a driver from my language school, and taken to meet my new family. After a short drive, we reached what looked like a Chinese council estate - I'm assuming that these apartment blocks were rapidly built during the last 30 years, to cope with the influx into Beijing's commercial centre. Met the family, and was shocked to find out that they don't speak a work of English！I haven't studied Mandarin for over ６months, so I was a little rusty, but we made ourselves understood, whilst I wondered what the hell I'd let myself in for!

Since then, its actually been pretty enjoyable living with the Chinese family. The mum took me to and from school on the first day, and I felt like I was four years old again, and we have gradually been getting used to one another. The mum really mothers me, telling me to button up my coat when we go outside so that I don't get a cold, constantly questioning why I eat so little, and even (annoyingly) sitting with me for an hour whilst I was doing my homework. Thankfully she stopped short of holding my hand when we crossed the road! The dad and daughter are nice, albeit very quiet, but the mother compensates for this! The food is passable - normally a banana and a slice of toast for breakfast (complete with powdered orange juice!), lunch out, and a couple of vegetable dishes and a bowl of rice for dinner. Inside, the apartment is actually very nice, although the view is pretty miserable (again, I'll post photos later).

I started at　the language school yesterday and they're already working us really hard. We do more Mandarin in a day here than we'd do in two weeks at uni. So for anyone thinking of studying a language, don't study at uni, just do an intensive course abroad. I've got mountains of homework to do, and really should be doing that instead of writing this blog, but what the hell - got to live life on the wild side!

I found a vegetarian restaurant close to the school and the food seems pretty good - so don't worry about whether or not I'm being fed! The family seems to find the concept of my vegetarianism very amusing, but I haven't seen a piece of meat in the flat yet! Lets hope it long continues!

I'm struggling to think of other things of note that have happened. My biggest gripe is that the pound is almost half as strong as it was last time I came here, and as a result, everything suddenly seems very expensive! I guess that I'll have to reconsider all the purchases of DVDs and clothes that Mihir was dreaming of! Those 1 yuan notes suddenly don't seem so worthless!

I haven't really visited the same places I went to last time, so can't really talk about how much/little Beijing has changed in two years.

That's it to be honest, sorry this blog was so mundane. I should be doing something slightly more interesting this weekend, and hopefully I'll soon be able to upload my photos, so that you lot aren't faced with line after line of text.


Zaijian!


PS the Nihal-Nihao joke is still amusing for Chinese people as it was last time

Greetings from terminal 5

So the date has finally arrived: almost 25 months after my first trip, I'm heading back to China for Round Two.

I see myself as a more worldly, well rounded individual than the first time I travelled; but that's probably a load of rubbish, and I'll end up regaling you with the same tales of drunken antics in Chinese whisky bars! This time, though, I'll be armed with my new Blueberry (courtesy of Rahul!), and as a result, my blogs are likely to be more frequent, albeit more brief... I'm also likely to develop RSI in the process!!!

I'm intending for this blog to be equal parts Bryson, Clarkson and Dalrymple but I'll probably fail miserably so please read this with no preconceptions (my thumbs are hurting already!!!)!

So my trip goes as follows:
I will be spending two months in Beijing studying at a language institute. During this time, I will be living with a local family, which should provide me with lots of fodder for my blogs. Following on from this, I will be spending between 2 and 4 weeks in Vietnam (visa permitting) and then will be moving on to spend a week each in Laos and Cambodia. Finally, I will spend 6 to 8 weeks in Thailand before returning home. I will know my exact dates closer to the time, but to anyone in South East Asia over the next five months, please let me know.

So at this present moment in time, I'm sitting in the airport, waiting to fly. I should be feeling apprehensive but for some reason I'm not... I love you all and will miss you lots, and hope you enjoy reading my blog!!


Lots of love,

Nihal