I'll Be There Dreckly: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

People keep asking me about the best and worst bits of my trip, but to be honest since so much has happened it's started to blur together. So I've spent a bit of time trawling back through my past blogs and picked out the best and worst bits of a year on the road - you can open the pictures as well as follow the links to read more.

Highlights - the best bits

Going to a crayfish party on an island within a lake - Sweden
Attending 'Cannstatter Festival' in Stuttgart - the second biggest beer festival in the world - Germany
Hiking to the 4342m high Indraha pass in the Himalayan mountains - India
Cycling into Paris to watch the 100^th Tour de France final - France
Exploring and experiencing Wadi Rum desert - Jordan
Uttarayan, the world's biggest kite festival, where I was invited into homes and saw thousands of Chinese lanterns – Ahmedabad, India
Seeing the northern lights within the arctic circle - Sweden
Caving, hiking and rafting at Mulu National Park - Malaysia
Swimming and diving with manta rays, turtles and stingless jellyfish in the tropical Derawan Islands, Indonesia
Fantastic hiking and conversation at Honey Valley, India
Taking a motorboat journey through a marsh then up a muddy jungle river - Indonesia
Hiking the active volcano of Mt Semeru through the night then seeing it spit out red hot ashes - Indonesia
Christmas Day at the Taj Mahal, India
Visiting the car factories of Germany & Sweden
Following a wild Bengal tiger whilst sat on an elephant, India
Floating in the Dead Sea – Jordan
Cruising on the backwaters of Kerala, India
Seeing the truly amazing sight of Mt Bromo at dawn, Indonesia
The colour and energy of Holi festival, India

Worst Experiences

Getting bitten by a dog and having to have five anti-rabies jabs over the next month
Doing a help exchange program on a grim hippie farm in Germany
Being chased by a pack of angry monkeys
Crashing my bike in Paris
Being awoken by armed Military Police on a nightbus
The many sleepless night-bus journeys, including one where I slept on the floor

Kindest people

Everyone who let me stay or Couchsurfwith them
The five Indian families who invited me into their homes and took me round during a festival – Ahmedabad, India
The guy who invited me into his tiny slum house on my birthday for a Sprite – Pune, India
The guy I hitchhiked with who insisted on paying for lunch - Indonesia
Ubai, the Indonesian girl who insisted on paying for everything – Balikpapan, Indonesia
Gustin, who showed us around the Tana Toraja area for free over five days - Rantepao, Indonesia

Worst Journeys

An 8 hour freezing-cold and knackered-out overnight bus through the Himalayas to Manali, India
A truly terrible 14 hour night journey along a 300 mile long mostly rough gravel road, Indonesia

Favourite Places

Ghent, Belgium
Swiss-Saxony region, Germany
Scandanavian Mountains, Norway
Darlana region, Sweden
Wadi Rum desert, Jordan
Udaipur, India
Dharamsala, India
Honey Valley, Coorg, India - a beautiful spot in the green hills of South India
Mulu National Park - only accessible by plane, and full of wonder and adventure, Malaysia
Mt Semeru, Indonesia
Svaneti region, Georgia

Worst places

Delhi - a schizophrenic city of two halves, not really fitting of a capital city - India
Semporna - we only passed through for an hour or so, but what a smelly dive - Malaysia
Sideraja - the biggest, smelliest, town I might ever have visited - Indonesia
Dubai – too hot and fake - UAE

Most moving & eye-opening moments:

Cycling past all the World War II memorials and cemeteries in Northern France
Visiting Auschwitz memorial site - Poland
Helping to give out blankets on a trip to a flood disaster zone - Himalayas, India
Passing funeral pyres by the river - Kandara, India
Volunteering with Asha Kiran in ultra-basic building site crèches – Pune, India

Most Dangerous Episodes

Bus journey up the Rohtang pass – a single-lane mountain road, set into the cliffs with a big drop to one side, no barriers, and a mad driver - India
Having rocks thrown at me by a teenager - India
Hiking Indraha pass - India
Jeep journey to a flood disaster zone in the Himalayas - India
High-speed bus journey from Kumily to Kottayam - India
Walking past a large Indian Python in the wild - India
Indian roads in general – some of the lowest driving standards in the world

Most Shocking Moments

First time on the train through very overcrowded Old Delhi - India
Seeing a homeless man sleeping face down in the dirt, Jodhpur - India
Driving past destroyed homes in a huge flood disaster zone, Kandara, Himalayas - India
The first time I saw cows eating from a rubbish bin, Kalka - India
Walking past a young guy passed out from glue sniffing, Kanyakumari - India
Driving past a dead cow missing all its skin and being ravaged by dogs - India
Seeing live chickens for sale in a market, wrapped in string and newspaper - Malaysia
Witnessing hundreds of people defecating by the railway tracks, Agra - India
Visiting Dharavi - Asia's largest slum - Mumbai, India
Ambala train station where hundreds of people were sleeping on the floor in and outside - India
Watching people getting tattoos whilst sat cross legged on a dirty pavement - Ahmedabad - India
The Tibetan guy telling me about his parents who were killed by the Chinese army - India
Seeing two men suspended from tractors by hooks that had been inserted into their skin – Kanyakumari - India
Poor people in basic wood stilt huts - Mabul Island, Malaysia
Men casually selling a few guns beside the road, Berau - Indonesia
Holding a reticulated python - Balikpapan, Indonesia
Seeing seven buffalos sacrificed by slashing their throats whilst alive – Rantepao, Indonesia

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Photo interlude

Highlights - the best bits (1)

Highlights - the best bits (2)

Some of my favourite places

A few of the more shocking sights

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Most Bizarre Moments

Going to the home of a crazy prince who believed he was the reincarnation of Bruce Lee, Roger Moore and Spiderman. Oh, and owned the universe - Udaipur, India
Seeing around 1,000 people roller skating down the street - Denmark
Getting a tour of a half million pound show home, after an odd night-time walk – Amman, Jordan
Eating bat in a roadside café - Tentena, Indonesia
A mad carry on with a taxi, and other cars and people on a dual carriageway - Jordan
Being blessed by an elephant - India
Seeing a peacock eating out of a wheelie bin - Delhi, India
A strange hilltop cultural festival where goats were slaughtered and men competed in rock lifting – Vardzia, Georgia
Going skiing in India
Complaining about ants in my orange juice, and the waitress just fishing them out with a spoon – Tentena, Indonesia
Eating chicken steak in a post office car park – Samarinda, Indonesia
Sleeping beside a dog in a cave – India
Being invited to star in a paint advert – India
Cows lazing near men cleaning people’s ears on the beach – Goa, India
Seeing a 450 year old corpse in a glass box – Goa, India
Meeting a one-armed beach poet – Goa, India
Going for a beer with a fake philosophy lecturer – Cochin, India
Wandering around a graveyard where skulls lay by old coffins smashed open on the ground – Rantepao, Indonesia

Best Accommodation

Krageholm Farm, Sweden
Adam’s flat, Singapore
Green View Hotel, Varkala, India

Worst Accommodation

Panchayat Bhawan hostel, Chandigarh - a huge dirty white room - India
On a friend's floor in the doctor’s accommodation of a Delhi mental hospital- India

Strangest places slept

Row of seats, Gatwick airport - UK
Lahesh cave, 3274m up a mountain - India
In a tent in a desert – Wadi Rum, Jordan
In a shack up a mountain – Mt Mulu, Malaysia

Most extreme weather

Wettest - Samarinda, Indonesia
Hottest – Dubai near 50°
Coldest – cold °! - Black Forest, Germany
Most humid - 35° heat - Cochin, India

One liners -

Earliest wake-up - 12.30 am to hike Mt Semeru through the night

Most overwhelming thing - Cycling into the centre of Paris

Most bicycles spotted - Copenhagen, Denmark

Toughest thing - Cycling 110m in one day through the Norwegian Alps

Best journey - bus from Rishikesh to Ramnagar - so colourful and crazy

Most expensive country - Sweden – beer was £7.50 a pint in one nightclub!

Cheapest country – India – I paid as little as £2.10 a night for a guesthouse, 50p for a haircut and 30p for a 4 hr train journey

Best country for food – India

Coolest architecture - West Amager area, Copenhagen, Denmark

Things lost – a book, some socks, a leather belt, swimming shorts, two pairs of headphones, a travel towel (hard to replace), and a buff. Near miss – 100 Jordanian dinar note (about £50) which blew out of my hand and I had to chase it along a road as it blew away!

Most friendly nations – Jordan where you constantly hear ‘you’re welcome’ & Indonesia where they shout ‘hello mister’ constantly

Most nerve racking moment – waiting to get on the plane to India

Seen on the journey - the world’s biggest...

...Beer festival (OK, actually second biggest) – Stuttgart, Germany
...Technology museum – Munich, Germany
...Kite festival – Ahmedabad, India
...Turban – Udaipur, India
...Cave – Mulu, Malaysia
...Gold ring – Dubai, UAE
...Skyscraper – Dubai, UAE
...Perspex panel – Dubai, UAE
...Shopping mall – Dubai, UAE

Some of the most interesting people I met:I met so many kind, funny and intersting people that it seems unfair to pick just a few out. I'll just be unfair I guess:

The South African girl in Paris, who had just been out to dinner with the wife of the Tour de France winner, the night before he won
The Pålsson family, who I stayed 3 weeks with
Nic & Maria Rolander, who I stayed a week with
Markku – a.k.a. - Father Christmas in Sweden
Moussa from Comoros, - Amman Jordan
Betsy works for the Clinton foundation in New York, and has met Bill Clinton himself
Mohammed – Couchsurfing host – Aqaba, Jordan
Australian guy who ran a tour bus company in the seventies that did a famous route from London to Kathmandu; the hippie trail – Jordan
Wayne a fascinating guy who’s been cycling the world for 4 years - wmhafrica.blogspot.com – Jaipur, India
Nick, the British teacher who teaches teachers - a bit of an ultimate traveller
The deputy Greek ambassador to Georgia – Tbilisi, Georgia
Emilie, a fascinating French-American girl, who’s a reptile expert, doing a doctorate in Arabic and can speak six other languages fluently – Tbilisi, Georgia
The Californian maths teacher who had travelled to Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia
– Kazbegi, Georgia
Luke, a touring cyclist from Texas riding from Ljubljana to Tbilisi – Gori, Georgia
Giovanni and Alesandra, a modest and friendly pair of Italian actors and directors – Mestia, Georgia
The Russian woman who lived in Manchester, had a Georgian boyfriend, and whose parents reside within the Arctic circle and once lived in Cuba