T & G’s new acquisition. No name as yet.

Mayrhofen is in the Tyrol region of Austria.

I should be around that week/weekend for meeting up. See you soon.

Han and I went to see Blood Diamond last night – pretty good I thought, though a little cheesy and laboured at the end.

All good things must come to an end and so I’ll be home on Tuesday and presumeably in shock at the cold and time difference. I’ll only be around for a week (then off again for seven) so maybe we can meet Liv? Where exactly were you skiing anyway – somewhere in Germany?

Jul. Kachanapuri! Kachanapuri! Stroke a tiger (see my previous pics)! Dive in 7 waterfalls! See the Death Railway Bridge (bridge over the river kwai). And if you pay about 10 squid you can get a pic with your head in a tigers mouth I think?!?!

Well, I had an excellent time snowboarding/skiing in Mayrhofen last week.

It all looked a bit warm when we arrived (about 12 °C) but we woke up on Tuesday morning to a village blanketed with several inches of snow and it didn’t stop snowing for the whole week and often went as low as -10 °C in the evenings. This made for excellent snow conditions, but poor visibility.

I sampled plenty of local foodstuffs including Schnitzel, Schnapps, Strudle and plenty of “Grillwurst mit pommes”.

I improved my skiing somewhat with a day and a half on some decent skiis. Weight forward and hips into the slope and all that. Pretty sure I looked rather like a pro;-)

The poor visibility meant that I didn’t take many photos:

On Thursday we got above some of the clouds and saw some sun.

Me and Chris

At the end of 6 1/2 days skiing, it was still snowing!

Solidus, that aloe drink looks pretty foul. How is Hotel Dusk: Room 314?

hello!

hampi. an impressive vista

some sort of bizzare festival going on whilst we were in hampi. it involved a lot of people with knives dancing and chanting around a semi-comatosed guru with a shrine on his head. he staggered about the main street in a daze, supported by his acoylites who followed him where ever he went like hands on a uija board glass. this chap with the lime on his sword was one of his guards.

lucy in a tuk tuk

a lush pomigranite.

me and an elephant at the maharaja’s palace in mysore

some holy cows

all cars and lorries had this message on the back. the horn is used primarily instead of signel lights.

the finest beverage known to man! this kept me alive during my illness in singapore. luch peach flavoured aloe vera juice with lumps of succulent aloe plant in it. mmm-mm

feel free to send me the tesco sim! its better than nothing that i have at the moment. looks like i would have to get a new sim in every country i go to so that would be a bit of a bind.

julio

According to the book I looked at when we briefly thought of going to Malaysia, it’s always ‘monsoon’ season there, but they’re different monsoons, and what this means is that for one half of the year the West coast is better than the East coast and vice versa. Get on the right – or left – coast and the weather should be fine and dandy.

I don’t know which coast this place is on but it sounds like the right one. The references to Bali ring a bell!

“After many holidays in Bali fighting off street vendors I found the fact that there were no hawkers on the beaches or streets in Langkawi a huge relief and very relaxing. I felt safe. There were also enough restaurants and things to do to keep me interested – without the noise and crowds. I was in Langkawi last Feb and it was very hot and dry. It didn’t rain once – I understand this is typical for Feb.”

Do you want me to mail you a Tesco sim? It works everywhere. 40p a text!