Those pics look fantastic!! I'l definitely put it on the itinerary!! Thanks loveweed.

Corpus callosum - thanks for the heads up about those beaches - i'll look 'em up in my handy Lonely Planet. And no, we're not going to Cambodia - I'll keep your suggestion for a solo trip though!

Thanks, and feel free to pipe in anyone else - all tips welcome!!

Cheers,
JBArk

Oh, and Infinite I, as I said and endlessness reiterated:

HAMPI HAMPI HAMPI!!

If you go, some must dos/sees are the hanuman temple and many meals at the mango tree resto (food isn't great in Hampi, but this resto is a gem!!)

JBArk

oh yeah thanks for reminding me jbark, the mango tree is indeed awesome, with the way through the banana trees, and great view over the river!

Ask for the special thali!

Climbing matanga hill for sunrise is perfect too, highly recommended! (all of this in hampi)

I was in India last summer for three months or so. Went mostly south. Had horrendous illness for about half the trip, Giardia, amoebic dysentery then to follow.. got swine flu as i entered Nepal. I clung to the railings in between carriages vomiting for 12 hours straight while moaning like a wounded beast. All the while 5 'holy' men simply stared and smiled. All i can say is buy a good anti parasite / anti bacterial stash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinidazole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metronidazole

These two actually saved my life. After being seen by a flashy smooth talking Doctor, paying for medicine that didn't work i consulted the books, bought the above drugs and got fixed up relatively quickly (days and days)

I also nearly died while in the shower in Dheli, the boiler was wired into the wall (wet room) and it burst into sparks and fire while i was locked in the steamy wet shower room.

I don't know what advice i can give other then, get those drugs i mentioned, bring as little baggage as possible, and let go (you Nexians know how to let go right?)
If you want pot, best to ask a seasoned veteran, You know what i mean. Be careful, scams galore.

The Rat race is faster in India then you would expect, the strive for money is dizzying, but don't let that get in the way of feeling the magic.
Don't get hassled into being fearful, a confident attitude will be a better suit of armor then an obvious suspicion. You'll understand this when you get there.
FEEL ALIVE.
Enjoy it, because its beautiful madness, humility and awe bound.

Jbark! Thailand!

I haven't been in the south much, but the north can be quite the treat if you know where to go. In Bangkok, don't drink the city water and be VERY careful with eating street food. Admittedly I've survived the water before-- but I know quite a few folks who've (even after living there for years) gotten violently sick from eating street food, and I have too, despite an iron digestive system. Fortunately I didn't have to go to the hospital, unlike a lot of people. It was my first psychedelic experience, although it occurred before I even knew what a psychedelic experience was.

Up north there's an elephant hospital that makes a wonderful place to spend the afternoon, and almost any Buddhist temple is worth visiting. They can be amazingly unique! Also, the Chiang Mai night market (there are two, one for tourists and one more for locals) is worth a trip to. I wish I could have gone to Sukhotai, but didn't make it.

Cool tips on India here, my friend and I are moving to India in January. The only thing that sucks is they just made it so you have to leave the country for 2 months after 6 months being there. We are probably going to go to Nepal for those two months, then go back. There are some cool videos on youtube about traveling in India, particularly the "backpacking India" group of videos. Does anyone know anything about the Shamans in India? I can't seem to find much about them online?

They're not really shamans in the true sense of the word, but have you looked up sadhus? Interesting bunch if you don't already know about them.

JBArk

Must-Have antibiotics to take with you if travelling in Asia:

1.clarithromycin 500mg twice daily- very good if youre penicillin-allergic but covers chest infections,tonsillitis,ear infections (apart from otitis externa , or 'swimmers ear'and pneumonia including that caused by atypical organisms.

2.Augmentin (co-amoxiclav)625mg 3x/day-as for clarithromycin but its a penicillin and not so good for atypical pneumonia bugs.Probably a better choice for (non-rabid!) dog bites.

3.Flucloxacillin 500mg 4/day-excellent for pus-filled mosquito bites but is a penicillin.


4.Metronidazole 400mg 3x/day- the best treatment for amoebic dysentery and giardiasis.


5.Ciprofloxacin 500mg 2x/day-excellent for typhoid/paratyphoid and diarrhoea caused by Shigella.Of quite alot of use if you have travellers diarrhoea if its caused by an unspecified bacteria, but no good if the shits are due to a bacterial toxin (often caught from rice that vwas cooked hours ago).


6.For swimmers ear you need antibiotic drops containing an aminoglycoside such as gentamicin and a touch of steroid.


Its harder to comment on malarial treatments as local resistance must be taken into account.

Good advice - any more advice for the under 2yrs club? Taking the little one with us to the land of Thai.

JBArk

The doses mentioned above are for adults.All can be used in children but ciprofloxacin is not ideal as it can cause joint problems in experimental studies in young animals.God forbid, but if JBark Jnr gets typhoid he/she would need hospitalisation and either ciprofloxacin or chloramphenicol.

For kids its always wise to have some paracetamol and ibuprofen for fever and pain, plus some rehydration salts (like Dioralyte in the UK).

And for Mrs Jbark, amoxicillin/co-amoxiclav/clarithromycin (if penicillin-allergic)/trimethoprim for a urinary tract infection.

And dont forget loperamide to plug the bowels should you have bad (non typhoidal) diarrhoea and youve some commuting to do.And anti-emetic like cinnarizine/prochlorperazine are very handy-I prefer buccal prochlorperazine as it by-passes the nauseated stomach but cinnarizine is better for Jnr.

Last of all I think some good old clotrimazole (canesten) cream for crotch-rot, atheletes foot and other delightful fungal skin rashes!

Always get vacinnated against Hep A and consider getting the typhoid jab too and make sure all your standard vaccinations are upto date, especially polio.

I can relate to this, we also only went from Bangkok up north. I ate some really good tasting street food in chang mai and got really sick. It was one of those nights (maybe Saturday) where there is the big market down the middle of the street and big food sections every where the touristy one, though we did go to the local one as well. I think overall that might not be too dangerous. I don't know if I would totally avoid it or not because there was so much stuff around it really is part of being there. Maybe just don't go overboard. I ate quite a bit.

As for the Elephant hospital we went there as well. It was really great to see those people putting all that effort and care to help the poor things who are often victims of land mines on the border regions of the country. We got to see the first stages of Mosha's artificial limb that they had been working on. She came up and greeted us very warmly. You can see from the attached pic she had yet to try it on and was walking on 3 feet at the time.

From what I understood it can be hard to actually get into the hospital part we were at but we were with a Guide with this neat tour group. However there is something adjacent to it that is open 100% to the public where you can see elephants. You can even do a week or longer thing there to learn how to be an elephant trainer. That won't work for Jbark and family, but is kind of neat. If you take the family just for the day though you can see the trainers with the elephants and possibly them training some tourists as well.

We went to a bunch of temples ruins on the way up from Bangkok to Chang mai. Stopping in Sukhothai and Lampang. They were pretty neat. If I remember right Sukhothai has some of the oldest Buddhist ruins and some Hindu/Crossover as well. It was pretty interesting. Lampang is near to where the Elephant conservatory and hospital was.

If you get to Chang mai, I would for sure recommend taking a ride up the mountain nearby to the Buddhist temple 'Wat Doi Suthep' there at the top. I think nightly they do chanting towards sunset which is great to witness and the views are great too. There will be lots of tourists there, but it is worth it.

Biggest thing, no matter where you are there will probably be messages places in the cities every where you go. Just out in the open. For sure get the Thai women to beat you to a pulp at least once a day!

I'm sure I don't need to mention this, but don't go on talking about how cheap stuff is (it will be). Not good form of course.

ditto on drinking the water.
IMHO, the critters in water around Asia, and in particular the Asian countryside, can destroy your vacation... even several weeks of your life once you return home.

Sooooo.....
BOTTLED. BOTTLED. BOTTLED.
'nuff said.

Great info everyone Im sold on Hampi it looks amazing! wish I hadnt already booked my train ticket to kerala but hopefully we'll squeeze it in.

Word of warning on the sadhus, ive heard horror stories of travellers accepting pipes from some that contain datura, people end up getting robbed and losing their mind for a bit.

Yeah the friend that is going there with me told me some cool stories about a sadhus or baba he spent a couple days smoking charas with there last time he went, he's been talking about trying to find him again and bringing him some DMT when we go. I can't wait to meet some of them.

I once was taken on a schooltrip to chartres. I must have been 16 or so, and until that moment i always had been kind of wary when people where talking about spirituality. Until that moment i basically was of the opinion that if someone starts talking to you about spirituality, you can safely asume he wants to empty your pockets.

Then our tourbus aproached the town of chartres. From miles away you could see the cathedral, one of the oldest in the world, build on a high hill that was said to harbour a well with healing water. Although the cathedral was almost a thousand years old, this had been a place of worship for many more years. Century's probably, if not millenia. Their had been a church before that was destroyed in a fire and this cathedral was build around the ruins of that church that where only demolished once the walls of the new cathedral where completed.
Before there had been a church, this place had been sacred for the pre-christian religions just like the notre-dame in paris is build on the ruins of old pagan temples, on soil that had been a place of worship even before roman times.
This cathedral has witnessed a lot of important historic events. It had been the traditional starting point for pelgrimage to santiago de compostella and many catholics believe that maria's shroud is strored there. the place is surrounded by myths.

The moment i was standing there, the history of the place totally overwhelmed me. For the first time in my life i was able to see that religion also brings many good things with it. This place had been bounding people, holding them toghether for thousands of years. Only by being a strong community, people could have been able to build such a structure there on that high hill in the midle of this small town, i realised, without modern technology and scientific knowledge about materials and of how the forces of nature work on such tall structures.
And in spite of all the wars that had been raging through europe for centuries, this collosal but fragile building was still standing here.

Years later i revisited the place, and again i was just struck by something. Again it was as if you could just feel the ghosts of thousands of years of history wandering all around you. Since than i always try to visit old cathedrals anytime, when i'm in some french town where there is one, and luckily there are many of those french towns. I have noticed that old cathedrals often have a typical smell for wich i have no explanation. I think it's micro organisms that live there, that do well in some specific materials.

Anyway. Chartres is a relatively unknown place that has something very special about it. It's relatively unafected by tourists and it's only an hour or so away from paris. Trains go there from gare du montparnasse and you have also a nice view over paris when the train leaves the city. And while it's only a trip of one hour or less, it feels like you're entering an entirely different age far away from all the city buzz.

So, 11 days till lift off! Because we are bringing the little guy along we have everything booked & planned in advance (the opposite of the way I ordinarily travel!) We touch down in Bangkok on the 29th, then a few days later are flying to Chiang mai for 6 days, then down for some beach time in Ko Kradan then finishing off in Ko Lanta. Anyone have any tips for these places? Sights, restos, activities...?

@bananforeskin - thanks for the heads up on bangkok street food. i have never had the guts to eat street food anywhere and had heard that thailand had among the safest in the genre, so i had decided to pop my "street food" cherry there. I am having second thoughts, now...

cheers,
JBArk