http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/ UK - Asia 2002 / 2003 en-us We promised the people of Asia that we would do the trip, and then go home and have babies. We have delivered on that promise, or at least Georgie has delivered. All is well with us, Georgie is smiling after... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/001717.php We have 2 pieces of very good news we’d like to tell you all. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/001515.php Leaving Iran marked the ‘end of the unknown’ for our trip; but not the ‘end of the unfamiliar’. Spending a year and half in Asia had changed us and allowed time for things to change back in Europe. So this... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000954.php All of the travellers we had met said that Iran was a wonderfully hospitable country, with fabulous culture and sights. It sounded like a hotter version of Turkey, with cheap petrol but with just one social minefield; a strict female... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000723.php My real regret with buying the Enfield is the state of exhaustion and pain it would leave me in each evening. One of the victims of this was my diary. Since Nepal, the entries were few and far between, to... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000710.php "How on earth am I going to write India up?" A question I asked Georgie about a hundred times in the 5 weeks we were there. She struck lucky, getting nice positive experiences in Nepal and Pakistan to describe, but... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000659.php Descending into the Kathmandu valley we realised that Nepal would be that little bit different. Snow-capped mountains in the distance, acres of terraced hillsides, brickworks billowing out smoke and a sprawling city. There was a different class of tourists stepping... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000554.php No, we haven't gone completely barmy and sold up the trusty BMW for a clapped out VW van, but Georgie has gone slighty loopy and has just bought a new Enfield 500cc Bullet in Kathmandu!!!... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000505.php If you're not interested in getting oil under your fingernails, you may want to ignore this posting! But if you want to know how rugged an old BMW can be and how important it is to be lucky as well... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000504.php Laos was to be our first "proudly communist" country for a while, and after our previous experience with other communist regimes we were slightly worried about what we'd find. But many fellow travelers told us that we'd "love Laos, especially... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000503.php So what did I know about Cambodia before we entered the country? Very little as usual - "The Killing Fields" film about Khmer Rouge atrocities; my favourite Oxfam T-shirt during the 80s bore one of its former names of Kampuchea;... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000474.php The benefit of keeping a personal journal throughout the course of a visit to a country comes to the fore when you have dramatic events halfway through the visit. All the early memories tend to get obliterated by the later... http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000454.php Although further east than Vladivostok, Japan is 2 hours behind Russia, so even in autumn the sun rises at 5.30am . This allowed us to get an early get away and to start exploring the mystical land of the rising sun. Our first reaction was complete shock. I really didn't expect such a busy environment. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000452.php The Russian side of the border was as officious as the previous time, but we managed to get across in a couple of hours. When the other Simon and Monika came through a few weeks later, they got held up for 3 days, as the Russian customs officials demanded a licence for their GPS - only the intervention of the British Embassy in Moscow got them out of that trouble. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000339.php The scene was pretty ugly when we eventually met up and the tension never really subsided after that. But we all ended up in a guesthouse in the centre of UB - 300 metres from the parliament building - and for just $16 a night for 2 people - which other capital in the world could you do that in? http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mccarthy/000337.php