TRIP DIARY: India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Australia 2009/2010

28.10 10:55AM.. Me, Francesca and Marco had a flight from Rome to India, stopping few hours at Doha in Qatar, finally our trip can start!

INDIA 

29.10 - 1.11 NEW DELHI, (11hr flight) It's always a shock landing the first time in India, we stayed at Paharganj, the cheap backpackers suburb, visiting: (30.10) Connaught place, Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Gandhi memorial, Lotus temple, Humayun's tomb. (21.10) Indian gate. (1.10) Birla Mandir, Central Ridge reserve forest
2.11 - 4.11 JAIPUR, by an overnight sleeping bus (8hr) visiting the Pink city, Albert museum, Hawa Mahal, Jal mahal, Amber fort and city palace
5.11 - 8.11 AGRA, by morning train "hard sleeper" (8hr), visiting the Agra fort, Taj Mahal and we went by car at Fatehpur Sikri
9.11 GORAKHPUR, by night "sleeper" train (14hr) one of the worst trip packed with other 3 Indians seating on my bed, we arrived at this dirty and sandy town not far from Nepal's border

NEPAL 

10.11 - 11.11 BHAIRAHAWA, by bus (5hr) we stayed at this border town, and the day after we went to Lumbini by bus, taking 3hr for doing 30km as we broke down several times, engine, tyre and windshield, to reach the Buddha's birthplace
12.11 - 14.11 KATHMANDU, by minivan (12hr) staying at Thamel district and where we could organize and buying some stuff for the trekking on the way to the "Everest Base Camp"

EBC TREK

15.11 PHAKDING (2500mt) arriving first at LUKLA (2840mt) in the morning by a scaring half n'hour flight with Agni Air and then 5hr trekking to reach Phakding
16.11 - 17.11 NAMCHE BAZAR (3400mt) after 9hr trekking, here we spent 2 days for the altitude acclimatization, the second day was fortunately the only one during the whole trek where was raining and snowing at night, we could walk around some market and Buddhist temple 
18.11 DEBOCHE (3800mt) after 7hr trekking, stopping few hours on the way at the Tengboche monastery
19.11 - 20.11 DINGBOCHE (4400mt) after 5hr trekking, other 2 days for the second altitude acclimatization stop, reading some books and doing the laundry using ice instead of soap 
21.11 LOBUCHE (4900mt) after 4 ½ hr trekking, we started feeling effects of altitude and cold with temperature dropping at -10 C° at night
22.11 GORAK SHEP (5200mt) after 2hr trekking, one of the highest settlement in the world, all day long with temperature below zero and rare air, sleeping at night with about -15C°, we took the last 2 ½ hr uphill trekking to the top of KALA PATTHAR (5545mt) and it's stunning view of Mt. Everest
23.11 - 24.11 DINGBOCHE (4400mt) after 5hr trekking, we stopped again here and the second day we went up to Ama Dablam's lake after 2 hr trek
25.11 - 27.11 NAMCHE BAZAR (3400mt) after 7 ½ hr trekking, where the 24.11 from there we went up to KHUMJUNG after 1 ½ easy trekking, where we could see the Yeti's scalp into a Buddhist monastery
28.11 LUKLA (2840mt) after 8hr trekking, our last day around the Himalaya's range, we where totally exhausted after a total of 59 hr trekking in 2 weeks but was a great experience 

29.11 - 1.12 KATHMANDU, flying back with the mini "unsafe" plane from Lukla, we had finally enough time to visit the Boudhanath Stupa, Pashupatinath, Patan square, Swayambhunath Monastery and around the city centre
2.12 Travelling from Kathmandu to Varanasi (28hr trip) by bus first to Birganj, then we get an horse coach from there to the Indian border first and then to the city of Raxaul, where we found a local train to Sagauli and there we changed to another train taking the "hard sleeper" class to Varanasi

INDIA

3.12 - 6.12 VARANASI, also know as Benares, the holiest Indian city, on the Gange's banks whit it's numerous Ghats, a real sacred experience
7.12 - 8.12 Travelling from Varanasi to Kolkata, 35 hr "hard sleeper" train, it was supposed to be an 8 hr trip, but we took the wrong train first, getting lost in some Indian country side, and changing to another slow train that brought us after two nights and one day to destination
9.12 - 15.12 KOLKATA, one of the most catholic city in India, we stayed at the YMCA hostel, visiting around Sudder and Park street, Victoria Memorial and the Millennium Park, and we arranged the Bangladesh visa

BANGLADESH

16.12 - 19.12 DHAKA, by bus (14hr) the capital city and also one of the busiest city in the world, spending few days here we could see the Supreme Court, Curzon Hall, Ramna Park, Old Dhaka, Nawabpur and Baitul Mukarram Mosque

MALAYSIA

20.12 - 21.12 KUALA LUMPUR, by flight (3½hr) our stop over on the way to Perth, 2 nice and relaxing days, staying at Matahari Lodge near Chinatown, visiting the Tasik Perdana lake, Butterfly park, Dataran Merdeka and back at the Batu Caves

AUSTRALIA

22.12.2009 - 10.2.2010 PERH, by flight (5hr) staying at Beatty Lodge first and then at the same house with Francesca and my friends Paolo and Francesco Moro, and other few people from Marzocca and Senigallia.. we spend all together Christmas and new years eve there, we went on Rotnest Island as well and after the festivity Marco moved to Mildura for working and get the extension visa, me I did many jobs but as I was only with tourist visa was impossible to keep any job for more than a week so me and Francesca decided after 2 months to move to Sydney, so we found a campervan to relocate in 6 days to Syd for just a dollar per day and we started our coast to coast trip.
11.2 SOUTHERN CROSS, 11hr driving, our first stop, we picked up Kart, an Estonian girl who needed a lift to Port Augusta and we did the trip together,  we arrived here via Wave Rock
12.2 CAIGUNA, 13hr driving, stopping on the way at Coolgardie, Karlgoorlie, Mt. charlotte, the Superpit and Norseman
13.2 WIRRULLA, 12hr driving, via the Nullarbor Plain and stopping at the Great Australian Bight
14.2 YUNTA, 15hr driving, via Kimba, Iron Knob, Whyalla, Port Augusta where we dropped off Kart, Orroroo and Peterborough
15.2 NARROMINE, 15hr driving, stopping at Broken Hill where we visited the Miners Memorial, Desert Sculpture and the White Rocks site
16.2 - 8.3 SYDNEY, 8hr driving, via the Blue Mountain. Here we stayed at Tokyo Village hostel, and finally I could find a cash in hand job into a clothes factory and we visited around the city, we did the beautiful coastal walking and we went to Parramatta and back from there by the river boat.