Having spent nearly three months in the Indian subcontinent, we have arrived in Bangkok and now await the safe arrival of the bike, which is also travelling by plane, albeit encased in a steel frame.

Our intention had been to fly back to the UK at the end of this month but as Nick no longer has to return to work until the beginning of April, we thought it far better to continue our overland journey from India to Singapore, travelling through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. With the Burmese borders closed to foreign traffic we have resorted to a far more conventional method of travelling, by air. Our arrival in Thailand, saw us descending from the first international flight we have caught in the last two years, despite having visited 36 countries since then.

Southeast Asia has come as an enormous culture shock after our time in India. After leaving Pushkar, we continued our trip round Rajasthan, which truely lives up to its history, as a land of forts, temples and chivalry. Riding due south to Chittaurgarh, where the remains of the largest fort in Rajasthan stretch into the horizon, its easy to understand why so many heated battles were faught for its control. We continued south-east to Udaipur, impossibly romantic and set around one of the many tranquil lakes of the region. Here, sat on the terraces of the city palace, we celebrated Nick's birthday with a very long lunch.

The Jain temple complexes of both Mount Abu and Ranakpur were incredible and unlike anything we had seen before. From Ranakpur we spent the day riding through villages to reach the fort at Kumbhalgarh, which, like all our travelling though India, required continually stopping to ask deeply confused Indians for directions. The fort sits high above the desert plains and scrub of central Rajasthan, affording incredible views unusually unimpeded by pollution.

We have discovered, the very hard way, that negotiating our way into Indian cities is best done by Rebecca climbing into a rickshaw, whilst Nick follows on the bike. This works providing said rickshaw driver has a working knowledge of the city he lives in, which is not always the case. Although far from fool-proof, this method does have the advantage, that once in seperate vehicles, it far harder to argue over directions. Thus, we found ourselves in the five foot wide streets of the old city of Jodhpur.

After spending a few days in the famous blue city, we drove west, deep into the Thar desert to Jaisalmer, a sand-castle of a fort, sat on the old silk routes from central asia. Here, camels are still put to task and the desert stretches as far as the Pakistani border. Returning back to Jaipur, we rode through Bikaner and the village of Mahansar, where we stayed in an incredible fort, preserved and almost frozen in time.

In Jaipur we saw Rebecca's parents, who were in Rajasthan on holiday, and the 61st cavalry, the regiment affiliated to Nick's, before riding back to Delhi and our onward flight. Now, whilst we wait for the bike's arrival, we are heading south to Thailand's coast (hurrah). Once we have the bike safely in Thailand, we hope to ride north up-country, before crossing to Laos.