It was not until I finished making these maps of my travels through India that I realised how great an example of a poorly planned trip it was. I have to admit that I made no plans at all prior to getting there, apart from organising my visa and buying a lonely planet guide that weighed in close to a bulky bible, pound-for-pound. I had no idea at all what I wanted to see, no ideas about the culture, no fondness for meditating on top of mountains, no predilection for spicy foods at all - in fact the idea of being in India scared the shit out of me.

The reasons for almost impulsively buying a ticket to Calcutta were too numerous, but wanting to actually be in India was not among them. I'd just been dumped by a girl, just finished "Desolation Angels", was sick of living alone, dying to meet more foreigners and my job was gradually coming to an end so I knew the time was nigh to be saying goodbye to the Philippines. I wanted to get out of there and just at that time received an open invitation from a beautiful friend who was living in an ashram in Southern India (apologies Malene, I hope you've forgiven me by now and I'm proud to say you are still the only person I've ever known to be kicked out of a country and blacklisted from ever returning there...but that's another story).

So armed with a lonely planet the size of a bible and a backpack full of so many "just-in-case" items (ok, it was my first big trip - don't hassle me) I packed in my job and left Manila. And believe me, I hated leaving all the comforts of my daily life that I'd packed up in a box and left with my friend Niko, especially as I knew how prone his house was to flooding...