Just woken up in our swish apartment in Bangkok, it didn't snow and Santa hasn't been, but just wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas and new year's. It's going to be a strange day especially as it's just the two of us.
While the Thais are trying hard to make it feel like Christmas it isn't quite working - and it feels decidedly weird spending xmas in a country where it's 30c instead of 4c. Part of the reason we are staying in the apartment is so we can make our own Christmas lunch - but after a visit to Tesco Lotus yesterday that may be harder than we hope.
Firstly we can't find a turkey anywhere, secondly we don't have an oven. So we're having a re-heated seasoned chicken and mashed potato with veg...mmmmmm. I bought what I thought was a xmas ham but it turns out it's a lump of uncured pork - I get the feeling one or two Thai dogs will have a Christmas surprise later when I get rid of it.
We're almost at the end of our Indian/Asian adventures and will be heading down under on Boxing Day (night). It's been fun. I think we both enjoyed India the most and despite all that has happened in Mumbai we will definitely be heading back sometime (though on reflection the country's transport system probably wore us out more than we had expected).
The last few weeks in SE Asia have been busy as we have been on the move constantly - as a result we're looking forward to getting to Oz more than ever, where we know we will be for at least a year.
We're planning on getting ourselves a camper van (I'm holding out for a Mad Max-style Interceptor) with all the kit and caboodle, and will be hitting the roads after our NYE celebrations.
After moving our flights to Dec 26th it looked like it might be impossible to find somewhere to stay in Sydney but we have managed to get a room in a place just north of the harbour bridge in Kirribilli so will see some of you soon. To everyone back home enjoy the Christmas spirit and I will speak soon.
Thursday 25 December 2008
Friday 19 December 2008
Patong Ping-pong, ladyboys, and the neverending journey to Ko Pha-Ngan
After arriving in Phuket (pronounced Poo-Get if your Thai and feck It if you're Irish), we hauled our bags to the nearest guesthouse in the resort of Patong Beach. I was still dazed after stupidly smashing my head again on the roof of the boat (this is starting to worry Angela who thinks I will have the IQ of a boxer by the time I get back to the UK - apologies to any boxers reading this),and we somehow managed to get a room in Charlie's Guesthouse, which it turns out is more used to renting by the hour rather than per night.
After freshening up and a quick bite to eat, we headed to the beach. We were dazzled by the amount of bars and tacky tourist restaurants we saw on the short walk through Patong. The beach was no different and was massively over-developed. Having spent the previous night on a deserted beach on Ko Phi Phi it was a bit of a shock. Everywhere you looked there were parasols and sun-loungers while people on speedboats, jetskis, and parasails weaved dangerously in and out of swimmers. It seemed a real shame as the bay must have looked fantastic before the lure of tourist dollar turned it into some sort of South East Asian Benidorm.
Unfortunately a lot of the places we have been to in Thailand are similar. I guess a lot of it is a response to the devastation wreaked by the tsunami (there are tsunami warning signs, evacuation routes and alarms everywhere) but I think southern Thailand generally is over-developed.
I spoke to a couple of diving schools, but their prices were massively over-inflated (I will wait until we get to Ko Tao tomorrow), we soaked up the sun and sights and sunk a couple of well-earned beers.
A day was enough for us here and after getting back from the beach we booked a minibus to Sura Thani and ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan for the next morning.
.....Chris has become fatigued (or can't be arsed finishing this off so I have taken over).
Phuket was a disappointment, but maybe we just chose the wrong place to stay...I did not realise how big the island was and we are guilty of arriving in Patong - not liking it and getting on the first bus out of there. We could have hired a scooter and explored some of the other beaches but as we are running out of time in Thailand we decided to cut our losses and head for the east cost islands of Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao.
After a day taking in the sights of Patong darkness fell and the town lit up in a blaze of neon...and out came the Thai Go Go girls and ladyboys! Since we had one night only we decided to fully embrace the debauchery and hit the town. We went to a few bars where you get a complementary Thai girl at every table, these girls were stunning and Chris was like a kid in a sweet shop, he did not know where to look first. Luckily they were showing the match - Arsenal were paying Boro but don't ask Chris what the score was i still don't think he would be able to tell you.
Next stop was a bar where we were dragged in by a ladyboy, he got us settled with some drinks, came back over and made us play Jackpot, connect 4 and some random hitting nails into a block of wood with a hammer game (Chris's DIY nightmares returned). We also made friends with the girls (boys?) and by an amazing coincidence one of the girls I had got talking to was on our minibus to Sura Thani the next morning. It was great chatting to all the girls and I think they were pleased to be nattering to me rather than some 50 year old skanky sex tourist (of which there were many).
The main street was packed with bars all with glittering arrays of dancing ladyboys, here we met two 19 year old boys from Finland....I think it was a eye opener for them, so much so they were hammered - as was Chris. They provided him with lots of material and I had to walk along with the three of them saying "you like ladyboys", "no YOU like ladyboys" Chris in his full volume Borat voice.
Next morning we were on the minibus at 7.30am - the journey turned into another nightmare trip and because of a delay with the ferry transfer we did not reach Ko Pha-Ngan until 8.30pm. We were tired and had no where to say but luckily met up with a couple from Holland who were also heading for the northern resort of Haad Yao. They recommended a place called Highlife. This turned out to be a real gem, wooden huts with hammocks and sea views, a restaurant with a tasty looking menu (they had Cornflakes!!!!) and a lovely pool. However the first hut we looked at was an older style, Chris pulled what he thought was the bathroom light only to find he was holding onto a giant cockroach (Jules you would have loved it), when we did find the real light switch it didn't get any better - the bathroom was full of them! We politely declined this hut and were shown another, this turned out to be much better. We later discovered the absence of cockroaches was thanks to our resident lizard who lived behind the bathroom mirror and was over a foot long, he looked like a mini crocodile.
We stayed on the island three days and it was very relaxing, although the weather was a overcast and windy for a couple of the days so we did not get much opportunity to work on our tan. Needless to say everyone reading this at home will be full of sympathy. On our last day we hired a scooter and drove around the island checking out deserted beaches, we found some real beauties and put the scooter through it's paces by taking it down (and back up) some very steep dirt tracks....luckily it didn't rain or we would still be stuck on a deserted beach somewhere.
Yesterday we got yet another ferry to Ko Tao. I would say that Chris has been doing very well on the open sea but he went diving today and his seasickness has finally caught back up with him.
We are staying in the diving resort of Sairee beach which is a mecca for divers, this island is world number 2 in issuing PADI certificates. Most of the dive centres offer discounts on accommodation and we spent our first night at the Big Blue dive resort, where the rooms were cheap but dreadful. Our little hovel stunk of drains and peroxide (?), this was too much even for Chris so we decided to check out and look for somewhere better. We stumbled across a BAN'S diving resort and had a look at the rooms, the first was luxury but the more expensive one they showed us was exquisite and we just couldn't resist. It is the most luxurious room we have stayed in since leaving home and has hot water which is a rarity on this island....the cold showers are painful.
Chris did two dives today while I had a lay-in and spent the morning chilling around the pool. He saw lots of fish and navigated through underwater tunnels but the visibility was not as good as he expected. The snorkeling however is great and we have been splitting our time between baking on the beach and peering down at the underwater world.
We have two more nights of luxury then we are off on a catamaran-bus combo to Bangkok in time for Christmas.
In case we don't get a chance to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPY NEW YEAR!!!!
After freshening up and a quick bite to eat, we headed to the beach. We were dazzled by the amount of bars and tacky tourist restaurants we saw on the short walk through Patong. The beach was no different and was massively over-developed. Having spent the previous night on a deserted beach on Ko Phi Phi it was a bit of a shock. Everywhere you looked there were parasols and sun-loungers while people on speedboats, jetskis, and parasails weaved dangerously in and out of swimmers. It seemed a real shame as the bay must have looked fantastic before the lure of tourist dollar turned it into some sort of South East Asian Benidorm.
Unfortunately a lot of the places we have been to in Thailand are similar. I guess a lot of it is a response to the devastation wreaked by the tsunami (there are tsunami warning signs, evacuation routes and alarms everywhere) but I think southern Thailand generally is over-developed.
I spoke to a couple of diving schools, but their prices were massively over-inflated (I will wait until we get to Ko Tao tomorrow), we soaked up the sun and sights and sunk a couple of well-earned beers.
A day was enough for us here and after getting back from the beach we booked a minibus to Sura Thani and ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan for the next morning.
.....Chris has become fatigued (or can't be arsed finishing this off so I have taken over).
Phuket was a disappointment, but maybe we just chose the wrong place to stay...I did not realise how big the island was and we are guilty of arriving in Patong - not liking it and getting on the first bus out of there. We could have hired a scooter and explored some of the other beaches but as we are running out of time in Thailand we decided to cut our losses and head for the east cost islands of Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao.
After a day taking in the sights of Patong darkness fell and the town lit up in a blaze of neon...and out came the Thai Go Go girls and ladyboys! Since we had one night only we decided to fully embrace the debauchery and hit the town. We went to a few bars where you get a complementary Thai girl at every table, these girls were stunning and Chris was like a kid in a sweet shop, he did not know where to look first. Luckily they were showing the match - Arsenal were paying Boro but don't ask Chris what the score was i still don't think he would be able to tell you.
Next stop was a bar where we were dragged in by a ladyboy, he got us settled with some drinks, came back over and made us play Jackpot, connect 4 and some random hitting nails into a block of wood with a hammer game (Chris's DIY nightmares returned). We also made friends with the girls (boys?) and by an amazing coincidence one of the girls I had got talking to was on our minibus to Sura Thani the next morning. It was great chatting to all the girls and I think they were pleased to be nattering to me rather than some 50 year old skanky sex tourist (of which there were many).
The main street was packed with bars all with glittering arrays of dancing ladyboys, here we met two 19 year old boys from Finland....I think it was a eye opener for them, so much so they were hammered - as was Chris. They provided him with lots of material and I had to walk along with the three of them saying "you like ladyboys", "no YOU like ladyboys" Chris in his full volume Borat voice.
Next morning we were on the minibus at 7.30am - the journey turned into another nightmare trip and because of a delay with the ferry transfer we did not reach Ko Pha-Ngan until 8.30pm. We were tired and had no where to say but luckily met up with a couple from Holland who were also heading for the northern resort of Haad Yao. They recommended a place called Highlife. This turned out to be a real gem, wooden huts with hammocks and sea views, a restaurant with a tasty looking menu (they had Cornflakes!!!!) and a lovely pool. However the first hut we looked at was an older style, Chris pulled what he thought was the bathroom light only to find he was holding onto a giant cockroach (Jules you would have loved it), when we did find the real light switch it didn't get any better - the bathroom was full of them! We politely declined this hut and were shown another, this turned out to be much better. We later discovered the absence of cockroaches was thanks to our resident lizard who lived behind the bathroom mirror and was over a foot long, he looked like a mini crocodile.
We stayed on the island three days and it was very relaxing, although the weather was a overcast and windy for a couple of the days so we did not get much opportunity to work on our tan. Needless to say everyone reading this at home will be full of sympathy. On our last day we hired a scooter and drove around the island checking out deserted beaches, we found some real beauties and put the scooter through it's paces by taking it down (and back up) some very steep dirt tracks....luckily it didn't rain or we would still be stuck on a deserted beach somewhere.
Yesterday we got yet another ferry to Ko Tao. I would say that Chris has been doing very well on the open sea but he went diving today and his seasickness has finally caught back up with him.
We are staying in the diving resort of Sairee beach which is a mecca for divers, this island is world number 2 in issuing PADI certificates. Most of the dive centres offer discounts on accommodation and we spent our first night at the Big Blue dive resort, where the rooms were cheap but dreadful. Our little hovel stunk of drains and peroxide (?), this was too much even for Chris so we decided to check out and look for somewhere better. We stumbled across a BAN'S diving resort and had a look at the rooms, the first was luxury but the more expensive one they showed us was exquisite and we just couldn't resist. It is the most luxurious room we have stayed in since leaving home and has hot water which is a rarity on this island....the cold showers are painful.
Chris did two dives today while I had a lay-in and spent the morning chilling around the pool. He saw lots of fish and navigated through underwater tunnels but the visibility was not as good as he expected. The snorkeling however is great and we have been splitting our time between baking on the beach and peering down at the underwater world.
We have two more nights of luxury then we are off on a catamaran-bus combo to Bangkok in time for Christmas.
In case we don't get a chance to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Monday 15 December 2008
Penang, Ao Nang, Ko Phi Phi
It's been a while, but news of my death has been greatly exaggerated and I have instead been sampling the delights of Thailand - in fact as I write this from the hammock outside our beach hut on the evening of 15th December, I can hear the waves lapping at the beach outside and the sound of Bob Marley drifting across the sand from the bar - I can't even BEGIN to imagine how crap it is in the UK right now - at least it's Christmas soon ;-)
After too much time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Penang was a welcome break. The slower pace of life and laidback locals give the place a feel very similar to Fort Cochin, Kerala. After a late night arrival in Georgetown at the 'New Banana' guesthouse, we decamped to the bar for a few surprisingly cheap Tigers (beer is taxed at 40% in Malaysia!).
The feel of the place was very different to what we've been used to in India and Sri Lanka. There's a lot of backpackers, most of whom are young, tattooed and sunburnt, and only too happy to while away the days propping up the bar or surfing the net on their laptops. Not being nearly as young, tattooed or sunburnt we grabbed a rickshaw and were pedalled to the mecca of uncool - Fort Cornwallis (even the name is dull).
Good to see statues to the late/great Captain Francis Light who set up the fort in 1786 for the East India Company, and named the place Georgetown after the King. This is one of many remnants of the British Empire we've encountered on the trip, which makes the heart swell with pride and makes you wonder why us Brits aren't a little prouder of our history.
After getting our picture taken with the Cap'n and a four-year-old python called Milo (I thought it was going to bite me), we headed back for a tasty lunch.
(Before this all happened we spent the morning rushing around trying to sort out a new visa for Thailand after the Gov't (in its infinite wisdom) decided to cut the length of stay for people arriving in Thailand via a land border from 30 days to 15. We will only be there 18-19 days so it hurt the wallet even more.)
Back to our tales...
So after sorting the visa we got up the next day for a 5am minivan to the border and Hat Yai in southern Thailand. We were joined in the cramped van by three giant Irishmen who were soon cracking us up and were obviously still drunk. Unfortunately one of the lads managed to get his passport 'locked' (that or he's a terrorist), while the other two made it through passport control only to get lost on the other side (unbelievable) and we had to wait at the border crossing for about an hour while they were found and the passport was fixed.
We were soon at the drop-off point though and after turning our watches back one hour, bought our onward tickets to Krabi - another cramped four-hour minivan ride away.
When I saw the driver I should have known we'd have problems. He was wearing fingerless driving/racing gloves, and after cramming us in the back seat of the van next to a sweaty Thai, turned up the car stereo to 10 just in case we couldn't here his Thai pop 'music'. The ride can only be described as death-defying. His minivan (complete with spoiler, bodykit and alloys) hurtled along the Thai roads come rain or shine. He overtook on corners, overtook on blind summits and seemed to try his hardest to ensure that we spent every second of the journey in abject terror. I lost count of the number of near misses, but let's just say I felt safer in a rickshaw in Delhi traffic than in this van.
We were relieved when we finally got to Krabi Town but a bit dismayed to learn that it was nowhere near the beach. Luckily though a guy we'd met on the journey pointed us towards Ao Nang, which is on the western side of the country and a short taxi journey away.
Ao Nang is well-equipped for tourists and backpackers and after chowing down on some cheap n'tasty massaman curry we decided to take in the sights. There were a lot of places offering Thai massage (no not that sort), and the usual armies of touts and hawkers trying to offload dvds, suits, watches etc.
After booking a luxury speed boat tour of the islands for the following day, we headed to the beach with a couple of Changs from 7-11 to watch the sunset.
Our speedboat was a twin-engined 400bhp, twin V6 monster (who needs eco-tourism anyway?), and was the envy of the other tourists and fishermen alike. The islands around Ao Nang make up the Than Bok Kharani national marine park and need to be seen to be believed. Their sheer limestone cliffs rise straight out of the sea and every steep surface is covered with dense vegetation. One island is battered by waves from the outside but is home to a perfectly calm lagoon in its middle, another one is narrower at the base than its summit and seems to defy gravity, all of them look impressive and island spotting was a great way to pass the 20-minute trip to our first stop - Hong island.
On arriving we donned our snorkels and spent an hour swimming in crystal clear waters in a small lagoon next to the island. The sealife was amazing. It was like swimming in a tropical fish tank but with more Russians. At one point we were literally feeding shoals of these wild fish by hand, one of them ended up biting Angela after she antagonised it with a piece of bread!
We spent another night at Ao Nang before another sunny ferry trip to Ko Phi Phi. Ko Phi Phi is made up of two main clusters of islands: Phi Phi Don (where we stayed) and Phi Phi Ley (where The Beach was filmed). Instead of opting to stay in the main resort we decided to stay at remote Ao Toh Koh beach which took 20 minutes by long-tail boat to get to and only had power between 6pm and 5am. The first room we looked at was virtually in the jungle and we ended up choosing a slightly more expensive (but better sealed) room for 600 baht.
While I embraced the jungle lifestyle, Angela wasn't too pleased at the lack of hot water and electricity, and didn't enjoy the return to cold showers and damp jungle rooms. The snorkelling off of the beach was yet again fantastic and the corals were better than I saw in Egypt. The only problem was the tide was quite powerful and it was a battle to avoid the sea urchins and stay upright when clearing your mask.
This was December 12th, Full Moon Party night, and we couldn't have been further from the party. But our host, Pon, was very friendly and even offered to open the bar for the eight of us staying on the beach, tempting us with promises of 'something to smoke'. We had a couple more Changs and turned in, after setting the alarm for 6am to catch the sunrise.
We were weighing up whether to visit Phi Phi Ley and in the end gave it a miss having already shelled out for one island-hopping tour. We bought our tickets to Phuket, and squeezed ourselves onto the deck of another ferry to soak up the rays. Now, I'm not the best of sailors, but so far this trip I have managed to avoid seasickness. This almost came to an end during this 90-minute journey though, and I had to try my hardest to stop going green as we were rocked back and forth.
(continued soon)
After too much time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Penang was a welcome break. The slower pace of life and laidback locals give the place a feel very similar to Fort Cochin, Kerala. After a late night arrival in Georgetown at the 'New Banana' guesthouse, we decamped to the bar for a few surprisingly cheap Tigers (beer is taxed at 40% in Malaysia!).
The feel of the place was very different to what we've been used to in India and Sri Lanka. There's a lot of backpackers, most of whom are young, tattooed and sunburnt, and only too happy to while away the days propping up the bar or surfing the net on their laptops. Not being nearly as young, tattooed or sunburnt we grabbed a rickshaw and were pedalled to the mecca of uncool - Fort Cornwallis (even the name is dull).
Good to see statues to the late/great Captain Francis Light who set up the fort in 1786 for the East India Company, and named the place Georgetown after the King. This is one of many remnants of the British Empire we've encountered on the trip, which makes the heart swell with pride and makes you wonder why us Brits aren't a little prouder of our history.
After getting our picture taken with the Cap'n and a four-year-old python called Milo (I thought it was going to bite me), we headed back for a tasty lunch.
(Before this all happened we spent the morning rushing around trying to sort out a new visa for Thailand after the Gov't (in its infinite wisdom) decided to cut the length of stay for people arriving in Thailand via a land border from 30 days to 15. We will only be there 18-19 days so it hurt the wallet even more.)
Back to our tales...
So after sorting the visa we got up the next day for a 5am minivan to the border and Hat Yai in southern Thailand. We were joined in the cramped van by three giant Irishmen who were soon cracking us up and were obviously still drunk. Unfortunately one of the lads managed to get his passport 'locked' (that or he's a terrorist), while the other two made it through passport control only to get lost on the other side (unbelievable) and we had to wait at the border crossing for about an hour while they were found and the passport was fixed.
We were soon at the drop-off point though and after turning our watches back one hour, bought our onward tickets to Krabi - another cramped four-hour minivan ride away.
When I saw the driver I should have known we'd have problems. He was wearing fingerless driving/racing gloves, and after cramming us in the back seat of the van next to a sweaty Thai, turned up the car stereo to 10 just in case we couldn't here his Thai pop 'music'. The ride can only be described as death-defying. His minivan (complete with spoiler, bodykit and alloys) hurtled along the Thai roads come rain or shine. He overtook on corners, overtook on blind summits and seemed to try his hardest to ensure that we spent every second of the journey in abject terror. I lost count of the number of near misses, but let's just say I felt safer in a rickshaw in Delhi traffic than in this van.
We were relieved when we finally got to Krabi Town but a bit dismayed to learn that it was nowhere near the beach. Luckily though a guy we'd met on the journey pointed us towards Ao Nang, which is on the western side of the country and a short taxi journey away.
Ao Nang is well-equipped for tourists and backpackers and after chowing down on some cheap n'tasty massaman curry we decided to take in the sights. There were a lot of places offering Thai massage (no not that sort), and the usual armies of touts and hawkers trying to offload dvds, suits, watches etc.
After booking a luxury speed boat tour of the islands for the following day, we headed to the beach with a couple of Changs from 7-11 to watch the sunset.
Our speedboat was a twin-engined 400bhp, twin V6 monster (who needs eco-tourism anyway?), and was the envy of the other tourists and fishermen alike. The islands around Ao Nang make up the Than Bok Kharani national marine park and need to be seen to be believed. Their sheer limestone cliffs rise straight out of the sea and every steep surface is covered with dense vegetation. One island is battered by waves from the outside but is home to a perfectly calm lagoon in its middle, another one is narrower at the base than its summit and seems to defy gravity, all of them look impressive and island spotting was a great way to pass the 20-minute trip to our first stop - Hong island.
On arriving we donned our snorkels and spent an hour swimming in crystal clear waters in a small lagoon next to the island. The sealife was amazing. It was like swimming in a tropical fish tank but with more Russians. At one point we were literally feeding shoals of these wild fish by hand, one of them ended up biting Angela after she antagonised it with a piece of bread!
We spent another night at Ao Nang before another sunny ferry trip to Ko Phi Phi. Ko Phi Phi is made up of two main clusters of islands: Phi Phi Don (where we stayed) and Phi Phi Ley (where The Beach was filmed). Instead of opting to stay in the main resort we decided to stay at remote Ao Toh Koh beach which took 20 minutes by long-tail boat to get to and only had power between 6pm and 5am. The first room we looked at was virtually in the jungle and we ended up choosing a slightly more expensive (but better sealed) room for 600 baht.
While I embraced the jungle lifestyle, Angela wasn't too pleased at the lack of hot water and electricity, and didn't enjoy the return to cold showers and damp jungle rooms. The snorkelling off of the beach was yet again fantastic and the corals were better than I saw in Egypt. The only problem was the tide was quite powerful and it was a battle to avoid the sea urchins and stay upright when clearing your mask.
This was December 12th, Full Moon Party night, and we couldn't have been further from the party. But our host, Pon, was very friendly and even offered to open the bar for the eight of us staying on the beach, tempting us with promises of 'something to smoke'. We had a couple more Changs and turned in, after setting the alarm for 6am to catch the sunrise.
We were weighing up whether to visit Phi Phi Ley and in the end gave it a miss having already shelled out for one island-hopping tour. We bought our tickets to Phuket, and squeezed ourselves onto the deck of another ferry to soak up the rays. Now, I'm not the best of sailors, but so far this trip I have managed to avoid seasickness. This almost came to an end during this 90-minute journey though, and I had to try my hardest to stop going green as we were rocked back and forth.
(continued soon)
Tuesday 9 December 2008
Penang and visa problems
We both had our reservations about staying in Penang and were hoping to get to Thailand as soon as possible, but after a day and a night here we have decided we quite like it. It's got the same feel to it as Fort Cochin in Kerala, helped by its geography as well as its people.
There are a lot more of your 'typical' backpackers here (sunburnt, tattooed layabouts who probably all read The Beach and thought backpacking was the answer), and the vibe is completely different to India - I think everyone is trying too hard to be cool.
We're not though so pulling on our sandals we headed straight to the mecca of uncool, Fort Cornwallis, for some cultshah.
After saturating our brains with the history of the place (we sailed in, claimed it as our own, annoyed the Dutch and named the capital after the King), we had our photo taken with a 4-year-old python called Milo (pix of us looking scared soon). It weighed a ton and I was sure it was going to bite me until the handler reassured me that he prefers live pigeons (!)
Now, as we've travelled our windy way here I've been pleased to notice the dozens of reminders of the imperial might the British Empire (RIP) once wielded. We've been everywhere, and I don't think I've been to a country yet that we haven't invaded.
Elements of Britishness are alive and well in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore
Take Penang for example. The East India Company needed a convenient stop-off point on the trade routes it had established between China and India, so the British Navy sailed in and took over the island - just to annoy the Dutch - and established the capital Georgetown, named after the king.
The whole of India thrives on a bureaucracy and democracy so maddening it could only be British,
After arriving we sunk a few Tigers before discovering that the Thai Government
There are a lot more of your 'typical' backpackers here (sunburnt, tattooed layabouts who probably all read The Beach and thought backpacking was the answer), and the vibe is completely different to India - I think everyone is trying too hard to be cool.
We're not though so pulling on our sandals we headed straight to the mecca of uncool, Fort Cornwallis, for some cultshah.
After saturating our brains with the history of the place (we sailed in, claimed it as our own, annoyed the Dutch and named the capital after the King), we had our photo taken with a 4-year-old python called Milo (pix of us looking scared soon). It weighed a ton and I was sure it was going to bite me until the handler reassured me that he prefers live pigeons (!)
Now, as we've travelled our windy way here I've been pleased to notice the dozens of reminders of the imperial might the British Empire (RIP) once wielded. We've been everywhere, and I don't think I've been to a country yet that we haven't invaded.
Elements of Britishness are alive and well in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore
Take Penang for example. The East India Company needed a convenient stop-off point on the trade routes it had established between China and India, so the British Navy sailed in and took over the island - just to annoy the Dutch - and established the capital Georgetown, named after the king.
The whole of India thrives on a bureaucracy and democracy so maddening it could only be British,
After arriving we sunk a few Tigers before discovering that the Thai Government
Saturday 6 December 2008
Singapore and KL
Pleased to get away from Negombo we arrived at the airport to be confronted with organised chaos as the security conscious Sri Lankans tried to check everyone and x-ray the bags at every stage of the check-in process.
The flight to Singapore was only 4hrs but we had some exciting turbulence, luckily Chris and I who had both been queuing for the loo had just sat back down and belted ourselves in when things hit the ceiling... it was a close call.
We landed at Singapore and were instantly impressed with the large modern airport, it had everything we could ever need....free high speed Internet access on the best computers we have seen since leaving Chris's beloved baby behind, a well stocked book shop where we picked up a SE Asia guide and plenty of shops and restaurants....we almost stayed there.
Singapore was awesome, it is a bustling metropolis of shopping malls, hundreds of them at every
turn! Everything is new and shiny and cute! People in Singapore seem to love cute little gadgets and toys, and the main pass time (apart from shopping) is eating, so there were lots of delicious menus to choose from.
Needless to say our budget was blown away, especially when we visited Sim-Lim square - a 7-storey complex bursting with electronics shops (Iain you would never leave!) ....we left with a laptop (with bells and whistles) and all the gadgets to go with it. Needless to say Singapore is not a place for backpackers and we spent more in 3 days than in a month in India, but the laptop has already come into it's own and i am writing the blog from it now, goodbye Internet cafes.
We crossed the border into Malaysia and arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday evening. We found our hostel room to be next door to a nightclub but despite the banging music we were both shattered and had a decent night's sleep. We changed rooms this morning, our new one is much quieter and even has the luxury of a window, but comes with the added bonus of bed bugs.
Today we have visited the twin Petronas towers (the second highest in the world), we are hoping to go up to the skybridge platform tomorrow but first we have to queue from 8am to get ticket. These are issued on a first come first served basis so hopefully we will be lucky.
We also visited the KL tower which is the 4th highest
communications tower (it's all about buildings here) and Chris had a go at an F1 challenge, he did not beat the lap time of 5 mins but he got a free cap. We then ventured into china town for a spot of lunch but this went terribly wrong, firstly we couldn't find anywhere to eat and Chris was getting grumpy from lack of food (he summed it up perfectly when he said "I was born hungry"), then we got caught in a tremendous thunderstorm. The rest of the evening has been fairly quiet, I have been on the web and Chris has been coughing and sneezing in the corner (did i mention he has SARS?).
........That's all for now
The flight to Singapore was only 4hrs but we had some exciting turbulence, luckily Chris and I who had both been queuing for the loo had just sat back down and belted ourselves in when things hit the ceiling... it was a close call.
We landed at Singapore and were instantly impressed with the large modern airport, it had everything we could ever need....free high speed Internet access on the best computers we have seen since leaving Chris's beloved baby behind, a well stocked book shop where we picked up a SE Asia guide and plenty of shops and restaurants....we almost stayed there.
Singapore was awesome, it is a bustling metropolis of shopping malls, hundreds of them at every
turn! Everything is new and shiny and cute! People in Singapore seem to love cute little gadgets and toys, and the main pass time (apart from shopping) is eating, so there were lots of delicious menus to choose from.
Needless to say our budget was blown away, especially when we visited Sim-Lim square - a 7-storey complex bursting with electronics shops (Iain you would never leave!) ....we left with a laptop (with bells and whistles) and all the gadgets to go with it. Needless to say Singapore is not a place for backpackers and we spent more in 3 days than in a month in India, but the laptop has already come into it's own and i am writing the blog from it now, goodbye Internet cafes.
We crossed the border into Malaysia and arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday evening. We found our hostel room to be next door to a nightclub but despite the banging music we were both shattered and had a decent night's sleep. We changed rooms this morning, our new one is much quieter and even has the luxury of a window, but comes with the added bonus of bed bugs.
Today we have visited the twin Petronas towers (the second highest in the world), we are hoping to go up to the skybridge platform tomorrow but first we have to queue from 8am to get ticket. These are issued on a first come first served basis so hopefully we will be lucky.
We also visited the KL tower which is the 4th highest
communications tower (it's all about buildings here) and Chris had a go at an F1 challenge, he did not beat the lap time of 5 mins but he got a free cap. We then ventured into china town for a spot of lunch but this went terribly wrong, firstly we couldn't find anywhere to eat and Chris was getting grumpy from lack of food (he summed it up perfectly when he said "I was born hungry"), then we got caught in a tremendous thunderstorm. The rest of the evening has been fairly quiet, I have been on the web and Chris has been coughing and sneezing in the corner (did i mention he has SARS?).........That's all for now
Monday 1 December 2008
It's not all bad....
I have just re-read my last post and realised I was being maybe a little harsh on Sri Lanka (and sounding like a grumpy b'stard)...so here are the things I like about it:
- The beer. Lion Lager as it's called. It's 4.8% and blows India's gassy Kingfisher out of the water. I didn't try it but they do an 8.8% 'Lion Strong' version. Maybe next time?
- The tea. Ok, it's not masala chai and they don't put any spices in, but they don't need to. The tea itself is so good. I could drink it all day.
- It's a lot cleaner than India and they actually have road markings and a highway code that people follow. Plus there aren't cows wandering around all over the place. The dogs seem to look a bit healthier too.
- The nature. On our first full day in Kandy we saw: two massive water monitor lizards - each one must have been two metres long, and we initially thought they were crocs; a massive ugly pelican that powered its way round the lake like a speedboat; colonies of huge bats hanging on trees over the roads. These things are big their wingspans must be six-foot, and the locals call them flying foxes (!!!) ; hordes of monkeys outside our guesthouse; turtles/terrapins in the lake; loads of huge fish; and a suicidal dog - it was sleeping in the middle of the road. In all, in 20 minutes we saw more than a full-day at the Periyar Tiger Sanctuary.
Sunday 30 November 2008
Sri Lanka
I'm sitting in a cyber cafe in Negombo, 10km away from Colombo airport, and after almost a week here we're both looking forward to getting out of here. ***WARNING***There's going to be a lot of moaning below but I will actually write about where we've been - honest!
Ok, maybe it's a stupid statement but Sri Lanka is no India. Although the exchange rate is in your favour (163Rupees/pound), the locals and cost of living aren't. Everyone it seems is dying to rip you off. I've had a think about this and I think one of the main reasons is that this is more of a 'tourist trap' country than India.
The whole of the west coast is laid over to lavish resorts where fat Europeans come to spend two weeks and take in the sun and pay little or no attention to the culture the country does have. In response the locals and everyone you meet wants your money. People aren't particularly friendly, and the whole week we have been here it has felt as though we are being royally fleeced of our hard-earned cash.
Another reason I don't like it here is because of the driver and guide we foolishly chose hoping this would be the best way to see everything we wanted in 7 days. Everyone recommends that when you come to Sri Lanka you get a guide - mainly because of the ongoing war with the Tamil Tiger separatists. I would quite happily face a battalion of these militants than spend another hour in the car with Siri.
From the moment we arrived he was rude, he didn't like the route we had planned so chose his own, and he seemed more concerned with getting kickbacks and commission than guiding us. He would refuse to stay in any of the guesthouses we had chosen unless they had driver accommodation (we argued and won though), tried to con us into paying for his meals - which were included in the weekly fee we'd paid, refused to stop the car if we wanted to get a drink and generally was unhelpful.
Now, I'm pretty stubborn at times but compared to Angela (she will kill me for this) I'm a pushover. I tried my hardest to get on with this guy, I really did, but his grasp of English was so poor not even VERY LOUD ENGLISH would get through. But from the start Angela and Siri were at war.
It all reached a head yesterday, when after taking us to a restaurant he'd chosen for lunch, we had to wait for him to finish his food before we could set off! We were paying for this! After driving us six-hours across Sri Lanka to Negombo we'd had enough, we promptly found a hotel and terminated his services(I loved doing it). I was dying for him to ask me for a tip, just so I could tell him to sling his hook, but sensing our rage he left quietly.
Ok. Driver aside what are the sights like in Sri Lanka? Overpriced and overrated. In the four days we were travelling around we saw:
Ok, maybe it's a stupid statement but Sri Lanka is no India. Although the exchange rate is in your favour (163Rupees/pound), the locals and cost of living aren't. Everyone it seems is dying to rip you off. I've had a think about this and I think one of the main reasons is that this is more of a 'tourist trap' country than India.
The whole of the west coast is laid over to lavish resorts where fat Europeans come to spend two weeks and take in the sun and pay little or no attention to the culture the country does have. In response the locals and everyone you meet wants your money. People aren't particularly friendly, and the whole week we have been here it has felt as though we are being royally fleeced of our hard-earned cash.
Another reason I don't like it here is because of the driver and guide we foolishly chose hoping this would be the best way to see everything we wanted in 7 days. Everyone recommends that when you come to Sri Lanka you get a guide - mainly because of the ongoing war with the Tamil Tiger separatists. I would quite happily face a battalion of these militants than spend another hour in the car with Siri.
From the moment we arrived he was rude, he didn't like the route we had planned so chose his own, and he seemed more concerned with getting kickbacks and commission than guiding us. He would refuse to stay in any of the guesthouses we had chosen unless they had driver accommodation (we argued and won though), tried to con us into paying for his meals - which were included in the weekly fee we'd paid, refused to stop the car if we wanted to get a drink and generally was unhelpful.
Now, I'm pretty stubborn at times but compared to Angela (she will kill me for this) I'm a pushover. I tried my hardest to get on with this guy, I really did, but his grasp of English was so poor not even VERY LOUD ENGLISH would get through. But from the start Angela and Siri were at war.
It all reached a head yesterday, when after taking us to a restaurant he'd chosen for lunch, we had to wait for him to finish his food before we could set off! We were paying for this! After driving us six-hours across Sri Lanka to Negombo we'd had enough, we promptly found a hotel and terminated his services(I loved doing it). I was dying for him to ask me for a tip, just so I could tell him to sling his hook, but sensing our rage he left quietly.
Ok. Driver aside what are the sights like in Sri Lanka? Overpriced and overrated. In the four days we were travelling around we saw:
- Sigiriya's Rock (tagline - 'The 8th Wonder of the World'), well no it's just a really big, quite impressive rock, that you have to risk your life to climb. Don't bother.
- Dambulla Caves -five caves revered by Buddhists and containing lots of Buddha statues and paintings. There are interesting stories about each one, but the walk up to the caves is steep and you're hounded by beggars and hawkers (I told them I had renounced worldly goods to seek enlightenment and they just stared back at me blankly) so give it a miss.
- Kandy. Sri Lanka's 2nd biggest city and one of the country's holiest Buddhist sites (and home to the Buddha's actual tooth, which is worshipped like a god, but which may or may not be a bison's tooth). Actually quite good.
- Pinnewala Elephant orphanage. This was good, lots of elephants, 75 at last count. Highlight: Watching them all stampede down a busy street for their daily bath. This was good but was overshadowed by me being ripped off by betelnut-addicted palm reader - I will live to "96-years minimum, I will be good in business, I will have a boy and a girl, who will be clever and successful, and I would be especially good as an electrician".
- White-water rafting. This was brilliant. Angela fell out. We both kind of wish we'd spent the whole week doing this instead! We got to swim in the rapids as well (swim is probably not the right word) in just our life jackets and helmets.
- Adam's Peak. Our plan had been to attempt to climb this famous mountain (2,300m high), but persistently bad weather and stomach upsets forced us to abandon our climb. Bit of a bummer as if you reach the top you can see the Buddha's actual footprint (honest). Nevermind - maybe on our nest visit? or not.
Also, the rain has hardly abated since we landed. We did have a day round the pool today, but as I write this the rain is hammering down outside and we're having a full-blown thunderstorm.
Nevermind though - on to Singapore!
Sunday 23 November 2008
Saturday 22 November 2008
I think poor old (and he does look old now he has a fully cultivated beard!) Chris is getting tired of writing the blog!
We left Cochin for Munnar in an old Ambassador car, it was a cop out we should have got the bus but we saved a few hours and the driver stopped at some amazing waterfalls where we had a warming cup of cardamon tea, which we probably wouldn't have been able to do had we got the bus.
The countryside around Munnar was truly amazing and we were staying right in the heart of a tea plantation. I loved the scenery so much i would go back in an instant, would be a great place to retire. Unfortunately while i was there i ended up with food poisoning, I think a fresh oj in our expensive accommodation was to blame (it did taste a bit watery), and i had thought it would be ok since it was a posh hotel...no such luck and i spent the night and the next day in bed watching BBC world news and Animal Planet (this is all i could get in English), I will forever relate nature programmes to throwing up.
Chris on the other hand (who had opted for a pineapple juice) was in fine health and went on the 5 hr trek which sounded amazing.
Kumily was good, we went on an elephant ride and had an interesting tour of a spice plantation (they can truly grow anything here), however the Periyar Tiger reserve was a bit of a let down and the highlight of the day was seeing some really large tadpoles! Not sure we needed the armed guard to protect us from them.
We are now in Varkala, it is fairly touristy but a welcome relief as it has everything we travellers need; namley bars, restraunts, shops to buy shower gel and a beach. We are going to while awauy the rest of our days in India here before heading to Trivandrum on Tuesday morning for our flight to Sri Lanka.
We left Cochin for Munnar in an old Ambassador car, it was a cop out we should have got the bus but we saved a few hours and the driver stopped at some amazing waterfalls where we had a warming cup of cardamon tea, which we probably wouldn't have been able to do had we got the bus.
The countryside around Munnar was truly amazing and we were staying right in the heart of a tea plantation. I loved the scenery so much i would go back in an instant, would be a great place to retire. Unfortunately while i was there i ended up with food poisoning, I think a fresh oj in our expensive accommodation was to blame (it did taste a bit watery), and i had thought it would be ok since it was a posh hotel...no such luck and i spent the night and the next day in bed watching BBC world news and Animal Planet (this is all i could get in English), I will forever relate nature programmes to throwing up.
Chris on the other hand (who had opted for a pineapple juice) was in fine health and went on the 5 hr trek which sounded amazing.
Kumily was good, we went on an elephant ride and had an interesting tour of a spice plantation (they can truly grow anything here), however the Periyar Tiger reserve was a bit of a let down and the highlight of the day was seeing some really large tadpoles! Not sure we needed the armed guard to protect us from them.
We are now in Varkala, it is fairly touristy but a welcome relief as it has everything we travellers need; namley bars, restraunts, shops to buy shower gel and a beach. We are going to while awauy the rest of our days in India here before heading to Trivandrum on Tuesday morning for our flight to Sri Lanka.
Munnar to Varkala - Angela's take on things
I think poor old (and he does look old now he has a fully cultivated beard!) Chris is getting tired of writing the blog!
We left Cochin for Munnar in an old Ambassador car, it was a cop out. We should have got the bus but we saved a few hours and the driver stopped at some amazing waterfalls, here we had a warming cup of cardamon tea, which we probably wouldn't have been able to do had we got the bus.
The countryside around Munnar was truly amazing and we were staying right in the heart of a tea plantation. I loved the scenery so much i would go back in an instant, would be a great place to retire (except for the lack amenities) . Unfortunately while I was there I ended up with food poisoning, I think a fresh oj in our expensive accommodation was to blame (it did taste a bit watery) and I had thought it would be ok since it was a posh hotel...no such luck and i spent the night and the next day in bed watching BBC world news and Animal Planet (this is all I could get in English), I will forever relate nature programmes to throwing up.
Chris on the other hand (who had opted for a pineapple juice) was in fine health and went on the 5 hr trek which sounded amazing.
We left Munnar and visited Top Station on the boader with Tamil Nadu, again the views were amazing. We then travelled to Kumily where we rode an elephant called Ganesh (he ate a whole pineapple in one go!) and had an interesting tour of a spice plantation (they can truly grow anything here).
We have photos of us on the eleflumps but they are on the other memory card......so will follow later.
We left Cochin for Munnar in an old Ambassador car, it was a cop out. We should have got the bus but we saved a few hours and the driver stopped at some amazing waterfalls, here we had a warming cup of cardamon tea, which we probably wouldn't have been able to do had we got the bus.
The countryside around Munnar was truly amazing and we were staying right in the heart of a tea plantation. I loved the scenery so much i would go back in an instant, would be a great place to retire (except for the lack amenities) . Unfortunately while I was there I ended up with food poisoning, I think a fresh oj in our expensive accommodation was to blame (it did taste a bit watery) and I had thought it would be ok since it was a posh hotel...no such luck and i spent the night and the next day in bed watching BBC world news and Animal Planet (this is all I could get in English), I will forever relate nature programmes to throwing up.Chris on the other hand (who had opted for a pineapple juice) was in fine health and went on the 5 hr trek which sounded amazing.
We left Munnar and visited Top Station on the boader with Tamil Nadu, again the views were amazing. We then travelled to Kumily where we rode an elephant called Ganesh (he ate a whole pineapple in one go!) and had an interesting tour of a spice plantation (they can truly grow anything here).The bamboo rafting in the Periyar Tiger reserve was a bit of a let down and the highlight of the day was seeing some giant tadpoles! Not sure we needed the armed guard to protect us from them.
We are now in Varkala, it is fairly touristy but a welcome relief as it has everything we travellers need; namely bars, restaurants, shops to buy shower gel and a beach. We are going to while away the rest of our days in India here before heading to Trivandrum on Tuesday morning for our flight to Sri Lanka where we have an action packed week before departing for Singapore.
We are now in Varkala, it is fairly touristy but a welcome relief as it has everything we travellers need; namely bars, restaurants, shops to buy shower gel and a beach. We are going to while away the rest of our days in India here before heading to Trivandrum on Tuesday morning for our flight to Sri Lanka where we have an action packed week before departing for Singapore.
We have photos of us on the eleflumps but they are on the other memory card......so will follow later.Monday 17 November 2008
Tea and tiger (?) country
After leaving Fort Cochin on Friday we were driven in an 'Ambassador' to a lodge in Munnar - hey, it may not be the 'backpacker-way', but we both wanted to avoid the Government buses for the 1,500m climb into hill country - think the end of 'The Italian Job' and it'll give you an idea of the roads.
Soon after we arrived we took part in a short 2-hour trek down into one of the many plantations. The scenery was unbelievable, the only way to describe this part of the world is as a 'Tropical Scotland'. Tree and tea-covered hills and mountains soar to the sky while lush valleys filled with yet more tea plantations stretch in every direction. Waterfalls cascade down from the highest peaks and the blue sky is dazzling.
It was very cool too. After the humidity of Cochin the dip to about 18-20c was welcome and it felt almost like an English summer's day.
The next day I took part in a five-hour trek into the mountains behind our guesthouse. It truly was magnificent. Tea plantations stretched for miles in every direction, and you could make out distant peaks and valleys. Our guide pointed out signs of where elephants had been only weeks before (unfortunately we missed them - they tend to follow the monsoon and the fresher weather), and as we sat down to lunch eagles soared below us looking for theirs.
(Once I find a reliable computer I will upload the pictures, but in the meantime there are some on my flickr account - follow link at top of page).
The next day after a brief visit to 'Top Station' which is a 40km climb from Munnar and 2,000m above sea level (and may or may not be in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu - lots of conflicting reports), we headed on to Thekkady, home of the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Where Munnar was a relaxed hill-top retreat, Thekkady (and neighbouring Kumily) is your traditional Indian town, very busy, very noisy, with someone trying to sell you something at every turn and everyone trying to run you over. During our brief stay here we managed to squeeze in a visit to a working tea factory (wow), a spice garden trip (actually quite good), a ride on an elephant and a visit to the wildlife park.
The wildlife park. Now, as wildlife parks go Periyar is quite big - 777sq km. There are apparently 3,500 elephants, 40-70 tigers and a host of other exotic creatures. Unfortunately after spending a full day there trekking and bamboo-rafting the jungles and lakes all we saw were some black monkeys, some wild boar, a hare, some blue/black butterflies, strange black and orange tadpoles and a dead buffalo - apparently killed by a tiger a couple of days ago (but remarkably unchewed).
This was a little disappointing, especially as one of our guides was armed with a rifle, an indication that we would at least see some magnificent and deadly creatures. Plus, the guides insisted on stopping every hour or so for a break when we could easily have carried on. Call us cynics but by the end of it we were questioning exactly what had killed that buffalo, and were wondering if that and the constant 'sightings' of things on distant riverbanks by our guides were genuine.
I'll stop whinging though it was a nice enough day and the tranquility of the park beat staying in the town.
After massacring our budget for four or five days we decided to brave the buses and trains and spent yesterday travelling the 250km south to the coast - a snip at 300R for both of us (just over 3 squid).
We're now staying in Varkala, where black and clay-coloured cliffs drop onto rocky beaches. It's got everything the backpacker needs and we'll be staying here for a few days of R&R before going onwards to Trivandrum on Nov 24th and flying to Sri Lanka on the 25th.
Thursday 13 November 2008
Welcome to Kerala! God's Own Country - where real men wear skirts and heads wobble so much they almost fall off
The last few days have been pretty action packed - and the humidity in Fort Cochin has made it nigh on impossible to do anything without feeling like you're in an industrial strength Swedish sauna. But here goes...
After getting back to Goa on Friday we made our way straight to the beach to catch up on the sun and take a dip in the sea. We had booked a cookery lesson with a guide we met called Shiba, and on Sunday we were taken to his modest house in Colva Beach. It was tiny more like a garage than a house, but definitely a home. He and his wife live here with their three children so it must get pretty crowded. His wife Usha, managed to rustle up in the smallest kitchen imaginable a delicious coconut curry, veg samosas and chapatis all from fresh ingredients.
The next morning we headed north to Bogmallo Beach where I had booked a half-day's scuba diving. The diving school, was based in a small shack, and we had to push the boat out to sea ourselves using wooden posts and good, old-fashioned elbow grease. Angela, who had opted to go snorkeling, picked up a couple of cheese toasties, but as we hauled the boat into the sea a crow swooped down and stole her breakfast!
The diving was ok. It didn't live up to the Red Sea, but was a good opportunity to refresh what I'd learnt a year ago before we hit Thailand - where I'm told it's very good. The problem was that the water was very cloudy, visibility was something like 4m, and there was a strong surge that pulled you back and forth underwater. For my first dive I saw a grand total of four clown fish - four!
Before I went under for the second dive, and fully kitted up and in the water, the rubber o-ring (which seals the compressed air from escaping the regulator) on my tank blew. This resulted in the most deafening and piercing scream as escaping air blasted out directly behind my head. For a minute I had visions that I was going to explode along with the tank, and back on the boat Angela was looking worried, but it was all fixed quite quickly and I didn't need to change my wetsuit.
We later headed back to the guesthouse for a typical chilled afternoon Goa-style, before another early morning train.
After an uneventful 15-hour train journey we finally arrived in Kerala at 11pm Tuesday. Despite the train being miles better than the bus it still felt like 15-hours. I whiled away the time catching up on my reading and listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast (thanks Matt!).
On arrival at Ernakulam Junction station, in Kochi, Kerala, we were amazed to find - despite our boast that we hadn't seen a cloud for a month - that there was a thunderstorm! As soon as we got off of the air-conditioned carriage the humidity hit us, and within about a micro-second I was covered in sweat. Our first job was to find a taxi to our guesthouse, Greenwood Bethlehem in Fort Cochin - which has been officially blessed by Pope Benedict XVI (I've seen the certificate).
Fighting through the crush around the taxi stand and using my backpack as a kind of shield/battering ram we were soon in a tuk-tuk. Unfortunately our driver didn't speak or even understand English, and obviously had no idea where we were going. Halfway there we ended up in another tuk-tuk, which helpfully dropped us in what looked to me like a ghetto. But after warily picking our way through a couple of alleys we found our guesthouse, where we promptly flaked out.
If Goa is India-lite, where westerners go to relax, Cochin is the place the natives head to when they need to chill. It's so laid back that waiters forget your orders for often hours at a time, men - obviously tired of pulling on trousers - don't bother, they just wrap themselves in what look like towels and blankets and amble around the place. Even the touts can't be arsed with a full blown sales pitch. Consequently, it's quite a nice place to come to, and unbelievably is quite clean with barely a cow in sight. But man, it's hot.
Yesterday, we stumbled upon the famous Chinese fishing nets - basically wooden constructions that lever fishing nets into and out of the sea. After watching for a while the fishermen let me have a go and I helped haul in the morning's catch - which was great fun! We next made our way to the ferry terminal. Our plan was to head to Ernakulam on the mainland to catch a Bollywood film in an Indian cinema we'd found. Unfortunately when we arrived they were only showing James Bond, so we'll have to wait until we get to another town.
We got the ferry back, made our way back to the guesthouse, freshened up and dashed out again to catch a performance of traditional Keralan music and dancing called 'Kathkali'. Now, if you've heard of this I imagine this would have been a fantastic experience, and to its credit the costumes were pretty fantastic, but I left an hour-and-a-half later wondering if had been worth the 200R each we'd paid.
The basis of the performance is a series of 24 intricate hand and face movements that subtly depict different moods. It's quite hazy, but I think the 1-hour story we saw was about the sister of a god who went to kidnap some other god's sisters for her brother who was also a god. Somewhere along the line a demon was involved - he looked like Papa Lazarou if you've seen the League of Gentlemen. There's a lot of screaming and stamping of feet involved and in the end a god kills the demon and they all stop screaming. Apparently - for any masochists out there - the traditional Kathkali performances go on for six to nine hours.
The accompanying music was good but otherwise I'd recommend putting your feet in a bowlful of scorpions - it would be less painful.
Tonight we're going to see a traditional Keralan martial arts performance - which apparently is the father of all the eastern martial arts. I'm hopeful this will be a little more entertaining - watch this space. Tomorrow we're heading to Munnar - the home of tea.
After getting back to Goa on Friday we made our way straight to the beach to catch up on the sun and take a dip in the sea. We had booked a cookery lesson with a guide we met called Shiba, and on Sunday we were taken to his modest house in Colva Beach. It was tiny more like a garage than a house, but definitely a home. He and his wife live here with their three children so it must get pretty crowded. His wife Usha, managed to rustle up in the smallest kitchen imaginable a delicious coconut curry, veg samosas and chapatis all from fresh ingredients.
The next morning we headed north to Bogmallo Beach where I had booked a half-day's scuba diving. The diving school, was based in a small shack, and we had to push the boat out to sea ourselves using wooden posts and good, old-fashioned elbow grease. Angela, who had opted to go snorkeling, picked up a couple of cheese toasties, but as we hauled the boat into the sea a crow swooped down and stole her breakfast!
The diving was ok. It didn't live up to the Red Sea, but was a good opportunity to refresh what I'd learnt a year ago before we hit Thailand - where I'm told it's very good. The problem was that the water was very cloudy, visibility was something like 4m, and there was a strong surge that pulled you back and forth underwater. For my first dive I saw a grand total of four clown fish - four!
Before I went under for the second dive, and fully kitted up and in the water, the rubber o-ring (which seals the compressed air from escaping the regulator) on my tank blew. This resulted in the most deafening and piercing scream as escaping air blasted out directly behind my head. For a minute I had visions that I was going to explode along with the tank, and back on the boat Angela was looking worried, but it was all fixed quite quickly and I didn't need to change my wetsuit.
We later headed back to the guesthouse for a typical chilled afternoon Goa-style, before another early morning train.
After an uneventful 15-hour train journey we finally arrived in Kerala at 11pm Tuesday. Despite the train being miles better than the bus it still felt like 15-hours. I whiled away the time catching up on my reading and listening to the Ricky Gervais podcast (thanks Matt!).
On arrival at Ernakulam Junction station, in Kochi, Kerala, we were amazed to find - despite our boast that we hadn't seen a cloud for a month - that there was a thunderstorm! As soon as we got off of the air-conditioned carriage the humidity hit us, and within about a micro-second I was covered in sweat. Our first job was to find a taxi to our guesthouse, Greenwood Bethlehem in Fort Cochin - which has been officially blessed by Pope Benedict XVI (I've seen the certificate).
Fighting through the crush around the taxi stand and using my backpack as a kind of shield/battering ram we were soon in a tuk-tuk. Unfortunately our driver didn't speak or even understand English, and obviously had no idea where we were going. Halfway there we ended up in another tuk-tuk, which helpfully dropped us in what looked to me like a ghetto. But after warily picking our way through a couple of alleys we found our guesthouse, where we promptly flaked out.
If Goa is India-lite, where westerners go to relax, Cochin is the place the natives head to when they need to chill. It's so laid back that waiters forget your orders for often hours at a time, men - obviously tired of pulling on trousers - don't bother, they just wrap themselves in what look like towels and blankets and amble around the place. Even the touts can't be arsed with a full blown sales pitch. Consequently, it's quite a nice place to come to, and unbelievably is quite clean with barely a cow in sight. But man, it's hot.
Yesterday, we stumbled upon the famous Chinese fishing nets - basically wooden constructions that lever fishing nets into and out of the sea. After watching for a while the fishermen let me have a go and I helped haul in the morning's catch - which was great fun! We next made our way to the ferry terminal. Our plan was to head to Ernakulam on the mainland to catch a Bollywood film in an Indian cinema we'd found. Unfortunately when we arrived they were only showing James Bond, so we'll have to wait until we get to another town.
We got the ferry back, made our way back to the guesthouse, freshened up and dashed out again to catch a performance of traditional Keralan music and dancing called 'Kathkali'. Now, if you've heard of this I imagine this would have been a fantastic experience, and to its credit the costumes were pretty fantastic, but I left an hour-and-a-half later wondering if had been worth the 200R each we'd paid.
The basis of the performance is a series of 24 intricate hand and face movements that subtly depict different moods. It's quite hazy, but I think the 1-hour story we saw was about the sister of a god who went to kidnap some other god's sisters for her brother who was also a god. Somewhere along the line a demon was involved - he looked like Papa Lazarou if you've seen the League of Gentlemen. There's a lot of screaming and stamping of feet involved and in the end a god kills the demon and they all stop screaming. Apparently - for any masochists out there - the traditional Kathkali performances go on for six to nine hours.
The accompanying music was good but otherwise I'd recommend putting your feet in a bowlful of scorpions - it would be less painful.
Tonight we're going to see a traditional Keralan martial arts performance - which apparently is the father of all the eastern martial arts. I'm hopeful this will be a little more entertaining - watch this space. Tomorrow we're heading to Munnar - the home of tea.
Sunday 9 November 2008
Boulders, Trains and Temples
We've just got back from two nights in Hampi, and after returning briefly to backpacking are once again sipping Kingfishers on the beach in Goa.Hampi truly was amazing, it's our favourite place in India so far. It is a whole landscape covering something like 62 sq km, which has the weirdest scenery. Everywhere you look there are huge red boulders and hills and mountains made of red boulders, there are palm trees and banana plantaions nestled in between and the cleanest river I have seen since arriving in India running through it all.
On top of that there are something like 3,000 shrines and temples scattered about, 1,000 of which archaeologists are still trying to find. It's the sort of place you would expect Indiana Jones's next adventure to be filmed.
Plus to top it all off we were both blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant. After placing 1 rupee in her trunk she blesses you on the head with it!
Our 1st full day at Hampi started at 5am. We met our guide Kali at the foot of the Hampi Bazaar and hiked up the Matanga Hill to watch the sunrise and feed the monkeys peanuts. The monkeys were pretty evil and despite the morning chill delighted in displaying the primate's version of the Kama Sutra to us all - not what you need to see before breakfast.
We later trekked to a temple on the other side of the hill which was even more impressive, literally the more we looked the better it got. After that we trekked to the river where I made my first 'puja' at the Temple of Rama - the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. I had to get the obligatory bright red 'tilka' mark on my forehead - which felt a bit stupid at the time and will probably look even more stupid in the photographs.
After a cup of chai we were taken on a short boat trip on what was the best form of transport so far - the coracle. It's basically a circular dish, made of cane, canvas and tar which can easily seat (I'm told) four people and three motorbikes - unfortunately there was just four of us so we didn't get to test that theory.
Our guide paddled us down river to shrines and temples set in the rocks of the mountains, some are only accessible by boat and it really gives you an idea of just how important and all-encompassing religion is to India.
We found out this morning that there are 300,000,000 (three-hundred-million!) gods and goddesses in India, each with their own temples, shrines, followers and stories. It puts our monotheistic country to shame - Britain needs more gods!
There are gods for rivers, mountains, and winds, each village has a god or two, some animals are gods, other animals might be demons disguised as gods, guests in people's homes are a type of god, plus most gods have transports which are also god-like - it goes on and on. There might even be road and railway gods (though I'm pretty certain buses are demons) how else would people avoid crashing every day?
On to the railways then, and they truly are a delight. The Indian rail system is about a million times better than the Indian bus system (see previous posts) and about 100,000 times better than British trains. Ok, the platforms are a nightmare. Like the roads, people, dogs, cows and goats happily saunter along the tracks oblivious to the 20,000 tonnes of rolling stock careening towards them, everywhere people are spitting onto the tracks, beggars and hustlers harass and stare at you - but once you're on board it's a different story.
After our experience 'on the buses' we opted for the AC2 sleeper class which is pretty much as good as it gets on the train. As well as air-con, your own bed, blankets and a pillow, you get food and snacks throughout the journey - all of it good, plus an almost unlimited supply of piping hot chai.
On top of all this you can sit in the open doorways (after overcoming the fact that you are sitting five feet above the ground, hurtling along across bridges and ravines, with only a hand rail between you and certain death) and watch the world glide by - which I did. I even, at one point, got off the train in the middle of nowhere to take photos of a mountain - before hastily jumping back on when I realised the train was about to leave without me - great fun, and the only way to travel long distances in India.
After Hampi we both decided we love India. I'm diving in Goa tomorrow, then we're on the trains again as we head south to Kerala, where Fort Cochin, Munnar and a zillion mosquitoes await. Update soon. Also keep an eye on the Flickr pix link I've added for photos.
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Notes from head-wobble country, and the 'ear' scam...
We're still trying to figure it out. You ask any local in Goa the simplest of questions ie. "is there a bus into town?", and instead of a simple nod or shake of the head you get this weird side-to-side head wobble, which I guess is like a sideways shoulder-to-shoulder nod - and we've both decided it probably means 'maybe', but is also 'yes' and 'no'.
Apart from the communuication difficulties (VERY LOUD ENGLISH is still working a treat, as is the odd bit of Kazakh), Goa is good. After the trip we had to get here it has been a well-earned break and we have found ourselves most definitely back on the tourist trail - not a bad thing.
Goa is like India-lite. It is very different to the other states we have been to. First of all it's predominantly Roman Catholic, so instead of road-side shrines and temples to Ganesha, Vishnu and Kali 'The Lord of War', you get small mini-altars with crosses dotted all over the place.
I discovered today that each of these mini temples is a memorial to someone who lost their life in a road accident and the weird thing is that they seem to be sited on the exact spot this happened - even if this is the middle of the road.
Also, football is more popular than cricket here (!), they still have cows wandering around all over the place - but unlike other parts of India - here they eat them. The dogs are friendlier to. They may or may not still give you rabies, but it will probably happen in a game of 'fetch' rather than in a random mauling.
It has a very tropical feel to it too, and is very humid. Everywhere you look is lush, verdant greenery and palm trees, with houses dotted back from the road that look more Caribbean than Indian. The people are more used to seeing white people too - although we're still getting the odd stare - there seems to be hundreds of russians, french, german tourists dotted about the place, and most of the people we have met are in the middle of a three-week holiday as opposed to backpacking. It's a different vibe.
The markets and touts though are still hassle. Today we went to the Anjura Flea Market in northern Goa. We were imediately besieged by hordes of people that wanted our money. It was a bit of a disappointment. We'd both expected a local-style market, but it really was just geared for tourists. Luckily enough we got chatting to a travel veteran who advised us to offer 10% of whatever price you're given - and to walk away if they don't go for it. Most of the time it worked and we both bought more things to add to our backpacks.
One of the really annoying scams we came across (and haven't seen elsewhere) is the ear scam. You'll be walking along minding your own business and sampling the various tat on offer and suddenly out-of -the-blue a man will walk up to you and point at your ear, indicating that there's something in there. Having been forewarned I didn't fall for it, but the implication is that while they're cleaning your supposedly dirty ear you're either pickpocketed or charged an extortionate price for the pleasure. There are literally dozens of these guys and it's one of the weirdest cons I've seen.
Anyway, I will update you soon on our trip to Hampi Village - and will hopefully get some pix up when I can find a net cafe that reads compact flash cards!
Apart from the communuication difficulties (VERY LOUD ENGLISH is still working a treat, as is the odd bit of Kazakh), Goa is good. After the trip we had to get here it has been a well-earned break and we have found ourselves most definitely back on the tourist trail - not a bad thing.
Goa is like India-lite. It is very different to the other states we have been to. First of all it's predominantly Roman Catholic, so instead of road-side shrines and temples to Ganesha, Vishnu and Kali 'The Lord of War', you get small mini-altars with crosses dotted all over the place.
I discovered today that each of these mini temples is a memorial to someone who lost their life in a road accident and the weird thing is that they seem to be sited on the exact spot this happened - even if this is the middle of the road.
Also, football is more popular than cricket here (!), they still have cows wandering around all over the place - but unlike other parts of India - here they eat them. The dogs are friendlier to. They may or may not still give you rabies, but it will probably happen in a game of 'fetch' rather than in a random mauling.
It has a very tropical feel to it too, and is very humid. Everywhere you look is lush, verdant greenery and palm trees, with houses dotted back from the road that look more Caribbean than Indian. The people are more used to seeing white people too - although we're still getting the odd stare - there seems to be hundreds of russians, french, german tourists dotted about the place, and most of the people we have met are in the middle of a three-week holiday as opposed to backpacking. It's a different vibe.
The markets and touts though are still hassle. Today we went to the Anjura Flea Market in northern Goa. We were imediately besieged by hordes of people that wanted our money. It was a bit of a disappointment. We'd both expected a local-style market, but it really was just geared for tourists. Luckily enough we got chatting to a travel veteran who advised us to offer 10% of whatever price you're given - and to walk away if they don't go for it. Most of the time it worked and we both bought more things to add to our backpacks.
One of the really annoying scams we came across (and haven't seen elsewhere) is the ear scam. You'll be walking along minding your own business and sampling the various tat on offer and suddenly out-of -the-blue a man will walk up to you and point at your ear, indicating that there's something in there. Having been forewarned I didn't fall for it, but the implication is that while they're cleaning your supposedly dirty ear you're either pickpocketed or charged an extortionate price for the pleasure. There are literally dozens of these guys and it's one of the weirdest cons I've seen.
Anyway, I will update you soon on our trip to Hampi Village - and will hopefully get some pix up when I can find a net cafe that reads compact flash cards!
Sunday 2 November 2008
The Bombay Rush
Our sleeper bus left Udaipur at 4pm on Thursday, it broke down, and 17-hours later we had arrived in Bombay.
I cannot begin to even describe how bad this bus journey was, cattle travel better than this. Aside from the two hours of daylight as we were leaving Udaipur and which let us take in the sights, the rest can only be described as 'pure hell'.
Our two-person sleeper compartment was high at the back of the coach, and the vehicle's complete lack of anything resembling suspension led to us feeling every bump in the road - and there are many.
At times you'd think you'd got through the worst of it, before being launched 12-inches into the air to land with a crash on your spine, it was painful and I think can only be compared to a personalised 17-hour earthquake.
Well ok, more like 16-hours. For one hour we were stuck next to a remote flyover as a group of people tried to figure out what was wrong with the bus (aside from the obvious), and child beggars urged us to throw rupees at them from the windows.
We finally got on our way and somehow managed to make it to what we thought was central Bombay, a stone's throw from the port, at about 9am. Actually though we were dropped nowhere near the port. We tried to stop random tuk-tuks but the drivers just laughed and drove off - we were still 40km north of the Gateway of India, and were both carrying everything we owned.
Somehow we managed to get a famous black and yellow taxi. These are ancient looking cars, that come with an assortment of dents, scratches and adornments as varied as the drivers. An hour later we were within sight of the Arabian sea and the famous archway that marks the Gateway. The driver, despite charging us something like four times the going rate, helped us find the ferry offices - even stopping and asking directions for us.
It was 10.44am and by some miracle we made the 10.45am departure. We breathed a sigh of relief as Bombay faded into the distance, although we both regretted not spending a little more time there...next stop Mandwa port, then onto Alibag and the Konkan coast we thought - fools.
After an hour on the ferry we hit terra firma, and another 30-minute bus ride later we were in Alibag. We should have known. The Lonely Planet guidebook, which covers every conceivable corner of India, doesn't even mention Alibag. To all extents and purposes for the backpacker it doesn't (and probably shouldn't) even exist.
We went to one guesthouse we were turned away we tried another - same thing. We tried even more but because of Diwali there were no rooms. Everyone was staring at us, we were exhausted we were still (barely) carrying our luggage.
Our vision of travelling down the coast to Goa was in tatters. It was blatantly obvious that all of the small towns we had planned on visiting would also be packed. We almost cried.
Thankfully though we managed to negotiate a bed for ourselves at the Hotel Ramakant (nice name). It wasn't very clean, I looked outside and there were people washing themselves out of buckets, the towels were kind of crusty, but it was a room.
However, to have just settled down for the night would have been too easy. After using the shower we found we couldn't turn it off and were moved to another room - arrrghhh!
At this point, feeling physically and mentally sapped, our options were limited to two choices:
1. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a 17-hour bus ride to Goa;
2. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a one-hour flight to Goa.
Not surprisingly, we had kind of had enough of buses. And minutes later we were in Alibag's one and only Cyber Cafe booking flights. Of course we had to get back to Bombay first.
Our flight was due to leave Bombay's domestic airport at 2pm, we weren't taking any chances and booked our bus back to the port to retread yesterday's footprints for 8am. If we could make it to the Gateway of India by 11am we would have three hours to head the 40km north to the airport (actually quite close to where we were originally dropped off). It all seemed possible.
After spending something like 1600R on a taxi to get us here yesterday, we fully expected to be ripped off for a taxi back. I was startled when I managed to get one for 400R, and half expected that we would be dumped in a back street miles from anywhere. But our driver (who only seemed to know how to say 'OK' in English) was brilliant and we spent an hour hurtling at high speed in another black and yellow to the airport - we made it!
One flight and one night in a dodgy hovel later, we're finally in Goa - hoe of the head wobble. We're staying at a beachfront guesthouse on Colva Beach. It truly is paradise. The sand is white, the sun is hot, the beer and curry are cheap.
We're planning on staying here for another five days just to relax, unwind and recharge the batteries, before moving onto the awesome ruins at Hampi Village, in Karnataka, and heading down-country to Kerala. All being well one month from now we should be on our way to Singapore...I'll keep you posted.
PS - pix as soon as I can find a net cafe that lets you upload pictures.
I cannot begin to even describe how bad this bus journey was, cattle travel better than this. Aside from the two hours of daylight as we were leaving Udaipur and which let us take in the sights, the rest can only be described as 'pure hell'.
Our two-person sleeper compartment was high at the back of the coach, and the vehicle's complete lack of anything resembling suspension led to us feeling every bump in the road - and there are many.
At times you'd think you'd got through the worst of it, before being launched 12-inches into the air to land with a crash on your spine, it was painful and I think can only be compared to a personalised 17-hour earthquake.
Well ok, more like 16-hours. For one hour we were stuck next to a remote flyover as a group of people tried to figure out what was wrong with the bus (aside from the obvious), and child beggars urged us to throw rupees at them from the windows.
We finally got on our way and somehow managed to make it to what we thought was central Bombay, a stone's throw from the port, at about 9am. Actually though we were dropped nowhere near the port. We tried to stop random tuk-tuks but the drivers just laughed and drove off - we were still 40km north of the Gateway of India, and were both carrying everything we owned.
Somehow we managed to get a famous black and yellow taxi. These are ancient looking cars, that come with an assortment of dents, scratches and adornments as varied as the drivers. An hour later we were within sight of the Arabian sea and the famous archway that marks the Gateway. The driver, despite charging us something like four times the going rate, helped us find the ferry offices - even stopping and asking directions for us.
It was 10.44am and by some miracle we made the 10.45am departure. We breathed a sigh of relief as Bombay faded into the distance, although we both regretted not spending a little more time there...next stop Mandwa port, then onto Alibag and the Konkan coast we thought - fools.
After an hour on the ferry we hit terra firma, and another 30-minute bus ride later we were in Alibag. We should have known. The Lonely Planet guidebook, which covers every conceivable corner of India, doesn't even mention Alibag. To all extents and purposes for the backpacker it doesn't (and probably shouldn't) even exist.
We went to one guesthouse we were turned away we tried another - same thing. We tried even more but because of Diwali there were no rooms. Everyone was staring at us, we were exhausted we were still (barely) carrying our luggage.
Our vision of travelling down the coast to Goa was in tatters. It was blatantly obvious that all of the small towns we had planned on visiting would also be packed. We almost cried.
Thankfully though we managed to negotiate a bed for ourselves at the Hotel Ramakant (nice name). It wasn't very clean, I looked outside and there were people washing themselves out of buckets, the towels were kind of crusty, but it was a room.
However, to have just settled down for the night would have been too easy. After using the shower we found we couldn't turn it off and were moved to another room - arrrghhh!
At this point, feeling physically and mentally sapped, our options were limited to two choices:
1. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a 17-hour bus ride to Goa;
2. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a one-hour flight to Goa.
Not surprisingly, we had kind of had enough of buses. And minutes later we were in Alibag's one and only Cyber Cafe booking flights. Of course we had to get back to Bombay first.
Our flight was due to leave Bombay's domestic airport at 2pm, we weren't taking any chances and booked our bus back to the port to retread yesterday's footprints for 8am. If we could make it to the Gateway of India by 11am we would have three hours to head the 40km north to the airport (actually quite close to where we were originally dropped off). It all seemed possible.
After spending something like 1600R on a taxi to get us here yesterday, we fully expected to be ripped off for a taxi back. I was startled when I managed to get one for 400R, and half expected that we would be dumped in a back street miles from anywhere. But our driver (who only seemed to know how to say 'OK' in English) was brilliant and we spent an hour hurtling at high speed in another black and yellow to the airport - we made it!
One flight and one night in a dodgy hovel later, we're finally in Goa - hoe of the head wobble. We're staying at a beachfront guesthouse on Colva Beach. It truly is paradise. The sand is white, the sun is hot, the beer and curry are cheap.
We're planning on staying here for another five days just to relax, unwind and recharge the batteries, before moving onto the awesome ruins at Hampi Village, in Karnataka, and heading down-country to Kerala. All being well one month from now we should be on our way to Singapore...I'll keep you posted.
PS - pix as soon as I can find a net cafe that lets you upload pictures.
Diwali deadlocks, Udaipur and the Bombay rush
Well it's been a while, but in the 7 days since I last posted I think we have been travelling for about three days, and staying in the outback for about two...so here goes I'll try and update you as swiftly as possible.
After a 15-hour overnight bus ride from the deserts of Jaisalmer we arrived in the lake city of Udaipur early last Monday morning. The journey - our 1st on India's sleeper buses was interesting and about half-way into the trip the coach suffered a blow-out to a rear tyre. A team of Indian's quickly assembled and we were on our way again quickly.
When we arrived at 5.30am we were greeted by a horde of tuk-tuk drivers hungry for tourist rupee, after a quick bit of bargaining, we managed to get a lift to our hotel - where we promptly crashed out for four hours.
The sleeper bus is a good idea but someone really ought to change the name. We grabbed a couple of hours but it's not exactly comfortable - more later.
So, first impressions of Udaipur - well it was very touristy. Whether this was because of Diwali or not I'll never know, but the touts and hawkers that had bugged us in Jaisalmer were out in full force here trying to sell us everything from marble statues of elephant-headed god Ganesha (we bought two), to Hashish (we steered well clear).
On our first walk into town we were stopped by a bookshop owner who was also a fashion designer, an artist who was apparently soon due to exhibit in Tate Modern (but after showing us his 'art school' surprisingly tried to sell us a few paintings), and all manner of other people.
The lake palace was impressive, but unfortunately due to a bad monsoon the lake was virtually empty and covered in green algae - which didn't seem to stop people washing their clothes in it.
The palace is of course one of the central locations for James Bond 'Octopussy', and this is used to draw in tourists. I felt though that the mountains around Udaipur were a lot more impressive and were excellent places to watch the sunset and perfect my amateur snapper skills - or at least try!
As Diwali drew closer the explosions grew louder. At times I can imagine Udaipur sounded like Baghdad circa 2003. The Indians seem to have a much more laid back approach to health and safety than us Brits.
Children throw fireworks and firecrackers in the streets, they throw them at tuk-tuks they threw them in the lake, they launched them at hotels - and boy do they know know to put on a show.
At about 9pm on our second evening (Diwali night) we were sat in the roof-top restaurant of the 'Dream Heaven' guesthouse and it just kicked off. Everywhere you looked fireworks were being launched. And unlike a UK fireworks display that might last half-hour if you're lucky, this went on all night and the fireworks just seemed to get bigger and better. It was truly impressive and we both felt privileged to be in such a beautiful city for what is the Indians' biggest festival.
The next day we both decided to visit the Monsoon Palace. This sits on a huge mountain overlooking the city. On the way there we saw our first elephant, who was in the road (surprise, surprise) and was being decorated for the celebrations. The drive to the the palace almost destroyed the tuk-tuk - I don't think its four-stroke engine and three wheels were designed for hill cimbing, but the views once we arrived were fantastic.
Things got even better when Angela spotted a black-faced monkey (not the scientific name), and I rushed down to get a few pictures of it before it ran off. As I was taking pictures of it, more and more people seemed to join in.
This seemed fine until I leant down to get a shot from knee-height. Suddenly, the passive 'cute' monkey, that moments earlier had been cleaning its balls and seemed oblivious to my camera, bared its BROWN FANGS and leapt at me!
I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. It wasn't big, probably sitting no more than three-feet high, but it was quick and it had brown fangs - dark brown, like the plague. I ran. Having decided to give the rabies jabs a miss it was one disease I could do without. Luckily I don't think it bit anyone, and it wasn't joined by any of its fellow monkeys - which really could have turned things ugly.
The next day fearing reprisals from the primates we both decided it was time to hot-foot it out of Udaipur. Unfortunately this was to prove harder than expected. Due to Diwali Indians were travelling all over the country visiting friends and family, all the trains were booked and bus and coach prices had tripled.
We cancelled our planned visit to Bundi in southern Rajasthan and decided to make our way to Mumbai (which I'm going to call Bombay from now on as it's a better name), from there the plan was to head by ferry for Maharashtra's Konkan coastline. It sounded so easy. Another 15-hour bus ride, a short hop in a taxi through Bombay to the Gateway of India port and a ferry to the coast. How wrong we were. (continued in next post...)
After a 15-hour overnight bus ride from the deserts of Jaisalmer we arrived in the lake city of Udaipur early last Monday morning. The journey - our 1st on India's sleeper buses was interesting and about half-way into the trip the coach suffered a blow-out to a rear tyre. A team of Indian's quickly assembled and we were on our way again quickly.
When we arrived at 5.30am we were greeted by a horde of tuk-tuk drivers hungry for tourist rupee, after a quick bit of bargaining, we managed to get a lift to our hotel - where we promptly crashed out for four hours.
The sleeper bus is a good idea but someone really ought to change the name. We grabbed a couple of hours but it's not exactly comfortable - more later.
So, first impressions of Udaipur - well it was very touristy. Whether this was because of Diwali or not I'll never know, but the touts and hawkers that had bugged us in Jaisalmer were out in full force here trying to sell us everything from marble statues of elephant-headed god Ganesha (we bought two), to Hashish (we steered well clear).
On our first walk into town we were stopped by a bookshop owner who was also a fashion designer, an artist who was apparently soon due to exhibit in Tate Modern (but after showing us his 'art school' surprisingly tried to sell us a few paintings), and all manner of other people.
The lake palace was impressive, but unfortunately due to a bad monsoon the lake was virtually empty and covered in green algae - which didn't seem to stop people washing their clothes in it.
The palace is of course one of the central locations for James Bond 'Octopussy', and this is used to draw in tourists. I felt though that the mountains around Udaipur were a lot more impressive and were excellent places to watch the sunset and perfect my amateur snapper skills - or at least try!
As Diwali drew closer the explosions grew louder. At times I can imagine Udaipur sounded like Baghdad circa 2003. The Indians seem to have a much more laid back approach to health and safety than us Brits.
Children throw fireworks and firecrackers in the streets, they throw them at tuk-tuks they threw them in the lake, they launched them at hotels - and boy do they know know to put on a show.
At about 9pm on our second evening (Diwali night) we were sat in the roof-top restaurant of the 'Dream Heaven' guesthouse and it just kicked off. Everywhere you looked fireworks were being launched. And unlike a UK fireworks display that might last half-hour if you're lucky, this went on all night and the fireworks just seemed to get bigger and better. It was truly impressive and we both felt privileged to be in such a beautiful city for what is the Indians' biggest festival.
The next day we both decided to visit the Monsoon Palace. This sits on a huge mountain overlooking the city. On the way there we saw our first elephant, who was in the road (surprise, surprise) and was being decorated for the celebrations. The drive to the the palace almost destroyed the tuk-tuk - I don't think its four-stroke engine and three wheels were designed for hill cimbing, but the views once we arrived were fantastic.
Things got even better when Angela spotted a black-faced monkey (not the scientific name), and I rushed down to get a few pictures of it before it ran off. As I was taking pictures of it, more and more people seemed to join in.
This seemed fine until I leant down to get a shot from knee-height. Suddenly, the passive 'cute' monkey, that moments earlier had been cleaning its balls and seemed oblivious to my camera, bared its BROWN FANGS and leapt at me!
I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. It wasn't big, probably sitting no more than three-feet high, but it was quick and it had brown fangs - dark brown, like the plague. I ran. Having decided to give the rabies jabs a miss it was one disease I could do without. Luckily I don't think it bit anyone, and it wasn't joined by any of its fellow monkeys - which really could have turned things ugly.
The next day fearing reprisals from the primates we both decided it was time to hot-foot it out of Udaipur. Unfortunately this was to prove harder than expected. Due to Diwali Indians were travelling all over the country visiting friends and family, all the trains were booked and bus and coach prices had tripled.
We cancelled our planned visit to Bundi in southern Rajasthan and decided to make our way to Mumbai (which I'm going to call Bombay from now on as it's a better name), from there the plan was to head by ferry for Maharashtra's Konkan coastline. It sounded so easy. Another 15-hour bus ride, a short hop in a taxi through Bombay to the Gateway of India port and a ferry to the coast. How wrong we were. (continued in next post...)
Sunday 26 October 2008
Jaisalmer, Camels, and 'The Desert King'
Well after five days living in the walls of Jaisalmer's golden fort we're preparing for the next stage of our journey - a 15-hour bus ride to the lake city of Udaipur just in time for Diwali celebrations.It's been a pretty busy few days. As Angela's mentioned, Jaisalmer is a little more of a tourist trap than we had expected. Every day to leave the fort you have 'run the gauntlet' of touts and hawkers trying to sell you everything from wooden statues of Ganesh to camel and motorbike safaris.
In an effort to fend them off I've now started talking in gibberish and my best Borat voice (you know how it goes), it doesn't stop the stares but they do leave you alone.
So, highlights of Jaisalmer?
Well we both spent Friday trekking around the Great Thar desert on the back of camels - an interesting experience. The camels were impressive they truly are the weirdest creatures to look at, and even weirder to ride.
You don't have stirrups so have to let your legs hang either side of their body - this is quite painful, and despite learning my lesson after some horse riding last year, by the end of the day I felt like I had been on some sort of Medieval torture rack.
But our guide 'Urga' was brilliant and cooked up two fantastic curries, chapatis and dal over a camp fire in the desert. It was probably some of the best food we have both had so far, and eating in the sand dunes as the sun went down was fantastic and a memorable moment.
Overall we were both pleased we had opted for the one-day trek rather than stay overnight. We got all of the benefits (the sunset, an amazing night sky where you could clearly see the Milky Way), and almost none of the problems (a night with the huge black dune beetles - think 'The Mummy', and two days of camel torture).
I say almost none of the problems, as I did have to go 'Ray Mears' after lunch - but the goats were almost no hassle and didn't run off with the toilet roll.
Yesterday, as I hit the big 3,1, we took in the sunrise from the roof of our guesthouse 'The Moti Palace', and decided to escape our relatively sparse surroundings and touts and opt for a little luxury.
We booked a day's swimming in one of the city's five-star hotels and after arriving at around 10am found we had a huge luxury pool to ourselves - at least until the massed ranks of the French and German tourists turned up and proceeded to turn the quiet desert retreat into something out of Allo' Allo' - they were so loud.
The hotel was quite a strange experience - aside from the staff, you don't really even feel like you're in India - it was a sterile sort of place. We're both definitely pleased to be seeing things as backpackers.
Ok, it's not exactly luxury, but it's less then 3 quid/night and we're meeting a lot more people and seeing the 'cow in the road' India, instead of being shipped from sight to sight like some sort of high-class cattle in luxury a/c coaches.
One of the best characters we have met so far is the owner of our guesthouse. After we checked in on Wednesday he introduced himself to us as 'The Desert King' - and even has this name on his motorbike.
After he found out it was my birthday yesterday he promised: 'We make party for you' and proceeded to ply us with an endless supply of Kingfisher and rustle up a delicious homemade curry (which we are still suffering from).
He reminds me of some sort of Indian Del Boy, and despite looking as though he has spent one too many summers wandering the deserts, is in fact only 28. He has broken English and plans to some day open a resort in his village outside Jaisalmer and monopolize the city's supply of milk and peanuts.
In the mornings and afternoons he lounges around in a towel and vest lording over his 'palace' and the two child-labourers that cook and clean for guests and seem to both be called 'the boy'.
On to Udaipur we go...for Diwali, Lake Palaces and Octopussy.
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Jodhpur to Jaisalmer
Hello everyone - Angela here doing a guest blog and giving Chris a day off.
We were both pleased to leave Delhi and we found Jodhpur the perfect place to relax, it is a fairly big city so outside the sanctuary of our lovely Haveli it was still mayhem, but if you look there are quiet places amongst the chaos.
The highlights were:
1. Sitting in the rooftop restaurant watching the sun go down over the blue city.
2. Visiting the magnificent Mehrangarth fort which stands on a natural hill high above the city, we were lucky enough to be staying in the old town near the old entrance into the fort so instead of going in via the main entrance with the rest of the hordes we were able to walk up the quiet meandering pathway and visit the fort gardens.
The fort was amazing and had a great audio tour so we could wander around at our leisure, it was my building highlight so far - superior to the Taj Mahal!!
The people of Jodhpur are very hospitable we were invited into a family's house for Tiffin one evening, which sounds nice but we had just eaten and they proceeded to force feed us more food. They then insisted we went back for lunch the next day, it was great that we were lucky enough to be invited back and I am pleased to say our stomachs held up.
I have also been shopping with a new found friend Anu and her mum, we went into the busy market place one evening and they helped me choose a Salwar suit. I was after a plain one but the two I ended up buying look a bit like 70's curtains - pictures to follow, i am sure you will all enjoy the laugh!
We have also met a few funny Indian nerds, the first was an Indian Music guru called Guru who ripped us a CD with about 90 hrs of music on it. The second was a guy selling memory cards who kept cracking me up by calling them 4 jigga cards!
Today we waved farewell to the funny people of Jodhpur and boarded a bus (at 5 am) for Jaisalmer. It took 4 1/2 hours (no air-con) and took us through the barren scrubland of the Thar desert. We also saw a poor dog get it's foot ran over by a Jeep! There are millions of dogs running the streets here, just wild. It is strange as Indian's are a nation of animal lovers but they just leave them to their own devices so you see injured ones all over the place.
Our accommodation in Jaisalmer is really cheap - three pound fifty a night, not sure how many cockroaches will be in the bathroom (the number seem to correlate to the amount you pay!).
It is run by a guy called The Desert King, who breeds camels....need I say more.
The fort here literally looks like a giant sandcastle raising out of the desert, we are going to explore it tomorrow and then go on a camel safari into the Thar desert on Friday. There are a lot more tourists here (so you get a lot more hassle) but i suppose we are adding to it so we shouldn't complain!
Hope you have enjoyed reading - it isn't as funny as Chris's but i am a detail girl.
Jaisalmer Fort taken today from inside a lovely restaurant.
Jaswant Thada Centograph, Jodhpur - with very peaceful gardens!
My Salwar suit - check out the trousers!
We were both pleased to leave Delhi and we found Jodhpur the perfect place to relax, it is a fairly big city so outside the sanctuary of our lovely Haveli it was still mayhem, but if you look there are quiet places amongst the chaos.
The highlights were:
1. Sitting in the rooftop restaurant watching the sun go down over the blue city.
2. Visiting the magnificent Mehrangarth fort which stands on a natural hill high above the city, we were lucky enough to be staying in the old town near the old entrance into the fort so instead of going in via the main entrance with the rest of the hordes we were able to walk up the quiet meandering pathway and visit the fort gardens.
The fort was amazing and had a great audio tour so we could wander around at our leisure, it was my building highlight so far - superior to the Taj Mahal!!
The people of Jodhpur are very hospitable we were invited into a family's house for Tiffin one evening, which sounds nice but we had just eaten and they proceeded to force feed us more food. They then insisted we went back for lunch the next day, it was great that we were lucky enough to be invited back and I am pleased to say our stomachs held up.
I have also been shopping with a new found friend Anu and her mum, we went into the busy market place one evening and they helped me choose a Salwar suit. I was after a plain one but the two I ended up buying look a bit like 70's curtains - pictures to follow, i am sure you will all enjoy the laugh!
We have also met a few funny Indian nerds, the first was an Indian Music guru called Guru who ripped us a CD with about 90 hrs of music on it. The second was a guy selling memory cards who kept cracking me up by calling them 4 jigga cards!
Today we waved farewell to the funny people of Jodhpur and boarded a bus (at 5 am) for Jaisalmer. It took 4 1/2 hours (no air-con) and took us through the barren scrubland of the Thar desert. We also saw a poor dog get it's foot ran over by a Jeep! There are millions of dogs running the streets here, just wild. It is strange as Indian's are a nation of animal lovers but they just leave them to their own devices so you see injured ones all over the place.
Our accommodation in Jaisalmer is really cheap - three pound fifty a night, not sure how many cockroaches will be in the bathroom (the number seem to correlate to the amount you pay!).
It is run by a guy called The Desert King, who breeds camels....need I say more.
The fort here literally looks like a giant sandcastle raising out of the desert, we are going to explore it tomorrow and then go on a camel safari into the Thar desert on Friday. There are a lot more tourists here (so you get a lot more hassle) but i suppose we are adding to it so we shouldn't complain!
Hope you have enjoyed reading - it isn't as funny as Chris's but i am a detail girl.
Jaisalmer Fort taken today from inside a lovely restaurant.
Jaswant Thada Centograph, Jodhpur - with very peaceful gardens!
My Salwar suit - check out the trousers!
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