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:

• 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!

Some pix from last couple of weeks...

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.

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).

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 have photos of us on the eleflumps but they are on the other memory card......so will follow later.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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...)