Homeward Bound

Rain Rain, go to spain

gillsherratt — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:23:00 GMT

Well three days in Kolkata have been an experience indeed. The traffic, the beggars, the grime, the filth, the crazy looking street food, the sorry looking dogs, human pulled rickshaws, umpteen numbers of yellow taxis gunning for you in the street, smog, filth, ladies in saris of all colours in the rainbow, and lots of decaying colonial bulidings. Ooh and don't forget the Tea! This is one place like I have never seen anywhere in my life beofre, and am not entirely sure I would want to repeat the experience, though have to admit I am sorry to be leaving before we have seen so much that there is to see here. The weather has been utterly foul today and my newly purchased brolly (following many attempts by hagglers abd touts to advise me reagarding handicrafts and invitations to view many shops) has been put to very good use.

We took a ride on the tram today, finally working out that you just holler it from the street and then leg it across the road dodgind the rickshaws, taxis and any other "vehicles" and try and jump on before it starts moving too fast!! A bargain at only 8Rupees for 2 people for the whole ride. And I think the most interesting way to see the city, took most of my few pictures from Kolkata this way.

We have been for many cups of tea, very very good, in fact just off for another one in a min, we have found a rather decrepit 20s style tearooms with fabulous cakes- and even a pretty good cheese and tommy toastie! So its hasnt been curry at every mealtime :)

Off to sample the first of our night trains tonight- fingers crossed its not cancelled!!! We are on AC3 not AC2 as we hoped for, but I think sharing the carriage with another 2 people cant be too bad. Can it?!

We have as advise bought the lock and chain for our rucksacks- though why anyone would want 2 bags full of smelly clothes is anyones guess, and will probably entertain ourselves with scrabble and more cups of tea!

Varanasi is our next stop, bit ubsure what the touts will be like here, think it is bound to be worse than here, though we are now quite adept at pretending to hold an in depth conversation with one another whilst completely ignoring the "sir, sir, come and have a look in my shop"... This seems to do the trick, thoughf feels incredibally rude to do this, but we really do not need a rack of new clothes each and numerous handicrafts!!

Beeep Beep!! Stink Stink...

gillsherratt — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:58:00 GMT

Wow, think I was gobsmacked for the entire taxi ride!! We have arrived in Calcutta after much trepidation and slight concerns that we would want to get the hell out after a few minutes! Thankfully its much more interesting that it is auful, so I think we will have a wee while longer before we escape Westwards to probably what will turn out to be another hectic place. Oh and there is some sort of issue with the trains i.e they arent running at all...!! Welcome to India

The smells and sights are of things I have never seen before, and the odd one, which I had vowed never to smell/see again... Memories of china are recalled. Oh and the first family or Roaches, and I mean extended family, great aunties and uncles babies the lot. Fortunatley that was on the street nearish to the park, not anywhere near our hotel - which has turned out to be not bad at all, and very friendly owner. However have to admit, I do feel a little invisible here, all the men talk to Matt as if I am not there!! Really strange, not going to complain if it means he always gets the bill though!! hee hee

The taxi ride from the airport was a great introduction to what i guess we will see more and more of over the coming weeks - cows literally wandering the streets, silently mooching by the side of the road, munching on I hate to say it- plastic amongst the scrubs of grass... Crazy, I mean CRazy driving, (lots of squeezy eyes closed moments)ladies sitting sideways on motorbikes (i guess spread eagle legs arent exactly ladylike in a sari!)and huge mounds of rubbish at the sides of the road. The roads themselves seemes mostly not too bad, though at the side they just merge into dirt (and rubbish). more in the centre of town was really and eye opener, so many people!! (none of whom seem at all phased by the traffic) There are tonnes of yellow taxis, all really old fashioned vehicles, look a bit like VW beatles, but maybe from the former soviet bloc! Lots of cycle rickshaws and the strangest sight of all - human pulled rickshaws!! I really dont think I could bring myself to get one, seems rather inhumane although the guidebooks say this is the only way some people can earn money, so I dont know, maybe its a better alternative to begging.

So once we cooled down in the air co after the taxi ride we dragged oursleves out of the hotel and into the streets, and promptly found ourselves in what is maybe the equivalent of harrods tea rooms. hee hee. naughty but nice, proper cup of tea for the first time in ages and a nice sit down to prepare ourselves!! Had a nice walk through to the victoria monumnent just as the sun was setting - very impressive sight,and through the park on the way there are tonnes of people, i guess relaxing after work, playing cricket or football or setting up for a BBQ of sorts. Dying to take some pics, but Matt is (possibly rightly) paranoid of someone getting a squizz at a shiny looking camera and deciding we have a gift for them! haa haa, think we will take our photo taking ques from other tourists for the time being.

We also found a fabulous book shop, where the owner (a lady) was really nice and had lots to tell us from what books to read to where to eat and things to do in Calcutta. Unfortunatley the 3 places she recommendd to eat had ALL closed just 2 days ago due to supplier issued- gutted!)

Well we have had our proper curry (Thank you Lonely Planet) and very nice it was too, and following the trip we had around town and the journey here, we are exhausted so off to bed it is (possibly in the company of some ear plugs to drown out the beep beeps) to await what delights the morning has to offer.

Gallery: Hmm foreign places

gillsherratt — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:08:00 GMT

Flying Fans and Muddy Waters

gillsherratt — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 22:16:00 GMT

"Vang Vieng Welcome".. The salutation from our bus driver all the way from Luang Prabang for 8 hours across bumpy roads, throught tiny villages up into the mountains, and then back down again on very windy roads! This journey was completed with one final stretch of long very bumpy huge potholes and rather a lot of mudddy water sploshing about avoiding the cows, chickens and ducks that were wandering home for the evening, coming to a halt at the bus station... We arrived! And what a town it is... Hmmm not actually a lot of "sights" as such here, however the scenery (now the sun came out today) is stunning, huge karst rocks shooting up out of the fields and massive cliffs all over the place. We are staying near/just on the river at the organic garden, dont actually think there is anything organic about it, however we have a nice beach hut type thing and the food at the restaruant is really good.

We went Kayacking yesterday, which was great, though We werent very good and managed to miss the landing point...oops, so the guide had to take a swim to come get us and drag the kayak back upstream, poor bloke! Funnily enough he suggested that me and matt had a guide each and didnt do any more kayaking together... hee hee! Matt lucked out with the english speaking guide, and I had to make do with expressive gestures and sign language, which is a bit difficult when you have a paddle in your hands and are sat in front anyway!! ha, was good fun, and quite liked the rapids, didnt actually have to do a lot, so took a few pics of the scenery, which really do not do it justice, and there was lot of clouds and rain also. Saw a lot of people at the river bars which hav been created for the "tubers" people get in big rubber rings then float down the river stopping off at the bars for food drinks and the numerous rope swings, soe of which were really high I was too chicken. One of the girls from our kayackin group gave it a go though, however I think she took in some river water which totally put me off!!

We are off to Vientiane tomorrow - reportedly the most laid back capital city on earth, so quite looking forward to that, and they apparently have some good french restaurants too.

Oh yeah, the flying fan refers to our bedroom wall fan ( I have always had a bit of a fear of these things). It has been making the most tremendous racket every time I turned it on, and this afternoon got really bad, i was looking at it wondering whether to just turn it off and the front cover flew off, followed by the blades, which landed in the corners of our room! Needless to say, it has been replaced by a much nicer and quieter freestanding one. Air con in the next place I say!!

Family of geckos required - must be willing to travel...

gillsherratt — Wed, 1 Oct 2008 23:36:00 GMT

The mozzies have landed and made their arrival known, by making my legs nice and patchy! Ha, could be worse, Matt trapped his fingers in a door this afternoon on the boat and now has two purple fingernails and some lovely bruises come tomorrow most likely!! Thankfully nothing serious as we aren't too convinved of the medical treatments here (Luang Prabang Laos)...

So we have been on a "slow boat" for the last two days with a stopover in the deligtfull village of Pak Beng. Really interesting journey and beatifull scenery though very much sore arse inducing. Boat was pretty jam packed with lots of small stopoffs usually to pick up some locals and several bags of rice! Nice mix of people on the boat, all sorts of nationalities and walks of life. The river itself (Mekong) is very brown and muddy coloured, thougha apparently has some enourmous catfish living in there (2m +) and the most wildlife diversity in any river oher than the amazon! Soo so muddy though we didnt see anything other than the odd dead Ox, No actually we did see a crab - the kind you get on the beach!

I wont rave about the accomodation for the last 2 nights as "functional" is about the only way to describe it, but was so cheap we really cannot complain! Luang Prabang has brought civilisation (and a really quite decent room) as we are beginning to know it however, and we have been for our weekly curry - Nazim, south indian, fab, v tasty.

Off to the markets shortly, walked through on th way into town, full of lovely stuff. I could buy tonnes! (but I only have a little room left in my bag, though I did notice there is a post office in town...!)

Chiang Mai was our favorite city/town in Thailand and we really enjoyed our time there, took a motorbike up into the hills which was quite an adventure and not as hard as we thought (way easier than bicycling hee hee) Looking forward to seeing some more of the countryside in Thailand when we return tho, as we mostly saw towns on the way here.

well, we will see what tomorrow brings, hopefully not rain, and not too much heat so we can go explore the town and its surroundings. Its a beatuifull setting, right on the river with green trees and the like as far as the eye can see, with the odd temple poking its way thru the foliage! Will try and put some pics up soon, my memory card is getting jam packed.

Gallery: Temples and wot not

gillsherratt — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:49:00 GMT

From Bangkok North

Heading North

gillsherratt — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:43:00 GMT

Still hot... We have spent a few days in Ayutthaya, aka "temple town" It is full of old ruins of temples, I think from 13th Century. They are all rather impressive, though unfortunatley most of the Buddhas have lost their heads, think they gat a bit battered when some people invaded (we think maybe from Burma, donkeys years ago) Well worth a visit though we did discover that the lovely ladies on the door are quite reluctant to give out tickets, rumor is abound that they pocket the money themselves! I don't think they earn a whole lot, so I guess if they get away with it then congrats to them for being canny!

Stayed in a lovely guesthouse (Baan Lotus) which was a bit of a circular walk from the train station(thanks to Lonely planets misguided directions...) However we first had to take a little ferry across the river, and I mean little ferry, with a big backpack attached, I was very paranoid of falling in! Was kinda like a dinghy boat with about 15 people, us with rucksacks and 2 people with bicycles. Wish I had taken a photo, but didnt dare move really!

The guesthouse has a lilly pond (lake) out back, and a nice seating area, pontoon type thing. So many birdies chirping away and lots of crickets and small insects that make similar noisy noises. And I thought I saw a baby crocodile! ha, turns out it was a lizard, maybe a salamander, about 1meter long swam across the pond then ran up a palm tree to catch the last of the days rays! They also had a rooster who like every other rooster I have ever encountered can't tell the time... Early morning wake up calls, and reminders that he was there throughout the day, some cute chickens though, all cheeping about following their mum!

And the sorriest looking dogs I have ever seen, there are a plethora of stray dogs roaming the streets, looking in a very bad way. I think they need to start a sterilisation programme for all the dogs. Seems strange as some people had the most pampered pets as well, and there were a lot of pet stores.Hey ho, completeley different culture, apparentley in Buddhism it is not the done thing to kill these animals, though I think in the UK the RSPCA would put the majority of them down.

There was an interesting night market here too, and we sampled a few delights, namely veggies rice and cashew nuts! Not a patch on Mr Yims in Bangkok - a lovely street vendor selling all veggie food cooked right in front of you, really tasty curries, we will be back there when we go back to Bangkok! The market was for locals, and was interesting to see people out and about, we have discovered that during the day pretty much everyone is indoors, and its about 6pm that people start emerging! There is a largeish muslim population and a lot of halal food stores in the markets.

The temples at Ayutthaya are all lit up at night, and look pretty fab, and as this is about the best time of day to walk about its a nice touch!

We took the train from Ayutthaya yesterday to Phitsanulok, 2nd class with air con yey! All for about 350Baht...that would be about 6 quid? Free tea when you get on, and then a dubious looking lunch is provided. Toilets a bit smelly, and with a fresh air view to the outdoors, but hands down beats Branson anyday!

We have spent yesterday afternoon and this morning in Phitsanulok, had a mooch at a few temples, Matt went shopping and purchased some shorts. Saw about a millions birds sqwawking and pooing on the electricity wire bilboards by the roundabouts must have been having their evening get together! Loads more motorbikes here then anywhere else, actually makes crossing the road easier. Today we take a train to Lampang where I am planning on taking us to the Elephant Conservation Centre, they look after all the oldie ellies from around thailand, and sounds like out of all the elephant places this is one of the fairer places and they dont have elephants doing tricks for the tourists. We did see some Elephants at Ayutthaya but they were doing tourist rides, loked healthy enought (certainly healthier than the donkeys/ponies...) and was a bit disconcerting cycling so close to an enourmous creature!!

Will try and put some pics up now

xxx

Arrived in Bangkok!

gillsherratt — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:19:00 GMT

We arrived in Bangkok last night, very very tired. Took us about 24 hours hours of travelling to arrive here. We got a taxi into the city, the airport is HUGE! Aparently the 2nd biggest in the world now. Something like, 74 flights per hour landing or departing, and they have 2 parralel runways that can operate at the same time! Have to say I am not really remembering much from last time here, and couldnt remeber at all where the guesthouse that we stayed at was!
We have a decent enough hotel, in a nice area away from the main touristy area (Ko Sahn Rd), which we are glad about as when we went for breakfast there, most of the people at the other tables were still drinking last nights beer!

Lots of Tuk Tuk drivers wanting us to take tours with them out to the Palaces or wot not, we are 'Just Saying NO"as politley as possible for today, dont think my tired head can contend with the traffic :)
Went straight to bed last night, as we were just too tired to go out,and today are having a lazy mooch about, and in search of a guide book, Matt is looking for the best bargain!!! There are loads of nice looking restaurants around us, and some street vendors too - apparently they are the safest way to not get sick as you actually see the food being prepared... Hmm, but you also see all the dirt around the food being prepared. I might just go with ignorance is bliss, and keep my fingers crossed...

The weather is very overcast, for which I am quite grateful, as its quite hot, and my toes and fingers are already porky! Actually hoping the sun doesn't come out for a few days!

We might go to one of the temples today or tomorrow, they are really spectacular, the taxi driver was pointing them all out to us last night, looked very pretty all lit up, and sparkiling with all the gold and jewels they are decorated with.

Matt is curently looking up places for us to go and eat! Getting our priorities in order. THink I am hungry again, so maybe go and try one of them out, we cant seem to work out of we are jet lagged or just simply tired! Either way a lazy day prevails.

Gallery: South Island, the last bit

gillsherratt — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:49:00 GMT

From Nelson Onwards

gillsherratt — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:00:00 GMT

Well, this is a new way to share my stories!

We left Nelson and headed back towards the West Coast for Kaikoura and the whale watching. Was a lovely drive over there and just outside Kaikoura was a place you could stop at the side of the road and have a nosey at a seal colony!! For real. They were so close, I was really excited, have only ever seen the odd one bobbing about near hilbre Island before now!

Booked ourselves onto the Whale watching trip for the following morning... Kaikoura was a nice small town, with fantastic views over to the mountains (the Kaikoura Ranges funnily enough) Treated oursleved to a proper curry which was well good, though decided we will not have any more till India now, otherwise we will be sick of cirry before we even get there, well me at least, dont think Matt will ever get tired of curry!!

The Whale watching trip was great, other than feeling incredibally sick (me) and Matt having to look after me! We ony saw the one whale - they say he would have been about 18ft long, male sperm whale. There are quite a lot of them living around this area as the water is incredibally deep, just how they like if for diving for food. Was auite cool to see, and we saw some enourmous birds too, think Matt saw a giant Albatross, they have about a 4 metre wing span I think!

From Kaikoura we headed east and a bit south to Greymouth, which was very grey,,, and the hostel although very nice, was ful of a bunch of teenagers! Schoolgroup, think they were there for some sports thing or other... Not what makes a great atmosphere in a hostel... boo hiss, I dont like teenagers! Didnt stay very long here, just headed further south to the Glaciers, kind inland and very very rainy. We did stop off at some more springs though, they were great, Japanses Style, outdoors with fab views of the trees and hills from the springs themselves. Have to admit I was not enamoured with the smell, and very very black water, you could not see yourself when in it, and all this black slimy stiff kinda sticks to your skin... its very good for you so I am told though! Was a nice break from sitting in the car though, and as the weather was bad anyway we quite enjoyed it. The glaciers were a bit of a washout. Very grey and we couldnt see them at all :( So we holed up in our motel room at Franz Joseph glacier, which was nice, and had everything we needed until morning when it finally stopped raining!!! Yey. Headed further south again, and stopped of at the Fox Glacier, which we could actually see, very blue grey in colour and not like anything I have ever seen before, couldnt get very close as there had been ssome flooding nearby, but all the same was good to see it.

Headed from here to Wanaka, through more rain and saw tonnes more fields of sheep etc! The scenery as we got to Wanaka was lovely, huge mountains and some lakes which were quite enourmous. The weather cheered up by the time we arrived, just as hoards of people coming off the snowfields and into the town, the most people we had seen in ages!

Was a nice enough town, with fantastic surroundings, on a big lake with huge snow capped mountains beind and all around really. Really pretty. We stayed in a really pants hostel for the first night, we hadnt bothered booking - big mistake, v v busy and not many rooms free! Ended up in the garden shed out back, kitted out with a bed and all, but bloody freezing in the middle of the night and morning! Swiftly moved on the next day to a much nicer place - Mountain View Backpackers, and we really did have mountain views from our room. An auful lof of snowboarders in the hostels here, lots of Japanese, some of which were proffesionals (and had the injuries to show they hadnt been on the nursery slopes all day!!)

We (after a lot of deliberation) decided to go skiing for one day since we were so close, and booked ourselves in! The day before though, we went for a walk up one of the mountains, close to the town, and although it was a bloody big hike for me at least, was so worth it for the views, beautiful blue skies and we could see so far, and so many mountains and lakes. And the top of the mountain still had snow on it, was pretty cold at the top, but we stopped long enough for lunch etc, then the journey down, think it was 3 hours up and 1 hour and a bit down!

Well skiing was great, I actually remembered some of the dry slope skiing I did as a child, and only fell a few times, really enjoyed it, though my legs were killing me at the end of the day. Matt was better than me, and got the hang of turning much faster, only went on one of the bigger slopes once, I thought me knees would give way halfway down. Have to say though, I was totally put to shame by all the mini children whizzing past me! They were mostly very very good!

From here, Queenstown for a short visit, way too touristy then onwards very south to the Catlins national park (fab cottage by the sea) saw seals, sea lions and penguin. from here back way north to Dunedin. pants hostel, decided we really are not here to see the cities to left the next day, visited the museam thought which was really interesting, and not full of boring crap.

Spent an afternoon on the Otago peninsular (nothing like the wirral other than in name!) in search of wildlife, though have to say dont think we saw anything other than seals which were so far away they might as wekll have been rocks, and a lot a lot of seagulls. The pengiuns must have been sleeping or out fishing :(

headed up to Oamaru, a pretty town (for a short visit, think would goa lil stir crazy if there too long) Didnt see any penguins here either, but did hear them from our bedroom - so noisy, a bit like a child wailing!

Decided to head towards Mount cook - Town called Twizel as it wasnt as far as we had thought, and found a lovely place to stay on a farm - they rent a cottage out to backpackers, we had the place to ourselves for the first night, lovely log fire and all. really nice. Drove up to mount cook which was a fantastic drive just for the scenery. yet more mountains. ooh and I forgot we saw a mirror lake on the way to Twizel, that was something I will not forget. Wait and see the pics!

Did a lovely walk in Mount Cook _ yey not uphill this time, you hve to be a proper mountain climber to do that one, and thankfully Matt has shown no interest in that activity just yet... The weather was on our side and as we walked further into the valley we got stunning views of the mountain, which just cleared the clouds as we got close. you can get pretty much to the bottom of the mountain which seems to just rise vertically, with a bit of a glacier at the bottom which appears to be melting into the lake, and onto the river, really strange, like what i imagin the arctic to be , on a very mini scale obviously! Lots of lumps of ice floating about!

Well, now we are in Christchurch, and you will be glad to hear, the end of todays ramblings...! havent seen a lot yet, stayed in a lovely hostel 20 min walk from the centre last night, and now we are off to have a quick mooch about before heading to the airport later this afternoon. Drop off our now stinky hire car, keep our fingers crossed they dont notice all the chips... we have insurance if they do tho! then stay in an airport hotel, a wee bit of luxury before Asia, v early morning and long day tomorrow. Cant quite imagine how hot and humid it will be ??!

Have to add though that I had the best pizza I ahve had all year in a small food court last night, am going to try and badger matt into making it lunch!. Hope this gets to everyone!

xxxx