Hi Everyone
Again long time no speak so sorry about that. We've been in India now for a little over 4 weeks and sadly we feel that it's time to move on. For us, (and this is not to offend our Indian friends) we just haven't enjoyed India as much as we'd hoped. We don't know many people who can travel India on a budget and tolerate the annoyances for a vast amount of time so we think it's been an achivement in itself that we've lasted this long and not had a nervous breakdown! We're sure that if you're staying in 5* luxury accomodation, with everything you need in your complex, hiden away from the real India you see in the streets, it's a beautiful place. Having said that we've really enojoyed the food and our houseboat trip in Alleppy was a amazing. Kerala was our favourite place by far, Goa was a let down from the start when a cheeky auto driver took us to a "veely nice hotel" and not the one we asked for just so he could get his free dinner! It's funny, when you challenge them and try to reason with them they suddenly don't talk or understand English! We've both been unwell a lot of the time and you grow tired of the smells, the begging, the scams, the ripoffs and the constant staring at us is staring to give us a complex!! So...we've had a go and will no doubt return one day but for now we've had enough.
So our next stop is Thailand and we will be arriving there on Monday 10th March. We've got a lovely hotel booked for 3 nights in Phuket where we will celebrate our 2 year anniversary. We're then onto cheaper accomodation for 5 nights to meet and greet other backpackers. Licci's biggest concern is the scamming that is rife in Thailand and hopes that we don't fall victim...Thailand is the land of smiles and so it's hard not to get cross with them apparently!
We're both losing a bit of weight but for all the wrong reasons, the food is great but our stomachs don't seem to think so! Our stomachs have shrunk considerably and we can only manage probably half of what we used to eat back home. We love our food and can't wait to sample South East Asia's finest!
We need a fresh start and we hope that being around more like minded people (we haven't found many in India at all) we'll start to relax a little more. The mugging in SA stills plays on our minds a lot and without our flash camera we've had little enthusiam to snap away but hopefully a new place will give us a new outlook.
Hope everyone back home is well and happy..we know times are tough and we appreciate situations aren't great - there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. We think about you all a lot and wish that you could all be with us!
Big shout out to Molly (our niece) whose birthday it is on 6th March and Kelly (Licci's sister) on 8th March. Love you both lots. x
Take care everyone and keep in touch, we get really excited when we get an email or a text from someone!! This trip made us realise how much we took for granted having our friends and family around us back home and we really do miss you all dearly.
Lots of Love
Licci & Jay
xx
