Notes from a Wandering Daydreamer

Gallery: Simply the best

kjones — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:43:00 GMT

My favourites from the journey home

Gallery: SE Asia

kjones — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:12:00 GMT

Thailand, Lao, Cambodia & Malaysia

i still call australia home

kjones — Fri, 4 Sep 2009 23:26:00 GMT

well this is it. the last blog from abroad. i am now waiting in changi airport for my flight back to oz and the end of this big adventure. at the end of my last blog we were on the train from bangkok to krabi in southern thailand, which was i guess the first step in the journey home, as since then i have been moving south and i guess it wont stop until i reach wagga - or melbourne for that matter.

We spent almost a week on the beaches of railay. its a truely beautiful spot, and although it feels like an island (you can only get there by boat and everything is island prices) it is in fact a small peninsula that has been separated from the mainland by huge limestone krasts (i think thats what they are called) and it makes for an absolutley amazing location. think turquoise water, blue skies, white sand, green palm trees surrounded by sheer rock faces that look like melting wax. (its a climber's heaven) google thailand beach for images and no doubt railay will be in the first 3 images.

but as nice as all that sounds - it was monsoon season so it was rather hit and miss with the weather. usually we would have a few good hours of sunshine around lunchtime before the rain would came back for the afternoon and then clear by sunset again.

we had hoped to hire a boat to take us out to some deserted islands for snorkling and perhaps even stay the night, but on the day we planned (paddy and kate's last day) sadly the weather was not on our side. however we did go swimming in the rain and ended up with a beach to ourselves, without having to pay 2000 baht!

soon it was just the two of us again, and before we knew it it was wednesday and time for us to leave railay. and wouldnt you know it - the weather was the best we had seen all week. i was heading to the airport where I was flying down to Kuala Lumpur and Gary was heading back to bangkok on the train to fly to ho chi minh city, vietnam in a few days time.

i felt quite sad to be leaving. leaving thailand, leaving gary and leaving the adventures behind. I now only had 2 more nights before flying home and as keen as i was to get home, part of me didnt want it to end and to be heading to vietnam too. although the wallet had different opinions on the matter......

my first impressions of malaysia was that it was like a more developed thailand. it was a country that i had never really thought about too much as it had never really been on my radar. i had and still do want to get to borneo malaysia, but as for peninsular malaysia I had no ideas and no expectations. first thing i noticed were the flags. i thought thailand had lots of national flags everywhere, but nothing compared to malaysia.(i later found out it was cose to a national holiday) you couldnt look sideways without seeing at least half a dozen at any one time. second thing i notced was that there were far less motorbikes on the streets - many many more cars so it was a lot richer country.

KL did little to impress me to be honest. the whole way in from the airport (a good 55min!) was just concrete freeways and bland lifeless buildings. once i got into the city, little seemed to improve. I struggled to make sense of the public transport - which although worked fine on its own, there was little if no connectivity between different railway lines and the monorail. to change lines you had to exit the station, cross the street (no crossing) and buy a new ticket for the next train. it all seemed a bit silly.

that night i was feeling a bit down and not interested and couldnt be bothered to leave the hostel. eventually i convinced myself to head out for a walk and try some famous malaysian street food (didnt live up to the hype...). but i was walking along, when i turned round a corner, and there before me were the tops of the petronas twin towers, all lit up in the night sky and feeling so close that i could reach out and touch them. it was one of those travel moments where in an instant you forget about whatever may be troubling you or getting you down and you remeber where you are and what you are looking at - like the taj mahal, great wall, angkor wat, berlin wall or eiffel tower. those experiences make you realise that it is all worth it in the end.

the following morning i was up early to get to the towers to get a ticket to visit the skybridge. although free, they are limited numbers each day and are given on a first come first serve basis. i arrived just after they opened at 8:30 and by the time i had my ticket, i was not going up until 11:30. So there was plenty of wandering around, looking at shops that i couldnt afford - including topman which was painful - and by the time that i went up (after a 15minute propaganda video about petronas petrolium company) i was a little bit over it all... but the views were ok if not a little bit smoggy from the skybridge.

afterwards i headed into the old colonial area - mederka square, but it was a bit so-so. so i ventured through chinatown and headed to central market, figuring that buying something would cheer me up, howver try as hard as i might, i couldnt really find anything that i wanted to by other than a keyring. so now my only souviners from malaysia are a keyring (which is a wicker takraw ball -volleyball but played with the feet- which could have been from anywhere in SE asia) and a wee bracelet that a monk gave me. You see i have developed a facination about monks latley (there is one using the free internet opposite me now, in his orange robes , sandals and monks bag!) and having seen them everywhere in thailand, lao and cambodia, to see one in muslim malaysia, in chinatown trying to collect alms with his bowl, i couldnt help but give him 1 ringgit and he gave me a smile and a wee bracelet.

i am still stuggling to work out what it is that makes malaysia unique.i know that i was only in one city for little more than 24 hours, but i was largely unimpressed by it all. it felt like someone had taken thailand, developed it more, made it musilm, added a lot of indian and chinese migrants and taken the fun out of it all. that pretty much sums up my feeling of malaysia. it all felt a little bit lost. everywhere were posters proclaiming "1 malaysia" like they were trying to remind everyone that they were the one people. i guess it's hard to form an opinion of a country in such a short experience though.

that night all that i could think about was the fact that this was it. my last night abroad after over 2 years. the next night would be spent on a plane, and after that i would be sleeping back in australia. i felt that i should have made the most of it, but i was way too tired and had another early start. so thismorning at 7am the final journey home began.

i only just made my train by a few minutes, after a worried dash across KL in peak hour (thankfully they were all going the other way). The train journey to singapore was long, made even longer by the fact that had slept on my neck in an odd position and was in pain whenever i turned left and that the carriage around me seemed to be filled with young kids who insisted on crying the whole time - or playing loudly with plastic bags. bah humbug! however there was entertainment in the form of speedy gonzales cartoons and a scooby doo movie on the tv. but once they finished they were simply repeated again. you can only watch scooby doo so many times a day!

singapore - the last country of the big trip. and probably the one i have seen the least of. I spent a total of a about 2 hours in the country before arriving at the airport - and all of that was either on the train, metro or walking between the two. but from what i have seen it's a pretty nice place and i would like to come back some day on my way somewhere else.

upon arriving at the airport i was so relieved to find out that i was able to check in already - despite it still being 6 hours to my flight. that meant that i was able to head through immigration and use all the facilitys of the 3 terminals. this blog has been written from all 3 different terminals, as i made my way round in a big loop, using the free skytrain to that connects them all. i had hoped to spend the evening at the rooftop pool, but after buying something to eat i realised i still needed money to get me home on - so ive stuck with exporing and using the free stuff, which is still good!

i dont really think that ive been fully able to comprehend the fact that im about to head home. after more than 2 years away i know its going to come as something of a shock to the system. even here in changi airport i am surrounded by australians and it feels a bit wierd. i keep thinking "do i really sound like that?".

i guess the big question though - the million dollar baby - is has it been worth it and have i achieved what i set out to achieve. well the answer to that question is a resounding YES and i'm not sure, but i think so... my only hope that i had when i first set out back in june 07 was that by the time i returned home again, whenever that may be, that i would finally know what i wanted to do with my life. despite finishing uni, i felt nowhere ready yet for the real world and still dreamed of a challenge. the past 2 years have tested me in ways that i could never have dreamed of. facing 3rd world poverty by myself for the first time, battling with russian burocracy in china, starting life anew in london and edinburgh, being responsible for 23 nepali orphans in a big city while none of them speak english.... just a few of the situations that life has thrown at me.

what has made this trip truely memorable though are the people i have met and countless new friends that i have made. some are only for a limited time but some are for a lifetime.

i have been inspired by the things that i have seen people achieve and now believe that i too can do something that makes a difference in the lives of others. what i have done and achieved for myself in the past 2 years is nothing compared to others i have met. although i still do not know exactly what i want to do with myself, at least i now have a vauge idea on where i would like it to head. and to be perfectly honest, im more than happy with that.

because really, what control do we really have in this world? everything can change so quickly and in so many different ways. i have learnt to be thankful for whatever it is you may have and never let a day go past when you dont remember that. the world we live in is a vast, ecclectic and ever changing place that is too big to hide from.

a quote that i have seen a few times along my travels has stuck with me.

"The world is a book. Those who dont travel read only but a page."

- St Germaine

I had been debating what to call this blog. i had a few options in mind, until a few minutes ago. i was standing on the rooftop of terminal 2 in the sunflower garden taking in some last moments of warm tropical air. in the dark i saw a plane thunder past on the runway and all you could properly see was the tail lit up. red and with a kangaroo. then a particular song came into my head and i knew that there was only one option. yes i have been to cities that never close down. not new york, but to paris and old london town. but not matter how far and how wide i have and will roam, i always have, still do, and will always call australia home.

Hope you have enjoyed sharing the journey with me.

It's time to come home.

Kane

the end is nigh...

kjones — Thu, 3 Sep 2009 00:55:00 GMT

not long to go now.

I now find myself alone in Kuala Lumpur and only 48 hours away from being back in Australia for the first time in over 2 years.

since I last put fingers to keyboard, we spent almost a week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, wandering the city, visiting a few museums, trying not to do too much shopping, avoiding the over egar moto and tuk tuk drivers, and our favourite passtime of wandering through the central parks in the evening, watching the mass dancing groups competing for space and volume levels.

PP is a really nice city to spend a while in, even without doing a great deal. More relaxed than bangkok, yet more active than Vientiene, it has the right mix of old asia, colonial influence and new development. although things do seem to be leaping ahead at breakneck speed. I spotted a few KFC outlets and no doubt its only a matter of time before the big M can be seen there.

On our final day we decided to treat (i use the word loosely) by going to a pool bar next to the hostel, where as long as you spent $5 you could swim in the pool all day. It was nice to feel somewhat rich and spoilt, if only for an afternoon.

Eventually we made it to Siem Reap where we were meeting up with Paddy and Kate from Dundee. We were looking forward to seeing some familar faces again after so long on the road. However before that we spend a day at Angkor Wat, cycling round the temples on our rickety little bikes. It was bizzare to come back to something I never really expected to see again in my life, but it was well worth a repeat visit. It was a much different experience by cycle after my previous visit on with a group on a bus and a guide. being free to go where you please and spend however long you like was a great advantage. however the day was hot, the roads long and the bike seat HARD! after cycling back into town for lunch and a rest and then back again, we were beginning to get a bit tender on the backside. after a full day exploring, we headed out to a temple with a great view of the surrounding paddyfields to watch the sun set. however when we arrived the clouds had gathered and the thunder was cracking in the distance, so instead we were treated to a fantastic thunder and lightning show over rice fields and palm trees.

we left, hoping to miss the rain, thunder cracking overhead as we cycled the empty roads back around angkor wat in the fading light. after 1 hours of solid cycling and just on dark we made it back, dry but very very tender in the rump.

after waking with sore legs and aching bodies the next day, we finally met up with paddy and kate who was just starting to recover from a bout of dengue fever that she had caught while they were volunteering in a small village just outside siem reap. however the worst was now over and she was slowly beginning to feel better.

that night we headed out with some people from paddy's volunteer program, and some local expats which made for an interesting group. there was one lady who arrived in S.R 7 years ago and stayed for a week without even seeing the temples. all she was interested in was the sheer number of orphans in cambodia. Today she runs an orphanage with her cambodian husband and takes care of over 70 kids. and i thought 23 were a handful!!

we visited a few places that night, including a very posh bar full of locals and expats - we felt a wee bit out of place sipping our draught beers (cheapest) - but ended up having the latest night any of us could remember - 3am! the plans to head to the landmine museum the next day never got any further as we barely left the guesthouse until evening, our bodies remembering what hangovers are...

from there it was back to bangkok (my 7th and final time for this trip) via at least half a dozen different restaurants on the journey. although i guess what do you expect when you pay $8 to get from Siem Reap to Bangkok including a hostel pickup??
The border crossing was made fun by the fact that a torrential downpour started moments before we had to get off the bus at the cambodian border. we were stuck on the bus for a good 5 minutes before we decided to make the mad dash of 10m to cover - getting drenched in the process, and having to go back to the bus to get our bags before we could cross the border. finally, wet and soggy we trudged into thailand and climbed aboard the little mermaid bus (complete with ariel and the gang painted on the side and the decor of a cheap brothel) direct to khao san rd.

one night in bangkok and the world's your oyster..... or so the song goes. well we decided to make it 2 nights. we had another night out on the town (but not as messy, we learnt our lesson from siem reap), i FINALLY got a haircut at MBK, so now I look like the member of a thai boyband. she even styled it exactly as the current fashion is with thai guys - big and boofy at the back with a sweeping fringe. however once i restyled it myself I felt a bit better about it.

we also hit the flower markets which were a feast for the eyes, nose and my camera. it was just like walking around a normal south east asian wet market, walking down narrow aisles with men barreling past with trolleys full of ice, people everywhere stocking up and a sea of colour, except there were no unpleasant smells.

that night after paddy and kate headed off to the airport to fly to krabi, we headed to the train station to catch our slow overnight train, then a bus then a boat to meet them in railay. I love the people you meet on train travel. as we were both sleeping in top bunks, we were accross the asile from each other so had to sit opposite other people until the beds were made up. the woman i was sitting with spoke very little english but we managed to have somewhat of a conversation. she lived down south in chumpom and had come to bangkok to visit her 17 year old daughter who is at school, who's nickname is sandwich (yes, im not kidding) and she also had a baby son who's nickname was... little dog.. She kept asking if i was a doctor or medical student (yeah right!) and how old i was. she then insisted i take not only her phone number (which was of little use as she barely spoke english) but also her daughter's phone number. she then insisted i also take a picture of her daughter that she had shown me where she was all dressed up and posing like a queen. i'm not really sure what she thought was going on here, but i suspect she may have told sandwich to expect a call from an australian doctor and to try and marry him....? perhaps?

all the meanwhile she found the fact that gary had fallen asleep and was sleeping with his head back and mouth open in his seat hillarious. she grabbed the attendant to make up theire beds, but i wasnt so lucky. while everyone else had had their beds made up i still had an hour or 2 of broken conversation and offers of dunkin donuts and rice before i was able to get my bed made up.

as i said, i do love train travel.

finally we made it to railay - which despite feeling like an island (only way to get there is by boat) is only a penisular. but it's certainly a beautiful one at that.

well it's been a long day (i was up early to get to the petronas twin towers early) and i'm beat. tomorrow is a big day - train to singapore then the big one - flying back to australia. so i'll head to bed now i think after a final re-pack of the bags (ready for quarrantine to go through with a fine comb) and write my final blog from abroad at the airport.

so check back in 24 hours for the final adventures and thoughts from what has been an amazing 2 years.......................

my how you've grown!

kjones — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:27:00 GMT

Long overdue but finally everything has combined to allow me to write another blog. - Internet time, things to write about and most importantly, I feel bothered to actually sit and write!

The day after the last blog was written we departed India with some sense of relief and excitement about the adventures ahead in South East Asia. However it seemed India was determined to have the last laugh and had planned one final act of revenge on us. Only hours after landing in Bangkok we were taking a walk when I started to feel unwell. The rest of the night was spent dashing back and forth to the bathroom and by the following night I was feeling able to eat solid food again. Just as Gary started to feel unwell. So another 24 hours later just as he was starting to recover, I started to feel a little unwell again and we knew that it was time to leave Bangkok. Despite doing very little (other than be sick or go and watch the new harry potter...) we knew a change of scenery would do us good so we headed out to Kanchanaburi, towards the Burmese border and site of the Bridge over the River Kwai.

It was a pretty interesting place and it was a bit bizzare to find so much australian and british war history and war graveyards in the middle of thailand. The change of scenery and fresh air rid us of any remaining sickness and we hired a scooter and took to the road to explore the area. We found some interesting caves where we later realised we had walked in the exit point, thus avoiding the ticket sellers, but they werent that interesting so we didnt feel too bad. later up the road we discovered a beautiful great big buddah, watching over the amazing view below him with a big smile on his face. below us the river (kwai) wound its way around jungle and a few paddy fields, surrounded by some jagged mountains. the sky was blue, the clouds fluffy and white, the jungle green and dense and the only sound you could hear......... a great big karaoke barge floating down the river below us, it's electronic thai pop tunes and bad singing blaring out all over the valey.
as it got closer we saw it was full of older women and there must have been a meeting of sorts going on - perhaps the thai branch of the CWA??

From there we headed north to Chaing Mai (via Bangkok. you cant go anywhere without going through bangkok it seems) where it was a challenge to contain ourselves at the sunday night markets. (quickly emptying wallets and a already full backpack are a hard thing to live with as a compulsive shopper!)

From there we followed all the reccomendations of everyone we had met and headed to Pai. It seemed to be a pretty nice place and in a beautiful spot, but after 2 days there it got a bit same same, but not different. Plus it was now time to head to Chaing Dao to visit the folks at Makhampom where the whole adventure began two years ago!

We arrived on the bus and my first observation of Chiang Dao's change was that the cafe we spent many a night and bhat in (creatively names cafe cafe) had since closed and is now a mobile phone shop. (richard told me later it closed not long after our departure. perhaps we gave damien an early retirement??)

Tom came and picked us up from the 7eleven and on the drive to makhampom it seemed that nothing had changed and the place was as beautiful as ever. When we arrived I was excited to see Pui and she could not believe that i had come back. The Makhampom area had now been finished off, with another lake, 2 more houses, playground and lots of finishing touches that weren't there when we arrived 2 years ago. Later, riding around the paddy fields just like i did on our first afternoon, it feel like time had stodd still and everything was just like it always had been. As much as you think things can change in 2 years, still things stay the same.

That night after dinner with Richard, Jon and a now much more grown un Luk Jon, we headed over to the theatre to "play" makhampom style. A school group from australia were coming the next day to do some workshops, and they needed a shadow puppet show as an example. So with Richard, Jon, Muoy(Yadda), Thom and Luk Jon we created a short piece involving 2 butterflies falling in love, one being eaten by a dragon before flying out when it sneezes before they reunite and go to the 7 eleven..... Who said it had to make sense?

The next day we got up early and went to explore the morning market (although we got there around 7ish so everything was being packed up. this market starts at 2am!) before jumping in the truck to head to the new - and improved - Pan Deng village.

Today was a big day. When we visited the village 2 years ago as part of the study tour, we were told of their situation. Burmese refugees living on government land since the 70's, but now facing the possibility of being forced off the land. While in the UK I had heard that they had indeed had to leave the land, but it had really been a blessing in disguse, as working with makhampom, they raised enough money to buy some land (owned in trust by makhampom as they are not able to own land) just up the road from the origional village. Over the past 12 months they have moved the entire village, house by house.

The new village is a vast improvement over the old. where houses were before squashed together like a make, each house now had a garden and plenty of room, there is a central road and everything is a lot more planned and ordered. there is space for a football pitch, more than one brick building and (our reason for being there that day) a community forest area.

Today was a big tree planting day and VIP guests had come from all over the area and some even from bangkok for the day. There were speeches in front of the entire village and guests, and the local football team played an exhibition game against a team made up of the local authorities. It could have been an intersting game as some of the guests invited were the police responsible for arresting the adults a few years ago, but it seems that the past has now been put behind them. Jon said to me later that for the first time they are happy. they know that they have a permenant place to live and the process to get them ID cards has already stared. something that would improve their lives dramatically.

After the game (from memory the authorities just won) everyone was presented with a gift (scarves for us but brightly coloured shoulder bags for the army reps there) and many group photos were taken, including a few of the entire village. There were people from the police, army, makhampom along with other authorities and organisations, but it seemed gary and I were the only farang (foreigners) Then began the big walk up the hill where 3000+ small trees were waiting to be planted. Luckily soldiers had been the week before to dif the holes for the trees, although some required a bit of scooping out by hand. There were so many people the work was very quick. It seemed more time was spent clambering back up the hill to find some more trees and then catching up to the front to find some empty holes to put them in. Within 30min or so the supply or trees and holes ran out and we were shown down the hill to the big new community area for lunch.

On our last visit to pan deng we were warned of the meagre fod supplies and not to eat too much as our hosts would eat what was left over after we were done. But the ammount of food dished up that day was amazing. Still though we made sure to leave plenty as it would be feeding the village for the next few days!

After lunch, despite more trees needed to be planted, we headed back to makhampom to perform our puppet masterpiece. So in the room we slept in during the study tour, we performed our show to some rather spoiled australian school girls, with gary making his makhampom debut as the dragon's eye.

It was interesting to see the two different groups of kids in the one day. All the girls of the same age in Pan Deng village had been dressed in their traditional dress, walking round with great trays of glasses of water for all the guests in the village, then helping to serve and clean up at lunchtime, always smiling while they did it.

Here were some rather spoiled girls, who rather than appreciate the experiences they could possibly be having and the fact they they were on a trip to thailand and spending time at makhampom, were more worried about their ego as I later heard....

The next day we headed off, with the hope that I will return next year for makhampom's 30th anniversary celebrations. Again we had to head south in order to head north, going back to chiang mai to head north to nong khai and the lao border.

after crossing the border into lao and we spent 2 days floating down the mekong on a slow boat to luang prabang. from there we kept heading south to vientiene with a quick stop in vang vieng to go tubing again. it seems that it has become a lot more popular - a fact that has not escaped the locals. the cost to hire a tube has now at least doubled, including the loss of $2 of your deposit if you return the tube after 6pm - which is everybody....
woke up the following morning covered in scratched and a head full of mud. a few hazy memories of sliding down a slide into a mud pit, mud volleyball in the pouring rain, loosing my thongs somehow, trekking through a thorn field (barefot) and drinking unknown moonshine out of a bottle with bees floating in it. i gues it was fun...??

from vientiene we kept pushing south until we finally got to don det island, a sleepy little island in the middle of the mekong river where we spent a very lazy 5 days recharging our batteries (me for the final 3 week push before going home!) and trying to conserve the quickly dwindling money supplies.. i have been rather shocked at how expencive and developed laos has become in the past 2 years. where as last time there were only 2 ATMs in Vientiene, now they are everywhere you look, and in every other town we visited. there is a massive construction boom and a flock of a new style of visitors i never really noticed before. those people who normally would have stayed in thailand and seen laos as a bit of a unknown quanity. and because of this it has sadly lost a lot of its charm and appeal i feel...

but it seemed all that frugal money saving was in vain as when we fianlly left don det to cross into cambodia just down the road we were hit with what we knew was coming. "Administration fees"............................

$2 each "stamping fee" to get stamped out of lao. after crossing the border, under a small tent was a man wearing a mask and holding an ear thermometer demanding a $1 fee for "health inspection" (taking our temperature) but we refused to pay him more than $1 for both of us. Then we had to get our cambodian visa on arrival. Despite the official price being $20, we were told the price was infact $23 (there happened to be 3 people sitting behind the desk. coincidence? i think not..) however if you asked for a reciept the fee suddenly rose to $25....??
The final insult was to have to hand over yet another $1 just to get your visa stamped and be fianally let into the country. I know it may only seem like a few dollars, but after living on the cheap, dropping $27 in a few minutes all for nothing is a bit too much to take, esp when there is nothing you can do about it....

Finally though, here we are in Phnom Penh. This time in 3 weeks I will be sitting in sydney, and another 12 hours later i will be back in old wagga wagga. and how exciting it will be... for a day or 2 i guess. as much as im now looking forward to getting home i know it will only be a matter of time before i cant wait to leave again.

but until then, 3 more weeks of adventures, and hopefully a blog or 2 in the meantime. i started this blog in vientiene a week ago.....it seems the SE Asia lifestyle is starting to get to me!

Gallery: oh my buddah!

kjones — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:58:00 GMT

the photos of the adventure

this is calcutta..... bohemia is dead!

kjones — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:28:00 GMT

calcutta. here I am. although suprisingly it is not really the image of the city that springs to mind whenever you usually hear the world. I didnt really expect to be here so soon, it was a rather annoying series of events that led us to being here early, and flying to bangkok tomorrow morning.

but back to nepal, where after our bungy jump we headed west to pokhara where we spent a week in the sleepy lakeside town just relaxing and unwinding, escaping from the worries of the world for a while.
pokhara is truly a beautiful place. we spent our first day on the lake, hiring a boat and paddling ourselves outinto the middle. it took us a while to figure out the best way to paddle, but eventually we made it to the other end. we then spent the afternoon sunbaking, jumping off the boat to cool down in the beautifuly cool water, watching the paragliders circle the mountains, listening to music or enjoying the silence. all the time, admiring the snowy peaks of the annapura range that loomed above the surrounding mountains. it felt amazing to be swimming and sunbaking in sight of snowy peaks.

the rest of the week was spent just taking it easy and enjoying good street food. one day we hired bikes and rode out to a nearby lake, which was very quiet and beautiful, but resulted in some horrendous sunburn - particualry for gary - and this was with the spf 30 suncream! so then that resulted in a day or two of doing very little, being in pain at most movements - and this is meant to be monsoon season! perople we had met had warned us that all it would do in pokhara is rain, but the weather had been almost perfect. sometimes it would rain in the evening or morning, then clear up for a beautiful day with blue skies and only a few fluffy white clouds. if anything it was a bit too hot at times...
after a week though we decided that it was time to move on and see new places, cassy decided that she wasnt ready to move on yet so she decided to stay and perhaps do the 10 day vipasana meditation course. Gary and I thought of going to lumbini for a visit, but decided instead to head back to kathmandu one last time to pick up some mail from home and pay the orphanage one last visit, then head east and back into india, up to darjeeling in the mountains.

so we arrived back in kathmandu and arranged to catch the overnight bus to the indian border the following afternoon. howver the next morning as we were reading the paper over breakfast we learnt of a indefinate strike that had been called in the whole darjeeling area. all tourists and non locals had been given until noon that day to leave, and after that there would be no transport and nothing open and nobody knew when it would open again. however anyone we asked about the situation seemed to know nothing, so we decided to chance it and see what would happen in the end...

so we departed kathmandu (about an hour late) for our trip that was scheduled to take 18 hours. only to mkae it 10 min down the road before we stopped so that the gearbox could be repaired - a great start to a long bus trip! but from then on things improved and the driver seemed to be trying to make up for all the lost time, throwing the bus round the tight mountain corners. all that you could do was to close your eyes and hope there wasnt another bus coming the other way. everything was going well until about midnight, when suddenly the bus stopped, pulling over to join a long que of buses parked along the side of the road. immediatley it didnt look good and my heart began to sink - it looked like one of the man many bandhs (strikes) that plauge nepal. it seems almost anyone can call a bandh for any reason and place large rocks on the road, blocking the only east - west highway in the country for however long they deem appropriate. meanwhile the police just stand about, doing nothing.
after most people got off the bus, my fears were confirmed. i was told that up ahead was a bandh and the rumors were that they would not move until sunrise - another 5 hours at least. so with that, we realised there was little to do but pass the time. the line of buses and trucks quickly grew along one side of the road while people wandered about in the darkness on the other. every so often a motoribe, ambulance or police car would pass, but other than that the road was silent. i was told from another couple who had been trapped before that they had once walked about one and a half hours to reach the point where the strike was from their bus.
As gary kept sleeping on the bus, i decided it was a bit too cramped and warm inside so i clambered up to my favourite spot on the roof and lay there he not so comfortable metal bars, listening to my ipod and staring at the clear stars, enjoying the cool light night breeze. unfortunatley i was not the only person with that plan. although the only other person up there at first was the driver making the most of a chance for a nap, it soon became crowded, with some people talking, and another (laying next to me of course) who drifted off to sleep and began to snore so loud the roof of the bus was vibrating.

however after only one hour (not long after a few trucks of armed soldiers passed in fact) there was a sudden flurry of activity ahead, people were running down the road and engines were being fired up. there was a quick scramble down off the roof before the bus lurched off again, this time in a mad rush to get ahead of everyone else. the driver must have been clinicly insade, tearing down the wrong side of the road, swinging the wheel from side to side, causing the bus to surch all over the road as we sped past buses, cars, lorries and most worrying of all... petrol tankers. after a few concerned shouts from passengers he seemed to settle down to a more acceptable speed. although it felt like we were again on the move, something seemed wrong. I soon realised what it was - there was still no traffic coming the other way. soon we stopped again. for the next 2 hours this process repeated it'self until finally traffic began to pass us non stop in the other direction. by 3am we finally seemed to be on our way and clear of any strike or traffic related trouble.

on and on the bus continued, until at about 11am we noticed that there was only a short distance to go. we were amazed that despite all the setbacks we were somehow still on schedule. we soon finally arrived at the indian border under an hour late!

this put us in a good mood and we felt ready to give india a second chance to impress us, after leaving us a little dissapointed the first time round. things strted well. the border crossing was fairly easy and we shared a interesting jeep ride into siliguri. instantly we were suprised to find how much wealthier and developed india seemed in comparison to nepal.

however once we arrived and once again started having to deal with india, we quickly became sick of it. it turned out that there was no possible way to darjeeling, gantok in sikkhim or anywhere in the mountainous north we wanted to go. even if we found transport going that way, there would be roadblocks and nothing would be open. we resigned ourselves to getting a room for the night and coming up with a plan. within the hour it turned out that plan would be to change our flights to sunday (5 days from now) and head down to calcutta for a few final days in india. there was nothing else we were egar to see or do and the pospect of arriving in thailand early was far too apealing.
it was 4pm when we went to book a sleeper bus to calcutta for the following night. then we discovered that they left every day at 6pm. there would be one 2 hours from now, and realising we had already drained siliguru of it's attractions we decided to go then and there. enough time to pack our bags and have a quick meal.

so we arrived in calcutta early the following morning, with 4 days left in india. the first was spent doing very little. wandering round the quiet streets of early morning, waiting to check in and then sleeping after 2 nights on sleeper buses. for the first time in india the place i was stayin in seemed to be full of other backpackers so it was a nice change to be able to meet and chat to other people, leading to a bit of a drinking session that night - leading to another day of doing very little as we were'nt feeling up to it. we were then told that there was going to be a large stike the following day and that everything would be closed! we had quickly gone down from 4 days to one one day to do anything.
that night we headed to the movies to have a bit of a quiet night. the only movie showing was transformers which wasnt that great, but the experience was entertaining, especially when the projecteer light kept dying and the audience had to shout to get the attention of the man so he would start bashing it to work again.. and dodging the drips of water from the air conditioning.

the next day the stike was happening and we were warned not to leave the area as it could be dangerous. but we decided it was now or never, and staying in a group we headed out into the streets to find it amazingly calm and traffic free. it was the perfect way to walk about the city. everyone was washing or relaxing and we could stroll down the middle of normally crowded streets. we visited mother teresa's mission and her grave. as i sat in the courtyard i could hear the clattering of manual typewriters coming from the windows above - a sound i have not hard for many years.

afterwards we paid a quick visit to the colonial era park st cemetary where we were chased out by the mosquitos, before heading to the victoria monument where the ticket men must have been on strike and we got in for free. it seemed that even the beggars seemed to be on strike as there were so few of them about.
we soon realised that we had just about exhausted our options for things to do on a strike day and we headed back to the hostel, where we drank a few beers bought by waving our cash through the security shutters of the local off license and having him pass them through the gate as so not to appear open on strike day.

the next day reading the papers we learnt that there had been a few scenes of violence throughout the city in some areas and people had been stuck at airports and train stations for over 12 hours. we had been lucky as the worst we had seen was a few buses loaded up with riot gear and a few sleepy policemen. although im not sure what to make of the local paramedicis renting out their ambulances as taxis for thousands of rupees to stranded airport passengers - as ambulences were the only cars allowed to pass!

So now tonight is out last night in india, and fittingly there was a blackout moments ago. if there has been one thing i have learnt in the past 2 and a half months..... always write long emails or blogs in gmail. thank god for autosave!

thailand here we come.....

Gallery: Nepal

kjones — Thu, 9 Jul 2009 21:52:00 GMT

seven minutes from tibet

kjones — Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:40:00 GMT

well about two weeks have already passed and a lot has happened in that time. i have now finished my volunteer work propper in nepal and its time for the travel to begin. However the last few weeks have been fairly hectic themselves. After my adventure up into rural nepal with Bima, I returned to life at the orphanage, walking the kids too and from school (including one afternoon through the first torrential downpour of the monsoon, wading through water knee high at times. the kids loved it, but me not so much!) helping the kids with homework, keeping them entertained and generally being there. One day Bima asked if I was interested in joining her on a daytrip up to the tibetean border, so sensing the possibility of another adventure, i squeezed myself into the back of a jeep with 5 other people and we headed off and up.
Along the way we stopped at the bungy jump - a suspension bridge strung across a narrow gorge with a river thunderng along the bottom. it was the 2nd highest in asia and i thought it would be great to have a go, but there was no time. so we headed up further until we were almost right at the border. It turned out that one of the men in the group was looking at purchasing a research facility or a guesthouse in the village. Im not really sure what was happening, but there was tea drinking and much walking about inspecting buildings. I just stared out over the valley looking at tibet. which i could see just further along the valley. it's one green lush mountain, fittingly shrouded in mist and looking rather mysterious. Below i could see friendship bridge, the border between nepal and tibet (well, china i guess). beyond the bridge, like a cancerous growth spreading over the beautiful landscape was the evidence of the occupying chinese and the concrete jungle they have been building. it looked horrible and so out of place in the beautiful surroundings.

without much of an adventure we piled back into the jeep for the journey back, stopping along the way to eat beaten rice and chickpeas, sipping gin in the fading light at a small roadside cafe, watching giant tata trucks and buses lumbering up the hill past us, gears grinding and dust billowing everywhere.

A few days later it was the end of the month and time for our farewell party and the raksi (strong rice wine) as promised to us by Devin. it was a fun night - made even more "fun" by the fact that i was on strong nepali antibiotics for my cough and i kept being passed susan's raksi as she was only taking a sip. we ate yummy newari food at sheila's house and then went and admired sanjay's pink bedroom before saying our goodbyes at the temple and headng out for another drink in town. woke up the next morning having lost my hat sadly, but my hangover quickly vanished when i read an email from gary saying he and cassy were arriving that afternoon. however the name of the place he said they would be getting dropped off at was actually 2 different locations - on either side of the city. so devin and i headed out to the place we hoped it would be - where the main highway came into kathmandu. we stood there on the side of the road scanning every bus that was going past of stopping, thankful that they should be easy to spot with their blonde hair. bus after bus stopped, with no sign of them. finally though after over 2 and a half hours we spotted some blonde emerging from a bus and there they were. they seemed rather relieved to have finally arrived after a long and sometimes tough journey from mumbai.

after a day of rest they joined me when i headed out to the orphanage to say my goodbyes. we arrived after the kids had come home from school and at first they seemed to be a little suprised at these new stangers arriving with kane uncle, but they very quickly warmed to them and gary and cass were soon swamped with kids. it was nice to have someone else to share some of the kids energy for once!
after a few (exhausting) hours of skipping, dancing and posing for many many photos it was time to say goodbye. I was presented with a small frame with a little building inside that the kids had made and they all wrote their name on the back. I hadnt realised how attached I had become to the kids and leaving was tougher than i expected. from the first time i said that we should leave so they could eat dinner, it took at least an hour as kids would run off to draw a picture or something to give to me beofre I left.
Eventually though after many hugs and a few tears from little rubina we left them and headed home through the dark.

the next day we were up early to go bungy jumping. i knew it was really streaching the budget to do so, but i had really regretted not doing it in thailand when i had the chance as i was too hungover. so at 6am we got on the bus and headed back up towards the tibet border, but it wasnt untl about 1pm we finally made it on to the bridge. everyone had been weighed and the heavier people went in the first group, and just my luck that i was goiing to be almot last. i was suprised how little i actually thouhgt about throwing myself off a bridge and i never even felt really scared. i guess standing on the bride in the cold and sometimes rain for about 2 hours watching other people jump took some of the thrill out of it. first gary jumped and made it safely, then was cassy, and eventually it was my turn. as i was being strapped in the man stuck the camera in my face and asked what i wanted to say. all i could think of was that i wanted to get off the bridge as i was starving. i hadnt eaten more than a granola bar all day. finally the time arrived and i shuffled up to the edge, looking down the steep valey to the thundering river below. arms out, i head 1 2 3 bungy, and i leapt out in a giant swan dive. for a split sewcond i had the fear of falling to my death,m then suddenly it was so calm and peaceful, the river rushing up towards me and the wind in my ears. the bouncing about was a little uncomfortable, esp when your body got jerked around, but soon i was hanging upside down and reaching out of the bamboo pole to take me to the edge.
we didnt make it back until 10pm, making ti a long day for about 2 min worth of bunge, but im glad i did it and now know wheat it feels like.

oh my buddah! (part 2)

kjones — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:00 GMT

Well then, now that i have you all wondering how my adventure ended up, I guess I should let you all know.

So there we wre, heading up and up the small stone step path in the faiding light. From the bottom of the valley Bima had pointed out our destination. A group of tall trees on the very farthest, highest peak of the hill. Among those trees was a 250 year old gumpa (buddhist temple/monestrary) that she had turned into a small orphanage for children studying to become monks.

The going was settp, but after a while we rounded a corner and came out of the trees. Everything opened up before us and I could see that we had now come up the steep side of the hill but we now had to go up and along the long ridge to the summit. Of course we had to go to the fathest point. So with the light continuing to fade quicker and a long way to go we set off, working our way along the small dirt track, winding through numerous cornfields and pasing small traditional houses, their occupants often found outside sitting around a fire. Later, just as the light was all but gone we reached a large brilliantly white stupa, with large prayer flags fluttering in the evening breeze. We paused, waiting for Bima to catch up, and I had a chance to truly appreciate the spectacular beauty and serenity of the location. As i stood holding a prayer flag pole I watch the last of the sun's light fade on the surrounding mountain peaks, their shapes now large dark shadows. Around the valey below were smattering of light, houses lit up by candle light and above the sky flashed as lightnight lit up the sky in the far distance. Knowing that there were no more than a handful of other foreigners as far as I could see was a wonderful sensation.
By now it was almost pitch dark and we were relying on the small cheap torches to get us to safety. I knew how sily the situation was, but what else could i do but press on? Thats what made it so great I guess. (sorry mum and dad!)

The path became steeper and the steps trickier. That was a track that would have been difficult in the daylight let alone by fading torchlight. Above me fireflys glittered as they flew about amongst the corn. After passing another stupa, we were getting close. Bima turns to me and tells me the story of the last time she was walking this track at night. She was coming back from her old village with her gura, when they encountered a tiger. She was so scared that she was ill for a week.
Great I think, just what i want to hear. Im finally going to discover that tigers actually do exist in nepal and its going to be on a small mountain track in the dark......

But luckily a few minutes later we arrive at the Gumpa without encountering a tiger. It is 9pm - 4 hours since we set out. I am so tired and exhausted that I have trouble believing where I am. A 250 year old Buddhist Gumpa perched on top of a peak in the foothills of the Himalays.
We are greeted by the Guru and let to a room above the main temply room. Below us the young bou llamas are chatting happily as they prepare for bed. through the crack in the floor i can see they laying abotut. Bima gives me a quick tour of the building. It had been abandoned and forgotten about for almost 30 years until Bima decided to cut the grass and clean it up, turning it into an orphanage for 20 young boys to study buddhism. Inside there were still two origional large staues of buddah, prayer wheels, silk thangkas on the walls and details murals all over the lower walls.

We were served chai and beaten rice (basically flattened rice) and also the famous butter tea that the monks drink. However it was heavily salted and I only had half a bottle of clean water left so I decided that only one sip was enough. Then we sat in the guru's room and by candlelight served rice and an amazing yet simple potato onion and chilli cury by two of the older boys who sat watching me eat with massive smiles on their faces.
When asked if I wanted more rice, i replied in what i hoped was my best nepali "pyugio" (enough) and they burst into laughter like it was the funnyest thing they had heard, and kept reperting pyugio.
Later as i lay down to sleep on my amazingly comfortable strip of carpet on the wodden floor next to the tibetean prayer books, i looked out the window to see bright stars and the shilouetes of prayer flags gently fluttering in the night breeze. I fell asleep to the sounds of monks giggling below me.
I slept like a baby.

I was woken in the morning by the sounds of movcement and chatter below me. It was 5:30. My body demanded more than 5 hours sleep, so i drifted off again, only to be woken by one of the boys fetching rice from my room. He looked at me, suprised i was still in bed - lazy westerner - after i left i checked my watch, it was only 6am. So by 6:30 I was feeling guilty enough to get up. I have a sore throat, bit of a head cold and ive lost my voice. I head down to where the boys are gethered around a small fire in the garden. I must have scared them with my croaky namaste, they dont seem too sure of me. I sit in front of the gumpa and take in the amazing view of the valley with all it's terraced hillsides visable in the daylight. I soon realise all the boys are now sitting opposite me, watching me with big smiles on their faces. They all seem so much more calm, peaceful and mature for their age.
But soon they are called away to change into their robes for morning prayers and we head upstairs for more chai and beaten rice for breakfast. As I sip my chai to the sounds of chanting monks, I realise my headcold and sore throat are now feeling fine.
After breakfast we inpesct the building. one of the floors is badly damaged. that is why Bima has come, to make plans for rennovations. We walk around, measuring and taking photos while the young llamas go about their morning prayes and prostrations (spelling?)

Outside perople are continuosuly carrying rocks from the small quarry to where they are building a new orphanage next door. Most of the workers are young men, but there are also some younger boys, with large rocks on their back, and i also see an older lady - one rock on ther back, one on her head. Despite being so far away from anything, we are still reminded about the evils of the west -one of the workers wears a britney spears t-shirt.

Sadly after only 12 hours we have to leave if we are to make it back to kathmandu today. I feel that if i had been better prepared and had more time i would have loved to spend a few days here. We begin our treck down the mountain. Within 20 min my knees are shaking whenever we stop. Along the way we stop at a school Bima is building and take some photos. She also tells me of the community centre she is planning on building next.

It takes us only 90 min to reach the bottom of the hill. and we eat more beaten rice and chickpeas while waiting for the bus to come. I sit outside, watching the chickens and ducks forage up and down the dirt street. When the bus arrives, it is very full. I find a small spot to stand right up the front. within the first minute i am almost thrown out the open door. I forgot how rough the roads were. only a few inches from my ear a speake is blaring nepali songs.
Only 5 minutes down the road, we meet another bus. The road is barely wide enough for one, so we are forced to reverse all the way back to town to let it pass.. My arm is already killing me from holding on so tightly, luckily in 10min i manage to score a seat - right next to the windscreen. I hear a voice singing behind me. I turn around to see the bus monkey man (ticket seller/luggage man/passenger tout) hanging out the door. This is about as local as a local bus can get. The only thing missing are animals.
The driver looks about 18 and has obviously not outgrown the boy racer stage. Thankfully we arrive back in the larger village, but the bus driver wants to join the strike - not go to kathmandu. So we quickly change to another bus which will take the longer and thankfully smoother way back to kathmandu. The bus also seems to double as vegtable transport, and we arrive with over 20 crates of tomatoes, and sacks and sacks on beans and chillis on the roof.

Finally after 36 hours we arrive home. Beaten, bruised, sore and covered in dust and sweat. But there is no reprive. 25 kids demand attention straight away. Then when I go to have a shower i find that rooftop tank is empty - no water. There is also a blackout - so we can not pump it up to the tanks. So I have to resort to using the hand pump to fetch a bucket of water and have a splash bath to get rid of the sweat and dust.
I finish the night watching a nepali movie with the kids. a movie that has obviously spent the entire budget on sound effects.

I go to bed in a tried, beaten, but suprisingly happy mood.

oh my buddah! (part 1)

kjones — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:18:00 GMT

i have just had the most unexpected, surreal and amazing 36 hours of my life.

"The Beach" is a movie that seems to generate lots of opinions in people, neverless there is a line from the film that im sure many a traveler can testify to and is something that has stuck with me.

"We always try to do something different, but we always end up doing the same dam thing." Usually that same thing involves drinking ans taking mind altering substances and dancing on a beach.

It may have taken almost exactly two years, but i think that i may have just had that unique experience that everyone looks for.

Its hard to describe it all in words, so this may be a long blog - sorry - but i'll do my best!

It started pretty simply enough. On friday night Bima (the lady who runs the orphanage in kathmandu im living in for 2 weeks) asked me if i was interested in visiting her home village the following day with her, I jumped at the chance to get out of the city for a day, thinking it would make a nice daytrip. Her sons said that it was a few hours away, but i had no idea how far they really meant. So at 7am the next morning we headed off, me assuming that we would be back in time for dinner that night so the only things i had in my bag were my camera, a few hundred rupees and whatever else may have been lying in the bottom of the bag. After an hour by minivan through the suprising bustling streets of kathmandu for a saturday morning, we got to the bus stop on the side of the road where we met up with bima's uncle and had a quick breakfast of spicy potato and chickpeas, washed down with sweet chai. Tehn we squeezed into the back seat of the piublic bus for what would turn out to be a bone shattering 3 hour journey up and out of the valley on the worst roads i have ever been on. - any of you guys from cambodia reading this, yes it was worse than the road from the thai border to siem reap. also imagine that road winding around mountains, passing other busses on a road barely wide enough. - I soon began to get excited when i saw a bridge coming, as at least that meant a few seconds of a smooth ride! We nicknamed the bus "the jumping bus"

It was about this time while i was trying to chat with Bima between being thrown about the back seat she asked if i was ok with trekking. I said sure, i do it time to time. What I hadnt discovered until now that her village was a few hours treck from the last bus stop.

At this point I began to realise how unprepared I was for what i thought was going to be a day trip and how silly of me. I was wearing a shirt, shorts and a pair of old converse (not the ideal trekking outfit), also nobody knew where i was going (not even me!), for all i knew this could be maoist (communist party who until being elected to parliament recently were a rebel group) territory which we had been advised to avoid (I would soon discover just how maoist the area was) and to make it situation worse, the monsoon was by now overdue and had been threatening to arrive any day now. I prayed that it could wait another day or two!

Finally after 3 rough hours we arrived in a fairly small nondescript looking village and emerged from the bus, body still shaking. We were well and truly off the path, beaten or not....

Bima said she had to attend a quick meeting with a local organisation, but first we went to get some lunch. The first place we tried had no rice ready so while looking for another place we walked into a abandoned looking stone building. We headed upstairs and obviously judging the confusion on my face Bima told me that it was local maoist office. I think she is joking until she opens the door. There on the wall, amongst the hammer and sickles is a large banner, with portraits of none other than Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Chairman Mao watching over the office. Joining them is the picture of the maoist leader in his army fatigues.

Im not too sure what to make of it all and it seems a bit surreal and i wonder what i'm doing there, with the photos of many locals who have become martyrs for the maoist cause looking down on me from the surrounding walls.
Thankfully there is nobody else there, so I take a quick picture. A couple of young men soon enter but they seem friendly enough. one of them is even carrying a young baby. as they sit there reading ther papers and laughing i wonder what all this fear of the maoists is based on...

Me head back to another restaurant for some interesting spicy dal bhat. During lunch Bima calls me outside to show me that one of the leaders of the maoists, who is a local and is now their elected member of parliament has arrived and is being greeted by a large clapping crowd further down the road.

Later after lunch we head up a small hilly path past wild coffee bushes to discover the meeting has already begun. The small room is full of people sitting around the walls, including one young american girl. We probably look equally suprised to see eachother. Information packs are handed out to all, including me, despite the fact it is printed in nepali. However from one sheet I manage to gather that it is something to do with the International Labour Organisation. Whatever that may be...

A few obviously important people get introduced, including Bima and they all get a round of applause. Then it's around the circle to introduce yourself (all in nepali). It gets to my turn. I manage to Say hello, my name and that I am a volunteer from Australia. I feel proud.

Next a lady comes around presenting silk scarves to people who must be VIPs or have done something special. Amanda the American is from the ILO so she is presented with one, then they turn to me and place one over my neck. I thank them politley, yet feeling quilty about recieving it. I dont even know what this meeting is about!

For the next few hours people give long speeches and I do my best to not look bored and like I have no idea what it going on. Two men speak for over an hour each. During these long speeches many people come in and out of the room. One man who is obviously very very important enters. Everyone stops to say hello and shake his hand. He gets to me.... When in rome.......

Later my boredom is broken by the serving of chai and buscuits. By the time the meeting ends it is almost 4pm. It is too late to get back to Kathmandu. It seems like this is going to be an overnight journey.

I chat to Amanda who is a law student from Vermont, interning in Nepal for the summer. She too had no idea what was said in the meeting, but it was about indigenous rights. She seems to find it funny when my answer to the question of what I am doing there is " I honestly have no idea..." She also informs me that she ahs been told there is a strike tomorrow (very frequent in nepal) and buses may not berunning. could this turn into a 3 day trip??

Things now go from strange to surreal. As we are walking down the hill back into town we come upon a circle of men sitting and talking in the shade of some ruinded buildings. One or two are from the meeting. I am invited to sit down and the very important man from the meeting asks me a few questions about my time in nepal. I'm then informed that he was the maoist leader I saw being welcomed earlier.

As we head down into town together it is obvious he is a very important, popular and well known man. Everyone wants to say hello and there is much hand shaking and back slapping. (no kissing of babies here) There is also a bit of attention towards me. Who is this strange westerner with bad dreadlocks? And WHAT is he doing hanging about with our MP? (I wish i knew too!) I'm then ushered into a small cafe where bottles of fanta are produced. I cant help but laugh on the inside at the situation. In a tiny rural village and the local maoist leader (who seem to be rather unpopular outside rural nepal) has just bought me a fanta.

But no time to dwell on that, as soon it's backoutside to meet more people and take some photos (me being the cameraman, so i will post them up soon). I begin to worry as its nearly 5pm and we still have a few hours treck ahead of us. After failing to find a lift we head out of town and cross a small stream and then cross the valley on one of the many fantastic suspension bridges found all over nepal.

We hope to hitch a ride on a passing car but we are out of luck. only a motorbike passes out. However the walk is easygoing and the scenery amazing. If it were not for the powerlines we could easily have stepped back in time. Below us the blue river runs shallow and fast, with many small terraces lining the banks as farmers toil the land with ox.Along the road and opposite valley are many traditional stone or wattle and daub traditional buildings. Children play on the road, women pass us with grat baskets full of cut grass and men lead cows or buffalo along or watch their goats graze on the steep sides of the road.All around us on all sides are steep lush green hills, increasing ion height. Beyond you can sense the mighty himalays looming above us, all but shrouded in the monsoon clouds. I look at then nervously. they look ready to busrt at any time.

After an hour we manage to hitch a ride on a passing truck, despite the reluctance of the driver. My sheer joy at sitting down vanishes the moment we start moving as i am reminded how rough the road is - something you dont notice when you are walking.

By 6:30 we reach the end of the road - literally. In the last village of any size we buy a few mini torches and head up the hill as the light slowly begins to fade.

We cross another bridge and pass a big digger, buillding the road up the hill, carving out a path from the vegitation. Locals stand around to watch the progress and kids ride on the machine like a ride in sideshow alley. As we headed up the rough track I fully appreciated how silly this situation was, but also realised i had no other option but to keep going. Up up and up, to the gumpa on the very tip of the hill which was our destination.

Now that i hopefully have you intrigued, I have to end it now as I have to go and pick the children up from school. However I will finish it off tomorrow. Will we make it to the gumpa? (well i obviously made it back to kathmandu!)

call me uncle

kjones — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:26:00 GMT

It has been a while since i was last able to update my blog without fear of the computer crashing half way through, and a fair bit has happened in the last few weeks.

I have just arrived back in kathmandu after almost two weeks down in chitwan and the start of my volunteer program. life in chitwan was on a much slower pace and I am suffering a bit of sensory overload being back in the big city of kathmandu.

When we first arrived in Chitwan we spend the first few days seeing the sights. Early morning canoe trips down the river, walking through the jungle (managing not to see anything more than mating insects and a few deer) swimming with elphants, riding elephants through bushes (ripping our clothes on the sharp branches) and trying to adjust to the heat and humidity after the relative cool of kathmandu.

it took us a few days to try and figure out exactly what we were meant to be doing. ervy day there seemed to be different plans, but as we soon learnt thats just how things work here in nepal.

After a few days I still wasnt too sure on what exactly I was meant o be doing, so i ended up helping out at the blind orphanage where we would paint some walls (depite they coundnt see them..) and at a homework centre.

It was pretty fun work, and despite only being for a few hours, because of the high heat and humidity you would be drained and dreanched in sweat after only a few hours. I played a game of volleyball with the blind kids - everyone versus me. i almost died after half an hour.

we also played blind cricket which was pretty amazing to watch. a ball with a rattle in it would be bowled underarm, and the batsman would swing the bat along the ground trying to hit it. it was a pretty low scoring game and they had invented their own rules to make it work. we gave it a go, complete with blindfold and it's hard work!

After about a week or so, i felt like I wasnt really doing a great deal and decided to make the most of my time by switching programs and coming back to kathmandu to live and work in an orphanage.

So I came back to Kathmandu, riding on top of the bus the whole way with and americal girl and an irish guy (there's just no escaping them it seems!). by the time we had arrived i had gotten rather badly sunburnt, particulary on my legs. Neverless, it was a fun journey, sitting up the top, drumming as we went along and filming a commercial for everest whisky as we went. - on top of the world, on top of the bus! - however when we arrived in kathmandu they seemed to have forgotten about us up on the roof (or didnt care) as its illegal to ride rooftop in the city, even for the locals, and for good reason. with so many power lines running accros the road, some will always be hanging low and for the last few minutes we had to lay down to avoid loosing our head! but... we made it!

the following day i moved into my home for the net two weeks, an orphanage with about 23 children, plus the family who run it.

I arrived while the kids were all at school, so it was the calm before the storm. at 4pm they all arrived home and it was non-stop until bedtime around 10pm.

They are pretty amazing kids. I am now known as "uncle" and after only knowing them a few minutes, they were all over me, wanting me to sit next to them for dal bhat or to show me something.

The next morning after all the kids headed off to school, I had to go to hospital with Sanjay, one of the younger boys who had been born with a defective leg. Together with one of the older sons of Binas who runs the home, we headed off to hospital to have his leg looked at. He had a major operation six weeks ago to try and correct his leg and it was time to change the cast and get some xrays taken.

However the nearest affordable hospital is 2 hours away by bus, and a taxi is far too expencive. So together we made the journey, taking 3 different local buses. I seemed to attract a few strange looks. What was this westerner doing with the young bou on crutches on the local bus?

Finally we made it - except for the fact that we were at the bottom of a hill and the hospital was at the top. Who decides to build a hospital for disabled chilren on top a hill? it was a long walk up!

When we finally arrived, it was lunch time, so we had to wait even longer. Then a wait to see a GP, then another wait to get an xray, wait to get them developed, see another GP, get the cast removed, back to doctor, back for more xrays, doctor again, then cleaning of the wond and removal of the sitches and finally a new cast.

By the end of the day I had been all over the hospital, fetching medical records, xrays, carrying crutches or sanjay. I felt I knew the inner workings of a nepali hospital! I must be adapting to nepali time as i simply accepted things would take time to happen.

Its hard to say how his leg is healing from what i saw, but it must have been a big operation on his leg, and he still has a metal pin sticking out the bottom of his heel. Even if the leg is to heal, it is a good 10cm shorter than the left leg, So he's not out of the woods yet. But he is a very brave and quiet boy. He barely said anything all day, except when it came time to take out the stiches and clean the wound.

We must have been the last patients of the day as we managed to hitch a ride on the hospital staff bus back into kathmandu which was a lot more comfortable, finally arriving home at 7pm - a full 9 hour day!

Today I had to walk the kids to school, as the man who does it every day needs to return to his village for the 2 weeks i am here. It is a long way (again) as it is the nearest free school. It takes almost and hour to get there, and half an hour for me to get home again. Then I need to repeat that again in the afternoon. Again I get more strange looks, walking 20kids to school through the back streets.

So that is going to be my life for the rest of the month.. Give me strength!

2nd time lucky......

kjones — Sun, 7 Jun 2009 16:19:00 GMT

ok, so i wrote this blog a while ago but it didnt seem to post. good thing i had a backup saved on email. here it is (again)...... So it is a little overdue, but finally here is my last blog for india and first for nepal. despite being here in kathmandu for almost a week now, i have been enjoying doing very little for the first time in quite a while and so struggled motivation to catch up on my blog. however today there seems to be a large strike and everything is closed, except this internet cafe so now i have the perfect excuse. After my last blog, we headed south. down and out of the mountains from shimla on a tiny toy train. winding through the steep mountains that could have been straight from australia in some parts. after 6 hours and 109 tunnels later, we arrived at the end of the line and a 4 hour wait in the stifling heat of the plains for our train to delhi. after almost a week in the relative cool of the mountains it was a bit of a shock to come back to the 40 degree heat again. We knew that despite being there for little over 12 hours (and most of that time spent sleeping) delhi was going to be a bit of a tough place. We were proved correct. We arrived at 10pm into another sea of chaos at the station. despite out best attempts to get a prepaid rickshaw, drivers did not seem interested and the man who was meant to be organising everyone was more intent on puncturing the tyres of the rickshaws that had been parked there and whose drivers had left them - even just for a few minutes. We finally found a rickshaw who would take us - and long story short - 90 min later we ended up at the hotel's address, which was a block of flats. we ended up at a hotel around the corner, despite the best efforts of the driver to stop us from going there as they werent going to give him any comission. by early the next afternoon we were back on a train pulling out of delhi bound for agra. we were in for a pleasant suprise when we got to our hotel in agra. it was no more than 500m away from the entrance to the taj mahal, and on a road that any petrol powered vehicles were not allowed down due to pollution concerns at the taj. so from the rooftop we had an amazing view of sunset over the taj and it was quiet. no constant horns and the sounds of traffic. the next day we were up and at the taj by 6am, in an effort to beat the heat and the crowds. it was a good idea, as although there were still quite a few people about, it was possible to get a few photos of the taj with few or no people in the shot. it was pretty surreal to finally visit the taj mahal, one of the most famous buildings of all time. I guess its a bit hard to properly descibe it all. but it really does look like it does in the pictures. although its a little smaller in real life than i expected. we wandered around, taking it all in for a few hours, before leaving at about 9am when it stared to warm up and the tour buses started to arrive from delhi. we were certainly glad we made it early from the numbers of people now arriving that night as we were waiting for our overnight train to varanasi, while we were enjoying a spectacular sunset over the taj a dust storm came out of nowhere, engulphing everything. we had to retreat inside and not long after the heavens opened and the downpour began. everyone seemed to headoutside to enjoy the feeling of rain. After the rtain cleared an amazing sense of clam descended on the town. as we headed through the dark streets to the train station, all lights out due to a blackout, it was eerily quiet. people seemed much more relaxed and there was little traffic on the roads. even at the station, the sea of humanity that you always found was no longer heaving. everyone was calm and sedate and many people were just sitting quietly or sleeping. it was rather surreal. finally, only about 50min late we left agra and on to our next destination.... varanasi on the ganges. varanasi is one of those places that you hear so much about and have expectations of, yet you still dont know what to expect.. what we found though was a pretty interesting and unique city. we were staying at harischandra ghat, just south of the main area, right on the banks of the river. below us on the banks of the river was one of the areas where cremations were taking place. all day and into the evening bodies would be carried down to the water with much chanting for one final bath in the sacred water. then they would be placed on top of a small bonfire, which after some wheeling and dealing with the man selling the holy ffire, it was set alight (with varying degrees of success) and the body cremated. the following morning men would come along, sifting through the ashes looking for any remaining gold to be sold at market. walking along the banks of the river was certainly an experience. there were many cricket games, washing of clothes and dishes, kids taking a swimming lesson and thousands of pilgrims taking their holy dip in the river. they were certainly brave as the river is so polluted there is no dissolved oxygen in the water. it's septic. the following night as we went for a boat trip up the river, enjoying a new spectacle of it all,i was brave enough to dip my feet off the edge into the green water. my feet didnt fall off but i was suprised at how slimy the water felt as i rubbed my feet together. we definatley felt that we had saved the best of india till the end. agra and varanasi were much more enjoyable than many of the other places we had visited. although there was still a sense of relief when we arrived at varanasi airport. mum and dad were flying to mumbai and then back home, while i was flying north to kathmandu.(it had been a last minute decision, as i couldnt bear the thought of another 2 days of constant travel) although there were only half a dozen flights at the airport all day, both of our flights were delayed almost 3 hours, and i finally arrived in a much cooler, calmer kathmandu. there was a week until i started my program. at first i planned to get out and do things to make the most of my time, but after getting comfortable they days quickly flew by without realising it. after exploring kathmandu and nearby bakthupur, doing a spot of shopping, waking up to my first strike experience where everything stops (even the annoying hash dealers on the street) and finally suffering my first acute case of delhi belly, the week was already up and it was time to start training. I am now down in Chitwan, right next to chitwan national park. this is home for the next 3 weeks and is a fairly simple place. electricity is sporadic and there is internet in the town, but life is a lot slower and calmer. a world away from india just over the border. I will keep the blog updated as often as i can with the happenings here and the work we are doing. everytthing is a little unclear yet and still trying to work out what is happening. trying to adjust to nepali time...

up, up and up..

kjones — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:30:00 GMT

i have been trying to write a blog for a few days now but the computers here are so painfully slow and unreliable that doing even the most simple thing can take 5 times longer. even having 2 windows open is usually too much to ask....

so after my last post from amritsar we traveled north to the mountains seeking a nice cool change. and we certainly found it, and also a nice change from the rest of india in Macleoud Gang, just north of Dharamsala. It is situated at about 1700m above sea level and is home to the Tibetean government in exile. the air was about 20 degrees cooler than down of the pains, we were surrounded by lush green trees and could even see snow on some of the distant mountain peaks - the beginnings of the himalayas.

it made such a nice change from the past few weeks experiences. for the very first time we felt peaceful and able to relax and enjoy ourselves. there was also a very obvious difference in the town as the majority of the population were tibetean refugees, rather than idians, which made for a lot friendlier and relaxed atmosphere. you could browse in a shop and rather than fight off the salespeople you had to wake then from their nap or look for them, chatting to their friend up the street. this was much more my style than the constant hassle and stress that had been india so far. plus there was great shopping, mainly tibetean related handicrafts, free tibet tshirts and all related things. for the first time on the trip the wallet was opend for shopping and it was a struggle to close it again!

We ended up spending 3 days there, not doing a great deal. just realxing and unwinding, goin for walks through the forest to nearby villages or lakes. from the terrace in front of our rooms (only 10 quid a night for 2 double rooms!) we and an amazing view over the valley, and surrounding mountains with snowy peaks sticking up beind them. in the valley below we could see buddhist monks walking about in their deep red robes, locals walking their goats as they climbed the trees to eat some leaves, and there were a few strnge little rooftop concerts on the top of a house lower down the valley. on the opposite side prayer flags fluttered in the trees and you could see people walking the roads around the hills to surrounding valleys. it was the most peacefull setting i had seen in quite a while. perhaps it was just the calming presence of so many tibetean monks, but even the local indians seemed to take it down a peg or two.

we visited the home of tibetean government in exile, where they were busy extending the temple where many people came to make offerings hob-nobs and digestive biscuts. there was also a small but moving museum on the chinese invasion and occupacion of tibet, with many sad stories and facts on the destruction of their culture and religion. It was a rather sombre fact to discover that tibeteans are now a minority in their own nation, now being owtnumbered by chinese migrants, who have been sent out to tibet to eradicate the tibetrean culture. tibetean children are taught mandarin in school over their own language and despite the chinese claims of advancements in healthcare, jobs and employement in the area, these manily only apply to the cinese immigrants. the tibeteans are now worse off than ever.

from there we endured a 12 hour bus trip to shimla where we are now. despite being a journey of 12 hours, the distance was no more than 300 or 400 kms. it was a very long day. we started at 7am in the morning cool of the mountains, as we headed down things started to warm up and by early afternoon we had hit dust storms and strong winds. soon the rain came and things cooled down as we again headed up the mountains, then the wind hit again, blowing about the sand and dust of the constant roadworks. all this with a window that was very difficult to open and close!

but finally, covered in dust and desperate for a shower we arrived in shimla, another old british hill station, at 2200m. all we needed was somewhere to stay. a bit of a problem as shimla is to the indians what Qindao is to the chinese, a very popular holiday town where they come to marvel at european architecture, cool air, green plants, and most importantly, clean-traffic free streets without garbage, wandering cows and the constant smell of sewerage.... the main street of the town along the ridge of the hill is closed to traffic and makes a nice change.

after about an hour and a half struggle, with seemingly half the town's touts following us, desperate for a bit of comission, we finally found a reasonable place that had room. dont think that anyone made comission from us in the end.

Shimla is a very stange place. it definatley has the feel of former glory, that has just been swamped by indian tourists. but the strange thing is, for a popular holiday town there are only a handful of restaurants and cafes. it is almost impossible to find somewhere nice to eat. we are having a rahter difficult time working this city out.

tomorrow we head down towards new delhi and then on to agra to see the taj, beofore heading over to varanassi on the ganges river. from there mum and dad fly back home and i had north to nepal to kathmandu and begin my month long volunteer program. I wont lie and will admit that i am rather excited about the idea of getting out of india.

My time here so far has not really lived up to what i was expecting of the country. Admitidly I have visited only a few places and in the middle of summer when the going is tough, but the reaccuring theme seems to be that travel in india is a lot of hard work for rather little reward. But that is just my opinion and im sure others may think the exact opposite. it may just be the timing,places i have visited and what we have done things, but i can say that so far it doesnt exactly match up the the image of india that is put up on a pedestal by so many. And it's not just that i cant handle the constant filth - many other palces i have visited have been similary bad, yet still enjoyable. in the end i think a lot comes down to the people. After staying in Macloud gang where there are many tibeteans, you are remined that people can smile, laugh and be friendly. when you travel you notice a lot about how different people all over the world behave, and perhaps it's something to do with being 1 of over 1 billion, but i have seen many similar attitudes from people here as in china.

Anyway, enough of that, and i will try to stay positive. this time next week nepal and lots to keep me busy. but until then, new delhi, taj mahal and varanassi. stay tuned!!

border bravado...

kjones — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:10:00 GMT

i never got a chance to finish my last jounal entry from jaisalmeir in the desert. on our last day there we were up early in the cool hours of the day and headed out into the desert to go on a camel treck through the sand dunes. many people went for 3 or 4 day trecks, camping out in the desert, but when it reaches mid 40's during the day spending hours on a camel in the heat didnt seem to appealing. we met our fixers and camels by the side of the road. two of the fixers were only 9 and 11 years old and my camel's name was lalu.

we headed off through the desert in the cool morning air, with a nice light breeze. after the hustel and bustle of the past week it was a nice change to be somewhere where the only sounds were the plodding of the camel's feet and the shuffling of the fixers walking along.

a few times, out of nowhere we would come upon a hut or two, with a few people doing their morning chores. they were the local indigenous people, with their own language who had lived in the middle of the desert. the young boys leading our camels did not go to school as there was no school in the desert but they learnt to speak english from the tourists they met.

after about 2 hours the sun was beginning to warm up and our bums were starting to geat sore, so it was time to head back into town before the heat became too great.

that night we boarded the train to jaipur. our first indian train experience. it was suprisingly good, with air conditioning and sheets provided and rather comfortable. however it was annoying having to get up and off the train in a hurry at 5am when we got to jaipur.

jaipur not not much to remember. immediatley all 3 of us had a dislike of the city for some reason. after a good nap and breakfast we set out about trying to find the best way to head north to amritsar the following day. after 3 hours on the net we discovered that there was a train leaving the following night to amritsar... and the were only 7 seats left.

so after a dash to the train staion, filling in the forms, and lining up in the que for foreign tourists and freedom fighters, we managed to secure ourselves some of the last few tickets on the train... in the non air conditioned carriage. a true indian train experience awaited, all 15 hours of it!

so the following night we boarded the train at 8pm and prepared ourselves for a long night. it was hot to begin with. before we were moving we were dripping with sweat but after we got moving and out of the city a nice breeze would blow through the bared up windows and cool things down. hoever things on the train were just hotting up. at every station people would pour onto the train and there would be a mad scramble up and down the aisle as people without a ticket would try and look for an empty seat. being at the end of the carriage next to the door, we were in the thick of the action. then the conductor would come along and try and turf them all out before the train would set off again. people kept coming out of the woodwork everywhere, yabbering away at full volume all the time, making it rather hard to sleep. this went on every 45 min or so until about 1am when we finally got going without any more stops and we could finally get some sleep.

we woke up a little after 5am when the train had stopped and the proces again began to repeat it'self, although in a somewhat sedated, less crazed manner of the night before.

there was a definate change of scenery out the windows. we were not out of the deserts of rajasthan and into the farming lands of punjab. there were lots of gumtrees about, some flowing rivers which made a nice change and a cool breeze flowing in the windows.

finally after about 16 hours on the train we arrived in amristar and straight into traffic jams. this city has the worst traffic ive seen in india yet. it seems the narrow streets of the city are struggling to cope with all the traffic.

after a spot of lunch we headed over to the famous golden temple. it is certainly the most impressive temple ive seen in india so far. inside a massive open marble courtyard is a large lake with the golden temple in the middle with a bridge connecting it, which was full of pilgrims lining up to visit the temple. it was so bright that even with sunglasses on i found myself squinting still. after a lap of the lake, we decided to come back in the morning again when hopefully it wouldnt be so hot and we could walk around on the marble without burning our feet so much.

afterwards we headed out to the india/pakistan boreder for one of the things we all wanted to see the most in india. the dramatic flag lowering ceremony that happens every day at the only border crossing between the 2 countries.

it was an hour drive out of town, and walking to the border from the carpack almost felt like walking into a festival of sorts. there were crows of people heading the same direction, people everywhere selling flags, dvds, drinks and assorted snacks. there was the sound of distant music and thorough security checks. no bags were allowed and they even took the spare batteries out of my camera case. i dont know what they expected i was going to do with them? throw them over the border at the pakistanis?

when we finally reached the border point we were ushered into the VIP stands where the foreigners were allowed to sit, and watched the many women and children running up to the border gates with big indian flags and waving them about at the pakistanis on the other side, much to the delight of the lmuch larger indian crowd.

after this the indian music was cranked up a notch to blast over the pakistani music and much bangrah dancing broke out along the road to the boreder gates, watched under the closeful eyes of the many border guards.

finally the time came for it all to begin. it began with seeing which soldier could hold a note for the longest, before soldiers on both sides stomped up and down in front of the gates, puffing their chests and throwing their heads about like strutting roosters. there were constant shouts of long live hindustan from the indians and pakistani cries from the opposing side. neither side would not be outdone by the others. finally after about 15 minutes of shouting and strutting about like they from from the ministry of silly walks, the gates were thrown open with an almighty crash and eventually the two flags on the border line were lowered inch by inch, making sure neither was ever higher than the other.

after this was done and the flags were packed away, there was more stompong, the quickest handshake i have ever seen between the indian and pakistani border guards and the gates slammed shut for another day.

on the way back i managed to get my batteries back, and we passed miles and miles of trucks, all packed to the rafters with potatoes, waiting to cross the border into pakistan the following morning.

tomorrow we head north. up into the foothills of the himalayas, and hopefully some cooler weather. we are starting with dharamasalah, which is the residence of the tibetean government in exile and the dalai lamah himself. perhaps i could pop in for some tea and a chat? i will let you know how it all goes!

into the desert

kjones — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:56:00 GMT

i have been meaning to write a new blog for a few days now, however every time i go to write one, i feel to tired to think of anything to write. the heat here has been so draining that its hard to find the energy to do too much in the day.

we are currently in jaislamier in western rajasthan, very close to the pakistan border.

my last entry was from udaipur, from where we hired a car to drive to jodphur. it was a long and fairly hot day, driving through some rather remote and deslolate areas. the area has barely seen rain for the past 3 years, so it was very very dry and dust hung in the air everywhere. we passed through many desolate tiny vilages with just a few cows and kids running about, women in bright saris walking about with pots of water on their heads.

we stopped at a massive fort which was in the middle of nowhere, but was very impressive. it was built on the top of a hill with amazing views and felt like a mix of the great wall of china and machu pichu in south america (or so mum and dad said) and we had the whole place virtually to ourselves.

eventually we made it to jodphur, which seemed even hotter than before. it began to look a lot more desert like, with more sand, les vegitation and more camels wandering about. jodphur felt like a very crazy chaotic city, it was like a sea of noise.motorbikes, horns, people shouting, and the ever calm cows wandering about in the middle of it all.

after tripping over town to find out there was only 1 seat left on the train the following night to jaisalmier, we booked some bus tickets for the following afteroon and chilled out on the rooftop restaurant, watching the sun set over the blue city and taking in the breeze in an attempt to cool down.

next day we checked out the massive fort that loomed over town. it was rather interesting, like the sharp turn before you enter the gate to prevent elephants trying to knock it down during times of a seige, but my favourite part was the gardens. it was like a little oasis in the middle of the desert, and there was almost nobody there.

that afternoon we headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to jaislamier. after battling our way into our seats, we turned on the air conditioner (by opening the window)and the bus left only 15 min late. but we soon discovered that the driver was rather proud of his musical horn and liked to blow it every few seconds. it was going to be a long 5 hour trip. dad was seated in the audio/visual department, as we was surrounded by speakers, cd players and other goods packed around him..

we trundled deeper into the desert, and the sun began to set. we could see that we were in the absolutle middle of nowhere. as it got darker we began to realise that most things on the road either had no lights or didnt switch them on. so we would come hurtling round the corner and come screaming to a halt to stop from running up the back of a jeep or rickshaw with no lights.

a little while later we came to a screaming halt and there was a flourish of activity and voices at the front of the bus. we leaned out the window trying to see what was amis ourside and we could see througth the gathered crowd a camel and a great big pile of straw. we soon realised that under the straw was a little white car. it had apparently run up the back of the cart of straw that the camel was towing, causing it to all land on top of the car. all involved seemed to be fine, including the camel who wandered off to munch on a tree, but there was a great comotion, as everyone on the bus piled off to put in their tuppence worth, and everyone seemed to be on the phone - although im not sure who to...

eventualy the bus started up and everyone piled back on, only to move about 10m down the road, then everyone was off again, for another 10min before we finally hit the road again, arriving in town just before 10pm.

jaisalmier definatley has that "final frontier" town feel about it. it is only about 200km from the pakistan border in the middle of the desert. it it built around an old walled town on the top of the hill. again, very very hot. yesterday after lunch we went and had a good nap in the cool, something i do do very easily!

Gallery: The Raj

kjones — Sat, 9 May 2009 20:49:00 GMT

India

kindly check under your seat, as there may be a bomb....

kjones — Thu, 7 May 2009 13:44:00 GMT

wow, what a welcome to Udaipur. after survining what almost felt like the plane suddeny going into freefall and shaking everywhere (which im told was just our decent into udaipur) we got off the plane and loaded into and od bus, with a lovely message painted on the back of the seats. " please kindly check under the seat, as there may be a bomb. please inform police" i think that last bit went without saying really.....

so here i am, in the beautiful city of udaipur, famous for it's lakes, in the midde of summer when they are all dry (dodgy keyboard, so pease bare with me!)

but it stil a relief to be out of mumbai. it was interesting enough, but was really just another giant big city. i managed to make it into town and found the hotel ok, with mum and dad waiting outside, only getting sort of lost once.

we did a bit of a tour of the city, visiting a few temples and what not, but i was still feeling a bit jet lagged, home sick and emotional from leaving the uk. we visited the slums featured in slumdog millionare. they are nothing flash let me assure you. and the smell....

my hair has certainly been drawing lots of atytention. curious looks from kids, dissaproving looks from the elderly and numerous offers of all typpes of substances from the rickshaw drivers. smokie, hash, opium... i must look like a prime customer to them.

our hotel her has a beautiful rooftop area that overlooks the old town, you cant see to far into the distance due to the dust. it rained a bit last night, but sady not enough to settle the dust. however it was the first time i had thunder and lightning since leaving home! although the temperature dropped, by the time i went to bed it was again so hot i had to ay a wet coth over me, as the fan was just bowing around hot air. i've become too used to the mid and cold conditions of the uk! the weather here is similar to home in summer.

from here we plan to head out to jaislimeer, in the midde of the desert. nice and hotter yet! and hopefuly go on a came safari if we can handle it. this keyboard is doing my head in, so more later!

i hate goodbyes....

kjones — Mon, 4 May 2009 05:40:00 GMT

well here i am, sitting in terminal 5 at heathrow, waiting for my flight to mumbai. in just under an hour the plane will push back from the stand, and my life in the uk as i know it will sadly be over.

it has been a pretty emotional past few days. i never realised just how settled i had become here in the uk and edinburgh in particular until it came time to leave it all behind.

i wont be forgetting my last few nights in edinburgh any time soon. on thursday night went along to the beltane festival on carlton hill. or as most people called it "that hippy festival"... it was a great night and caught up with grace and a few other people i hadnt seen in ages. the weather was beautiful, the cider delicious and the crowed all very mellow and happy. we didnt pay too much attention to the perfrmace bit. all i remember is lots of drums, fire, dancing and semi nude people. fun fun. but the highlight of the night was cassy running out to the stage and jumping up on it inher search for grace. it caused a massive cheer to erupt from the crowd. but only cass would manage to sprain her ankle when juumping off the stage. injuring herself in front of thousands of people.

next night i got to say goodbye to everyone else, on one last night out on the town. byy the end of the night i had begun to get emotional was was a blubbering mess for at least 20min or so.

but that was juse a prelude to today. i never thought that leaving the uk would end up being harder than leaving oz almost 2 years ago.

the hardest part was leaviing, not knowing when i would see some people again.

the whole bus triip to the airport i was a a blubbering mess, despite gary's bbest efforts. and then after another farewell and very thorough security serch, as soon as the plane took off the waterworks began again.

and now here i am, moments away from perhaps one of the biggest changes possible. thismorning i woke up and had breakfast in trandy stockbride in edinburgh. tomorrow morning i'll be hahving breakfast in mumbai. wee bit of a change

time is up, farewell and more later from the road

packed and ready to go.... and worried about these sick swine

kjones — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:49:00 GMT

under a week to go now . it's hard to believe that this time next week i will be in Mumbai, trying to adjust to life in india and the heat.

As much as I cant wait to get going, i also kind of dont want to leave edinburgh now and would like to stay. oh well, too late now i guess.

It's pretty typical of my luck though, i'm about to head off traveling for 4 months, and living in rural nepal for a month, when suddenly there is a flu outbreak which they now say looks serious and will most likely turn into a pandemic. oh well... i just hope they have healthy pigs in india and nepal.

so welcome back to the blog for those of you who followed my wanderings in 2007. i hope you enjoy the new installments. I have re-posted my old blogs on this site, so if you were interested in them you can check them out.

That's about it for now, i imagine the next post will be early next week, direct from magnificent mumbai!