Oh mama! What am I doing?!!

Kerala to Bangalore to Mumbai

libererladiva — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:52:00 GMT

So we headed by an evening bus from Ernakaulum on a non airconditioned semi sleeper to Bangalore for twelve hours overnight. A bit uncomfortable but decent enough! Experienced some initial problems with a rickshaw driver and it's amazing the wisdom you build along the way. Davey and I have learnt never to accept the rickshaw drivers that hover like vultures at drop off points... they're usually the worst pick of the bunch ready to fleece you of your rupees at the first opportunity. So we've learnt to pick up your luggage and walk in any direction and hail your own cab down.

When we picked our painting up the next day we saw the rickshaw drivers run up to the entrance of the bus where people were trying to get off... made me feel really angry in the pit of my stomach. But such is life here, and you have to learn to accept and have a healthy amount of paranoia! We loved our accommodation at Casa Piccolo and rested up for the day, in the evening we went major sari shopping and had some great chats (indian snacks) at Konarcks, the owner was extremely affable and ordered all of our dishes for us (oh! the pani puri and onion rava dosas! How I will miss you!) and was great to hobnob with the local families who eat there.

The whole purpose for us visiting Bangalore was to visit India's bethel branch of Jehovah's Witnesses... we wouldn't have included it as a destination otherwise, but so glad we did! Bangalore is a huge city that is world known for it's call centres and it's IT industry, known as the silicone valley of India. But it is so friendly and cleaner than other cities we have visited. We went to Bethel and met up with our brothers and sisters there... was like a spiritual oasis where we could fully relax. It's amazing being in the organisation and seeing it worldwide as one united family. We enjoyed lunch there and met up with Andrew and Gabrielle Struyf from Australia who are International Construction servants in Korea. It was great talking with them and their expreiences on the construction work have really given Davey and I alot to think about.

We then headed to Mysore for a daytrip with Nathan a brother from the Tamil congregation... we had a great time getting to know him and how the work is going in India as well. Mysore has the best palace I have ever seen! Part of the palace was burned down in the 19th century and an english architect designed the new part of the palace which opened in 1912. Looked fantastic with the mesh of indian and english influences.

We on our final day in Bangalore we headed back into the city for more shopping and boraded our bus for Mumbai at 7.30 in the evening. We had a 22 hour bus trip to Mumbai! Didn't know how we would fair but thinking we did pretty well! The sleeper buses are definately the way to go. We had penty of warnings about Mumbai and were unsure of venturing out of our hotel at night to see the sights, but seeing as it was our final night we decided to get a private car to take us around.

It was amazing! We got just the right taste for it! Especially foodwise eating roasted peanuts and sizzling kebabs on the streets teamed with paper thin, ever so soft roti's. The indians in Mumbai must never sleep as they were relaxing at all the spots til late at night. We were taken to Juhu Chowpatty beach which had a fantastic vibe right on til 3 or 4 in the morning (and this is on a school night too :P). We were shown where the famous Bollywood actors live in Juhu, Sunny Deol, Amitabh Bachchan, Aiswarya & Abishekh as well as others.

We then headed to our hotel, close to the airport called Hotel Columbus, crashed and burned and after five hours sleep got up for a flight home. All in all, India has been such a wonderful trip, an adventure that we feel like we have conquered! I miss everyone at home but not really wanting to return! There's so much more to see and do so hopefully one day we will return again. I'm typing all this from Singapore airport at the moment and getting ready to get some Singapore Laksa from the restaurant upstairs :P

Photos: Bangalore and Mumbai

libererladiva — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:34:00 GMT

Bangalore and Mumbai

Photos: Kerala

libererladiva — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:52:00 GMT

Kerala

Back to Delhi (yes folks, again) and then onwards to Kerala!

libererladiva — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:14:00 GMT

So, we boarded the plain back to Delhi with much trepidation. I have to include that we nearly missed our plane (miscommunication) but fortunately our plane was running two hours late! On our plane ride we were travelling all along the Himalayas on the way back for approx 40 minutes! Absolutely breathtaking.

When we arrived in Delhi, it was so much better than our other experiences. This time, I booked into "Master Guest House" as run by Ushi and her husband Avnish... we had to lay our extra dosh, but I wanted a sweeter memory of Delhi than the ones we had to date. Davey and I were also wiser and not so wet behind the ears and were ready to bite! So this time when I got our prepaid taxi, we walked directly out and could see where our prepaid taxi voucher was meant to go! The black and yellow beat up old taxi's that wouldn't take us to half the tour companies in Delhi! Oh joy!! We arrived at the guesthouse and felt like a comforter was wrapped around us! Ushi and her husband made us feel right at home, and even though it was late, we got yummy toasted sandwiches and tea in absolutely beautiful teasets on the rooftop. The bedroom and bathroom were exquisite and had a wonderful night's rest. The next day our plane to Kerala left in the afternoon, so we asked Avnish what we could experience of Delhi in the short amount of time we had. So he organised a driver for us and we went to Humayan's tomb, which is what the Taj Mahal is based on. So glad we did! It was like a consolation prize for not getting to see the great Taj, the building was incredibly beautiful and the surrounding gardens well mantained.

We then headed down to Kerala via Mumbai and said our final farewells to Delhi, not feeling as bitter against it as we had before. As soon as we arrived inside the terminal I said to Davey that I swore I could smell MacDonalds... Davey thought not, but sure enough after going through the usual vigorous security measures I spotted Maccas!! So, we got our Maccas fix and I felt tempted to ask for a quarter pounder of beef! But behaved myself and stole a couple of tomato sauce packets instead :p no, didn't steal them, they gave it to us with our meals (Davey asked me to correct that... killjoy). The flight was delayed due to air traffic (very common here) and when we arrived in Mumbai we had to cxircle around above as there were six flights before ours that needed to land! There was a huge difference after landing in Mumbai... most of the passengers (who are indian of course) disembarked and then a whole new crowd came on board! I was so excited!!! First I must explain why. My father is a Fiji-Indian. Many Indians were taken from India to the Fiji Islands to work in the sugar cane fields... I'd have to say maybe 150 years ago? I'll have to get correct info from my dad. Many indians from Kerala went, and that is the ancestry of my father. So when this new crowd came on the plane it was like looking at all of my dad's brothers and cousins and aunties and so forth! The resemblance was striking! The people are also much darker than the people of the north, and I felt so comfortable among them... I started doing a happy dance on the inside.

We then were greeted at the airport by our pickup who took us to Walton's Homestay in Fort Cochi. The driver was much more communicative and helpful than all the other drivers we met up with in the past and also expressed interest in us as people as well! That was a lovely encounter and have had so many more of them since being here in Kerala. .. the happy dance continued. We had the most expensive dinner we've eaten since being here in India (roughly $25.00 AUD) but it was an amazing restaurant and the food top notch, espceially the Kerala fish masala! The food in Kerala is some of the best in India (happy dancing person starting to get tired on the inside)... the next morning we took an early morning walk along the cantilever fishing nets famous to the area along the beachfront and by that time my happy dance preson and dropped in exhaustion (the feet still continue to tap, though). This has been one of the places that has made me so happy and so at ease! It's spectacular here and so clean and presentable. There is alot of history here with the Dutch and Portuguese settling here and building incredible buildings that are still well preserved even now.

We took a rickshaw tour of the places of intrest including the spice market and a few shops before having another seafood lunch and talking with mum and dad on Skype. Got some amazing photos of the fishing nets in in afternoon glow of the setting sun which I will post soon.

The next day we caught a ferry to the4 mainland that cost a total of... wait for it... 5 rupees for Davey and me! (roughly 13 cents). The ferry ride was fantastic, as well as being our cheapest trip in India. We caught the local bus to Munnar which was a classic! We were bumped around and jolted all over the place at the back of the bus... looked very scary at times as we were headed towards the higher lands and had glimpses of the cliffs under us. Munnar is famous for it's tea, and have to say that it was incredible! Our first view of it was like looking at perfectly manicured fields of beautiful green bushes with incredible boulders magnificently set amongst it.

We decided to stay a few days to relax and enjoy the cooler weather, enjoyed some great street food and met our rickshaw driver who would be with us for the following days, Ganesh. He took us around the sites such as spice plantations, strawberry fields, the local eateries and Top View, which was amazing (yet again!). We had a bakery around the corner from us where I had the best walnut tart! Man, I can still taste it.

After Munnar we went to Kottayam for our connecting bus to Kurakom where we boarded our houseboat (kettuvallum) for 3 days... the Lonely Planet recommends it as being in the top ten things to do before you die... understandably so! The backwaters were very laid back, relaxing and beautiful. The houseboat was gorgeous! Really was a house on water... we had a cook and two others who took great care of us. The food was the best that we have had in India yet... plenty of seafood and prawns the size of lobsters... duck curry and many varieties of vegetable curry. Just brilliant! If Davey and I spent any more time on the boat we would have had to have waddled off, the amounts of food that were served to us were amazing. It was great just to read on the boat and look at life on the Keralan water ways... people literally live their lives on the river. They fish, clean, wash, socialise and swim in the river.

After we said a very teary goodbye to our houseboat (there's clawmarks in the woodwork we're they had to pry me off the boat)we made our way by local bus again to Kottayam and then onward to Ernakaulum, which is where our bus was to depart for Bangalore. We had plenty of time to kill so Davey and I decided to head by ferry again back to Fort Cochin again and leave our bags with Mr Walton while we cruised around as it really is a beautiful spot to spend some time!

We then headed back where we did some indian clothes shopping. Davey and I bought a beautiful painting on our initial visit to Fort Cochin which Davey's be carrying all the way around with us... he left it behind in one of the clothes shops we were in. When we realised that we were missing it from our luggage we went to the shop and it was closed til the next day! Our bus was leaving in 30 minutes time so we were in a bit of a wuandry as to what to so. The travel agent where we were catching the bus from (sonny) said that he would go to the shop the next day and forward it onto us by bus the next evening. We were doubtful that we would ever get the painting, some of the indians on the bus even said that we should just say goodbye to it as it was as good as gone! Amazingly, though, Sonny was good to his word and he sent our painting to us by bus! We caught the evening bus from Ernakaulum and said goodbye to Kerala as we headed to the state of Karnakata to the city of Bangalore.

White water rafting & Chitwan National Park

libererladiva — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:18:00 GMT

Hi all! In Kerala at the moment, so breaking this into two separate sections... the rest of our trip in Nepal and then our journey forward in Kerala. So, we caught a bus about an hour out of Pokhara to do our white water journey... there we needed to wait for others who booked in for the same adventure... the main road that the white water runs along connects Pokhara with Kathmandu... it is a narrow road that frequently gets traffic jams if a truck breaks down... the others were around 3 or 4 hours late as we found out later that a truck driver ran off the side of the road and all six people onboard were killed.

So, when the others arrived we got straight into it... I have never seen Davey laugh and smile so much on this trip as he did out there... my crazy little Croat! It was awesome fun!! Davey was sitting at the front of the raft as it needed a bit of manpower, he was fully getting into it and nearly feel out several times. I was sitting behind him so kept grabbing him so he wouldn't. He told me to let him go as he wanted to fall out and go down the rapids on his own! My crazy, crazy lil Croat! Anyway, it was really good and we were eager to camp on the beach for the night before continuing our journey. Mr Kumar, our guide, was waiting for us at the top wringing his hands as Davey and I were telling him how much fun we had and how we couldn't wait for more the next day when he said that there was a problem. He said that there was a "bandh" or as we call it, a strike, also common in Nepal, and no one would be driving the next day. No buses, no cars, no nothing. We would be stranded after white water rafting was over. We were so disappointed! But what can you do?! So we got a private car out straight away to Chitwan National Park to spend the extra day there.

We stayed at Baghmara resort... it was okay. The food was the equivalent given by a hospital, but the rooms were nice and clean. The next day we went on a dugout boat safari and saw a few crocodiles! We then went to the elephant captivity centre. I was really looking forward to this but ended up being pretty disturbed by what I saw. The elephants were chained up, and looked sad. It's hard to picture this magnificent creature not having the room to move about freely, it was also heartbreaking to see the baby elephants rocking backwards and forwards with vacant expressions in their eyes... definately not natural.

So we then had a rest before going on our jeep safari in the afternoon... it was pretty good! Probably about the closest thing to an african safari that Davey and I would do! There are around 92 wild Bengal tigers in the reserve, we didn't see any but walked through smelly mud to see one of the most incredible things! A one-horned rhinocerous with it's mother. Junior was massive! Davey was making Davey noises to get it's attention which made our guide pretty nervous! I was looking around figuring how high I could climb the nearest tree! Apparently they're extremely quick and, obviously, heavy footed. Not something you really want to experience! We also saw a wild elephant! Now that was a magnificent sight! Incredibly majestic as he dusted himself by the side of the river! We were extremely happy to see this!

The next day we went on an elephant safari! We were told by other tourists that 6.00 am was the best time to go, but our hotel guide said that 8.00 am was the best time. So glad we listened to him! All the other tourists were coming back by the time we got to the elephant safari so we had it all to ourselves! We also got "Moti"... the king of the elephants! He's the biggest male elephant in Chitwan in captivity at 10 feet tall. His ridr, Ali, would tell him off every time he got too boisterous! He would raise his trunk in the air and blow a trumpet-like call through the jungle! Because elephants are quieter than jeeps, and also in their natural surroundings, it gives a better opportunity of viewing wildlife up close. We saw another mother and baby rhino resting in a waterhole, langurs (monkeys), jumping from tree to tree and the spotted deer right next to us! It's also very peaceful being on top with the steady trod of the elephant making it's way through his domain.

The afternoon we had to ourselves so Davey said... "let's go on a couple of bikes!". Sounds like fun, yes? No! The dirt road into town was filled with rocks and the temperature was forty and humid! I resisted, Davey persisted.... Davey won (darn!). But it was fun getting down there, despite overheating and using a whole bottle of mineral water to splash myself down with to feel semi-normal! They had huts down by the riverside to rest under and get a beer, or any other beverage, and street dogs (all of them real mongrels over here) playing together along the river! We enjoyed watching them as they frollicked about in the mud.

The journey back wasn't as enjoyable for Davey as he started to feel his gluttonous maximus giving him a hard time! Serves him right. But all in all, was much fun! The next day back to Kathmandu where we shopped plenty and ate heaps of momos as it was our last oppourtunity (love those momos) and then said a sad goodbye to our guides and organisers at Himalaya Envpro before heading back to Delhi... they certainly made our trip in Nepal special! It was so nice to have everything done for us, and they did it in just a gentle and friendly way. We are planning on coming back again to do Everest base camp... now that we have done Annapurna, we know that we can conquer Everest as well!

Kathmandu & Annapurna trek

libererladiva — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:27:00 GMT

Wow! So loving Nepal! Especially after my "woe is me" story back in Delhi, Nepal has been a completely different experience. We arrived at Delhi airport with plenty of time to spare.

We then boarded our plane for Nepal... we started to get closer to Nepal when we started to see the outline of the Himalayas. It was the oddest feeling I've had, I was in absolute awe of the Himalayan range, the immensity of it totally overwhelmed me and I had to turn away many times to get to grips with what I was seeing. It was a beautiful and strangely fear inspiring sensation that came over me, one of the most spectacular sights in the world! The only thing that marred it was the amount of pollution in the air! Surprising as the first thing that I think of when it comes to the Himalayas is pristine conditions. In actuality, the city of Kathmandu is extremely polluted, and as we descended there was a huge fog of pollution all around us.

When we arrived, our experience of security was a polar opposite to what we went through in Delhi. The arrival section was very simple and clean. It was lovely to come out of the arrivals section to see our name in huge letters being held up by Bhola, our tour guide with Himalaya Envpro. We've been battling through India on our own, so it was lovely to be greeted and carted away from a million taxi drivers wanting to whisk us to away to who knows which hotel!

Bhola helped us settle in to a lovely clean hotel (Hotel Moonlight) and we went around Kathmandu in the Thamel district. Again... I had a totally different perception of Kathmandu, I expected a sort of "Shangri-La" kind of experience, or a large village feel. Kathmandu is fairly modern in it's thinking, different to India! One thing I learnt and wept about was that you can buy anything, and I mean ANYTHING you want from Kathmandu. We bought quite a bit of out trekking gear back in Australia. There are dozens of shops here that sell jackets, trekking boots , pants, walking rods, backpacks at a fraction of the price that we paid in Australia. Pretty good quality too! Also, a few supermarkets that sell food products from around the world. For example, I bought an American Hershey's bar of chocolate for our journey (darn good stuff too!).

We did a bit of sightseeing of Kathmandu the next day.... taken through the usual gamut of temples, shrines, etc... we've had quite enough of that, so we were taken back to our hotel. Was able to Skype mum, dad and Ruth back in Sydney. So good to see and talk to them! Gave me a boost and encouraged me onwards.

We were taken to Nepal's domestic airport the next morning for our flight to Pokhara to begin our six day trek. What an adventure of a lifetime! To summarise our experience (please note that I've probably spelt our destinations incorrectly):

Day 1 - Greeted by our guide, Mr Kumar, and taken by a kamikaze taxi driver up some windy turns to the top, Nayapul. There we met our porter. Now, I've already written how Davey and I always have this probability factor that we always get the "unusual" side of the stick... well, it happened again. This time, when we met our porter, she ended up being a lady, her name being Kanchi. The only one I saw on the trek the entire way! I have to say that my guilt factor in getting her to carry our 20 kilo luggage was extremely high the entire time. Whenever I got tired and needed to rest, she'd lug our belongings past us. She was incredible, though, and I have a great deal of respect for Kanchi. She is no longer married and is caring for her 10 year old son on her own... for her to do such work is amazing to say the least. Had lunch at Birethanti and then onwards and upwards to Thikedungha at 1,470 mtrs above sea level. Such a beautiful little teahouse! Simple rooms with a bed a window and a small table, but very clean. We had the stream running behind us that we could hear all night long, lulling us to sleep.

Day 2 - the most strenuous part of our trip. We had a six hour trek up to Ghorepani at roughly 2,900 mtrs above sea level. Freezing cold outside but we had a lovely fireplace and hot water showers. Snowy mountain views from our bedroom window, and rhododendron trees all in bloom around us.

Day 3 - woke up at 4.30 am in the morning for our hours ascent trek up to Poon Hill to observe the sun rise over the Himalayan mountains at 6.00 (3,210 mtrs above sea level). Wow! Very spectacular! The mountains were looming all around us! Davey says it's like we climbed Everest, being on top of the world! We're actually planning on seeing Everest by a joyflight for an hour. We plan on telling people casually and oh so cooly "yeah, we've done Everest" and leave it to them to imagine that we've trekked up to base camp! :p shhhh, just don't tell anyone, though.

We then trekked onwards to Tadapani, once again, spectacular views of the snow capped mountain ranges and blooming trees all around. Lovely stay at the teahouse with a Nepalese family. the people here are so welcoming and friendly! They make you feel a part of their family all at once, extremely hospitable. We were invited to sit with the family and other tour guides as they played the "matar". Our guide, Mr Kumar, is extremely talented and produced amazing beats from this double sided drum that sits on the knees. They played Nepalese folk songs and invited Davey to dance! Needless to say, hilarity ensued! Davey did his infamous "Ravey Davey" routine and other guides jumped up and joined him! We were all in hysterics to see them jumping and dancing around! The family's eight year old boy also got up. Mr Personality himself! Fun night.

Day 4 - From Tadapani, we went down to Jhinu. We deviated from our original course set as part of our journey was meant to take us to a monastery, which we've seen quite enough of. We heard along the trek of hot water springs and our guide, Mr Kumar, made arrangements for us to visit! I was still sick from Delhi Belly and finally started taking antibiotics after much resistance. The ground was also very difficult to descend as much of it was easy to slip down, so I slowly made my way down and it ended up being one my hardest days. We also jumped over many fences and if it weren't for Mr Kumar, we definitely would have lost our way many times as the path was always that discernable. However, we made it! And, boy, was it worth the effort! Another half an hour down got us to the hot springs. There were pipes that dropped over Himalayan rocks where we bathed and washed our clothes. There were three separate pools to relax in, all the while the river was raging past us! Davey and I also decided to dunk into the freezing river for, well I don't know, pure nuttiness! It was like being pricked all over with pins and needles when we jumped back into the hot spring pool! We then had a lovely view of the mountains in the evening while enjoying a glass of rakhsi (local moonshine made from millet). Met Lydia & Jan from Holland... they have been on a working holiday for the past year all around the world. They'll be capping it off with two months in India. What a life!

Day 5 - one of the most unexpected loveliest treks we have done so far! All the treks we have done have been filled with lots of other trekkers... we all want our own private slice of the Himalayan treks to ourselves, I guess, so it was lovely that we went through a track that no-one else usually goes through. No teahouses every half hour, no guest places, only little local villages and lovely corn and wheat fields with amazing views. We tr5ekked to Ghandruk, quite a large village! Davey asked about somewhere to swim and the locals told us that there was a dam called Bijuli Pokhari that only the local boys would visit. It provides hydroelectricity for the entire village! The gur must have thought we were nuts when he realised that we were serious about visiting it, because he said that it was like going into a freezer! Nevertheless, Davey and I must really enjoy tormenting ourselves as we got a mudmap and made our way up there and were told that it was easy to get there, telling Mr Kumar just to rest for the afternoon as we'd have no problems getting there. Famous last words. We made so many wrong turns, retracing our steps, wondering if the goat track that diverged in three different directions was the correct path, if Mr Kumar would send a search party for us, if we could follow our way back down, getting yelled at by a goatboy on the opposite hill (???)... basically pandemonium the entire way up! We did eventually stumble upon it like it was Brigadoon! It was a gorgeous huge pool of water set in concrete and we jumped in! This time no hot water springs to warm us up and we were yelling and jumping up and down like madmen for a full five minutes! But it was exhilarating! And it was beautiful.

Day 6 - our final day, we talked quite a bit with Camilla & Ulrika from Sweden, lovely girls! A real ray of sunshine... it's been incredible meeting with other people from around the world. .. strangely the only other aussies we've met were a family from Adelaide... but Adelaideans don't really count as they're in a league of their own, hey :p The trek was uneventful and busier as we made our way back to Birethanti. We all went, porter, guide and us, once more down the windy treks to Pokhara where we were dropped off to our hotel. We enjoyed the best brownie and organic coffee that I've ever had! Wanting to go back for more!

Today is the day after the trek and we've done a bit of sightseeing around Pokhara... the highlight being Devi's falls (quite spectacular naturally :P) and relaxing, trying to ctch up with postcard writing and so forth. Tomorrow we go for two days white water rafting, camping on the beach overnight. w00t w00t!

Thanks again for all your comments! Davey and I love reading them, makes me feel like my rambling on must have something in them! I've posted a whole heap of photos and will try to tag them with descriptions... my favourite being the three Nepalese children in Ghandruk... check out the littlest of them... her nose is a classic!

Photos: Nepal - Kathmandu & Annapurna trek

libererladiva — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:20:00 GMT

Photos: Jodhpur & Udaipur

libererladiva — Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:34:00 GMT

Jodhpur - Udaipur and back to Delhi (groan)

libererladiva — Thu, 1 Apr 2010 23:37:00 GMT

It’s been awhile so will try to capture as much as possible on what’s been happening over the past few days. We travelled by train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, arrived at 10 pm at night and were directed onto a 3 wheeled motor rickshaw. The rickshaw then took us down some dark alleyways and we were wondering what the heck was going on! But we arrived at Singhvi’s Haveli where we immediately taken up to our room at the top (many stairs… many steep stairs!). We were tired but decided to venture out onto the rooftop and were amazed to see the Meherangarh Fort directly behind us! It is difficult to describe the vastness of the fort and high up it is situated! Even more incomprehensible how such a fort could have been constructed! It was amazing at that time of night to view, as well as all the lights around the city.

The next day we went back up to view the city in the daylight and were amazed the blue houses all around the city! It was better than Davey and I thought… the Lonely Planet and other travel logs have not done justice to Jodhpur, we were impressed by the quiet dignity and gentleness of the people, of the city life during the day and night as well the extremely well done presentation of the fort. We paid an admission price for which we were able to get a headphone tour of the fort. We saw some exquisite armory and elephant rides and palanquins as well as incredible architecture and beautifully carved jalis. At the end we decided to take the flying fox over the fort for a bit of fun! We met Raj and Ravi who were our instructors. We made friends with Raj and he invited us to have dinner with him at the famous Omelette Shop. We had the best tasting omelette ever! I wish we could have a shop like that on the Gold Coast… it does a roaring business over the here, the main guy cracks over a thousand eggs a day! We went by rickshaw and walked a few times through that alleyway that had us a little concerned and as we were more relaxed found it contained a beautiful sample of life here in india! Peoples lives played out in the streets, kiddies playing cricket, badminton and other games. Wives and husbands taking a break on the streets and waving and saying greetings to us, grandfathers playing with their baby grandchildren, houses getting cleaned out, people worshipping at the many altars around, and many other facets of people living. India is definaterly more family and people oriented. They have so much to say to each other, while we are relatively quiet in comparison.

The next day we decided to skip out on seeing Jaipur and went to Udaipur instead by car, the Venice of India! We stopped at a Jain temple along the way at Ranakpur, the marble carvings were so intricate from top to bottom in this vast place, yet all so different. We stayed at the Hibiscus Guesthouse in Udaipur which is run by Carol from England. It was recommended by Mariana and Francisco of Uruguay whom we met at Singhvi’s. Mariana said to me that the moment she stepped into the Hibiscus it was the first sigh of relief she’s had since coming to India…. I knew exactly what she meant when we arrived! It was definitely relaxing and Carol is such a genuine gem of a lady who took such good care of us… we had lovely fluffy white towels, a view of the palace on the lake and beautiful furnishings, everything was done with care.

Udaipur was very relaxing! Very much a tourist place, which wasn’t such a bad thing, and it was a lot less pushy than other places. The waterways are very romantic. I ignored a beggar the night before I realized too late that he was asking for food! So the next day (to my glee!) I saw him again! So I asked if he wanted “kana” which is food and he said yes. I was going to buy him a samosa from a neighbouring stand when he motioned to me to say he was sick of samosas as that was usually what people bought him being so handy. He asked us to buy him some fried rice across the way. So back Davey and I go, order him some rice, and drop it off for him. We bought a couple of treats at the german bakery earlier and decided to buy some more, it was so yummy! So I bought an apple crumble for our journey back to Delhi, I was debating whther to give it to the beggar or not when he automatically stuck his hand out for it! I reckon this guy is on a pretty good wicket, he didn’t look malnourished and also has the pick of his foods. It is really hard to see the poverty around us, though, beggars are out on the street everywhere around the roundabouts, throughout the railway stations. I feel kind of callous seeing it, like a hardening of the heart because I know that there’s nothing that mankind can do to stop it. It is everywhere, it’s right in your face every day and you know that you are fortunate not to be in their place. Is that selfishness? I don’t know, I wish there could be something that could be done to relieve their suffering now… right now. Our hope for the future is what keeps us going, and we know that it’s not a permanent state of affairs.

Anyway, back to Udaipur, we bought some Marawar paintings from Sanjeev of some beautiful Indian scenery. Had the best vegetarian curry since being here bindi (okra or sometimes called ladyfingers) as well as baigan (eggplant) and potato curry, very comforting… We also got a massage as well, although I think that the masseurs back home definitely leave me feeling more battered and bruised (hey, no pain, no gain!) so that’s one thing that I’m putting on the “things I’ll get done when I get home” checklist…. give me the pain factor anyday!

We then headed back to Delhi (groan) by sleeper bus, which really wasn't too bad! We were jostled through the night and quite a lot of bouncing was done, but we'd do it again! Once we arrived somewhere in Delhi we couldn’t get anything through the Lonely Planet so I decided to look through Wotif and got a midrange hotel. Bad decision, Devina, very bad decision! We ended up in something that Davey and I imagined. The dining room was a deranged kind of pink sateen nightmare of a place. And that’s where Davey and I got the legendary Delhi belly. I ordered a dish of green vegetables fried up in garlic sauce to be served with fried rice…. Got the fried rice (which was yummy) but they served up veggies and cheese (paneer) in a butter chicken kind of sauce. That should have sent off warning bells but we ate and I started to get a little iffy later on. This was on Memorial night. Our driver was meant to be early so that we would be early at the Kingdom Hall in Delhi to meet our brothers. The driver was late and stopped to pick up gum along the way as well, then he headed in several different directions as he had no idea where to go! So we ended up nearly ten minutes into the memorial talk. That’s when the dreaded Delhi Belly (DB) hit me… I was so sick I couldn’t meet the brothers and sisters at the end and rushed to the car. Davey got to meet them which was good that at least one of us could! We then headed back to our hotel where Davey then started getting down with the DB too. We missed our train the Agra to see the great Taj Mahal the next day and ended up sick in bed today as well, but we’re getting better! Today was the first day we could start getting around and after a good night’s sleep, I’m sure we’ll be set for our trip to Nepal tomorrow, where I’m told that the food will be kinder on our tummies! (yay!). I’ve been hitting Sou’s homeopathy heavily which has really helped! (thanks Sou! I’ve been sending thanks from my DB bed here in Delhi for you!) Jeet and Kirsty, also wish you were for the trip that starts tomorrow from Nepal onwards! This would have been part of your trip too so I’ll make sure we capture as much as we can. Jeet, the green curry sounds a little too rich for me at the moment! More banana…. More toast… more water for me…. What can I say!

Not sure if we’ll be able to find many internet places along the way once we begin in Nepal so it could be further in between updates. Must go (chalo chalo!), and catch up soon!

Photos: Jaisalmer & camel safari

libererladiva — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:32:00 GMT

The Thar desert... our camel safari adventure

libererladiva — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:10:00 GMT

Well, we've survived the Thar desert! Absolutely wrecked by the time we got back from it but extremely happy that we did it. We did a bit of sight seeing of the incredible sandstone fortresses and the Jain temple. We were then taken to our camels where we began our journey! There were 6 of us on the same trip, our Norwegian friend from the train ride, Hakon, decided to join us as well as three Spaniards. When we were looking at our camels, there was one that looked like he had better days. I said to Davey that our chances of getting "Crusty" was highly probable (we always get the good end of the stick :P).... sure enough.... Davey got Crusty the Camel! We were in stitches for the whole trip! He had a huge amount of personality, just like Dave, so I think they were well suited. Riding it was easier than I expected, however I woke up that morning with my stomach feeling a little skew-iff (one too many banana lassi's methinks)and the camel joggled my gut around so felt seedy for most of the day. We visited a village where one of the local elderly men took me beside one of the mud huts and straw thatched roof on a stretcher bed and made me rest up while the cheeky little kids gathered around as curious of us as we were of them. My broken hindi was able to help me in a little conversation with them and they were happy that I could speak with them. We took a lovely break in the shade as Harka and Lela, our guides, made lunch and gave me a much welcome Gastrolyte drink. I can't speak well enough of these young lads who looked after us to the nth degree out there. The Thar desert is exactly as it says in the Lonely Planet... not the undulating dunes of sand, but more shrubs and goats in the desert.

We then headed back on our camels at 5 in the afternoon, but my stomach still wasn't the best so I got off the camel and walked the rest of the way, which was still really enjoyable! We then made it to sand dunes which was more of what we expected to see of the desert.... absolutely brilliant silken sands that stretched out for miles! We stayed there as the sun set over the desert and walked down to our base where we talked and laughed and then fell asleep under the stars. Usually when I wake up, the first thought I have is 'where am I?' to which the answer is usually back home on the Gold Coast in my comfy bed lookin at the wooden rafters in our bedroom. It was so exciting to wake up in the middle of the night and open my eyes to stars above me and think "I'm out in the Thar desert in India!". It gave me tingles just thinking that while I snuggled into our doonas and drifted back to sleep!

The next day we had brekky and headed for another few hours by camel, by this time I had settled down enough to enjoy the camel ride a whole lot more and joined the lads in a bit of camel racing before our jeep took us back to our hotel where we rested up for the rest of the day!
We were very stoked with our journey, it was quite gruelling but so very glad to have done it, a trip of a lifetime! Later this afternoon we head to Jodhpur and hopefully I'll have time to do a bit of shopping before we go as I really want to get some Indian mirrorwork bedspreads, a speciality of the area. I'm also uploading photos on all stories... just a few for now so you won't be too bored! btw... Thanks to Neetie, Cathy and Irra for your comments! So lovely to hear from you guys, it means alot to feel connected to close friends out here.

Jaisalmer... the golden fortress!

libererladiva — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:58:00 GMT

Wow! I can't describe how fully Davey and I are into the adventure now! We're fully rested and soaking in every beautiful minute! We did the massive train ride from Amritsar to Delhi, Delhi to

Jaisalmer, both by 2nd class Air Conditioned... we enjoyed it far more than the 1st class as we got to interact a bit more with how India is! The compartments were more open and we had chai wallah's and food vendores coming through constantly selling their wares. In first class we were more insulated and cocooned in our cozy little room. We arrived in New Delhi after an eight hour ride, we had less than an hour to catch the metro train... there were no signs and we made pretty good guess-timates to where the metro train was. After the hussle and bustle of New Delhi station we made our way down a subway entrance and wre amazed by the difference! It was like being in a Sydney train system with air conditioning and automated toll booths. The trains were modern as well, which is a good sign that India is catching up and getting ready for the Commonwealth Games.

We were lost when getting out of the metro and again guessed our way to Old Delhi station, after fumbling around from platform to platform we made our train with five minutes to spare... when will the Kustic's ever learn to be on time! (yes, I hear you Soumaya!)

We shared our eighteen hour train ride with tourists from Norway, Spain and S. Korea... amazingly we've run into no Aussies yet! It's been fantastic and comforting to share our experiences and our bamboozlement over the whole adventure. We were amazed as our train made it's way into Jaisalmer.

Jaisalmer is a honey-gold fortress in the middle of the Thar desert... it's architecture dates from the Rajputs (I think? if I'm wrong, just pretend to go along with me, I like to pretend I know what I'm talking about). The hotel we're staying in (Shahi Palace) is just amazing. It has to be the best place we've ever experienced! We have a marble carved bed against sandstone walls and marble bathrooms with intricate Indian carved furniture... Davey being a tiler is absolutely inspired, so next time you come to visit our home, expect to see a Jaisalmer renovated house!

We then walked around Jaisalmer fort which has incredible little walkways an back alleys to which to view the city from. It's like being tranported back in time. I've got to run as the sun is setting and the city is at it's best at this time and enjoy a lime juice with salt! We've got our camel safari tomorrow (hopefully my camel hasn't had too many baked beans for brekky!) so will type more when we get back.

Arrival in India

libererladiva — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:29:00 GMT

Had a great 9 hour journey out of Sydney to Hong Kong after spending a quick but lovely time with mum & dad. We then had 4 - 5 hours in Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong have extremely good taste in fashion... made me feel quite the peasant!

We then got ready to board our plane for Delhi on which we couldn't see one foreign face... they were all Indian! Davey was the only white face to behold! Had a very rough five hour journey to Delhi, we then arrived at 2am in the morning. As we had booked a train to out of New Delhi station to Amritsar at 7.20 in the morning, we decided to stay in the "meet & greet" section of the airport. We were both extremely exhausted by this stage so another few hours didn't help!

Davey and I both then decided to leave the womb and head into the world of India. Well, we got scammed from the moment we left the building. We had a prepaid taxi to go straight to the train station, instead a taxi driver said that we had to get our train ticket validated. So he takes us to an "approved" government agency to get it validated. The guy at the office turns on the charm and tells us that the train was fully booked and that there had to be another way to get us to Amritsar, when we asked for his suggestion (just out of curiosity) he told us a private car for the equivalent of $200.00! He said he'd get a couple of chai teas and then we would talk about it further.

We got up, left, and asked the taxi driver to take us straight to the station, which he did. And then we tried to find out more information on this train trip. The local station attendants didn't seem to help and after going upstairs to the approved International Tourist Bureau, the office was closed at that time of the morning and we were scammed for a second time! A guy who was in the station managers office said that he would take us to another approved govt agency that worked after hours. It was a repeat of the first scam. We were finally able to get an answer from the local officers who informed us that our tickets were indeed cancelled as there were too many bookings. rebooked another set of tickets on a first class sleeper that got us into Amritsar at after 9.00 pm. The train journey was fantastic! We got a bit of shut eye and talked with the two gentlemen whom we were sharing the berth with. It was late by the time we arrived, it was scary and we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got on the train.

But the hotel was literally around the corner, and was lovely to get into our first decent nights sleep! Today we went to the Golden Temple and the Attari closing border ceremony. We walked 10 minutes to the temple and I bought a salwaar kameeze (indian woman's suit) along the way for AUD$7.50 and tailored within a few hours for $4.00! The reason why I bought one was because I have had so many intense looks since I've been here. It seems that none of the women wear boots, and I'm wearing my favourite pair of boots to the knees. So it feels much better to be dressed like the locals!

When we got to the Golden Temple we removed our shoes and wore head coverings out of respect. The amount of people that worship there is phenomenal! The temple itself is situated in the middle of a body of water and is gilded in pure gold. Men were bathing in it and getting there little kiddies to as well! We both enjoyed it immensely and it highlighted how many people have the desire to worship and they're trying to do it the only way they know how. The people we talked with there were really lovely. Both Davey and I really like the Punjabi people, they're lovely, polite and open to wanting to chat! The funny thing is how the kiddies love touching Davey without him noticing! They seem fairly struck with us as we see virtually no other tourists around here. I thought I'd blend in as one but apparently not! They've pegged me out as being a foreigner too. I'll post some photos soon.

We then went to the Attari closing border ceremony between India and Pakistan. Davey and I were late (surprise, surprise) and we were only able to get a glimpse of the ceremony from the side as it was packed to capacity. The Indians are extremely nationalistic and we going wild with Bhangra dancing and soldiers marching around with attitude! the men have been very respectful to us but we had a funny incident with Davey and some pushy women! We were standing near an open gutter filled with some kind of wastewater (don't want to analyse that too much) when one of the women decided she wanted to get out of the crowd and shoved Davey out of the way... his boot landed in the water and made a splash with which she was extremely annoyed about and walked away muttering! I think Davey was muttering under his breath as well, though :P

We then went back to our hotel and a rickshaw took us through the streets of Amritsar, really pretty at night and there's no better way of taking in the people and sights as our rider took his way slowly through the streets. We stopped off to get Gol Goppa's which is a savoury form of India snacks. It consists of a fried empty ball which the vendor dips in a spicy watery sauce. Can't say it's one of my favourites but the experience of eating like that was fantastic! Today was our first real taste of India and we're looking forward to more!

Tomorrow we leave early for Jaisalmer for a camel safari, we leave by train which will take us 28 hours before we reach our destination :S looking forward to a good rest tonight! Sorry the journal is longwinded. I'm trying to capture as much as I can so please press the fast forward button where needed!

Photos: Arrival in new Delhi & Amritsar

libererladiva — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:29:00 GMT

Photos: In the land of Oz

libererladiva — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:14:00 GMT

Home sweet home