Colin Dennison's Blog

Make a difference, read this blog.

2007-12-11T04:53:00.000-08:00

Extreme poverty is the most severe state of poverty, where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care.

The UN (as part of their “Millennium Development Goals”) has committed each of its 192 member states to giving 0.7% of GDP for overseas development aid, which only 5 countries have actually reached (Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands).
This is a renewal of a commitment made in 1970 by the UN General Assembly.

Ireland has failed to achieve its own deadline of 2007 and has set another deadline for itself for 2012. The UK is about par with Ireland (about 0.5% GDP, 2006 figures) and the US has reduced its aid (to just under 0.2%, 2006 figures)!

The aims of the commitment are to provide a flow of aid such that instead of just responding to disasters (essential work) and providing aid at insufficient levels to eradicate extreme poverty, that enough aid is available to get poverty stricken countries off the starter blocks and into a state of sustainable growth. This is a long-term commitment, not something that can be sorted out overnight, or in a month or a year.

What that means is that for every £10,000 that you earn, a yearly donation of £70 would mean that you are contributing more to overseas development aid than your own government. And what charities really need, even more than sporadic donations (which are also appreciated) is for you to sign up with them and provide a guaranteed source of funds.

So if you want to do something this Christmas to make a difference,
and it really will make a difference,
sign up to an international charity,
and stay with them.

And if you want to make an even bigger difference, email the address below and tell your own government that you’re contributing more to the eradication of poverty than they are!

Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx

Douglas Alexander MP,
Department for International Development
enquiry@dfid.gov.uk

Thanks everyone for reading :-)

Happy Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The final Blog.

2007-12-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

So here we are, for those still reading [mam and dad... :-) ], the final installment of the more recently sporadic blog. And this one is not really about what I'm doing as much as a reflection on the past 11 months, and partially also a pre-Christmas plea!!! (to follow)

I really hope everyone gets a chance to travel sometime!! We've kept mostly to the beaten track, it's designed to be like that. But occasionally you get just enough off it to get a glimpse beyond the tourist sanitization screen. The extra effort that separates what tourists on holiday want to see, from seeing how people really live. It's been an amazing adventure and we're privileged to have had the choice to contemplate it and the money to see it through.
It's been a real eye-opener, a snapshot of how some people live, and a sobering realization of just how lucky I am to be me and not them!

It's made me want to give something back and I hope I don't forget it when I get home and fall asleep to the world again. There's more to life than our everyday worries. And it's an amazing world out there, so open your mind and get out there!!! :-)

Happy Christmas everyone, hope to see as many of you as possible over the hols!!! Only 2 weeks to Christmas!!! Thanks for reading and, not for my sake, please read the REAL last blog.

The end is near...

2007-11-29T22:35:00.000-08:00

And so I fear, the final curtain....
Only a week left to go, then a lot of photos to sort through!! Hopefully will get to meet everyone before or after Christmas, might be doing a little drive around UK before I start work (all going well) in February.
Then I can start planning the next holiday! which, will probably a lot shorter...
Ciao for now.

Lake Taupo Skydive- There is no way you can look cool in an outfit like this!!!

2007-11-29T22:09:00.001-08:00

Queenstown Luge, once is never enough...

2007-11-29T22:05:00.000-08:00

Abel Tasman Kayak/ Wellington/ Volcano Walk at Tongariro Crossing

2007-11-29T22:01:00.001-08:00

Franz Joseph Glacier Climb

2007-11-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T01:29:00.000-08:00

The start of the Milford Track to Milford Sound (check it out on the satellite photo on Google maps-zoom right into the top of Lake Te Anau and you can see the track we followed!)

Unlike some posh trekkers, we carried all our own gear and food, hence the massive rucksack.
Hardcore!!! It was mainly chocolate, cookies, freeze dried food substitute and prunes....

Me and Is on top of McKinnon Pass after a 90 minute 500m uphill climb, better than our previous nights recce which took 2 hours (just for fun).

The view that made it all worthwhile, it's like this 360 degrees!! Amazing!!

There's a small hut on the Pass with a loo with a window (no flushes here!!! Though incredibly it has toilet paper??).
This is one loo you don't want frosted glass for, check out the view!!!

As I write this apparently it snowed up there today!

Too much sunshine can do things to you. So to cool off we walked under an enormous waterfall, a bit more water than anticipated, 2 days for shoes to dry...

The end. Sandfly point, aptly named cos of the little buggers that bite you if you stop moving.

Where's the food!!!!! The posh hikers got tea and scones :-(

One last jump! I get to have my first wash in 4 days!

Milford Sound

New Zealand. Journey to Middle Earth (no copyright infringement there!)

2007-11-12T01:03:00.000-08:00

Myra and Graham in Christchurch (the backdrop is real! Some of our photos look like we've digitally inserted people or backgrounds into them, New Zealand is just visually stunning!!!!)

The start of a craze! The jumping photo!!! :-)

The Moeraki Boulders. It took me 5 hours continuous jumping to knock it in this far.

Walking along a beach in Dunedin we walked past about 10 massive Sealions! They can plop after you but mostly they were too busy being asleep to bother with us. Though one gave a bit of a spit at Is when she got too close and she shifted fairly lively!!! And they bloody stink!!!!!!!!!

The end of the East Coast road trip.

2007-11-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Fraser Island

I know a few who would be more than happy to send a few referrals her way!! :-)

G'day g'day how's it going?

2007-10-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just spent the last few weeks on a really cool adventure up through the red centre of Australia and across through the nothing that comprises so much of cenrtral Oz to Cairns and down the East coast to Airle Beach (which actually doesn't have a beach) and the Whitsundays.
Started in Adelaide, a funny "city" that's more like an extended wild west town fused with a small funky city centre with cafes and towering buildings at odds with the surrounding single or double storey flat roofed offices and shops. You're in the centre before you realize you're near a city! Got a bus tour (Adelaide to Alice 6 days) with the incredible Gaz (or Wombat to his friends, he really does look like one, and I don't mean this in a bad way). Gaz was bloody amazing, 100% Australian, or Tasmanian if you ask him. A walking encyclopedia on just about every topic, from lizards to beer to geology to sports and Australian history. The tour guide you can only dream of getting. Thousands of kms of open road, expanses of nothing but scrub, salt lakes, sand, and heat!!! Stayed in towns with populations of between 5 and 10 (including pets and children!). Went hiking in amazing scenery, Uluru was incredible, in 36deg heat, didn't climb it out of respect to the Aboriginal owners. And they don't let anyone in those temperatures anyway. We ate camel and emu and kangaroo (bloody good tucker!) and acheived my goal of eating a live Wichity grub, dug fresh from the ground, tasted like egg, crunch and munch, yum!! Slept in a swag under the stars, a thick canvas sleeping bag to keep out all the things with lots of legs and no legs that can kill you though statistically you're more likely to succumb to the heat... Gaz wouldn't let us come on the hikes without seeing us carry at least a litre of water for every planned hour trekking, and we saw people out walking with 500ml bottles in searing heat!! Madness!! It's not like there are taps in the desert... Saw kangaroos and emu and wallabies and lizards and a few too many flies!! Bloody buggers! One of the best tours I've ever done, great guide and great group of people!
Got another bus to Cairns from Alice (3 days) with a guy who most likely does the geriatric entertainment circuit, either that or the Christmas cracker companies hire him for the jokes he comes out with. Lots of fun and a lot of nothing to look at, surreal!! There's not much to say about that, it's 3 days of literally nothing, and I mean nothing!
Got to Cairns, met Regina for dinner and drinks, she was off to Kakadu National Park the next day, Clare over on Monday just gone and they're off down the coast as well I think? Me and Is did a 5 day PADI diving course, with 3 days of it on a boat with 30 other people staying out on the reef (Great Barrier Reef), though we did make a small detour back to Cairns to drop off someone with moderate decompression sickness... Honestly on the first day in class I was crapping myself cos of all the details given of nasty ways to die while diving!! But once we were in the water it was fab! Still scary but better every dive. Saw loads of fish, not much coral because of damage from divers most likely (though companies are restricted to designated sites to protect the rest of the reef). Went on a night dive which was really cool, saw sharks and a huge Moray Eel. Now fully certified Open Water :-) Saw Nemo too, gave directions to 32 Wallaby Way, Sydney.
We're down in Airle Beach at the mo, just back from a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsundays, weather a bit crappy (forgot to book good weather) but amazing water and scenery. Snorkeling was brilliant, the most amazing coral variety!! Every shape size and colour. And I saw turtles!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea!!!! Not only that but as we were watching them a Blue-spotted stingray swam over it and when we turned around we saw a giant 1/2m long Bat-fish and then a 1m long Maori-fish!!!!! Cool!!!!! Had a brill trip! Back on land now and all set to head down to Hervey Bay to hopefully see some Humpbacks.
And so to the bad news, the end of the dastardly duo!! Derek has taken his leave of us... We both want different things from the trip and he's going to stay in Oz for the rest of it while we head over to NZ in a weeks time. All amicable of course, obviously a difficult decision but think we're both happier this way. I couldn't have had a better traveling partner for the time we spent in india and Asia and this in no way takes from the trip so far.
Der if you're reading this, safe travels and I'll see you back home for Christmas.
Mam put more brandy on that pudding!!

Oz Adventures

2007-10-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Cute Week

2007-09-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

Have finally left the nest, flew to Melbourne on Friday after a sad goodbye to Alan and Kelly in Sydney and my very own bed... Melbourne is cool, must funkier than Sydney and not half as rude or stuck up its own ass. Obviously the downside is that it's bloody freezing, but that doesn't matter with all the caffeine from those cool side street cafes running through my veins. Had the most amazing coffee provided by Alex the super-barista (who we met along with his lovely girlfriend Melissa in Laos and also night-time Melbourne). Went to a few cool hidden bar gems and did a bit of touring as well. Stayed in a really crap hostel "Melbourne Connection", Lonely Planet got this one one wrong wrong wrong!!! Lovely kitchen my ass!!! One small cooker and no mugs/cups/useful items??? CRAP! Plus we made the fatal traveler error of paying in advance, and they refused to refund us, meaning to do so would have cost us muchos, grrr!!!!!! So following the worlds good and evil balance we were drawn to Phillip Island where we saw hundreds of tiny penguins come out of the sea for a nap, COOL!!!!! WOW!!! and then today we saw a Koala Bear in a tree by the side of the road and we were only 6 feet from it and it was munching away and then promptly fell asleep, brilliant. Ok no Time gotta go, bye.

Lazy bones.

2007-09-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

Been very lazy with the blogging for the past couple of months because there’s not much to say, just working away. Can’t even remember the last blog I wrote, so since I last posted I’ve: climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge (amazing views, horrendously overpriced!), had my parents over to visit, been to an opera in the Sydney Opera House, saw a Blood Moon (lunar eclipse where the the moon actually goes red in colour! Cool!), went wine tasting in the Hunter Valley (and got my first taste of Australian countryside, not from falling over due to wine consumption!), got a very badly bruised bum from cycling YHA bicycles in said Valley, saw platypusseseses and HUGE sharks and stingrays in the Sydney Aquarium, walked from Bondi to Coogee and Manly to the Spit, trekked in a national park and spotted an Echidna (cross between a hedgehog and a porcupine) and a naked man! and a lizard (nothing to do with the naked man!), ate pies, ate out, went to Taronga Zoo and saw Wallabies and Kangaroos and lots of terrifyingly dangerous Aussie creatures and critters, saw Snow Patrol in concert and saved the planet by attending the Live Earth concert in Sydney, filled a lot of teeth, killed another plant (my green fingers are also somewhat deadly to potted plants??), drank Aussie beer and wine, watched brain-numbing Aussie TV (don’t get me started on the media over here, it seems Oz TV is unaware of the concept of impartiality), enjoyed glorious sunshine and not so glorious sunburn (where’s the ozone gone!?), been to lots of cafes (every second building is a café), avoided being shot by a sniper during Sydney APEC lockdown, neither did I witness the Brazilian inspired anti-“Bush” campaign…, made plans for travelling in Oz, finishing work on Friday!!! and I'm off again, watch this space... Stuff will eventually appear on it.........

Blood Moon

2007-09-11T01:17:00.001-07:00

Routine

2007-08-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

So got paid last week, which led to a good old hoolie in Sydney on Saturday night with Derek, and Alan and Kelly from the flat. Was a good laugh, not posting any of the photos cos they're a bit incriminating.. Spent most of Sunday in bed. I met Tsholo on Friday for a drink too, and had a grand chat, she's over here working for a while just outside Sydney. She was looking at jobs in Ireland and the UK but would have had to do the IQE before being accepted... despite having done her degree in Ireland!!!?? How daft is that! Those dental councils, no rhyme or reason to them! The only time they're helpful is if you're a patient, and they're meant to represent us!
Work is going pretty quickly, I've only got about 6-7 weeks left myself before I'm off again! The parents are over this Wednesday, they did a skydive yesterday!!! They kept that one quiet! And Isabel is over Monday week, finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will be doing all the Sydney sights when they arrive. Hope the weather holds, it's either sunny and cold or wet and cold at the moment, and from what mam and dad have been saying about Queensland, they might get a shock when they get here! Not much else happening. Looking into jobs in Newcastle for when I get back, please God! Fingers crossed. Ciao for now.

Sydney

2007-07-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Grindstone

2007-07-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

It had to happen eventually, back to work... Which is why I've been neglecting the blog lately, cos there's not much going on at the moment. Actually really enjoying it, well, as much as anyone can enjoy doing fillings! I'm working in a public health system clinic outside Sydney, in a great location just on the beach, literally. Staff really nice and work pretty relaxed which is what I was looking for while I was here, I am on a year out after all. And I've put down two weeks of it already! Will be getting my first paycheck on Wednesday :-) which is good news because without telling me, AIB Visa started charging for Visa withdrawals and I ended up being charged 60 quid in charges, and an aussie atm stole $200 from me!! This kind of money only becomes life changingly important when you're a backpacker...

Was out sailing again yesterday with one of the oral surgeons who works part-time in the clinic. Got a surprise last week when part of the sail got caught on a big metal buoy and bent back one of the poles sticking out from the side of the mast, I was standing beside it when it happened and was lucky to survive! Ahem! We had to had to have glasses of Bundie (Oz rum) and jugs of beer to calm our nerves after... Derek's working with Amnesty International and works Saturdays so it's a good way to pass the time.

Went to the Live Earth concert with James and Amanda, who I met in Cardiff. Not really sure if anyone there understood what the concert was really for though... Was a fun day out but I kind of underestimated the Sydney winter night-time temperature drop (it was warm and sunny when I left the flat) and I nearly froze to death! Cue rum and beer.

Not really much else going on at the moment. Met Tsholo randomly at the NSW Dental Board office, she's over here working in a private practice for a year, just started. Regina's got a job up in Cairns somewhere, and Anne Maria's out in the bush somewhere sleeping under the stars. Isabel's out in 3 weeks, counting down the days! And my parents will be visiting about the same time for a few days, looking forward to that too. Apart from that not much else to tell, just taking it easy, meant to start jogging to get fit again, but the couch is so much more enticing... Anyway, back to the couch, it's Sunday and it's raining so what better way to spend it than curled up in front of the tv for the day.

Sydney

2007-06-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

G'day!!! Crikey!! Awright mate!! And many other phrases I haven't heard since I arrived in Sydney, capital of Australia. (duh! How many people think that??!)
So in keeping with traveller luck we arrived to the wettest and coldest winter spell Australia has seen in years, flooding, ships on beaches, to hell with the water restrictions and crikey where's me jacket mate??? This weather is beautiful!!!!! Anyway, I'll get no sympathy here, but it's bloody cold! Still all's well, the money is flowing out of my pocket, can't bargain with a cash register, come back dodgy Indian salespeople all is forgiven... Have landed a basic community job outside the city and a flat on the northside of the bay, opposite the Opera House, with a bed of my own. Oh joy!! And no I can't see the Opera House from the flat. Another week before I start work. Not much else newsworthy. More soon. Ciao.

Sharks

2007-06-29T03:15:00.000-07:00

Yes I know the picture of that shark shows quite a small shark! But it is still a predator that hunts things!!! And the two I saw in the other bay were the same size as ME!!! Evolutionary chain and brainsize aside, they can breath under water and I can't, they win!

Hong Kong

2007-06-29T03:10:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I haven't had the most enjoyable week in Hong Kong. This city of close on 7 million people is one of the most soul-less places I've ever been but also one of the most visually stunning. The city has quite efficiently squeezed the population into a pretty small area by reaching for the sky. There are highrise appartment blocks and super modern glass fronted skyscrapers packed together to provide for the one thing this city is good at, work. And that seems to be all the HK residents ever do. The people are like worker ants on the streets, suits everywhere, mobiles, PDAs and Financial Times, oblivious to everyone around them (people are so rude on the street, yet so polite face to face). They never seem to stop and this may be the reason for the existence of all the high-end retail shops, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Channel you name it, because in the small amount of time they're not working they have to spend all their earnings somewhere! The city centre shops are all aimed at the high-earners and they lap it up, constant queues outside Louis V, and most people are kitted out in designer wear. So you can imagine it's not for backpackers, like us... Because apart from shopping there's not much else on offer.
The city is stunning though. With all the skyscrapers, which are lit up at night as well, it's an amazing place. We had a few drinks in a bar with a view one night (min US$20pp spend, just under our pre-Hong Kong DAILY budget!), 43rd floor, v swanky, and what a view!! Wow!! Worth every cent. Think the most fun we had was in bars around the city, cos the days were pretty dull. Though we did go to Disneyland for a day which was cool :-) And so we say farewell to Asia, everyone speaks english so this is the first place we didn't learn to say hello, goodbye and thank you in the local shpeak.
Goodbye Asia.

The shark that nearly killed me, with Is bobbing in the background :-)

2007-06-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

I know the quality's crap but it was taken with an underwater camera and cropped and emailed and pasted etc... And yes it does look small, but it's a shark and it nearly killed me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Is on Koh Tao

2007-06-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

Back at the computer, which means I must have nothing better to do. Isabel's back in the UK again... :-( Just had the best two weeks holiday with Is in Bangkok and on Koh Tao, one of the islands off south-eastern Thailand! (bloody airport musak is teasing me, "you've lost that loving feeling..." grrr!)

Spent a few days in Bangkok giving Is the tour of the city, skipped the ping-pong this time, though did go down to Patpong for a bit of sight-seeing... And then it was on to Koh Tao (Wow!). Koh Tao is one of the smaller islands above Pangan and Samui. Looked like the better option and we weren't wrong! Decided to skip the craziness of the Full Moon party, and from what Derek described I've pretty much done it already anyway in Ibiza. So me and Is found a perfect isolated paradise beach resort where we were practically the only people there. (Now the musak is playing "only you", oh come on!!!!) It's one of those places you can only really get to by taxi boat and was really beautiful. Private sandy beach, palm trees, anchored bamboo rafts in our little cove, wooden huts, our one overlooked the sea and a small beach, a nice view from our hammock :-) Was a pretty swish affair and was just what we needed. On a separate note we broke the bed, and I only mention it because it took 6 guys and a woman and her baby an hour to fix it. I have no idea how the bed broke?

Unfortunately Thai corruption interrupted our stay midway through. Lots of Burmese workers staff the island resorts as Thais just don't want to work on the islands, and many aren't given work permits because a lot don't even have passports, which are expensive. So every so often the police sweep the island collecting bribes to look the other way, which is seen as normal practice. But this time they wanted a pretty steep bribe ($500, "normally" about $50) and the owner decided to close the resort rather than pay so we had to move out. It all worked out fine though because we found another lovely resort on the other side of the island near Shark Island, Oooo!!!! :-)

We hired snorkeling gear for the week and had brilliant fun! Saw octupus and squid, had a closer than comfort encounter with a small Blacktip Reef Shark which we presumably must have pissed off.... He tried to kill me, by swimming within inches of my flippers!!! V scary! Saw Parrot fish, Giant Clams, bright yellow Butterfly Fish, grumpy black spotty Hexagon Grouper which were bullying the octopus! and a group of 10-15 teeny tiny black and white striped fish befriended us for a half an hour, following us and even letting us pick them up! Swam within a few feet of a Trigger Fish which we were told later though generally not aggressive (they're the size of a microwave oven!) lately they had been taking bites out of divers flippers and even the divers themselves!!! The best of all though was when I went out by myself in our little bay a few days ago and saw three small blacktips and two 5 footer blacktip sharks!!!! They're almost as big a me!!! And they were only 20 feet away!!! They are the ultimate of underwater cool, I saw them and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest, they saw me and didn't even register me as a threat!!! COOL!!!! I have a photo of the small one which I'll post as soon as Is emails it to me.

By the way Is turned 30 while we were on the island, so she's now officially old. Which means I'll be on the lookout for a younger model so if anyone knows of someone... ;-) Cake was had and there was much lazing about. All in all a very good holiday. And as with all good things there is an end... Or at least a short break! Feeling pretty lonely and listening to the Greatest Love Album in the World Ever! is not helping so I'll finish up now. Looking foorwarrd to the next installment when I'll see Is again in August, and for 4 months next time, yea!!! :-) Anyway, hope everyone's well. Keeping on top of emailing is a job in itself and seeing as I'm off work... Ciao for now.

Koh Tao pics and Hong Kong Skyline

2007-06-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Something to lighten the mood :-) (Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon)

2007-05-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Hopefully, the last of the horrors of mankind.

2007-05-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

And now after another couple of soul wrenching days of touring the remnants of the hellish past of Cambodia we've finally finished with the dark side of humanity, I hope! Yesterday we went to see Tuol Sleng Museum, otherwise known as former S-21 Prison camp, where thousands of Cambodians were imprisoned, tortured and killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge between 1975-1979. Eerie walking through the rooms of the former high school turned concentration camp hearing only the echoes of your shoes on the ground. And looking at row after row of photos of people killed there, men, women, knowing their fate, children, looking confused and scared. Today we visited the Killing Fields where many people were killed and buried in mass graves, fucking hell is the only way to describe it. An estimated 1.5 million people were killed. About a quarter of the population.....

If anyone wants to read (no I haven't been hijacked by a book company!) about what it was like to live through the Khmer Rouges ethnic cleansing of Cambodia, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung is a truly harrowing account, it will make you cry.
Anyway after the Khmer Rouge took over power, indirectly helped by the Americans bombing the crap out of the Cambodians bordering Vietnam, they set about reverting the country to an agrarian economy, essentially 'encouraging' farming to gain complete self sufficiency (everyone was expected to work the land and provide for the needs of the regime) free from outside influences (western ideals and capitalism) which would only corrupt their "utopia". The way they did this was to exterminate every and any possible threat to their current or future rule. Anyone connected to the former government in any way, anyone with an education which included anyone wearing glasses because they looked like they read a lot, city people, anyone who questioned the regime, anyone who complained, were taken to be killed. Also their entire extended families were killed in case they came to seek vengeance later on. People were moved en masse from the cities to rural areas for forced labour where many died from starvation. Money, religion, private property were banned and schools, hospitals, factories were closed. In the book I'm reading she mentions a man who, starving, came across a dead dog on the road which he ate, he was killed, his crime not having shared it with the community. It's like George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four only worse, and for real....
It's hard to believe how much suffering one man can inflict upon another, please God we'll never have to see it again.

On a separate note I was really pissed off to find in the museum comment book, a passage written by some arrogant American thanking his country for "stopping Saddam Hussein" and preventing this type of thing from happening again, are you kidding me??? One word, oil. Ok stop, this is not a political site and I don't wish it to be so, so this will be my one and only rant. And hopefully, having learned from the horrors of the past, the world will never again see people arrested without trial, imprisoned and tortured..... Ok I'll shut up now :-)

Leaving the Nam.

2007-05-22T03:39:00.000-07:00

And so it comes to sum up another country having only been in it for such a short time. I have to say I really loved Vietnam, and if you want to read a better description than mine read "Catfish & Mandala" by Andrew X Pham, I'm reading it now and it really captures the essence of the country. The people are lovely though not outrightly so, once the ice is broken they are some of the friendliest people I've met on my travels. Of course there's the element of working towards a sale but always with a smile and a joke and a laugh. I've always found the best descriptions come from what you see out your bus window because it's everything you see and hear and smell condensed, sometimes so condensed it gives you a headache with all the information flying into your brain!!!! So this is what I see, threshers, the old-fashioned ones turned by hand, separating out the rice grain, to be laid out on any spare piece of flat ground even if it's the side of the main road, and dried in the sun, cone hats covering young beautiful faces and wizened faces alike, plastic chairs the size you used in school when you were 8 surrounding road stalls serving food on equally small tables, people squatting and slurping from bowls of noodles and rice and vegetables and unrecognizable meat, surprisingly good roads with cars playing chicken with motorbikes playing chicken with busses playing chicken with lorries which are not going to lose, hot women in modern stylish clothes leading children with no pants, kids playing amid lush green scenery, paddy fields, eastern bloc ads, look how happy we are everyone equal, except the people living in poverty, Vietnamese flags distributed by the government to every family flying high outside every house, election day looming, don't have to vote if you don't want to, the winner might already be known... possibly the one and only political party, I think so. Hundreds of motos loaded to ridiculous extremes, pigs in bamboo baskets squished in tight, chickens tied by their ankles, trees 2 stories high, a pane of glass, a few door frames, industry, fashion, red soil, bicycles everywhere, tourists in aircon busses, locals like cattle in local busses, red propaganda, women in pyjamas, kids in school uniform, high school girls in bright white trousers and ankle length tunics cycle back straight with heads up high, men in boats fishing, clean brick houses, peaked hats on the men, face masks on the women, bent over women with shoulder mounted staffs, baskets hanging from both ends, bike shops, girls on motorbikes with arm gloves, markets flowers, fruit, noodles, raw meat, animals heads, weighing scales, overloaded motorbikes, huge smiles and long stares, people don’t smile back, small stalls selling only 2 or 3 items, new buildings, ancient temples, dollhouse like spirit houses, crazy traffic, homemade signs advertising spare part shops with available nonexistent internet, umbrellas, shirt and tie, water in fields, thin buildings, motos, iron grill doorways, posh resorts to keep the locals out so the fat tourist standing at the gate can feel relaxed, Vietnamese flags….

The horror!! The horror!

2007-05-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

Just getting a chance to write about it now but yesterday was a very dark day... We went to see the War remnants Museum in Saigon and the whole time I was sick to my stomach and just completely lost the ability to speak. Wall after wall of Vietnam war photos taken by both sides, action, dead bodies, lost limbs, abuse, torture, every photo with a caption, agent orange deformities and burns. Death. I was blinking furiously to stop myself from crying and I had a lump in my throat for the entire exhibit... I have never seen anything so horrific. How can anyone do such things to other human beings??? There was a slight slant in the photos on show but it doesn't excuse the absolute horrors that the Americans carried out on some of the Vietnamese including one offensive where the Americans decimated a town which included killing about 150 children 60 of which were between the ages of 5 months and 5 years!!!!! In the middle of all this the American Declaration of Independence is quoted, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I found it rang a little hollow....
It definitely is a Saigon must-see, but if you do just don't expect a fun day out. We followed the visit with a few cold beers to try and wash away some of the images stuck in our heads, a very dark day...

Sapa and the realities of market day (I missed a photo op for a dog's head...)

2007-05-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Finally those photos! (Ps It's not my fault, The Nam is rubbish for internet)

2007-05-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Sapa

2007-05-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

I think the less said about Sapa the better or it'll turn into another rant... Had an overnight train to Sapa, north of Hanoi, and booked into a pretty decent room overlooking some amazing scenery of the Sapa hills and rice paddies. The food as always is a good guage of things to come and consisted of breadrolls and fried eggs, traditional Vietnamese food, I don't think... The town is packed with various tribes-people selling their wares and was quite cool to see, though they were more persistent than when we were in India and would follow you for 20 minutes up and down the street "you buy from me, buy something, why you no buy from me?"... Doesn't really bother me usually but they really grated! The trek was a bit rubbish, was with a rather dry group and the guide was a bit unenthusiastic, stopped about every 200m for a break! not really needed when you're travelling at 0.5km/hr... I was bored out of my tree, I even pretended to walk in slow motion, and was going too fast, seriously!! The scenery was really cool but we were so bored, and for the entire trek we had an entourage of tribes-women hangers-on who tried to sell us stuff every time we stopped... Needless to say I was unimpressed.
Derek who had gone with another group when the group was split in two had the completely opposite experience, fun group, enthusiastic guide, and had a brilliant time, which goes to show how much difference guide and group make to a trek. Anyway can't all be brilliant. Though some of them are and Halong Bay was a redeeming experience :-)

Halong Bay

2007-05-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

My faith is restored in Vietnam, just spent the best 3 days touring Halong Bay by junk, boat, kayak, bus and bicycle. had the good fortune of meeting a(nother) Canadian (they're everywhere!) at our guesthouse who recommended a Halong Bay tour to us which against LP advice we booked through our guesthouse. Arrived in Halong to the beginning of the monsoon... Not the best start when you can't see the water let alone the islands! Mist everywhere!!! Went down to the bay to tourist mayhem and it isn't even the busy season, the piers were like the city streets, junks everywhere, floating around each other, squeezing into impossibly small spaces, these guys would give Indian drivers a run for their money! So anyway we were left to wait beside a really posh junk obviously for posh git tourists with lots of cash and we were all saying how cool it would be if that was our boat... It was!!! Wow!! Walked inside, to a posh restaurant all set out with finery for our lunch. So far the quality of the tours have been relative to the food provided and this was no exception cos the food was excellent, and it just kept coming, all Vietnamese (except the crinkle chips) which of course impressed me :-) Was really dull and misty so it wasn't looking good so beer came to the rescue and we just sat around and chatted and checked out our cabins, A/C, private bathroom, swish swoo!! Dinner again amazing then cos they Vietnamese love getting up at dawn off to bed.
Next day woke to heaven, clear and sunny, the water amazing shades of jade and emerald and aquamarine, limestone karst outcrops towering above you and islands with mini paradise beaches, and after we switched to the smaller boat and went a bit further, no other boats, heaven!!!! Went cycling and walking on a mini jungle trek before stopping at a deserted beach for more lovely food. Also went jumping off the roof of the boat into the sea, cool. Were quite tired at this stage so the boat dropped us at Cat Ba Island for the night, where we checked into the plushest hotel we've stayed since we started travelling, sweet!! Dinner in their posh restaurant, think we all felt a bit grubby, then ran off into town for street beer, 10p a glass :-) mmm watery. Up the next day for a huge brekkie and then 4 hours boat and 4 hours bus back to Hanoi. All that, excluding drinks, for $80, not bad :-p Off to Hue tonight on an overnight train, hopefully this time I won't be a mossie feast.. Bug spray to the ready! Onwards!!!

Is this the end of the daring duo?? Will they survive in each others pockets??!!! Tune in now to find out!!!

2007-05-09T02:59:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Vientiene a week ago now, capital of Laos and nice in a not much there kind of way. Being harsh, it's ok, though tere really is not much to do, though plenty of bars and restaurants. Well anyway, and I'm writing from my perspective, I thought Derek was being an ass so I told him so. He didn't appreciate it. So one thing led to another and he ended up leaving and booking into another guesthouse!!! :-o In the meantime, I had a great 2 days wandering around with a couple of Buddhist monks who befriended me so they could practice their english, it was brilliant cos we had a great chat, and I met one of them again to show him how to navigate the internet (yes me!). Also as it happened Anne Maria and two of Cathy's best friends Mags and Audrey flew into Vientiene from Hanoi on their way from Oz, and Alex and Melissa (the kiwis) who are cycling around SE Asia arrived in town. So we all went out for food and drinks and cos it's such a small world travelling, Derek came along too, and we were friends again. Aw! Was great to meet up with everyone for a chat and a beer, though the whole town shut down at 9pm??? so that put an end to things pretty quickly, said our goodbyes and on we went. Flew to Hanoi with Laos Airlines, found out afterwards about their terrible safety record and how some countries had blacklisted them... Hmm. Anyway we made it alive. Hanoi is cool, really does have a touch of the wild west to it, motorbikes everywhere, a bit crazy, crossing the road is an experience, like walking across a stream while trying to stay dry!! Slowly does it and remember cars and buses will not go around you.... Amazing shopping, I've become a shopaholic, lucky Is :-) and the place is just so friendly and relaxed. Love it! Had a couple of monsoon days and boy does it bucket down, like a vertical river everywhere! Got my poncho as per local style so I'm now practically Vietnamese. Met a few people, saw a few sights and booked a tour for Sapa, a place in the northern hills with rice paddies and hilltribes and stuff. Will tell you about it later. Chat soon and when I get to a cafe at the weekend I'll upload some photos, or later if I can get them on CD. Ciao.

Tubing (Nothing to do with unnecessary breast exams!!!)

2007-05-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in blogging, been quite busy... So finally the stomach settled down and I could venture out. Vang Vieng is full of tourists and things to keep them entertained, all day tv (Simpsons, Friends or movies), burgers and chips, beer... My idea of traveller hell though great if you're not able to venture far from a bog :-0 However Vang Vieng has another attraction which is why so many people come here, Tubing!! Essentially they give you a tractor tyre inner tube, drive you 3km up the river and let you float down the river. Every 100m or so for the first kilometer there are bars, who rope you in, and have a variety of swings from about 3-7m high from which you can swing into the river, brilliant!! And a tad scary, it took me about 5 mins to swing from one of them... Though to redeem myself I swung from the highest one and dropped on the first swing along with Alex a kiwi (most people wait for a few swings to get lower cos it's bloody high!), we have balls of steel!! And you need them cos of the drop... Derek and Melissa, Alex's girlfriend waited apprehensively by the side :-) It's excellent fun. We also spotted a giant poisonous centipede, longer than a banana and thicker than your thumb, which the locals trapped in a beer bottle, they fill it with Lao poteen and a swig apparently keeps you up all night, if you know what I mean, eh wink wink nudge nudge!!?? The last 2km of the river you just float gently down, there's amazing scenery all the way, limestone karst covered with jungle rising high above the river, and beer if you want it. There's also as much drugs as you want, though we don't do that sort of thing, and from the story we heard the other day from a lovely group of people who gave it a try a week ago, of police/spliffs/$500 fines/corruption/galvanised holding cells in the midday heat, I think it's wise to give it a pass...

Changes

2007-04-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

For all those hardcore people still reading after the food poisoning entry, I've added a few links along the side of the blog homepage. Blogs from other people travelling, a few educational links to expand the grey matter and some news and entertainment which some people reading might find of interest.

I'll take suggestions if anyone wants anything else added. Bye for now. Col.

Not for those with weak stomachs (explicit content warning!)

2007-04-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

So there we were floating along, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and to be honest it had to hit!!! As one fellow traveller described it "pissing out your ass". So true! Dehli Belly, Khatmandu Quickstep, Montezumas Revenge, whatever you want to call it every traveller has had it or is just about to get it... What caused it? Was it street stall mango sticky rice, pizza, noodles, or the random meat on a stick from the woman waving away the flies with her spare hand (we weren't that stupid!)???? To be honest we're still lucky even if our backsides have been well acquainted with the toilet seat (or not if you squat), cos neither of us have had it too bad though it's still awkward. I'm currently sitting it out (pardon the pun) today while the rest of them go off floating down the river on a tractor inner tube, bah humbug! Anyway.
You actually feel fine, then your stomach just calmly says "you have 20 seconds to get to a toilet, thank you, 19, 18, 17,.....RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It's all good fun. Oh crap, gotta go........

2007-04-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Next stop Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos after a butt numbing 10 hour bus journey. LNT is just a strip of dust with a few guesthouses and local shops and the starting point for trekking in the National Protected Area (NPA) near the town. We booked our trek through an eco-trekking company and will never go back to regular trekking companies again! Part of the money goes to the hill-tribe villages, part to maintain the tracks through the forest (which was excellent) and it encourages more responsible tourism (picked up some rubbish on our way home) which is the way it should be! Not just us tramping our way through villages expecting a show and freely available beer and the villagers reduced to undignified pressure selling of mass produced poor quality "village crafts". Note to all reading, and before this I thought eco-trekking was for rich do-gooders or hippies, if you travel and go trekking, make the effort to do it with an eco-tour company, it's so much better for everyone, including you!!! Anyway, we went on a two day/one night trek, and loved every minute of it. The trekking was through lush forest which was a cooling bonus as well cos the temperatures have risen to the low forties deg C over the past week! Ate the best Loas food so far, sticky rice, beef stuff, potato stuff, tomato sauce and an egg :-) Yum. For dinner we ate pork from a pig they had killed the previous day, while piglets and chickens ran around our feet, v cute, I'm definitely having pigs on my mini-farm (and they taste so good...mmm pigs). Met the village chief and his buddies for evening drinking, Lao Lao, the local brew. The first shot was lovely, like sweet saki, the following few shots were like a mixture of explosives and liquid fire... Good thing I don't smoke! So we sat around and answered questions about our lives back home and after a while they softened a bit and answered a few of ours. Was really cool, though the guy holding the Lao Lao was intent on sterilising our entire intestinal tract so we had to decline after a while, didn't stop him pouring though! The village just went about it's daily business as if we weren't there which was great and we had a quick look around, had a singing contest with the small kids and chilled out beside the river watching the buffalos wash and the kids playing (one gave us a lizard he'd caught but it ran off leaving it's tail behind!!). The second day was more trekking in the forest and avoiding of leeches, little buggers stretching up from the ground trying to grab hold of something so they can crawl up to your blood filled legs... Didn't get me yet, though a couple of the guys noticed their bloody socks after a bit, they burrow through regular socks! Yuk! Was good fun though and our trek ended with a short walk down through burnt down forest (see the pics). Slash and burn farming is used a lot by the farmers to clear land for crops and rubber trees. The villages present before the NPAs were set up have rights to land within them which they can use as they please for farming. Some of the NPA is also designated for logging purposes. There are massive areas of land devoid of anything growing, burnt to the ground literally. They can be used for farming for one year then need 2-3 years to recover before they can be used again for anything at all! Though according to our guidebook there's more of a threat from widescale logging in central Laos, still it's sad to see cos the forest that's there is incredible. So eco-trekking hopefully might slow the pace a little if it makes people realise the value of their natural resource for tourism??

We're back in Luang Prabang (after a full day travelling cos the 930 bus left full of Laos locals at 830 and we had to wait for a couple fo busses, Laos is great for bus travel really....). Back to actually see the city in a dry state. It's lovely here, so relaxed, and we went to the most beautiful waterfall for a swim, like something out of paradise! Blue water, deep pools, green forest, wow!!! Anyway, enough for now, come back later :-)

Waterfall near Luang Prabang, and yes those are deep-fried chicken heads!! And no we didn't buy any...

2007-04-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

A few photos to keep you going until I write a blog.

2007-04-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

Luang Prabang, the Mekong and bloated bodies

2007-04-16T04:38:00.000-07:00

Today we've reached the three month mark and are in the joint best country so far, Laos! So last week we got the slow boat down the Mekong River from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. Derek was right when he said that at some places along the Mekong it was like seeing snapshots out of Platoon or Apocolypse Now, the scenery was amazing! Floating down the vast, powerful and very muddy Mekong for hours on end seeing only jungle and the odd few houses clumped together trying to be big enough to claim village status. If you get seriously ill here you're buggered! In fact a few people on the boat saw a bloated corpse pass the boat in the river and I got an email from someone we met in Chiang Mai who's group saw two corpses! Apparently not unusual down the Mekong... But despite being in the middle of nowhere there were plently of people in canoes fishing or setting traps or dropping or checking nets who were around to give us a good stare. God only knows where they lived???
The boat was packed with tourists, and a few locals with boxes and bags, a few of whom we dropped at random isolated spots. The first day was better cos we had seats, not that we used them cos we met some other travellers who we spent most of the journey with playing cards and chatting. The second day showed up our traveller mentality. It was a different boat and when we got on, the front was decked out with posh seats which everyone assumed were for people who paid extra, only they weren't and the last people on just sat down and had a lovely journey while the rest of us attempted to balance on the 3 inch planks pretending to be seats... So we all sat on the floor instead and played cards, eh.
Laos is really lovely, I'd like to imagine this is what most of South East Asia was like before tourism destroyed it's original culture. The people are incredibly friendly. In Luang Prabang the night market is fantastic. It's so relaxed and quiet and there's no pushiness from the sellers, you just drift along with the crowd through it's stalls lit by hanging bare single bulbs, it's so cool!!! And the stalls are filled with so much stuff you could spend your entire budget on presents! The country is a bit behind with the times though catching up quickly, our new guidebook said there was only one international ATM in the country in Vientiene but now there's one also in Luang Prabang though it only accepts Mastercard so not much good to us, good thing we brought enough with us!! The currency is hillarious, everywhere takes USD, Thai Baht and Lao Kip, there are about 10,000 kip to the dollar so when we exchanged I literally had an inch thick wad of notes, COOL!!! It does get confusing though cos you forget how many noughts you're dealing with...
Anyway we arrived in the middle of Pai Mai New Year, the water festival, which is still going on outside 3 days later!!! From 12 midday to almost sundown if you step outside your house you get soaked from head to toe with water by eveybody with a spare hand, which is why we had to arm ourselves with supersoakers!! It's brilliant fun, though you have to avoid the oil gangs, lots of people either rub the soot from burnt pots and pans or the inside of car exhausts all over their hands and rub it all over your face if possible or anywhere else if not. Then there's the talcum powder gangs, self explanatory, and the dye gangs, I now have pink combats.... And it's non-stop, you just can't go out if you want to stay dry, and why would you, it's just too much fun!!!!! :-) Thank you Irish skin, I got scalded! And after a week on antibiotics, D n' V free. All is well in the world.
So next stop is Luang Nam Tha hopefully for some trekking, though it's a bit off the beaten track and we have no idea how much it costs, sounds good to me! So if we're never heard from again, go to Laos (or don't go cos it's nice the way it is)! Cya.

Pai Mai Water Festival Luang Prabang

2007-04-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm Pai............

2007-04-09T05:50:00.000-07:00

I am currently writing from Pai in northwest Thailand, otherwise known as Hippyville, it seems the hippies had to find a new spot to settle after Woodstock and so they descended on Pai, bringing a substantial drug problem to the area with them, bless their carefree souls. Still you can see the draw (apart from the rainbow hammock stalls), cos the place is as sleepy as a sloth. The place is so laid back I had to wake up a shopkeeper to ask prices and the pedestrians outnumber cars by 10:1!! Not much to do apart from rent scooters and explore, which we did. Luckily we avoided crashing, we saw a few people with roadrash, and some moped driver was spotted unconscious on a street corner after a recent crash!!! Helmets on!!!
Two months too late I developed a case of the Dehli Belly, but even though I still feel rubbish I think I got off lightly, only threw up a couple of times. I blame the mango sticky rice from that foodstall, hindsight shows my lunacy, but it tastes so sweet!!!!!!!!! Mmmmm stick rice.........
Had a chat with the bro today cos despite doing really cool stuff, I'm not really enjoying the travel at the moment. Mostly to do with the fact that Isabel isn't here (and also I'm finding Thailand quite boring so have too much time to think), and I know she's coming out in 7 weeks time anyway but I had pretty much decided on flying back to Newcastle for a few weeks earlier today. It's easy to mock but it's bloody difficult being apart for so long!! (Thanks mam for the support.....!!!) Anyway have decided to keep going and we'll see how it goes. Heading into Laos in a few days, planning a trip down the Mekong River for a couple of days. May be some time before I blog again, Laos only has one international ATM apparently and net is not the best... Hope we make it out ok. So ciao for now.

Pics from Chiang Mai and around

2007-04-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

Bamboo rafts and crickets...

2007-04-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone! I've been completely off the map for the past few days cos I've been on
a 3 day/2 night trek somewhere near Chiang Mai (I don't actually know where we were but it took us 2 hours to drive there). I doubt it's too isolated cos every spot bar one that we went to was accessible by foot or motorbike.
So anyway I decided I'd try a few local delicacies along the way. Dragon fruit (a dayglo pink and orange fruit, the size of a pineapple with white flesh and black pips, v nice, like a kiwi), and some bugs!!!!! That's right I ate huge crickets and some worm thingys, all deep fried, and not bad actually if you don't think about what you're eating... Kinda like a slightly unusual tasting fried chicken... I also tried cooked bee larvae, which apparently most people chew and spit out (at least that's what they told me after I swallowed it!!) because my tongue and throat were a bit tingly for a few minutes. Mmmm. I still have yet to try the dried squid on a stick, it's important to always have something to look forward to!
The trekking was fairly easy but the heat was incredible, walking even 100m with a backpack is a struggle let alone walking for hours, phew!! Still, we had a great gang for the few days, 3 Kiwis, 2 Canadians and an English guy. The treks included a tribal village aspect which though informative (our guide was great) I felt the whole thing was very fake and I was a bit uncomfortable with the way the villagers did "traditional" things and wore "traditional" clothes just because we were there... The first day when we arrived near the start of the jungle path and stopped for lunch the villagers surrounded our table waiting like vultures to sell us stuff. The second morning we awoke to find the villagers had set up stalls around our hut to sell a few genuinely nice "local" items and a pile of tourist crap!!!! Now I say "local" because a few of the items were noted to have come out of plastic wrappers.... So they just sat around us while we ate breakfast and shouted at us to buy stuff. This I had not expected to be part of our trek. I also don't think this is a very dignified way to live, with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't be reccommending a trek like this to anyone.
The other big shock to the system was an elephant ride. Everything seemed fine until we were half way through it and the elephant went to chew some bamboo. The trainer started to wallop him with a chain and was being really rough with the elephant. At this point we were feeling a bit sick to our stomachs about the whole thing and I will never ride an elephant again!!!!
DON'T RIDE ELEPHANTS!!!!
Still, the trekking was loads of fun. We saw a snake and lizards, had a shower in a waterfall, ate absolutely amazing Thai food, sang songs, had a campfire and listened to some kids sing Kumbyaa, seriously! And on the last day we rafted down a river on bamboo rafts, which incidentally nearly didn't make it cos ours got stuck in some rapids and started to come apart while we tried to free it... Excellent!!! Back in Chiang Mai now after my first proper wash in 3 days, ahhh!!! :-) So hope everyone is well. I'm off for a beer, chicken on a stick if I can find some and a bit of a rest. Cu soon......

Newcastle

2007-04-02T01:27:00.000-07:00

My birthday cake (home-made Terry's Chocolate Orange cake mmmmm......and the candles wouldn't blow out ha ha!). Mountain top, freezing cold sunny beaches and Isabels new flatmate (he works in TV and he better be careful if he doesn't want a box!!).

Bangkok photos

2007-04-02T01:22:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna take you down, take you down to Chinatown!!!

2007-03-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

So back in Bangkok and a balmy 37 deg C!!!! So humid the sweat just drips off you as soon as you walk out the door and it's getting hotter by the day. So went for a walk down to Chinatown today, holey crap, I never knew there were so many things out there that you could eat....apparently. From giant fruit (like the size of your head, and I'm talking apples and pears people!!), chickens feet, what looked like a butt hole with attached alimentary tract..., big black sea slug things, dried eels and prawns (mmm appetising looking), things resembling stomachs or something of various sizes, you name it, it was there!!!!! You're not starving, you don't need to eat this stuff!!!!!! What are you doing, there is no meat on a chickens foot!!!!!!!!! It was all pretty cool though and I think I must have wandered off the track cos I was the only foreign person I met for about 2 hours, in Bangkok Chinatown! So after all that excitement I decided to head to the cinema, film was a bit mundane (The Good Shepherd) though worth it just to stand for the honour the King bit with all of us standing up (no dancing involved this time...). Got a pressie from Is, a green furry snake thing that moves as if by magic, a book about Tony Hawks adventure around Ireland with a fridge (v funny) and some floss, bless her, Thanks Is :-)
Bangkok is a crazy place! It's one of those places more western than the west. Like Hyperwest. The cops are like you'd imagine some Japanese comic artist drawing them Judge Dredd style even the motorbikes, the young people (you know, people my age) it's all about the style, feel like I'm walking through Bangkok Fashion Week all the time, as the tramp man. And Dunkin Doughnuts and 7/11 are as much an institution here as they are in the US, actually the 7/11's are about the only shop open after 10. The Skytrain is v swanky and when I transferred to the underground today it was like descending into something in between Gattaca and Demolition Man, very futuristic and incredibly clean, Ireland and UK take note! Of course there's traffic and pollution but it's nowhere near Dehli (ok I'll shut up about India!) and anyway it's all so organised, crazy chaotic my ass Lonely Planet. So anyway I quite like it though I doubt the rest of the country is like this, in fact I hope it isn't cos I'd like to see the real Thailand. So off to meet up with Derek again tomorrow, Chiang mai direction ie North. Will put up the few photos I have when I get there cos Der has the card reader and adapter to charge my camera back up. Hope everyones well. Keep sending those emails, they're keeping me going, I know it's slow getting replies to you all. Thanks :-) Ciao for now.

Newcastle, ah it's mint man!!

2007-03-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

True to popular opinion we haven't been out of bed for the past four days, except to:climb a mountain (obligatory), go shopping in Newcastle, have dinner in Treacle Moon (med rare fillet steak, check, Mint!), have posh beer and cocktails in The Cluny and Tokyo, go for a walk on the beach, visit the Wards plus bump in their new house, more walking, cook an indian dinner (recipie courtesy of Shashi, our attempt not as good as hers), drink masala tea and Sri Lankan tea, eat Ben and Jerrys choc chip cookie dough, check, drink wine, check, eat a Creme Egg, drink a glass of cold milk, go to the cinema (Hot Fuzz, brill), and sleep off jet lag....
Been a fantastic four days though every good thing has to come to an end, sniffle... Lots of chats and hugs, two months worth!! Was weird arriving off the train cos I'd almost forgotten how to hug someone!! almost. But it's like I've only been gone a week, walking around doing regular stuff. Definitely the best birthday present I've ever got, from myself. So from now on I'm going to be much more generous giving pressies to myself. Though seriously has been brilliant, so nice to see Is again, cos I've missed her so much and now that I'm heading off again it's not so bad cos it's only 8 weeks till she joins us in Thailand. It's bloody freezing here, though it still doesn't stop the short skirts and skimpy tops, those hardy northern women! Been lucky with the weather, mostly sunny, still freezing. There's a possibility we might do the Great North Run next year, I agreed on condition Is wears lycra running pants and a headband, she agreed on condition I do the same... I'll think about it. So anyway off to London now for my flight, 18 hours to go. Derek will be glad to have me back cos he's so lonely without me... Actually he's probably glad to have a break from all the "I miss Is" moaning I've been doing!! So will email again from Bangkok and will put up some photos as well.
Ps Derek if you're reading this, where are you???

Belated Sri Lanka final blog...

2007-03-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

And so, once again, the time comes to sum up another country. As the saying goes if you don't have anything good to say don't say anything at all, so I'll keep this short... For the tourist sights, of which there are few of any substance, one tourist ripoff after another (government backed, all prices doubled as of Jan 2007). Apart from one notable exception the staple of rice and curry is awful, we tried it one last time today and it tasted of sh1t, literally! There are some very nice people here but the majority of young people are rude, ignorant assholes. Apart from the Adams Peak climb and the Elephant Orphanage we have been counting the hours and are thrilled to be leaving!! I hate to say this about anywhere but we've found Sri Lanka to be a horrible country and wouldn't reccommend it to anyone... (However this is just 2 peoples experience, we've had mixed reviews from people we've met and maybe we just had an off couple of weeks..?) Anyway glad to have it behind us, put it down to experience. And so onto Thailand and SE Asia which we're really looking forward to!!! Bangkok first stop, though with a short stopover in Newcastle-upon-Tyne :-) More newssoon!!!

A quickie Bangkok style

2007-03-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

I know I'm way behind with blogs and this one isn't going to clear up much but I'm writing a superfast blog from the bowels of Bangkok International Airport!!! I'm only here a few days and i'm off again this time to SNOWY!!! newcastle. Ok will update properly soon but...we left Sri Lanka, arrived in Bangkok or some futuristic comic book version of a US city with Asians living there, went to a ping pong show..., got scammed, had a massage, a real one, no not that kind!, went on sky train, bought ripoff clothes, wandered the city, had a fight with Derek, saw temples and lots of perverts with young Thai girls/boys, sick f#*ks! and ate amazing food. Now on my way to see my lovely Isabel, 18ish hours via Dubai and London to the stag and hen capital. Will email again when I'm there. To everybody i've met recently, HELLO!!!! Ok that's it for now, no more change left, Cya.

Elephants, elephants and more elephants!!!! Yea :-)

2007-03-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Elephants, lots and lots of them!!! Went to Pinnewala elephant orphanage yesterday and it was brilliant! There were over 40 elephants out stuffing their faces with palms and anything they could lay their trunks on!! The younger ones were being fed with huge bottles of milk (35 a day) which they downed in about 3 seconds!!! There were a few baby elephants too, one was only 1 1/2 months old and would have had the most hardened criminal saying awww, so cute!!!! :-) He was always hiding in under his mother and she was always flanked by at least 3 other grownup elephants so nothing was getting near that baby! Was interesting to watch cos they're all unrelated apart from the mother and baby but they were ultra protective of the baby. For obvious reasons we didn't try to pet that one. They're like giant warm leather bags with steel wool hair... COOL!!!! Was fab watching them splash around in the river and squirting water around, then throwing dust onto their backs to keep cool. There were two young males who kept headbutting each other for about 2 hours, v funny cos a smaller elephant kept trying to join in but they kicked him out, literally. And one of the worker elephants was submerged in the river and only breathing through the tip of his trunk :-) And to top it off saw a water monitor, a small lizard (they do get up to 1.5m long) green and yellow with a blue tongue, and a frog which narrowly escaped being squished by an elephant! Brilliant!!!!!!
Anyway met two new couples in the hotel, Aussie and N Irish and had dinner and drinks. Decided we'll keep going to Sigiria and Anuradhapura instead of chickening out to a beach. Derek has a stinking cold so I'll be climbing Sigiria myself, on with the suncream and walking shoes. Only 8 days till I get my birthday present to myself... ;-) Cya later.

A bit of a rant. And due to lack of replies, see what happened to me...

2007-03-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

Anyone reading will probably be reading this blog about the same time as the first Sri Lanka blog because as forecast the internet access in this country is diabolical so haven't even been sending emails to Is and my family. Also my opinion of Sri Lanka has, in the space of a week, divebombed!!! We have entered Rip-off Republic... Had a nice couple of days in Ella, lots or rambling in the hills on our own, lovely scenery etc. The staple food, rice and curry, is so far revolting, have tried a few, can't bring myself to try again! So we've been eating fried rice and noodles instead or else western food, the horror!!! First off I have to say our view of prices has been gleaned from the Rough Guide (which by the way is the worst guide book I have ever encountered and will never buy one again) and all actual prices are double those quoted, which meant we were feeling constantly ripped off everywhere we went. Which despite the guidebook appears to be the case anyway... And to compound things tourist prices for tourist sights (the country so far has had little else to offer) are up to 100 times the prices for Sri Lankans!!! If I paid some of these entry fees back home I'd ask for refunds, many places offer very little for what you pay. Also, most places have doubled their tourist prices from January this year!!! It's difficult not to feel hard done by when they so blatently rip you off... The thing is, there are very few tourists here in the first place so they can hardly afford to drive people away, many hotels are empty or practically empty, yet they won't drop prices when you walk out to try another. The tuk-tuks are hassly (remember I've been to India) and downright rude. The younger people are mostly wannabe western gangsta types, and are complete assholes! When you ask prices, people hesitate, long enough for you to see them calculate how much they can screw you for... We are not enjoying the country and frankly are counting the days until we leave, I'm very sorry to say but it's true.
However, in the meantime we are making the best of it and it still beats working for a living. We have just finished four straight days of hiking. In Ella we did a full day hike up Ella Rock and saw Rambula Waterall, the next day was a half day up Little Adam's Peak. After that was our first early morning hike, 4am out of bed to drive to Hortons Plains and Worlds End (a kilometer straight drop down a cliff to the valley floor). This was our first taste of rip-off, $18 each plus 10% service charge not including the early morning drive (we also had to pay for the driver 30 rupees to our 2000+). And as did I, you may be saying but sure don't they earn very little? But it's not the poor people at the tourist locations, they're busy working, its middle and upper class Sri Lankans with organised busses and drivers! Anyway we did do a really cool hike the day after for which my calves are still aching... Climbed Adams Peak, a 2am start, Sweet Jesus!!! to climb 4800 steps (wasn't as bad as it sounds) to a Buddist temple at the site of Budda's footprint on the mountaintop. Then back down the 4800 steps with jelly legs (again not too bad), and woke up this morning with a pain in my legs that must be what angina feels like, pain on exertion... In Kandy now, your average city, went to see the Temple of the Tooth (Budda's left canine tooth, upper or lower not sure, of course if I saw it I'd know, being a dentist...). Prices doubled as of Jan 2007. Hardly worth the visit, if it didn't have the tooth I mightn't have bothered. We also saw some Kandyan dancing and drumming, performed by some people they found on the street before the show, years of training my ass! Though quite surprisingly prices were as quoted in the guidebook, and still not worth it. You can probably tell I'm not liking S L very much... So will finish my ranting cos tomorrow is the highlight, I'm going to see elephants, yea!!!! :-) Lots and lots of elephants eating and playing in the river. Cool. So chat to you all later.

Colombo

2007-03-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Well our arrival in Sri Lanka was no less fun packed than usual. Walking through immigration in Colombo the entire airport stood still (like something out of communist Russia...) while the national anthem played, a kind of jingly carribean choir group song!? Very nice, also difficult to stay serious to epecially when Derek, not realising what the music was, started dancing to it! and prompty stopped when he realised he was the only one moving and people were staring... Way to break the ice with the locals. Anyway, it's really different in Sri Lanka in general. Apart from the intense police and military presence, the bus was unloaded and searched by large gun weilding soldiers on the way into Colombo (we didn't have to get off the bus :-), the place has a very mellow feel to it. As I said if you can ignore the machine gun turrets and soldiers every 100m, and not draw attention to yourself by taking photos (not much in the city that you're allowed take photos of) or walking up and then down the same street twice (we were approached to ask why). But don't get me wrong, the soldiers are super friendly (some actually suppressed smiles in case someone might see, but we knew!). It appears much more affluent and so much more organised than India, despite the guidebook writeup. Ps Rough Guide, you've got a lot of info but bloody hell improve those maps and have you ever heard of an INDEX?, it's impossible to find anything, you need to read the whole book to find what you need!! On first glance of Sri Lanka, we love it!!! :-) Unfortunately we tried to skimp on accommodation... Stayed with the Village People, that's right Y M C A!!!! which is fine, we found out, if you like mossies, cockroaches and the smell of urine in the hallways. Hmmm, nasty! Lesson learned. Cos tonight we're staying in a place for the same money but spotless, with mossie nets and a nice terrace. Well (you'll prob remember this Myra and Graham)
we got a 1st class, la dee da, not that special really and bloody cheap, train to a place called Ella up in the mountainous centre of the country. We're up about 2000m. A lovely journey, about 10 hours, from Colombo, through countryside, tea plantations and mountainside. The people here are so friendly and helpful, bought something (it's a pressie, can't tell..) and tried to post it this morning, but my wrapping was "wrong" and the wrapping man wasn't in till 9 (my train was at 9:30) so they all helped to find paper and glue and string (this is in the main post office) so I'd make my train in time, they were brill. So back to the train, by the time we got there, we, actually by three hours into the journey we were the only foreigners on the train!!! With 3 hours to go it felt like we were the only foreigners in the whole country! You could hang off the side of the train and everything, cool. Half the country waved at us and I had to run after the train cos it pulled away when I was getting a station snack in my bare feet! Half the platform was shouting at me that the train was pulling away :-o For all those back home if you're reading this it's a good omen cos the phone and net is meant to be a bit rubbish here, but we're still alive and will chat soon. Everyone else keep reading.

Last day in India

2007-03-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well it's hard to believe but we've come to the end of our Indian adventure and on we go to start a new one in Sri Lanka. After Periyar we did a fair bit of public bus travel (I know Ass, I'm telling them!!!) which is so much better than trains and private travel cos you get to see so much but it can numb the ass a bit... Have seen a few s#*%hole towns along the way some with no redeeming features and some built around a single one. Stayed in Kottyam, the less said the better or the suicidal tendencies might return, suffice to say it was horrible and the location of a nasty tussle with some very evil internet cafe people. Then went to Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, all the charm of a chamber pot, where we saw the sunset and had a big arguement which threatened to split the daring duo apart, well I thought so anyway, but it was all ok by the next day of course! And so on to Trivananthapuram (I'm sure I've spelt it wrong again) our exit point. A day trip to Varkala was a tad disappointing, what a scumhole, dirty sand, evil autorickshaw drivers, crap food, and unfriendly people, won't be going back there again...
But the succession of awful towns can't possibly tarnish the absolutely positively wonderfully amazing time we've had in India so far. We've had highs and lows, the people we've met have been the nicest and craziest and sometimes just plain weirdest people we've ever met. From people offering us money on the street to having our photo taken with a group of 25+ to holding a 3yr old child sized fish and drinking buckets of chai it's been incredible!!!
So for my final India blog I'm just going to write about what I saw out the window of my bus just the other day, I wrote as I saw, in order:
It's hot as hell, even with the windows all open, you have to even thought the sun burns as soon as it touches your skin otherwise you'd bake (had one hours rain the other day, man the humidity afterwards!!) and the dust blows in every time a car or bus passes beeping all the time, dust, smells like oil and fumes and it blows in your eyes but you clear them with a few blinks and keep on looking cos everything comes so fast and you don't want to miss anything even though it gives you a headache, sensory overload. So you watch, repair shops, 6 foot cubes full to the brim with scrap and some guy sitting out front waiting, hippy types with orange shawls and a can for collecting donations on which they live, moustaches big and small, umbrella shops, you see the women walk around, shade from the sun, stick no bills, men, dirty and clean at the same time in what look like nappies tied up or down like sarongs, the women dressed in saris clean and proper and elegant, every colour you can imagine, fruit shops, fresh veg, pineapples, coconuts, husks strewn everywhere, jackfruit bit as a 16" tv, bananas red yellow and green, ads, intricately handpainted on every available wall or posters of the latest Bollywood film, same chubby guy with a moustache, he's everywhere, rubbish in the gutter, men sitting in there with it, desperate looks, billboards showing the next mobile phone, apartments in Mumbai, a black scum topped stream, people washing in it beside straw huts, kids running naked in the street, mothers shouting after them, goats eating everything, including the ads, a woman puking out the bus in front of us, palms as far as you can see, busses beeping, earsplitting, women at the stops with babies, begging, and chatting and laughing with the conductor, sellers on the bus for 30 seconds, sweets, magazines, childrens books, family planning posters in the court, stares and smiles, bare feet, men sitting head in hands with nothing, houses falling down around them, galvanised roofs, curious kids smile and wave, poor men in groups chatting and smiling and laughing, work hard, mobile phones, shoebox shops full of junk, dogs asleep in the sun, brown skin, rice sacks, people dropping rubbish, filth everywhere, smell of urine, whoa!, banyan tree 3m wide, beeps and dust, bicycles, tuk-tuks, blaring music, lorries with open doors, brightly painted, shirts off in the heat, a man slick hair brown wrinkled skin drawn face sweat toothless carrying a pick 70 years old, wood carving, log cutting, smell of dust and dry earth, flowers and palm leaf shacks, next door A/C car showroom, a lorry with a load 3 times its size, a man asleep under a tree, security guards, rocks, nuns, tailors, jewelers, an ambulance (mini Hiace, nobody takes any notice), Nokia, Reliance, rattling and skaking, hope the bus makes it, see a broken down bus, people waiting, tiles and thatch, 10 men for a one man job, picks and shovels, piles of dust, white models on billboards, banana trees, paddy fields, perfect houses, ornate gates, railway tracks, petrol stations, clean and tidy, irrigation systems dug in the dirt, tourist cars from the 1950s, spitting, temples and shrines, motorbikes.................
India, goodbye and thanks for all the fish.

Kumily-Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

2007-03-01T05:29:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe we've only a week left in India, where has the time gone?? In Kumily now, a nothing town that happens to be beside Periyar wildlife sanctuary. If you took away all the craft shops (selling things from Tibet no less) and autorickshaws all you'd be left with is a bus stand, a bank and a post office. Nowhere decent to eat either. But it's not all bad, cos we're staying in a pretty decent jungle type hut on the border of the park, looking directly into it, for 300 rupees!!! We could have had a tree house for less but the bed was too small.... So here I am looking into the jungle, listening to the strangest birdcalls, watching coffee beans dry, I actually tried to make coffee on the Munnar trek, but the beans got burnt in the fire, disaster!! (have some more in my bag for another try... Glad to get a day off today, been going non-stop for over 2 weeks (cue violin) and had a lovely lie-in this morning. Shaved the beard this morning, not much response from the blog so decided to start off with chops and a goatee.... I know, but you have to start somewhere and I had no direction!!! Heading on a night trek tonight, slap on the mossie cream!! You never know, maybe we'll see a tiger, or a porcupine, found quills on the Munnar trek, vicious looking.. Hopefully we won't get eaten, or pronged. Going on a day trek tomorrow, might be joining up with a hippy French couple staying here (what is it with French women and hairy underarms!!?? sweet Jesus!). Anyway am putting up some photos as well, finally! Hope you like them, goes to prove that even with a rubbish camera and no skill, in a country like this anyone can take the odd decent photo :-)

Hiking photos

2007-03-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

If you peer into the bottom corner you can barely make out the hut near where we stayed.

Munnar Trek

2007-03-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

Finally get a chance to write about what we've been up to!!! The trek was brilliant!!! Started out on Saturday morning, only us, a couple Brett and Jenny (from Oz and California living in Japan teaching english) and our giude Shyam (23, really nice guy). Did a few hours trekking in the hills around Munnar, scenery is amazing, tea plantations every imaginable shade of green. Our guide was brilliant, explaiing the tea picking and pointing out loads of flowers and plants and spices along the way. Saw wild coffee and pepper, flowers that only bloom every 12 years, and fresh tiger tracks.... Our guide said he'd never actually seen a tiger up there but one had eaten a few cows once and he looked pretty nervous scouring the forest for anything that moved.... Tense! Was brilliant fun though, loads of tracks around and wandering through the plantations ws really cool. Everything was provided for including water which was well needed cos in the heat we were sweating buckets!! We had dinner and tea in a forest hut near the top of the mountain, amazing views and they set up tents for us for the night..... tiger tracks!!! Eek!! As per India protocol Brett and Jenny were mild grade hippies, think we're the only non-hippies in this country!! So while we drank tea Brett went and practiced breathing, to give him energy, well it mustn't have worked cos he was nearly falling asleep into his dinner... So off they went to bed while me and Der had a couple of beers (carried up the mountain by sherpa, no not really!, but kind of...) beside the campfire, ah the life. I have to say though I was a little nervous standing in the dark for an alcohol induced pee, peering through the darkness for tigers, what was that crack!!??? Aargghh!!!! The next day we opened the side of the tent and watched the sunrise over the mountain, wow!! Spicy omlette for breakfast and loads of tea, they sure make a nice cuppa. It was a shorter trek on Sunday, though up and down incredibly steep inclines, thank God for the trekking shoes! And ended at Top Station, a viewpoint, British built (more accurately Idian built..) but the mist had rolled in that morning so not much of a view, still pretty cool, tried out loads of fruit, passion fruit, chicu, tree tomato (yum), guava, banana... And there was lemon grass growing everywhere, smells lovely. Brett and Jenny were getting progresively pissed off cos they wanted 8 hours trekking a day... and worse the paid over twice what we paid for just one more days trekking, so while we relaxed Brett fumed over his masala tea. You should have seen poor Shyams face when he left to continue trekking with them... So that was it, back we went to town on a public bus, during which we burst a tire (and carried on), smashed a lorry's sidemirror, caused a traffic jam and a woman puked out the window, not to mention the speeds on hairpin bends!!! Eventful and all in all a very good couple of days.

Kerala backwaters

2007-03-01T05:20:00.000-08:00

Kochin

2007-03-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

In Fort Cochin, Kerala and the difference is immense!! It's cleaner, and more organised and when people stare at you they realise they're doing it and sometimes look away. If only for a few seconds before the compulsion overtakes them again!! But by which time you've smiled at them and they respond in kind :-) Been eating amazing fish, bought straight from the fishermen, then you bring it to the dodgy restaurants alongside and get it cooked, heaven!!! Will put a photo of it up when it's emailed to me, v cool. And took a backwater tour yesterday, what Kerala is probably most famous for. Got a small 6 man wooden canoe and were punted up little streams and saw people making coconut fibre ropes (so weird, the fibres actually knit together by themselves... with a little help but it's still freaky) and drying coconuts and our punter climbed a coconut palm tree (using the rope wrapped around his feet and the tree, we tried, bloody impossible above 2 feet off the ground) to get us coconuts that were chopped open so we could drink them. Then we got served food on a houseboat and went for a river cruise. Best money we've spent so far. Saw a cat battling a live snake on the way home and we were eaten alive by a million midges that somehow got into our room at night, not pleasant and the heat is incredible!!!!!!!!

Met loads of people, some from the bus to Kochin and another Irish girl who we met a few weeks ago and wandered into our internet cafe and some randomers. Great to have people to meet for dinner and chat and stuff, breaks up the days.

Apart from that, got a public bus to Munnar, one side of me is very sunburnt... Munnar is amazing, the scenery is unreal. It's a lot higher up so it's cooler though still as sunny but the mountains are covered with tea plantations which are an incredible sight, a vivid green patchwork across rolling hills... Wow!!! Booked a 2 day trek through plantations and jungle with an overnight camp. It's also bloody cold so no mossies thank God! All we have to bring with us is a jumper, everything else is provided. Looking forward to it, and cos this won't go up till Sunday you may very well be reading how I got on in two seconds.

A couple of photos of the beach

2007-02-19T07:12:00.001-08:00

I'm becoming a tech addict... (in my own way)

2007-02-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Mysore

2007-02-19T05:56:00.001-08:00

Well Mysore has been great, we weren't that pushed about staying because it seemed like just another city and we weren't bothered. Booked our onward overnight bus (the more expensive one this time) God help us, and stowed the bags for the day. And this is what I love about India, we just walked, forget the temples, India is the people you meet! As usual it started with being led by a dodgy geezer (we've been lucky so far and we're not stupid) up into the town suburbs... No other white faces. Saw an amazing local market, loads of nice people, saw cigarettes being made, rolled and packed in for all the world a mini sweatshop, a bit sad but man were those guys moving! Can't imagine what they were being paid, not much is the obvious answer. Then were brought to a house where they were rolling incense sticks (the ones you buy at home), one woman apparently does 6000 a day... And then went to a few emporiums and random shops. Walked through the houses, stopped and talked to everyone, then ended up in the town market where we wandered for 2 hours chatting with possibly every stall owner. Saw amazing spices (smell still in my nose) and colour powders, tried jack fruit and chi-something, saw wood apples and bananas and enough flowers to fill the GPO and the flower guys gave us icepops chai/spice flavoured, v nice, forgive us oh stomach god! Touch wood, not a common Indian phrase.. Met a guy brought up in Kent and now working with some convent, funny mix of Indian and bogger accent, weird, and told us if we wanted to give him a gift buy 10 rupees of rice and scatter it in a field and come back to see if it had seeded. Nice guy. So have had a great day, and thats what it's like here, love it and hate it. Glad we're moving again though cos this is what it's all about and also less time to ponder :-) Prayers have been said, onward to Kochin!!!

Goa

2007-02-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

Well, we've just left Goa. Though in a way I'm not sad to be moving on, which is strange because it's incredibly beautiful and nicely chilled out. And that's exactly why I was glad to be leaving... I've really had an awful time this week, the reason being that I miss Isabel so much (might still get that £20 Beth!) and being in such a beautiful spot watching a million loved up couples on the beach only emphasised it more! Was seriously considering my options as regards onward travel... But I am travelling with the best male partner I could have and we had a grand old chat about it, I was feeling a bit guilty being such a grump and worried about where my concerns left everyone else, Derek especially. So we both decided that getting moving again would be a good thing and really to play it by ear, only 2 weeks left in India then Sri Lanka and SE Asia and keeping busy stops too much thought about other things.. The worst part is being in so many amazing places and your first thought being, I wish Is was here and getting all sad about it. So have to try to start enjoying myself more otherwise be both agreed there's not much point in carrying on. Not travelling is preferable to miserable travelling. Hopefully it won't come to that though. And once we reach Thailand it'll only be a couple of months till Is comes out for a visit. We are considering the possibility of cutting down the time in S America because I certainly don't relish the prospect of another 3-4 months away from Isabel, mad I know, but I am mad about her!! Awwww oh for God sake!!! Anyway!!!
Apart from that the end of our few days in Palolem was pretty good, had the good fortune of meeting some people and suggestions turned to plans which led us to stay the night on a beach only accessible by boat sitting around a campfire listening to music, drinking rum and some people were smoking the marra ja wanna but we knew about peer pressure before so we knew what to do and we slept under the stars and woke up freezing cold and to the sight of a cow (how he got there we have no idea) munching on our breakfast of pineapples and watermelon, bugger! It was pretty cool, think we invited nearly everyone we saw in Palolem so had a very cool crowd of about 10. Didn't swim after dark cos of the dip and currents but the water was really warm, and Derek reefed his thumb with a swiss army knife which bled for hours and then went and reefed his foot on the rocks, poor Derek, he's still hobbling around, and my first aid kit is coming in handy.
Which brings us to the worst journey in the world (though not really, Shackleton and Tom Crean!) on an overnight bus to Bangalore, sweet Jesus!!! We knew we were onto a bad start when we forgot our parcels and the tuk-tuk had to use turbo boost to get us to the station on time where we found half the town blocked off with a political rally in the station, here we go... Of course nobody knew where all the busses had been diverted to, not the foodstall guys, not the random passersby, not the police. After an hour wait the bus was spotted from our randomly picked bus stop and we nearly had to jump onto it as it tried to maintain momentum, later we realised why... A sleeper bus, we decided the cheaper option would be fine, is a bus with a double bunk bed 1 foot shorter, as presumably per average population size, so you can't lie down and as wide as two narrow bus seats with two thin vertical bars to stop you falling into the aisle from the top bunk. Sounds comfortable I know but then the bus grinds and groans up every incline, rocks 5 foot to either side with every pothole, usually 3-4 second intervals and thank God we opted for A/C cos the heat was unbearable when they turned it off 2 hours into the 15 hour journey. Though we made it albeit with virtually no sleep and then got a bus to Mysore where I'm writing from. It's Sunday so not much happening and crashed into bed for a few hours before wandering. Food is definitely getting spicier as we go south though still able to handle it, Shashi you'd be proud!! Also revising our finances, we reckon we're being a bit too posh so we're cutting expenses (though still only spending $26 dollars each a day, about £12...). Still getting on well with Derek, glad we're travelling together, though still looking forward to seeing Is in a couple of months and the parents in Oz, if we make it :-)

Hairy madness!!!

2007-02-13T23:02:00.000-08:00

As you can see, though thankfully the photo doesn't show the extent of the ginger!, that I've let myself go a bit. And I'm getting a bit tired of it, so just for fun and to see if anyone actually reads this blog I'm putting to the public vote what I should do with this hairy face, the most popular suggestion (be it from village people moustache to emmerdale chops) will be posted on the blog sometime next week. Be kind....

I'm in heaven

2007-02-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

As soon as we got off the train we knew that something was different... It was quiet, and clean (relatively!) and organised (people obeying road signs and lights, people not playing chicken while overtaking somebody else already overtaking someone). Gone were the dayglo saris, people were clean (kind of) and cats were roaming freely (dog eat cat eat rat). A much calmer atmosphere.
Our hotel manager, we arrived in at 11:30pm, was possibly stoned, but he was the same in the morning so probably just weird. People are definitely more used to tourists down here. There is a big portugese influence in the area due to Portugese colonies in the 15th century and you can see lots more churches and crosses around. Apart from that it's just got a very western feel to the place. Not the real India we love but it's nice to get a break, a holiday from our holiday.
So here we are, in Palolem Beach, otherwise known as heaven. Picture perfect beach, sun, soft sand, incredible sunsets, warm sea, coconut palms, cheap beer, amazing fish dishes. Staying in a beach hut 30 feet from the sea, waves crashing, hot but not unbearable and nothing to do but nothing. The place is so chilled out and is a little bit hippyish, I did yoga this morning (I'm about as bendy as rock!). We absolutely love it, so we're going to stay a few days, get in touch with our inner selves and drink more cheap beer. Man this travelling lark is tough!!

Aurangabad

2007-02-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

So onto Aurangabad, a small piece of crap town east of Mumbai (8hrs east, everything is a 7 or 8 hour journey away, minimum). It's just a base for the Ajanta and Ellora caves which we visited and they're awesome!!! Massive temples and residences carved out of the bare rockfaces, that took hundreds of years to complete, incredible!! (not natural caves!). Also saw a hilltop fort that was carved into the hill with a moat encircling the entire hill dug out of the rock (I'm talking 100 feet by 40 feet dug out of solid rock, the whole way around a hill 300 feet high by 1/2 a mile diameter....). Met some other travellers from France, Holland, Israel and Canada who were very nice, good to hear about other peoples experiences too. India is so random sometimes which is partly why I love it so much, in the centre of Aurangabad we spotted a bronze 10 foot high brontosaurus carving??? When we were in the train station two guys (with practicaly no english) started chatting to me, which drew a crowd of onlookers numbering about 10, the same thing happened to Derek and the next thing we're having our photos taken in the middle of a crowd of around 25 strangers with our arms around various people, surreal!!! And once when we were coming home after spending the last few rupees in our pockets some guy asked us if we wanted to see his shop, so we said sorry we hadn't any money on us, to which he replied in a very concerned manner "do you need to borrow some???"
That's India, it's great! :-)

Mumbai moments

2007-02-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

Arrived Mumbai last Friday or Saturday, the days have lost all meaning, now we only know day and night. Mumbai is a fantastic city to walk around, though this may also be due to it's western feel, stayed in the Fort Area (though didn't see any fort) and it's more or less a business district, lots of suits and skirts. Saw our first cat in India, think the hungry stray dogs see to the lack of cats. We were actually sorry to leave but had booked onward travel, such is life. Definitely much more expensive. Expensive is if dinner costs more than 300 rupees, about £4 for both of us, with drinks. There are also very few beggars or hawkers, though one guy selling dodgy DVDs did catch our attention, "dvd, english, hindy, sexy movies? Eh? gigidy gigidy!!" always had us in stiches :-) Not much else to mention though I did get the worst headache I literally have ever had after a 2 1/2 hour jaunt through the markets in the midday sun, felt like I was dying. Note to self, in future avoid sunstroke!! Spent the rest of the day in bed in agony and nearly puking with the pain. Did get to watch Men in Black 2 in the hotel later though so all's well that ends well.

Excuses

2007-02-13T22:41:00.000-08:00

I always wondered why people didn't email more when travelling, sure they're doing nothing all day long, now I know!!! Finding time between all the rushing to type, finding an internet cafe with working internet and keyboards, powercuts, and long distance train/bus journeys, that's why... So now I get a chance to update, ironically in the western world that is Goa.

Mumbai

2007-02-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Mumbai on Monday?Tuesday? morning, what day is it? after about 40 hours travelling, did manage a couple of hours sleep on the 3AC sleeper train though. Dropped our bags cos it was only after daybreak and went for a wander. Didn't look at a map or our guidebook and after 30 mins ramble ended up in a cafe curiously also with a few other non-Indian customers?? According to Lonely Planet, tourist central!!! Argghhh!! And bloody expensive, still, too tired to argue and glad for a couple of boiled eggs (with grey interior, still alive 2 days later) and some fruit salad (also with stomach contents intact 2 day later). After 3 weeks travel have come to grim realisation that an increase in fruit intake needed... Will spare the details!!! Though it is a good idea apart from the health point of view cos it's only about a third of the cost of our normal spicy breakfast and also, less spicy! Wash and peel items only for obvious reasons. The babanas are tiny, 3-4 inces long, v funny looking. 2 days later, thank God for fruit :-)
Currenly have a really crap keyboard in a roasting cafe so will write more when I can and will update again prob mon or tues when we reach Goa, Palolem beach, you know the one you see on postcards :-) How is everyone?? My emailing is on a list basis so bottom of the list gets first email and so on so am very slow with contacting everyone, also if you haven't emailed recently your prob not on list so send me news people!!!!!!!!! Ciao for now. Col, also will try upload a couple of photos soon, promise.

Night train.

2007-02-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

Back on the road again. I have noticed my blogs tend to be quite long but it's just impossible to write about what's happening here in just a few lines and I've had the benefit of technology to allow me to give everyone a flavour for what this country is actually like. Would love to get some feedback on what people think, problems, suggestions etc cos I am but one man in the middle of nowhere with very little contact with the real world back home (international news in India consists of Condolesa Rice's favourite for the Superbowl and Shilpa Shetty meeting the queen and Tony....)

Went to our first Bollywood film on Saturday, Saalam-e-Ishq (kind of an Indian version of Love Actually) and it was brilliant!!! The opening song and dance scene was cheesetastic and although in Hindi we could follow the story more or less. Oh my God but those Bollywood chicks are H.O.T. hot!!!!! [not as hot as you Is :-)]. We also happened to get Gold tickets (£3 each), huge soft armchairs, ac, our own loo, the luxury!!! Also had the Indian equivalent of a Starbucks (got a v spicy wrap which set me off hiccuping with every bite, which would be stopped only by a sip of my iced coffee... And! Had Baskin Robbins icecream, hey, everyone deserves a break sometime! Would recommend it to anyone, Bollywood all the way!

Had a brilliant time with Shashi, Umesh, Tejas and Jahnavi. If you're reading, thank you all so much for the stay, made us feel so welcome and all the travel help was fantastic. We were both really sad to leave them cos they'd become almost a surrogate family for the week, so the journey to the train station was fairly subdued. Back to reality.

The Indian train network may be the most extensive in thee world but the service is f#*king sh*#!!!! Left the house at 4:30pm, got a connecting train then finally got on the Mumbai train (4hrs late) next morning at 9am... Though to be honest for a 1125km journey taking almost 24 hours, and at about £12 each, I can't really complain! Taking a 3AC sleeper, which means AC (actually just temp controlled with no open windows, which is just fine), the carriage, all open, divided into 6 bed (3 stacked parallel to 3, perpendicular to window) accross from 2 stacked parallel to opposite window (which we've got). Get given pillow, sheets and blanket. Stow bags under the seats. People are very curious of us and as I write a guy is reading this over my shoulder :-) Use our small bags with tech gear as pillows while we sleep. A bit noisy and bumpy but after a night in a train station again with resident mouse (v cute) and crazy jam jar glasses, can't sit still for 2 secs trying to get everyone to move to the scumhole waiting room, door attendant lady this is heaven! :-)

Platform 4 (Excerpt from journal)

2007-02-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

Slept late today, oh the luxury!! Hot shower, so often taken for granted. And breakfast, left by Shashi (a saint!), though not sure which is breakfast and which is lunch from what’s there… Blogging and emailing, having a computer in Shashi’s is a godsend, will miss it, so much taken for granted at home!!

As I write a cow is walking past me, it’s 11:30pm in Kanpur Central Train Station, platform 4. Got pissed off with Derek cos he leaves me in charge of everything all the time, so he went and found out about our train (due 3 ½ hours late… so will arrive 2:30am) and we have a joke and a laugh and we’re friends again. Didn’t even have to yellow card him (a present to each of us from Fr. Lorcan, a teeny notebook that we use to write our annoyances to each other if we can’t sort it out verbally, still unused, though Der did give me one that called me a “big stoopid head”).
Pushing on towards 12am now and the station is very busy, people everywhere, cramming onto trains, snack guys with their carts of oil filled woks and chillis and veg and deep fried snacks roll them up and down the 50 ft ramp in front of me following the platform announcements on the tannoy (either 5 guys pushing it up, or 5 guys hanging on to the back of it as it careers down the ramp!!), constant tannoy calls same the world over totally incomprehensible!, busy, busy, busy, dirt and rubbish, the smell of pollution and diesel, my mossie spray, brightly coloured saris, people smiling and waving at us, or staring, the red shirted platform attendants with bags stacked on their heads and more underarm both sides, rats on the tracks and running around, rubbish and dirt, power cuts, the tannoy every minute first in Hindi then English (occasionally very loud in some unknown language), wooly hats and scarves, beggars and deformities, limps, masses of people sitting and sleeping and watching, stares, pollution haze even in the dark, bikes, unshaven and dirty, spitting big gobs of paan stained saliva, stares and always noisy, busy, busy, busy….

It’s 4am, still waiting, decided to move into the slightly warmer “upper class” waiting room. Derek sleeps (until he sees them). A tiny mouse, and a much larger mouse/rat? The mouse zips around the floor, as Derek watches like a hawk (I laugh, think to myself-thank God their not cockroaches! Brave face.). Drink tea from mud cups, hope the stomach doesn’t mind… 5am, train approaching? So move to platform, 6am chat to a guy waiting for same train, it’s getting brighter, can see the track rats better now, don’t tell Derek about the rat that just walked a ft behind him to get into the drain.. 8am, decision time, think for a 1 ½ day trip that’s just lost a day, maybe call it a day! 8:30am almost 12 hours since we left the house to get here, ring back and ask if we can come back to the house. Haven’t slept, woozy, eat biscuits. Try to get a refund as just informed the train is cancelled, can get the 5pm one if we want, we decline. Walk out the front of the station (which by the way is like a massive multi-turreted temple, very impressive, missed that on arrival!) and bombarded by taxi drivers trying to undercut each other. Get a mini minivan with the dodgiest one, drive away from our destination but get there very quick. Tired, dulled explanations, brush teeth, collapse into bed, sleep……….

Some temples and an inviting restaurant...

2007-02-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

Proof that thongs were invented long before fat people made them known

2007-02-01T01:59:00.000-08:00

Kanpur

2007-02-01T00:38:00.000-08:00

Hey, been a while since last blog. Arrived in Kanpur on Friday. I worked with Shashi in ADP (thank God i don't still work there) dental practice Cambridge. They were over cos her husband is an expert in computer voice recognition technology and was doing research in Cambridge University. Shashi has the nicest family I've ever met and they've been so helpful since we got here and just can't do enough for us!! The two kids Tejas (10) and Jahnavi (6) are full of beans and really keep us busy :-) Shashi is a dentist here on the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) campus and she also lectures at a local dental hospital. The campus is amazing, it's like an oasis from the real world, she says it's not the real India. It's clean and quiet and not too busy, has it's own shopping complex and post office and bank, all very relaxed, a nice break from the frenetic activity outside.
We thought we were just going to visit for a night or two but they've made their house a base for us and we've been doing day and overnight trips from here leaving all our gear in their spare room!!! Went on a day trip to Lucknow, home of what is claimed to be the First War of Independence against the British and saw a few more temples and towers.
On Sunday Derek nearly had heart failure when we tried to book our trains down south! Some trains are booked up to two months in advance over here and we had to do some unreal planning to get from here to Goa to keep to schedule (booked Sri Lanka flights independently so not as easy to change). So for about $150 (total for both of us) we've booked 6 different trains which includes AC, overnight and sleeper trains taking in Varanasi, Mumbai, Aurangabad and Goa.... Roughly 3200km. An experience before we've even stepped on the train!!
Went to Khajuraho on Monday, a 7 hour drive, which left us shaking for about an hour after the journey, just imaging 90% foot deep pothole and 10% rough boulder infill... you have to close your eyes to stop from getting a headache. Things I saw on the journey:
- man nearly fall off bike when he saw us and did a doubletake.
- people breaking stones, I mean chipping large boulders down to satsuma size pieces!
- a village where granite is prepped, 3km sq covered in white dust, looked like desert Alps.
- lots of kids with tyres and sticks.
- lots of overturned lorries (overloaded) and lorries with punctures/broken axles (overloaded).
- a little girl catching cowdung in a bucket as it arrived in this world. The dung is rolled into thick 8" pancakes and used for fires for cooking. It's stacked everywhere on roadsides like turf.
- people carrying a goat between them on the back of a motorbike.
- lots of 'piss corners', as we've named them. If you want a pee, just stop and unzip!
Khajuraho is very touristy, all the restaurants have western food on the menu, we didn't indulge though did get some cookies in a german bakery :-)
Went and saw the towns main attraction, some amazing temples with some very saucy carvings, for the benefit of our younger viewers i'll only put up the milder photos! Half the town tried to sell us these little brass carvings of this guy doing something very naughty to some chick, we declined. We also ended up having chai with some dodgy kids and a nice guy with a jewelery shop selling among other things a chainmail underwear set for girls, the town is sex mad! It's also bloody scorching, think both of us got a bit of sunstroke, lesson learned, stupid looking fisherman hats will be on from now on.
It was a turning point for Derek I think, don't think he was enjoying it as much as he could cos of the hassling and everything. It's difficult to open up cos the only people you generally come into contact with are the people who want something from you. And when you're constantly talking to people who are only friendly cos they want to make money from you it can be difficult and i think it was getting to Der. But you just have to alter your perspective as it's not malicious (mostly) and people are just trying to make a living, just have to go with the flow and expect it and realise you don't owe anything to anyone and you don't have to hand out money to everyone who wants it and to just try to have fun. And i think we are a bit more settled now, but it takes quite an adjustment!!
Off to Varanasi tonight on our first overnight train, leaves at 11:30.... Oh God! So while you're all wrapped up in bed imagine me trying to sleep on a train wrapped around my bag in case anyone tries to rob it, waiting for my alarm clock to go off, which I'm surprisingly of late always awake before... Though still, beats working for a living!

And now the photos you've been waiting for (and they don't do it justice either!)

2007-02-01T00:16:00.000-08:00

Taj Mahal and onwards.

2007-01-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

Can't remember what my last entry was... Finished our driver tour, went to Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary on Wednesday (sounds dy as dust) it was and it was brill, hired bikes and had a relaxing cycle around the park, originally set up more to provide shooting opportunities for the Maharaja (shot about 4000 duck one day) then converted to protect them. Drove to Agra and saw sunrise at the Taj Mahal, incredible (and at 630 in the morning not too busy thankfully) Photos are cool but still don't do it justice.
Just after leaving Dehli, on a train to Kanpur where we're meeting Shashi (dentist and now lecturer who I worked with in Cambridge). Train journey is actually first place we've chatted with Indian people who do office jobs and the like. Everyone so friendly here, sometimes you tend to be a bit too suspicious with people cos you're waiting for the pitch but it's really more the touristy areas. Wrong to give the impression that everyone's like that, this is a big country rapidly modernising with lots of bit business and foreign investment which means offices and stuff just like everywhere else.. It's kind of like an industrial revolution here, and the associated pollution is incredible, if you want to do something for the environment, lobby for compulsory emmissions monitoring in Indian industry, cheap sale of modern auto technology (lots of US, German and Japanese cars here, though apparently it's their old engineering stock from the 80's, I may be wrong on this), and cheaper education which most people can't afford. When I achieve my goal of world dictator....
Just had a lovely train breatfast and tea, the jam tasted like Calpol, yummy!! Anyway that's all for now. Later.
Taj photos to follow btw cos only uploading last weeks photos now, this tech stuff is a work in progress and it’s dependent on my lack of knowledge combined with the lack of facilities J

Sunset in Pushkar, it actually looked better than this!! My kingdom for a decent camera and some photography lessons....

2007-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Backstreet in Jodhpur (Blue city)

2007-01-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

If you could breath in the pollution you'd see the irony :-)

2007-01-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

Shrine to Marahajas widows (read below)

2007-01-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

The widows, a hand for each, threw themselves onto the Maharaja Man Singh's funeral pyre as a mark of respect and devotion!

Blue city of Jaipur

2007-01-27T07:31:00.000-08:00

The colour is associated with the houses of brahmins (like priests) though everyone else joined in too, it's also meant to ward off insects... Well, I didn't see any here anyway!

The best travelling partner you could ask for.

2007-01-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

Notice the guy shuffling and leaning into the picture, 2 secs later he asked for a tip...

2007-01-27T07:27:00.000-08:00

Man! You can barely tell us from the natives!

2007-01-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Maharajas did everything with style!

2007-01-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

2007-01-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

Indian dress (kurti) to "blend in"...

2007-01-27T07:17:00.000-08:00

Pushkar Hassle

2007-01-22T01:58:00.000-08:00

Decided to give Udaipur a miss cos of all the travel involved and head straight to Pushkar (push-flower, kar-hand, flower dropped to the ground from Brahman and water spilled out forming the lake...) The lake incidently was where we were very aggressively scammed AGAIN today. Went to our hotel, and agreed to a camel ride (ddin't pay money) which deposited us close to the lake where, as the tour was organised by our hotel, we assumed it to be kosher. Went through a very elaborate good luck ritual with a supposed brahmin who then really aggressively pushed for a "donation", as I really only had very little money on me I offered a small amount (though still large enough not to offend) but this was not enough and another person arrived who offered to drive me to hotel to get more... At this stage, Derek, who had been getting the same thing separately though he actually had no money, and me decided to make our exit!!! We ditched the camels and walked home to the surprise of the staff and our driver. But the lake guy followed us and demanded money, everyone got involved and as it was an obvious scam and seeing noone was prepared to take a stand possibly due to the religious complication I gave him a tiny amount and he was promptly kicked out with threats flying on all sides. Offer of call to police was declined as at this stage we were royally pissed off and in no mood for more hassle. Sometimes this country is just too much....
On the plus side we met some people in the hotel (albeit over 50 and very nice) who we could talk to which really helped cos think we needed an outside outlet. Only a week down but already looking forward to a few days on a beach in Goa...
This travelling is amazing, but exhausting dealing with all the hassle and scams, would give my kingdom for an honest person, I understand it but nothing is what it pretends to be here, an alterior motive to everything. Supposed to be less so down south so we'll have to see. Not fading yet but would like if things were a little easier :-) We're staying here for another day.... so will we meet the dodgy priest again, will the camel driver find us, will we escape the clutches of the ScamMan, tune in tomorrow for another episode. Cos now its friggin freezing and I'm going to bed. Ciao.

Jaipur

2007-01-20T06:55:00.001-08:00

Wow!!! Today was a good day. It needed to happen or we'd have gone crazy.. Got down and dirty with the locals and my view of the place has really changed. All started last night reading the Lonely Planet and read stats of 34.7% of Indian population living on less than US$1 per day, and we've been getting a bit pissed off with the constant hassling from everyone... Kind of obvious really but everyone just trying to survive here and not much point getting annoyed at people (I really do mean everyone) hassling you for money, Rupee!!! Sir, Rupee!! It's constant. Even if you've paid someone for something they're asking for more and get pissed off if they don't get it, even though you know and they know they're trying to rip you off. So we've stopped caring about it and have come to expect it which makes it all easier, though still occasionally annoying.
We both bought Indian style long shirts in Dehli and it's the best thing we did (even though we were screwed) cos it's really going down well with the locals. Getting lots of smiles and strange bemused looks at our garb cos we look like a right pair of eejits, bit of an ice breaker of sorts. People are very friendly even if it's always with an alterior motive (see above), we've been invited to all sorts of dodgy spots (very safe really mam!) for chai or a chat. Eventually you end up in their shop or their brothers shop or their friends shop where the sales pich comes, you just expect it of everyone so it's not a surprise anymore. Were on our way home when we were brought down an alley up a stairs and got the most amazing views of Jaipur and eventually a sales pitch in two associated shops :-)
We saw a few amazing forts and palaces today including a really cool observatory but the highlight was finally leaving the relative safety of the tourist sites to dive into the crazy busy shopping streess and mrkets. There is no way to describe the sights and sounds and smells that would do it any justice. The pots and pans shops, the spice and grain and rice and pasta shops, the flaming giant 3ft wide woks surrounded with piles of dodgy looking snacks, some guy even gave us a taste of some foul tasting sugary snack God bless him! Walking around you feel like you've got two big stinging spicy cotton wool balls up our nostrils, and you may as well have when you see the enormous sacks full of chillis and God knows what else! It's absolutely brilliant. People constantly trying to drag you into shops, Hello Sir, Hi how you where do you come from, I have a shop. It's great!Came home a lot happier today, don't think I'll get much sleep though cos there's a wedding next door and the music is mental, the streets outside are jammed with cars and bikes, and thank God I bought those ear plugs!!! :-)

The trip to Jaipur

2007-01-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Early start today, 8am departure after a brilliant nights sleep, don't think a bomb blast would have woken me! Yesterdays lesson was to cut down on spending, good lesson for the first day, made after booking a very expensive driver tour of Rajastan 30 mins previously. Have to say it's been well worth it so far. Our driver Negi, 35 (looks a bit older), married with 2 daughers and a son (all actually living in his home town near the Himalayas while he works away in Dehli) is very nice and an incredible driver.
I'm sure I mentioned the driving before but it's worth an extra mention because it borders on the paranormal how all these cars/motorcycles/bikes/rickshaws/tuk tuks/trailers etc, everyone travelling literally inches from each other, manage not to repeatedly smash into each other. It's just a coordinated mass of chaos that has to be seen not to be believed.
The journey was amazing, the poverty was shocking. We were literally, in 6 hours travelling to Jaipur, not out of sight of either people on the roadside or chimneys billowing smoke. Even in the middle of the countryside the pollution is choking (you should have seen... well, just imagine blowing your nose after a day on the London Underground multiplied by 100).
The poverty is actually appaling, I can't really describe it, just filth everywhere, same with the people. And evey 5-10 kilometers there's about a mile long strip of essentially shanty town, market stalls, cafes (look like you'd get sick just entering them) and truck stops, trucks are everywhere, half of them being put back together propped upon bricks. Everybody is doing something, whether it's sleeping, selling stuff or just sitting in front of a small collection of random autoparts, it's hard to imaging how most of these people survive. One "touchcar" (beggar) as Negi calls them came up to my window (behind driver). Negi said he feels sorry for them, right before sticking his hand out the window and clattering her behind the ear!! It's hard to know what to do because there are so many of them... Do you give them money etc, Negi wasn't too positive about giving money to them as he says it encourages it? I don't know... It sounds so awful when you see it and start thinking where does this fit into my budget.... Fuck!
Anyway it's late, it's also a balls for finding internet and phoning home because of the time difference, so to all those left at home, Dad, Isabel and Mam (alphabetical to avoid conflict, it's you first Is shh) love you all. To everyone else, send me news, running out of things to talk about with Derek [you might get a pressie if you include your address].

Heathrow Terminal 4

2007-01-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Well I'm sitting in Heathrow Terminal 4 and it's been an emotional few days to say the least. Mam and Dad were over this weekend and got to see the sights of Newcastle and had a lovely meal in Blackfriars restaurant, highly recommend it (don't expect to come home with money in your wallet-definitely worth it though). Packed up all the non-essentials ie. everything, and sent them on their way to Ireland. Tears shed but will see each other in July again anyway. So that left packing.....
Oh my God, unless you've done anything like this before you have no idea, all my essentials packed into a 45L rucksack weighing in at just over 12kg. Got lots of gadgets and supposedly useful items.
Thanks Purvi for putting us up last night, got a chance to try out my silk sleeping bag liner and it's brilliant, if your travelling get one, they sound a bit iffy but its like 3 feet wide, v roomy and folds over your pillow with another fold over the top of your quilt, sounds like I've gone mad but they're brilliant! Though I have been told I probably won't need it cos everywhere provides towels, got one of those microfibre travel towels. Think their worth it just for the experience, very strange, like drying with a giant slightly furry plastic rubber sheet, weird but kind of nice feeling. Now you're going to think I definitely have gone mad!! Don't worry, wont take it personally, I am a bit nuts anyway :-) or I wouldn't be doing this!
Well I'm sure it'll kick in when I get there how anazing all this is but at the moment it's all a bit of a blur. Been pretty heartwrenching leaving Isabel and am prone to random bouts of girly tear-shedding, but sounds hopeful that Is will be out for 6 months in August when we're in Australia and New Zealand. Just me and Der for the next 6 months then.. Thank God he doesn't snore, though just bought ear plugs just in case I need a bit of peace and quiet :-)
Dumped my mobile phone (dying from terminal button failure) at the security gate and by the security guys reaction you'd swear I'd just dumped a baby in the bin, the whole security contingent were passing it between them cos nobody wanted to put it in the bin. Kept it all the way so could make last-minute phone calls. Derek had to leave his Sudocream behind (no pun intended) cos of security issues, gutted! Still, it's very nerve wracking going through security, you keep thinking you're after forgetting something really important, like a passport or plane tickets or floss or something and security are going to tell you you can't bring that dangerous chocolate caramel through. Anyway we made it through and here I am, eating my way through a bag of chocolate comfort food caramels and thinking of the Wee Man and will he keep me safe, especially after I accidentally took an envelope out of the post office without paying for it cos I forgot to tell them I was buying it and instead confused them and myself by asking about stamps... Which I did pay for. Just to remind us we're still in the UK the plane has been delayed an hour for email writing and chocolate eating.
Anyway Derek is looking bored so I think I'll finish up, hope you all stay with us on the blogs (Derek is at derekdennison.blogspot.com). Take care all and wish us luck. Colin.

It's colder than it looks!!!

2007-01-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

One week to go..

2007-01-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

Only a week to go now and nearly ready to go, must do a trial pack soon to see if it all fits! Living the life, doing all the little bits and pieces during the day, amateur chef in the evening and couch potato at night. Climbed Raise mountain in the Peak District on Saturday (thanks to Is for waking me up at 8am on a Saturday morning for the privilige...) though was really cool to get up a mountain again.
Anyway would love to get emails from everyone while I'm away, I'm absolutely terrible at keeping in touch with people so it's my new years resolution to improve on that (and will probably be so bored from doing nothing that any contact from home would be gladly received!!). Also would be great if everyone could send me their postal addresses, realised at christmas how few addresses I have for everyone! Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year. Anyway will be in touch v soon.

2007-01-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

Figured it out :-)

Empty sick feeling..

2007-01-02T03:59:00.000-08:00

So here we are planning our trip and I'm as terrified as I am excited, everything ready to go pretty much, back in Newcastle to tidy up a few bits and pieces. Two weeks to go from today...
Thanks to the lads (and girls) for coming down/up on Saturday, was great to see you, hopefully might see some of you on the way around all going well. I'll try putting some photos up.

2006-12-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Weheh,
just finished working in the worst job in the world!!! And I'm free!!! :-) If you look up this blog thanks to the girls in Consett for keeping me sane, hope you all have a better new year, it definitely gets better than working where you are now!!!! Good luck!! ;-)
Can't believe I'm off in 3 weeks time, I'm so not ready... So home for Christmas now (if fog doesn't ground me) , hope a few of you can make it for Sat the 30th in Roscrea, Happy Christmas to those of you I didn't send cards to (everyone). Looking forward to emails and stuff from everyone to keep me in touch with the real world. Will give everyone a ring when I get home. Anyway chat later. Col.

Hello World

2006-12-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

Echo....

Hey bro :-) it has begun, shouldn't speak too soon, plane hasn't left the ground yet...

To anyone reading I've only just set this up, and still working so not much time to write boring crap yet so come back after the hols start, a week for you, a year for me!! Sorry.... :-p