Of New Trips

Epic 8 hour journey from Palolem to Cochin due to one cab ride, two flights and a hotel transfer that took longer than the flight to get to the hotel, we arrived in Cochin, only to be told that we had missed the first day of our tour.  Thanks Intrepid!!!!  Again, having been told the meeting was at 6pm and the activities would start the next day, we were of course disappointed to find out that the meeting was at 1pm and the group had already been out and seen the sights in Cochin and we were leaving first thing the next morning.  Even though one of the girls on the trip said that it was pretty underwhelming, the fact of the matter is that we missed the whole town and it was a place where Tash was particularly keen to see and explore. So we can't tell you anything about Cochin, except that the hotel was nice - however beware the forceful shower if wanting to keep tender bits intact.

What to say about our second trip.  To be honest, both Tash and I were not feeling spectacularly interested in getting to know new people - they had big shoes to fill after our first group and we were not in the social mood.  I think that the word would be "Stand-offish".  But we sat at the back of the bus and kept to ourselves and, over time, grew to like the people on the trip and formed some good friendships  However, I digress too far in the story.

Our first stop was a tea plantation in Munnar, which involved a movie in which Tash and I couldn't stop laughing and an explanation of the tea process, which neither of us understood more than seven words of.  However, there were lots of funny photo opportunities and we had a good time.  It was very picturesque in the mountains with all of the tea plantations and was a radical change from the scenery we had become accustomed to in the North, but was welcomed.  Our stay that night was at a lovely hill top hotel which was at the bottom of the highest mountain in India, which we had a bit of a climb of in the late afternoon and started to forge the foundations of our friendship with a couple of the girls.

The next stop was Periyar where we had a free afternoon, before a spice walk with Abraham, who has featured on the BBC and in many books and sports some seriously bushy ear hair.  The next day we were jammed packed with a walk in the National Park and saw Squirrels and monkeys and birds.  We ran through the jungle at one point to try to catch some elephants that had passed through not long before, but we missed them and only found thier dung.  In the afternoon we had an elephant ride and then only Tash and I went to see a martial arts demonstration - which was bloody great.  There was hand to hand combat, stick fighting, swords and knives and jumping through flaming rings left right and center.  We "oohhed" and "awwed" and were generally impressed by the skill of the fighters and the show in general.   We even were allowed down into the pit (it was set up rather Roman style) to pose with the fighters and were deemed honorary warriors, sealed with a mark on the forehead. Sadly this fun time was marred by the worst meal I have had so far in India.  Yuck - even describing it will make me feel unhappy again, so I won't - just know it was bad!!!!

Next stop - Alleppy for the famous Kerla Backwaters in which I got eaten by mozzies, but loved the feel of the place.  Its kind of like an Indian Venice.  The first night the hotel was fully booked so Tash and I and a couple of others had to sleep on a house boat, which we though was awesome, although others did not.  However, our  showers did not work, so we went without but it was still fun and our boat hosted an Uno night, which was the pulse of the hotel and where we sealed out friendships.  Alleppy can summed by relaxing on a boat cruising through the backwaters enjoying seeing local life in harmony with the river system, which is the life blood of the people.

Next - onto Varkalla, which is a hill top town over looking the sea.  We couldn't go into the temple due to road closure, so we enjoyed a free afternoon doing some last minute shopping (after the LONGEST wait for lunch - almost 2 hours - thankfully the fish curry was to die for!)  and had a girly cocktail night before sinking to the softest beds in the world.  The next day we visited a temple and an Ashram, which was actually nothing like we expected - however was an interesting outing. We also went to a temple where we weren't allowed to take photos, which was a shame cause there was a tree that was totally adorned with little plastic dolls hanging from the branches to signify thanks to the gods for couples who had successfully had a child.  Weird and a little creepy.  We liked Varkalla - it was a pretty little town.

Our last move for the trip was to Kovalam, which we got to after a visit to a palace (in which we were again not allowed to take photos in case we  duplicated paintings for knockoffs. Another temple in which we had to sardine push our way into the front of to see the worshiping going on inside.  It was full of women in lovely sarees and children in their Sunday best - given that it was Sunday.  After we made it to the hotel in Kovalm, we settled in for some relaxing before heading home.  Sadly for me, the sun is also on vacation and it has rained a bit, even though the weather is warm and perfect for swimming, the cloud laden sky has given me no smiles.  Again, we have done some last, last minute shopping and are down to our final rupees which we intend on spending on a lavish lunch before showering and heading to the airport.

Of Beach Babies

Goa RULES!  We had such a great time there, we really didn't want to leave.  To be honest, the days merged into one big blur of excellence - its kind of hard to remember what we did, but we will try our best.

Anjuna markets were fantastic.  After an early start where we got on the local bus network and were the only white people on the crowded little bus, we headed off for the famous Wednesday markets.  It was a long walk from the bus stop to the markets, but when we found them = YAY!!!!  They were huge and a mix of colour and ethnicity and people trying to peddle their wheres, with a background of trance music coming out of various stales.  The first people we spoke to when we got off the bus, said Hi and asked us "Do you want smoke? you want weed?"  We laughed and keep walking.  We got some bargains and some not so bargains, but all in all we were happy with our purchases and gave credit where credit was due - especially to Ganesh, the 12 year old tattooed boy who sweet talked us into his shop.  After getting shopped out, we headed back to Central Goa to get our bags and re-bus it down to South Goa, to Palolem Beach.  Although there was a nasty bus driver who yelled at us "This is not the beach! Get off the bus" simply because we waited for all the locals to get off so tat we could get our 18kg backpacks on our backs without taking anyone out.  He was rather cranky - and not our fault as some local young men wanted photos of us - not surprisingly.

Anywho, we made it to Palolem and after eventually finding our simple guest house (which seemed like we walked half way back out to the main road to find, we headed to the beach to suss it out.  Its a laid back, sleepy beach town and even though it is a little Touristy, there wasn't a tourist vibe there.  Suffice to say we found a lovely lady in a shop who gave us some good deals (more bloody shopping) and a restaurant bar that we ate some of the best Indian we have had to date.  The owners dubbed me "Red Tomato" cause i was getting some sun (thankfully I tan over night) and Tash got constantly teased for moving her towel around all day long moving with the shade of the umbrella.  We meet some lovely people, had a ball relaxing and had a boozy last night there with our new friends, before an early morning for our last breaky on the beach, to get the last rays of sun and  then trek to the airport to get to Cochin.

Goa is amazing.  We loved it.  There are some many beautiful beaches and beach huts and chilled people.  A wonderful break from the craziness of the first few weeks of our trip.  Boo that it had to be over!!!!

of New Loves

Its official - we LOVE Mumbai.  In the two days that we were there, we did no where near as much sightseeing as we did in Delhi and were far less acquainted with the city, but feel like we got so much more out of it.

Arriving late at night, there was just something in the air, it felt different.  Still chaotic driving, but somehow more organised.  It was less dusty and had a nice feel of old British Colonialism.  Everything seemed a little bit more laid back and it felt like the Jungle was taking over the city.  We think that the absence of trees in Delhi really makes a difference.

Tourist wise we did a trip through Dharavi,  one of the slum areas, and saw where the all of the industry takes place and then where people live. What looks to the uninformed eye to be piles of rubbish is in actual fact materials for commercial production waiting to be processed. Interestingly, 55% of Mumbai's population live in slum areas and are Doctors, Lawyers, Policeman and Office Workers.   We then saw the Dhobi Ghat, where all of Mumbai's washing gets done and went to a Mosque out on the ocean.  After a late lunch, we wandered to the old train station, found the post office and unashamedly indulged in cocktails and chocolate cake for dinner!

The next morning we found a random little hamlet of an old Christian homes and shrines n the middle of Mumbai.  It had an element of Portuguese - British Colonialism feel and was very quaint and worth the walk to find.  However we were very sad that the chocolate shop we had planned to visit in the area was closed.  Damn it! I fulfilled my dream jumping onto a moving train.  Its all the rage here.  Noone bothers to wait until the train has fully stopped to get off, they hang out the open doors and they jump on when the train is pulling away.  With much excitment and enthusiasm, I jumped on the moving train, very proud of myself for having undertaken such a feat, however I left Tash behind on the platform.  There were an amusing few moments with me in the train and Tash running along beside it saying I cant make it, I cant get on - her hands were full with her camera and tickets and hat and she had no spare hands to grab the train.  I contemplated pulling her on, but then thought of the mess that could occur, so I yelled that I would wait at the next station.  I jumped off and then everyone who passed me on the train said that Tash would be on the next.  Lo and behold. the next train came and I saw a little head poking out of a carriage down the back waving at me, so I jumped on and we spent the last two minutes of the trip hanging out of the train waving at each other like kids!  It was funny.  Oh did we mention that the train ride cost us 6rupees for a half hour journey   Thats 10 cents.  Screw you QR!

We then did a walking tour of the lower part of Mumbai (after having completed our local experience of the post office and finding a bank to deposit money to secure our Goa hotel - which was confusing, difficult to find and very time consuming, but inducted us into local life in Mumbai) and ended up on the coast of the Arabian Sea at the Gateway to India.  Our fame was little known at the Mosque, however our presence at the Gateway to India the next day when we featured in at least 50 (if not more) photos with men, women and families which seemed to the locals to be more of an interesting momento than a self portrait with the famed gate.  We got handed babies and at one point got separated, where I was getting photos with some lovely dressed women in sarees and Tash was surrounded by half the male population of India.  It was pretty funny.  After we escaped, we saw the Indian High Court in action and then ate a rushed dinner before getting on an overnight bus to Goa.

It should have been a nice trip.  The moon had waned down to a tea cup shape, filled with orange liquid and shone high over our journey. It was a peaceful night and, given the overnight train, we thought that we might have a better time. We thought that we were getting seats to fold back, but we in fact had a bed to share which was nice and cosy and hard as hell.  There were bugs, one of which took a dive into my hair in the middle of the night.  The driver appeared to be playing Grand Turismo, because we almost rolled out of the bed and onto the floor several times throughout the ride.  I almost squashed Tash and several times we were both sandwiched up against the inside of the bus.  It was pretty hair raising. Our verdict - overnight train wins hands down!!! We have also learnt that men cane urinate anyway, anytime.  So can children it seems, as we observed outside the mosque where a little girl stopped her parents so that she could pee on the street, after which they picked her up shook her a bit and kept going.  Women however, have to go in stinky smelly toilets - never on the road or beside a tree.  Blah.

Goa proved to be cute and hot.  After a stroll (cause in this heat, who can go any faster) to familarise ourselves, we jumped on a local bus and headed to Old Goa to see the sights, where we promptly lay in a park under a tree and slept for 2 hours. Again there is a huge Portugese influence in the towns which is really lovely and colourful.  We wandered through a market come show, which was more like side show alley at the EKKA and then into a spectacular old church called Bom Jesus.  There had been a festival last night, and there were still a lot of people about putting flowers and candles and weird parts of plastic dolls under the cross.  We are at a loss to explain that part.

We are currently in Central Goa, about to have dinner and get an early night before hitting public buses and Anjuna Markets tomorrow before our descent into peace and tranquility in South Goa!

of crazy days

WOW!  almost 7 days have passed since our last blog and we have done so much it is hard to remember what we have done.

Exiting Dehli involving a morning train to Jaipur, which far exceeded our expectation of train travel in India.  We got a snack, water, breakfast and our new favorite  Chai Marsala Tea.  Tash even read the newspaper while I caught some ZZZZ's.  Jaipur invited us into its arms in the form of an amazing guest house which is actually a small family owned place, frequented by the Royal Family.  So, we felt rather posh.  Tash went to a palace and an observatory, while I slept off a cold, then we all went to see a Bollywood film, which was 3 hours long, had an intermission and was full of noise and cheers from the crowd at various parts ie: the hero, the girl stripping to swimmers, the couple finally kissing.  Just like an old cinema in days gone by.

The next day we went to the Amber Fort, which is actually an old palace.  The walk up the hill sucked, but it was made better by the amazing palace and beautifully preserved paintings.  The whole fort was surrounded by a massive wall, sort of like the Jaipur "Great Wall".  Tash and I got sucked into some shopping and treated ourselves like the princesses we are.

We got a private bus to Agra, where we got to see one of the ancient wonders of the world - The Taj Mahal.  There was a minor set back at the start of the visit with Tash's camera batteries dying literally the second we walked in (despite them being brand new batteries), we had a great experience   The splendor of the mausoleum was breathtaking and filled with ancient Persian script of poems of mourning, walls inlaid with precious jewels and perfect architecture.  Meanwhile, our fame has continued to spread throughout India and Tash got a little mobbed by women wanting photos with her at the Taj.

After the craziness of Delhi and Jaipur and the Taj, we slipped into country India and spent two days relaxing  in Orcha, a small town in the heart of India where we stayed in massive big tents ah la Lawrence of Arabia style, with slightly less opulence and a shower that didn't work unless you wanted to wet the entire bathroom.  We had a cooking lesson from and dinner with a local lady.  We then braved the river and went river rafting, which was more site seeing on a boat than any rafting.  But it was an amusing experience with one of the guys screaming through a closed mouth when getting splashed in the face with river water.  We also saw another palace and fort and at night, went into a Hindu temple at night for prayer time and got blessed by the head Brahma.  Dinner was at a local style restaurant and it was probably the most amazing food we have had so far.  Pakora, curries, rice and Naan - so good.

We drove the next day to Kajuraho, via a paper making factory, and we saw the famed Kama Sutra Temple and had a good few laughs to ourselves, like silly school girls.  We got some distasteful looks from one of the older more conservative women on our trip, but who cares - we had fun.  We then faced the horrors of a crowded over night train in which we got no food, a scratchy blanket and we were all separated due to booking restrictions on the train.  11pm to 11:45am = nightmare trip and cranky us.  It was followed by an onslaught of the senses when arriving in Varanasi - the oldest living city in the world.  Roads are shared by cows, goats (who appear to wear shirts here), people, push bike, motor bikes, cars, tractors and rickshaws. Its pretty full on and colourful and loud and busy and insane, but not as smelly and horrid as we had expected.

The Ganges has proved to be somewhat of a marvel, with our arrival coinciding with a once a year festival - Diwali - "Festival of the light". We were treated to a boat ride on the Ganges, to see all of the thousands of people descending on the Ghats (stairs) and placing floating lights into the water and making offerings.  There was fireworks, cremations and general chanting and celebrating   This morning, we went back for a sunrise cruise, coupled with our own musician to soothe our ears while we floated along.  It was nice to see the Ganges in the daylight, with people going about their morning business of washing themselves and their clothes post celebration.  We also saw a Buddhist Temple where Buddha gave his first teachings and we  ate some Tibetan food for lunch. Tongiht we brave another Bollywood movie - this which action and one that Tash and I have been dying to see.

I think that we are starting to "feel" India. Its craziness is growing on us and in a way, while it looks insane and totally chaotic, the people are so calm and welcoming its actually a very wondrous experience.  We are back in Delhi tomorrow and then heading off on our own to Mumbai, the heart of Bollywood.

Of new matras - Be Veg, Be Strong

Day 4 saw us catch the metro to Qutub Minar (oh yeah - we are so local now), a 2000 year old monument.  It was pretty good, but it turns that the word of our fame had spread and eclipsed even the fame of the tour.  Whilst wandering around two young men followed us for some time, trying to build up the courage to ask us for a photo.  They eventually did and this prompted the great photo event of the day.  We were standing in the center of the monument, patiently waiting for people to clear so that we could get a good photo, when a young lady came up and asked for a photo with us.  Half an hour, one baby being handed to us, lots of young men, women and children later we were finally free from our public photo commitments, we got the perfect shot and headed to a quiet spot to rest and eat a banana.  this quiet spot, turned into a viewing platform, with us being the focus of hundreds of school kids mooning and taking photos of us.  Weird.  On the way out we shook about 137 kids hands, all squealing with excitement having touched the famous white women.

We then saw Ghandi Museum and did some shopping, ate lunch at a roof top cafe and booked on overnight bus for part of our trip, but none of this was anywhere near as exciting as the photo session.

Day 5 involved a long metro trip to Akshardham Temple - where we learnt all about a swarmi and have adopted his catch phrase "Be Veg, Be Strong".  We then found the best ice cream shop EVER and ate a triple hot fudge sundae which was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!! and then managed to find an old step well, which several people told us didn't exist.  Turns out to be one of the cities serene best kept secrets.  Then home. It wasn't as jam packed as previous days, but fun nonetheless and now we join our tour for the next section of our adventure, even though we missed the group meeting by a good four hours LOL.

So now we've just returned from meeting our tour companions over a delicious dinner. The highlight was the cycle rickshaw ride from hell home, which was bumpy, cold and fraught with danger (especially riding towards oncoming traffic) and which was made worse by the Perth lady telling us two minutes before we hopped on that she had fallen off one today.  We feel very grateful to Korean Jesus for getting us home safely and will be praying to him every day from now on.

Nameste

of Delhi Days, tombs and temples

Wow.  Day 2 and 3 have been jam packed!  The End.


Just Kidding.  The smog has gone to our brains (and our lungs and eyes).  Early morning day 2, saw us brave the streets of old Delhi on pushbikes, which was quite an interesting experience, and getting there at 5:30 in the morning in the pitch black was tricky enough.  The first sight on our ride took us through "meat alley" where whole animal carcasses could be seen piled in the back of cars.  An excellent to stay vegetarian in India.  We saw spice markets where chili in our lungs caused sneezing fits, the biggest hardware market, cows in the street and the main street where the red light district is.  We braved a chai tea from a street vendor - which was great - and then went past the Red Fort and a huge mosque before finishing out cycle tour.

With sore bums and a renewed sense of respect for chaotic driving after risking life and limb crossing major roads on our bikes, we quickly learnt that there is power in numbers when trying to make traffic stop.  Teaming up with Debby the Dutch Girl and Rod from Guatemala, we circled back to the mosque where I got called a "cheat" for trying to sneak my camera in in my bag to avoid paying the ridiculous 300 rupee fee. After getting into the Mosque, Tash soon become the focus of many young men's desire to be photographed with.  We then went to the Fort where again, Tash's celebratory status increased to the point where people often didn't bother to ask if it was ok to photograph her.  She's like my own personal Gweneth Paltrow, but I am pleased to say she hasn't let her new found fame go to her head.  This weird continuance of requests for photos then fanned out to me as well and it seems we are a local interest no matter where we go.

Debby, Tash and I then risked the integrity of our tummies and ate at a local restaurant, which turned out to be great food and no side effects.  We made our way back to have another struggle with the phone guy before heading back to our hotel.  At 4:30pm, I said to Tash - "I'm just goning to close my eyes for a few minutes".  Bring on 8:30pm and both of us begin to stir.  After a minor debate about food, we both cleaned our teeth and promptly went back to sleep.  Thank you EPIC 14 hour sleep!!!!!

Day three involved us trying our hands at the local metro which, after a secutiry check to get on the train, involved us playing sardines in the carriage.  I had to literally pull Tash into the carriage with me and then we hung onto each other in order to stay upright and together in the fully, fully jam packed train.  Thankfully we took the Woman Only carriage because - given Tash's new fame - we would have been mobbed and fondled from here to next week in the carriage with men.  Phew - man handling crisis averted.  Seriously - we think that the whole population of Brisbane was on just our train.  We made it to our destination, had a walk with some street kids who work as part of a NGO set up to assist getting them off the street and then joined again with Debby and Rod for a yummy roof top lunch.  The afternoon consisted of having to walk past probably the worst area in Delhi we have seen so far, where families were living in a park like area, sleeping on the path, cleaning their pans int he gutter and generally causing a smell that was so mixed we can't really describe what it was, except that it turned our stomach.  However, we made it to Humayan's Tomb, India Gate (where more photos were requested, and we seriously engaged in some awesome photo bombing that had us laughing all the way back to our tuk tuk.  Seeing as we are such locals, we caught the metro home(having finally fixed our sim card) and went to our local and sat at our usual table (yes, we are so local we have our own place for dinner - we are Delhi Style"!!) and as we write this blog, we thus endeth our day.

Of Delhi sights and Tuk tuks fights

We have arrived!  The haze of Delhi and all of its sounds and colours and craziness has hit us full force!  Arriving early in the morning was quite nice.  The roads were clear, the sun was bright and molten orange, like someone had thrown a small globe up into the sky and stuck it there.  The taxi driver laughed at us when we put our seatbelt on and made a very confused face when, after laughing at a guy driving and texting, we explained this is illegal in Australia - he appeared horrified, like I had just told him cows aren't sacred.

After finding our hotel and enjoying our very first curry breakfast, we braced ourselves for the streets and headed out to find some essentials for the start of our trip.  What we thought would be an easy purchase of a sim card for our phone, turned into a crazy tuk tuk ride with VJ - who showed us a book of comments from other travelers asserting his trustworthiness, who we were most suspicious of to begin with, however he wooed us with his Indian charms.  VJ's tuk tuk however did not provide such charms.  After the successful purchase of our sim card, VJ's tuk tuk decided that it had enough for the day and died.  VJ ushered us into a carpet shop and 30mins later we emerged, no carpet in hand, only to be told that the Tuk Tuk needed a push.  I took this to mean it needed a push start.  This presumption was clearly set aside when Tash informed me that she could see out the back "window" of the tuk tuk and VJ's mate was pushing us with his foot, using the speed of his own tuk tuk to push us down the road.  Can anyone say road safety?  The tuk tuk didn't like this too much and cracked it, I think that the wheel locked up and tash and I got a rude shock when we nearly face planted into VJ's head when we stopped very suddenly.  Poor VJ and his mate had to tip the tuk tuk and push it to the side of the road, all the time other tuk tuks and cars and buses were just driving around like it was no big deal.  We swapped into another tuk tuk and made it back, where we found a seemingly great little restaurant where the lady speaks excellent english and is happy to explain every item on the menu. We are about to head there now.  I had momos for lunch and am looking forward to what dinner brings - hopefully not an upset tummy.  Tomorrow we brave the roads on a bike tour of the city and then see what we can see.

Love Mards and Tash