mind the gap!

the last photo

2006-12-27T02:09:00.000-08:00

Rio ~ and home

2006-12-27T01:18:00.000-08:00

Five days to discover the delights of Brazil as seen from Rio de Janeiro; a tall order, and one we didn't really attempt to achieve.
Travellers and guides frighten you beforehand with the dangers of the street, violence and poverty, but maybe we are less aware of it, or stupid, but Rio for us felt quite safe when we ventured out.
Gloria was our area, walking distance from the centre, but Rio is spread out over miles, I think one of the most beautiful city landscapes we have seen anywhere, a city rolling through hills and bays, dominated by Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf. Best in the sunshine, it was often drizzly or grey when we were there, and so close up, slightly disappointing: the romance of Copacabana or Ipanema was for me no more than I find in an average concrete shopping centre; mmmmm....
Highlights tho' was to find myself in the creative heartland of Roberto Burle Marx, landscape architect, artist, ceramicist, sculptor etc. A joy for Jackie to discover also. To wander over the lawn at the Museum of Modern Art was as exciting as one can imagine, and I blagged my way to the roof of the Marriott Hotel to picture the sidewalks of Copacabana Beach. For four hours we bussed through the very dodgy northern suburbs to visit his farm and home - a perfect culmination to this year of inspiration searching! By the time I was visiting the Botanical Gardens in the city, two days before we left, I was starting to feel so full of new ideas, plants and thoughts, there was nowhere to put it all!

A great night out was had courtesy of Raul and Natalie, friends of friends, in true Brazilian style: drinks, food, and a head pounding reggae gig. A last weekend staying in luxury at the Hotel Gloria, but, by now, we wanted to go home. Yes, back to Blighty, family and friends!

Santiago

2006-12-24T02:03:00.000-08:00

Postcard from Buenos Aires...

2006-12-24T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wish U were here!

This place is fantastic!

Where men are gentle and women are ladies; a city locked in a beautiful era it cannot afford to leave. A tango culture which is real and vibrant, where everyone enjoys the beat of the street.

The ultimate long weekend where silver service wine and dinner leaves change from a ten pound note, glorious facades peer down at you from every angle of the road, art nouveau and art deco still resplendent, if somewhat dusty...

Ole!, we murmur approvingly to the raw pulsating Flamenco dancers and guitars on a black and white stage; Ole! as we stumble over the heaving paving stones that line San Telmo's curious but glorious past; Ole! as we turn the corners of Cementerio de la Recoleta to view the marble facade of Evita's resting place.

We didn't even get to the football, but Buenos Aires is fun, cheap, civilised, safe and beautiful...

a weekend treat: pop on down when you can!

Chile - Longest land, Longest day...

2006-08-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 25 July is the longest day we have ever enjoyed. Up at 6, for a three hour flight down to Auckland from Fiji. Then 5 hours to hang around Auckland airport, which is quite easy really, especially as we find a free internet stand, it is standing, great for the next bit: 11 hours across the Pacific Ocean to Santiago. We leave Auckland at 5pm, teatime, and arrive at Santiago at 1pm , lunchtime, the same day! Aaaarghh! Brainless, we buy pesos, coffee, avoid the taxis and negotiate the local bus into the city centre...

Cold, grey drizzle accompanies us all the time in Santiago, but we warm to it. The hotels are not cheap, but everything else is. The hotel itself has a beautifully carved wooden staircase, high ceilinged rooms with narrow, tall doors in pairs, and staff who smile at our absolute lack of Spanish. We sleep and wander around Santiago, finding 2 excellent museums - one of pre-Columbian art in south and central America, the other a contemporary gallery sponsored by the Salvador Allende foundation - works that were stashed away for 17 years while Pinochet ruled the roost...

We never quite know what we will eat in Chile, (language), but we get a bean stew with floating sausage at lunchtime, and Jac has this salad at dinner - a pile of cold rice surrounded by heaps of cold chicken, cold ham, and a pile of cold cooked peppers! We learn that Énsalada´ means cold, not salad! Still, we manage to avoid food of the sort we photo´d for the ´Food´section of the blog! and we know we won´t go hungry!

We choose a 7 hour bus journey out of Santiago - north, its warmer! - to La Serena. The road north from Santiago takes us up through hills covered in light snow, cactii and almond trees, and then down to the coast through a rich green agricultural land. The Pacific pounds this rocky coastline and rolling surf greets the beaches. Single-storey houses, some on stilts, tin roofs like NZ, men and women waving white flags by the roadside to attract youto their cakes and drinks.
The land is green and the motorway empty, the bus is full and as comfy as any, and everywhere we go the Andes offer a white, distant backdrop.

La Serena is the second oldest city in Chile, and the locals declare the cleanest! We end up 5 nights here, courtesy of Maria, brother Pancho (a cobbler), and son Andres , who open up their house to backpackers, fuss over us, do our washing up despite protest, and generally point us in the right direction. Here we fight off colds: bright sunny days and cold nights, we peruse the museums, the Japanese gardens (not a bad effort!), stroll the beaches, eat fish soup at the port, and take a days tour inland to the Elqui Valley - learning all about Papaya and all its healing properties, Pisco - and all its properties, the Inca influence, the minerals, and the stars... Chile is mineral rich, and great import is given to the energies held within its mountains. Where we are now, its ´polar opposite´would be the Himalayas, which bit we wonder? People here since ancient times have used this mineral wealth for spiritual and esoteric purposes, now, of course, they`re rolling in it, and as copper prices shoot up the glitzy shopping malls are moving in. I didn`t expect to see the fast food outlets, multiplex cinemas and fashion stores in provincial Chile - but hey! everyone wants to shop! (it seems)

Our next journey will be an 18 hour bus ride up into the Andes, into the desert near Bolivia at San Pedro de Atacama. By 11pm we are rolling out of La Serena - these buses are something else - sleek monsters purring along endless roads, uniformed proud staff who fold every blanket so that the company motif only shows when stacked, and offer you biscuits and pop at mealtime.
At dawn, we awaken to a deep blue sky and miles of empty, barren, brown rock and dust, rolling as low hills into the distance. From now, until nearly 11 am when Antofagasta bursts upon us, I see ONE weed growing, no other form of life. Welcome to north Chile! Nearer to San Pedro our slumbering neighbours start to gasp and reach for the camera - salt flats and multi coloured plains dotted with shelves of rock formations surround us, and a small green oasis sits below us - San Pedro de Atacama, itself at nearly 2500 metres above sea level. (They,ve found marine fossils here!)
A few days are spent here - highlights included a night visit to a private observatory run by a French astronomer, Alain. Enthusiastically and wittily he guides us around the sky; we peer through his collection of telescopes at the moon and stars, and he debunks astrology in about 2 minutes (today, August the 3rd, the sun is actually in CANCER! - due to constellation movements over time!). Anyway, we learn a lot, red stars and blue stars, gaze at Alpha Centauri, have fantastic photos of the moon put on our digital camera; if interested check out
www.spaceobs.com When the Hubble telescope runs out of steam? power? commission? or whatever in 2010, then its replacement is being built in these hills, much more powerful...

Another day we take a tour off to Luna Valley, Death Valley and the salt caves - all self-explanetory geological marvels, and we watch a sunset from the top of a craggy peak that lights hundreds of miles of the Andes in a glowing crimson and scarlet. Quick fact for the gardeners:
average rainfall in San Pedro is 5-10 millimetres, per year!
An irrigation system much like the Andalucian izveccias runs thru the village and I spend two afternoons trying to locate the waters´source and end, to no avail, but a couple of interesting walks round the backs!
Our last night here was stupendous again - a somewhat mediocre afternoon tour ended up on the Chaxa salt lake - at sunset, with flamingos feeding and flying around us and all those technicolour Andean hues as the sun dipped down...
From here we had to go to Calama,1. to get money(not available in San Pedro) and 2. to fly to Santiago,but with a day in between to do the laundry, write some blog up (yaawn), and explore one of Chile´s more ordinary towns (all very downtown), and , visit the worlds biggest (widest and deepest) copper mine at Chuquicamata. We know of at least one little boy who will love the photo of me standing under the tyre of a dump truck with a load capacity of 170 tons, otherwise it was a useful exercise in thinking about man´s interaction with nature, especially after what we had recently been seeing and doing, but then again, I couldn´t be typing this without a bit of copper, could I?

Our flight gave us a day in Santiago to finish. Now approaching Santiago like old hands, we took the funicular to the top of the hill in the city, looking for the botanical gardens, which remained elusive... but what views! the city... the Andes... snow...and a long walk back into the city: eat, bed, Buenos Aires!!!

to be continued...............................xx (photos soon)

What Paradise Really Looks Like!!

2006-08-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Jessie Quits Fiji !! Read all About it!

2006-08-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Spotted at the weekend, clutching a small bag, our photograher caught Jessie Johnson as she tried to escape our attentions on jetsetter island, Tevuwa. Has the booze taken its toll? Is she on drugs? Is it all over in that fiery relationship? Has her diet finally slipped? Is she escaping the cloying pressures of a parental holiday?

Buy next weeks issue for the SORDID TRUTH!!

Fiji this and Fiji that...

2006-08-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Bula!
Guitarists serenade us through the custom hall at Nadi airport, while kindly touts deck us out in necklaces of shells; suitably welcomed, Jac and I have a day ahead of Jess´arrival to sort out our first port of call - Adi´s place on Waya Island - chosen for its simplicity and village location. Warm air greets us and we are back to palm trees and tropical exotics, even though this is winter, Fiji style.

After a nailbiting rendezvous with Jess - her plane is an hour late and we´ve booked us all onto the ´Wasaýa Flyer´ferry to Waya first thing, we head off to the islands. Located between a village and island school, we spend three nights at Adi´s place in a traditional ´bure´, no electricity or creature comforts and we are the only guests here - there is one tiny shop that sells some biscuits and washing powder, and tinned fish (?) - a bit strange when the Pacific is all around you...These three days are a bit odd, everyone tries to be friendly, but we are not used to accommodation with three meals a day - as it all comes on these islands!- visitors here tend to arrive in organised packages, while we prefer our independent style, and its not without a little concern that we get ourselves back on the Flyer - concern from the locals that we have nowhere booked to go!

Still, we then head to Tevawa, and find ourselves at Otto and Fanny´s place where things are instantl more welcoming: a clean, white sand beach, smiling, happy staff, and room for us in their dormitory for ten: fine as long as its just us and its long term inhabitants: bugs and all things that go scratch in the night! Jessie, especially, and us, get some quality holiday here - snorkelling, trips to the Blue Lagoon beach - yes, where they filmed both the movies, sea kayaks, every other day is hot and blue, and evenings with decent food, good company from the other guests, and a locals music night when the guitars and kava come out, and we can ´shake it not break it´to the lilting ballads and songs.

Jessies departure looms on the Saturday. We were intending to ferry with her to the mainland, but due to ferry breakdowns she has to book the expensive seaplane with ´Turtle Airwaýs - used to ferry the rich and famous to Turtle Island, and we catch the ferry after the weekend.We anxiously wait on the beach for the water taxi to take Jess away - but no show! 15 minutes to go now till take-off, taxi late, we spot a white speck in the distance, lo! the plane comes to her! The tiny white seaplane lands in front of us and noses onto the beach, Jess hops in, movie-star style, we , and of course Jessie´s fan club of resort staff, wave her off inot the clouds from the beach!
Phew, we laugh all the way back to our bure!
We stay on for Sunday and Monday, our last night is great - all the local kids from the catholic church , ages 1-15, come to sing at the resort: brilliant, enchanting and funny - all in a line and giving it their all...

Fiji really grew on us, Jess had a great holiday. Again, on the islands people live a very simple life, we hear no news for 10 days, and the rest of the world seems a very far-off place. They run their tourism for themselves, the global brands stay away, everyone benefits, and not a television in sight!

OZ...

2006-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

For us, Oz was 3 months of stopping, not travelling, being with and around Jessie for longer than we´ve done for Years, and enjoying some decent grub and occasional bottle of plonk - see photo!
Also, less blog, so this is a summary: and one of our first feelings was culture shock! - Asia had seduced us with its simplicity, honesty and spirituality, and to be honest, Aus shocked us initially with its commercialism, choice and vanity. But, Australians are great people, who are straightforward, and honest, and do not suffer at all from the snobbishness and class culture of the UK.
We were now reunited with all our imports from Rajasthan, and hoping to make a few bob...and this often dominated the first half of our stay. Of course, we were up against the Aussie culture that also loves anything Australian - ´with love from Australia´is tagged on everything, so our markets were hard work, sometimes frutrating, and dogged with the only wet day of any week always being on a Sunday! Things got better when we finally decided to ship it back home and force it on all our friends and family in the UK! make special price for you all!

We had Jess´old flat for the first two months, bought a motor (Mitsi ´Nimbus´) and sold that for a profit at least, and moved in with Jess at her place for the last month. St Kilda is perhaps THE trendy spot of Melbourne, which probably didn´t help with the afore mentioned culture shock, but it is cool, and we got into the groove. Acland Street, coffee shops, wild cake shops, bars , bistros and trams- and also a turn-up for our books, wait for it - a GYM!!! The South Pacific Health Club became our 2nd home as we pumped and pushed our way to fitness - Jac coming down the scales, while I tried to get it back on after those asian blues...
OZ generally, especially St Kilda, is grabbing at anything alternative, most of it worthwhile, and Jac was able to up her Reiki levels and make good friends in that circle.
So times with Jess were also spent catching up with old friends: we all went to Adelaide for a week or so- and did the complete nature bit there at Kangaroo Island - roos, sealions and seals, echidna and a comprehensive guide to South Australian flora from Phil - top horticulturalist he is. Phil and Julie also came down to Melbourne for my birthday weekend - memorably we walked with the Wallabies on Phillip Island on my Birthday- the first one spent wrapped up in coats and scarves, but still a cloudless day!

It was good to catch up with Ken again, our brother in law, still in Armidale if the Immigration Department will let him, lets hope they at least allow him to make his own decision on what he does in the future. Australia is so far away- its its biggest problem really, brought home with Cob´s untimely and sad death back home in Hampshire. Jac has known him since she was a teenager, he was like an uncle to Jess, Mitch and Joe, and hard decisions had to be taken as to what we should do. As it is, Mitch and Joe did us, and especially themselves, PROUD with their honourable and dignified representation of us at the funeral...

So, the end of June came, but not too sad for Jac and Jess - Jess was joining us in Fiji!, so we were able to leave down under with lighter hearts, enjoy the winter!, and roll on the rest of it!

KiwiLand!

2006-07-03T00:49:00.000-07:00

Foto - Aoraki (Mt Cook)
Flew down to Christchurch, the city in the world farthest from the UK, late last Friday, 30.06.06. Met by Julian, Pete Chaddy's brother, old friend and gardening guru who lives about 40 minutes from the airport with his Kiwi wife Susan, in their typical country house with an acre of ground and 12 Springer Spaniels! (10 of them are puppies born the next day!). So different from St Kilda, NZ is the England we think it used to be, where tea is still served in cups and saucers, you take your gum boots off before going into the local shop, and you argue whether the car that just passed you is a Morris or a Wolesely...
Anyway, a joyous weekend of reunion and puppy birth behind us, we rented a Nissan Sunny (less romantic) and headed off into the sun drenched snow fields. Firstly, over Arthurs Pass: snowy iced lakes, snow deep enough to make you fall over immediately, empty roads, long single-lane bridges, sheep and our only encounter with a Kea, at the top of the pass. We cross to the west coast, to Hokitika, a small , single-storey town with a driftwood strewn beach and a pounding ocean.
The next day we realise that Hoki is a Large Town. We drive down the west coast to the Glaciers - no towns, just settlements of handfuls of people, living amongst thick, wet forest land; we are lucky, a rare cloudless day to enjoy the flax and cordyline, ferns and trees, wide shingled river beds, sheep and deer farms. We arrive at Franz Josef in time to walk to the Glacier in a freezing wind, this is winter and the wind whips right thru´, but worth it - one of the few expanding glaciers in the world.
We watch the Italians beat Germany in bed in the morning, then down to Lake Matheson for THE most amazing walk - views of Aoraki - Mount Cook - reflected in the Lake, we walk round the lake, snapping furiously at the views- all in clean, crisp air surrounded by the snow-capped peaks. Mount Cook will loom over us for a few days, a beautiful mountain and reminder of our dear ´Cob´Cook, passed away just before we came to NZ.
Then its down the west coast, as far as this road goes, lush, verdant hills and flat, fertile plains. The wide rivers dump their trees and stumps on the beaches, coming from mountains which we need to cross before dark. Its cold, dusty and dry, still with cordyline and Phormium everywhere, but increasingly pine and willow as we slowly climb inland towards Wanaka, past Lakes Hakea and Wanaka. Here, we book our morning ski transport, (no snow here?), to Cardrona. The bus winds us up there, and theres plenty of white stuff. We spend an hour or so getting kitted out, I feel really cool in my shades, my ´cat in the hat´hat, and gardening gloves! Yeah, anti-fashion! Booked in for 2 x 2 hour lessons, by the end of the morning we are hovering downhill at 5mph, just about learning how to stop, head thumping from where I fall off the Pelmer lift thing! Best meat pie ever for lunch, then back at it. Jac wacks her head falling off the Pelmer, and I fall off another three times! By the end of the day we have learned how to brake and sometimes turn. And sometimes ski! I still prefer Boltons Bench or Farley Mount on an old bit of tin, although it does wonders for your appetite! Friday we check out of Wanaka, limping and trying to not move our aching necks...
We drive over the Lindis Pass to Omarama - a typical Kiwi town: Four Square supermarket, bar, cafe, souvenir shop (this one specializing in woollen clothing made from a mix of merino wool and possum fur!), public toilets, petrol station. Friendly staff everywhere, so we buy some apples. Now in quite thick snow we stopped to gawp at the fog hugging the plains, then moved on towards Twizel, even thicker here;too early to decide to stay here we head towards Aoraki - Mt Cook. Up past the turquoise Lake Pukaki we get as far as we can - the Hermitage, where in freezing rain we can raise our cup of tea to Cob, then decide to bee-line to the next lake - Tekapo. Because it gets dark so early decisions have to be quick - but this is awesome winter, deep snow everywhere, trees and fences look as though they haven´t defrosted for weeks!Every corner, bend, every light, mountain and valley is stunning. Backpackers Hostel for the night- good because we can cook for ourselves, meet a few people, pick up tips and use a phone:
!CONGRATULATIONS! Emily and Matthew on your baby: Dexter Butch!!
In the morning the snow laden Spruce tree that we spotted last night and were going to foto ourselves with for Xmas cards for all you lot, has had all the snow blown off! so we go, first to the church of the Good Shepherd, overlooking Lake Tekapo, a final farewell to Cob, and check out the monument to all Collie dogs (!) - useful pets in these parts!. We leave Mackenzie country clutching a cone of Pinus caulteri, biggest pine cone ever, and head down to the Peel Forest, - land of the Podocarp, and fight thru the snow-damaged woods to Acland Falls. We end up staying in Methven, in a budget lodge run by the Kiwi coach to the German Ski team, drinking fine wheat beers and eating Bratwursts und sauerkraut! The evening gets even more exciting, as the final of Young Farmer of the Year is on Channel 1 telly tonite, and John, most deserving local lad, storms it! A masterly display of technical knowledge, building a bridge from a load of logs, herding the sheep across his bridge, shovelling a ton of coal, loading a sack of moss, and cooking whitebait on an open fire!
Cheered, its back to the puppies and our friends, and a day in Christchurch before heading to north island on the train.
The train to Picton takes us past seals and rocks, mountains and rolling grassy hills - pure ´hobbitland´. An old Poole cross-channel ferry takes us to Wellington thru the Marlborough Sound, and we check into a nasty backpackers, but escape 10 minutes later. Suddenlt we are in a busy city, loads of people, so we spend the evening in Molly Malone´s, drink wine and Mac´s sassy red beer, and almost singalong to the Gaelic music. The best part of Wellington is Te Papa - the museum which , for us, starts to make the Maori culture more understandable. I cannot tell you now though what its all about, not in less than 10,000 words! We drive to Auckland, straight thru the middle of the island, pleasant but busier than the south. Taupo Lake is eerily beautiful, and we eat an amazing Rajasthani meal here, before seeing the wonderful volcanic geysers and geothermal activity in the area, before heading to Roturea for a Polynesian Spa, to wash off New Zealand in its open-air sulphuric waters...brrrr! bring on summer! - Fiji!

FOOD Glorious FOOD

2006-05-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Food - very important stuff while on the road...we've eaten some of the best and worst in Asia, some of the best has probably been the simplest: we'll always remember the noodle soups in Laos - steaming bowls of noodles, served with raw veg. - maybe a quarter cabbage, a few beans, big handful of fresh mint sprigs, and a few fresh chillis to munch on. Delicious. Eating fresh water chestnuts, bought for pence from street vendors...or lentil balls and roasted chillis as snacks on Sri Lankan trains, or the delight of finding a decent crunchy salad in India. The worst were very few really, usually those meals that crept up on you 24 hours later and left you clutching your sides thinking the end was nigh, but we got over it...here are a few of the foods we saw on offer at various establishments, worth noting but rarely to eat...spelling as written...

Salad Incise - make your throat bleed!
Spaketty Coronary - mmmmm!
Hum burger chicken - humming!
Muslim with food salad or yoghurt coffee - but I couldn't eat a whole one!
Scrumpled eggs - tear that up!
Bones - whose?
Streamed Fish - promising...
Mixed boiled salad with eggs - like me salad piping hot!
Fishache - probably not streamed enough!
Sauce boiled with crocodile - I hope they cook the croc also!
Pork fried Holy Basil - very Roman!
Roasted spiders - yes, black hairy ones!

Cambodia - Singapore, overland...

2006-04-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

The High Road - Sihanoukville to KohKong, 120km of adrenaline!

A minivan took us the 120 miles or so to the Thai border; 30 or so miles from Sihanoukville we turned onto an unmade road - gravel, rock and hard places which we slid and bumped over through constant drizzle, sliding in the mud and down the hills sideways on. Four times we all disembarked to be ferried over rivers on wooden rafts - the bridges do not exist or are only half finished. I sat by the driver in the front, we enjoyed the drive but had to endure 90 miles of moans and groans from the back! So to Koh-Kong, bye-bye Cambodia, hello Thailand!
Immediately, tarmac roads, road signs, cars, lamp-posts, a Shell petrol station full of sweets (haven't noticed them for weeks!), snacks, and we eat a Cornetto...! 13 hours from Sihanoukville we arrive in Bangkok - back in the heart of the first world. 2 nights we take in a disappointingly smart hotel, using the city for necessary phone-calls, internet, a little shopping and a little sightseeing - Jim Thompson's house. Bangkok is useful but too hectic and massive a city for us, not as seedy as we thought it might be, and lost its charm that Jac found 15 years ago. We took one stop through Thailand, near Krabi at Railet, and beautiful it is - towering limestone rocks jut out of the sea, walks thru stalagtites and mites lead you to white sands and turquoise waters, and every need is catered for by laid-back locals who chug supplies into this otherwise inaccessible area on old timber longboats. Unfortunately only a minivan can provide our escape, so another 12 hours with knees to chins down to Songaikolok, a border town in deepest southern Thailand.
The area is poorer, and Muslim, and with its own insurgency at the moment, so plenty of roadblocks to swerve around and bus loads of Thai soldiers to protect us at our 4 minute pit-stops! The whole journey is conducted in absolute silence, until all the other passengers break into laughter when they realise that the 2 westerners at the back haven't made any arrangements for staying here! No probs tho, the driver leaves us at the only hotel in town which charges per night and not by the hour, and whose staff seem genuinely pleased to feed and help a couple of lesser-spotted Euros! Next day, dried mango and sesame snaps providing breakfast and lunch, a motorbike drops us to the border - enter Malaysia!
So hot and sultry, a taxi takes us to Kuala Besut, and a speedboat to the Perhentian Islands. Five cool dudes man this boat, a half hour white-knuckle ride to Kecil, island paradise and grand justification for carting our snorkels all the way from the UK! And its worth it - glorious coral and reef in all its technicolour variety.
Offshore and from boats, we swim with black-tipped reef sharks, turtles 4' wide, barracuda, clown fish, and all of Nemo's friends and family - and learn a lot about coral...We watch jumping fish and even a flying fish which can fly for up to 100 meters, and heading back to shore after our final swim there, we come across a group of ten or so large, bumphead parrotfish, 50 yards from the beach - a lucky find and perfect finish to a few days of heaven!
From Perhentian we trained down to KL, as its known, to stay a couple of nights with one of Jess' old schoolmates. For the first time in nearly five months I opened a fridge door!, we enjoyed her hospitalities, the amazing views from her 17th floor apartment, and the modern swishness of Kuala Lumpar. We were heading back to the first world again!
Then Singapore for one night! Strange place, stepped out of the hotel to see policeman shooting crows out of the trees by the main shopping centres - full on rifles!, spent ages trying to find somewhere that did a gin and tonic, then found an excellent Indian restaurant specialising in Keralan fare - delicious, and spent the next couple of hours with the boss, Joseph, and his friend, Joe, putting the world to rights, talking India, drinking Tiger, talking Asia, drinking Tiger, putting Asia in its place! By chance, a fitting end to our last night here- Asia!
Oz tomorrow - catch up with us again in a while...bye for now!

Cambodia...

2006-04-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

Picture - Ta Phroum (Angkor Wat) Guest House garden, Siem Reap

Two wooden long-boats, a pick-up truck and two MPV's take us 15 miles through forest dirt-trackand across two rivers to the border post, where our driver negotiates a half price deal on the bribe for the border guards, (worth a free lunch!), and drives us another 80 miles or so down un tarmacced roads into Cambodia.
Now a flat, smouldering, baked heathland, slowly being flattened for agriculture, with occasional bamboo huts and few people. No flowers, no decoration, a hard poverty all the way to nearly to Kratie , where after completing 160 km.s in 8 hours we stop.
Kratie is actually a pleasant little town, with a bustling market stocking goods not seen for a week or so - such as fruit! We stay 2 nights, going off on motorbikes the next day to see the freshwater Irawaddy dolphins in the Mekong - the tourist attraction everyone is taken to.
We see enough dolphins, but the ride is just as rewarding: through roadside villages where all of daily life is conducted within 100 metres of the road - cooking, bathing, sleeping, playing, with the paddy or the Mekong stretching out behind.
People in Laos are young, but more so here. The manager of our hotel, Ou Dom, is 21 years old. We give our laundry to girls who can only giggle, and the cafe over the road is run by a boy and girl who the same. Maybe its just our noses or something! But they work hard, keep a clean hotel and cook well. A lot of our generation are dead. Many are maimed. The war killed 20% of Cambodians, mainly killed by Cambodians, but now they are really trying to pick themselves back up, dependent on aid and tourism. I buy a book in Kratie, and read a lot of it on the bus to Siem Reap, by Loung Ung it is a child's story of life under Pol Pot. It makes me cry and I finish it quickly, three days later.

Siem Reap is a bustling city, with a hecticness not seen for a while: tuktuks everywhere, buses and people, motorbikes and potholes, swish hotels and an occasional open sewer. We moved out of our disappointing, Lonely Planet recommended hotel to a friendly, simple, family-run guesthouse, with the family and guests all gathering to chill together from time to time - main feature though was 35 or so adult crocodiles basking in the back garden! Reared for the Chinese market and the kitchen, I spent many an hour in vain trying to re-design the garden!
Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor Wat, definitely one of the Seven Wonders of the world, a monumental area of temples and palaces, some 1000 years old or more, and deserving of 3 hard days of tourism...
Check out 'Angkor Wat', 'Bayon', 'Ta Prohm' on Google...(images).
We see some of the main sites on Day One, with our guide from 7am till 6pm. Angkor Wat itself, enormous with a staggering amount of detail to comprehend, the Bayon with its enormous faces built into its structures, with sculpted figures leading to its walls, and Ta Prohm, a half collapsed temple built of 1/2 ton sandstone blocks, intricately carved, with 40 metre high 'Spung' trees (Tetrameles nudiflora) stretching their roots over the walls: a haunting atmosphere, the setting for movie 'Tomb Raider' - do check out those images and someone tell us which famous album cover it was...
Day Two Jac returns here to paint while I walk and clamber over other temples, and Day 3 we tuk-tuk 35 kms away with a friend, Carla, to Banteay Srei - home of the most amazingly preserved stone carvings of them all.
The sheer size of Angkor Wat is staggering - sometimes you hear of visits to other famous monuments, (pyramids?) , where people actually find them to be a bit smaller than they imagine, but this is the opposite: Vast! Like a massive Jenga of the gods! Construction details dwarf Stonehenge! But also defacement and destruction by all religions and politics over the years - yet somehow this can add to the moods and feelings it all evokes - and what is still there is immaculately preserved in this unpolluted corner of the world. Awesome.

Recovered from Angkor, its down to Phonm Penh. PP is a must-do, sometimes lively, happy and colourful, other times shocking and sad. We stayed in a 50 room travellers guest-house, and did some tourist spots for a couple of days - the Palace, National Museum, but also the horrific, i.e.
the S21 torture camp, scenes which Cambodians are eager to show and face up to. There is so much charity and aidwork here - from large UNICEF projects, sponsored by all the largest countries, to individuals such as Roger who we met over a drink at the Foreign Correspondents Club, an English artist who set up a painting workshop on the beach for local kids, the paintings are sold and money goes direct to their families, keeping the children from becoming full-time beach hustlers...
We'll also remember Phnom Penh, and Cambodia, as a place where girls can and do wear pyjamas all day (fashion item!), roasted spiders are a must-have snack for the bus, baby birds are grilled on the street, and 3 generations of one family can all fit on a Honda 90 moped!
So we left PP and the Mekong River, finally, for a few days at Sihanoukville - Cambodia's Bournemouth. And very pleasant it was too! - a small place, very spread out, but we whizzed about on our Honda 110 step-thru, enjoyed the beaches, bookshops, the English caff where I found pie, chips, beans & gravy, and the open air cinema where we watched Willy Wonka and Brokeback Mountain. (Now that would be a movie!) - oh, and bought lots of childrens paintings, all for a good cause.
Days are now being counted down to Oz and Jessie, so we spent a day investigating flying direct to Malaysia and even going early, but original plans held, so we geared up for the overland haul - round the whole Gulf of Thailand to Singapore...

TeaTime in Sri Lanka!

2006-03-01T03:19:00.000-08:00

Best cuppa's in Asia so far!

Public Transport - Laos

2006-03-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

Jac had just given this little girl the 'broken earring'necklace.
Then we got on truck! Good omen I suppose!

18 of us on this pick-up truck (Cabstar).
Spot the man up front packing a piece, feel safe!

LAOS - PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

2006-02-19T01:22:00.000-08:00

...messing about on the river!

Laos PDR stretches out flat from the Friendship Bridge, with the wide Mekong river separating it from Thailand. The Mekong will now lead us up, down and eventually out of Laos when we'll follow it through Cambodia, then it will fork off to Vietnam and away. This is South -East Asia proper now, and the Mekong is THE water and source of life for millions.

A short taxi from the border to Vientiane, the only capital city we've ever seen with only one hi-rise. Broad avenues, hot fresh air, river maybe one mile wide, cars spotted every now and again...and BeerLao - the best and cheapest in Asia! The French were here and left in the 50's, and left behind a taste for coffee and baguettes, and an occasional glass of wine...
but they also left behind chaos and ultimately revolution, and today Laos is still trying to pick itself up from the unfortunate position of being the most bombed country on the planet. The USA flew more than half a MILLION bombing missions over Laos, and dropped more bombs from aircraft than were dropped on Europe, by either side, during WW2.
The people are amongst the gentlest, kindest, and welcoming (to ALL races) that we could hope to find...

Pleasant couple of days here, wandering the boulevards, visiting the National History museum, studying textile shops and markets, and I got to watch Laos vs. Australia at the football stadium, 0-0 draw, 20 pence to get in, Laos more skillfull, but at one moment had two stretchers on the pitch as they struggled against the Aussie giants! Also visited an eccentric 'Buddha Park', created by a sculptor, scores of mad statues and sculptures on the banks of the Mekong.
Laos is simple, still socialist by name, but opened up to business and tourism, and nice not to be surrounded by Mcdonalds, Coca Cola etc who still do not trade here. Learned to love a good bowl of noodle soup, often served with a sideplate of raw veg: quarter of a cabbage, a few beans and chillis, and a handful of mint sprigs, mmm...
From here a bus up to Vang Vieng, a riverside village popular with backpackers - a playground for them. Here you can go 'tubing' - float down the river for 4 or 5 kilometres, thru the most amazing scenery - steep limestone Karsts and caves rising on either side, scenery straight out of
'Kung-Fu' or Lao-Tsu, whichever your taste, while eager locals try to sell you BeerLao from the end of their bamboos, or join them for illegal distilled spirits (Laolao), or other exotic substances.
On from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, a tortuous bus journey north to a chic and picturesque little town, fully open for tourists, dominated by an ancient temple in the middle, with 34 other temples within 2 miles! We teemed up with an English guy (Simon) and Thai wife (Gan) for a couple of days of discovering the town, and a river trip, up the Mekong to see caves used as a pilgrimage site by locals and dignitaries. We seriously thought about going up to China from here, not far but still 3 days bus to Kunming and totally out of our way really, so had to bite the bullet and go all the way back to Vientiane on the bus - an excruciating day! Route 13 is safe now, but drivers on public transport still carry a gun, some other travellers we met said a guy had an AK47 on board the bus! Worse or better than CCTV? don't really know!

Anyway, back in Vientaine we galvanised some thoughts we'd had on the lovely textiles and furniture we'd been looking at, and have made some contacts for possible future business ideas and researched export possibilities...watch this space.

And then to south Laos, poorer with even less roads, communications etc. An overnight bus took us to Pakse, eventually after letting out a LOT of smoke at midnight and us waiting for a replacement bus till 3am, and then left bustling Pakse market at 11am in a sonthai - a converted pick-up truck, same as my old Nissan Cabstar, with 22 of us on board, and 8 piglets! We headed down to Champasak and piled onto a ramshackle (that word again!) wooden ferry to the village, site of a World Heritage temple area, Wat Pu. We stayed a couple of nights here, courtesy of Mr Vong, the happiest and most Jovial guesthouse owner we've ever met. A poor town now with occasional electricity, large colonial houses set back from the one road, with the remnants of their once proud gardens! Met lots of talkative travellers and realised that in Bangkok we talked to no-one! -out in these parts you all get on. We enjoyed our midday cycle ride to Wat Pu, losing most of our flesh as sweat in the process, and decided to head down to Four Thousand Islands on the Mekong the next day.

Mr Vong told us he could fix us up a boat ride for the 80 km journey so we went down to the river with him and waited, watching the riot of life at this villages 'ferry port'! We also watched the boat sail by, while furiously waving at it, so squeezed into another pickup, back over on the ferry, up to a road junction while we waited for our pickup to Nagasang, watching the local children desperately trying to sell their wares of papaya and raw water chestnut to passing traffic. Our pickup came eventually and hurtled us down to another ferry for the ferry to Dondet, an island, one of 4000, where the Mekong suddenly widens in the far south of Laos.
And Dondet is beautiful. Thick with trees and a smattering of bamboo huts, served only by tiny longboats for ALL their needs, laid back tourism where for 2 dollars you have a hut with bed, balcony and two hammocks! And views to die for!
We chill and read, meet other travellers, and a couple of English guys who have bought 1/3 of the island next door and are hoping to develop a small resort there. He needs a landscape architect, I tell him what I am, so we pile off and have a look, I do a footstep survey and am working on some ideas, but I know he wont be able to pay me yet, and I don't even have a ruler on Dondet, nor does anyone else, never mind a big piece of paper! But good to think design anyway... We team up with them for a river trip up river to an island looked after by monks - a little BBQ area, pineapples planted, beans, chillis, water melons, and spend the afternoon playing with Martins pet monkey and roasting duck! We stop off at the local policemans island for a quick drink on the way back, and this is where I lose my wallet. Damn!
24 hours of confusion follow, finding the islander with a mobile who buys top-up cards for me to phone UK, countless searches and lots of frustration. 15 dollars cash, not bad, my cards, and all my phone numbers!
We feel we should move and there is only one way out now - south! Cambodia beckons down that winding Mekong, our visa will come to an end soon, and all we can say to all you wonderful Lao people is: Kopchai Lalei!!

BANGKOK!

2006-02-10T06:34:00.000-08:00

Wow!
Teeming city of the 21st century...monorails and skytrains, asphyxiating pollution, skyscrapers galore, temples and stupas, orange clad monks with umbrellas, hot noodles off the street, a backpackers Capital City and Centre of Operations.
One Big Shop!...anything available here, if you want what what they,ve got.. although all somewhat now standardized and packaged for the bargain hunting tourist...
The Best Hotel...clean towels and sheets and bedrobes that looked and felt like furry waffles, air conditioning and a swimming pool on the roof, and breakfasts you help yourself to and always regret on day one when you get your money's worth...and CNNad nauseum, and spotless rooms. We loved Buddy Lodge and its $25.00 a night of luxury...
Spent 5 nights here, doing some belated Christmas shopping for the fashion afficianados back home, some sightseeing and enjoying that hotel and city, but its changed so much - Jac was here 15 years ago and could barely recognise it - yes, the beggars are gone and you can't buy live sparrows for dinner off the streets anymore, but its joined a lot of those other big cities in the world, and by the first weekend we had our ticket booked for the night train to the border, visas in hand, for Laos.
LAOS!

Sri Lanka

2006-02-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Aaaaahhhh!
Can we take it home please?

SRI LANKA:

The name just conjures something beautiful and exotic, if not some sort of paradox, buddhism and war, tranquility, Asia and sometime hardship...
To come here from India is also a mixed feeling, gone is the chaat and hecticness, smells and poverty, but welcome a serenity and purity, touched with a raw consumerism hungry for the tourist dollar...
At last the best tea we will ever probably taste away from home, served in beautiful crockery and enormous pots, savoured three times a day!

We were somewhat wary on arrival, having heard about mafia control of tourist shopping etc. on the beaches, but this was really just someone's bad experience and our experiences so far should teach us to keep reaching for the salt!
We trained it straight up to Kandy from Colombo, sat in the 'observation' carriage at the back of the train, as it sped across the lowlands then chugged up the lush, tropical hills to Kandy, about 500metres above sea level, enough to cool slightly from the humid heat in Colombo. The day we arrived was the first day with no rain for the last couple of months, a late and heavy monsoon. (La Nina? I believe). Kandy is a cool place, fronted by a refreshing lake, tall trees and surrounded by hills. Arriving from India you can't help but compare: gone are the smells and rubbish, in arrives Buddhism...with a much more evident colonial past.
Stayed one night at a guidebook hotel, but moved the next day 100 metres away, 1/3 of the price and 1/3 of the rules! Lakshman made us welcome all week in his home: a single parent with teenage daughter, musical brother and a Spaniel called 'Bubble'! - home cooked food Sri Lankan style, and a colourful little garden to relax in.
Kandy - a pleasant place to wonder, to check out some yoga classes we could both do, which we did, take in all the different array of sights, sounds and smells, people and pleasant cups of tea at the 'Old Empire Hotel'.
We joined a yoga class for a couple of mornings, run at a meditation centre by Mahesh, and also there could meet some expats to whose we were invited out for dinner later in the week. Corr - a roast chicken dinner in Sri Lanka, a beautiful house and garden to enjoy it all in, interesting company, just a strange feeling of being served by servants! who do it all! still, life on the other side, and make a point of thanking the servants especially!
The Botanic Gardens was a full day and a set of batteries for the camera. Large, labelled well, set out in good distinct zones, only main difference with Wisley being the gardeners who will find scorpions for you to photograph, at a price..
Elephant Orphanage... ooohh, aahhh! Here's one to make the most hardened crumble into gooiness...and awesome when up to 40 elephants, with young, are led down the street` outside after lunch , to the river where they spend a couple of hours bathing and playing in totally natural surroundings.
Sigiriya - ancient settlement and important Buddhist centre, complete with 1800 year old water gardens still visible and partly restored, if not working! An 1100 step climb, pleasant in 35 degrees of sun, and a view over what looks like most of Sri Lanka when you get to the top!
All these trips on local buses - 3hour rides that cost less than 50p, hurtle you to your destination with amazing faith in the Lord Buddha! Beats the tourist buses anyday, but infuriates the touts pleading with you to go their way!
The main tourist attraction in Kandy is the Temple of the Tooth - said to house a tooth of Buddha wrestled from his funeral pyre. Well, an amazing building, and from within the complex I was actually able to foto the temple, a Hindu temple, a christian church and a mosque in one frame! The building is Sri Lankas pride and a big pilgrimage for many Buddhists, but still sets out to become something which is perhaps not what Buddhism is all about..? Wonderful gilted decoration, fine art, staggering wealth? All very lovely tho'..
Kandy is a picturesque and interesting town, but our fondest memories will probably be with Lakshman on his musical nights. Brother and friends come round, out comes the harmonium, fiddle,tabla drum and arrack, and old songs played and sung by all, in a lilting almost sea shanty music, almost Gaelic I asked - songs and influences handed down from the Portuguese. All sorts of guys here from taxi drivers to Colombo businessman, in fact he brought 10 bottles of arrack the first night!, and a privilege for us to be welcome.

We trained again back to Colombo then down the coast to Galle, the largest town on S.L. southern coastline, and heavily sufferred from Tsunami. Off to Unawattuna where my niece and nephew (hi Ben & Indhu!) learnt to snorkel years ago. A glistening cove of blue sea with low buildings - restuarants & hotels, with a temple and stupa to overlook it all. WE spent a beautiful few days here, glad that we had done a lot of sightseeing first, cos we'd never leave it otherwise! Luckily we had a plane ticket out!
The Tsunami crushed this place. Concrete and brick buildings crumpled, boats were ripped in half, many people went with it. The aid came in, and I would think that a tourist resort such as this probably had first pickings! Much has been rebuilt, and is still being rebuilt, and there are not enough tourists yet, but, probably to be expected, there are a lot of loose ends un-done, a lot of government mishandling and popular disapproval.
i.e. - one bar we used which was a 'shack on the beach' in our guidebook, is now a beautiful new building, concrete, with good architecture and fine new furniture, still with the labels on.
Meanwhile, a wonderful family we met, the Chandrullahs, had their large guesthouse demolished by Tsunami, no aid because their house was within 100 metres of the sea, the police smashed down their attempts to rebuild - twice!, and have depended on donations from old friends and guests to finally start a rebuild. They have a roof of sorts, plaster half way up the walls of one room, a fridge (essential) donated by Project Galle, and a TV (essential to watch SL play cricket) We only met him on our last day and left him some spare rupees to buy some cement.
Big Problem, after Tsunami, government only granted money to buildings 100 metres from the sea. Most of Unawattuna lived within 100m of sea. Who benefitted? Often the large resorts set back from the beach owned by wealthy Europeans. Difficult one, and I've heard just recently that changes have been made to the 100 meter rule.
Yes, millions of moneys from all over the world did reach here. Much reconstruction has gone on. Sri Lankans ARE grateful. Problems are bound to arise, injustices and inequalities...Lets hope they never have it arrive again...and that meanwhile they don't plunge themselves into war anyway...
Nuff of that - Unawattuna = excellent snorkelling 50 metres from shore in perfect waters and all those wonderful technicolour fish. Wonderful fish served on to your plate. Interesting old town of Galle a 5p bus ride away. Yoga served on a daily basis. Heaven really!
We drove up to the airport north of Colombo during the evening, at this time of the day with people still out: eating, drinking, shops half open, bookies still open, car lots, loads of places to buy your Nissan Cabstar, police and roadblocks, it reminded me of Thornton Heath High Street - or Shirley Road! Honest! Slightly scruffy but alive and kicking...thru the heaviest security to get into the airport, then suddenly the return of airconditioned world, CNN, expensive tea and Thai Airlines whisking us away to the monday morning rush-hour,Bangkok!

With Thanks To:

2006-01-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

Our Cool Car in Cool Chettinad!
In chronological order: a few people of note, not our friends or family we intended to meet

Fiona n.z. -on the bus with your flute!
Ali and all your family,
Maggie - pure oz, Jaipur style
Shankar- cool operator of the Shakantullam!
Ravi- the right hand man!
Moon - driver, cooks a mean lamb
Vishna- tuktuk man, outtalk a Londoner on religion
Andy-intrepid traveller,prison officer
Belgians - 5 kids,did shopping big time!
John & Sonu -Hey! we'll sell you some beauts of bedspreads!
Sean- Duvet Covers ,with 'Up the Spurs!'
Aladdin- salesman of the year
Handsome- Could sell a blarney stone to a paddy!
Liaka- Kindest voice in Jaipur!
Killik- The Finest Tel Aviver we could hope to meet!
Dan and Mas - the finest Danes, intrepid souls...
Alan u.k. - malaria and diabetes, he's beating them both!
Quentin - master gardener, overwinters in Goa!
Shane & Louise - Aussie & Canadian. Met @ Jacs birthday in Rajasthan. Then in Goa. 1st comment from Shane:'You don't scrub up bad for an old bird!'
Marcus- reggae buff, Benaulim
Adam and Amy - Got to include those two names, eh Daisy?
John the failed Businessman - talk the pants off anyone, sell them nothing!
Canadian Adam - fulfilled our rosy view of Canadians
Tilo - Energie meister, teutonic madman for sure...
der Oberguru - tribal, ayurverdic, octogenarian health wizard, self.proclaimed
Welmet Bapu - astrologer and druid, sunning it at Palolem
Mrs Kher - Indian business lady,
Lolita & the Day family - Perfect guesthouse and family, Anjuna
Misha - from Moscow, on his first holiday outside.
George & Alison - Ramashwaram together
Amil - made that bus up to Kodaikanal much more interesting
Vicky & Lindsay - sister in Kerala!
Erik, Pauline, Steve, Sonia - Partners in Christmas...
Lakhshman & brother & Thilini - lovely man, daughter and brother, guesthouse in Kandy George Thompson & music garden friends - pure Sri Lankan folk music, in Lakhshman's garden Pip, Holly, Nel - Yoga partners, Kandy
Mahesh - Yoga teacher, Buddhist meditation centre, Kandy
The Chandrullah family - a sad tale from the Tsunami, but such a happy man...
Simon & Valentina - English and Argentinian
Simon & Gan - spent a few happy days in Luang Prahbang
Lori - Graceful Italian, Dondet
Martin & Andy - Laos residents, fun loving business-headed, Buddhist couple, Dondet
Mr Vong - the most cheerful guesthouse owner, ever!
Alison & Ben - such a nice English couple
Steve with Gout - I met him a lot, Jackie never did!
Carla - intrepid Kenyan, shared Angkor Wat experience, and Phnom Penh
Roger - English artist, did paint workshops on the beach
Roger - Roger, Roger - over and out! Malaysian gentleman
Bert - thanx so much for Kuala Lumpur hospitality...
Justin and Fiona - true Victorians and bon viveurs
Annie Slaughter - magical
Caz, Helen and Jess'ies mates
Martin & Tanya - reach for the sky!
Wendy from Brum- our next door neighbour..
Stu and Megan - Big thanx for the stall!
Bill and Maureen in Fiji
Lindsay and Kevin, usually submerged
Karen, Courteney,Justin & Foster- from Yellowstone Park
Rick and Lesley
Mario and Pancho, thanx so much
Sean Donogan
Stewart from Texas

Tom Wolfe - A Man in Full
Bill Bryson - Neither Here nor There
Notes from a small Island
Philip Pullman - Northern Lights
Dan Brown - Angels and Demons
The Da Vinci Code
Mitch Absolom - The Five People you meet in Heaven
Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Mark Billingham - Sleepy Head
Robert Heinlein - Stranger in a strange Land
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Minette Walters - The Shape of Snakes
Loung Ung - First they killed my Father
Gregory Roberts - Shantaram
K Sri Dhammananda - How to Live without Fear and Worry
Marlo Morgan - Mutant Message Down Under
John Grisham - The Last Juror
Alain de Bouton - The Art of Travel
Dervla Murphy - One Foot in Laos
Pamela Stephenson - Billy Connolly
Fred Vargas - Seeking Whom he may devour
C Trehern - The Galapagos Affair
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Gavin Pretor-Pinney - Cloudspotting
Tom Wolfe - I am Charlotte Simmons
Bill Bryson - A short History of nearly Everything

AND THE WINNER IS, BOOK OF THE YEAR:

"SHANTARAM" Gregory Roberts

Absolutely rivetting.Fantastic! Lugged it round as a 900 page hardback! Worth every moment!

Hampi - another wonder of the world!

2006-01-17T04:53:00.000-08:00

Hampi - ancient land of temples - stone chariot, about 600 years old...

On From Goa.....back in to India.....

2006-01-12T06:31:00.000-08:00

Get Out and Push,lads!

Just a few metres behind Palolem beach, India waits, enticing you back in.
During December we made our trip to Hampi and Gokarna, hopefully see separate article, but a couple of days after Christmas we set off on the night bus to Bangalore. Night buses actually have sleeper bunks installed , we had used one for our Hampi trip, and this time found ourselves squashed into the back of the bus, readily prepared with our bed cover, bottle of water and a sleeping pill, bought over the counter just before we got on...to no effect! Maybe being in the back of the bus did not help, but we shook, rattled and rolled our way through the night, even smashing our heads onto the roof above as we accelerated over sleeping policemen, potholes, manholes and anything that got in our way. After a toilet break one hour before we got to Bangalore, we staggerred out 13 hours after leaving Goa into the centre of town, left our luggage at the station, booked tickets out on the SLEEPER train(!) that night to Madurai, and did our day of tourism. Revived with an egg curry,mmmm...., we chose Lalbagh gardens to relax in, 260 acres of relative peace in this cosmopolitan city. The gardens were a bit of a shambles, but I enjoyed the wide selection of mature trees, and we both enjoyed dozing on the lawns, then wandering around and inspecting the glasshouses, designed to emulate the original Crystal Palace! Eagles!
Having to wait till about 9pm for the train, we treated ourselves to a pot of Tea at the Oberoi hotel...250 rupees!...but what a nice place to do it, even enquired about a room,.............
250 DOLLARS! No, took the train.

We needed no sleeping aid that night, slept like babies and awoke about 6 heading in towards Madurai. Madurai is the temple of all temples. The town revolves around the temple, which is bang in the middle. As Caroline & Simon were heading here we actually waited till they arrived before we visited it, as Simon is an excellent temple guide! Our journey left us shattered and seemed to take a couple of days to get over. Madurai is Tamil Nadu, a poor state in India, but a friendly place and teeming with all the 'chaat' of daily Indian life. On our street there were a handful of hotels which catered to western tastes i.e. food served on plates not banana leaves, an occasional beer, but otherwise you go local and enjoy it the best you can. We celebrated New Year here, watching the fireworks and crackers from the hotel roof but we didn't do the hokey-cokey or sing auld Land Syne! As usual!
The temple is awesome, covering several acres of the town centre, and in constant use, pilgrims visiting shrines, bathing, praying, meditating, painting...so alive this religion, and always hundreds of people doing everything everywhere! To try to begin to understand the gods and what they do and who they are would require us to become Hindu for several years!
We're not!
Another daytrip took us down to Chettinadu, home of rich and prosperous traders, bygone, with their beautiful and sumptious houses, courtyards and landings, decoration and artwork, all now heading towards decline, but some preserved and cared for.
From Madurai Jac and I went down to Ramashwaram for a night and a day, the place nearest to Sri Lanka on the map. Another 4 hours on a bus, but this temple could not match Madurai for us, and Ramashwaram is very poor, and very dirty, and we got wet, very wet...oh well, back to Madurai, and a visit to the best museum I've seen in India - a Gandhi museum, told the whole history of the Raj from an Indian point of view, and finished with the blood stained tunic Gandhi was wearing when shot...sobering.

From Madurai we left to a Hill Station- Kodaikanal, 2000 metres high in the southern Indian hills, a promise of cool air and lots of tea! Cool air certainly, in fact it felt freezing, and WET!, and in the end we were glad to run away from this place with our clothes wet, no heat in the hotels! -
and not a decent cuppa anywhere! Until we got to Munnar in Kerala -wow! - now thats what I call a hill station! Rolling hills of tea, hedges of Poinsettia, 2 metres high with brilliant new red growth, and trees, unknown to me, covered in orange blossom! &Unfortunately only one night here since our time was shortening that we had left in India and we still wanted to get to Kochin to see Vicky and Lindsay, but the tea was great! At last!

Kerala has the highest rate of literacy in India, and it shows. I think its more prosperous, its bus drivers more daring, and the communist party is still strong! While Ernakulam is a bustling, modern commercial place, Fort Kochi where we headed is a genteel and cultured environment, with art galleries, traditional Chinese fishing nets operating off the wharves - I helped the fishermen pull their nets, a bit like tug of war, and paid for the pleasure!, cool fish restuarants, bijou shops, and local Keralan dance shows - totally amazing. And you should, but we didnt, cruise the 'backwaters' of Kerala...Still, you can't beat spending time with your sister, which we did, and of course, one last thing, who turned up 5 minutes before we left for the airport and Sri Lanka, but Tubby from St Denys - a regular at the little guesthouse we ended up in, one of them chance meetings you know will always happen when you're 5000 miles from home!

Photos to follow! t.b.c.

Plumb - Line - all India guide to personal and society health...

2006-01-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

Wonders of the World, Water, Happiness!
After several stays in a range of India's guesthouses and hotels, we were forced to think about the plumbing issues which confronted us: these are a few notes, not written to expose the difficulties which these hotel owners face in maintaining their buildings, in any derogatory way, but rather to link what we found to personal issues, and international issues...

.Hotel Ajunta in Delhi was fine: hot water and a bath, and the whole bathroom worked, what was expected for an expensive hotel, approx $25 per night booked from the UK. ($ = Pounds)
.Hotel Siddartha in Agra was wonderfully close to the Taj Mahal, friendly staff, pleasant courtyard garden, $3.25 per night, cold water only, but a drip drip drip, with an open connection to our neighbours room, so we could each listen to our neighbours ablutions!
.Shakantullam Guest House will remain close to our hearts for ever, and we may well return there, and recommend it fully. See accompanying photo of shower...Dodgy sparking switch outside fired up the geyser, sometimes. Sometimes no water at all, ask for more to be pumped to the room. Power cut every day between 8am and 10am, you can set your watch by it! Forget your morning shower! Oh yes, I dismantled and reconnected the showerheads, and advised on how to remove limescale without buying remover (fresh lime and tissue)!
.Mandawa Heritage Hotel, Jac's birthday, treated ourselves to 2 nights @ $25.00 per night! Took the Maharajah Suite! (Best Room). No Water, had to use next doors bathroom and listen to the boys hammering at the plumbing system till the early hours!
.Castellos Beach Huts, in Benaullim, nice refreshing cold shower. By the way, I havent had a warm shower since November @ Shakantullam, but thats not an issue, its usually too warm! Usually... anyway, a cute frog lived in our bathroom, with a voice more grating than Maggie Thatcher!
.Day's Guest House at Anjuna, getting expensive @ $5.00 per night, was a lovely clean place, light and airy with a cool and pleasant garden and a delightful family eager to nurse us through our ailments. Lovely clean bathroom: toilet, showerhead, gully, no sink!?...Repeated shower head cleaning exercise...
.Sea View Beach Huts, 2 showers shared by occupants of 20 huts, myself anf Jac both had nice little electric shocks... good for your elbow joint I say!
.Surya Paradise, Gokarna. Saw the first cleaning agent I have ever seen in India - a bottle of Bleach! And didn't it need it! We cleaned the loo... after that, ok really.
.Palacete Rodriguez, a mighty $10.00 + per night, and we had to ask for permission for hot water to be turned on. Allowed one hour at a time.
.Homestay, Kochi. Share tiny loo/shower with adjoining bedroom. So lock their door when you go in, lock yourself in, unlock their door when you leave, unlock your own door, then lock your door after exit! If two choose to use loo at once will probably break doors, bash foreheads and fall, wrestling, to the floor!
.TM Lodge, Madurai. It works! mmmm...nice cool shower!

So, at the end of the day, this is just a sympton of a society struggling to adapt to the modern world. I would not choose to be the person responsible for ensuring that the Mumbai sewage system can cope with the demand of the 21 century. Water, and the lack of it, may well be the predominant factor that makes people go to war in the coming years...European water is full of chemicals to keep it 'clean', here, most people can drink water that would make me ill...but, this water sometimes kills many when the fragile sewage system cannot cope.
I don't know the answers, but I have realised that the 'chemical cleanliness' of the west is not the answer for people who can teach us many a lesson about 'purity'...and that when I came out to the heat, sometimes dryness, sometimes moisture of India, what should mess up first with me? ... my own plumbing system!!

!!SEASONS GREETINGS!!

2005-12-23T23:08:00.000-08:00

To EVERYONE we know and love, we wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas season, and may all your dreams for 2006 come true!

Charlie and Jackie, Dec 24th, 2005

Goa

2005-12-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Photo: Curlie's Bar, sunset, Anjuna Beach
Sound: Goa Trance!

GOA -

Portuguese enclave, christian, party place, beach and ocean.
Many have an opinion, and something for everyone is here. Our train rolled down from Rajasthan in just under 30 hours, a good journey, many travellers heading for Goa and beyond. We chose a spot called Benaulim in the centre of Goa to head for.
Everyone has an opinion about Goa, and anywhere else for that matter, but with Goa it really showed us that we need to make our own minds up and treat the guide books and other travellers with a pinch of salt.
''Ánjuna has been overrun by Israelis fresh out of the army, techno sound systems and ruined'"
"Norther Goa has no planning laws and it is ruined by modern developments"
"Souther Goa is so busy and expensive you'll pay 1000 rupees for a room"
etc. etc,
All not true.
Benaulim in central Goa is a wonderful beach, backed with a small variety of bars and restaurants. At first we styed behind the beach in tin beach huts, a bit hot and noisy believe it or not by the birds in the early hours - like crows and really loud! Jac's foot which she twisted in Jaipur and possibly caused tendon damage was now really hurting her and walking on the sand especially was a struggle, so we had a couple of quiet days, reading, having a haircut etc, getting the legs waxed, swimming, and afternoon cricket sessions on the beach with the locals.
By Tuesday, when we had wanted to go, Jac was coming down with a nasty cold and cough, so we moved to the owners house in the village a mile or so from the beach, pleasant enough to be ill in, but a bit stuck away from what little action there was. I bided my time and on the Weds went up to Anjuna flea market for the day, and arranged some accommodation for the weekend, only 4 buses and 2 1/2 hours away.
Anjuna was lovely. A spread out village stretching back from the sea, full of more interesting things to see and do, no high rise development and positively quiet, yoga, tai chi, chillout music, interesting restaurants, market area, bookshops, and where was the rave? I couldn'nt see it...

Friday Jac was feeling a lot better, we headed up to Anjuna, in the hope of fixing a place for Xmas when E and P are here. Our little hotel Çabin Disco'seemed quite cool then, well, blue is cool, altho now I hate blue rooms!
The delightful little Pomfret fish we ate on Weds then made its mark on us, and the 2 days was about to turn into8! t,b,c,

Yes, our December quickly became a month of 'health awareness', as first we were gripped by the revenge of the Pomfret fish, details not required here, which put CH onto his first antibiotics for over 5 years, actually since he ate a rather old cheese & onion pasty off the van dashboard(!), and then left him writhing in agony at 2 in the morning a few days later, while Jac hobbled around trying to look up emergency health services in our guidebook. I survived till morning, got to a doctor, was diagnosed with infected kidney stones, and given a fistfull of pills...it seemed we were going nowhere, but the pills took effect and arm in arm we caught the 4 local buses down to Palolem, where we were hoping to spend Christmas, and spent more time washed out and washed up on the beach!

Palolem is the most photographed beach in India, an idyllic cove fringed with coconut palms and, if you're as eagle eyed as us, inhabited with dolphins, friendly Goans, and small animals that scuffle thru' your beach hut in the middle of the night and eat anything they can get their little claws in!

* RIGHT! Quick Interlude! I have tried for two weeks to update this post and have been thwarted every time, either by power cuts, incompetence or the gods! I have just had a haircut AND quick head massage so lets see if this works! HERE WE GO!* (now Jan 8th!)

So, apart from a week when we went off to Karnataka: Hampi and Gokarna, December belonged to Goa. I had to return to the hospital in Anjuna for tests, and for r&r you can't really beat Goa, very beautiful, but not for those who don't know how to sit still! In Anjuna we met up with friends from UK and Holland, then went down to Palolem for Christmas itself. This year it seems Palolem was one of the few party places for Goa, 4 nights running the sounds would rock one end of the beach or another, all in a very organized way, with baksheesh paid and disturbance restricted to alternate zones!

Christmas was special, for us the main attraction was December itself, and the wonderful lack of shopping and incessant commercialism. India does religious festivals like no other country on earth, yet at least it keeps them to just that, and for the outsider they provide a wonderful spectacle. If we were not with our friends, it would have been harder for missing our family, but we talked to you all, and what a Christmas present to know that you can count to NINE now Daisy!

So Goa treated us well, but we hope it doesn't become another mainstream charter resort which the authorities seem to want it to become. It emerged from an alternative scene which really still provides its uniqueness and charm...and let those that visit its thin strip of beaches not miss the enormity of INDIA that lies just behind!

It all started here!

2005-11-29T06:34:00.000-08:00

Delhi to Jaipur

2005-11-18T03:47:00.000-08:00

Photo: Salute of elephant, wedding parade outside guesthouse

Well now I think I have sorted the technicals, we should be able to up date easier.
Delhi is this absolutely awesome city, crowded with more people than you think possible.We stayed two days, enough to gain confidence and get out and about. Its very polluted also and seems to get darker first in the evening!
We left Delhi on Thursday 12 nov., 6.00 am train to Agra. About 200 kilometers it cost about a tenner first class! Train built about 1940, at least wehad two armed soldiers sitting next to us, altho' their rifles were older than the train! We shunted thru the early morning suburbs and countryside. What service! Bottle of mineral water for everyone. Then tea (chai), creamy spicy sweet Indian tea.Then breakfast - something precooked and brown that we did not eat, but with the bread i was able to have a tomato ketchup sandwich! yum. Then chai. oh and a newspaper each. After all that Agra appeared. We had already chosen our hotel, cheap, near the Taj Mahal and rickshaw took us there and we agreed for himto take us on a tour at 10.00 am. Trees in Agra, wider streets, calmer. At hotel took more chai on the roof, tears in my eyes as the Taj loomed behind us, monkeys scampered over the roof, boys played games with wild birds on the rooftops. Our man arrived and hurtled us thru the streets and thru the now busy Agra again teeming with animals and people. Visited a place called the 'baby Taj', peaceful beautiful Islamic tomb, made in marble on the banks of the river. Then to see the Taj Mahalfrom the other side of the river, free and beautiful. Lunched in a little restaurant. After lunch he took us to a marble workshop. Very interesting but then the inevitable sales pitch, and we left with our tiny box. No More Shopping we told him, I think he was peeved but took us to hotel. Guys like himare on commission fromthe shops and they are all very persuasive! Of course, no obligation kind sir, but this (dress, box, jewellery is so beautiful and we can make so cheap for you!) But, they do get you around, they know the streets, and even having a map of these places would not help you navigate. And the cost is relatively small.

We aimed to 'do' the Taj at sunset, 200 metres from hotel. But wow! 500 rupees and 5 dollars U.S. each!
Only 5 rupees for Indians. Fight off the guides. Join queues - one for men one for women, tight and pushing. Searched on way in and Jac is refused cos she had a phone and our pocket knife on her, has to go and hand them in and then she managed to push in the queue again! Phew! They could have told us! Taj is beautiful enormous and haunting especially in the evening sun, but unfortunately about 10000 too many people, and by the river about 1000000 mossies decide to join us! Not happy, but this is India and I think extremes of emotion all in one day are par for the course. The next day we had tickets booked for the bus to Jaipur, so we ate our curry and tried for an early night. Hotel Siddartha in Agra was 250 rupees a night, about 3.25 pounds, basic but the lights did work and an invigorating cold shower, and friendly staff. We were tho looking forward to leaving Agra, after the Taj there is not too much else, so a bus at 10am to Jaipur.

Epic journey! We had a seat. One other tourist on the bus, girl from N.Z. Packed, then it inched its way out of Agra's tiny streets thru bullocks and carts, markets and whole areas with nothing more than shacks for houses, people living on the road. Weaving its way - here traffic=ANARCHY! But it works! You give way to what is bigger than you, generally keep to the left, and so far we have seen no accidents, no road rage, and no-one flinches when you are heading straight head-on for a petrol tanker. We miss it...! The Horn is one part of the car that must work. Maybe every 10 seconds, at least! Four hours we sit on the bus, practising our meditation skills.
After deciding to treat ourselves to an apple, we stop for a break anyway, and eat pakora and drink more chai!
We roll into Jaipur about 6.30pm, shaken and stirred! A young guy asks how we found the journey and we chat and tell him; of course he was not on the bus and suddenly we find ourselves in his rickshaw. Enter Ali.
We are firm and tell him to take us to the hotel of OUR choice, which he does, while saying how beautiful Jackies new top is, and that he does not meet many old tourists like us, !, and I call you mother and father!, I will be your son...anyway our hotel looks expensive and is full so we go to his choice...a bit warily but tireed from the bus and needing to stop we find ourselves at Hotel Shakantullam, very basic, but it has hot water (when the tank is full and not betweem 8 and 10 am), a lightbulb , and staff find us clean sheets. All for 250 rupees! But it does all work somehow and what makes a place like this is the staff and guests. In the confusion earlier I leave our Lonely Planet India book in Alis rickshaw, but sure enough a couple of hours later he brings it back, and still will not us, mum and dad, pay for his services! So we meet the other guests, including Maggie, an Ozzie in her fifties who lives here, mad as a hatter, sits there drinking beer from 10am every day, all day... and is a guiding help for staff and guests alike. This is also a stopping point for the local rickshaw drivers, and here we meet the nicest guys you could meet - they are honest, sing and dance, share a beer, (they have much whisky under the table) - (not for us) and talk about everything from the meaning of life, God, Krsna, Bush, Brahma, cricket food and beer. Oh, not the weather, since it is now winter and only 30 degrees by day 12 at night, every day! Colder by Jan. Then hot ..50.. then rain one month. Jaipur looks like fun, and is. We arrange to meet Ali the next day, at lunchtime, to check it out.....

Enter India Textiles, stage left...
Having had our now normal breakfast of eggy bread and chai, Ali duly appeared, saying he thought we should meet Aussie John, who runs a textile shop way off in the suburbs. We hurtle off there, about 25 minutes. On this journey at any time we may see on average: 200 wild dogs, 30 wild pigs eating the rubbish in the streets, half a dozen camels usually working, 100 bullocks and assortede cattle, and if your lucky an elephant or two, usually partaking in wedding celebrations. Anyawy, John and Sean, a Londoner , run a factory and shop here, highly recommended by various Indians and westerners, and export to UK and Oz. Jac buys herself a new outfit - a shalwar chemise and scarf. I get a new bag. We look and look, spend the rest of the day there, chat to the staff, have a beer with them on ther roof where we all crowd round the tv to watch the cricket, and generally relax. However, enough Info to do some research via Jess, and decide to run a stall at St Kilda Sunday market next year, hopefully which can earn a few bob on our savings. Next two days is shopping: wonderful bedspreads, cushion covrs, bags, scarves etc. which we will have sent to Oz. Dealing with an Ozzie and a Londoner to do this couldn't be better - there are many rip-offs around here, but we feel safe...By monday night we have many new friends, a lighter bank balance, and we haven't seen the sights of Jaipur yet!

So Tuesday we became tourists again, visiting the Prince Albert museum, a wonderful building of moghal and Raj architecture, housing an exquisite collection of dusty relics of Rajasthani life - pottery, weapons, musical instruments, models of dancers etc. Then onto the 'monkey temple', a collection of shrines built up a hillside, and then down the other side, with pools for immersing oneself in and little shrines occupied by holy men. At one, an impressive shrine dedicated to a aHindu god, the holy man was doing the crossword in his paper(!). I asked to take a foto, and gave him 20 rupees. He bestowed a garland of marigolds on me! We watched the sun set from here over the city, and after Ali took us to his house to meet his folks...

We did not know what to expect... about 6 kilometres out of town, a square single story building, four rooms, clean and square and so simple. The iron gates were the most ornate part, but inside it all worked, and was clean. They are not very poor, probably do ok, but Ali shares a bedroom with his brother Imran. 2 iron bed frames, mattresses covere in blanket. Small TV, one tin wardrobe. That is it. Simple, uncluttered. They have little but want little. Imran goes to college and has studied I.T. 2 sisters are married. Mum and Dad have a bangle business, which I am sure we will return to... Mum sets sheets of newspaper on the floor, then plates of channa massala and aloo curry, mopped up with chapatis! We eat under their careful gaze! They are so pleasant and genuine, we leave feeling genuinely treated as special guests!

Wednesday 16 November is the start of our 3 day trip to Shekawati, a desert area of small villages, but where we have arranged 2 nights in a posh hotel to celebrate.
Ali takes us with Moon, his friend and driver, in a small minivan thing, complete with Hindi sound system! All day we pound the roads again, up into a vast and dusty land puctuated by pearls of colour which often turn out to be people working the trees or pushiong carts. The women look absolutely stunning in their brightly coloured saris, which always seem to be perfectly clean!
The Mandawa Heritage is our hotel, and we opt for the Maharajah Suite, wow!, faded colonial glory at its best, complete with a mezzanine lined with cushions where we can take tea and ponder our world! and a bed you can lose your wife in! and a telly! Om TV - we will never forget it. Of course the water doesnt work so we end up with them opening up the doors to the next room, (adjoining), to use their bathroom, which gives us another room as well! Anyway, we take a fairly relaxed evening and prepare for sightseeing the next day.

Thursday, Jac's Birthday, we visit the 'Havelis' of Mandawa - stately houses with intricate carved architecture, and courtyards which open into further courtyards, and paintings depicting past scenes .
These houses belonged to opium dealers of the past, who traded for silk from China, with the end of that opium trade the families left these houses, some falling into disrepair, but others being kept by caretakers. Some of these were lived in by families now. Mandawa was very pleasant and we steyed in the town, of course Jac ended up in a shoeshop for her birthday and ended up with a nice pair of curly-toes!

The afternoon was spent with Jac starting a drawing of the hotel courtyard, while I tasted the local breweries efforts at real-ale and gave Ali and Moon a hand for the evening celebrations, which now involved a donkey and cart turning up complete with sound system! bass bins, amps and lights. We had dinner, nothing too special, more veg curry, but this time with a bottle of the 'finest' red wine. A thick concoction which had probably once come from grapes! Then up to the roof,where all the guests, about 20 assorted tourists, and all the staff joined us. Ali had also arranged a birthday cake to be made, mmm sweet heavy and sticky with 2 candles(!) and we all sang Happy Birthday to you and then proceeded with the dance- first the bellboy in his trad. headgear dancing trad. Rajasthani style, of course getting us up to dance as the Hindi music became infused with western dance beats, which is quite an inspiring mix!The village of Mandawa was soon rocking to a Hindi techno groove, as ever Jac's birthday got everyone up on their feet!
Friday we eventually headed back to Jaipur, back to our Shakantullam guest house, and had a quiet night in!
During this time Jac had been drawing, and painting , some designs she had for some bracelets, which she was hoping to see if someone could make. Again by recommendation, we went to a place the next day and lo! they had something very similar, so we commisiioned them to make these pieces, 6 in total plus two neck chains. They were essentially semi-precious stones set in silver, and we spent the whole afternoon at this place choosing all the stones and positioning them ready for the silversmith. Jac was in her element...

One slight downside to this was that if we wanted to inspect and collect the pieces ourselves we would now have to wait until Friday, but Jaipur is an interesting enough place to stay, and we still had to supervise the packing of our textiles, which we did over Sunday and Monday, and included going out with John and Sonu, and Sean, from India Textiles for a western style meal on the Sunday night. mmm chicken &chips!

So that left us Tues weds and Thursday in Jaipur, till we caught our train to Goa on Friday. Tuesday and wednesday we filled with some of the touristic things to do. What really caught our imagination was a fellow called Jai Singh, who built the actual 'pink' city of Jaipur, as its ruler about 350 years ago. Finding it a bit hot in summer, he then built the 'Amber Fort', about 15 kilometres away, on the top of a hillside. This was a stunning system of courtyards, gardens and pools which rose up over the hillside, and each part of which was hidden from the next view. Corridors only two foot wide would connect the rooms, each a 'palace' in its own right. Having done this he then decided to build himself a planetary observatory on the edge of the city.
It looks like a sculpture park, but large sculptures, over 20 structures, the tallest 90 metres in the air, which all perform astronomical calculations to this day, and of course, you can tell the time to the minute there! It was sobering to realise that such advanced science was in practice at that time.

And we went to the movies! The 2nd largest cinema in Asia - a palatial grand theatre, and air conditioned , where we saw a Bollywood version of 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest!It was awful! They had used the basic plot, and some scenes almost identically, and put in a few song and dance routines... unusually for Bollywood though, the hero ended up killed (suffocated under the pillow by his friendly doctor), the heroine as a patient at the hospital herself, and the friendly doctor in jail for killing his patient! The audience was shocked and booed and cheered accordingly!

So by Friday we were ready to move on...we had fulfilled one wish certainly which was to stay a bit longer than the average tourist, and that way really soak in the atmosphere, and get to see how a little corner of Indian society worked - staying at Hotel Shakantullam did that, and by then we knew the real people of Chanka and Ravi who ran the place, Ali, Ali, Ali, Rishi, Visha, Liaka, and of course Maggie, their Aussie incumbent...

Roll on Goa, only a 30 hour train journey away!!~