An Asian Adventure

Flores to Bali, Surface Travel (not to be recommended)

2009-06-27T14:45:00.004+01:00

We arrive in Flores' Labuan Bajo at dusk and set off to find somewhere to stay. It's a scruffy but characterful little port town, all fishy smells and bumpy roads, but lots of smiley faces. But a distinct lack of places to stay. We stay at the Hotel Gardena, in a clean bamboo family room, for $20 per night. Exhausted, we eat at their restaurant where the kids get very over excited about spaghetti and rosti (oh the little things). Chewie and Katie are going on a dive trip tomorrow. Apparently some of the best in the world. We ask the dive master if we can join the trip as snorkellers and he says of course, they are great snorkel sites too. Unfortunately, this means a 7am start. We needn't have worried about oversleeping though as the call to prayer starts at 4.30am!

I'm not going to bore you with the whole day trip but suffice to say that this was a really different experience for us. These sites are much further from the coast, just off the north of Komodo. The first drop at Crystal rock, we saw a 2 metre white tip shark that just cruised about for 5 or 10 minutes underneath us. The reef is very deep but lots to see for snorkellers too. The second drop was at Castle Rock. Another deep site and this time the reef was a good 10 metres below. We saw a couple of baby white tips but the cross currents were strong, so after a 20 minute hard swim, we gave up and let the current sweep us back to the boat. After a wonderful lunch, we snorkelled about in the bay. Chewie and I tried to follow a green turtle, much more timid than their hawksbill cousins. Lee borrowed the dive masters depth watch and practised his free diving. We reckon he's down to 18 metres now. Next stop was a strong drift dive between two islands. Really excellent marine life and good coral away from the shore. I saw a huge feather tailed blue spotted sting ray and stunning shoals of bright purple and red fish (I've forgotten the name just now). In the main drift, we swam along side giant trevellis, bigger than Tevo and Roisin, which was amazing.

We were all so tired that night. But managed to stay up for a drink with Martin and Laura, and Chewie and Katie. We gave M & L our Malarone treatment doses for malaria, as they are off to Cambodia and Laos. We have decided to head back to Bali with Chewie and Katie on the overland trip. All the seats are booked up for a week or so from here back to Denpensar. I am getting weaker and weaker, and the prospect of travelling overland further east to visit the volcano lakes at Kelimantan, is just too overwhelming. The roads are rough here and it takes two days to reach Moni, the nearest town. I'm just not strong enough to make the journey. Although the prospect of this return overland journey is a bit scary. Starting at 8am, we leave on ferry, 7 hrs to Sumbawa, then a 2 hr bemo ride to a big air con bus, then 12 hours to the west port. Another ferry, 2 hrs, to Lombok. Then 3 hrs across Lombok, then another ferry, 4-5 hrs to Bali's Padangbai, then another 2 hrs to Denpensar. Against my better judgement, I decide I have no choice but to take loperimide, a stopper. My gut pays me back ten fold some time later but at least it means I didn't poop all over the bus!

The actual journey took 37 hours. It was mostly ok aside from the horrible people on the Sumbawan bemo leg. Wherever we go in Asia, locals always make room for the children on buses. The only exception in our experience, was in Tamil Nadu in India. We can now add Sumbawa to the list. They made fun of us when Roisin was upset (charming) and even suggested that they sit on the roof! Not one person would look me in the eye when I begged them to make room, and the two german tourists were just as bad. Lee, Chewie and Katie went on the roof. I perched on a wooden block in the aisle and the kids finally squeezed into two seats that came free. When we reached the air con coach, we grabbed our numbered seats and when someone tried to move Tevo, Lee finally lost his temper and swore at them. Once they realised we weren't to be messed with, they left us alone.

We left Katie and Chewie in Mataram, Lombok where they were meant to get picked up to go to north Bali. When we didn't see them on the boat, we suspected they'd been left in the lurch. We reached Kuta at about 9pm, and after calling round over 20 hotels and guesthouses, we found one place that had one room for one night only. Gorgeous room though. Poppies Cottages are totally lush and Lee even nipped out for curry take away as a treat.

We had breakfast in bed and the hotel let the kids hang out by the pool while I went in search of a room. After 2 hours, I found us rooms at Puri Tanah Lot near Legian. Fairly clean and recently refurbished, so we stay for 2 nights. I spend most of this time at the local hospital as I need to get checked out before I travel home. It's not a good situation to be in. They want to admit me as I am badly dehydrated, anaemic and my spleen is enlarged (but they don't know why). I have an inflamed gut, maybe gastritis or ulcerative colitis after all the infections. I spend the day on a saline drip while they do lots of tests. I need an endoscopy but all I want to do is get home. Bloody insurance company want me to get treated here. They would rather I have $1500 diagnostics here than pay £400 for us to change our flights. Idiots that they are! So we manage to get one last night of luxury at Poppies Cottages before we fly to Kl tomorrow. I'll pay for it myself and then kick their arses when I get home.

Sublime Snorkelling and Dangerous Dragons!

2009-06-22T14:19:00.002+01:00

It was finally time to leave Kuta Lombok. The children were sad to say goodbye to their new friends but Lee and I were ready for some new adventures. We had to get back to Sengiggi to return the car and meet our tour company for the boat trip to Flores. We stayed one night at Puri Bunga Cottages ($60 for a family room) – like the rest of Sengiggi, tired looking but great coast. The next morning Gana picked us up in a bemo. Turns out the boat doesn't go from Sengiggi (on Lombok's west coast) but from Labuan Lombok on the east coast; a 3 hour drive back across the island. I'm not in the best of moods having spent half the night on the loo. I am just not getting any better despite a course of antibiotics, and have lost a huge amount of weight. I spent two hours trying to make international phone calls to try and change our flights but simply could not get through to anyone. I couldn't even get a call out to Jakarta to contact Air Asia's office here. I want go home a week early so that I can get myself well before going back to work. They give me 4 months leave and I come back to go off sick – I don't think that would be fair.

Once on the bus, I think I scared some of tour group by snapping at a local for nearly breaking the guitar. I felt bad because they look like nice people and they don't know how bad I've been feeling. A really nice english lad tries to help by using his laptop to find a wifi signal for Skype. But still no luck.

We set off for Labuan Lombok in our crowded bemo and we soon make friends with Katie, from east London. Turns out the nice bloke is her boyfriend Chewie. There are going to be two boats, each with 12 passengers. They tell us we're going with the other bemo group but we beg them to let us stay with our new friends. Katie clearly has a great gift with children too, and making friends with other travellers who like kids is not a common occurrence so we stand our ground at the dock and they let us travel on the same boat together.

This is a four day trip. Today we sail to the NW coast of Sumbawa, reaching our overnight point after 8pm. Sunset was beautiful with stunning views back towards Lombok's Rinjani. We have a late dinner of spicy tempeh and veg with rice, and then try to get some sleep for our first night on a boat. The crew set sail at 3.30am so any sleep we did get was minimal. Once we are moving sleep is only something that people with sea legs have the luxury of. But this means I get to watch the sun rise and see a huge whale skull sitting on the rugged Sumbawa shore. Viewing the Nusa Tengarra from the sea is definitely the best way to explore. It's stunning. Rugged, pristine forests drip down mountain sides spilling into the bluest ocean. We arrive at Pulau Moyo, our first island stop. The reef is lovely and we spot blue spotted rays and a moray. The water is so clear and warm, it's very surreal. Then it's a swim to shore to climb up to a fresh water pool and waterfall. Now I'm starting to think I'm jinxed on these walks. I'm all set and barely on the path when a guy from the other boat comes stumbling past us, looking panicked and clearly unwell. His eyes are visibly red and swollen and he's scared. His girlfriend is trying to help him but he's stumbling blindly through the bushes, getting scratched and tripping. His girlfriend, called Merissa begs for help. He's asking for adrenaline and I realised he's having a massive allergic reaction.

I offer to help and try to get him to calm down, take deep breaths and walk slowly. We get him to shore and I start swimming to our boat, shouting to our crew to get the little boat to shore to bring him aboard. They realise what's happening and by the time I have swum to our boat they are helping him up the ladder. I lie him down and get the crew to break up some ice onto a towel to cool the welts that are swelling all over his body. I grab my first aid kit and find some prescription strength anti histamines.

I remembered that my anaesthetist brother in law, Jez, once told me it's ok to take double the dose for a first dose if you're in a lot of pain. So I assume the same applies, and give Chris two big tablets. I also find some cream for allergic hives so I get Merissa to apply it to where he's burning the most. I have to admit, I was quite scared. His mouth had swollen up like a big old grouper fish and his eyes were closing. His ears are twice their normal size (either that or he's got a best mate called Noddy). His neck, arms and body were covered in huge welts. I checked for a signal on my phone and was ready to call help. I kept an eye on his breathing and tried to keep him as calm as possible but all the time I was thinking, shit this guy's in serious trouble. Fortunately, the tablets seemed to help and he stopped swelling up. Merissa told me he's had a chest infection and that he took someone else's antibiotics. I ask Chris if this has happened before and he said he might be allergic to penicillin. I ask them if the tablets were amoxycillin. Chris looks a little sheepish. The clues in the name really. I explain to Chris what's probably happened and that the antihistamines seem to be working, so we just keep him lying down and cool, sipping some water. He's a kiwi and his other Aussie pal arrives about an hour later and in typical aussie style, rips the piss out of his deformed face. I explain that he mustn't drink with these tablets and to take another one tonight. Somehow I don't think he'll take any notice. But he is ever so grateful and offers to give me some his valuable on board beer. Martin (one of our group who I think I scared earlier) says I am an angel. I joke and say, no, just a well prepared parent with the mother of all first aid kits. I have suture kits, drip kits, all kinds of meds. But lets hope we don't need them again. But I'm glad that Martin and Laura (from Argentina and Spain) have seen another side to me and that I don't just spend all my time shouting at locals.

After more swimming and snorkelling, we set off for the next island. Our team are great. There is Carolina (Swiss) and her boyfriend from Gili Air, Afid. Martin and Laura, a beautiful couple, well travelled and clearly madly in love. Two very smiley girls from Java (how nice to see locals exploring their own beautiful country. And Chewie and Katie who we become great friends with. Chewie's a flare barman, like the guys on Britain's Got Talent (he used to work for them). They're travelling for 18mths and are on their way to Australia and New Zealand. We all get on great which is as much as you can ask for when you're living aboard a boat. Our crew are very able and hard working, and feed us exceptionally well. Although I have a bout of dysentry and feel quite weak and depleted. I start yet another course of antibiotics which seems to help a little. At one point, we see a few dolphins and then they're everywhere. We're in the middle of a feeding frenzy with huge yellowfin tuna and dolphins leaping out all around us. Truly amazing! After a lovely veg curry dinner, the crew explain that we will be travelling overnight from this evening to reach Komodo. Lee, Chewie and I stay up to watch shooting stars and what looks like a meteor (will have to ask Ben when I get back to work – huge fireball with a fiery tail that lasted for about 30 seconds then seemed to break apart).

I woke about 2am and the boat is all over the place. The bags and guitar land on us as we're thrown about. I am scared witless and realise I don't know where the life jackets are. I'm trying to plan our escape if the boat overturns but Roisin is crying and then I am too. I think that maybe we will drown. We're crossing the rough currents between Sumbawa and Komodo and I'm sure we're in trouble. The stars have disappeared behind the clouds (our navigation system) and the swells are so huge, I can't see how we're going to make it. When the sun rises, the sea seems to calm and we chug our way into one of Komodo's many coves. The crew seem to think it's hilarious. I explain to Abdullah later, that perhaps a heads up on the conditions would have been nice and also, the life jackets down in the hold are in a very stupid place. He thinks I'm just a scaredy cat westerner. I agree entirely and try to get him to understand that we don't spend time at sea like this and that some reassurance (and a life jacket next to our sleeping mats) would go a long way to improving the experience.

Everyone sets off up the rocky steep hill to get a panoramic view of west Komodo and the surrounding islands. Abdullah says flipflops will be fine. What is it with these people? After stumbling about on the hill, Roisin gives up and sits down on a rock to wait for the group to return. I try to get to the top, but everything is spinning, so I too have to sit down and rest. The views are still great and once I get my breath back, I set off back down the hill, collecting Roisin, and then back to shore. We have a nice swim while we wait for everyone to get back. Once again, I tell Abdullah he's taking unnecessary risks. A broken ankle out here, and you're in big trouble. We get our trekking shoes out for the next walk, in Komodo proper, from the National Park office. UNESCO declared this a world heritage site in the mid 90's. Much to the annoyance of local fisherman. But then the British used to keep slaves. It doesn't mean we should keep doing it! A few months ago, some illegal fisherman were shot and killed by the police. They've had less trouble with poachers since then.

We take a short trek around Komodo but don't see any dragons. Because it's such a big island, they could be anywhere. It's easier to see them on neighbouring Rinca (pronounced Rincha) as it's smaller and they like to hang out near the park office. We set off after lunch (we have yet more eggs while our friends get to eat chicken, freshly killed while we were on our trek. The poor little blighters have been in a sack since Sengiggi – mmmm I bet that meat wasn't tough at all!).

Our next stop is a remote bay on Komodo called Red Beach. So called because of the red flecks in the pure white sand. I have never seen a place like this. The coral is as pristine as it can possibly be. So colourful and so many varieties, soft and hard, with an array of marine life. This coral is flourishing right up to within a few feet of the beach. It's incredible. We snorkel for hours and we got some copies of Martin's underwater photos, which really don't capture the beauty of this place. A colleague of mine who lived in Jakarta for many years, told me there wasn't much to see at Rinca and Komodo. He described the islands as barren. I take it you don't snorkel much Tom? We saw giant puffa fish, moray, hawksbill turtle and so many fish. Chewie is a swimming encyclopaedia of fish. He wants to be a master diver, and makes a fab snorkelling companion. I've learnt so much about the different fish, trevelli, blue fin tuna, goat fish, napoleon fish, trumpet fish, clown trigger fish, box fish, fusiliers, anemone fish, the list just goes on and on.

We reluctantly drag ourselves out of the sublime water and we set off for a calm bay in Rinca where we will spend a more peaceful night. After another great meal we enjoy the last of our alcoholic booty, playing guitar and singing our favourite songs. Other boats pull alongside to enjoy the free entertainment. Turns out Abdullah's a pretty good guitarist and Katie has a great voice. It's a great night and we all get very drunk, trying not to fall off the boat on our way to bed.

I wake up as we set off at 6am. Yummy fried bananas for brekkie and I try to take in every moment of our final day at sea. It's so wonderful and I've hardly been sea sick at all. The problem is dry land now. It seems to be moving even when I'm still. Apparently it may take a few days to subside. We arrive at Rinca's park office and to Tevo's absolute delight, the Discovery Channel are here making a documentary about real life monsters. We spilt into two groups; we join the long trek group but soon regret this when we realise it's very very hot on land, and also there's a large group of dragon's hanging out by the office. This is what we came to see, so we decide to stay with the short trek group so we can stay here. One of the Discovery team is here and he's trying to get shots of the dragons fighting. It's a truly awesome and slightly scary experience.

These creatures are very dangerous and you must stay close to the ranger. Two months ago, an illegal poacher was eaten alive. A few months before that, a dragon wandered into the park office and bit the ranger. They have hundreds of bacteria in mouth and this is how they kill their prey, waiting for them to die of blood poisoning then ripping them apart. They are fearless too. They ate half a child last year while she was using the village toilet in Rinca. They regularly attack tourists who wander off from their assigned group. We stay close to our ranger. The children don't need telling twice. We take a walk up a hill that overlooks the bay and the views are just incredible. Under a lone tree, a komodo dragon dozes in the shade. We give it a wide berth. Tevo finds lots of shell fossils and the ranger explains that no-one must take anything off the island so we get some snaps.

We leave Rinca for one last snorkel stop before Flores. The island is tiny with crystal clear waters but unfortunately it is not part of the national park. Every bit of coral is destroyed. It's devastating to see and we start to head back to the boat. Chewie is also a great spotter, and he calls us over to where he has found a lone piece of coral, with two amazing lion fish. Beautiful, deadly but very docile, so we watch them fan their pretty fins as they drift out from under the coral. Then we spot a stunning family of giant cuttlefish. Watching these creatures change colour and shape was incredible. The biggest, probably the male, was at least 2 ft, with a smaller one, then two baby ones (still a foot in length). Sadly some locals having a day trip to the island, spotted us clustered around the remaining coral. One swims over, climbs onto the coral (nice) and shouts his mate to get the spear gun. We begged and pleaded for them to leave the fish. We offered them money. But no, they speared all four of these beautiful creatures, the black ink bleeding into the sea. A sad but unfortunate reality here. The sea has two functions in Indonesia. A source of food and a great big dustbin. It's a real shame because they have the best reefs in the world, but for how long?

Lovin' Lombok

2009-06-10T15:03:00.004+01:00

We hired a car for $20 pd in Sengiggi. Now that's a bit of a weird place. It's a kind of beach resort but tired and empty looking with abandoned shops, empty cafes and tired looking hotels. On the west coast of Lombok, it's beautiful coastline. We arrived mid morning and our friend and fixer, Gana, arranged for us to rent a car. Lee haggled him down and we are now exploring Lombok without having to rely on expensive tourist shuttles or public transport (that doesn't let you explore the remote parts of the island).

From Sengiggi we drove up to the north coast, stopping for lunch at Lombok's finest hotel, The Oberoi. An expensive diversion it turned out but worth taking a peek at a beautifully designed hotel. Then further north following a road so close to the sea it felt like we were driving along the beach. Like Bali, Lombok has black sand beaches in the north. Then we turned inland and upwards to Senaru, nestled in the Rinjani foothills. This mighty volcano is almost 4km in height and has been a little active just recently. You can see the smoke spewing from one of it's newer inner cones (only a few hundred years old) around the edge of the crater lake.

Except we didn't climb up as I have been a bit sick so a 3 day hike was not really an option. Lee and the kids took a hike to the waterfalls which they said were amazing. Meanwhile I went in search of a chemist. I have had a bad chest since Kathmandu and it's just not getting better. In fact my asthma seems worse by the day. So I went in search of some prednisolone, a steroid that can help relieve the wheezing when the ventolin isn't working.

I stopped to ask someone where the pharmacy was, and he told me to follow him on his bike, then took me to a local hospital. People are like this all the time here. Always happy to help you. Makes you feel very safe even though it's so undeveloped and remote. The clinic was just great. Maybe not high tech but super clean, and where a doctor saw me immediately. I was checked over by the nurse and prescribed 3 different meds to take.

'You have bad asthma'
'Yes'
'Are you taking anti malarials?'
'No'
'Sometimes they mask malarial symptoms and bad chest could be symptom, we have two cases of malaria just now'
'But I don't have a temperature'
'Yes, you do'
'Oh, might I have malaria?'
'No, you have bad asthma'

It cost a grand total of $3! I may also have tropical sprue or 'just' gastritis but will need to get some proper tests done when I get home if I'm still crook (we've been hanging out with a lot of aussies here).

After Senaru, we drove around the black sandy north coast where the empty but well surfaced road almost seems to be on the beach. Lombok is a great place to hire a car. It's so easy to get around and there's rarely traffic outside the towns and villages. The coastal villages in the north are pretty and well kept, with a stunning Rinjani backdrop. Then as we dropped down the east coast, we could see more of Lombok's gilis (Gili means small island in Sasak, Lomboks main language). These are as yet undeveloped, so we tried to find a homestay so we could hire a boat to go snorkelling. But the ones listed in LP are closed now and the only place we found looked like it hadn't been stayed in for 5 years with cobwebs and huge spiders and more damp mattresses. I just couldn't face it nor the kids inevitable complaints so we continued down the completely empty east coast (aside from the port town at Labuan Lombok).

The SE peninsula is difficult to reach by road we were warned, so we turned west towards Praya and then south to Kuta Lombok. Nothing at all like Bali's Kuta. This coast is pristine and rugged with white sandy coves and rocky outcrops. More intrepid aussie surfers come here, so there's a few guesthouses and hotels in Kuta. As you reach the SW tip, there are more gilis, and it's a day trip from where we're staying, so we're definitely off to explore those.

As for where we're staying. What can I say? Novotel are genius. They bought a huge stretch of beach, east of Kuta, 12 years ago and built one of the most delightful 'resorts' we've ever stayed in. Lee hates resorts. They're not my favourite but sometimes, I find, a necessary break from backpacker digs. A mid range guesthouse would normally cost us about $15-20 per room in Indonesia. A treat place is normally about $50-60. Novotel's Mandalika resort is usually $120-40. We only went to have a nosey round thinking there's no way we'll be able to afford to stay there, and would we want to anyway? They have an early summer deal on, with a family room for $75 per night.
But what this includes is phenomenal! Huge buffet breakfast with an eggs, waffle and pancake station that can keep you at breakfast for hours. They serve until 10.30am and non of this clearing everything away at 10.31am. I mean you can laze around in the restaurant until much later, grazing on the 15 different kinds of doughnuts and pastries or indulge more exotic tastes (though I'm not a fan of asian food for breakfast myself - unless it's aloo paratha and curd of course). So lunch is unnecessary. Then there's the endless activities for the kids. Archery, introductory diving (in one of 3 gorgeous stone walled pools), kids club (with a Wii that Tevo helped them install), Indonesian cookery classes, woodcarving, petanque, sea kayaking, volleyball, the list just goes on and on, and it's all free. The kids absolutely love it here. As we all do. Lee says it's his favourite 'big' hotel he's ever been to.

But the best thing about this place is it's Sasak style bungalows and rooms, built to really high standards, beautifully kept gardens and just all round sympathetic design. Normally, places like this exist on an over developed coast, where everywhere looks the same and there's no nature left. This place is like a little tourist paradise, with surfing and snorkelling galore. Plus we aren't trapped here, as it's a short hop into the village for great food. There's a lovely vegetarian cafe at the top of one of the hills, with huge vistas, where you can laze about playing scrabble and scoffing spinach feta samosas or spicy potato bondas. And we have a car so we're free to explore. The villages just north of here have traditional weaving, pottery, markets and the like.

There's another huge plus to this place. The kids have made some new english speaking friends. Jessica is 11 and Thomas is nearly 10 so they each have a playmate. From Sydney, their parents are working in real estate here and so they're living at the hotel for 6 months. Jess and Tom are as overjoyed as Tevo and Roisin to have new chums, and they are inseparable already.

We have been here a couple of nights now and are having a thoroughly relaxing time (and the meds have done the trick). I feel like we're 'on holiday' in a more traditional sense than being on the move as a backpacker. Except we're a lot more scruffy than the usual clientale, but that's ok. The staff are lovely and the fearsome four have the run of the place, so Lee and I finally get some time to ourselves. Bliss for everyone!

Gili Island Dreaming (part 2)

2009-06-04T05:00:00.000+01:00

We booked the fast boat from Bali's Benoa harbour straight to the Gili islands. Last time, I did the overland journey several times on local transport, as I escorted my mum back to the airport after her visit. I swore I wouldn't take that slow boat again. It's takes 5-7 hrs to reach Lombok from Padangbai on Bali's east coast (a 2 ½ drive north from Kuta). You then have to bargain for a bemo to take you to Bangsal in the north of Lombok, then catching the local boat to the islands. A total journey time of 12-14 hours. This time we take a 2 ½ hour fast boat straight to the islands. This boat wasn't running previously as there were no tourists. $50 each one way, half price for the kids, thank goodness.
When the boat landed on the beach at Trawangan we were a little confused as last time, boats only landed in limited places due to shallow water. Now something looks different and it's not just the strewn rubbish. As the party island of the 3 Gilis, it's clearly taking a toll. We are excited as we reach Gili Air and looking forward to seeing our friends. Sadly, the lovely Sunrise Hotel with its funky lumbung ricebarns is full except a family room at the back that we didn't like the first time we came, so we're certainly not going to like it this time. The place is looking very tired now too. Plus the prices has also gone up. From $10 per night to $25. They want $35 for the family room which is essentially the same as the other rice barns with no balcony to make room for an extra bed, leaving barely any room for luggage or legs. We stay one night and then after catching up with some old friends, move next door to Corner huts. $15 per night for a simple balconied hut with fan and flush toilet, and the luxury of fresh water showers (Sunrise like most places has salt water showers).

We notice what it is that is different. In 3 years, the sea has risen by at least a metre, maybe more. The erosion is obvious as we wander down the island. Places we used to sit, under bamboo beach shades, have washed away. The beach is significantly narrower and a bit dirtier. There has been extensive development and the number of tourists and therefore boats, coming here has vastly increased. Most places here are owned and run by locals. There's a few foreign owned outfits, making bigger developments with their air conditioned pristine bungalows but theirs lots of local businesses too. The thing about going back to somewhere you thought was just perfect is that it will never be exactly the same again. You can't recapture the past as it was or relive the same moments in time. A valuable lesson in embracing the moment and accepting change I think.

Once we settled in, we have found our favourite snorkelling spots where we dive and surface alongside hawksbill turtles, and it's great to see that areas of the coral are flourishing. The northern part of the east beach has some great coral gardens and variety of fish. Who knew trigger fish were so grumpy! Turns out they will bite you if they get really pissed off. On a snorkel trip today, we explored some fantastic coral on the southern side but quite far out; a boat would be recommendable as it's across an exposed reef so it would be a very long swim round. The currents are also very strong.

We also visited Gili Meno, the quiet island. Unfortunately, the water is just not as blue as it once was as the rising tides are bringing more seaweed (and I'm starting to wonder of there's been an oil spill out at sea and that's what dirtied the island sands with black streaks). But it's still very clear as you move away from the beach and towards the drop off. We free dive to a wreck off the west beach and Lee waved to the scuba divers, but they didn't look amused. The Meno wall, a shelf on the north side was very cloudy and had strong currents so we didn't see much there. We met several turtles around Trawangan and Meno, where we stopped for lunch and took a walk to the salt water lake in the middle of this tiny island.

We have been here 5 or 6 days now. I've lost track. We snorkel, read, swim, snooze, play guitar, trounce Lee at backgammon and snorkel some more. And eat of course. Indonesian food is great for vegetarians. For a start, they make the best tempeh we've ever tasted. You can have it fried and served with peanut sauce or in a rich garlic curry. Lee's been sampling the local fish - red, black or white snapper. Then there's the national staple of Nasi Goreng, a tasty vegetable fried rice served with a fried egg on top, or Mie Goreng, a similar dish with noodles. The kids also reckon that Corner makes the best pizzas which have a melt in your mouth paper thin base and handfuls of fresh basil. The room price includes a big brekkie of fresh fruit, tea or coffee (a quite decent Lombok ground), and either eggs or pancake or toastie of your choice. We've all lost weight, and I think in part it's due to eating a good breakfast everyday, and not eating just before bed. I like being slim again (I think I've lost at least 10 pounds) and will be making every effort not to stuff my face with bread, cheese and potatoes when I get home this time.

Our next plan is to take a local boat back to Lombok and head to Sengiggi to rent a car and stock up at the ATM. The cost of getting tourist bus transfers is extortionate ($50 just to take us to our first stopping point in the north, less than 2 hour drive – and we'd need to make 5 of these trips to do a loop around the island). The local buses are infrequent, and don't take you around to the east side. We're hoping to hire a jeep for $20 a day. Then we're going to do a 10 day tour of the main island, heading up into Ganung Rinjani's foothills (the second biggest peak in south east asia – you can't climb the peak at the moment as a newly formed volcano within the crater has been spewing lava recently) and visiting the rural and culturally rich villages around the east and south (and where if we're lucky there may be some traditional stick fighting), before heading to Kuta Lombok, a stark contrast to Bali's Kuta as it is on an undeveloped sweep of huge beaches, cliff backed hidden coves and great surf.

An international airport is currently in the pipeline for south Lombok and a Dubai developer is buying up the land to build some uber resorts. So we're going to grab some more moments in time, as it's clear from seeing the changes in the Gili islands, that word spreads fast, things move on, economies grow. Which is in no doubt a good thing for people here – it would be easy to say as a fat pocketed tourist, oh look at all the damage the development's doing to the natural environment but to be fair to the Gili islanders and their clearly wise elders, there are still no vehicles on the islands, and the reef and it's inhabitants are protected by islanders paying local fisherman not to fish here. No buildings over two storeys high, mostly made of local materials. Our carbon emissions will destroy these islands before they do. Tourism pays for the schools on this island. All businesses pay a % to the local community funding health and education. As Lee pointed out after chatting to Swambi, our guest house owner (and sometime vodka brewer), there is sense of things being done for the benefit of all the islanders, not just individuals. This was after he lamented over several trees on the beach at Sunrise being chopped down yesterday. No trees are allowed to be chopped down without the elder council's approval. Sunrise is owned by a Scottish man. He's not here right now and may well wish he wasn't when he has to face the island elders.

After ten days in Lombok, we have booked to take a 4 day boat trip from Lombok to Flores, stopping at Rinca and Komodo as well as several other great snorkelling spots along the Nusa Tenggara. The road journey across Sumbawa is legendarily bone shaking and arduous, and the boat trip lets you see the stunning coastlines without being holed up on a cramped sweaty bemo for 2 days. For $150, we think it's a bargain and once again, the kids are half price. We will sleep on deck under the stars. The kids are very excited.

Bali's Back in Town

2009-05-28T04:01:00.001+01:00

We flew from Bangkok to Bali's Denpensar airport at an absurdly early time in the morning. Felt much worse due to an impromptu late night drinking session at a street bar, just outside our hotel on Rambutri Soi, with Tim, an expat money futures trader and the handsome Phillipe, a swiss ICOC worker (sort of like the Red Cross but more impartial). As Philippe was about to be shipped out to Iraq for a one year posting, it seemed in order that we should enjoy a good send off. As a telecommunications engineer, he has been in Darfur and Sudan for the last 2 years, with occasional forays into Somalia, Senegal and Gambia. His stories were incredible and I simply have to relay at least one of them.
He was in an ICOC marked landcruiser crossing the no man zone between North and South Sudan. There had been violent clashes and many people were killed. Part of their job was simply to bag up the bodies and make sure they are returned to the right villages. They needed to cross the zone with medical supplies to a nearby village where there were many injured people. With a local driver, Phillippe had his laptop and several large boxes of supplies. They were held up by armed bandits/mercenaries who wanted the vehicle. Phillippe jumped out with his driver, hands in the air, saying take the car, take the car, please we are just aid workers. He said it wasn't the first time it had happened so he knew the protocol was to simply hand over the vehicle with no resistance. He then explained they had medical supplies in the back and they needed to get them to this local village. The bandit leader then gave Phillippe and the driver a lift to this village with all their supplies, including his laptop. He even helped unload. He then gave Phillippe a metal bracelet and told him it was to protect him on his way. Then obviously, he took the car. But that touch of humanity amidst the chaos and killing, his stories were full of them and filled us with a warm hope despite the tragedy he's seen.
So with huge hangovers (in fact I think I was still drunk!) we flew south across the Gulf of Thailand and Java sea and landed on a much revived Bali. The last time we were here, it was so quiet and the desperation of locals was clear as they hounded us through Kuta, and when we travelled north past Ubud and on to Ganung Batur, there were simply no other tourists. It was like a ghost tourist town in places with empty guesthouses and there were certainly no fast boats to the Gili islands.
Exhausted after a 5 hour flight, carrying heavy bags in the sweaty heat, we wander around Poppies I and II looking for somewhere to stay. Everywhere that's a reasonable price and clean is full. We jump in a taxi and get him to take us up to Legian, the beach area further west from Kuta. Same story. In fact the one place we do find with rooms, where we have stayed once before, has clearly done no maintenance since then and looks more than tired. Plus it's 2 ½ times more in cost. In fact we start to find this is the case all over. The Aussies are back in town. The Bali bombers have been executed and it's clearly water under the bridge now as the streets are teeming with surfers and to our pleasant surprise, families. We find ourselves slumped over banana milkshakes in a cafe while we work out our next move. I think about the high end place of Nusa Dua about 15km from here and my friend Rita who likes to stay in places like this when she travels. All booked. Transfers pick you up and drop you. Right now, I wish myself in one of Nusa Dua's 5 star resorts.
Lee goes in search of a hotel and comes back slightly more hot and grumpy having tried 4 or 5 places without success. I remember it's bank holiday weekend at home and wondered if they have the same one's in Australia. I spot a motorbike taxi outside the cafe and ask him if he can help me find some accommodation. I take you nice place he says and worrying about his commission I tell him to just drive about and we can randomly stop. This is a terrible plan. We try 2 or 3 places and they're all scabby or full. Eventually he pleads with me to let him take me to nice place. Lots of families. His name is Ketut (all 4th born children in Bali are called Ketut by the way) and he tells me about his 6 children and growing up in Kuta. I know everywhere he says. I let him take me to the Kuta Puri Bungalows. Oh my, what an oasis of tranquillity and loveliness! So we whizz back to the cafe and Ketut sorts us a bemo to take us to our lovely new rooms.
Kuta Puri is at the beach end of Poppies I comprising of pretty Balinese bungalows and a bigger block of rooms with huge balconies set around beautifully cared for gardens and two gorgeous pools, a great restaurant and bar (cheapest happy hour in Kuta). There is even a traditional spa, and we all enjoy a well earned massage. The rooms are $60 per night including a free drink, massage and breakfast. Our one night stay turned into 3 nights but we told ourselves we'd be in beach huts and homestays from here on in, so a little luxury was most welcome.
Plus Tevo and Roisin decide it's time to catch some waves body boarding on Kuta. They have great fun, while I sunbathe and counted that a street hawker approaches me every 10-14 seconds. I employ my indian subcontinent head wobble to great effect. No need for eye contact. No talking. The unsaid message is read and understood. Btw I was reading a great book whilst soaking up the rays, Rohindra Mistry's A Fine Balance – just breathtaking!

Leaving

2009-05-23T08:26:00.000+01:00

Exhausted but exhilarated we stayed in Pokhara for a couple more nights in a great room at the Panorama Hotel, with two huge windows facing north to Macchepuchhre (occasionally revealing a side view of it's magnificent fishtail) and east to Annapurna II. If you sit on the hotel's front balcony, you can see Dhualagiri on a clear morning. After a sweltering day with no electricity to enjoy the relief of a fan, the night brought a thunderous storm lighting up the sky, and in the morning revealed such magnificent peaks. I can see why people love it here.

We return to Kathmandu on a brighter cooler day and go straight to Blue Horizon guest house. The friends I bumped into at Bouddhanath recommended it and I guessed they were probably recommended to go there by other friends from the Manchester Buddhist Centre. It is a gorgeous spot, with huge windowed rooms, potted roof terraces and pretty gardens. Right next to the Himalayan Meditation Centre. Definitely a good vibe. With the added bonus of Himalaya Java at the corner of the lane, a cracking breakfast cafe frequented by NGOs and expats. But Bijay does want to know why we haven't come 'home'.

We sent home a load of trekking gear and some presents, so we are now super light travellers. Pricey postage but then it was 17kg in total! We spent the next couple of evenings hanging out at Parina's & Bijay's apartment. Parina cooked us a stunning dhaal baat with a special fish stew. The next day I went in search of english cheese and found a nice lancashire cheddar and some ciabbatta. I made macaroni cheese and bruschetta with coriander and chilli. Lee made some mash potato on the side as Bijay says our mash is the best he's ever tasted. We explain how we overcook the spuds, then leave to sit for 5 minutes before mashing – and that we never put sugar in it! His favourite was a vegetable pie topped with mash, I made when we had the apartment. Parina's says she's going to buy an oven so she can make shepherd's pie. I warned them that eating too many pies, as we so often do, makes you fat!

After a farewell brunch at Java, and a sad good bye to Parina, Biz escorts us to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. We're going to miss our friends very much but we have a permanent reminder of our time in Nepal, as I have a new tattoo and Lee has his first. I have a Tibetan Om on my wrist and Lee has our names in Nepali across his chest. Excellent job Biz, and healing nicely thanks.

Pokhara & Rafting the Kali Gandaki

2009-05-20T08:20:00.000+01:00

Having had such a fantastic time rafting and camping the Bhote Koshi, we decided to take our friends Parina and Bijay to raft the Kali Gandaki. My friend Parina is a workaholic, incredibly committed to her work, but a workaholic all the same. They never get opportunities to do the things we do when we're here, such as experiencing the joy of rafting Nepal's rivers. A couple of days away from the harsher realities of life in this country, I knew it would be amazing for them. Parina took a little convincing, but we assured her the rafting team had amazing safety standards and they would look after her as a non-swimmer. Bijay didn't need any convincing and travelled with us across to Pokhara. We spent a day chillin in Pokhara, rowing around the lake and fishing.

Got there on a very comfortable tourist bus (500 roops) although there was an old guy sat behind me, with his wife and daughter and son in law. He just kept exclaiming very loudly, LOOK MARGERY, LOOK, mangoes, or look look a red sari, LOOK Margery, rice fields, oh yes. I enjoyed his child-like running commentary, remembering what my mum said to me about her trip to North America last year. Alaska was beautiful but I had no-one to say, look how beautiful it is, and share that moment. After 4 hours I put on my Ipod. By the way, he sounded just like that actor in Fawlty Towers episode The Anniversary, where Basil pretends Sybil is ill. The husband of Una Stubbs' character, with the very amusing voice, it was him I swear. Sib ill, eh Basil , Sib ill. Except it wasn't him of course.

Parina was planning to come the following day, but a very sad thing happened. A 17 year old girl, married with a baby and unfortunately a drug problem, but also one of Dristi's service users, set herself on fire about ten days earlier. She died at 5am on 15th May. Parina stayed behind to sort her affairs and raise funds for her hospital bill. There are several of us who will ensure the baby is supported for the rest of her childhood. The young women has a sister who may come to Kathmandu and look after the child. But she will need a job and support. Education is relatively expensive here. Parina's dream is to open a home where women and children can live together, learn new skills, grow crops, produce handicrafts, perhaps in the Terai where land is more fertile. Definitely away from Kathmandu.

Parina finally arrived and we set off early the next day. We drove to the drop in point on a smaller bus, and missed the breezy jolliness of our previous transport. Also, the bigger the vehicle, the less you are thrown around on bumpy roads. Although these roads are tarmac' ed. Rather novel if slightly scary on twisty mountain roads.

We rafted for three days, camping two nights on river side beaches. There is no road support on this trip. We leave the highway, with two rafts – one for us and a bit of gear and then the main gear raft. We are joined by an American, Taylor, a rafting guide passing through who's joined the support team to get a free ride. At first Parina is still nervous at first but a few rapids in and she and Biz are having the time of their lives, as are we. We had a full on bounce and flip over at one point which scared a few people but we were all fine and we were lucky to have such a pro team. It took Parina a while to recover from the shock, but later we cajouled her into having a swim to build her confidence in the life jacket. I think it worked. We have a lovely camp on the first night but late evening rain continues through the night getting us all a bit soaked – but who cares – we're rafting!

We hit the water late, just before noon and the sun greets us by mid afternoon, as we have an awesome time over some great rapids. so the team dry off the tents while we eat lunch. Madoh catches fish with Bijay's help (19 year old rescue Kayaker not our Biz). Big bony beggars they are. But everyone enjoys them for supper. Tevo builds a roaring fire, after Biz rafts over the river (in the dark!) and collects wood and some Rocksi from the local village. Fabulous evening camp with bellies full of tasty dahl bhaat.

The last day of rafting and due to a dam which has killed the current, we hitch a ride on a passenger boat that chugs us upriver to our pick up point. One more tasty buffet lunch, and we head back to Pokhara. Four hours in blistering heat. Hmmm, can we get back in the river now please! May is a time to climb high or raft rivers in Nepal, it's just very very hot.

Back in PK, Biz and Parina hitch a lift back to Kathmandu with the team in the morning. We stay another night to rest.

Shakka Lakka BOOM!

2009-05-06T12:33:00.004+01:00

Birat (pronounced Biraj) calls us in the evening and says we need to leave early as there is an impending strike tomorrow. We arrange to meet at 6.30am on Lazimpat (as the bus can't get down these tiny lanes). I'm feeling nervous as the Bhote Koshi has a challenging reputation, graded between 4 and 5 (5 being the maximum). There have been accidents here and I asked Birat about what happened to the tourists who were killed. Birat says it is unfair on the industry that the truth of the story is not being told. He says they were Israeli, and had been told NOT to jump in the whitewater. There are places to swim and the guide will tell you when it safe. The Israeli's did not listen. They jumped in regardless and all were drowned. A rescue and recovery was launched by the embassy. Not sure they ever found the bodies.
The bus is a pink stripey affair, loaded up with all the rafting gear and the team who will be taking care of us for the next day or two. We are all half asleep and find ourselves a double seat each. The kids snooze while Lee and I watch the changing landscape as we leave the crowded city heading east past Baktapur, and through beautiful countryside towards the Tibetan border.
We stop for daalbhaat and after a 3 ½ journey reach our first put in point. We are starting on the lower part of the Bhote Koshi, to help us find our feet and so our amazing guide, Dil, can work on our paddle skills and assess whether we can take on the upper part of the river tomorrow. Alot of less professional companies are known for starting straight at the top, which hits whitewater from the second after the put in. My fears are allayed very quickly. This outfit are incredibly professional. The gear is exceptional, with a french made raft and good quality helmets and life jackets. We are introduced to our team. Dil is the guide and raft leader. With 18 years professional experience and having trained around the world, he is Nepal's 'river guru'. He takes us through an extensive briefing, with regard to safety, the equipment and the river itself. We then have two rescue kayaks. Bijay and Matan (?) are both very experienced and Matan explains to us the procedures for rescue situations.
We get into the raft and run through some of the techniques. Tevo and Roisin have rafted twice before. Once in the French Alps on a grade 3 river, and once in Sri Lanka on a grade 2 river (it was a bit boring actually). We raft for about 2 ½ hours along fairly easy territory but very good for practice and confidence building. After being picked up by our jolly bus, with the raft and Matan sitting atop, we head to our next put it site further up the river.
After a fantastic lunch buffet, at what will be our camp site for the night, we set off from this point for another couple of hours rafting. The bus picks us up again and returns us to camp. By now, Vishnu and the others have made a great camp. We have a big tent. I just wish we had bought our own sleeping bags and mats (which foolishly we left in the apartment).
Dinner is a huge meal of dhaalbhat except the daal is much thicker and tastier, so everyone goes to bed with full bellies. They have ingenious uses for paddles which include a draining table and a toilet tent. These guys just keep impressing us with their care and attention. For a start, we are not in some squalid camp site (as described by the Rough Guide). The team put together a rather well constructed and very environmentally sound temporary drop toilet. All paper will be burned in the morning. Every care and attention is paid to not having an impact on the environment here. All waste is divided into food (given to the goats) and plastic and paper. There are separate buckets of iodine treated water for everyone to use, for handwashing, for washing plates and then for rinsing.

The next morning, after a huge breakfast (which our team share with some local hungry children) we pack up the bus and head to the upper part of the Bhote Koshi. This part of the river is a 4+ straight from the put in point. Whitewater all the way and we have the most exciting rafting trip of our lives. Dil pays every care and attention to scouting the route, avoiding two notorious points in the river. Dil and Matan take the raft down 'the wall' - a place that only the most experienced rafters can descend. We walk around. At another spot, they take the raft out of the river and carry it to a place further down to avoid an area that no-one should be rafting (a nepali guide died here last year after being trapped in an undercut). It is clear this team take safety very seriously and Dil tells us later that he wanted to assess how we got on on the first day, before taking us further up river. He thinks we are a good team and the children are strong. We learn they are the first 10 year olds they have known to raft the Bhote Koshi! We raft until mid afternoon and once again are met by the bus, and another fab buffet lunch is laid out for us all. After that, a sleepy journey back to smoggy Kathmandu.
I will post the details of this company later as I would highly recommend them for anyone wanting to go on an exciting professionally run expedition. We paid $100 each for a fully inclusive two day trip.

PS Shakka lakka boom is actually on an billboard advert for noodles, but it was our celebratory team mantra when we did our paddle high fives - all paddles in the middle then lift and BOOM onto the water.

The Real Kathmandu?

2009-05-03T12:27:00.000+01:00

I often work on my travel blog when I am excited, amazed and downright gobsmacked by something. It's hard to write when you are feeling confused and overwhelmed by your surroundings. When those feelings are filled with frustration, pain and even anger, it's hard to understand why those feelings are there and how to handle them, let alone write about them. So I shall just try to describe my day to you and hopefully it might help me understand a few things myself.

I woke with a terrible headache this morning and while showering I started to wonder whether we have carbon monoxide leaking, given that the boiler is not on an outside wall and there is no vent. There's a fan that work's intermittently, much like most things in Kathmandu. Today the fan is not working and the more I start thinking about it, the more sick I feel. Perhaps it serves us right for living it up (comparatively) in Lazimpat with our hot water showers, electric oven and big screen TV. We get far more electricity around here than appears to be the case in other areas. But then we have the Danish and Canadian embassies for neighbours. Don't get me wrong, it still has dusty decaying roads with crazy traffic, dotted with mangy limping dogs and festering piles of rubbish. But the apartments are bigger and better kept. There are also well kept gardens and allotments.

I spent the morning reading some of my new book, hoping to absorb some further teachings of the dharma.

This afternoon, we had arranged to meet Pasang Sherpa to go to his home in Swayambhu to meet his family. Like Lazimpat (the area where we are staying), we're now far enough from tourist central that is Thamel, that we can observe the more everyday life of people who live here going about their business. No more 'scuse me 'scuse me, you buy, you come inside or destitute cripples or scrawny children begging while you're trying to dodge swerving motorbikes and incessantly honking cars in narrow dusty lanes.

Pasang lives with his wife and two children in a one room apartment smaller than any room in our terraced house at home. There are two beds, one double and one single pushed against each wall. There is a small window in one corner past the foot of the bed, where the adjoining wall houses a small kitchenette with a propane stove and a few shelves. The room is so dark that the light streaming through the window has a rather blinding reflective effect, until our eyes begin to adjust.

The wall running between the heads of the two beds is crowded with bedding and shelves filled with all their worldly goods. A picture of the Dalai Lama (the same one as the photograph on our own fireplace at home) hangs in the centre. Above the double bed is a thankha depicting a tibetan god (but not a buddha incarnation, but I forgot the name). Hanging in the doorway there is an embroidered sheet depicting the endless knot. This can seen in many doorways across Kathmandu and Pasang tells me all sherpas will hang this in their doorway (as will Tibetans). Who knew I was tattooed with the mark of a sherpa – shame I'm not as fit and strong.

His children are bright and confident. His son, Tshering impresses us greatly with his reading from the books we have given him, which are a gift from my colleague Betty. His daughter's eyes light up when she sees the bead making set.

It costs 3000 rupees (£30ish) a month for his children to go to school. It will be higher when they start high school. University is not really an option. Tshering tells us he wants to be a sherpa like his papa. His daughter, Sharom, wants to be a teacher.

I ask Pasang about the 120^th Labour Day demonstration yesterday. It was a march through the centre of KTM involving variety of unions, many carrying the maoist flags. He says he doesn't like to have anything to do with politics here. He just wants to make good work and have a healthy happy family life, doing the best for his children.

They have no running water here. No fresh drinking water either. They have no electricity from 12pm until 8pm on most days. We drink chang, a kind of fermented potato rice brew while chatting about trekking and school and family life.

As we leave the building, several drug addled young men say namaste. I turn and greet them with a smile and tell them we are visiting Pasang. They laugh and stumble back into their dark dank room on the ground floor.

Pasang walks us back to Thamel, and Sharom gets upset when she is told she must stay at home. We suggest she too accompanies us, and she grasps Roisin's hand and sets off up the hill.

The kids put on their masks as we start to enter the maze of smoggy dusty Thamel streets. Pasang bids us goodbye when he is sure we know where we are and can find our way.

After a quick stop for sizzling brownies at The Roadhouse (where the kids now constantly nag us to go for lunch) we bump into our Californian friends we met in Langtang. A rather amazing 75 yr old psychotherapist and his buddhist wife Ali who have been on an adventure to Tibet. Turns out it was a somewhat conflicting experience, while admiring the beautifully restored Potala Palace and a cleaned up Lhasa, all the time wondering where the monks have gone (oh yeah and you're not allowed to talk to Tibetans). Ali comments that while it is incredibly sad that Tibetan culture is being wiped out in Tibet, a result of this conflict has brought Tibetan Buddhism to the rest of the world. It has made us mindful of their culture and the insights that can be learned. Gram said it felt stifled and tension there is running very high. They say they are enjoying the freedom of Nepal, as we avoid being run over and start to get hassled by some street kids.

The children range between 6 and 15 years old. The older ones aggressively push the younger ones around. It's like lord of the flies meets street children, except this is not a film. This is real. Skin covered skeletons with drawn faces and sunken dark eyes. Translucent skin despite it's dark weathered texture. I meet the eldest boys eyes and I can see how glazed and lost he looks. Any money I give him will only be spent on more glue. He pulls the plastic bag from his pocket and breathes deeply. He looks disappointed as it's clear this hit is finished. When I come out the shop, he makes another pleading attempt to get money from us. I watch the policeman carry on walking by. The shopkeepers look the other way. The tourists look but then turn away. Some of them have learned to say 'begging is bad' in Nepali.

I asked Bijay and Parina about the street kids. They say that it's difficult for the projects to engage them. Most have run away from families (usually where the mother has left and/or the father is an alcoholic) or orphanages (who's care you wouldn't subject an animal to). They don't want to study which they would be forced to do and they certainly don't want to live by any institutions rules any more. They are lost, I observed today. There is no way back for him now. The younger ones only to follow down that same path since no-one intervenes, or there is no way for them to intervene. But then I experience that turmoil of trying to understand how compassion and non attachment work, when the compassion I feel, feels blocked and fruitless. And if my feelings and thoughts, that provoke my compassion, are attachments, how can I be unattached? What is compassion in action here? What can it be? When I tell Parina about how I feel, she gives me a knowing smile. She copes with this everyday in her job. She says the world needs people like us to stand up and speak out about injustice.

Sometimes observing the poverty here starts to suffocate and drown you in emotion. It likes a crushing pain of guilt and sensory overload. You can hardly believe what you are seeing.

I often give money to people I see who are crippled or infirm, begging because I know they is no system that takes care of them here. It is up to everyone to share the burden and I have seen locals and lamas alike giving a few coins to those who are clearly in need and helpless. But how are the street children not helpless?

I need to meditate. My mind is crashing about like the river over the rocks. It's time to just sit. I'm really glad we're getting out of Kathmandu for a few days.

Back in Kathmandu & Rafting Plans

2009-05-02T12:09:00.000+01:00

The day after our return we took our friend Bijay for pizza at the Roadhouse which we had been salivating over mid trek with a girl from Boston (who lives here). Mozzarella, pesto and black olive sounds dreamy after 10 meals of daalbhaat I can tell you.

Parina is back from the International Harm Reduction Conference in Bangkok and had a great time with our mutual friend Gill. Last night, Bijay and Parina came over for dinner and I made paneer tikka, channa masala, tarka daal, rice and salad, with a special serving of mashed potato for Bijay who thinks it's great. He thinks I should open a restaurant as my food is better than what they serve.

Sadly, Dristi Nepal, the women's drug treatment centre that she runs is under huge financial pressure. UNODC funded network Recovering Nepal has failed to provide promised funding and the landlord is going to sue them for unpaid rent. Parina is trying to keep a service afloat amidst the worst corruption and faces eternal frustration which is taking it's toll on her.

To this end, we are going to Pokhara on a holiday together, around 12th May. Everyone is very excited! Prior to this, we're off on a 2 day rafting trip to the Bhote Koshi river, near the Tibetan border, east of Kathmandu. We have the met the friendly and well spoken Biraj, an old friend of Carlos' (who is now in Barcelona). He works with a good rafting company called Adventure Aves, who are organising our trip. If we like it, we may well go on another trip down the Kali Gandaki near Pokhara.

Politics & Poverty

2009-05-02T09:00:00.001+01:00

As those of you that know me will have guessed, I have been having lots of heated political discussions with our new friends. I am keen to understand the why of what is happening here. It is a complex situation. Development has it's down sides as it has a damaging impact on rural markets, together with climate change, making life in these mountains harder than ever. Most people don't involve themselves in politics as they feel it is a losing battle, as government and public service is infested with corruption. People choose a career in politics or the army or police to make money! There is no sense of a higher purpose or greater good in the pursuit of these jobs. The good people try to make an honest living elsewhere while crooks and cheats bleed their country dry. While no-one would want to see the demise of hill tribe life, there are such great public health and social needs (problematic drug use being one of them – never mind the basic needs of clean water, sanitation or dare I say electricity) that change can only come with investment and development of public services.
Kathmandu is a very dirty place. The rivers are dried up and filled with human waste of every variety. Every Westerner gets sick at some point. It is inevitable when you are surrounded by such filth (even Tamang women wear a silver spoon tied to their bronze linked belt – to protect them from bad food). Yet they say it is where the Gods live alongside mortals. Like Varanasi I guess. Another city drowning in it's own waste. Tourists on the one hand bring much needed income but at the same time probably produce 10 times the waste as locals.
The most socially excluded in Nepali society are the hill tribes. We mostly met Tamang people when we were trekking in Langtang (and some who spoke Tibetan – Tashi Dulay!). Kathmandu itself is a mix of Hindu castes (generally more wealthy), indigenous hill tribes (so we have friends who are Sherpas from the Everest region; and Gurungs, together with Magars, who were historically recruited for the Gurkhas, and Newari) and Tibetans, alongside the many many volunteers, charity workers and the tourists.
It is no wonder that the maoist insurgency has gained so much support in rural areas (80% of nepali live rurally), due to growing poverty, unemployment and bad governance. Do not be misled by the name as they have no desire to be part of China's oppressive regime but they have adopted a strategy based on Mao's blueprint. Their fight is for a new people's republic to replace the constitutional monarchy and the reactionary ruling classes. Quite understandably they gain sympathy because people want an end to the corruption and exploitation of people here and can't see a way to bring about change other than through violence (but I can't help think that such an argument was made in Cambodia not so many decades ago). The Maoists rob banks and people to fund their arms and much government development money is now used to fund this civil war. The US government has promised $20m anti-terrorist aid to the Nepalese government (because that will clearly help bring everyone to the negotiating table). The crisis worsened after the Royal family were massacred in 2002. The king's son opened fire and killed the entire family before turning the gun on himself. So they say.
First issue here is how does someone who is right handed shoot themselves behind the left ear with an exit wound to the front of the head? Also, there are reports from palace witnesses that all was not as reported. Following Hindu tradition, bodies were cremated within 24hrs so all evidence was destroyed. The event was followed by a news blackout. All TV and communication was cut. Curfew was imposed. The king's brother succeeded the throne despite his unpopularity. This was followed by a terrible period of insurgent activity including bombings in Kathmandu and Pokhara.
I need to get Bijay to explain more to me about the current negotiations as maoists are in negotiation with the government now, but I don't really understand what is going on (in more ways than one).

Lantang Kipperbang Oi!

2009-05-01T11:59:00.000+01:00

Day 1
We left Kathmandu at 7.30am in a landcruiser, with our multilingual and softly spoken guide Carlos and our sherpa Pasang (I do not think the word porter literates the true nature and ability of people like Pasang). Both are sherpas from the Sula-Khumbu region (that's Everest to us). Heading to Syabrubresi (pronounced Syubresi), a Tibetan settlement at 1460m, temptingly close to the Tibetan border and at the trailhead for the Langtang valley. By local bus along shockingly poor roads (I use this word with the broadest of definition) the journey can take up to 12 hours. It's only about 80km or so. In a landcruiser, it takes about 6 to 7 hours. The children were brilliant and took the journey completely in their stride. Happily scoffing their first proper daalbhaat on the lunch stop in Trisuli. Daalbhaat is a bit like indian thali, served on a stainless steel platter with a pile of white rice, a portion of tasty potato curry, a bowl of watery dal soup and sometimes spinach, cucumber and a tasty spicy pickle. Enroute, we purchased our trekking permits at the park office costing 1000 rupees each.
Our first night is spent at the Buddha Guesthouse, where the guides and porters appear to well looked after. The deal at guesthouses up here is that they make a minimal charge for the room (200-300 rupees which is about £2-3). But you are expected to eat there. As all guesthouses have the same menu, there would be little point in looking elsewhere. Better to choose the places that have good food and take care of the guides and porters. Since Carlos is also a vegetarian, we're quite happy to follow his advice.
Food gets more expensive the higher you go. On average we paid about 1500 - 2000 rupees (£15-£20) for all of us including dinner, breakfast and lodging. Our taste for snickers and fizzy pop (which comes in returnable glass bottles that are then hiked back down the mountain) cost us a fair few bob along the way too. The guides are paid 1000 per day and the sherpas get 500 per day. A tip is usual, averaging about an one extra day's pay per week. As Carlos had organised the whole trip, and saved us enormous agency fees, we paid them a lot more than the average. Plus Carlos is travelling to Barcelona on Sunday, having been bought a ticket and sponsored on a visa by his Spanish friends. He has never seen the sea. Carlos has studied Spanish at the university, which he speaks fluently along with Japanese and English, and even some French and German. We also arranged to take Pasang shopping for a pair of walking boots as he didn't have any. Despite having supported many big expeditions to Everest, Dolpo (he's been to Matthiesson's Shey Gompa on the Crystal mountain) and even Kanchenjunga, no-one has ever bought him some decent boots.

Day 2
An early start and after brekkie, we head out at 7.30am. This trek is described as moderate however there are sections that are incredibly strenuous (confirmed by several european trekkers who were amazed to see Tevo and Roisin handling it so well). The path goes up and down and up and down, each time gaining a few more metres in height (as opposed to the relentlessly climbing up). Within the first hour it becomes obvious that we haven't got ourselves fit enough (least of all me) and I may well have anaemia. I was meant to get my regular blood test prior to departure but I thought I was ok so foolishly didn't check. We are not even at 2000m yet and I am massively lightheaded, vomiting and my hands have gone white and numb. That can't be good!
Fortunately, we are lucky to have an incredible guide and sherpa. Carlos takes my small but heavy rucksack. He was carrying a small pack for himself and Pasang, who was carrying our biggest rucksack packed with down jackets, sleeping bags and a few clothes (so nowhere near the maximum of 70kg!!!!). He advises me on technique. I was taking tiptoed large steps instead of small slow flat steps, breathing through the mouth instead of my nose (the surest way to get a sore throat I am warned). And most importantly of all, bistaarai bistaarai (slowly slowly).
Our first tea house stop is at the bottom of a huge stepped climb of maybe more than 100m. I have some ginger tea and start to feel a little better. I think I have lost all my breakfast by now. The next stage has some steep climbs but also some beautiful woodland, carpeted with sativa, as the river rises and falls beside us as we go higher.
It becomes clear that Carlos is a well respected guide who has great friendships with the local people en route. He and Pasang went to school together and are great friends. Both embody so many Buddhist qualities with their respect for nature, inner calm and compassion. I know at the deepest level that these people will take the greatest of care with us during this trek.
After crossing a rocky beach, we stop again for lunch at a tea house high on the hill side. I give lunch a miss and drink more ginger tea and a coke for the sugar hit. The next section rolls up and down, and it is obvious we are moving much more slowly than planned. Our 6 hour trek today will soon become 9 hours, and we are trekking in incredible heat at times (intermittently relieved by the woodland shade). We arrive exhausted at Bamboo Guesthouse (1970m) and we take a much needed extended rest. I doze lying on a rocky wall next to the raucous river, kept cool by the breeze and occasional spray. The children play on the boulders.
Lee shows Carlos and Pasang our water filter, which impresses Pasang immensely, who then takes on the role of chief water filter man for the rest of the trip. We are proud to say we have not purchased any plastic bottles so far. Our filter is a swiss made expedition filter by Katadyn. It has probably paid for itself already and we've only had it 3 years (on a 10 year guarantee). Once it stopped working and we emailed Katadyn who then offered to ship us a whole new set of parts to anywhere in the world (they sent them to our good friends Caz and Johnny who then delivered the parts to us when we met up in Sri Lanka).
Anyway back to the trek. We have to decide whether we are going to make a last push for Rimche (pronounced Rimsey) or we stay the night here. After some food and rest, I wonder whether it would be better to push on as it would be better to stay at a higher altitude for acclimatization. The children are fervently against this idea but we manage to talk them into it.
We cross the river crashing over the giant boulders below, and an old moraine following a steep and exposed, narrow and rocky path. Then we had a relentless and almost body breaking climb up to Rimche (almost 2 hours) to our guesthouse for the night, Ganesh View (oddly named since this mountain, Ganesh, is behind us to the East). Instead we have a magnificent view of the valley below, with another valley cutting away towards Surya peak. This peak is adjacent to the sacred frozen lakes of Gosainkund and having just experienced the moderate trek of yesterday (so called), we're now thinking that the strenuous trek to the frozen lakes is not on the itinerary any longer. No matter. The stone built lodge at approx 2300m, looks out across the valley and I can see Surya peak from my bed! After lots of tasty food we all collapse into bed.

Day 3
We listened to the other trekkers rising early and they were long gone before we finally set off. We are all still tired from yesterday and the first hour or so is quite painful. Today we are aiming for Ghoda Tabela at 3020m. We walk across gently rising and falling grassy meadows with grazing yaks and zhoppa, ancient woodland and blooming rhododendron forest. We spot families of languor with their white faces and long tails. We were also lucky enough to see the small and timid musk deer.
Then we hit another unforgiving steep climb. Each corner we round, another climb opens up, then again, and again. I was so exhausted I could barely lift my limbs which felt as though they were filled with lead. I realised I may not be able to continue which I found very upsetting. I just about make it to the next tea house. Carlos jokingly suggests we hire a pony. I immediately feel relieved and tell Carlos about my riding experience and that actually it's a good suggestion. It is settled. At the next tea house, I will get a pony and ride the last section to Ghoda Tabela, maybe even to Langtang tomorrow.
It's interesting the reaction it provoked in other trekkers, who clearly see the hiring of a pony as a weakness and that you have actually failed. I don't feel like this at all. Horse riding is one of the great loves in my life and in fact, I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be pony trekking in the Himalaya. I am also hugely relieved that the rest of the family don't have to turn back because of me. My pony is called Karpo and I assure his owner I will take great care of him. Karpo is somewhat bad tempered but a good weight, strong and as sure footed as a goat. While we wait for his owner to fetch a saddle, Lee paints a watercolour of the start of the Langtang valley view which has now opened out, revealing the peak of Langtang I.
We stay the next night at a busier lodge, with great views and good food but now the altitude is starting to affect me and I got virtually no sleep. On the up side, I saw shooting stars and got to watch the sun rise through the valley.

Day 4
By this point, Roisin and Tevo are bounding up the mountain valley to Langtang base camp, like a pair of snow leopards. Carpo leads the way, as his owner is from the Langtang village, he knows the route and thinks he is on his way home. We see a type of blue sheep (that has another name but I've forgotten) and a huge eagle. The path is up and down and lots of flat littered with short iris' (nepali flat of course, which you will find is different to european flat). Then a last climb up to Langtang basecamp at 3400m. Great views of Langtang II, and the unseen glacier above the ridge creates a waterfall. This is a dangerous place to climb apparently. A few years ago there was a small airstrip, occasionally used by rich tourists. Then one year a group of Japanese climbers flew in, and began climbing the same day. They all died. Apparently Japanese climbers are prone to dying in groups (so we are informed by American ice climber, Chris). The air strip is now a strangely flat grassy field.
That night Roisin is violently sick. As I still have altitude induced insomnia (as well as this weird cramping and numbness in my legs at night), I am already awake, so clean her up and comfort her. Being rather prone to vomiting, she takes it all in her stride.

Day 5
We decide to take a rest day and visit a local gompa in the village (not Kanchen gompa, the larger one further up the valley). There is a celebration today, a quarterly seasonal affair. Roisin and I struggle to climb the hill up to the village. But it's worth it, as we are made very welcome in this beautiful ancient temple (no-one knows how old exactly but maybe 800 years old or more) with detailed paintings depicting early incarnations of the Buddha and various demons. Traditionally dressed women serve us yak tea (which provides another queasy accompaniment to the ripe smell of yak cheese and butter lamps). It became quite surreal, with women singing below on the ground floor, while the men chanted responding mantras around the shrine, on the upper floor. It is here we sat at the back by the intricately carved windows, while children played and the sounds of the drums and horns were carried away in the breeze. Outside the villagers share bowls of radish soup as prayers wheels ring out.
I am fascinated by the modernity of the teenagers in their Abercrombie sweaters and Converse trainers, chatting to their traditionally attired family and community. Children mostly go to school in Kathmandu, boarding for months at a time. They are due to return in the next few days as the schools have been on strike. Tevo comments that the young children here wear whatever is available to them, 'he's wearing pink trousers and a frilly blouse' he says. But he is respectful in his voice and he is clearly taking in the stark contrast to his own life.
It feels so remote and life is so old here, like going back in time. At least 95% of the people here are locals with 4% guides, sherpas and people such as the gas engineer staying at our guesthouse, Village View. Perhaps only 1-2% tourists and trekkers. The old stone houses with their manure mortar are clustered about the valley, which is dotted with ancient stupas and pilgrim walls. Keep left! With their mantras engraved so long ago but still enduring.
We observe the beauty and simplicity of life here but also, there should be no romanticising the hardship of life here. Men and sometimes women, carry huge loads up these mountains in little more than slippers. Sometimes they are exploited and made to exceed the maximum load of 70kg. We sometimes saw them carrying two rice sacks, each weighing 40kg and more. Carlos, clearly saddened, told us how they sometimes fall because they have neither the right footwear or too much weight. Here, he says, the poor will most probably die as they have no insurance and are unable to afford any healthcare. And that's if someone can get them down.
We met a farmer one afternoon, who had struck his hand with a tool and it was badly cut, clearly infected and possibly broken. His skin was so hard and cracked, but Lee tried his best to clean the wound. We cleaned and dressed it and gave him some antiseptic and clean dressings, which we got Carlos to explain that he must clean it again tomorrow. The man started to cry.
How close life is to death here. That a simple infection can lead to blood poisoning and death. That pregnancy complications could likely result in the mother and/or baby's death (who we saw just outside Shyubresibresi, she would have to endure an arduous day's journey to the hospital). That a broken bone may mean the end of your life. An injured eye, the loss of sight. Further hardship is currently being endured due to the lack of rain. There was no rain at the start of the year, and they are desperate for it now. The cattle are looking a little on he skinny side and the crops are struggling. Living off the land is harder than ever (currently Nepal and India are experiencing temperatures up to 8 or 9 degrees higher than previous years – the consequences of this climate change for the rural poor are proving catastrophic). Plus when the rain does come, it will flood huge areas and cause landslides the size of which are almost impossible to conceive until you see the remnants. These mountains are the steepest I have ever seen in my life. I think you have to be slightly deranged to try to ski here (two norwegians ? died trying to ski down Everest can you believe!)

Day 6
We need to down, not up to Kanchen Gompa at 3850ish. I have been without sleep for a third night and the nightly pains in my legs are making me nervous. Roisin feels very weak too, so today we head down to Rimche. Trekking poles are really a must for going down these hills (if you have any respect for your knees that is). I am amazed at how much stronger I feel as we head down. It's a wonderful feeling and I think I may actually be high in oxygen. I also wondered if going to altitude is good for anaemia as it forces your body to start to adapt so when you come down, you are improved with regard to oxygen take up.
Unfortunately Roisin is very very sick and unable to keep down any food or water even. She feels weak and shaky, so we are much relieved to reach Rimche after a 7 hour trek. Pasang makes us the most amazing food, a thick nettle soup and flower salad (nasturtiums) served with the tastiest daalbhaat in days. The woman here dries the yummiest chillies we've tasted and the chapatis they make from the local buckwheat and fired on their clay ovens are a dream. Roisin vomits again but then feels better and manages to eat some of Pasang's magical soup. I get the best night's sleep in days, as I suspect everyone else does too.

Day 7
Roisin is visibly weakened by her lack of food and water, and I suspect she might now be dehydrated. She continues to vomit on the walk down and rehydration salts turn out to be the worst idea of all, prompting her to throw up the entire contents of her stomach. The little hydration she had is lost and she takes a brief nap in the breeze on the rocky wall at Bamboo GH. Carlos suggests that he will carry Pasang's load and Pasang can carry Roisin. After crossing the stony beach and reaching the top of the steep stepped hillside on the other side, Roisin jumps on Pasang's back and we are soon moving along at quite a pace. To be honest, I can't remember much from the last bit of the trek as I was so broken and exhausted, it took a great deal of determination and distancing of the mind from the pain to make around the last section and down to the village. 8 hour trek in total. Roisin did brilliantly and really pushed through at the end, although those final steps up to the road just after the stupa nearly had us both floored. After hot showers and food (which Roisin threw up but then once again felt much better), we all collapsed into bed.

Day 8
We leave for Kathmandu at 7.30am. The drive back was endurable as no matter how rocky the road, firstly, we were in a landcruiser not an overcrowded dangerously driven local bus, and secondly, we didn't have to lift our legs up great rocky paths. I encouraged Roisin to miss breakfast and she had a few biscuits at Trisuli lunch stop, which she threw up just before we got back in the vehicle. Amazingly, when we got back to the apartment, Lee made her beans, mash and sosmix sausage which she scoffed and then was fine. Good old bangers and mash! I must admit, I might give the daalbhaat a miss for a few days.

Bandhs, trekking and the elusive Kanchenjunga!

2009-04-19T11:14:00.000+01:00

We've been trying to organise a few treks. Our first plan is to take a short trek up to Langtang (7-9 days depending on how well the kids cope and maybe do some day treks from base camp). This range is about a days journey north from Kathmandu. Thanks to Beej, we have met Carlos our guide and he has organised a porter and a landcruiser to take us to the trail head (the local bus is a hideously cramped 11 hr journey across steep rough terrain so we're giving it a miss).

Our big plan was to trek through the Kanchenjunga foothills but this is looking less likely now for this trip. I have to admit I am a little disappointed as I have wanted to see this mountain for many years now but the time is just not right. Kanchenjunga sits on the far east Nepal bordering with the Indian state of Sikkim. But to reach the trail head involves journeying through the Tarai region of Nepal. This state is fairly politically unstable just now with regular bandhs. A bandh is a full on strike. And this means no power, no traffic, no road access, no nothing. People get stuck for days on end because the road is blocked, sometimes up to a week. The trick would be to organise a trekking team then as soon as the bandh is called off, quickly get to the trail head by road. Once you're off the road, you're free to trek on. Flights to Taplejung, north of the road blocks as it's halfway up the trail, are cancelled with alarming regularity due to the weather, so that's not really an option. The other airport further south, Biritnagar, is in the Tarai so affected by regular bandhs, meaning getting stuck at a Tarai airport in 30 degrees for days on end is likely.

It's peak season for Sula Khumbu and flights to Lukla are booked out. I guess seeing Everest is something to look forward to on our next visit. Dolpo's a possibility but will incur much bigger expenses as requires two domestic flights to get to the trail head. But Mathiesson's The Snow Leopard is a favourite book and I have often dreamed of Phoksumdo lake. The other option is going to Pokhara and enjoying some day treks. Our friends Parina and Bijay may be able to come for a little holiday so that would be lovely. We could also go rafting on the way back to Kathmandu.

So tomorrow, we leave for Langtang and we all packed and feeling slightly in awe of the rucksack we have packed for the porter. This guys on a bonus for sure and we've not met him yet. Our guide Carlos is picking us up at 7.30am, aiming to reach a Tibetan settlement adjacent to the trail head by mid afternoon. We will stay here for one night and then set off on a 7-10 day trek. We may visit Gosainkund lake, if we are all coping with the altitude or we will spend a few days at Langtang base camp and explore some higher ridges on day treks.

Shanti shakti and a very happy and prosperous Nepali New Year to all (2066) x

Namaste brothers & sisters!

2009-04-19T10:47:00.001+01:00

It's very difficult to get connected to the internet here in Nepal. Kathmandu is a city that is often without power and generators are limited to very high end places. In fact, this place is often without many things we take for granted. Electricity, clean water, decent sanitation, maintained roads... And that's just some of the more basic needs. It's an incredibly dusty smoggy place, which can best be viewed from a surrounding hill or even better, the rather beautiful Swayambhu temple. It looks like mist except it's more orangey brown. People cough and splutter just like the traffic. Twelve times the WHO recommendation on maximum levels of carcinogenic hydrocarbons and smog forming nitrous oxides! Apparently the petrol is cut with cheaper kerosene, with the Gov's Nepal Oil Corporation taking more than it's fair share of the deal, and in turn reaching the pockets of political pay offs. It's definitely starting to take it's toll on my lung capacity and together with the dust, irritates the eyes making the wearing of contact lenses a very painful experience. We now all wear masks (apart from Lee). Not this prevents being covered in a film of orange dust even on the shortest of excursions. Long term health outcomes are not favourable in this city. In the 1870s,a British surgeon in residence referred to Kathmandu's public health as “built on a dunghill in the middle of latrines”. Harsh yes, but multiply that population by more than a century of population growth and you can understand why sometimes it's very difficult to breathe in here.

So, back to the issue of corruption, since this is at the heart of so many problems that this country faces. Nepal has the honour of being the biggest foreign aid recipient per capita in the world, and yet very little of this money makes it to the intended end point. Despite huge foreign investments to develop irrigation and hydro electric power (the country has the capacity to produce enough energy from hydro electric power to support the British Isles) there has been limited success and Kathmandu has no power for huge portions of the day and night. As for the big aid agencies, name any of them.... UNICEF, UNIDOC, Save the Children, they all have an equally poor reputation here – might be something to do with living in huge secure mansions and driving about in their SUVs that seem to be essential to the aid workers (and diplomats) lifestyle here. Although the roads are shocking and it's probably one of the few places in the world where an SUV is really necessary if you want to go anywhere off the main highway.

Ask anyone here why that is and they will all give the same answer. There are many arteries bleeding money away from the people. Corruption is rife. In business and politics and foreign aid. Government and non-government organisations. Money is siphoned off here there and everywhere. This is a country that has moved from self sufficiency to cash crops that mean there is no longer enough food produced here to feed people and reliance on imports means the poor get poorer. The government made a deal with India and they take a big share of the water. Charitable work here is challenging and often corrupted too. We have been hanging out with our new local friends in Kathmandu and there are stories abound that would break your heart several times over. It is a hard life for many here, and the dignity and peaceful nature of people that shines through makes you question the very fabric of your own life and what we think is important.

It's certainly a big change from our rather luxurious holidaying in Sri Lanka and Maldives. But a good one and in all honesty, we did not feel so comfortable and as at home as we do here. This is mostly down to our wonderful new friends Parina (from the Tarai originally and now runs a drug treatment and rehab centre for women), Bijay (our mohawked friend from Pokhara, works as a tattoo artist and helps Parina at the centre) and Brooke (volunteer worker, originally from Oz and enroute to London to work as a teacher). We feel so lucky to have met Parina, Brooke and Beej. They have opened their hearts and home to us and made us feel so welcome and cared for. The children are really happy here and Tevo said he feels completely at home. Thanks to making local friends, we have rented a great apartment and have been escorted around this bonkers city, learning snippets of Nepali, dodging traffic, munching on momos and visiting amazing shrines and temples.

A small world moment. I'm wandering around the hugely impressive 130ft stupa at Boudhanath and I bump into friends from the Manchester Buddhist Centre! A totally unexpected but lovely surprise to be hugging a friend from Manchester next to one of the biggest stupas in the world. Unfortunately we didn't manage to meet up again but we will meet up again at home and I'm looking forward to hearing about their Buddhist pilgrimage across India and Nepal.

The temples of Kathmandu are very impressive. We climbed 304 steps up to Swayumbhunath, watched the world go by from atop. The cultural embrace of buddhist and hindu beliefs and worship is fascinating. For hindu, buddha is an incarnation of vishnu (one of the hindu holy trinity – kind of). However most hill tribes are actually buddhist, as many are mongol or tibetan descent. Before the enforced borders, most hill tribes were nomads wandering back and forth from the Tibetan plateau, down the mountains with their yak herds. Apparently it was the humble potato that led to their settlement. The sad fact is that now people cannot make their pilgrimages any longer, thus ending a thousand or more years of their freedom to roam.

A note on the photos

2009-04-12T08:56:00.003+01:00

We are having a few probs uploading the pics and it appears the thumbnails are not working. However the link will take you to the Peterpan gallery where you can click on the individual thumbnails and when the details come up, click on the size in the top right of screen, to change to the full size. then you can see the photo. If any techie friends know why this might be happening - any advice welcome. Sawadee Songkran! xxxx

Goodbye Maldives, Hello Bangkok

2009-04-10T14:55:00.000+01:00

Hoorah we are finally in Bangkok. We left Dhonakhuli island at 4am in a crazy monsoonal storm and on the flashiest speedboat I've ever been on. They had to take the high powered one as the sea was so rough. Sheet lightening and torrential monsoon rain. We were all wondering how on earth we would be able to fly from the tiny north island of Hanimaadhoo down to Male. We ended up sleeping on the boat (in rather luxurious cabins) as the plane that came to picl us up was too small to land in the storm and had to turn back. A slightly larger plane arrived about 2 hours later, dropping us as Male just 40 minutes before our connecting flight. Then back to Negombo for one night before flying out again very early to come here.

Just a note about using travel agents. This is the first (and last) time I have used an agency. We only did it as we anted to let someone else take care of booking the wedding and honeymoon week. Our vote is for independent travel every time. We were overcharged all along the way, especially at the hotel in Negombo, The Beach, which had rooms for $150 while were paying $330 crazy price huh! Meant to be 5*+ as last night of luxury on honeymoon. Hmmm. Hotel management were really helpful and in agreement that we had been ripped off by our agent and so gave us this last night with no bill since we had overpaid previously and they didn't even know we had paid deposits. They told us they were surprised the agent hadn't informed us of the discounted prices. We said we weren't in the slightest. Boutique Sri Lanka is one big rip off. They booked us the worst timed flights and I really wouldn't recommend Sri Lankan airways (their planes are a bit scabby, very uncomfortable and falling to bits). BSL said there were no connections to Nepal yet we could have gone from Male via Doha to Kathmandu using an airline they perhaps didn't make such commissions with.

Ho hum... no worries now as we are free to roam and in my favourite city in the world (with KL running a close second). Just LOVE this place with it's juxtaposition of the great, good, bad and ugly. But all with the biggest smiles and genuine feeling of joy for life.

Staying at the lovely Vieng Tai on Ranbutri rd behind Khao San, and a fabulous little indian cafe has just opened two doors away. Tevo got his favourite panner tikka and when Roisin's makhani dahl was served, she smiled and said, hello old friend it's been too long.

Next stop Kathmandu....

Not so dry tubes...

2009-04-07T14:53:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately we had a little accident with our camera involving our not so dry, dry tube and a great big gust of wind. Roisin was having a windsurfing lesson and Lee, Tevo and I were powering up and down the lagoon in a catamaran having a great time. The rope for the main sail accidentally locked down as we made the turn and the huge wind took us over like a matchstick boat. Rather unnervingly as we clung onto our capsized vessel we started to drift at alarming speed since the upturned boat acted as another sail, taking us our across the outer reef edge into the main channel. Next stop Africa! Tried as we might we just couldn't right the boat. Fortunately we had been spotted and within a short while a speedboat was dispatched and he soon had us upright and heading back to shore. Rather exciting but the dry tube had filled itself with water and Tevo's new camera is now refusing to switch itself on. Perhaps we can rescue the pictures from the memory card. We are hoping so as it has all the pictures from the wedding although we were able to copy some from Palitha and Stephanie's computer (who we have since met up with again at their Negombo villa).

Hope to post some pictures soon.

Mosquitos, mantas and murky water....

2009-04-04T14:49:00.000+01:00

Such is this paradise, and the fact that we hadn't seen a single mossie for days, when I left the villa and realised I had forgotten to put on repellant, I thought, oh I'll be fine. Thank goodness there is no malaria in Maldives. I've got about 70 bites on my lower legs. It may look like paradise but those little blighters are still lurking.

They say this atoll is a little sharky. I say that is a little under statement. Sitting on the beach little baby sharks about a foot or so in length, glide up and down the shallows. There are black tip reefs and nurse sharks (which look a peachy colour). In the evening, the bigger ones come to feed near the shore and last night there was pair of black tips, one was about 3 ½ ft and the other was over 5 ft. It's head was about a foot across. I can't stop watching them. They're incredibly beautiful, I think I'm being hypnotised. The biggest sharks in Maldives are the grey reefs and hammerheads but they tend to stay out in deep open water. Thank goodness!

Yesterday we were starting to feel the pressure of spending 24/7 with the children. The reality of children, away from the romanticised view, is that they can be demanding and that you rarely have much space for your own conversations and thoughts. By the time they go to bed, we are often equally exhausted and not far behind behind hitting the pillows. I have a friend who says that when they go on a family holiday, he is more exhausted by his children, with no school time to relieve the pressure and assist with the discipline. Disciplining children is exhausting and sibling fighting, which our twins have a tendency toward, is even more so. This was one of our biggest challenges when we travelled last time.

The children are also having to adjust to being in each other's company more than usual, and ours to I suspect. I had hoped the children's club here would offer us some respite but if I'm honest, it's a little disappointing. The sessions are often very short, mostly an hour or so, and to organise the kids (dry yourself off, wash that sand off, get some clothes on, brush your hair, etc) is starting to feel too much like being at home and then to only have an hour's break. Not really worth the hassle.

So in honeymoon terms, it's not scoring very highly. Even Habeeb could see that we needed some space, so we organised for him to take them to dinner alone. Apparently they were really well behaved and happily ordered their food and played cards. So it's just us they're giving the run around to! Meanwhile, Lee and I got to go and play pool, drink beer and go for a lovely meal at the asian speciality restaurant (with the great big sharks swimming underneath).

Snorkelling yesterday afternoon, the water was very cloudy, barely a few feet of visibility and there was a strange coral scum floating on the surface. It looks a lot like human waste, except I'm assured it's not. So as we paddled our way across the scummy looking cloudy water towards the reef drop off, I started to feel a little anxious (this may be a slight understatement). Just couldn't see anything but shadows and flickers. Then we spotted some people we met earlier, passing by on a sea kayak. There's manta ray feeding up here, they said. The mantas love this murky water, a soup of plankton loveliness apparently. So I gritted my teeth and swam out across the deep channel, away from the perceived safety of the reef and over the drop off.

For those of you not acquainted with the reef drop off, let me me introduce you. The shallows of the blue lagoon are the starting point for snorkelling from shore. It's easy to be distracted by the darting fish and flashes of colour as you start to approach the first coral; here that's mostly boulder like and what they call brain coral. Then there's smaller tree like coral, the kind that you might see as a cartoon drawing, bleached from the rising sea temperatures, but the new growth at the tips glows sky blue. Families of tiny black and white clown fish defend their coral tree shrub. The boulders start to get bigger but the water is barely 3 feet deep. There's trigger fish, fish that look like trumpets (pilot fish?) and iridescent parrot fish, and then a darting jack fish chasing a flashing fusilier that has broken away from it's shoal. The water starts to deepen and as you look ahead, there's a darkening from the translucent turquoise of the lagoon to a deeper azure. You can hear the sound of your own thumping heart beat, and darth vader like breathing through your snorkel. Then as the current draws you out over the shelf, it's like jumping off a cliff but then being suspended by this huge force of water. A rush of adrenaline flows through you and below, the reef drops away steeply. The wall is dense with shoals of fish, and huge varieties of coral; great big tables, giant brain boulders with caves and soft feathery corals waving in the current. Huge shoals of parrot fish munching at the coral with their beaky mouths; then there's the butterfly fish, every colour and size imaginable, sunbursts of yellow and orange and stripy everton mint. They swim against the current so it looks like they're just suspended in the same spot. An eagle ray swoops up against the lower part of the coral wall and then, faster than their manta cousins, flaps away into the distance. A sting ray passes by, feather tailed and spotty. Along the top of the reef wall, a reef shark glides past. You have to make as little movement as possible if you want them to stay around as they are easily spooked. As a family we are fairly experienced snorkellers and so have learnt the joys of skin diving (or free diving as it's also known). With strong fins, you power your way down the reef wall, some 20 to 30 feet depending on how well practised you get. Like divers, you have to equalise or it feels like your brain is about to implode. The best technique is simply to hold you nose and blow hard every metre or so, once reaching the depth you desire you can then swim freely alongside the deeper residing coral and fish. A spotty box fish gives his best pout and the googly eyed red snapper hide beneath the shelf as though they already know they are on the menu.

But today, I could see very little and the drop off looked like a dark murky crevasse with only the sound of my heavy breathing and pounding heart for company. I also heard the unmistakable clickety clicking and whistles of dolphins. I surfaced and Mark was pointing, look look and there gliding near the surface was a 6 or 7 ft manta ray, the tips of it's wings just flicking the surface as it prepared to dive again. I swam across and tried to dive but the murkiness was just too overwhelming, so I floated and drifted. The she started to surface again, swimming alongside and passing me to my left. I swam as hard as I could to try and keep up with this black ghost like creature with it's graceful wings. It was magnificent. Using our kayak based spotters, we swam across again to catch up with her. This time she was right underneath me and then passed under Lee. Both of us were simply exhilarated by the experience. As we paddled back to shore, a pod of about 6 or 7 dolphins surfaced just at the edge of the channel, splashing about before quickly disappearing.

If you're wondering where the kids were at this point, we had left them playing in the lagoon on the other side of the island, and Habeeb watching over them of course. While they played, a dolphin chased a fish almost beaching itself before flipping over back into water and darting away. It's simply jumping with life around this island. And worth every one of those mosquito bites!

Welcome to Paradise :o)

2009-04-03T14:47:00.001+01:00

This is the most amazing place I have ever been in my life. It's like the best of all the islands and best marine parks I have ever seen (and that's quite a few) but with the poshest hotel with five star services to make you think you're inhabiting someone else's world for a while (sort of like The Grove but Maldivian stylie). Lee was worried it would be a bit too sanitised but this place is unbelievable. They have built the resort with as little encroachment on the natural environment as possible so the island is as beautiful as any I have seen (and that's quite a few). When people pay as much as they do to stay here, it means the best of everything in how it's been done from the extent of solar energy used to the pristine reefs. I almost don't know where to start.

We are snorkelling in an aquarium of tropical fish, with such a multitude of types it likes flashes of colours all around you; shoals of butterfly fish swimming against the current so they stay in the same place, big spotty box fish hiding uder the shelves, sleek baby sharks, lemon and black tip reef, gliding in the shadows. I try not to worry about where their parents might be! The coral is bleached from el nino, but none the less the fauna is thriving. We saw eagle rays and we're told there are mantas and turtles. We sea kayaked around the island and saw dolphins, in the evening watched reef sharks and sting rays circling under the bar & restaurant jetties. Totally mesmorizing!

At breakfast today, we watched the passing dolpins and turtles. It's like a nature wonderland set against a collection of every shade of blue that can be seen, so many shades of turquoise and aquamarine and azure that it dazzles you constantly. It's truly a place to marvel at. Will try to load some pictures up.

We're staying in a Jasmine Garden Villa at the Island Hideaway on Dhonakulu island in one of the most northernly and undeveloped atolls in Maldives. The island is shaped a bit like a whale's tail and Lee & I kayaked around it in about 40 minutes. The north side has a huge blue lagoon and the south side is fringed with a beautiful reef. The villa is stunning. We have our own pool, a roof terrace, two huge bedrooms and lots of little places to sit and stare, as well as our own bit of beach. We also have a lovely butler, Habeeb, who picks us up in a golf buggy and delivers us to anywhere we want to go; the several foodie heaven restaurants (although I cannot bring myself to eat reef fish catch of the day), the over water spa, tennis (bit too hot for that) or a multitude of watersports (today we may take out a catamaran). He's our very own fixer. Whatever we want, he can sort. He's the man who can, and he's getting on great with the kids. So much so that tonight he is taking them to dinner on their own, while Lee and I enjoy a romantic dinner for two at the island's pan asian restaurant.

Will definitely upload some pics when we reach Bangkok as this place has to be seen to be believed. I'm off for a snorkel now....

Lee & Jac get married!

2009-04-01T13:44:00.000+01:00

Currently sitting in Male airport in the Maldives having left Sri Lanka insanely early this morning. The check in closes 2 hours prior to departure and you have to check in 3 hours prior in Colombo. So for a 7am flight, we were up at 3am – just what's needed to ensure everyone is as happy as can be!

The Serendip was a truly wonderful place to get married. Parliter and Stephanie have put an endless amount of love and care into creating an incredible retreat. The beautifully refurbished stone bungalow is set above the terraced gardens looking out across the river Mawellha. We had some wedding clothes made from a textile shop & tailors in Kandy. Roisin and I wore saris, and Lee and Tevo wore traditional Sri Lankan linen shirts and sarongs. Parliter had arranged for some singing girls and our names were scripted in Singhalese on a lush chocolate cake. Stephanie decorated the house with flowers. The registrar was a lovely man and we 'solemnly and sincerely' declared our vows. It was a simple but beautiful ceremony, followed by the immediate cutting of the cake and it is tradition for the bride and groom to cut and pass this out to all the guests. The children were well chuffed to be having chocolate cake for their first course! This was followed by a reception of traditional snacks and tea, which we shared with some of Parliter's family and friends. Later on, we had a massive traditional wedding banquet of numerous curries (aubergine, cashew, dahl, banana flower, soya, garlic, gourd & potato) followed by Tricomalee buffalo curd and honey. I shall be making the garlic curry for my friends when I get home as it was just delicious.

The food on this trip has been incredible. Rafter's Retreat fed us up with an array of traditional curries (although I'm still not digging the banana flower; but the gourd is growing on me). We had big indian veggie lunches in Kandy town at the trusty old Sri Ram's – known as the best veggie food place in town. At Serendip, they fed us until we could eat no more (they are also vegetarian). Lots of lovely food, and even home made pizza for a change.

We were quite sad to leave Stephanie, Parliter and their gorgeous baby Suraj; but I have a feeling we will meet again one day. I bought a fabulous orange sapphire from Parliter's good friend, a gem dealer and mine owner from the North. He showed his collection of gems which was really interesting. Roisin impressed him with her gem knowledge. She has one of those Guardian posters on her wall at home, and seems to have memorised it.

Horton hears a.... load of noisy school kids!

2009-04-01T10:33:00.001+01:00

The time delay in uploading blogs is a result of our whirlwind and sometimes arduous journeying in Sri Lanka. As anyone who's ever visited will know, it takes flippin ages to get anywhere. Roads are busy, full of pot holes and once heading inland, as hilly and winding as can be.

We left Kitulgala at 7am to visit Horton Plains and the famous World's End; a sheer cliff that looks across to the SE and on a clear day, you can see the coast. Our day was not a clear day. In fact, it rained from about 10 minutes in to the 9km walk and didn't stop... for the rest of the day and night! We had followed the LP advice to wear walking shoes and fleeces as it can be chilly on the plains, they say. From our experience, if you're walking in monsoonal rain, the best thing to wear is walking sandals and the least clothing as possible without offending the locals. Thanks LP. All our trekking gear was soaked through. By the time we reached World's End, the clouds were rolling about around us, but they broke slightly to give us a bit of a view down the steep cliff to the forest below. We were also surrounded by hoards of noisy Sri Lankan school children so any eeriness of this high plateau walk in cloud forest was also lost. Very similar to Mount Kinabaloo in Sabah we thought, but maybe that was just the incessant heavy rain.

The rain made the roads to Kandy rather treacherous and even Prasana was looking exhausted and concerned. We were all well and truly exhausted by the time we reached our next destination, but were soon revived by an incredible reception at the wonderful Serendip, our guesthouse where we planned to stay for a few days and get married.

Everything went to plan in Kandy, which due to the approaching new year is as packed as anywher I've seen. I don't think there is any more room for any more people. We gave the Temple of the Tooth a miss as the crowds were overwhelming, and instead sought out some of the hindu and buddhist temples in the surrounding villages. Going in the evening was a good move. No tourists and evening puja with chanting monks. Just wonderful :o)

Touch down Colombo

2009-03-25T16:26:00.000Z

We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, late Tuesday after a rather tiring and delayed overnight flight from UK (I finally dropped off around 4am and was rudely awoken with a shake and a red hot flannel dropped into my hand – much to the amusement of my neighbouring passengers). We were tired and grumpy having to wait on the plane in Male for over an hour; and Rosin threw up just for good measure.

Finally past customs and immigration and were customarily pounced upon by taxi offers. We were meant to be heading to Kitulgala in the hills but given it was nearly 5pm, decided a night drive was not the best option and to seek out accommodation nearby and leave first thing.

In our sleep deprived haze we somehow managed to check into the most shabby (and slightly creepy) hotel in Negombo, a tourist haven close to the airport. The Golden Star is a rather sad hotel with its leathery old couples and sticky looking food and flaky old walls. No matter, as we jump in a tuk tuk to town and eat spicy veg biriani at a muslim cafe close to what I assume is the centre of Negombo; a dusty monument roundabout with scraggy dogs ferreting around the rubbish piles.

Devon, the taxi agent, said it could take up to four hours to get to Kitulgala, especially as we needed to go via the Sony centre in Colombo, much to our driver Prasana's horror. Seriously bad congestion in Colombo. And the evident increased security is slightly unnerving.

So after a slow bumping and winding journey up to the hills, we arrive at Rafter's Retreat in Kitulgala, to be met by Channa. A big Beaker-like man (or Paul Kevill-like for those of you at work) with long hair, a plaited & beaded beard and a hand shake to rumble a bear.

Apparently there has been no rain for many months and now it started raining 2 weeks ago. Many crops such as rubber and tea have been badly affected. Now though, the rains are here and showing just what the subcontinent monsoon can do. Huge deluges create rivers and lakes around the paths and gardens of this amazing old plantation house. We stay in the rather characterful stilted huts with their beautifully crafted stone walled bathrooms and waterfall showers and toilets with a view across the forest and river!

Wildlife central too – on arrival Tevo makes friends immediately with the leeches. “Mummy look at this strange worm I found on my foot”. He holds up his hand to show this tiny black shiny leech about the size of a small caterpillar – not the larger flat variety that we may be familiar with from films. These are small and stand on one end with the other searching about above itself for something to taste – then it moves like a tiny shiny black slinky.

That evening Tevo almost stood on a massive black scorpion, which scared the bejeebers out of Roisin who was in tears by dinner. Apparantly it was rearing and snapping it pincers and waving it's tail about by the time Lee got there. Been feeling a bit jumpy myself actually. We're all so tired. It's hit us big time.

The ants in the bathroom this morning freaked me right out. An army train almost a foot wide in places, densely massed climbing all over each other, like a moving shiny black carpet, entered on one side of the bathroom, carpeting the stone wall to the window where they formed an orderly queue running along the branches around the entire hut and exiting on the 3rd corner into another tree (somewhat of a long way round I thought). Try waking up with jetlag trying to find your bearings in a hut made of twigs sitting on a loo (which you just had to check for scorpions) and an ant carpet for a wall. I wasn't feeling at my best either.

We slept til noon. Crazy deep sleep punctuated with startling waking moments to the sounds of the forest. And a little monkey face peering in in the morning!

Rafting was ace. Enough white water to make it exciting. Tevo's like nature boy. Loving it all. Playing in the river. Roisin's confidence shot up after jumping off the rocks, swimming downstream in white water and rowing like a good un – all good stuff.

Draft itinerary (subject to change and whim)

2009-03-02T22:27:00.003Z

So here's the plan....

We are spending about a week or so in Sri Lanka to have some fun in the jungle and get married in Kandy - yaay! Then we're off to Maldives for a glorious honeymoon week :oD

After that, we hit the road with the rucksacks, first to Nepal for 6 weeks and then onto Indonesia for another 6 weeks. Tevo wants to see Everest (no plans to climb it just yet) so that's on the wish list. Nepalese new year of course, in Kathmandu. I'd love to get to Dolpo (inspired by The Snow Leopard of course) but just not sure it's feasible. In Indonesia, we plan to head back to Gili Air in Lombok and from there we plan to hop down the Nusa Tenggarra - Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo (home of the dragons), Rinca and Flores.

"I came to this world with nothing. And I leave with nothing but love. Everything else is just borrowed!" Mike Skinner /The Streets

T-21 days & counting....

2009-03-02T21:34:00.004Z

It takes a lot of work to put your life on hold for 4 months. And I'm starting to drown in lists again - this is all starting to sound very familiar!

To add to my worries of not getting everything sorted in time, it appears that one can no longer get a simple extension to a tourist visa on arrival in Indonesia. Oh no, that would be much too straightforward. Instead we have had to collate a small file on our worthy financial and employment status to present to the embassy and hopefully qualify for an extended visa. I don't mind having to prove my visiting status, after all, it's what we put people through to visit the UK (worse probably) but having to submit passports less than 3 weeks before we depart... I feel the need for a beta blocker comin on!

Another slight glitch is how we get from Bangkok to Kathmandu, economically in early April? Direct flights from Colombo or even one or two stop flights via India, have proved evasive to say the least. It seems that you need to fly from a major hub (ie; Singapore or Bangkok or Heathrow!) to get a direct flight to Kathmandu (KTM). I'm guessing there's not a huge demand for Colombo to KTM. With it being Nepalese New year i think we may have to pay a big premium. Ho hum. On the up side, we may have got ourselves a little apartment to use as a base in KTM. Keep you posted, but big up to Parina :oD

Practising...

2009-02-17T18:41:00.003Z

Ok. I'm going to make a concerted effort with my blogging entries. Need to get back into practise and not be distracted by looking at photos on Facebook. Crikey it's addictive that one is...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We had many realisations and moments of more clarity after we had returned home from our last trip. Perhaps sometimes it's looking back with rose tinted glasses. And sometimes it's tinged with regret. Only in so much as opportunities missed. To have a chance to be travelling again and to maybe do some things differently because we've learned from the last time. How lucky are we? I think we are all feeling this to a greater and lesser extent.

Things I want to do better this time include practising meditation and yoga right from the start (last time I only really got into it after an intensive week in Patnem, Goa, almost 5 months into the trip). Lee says he wants to make the effort to talk to more people. I think i agree with that one too. Alot of great adventures came out of talking to strangers. I came back to the UK talking to anyone, someone next to me on the bus (which usually caused people to think slightly weird), people in queues; I am less open again now. In fact there's lots of things that have reverted like that.

What else? Learn to scuba dive maybe (we might have to see about that one tho, my blood just ran cold at the thought of it, even heard the dern dun, dern dun in my head). Also, do some charitable work (still working on this one - so far am collecting learn to read English children's books as they were desperate for these in Ladakh so thinking maybe needed in Kathmandu). Also have made connection with Dristi Nepal, a harm reduction NGO working with women in Kathmandu.

Check out http://www.dristinepal.org/public/school/ for more info

It's been a while, but we're back!

2009-01-26T17:06:00.003Z

There is much news to tell, especially on the asian adventure front since we heading off once again to our favourite continent....

Now this is a bit of a shock, even to us.... Lee and I are getting married in Kandy, Sri Lanka in March 2009. It was Tevo & Roisin's idea but now I rather like the idea too, especially the bit that involves a rather luxurious honeymoon in the Maldives (I also think it's quite romantic getting married after 16 years and 2 children - saying yes I still want to spend the rest of my life with you even after all our ups downs and roundabouts).

So after the Maldives, well that's when the real travelling begins again...

First it's up to Nepal for some serious gompa stomping. Hope to spend about 2 months in the Himalaya. Then it's a quick hop and a skip (and a sizeable carbon footprint) across the ocean to beloved Indonesia. Last time we got as far as Lombok. This time, well watch this space.... but suffice to say Lombok will be just the start :o)

Ow, ow, ow!

2006-08-07T10:10:00.000+01:00

It didn't seem too painful at first - like scratching an area of skin repeatedly. But then it started to get hot, like a burn, so I slept a bit funny with tense neck and shoulders, but it's ok now. And I'm very very happy with it. I gave it alot of thought, especially the location, since it doesn't seem right to have Buddhist symbology where you might sit on it or something too near your feet. Will post a pic to the photo gallery.

We leave Bangkok in an hour so I'm off for my last fix of pad thai and green curry. And I was wrong - it wasn't my last Asian post afterall ;-)

Back in Bangkok

2006-08-06T12:05:00.000+01:00

We stayed much too long in rainy Koh Chnag and started to go a little stir crazy, since the beach was uninhabitable during the rain (which rarely lifted) and the prospect of leech infested forest walking didn't appeal. No snorkelling to be had either. Boo hoo! We attempted to seek out another beach on a sunnier afternoon and I managed to run out of petrol on my scooter on a steep hill. Only a 2km walk in the steamy swelter to find some petrol.

A saving grace was certainly meeting Papa at Little India restaurant. A wonderful Sikh man who runs a great little cafe with top nosh - we ate so much one lunch time we didn't need to eat again that day. Also managed to book our return flights with Etihad through a local agent for just over a 1000 pounds for 4 seats. That leaves us just about broke now and worrying slightly about our return to expensive Blighty. Gis' a job then ;-)

Now in Bangkok (songthaew, boat, another songthaew then very leaky smelly bus for nearly 7 hours - there are some things we won't miss it has to be said). Arriving on a Saturday night - alot of guesthouses were full - all our favourites - Bella Bella, Mango Lagoon, Viengtai. We finally found a place at the end of Rambutri Soi - Four Sons Hotel. 500 Baht for air con, TV, en suite clean rooms and a bigger bonus is we're just behind Khao San for shopping mayhem but enough away for it not be too hectic.

So this is our last 'asia entry' blog as we leave tomorrow. We'll try and post some more stuff when we get home - top ten places/experiences perhaps and a best beaches/islands run down (we ran a family survey and there are 3 places vying for the top spots).

So a final farewell from the Land of Smiles....

ps. I am off to get a tattoo now - a permanent reminder of our trip and my travel experiences - the eternal knot - one of the 8 auspicious Buddhist symbols. A symbol of the connectedness of all phenomena - a link with our fates and our karmic destiny - a reminder that future positive effects have their roots in the causes of the present. The knot has no beginning or end and also symbolises the infinite wisdom of the Buddha.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

2006-08-01T12:50:00.000+01:00

As you may know, it is currently the rainy season here in Koh Chang. Well, does it ever! So far in the 3 days we have been here, it has rained for half the day everyday and yesterday it rained all day and night. And I mean thunderstorming downpours that turn the roads into rivers, and whip the sea into the kind of frenzy that froths and roars in the background. It's a little difficult to do much of interest (like walking or snorkelling) and we're glad we haven't ventured onto one of the little quiet islands south from Chang, as there'd be even less to do than there is here.

We arrived here pretty late after leaving Sihanouk at 7am. The mini van was crammed with tourists, a driver and two extras (one sat on the roof with the bags and the other kept jumping out to fix things - resident mechanic it seems). It started raining a few minutes after leaving Sihanoukville and poured so hard you couldn't see the road (or the other traffic including slow moving buffalo carts who treat the main highway like a rural lane). It may come as no surprise to hear that the death rate on Cambodian roads has dramatically increased since the introduction of tarmac and these 'great' American built roads. They now drive in their jelopys at breakneck speed referring occassionally to the Indian rulebook of driving. To give you an example, our vehicle had water pouring in both sides, a broken door that slid open quite randomly when it wasn't refusing to open altogether, broken windscreen wipers and windows (including a rather hair-raising smash on the front windscreen). We all hung on to something as we careered and aqua-planed our way west, and wondered if the guy on the roof was still there since we couldn't actually see out of any of the windows.

So at first it was a relief when we reached the end of the tarmac, and found ourselves on the infamous Cambodia red dust roads - with holes the size of small vans and bumps that could launch a small plane, we slowed to a pace where we all felt we might actually survive when we crashed (rather than if). But then came the mud - and I mean miles and miles of road that was a quagmire of orange gloop - like someone had tried to solidify the Mekong. How this front wheel drive shed of a vehicle got us to the border, I really don't know. I think credit has to go to the driver, who seemed to know every slip and slide, and just how far he could push it. We got stuck 3 times altogether, with Lee getting sprayed orange while helping push us out the mud. JCBs hauled overloaded vehicles from the gloop, while we all waded ankle deep to get to more solid ground. In between mud baths, we had to cross several rivers on a raft-like car ferry. At one point it looked like someone had started the building work for a bridge but then abandoned their efforts as all the pillars were sinking at odd angles. The car ferry looked the better option at this point - but given the tricky door on our van, we opted to get out the vehicle while crossing, in case we had to swim.

Eventually we reached the border - signed out with the Cambodian officials and signed in with Thai immigration. The van awaiting us on the Thai side was a gleaming air-conditioned leather-seated affair and whisked us to Trat in no time at all. We missed the 5 o'clock ferry but fortunately there was another at 6pm. We also booked accommodation for that night on the main island (and our return bus for Bangkok). Because it's low season, the rooms here are really cheap at a third to half their usual prices. So we are staying at White Sands Beach (not that nice but then it's blowing a storm out there) in a brand new rather swanky place called Alina's (huge room and balcony, two king sized beds {Roisin was very happy about the sprung mattresses}, aircon, TV and a lovely swimming pool) - only 12 quid a night.

There's loads of restaurants around to keep us occupied with food (while it rains some more) and today, in the brief interim this morning when it didn't rain, we went out on mopeds to explore a bit. It's pretty well developed down the west coast of the island - maybe tomorrow if the rain holds off, we can venture round the other side and explore some more. Until then, it's back to the backgammon and guitar playing.

Chillin' in Sihanoukville

2006-07-27T12:06:00.000+01:00

Arrived on the south coast of Cambodia, in the port of Sihanoukville. A rough and ready little place where the beach 'resorts' are fairly sprawling and mostly set back from the beach behind the road. A little Agonda-esque only busier and a tide that almost reaches the cafe door. It's definitely a place with a vibe and we had a great day down at one of the beach front cafes, eating, drinking Beerlao and playing guitar, punctuated by the odd swim. You find yourself in constant conversation with the locals who are selling everything from massages and threading (like waxing - she came straight over grabbing my legs saying "you hairy, me fix for you" as she's yanking at my leg hair and trying to check my armpit) to books and bracelets. They're pretty persistent although very friendly, and very physically close to - sitting holding your hand or with their arm around you. They are genuinely affectionate people and obviously, it helps if they can make a few dollars too. We sat and chatted with them - letting the kids play the guitar and generally be very cheeky - and stocking up on yet more bracelets and fruit.

I can imagine how some travellers might find it all a little challenging, especially if you're not used to it but it's all very good natured (if somewhat competitive between some of the locals). The food's ok down on the beach although we took a taxi to Victory Hill for a curry today - and it was truly horrible food. We're down near Ocheateal (?) - but none of the beaches are spectacularly inviting and not a patch on the Thai islands (or Gili Air or Perhentian Kecil). We've been so spoilt really. But the key to enjoying Sihanouk I think is getting into the atmosphere and banter, rather than having expectations of coral filled torquoise seas and beach huts on the sand. Since this is our last week or two and we do love a good beachside hut and some snorkelling distraction, we are off in search of this over the Thai border. Tomorrow we leave for Koh Chang National Marine Park, just over the border. Leaving at 7am, it'll take us til evening to get there but then we can relax, thai-stylie, for our final week.

The flights back to London from Bangkok are looking alot more expensive than we realised so we're going to have to get to Bangkok and see if we can find a better deal.

That's all for now.....

Hanging out in Phnom Penh

2006-07-24T07:59:00.000+01:00

After a somewhat frantic arrival in Phnom Penh, where we are crowded down by moto and tuk-tuk drivers at the bus stop (so much so that a local policeman intervenes to get them to back off), we head to a nearby Thai cafe for some much needed food. While the kids and Lee chill over some iced lime juice and phad thai, I take off on the back of a moto to find a hotel. Now I know I usually have quite a fixed opinion about motorbikes. I'm happier when there's helmets involved and we have been careful about when and where we have used this form of transport. But throwing caution to the wind, I zip across town enjoying the breeze in my hair and watch with fascination as somehow the traffic just seems to slot together. They come at these junctions from all directions and there are times where it feels like a kamikaze mission as the bike just strides out into crossways traffic, but a steady pace seems to allow all the drivers to anticipate each others direction and location and somehow, amazingly, it all just slots together. Another interesting experience with PP moto drivers is they mostly don't speak English, so despite the fact that they nod their head vigorously at you, they have no idea where it is you've just asked to go. My request to go to the Royal Palace (to scout some nearby hotels) ends up with me arriving at The Royal - some hugely expensive Raffles like hotel on the other side of town. No matter - we engage the translation services of a tuk-tuk driver outside the fancy hotel and much to everyone's amusement, he explains I want to go to the Palace, and not actually stay there.

Once at my destination, I check out a few hotels, but they are either full, or grubby or too expensive. Another moto driver asks me if he can help and I say ok - and let him take me to a hotel that has rooms for under 10 dollars. The Royal Highness Hotel sounds alot nicer than it is. It's ok but is undergoing building work so we have had various incidents involving early morning hammering, water cut offs and the best of all - when the roof almost caved in during a monsoonal rain storm. Luckily, we were in, so we rescued all our stuff off the floor and no damage was done (apart from the caved in ceiling of course). The staff are friendly and helpful though and it's a good location (with a free pool table) so we have stayed put. It's also a fascinating spot for some 'rear window-esque' people watching. Our hotel has large reflective glass windows so you can watch the world go by without anyone noticing you. Opoosite, there's a row of chinese shophouse style buildings - where the ground floor is a shop, cafe or laundry type place and the upper rooms each house entire families in small 1 or 2 roomed apartments. Each little room has a balcony and the the families wander on and off the balcony going about their household tasks. Children climb precariously on the balcony walls, women clean and do their washing, men sit and watch the world go by or play with their children. I watch them get ready for work or just lazing around in the afternoon swelter. When the rains come, it's a scramble (as much as Cambodians really scramble) as people bring in their washing or grab things from the balconies. It rained so hard the other afternoon, the street became a river and you could just watch the people watching the rain. There's not much else you can do when it rains like that.

We've not been up to much here in Phnom Penh. We've wandered about, making the most of the excellent range of eateries (had a cracking 2 dollar thali lunch at Chi Cha's Indian cafe yesterday) and been on shopping expeditions with the kids for birthday presents. We now have a remote control car and a range of barbie-like dolls and accessories to carry, along with lots of new gameboy and PS2 games (which we have promised to buy the children on our return). We also bought a huge cake which they somehow managed to eat over the course of 3 days. We had several unsuccessful attempts at meeting up with our old Indian travelling buddy Nat, but it obviously wasn't meant to happen and we'll have to see her back in Blighty. We also did the tourist bit - and visited the Royal Palace and the rather spectacular Silver Pagoda (so called as the floor is covered in silver tiles). The National Museum was really interesting and the children were brilliant at spotting various artefacts and picking up on where they were from and what they related to. I think it's best to come here after visiting the temples around Siem Reap, as it all makes alot more sense having seen where much of the stuff comes from.

A note about the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuel Sleng Museum. No we haven't visited them but we have thought alot about it. We decided the children are too young to take in something that is so unbelievably horrific. It would give them nightmares and they don't need to face up to something like that just now. Yes, Lee and I might have gone if it was just us but even then, I had my doubts. I'm not someone who needs to place myself in front of such memorials/mass graves/torture chambers to feel how profoundly depressing Cambodian history is - I've been doing alot of reading and I can picture the true horror of what went on (and have shed some tears over it and have spent a great deal of time trying to get my head around Cambodian history). For some, being there helps bring it to life in their minds, and I'm sure I would be overwhelmed with such feelings if I went there (perhaps too much so). But it not something I feel I have to see - I'm certainly not turning a blind eye to it because I have been thinking about it alot while I've been travelling here. We just decided not to go and I think it was the right thing for us to do.

On a lighter note - how can I forget - we also went go-carting for the children's birthday! Now I'm sure there are rules against 8 year olds having so much fun in the UK. But this is Cambodia. The staff propped them up with a few extra cushions so they could reach the pedals, a decent helmet fitted and zoom.... they were off in a puff of dust and smoke. Lee and I obviously had to go too so we could keep an eye on them. We were really quite stunned at how well they both drive having had no guidance or instruction although we had to keep reminding Tevo that it wasn't a computer game, and crashing might hurt a bit end. Great fun.

So having whiled away a week in Phnom Penh, we are now heading south to the coast. The beaches of Sihanouk Ville and maybe some nearby islands are next on the agenda. It's a weird time for us as we are due to return to the UK in about 2 weeks or so. We plan to enter Thailand via the fast boat from Sihanouk to Trat. We then plan to have a final week 'on holiday' in Koh Chang - a national marine park off the east coast of Thailand, before flying home from Bangkok. we have alot of mixed feelings about coming home. Excited yes, and looking forward to all the things we've missed - friends, family, food, our own home but very apprehensive and sad too. It feels very sad to think of this as the last chapter of our amazing journey, and our apprehension at what our lives will be when we return home. What will we do for work, which direction will we take now? - not wanting things to be the same anymore and wanting to try new things. It's quite overwhelming so we don't think about it too much just yet. We'll just take it as it comes and see where we end up. After all, isn't that one of the things that travelling teaches you. There is no plan - it is what it is - there are no mistakes.

For now, it's back to the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh and I'm off in search of a green Krama.

Welcome to Cambodia

2006-07-18T12:12:00.000+01:00

Arrived at the 'just opened 4 days ago' Siem Reap airport in western Cambodia. Probably the nicest airport we've seen on our trip - very funky design which obviously Lee was enamoured with. Nabbed a super cheap flight from KL and totally worth the jump back up through SE Asia.

We spent the first day adjusting to the climate - it's still hot, hot, hot round these parts but at least it rains in the afternoon and gets a little cooler - plus a room with air-con is only 10 US dollars so always have an escape from the muggy and incessant humidity. That is, unless you are climbing up huge and dangerously steep steps of enormous and rambling temples that seem to sprawl the entire surrounding area of the town. Siem Reap is a place of contrasts for sure. Lots of wealth from the tourism that the temples of Angkor and Bayon attract (only 2000 USD a night for a suite at Raffles!) but also evident poverty and hardship for those struggling to eke a living here.

We found ourselves a driver, Maheit, with his trusty moto carriage (a motorbike towing a small tuk tuk like carriage) and arranged a 3 day pass to explore the sites. On the first day we explored Angkor Thom and the temples of Bayon. Mesmorising giant faces (of Buddha and Brahma incarnations they say) face all directions to protect the ancient city from invaders - there must be 20 or 30 of these giant towers just in Bayon alone. We were so entranced we even returned for a sunrise visit. The Baphoun (where there is a giant reclining Buddha) at Angkor Thom is also undergoing huge works, so it was a little difficult to identify Buddha's head. Lots of children selling bracelets and flutes and postcards. It's so hard to say no to them, especially as they are not begging (which can't be in their interests to reinforce) and you know that their families probably rely heavily on the small amount of money they make - but there's so many of them. Needless to say we are now fully stocked with bracelets, postcards, flutes and fans.

Next was Angor Wat - a sprawling beautiful site - despite the evident destruction and decay (which is carefully being repaired with UNESCO money). Amazing carved scenes from the Ramayana and Buddha's life and certainly no shortage on the wow factor. It's busy of course, and especially when we return for sunset on the last day. But no matter, it's still a fantastic place to experience and just take a meditative moment or two in the central wat. I think the Bayon faces and the the wall of elephants (at Angkor Thom) were my personal favourites. We had a crappy meal near the temples and then flopped out in our air-conditioned room to recover. The food in Siem Reap itself is pretty good. It's hard to get decent veggie street ór Khmer cafe food and they seem to insist that fish sauce has to go in everything, as well as using those crappy Thai imported egg noodles instead of the more divine rice noodle that's so easy to get in Laos and Thailand but we just haven't seen here. But there's a good range of restaurants and cafes and we've enjoyed great indian food, phad thai and Khmer pancake rolls (though the mint leaves came as a bit of a surprise).

On the second day, we had a little scoot about town and bought lots of books. Lee and I read the rather disturbing ''Óff The Rails in Phnom Penh'' and the tragic and moving account "When Broken Glass Floats'', while we were in Gili Air. Both of us were fired up to read more about Cambodia's history so we are currently making our way through ''Year Zero'' and ''Highways to War''. Cambodia's history is everywhere you look. It's in the weary faces of the old and bright smiles of the young, where over half the population is aged uder 15. No-one's quite sure how many people died during the civil wars (and the secret US bombings during the Indochina war that may have killed as many as 1/4 million) and then the brutal purges of the Khmer Rouge, and subsequent poverty and famine. Current estimates from a study by Yale University (I think?) are in the region of 2 million people. There are huge numbers of young children working the streets (mostly touting goods to tourists) and numerous amputees (as a result of minefields - which means wandering off on solitary treks is out of the question). Cambodia's poverty is vividly apparent and the contrast between the smiles of these friendly and welcoming people and the hardship of the lives that most people lead is challenging and humbling. It certainly reminds me more of India than anywhere else we have been.

In the late afternoon, we then explored the twin temples of Chao Say Tevoda and Thommanon, the latter also in a state of having extensive repairs. We then went to Ta Prohm, the temple that's been swallowed up by the jungle - an unbelievably atmospheric place. We then returned to Angkor for sunset. Tevo and Roisin played 'races' with some local children and a few NGO workers on the causeway, while Lee, Maheit and I chatted about life and a bit of Cambodian history. Maheit comes from a rural life in the North East near Kratie. His brother died during a bombing campaign. He served several stints in the army, mostly under Sihanouk, but during the time of the ''Khmer Rouge and then the communists'', he spent a lot of time hiding in the jungle. He says he joined a rebel army of freedom fighters at one point but then ran away again and hid. He said he feels very lucky to have the life he has now - being able to speak English and work as a tuk-tuk driver ("I have a motorbike and a few dollars in my pocket - where I come from I am rich beyond anything they could imagine). He only got married last year (he's 36) and he tells us all about how he met his wife and brought her to Angkor Wat, where they sat in the inner temple and talked about whether they felt they could have a life together. He says his wife is from a very poor village as that's all he could afford - I guess they have an Indian-like dowry system here too.

On the third day, after a solitary sunrise exploration of Bayon we set off further afield for the temple Banteay Srei, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and a fine example of Angkorian art (check out the photos). We then took a bumpy ride north to Kbal Spean. A half hour hike through the forest and jungle leads you to a carved riverbed, the "River of a Thousand Lingas" where they have been elaborately carved into a natural rock bridge and along the riverbed. Having got up so early (4am), we were all exhausted and headed back to town. The children once again proved their ability to sleep absolutely anywhere by falling asleep on the wooden ledge of the moto carriage.

Back in town, Maheit invited us to his home to meet his pregnant wife (due any day). He was so excited about having children here and was becoming good friends with them, playing cards with Tevo and joking around with them - he said they don't see many Western children and he'd been telling his wife all about Tevo and Roisin. So we visited his compound where he rents a room. About 4 by 4 metres - this room is their home. There's a bed, a cooking corner, a TV on some drawers and two sets of shelves. Inside, we meet his lovely wife, Maheit's sister-in-law and his sister. They've been making biscuits to sell in the market and very generously offer us platefuls, which they keep restocking as Tevo and Roisin tuck in. His wife and sisters don't speak english but Maheit translates and we chat about life in the compound and the families that live here. The whole site has about 10-15 rooms in blocks around a yard, where scrawny chickens and ducks strut about the puddles. The owner lives in the main house (about the size of one of the blocks). He rents carriages to the men here who have their own motorbikes. It costs them 60 dollars a month for the room and the tuk-tuk carriage. His sister tries to comb Roisin's hair (which hasn't been brushed for several days) and they clearly enjoy having the children here. It rains so hard at one point we can barely hear ourselves think from the noise of the deluge on the corrugated roof. I wish I had had the chance to bring them a gift for being so kind as to invite us here and welcome us into their home. We try to learn some Khmer and wish them all the very best of luck in the future and all good wishes for the new baby (at least I hope that's what we said). We say goodbye to Maheit back at the hotel, and give him some extra cash for the new baby. He seems really happy and perhaps this is the best thing we can give them, rather than some daft gift they neither want nor need.

The next day we rested and watched movies, and spoilt ourselves with some imported wine and cheese and brown bread. It gave me stomach ache - I'm starting to think that wheat may not be the best source of complex carbs.

Early the next morning, we get a bus to take us to Kompong Cham, en route to Kratie. It's a long journey but the roads are surprisingly good (and it seems they have the same approach as Indians to using the horn - used for every manouvre, it means, I'm behind you, I'm over taking you, I'm pulling out, you're in the road, move over, I'm bigger than you.... and so on). This is supposed to be the best place to buy Kramas, the traditional Khmer scarf used as sun protection for the head, dust mask, waistband, carrying children, a towel....etc. I manage to find two blue ones, one as a present for my friend Beaker when he's roofing and sweating in the hot sun and one for me. I opt for blue, as I don't want the red associated with the Khmer rouge but then find out that the blue is associated with the Vietnamese invaders. I decide to try and find a green check in Phnom Penh. We only spend one night in Kompong Cham, a very strange little town with a communist feel (probably the hotel we stayed in which seems to be designed with communist architecture in mind) and set off for Kratie at yet another undesirable hour of the morning. There are no boats going up the Mekong to Kratie anymore. We're gutted as this was what we came to do but they have stopped them as they are too expensive for locals and not enough tourists to justify them anymore. It's great to see the mighty Mekong again though.

I meet Red on the bus (he helps me with the window as I try desperately not to throw up from the smell of Durian on the bus). He's learning English and works as a guide at a Kratie hotel. He points the hotel out as we pass and asks if we want to come and see it, so we do and it's very nice - aircon, cable TV & sprung mattress bed in a bright airy room for 10 dollars (which is a great deal for us given that the dollar doesn't appear to be doing so good against the pound here). There's also a spectacular rooftop balcony for some guitar playing and wine drinking. Red organises us a taxi to take us up to Kampi to take a boat out to see if we can spot some Irrawaddy dolphins. There's two other small boats and the drivers are careful to cut their engines when they enter the bowl where the dolphins fish. As we silently bob about, their graceful backs arch out of the water (they don't leap about like their bottle-nosed or spinning cousins) and every now and then you get a peek at their serene round headed faces. The orange muddy water of the Mekong makes a beautiful backdrop as the low sun starts to shimmer across the water, occasionally broken by their silvery bodies. We see at least 3 different pairs. Scary to think that these endangered creatures may not be around when the children reach our age.

Kratie seems to be a typical Cambodian town, with a sprinkling of Wats, a central grubby market, lots of worn down colonial architecture and the constant puttering of motorbikes. The place certainly has character and we enjoy a wander or two around town and along the banks of the Mekong. We also meet several NGO workers, including a family from Idaho with three young children, who work at the local hospital (the parents that is, not the children).

We leave Kratie for the long bus journey down to Phnom Penh. It's the children's birthdays soon, so we have promised them toy shops and cakes in the capital. The plan is to rest and eat and chill for a few days before heading south to the coast.

Gili Island Dreaming...

2006-07-06T06:12:00.000+01:00

I had to start a new blog for Lombok because it has been the absolute highlight of coming to Indonesia. Lombok is so incredibly beautiful. Obviously, they too have been affected terribly by the drop in tourism. I don't think it's just the Bali bombings, although this has driven many Australians away. I think people may worry about Indonesia's instability in general and the current natural disaster tally is getting ridiculous. If the tsunami wasn't enough, they are currently dealing with exploding volcanos (Yogyarta) and devastating flooding and landslides (Sulawesi). But these things happen in relatively contained areas, and most parts of this archipelago are peaceful and beautiful places to explore.

Lombok is the first island in the Nusa Tengarra region. A string of islands (500 in total) starting east of Bali that continue all the way to Timor, with Gunung Rinjani (Lombok's mighty volcano) being its highest point at 3726m. We arrived in the port of Lembar and organised our own bemo to take us to the north west corner at Bangsal to catch a boat to the Gili Islands. Time was catching up on us as the last boat departs around 6pm and it was already 4.30pm. We did not want to get caught in Bangsal as the LP said it could be quite an unpleasant place. As it turned out, they were quite friendly and we didn't really get hassled that much. We bought our tickets from the harbour office and sat watching the sunset waiting for our boat. We opted for Gili Air as it was the nearest and not as busy as the party island of Gili Trawangan, or has the isolation (and mosquitos) of Gili Meno.

While mum, Lee and the kids got some dinner, I ventured off to check out some accommodation. We opted for Sunrise Bungalows, gorgeous little 'rice barn' cottages, with a bedroom and balcony at the top, and a bathroom and magic chillin area downstairs (complete with daybed and hammock). The only letdown was the bathroom but then I have only seen one decent bathroom in Indonesia so far and I think that's just because it was brand new. At 100k per night, it's another bargain.

I woke up at sunrise and watched the colours change and sunlight emerge from behind Rinjani, as the sun started to sparkle across the clear torquoise waters. An incredible view to wake up to and I knew there and then we had made the right choice to come here. We spent our days snorkeling, eating, swimming, sunbathing and wandering around. The locals are incredibly friendly and we make loads of new friends. And what a joy to wander around without worrying about being run down by a motorbike (there are no motorised vehicles allowed on the islands - only pushbikes and ponycarts). We spent a blissful 5 days chilling out in this island paradise and mum even learnt to snorkel. We took a snorkel trip around the islands, exploring the Meno wall (which was a little bit scary and deep) where we saw loads of turtles. We had lunch on Meno and then went off to explore lots of other coral. Some of the best coral is actually around Gili Air and there's some cracking drifts right along where we stayed. Amazing fish - and more unusually we saw calamari (like a giant squid), banded sea snake, rays and those amusing fish that puff up like a ball if they get scared.

Sadly, mum had to return to the UK after her 2 short weeks so I escorted her back to Bali, staying in Kuta for a 2 nights and then I took a flight back to Mataram and made my way back to the Gili's from there. It's a good job I went with my mum because there was a bit of trouble back in Bali (well there's a surprise) when the shuttle company wouldn't accept one woman's ticket even though we had all seen her pay for the extension. The staff at Wanista Warika (?) in Padangbai were hideously aggressive and out of order, calling us liars and cheats (for the sake of 4 dollars - I don't think so buddy).

Anyway, mum and I went on a bit of a shopping frenzy in Kuta and ate nice food (being two things there are alot of in Kuta - restaurants and shops). When I took her to the airport, I had to bribe a policeman to let me in the building as I had no ticket. It felt very odd and highly criminal - but then it's the way things are here and just how things are done. You can't judge things here by the way we do things in the UK. Life is simply not the same and the rules are quite different. However, it kinda makes a big joke out of the airport security. Especially when I saw someone bribing an officer over identity cards at the check-in for my domestic flight the following morning.

I enjoyed my solo foray back into Lombok and had a short wander in Mataram before taking a cheap taxi back up to Bangsal. I sat chatting to the local boys in the harbour while waiting for the next public boat. Once they know you don't want to buy anything (or you are tanned enough to look like you've been here a while) they don't bother you anymore. A few words of Bahasa goes a long way too.

We spent another 10 wonderful days on Gili Air and had some amazing and unforgettable experiences with our new friends. Tevo and Roisin were warmly welcomed by . Everyone knows each other on the island - it is a true community in every sense. We learnt so much about island life and life on Lombok - and how different things are here (not simply that they are mostly muslim as opposed to hindu).

Tevo became quite the fisherman going out regularly with some of the local men to the beach, learning to cast out and reel 'em in, with the lovely Ali (who Roisin very kindly gave her fishing rod to and he was most chuffed). We all snorkelled til we could snorkel no more. And in the evening, we played guitar and sang, learning new songs with our new friends and then if we managed to stay up late enough, pile back to the staff quarters to watch football. It's hard to really put into words just how wonderful a place Gili Air is - the people, the landscape, the coral, the clear water - it's like a dreamy paradise and we feel like the luckiest people in the world to have come this far on our trip. There's one thing for sure though, we will return here and it will be just the start of an exploration of the Nusa Tengarra islands. Rinjani beckons, as do the islands from Lombok, Sumbawa, and Rinca, to Komodo and Flores. A definite future adventure.....

Ups and Downs in Bali

2006-07-01T12:09:00.000+01:00

After an emotional reunion with my mum, we spent another night in Kuta. Mum was more than happy to leave as soon as possible, so we headed to Ubud for a night or two of culture and temples. It was quite nice. Still quite touristy and so many flippin shops everywhere. It's like people come to Bali to shop. Not quite what we had in mind really.

After getting a taxi up to Ubud, we stayed at Gusti's Cottages, which had lovely gardens, a cute pool and ok rooms. It looks like bathrooms are not the strongpoint in Indonesian guesthouses. Most have been a bit skanky so far. Everything leaks and is stained brown and there's a constant strange smell. Anyway, after dumping our bags and a fabulous lunch at a nearby Warang (the veggie food options have been looking up since leaving Malaysia and the Indonesians make a damn fine tofu and tempe curry), we set off on a walk around Ubud. We took the trail shown in the Lonely Planet, down through the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (where we nervously watched cheeky macaques scoffing tourist offerings of goodies) and then south of Ubud and up through the rice paddies. It was a lovely evening and the views were refreshing after all that Kuta mayhem. We came through another village where there were lots of local artists and then it started to go dark so rather than chance dark roads and crazy drivers, we caught a lift with some motorcycle taxis. Mum on one, me and T on another, and Lee and Roisin on another. It was a spontaneous bit of fun and riding without helmets isn't something I'd normally do, but it actually seemed the safer option at that point. Plus after a long days travel and a 6km walk, we were all ready to flop.

The next day we hired a driver and jeep and got him to take us to all the local sights - Goa Gajah, Yeh Pulu, Gunung Kawi and Tirta Empul. Important temples and sites of archeological and historical interest - it was okay. Personally I though Goa Gajah looked like someone had pilfered the caves of anything interesting, Yeh Pulu was a carved wall at the end of a nice rainy walk through some paddy fields where we recieved a blessing from an old crone, Gunung Kawi was slightly more impressive with its giant niches carved into the cliff faces and Tirta Empul (where it is said the waters have magical properties) was packed with children as it's the start of the school holidays. I wonder if we have been a little spoiled now after India and Sri Lanka, as nothing was that exceptional really and the kids were a bit bored if I'm honest. Plus it rained ALL DAY so that wasn't helping. We had a nice lunch and the day was then rescued for the kids when we visited Rinca Reptile Park.. Totally worth the extra dosh (it's expensive for Indonesia). We got to see all manner of snakes, spiders and reptiles including a Komodo dragon and a very angry King Cobra. The children got to hold a tortoise, an iguana and even stroke a giant monitor lizard.

We got back to Ubud in time to get tickets to go and watch some Balinese dancing. I think the kids were fed up by this point though, and although it was really good, we decided to leave early and get some dinner before everyone fell asleep. We ate at a fancy restaurant next to the Royal Temple.

The next morning, mum and I set out to do some shopping. Mum bought some really nice jewellery and I got a fancy dress. My first 'dressing up' clothes in nearly a year, it felt strange to be wearing a skirt that isn't a sarong or lungi. On leaving Ubud, we visited Bali Bird Park. Again a bit expensive, but again, something the children enjoyed immensely. Loads of birds from all over SE Asia including lots of types of Hornbills and the very impressive Birds of Paradise. They even got to hold some friendly Macaws. After lunch we headed north to the volcanos (still with the same driver who was costing about 180k rupiah per day - which is about 11 quid).

When we reached the south end of the lake, our driver (typically) tried to take us to a hotel of his choice (which wasn't even in Toya Bungka). Then we started to get alot of aggressive hassle off some local touts who insisted we had to buy permits there before heading down to the lakeside. When we insisted our driver take us down to Toya Bungka, they followed us in another vehicle shotuing and trying to get us to pull over and then to follow them. We had to be quite assertive with our driver about not stopping and keeping going until we reached the village. Not the best introduction we were hoping for it has to be said. Although driving down through the lava fields was quite impressive and the lake is really beautiful.

After looking at some very overpriced rooms at the end of the lane, we opted for a cheap bed at Under the Volcano III. We only plan to be here for one night and even then, we'll be up and out at 4am. We organise a trek for the morning and have dinner at Volcano II. It seems to be the only place open with food and we are the only tourists in the village. We hear about how there are virtually no tourists here now. After the Bali bomb, business has dropped dramatically. Plus, the World Cup means that the usual trekkers (mostly Europeans we are told) are not here either (apparently Aussies like to surf and Japanese like the beaches and shops). Its very picturesque here, if a little spooky at night. Mum got the heebie-jeebies being on her own in her room listening to the stange noises outside. We had a lovely evening star gazing (awesome views of the Milky Way - the best since Ladakh) and this is despite the fact that mum got a cockroah in her coffee. She was totally cool though and didn't freak out at all - although quite rightly asked for another drink. Once again, we ate more eggs than are probably good for us and prepared our gear for the morning hike up Ganung Batur.

Edi our guide arrived just before 4am and we set off in surprisingly mild conditions. Now, it has pretty much rained for most of the time we have been in Bali so we couldn't believe our luck at having such clear skies. It took us just over 2 hours to get to the first peak, and sunrise was totally rewarding with amazing views across to Gunung Agung (Bali's holiest and biggest mountain/volcano) and the mighty Rinjani in Lombok. Edi was a great guide and told us lots of interesting stuff about the geography, the different craters and previous eruptions. From the first peak we followed the trail around the main crater and then down to subsequent ones. Steamy sulphurous vents and crackling rocks impressed the children no end. We sat on the warm ground to ease our tired limbs while Edi cooked us our eggs in the ground. We completed the long trek right across the top and dropping down the slopes to the south end of the lake. we had gorgeous weather and it was probably one of the most interesting hikes we've ever done. Edi was most impressed by my mum's efforts I think and we were happy that Bail had finally wowed us (as I was starting to worry about this place and why exactly it is that people come here).

After 7 1/2 hrs, we finally reached Toya Bungka again. We ate more eggs and then set off for Padangbai on the east coast. We opted to stay at someone a bit better than basic and found ourselves great rooms (roomy, clean bathrooms, nice furniture and a fabulous pool). We had probably the best family room of our trip and a bargain at 350k rupiah (about 20 quid). As we were all so tired we stayed for an extra few nights while we contemplated our next move. The plan was to visit Nusa Penida and Lembongan - two islands to the east of Bali. I had some serious concerns about how much hassle you get here and how it may not be the island paradise we are looking for. We already knew we would go to the Gili Islands in Lombok after my mum left, but we decided maybe we should just go straight there.

Padangbai is a fairly uninteresting and drab port town - the main exit for Lombok and further east. Still lots of hassle and the beach is a pretty filthy with rubbish and seaweed everywhere. We could have headed a few kms out and found a nicer beach but instead opted for some R&R at our lovely hotel. Mum and Roisin went for massages while we all ate and swam and rested.

We left Bali on the public ferry to Lembar in Lombok. After rushing our brekkie and legging it onto the 9am ferry, we finally set off at 11am. The journey takes another 5 or so hours. It is possibly the slowest boat I have ever been on. But it's very exciting. We're off to Lombok and I've always wanted to go there. Bali without the crowds and hassle - let's hope so!

Surf's up, dude!

2006-06-17T11:51:00.000+01:00

We made a two night stopover in Kuala Lumpur, where we returned to the China Town Inn in Petaling Street. We shopped (alot), ate at Fatt Yan's and visted the rather marvellous Petronos Twin Towers - the largest twin towers in the world. We crossed the sky bridge (they give free tours) and enjoyed the biggest outdoor play area we have ever seen in our lives in the great big park they have built around it.

Then it was off to Bali - as we were meeting my mum in a few days, we decided to stay close to the airport and (unfortunately) opted for Kute. Hassle, hassle, hassle - ALL THE TIME! They just never leave you alone here. We were impressed by the surf but not being surfers, there's not alot else to do (other than saying no thankyou, I don't want transport, or a watch, or a sarong or anything else for that matter) . I thought I had died and gone to the Spanish Costas. Tacky shops, busy beach and loads of restaurants - so we at least we could give the peanut butter crackers a miss!

Lee and I met these two lovely lads from Tuk Tuk in Samosir, Sumatra and so spent a great evening playing guitar and singing and having a laugh. This lightened our mood considerably, and the prospect of seeing my mum in a day or two. We've now met up with my mum and are off on a Bali adventure. It's an adjustment being back in Indonesia, which reminds us alot of India, but we have high hopes for some intrepid adventures once we get away from package central!

Mount Kinabalu & Other Sabah Adventures

2006-06-08T07:31:00.000+01:00

We arrived at Mount Kinabalu National Park, Malaysia's first (and rather spectacular) World Heritage Site after a one and half hour taxi ride from Kota Kinabalu. We checked into their fabulous accommodation, with the mountain towering above us. We stayed in Ligawu Lodge (?) and were given a fantastic split level room with two bathrooms, a huge bed on the mezzanine floor and a giant sofa with lots of large floor cushions. All wooden floors, floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the forest and cable TV. Apart from the Mt Lavinia Hotel in Sri Lanka, probably the best place we've stayed in on the entire trip.

We tried to get an early night before we started our trek, although I slept rather fitfully (think I had an attack of pre-climb nerves) and managed to take a chunk out of my shin on the bed corner and fall down the stairs in the morning - not the start I was hoping for! We had a huge overpriced breakfast and met our guide Roi, then took a shuttle to the start of the trek and set off. It was fairly clear when we departed but this didn't last for long. The climb itself is just under 10km to the summit, but the steepness of the paths and rocky steps has to be experienced to be believed. It's about a 45+ degree incline all the way and there is very little relief. It just goes up and up and up. The steps are past the kids waists at times, so we have to haul ourselves up and then help them. It's very hard going. There are rest stops every kilometre, small shelters with benches and these are very well used. The first 2km pass fairly quickly but then it starts to rain. And I don't mean Manchester drizzle - I mean Bornean downpour. The path rapidly becomes a waterfall and we are totally soaked in our new outdoor clothing that turns out to be not very waterproof at all. Within half an hour, our boots are filled with water as it pours down our legs and gushes off the rocks into our boots. Visibility is not great and all you can see is the steep rocks and tree roots above you and the dense forest to the side. There are no views. It has to be one of the most unrewarding treks we have ever endured. And it is an endurance test - not an interesting trek through rainforest. All you see are your feet and the rain as you try not to fall or slip and concentrate on the ground as much as you can. It's pretty hellish.

Laban Rata, the pre-summit base camp, is enshrouded in cloud when we drag ourselves in after enduring 6 1/2 hours climbing (most people make it to here in about 4-5 hrs). It's like a frat house dorm, very loud and very basic. Our room looks like 'my not so beautiful laundrette' as we fail miserably in trying to dry out our gear for the morning. We have to pay 10 pounds each to dry our boots (which turns out to be a pointless exercise). We eat more eggs and try to get some sleep. I can feel the altitude (we're at about 3300m) and have a headache and insomnia. Tevo starts vomiting during the night but says he feels better in the morning. At 2am, we get dressed in our damp clothes and winter woollies and set off for the summit. Just past the last of the rest houses (about 3400m), Roisin starts throwing up too. Tevo complains of a headache and keeps missing his footing as we walk - his co-ordination is already being affected. This part of the climb is even steeper to begin with. It is clear we're not going to be going to the top so Lee goes with Roi, our guide, and I return to Laban Rata with the children. I regretted my decision to let Lee go instead of me as soon as the children were back in their bunks. I felt so disappointed at having come so far and being so close. I waited up for sunrise but the views weren't that great from Laban Rata as the skies were not so clear still, although it had finally stopped raining.

Meanwhile, Lee raced to the top of the mountain. He made it in less than an hour and a half, so had another hour to wait until sunrise. He perched himself at the summit and almost froze to death. He says it's the coldest he's ever been in his life. The sunrise wasn't as spectacular as he hoped as it was obscured on the horizon by alot of cloud, but he had amazing views all around the Sabah coastline (and I'm sure this is the version that Globetrekker will show when they air their programme since Ian Wright had just been there a few days before), and he could see many of the islands. He raced back down and was back in his bunk by 7am. After a short nap, we all had some more eggs and peanut butter on crackers, and then set off from Laban Rata at about 10am. Within half an hour it was raining again. Fortunately, none of us were as miserable this time (the prospect of a lovely hot bath at Poring Hot Springs perhaps) and we made it down in about 4 1/2 hours.

We left almost immediately for the hot springs and were woefully disppointed when we got there to find one of the grottiest rooms we had ever stayed in (surprisingly still part of the park accommodation). We were promised a 4 bed room and were given a 2 bed cell, so we had to reduce our stay from 2 nights to 1 in order to afford an extra room. The prospect of sharing the bathroom (with its freezing cold showers) with the general public was not appealing either. The next morning we could barely walk and steps were more than hellish. We checked out the springs, but as it was the first day of the school holidays, it was packed beyond belief, so Lee and I rested in the sun (now it decides to stop raining) while the children played with the Malaysian children in the pool and the water slide. Everyone was so friendly and polite, it was actually very enjoyable despite being so busy. After that, we went to the canopy walk above the forest, it's the highest in Malaysia. The steps up there are only about 800m, but it felt like 8 miles. Roisin almost refused to move anymore. But once we got up there, we all thought it was worth the pain as we wobbled across the bridges high above the trees.

After this, we grabbed our bags and headed to the nearest town of Ranau to catch the bus to Sepilok, right near the east coast of Sabah. Unbeknown to us, we had missed the last bus, so after a 3 hour wait at the bus stop, a passing bemo (kind of like a mini van with seats) picked us up and took us on our way. Normally, they drop you at the roadside on their specific route, but they took us right to the door of Sepilok Jungle Resort, where we wanted to stay. The bargain family room turned out to be a cockroach infested cramped dorm. That night I listened to them scuttling about on the floor as I wondered if I dared scamper to the bathroom. It gave me another dose of insomnia and I was awake for most of the night. The next morning we asked for a new room but they could only offer us a large double aircon, so we took it and were relieved to find these rooms were set along the beautiful lake and gardens and were really rather nice - it only cost about 5 pounds more but then Lee didn't have a bed and had to use the trusty thermarest (but didn't have to share the floor with any cockroaches!). We had a rest day and then headed into the orang-utan sanctuary the next day. It was great - their name means forest people - and they were so close. We watched them at the feeding tables (in the pouring rain) and even they seem less inclined to come and feed in such torrential conditions. On the way back we spotted a youngster knocking around on his own and watched him for over half an hour. It was amazing to see these creatures in the wild and a brilliant experience for Tevo and Roisin, as their habitat is under enormous threat from the forest clearing making way for the ubiquitous palm oil plantations (local villagers also face this loss of habitat as they are moved on from their traditional areas to make space for this ecologically offensive but economically rewarding development).

After this, we went to Sandakan, an east coast port, and found a great little hotel called Mayfair. It had spotless cheap rooms and each had its own DVD player and TV - and Mr Lam the chinese owner also lets you borrow numerous DVDs from his extensive collection for free. Well that was us sorted - we spent two days sitting on our beds, eating junk food and watching back-to-back movies. Just what we all needed! We organised a trip out to Turtle Islands - another National Park where you can stay the night and watch the nesting mothers come ashore, and if you're lucky, you get to see the hatchlings return to the sea. The accommodation is basic and the food's appalling for vegetarians (yet more peanut butter crackers for us) but it's worth it to see these amazing creatures.
As we had a day to wait before we could go to the islands (they strictly limit the numbers to protect the turtles) we arranged through Mr Lam, to take a jeep out to the Kinabantangan river to possibly see proboscus monkeys. It's a long drive and half of it is down a rough bumpy road, of the like we haven't seen since the Indian Himalaya. We were also told it was unlikely we would see anything at that time of day. We had a peaceful and picturesque boat trip down the river and we saw monitor lizards, kingfishers, eagles, cormorant, wild pig, a crocodile (who looked a bit hungry) and a whole family of proboscus monkeys - how lucky did we feel!

The next day we headed out to Turtle Islands (there's actually 3 islands there but you can only stay on one of them - they were bought compulsorarily from a private owener back in the 70s when they realsied what an important site it was and declared part of the National Parks of Sabah. We arrived on our superfast boat just before lunch and had a few hours snorkelling off the deserted beach (where you can see all the tracks from the turtles coming ashore the night before). This is the furthest east any of us have ever been on this big blue planet and we could even see the start of the Phillipines. That night, after more peanut butter crackers, we went to see the nesting mother. They only let the limited number of tourists see one mother - she was a huge green turtle (they also get leatherbacks and olive ridleys). She laid over 70 eggs which the park officer collected to take to the hatchery (she was none the wiser as she buried what she thought were her eggs). There are giant monitor lizards, the size of Komodo dragons here so it saves many of the hatchlings by intervening in this way. We then visited the hatchery and afterwards they bought out the incredibly cute hatchlings who were ready for release. We all got to hold one and give them a name. Then we went back down to the sea to release them. It was a wonderful experience and one we will remember for many years to come.

We returned to Mr Lam's hotel in Sanderkan and hung out for a day watching more DVDs and eating more junk food, and then took a long distance bus back to Kota Kinabalu, where we had a flight to return to KL in the morning. Our experiences in Sabah have been so varied and there is so much to do. We never made it to the Sipidan islands but then it would have been truly expensive and we decided there is plenty to come back for, especially if we learn to dive first. The people of Sabah were, like all Malays we've met, friendly and accommodating. It's alot bigger than you imagine and takes a bit of time to get around but we found out Air Asia fly all over Sabah (for future reference). The food (for veggies) is awful but then it's worth tolerating for the amazing and unique wildlife and the wonderful geaography. We were also worried about malaria before we went to Sabah but actually left with trenchfoot instead ;-), and many wonderful memories of course.

Bouncing into Borneo...

2006-05-26T07:30:00.000+01:00

We're all set. After some serious hunting for winter gear in Kuala Lumpur (and children's sizes makes this even more complicated), we tracked down new walking boots for the kids (although the ONLY ones we found, they are Kickers but good waterproof lightweight boot). Lee had to search numerous enormous shopping malls looking for clothing (the kids and I had collapsed of exhaustion after taking on 3 or 4 malls). Can you imagine walking around the Trafford Centre for hours, and just like TC, all the shops sell the same things that you don't want? Well in KL, this means fashion gear, sandals and electronics. Lee eventually tracked down jackets, gloves and hats for the 4 of us for under 100 quid!

We flew from KL to Kota Kinabalu, and are staying in the rather nice Berjaya Palace Hotel. Lovely comfy beds, cable TV and a big pool. We're regrouping and resting before our big challenge. Foolishly, I booked our stay through an online company called UK Hotels (who added a mysterious 30% after booking). It's actually much cheaper to stay here at their walk-in rates. Ho hum! We have booked ourselves a room for our return, and can leave a load of gear here so we're travelling light.

Went into town and booked our places for a summit trek. You have to go to Sutera Sanctuary Lodges (formerly known as Kinabalu Nature Resorts). They handle all the park bookings and accommodation in Laban Rata, the pre-summit rest house. Vital if you don't want to freeze to death and eat some hot food. So we leave for the park in the morning and plan to take a small walk tomorrow afternoon. Then we set off up Mount Kinabalu (the highest in SE Asia at 4095m) the following morning. As we're starting from sea level, I'm a bit nervous about altitude sickness but we're going to give it our best shot. We have a guide and a porter too.

We have booked our places at Laban Rata, and then we are going to the Poring Hot Springs to soak our weary limbs for a day or two (they have a rather fine canopy walk there). It cost us around 220 quid for 4 nights accomodation, guide, porter, climbing permits, insurance, entrance fees and some of our transfers. I think it's a bargain, and quite on par with what we paid in Ladakh.

After that we are booked to stay in Sepilok Jungle Resort (16 quid for a 4 bed family room - cracking bargain) to visit the orang-utan rehabilitation centre. 2 nights there, then we head to Sandakan to visit one of the Turtle Islands. So we're all fantastically excited about our planned adventures here in Borneo.

We were very sad to hear about the terrible floods in Northern Thailand. We travelled right through these areas and the ferocious dry heat and extensive logging was evident - not a good combination. Many locals expressed concern about what was happening and particularly in Pai, where people had already lost business' in the previous years less serious floods. They said people are just clearing areas for development even when they don't have permits. It's so sad. It's been flooding here in Borneo also, but today the sun is shining in a very bright blue sky.

To end on a more amusing note.... Lost in Translation.... yesterday, we all sauntered into the hotel cafe, mouths watering, as we heard you could get a "cheese pie" and lovely cup of Borneo tea. Well we all sat there wondering if it really might be real cheese when our tea time treat arrived.... 4 slices of lemon cheesecake!

Oh yeah - and we went into our first McDonalds. As a family, we have never been in one. I know my mum and my sister occasionally take the kids for a few fries when they have them over, and I've been known to buy the odd shake at a motorway stop, but never have we really been in one. Mostly on principle, and because I want my children to have a mostly negative view of fast food.

Kuala Lumpur Airport, and we had tea, coffee, ribenas, egg muffins and hash browns... what a novelty. And clearly I have been deprived of my western diet too long, in that I thought it was okay. Then I felt compelled to pinch loads of sugar and creamer sachets. Well they're still a big stinking multi national monster taking over the world, brainwashing our kids and were also found guilty of telling big fat lies even though their rich lawyers managed to help them escape any penalties. So my fight back - I stole their sachets ;-o

Long time no blog.....

2006-05-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

Well it has been a long time since we've blogged and not sure where to start. Sorry to all our lovely friends who have been worried about us and wondering where we are and if we're okay. So first and foremost, we are all just fine and dandy and having a fine old time in Malaysia. Thank you for making us feel missed and cared about - it means alot to us.

We had a bit of a rough time after Laos. Although Laos was amazing and the people even more so, the heat was overwhelming and the children found it difficult to cope with. They also had a serious bout of homesickness, no doubt precipitated by making some wonderful friends whom they had to leave behind (again). This meant we came back to Thailand trying to manage a difficult situation. Should we go home early? Would these feelings pass?

Our old travelling pal from India, Maya, once told us about the 'doldrums'. When they sailed around the pacific for two years, there's this place you can hit where there's no wind or movement and you just kind of get stuck. Well that was us - no wind in our sails and a little bit stuck. But like the doldrums, these things will eventually pass, you just have to hang in there!

Renting an apartment in Bangkok was partly our way of trying to meet some of their needs for home comforts (and our own I guess) and to an extent it helped, but not entirely. The home cooked food was marvellous (even if I do say so myself ;-). Veggie cottage pie, jacket potatoes with beans and cheese and macaroni cheese - and of course some much needed complex carbohydrates (which they really don't seem to have much of in Asia). But we went a little stir crazy and being the hottest month in Thailand too, we still felt stifled by the heat. We even got a phone call from our good friend Jiff (even if it was 6 in the morning - nice one mate for making the effort and sooo good chatting to you last night).

We left Bangkok and flew to Penang in Malaysia, and to be honest, even at the airport, I found myself watching the departure board for flights to London and felt that we were perhaps being selfish, and really what the children needed was to come home. Perhaps they had got as much out of this trip as they were going to and maybe it really was time.....

We checked into the Cathay Hotel in Georgetown (where they filmed 'Beyond Rangoon') - lots of colonnial charm but not the best place for children. Lee and I spent a long night talking about what we should do and felt terribly confused about what to do for the best (drinking a bottle of vodka helped - and yes, the children were asleep at this point!). We woke up in slightly better spirits (no pun intended) and decided to see what Malaysia had to offer.

Setting off on Labour day to cross Penang Bridge (the longest in SE Asia at 12.5 km) and head south on the main freeway to Kuala Lumpur - not the best decision we ever made, but we found ourselves distracted from the endless traffic jams (yes, it was just like a bank holiday at home - as was the truly terrible food we sampled at the equivalent of their motorway services) by an almighty storm. The road swam with the bucketing horizontal rain and the fork lightening had to be seen to be believed. Tevo and Roisin squealed with delight as it seemed to ignite the lush landscape around us.

We knew we had to pull off the highway as it was getting late, but still being some distance from KL, we pulled into some strange little town about an hour south of Ipoh, where one brief glimpse told us we'd be better off in the car. Lee decided he could get us to KL before too late, so we continued in the rain and traffic. More fun was had when we finally reached the outskirts as we decided to look for a hotel outside the city centre and found ourselves going round and round on highways, totally lost and not actually in KL. Eventually we found a garage and a nice chinese man gave us directions to the Hilton (oh dear groaned the wallet). Apparently we were in Petaling Jaya just outside KL, but nearing 10pm we resigned ourselves to an expensive bed for the night. Just opposite the Hilton was another hotel called the Armada - so we checked in and were pleasantly surprised to find that this 4 star skyscraper (great view from the 22nd floor) was only 25 quid a night for a triple room- what a bargain!

The next day we set off for Melaka and took a detour via Port Dickson along the coast road. It was a marvellous drive and we found the cultural melting pot that is Melaka in no time at all. Got a decent room at the Imperial, a nice chinese run hotel in a good location, with a nice pool too. We decided to stay 2 nights as Melaka is fascinating - we saw a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple all next to each other. We took a couple of garish cycle rickshaws around town and visited the old Sultan's Palace and gardens and numerous colonnial sights. After conceding to let the kids go to Pizza Hut (renamed Pizza Butt by Tevo), even they swore they would never go there again after the worst pizza in Asia and vowed only to eat local food from now on. Fortunately, the Indian and Chinese food in Malaysia is outstanding so no worries there. Being vegetarian, we're not so keen on Malay food (generally all fish and chicken, and the veg is served cooked and cold) although roti canai is a fine snack for a herbivore. It's a delish flaky bread served with a pot of veggie curry.

By this time, the children are seeming much happier and haven't been talking about wanting to go home as much. I had a long chat with my mum on the phone and she suggested we wait until we were somewhere they seemed happier and then talk to them seriously about whether going home was what they really wanted to do.

Next stop, Mersing on the east coast to catch a ferry to Pulau Tioman. Now we'd heard great things about Tioman, so we were a little disappointed by how developed it is. We stayed on Salang beach and paid about 40 quid for a not so nice family room. There's an awful lot of concrete, from paths (so visitors don't have to get their feet sandy) and jetties on every beach - big concrete eyesores that meet the huge packed daily ferries. The coral was impressive but it was noisy and busy and not that pretty really - so we decided to cut our losses as we had no cash left either, and head to the paradise of Pulau Perhentian in the north east. It was amusing to watch the Singaporeans (who generally can't swim) trying to snorkel in their life jackets and some even wore extra rubber rings. Unfortunately, they also like to take pieces of coral home with them as well as standing all over it, breaking big chunks with their unwieldy fins! They are actually building a great big concrete walkway across the coral in Tioman so the visitors (mostly Singaporean) can look at the coral without even getting wet - very sad!

We stopped off in Kuala Terengganu, and once again found a friendly town and a good place to stay. But as we have found in many places here, they don't really have pavements for pedestrians (probably cos they all ride scooters). I wouldn't fancy trying to push a baby buggy in these places. What we have found though, all over Malaysia, are that the locals are incredibly friendly (and no, they don't think we are hideous infidels). Each to his own in this country despite being predominantly muslim. They are so accommodating and always welcoming to us as a family. They certainly give Lao people a run for their money as the friendliest people in Asia stakes!

A few other observations in Malaysia.....
Self-drive is a piece of cake here for us Brits. Same side of the road and not that much traffic outside the cities. You just have to watch out for the numerous motorcyclists who come out of nowhere, and oh yeah, no-one indicates... ever. We got a cheap hire car from Asian Car, a subgroup of Air Asia (Malaysia's equivilent of Easyjet, only even cheaper!).

Logging is everywhere. You constantly see these huge trucks filled to the brim with old large (and what were stunning) trees - mostly teak but all hardwood. It's very sad and you can literally see the forests disappearing before your eyes. theer's alot of environmental issues that need addressing here, but as everywhere in the world, it's all about the money and this country has many resources that will, exploited properly, make them the first of the ASEAN countries to make first world status.

One of the things that costs us quite a bit is buying imported books for the children to read. They average between 8 and 12 pounds and with them both reading huge amounts these days, it's quite and expensive outlay. An important one obviously, especially with their lack of formal schooling. But there's only so many books you can carry around with you. The pesky things are very heavy in the old rucksack. Another item we struggle to find is walking boots for children. So far no sign of any and they grew out of their's back in India. Easy to get adult ones, but I don't think kids walk too many places here and certainly not up great big hills and mountains.

Anyway, back to the journey.... We took a ferry from Kuala Besut out to Pulau Perhentian Kecil (small island) and as soon as were were dropped off at Coral Bay, the Koh Lipe feeling washed over us and made all the pain and worry of the last month dissappear - what a truly stunning paradise (soon to be developed but for now we were lucky enough to be there as it is). Nabbing two of the best huts on the beach we settled down to a week of pure unadulterated beach life bliss. The snorkelling is awesome and we swam with giant leatherback turtles, black tipped reef sharks (there's just no stopping us now) and blue spotted sting rays. So many varieties of fish but the good old clown fish is still own firm fave. Tevo and Roisin are now freediving to over 20 feet and seem to be developing webbed fingers and toes - part child part fish it seems. We made some great friends too and had an amazing night of guitar playing and singing with some locals and their friends from KL.

So we chose this time to talk to the children about going home, and needless to say that is the last thing they want to do now. We have agreed to make sure we include lots of beach life over the coming months so they can enjoy their snorkelling and fishy fun.

After returning to the mainland, we crossed the peninsular via the Cameron Highlands and stayed in the very nice (if a little damp) Jurina hotel in Tapan Rata. It rained alot, but it was pleasant to be cold for a change and the children astounded us with a 5 1/2 hr trek through dense steep jungle, climbing tree roots and sliding down mud slopes. We were rewarded with an awesome cream tea and local strawberries. It reminded us alot of Ella in Sri Lanka, but on a bigger scale and more developed of course, but still very beautiful and atmospheric.

Next stop, back to Penang to return the car and we spend a few days on the hideously over developed north coast in a fancy hotel with a pool (great internet deal - check out www.asiahotels.com). Today we took a plush bus (with the biggest reclining softest seats we've ever seen) to Kuala Lumpur while we wait for our flight to Borneo. Kuala Lumpur is hectic - think Delhi meets Bangkok and then add some more, give it a shake, turn it upside down and hey presto...chaos. We just ate the best Chinese vegetarian mock spare ribs IN THE WORLD and Fatt Yans makes KL worth a visit just for the food. We'' be going back to sample everything on the menu over next few days.

Next we are off to Sabah to make friends with some orang-utans and possibly climb Mount Kinabalu, and then if the finances can cope, some more snorkelling fun in Pulau Sipidan.

So that's all for now folks.... hope everyone is fine and dandy in the Blighty spring and we will try to catch up on our emails as much as possible when we can. Big love to you all. xxxx

Vientiane & Back to Bangkok

2006-04-22T10:48:00.000+01:00

We all felt a little sad to be leaving Laos after what has seemed like such a short time and there is much more of the country to see. But we spent more time getting to know people there and that made the experience all the more. It is definitely somewhere we would return to when the children are a little older. Talking to our fellow passengers in the minivan to Vientiane, we heard their stories of how the place just gets more beautiful as you travel further north and how a one month visa is just too short.

There's so many things I could write about Laos. It's such a fascinating country with an unbelievable history (the US bombed Laos more than any other during the Indo-China War, at one point spending over 2 million dollars a day). There are thousands and thousands of unexploded ordinance (UXOs) across Laos. We visited a smithy village outside Luang Prabang where they recycled the steel from the bomb shells ("excellent quality steel, US, very good!" he tells us). They made all kinds of stuff from buffalo bells to knives and agricultural tools. I asked him if it was dangerous to collect the steel and who did it (Mee our guide spoke the most excellent English and made an informative guide and useful translator). He told us it was very dangerous but the boys who collect the steel are well trained and have a lot of experience. I think poverty makes people do really dangerous things.

Lee said I have to write about the ants. He's written a short dissertation to our friend Caroline about it - he's slightly obessed I think, but he's right in his observations. They are EVERYWHERE in Laos and there are so many different kinds in such huge numbers, you actually start to like them (apart from the big red ones that bite you).

We arrived in Vientiane and stayed at Le Parasol Blanc for one night as a bit of a treat. It was alright. Bit musty but colonnially quirky and a swimming pool (as it seems to be getting even hotter!). We took a local bus to the border and crossed the Friendship Bridge into Thailand (where there were suddenly no ants!). Went to get tickets from the train station for Bangkok and found no sleeper available for two days. And then only two seats/bunks. So we are looking forward to a cosy night tonight on an upper bunk with no air con (I think I can see where this is going). Been staying in the Mekong Guesthouse and it's very nice with great views across the river to Laos. All mod cons and now we're heading to our own apartment for a week of normality in Bangkok - yippee - dreaming of home made food and a real sofa to sit on ;-)

Sabdee Pii Mai Lao!

2006-04-18T13:03:00.000+01:00

We have experienced fantastic new year celebrations in Luang Prabang and despite Tevo having a few days feeling a bit off, it's been great. The new year procession actually takes place on day 2, and there were no elephants. They were to be replaced this year, we were told, by buffalo. Perhaps the communist government wanted something more symbolic of their agriculturally centred life? Turned out to be a giant papier mache one with huge testicles. We returned home that evening soaked to the skin and covered in flour and oily ash. Took 3 showers to get mostly clean again! We met a professional photographer (who Lee and I made a double pronged attack on, and sooted both sides his face - the locals appreciated a good water ambush, especially on a dry farang). Anyway, he has posted up some good photos of the day.

You can check out his pics at: http://www.worldpicturenews.com/web/index.aspx?category=travel

So Lee joined the procession and went to see the washing of the Buddha's at the main temple while I kept an eye on Tevo recuperating. Poor little mite got heat exhaustion and then possibly a mild bladder infection but as there were no doctors available at the hospital due to the holidays (slightly worrying) we had to treat him ourselves - and after cooling ice flannels, plenty of water, paracetamol and a short course of amoxiclav, he was right as rain. This little episode has reminded us of just how much heat we are dealing with here in Northern Laos and how much you have to stay on top of your water intake.

We are currently half way between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, in a strange and tacky place called Vang Vieng. It's like a building site, with 'Khao San Rd-like' cafes showing the Simpsons and Friends back to back (T&R are very happy). Lots of inappropriately dressed farangs (who seemingly can't read the large and multiple signs that ask them NOT to dress immodestly and explains that wearing bikinis and shorts in the street are offensive to local people) and drunkeness - funny thing is I like Khao San Rd in Bangkok. I like Bangkok - having come to love all sides of its modern, chaotic and even seedy self. This place is just a bit tacky, and doesn't feel right for Laos. Although the scenery's stunning (but this is Laos so what else would you expect by now) it's more of the same of what's further up north with some hideous development going on. So there's little reason for us to stay here. We all have a bit of caving and tubing fatigue - and are definitely ready for some new and different experiences.

So Vientiane is where we are heading tomorrow where we hope to splash out on a hotel with a swimming pool - I really can't explain how hot it is. Maya, our Canadian friend did warn us but you have to feel it to believe it. Now is definitely not the right time to visit Cambodia with children and anyway, who wants to visit such an interesting country in the space of week. So many travellers like to 'tick box' their countries ("oo yes I've done India, we spent a few days in Rishikesh and then a few weeks in Goa") - this is not our travelling style at all. So Cambodia, Vietnam and China will have to wait for another trip - sounds like a good future route already!

We leave Laos on the 21st April to cross the border into Eastern Thailand, and have plans to visit Khao Yai National Park on the way to Bangkok. But for now, it's back to the Simpsons and perhaps a happy shake or two ;-)

Beautiful Northern Laos and a water sloshing new year!

2006-04-09T12:09:00.000+01:00

We left Luang Prabang on a local bus to Nong Khiaw as the Mekong is just too low to ride the boat upriver. A real shame as it is considered to be some of the best scenery around. But getting stranded hours from anywhere, and having to camp down in a storm with a load of whining tourists (as happened to some people we met) did not appeal, so the rickety local bus it was. We had the ever present vomiting locals but thankfully the journey was relatively short and the distraction of the amazing countryside was really something else.

Laos is truly one of the most beautiful and pristine places we have seen. Words cannot capture how awe inspiring the landscape is... towering karste mountains with swirling misty covers, where dense green forests cling to the steep valleys. You could get lost for weeks if you chose to. In Nong Khiaw, we crossed the bridge to the neighbouring village of Sophoune (which the Lonely Planet refers to as Muang Noi but no one else does) and found a place to stay at the basic but adequate Bamboo Paradise. Nang, our 11 year old host immediately befriends Roisin and before long we are having our hair braided while Tevo plays petanque (boule) with her brothers. Roisin and Tevo have been making friends all over Laos. This is the kind of people they are. Open, friendly and totally unassuming. They really are wonderful people here and they love children more than anything.

One afternoon, I met a man (from Hawaii) called Marco who is married to Chan, a Lao woman and they have 3 daughters. His eldest, Marika, is nearly 7 and Marko tells me how difficult it is for her as she has so few friends of her own age living in the village. Marika speaks lao and english and Roisin is overjoyed when they are introduced. Marko invites Roisin to stay for dinner, so we give her and Tevo some much needed space from each other and take him to dinner over the bridge. The next day, Chan invites both the children to stay for the day and Lee and I have our first child free time in over six months. Can you believe it... we actually have a babysitter for the day! Well before you can say mines a lao lao, we are off on a walk up the valley to explore the caves where the Pathet Lao hid out from US bombing during the Indo China war. We had a brilliant time and although a hurt my leg trying to swing across some steep bamboo ladders, we ended the day in great spirits having a drink and some food with some fellow travellers (who are somewhat more friendly to us when we do not have the kids with us.... charming huh!).

Roisin and Marika were both devastated when we said we had to leave but we promised to return in a few days. We set off on a small boat up the Nam Ou, one of the biggest rivers in the north east of Laos to an old village called Muang Noi (which the Lonely Planet calls Old Muang Noi just to confuse everyone). Once just a subsistance village, bit of farming and a bit of fishing, its now home to some very nice guesthouses and is a great base for trekking and trips further afield. As I was still fairly lame from the bamboo ladder incident, Lee took off on a solo trek and enjoyed some more caves and visited more remote villages up in the valley.

Next day we took a day trip with lovely german couple called Rolf and Renee, and our competant guide Humphan. Putting along the Nam Ou even further, we visit another cave (very long dark and spooky with lots of stalactites and stalacmites) and we do some net fishing catching a few lunchtime treats for everyone. Then its off to a village, called Muang Sien. They do not speak Lao here, but another language called Kamut (sp). The village is amazing. Basic but so clean and well looked after. All the children run out to see us, and not one asks for money or anything. Just full of smiles and wanting to touch Tevo and Roisin. I explain to one of the older women that they are twins (faf fairn in Lao) and demonstrate a big fat tummy and not being able to walk. They find it very amusing. We go up to see their small school, recently built by donated money and sit at the teak desks looking out into a steep misty valley... now there is an excuse for gazing out the window if ever there was one! We buy some of their rather unique handicrafts, a kind of embroidered table runner and then head back to the river for lunch. Crossing a spirit bridge, I ask the boys if I can take a photo. All the local children are so pleased they all line up on the bridge to be in the photo. I show them the digital image... they seem happy as we leave, waving and smiling. Down at the beach the boys have cooked up the fish, so while all the pescavores tuck in, Roisin, Tevo and I scoff the sticky rice dipped in soy sauce. Then it is back to the boat for some more fishing and a little swimming before returning back to Muang Noi.

The next day we head back on the morning boat to Nong Khiaw. The Lunar New Year is almost upon us (14th April) and each of the villages compete in a boat race. They are all out in force practising their stroke. They are lean mean rowing machines! Back in Nong Khiaw, their team are the reigning champions and have been practising for weeks already. I suspect they may win again. The children get to spend their last few hours here with Marika and her family while I enjoy some of Chans amazing cooking and then it is time to leave, so many tears it is heart breaking.

Our original plan was to head to the remote east from Nong Khiaw and then south through Laos to Cambodia. However, the children have been very tired of travelling just recently. We have just hit our 200 day marker and its showing in the children. They keep making friends and then we move on which is very traumatic for them. They want to stay put for a while and we have decided to make some compromises to accomodate them. After all, this is their trip too and Angkor Wat will still be there in years to come. So after some lengthy and emotional chats we have decided to return to Luang Prabang for the Lunar New Year. The children have made friends there and its an easy place to be and relax and recharge. We are planning to succumb to the well worn travellers trail down through Vang Vieng and then onto Vientiane before returning to Thailand to make our way down to Peninsular Malaysia. We are planning to find a place to stay put there, perhaps rent a house for a month or two.

For now though, we are loving Luang Prabang and the children are now fully armed with water guns for the daily sloshing that wandering about town involves. Our guesthouse is a bit of a childrens gathering place and the kids are in their element with daily water fights and football. They love it and it is not a hard life to be here in this amazing world heritage town. So for now, we are staying put and plan to say goodbye to the year of the rooster (that is me!) and welcome in the year of the dog in this wonderful town.

The lunar new year begins in mid April (this year it is the 14th) and practically the entire country comes to a halt and celebrates. Houses are cleaned, people put on new clothes and Buddha images are washed with lustral water. In the wats, offerings of fruit and flowers are made at various altars and votive mounds of sand or stone are fashioned in courtyards. Later, the citizens take to the streets and douse one another with water (but like our own fireworks celebrations, children start this early just for the fun of it!) which is appropriate because April is the hottest month of the year. It is particularly picturesque in Luang Prabang where it includes elephant processions.

Chiang Mai to Laos

2006-03-30T13:25:00.000+01:00

So we finally dragged ourselves away from our Pai induced lethargy and found ourselves a great little hotel in Chiang Mai while we waited to arrange our Laos visas and airline tickets. Ate well, slept well, swimming pool and cable TV - sorted!

We flew into Luang Prabang in Northern Laos on a bouncy and slightly scary propeller plane - but it was worth it. LP is just lovely, with its slightly spooky misty mountains and the mighty Mekong cutting through the hillsides. We have been pootling about the town and local villages on bikes, visiting the stunning temples and colourful markets. Lao people are amazingly friendly and unassuming, and make great food too. Sabadee is like saying 'what's uup/how are you?/I'm fine/how's it going?/see you - it's a great word. Like Julay in Ladakh or Tashi Delai in Tibet. We are all making a concerted effort to learn Laos and can already count to ten. Although Kip, the Lao currency starts in the thousands so its all a bit confusing.

The other day we visited the most amazing waterfall any of us have ever seen or jumped in! Kuang Xi was spectacular and tremendous fun - and wonderfully cooling in this immensely dry heat. We leapt off rocks and crashed into torquoise whitewater pools. Top trip highlight for sure.

Tomorrow we head north, hoping to do a river trip and some trekking. We had an amazing storm here the other night and the rains are starting to rumble - but this is a good thing as its just too damn hot!

Life of Pai

2006-03-20T10:17:00.000Z

Pai (pronouced 'bye') is a small town nestled in the hills, a somewhat hippy enclave, close to local hill tribes and about 120km north-west of Chiang Mai. There are numerous long-stay farangs here, many have married locals and set up businesses. It's pretty inexpensive and offers a variety of food and entertainment for the passing masses. Fortunately, the masses have mostly gone as it is hot, hot hot!

The time had to come when we would succumb to the alluring freedom of motorbikes. And Pai is it. With empty well laid roads winding about the villages, waterfalls, canyons and hot springs, we happily explore the area - the children singing their hearts out on the back. They have wanted to do this for so long, after getting lifts on Enfields in India, the seed was sewn. We found out the other day that 1/4 million people die on India's roads annually so we're kinda glad we waited until now.

One of the highlights of our whole trip and to celebrate our six months of travelling anniversary, we went swimming with elephants. Now old hands with sharks, we thought we might try something bigger ;-) We rode 'mahout' style down to the river where the elephants proceeded to try and drown us (all in good humour of course). The elephants submerged their bodies and heads and sway about trying to dislodge their charges into the river - everyone laughed so hard we're not sure which muscle pain is worse, the thighs from hanging on for dear life or the sides from laughing so much. On our return to camp, we fed them copious amounts of bananas, bamboo and pumpkins. Pineapples are their favourite but tend to give them tummy jip.

The next day, we took our sore bodies up to the roman baths at Tai Pai Spa Camping for some much needed rest - however the water, fed by the local hot springs, was so excruciatingly hot, we found it quite difficult to relax whilst being boiled alive. On our way out, we met a very strange little bird who puffs himself up, fluffs up his mohawk and squarks 'sawadee ka - sawadee ka'.

There's a bit of a music scene in Pai. Obviously we don't get out that much since we are completely devoid of any childcare options but we try not to let that stop us completely. Lee enjoyed a reggae mini-festival, the headline band doing superb covers from Look Back in Anger to Buffalo Soldier. Last night we all went to a techno-tastic party at Misty View - Lee and I tried out the 'bucket' - containing a bottle of Sang Som, Red Bull concentrate and a bottle of Coke. Holy macaroni - it certainly enabled our dancing skills for whirling the children round between bonfires and fire jugglers. Exhausted and dusty we were home before pumpkin time and now have the joy of sweating off our hangovers in a good 38 degrees!

Happy St Patrick's Day to y'all!

Oh Mae Mae Mae!

2006-03-10T10:40:00.000Z

So we took the long way round - from Mae Sot, a fantastically friendly and colourful border town near Burma, onto Mae Sariang and then Mae Hong Son - following the border around the hot and arid pre-monsoon north - on the plus side there are virtually no mossies so given the malaria warnings usual for this area (including mefloquine resistance) we are happy to sweat our way around. Another major plus is it's the end of the high season and there's less 'farangs' about. In fact, there's very few on this less travelled route. When the signs and information are all absent of Roman script, we realise we are following our noses now and there's a real sense of freedom as we find our trust well-placed with local transport and friendly people.

Mae Sot was fab and we stayed for a couple of nights at a little Japanese guesthouse by the bus station, called Kame. We continued our culinary adventures checking out the rather tasty Burmese curries (almost a Thai red meets a Bengali style indian - very tasty) and Greg, a local volunteer teacher and our new found guide took us to this amazing vegetarian muslim cafe where we feasted on veggie sausages, mock chicken and mock pork, with an assortment of dahl, curry and spicy red stuff. I'm not allowed to say where it is as we have all agreed the Lonely Planet must not find out about it ;-) We had a great time in the market which had some of the cheapest goods I've seen in Asia and some great quality gear, including beautiful local embroidered handicrafts by the local Karan tribes.

There are high numbers of Burmese refugees here in Mae Sot, and there are some big camps en route to Mae Sariang. I spotted the police holding area near our guesthouse - like a giant cage with a few fans and list of visiting times posted on the fence. Greg told us that the people are held for a day after being caught trying to cross and then returned the next day. The whole process then plays out again, and again. If you have the money and the connections, many Burmese get to stay here, but they are not allowed to travel and have to stay in the area. Many of the Burmese (men and women) wear a kind of beige cream on their faces - it beautifies the skin apparently. People are so friendly to us in the market, and the numerous women smile at the children and then us, and we return the gesture. They may be Burmese muslim refugees and we may be strange farangs - but still families are universal. Lee enjoys taking pictures (with their permission) of the market traders and their somewhat exotic produce. We saw little skinned birds and fried bugs, live turtles and squirming eels. We also ate some of the best street food - a local favourite like vegetable tempura but not with any vegetable you might have heard of. Delicious!

Next stop, Mae Sariang. This is north of Mae Sot, 8 hours in a sawng-thaew. These pick up trucks have a plastic roof over two facing benches. Following the mountainous border, the sun is kept off you but the hot air blowing in is so hot it almost burns. It's also slash and burn season - that is when the farmers burn the land ready for the rains. At first appearances the transport looks potentially very uncomfortable, even with (at one point) 22 people and a motorbike in the back (he had broken down) - but this is more comfortable way to travel than some of the buses. We stop over in Mae Sariang at a rather plush little place to enjoy big comfy beds with pressed white sheets and lots of teak - unfortunately the food is not up to much but Tevo and Jackie enjoy a game of pool with a dutch man listening to a thai girl singing wonderful covers of Dido (Lee actually thought they were playing the album).

Next leg, we take two local buses, 4 hours to Mae Hong Son - with a quick stop for noodles and rice, and then another bus to Pai - 3 more hours climbing smoky mountainous roads. The border police (with big guns) are everywhere but have absolutely no interest in us whatsoever, despite being the only farangs we've seen since Mae Sariang.

15 hours travelling (not including the 2 or 3 hours sitting and waiting to leave) and two days later and we finally reach our destination. As we extricate our rucksacks from the boot of the bus (they have actually faired worse than we have) we are exhausted, hot, sweaty and dusty - always a winning combination for arriving somewhere new!

Onwards and upwards.....Phi-lok & Sukhothai

2006-03-07T03:06:00.000Z

And so we arrive in Bangkok - the lovely Bella Bella is full so we nip next door and take a cosy but slightly crammed room next door at The Mango Lagoon (still on Rambutri Soi). It's a tad more expensive (about ten pounds) so we all squeeze into one room, but there's a sofa, cable TV and air-conditioning (which makes us all feel too cold such have we adjusted to the heat now). It's a nice place to stay and we can still avail ourselves of Bella Bella's fab food next door and we get to watch movies all day.

After catching up with laundry, cash and storing the fins and snorkels, we take a train to Phitsanulok. Now this is somewhere I would highly recommend for children. It's a great town. For a start, we got two great rooms at the Petchpailyn Hotel. There is a fantastic park along the river (the street is aptly named Healthy Street). It has amazing equipment, from the usual swings and slides to climbing walls, cross-trainers and rowing machines. The children had a great time (as did we). There's even an outdoor arena where free aerobics classes are held. Talk about sport for all - very impressive. Further along the river there is a colourful and friendly night market (great quality cheap clothes and stuff), where you can see the 'flying vegetable' men at work (so called as they toss the veg high from their woks) and eat some of the best food we have ever tasted. My mouth was singing from the awesome flavours. The cafe owner was delighted to see two little 'farangs' scoffing his food - beancurd and vegetable soup, beancurd and chillis, stir fried vegetables and rice. A two course meal for four plus drinks cost us less than a quid each. We had to return the next evening for some more of the same. Its a beautiful evening walk too, as the river, bridges and tress are magnificantly lit - it was quite magical.

The next day, after another trip to the park, we visited Wat Yai, where the most revered Buddha image in Thailand is held. There were lots of visiting Thais and we met a friendly young lama who practised his English with us. We also got a blessing from one of the monks.

The following morning we took a local bus to Sukhothai's Old City. This is where I am writing from now. We opted to miss out the dull and unattractive new city and headed straight for the walled ruins where it's possible to stay in a nice guesthouse (we're at Vitoon) and there are plenty of cafes and a market. It was so hot by the afternoon we decided to eat early and go to bed in order to make a dawn start on bicycles around the park. This is the best move we could have made. Up at 5am, we hired our bikes from K's (80 baht for all of us and they have a bike for all, from toddler ones with stabilisers, junior, senior and even tandems). We were in the park by 5.30am and we had the place to ourselves. It was very atmospheric and quite spiritual to watch the sun rise above the old temples, Buddhas and ruins as we cycled happily around the well laid roads and paths. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves although were a little wobbly at the start having not been on a bike for nearly six months. By 8.30am the sun was up and already starting to fry, as we watched large noisy groups of tourists bumble off their coaches to walk around the park with their very loud guides. It was time for us to leave now.

We have just checked out of our guesthouse and are waiting for the bus to take us to Mae Sot near the border with Myanmar. I am so glad we chose to come this way instead of heading straight to Chiang Mai. Both Phitsanulok and Sukhothai are well worth visiting - beautiful, educational and very family friendly.

Tarutao National Marine Park & then north bound

2006-03-02T10:00:00.000Z

We had a seamless journey to Koh Lipe in Tarutao. It was a little unnerving as we kept expecting the unexpected but the Muslim Thais of Satun took such great care of us and were so friendly, I almost felt like staying on the mainland. Our bus dropped us in La Ngu where a kindly Sangthaew driver (share taxi) stopped to pick us up. No problem Ick said. I will take care of you. And that he did. He took us to the pier to pick up our tickets for the morning ferry then delivered us to the delightful little 'Diamond' beach huts where Tevo struck up a game of football with the local children. After a glorious sunset admiring the Tarutao islands in the distance, we got an early night and headed for the park on the slow boat to Koh Lipe.

Now the Lonely Planet preaches that it is not very developmentally sound to visit Lipe as the demand will invite over-development of the island, and to stick to the park accommodation only islands such as Tarutao & Adang. Here's a thought - don't stay at the places that are clearly the work of large outside investors (unless you want the place to look like Koh Chang or Koh Lanta in a few years times). Stay in the original island huts rather than new developments (on this note I would advise avoiding Mountain Resort since they already have plans to build a multi storey complex - hideous idea). You really don't need hot water or air conditioning - and it's important to respect the fact that waste created by tourists is a problem for the island - if you have to use tissue (and I'm sorry Guy but we have not been able to adapt to the water only method - even in India - I refuse to wipe my arse with my hand and those hoses often result in you looking like you've peed your pants) don't throw tissues down the loo.

We have also found the ice and jugged water perfectly safe to drink (as we have all over Thailand) and bottle refills are not difficult to come by, even in Lipe (Pooh's bar). Koh Lipe will stay a paradise if it is allowed to do so by the tourists. It is still just this side of shanti - since our last visit 3 years ago but change is happening so fast - and I can't help wonder how long it'll be before the friendly and accommodating Chao Lay (originally sea-gypsies allowed to settle here by the Thai government) become cynical and disenchanted with tourists who seem to be ruining their home. So enough of the soap box.

We spent a blissful 8 days in Lipe. We went kayaking around the island and found our own private beach and snorkelled til our feet hurt. The marine flora and fauna is spectacular. The sea was not quite the same clarity of Similan but then who notices the difference between being able to see 15-20 metres as opposed to 30 metres and the coral around Tarutao's islands has suffered very little tsunami damage - the reefs were filled with hard and soft coral, and at times it felt like you were floating through an enchanted forest, with its grotto-like coral caves and waving tree ferns, watching different fish go about their day. Silvery and stripey shoals surround you, giant faced groupers peer out from their caves, irridescent parrot fish shimmer as they scrape at the coral and clown fish venture from their anenome home, where their babies swim amongst the fronds, their little faces peeping out. I never thought I could build up so much confidence in the water after so many years of refusing to do more than paddle. My deep and morbid fascination with sharks and the general idea of fish with teeth has kept me from enjoying this spectacle for decades. Tevo and Roisin are in their element here - after 12mths of snorkelling lessons, they glide and dive like professionals.

We took a fantastic boat trip with Jack, a Chao Lay fisherman we met at Time to Chill Bar. He offered to take us to some different places and would teach the children to fish. We had a truly magnificant day! The snorkelling was mindblowing. I saw the shark's shadow first - I nearly choked on my snorkel and swam backwards (keeping my eyes on where it was going) as fast as I could. I noticed that the shape swam differently to the other fish - faster, rapid darting between coral cliffs and caves, something very practised about it. I realised the rapid movement and bubbles had scared it away and this gave me some confidence. It clearly didn't plan to eat me and it didn't look too big. I swam to Lee and the children and did something I have longed to do since my friend Anne had taught me and our other PGCE colleagues in a micro-teaching practice session. The language of divers. LOOK (point to your eye) - OVER THERE (point to where thing of interest is - pointing is important since a flat palm indicates to go that way, and it could have been a hammerhead - although I doubt it in water so shallow) - SHARK (make a flat palmed fin shape in front of your forehead). See Anne, you're a great teacher, I remembered.

It was about 3 1/2 feet and a black tipped reef shark. It was beautiful, sleek and metallic looking with souless dead looking eyes. Roisin decided it was time to get out. Tevo lapped it up although stayed nice and close to us. On returning to the longtail, we all excitedly chattered about our encounter. Then we took off for some more fishing. Jack taught them to line fish and to set the pole lines off the back of the boat while he skimmed about the deep water. Suddenly Roisin's rod almost detached from the boat and fell across her - we had caught something big. Jack showed Lee how to land it - and what a fish. A 3-4 kg striped king mackeral. It was a beauty. Then off for more snorkelling and more sharks - two this time and a little bigger - maybe nearly 4ft. My heart was still pounding and the deep drop off from the coral was starting to give me the heebie jeebies. We headed home the long way round from North Rawi to Adang and up the east side to Lipe's sunrise beach and back to Pattaya beach.

Tevo carried the fish proudly (and with some difficulty) up the beach to a round of applause. We celebrated with a few beers and sodas, while Jack cooked up our fish. It fed ten people and 3 dogs by the end. Jack made an awesome fish stew, BBQ'd fillets, calamari in chilli, rice, vegetables, scrambled egg and a chilli garlic soy dip (courtesy of the lovely Claudia). We had a wonderful night making new friends and still buzzing from the adrenaline surges of the day.

We were more than a little sad to leave Lipe knowing the place will continue to change and we cherish the moments in time we have had there. Our friendly driver from earlier, Ick, meets us at the pier, runs us to the Malaysian border (Satun) for a quick visa run (totally painless) and then onto Hat Yai for an overnight train to Bangkok. We only plan to spend two nights there as we are heading North for some culture and great food.

Come in island no.8, your time is up!

2006-02-24T04:38:00.000Z

We had to take a very early pick-up from Khao Sok to get to the pier on time. It was quite dramatic as we watched the sunrise, the dawn of the next leg of our adventure. We stopped in Khao Lak for supplies and were pleasantly surprised by the post tsunami clear-up and the amount of new housing - the kind of housing that everyday folk live in, rather than the mansions we saw being built in parts of Sri Lanka. Although, Khao Lak is also trying to re-invent itself as only a mid and upper range resort we were told, as in Phi-Phi.

We made it to the pier with minutes to spare, and as we eyed the speedboat that was to carry us out to Similan, we realised that we were an add on party with a snorkelling day trip. We were all feeling tired and the prospect that we now had to sail from island to island while very large Russians bobbed about in the water like big beluga whales was not appealing. We would not be reaching our destination of Ko Similan (aka island number 8 - for some reason all the islands are numbered and everyone refers to them by their numbers rather than names) until around 3pm. Now Roisin and I are not the best sailors in the world, and as it turns out neither is Jason - our sea legs are very unstable and despite obediantly taking our anti-sickness pills, Roisin was vomiting violently within minutes. Poor thing felt dreadful - but the kindly Thais supplied her with cold flannels, smelling vapours (for nausea and vertigo - which are really effective), water to sip and more anti-sickness pills (which she promptly vomited up again). Jason and I had to use all of our concentration (and the smelling vapour) not to join in with the vomit-fest!

The islands were amazing - crystal clear aquamarine sea teeming with hundreds of varieties of fish. Huge boulders perch precariously on the cliffs and jungly forest drapes down towards the sea. When we finally reached our port, we were pleased to find ourselves with a large comfortable tent for four pitched on the beach. We were out in the sea faster than you could say 'nemo' and it was just spectacular - despite obvious tsunami damage, it's still beautiful. Jason taught us to dive down and relieve the pressure by squeezing our noses. I felt like the 'Man from Atlantis' as I glided through shoals of big-eyed jacks and fusilier fish. Just fabulous!

Obviously being a National Park, the food was pants and you eat to satisfy hunger and for no other reason. I think we may have all lost a few more pounds. Lee is so light now he's nearing the 10 stone marker. So it's a good job I've lost so much or he'd have been lighter than me, and we can't have that. Fortunately, being familiar with the prison-like food at Tarutao, we came prepared and with our trusty MSR Dragonfly stove, we had cups of tea and noodles aplenty.

We spent a glorious 4 days on Similan, taking boat trips out to the good snorkel sites and just scooting about around the impressive coral close to the shore. The children's snorkelling lessons certainly paid off and they swim with a new found confidence now.

On our return to the mainline, we hopped a snorkelling day trip boat where the occupants clearly felt they had first priority on the boat and left us flailing and falling with four children and our backpacks. Once again, it is farangs who let us down. I nearly dropped the gorgeous Elina as I struggled to land her and a bag on the back of the boat (while the farangs stuffed their faces with fruit and watched). Roisin stumbled into the water as a young woman pushed her way past, to ensure she got her share of fruit perhaps. I started to lose face as the Thais would say, and in my anger, I lurched with the bags to the hull, dropping down to clear the low doorway that leads to the front. Not dropping enough, I struck my head hard sending me flying backwards and desperately trying not to vomit from the pain, I tried to get up but found my legs wouldn't work. The concerned thai boat man helped me to the front and immediately gave me an ice pack, some smelling vapours (damn that stuff is good) and applied Tiger Balm to my swelling head and my acupressure pain points. I woke up the next day feeling like I'd had a small car crash and seem to have a bit of a whiplash type pain in my neck - but fortunately it gets better each day and I'm just glad I don't have to spend more than a few hours with the inconsiderate farangs aboard that boat - ha, they probabaly have to go home after a few weeks!

So we went to Phuket (yes I know, we were equally surprised to find ourselves there). Phuket town was rather nice and Patong beach was rather horrid, but as a stopover to pick up a bus to Satun, we couldn't complain. We stayed in cheap rooms in town and we headed to Patong to say bon voyage to our Swiss friends who were flying up to Bangkok. We hope to see them in Laos, where Moni and I have made plans involving bikes, red wine, brie and baguettes.

So now for some more aquamarine paradise at Tarutao National Marine Park and the idyllic Ko Lipe - we're racing to stay ahead of the monsoon just now, so we plan to fly from Hat Yai to Bangkok to kickstart the northern leg of of journey.

Jungle Jackie Reports...

2006-02-12T12:01:00.000Z

After a large breakfast and a quick map check, we set off trekking into the park. Following the well marked trail, we comfortably made it to the first two waterfalls (more like rapids over some rocks really, but pretty all the same) and a rather nice swimming hole about 3km along the trail. The next part of the trek led us into the jungle proper, with dense forest and steep paths (and crazy tree roots that looked prehistoric). We made it to the 5km waterfall (some more rapids) and lazed about on the rocks eating biscuits. The scenery was incredibly dense with so many shades of green and as the wind picked up we felt the rain on its way, so headed back in the much needed cooling showers.

The next day we took a steep jungly climb with a guide, and a rather active dutch family, in search of the worlds largest flower, the rafflesia. It was very rewarding when we finally found it, exhausted and sweaty, we all skipped and slid our way back down the mountainous karste for a glorious roast dinner specially prepared by Shaun at Traveller's Rest (he made an ingenious veggie roast from our sosmix served with all the trimmings). A little taste of home goes a long way with two tired and hungry 7 year olds, and after five months on the road (can you believe it already!).

Despite our exhaustion, the next day we took a boat trip across the lake and went caving through the Namtaloo caves. A bit scary in places, and we all took a few tumbles but we made it through and the children were really proud of themselves, as were we. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the other farangs (foreigners/westerners). Despite being in a group of eleven, others were less than helpful when people fell in or got left behind (and thus in darkness after I dropped the torch down a deep watery cavern - I think it may still be glowing away at the bottom of the pool). You can tell alot about people by the way they treat the weakest members of a group. Ho hum...

On a friendlier note, we met a wonderful family from Switzerland and have been having a fine old time with them. It was a somewhat serendipitous meeting as I felt like going home at that point, having been pushed past the point of exhaustion by the children and wondering whether travel is really that good for their behaviour. Then we met Jason and Moni, travelling for five months with Niki (4) and Elina (3 and majorly cute). We shared our stories and stresses and top tips, and all felt much better for it I think. They invited us to come to the Similan Islands with them - one of the world's top 10 dive sites and since we are in possession of some fine new snorkelling gear, we decided it'll be something special, so Similan here we come!

Bangkok to Khao Sok National Park

2006-02-10T10:50:00.000Z

After a fab few days in Bangkok - stuffing our faces with pad thai and shopping for snorkels, masks and fins, we departed for the south on an overnight train to Surat Thani (a kind of tropical Trafford Park). It's pretty hot in Thailand now and we decided we wanted to visit the islands in the Andaman Sea before weather stops play (usually around May). This does mean however, we will have to hightail it back to Bangkok in a few weeks, zipping up to Laos before it gets too hot there and their rainy season starts.

One of our Bangkok purchases was an acoustic guitar. After Simon's inspirational influence in Goa, we decided to relearn something we both used to enjoy in the past. We've downloaded lots of our favourite songs and both have incredibly blistered and sore fingers. When we were on the train, the Thai train attendant sat down and started playing for us. A guitar is such a brilliant way to bring people together and within minutes we had made new friends, both Thai and from home.

So now, we are chilling in our beloved Khao Sok National Park. It has changed a little bit since we last came but not so much that it's lost its charm. They have email now and for some reason appear to trying to redirect the river near Rainforest Resort resulting in much digging and disturbance. We headed up to Our Jungle Huts who were unfortunately fully occupied, so we had to settle for the rather expensive Art's Guesthouse for one night (still cheaper than Sri Lanka though). Now we have settled into Morning Mist Guesthouse and it is truly lovely, with a splendid restaurant and a bargain to boot (550 Bht per night - about 8 quid). We have a four bed sturdy treehouse with spectacular views, even while you're having a shower!

Yesterday we went tubing down the river with 3 stoned Israelis and an Aussie woman called Adie (who has been living here for a year working in a guesthouse). We were all exhausted afterwards and went for dinner at Travellers Rest. This is Shaun's new guesthouse and restaurant (he used to run Nirvana bar). He is originally from Cornwall and is a great cook so the children have not lacked any home comforts on the food front.

So far we have encountered rather alot of snakes. The first one was a rather aggressive Bornean Pit Viper that refused to take Shaun's warnings not to try and come in the restaurant and ended up being knocked unconscious and flung across the river. Then we saw a Streamside skink, which are snake-like lizards that are smooth and shiny and move like snakes but have little lizard-like legs - very cute and not at all dangerous (unlike the viper which is both venomous and dangerous according to the little photographic book of snakes). We also saw a harmless river snake. Then today, Roisin found a Red-necked Keelback which the book describes as "uneven-tempered" and dangerous (although not fatally so, except to buffalo). Obviously, we make sure our mossie nets are well tucked in at night and carry torches after dusk. We have also heard that the elephants have been a bit lairy of late and one has to be careful on the trails in the park. Anke (our German friend from the Black Forest) asked the guide "what should one do if encountering the elephant?" He said run away as fast as you can! Tomorrow we're off on a 10km hike into the park to seek out gorgeous waterfalls and if we're lucky, some gibbon calls and not too many dangerous snakes.

Some thoughts on Sri Lanka....& moving on

2006-02-02T15:46:00.000Z

After Yala, we headed to a busy stretch of beach just outside Galle, called Unawatuna. Now Johnny and Caroline might want to post their own comments about this as obviously everyone has their own opinion, but we weren't so keen.

We saw some of the devastation from the tsunami in Kirinda near Yala. We took an evening stroll down to the beach. I don't think we really though too much about what we were going to see. The first thing that strikes you are the broken boats still on the roadside, some over 1km inland. They appear like memorials. Then as you approach the coastline, it's really quite shocking. Entire houses ripped from foundations (the wave wiped out shanti villages and housing, but was powerful enough to take out well built houses too). Huge pieces of brick wall and concrete flung here there and everywhere; entire areas where all you can see are the floorplates where the houses used to be. The wave came into Yala park by 2km and 47 people died there. There's a memorial where the park office and cafe used to be. The land is now several feet lower than where the ground used to meet the steps of the floorplate of the old cafe. People were having their breakfast when it struck. The wave was over 40 ft here. Trees & shrubs ripped from their roots lie dead between phenomenal new growth (Sri lanka is so green and clearly gets plenty of rain and sun - judging by how bitten we all got too - but it means the forests are repairing themselves). Our Yala guide was in his groovy open top Landrover and he got swamped by the first smaller wave, managed to start the engine again (good old Landrover) and hit reverse as fast as possible - he survived by a matter of minutes. People looked genuinely surprised to see us in Kirinda, especially going down to the beach.

Now Unawatuna was a different story altogther. It's stunning scenery, with aquamarine seas and white sandy beaches all along the coast, but the road runs very close to the beach most of the way down, as does the railway line. In a lot of areas, they've not been allowed to build within 150m of the coast (as of last week the government have changed their mind). Anyway, despite the amount of work going on it's still looks very ropey in places - derelict buildings, big sand dumps, major culvert works that stink and people living still in tents. Unawatuna was also ridiculously expensive compared to what we had been paying, even in Sri Lanka. You seemed to get ripped off everywhere, with inflated prices (3 times what they were 18mths ago - what with all those NGO executives filling the hotels, it's a sellers market) and ridiculous overcharging ($1 for a single printed b&w sheet), constant short changing, dodgy billing (we were over charged about 4000 SL rupees at one guesthouse) and charity profiteering that leaves a VERY bad taste in your mouth. My advice would be don't visit the busy parts of the south coast for a few years yet. It's not just the damage, which is still very visible - it just seems so miserable (hardly surprising) and not a very chilled friendly atmosphere.

We reluctantly stayed in Colombo to try and get Indian visas but it was going to take at least a week and would cost an outrageous amount for us to return to India and travel up to Sikkim, so we decided to cut our losses and depart Sri Lanka as soon as possible.

We hopped a flight the next night and now we are in the glorious Bangkok - WE LOVE THAILAND. We haven't been hassled once - it's cleaner than any of us remember, although I think our frame of reference has been drastically altered by experiences in India. We've got a great place to stay in Banglampu with two fabulously clean rooms for under a tenner, the best food in the world (everywhere) and its cheaper than chips - hoorah!

So we're as happy as pigs in Pakistan and are really pleased we made the right decision to spend more time in SE Asia. Judging by the impact of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, we had our doubts about what it was going to be like in Tamil Nadu - it's not nice being emotionally manipulated by so much scamming, and I imagine the Indian government is even more corrupt with its distribution of charity money, than is evident in Sri Lanka (the government have yet to make their Dec '05 payment to refugees).

On a lighter note, we also realised we would hit the rainy seasons in Laos, Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, as well as the Andaman coast in Thailand, if we had arrived here much later. So it's off to Khao Sok and then Tarautao National Park in Southern Thailand. Then we're off to Northern Thailand and into Laos by March. We then plan to fly into south Vietnam at the end of March and fly out from the North back into Laos for the start of April. Finally we'll return via Cambodia and enter north-east Thailand. Jungle mayhem and we can't wait!

A Sri Lankan Interlude

2006-01-29T11:46:00.000Z

Tonight we said goodbye to our dear friends Caroline and Johnny, as they return to England after a two week whirlwind tour of central and southern Sri Lanka. And what a trip it’s been….

The Kearney-James family found themselves stuck in sleeper class (a sort of third class with bunks) for a long train journey from Canacona in south Goa to Trivandrum, in South Kerala. 22½ hours. It wasn’t as skanky as you might expect, although startling noisy when the train flies through a tunnel with crashing feedback through open barred windows. It’s enough to wake the dead, let alone a Mancunian full of diazepam!

Maya, our Canadian traveling friend rejoined us in Cochin, and we sneaked into her AC compartment as what seems like half the train alights at Alleppey in Kerala. This train was as stuffed as a sardine can (hence the earlier ticket problems) and when I go to find Maya, she’s about 1km away at the opposite end of the train. I swear it’s the longest train I have ever seen in my life. Great food tho.

Arriving in Trivandrum late evening, we opt for walking to find a guesthouse. We have learned that everywhere seems horrible when you arrive late, it’s dark and you’re sleep deprived, and it also happens to be raining. The first rain we have seen in months. In this hyper tired state, we fail to immediately notice the smeared dirty walls and filth caked floor in the rooms, and book into one of the filthiest hotels in Trivandrum - but possibly one of the cheapest and we have a TV.

I picked up the tickets from Sri Lankan Airlines first thing on Sunday morning and after a brief scoot around Trivandrum I return to the hotel with Weetabix and a carton of milk (major brownie points from the children). The children and I decide to stay in the grubby room and do face masks while watching mind-numbing American television while Lee goes off to explore the delights of Trivandrum. This is the man who had an enjoyable experience in Mangalore, so when he says it was interesting this needs to be interpreted with caution ;-) We tackle the airport at dawn on Monday, and after reams of security checks, we finally escape India to meet up with our lovely pals.

We’ve all been acutely aware that there have been some unsettling events between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and Sri Lankan security forces during the last few weeks. However this trouble has been isolated in the north, and mostly around Jaffna, so we opt to stick to central and southern areas. We also opted to stay in the very plush tourist area of Mount Lavinia – firstly to avoid the grotty Colombo and secondly, cos JA and Caz are only here for two weeks, so we decided ages ago to forget the backpacker budget, go with the flow and enjoy some luxury.

The Mount Lavinia Hotel is the old governor’s mansion set on a stunning bit of coast with huge views back towards the capital, sweeping sandy beaches and frothy bright blue sea. Not surprisingly, we find our pals drinking G&Ts by the pool (for the quinine of course, it’s medicinal don’t you know). We opt to stay for the Sri Lankan buffet at the hotel which was not one of our better decisions of the tour. Surprisingly, for a predominantly Buddhist country, there’s not much vegetarian food. Bitter gourd is…. well it’s just bitter (despite smelling so delish and so I piled it high on my plate), banana flowers… well they’re just wrong (so of course we are served this just about everywhere we go) and just when we think we’re chowing down on a nice cashew and pea curry, we get a mouthful of pig. Suddenly none of us are too hungry anymore. Jet-lagged and train weary we retire early.

We take the train from Colombo to Kandy. Fortunately, Johnny Allan’s rugby experience means both him and Lee can hold back the scrum like pushing, aggressive crowd to prevent the children ending up between the train and the track, while I try to grab a few seats. There’s a lot more shoving and pushing on board, but our newly bred Indian tenacity means we grab scattered seats. The journey is incredible. Okay, Sri Lankan trains are rickety, noisy and slow (and rather dirty) but you can’t have it all. We are rewarded with some of the most beautiful and lush landscape we have ever seen. It just gets greener and greener. Every shade and hue of green lit by bright clear skies. And it’s soooo clean! I joked to Maya at the airport that while we shouldn’t get our hopes up, wouldn’t it be great if Sri Lanka was a beautiful as India, but cleaner. Well, it’s certainly that… and then some.

We stayed at McLeod’s Inn which has a lovely hillside location with stunning views down to Kandy lake and the Temple of the Tooth (Buddha’s tooth apparently). They rebuilt this temple in 1997 after it was blown up by the Tamil’s. There’s a lot of security but perhaps that’s a good thing for us just now. I get to practice yoga on the large balcony watching the sunrise (I will try and write something about my yoga course in Patnem at some point – suffice to say for now that it was really excellent and I have progressed in a number of ways).

In Kandy, we seek out Indian thali (not very nice) and a bit of shopping before visiting the Tooth Temple after a lakeside walk. We pay excessive amounts of money to eat average food at The Pub – gotta be our own fault really – if only we we were more inclined towards banana flowers.

Our first big day out is to Pinnewala’s elephant sanctuary. En route we stop at an ayurvedic herb garden and all part with substantial amounts of cash for somewhat low quality products. The orphanage wasn’t great either. Very few mahouts for large numbers of elephants and the whole feeding arena is a bit circus like and unpleasant. It has to be remembered that these elephants would be dead if not for this place and it’s not a sanctuary – they have retired ones, young orphaned ones and some wild elephants who’ve been injured (one poor fellow lost his leg on a landmine). Watching them bathe in the river (away from the sanctuary) was the best bit and I must have taken a whole reel of slide film photographing their antics.

The next day we headed up to Sigiriya, an ancient rock fortress in the central provinces. Unbelievable 360 degree views from the top – it really was awesome and wonderfully breezy despite the blazing sun. On the way back, we visit the ancient Buddhist caves at Dambulla, which were very interesting. We stopped for lunch and banana flower curry made its third appearance in as many days! We go out for great Chinese food that evening in Kandy and then all flopped early into bed, totally exhausted.

From Kandy, we realized that going to Adam’s Peak would fall on a weekend, when it is much too crowded and not at all peaceful. We opted to head straight to Ella in the heart of the tea country. After another aggressive boarding of the train and less successful seat grabbing, sitting on our bags we start a long (>8hrs) rickety journey over Sri Lanka’s highest peak to Ella. The views were just mind blowing. At one point it seemed as though you could see from the east side of the island to the west. Just incredible.

On the first day, Lee and I and the children take a short hike to see if we can find Little Adam’s Peak. We miss the turning but come across a tea factory set amongst very picturesque plantations, with views down through Little Adam's Peak. We decided an educational excursion was in order for Tevo and Roisin, especially as we have been travelling too hard for them to have time to do some structured work. We all rather enjoyed our tour of the factory more than we expected and left with large packets of their best cut.

Our guesthouse makes some okay food and this saves us from the truly bad and overpriced food being sold in and around Ella. We also have a cracking view through Ella gap and down to the southern plains, and a wonderful balcony for more sunrise yoga. The second day we take a lovely hike up to small Rawana Falls and return to Ella following the railway track – check out the photos. Very ‘Stand By Me’ and a most enjoyable afternoon.

After Ella, we headed to the south east corner of Yala National Park. Fantastic dawn safari accompanied by our chillin' guesthouse owner cum guide. We saw two lone Tuskers, a wild dog, grey macaques, lots of exotic birds, crocodiles, iguanas, wild boar, wild buffalo and samber deer. Everyone throughly enjoyed themselves.

Note to self: must do more safaris!

Back in Goa for Christmas

2006-01-08T10:11:00.000Z

Arriving back at Agonda Beach we were greeted as great friends returning home, and that's exactly how it felt...home. The tourists had changed, other than a few, but all else remained the same. It's the perfect laid back location to surf, swim and beach it for a while.

We spend more time discovering nearby places now. Chaudi or Conocana town is blessed with the Darbar that is "Udupi". We eat south Goa's best thalis, somosas and dosas regularly, and shop here for food, all essential new pillows and Christmas presents.

Another new discovery is Patnem Beach, south of Palolem. We enjoy good food here and the slightly busier beach with some cafe music. This is a nice alternative to our shanti shanti Agonda. Also, Jac and Simon are taking an intensive five day yoga course here. Ultimately though we do have to go into Palolem, which we have lovingly renamed "Pandemonium". It does have a few redeeming qualities, in particular, the restaurant "Cheeky Chapati". Hands down winner for good name and veggie English style sunday dinners... We eat here once and decide that the Christmas dinner venue is decided.

Maya rejoins us at Dersey, closely followed by Guy, Kay and Martin who have been in Gokarna since we left them and also decided to spend Christmas here. We are as happily surprised as are they. Days later Simon and Gina wander in and our previous possee is all but complete.
Along with Brett and others we celebrate Christmas at Fatimas and all learn to sign, as in sign language. Tevo is now hands down most competent and fastest signer, practising daily with great enthusiasm.

We all over endulge during the hugely enjoyable festive days and start almost nightly beach fires. On New Years Eve, in a fantastic night of fire works and fun, and the biggest fire of all we all sing "Message in a Bottle" and "Wonderwall" and numerous other songs to Simon's superb guitar playing. Tevo gives a marvellous rendition of Road to Amarillo - it made Tony's night apparently. We are about thirty people strong and as happy as you can be.

Breaking away from South Goa for a couple of days we visit Panjim, Goa's capital, and Old Goa.
Panjim is pretty hectic but strangely calm at the same time. We eat at the superb "Venite" cafe in the Sao Tome area, and Sher E Punjab Tandoori Restuarant, reputedly the best tandoor in Goa. There is a big presence of Portugese buildings which are particularly interesting and gives certain areas a real charm. There are pavements to which is a novelty. It almost seems like you're in a gorgeous mediteranean enclave then the smell of effluent and waste slaps you back into a pungent reminder that this is definitelyIndia (that and the suicidal traffic). Old Goa is all but destroyed other than four Portugese Cathedrals. These include St Francis of Assisi, and the largest in Asia, Se Cathedral. Also the Basilica of Bom Jesus, where St Francis Xavier's body remains are displayed in an elevated glass case. He was hugely responsible for converting people to Catholicism and it is said that after his death, his body remained in a fresh state for many years afterwards until eventually various body parts were removed for examination and he then started to decompose.

Roisin and I take a long walk through the staggeringly beautiful southern hills of Agonda one day, using the sun as our compass. We also lay out our route with markers. We find a road after four hours not seeing another soul (quite a feat in India). Next day we learn that there is a tiger in the area, with many men looking for it.

Eventually we have to think about moving on. Jackie spends many days trying to get train and plane tickets for the next stage of our travels. A word of advice: buy tickets out of Goa around Christmas/New Year time very early. It seems that it's been an awful lot busier here than we realised. Eventually her exhaustive efforts are rewarded. On the 13th we train south to Trivandrum in Kerala and fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka a few days later.

Lastly, we have decided to return to India after Sri Lanka. There is more we would like to see of this ever amazing country. Our plan, at the time of writing, is to return late January to Chennai (that's Madras), visting Kolkotta (that's Calcutta), and Darjeeling on the way to Sikkim, east of Nepal and firmly into the East Himalaya. Again, this was a family decision. The children showing a great desire to return to the mountains. We have thoroughly enjoyed this rest time, becoming part of the village and spending lots of time with other people. We are extremely excited by the near future. Not just to be on the road again, but also we meet Johnny and Caroline in Sri Lanka, our best friends and a chance to catch up on events in Manchester in the last four months.

Happy New Year indeed!

Fort Cochin

2005-12-08T07:30:00.000Z

We all go for a fancy dinner at The Old CourtYard and Tevo gets to eat his favourite Greek Salad. It's a really pretty little town, very Catholic, super friendly (I'm picking up on Canadian phrases hanging out with Maya - I caught myslef saying 'neat' the other day) and lots to see and do. Everyone is much happier.

Staying at Park Avenue Hotel (400 rups for a nice double with balcony, overlooking terracotta tiled houses and the sounds of hymn practice from the local school). This is the place of the famous Chinese fishing nets, where you can watch them hawl in their catches at sunset. They're huge and it takes 4 or 5 of them to raise and lower them. Just beautiful to watch. Take in a Kathikali show - amazing drumming and tabla, with dancing demons in heavy make-up. Great fun! Fort Cochin is a fine place to just wander about, with nice little markets, fishing areas and cafes.

After a good days rest, we have an early start for a boat trip down the backwaters. In a small boat, we glide silently along spotting snakes, kingfishers, woodpeckers, fishing cormorants, ducks and wildflowers. The air is hot and still - this is the hottest we have been so far I think. Kerala is a 3 showers a day place - the only way to cool down when there's no swimming to be had. The heat builds up and then it's not uncommon for a downpour late afternoon.

After big family discussions and a vote, we have decided to return to Agonda in Goa. Why seek what we have already found! Keralan beaches are either cliff backed with strong tides or expensive resorts geared towards package holiday makers. We had everything we needed at Dersy's, so we phone them to confirm our return and book a train back to Goa. We now have two very happy children who can hardly contain their excitement - Roisin says she doesn't care how tiring the journey will be - it'll be worth it. She's not wrong.

Hooty Ooty & Steaming down the Western Ghats

2005-12-08T06:50:00.000Z

After a bumpy mini-bus ride up to Ooty through national parks, 39 hairpin bends and the Nilgiri Hills, we arrived tired and hungry at the YWCA, recommended by the Lonely Planet as a quiet clean place outside of town, with big fires. It was absolutely freezing, no sign of any fires and the rooms were damp and cold, including the bedding. After very small portions of average food we tried to get some sleep in our lofty cold rooms. The cold woke us all constantly through the night so first thing in the morning we left for Ooty town - lots of hooting, belching traffic and hardly looked like how I imagined a hill station. Maya and I found a decent basic place above one of the best Darbars in town (according to 'the book').

But what we wanted that afternoon was carbs, carbs, carbs.... so we went for huge pizzas with extra everything. Given I was feeling a bit ill (again), cheese was probably not the best food for me to eat and I spent the entire next day in bed or on the loo. Lee, Maya, Tevo & Roisin went on a trip to the Nilgiri Hills. Apparently I didn't miss much. There's a cyclone sitting off the Tamil Nadu coast from Chennai, but we're heading east.

We took the steam train through Conoor and headed back towards Kerala. the train was cool with our own first class carriage and amazing views. Tea plantations led down to pristine looking forest and waterfalls hanging off steep cliffs. Very nice. Arriving late we took a local bus to Coimbatore where I shared my seat with a woman with the largest backside in Tamil Nadu. The children had to battle to hold a seat between them until Lee intervened. We take the 9.30pm to Kochi arriving at 3.30am. After much messing around and hassle with both the rickshaw driver and a hotel with the Gestapo for staff, we finally get some rest. We have arrived in a communist state. They want photocopies of passports and large deposits then wake us up early to hassle us again (since getting a photocopy of your passport at 4am was somewhat unlikely).

The children are feeling very hassled and tired and travel weary. It's time to find a place to chill for a month. We take a very long and hot taxi journey to Vypeen Island - what a pit. The island itself has some nice little villages but the beach is horrible and trashed, with lots of Indian day trippers. There are no guesthouses and although we find a 3 bed house to rent, it's in its own little rubbish pit garden with complimentary razor blades. Tevo says "It's rubbish here". Lee replies "It's not rubbish Tevo, rubbish is what Indian tourists throw on the floor!" It's a good job some of us are maintaining our sense of humour - I think I left mine back at the Green Hotel in Mysore along with my health.

We head to Fort Cochin in the hope of finding some Western oriented tourism, decent guesthouses and something other than rubbish to look at. We're supposed to be heading to Varkala, a beach in the south, but I'm not convinced anymore. We've been here nearly three months and are all very tired just now. Perhaps we shouldn't be trying to look for somewhere we have already found. We've seen alot of India in that time, but it's time to remember that the children are only seven - it's not an easy life here and homesickness is kicking in, fuelled by exhaustion and sensory overload.

Oh how I dream of modern sewage systems, a bit of cleaning that involves some elbow grease (on places like toilet handles rather than leaving them all poop stained), a bed that is at least the length of a full grown person, fluffy mashed potato, brown bread (without sugar thanks) and soya products (please bring us Sosmix Caroline).

More photos!

2005-11-30T07:14:00.000Z

Just added new photos for Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Goa and Karnataka.

Today we are leaving for Tamil Nadu - a hill station in the Western Ghats called Ooty (it actually has a new name no-one can pronounce). Fleeces at the ready!

Jxx

Family vote on the best & worst of India...

2005-11-28T19:00:00.000Z

We feel like we've traveled a continent already and we are only in our first country destination. There is so much we have experienced from mindblowing landscapes and immersion in culture, to a country ravaged by poverty and pollution. From the humerous and heart warming, to the scary and the downright weird, we feel smaller and bigger, weaker and stronger, just like India. There is so much to love and so much to hate, all at the same time. This blog site is just a snippet of our adventures and the stories we could tell.

So we've had a family vote on the best and worst of India so far. Here are the results:

Best Places We've Stayed (these places have a WOW factor that sets them apart from places that are just OK):

The Green Hotel, Mysore, Karnataka. Beautifully restored palace, eco-tastic, fair trade, awesome rooms. Room price includes a buffet breakfast that makes lunch obselete. 2 double rooms costs us 2800 rupees per night (bit of a birthday treat)
Yak Tail Hotel, Leh, Ladakh. Oldest and characterful hotel in Leh, super friendly staff, spacious and cosy adjoining family room - and hot water (which is a real luxury up in Leh). Two double rooms adjoining cost us 1000 rupees per night.
Dersy's Guesthouse, Agonda Beach, Goa. Lovely little cottage and beach huts on quiet beach. Sociable restaurant with a fab tandoor, safe place for children to have complete freedom, excellent body surfing (enough for fun but not so much someone might drown) and a big up to Regan, Jesus and the rest of the family there, who take really good care of everybody. Spotless adjoining double rooms - 400 rupees (what a bargain!).
Yellow Guesthouse, McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, Himachel Pradesh. Chilled basic place run by friendly Tibetan and Indian. Balcony fronted rooms overlooking farm and village valley areas. Rooms next door to each other. Two doubles cost us 350 rupees per night.
Mrs Bhandaris Guesthouse, Amritsar, Punjab. Funky art deco guesthouse, lovely staff, free internet. The Den is perfect for a family of 4. Cost about 1800 rupees per night.

Worst Places We've Stayed:

Chand Palace Hotel, Pahar Ganj, Delhi. Cockroach infested filthy building site! Courtesy of Ebookers, 20 pounds per night.
Chandra (HPTDC) aka 'The Shining' Hotel, Keylong, Himachel Pradesh. Nuff said!
Beach accommodation at Gokarna (Om and Kudlee) - nice fishing village & great food in town but we don't want to stay on the beach in a tarpaulined spiders nest with no view, no mossie net, no fan, no window, no balcony.....

Best Places We've Eaten:

Lamayuru Darbar, Leh, Ladakh - best thali ever!
McLo's & Nick's Kitchen - great continental food in Mc Leod Ganj. Kids loved the ice-cream parlour!
Madhur Milan Darbar, Dasaswarmedh Ghat, Varanasi. A saving grace for this filthy place.
The Green Hotel, Mysore. We can't say enough good things about this place.
World Peace Cafe, Leh.

Best Experiences so Far:

Trekking & gompa stomping in Ladakh.
Beach life on Agonda, bouldering, body surfing and early morning yoga on the beach.
Community kitchen and early morning puja at The Golden Temple, Amritsar.

Best Places We've Visited:

Ladakh
McLeod Ganj
Hampi
Mysore
Gokarna

Worst Places We've Visited:

Pahar Ganj in the rain (Delhi)
Agra
Mangalore
Varanasi

Best Buildings We've Visited

Gompas of Alchi & Lamayuru, Ladakh
Maharaja's Palace, Mysore
Hampi Temples
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
Agra Fort

Hampi, Gokarna, Mangalore and Mysore - phew!

2005-11-26T18:39:00.000Z

And so we dragged ourselves away from Goa. This was a very difficult thing to do, especially leaving our new found family at Agonda and the chilled out day to day life we were all enjoying. Lazing in a hammock after riding warm waves in the Arabian Sea, playing carrom (an indian game involving an edged board with four pockets, smooth circular pieces and a sprinkle of flour) and long easy chats with new friends. Life was good.

Onto Hampi, along red dusty roads in a bouncy jeep with Kay, Guy and Martin and the four of us. Our driver's organiser (who hitches a lift to near the Goan border, kindly informs us we may have to tell the police we are Rajesh's friends if we get stopped at the border. It becomes clear he doesn't have an interstate permit for tourists. Amazingly we experience numerous lucky moments (including a back road through a hotel grounds and some distracted police officers) and avert a potentially difficult situation. It turns out to be rather fun. We drive for 8 or 9 hours, getting lost a few times and taking in an excellent darbar in the middle of endless fields filled with chillis and sunflowers. We arrive late in Hampi and miss the boat for our plans to stay across the river. Turns out this is a good thing too. Hampi is an ancient walled village with narrow alleys between whitewashed houses and mesmerising columned walkways and more temples than you can shake a joss stick at. This is a holy place and it feels like it too. The people are friendly and helpful and we decide to stay in a new little guesthouse with lilac walls and huge mosquito nets.

The landscape is awesome (and dusty hot). Huge boulders perch on hillsides scattered between 400-500 year old temples on almost every horizon. Huge walkways with ancient pillars and giant slabs of sandstone outline this ancient and atmospheric village. Have a wonderful evening watching the sunset from The Mango Tree. A beautiful restaurant with a swing and a mouthwatering menu, watching men in coricals swirl down the river.

Our driver is waiting to take us to Gokarna in the morning, so another long dusty journey. It's my birthday the next day so I was hoping for some more beach life and relaxation.

We arrive on the North Karntakan coastline late in the evening again and take rooms at modern hotel in town. Gokarna beach is nothing to write home about, but we want to take a boat to the other bays. No boats today, so myself, Guy, Kay and Martin walk over the headland to Kudlee. Nice enough beach but the accommodation is distinctly unbirthday-like! Oh how I hanker for some SE Asian craftmanship, local materials, proper thatching... Not this concrete, poor thatch, low roofed, no windows, no fan, no nets, no balcony (not that there's much point when they all seem to face away from the sea) and as for the blue tarpaulin that scars the tree line - my word that stuff is ugly!

The others book into Shanti and we return to Gokarna where I hop a rickshaw to Om beach. This is not such a nice place. Very isolated, you can't swim in the sea because of the depth and currents and the travellers here are a tad unfriendly. More crappy accommodation. I return mid afternoon exhausted and baked, and feeling very unbirthday-like.

Lee cheers me up with a lovely silk dress as a pressie and then heads off to Kudlee and manages to get lost. Several hours later he returns baked and exhausted and we decide that we are too tired for all this hiking about and given that the beaches aren't that great, we decide to head further south. We spend the next day exploring Gokarna, lovely sleepy indian fishing village, very religious and the best homemade curd we've tasted in India. We feast on dosas, thalis, lassi and ice-cream. Then take an afternoon local train from the laziest station where even the air seems to be snoozing, to Mangalore, hoping for an R&R treat at the Summer Sands resort.

Mangalore is a grubby busy city, not many foreigners, alot of muslims and pervy men who stare too much. Too much attention - it's not a nice place to be as a woman. Maya feels the same. Lee has a better experience enjoying the freedom from street sellers and he sells English coins at a favourable exchange rate to a group of friendly locals.Starting to feel like there is a distinct relationship between religious fundamentalism and the men with their perverted staring and attempts to grope. As for Summer Sands resort - it's a tropical housing estate with lofty tatty cottages and a manky pool. The beach is ugly and no swimming allowed. More blue tarp, no breakfasts other than idli, and no alcohol (I officially postpone my birthday!).

We leave the next day. We travel with Maya, our new Canadian friend (and Rocky mountain guide to boot). Unfortunately, the time has come to take the dreaded sleeper bus. We soon find out why no-one likes these things as the Indian woman on the opposite bunk flies out of bed and only wakes up as she crashes to the floor. I also suspect these buses may play a role in bladder infections. No-one should have to hold it for that long!

We are fabulously rewarded when we reach Mysore. A wonderfully busy town, few tourists but lots of smiles and the best bit.... we are staying at a fantastic eco-hotel. A former palace of the Maharaja's sister, beautifully restored and maintained, well though out and tranquil gardens (from the mosquito eating fish to the abundance of butterfly attracting flowers). The staff tell us this a great place to work and you can see it in there faces. Much smiling and chatter and the best service I've seen so far in India. A waiter tells us they give job opportunities to tha poorer families, with great training and fair pay for everyone. All the profits go to local health charities. Solar panels, recycling, traditional (dobi) laundry, energy efficient lighting, and crikey this place is clean!

We all decide it is time to celebrate my birthday and so we are staying here for a while. Mysore has much to see from the old palaces and wonderful markets, to museums and art galleries, and some of the best food in India, oh, and internet.

Goa at last!

2005-11-16T15:30:00.000Z

After an epic 27 1/2 hour train journey from Varanasi to Mumbai, we enjoyed some colonnial luxury in the big city. Lovely afternoon watching cricket at the Oval Maidan and an evening stroll down ocean drive to admire the New York style skyline and the filthy sea that no-one can swim in anymore - including the fish! Did a bit of expensive (relatively so) shopping and ate delicious pasta and scrummy cakes at Mumbai's latest euro-style cafe 'Basilico'.

Another train journey to Margao in Goa. Lush 2AC curtained cabin (4 bed) - oh the luxury of a little privacy. Arrived refreshed and relaxed in Margoa. We went straight to south Goa as the north is Costa del Nightmare. So much for Palolem, supposed to be Goa's 'paradise lost' but more like lost, found then trashed.

We found ourselves a lovely quiet beach just up the coast where we've been chillin for a week or so. Clean surfy sea, plam fringed sandy beach, fresh food and lovely guesthouse. Place to ourselves besides a few other travellers, who've we've hooked up with in the hiring of big jeep and are off to Hampi together for 3 day excursion, then onto Gokarna. There's talk of another tsunami around the 19th (I just think it's possibly annual post trauma panic - some mad man on the beach in Patnem - nostrodamus or nutter, who knows? But more worryingly a few fishermen are talking about it). We're glad we're in the Hampi hills then anyway, but will be hoping Patnem prophet has just had a touch of sunstroke.

The children are loving beach life (as are we) and we're all now very healthy and relaxed. Plan to head south to through Karnataka to Kerala for xmas. We spend our days building sand sharks, with mussel shells for teeth and mughal-esque sand castles and forts, or lazing in the hammock with a good book, or body surfing in the the warm Arabian sea. There's just enough surf for lots of fun without quite drowning us - although the approach of tonight's full moon has given us some strong tides this last day or two. Relax in the evening with some great people - good company and a cold beeror two on the moonlit beach watching shooting stars.

Well time to return to Agonda. Probably be out of touch for a week or two again now as it's blissfully quiet and empty where we are and where we plan to go next. Few travellers and therefore few facilities. But we have everything we need - sun, sand and surf with a nice thali on the side :)

Holy cow! It's Varanasi

2005-11-05T13:29:00.000Z

We left Delhi as quickly as possible and took a 16hr train journey to Varanasi for the Diwali celebrations. The journey was very pleasant as we made friends with the Indian family from London and another couple from Lucknow (about 100km west of Varanasi). Talked politics, children, health, life in India, Malaysia (the father was Indo-malay) and the UK while drinking chai and eating cake and bananas. We were in 3 AC, which is air conditioned with 6 bunks per block. It's ok but the smell of feet and urine (being trodden across the floors from the toilets) was getting a bit ripe by the time we got to Varanasi.

As India's holiest Hindu city, we were all very excited about what was to come, especially as so many of our friends and fellow travellers recommended it. Are you all mad? I'm having a little trouble finding divinity here as we suffocate on the smog, plagues of insects and the filthy cesspit that is the Ganges.

We found a nice hotel in the Cantonment area (because lets face it, we're not 19yr old students trying to survive on a shoestring, and why should we?). It's well away from the original flea and mossie pit I booked down by the river. I was immediately struck by how dirty the place is (not in the Cantonment which is comparatively spotless). More so than anywhere we've been (except Agra - but don't even get me started on that tourist hellhole). Piles of burning rubbish and dense spluttering traffic everywhere churn out thick polluted smoke into the densely smoggy sky. Asthmatics beware - bring plenty of steroids!

It was Diwali eve, so we took a rickshaw to the market and got totally lost in the narrow crammed alleyways. A very unpleasant and unnerving experience for us all (and several men got punched or elbowed for what would be classed as assault back in UK). We finally resurfaced on the main road leading to the river. Went down to the 'Ganga' for a quiet stroll - no such luck. While Lee enjoyed a vigourous neck and shoulder massage, the children and I were besieged by touts and beggars. So far on our journey, travelling as a family has been a blessing. We have earned greater respect and friendliness - families are universal after all. But here (and to some extent in Agra) the children are targeted by the touts too, especially the child touts. Tevo and Roisin are really sick of it, and after much pawing and grabbing, I took my best assertive stance and demanded they lay off (I can say several useful phrases in Hindi now). I couldn't even see the Ganges through the crowd we had drawn. I bought a silk shawl to hide behind (and matches my salweer kameez {Indian long top and loose trouser suit} I have been living in for the last few days). The children lit 'puja' candles and set them adrift on the river.

Pilgrims flock to this place for puja and it is said, those who are cremated here are released from the cycle of birth and death and that the river washes away all your sins. I thought I'd probably have to immerse myself for redemption from my past, but settled for bathing my hands and forehead. BAD idea - I have had explosive diaorreah since! The Ganges is so polluted there is no oxygen left and nothing lives in this basin area apart from the rubbish, excretia and burnt human remains. It may be holy to Hindus but it's a foul cesspit and a major public health hazard. Water bourne diseases are rife along the basin and because of the current plague of insects, many people (including travellers) are getting very sick here.

We bumped into our Japanese friend, Tij, who we did some excursions with in McLeod Ganj. He's having a love/hate time here too. But he recommended a great cafe, where the children have been dragging us back for masala dosas ona regular basis. This is not a bad thing since the hotel food is not great.

The next morning, we took a dawn boat trip along the river, lighting puja candles and watching Diwali morning ablutions along the river. The sun took hours to break through the smog and as we floated through the untreated sewage, it was hard to understand how such a holy place can be allowed to reach such degradation. Hindus think the british are a bit odd, the way we tames nature in our gardens with flowerbeds and lawns, and believe nature should be allowed to take its own path. So how can it be okay to poison nature in this way? Furthermore, after a long chat with a waiter from Kolkatta, it appears that the government show little concern for this. Instead they are much happier to spend billions of dollors on US-Indo war schemes. Meanwhile this beautiful country is rotting from the outside in. What a strange country this is. A developing country no doubt, like a cross between our Victorian times (with dangerous forms of child labour, extreme poverty and severe lack of basic public health needs like sewage systems) and a rigid class (caste) system, bound in the opiated effects of religion that Marx so famously believed controlled people to accept their fate and position in life, and at the same time an influx of modernism and capaitalism that further poisons the land and encases the poor in a poverty trap with no escape. Tourists are the cash cow, so to speak, the only chance many people get to make a living beyond their basic food and shelter needs.

Quick example - our rickshaw driver, Patel, on a good day makes 500 rupees of which he gets to keep about 150 after he has paid his boss (the rickshaw owner) and the numerous fees and taxes that are everywhere. This is about 2 pounds. He cannot save any money or buy anything that is beyond the basic needs of his family. He lives in a hut in the country just outside Varanasi with family. Does he like it here? A definite no. He says he will never get a chance to make a difference to his life or his family. I have asked this of several locals and migrant workers and they all say the same thing. A few people 'own' all the businesses and the masses get a pittance for working from dawn til dusk and are trapped in this dirty polluted place. No wonder the poor souls want to be released from the cycle of birth and death.

Back to our trip - we took a short tour of some of the temples, but the holiest of them was a dirty as the river, so we gave up and went back to the hotel for brekkie and a swim in their brand new pool with stunning waterfall.

On Diwali night, the sky lit up with the most extraordinary fireworks. the kind that would never make it into the UK. Like small bombs going off, buildings shook and more smoke filled the already gloomy sky. The hotel gave us a fine display, almost setting fire to some of the waiters with unruly catherine wheels and exploding rockets.

After a day or two's rest (and severe wheezing on my part), we have decided on a few things. Firstly, the tourist trail of mid Northern India is horrible. After the laid back Himalaya, we have decided this is not what we came for. The Taj Mahal was wholly disappointing and Varanasi is just, well, very messy! The dust, heat and touts we can expect in Rajasthan sound a little too much, so we have abandoned this plan and have now booked ourselves an extraordinarily long train journey (26hrs) to Mumbai, then onto Goa (another 10 hrs) for some birthday shindigs for me. After this, we plan to spend more time in Karnataka and Kerala. Rumour has it, its cleaner down there and the people are more gentle and laid back. Here's hoping!

Last night, after more masala dosas and thali at our favourite cafe, we went to see evening puja at the river. A fine display a lights, ceremonial brahmin bell ringing and incense burning. Some cows joined us to watch, then promptly pooped and peed all over people. But since they are so holy, even when they started getting a bit frisky and kicking out, everyone just makes way for the cow.

This afternoon, we are off to Sarnath where Buddha found enlightenment. I'm very excited. I can't wait for the company of gentle lamas (monks), beautiful stupas and hopefully some tout free time.

Jackie xx

Mughal tombs, tourists, touts and bombs

2005-11-02T14:52:00.000Z

The closing ceremony at Pakistan border has become a major attraction and consequently large banks of concrete seating have been erected. We are crammed in with thousands of party mood Indians. The guys next to me had come from Delhi for the day and were returning that night.
The Pakistani contingent numbered 11 that I saw. However, I think the Pak guards won the high leg and wobble shake thrust moves. A fun spectacle followed by big chats with scores of people.

Next morning we are up at 4.10am and on the train to New Delhi. At Delhi Station and with predictable difficulty, Jac manages to get train tickets to Agra, back to Delhi and then to Varanasi just in time for Diwali. In the afternoon we take in the incredibly elaborate Mughal Humayan's tomb and surrounding buildings which have us all agape. The site is one of India's 22 world heritage sites and a lot of money has been used to carefully rebuild a lot and very well. But the architects mausoleum, one of few not renewed, was more intruiging, small patches of original paint clinging to cracking domes and sandstone corners eroded into more organic shapes.

That night we stumbled around Chandni Chowk market, travel weary and bleary brained before sleeping .

Next day and back on the train to Agra and a promise of the Taj Mahal to Tevo and Roisin.
The station has "tourist money" written all over it. The high pressure rickshaw/taxi drivers' battle to get you commences and we opt for a green (emissions tested) rickshaw. Our hotel is good and we set out on two cycle rickshaws to Taj Gang. The thing in Agra now is to get you by hook or by crook or by constant jibbering at you, even to the extent of crashing together going the wrong way around a roundabout with a squashed finger for Tevo (he's ok) to go to into a shop. Carpet, jewellry and marble shops pay a commission to any driver bringing a wallet, sale or no sale.
Next day we visit Agra Fort, an outstanding Mughal site with decades of differing styles from early pre-dominant sandstone to later marble creations. We opt for sunset at the Taj Mahal which is pointless as the smog here obliterates any sun set or rise spectacle. The security check is worse than an airport with an outrageous amount of tourists and touts, oh and also it costs a relative fortune. It does take your breath away but at the same time conjers up images of power crazed Emperors and the slave artisans who's fingers were removed so another creation so perfect could not be reproduced. And all for the love of a dead wife. I cant help thinking the fort is a lot more architecturally and historically interesting.

Fighting our way back through hawkers and sellers we have a delay at Agra train station. The permanent station beggar population with varying degrees of necessity and the sorry soul with bad elephantitus guage our Indian experience, we are well accustomed to these situations now.
After a quick two hour sprinter train and rather good on board thali we're back in New Delhi train station late at night wondering why we seem to have come down the rear (non Parhar Gang) exit...

Next morning the newspaper headlines reveal the atrocity and horror of the market bombs yesterday evening. We are appalled and incredibly upset.

Onto Amritsar & The Golden Temple

2005-10-26T12:44:00.000+01:00

After finally getting a glimpse of the Dalai Lama at the 40th Anniversary celebrations of the Tibetan Children’s Village, and sending a heap of stuff we don’t need back home, we have finally left the mountains and head to Amritsar.

Deciding that a five hour bus journey on these mountain roads was more than our backs could handle, we opted for a taxi to Pathankot and a train from there to Amritsar. We arrived a little early and spent an hour or so sitting on the platform eating fresh pakora, channa filled roti and drinking chai, whilst everyone stared at us rather intently. Tevo read his book aloud and before long we had a crowd of Sikh men shaking his hand and declaring his brilliance to all. I think he rather enjoyed himself.

When we finally found our carriage on a very long train, we found our seats were taken by a young girl and her father. Reluctant as they were to move, we finally managed to assert ourselves. We waited several days to be able to book these seats and I was not about to give them up lightly. However, it seems they either oversell the tickets for this train, or many simply do not have a seat. This means that the spaces between us and the children are seen as fair game for shoving up. Once again, we had to assert ourselves for the kids not to lose their seats. All in good humour though, and by evening we arrived in dusty dark Amritsar, the holiest Sikh city in India.

Bas, our dutch travel writing friend in Naggar recommended we try Mrs Bhandari’s Guesthouse in the old Cantonment area. And what a recommendation!

A beautiful oasis and well-maintained (well there’s a first) Art Deco guesthouse with an easy atmosphere (including an ‘honesty’ bar), swimming pool, well kept gardens, children’s playground and the most amazing accommodation. We are in ‘The Den’, formerly the children’s nursery – apparently the best room in the place. A large open plan room with two smaller rooms leading off, a bathroom with a huge cast iron bath, and tastefully furnished with period furniture and features. It’s like the British are still here! Mrs Bhandari is Parsi and married an Indian army officer back when such a marriage would have been highly frowned upon. She is 99 this year and remembers the 1919 carnage at Jallianwala Bagh, when, under governor O’Dwyer’s orders, the British opened fire on a peaceful demonstration killing 379 people and injuring 1500. We are visiting the remembrance gardens later today.

Yesterday we visited the Golden Temple, the holiest of sites for Sikhs, many of whom make pilgrimages here from all over the world. We wandered through the most gruesome galleries depicting Sikhs at battle and facing torture and martyrdom. Tevo and Roisin just loved it! We joined the community kitchen for lunch where everyone, regardless of age, creed, caste, class, whatever; eats together. They feed tens of thousands here daily, for free, with huge vats of dahl and piles of chapatti, it’s almost biblical. We then joined in the washing up, and everyone made us really welcome and seemed genuinely pleased to have us there. As do most people seem in Amritsar. Smiling Sikhs everywhere, although Tevo says his cheeks hurt from having them pinched so much.

We returned this morning at 5.30am for dawn at the temple and were rewarded with a beautifully lit temple glistening at the centre of the huge tank of a pool. We met a really friendly man who showed us around the central temple and invited us to join in the ceremony of morning prayers. We saw ‘the book’ – a very sacred text that is read from constantly, each man reading for one hour, and it takes 47 hours to read it in its entirety. People read from the book to pray for things they want and be thankful for what they may have achieved. The waiting list is rather long. To read the printed copy, you will be able to get a place in 2009, but for the original, the wait is until 2117!

We seem to have acquired our very own cycle rickshaw drivers who wait outside the compound for us and then take us to wherever we choose. They waited for four hours yesterday. No-one walks here, so we while clinging on for dear life, we whizz our way around town dodging traffic and waving at school children.

This afternoon we are off to the border with Pakistan to witness the closing ceremony.

Tomorrow we leave for Delhi and then onto Agra.

A REQUEST: Children's books please!

2005-10-20T12:49:00.000+01:00

Please can you help?
The Norbulingka Institute runs an amazing creche and nursery. This is essential for the Tibetan families who arrive here so the parents can go to work in the Institute and learn the essential skills they'll need. They desperately need english books for children. Anything for children aged from 6mths up to 6 years would be greatly appreciated. Books are incredibly expensive here (more than the UK for english speaking ones) and they have little available for children.

Just nip into Oxfam or a secondhand book store and pick up a handful of books, or you may have some that you no longer need or want. Please send them to:

Sangyal (Incharge Creche)
Norling Creche and Preschool
Norbulingka Institute
PO Sidhpur
Distt. Kangra
Dharamsala
(Himachel Pradesh) India 176057

Thanks
Jackie

Are we enlightened yet.....

2005-10-20T12:08:00.000+01:00

We have now been in McLeod Ganj for the last few days. Dharamsala is actually a dusty empty little town down the hill, whereas MLG is a travellers enclave of cafes, shops, guesthouses and Tibetan monks. We took the pilgrim circuit around the Dalai lama's residence & the Tsaglangka complex (please excuse the spelling misakes as I don't have my lonely planet with me). Tevo walked hand in hand with a young monk and I took my first deep breath in a while (there's no poop and garbage round the back of DLs place). Beautiful Tibetan artefacts in the museum and temples - the children are becoming quite well educated about Tibetan Buddhism. We watched the monks debating, which involved much hand slapping and foot stamping.

We took the bus to the Norbulingka Institute where we saw newly arrived refugees learning traditional and new skills, from Thangka painting and metal work (so that's what's inside those Buddhist statues) to learning english and computer skills. This is part of their peaceful resistance I think. The Chinese have tried to eradicate Tibetans and their culture, yet here in this peaceful little enclave, they fight back by continuing to thrive, maintaining their old traditions and skills, and learning new skills to adapt to a new world. Buddhism is thriving here as it was in Ladakh. There is much the world could learn from Tibetans.

We are staying at the Yellow Guesthouse, which is as basic as they come but clean enough. The view and our kindly hosts make up for any lack of mod cons. Dukka arrived from Tibet five years ago (he walked for 30 days in the winter from Lhasa) and he learned his guesthouse skills at Norbulingka. We've taken two rooms this time, for 2 quid per room, we all decided it would be nice to have our own beds and this means we get a bit of space from each other and have the luxury of a sit down toilet in one of the rooms (although it continually leaks on the floor).

Getting used to things not working or being slightly broken is the norm here. Indians don't really have any sense of maintenance and things fall into decay quickly. The Lonely Planet is useless with regard to accommodation as things change too quickly for it to be up-to-date. It's good for getting around using public transport though, and its much more fun to wander around for a bit trying to find somewhere to stay that isn't too squalid and with the friendliest smiles. This approach has worked well for us so far.

DL is due to visit the Tibetan Children's Village on saturday so we plan to stay until then at least to get a glimpse of him. There are no audiences just now as he is busy teaching newly arrived monks from Tibet. Then on Monday we leave for Amritsar by train. We have been told about a guesthouse with a swimming pool so the children are very excited.

Although perhaps I will have to buy some appropriate clothes for swimming in. It is hard adjusting to the view of women here. Women are not allowed to expose their bodies much. This means I have missed out on the cold spring baths at Bhagsu (although given my current fragile health I thought it may be for the best as it wasn't that clean). I even had to miss out on jumping in the plunge pool at the waterfall (it was soooo lovely and CLEAN and blue and cool, I nearly cried). We paddled and I even bared my knees for a moment. Meanwhile, the boys (including monks) get to strip off to their grungy baggy underpants and enjoy the cool water.
Ho hum - women get seats on buses to make up for this!

Festival time in Kullu!

2005-10-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

Naggar is a lovely village and we stayed in a rather cosy guesthouse with a glorious rooftop restaurant, great food, great company of four irish tourists, a dutch travel writer, a german biker and our host, Manuj. Ate our dinner by firelight on the roof watching shooting stars.

Visited Roerich's museum and gallery - and bought some terrible postcard copies of his work - which we;ve sent to some of you :-) The old house was beautifully preserved and the museum had lots of Himachel, Ladakhi, Russian and Tibetan artefacts.

We've also been to the first day of the festival of Dessehra with hundreds and hundreds of gods descending from the mountain villages with their trumpeting drum playing support cast. They descend into Kullu, which was like Glastonbury had come to India. Tents and foodstalls and crowds everywhere. The children had a ball although I did think we might all die when they talked us into going on the shadiest looking ferris wheel I've ever seen. Our carriage was only half attached (we realised as we reached the top). I prayed that Shiva would not destroy us on a lovely day like this!

In the evening, Manuj took us to his family's house in Kullu. We watched fireworks in the valley and they made us a simple but lovely thali dinner, while the children played basketball and Pokemon (the great unifier of young boys from across continents it seems).

Time to move on....

2005-10-08T18:01:00.000+01:00

I think it's known as speaking too soon. All that talk of health and lovely food and then bam...I've just spent most of the week in bed after what started with bad food posioning turned into dysentry, and well I guess you best go look that up if you don't know what it is, so I don't need to go into the rather charming symptoms that this entails.
I am now on antibitotics and feeling better, if weak and considerably lighter (again). Tevo and Roisin are fine and appear to have the constitutions of an ox. Lee's been a little under the weather and may have ameobic dysentry but we can't get laboratory tests done here, as it takes a week, so he too has started taking antibiotics.

This has meant we have been holed up at the hotel, although the upside is that Tevo and Roisin have caught up with lots of work and their journals are looking fab. They've been out with Lee to a few local sights (which I'm sure he'll write about). But it really is time to move on as Manali has lost its shine a little (and its getting rather cold now).

In a day or two we are leaving for Naga and then Kullu, for the first two days of the festival and then onto Dharamsala. From there, our first train journey (to where we don't know yet) but we're all are very excited it.

Jackie

Chillin' in Manali

2005-10-02T10:51:00.000+01:00

Manali is colourful and laid back and incredibly green after all that desert. With the good weather that seems to be following us, we are thinking about whether we should stay around for the Kullu festival in two weeks time – a pretty spectacular one by all accounts.

The food is so good here, we could just eat all day long, which makes up for the appetite loss and accordant weight loss experienced in Ladakh. We may go to Dharamsala next – about a 7 hr bus ride. Piece of cake after Leh to Manali slog. We’re all pretty healthy at the moment and the children are starting to appreciate the highs and lows of traveling, a kind of no pain, no gain attitude, especially when it comes to very big mountains (and even hotel rooms on the top floor!).

I do think we have bagged the best family room in Manali too. Halfway up to Old Manali overlooking John Banan’s Orchard, we’ve got a great view, peace and quiet (when some Israeli’s aren’t partying in a nearby hotel!) and a cracking room. Two big double rooms, lounging area, big big balcony and two bathrooms (tho one the toilet works but the rest doesn’t and vice versa). It’s kind of amusing that the shower comes on when you turn the basin tap, and that despite a decent bath suite, none of it works but we have piping hot ‘mandi’ water and it is incredibly efficient on saving water. It’s costing us under 9 pounds a night, which is actually expensive as there are decent rooms in Old Manali for less than 2 quid. The absence of any balcony railings on upper floors is a slight drawback for those with children, and perhaps those who may have been sampling too many of the local wares.

We’ve been starting the day with fruit breakfasts; which Tevo and Roisin choose the night before from the markets. This morning we had pomegranates, apples, bananas, pineapple, coconut and a strange mini melon type fruit that only Lee liked. It cost about a quid for the lot. We usually go for thali early afternoon. We now know to ask for the separate thali and dosa menu at these places, not the tourist pizza strangeness that’s on offer. Even T&R have decided they don’t like pizza anymore and that it’s best to stick with local food, unless of course, it’s one of the fabulous german bakeries – they definitely get that right. An added bonus being that you can actually eat really well for less than 2 quid a day (Caroline, it's about 40 rupee for the best dahls, currys, breads and pickle you've ever tasted).

Unfortunately I have yet been unable to find an equivalent to Dsomza, the co-operative water bottle refill place; amongst other worthy activities like collected old batteries and plastic, eco-laundry {that’s at least 200m away from mountain water sources}, very strange Leh berry juice {which fizzes explosively if you leave it in your water bottle going over high passes}, dried fruit and nuts {staple diet of any good trekker} and also distributing unwanted clothes and shoes to people in need. I can picture a village child skipping to school (and believe me they do skip over the most unbelievably steep and high passes) in a brand new pair of gortex Berghaus boots that Roisin managed to outgrow before we even arrived.
Comparing equipment for a moment, I have to say that although you can buy very cheap goods here, there is a marked difference. Tevo’s boots (inherited from Roisin) kept his feet dry and ankles safe whilst falling off rocks crossing gushing streams, whereas Roisin’s, well they’re just a bit pants really.

We went for a forest walk yesterday and then up Old Manali. Imagine shabby but very charming and a lot quieter than down in main street. I spotted a Tibetan café so plan to return later for some scrumptious momos and noodle soup. This afternoon we plan to take it easy. The children have done some excellent school work this last week (they even practiced their times tables in the jeep from Leh).

Hope the new photos have loaded okay. I'm off for some thali :-) Shanti shanti xxxx

The Road From Leh to Manali

2005-09-30T11:35:00.000+01:00

We set off in our jeep from Leh with driver "Cherry" into the unknown.
8-30am and the main road is bustling. Soon the mountains resemble huge seemingly everlasting quarries- just rocks everywhere. But the rock changes as quickly as the shadows zipping along their faces.
This place is woefully gigantic. We have 465km to travel and soon realise why it takes two days.
We're flung up and down side to side as we hairpin across collapsed roads up and down through the mountain sides.
We encounter the Himank Road Builders many times, sometimes we wait for road to be layed, sometimes just burn over the hot tarmac surrounded by men and boys covered from head to toe in tar and blending into the smokey air...most eerie.
We also stop for a petrol truck which has lost it's front wheels and axle , to be pulled out of the road whilst men attempt to catch the spurting petrol from the underside in various buckets and bins.
We also pass through makeshift tent towns where you can buy tea, chapatis and omelette or just extremely out of date fizzy drinks with enough e-nos in to collapse a yak.
After a desert like flat plane we come into the Gorges of Pang one of the most exciting landscapes I have ever seen. I suppose reminiscent of the Grand Canyon, unbelievable rock formations. Always in the background are snow capped peaks.
We reach the snow line 10km from the second highest road pass in the world Tanglangla 5378m up. We stop here and Jac ties prayer flags from the shrine.
Down again along the Iksi River, roads becoming even worse. We are now in Himachal Pradesh.
We stop for the night at Keylong 12.5 hours after we started. The hotel was described by Jac as "The hotel from The Shining with Lurch at the desk" She was right, but we are shattered and must sleeeep. Next morning are glad to be back on the road even though our bums, backs and shoulders are chaffed and bruised.
The morning light reveals a much different land scape. Tress and grass soften the mountains.
5 hours later driving under circling eagles and past a pony trekking town, we are at the head of the Kullu Valley and soon arrive in Manali, a vibrant, noisy experience but nonetheless feeling very welcome. We find a brilliant hotel, negotiate the price down and rest our exhausted bodies.
Love to all xx Lee

Photos at last!

2005-09-25T16:58:00.000+01:00

Check out link to photo gallery. Loading photos to this blog takes much too long (works at nearly 1 pound per photo). Using different site.
Enjoy! xxx

Plane View - Flying into Leh

2005-09-25T13:07:00.000+01:00

The flight from Delhi into Leh was one of the most spectacular sights we have ever seen (in Tevo's words - "it's more than amazing"). Clear blue skies gave us views across the Indus & Zanskar and an awesome introduction to these moonscape desert mountains, which seem to go on forever.

Gompa Stompers!

2005-09-25T09:29:00.000+01:00

Picture - Lamayuru Gompa at top (Buddhists appear to like high places). Dzos (a cross between a cow and a yak) threshing barley at bottom.

Just got back from four day trek from Likir to Lamayuru (with a few jeep hitches in between). Hard going at times but worth it. Amazing Gompas and friendly Lamas (Tevo even got a cuddle) and we've seen the most amazing Tibetan artefacts.
We were well looked after by our Tibetan guide Pemar, who even carried Roisin on his shoulders at one point (and is an awesome cook and camp setter upper). Not sure our driver Khan can read the local signs (Better be Mr Late than Late Mr & Drive like hell and you'll be there soon) as we raced alongside the Indus, round gut wrenching hairpins and steep cliffs. Mind you, he got us back to Leh safe and sound, so hats off to him. Have managed to spend a months budget in less than a fortnight (flights to Leh and organised trek, plus the trip down to Manali) so plan to chill out in the Kullu valley and then Dharamsala for a while. All overland to keep costs down, so have a bus ride from hell to endure. Takes two days to get to Manali, 10hrs on 1st day then 6 hrs or so on the 2nd day. Going over the third highest motorable pass in the world! Think we're well acclimatised now, though here's hoping (and I stocked up on sick bags off the plane just in case :)
BIG LOVE TO ALL AT HOME!

Oh Leh Oh Leh Oh Leh!

2005-09-18T19:51:00.000+01:00

Managed to get a flight out of Delhi (just in time as trees are falling, sewers collapsing and strange diseases have started to surface). The security checks for the flight to Leh were incredible, where the bags are triple checked and so were we. Once aboard, we all felt some relief that the winds had eased and as the plane took off, none of us were too upset to see the back of Delhi. Shortly into the flight the skies cleared and we were met with the most awesome sight any of us have had the privilege to see before.

Against the bluest skies, the Great Himalayan range rose above the clouds to greet us. Tevo said he will remember it for the rest of his life. I think we were flying over the Zanskar mountains, moonscape valleys drizzled with icing sugar snow. The approach into Leh airport was slightly unnerving, as the wing of the plane appeared to just miss the mountain as the pilot took a sharp left down to the runway. But what a sight!

We headed for the Bimla hotel and have ourselves a lovely room with a shared rooftop veranda. Here we met Paulo & Luca from Milan who were only staying one night before heading straight off for some serious trekking back towards Manali. The boys must be mad! Already we all felt a little odd and within a few hours, altitude sickness was starting to creep up on us. This is the first time I have been able to concentrate since arriving. It's like an overwhelming lethargy and incredible thirst, with a slight headache (that vanishes once you take paracetamol). But the heavy limbed, heavy headed and super tiredness continues. We slept for most of the day yesterday and then went out for a little walk and some food. We were aslepp again by 10pm and didn't wake until after 10am today. To be honest, I could just sleep all the time just now. But am determined to reset my body clock and adjust to the altitude. It's a little frustrating as you can see some of the amazing 'gompas' from our veranda, with their streams of prayer flags beckoning in the wind. However, just walking up the hills here in the town is an effort. Once you eat something, it becomes doubly hard. I think we may collapse if we tried to go much higher. Tomorrow, we are going to try to climb the 500 or so steps up to the old palace. The children are coping well, and have already written up the story of how Ganesh came to have the head of an elephant in their journals.

Roisin says I am to tell you it is much nicer here than Delhi aand that the hotel is lovely and we have nice views. Tevo says he's very happy in the mountains and wants to go on a trek as soon as possible. He may have to be patient. I think we need to rest for a few more days and then we can tackle some 'baby' treks.

This afternoon I met a lovely couple called Richard (from Derby) and Anya (from Belgium) in a local co-op (where you can refill your water bottles with pressure boiled water for 10p!). They also do eco-laundry where they wash your clothes well away from the water courses. It's a very impressive set up. Rich and Anya gave me the lowdown on where to eat (Tevo has been pining for salad but I have refused to let him eat any yet) and they also gave me lots of advice on little treks (mind you, Richard would have us toddling off into Kashmir proper if I took all his advice ;) Great food tho. A little Tibetan place just round the corner from our guesthouse - yum yum yum! And Tevo got to have the biggest salad I'd ever seen filled with fresh local organic produce.

The Ladakhi's are the friendlist and most unassuming people. They are so welcoming and kind to the children, and not 'in yer face' like the many Delhi-ites. The local kids are amused at seeing such young Europeans toddling thru town. And Tevo and Roisin are amused by the cows and donkeys that wander aimlessly around town. Tomorrow we are going to buy them some carrots.

I guess I should sign off now (am a little reluctant as it took me 20 mins to sign in). Hope all is well at home. For now, we are happy in Ladakh :-) xxxx

So what do we think of Delhi so far?

2005-09-16T12:10:00.000+01:00

Jackie here - and I'm not so impressed. The hotel is a building site and the constant drilling and hammering is making my head hurt. The room is basic and not that clean, but for two nights it'll do. The rain is a bit of a blessing, as it's keeping the temperature down and the streets are less crowded than they might be. Pahar Ganj is an experience - we're off to buy Roisin some new boots as both the children have managed to grow a full shoe size in less than a month and their new Zamberlan boots no longer fit them. So Tevo now inherits Roisin's, and we'll have to try and find something suitable down at the market. Lee is just trying to book us some flights to Leh now. Many flights have been cancelled in and out of Delhi due to high winds and rain. The roads to Leh and even Himachel Pradesh are closed due to flooding and mudslides. We may end up being stuck in Leh for a while, but it's got to be better than here. Fingers crossed, we fly out first thing. Love & peace J x

Tevo here - I am having a very nice time in hotel but when i am asleep there's a loud banging. There is a fancy shrine outside the hotel and it had a chandelier and a television showing fancy dancing. We went to a cafe and you could choose your own food and it was delicious.

Roisin here - I am having an exciting time here in Delhi. It is quite stinky and the hotel has lots of fans. It is quite hot outside even though it is raining. Last night, I saw a shrine outside the hotel and it had a statue of Ganesh. He had an elephant head and lots of fancy shiny things and flowers around him. There were two chandeliers and pretty lights. We went to a cafe which had spicy food. It was quite nice. We have been in a few taxis because of the rain. We went in an auto rickshaw which is like a tuk-tuk.

Lee here - jetlag's getting the better of me. Looking forward to arriving in the Himalaya and a less frantic pace of life.

T-15 and counting...

2005-08-29T21:00:00.000+01:00

One way tickets to Delhi - check; Travel insurance - check; Passports & visas - check; Cash & cards - check; Ready to rock and roll!

Took a fairly tough walk last weekend to see how my ankle is bearing up (there's only so much rehabilitation you can achieve on a wobble cushion). It went rather well and any limping was a result of me clattering my knee on a stone stile rather than more serious ligament problems. It seems all the pilates, yoga and physio appointments have paid off. Weather permitting, it looks like I'll get to sit on that Ladakh hillside afterall.

We had a practice pack this weekend. We had to laugh at our efforts when we realised that once the basic necessities were in, room for luxuries was more than limited. Who knew a children's rucksack could weigh so much? Looks like Lee and I will be carrying their books and other heavy items. And the heap that we pared off our own stuff could have filled another 60 litre pack. I'm scanning whatever written material I can to upload to the web and reduce some of the weight. Thankfully, once we see in the winter and head south, we can send home the bulky and heavy mountain wear. We may also leave some gear at our Delhi hotel to pick up on the way back. But still, there's too much stuff and we're going to have to become leaner in our packing.

Everyone's getting very excited now as the start of our trip gets closer. That, and a building apprehension about what's to come. Letting go of everything here sounds good in theory, but in practice.... it could be a different story!

The question of malaria?

2005-08-07T19:20:00.000+01:00

First some good news - after an initial failed attempt when the Indian High Comission returned our applications and we all had a slight panic, our six month multiple entry Indian visas finally arrived yesterday. Top banana! Tomorrow we're off to book the flights, arrival hotel and extended travel insurance.

Now back to less exciting planning...
Probably one of the greatest health risks we'll face while travelling in Asia is that of malaria. On previous trips to SE Asia (but not mefloquine resistant areas) we have taken the prevention route rather than the medical. After a dodgy experience with mefloquine in Sumatra 1994, Lee and I decided that covering up and using good quality repellants and nets, was a better option than psychotic dreams and vomiting. Apparently, children tolerate mefloquine better than adults with less propensity for showing loopy side-effects. But we still have several problems with anti-malarials:
1) They do not prevent malaria, and can reduce the efficacy and choice of treatment options. Yes, they reduce the severity of the infection but so does rapid treatment.
2) We are travelling for an extended period of time and taking anti-malarials for six months is a somewhat toxic prospect.
3) Our high risk areas (taking into account general risk and rainy seasons) appear to be Assam, central India, Yunnan, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Northern Thailand and Sabah. Add to this that Northern Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have many areas of mefloquine resistance.
4) If not mefloquine nutty pills, then other options include doxycycline and malarone. The children are too young for doxy and malarone is ideally a choice of treatment if one of us is unlucky enough to catch malaria. Plus they are outrageously expensive so taking them for more than a few weeks is out of the question.

All this leads me to conclude that:
We can take over-the-counter chloroquine and proguanil with us, just in case we are going to be travelling through areas of malaria outbreaks in India (Assam already has an outbreak due to heavy rains, and I am little concerned about this happening around Mumbai due to the recent floodings - I'm also worried about cholera outbreaks because of this but lets not go there just now). We can also take malarone as an emergency treatment. We can take mefloquine for the children to take when we are in areas like Laos and Sabah.

Non-drug management of this problem includes changing the itinerary so that we don't travel in malarial areas in the rainy season. This is a perfectly reasonable option. The chances of being able to get a 30 day visa from India for China is fair to low. It is likely that we'll have to take a return trip into Tibet from Nepal on a short visa (hopefully 10 days at least) then fly from Khatmandu to Bangkok to continue the journey. So a malaria avoidance strategy could be that instead of heading back north slap bang into Laos' rainy season, we could travel south and avoid the bad weather, returning when its drier.

We've also acquired some pocket sized mosquito repellers. They emit a noise that the biting females don't like (apparently the males ;-) and Caroline & Johnny's recent field tests suggest they well work. Not that you'd want to rely solely on this. So permethrin soaked mossie nets and clothing, together with a range of repellants have been packed. DEET for high risk times, ankles and other favourite chomping areas together with some less scary sounding ones for general use. Our firm favourite is Mosi-guard. It's approved for tropical areas by the London School of Tropical Medicine and does not contain harmful poisins like DEET (and smells like lemons).

And just in case any of you were wondering about water risks, we have a fantastic Katadyn expedition water filter. Gotta be worth every penny for the environmental aspects (have you seen some of the plastic bottle mountains in Asia) and piece of mind (cos there ain't no guarantee that's clean water in that there plastic bottle). Now if only the mosquitoes were as manageable!

Proposed Itinerary

2005-07-21T09:53:00.000+01:00

So this is the plan..... (depending on political insurgence, weather and other unpredictable forces)

September '05: Northern India - Himachel Pradesh / Uttaranchal / Ladakh (?)
October: West Bengal / Darjeeling / Sikkim
November: Central & Southern India
December: Southern India
January '06: Sri Lanka / Maldives (wish list :)
February: Central & Southern India /Rajasthan / Kutch
March: Nepal
April: Nepal / China via Tibet / Qinghai / Sichuan / Yunnan
May: Laos / Northern Thailand
June: Cambodia / Vietnam
July: Southern Thailand / Peninsula Malaysia
August: Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak)
September: Indonesia - Bali / Phillippines

Countdown or meltdown?

2005-07-11T21:56:00.000+01:00

I'm drowning in lists at the moment. Lists for the house, packing, finances, teaching.... I sometimes think we'll never be ready. We're planning to leave Manchester around the 10th September 2005, possibly stay in London for a few days, then fly to India. One less thing to worry about is that our French babysitter and her African drum playing friends are set to move into the house. Having torn the lateral ligaments in my ankle (that's a sprain to you and me) our next big question is whether we still fly one way to Delhi so we can head straight up to Ladakh, or should we get a cheap package to Goa? A few weeks beach rest might be just what I need and would provide a gentle (but rather warm) start for the children. It'll mean we may not get to go to Ladakh as it'll be way to cold by the end of October but then again there's no reason we couldn't kick back in Ladakh and ease off the trekking. We've got some time to decide yet as I've only just sent off for the visas this week. Answers on a postcard...