Slim & Tazz RTW Trip

More on Japan.

2010-06-18T15:11:00.000-07:00

As we have travelled further afield, people have asked us "What is the best country you've been to?" My answer is always Japan, with good reason.

I heard along the way that Japan has only ever received a Nobel Prize once. This is actually incorrect as Wikipedia states that Japan have won Nobel Prizes on 16 occasions, but it does raise an interesting point. Considering that Germany have won over 100 Nobel Prizes, why haven't Japan, commonly thought of as being the most advanced country in the world, won more?

Well my take on it is this: Japanese people don't invent, they improve. For instance, let's have a look at a common sight in India (9 time Nobel Prize winner):

Believe it or not, that is in fact a lavatory. The jacks, john, loo, bog, restroom, toilet or shitter, whatever you decide to call it, it shouldn't look like that.

Here's the same thing, but post Japanese improvement:

Ok so it doesn't look all that impressive, but the addition of a sink built right into the cistern is a useful feature nonetheless. That's not the only improvement though . . .

So what have we here? It looks as though there it an arm rest of sorts, containing an LCD display and some options. But wait! What's that in the back? The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed an electrical cable plugged into a wall socket. "What does that do?" I hear you ask. Well, during the night and first thing in the morning, toilet seats can be quite cold. That plug you can see, well that keeps the seat toasty warm for your sensitive bum, all day long!

As awesome as that is, and I can talk, my bum was perched on many a heated Japanese toilet seat, that's not all. Have a look at THIS:

What in the name of all that is sacred is THIS?! This panel was mounted to the wall beside the turd pond. It contains all sorts of options, some of which were lost in translation, but here's Francisco with his explanation:

"It's clear, wet your boobs a bit, a lot, spray your arse and then bacon!"

I agree entirely Spaniard. I can't confirm if this is actually true or not, as we were too scared to try any of the buttons while on the porcelain throne.

So there you have it, Japan's take on the humble bog. Here are a few other examples of randomly improved or modified things we found in Japan:

So there you have it, from 3D video games to strawberries and cream sandwiches, Japan has it all.

Japan, I love you.

Konnichiwa Japan!

2010-04-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

Japan eh? Often thought of as being the most advanced country on the planet, a mysterious island nation full of efficient, honorable and friendly people full of electronic and technological delights to baffle the mind. It lives up to all of these expectations, and exceeds most of them!

I'm not going to go into details about much in Japan. We done a lot, I mean A LOT, and it is without doubt my favourite country in the world. Because of this, you will hear EVERYTHING when we get home. Probably multiple times. So excuse the lack of details here.

I would instead like to tell you a story about our first few hours in Japan. It is short, but paints a beautiful picture of the type of country that Japan really is. Bear in mind as you read this that backpacking is tough. Days when you travel from one place to another are especially stressful, usually culminating in arguments and backache. Anything that makes these days a little bit more comfortable feels like a gift from the gods. A friendly face at a shop counter seems like an angel sent from heaven. A welcoming smile and a comfortable bed to sleep in make you feel like you are finally home, making you forget that you are thousands of miles away from your loved ones in a strange country. The smallest of niceties go a long way on these days, and in Japan there was no shortage of niceties.

We flew into Tokyo's Narita airport, and boarded the Narita Express train bound for Tokyo Station. From there, we were to get the JR Yamanote Line to Ueno, and from there the Ginza Subway Line to Asakusa. This sounds relatively easy in theory, but factor in fact that Tokyo's subway system is not run by just one company. It is in fact a maze of companies and stations and crossovers and lines that run all day every day across the entire 13 cities that make up Tokyo.

We arrived in Ueno without incident, but then got a bit lost. As the JR Yamanote line and Narita Express are both run by the JR company, we had no problem in navigating as far as Ueno. It was here that we were to change to the Ginza Subway Line, which was a different subway company. This meant finding another subway station within the existing station we were in. Complicated eh? Well we walked around, growing tired and agitated by the minute, and decided to stop and reference our map. When we took out the map, we were immediately approached by a Japanese man who pointed us in the right direction to catch our train.

Small acts of kindness of this sort were to become almost commonplace in Japan. People would approach us to help us out all the time, regardless of whether they spoke English or not. People had offered to help us before in other countries, but never without an ulterior motive. The Japanese people could not do enough for us, and the feeling of safety, friendship and righteousness that resulted from this made Japan the easiest of countries to be in.

Japan is full of everyday conveniences, such as vending machines on street corners, that just would not work in other countries. It is because of the honour code that this is possible. This same sense of self-honour is what makes Japanese people as friendly and approachable as they are. If you do wrong in Japan, the worst consequence in a lot of cases is the dishonour you bring to yourself. This way of life is light years ahead of anything else I have witnessed.

It is hard to convey this feeling via text, but try to imagine a place where you need not fear the general public. A place where lost items are returned to you wherever possible. A place where you can be yourself, all day every day, in EVERY way and never be judged. If you can imagine that, then you are 1/1000th of the way towards imagining life in Japan.

That's it for now folks. I'm not sure who (if anyone) reads this anymore, but I will continue to write when I feel like it. If you want more, let me know. If I don't hear from you in the comments, then this may be the last entry for a while.

Arigatou and sayonara,

Slim

Visual recordings of our never ending travelling adventures!

2010-03-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

So we know you all love reading about our adventures and misdeeds here on the blog, but some of you may be interested to know that you can now follow us in PICTURE FORM!
Buncorleone@Picasa Web
Wow! Technology eh?! Fantabulous as Picasa Web is, you can also find a Greatest Hits of our photo's on Tara's Facebook, but they may not be updated as quick as Picasa. You can also find these links on the left of the page for future reference.

More updates to come, and keep checking Picasa Web as new photos won't always be announced here.

I'm off for a dip in the ocean before watching some nine-year-olds beat each other up,

Slim

Eugene's adventure in China

2010-03-06T19:37:00.000-08:00

So you've all met Eugene by now yeah? If not, here's the happy fella taking a dip in Jaisalmer:

Well Eugene had his own adventure in China. Not because we lost him and only realised it three cities later or anything, I like to think that he was feeling brave and wanted to branch out on his own...

We last saw Eugene in Guilin, where he delighted in the sights of the karst peaks among other things. After a trip to Yangshuo to ring in the new year, we left Guilin for Chengdu, then onwards to Xi'an and Shanghai. Unknown to us, Eugene had other plans.

We noticed in Sim's Cosy Garden Guesthouse that the little fella was nowhere to be found. As troubling as this was, we had to leave without knowing his whereabouts and head onwards. After a lot of bag searching and sleepless nights, we consented to the fact that he left us somewhere along the way. With heavy hearts, we contacted the last few hostels we had stayed in to find out if anyone had seen him. Some time later, replies started to reach us. With breathless anticipation we read, only to be left saddened by the lack of good news. Despondent and despairing, we traveled onwards without our fowl friend.

Then one day...LIGHT! Good news reached us and lightened our burden! He was safe!

Being the scoundrel that he is, he had stayed on a little while longer in Guilin but had spent all his money on beer and karaoke! But he was safe and sound, and in the good hands of the Guilin Backpackers Youth Hostel. So we had tracked him down, but by now we were almost in Beijing! How would we ever see our rubber buddy again?

It seemed as though Eugene was destined to live out his days in Guilin, but the kind staff were good enough to post him to us! When he arrived (smelling of tea and power ballads) we jumped for joy! This brought some puzzled looks from Carrie and the girls at the Candy Inn , but they quickly fell under Eugene's hypnotic charms and posed for a photo with our favourite travelling companion:

So after all of the heartache and sleepless nights, he was back. We don't know exactly why or how we came to be without our little Eugene, but we think he may just have wanted to get home...

Stop asking us where we are going.

2010-02-24T23:19:00.000-08:00

It's under construction, and might not be updated for long periods of time, but it means you can find out if we have or will be visiting a particular place. This is in no way a definitive list of destinations, but it does include everywhere we have been so far and the must-see places to come. Enjoy. RTW Trip on Google Maps (See above for embedded map)

Blogging on the road

2010-02-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

Hey folks,

As some of you know we got a sweet iPod Touch since my Zen died (R.I.P.), so now I'm investigating portable blogging methods! Consider this a test, but expect small and frequent updates if this works!

Slim + Tazz

"There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes"

China, in brief . . .

2010-02-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

Ok ok ok I know I said you'd hear all about China in one post, and I know it's been a while since I wrote here, and I know I've been a naughty boy and left you all in the dark but I was in Japan! ME IN JAPAN! Epic though it was, you're going to have to hear about China first.

So after the gloriously modern and sanitary Hong Kong, we entered mainland China by land and our first stop over would be a relatively small city called Guilin. This was chosen on Kel's recommendation, so we had someone to blame if it was crap! We got there via an overnight train, which would become too common an occurrence for my liking, and we're greeted by our first taste of rain in months. This was exaserbated by the fact that no taxi drivers in China speak English...at all...anywhere. When we finally got to a hostel, which was only possible thanks to the 'Bible' (commonly known as Lonely Planet), we had to wait a while to get a room as it was early in the morning. All of this together meant that we were quite miserable and tired of China within hours.

This would all change pretty quickly though, as the country itself is phenomenally beautiful. The people can at times appear rude and somewhat ignorant, but this is most likely caused by a firm language barrier. So far, China is the only country where we have been hampered by the language barrier, but issues were so small and infrequent that it barely bears mentioning. The sights are second to none. I can now say that I have seen some of the worlds most amazing and wondrous sights. Due to the fact that we spent 5 full weeks there, and I don't have the time nor inclination to type out every single thing we done, here's a run down of the sights and activities from China:

Waterfall hotel
Reed Flute Caves
1000 year old turtles
The karst peaks of Guilin and Yangshuo
Played hungover scrabble with Seb and Stef on New Years Day
Sun and Moon Pagodas
PANDAS! And lots of em . . .
Shadow puppetry
A giant Buddha carved into a cliff
The Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an
Been to the top of the worlds highest observatory (and didn't freak out!) at the Shanghai World Financial Center
The Great Wall of China, which included an unscheduled rollercoaster-esque ride back to our tour bus!
Chinese acrobatics
The Return of Eugene!
An almost empty Beijing Zoo
The snow and ice world of Harbin, at -30 degrees!

So there ya have it folks, a quick snap shot of the sorts of things we got up to in China. This list does none of them justice (the Great Wall got a bullet point?! eh wtf m8?!) but I don't have the time to write a huge paragraph on each thing we do anymore. If I was to do that, I would spend all of my time at the laptop and none of my time out doing things! So how's this, you guys leave comments voting for what you want to hear more about, the highest hitters get a write up, and the rest get told as a drunken story when we get back? Sound good? Good. Get to it!

For now dear readers I shall leave you, but I will return soon. We are currently embarking on the south-east Asia leg of our trip, which has started off great and looks to continue that way. During this leg, we will be doing a lot of travelling an border hopping, so I'm going to keep the blog posts coming in short but sweet bursts. Get used to it.

I sign off today from Vietnam, wishing you and yours Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Slim + Tazz

PS. (Gmail and AIM users only): Expect more photo sharing the next time we meet online...

. . . . aaaand we're back!

2010-01-30T00:45:00.001-08:00

Hello again peoples of the world! We return to update you on the progress of our happy travels in the orient!

After an unscheduled, and may I say unwelcome break from our blog we are back! Due to Chinas communist government and foolish ways of attempting to keep the population mentally safe, our blog was blocked for the entire duration of our stay. This means that although we spent five while weeks in China, and done an absolute shed load of stuff, you're going to get it all in one giant blog post. Aren't ya lucky?!

Anyways lets get things moving by giving you a quick update on current matters. We are in Japan, Kyoto city, in a delightful place called K's House Hostel. We are happy and healthy as always, although not without incident and minor complaint. Things have changed a lot since we last met dear reader. We have become accustomed to travelling a bit more. We have spent time learning the languages and cultures of the countries we visited, unlike India and Nepal where we just saw the sights and moved on. We have met and talked with other travellers a lot, sharing stories, experiences and recommendations with each other and becoming fully fledged members of the backpacking community. We have upgraded! Currently our netbook is running Windows 7 Ultimate with 2GB of RAM. My phone got an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5.3 as well, not that many of you will care, but I'm just telling you this so you don't think I've fallen behind the times! We have also had a lot of fun and many incredible experiences, so why don't I tell you about all that good stuff then eh?!

We last spoke about Kathmandu, so I suppose Hong Kong would be the next place to talk about. Well where do I start? THE most incredibly clean city in the world. Technology drips from everything you see, but only where it makes sense. The buildings there don't come in a 'Small' or 'Medium', in fact you'll be lucky to find a regular 'Large'! Everything is vertical, but beautiful. The skyscrapers have become a part of the city's attraction, with a nightly sound and light show known as the 'Symphony of Lights' taking place on the waterfront each evening. This amazing display uses over 40 buildings on both sides of the river to illuminate the entire sky in all the colours of the rainbow. We stayed and watched this site from the 'Avenue of Stars', which is Hong Kong's version of the Hollywood walk of fame. I recognised a few names from various films, including the talented Yuen Wo Ping who choreographed a lot of the fight scenes from the Matrix and other "wire-fu" films.

Further along the Avenue of Stars was one of the sights I'd been waiting for. A glorious bronze rendition of the man himself, Mister Bruce Lee. This was without doubt the most popular sight on the Avenue, and crowds of tourists and locals alike lined up to have their photo taken beside the statue. I happily joined the activities, striking my best kung-fu/jeet kun do/karate stance for the photo. We even returned to see the statue at night when it is lit from all sides by the millions of neon lights that keep Hong Kong bright and vibrant 24 hours a day.

We stayed in Hong Kong a total of 9 nights, spending a delightful Christmas Day in Delaney's Bar. Aside from this, we saw the gorgeous Kowloon Park, a very large outdoor sitting Buddha and monastery, Victoria Peak, Avatar in 4D (yes, films in Hong Kong have an extra dimension added!), the Nutcracker ballet and I had my first taste of virtual drumming in months (good old Drummania in the arcades, ridiculously hard tho)! There is a lot I could say about Hong Kong, but that's all the time we have for today folks!

We should be updating here a bit more regularly than before now that we have access again. You can expect more on our shenanigans around China in the coming days.

As they say in Japan: May all your toilets be heated.

Slim + Tazz

Nepal in a nutshell

2009-12-22T03:03:00.000-08:00

So we're currently in Hong Kong, in Delaneys Bar on Peking Road to be exact, but today I will be blogging about the wonders of Nepal. This fabulous country came as a much needed breath of fresh air after the chaos and hassle of India. After a tiring border crossing (21 hours on nasty local/crap buses) we arrived in Pokhara, or as we now refer to it: heaven on earth!

Pokhara was an overly-touristy, adventure sports oriented drop of calm in the ocean of backpacking. As soon as we arrived we noticed the small but important differences: cows didn't fill the streets, roads were clean and orderly, no traffic, quiet, no hassle from hawkers selling trinkets and there were a lot more westerners about. I mean a LOT. White people had invaded Pokhara en masse to sample the adventure sports and activities that the terrain lends itself to so well. We decided to have a small but significant taste of this life ourselves by doing a ParaHawking jump (more on this incredible experience later). Tourists are well catered for here, with plenty of budget and mid range hotels just a few minutes walk from the main strip, which houses restaurants and bars for each and every taste. As you can imagine, the German bakeries and dessert oriented eateries became our fast favourites! Also along the main drag was the Old Blues Bar and All That Jazz, two fine bars which we only visited once each, but were thoroughly enjoyable places to be! A local cover band played in the Old Blues Bar, performing shaky covers of western rock and easy listening classics. It's odd to hear Hotel California sung by a small Nepalise man, especially when the pronunciation is off just enough to make it hilarious!

Also on the main strip was the Moondance Restaurant, which was the finest place we found while there. The desserts were spectacular, and the venue is based around a roaring fire which keeps the customers warm and cosy as they eat. A definite recommendation from us if you decide to visit!

So Parahawking then. . . What a day! We decided to do it without even knowing a whole lot about it, other than it was a tandem paraglide but with a bird of prey to feed while up there. We signed up (and signed 'We promise not to sue you if you kill one of us' papers) and thought nothing more of it until the day was upon us. We were brought to the ParaHawking office, run by the fantatic Frontiers Paragliding, and then driven by jeep to Sarangkot where the jump would take place from, not before being introduced to Scott and Claudio (our pilots), and Kevin the vulture who would be our jump-buddy for the day! Once we arrived at the take off spot, we were suited up with our harnesses and helmets and such, and then given some basic instructions on the take off. Before we knew it we were strapped to our pilots and running hell for leather at the sky!

We had to run full speed against the inflating wing behind us, and once fully inflated, our pilot would swivel into position behind us and the flight itself would start. We were told to sit back, get comfortable and have some food ready for Kevin. We done this, and after a few minutes the pilot would blow his whistle, signalling to Kevin that it was dinner time! Once we heard the whistle, we extended our arm with a small piece of meat in our hands, and Kevin would swoop in, land on our forearm and eat the meat, all while 2000 foot in the air! Having never fed a bird of prey before, nor been 2000 foot up strapped to a man I'd just met that day, it was an astonishing experience. I must admit I was quiet terrified for the first few minutes (vertigo, motion sickness and general pant-wettingness of the situation was a bit overwhelming), but once I settled in it was spectacular. Check out the vids: Slim and Tazz. Tazz's flight is a much better video, as she was relaxed and comfortable the entire way through, so if you only watch one video, make it her's.

While in Pokhara we went boating on the lake on numerous occasions, even taking a boat out ourselves for a few hours (with mixed results!). We also took a short one and a half hour trek up to the World Peace Pagoda, from which the views were just staggering. Seeing the entire city below, and the monstrous Himalayas in front was amazing. The trek was tough, but very rewarding. Other than this we spent a lot of time relaxing in the sun getting burnt and relaxing!

After Pokhara we boarded yet another bus, this time to Chitwan National Park. This was to be a 2 night stop over, but would contain some of the best activities we had done to date. When we arrived we were brought out on a boat through the jungle rivers inside the park, spotting Indian rhino's (a mammy and baby!), crocodiles, birds and much much more along the way. Our guide was a small man named Gopal, who is apparently becoming quite famous, and deservedly so. His eyesight alone is second to none, being able to spot the smallest birds in the furthest trees, and tell us the species and gender before we were even able to see it! A man of many talents, he was to become another friend of ours in a short space of time. After the boat ride we watched the sunset from the banks of the river. There is something special about watching pairs of love birds follow each other around the riverside as the sun dips below the tree line in the distance, just magical.

The next day was International Elephant Day. Or at least it was to us. We got up early to visit the pachyderms in the Elephant Breeding Center, where twin boys were born in 2008 on the same birthday as Tara! This made them just over one year old, and they were already 4 - 5 foot tall and full of energy. They played with the other young elephants, butting heads and fighting for position to feed from the older females. Interestingly enough, all of the mother elephants feed all of the child elephants, regardless of who owns who! As well as the twins, there are numerous other young elephants, some of the more tame of which are actually allowed to roam free throughout the facility. This means that when a bus load of oriental school kids turned up with cookies, all hell broke loose!

After the breeding center, we were back at the riverbank for elephant bath time! Suitably dressed, we joined a Mahoot (elephant driver) with his animal in the river and proceeded to climb aboard the giant beast. Once we were on the elephants back, the driver gives the command and the elephant sprays us with a trunk-full of cold water! It was amazing! The elephant then turns sideways as he lies down, throwing us head first into the river in the process! We then help with scrubbing the huge animal, using rounded stones to massage and clean the elephants tough skin. This was just sheer joy for both of us, but I think Tara fell in love with that smelly elephant a little more than me!

That evening we were brought back into the jungle, this time on the back of an elephant to go wildlife spotting. This is accomplished due to elephants masking the smell of humans, which means that the wildlife don't run away before you get close to them. This meant that we were able to get very close to some of the animals, and get some amazing photo's of them in there natural habitat. We again saw a rhino, some deer and another crocodile, but also added wild boar and fowl (chickens) and a host of birds to our list of sightings. Once we left the jungle, the elephant acted as taxi and dropped us back to our hotel!

Once we left Chitwan we were headed for Kathmandu, which turned out to be a much longer bus journey than expected. Due to this, we spent a lot of time in Kathmandu just relaxing and sleeping. We did spend a little time in Durbar Square, which is choc full of temples of all shapes and sizes. We saw some other sights, including the Monkey Temple and the Garden of Dreams. Kathmandu is a typical capital city, expensive, full of hassle and exhausting at times, but it does have some sights worth seeing. I would go on about Kathmandu more, but to be honest nothing noteworthy enough happened here. It was fun, and the sights were good, but the majority of our time was spent relaxing and doing nothing!

We then left Nepal in favour of Hong Kong, where I still sit, in Delaneys Bar on Peking Road. This is a fantastic city, where you can buy all the electronics and gadgets you could dream of, which I am currently in the process of doing!

For now I shall bid you adieu and happy holidays! A Merry Christmas to you and yours, and please take care of each other this holiday season.

I sign off on a serious note: do NOT drink and drive this Christmas, or any other time of year.

Thanks for reading and we shall meet again in twenty-ten!

Slim and Tazz

xxx

Apologies for lack of updates!

2009-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Ok so this whole seeing the world thing seems to be taking up more of my time than I expected, so this blog will be updated when and how I can. You've all been spoiled so far with intimate details of our day to day adventures but NO MORE! I will have to resort to giving you the highlights and filling in the blanks when we get back. Sorry but you're just going to have to sit around and hear stories when we return home!

For now though, here's a quick update on what has happened between Jaisalmer and Kathmandu:

Went to Jaipur, the blue city, so called because a lot of the old town is painted blue. Apparently it keeps the houses cool in summer and works as a natural insect repellent. So I suppose the Blue Man Group are bite-free and freezing cold!

Udaipur is where parts of the 007 movie Octopussy was filmed, and the town cling it to it as their claim to fame. It's a bit odd if you ask me, seeing as there's plenty of other attractions such as the palace built in the middle of a lake, the glorious weather and scenery from a fairytale!

We rode elephants up to the Amber Fort just outside Jodhpur. Tara was especially pleased with this considering her unnatural love of pachyderms, but I enjoyed the bumpy ride uphill to the fort nonetheless. Jodhpur is known as the pink city, cos some crazy maharaja dude decided to paint the entire city pink for some visitors once. Since then, the people of the town have kept up the tradition. I don't see the point personally, seeing as all the buildings I saw there looked orange to me! Anyway it was here that I bought Tara a ring, no no not that kind of ring, but a silver ring with a yellow topaz (her birthstone). It was an early Xmas pressie and she loves it so happy happy fun time! The last thing we did in Jodhpur was to visit the Jantar Mantar, which is a giant observatory which contains the largest sun dial in the world. It was full of random objects used to look at things in the sky and predict your live through horoscopes, all of which completely passed me by!

Agra was next, and the last destination we would visit with Neraj. So a dinner was in order, but not until we'd visited the Taj Mahal first! It was just amazing to see this monument up close and personal. It is bigger than you think, and is just spectacular to look at. After the Taj we went to dinner with Neraj, and the next day we said our goodbyes and got on an overnight sleeper train to Varanasi.

The train was an experience in itself, with our bunks being at almost opposite ends of the train to each other it was kinda scary! But after some blatant bunk-robbing and crafty negotiating, we got beds close enough to one another. I spent the night playing Crisis Core on the PSP (thank you John Bowe!) and Tara got some sleep. After that we were picked up and brought to our hotel in Varanasi, where we had a different car and driver for the few days there.

The best thing in Varansi was the 4:30am wake up call to go out on the Ganges to watch the sunrise. It's a holy river according to Hindu people, but it stank and had Ghats where corpses were burned 24 hours a day! Ewwwwww!!! Even with it's drawbacks, it was an amazing experience to watch the sun come up over the horizon and to hear people chant and cheer at the sun as it rose.

After Varansi we got on a bus to head for Nepal. This bus ended up being hell on earth as we spent 13 hours on a local bus through India! People everywhere, uncomfortable cramped seats, bone shaking ride and non stop noise and dust from outside. Regardless, we made it to Sunouli on the border, crossed into Nepal and slept in a hostel for the night before getting ANOTHER bus to Pokhara! 9 hours later we arrived in what can only be described as travelers heaven!

Pokhara has been our favourite place so far, comfortable, cheap, and plenty to do. I'll be writing a decent post specifically about Pokhara seeing as we done a lot there, including this.

That's all for now folks, sorry for condensing so much into one post but it was either this or leave it out altogether! Keep the comments coming and I'll try get another post out soon about Pokhara, Chitwan and Kathmandu.

Take care and be well,

Slim

Jaisalmer

2009-11-29T03:42:00.000-08:00

The next stop on our world tour of Rajasthan was Jaisalmer, a small desert town in the far west of India. Before this blog gets going, I will warn you that this may be a long one as both me and Tara have decided that this was our favourite venue to date. A lot happened here, and I would like to give this gem of a town the time it deserves to portray how nice it actually was to be here.

When we first arrived at the Hotel Royal Jaisalmer, we were informed that there was a swimming pool around the rear of the building. That was enough for me, into the room and changed into my swimming shorts and within minutes I was waist deep in the coldest freakin' water in all of India! Although it was around four or five in the evening, the pool never heats up at all throughout the day. Ever. We tested this theory by checking the pool at every given opportunity, each time it was cold. As disappointing as this was, it didn't stop me from flapping around like a albino dog for a few minutes each day. This was enough for me to proclaim Jaisalmer as my favourite place in India so far, but much more interesting and strange things were to happen which would just cement that idea in my mind.

This was by far the hottest place we had been so far, and the heat has given the locals a distinct way of life not seen in other parts of India. Agriculture is scarce to the point of non-existant, and the only business is tourism and camels. Ahh camels, what magnificent creatures they are!

On the second day we left the town itself to drive for an hour into nowhere. East Jesus nowhere to be exact. Some no name desert town was the venue, and our reason for going all this way? Riding a camel into the dunes to watch the sunset! This was without a doubt a once in a lifetime oppoirtunity, and am I glad we done it. The camels themselves are beautiful creatures once you are used to them, very calm and peaceful and beautifully decorated by their drivers. We were lead off into the desert for about an hour (an hour my wedding vegetables still curse me for!), and stopped on a large dune to watch the sun dip it's head under the horizon. It was spectacular, but I shall omit the finer points of it here as I firmly believe that this is a unique experience for all, and my own experience should not sway your imaginings on it. Come and do it for yourself if you ever get the chance, it is an experience not to be missed!*

After our camel safari to the desert we watched a traditional Jaisalmer band and dancer before our evening meal. The entertainment consisted of three men and a small boy playing various Rajasthani instruments, and a sour-pussed woman dancing and performing some incredible feats of balance! As this was the desert, women would walk for miles to fetch water in large round pots which they would balance on their heads. The design of the pots meant that they could be stacked on top of each other, with the largest on the bottom and getting progressively smaller toward the top. As these would way quite a bit when full, the women had an extremely precise sense of balance, and this lent itself to a particular form of dance in the area. The dancer we saw showed off her skills with five pots on her noggin', the skills including balancing on two silver cups and walking through broken glass!

We decided to stay in the resort although we were given the opportunity to return to the dunes to sleep under the stars for the night, but the cold night and tired limbs from camel riding convinced us that a bed and comfort were the way to go. We had breakfast in the resort the next day, which was interrupted by a brave crow who decided to swoop down and steal Tara's chipati! The other guests got great entertainment from this, watching as the crow brought the bread to it's buddies and they feasted on OUR breakfast. Cheeky buggers.

When we returned to the Hotel Royal, we were given a different room, this one right beside the pool! It was great, we could get up in the morning and go for a swim, sit by the pool in the evening and write this blog and Tara could write in her journal, read our books, get sunburned, it was awesome. We met a middle aged Australian couple and talked about our respective travels and spent some time online catching up with the folks at home. All of this together made it feel like more of a holiday than it had done before. The immense heat was a help, and I now finally am a little more cream than white.

We took a tour of the city as well, visiting yet another fort. Our guide this time was a jolly man who sat with us for a while in a Hindu temple and just chatted. The fort is something special in Jaisalmer. We had a perfect view of it from the rooftop restaurant in the hotel, and it looks exactly like a giant sandcastle. This analogy is made almost too real by the fact that it is in danger of collapsing. Of the 99 bastions around the perimeter, three have collapsed in the last few years. Considering that the fort is on a cliffside, and is still home to a large chunk of the cities population, you think they would be doing something about it. Unfortunately not, and the residents of the fort believe that as long as they are living there it won't collapse, but this is not guaranteed. Either way, the fort is spectacular to see. Within the town itself are more havelis, a man-made lake (more of a puddle this year thanks to a bad monsoon) filled with catfish and a prostitute gate.

The only bad thing I can say about our stay in Jaisalmer was the fact that Delhi belly hit while we were there, but it's getting better. Don't worry dear reader, I'm being well looked after and half plenty of medication to keep healthy.

That's all for now folks. Take care and look after each other.

Slim

*I take no responsibility for the damage that may be done to your gentlemans area during your camel safari. Your twig and giggle berries are in YOUR hands.

Bikaner

2009-11-29T03:40:00.001-08:00

This is to be the first blog entry in my new and improved format, so don't expect much waffle.

The hotel in Bikaner was the nicest we'd stayed in so far, but the Vivek wasn't much competition! The suite in Mandawa was something else, I wouldn't even class it as a hotel at all so that doesn't count. Anyway, the Sagar Hotel was pleasant, with a big open air restaurant area. The first day we arrived there were musicians and a belly dancer performing here during the evening, which caused us much confusion listening to a weird drum beat from the comfort of our room!

Shortly after we arrived we snuck up to the rooftop to take some snaps of the view. It was magnificent, and we even got some photo's of both of us together which is rare, seeing as one of us is always holding the camera!

We visited Bikaner Fort which was cool, although at this stage (almost 2 weeks later) all of these forts look the same to me! Some things of note from the Bikaner fort in particular were the weapons on display. Some excellent swords and spears were present, along with the biggest G-darned gun I've ever seen! If you see the photo's, you will see me stood next to a gun which is about 10 foot high, but this was not the biggest firearm on display. The beast I witnessed was too big to photograph, as it was kept in a large glass cabinet along with multiple other guns. The only way I could think to measure it's size was by strides (I have quite the long stride given the fact that I'm 6'3") and this gargantuan weapon was five strides long! I would estimate it was 20 foot long if not more. How many people did it take to fire this thing? And more importantly, what in gods name needed a gun that size to be shot by?!

Also in the fort were some examples of nail-beds and saws that performers used to walk on. These were vicious looking things, and although I understand and believe in the science of weight distribution, I would not have been happy to stand on them in my shoes, never mind barefoot! The saws were especially gruesome, considering there were only 3 of them together and each had razor sharp serrated edges which would cut down a tree.

There was once a Maharaja by some name or another who ruled over Bikaner, and sported, as many Indian men do, a glorious moustache. So glorious was his moustache, that he had a special spoon designed so that he could eat soup without messing his face fuzz. My envy of this man knows no bounds . . .

After the fort we were brought to see a demonstration of some miniature artwork, something that Rajasthan is famous for. The artist showed us his tools, brushes made of squirrel hair that when wet shrink to be just one single hair in size at the tip, the colours made from natural resources such as saffron and indigo flowers, and he even gave us a demonstration of his talents by drawing a miniature scene on Tara's fingernail. Apparently his brother holds the world record for the smallest painting in the world, but everyone in India is everyone elses brother so I'm sure it was just a dude he knew. Anyway, we were impressed with the mans talents and his demonstration fascinated me, so we decided to purchase a miniature elephant on camel leather and a silk cloth decorated with a bejewelled elephant (we like elephants ok?!).

That's pretty much everything from Bikaner, short and sweet that it was. Please leave comments below on this and any other entries which catch your attention, and don't forget to spread the word!

Words of wisdom from India: An all banana diet is great for Delhi belly!

Slim

So this is getting tedious . . .

2009-11-29T03:39:00.000-08:00

I've realised that we are headed to the last city in India with our driver Neeraj, and all I've told you about so far is Delhi and Mandawa. So from now on, blogs are going to be shorter. Much shorter. So apologies if you liked the previous entries but I just don't have the time to dedicate to writing so much about each place we visit.

I will however be writing a general blog once in a while, covering musings and feelings about places and the strange things we see. These will be more like previous blog entries, with me rambling away to my hearts content. If this upsets or delights you, let me know in the comments section below (use a Gmail address to sign in), and spread the word about this blog to other folks who may be interested.

PS.

Thanks to all who have emailed and Facebook'd us since we left. Your messages keep us in the loop and we don't feel homesick because of them. Keep 'em coming!

As the trucks here say: Horn please!

Slim

Mandawa

2009-11-29T03:37:00.000-08:00

Monday morning saw us leaving the relative comforts we had found in Delhi (Sams Cafe being the only one!) and left for Mandawa. A long drive through the streets of Delhi brought us to another long drive through the countryside. We sat in the car watching the scenery go by. All sorts of animals and their drivers went by, and we even saw some of the hilariously overpacked buses and cars bringing too many people to their various destinations. As we drove, we chatted about what awaited us in Mandawa and what a lucky break we had with finding Shafi and his merry crew of bandits. Some time later we arrived in Mandawa, only to be left in shock by what actually awaited us!

We were staying in the Desert Resort, which is a little bit outside of the town center but was beautifully calm and peaceful. The resort itself was almost completely empty except for staff (we later found out that one other couple were staying there as well) but we were warmly greeted and checked in. Checking into a hotel in India these days involves a lot of paperwork due to recent terrorist activities, and numerous copies of our passports have been made along the way. After we checked in we were shown to our room. I say room, but the place was more like a four room bungalow! A grand hallway opened out onto a study area on the right. Straight ahead was the bedroom, which housed a huge double bed and areas on the right and left to sit and relax. Off to the side was a big en-suite bathroom, complete with shower. Outside of the room were chairs on either side, one side containing two leather armchairs while the other held two wicker style deck chairs. This was a palace in comparison to the Vivek, and was a fine start to our trip to the more remote areas of India.

We left the hotel and were brought on a guided tour of the town. Mandawa was once a major stop on the camel caravans which brought spices, opium, silk and other goods across India to the Orient. Since India gained independance in 1947, the caravan has stopped and all business moved south towards Mumbai, formerly Bombay. Due to this, the town itself is now quite poor as no other industry has stepped in to replace the travelling merchants who stopped and spent lavish amounts of money in the small desert town. The town itself is quite beautiful, with giant havelis (merchant houses built around enclosed courtyards) dotted around. Most of these stunning buildings have been abandoned, and the families that own them no longer reside here. As the havelis are mostly privately owned, they have been left to degrade and fade in the harsh sun. I should mention that these havelis are decorated with magnificent frescos both inside and out, and most of these have faded almost beyond recognition.

These once magnificent buildings give the town the feeling that the streets are an art gallery, as there is so much to see even when just walking around town. Some of the havelis have been bought by the government and restored, so the frescos are bright and vibrant against the native yellow sandstone which everything is built from. We were brought around to see various havelis, including one peculiarly fresco'd haveli which depicted scenes of westerners in various scenarios. There was an English woman being driven in her car and the Wright Brothers during their first successful flight. These images stuck out starkly against the multitude of Hindu gods and Maharajas from throughout the ages. Also among the Indian art, was a haveli decorated with a distinctly Italian feel. The images present here showed Venice with it's trademark canals in a completely different artistic style to the others. Noteworthy among the Indian art was an image of an ox and an elephant fighting, but depicted in such a way that they shared a head!

After the havelis, we were shown one of the towns water wells, which had now dried up due to the bad monsoon season this year. Our guide explained the method of drawing water from the well, and that the four pillar design was used all around the area to depict a water well. Once we had this explained to us, we noticed many other wells around the area. As the tour came to a close, we were brought to the guide's family business, which was silk textiles. We were shown amaxingly detailed sheets and pashmines, pillow and cushion covers among other things. We decided that some silk sheets would be perfect for us when we returned, and purchased a purple set of a duvet cover, two pillow cases and two cushion covers. The price was a fraction of what we would pay at home for handmade sheets, and given the story of the town we decided to do our bit for this particular family. Unfortunately, this was to be the start of a routine which we would become overly familiar with.

When we returned to the resort, we were brought out to the gardens for dinner. Two gazeebos were set up in the grass to cover the tables and chairs underneath, and the night air was filled with the sounds of nearby wildlife. Our own personal waiter served us as darkness crept around us, making the entire experience incredibly romantic. We started to notice that the driver and staff of the resort were very friendly and they all chatted together once dinner was finished. This again would be something we would notice in other towns, as the driver had obviously brought scores of other tourists to these very same venues.

Mandawa had been a massive change from the hustle and bustle of Delhi, and a welcome one at that. The peace and quiet meant we slept like babies for the first time since we landed, and awoke fresh and rejuvenated the next morning and ready for more travel. We were to be brought to Bikaner, further into the desert, to see the fort and the miniature art that the area is famous for.

Delhi Day 3 - Progress!

2009-11-24T06:37:00.001-08:00

Day 3 of our India journey started with a place I had never wanted to visit, but now that I have I cannot imagine having missed it. We were brought to the place of a mans cremation, set amongst pristine gardens with wildlife abound. The man of course, was Mahatma Ghandi.

Visiting a shrine to such a beloved figure was truly an honour, and one I shall never forget. Another place of peace and tranquility amongst the craziness of Delhi city, this memorial garden houses the place where Ghandi was cremated following his assassination in Delhi. The gardens stretch on as far as the eye can see in places, with families enjoying picnics on the grass and throngs of devoted walking a set path to pay their respects to the man himself. The beauty of this place is so staggering that I cannot begin to put it into words, so I wont. If you ever find yourself lost among a sea of people, tired and scared, make sure you take a few moments of quiet reflection here. You'll thank yourself for it.

Next on the list of sights to be seen was the Red Fort, a huge stone fort built in the mid 17th century. The walls of this gargantuan fort are made of red sandstone and stretch for over 2km around! Given this, and the fact that the walls reach heights of 33m in places, it is amazing to hear that the entire place was built within the years 1638 and 1648. Yes, that was just 10 years!

Ok so 10 years sounds like a long time, but when you set eyes on this magnificent building you realise how big a feat that is. Never mind the fact that there were no JCBs or earthovers to do all the work for you!

There is a distinct feeling about the place that without tourists, these places would be abandoned and left to ruin. Sad as that would be, there is no real threat of it happening as the queue to enter the fort snaked around itself for about 300m! Inside the fort is a long line of shops and stalls, all selling various trinkets and souveniers to those willing to stop long enough to be hustled inside. We kept moving, deciding as we had done before to save our souvenier buying money to the end of the visit. As we went deeper into the fort, we were soon surrounded by stunning green gardens and buildings built from floor to ceiling in gorgeous white marble. The interiors of these buildings were covered with carved designs that look as though they would have taken decades to complete, but we are told these were all completed within the same 10 years that the fort was built (with exceptions for buildings that were added later).

There are some magnificent views from various areas of the gardens, so we followed our own path through, stopping here and there for photos and to admire the handywork of some long gone marble sculptor. We stopped and sat in the gardens for a while, and were soon approached by some curious chipmunks who roam around the area! They were very squirrell-like, but more timid and with a look of mischief about them.We snapped some photos of them, and decided to move on as the stares from passers by were starting to grate. Being stared at by entire families is something that we have both gotten used to, but it is not easy at first. People are curious about everything about us, from Tara's blonde hair to my tattoo and red beard, so we attract a lot of unwanted attention!

As we had no guide, audio or otherwise, we may have missed some important parts of the fort, but I firmly believe that without a means of transport within the fort you would never see it all in one visit. It is just too expansive to walk to every area of interest, all of which are contained within those 33m high, 2km long walls!

After the Red Fort we were brought for lunch at a place called Splash's. This was to be our first taste of the many fine eateries that Neeraj would take us. Upon entering, it was painfully obvious to me that this place was very tourist friendly, as pasty westerners filled every table. The food was nice, and it's the only place I have found so far that had normal salted peanuts! What I wouldn't give for some of them right now!

After lunch we were brought to a place called Qutb Minar (no I can't pronounce it either), which is basically a huge tower in the middle of some ruins. Now this doesn't sound too interesting, but when I say huge, I mean HUGE! The main tower itself is over 70m high, and is only four storeys! There's some mighty high ceilings in there!

It was at the Qutb Minar that we first got papp'd. As this was a main tourist attraction for people all over India, there were school tours and groups from the more rural areas of India here, who are probably not as familiar with westerners as Delhi itself. We were stared at more than usual here, and even asked to be in some photo's with people. In all fairness to them we almost looked like movie stars from Hollywood, Tara with her giant purple sunglasses and me with my tattoo and sunglasses. There was even an entire family who posed with us for a photo, babies and all!

We roamed around the ruins for a bit, reading about their origins and plans for the site which never came to be, and discovered that some of these ruins are apparently older than Stonehenge. Whether or not this is the case, that is a bold statement to make. Either way, the place is filled with beautiful views and interesting old ruins and although it was not my favourite place, it still holds fond memories of a day feeling like a rock star!

As this was a Monday, the next destination on our list was unfortunately closed, but we decided to go anyway to take some photos from afar and admire it's beauty. The place itself is the Bahai House of Worship, or Lotus Temple. This is a Hindu temple (afaik) which has been built to resemble a blossoming lotus flower, a strong symbol of India. The temple itself is surrounded by beautifully symmetrical gardens, which we didn't get to see other than from outside the gates. As we didn't actually enter the temple there isn't much to say about it, other than it is a masterpiece of architecture which has to be seen to be believed. It reminded me somewhat of the Sydney Opera House, a sight which I hope to see in the coming months.

One thing of note about this visit was that we passed (or should I say I passed, Tara was oblivious) a stereotypical Indian snake charmer! He was sat cross legged on the side of the path, and as we passed he opened his round tin and a little cobra popped his head out. I am not sure what happened next as we just kept moving passed him and he bacame lost in the crowd, but I would have liked to see him play a tune to make the cobra rise from the tin as we have all seen on tv.
We returned to the hotel, happy in the knowledge that our driver had not yet killed us or crashed into anything, and slept in the knowledge that we would be out of the Vivek and on the road to parts unknown by morning. Delhi had been a plethora of emotions and experiences, it had shown us what it is like to land in a strange country and be brought to the roughest part of town to fend for ourselves, but it has been a great start to this journey. There are plenty of places to see in Delhi, most of which we missed, but I can honestly say that a trip to India without Delhi is a trip wasted.

A note on previous and future blogs . . .

2009-11-24T06:36:00.002-08:00

As we travel to areas off the beaten track, internet connections are becomming more and more difficult to track down. Due to this, and a multitude of other reasons, you may see a huge update all at once, covering weeks of travel. This is due to the blogs being written 'on the road' so to speak, but uploaded in bulk once we reach an internet connection.

Apologies for the delays in uploading blogs, but believe me, once they are uploaded you will have plenty of reading to keep you interested!

Delhi Day 2

2009-11-24T06:36:00.001-08:00

As we woke, we felt slightly better about where we were and what we were doing. We again headed upstairs to Sam's Cafe for some grub, and realised once there that the street below us was yet again bustling with people and shops. It seems that when we arrived the previous day, it was too early for anything to be open. This had given the street a wrong-side-of-town vibe, and scared the living daylights out of both of us! Once the shops were open and people moved along the tracks below, the place seemed friendly, almost humane. We ate, felt braver yet again, and decided to head towards the metro station we had found the previous day, with the intention of visiting India Gate from there. Almost as soon as we left the hotel, a young Indian man started to yell towards us, commenting on my "lovely beard"! As we had established, ignoring these hustlers would usually stop them annoying you, but this one was persistant, and thankfully so! We stopped to talk for a second as he was not standing near a stall or carrying trinkets for sale, and seemed harmless. He asked us where we were from, how long we'd been here, what our travel plans were etc. and proceeded to tell us of Irish people he had met here. We didn't really believe most of it at first, but as soon as he started saying some Irish words to us we relaxed a little. He said we should come into his office and meet his brother.

Feeling very vulnerable and wary, we were guided into a small office sporting the name Invicta Tour and Travels, just a few yards from our hotel. It was here that we met Shafi, or Adam Sandler as he is known, who proceeded to regail us with tales of visitors from all over the world and what he has done for them. His family business is tourism, shoe-string and backpackers and the like, and he arranges tours around Rajasthan and various other parts of India. His father, Sean Connery, owns a house boat in Kashmir where Michael Palin once stayed during the filming of his Sahara documentary (apparently the house boat featured in an episode, but it was one I missed). As Shafi talked and showed us book after book of handwritten testimonial to him and his crew of merry bandits, we were more and more convinced that this was legit. The books of testimonials were dated, handwritten, with names and contact details of each visitor, detailing experiences well beyond our original hopes. Some of them were even written in the visitors native tongue, including French and Irish, which Tara read. These books, coupled with the hand signed certificate of affiliation with the Government of India, helped us decide. We were going to hand over our Indian adventure to the pro's!

The deal was this: we would pay a sizable amount of money (not outside of our budget mind you) for a car and driver, who would bring us around the Indian countryside and into and out of cities and towns to see the sights and experience the Incredible Inida! that the government ad campaign boasts of. There was talk of camel and elephant rides, of luxurious hotels with swimming pools (just for one night mind you) and boat cruises in the various towns and cities around Rajasthan. We were also promised a car and driver to bring us around Delhi for the 2 days that we had the hotel booked for, and the entire deal was predicated with the fact that we would be in control. Flexibility was a major selling point, and this was driven home to us as our conversation was interrupted by "Hazel Australia" who phoned Shafi to redirect her pre-arranged journey. Given that our plan was the spend some time in Delhi, then move on to Agra and then some small towns towards Nepal, the plan laid out in front of us seemed irresistable. Our new itinerary would be:

2 days in Delhi
Mandawa
Bikaner
Jaisalmer
Jodhpur
Udaipur
Pushkar
Jaipur
Agra
Varanasi
Pokhara (Nepal)

This meant that not only would we see a huge chunk of India, but that we would also be guided all the way to Pokrah in Nepal, which led perfectly into our plans of seeing Nepal and moving on to Kathmandu for our onward flight. After our original experience of the Main Bazaar and India in general, this seemed too good to be true. So we signed up, were brought to a secure ATM by Neeraj (soon to be our new best friend) to withdraw the money we needed, and paid the asking price. After some messing around with my credit card, my fault for forgetting my credit limit I admit, we were paid up, and soon were brought off by our original hustler and Shafi's brother, Dustin Hoffman, to purchase an Indian sim card. This was so that we would be able to contact Shafi from anywhere in India, but also gave us the opportunity to contact the folks at home. Satisfied with our new purchase, we were brought back to the office to meet Neeraj properly, this time as our driver who had come to bring us around the sights of Delhi.

First on the agenda was a Hindu temple, the Lakshmi Narayan Temple or Burla Temple. This was an amazing peaceful place set amongst the chaos and noise of Delhi, along with being Ghandi's favourite place to worship. Given that this is a holy place, we were asked to remove our shoes before entering. Our feet were exposed to beautiful marble floors which had warmed in the sun. As we walked around the temple, admiring the design, architecture and various representatives of the Hindu Gods, I started to realise that this religion was unlike those I had been previously exposed to. There is no Jesus or Holy Ghost in Hinduism, and although there is a 'God' figure, it is not the main focus of the religion itself. Hinduism is based on the human thought process, and has ebbed and flowed with the main thinkers and philosphers of different times. Throughout all of this, there are Deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh and many many others (over 400 I am told!). These Deities are the elephant headed (Ganesh) and blue skinned and four armed (Shiva) statues and paintings that Hinduism is best known for. Elaborate stories preceed each one, stories which I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing although I am unsure whether or not to believe them!

Next on our list of sights to see, was the magnificent and dwarfing structure that is India Gate. This massive stone archway is similar in shape to the Arc de Triomphe and both look alike from a distance, but once you get up close and personal with this gargantuan stone beast you realise that this structure is positively unique. Not only is the structure higher, wider, and grander in every way to France's famous Arc, but it is among the most beautiful places in India at sunset. We were lucky enough to be glancing through arch as the sun began to dip behind it. Some small distance away is another giant stone structure, this one similar in shape to a bandstand. The 2 fit perfectly together, and when viewed from the front, the bandstand shaped structure fits perfectly within the gates archway. Together they form a memorial to all of India's soldiers and servicemen who have fallen in battle throughout the years. Thousands of names are inscribed on the gates walls, coupled with an inscription along the top of the gate which is almost unreadable to those with imperfect eyesight (or decent glasses!).

After viewing these 2 magnificent structures, we returned to the Vivek Hotel in the centre of the Main Bazaar. After witnessing such beauty and tranquility at the Burla Temple, and the astonishing sunset at India Gate, the Main Bazaar was a bit jarring. We ate again at Sam's Cafe, and went to bed a little more relaxed than previous nights. Although our India voyage was just beginning, we were starting to feel like we could actually survive this journey, and come out the other side enlightened and world travelled.

Scary Crazy Delhi!

2009-11-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this while lying on a comfy bed, surrounded by pillows, Tara snoozing away beside me, air conditioning fan whirring away above my head and HBO on the TV, yet this is NOT how our Delhi experience started!

We arrived on Friday after a long day of being ferried halfway around the world by Finnair, who rock by the way, to be picked up at the airport by a young boy who had the courtesy to wait about an hour for us as our plane was delayed. All seemed to be ok, the people were different and it seemed quite densly populated, but it was so far so good. Then the car arrived to bring us to our hotel. An old small Suzuki van, very similar if not the same as the one Richard Hammond rolled over in on Top Gear once, with no seat belts and a general look of filth about it. We plonked our bags into the boot, and climbed into the back seat. Then we hit the roads into Delhi itself, and by god are they mad!

There are road markings very similar to home, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and the like, but these all seem to be for show. Although the cars are right hand drive like in Ireland and the UK, they don't exactly drive on the left side of the road. They drive . . . wherever they fit. If the road markings indicate 3 lanes of traffic, it is more likely to be 4 or 5 with the rickshaws, tuk tuks and endless motorcycles clogging up any empty space in traffic. Cars don't exactly follow the markings either, and your more likely to be driven down the middle of the road than any one side of it. As you can imagine darling readers, this can be quite disconcerting for a pasty white couple from Ireland who just spent 17 hours travelling across the globe!

So we were driven along the chaotic roads, past many strange and wonderful looking buildings, but couldn't help but notice the general look of delapidation and disrepair about the place. Then we moved away from the wide motorway-like roads and onto a very narrow, very very packed dirt track. I hesitate to call it a road, as there is nothing road-like about it. We drove only a short distance, but managed to see many people wander about the car and sitting outside closed shops and stalls, dogs in the streets eating whatever they find, and the odd cow here and there snoozing in the square or walking along beside the car. As we entered this place of madness, we hoped that we were coming out the other side, but it was not to be. The Vivek Hotel was slap-bang in the middle of the 'Main Bazaar' (which isn't very main, as it doesn't appear on any of the maps we found) and were ushered inside, away from the dirty busy street outside. We were checked in, asked to pose with our passorts in front of the only CCTV camera I've seen in India, and shown to our room. Two very scared and very fragile Irish folk had just been left to fend for themselves in crazyville.

We slept most of the day, jet lagged and terrified, and woke around 5pm to a noisy street outside and heavy heat in the room. After getting dressed and washed (in the best way we could), we decided to venture upstairs to Sam's Cafe on the roof. What we were greeted with was more welcoming, seeing a few westerners and other backpackers dotted around the cafe helped ease our minds about surviving this place. We sat down, were presented with a menu, and realised that food here was very similar to anywhere else in the world. We ate, felt better, and then checked out the street below from the safety of the balcony above. What we saw here helped raise our spirits, if only slightly. The shops and stalls which had been shut and vacant looking early that morning were now open, bustling with people in fabulously coloured clothes, with the entire street around them illuminated by generator driven floodlights and candles. It looked like any normal busy street market, so we decided a small adventure to the end of the street and back was in order.

So we left the relative safety of the hotel, and into the streams of traffic which filled the streets. We walked along, a close hand and eye on our valuables, and discovered that this terrifying-at-first-glance place was actually much friendlier than we thought. We were called at as the traders tried to sell us various wares, from cigarettes to western food, and stared at from time to time, but we managed to make it to the end of the road without being robbed or murdered! With a small sense of accomplishment about us, and a slight bravery boost, we turned back, but waltzed right past our hotel and onwards to the other end of the road. We got our bearings, and even decided to buy an old Lonely Planet book on India from one of the stalls. Armed with the tools needed to plan the next few days, we decided to head back to our hotel room for some r'n'r.
Still scared, but fed and rested, we decided to try plan the next day and get some more sleep to combat the inevitable jet lag. After deciding on some of the sights we wanted to take in, we head to bed, only to discover that the heat made it almost impossible to rest. We stuck it out, and finally drifted off to sleep.

Slim's log: Stardate 111109.6

2009-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today I met Captain Jean-Luc Picard! Ok not the real Jean-Luc Picard, or even the real Patrick Stewart, but I did get to see a very life-like wax rendition of him in Madame Tussaud's (which I've been told is pronounced too-so's, but I beg to differ). It was awesome. Among the coolest figures we saw there were Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Depp, Audrey Hepburn, Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Jonathan Ross and Hitler. Yes, THAT Hitler. Tempted as I was to give a 'ZEIG HEIL!' salute during the photo-op, I was being stared at enough by other tourists for even standing beside him, so I opted to copy his stance instead.

Other than Madame Too-So's, we have been doing the typical tourist thing of wandering around looking upwards and taking photos. We've seen some pretty interesting things so far, the London Aquarium being one of my favourites, particularly as I visited it many moons ago with the family. They had some amazing sea creatures there, with special attention being paid to the sea horses, sharks and jelly fish. After we left the Aquarium (where I lost Tara's camera case . . . whoops!) we went into a Namco Center. As soon as we arrived I spotted a giant claw game, and watched as the guy from another travelling couple tried twice to win his darling a prize. Unfortunately he failed, but I stepped up to the plate. A quid later, and 2Kg of Dairy Milk chocolate came sliding down to the prize tray! Yes that was 2x1Kg bars of Dairy Milk. We decided to share our good fortune with the other travelling couple, and handed them one of the bars. The lady was astounded according to my lady, while the dude just sat there slack jawed in awe, or so I like to think!

On Tuesday evening we took a trip on the London Eye, which is amazing! The view is staggering at night, with the entire city lit up like a Christmas tree . . . probably because it's close to Christmas and all the lights are on . . . but it was still cool! It takes about 30 minutes to get around and is very relaxing. You can just sit back and watch the city go by below, or go from view to view around the pod-thingy and see the city from all angles. (For the concerned readers among you, no dizziness or vertigo symptoms struck, so all good)

Last night we went to see A Christmas Carol in Imax 3D, on the biggest cinema screen in Britian. The screen itself is bigger than 4 double decker buses, and is so big that you have to go underground to get in, as the entire cinema is housed in the middle of a giant round-a-bout. The 3D itself can be a bit blurry at times, especially if you tilt your head even slightly to the side, but it was a great experience to see a classic tale retold with some of the best CGI I have ever seen, and in such spectacular fashion. I give the whole experience an A+, with the popcorn getting a special mention as some of the best I've had in a long time!

On Monday we got to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, which is just a load of unnecessary hoo-hah for the end of your shift if you ask me. Then we walked through St James's Park, and saw some squirrells and birdies and other wildlife. As we walked through, a particularly small but cute squirrell came up to us, and must have thought I was a tree because he decided to climb me! Up the leg of my trousers he went (outside mind you) and was halfway up my thigh before I stepped back and politely asked him to remove himself from my pants (ok I may have screamed like a girl but shhhh). He scuttled away happily and even stopped long enough to pose for a photo. I left feeling violated.

We spent the rest of Monday daytime at the Natural History museum, another revisit for me as my Dad loves the place and brought me there when I was younger. It was just as awesome, with the central hall still being populated by one of the most amazing complete dinosaur fossils I have ever witnessed. We saw loads of dinosaurs, bugs and creepy crawlies, plants and animals of all shapes and sizes, and Tara was delighted to find some colourful butterflies around the place. This place is a must-see for anyone visiting London as it is free of charge, and is one of the most entertaining yet educational places to visit. We spent around 3 hours here without coming close to seeing it all.

Monday night we went to Wicked in the Apollo Victoria Theatre, which is about 3 minutes walk from our hotel. It was amazing, Simply an astounding show with some familiar faces (Carol from the Brittas Empire being one) and the seats we had were fantastic! We were about 10 - 13 rows from the front, but it was just right as there was a massive dragon above the stage which was part of the show. I would highly recommend that you see this show if you can, as the story is amazing yet familiar to us all, and it is performed by such talented actors and actresses that you feel like you've just seen some of the countries top performers when you leave. Excuse my french, but fuck X-Factor. The theatre is the place to go to find some real talent.

We've seen all the usual sites like Picadily Circus and Oxford Street, spent a lot of time on the tube, and walked approximately 40 thousand steps since we arrived. That's about 28.7km in less than 3 days.

So that's London. We have almost a full day of travelling tomorrow as we make our way to India, but so far we are having a great time. We've had no trouble at all, except for me losing Tara's camera case but that's been replaced already. Tara brough the wrong cable for her camera, and forgot the cable for her phone, but these problems have also been remedied already. Budget wise we're doing well. We have drawn up a rough budget of how much we can spend each day, and so far we have not touched our savings as we are still using money that was given to us as presents or otherwise. Thank you to everyone who gave us money before we left, as it has been invaluable!

I don't know when we will next get to update this, as internet service provider call-centers are probably more common than actual internet in India! For now, just relax in the knowledge that we are alive and well, not broke, and Tara has not yet threatened to castrate me. In my eyes, that's a good start to the trip!

London so far . . .

2009-11-10T13:48:00.001-08:00

Ok so we're 2 days into London, so far have:

Seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace
Slim was mounted by a squirrell . . . yes a squirrell
Went to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria, it was awesome!
Been to the London Aquarium
Saw A Christmas Carol in Imax 3D on the biggest screen in Britian
Been on the london eye at night, which was not at all scary I must say!

And a lot more besides, with more to come!

Work? Check!

2009-10-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

So work is done. Finished, over, finito.

I must admit it was an emotional day. Saying goodbye to all the friends I've made during the last four and a half years there was the hardest thing I've done for a while. Thankfully we'll all keep in contact through here and facebook. I hope we can keep this up to date enough to keep you guys coming back for more!

I really just want you all to know that it was a pleasure to work with you all. I wish you all the best in the future and I hope to see you again in a year!

Now then, what's next. . .

Oh yeah, ROUND THE WORLD TRIP BABY!!

Time to get packing!

Keep checking for new updates, especially next Sunday when the whole thing kicks off.

Keep on truckin'
Slim

Notice handed in...

2009-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

So handed in my notice today for work, last working day at Sunlife will be the 30th of October... It's been fun while it lasted but gotta get out and see the world :) Still going through everything to make sure we haven't forgotten something important... getting sooooo excited now :D

The preparation

2009-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

So we're nearly there now, 6 weeks to go and we'll be out of here! So excited and happy to be going but still a little nervous as we have no idea what to expect when we get to any of the countries we're going to...

Ah well the flights have been paid for, the travel insurance has been booked, the vaccines have been got and the anti-malaria tablets bought from here on in it's the fun stuff!

Better start with our itinerary so and let people know where we'll be heading to and when :)

So we start out on the 8th of November heading to London for a couple of days - easier to get flights from here and we were both very young when we were in London before so we'll go see some sights too, we have booked tickets for the London Eye and Madame Tusseads as well.

Then the 12th of November we head to India and we have until the 16th of December to make our way to the international airport in Kathmandu, Nepal :D

From there we head to China, landing in Hong Kong (hopefully meeting a couple of crazy Dutch friends there for a drink or two on the 19th!), we have 5 weeks then to make our way to Bei Jing stopping off at Shanghai and some other fun places along the way...

The 25th of January then we head to Tokyo, with about 3 weeks to travel around there (and a chance for Slim to soak up the nerdy technology!)....

Fly into Han Hoi then in the North of Vietnam and pretty much have a couple of weeks in each country as we travel from Vietnam into Cambodia into Thailand and then Malaysia and finally fly out of Singapore to Australia.

In Australia then we fly into Brisbane and have about three weeks in Oz. We have some friends to catch up with and a new arrival - Lily Ellen - to meet first though :D

Then we're off to New Zealand for a couple of weeks and then we fly into Honolulu :D :D eeeek I'm sooooo excited about this part, 10 days in Hawaii - am hoping it lives up to all its expectations of paradise :D

So finally that brings us to the 31st of May when we fly into LA - we'll then have three months to cross the USA with a couple of trips into Canada on each side to visit some friends - Yes Duke and lyndsi that does mean ye and Gabrielle of course on the other side of the country! Jen we'll be popping in to see you in Chicago too lol so be prepared to meet the guy who asked you to ship an american XBox to him lol

We'll then fly out of New York on the 31st of August back to London and we're not quite sure of the plan from there on but I'm sure we'll have figured it out by then anyway :D

sooooo there ya go, there's the preparation :D We'll keep ye posted from here on how we're getting on and put pics up, probably be a bit of a repeat for those on Facebook but this is a solution for those who aren't and to keep our parents happy and up to date ;-)