Week 25 - India

Our footprints

Any guesses? No, not Mir space station!

Yes, another monkey!

Hamayun's tomb (Delhi)

Does my face seem like I'm ready for Argentina :D


Namaste and farewell from wild and crazy India!

Before we arrived in India we were thinking traveling here would be somewhat easy as people speak English..hmmmm! Ironically, it has been the most difficult and stressful!

As this is our last day in India, I kind of feel like I need a tattoo or something - possibly: I spent 6 weeks in India and SURVIVED!!! :D

You know what the main problem is, its not that there is a risk of being murdered, maybe robbed, but the problem is that there are so many con-artists in India. If I said tens of millions, it would be an understatement. I can write a book from all the first hand stories and personal experiences of the past 6 weeks! I gave you an example about 5 weeks ago when we went to the Andaman Islands. We have seen 1000's of attempts for trickery and this is not BS! Unfortunately this makes it tough to trust anyone in India. This along with poor hygiene causing tourists to become ill are the main reasons why people HATE their time in India - we have met many of these people! LUCKILY, our experience has been positive, however arduous. I don't think anything can prepare you for India, but for us maybe Nepal did a bit. Both Marina and I are thrilled we chose to come to India, however, we are more than thrilled we are leaving. India can infuriate you more than you can imagine, but equally it will surprise you in many fantastic ways!

Let me tell you about a typical day in India;
You leave your hotel and try to get an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to go sight-seeing. Firstly, you have to ask the price. Expecting a driver to use his meter (By the way, this is a legal requirement) is almost like expecting a politician to be honest! Anyhow, if he did use his meter he would drive you in circles so a fixed fee is best. So you ask, 4 times the price; you say "too expensive" and he drives off. Can you believe it, these guys would rather lose the business if they can't REALLY rip you off! Next guy we ask, 3 times the price, then a local (who has nothing to do with the driver) says, that is a good price, its 10km (6 miles) - which is a complete lie. So not only do you have to fight against the rickshaw drivers, you need to fight against the locals who have it out for you being a foreigner! Then on your 3rd try you find one that will take you for double the correct price! Happy days, off we go!
As we are driving, he veers right and seems to be heading in the wrong direction, I object (but can't be 100% sure as I don't exactly know the way) and he argues. After a bit i see exactly where we are and say, its to the left, TURN. He argues again, and after a few minutes (15 total) he pulls in front of a travel agent. Keeping in mind we are going to the Red Fort, Delhi's biggest tourist attraction. Then he asks this guy outside, I immediately recognize the scam - as he asks to look at my guidebook, I say, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE RED FORT IS"??? He says yes I do, confirming my belief that he is a trickster. Their object is to lure you into this travel agent to scam you; sometimes its shops instead. I yelled at him, we didn't pay anything and left. A bit annoyed, but as this often happens, we walk down the street, getting away from all the fraudsters, we look for more auto-rickshaws. Ten minutes later, after arguing with numerous drivers about the price - again 3-4 times the correct rate; we have one that agrees for about double the price. As he starts, he tries to turn in the wrong direction - We yell and he goes the way we tell him to. After about 5-10 minutes, and we are following the route on the map and with a compass; he tries again to go the wrong way (which would have been to a shop, tourist agent, etc). We yell at him, said we warned him, get out, don't pay and walk for about 15 min. Then we see a few cycle-rickshaws, we are only about 1km away now, we negotiate with about 10 of them who all want to ask for 4-5 times the price, we finally get a reasonable price and go. Just to summarize, this place was only 5km (3 miles) away from our hotel and its taken an hour! This is India! Now we get to the mosque we want to see; its now 10 minutes to prayer time (when they close the doors) so we have to hurry. Trying to get in, we are physically barred by tour-guides, they don't work for the mosque, but want to sell tours so its in their interest to tell us to come back at 2pm. We try to push past them and they would not let us through; it would have been a fight! Muslim people around us are apologizing (the phony tour guides are not Muslims). We abandoned the idea of seeing India's biggest mosque because of these scammers. They were also trying to tell us about fake admission fees; how do I know its fake (besides that there is always a scam) they didn't have a ticket to support this). We start walking to the next destination, then we get hassled by about 25-30 other people in the next 15 minutes on the way to the Red Fort. We are told, don't go this way, its the wrong way, or people standing in front of you to block your way (they think you will buy something if they do this), or a lady tells her children to go and pester the tourists asking for money (and these were not homeless people). Now, you want to buy your ticket, you stand in line like a normal person; then you see Indians cutting the line walking to the front or they go in front of tourists (I just figured out why they do this to tourists, because we don't hug the person in front of us. Indians do this so people don't jump in front of them). This is the typical day and I've only described the first hour!

Now you see why people don't always like India.

Its crazy, even if you pay 3 or 4 times the price, they still don't take you to the destination. You must use a map & compass, and scream and yell at them the whole time to get to the right place. If you pay too much, they think your a sucker, then your really in for a scam!

Its the only place in the world I've been (other than Nepal), where you have to yell and scream at people to be treated fairly; otherwise they take advantage of you!

The daily interactions with locals test your resolve to believe there is good in the local people.

Why is India like this, one reason, because tourists allow it to happen by not standing up for themselves.
When brought to a shop (as in a taxi driver scam), they shop.
When people threaten them (as in a scam), they give money away.
When charged 4 times the price, they pay it.
When told elaborate stories(lies), people allow themselves to believe it.
If robbed, they let the person run away.

RESULT - India is the biggest hassle of any country you can visit in your life!
Should you go? YES!!! India has fantastic food, incredible history and architecture, a fascinating culture, nature wonders, and very interesting people.

While watching TV the other night, the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came on. Marina asked me to turn off the TV as it reminded her of all the local scammers. She went to use the internet and I continued to watch it, smiling by the irony of watching this movie in India.

Now that I have you super excited about visiting India, let me tell you where we have been this week!
Delhi > Agra > Fatipur Sikri > Delhi

Sunday - Taj Mahal: Sunday was a tough day. After being sick on the day before, we caught our 6:15am train to Agra. As we arrived (I'll not talk about the major scam we encountered setting us back an hour) we started at the famous site. The Taj is indeed one of the top 10 buildings of the world. It was simply amazing. Besides the building you have seen pictures of, there is the tomb of Mumtaz and after that we were on our way to the Red Fort. The Red Fort (there is one in Delhi too) is phenomenal - absolutely huge - not a fort, but a castle! We had enough time so we hired a taxi to take us 40km away to Fatipur Sikri to see the famous ancient city! Such a great time, but we didn't make it back to Delhi until 3:30AM! We were going to stay in Agra, but the hotel we booked was the scam so we just decided to leave Agra the same day.

Monday to Thursday: Delhi is a tough city to be in and for the first time on this trip, I wanted to spend time in our hotel. We have gone out to see bits and pieces of Delhi and have seen all the major sites. One notable thing, we watched Slumdog Millionaire last night. Not sure if you have seen this, but I can tell you, it does not show the true underbelly of India. In our opinions, this was a very soft image of India and excludes the true problems. I can give you examples, but I've probably been too negative and Marina will start editing :D

What's next; We have 3 days in London to celebrate New Years Eve with our friends, after this we are off to sunny Argentina! We land in Buenos Aires on January 3rd.

Happy New Years!

Week 24 - India

Just monkeying around at Ranakpur

A view of Udaipur from the lake

Cheeky cow stealing a nibble - the cook doesn't mind sharing

Sikh temple in Pushkar

A typical Indian family outing

Rajasthan - once the land of royalty!

Namaste! and I should say Merry Christmas!! (Sorry, not sure how to say it in Hindi)

Rajasthan was absolutely one of the best places in India we have visited! When the British left India Rajasthan was one of the poorest areas of India. It seems the Rajput clans kept all the money to themselves. Although, looking around it does kind of still seem to be the case. I hate to say it, but it seems at least 1/3 of India's people are homeless barely surviving and 1/3 live in poverty, and let me tell you the other 1/3 is NOT rich (only a very small <1%) Maybe to give you an analogy, possibly half of India's people live worst than your cat or dog. They do not have regular food, clean water, or shelter. Many parts of the major cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata (the three biggest) have what look like refuge camps all over; along with the rural areas on the sides of roads and especially along train stations. I can tell you from seeing this hundreds of times, it looks like the commercials showing poor Africa asking for donations. Sorry to dampen your Christmas spirit - I should have started this blog much more positive as Marina tells me from time to time :) - does the smile help?

One funny thing about India possibly relates to the duality of man theory; or should I say the duality of countries.
Hear me out;
India - People never tan and extensively use whitening creams, its advertised on all TV commercial breaks
America/England - Most people tan or at least want to be a bit darker skinned.
India - Being overweight is almost a kind of status symbol as the poor homeless are very thin; I think I mentioned this a few blogs ago
America/England - People spend a lot of money in gyms and diet programs to be thin.
India - As adults, people are encouraged to live with their parents even when they are married.
America/England - This is considered a bit strange and we are encouraged to move out
India - Traditions are ahead of progress
America/England - Progress is ahead of tradition

I'll stop philosophizing for a minute and get back to the funny stuff. Some advice if traveling in India - be VERY careful when you wash your clothes. If I told you that clothes/bed sheets/towels are often washed in rivers or lakes you might not think too much of it picturing the Colorado river or Mark Twain Lake. In many rivers in India the river is so heavily polluted in areas that the water is actually septic - no oxygen exists. I'm not sure if I mentioned in an earlier post, the way people dispose of the dead in India is not by burial, its by burning the body on a funeral pyre by the river and pushing the ashes and remaining parts in the water. Many families do not have the money to do this and just push the body in the water for animals to eat. Along with massive amounts of raw sewage being pumped in rivers and lakes; the Ganges for example, is filthier than any natural disaster the west has seen. I would much rather bath in the oil spill in Alaska or the Caribbean than the Ganges. So back to the point, if you do laundry, its often washed in this water. We met a few English travelers who had their clothes washed in Varinassi (a holy city on the Ganges) and after getting the clothes back had to throw them away... So you may ask, how do we do our laundry; well, remember the story about the bucket in the bathroom...

So what have we been doing during this festive holiday week;
Udaipur > Pushkar > Ajmer > Delhi

Sunday - Udaipur's Sunset: We arrived in Udaipur and met a few friends from Nepal (Dennis & Pilar) and went to see the big palace. That night we enjoyed a few beers, watching one of the best sunsets in India over the gorgeous old town of Udaipur which surrounds Lake Pichola.

Monday - Kumbalgargh fort and Ranakpur Jain Temple: Possibly two highlights of our trip, one because they were almost diserted, but also because they are utterly amazing. We hired a taxi to drive us about two hours to a rural area where Kumbalgargh fort is hidden away. It has dozens of kilometers of walls protecting the palace it was in great condition and remarkable to see. Our next stop was Ranakpur; an intricately carved white marble temple. This Jain temple has 1444 marble pillars all carved differently. The place is amazing. Both sites are however under threat. The local monkeys own the territory and demand food as you drive by, sometimes jumping on the cars. Possibly dangerous, but they are very cute! :D

Tuesday - Pichola Lake Cruise: On Tuesday we met up with our friends from Varkela, Kerala; Anthony and Cara. We had a great cruise over to Jagmandir island and endulged in a few drinks just on the water with the city of Udaipur as our view! Again we enjoyed the gorgeous sunset on a rooftop restaurant.

Wednesday - Pushkar the Brahman city; in Pushkar there is no meat, eggs or alcohol, hmm you may ask, what do you do in Pushkar, well to answer it perfectly, not much.... We expected Pushkar to be this fantastically beautiful place as it sits on a lake like Udaipur. As its a Braham (type of holy city) there are about 10 times more cows on the street than anywhere else in India - let me tell you that's a lot! And what happens where there are lots of cows, there are lots of cow pies, and what happens where there are lots of cow pies, lots of flys.... We didn't stay long :(

Thursday - Climbing to Targagh Fort: We spent today in Ajmer which had quite a few excellent sites. However it wasn't the easiest city to see. Around the Sufi Mosque it was pretty crazy. Lots of people pushing/pulling/selling - it was not the easiest place to visit. As we climbed up the small mountain to Targagh Fort - only about 90 minutes to get up; we must have had 200+ people hassle us. From people stepping in front of your deliberately, to getting grabbed, to pretend beggars to even a kid swinging a hammer at me, but I keep telling myself, this is India, be patient! We nearly ran down to avoid the problems, but given you don't walk too much in India, we really enjoyed the exercise.

Friday - Relaxation: Simply after the draining day before, we just relaxed. We had our train to Delhi at 3:50pm on which I unfortunately became a bit ill - not Delhi Belly, but more like flu symptoms. I hung in there and we made it to our hotel in Delhi before midnight (Christmas)!

Saturday - Christmas: We had planned to go to a Catholic Church, but I couldn't get out of bed. We did manage to get out and have some Italian food for dinner and then rushed back home - the good news is Marina was fine and I am doing well now.

So whats next: Agra, Fatipur Sikri and back to Delhi. Then London for New Years Eve!!

More news to be heard very soon,

Namaste,

Daniel and Marina

Week 23 - India

Our view in Goa - you see why we just chilled for 3 days.... :D

Clean your clothes in Mumbai...

Having an excellent Indian meal with a few Kingfisher beers

The Taj Mahal Hotel to the left, and the Gateway of India to the right

I only said hello... they mobbed me!! Sorry Marina

A family of the 100 million+ poor which live on the streets

Namaste!

I'm writing this post from the thrilling city of Bollywood, I mean Bombay, I mean Mumbai. I know it was never Bollywood, but things in India have a strange habit of changing names so you never can be sure. Most of the streets are changing their names; I suppose to get away from the English names.

Speaking of English, and speaking English, are the Indians! I've told Marina that we should really enjoy this ability to speak clearly with all local people rich and poor. In India there are 29 states, that for the most part all have their own language, Punjab - Punjabi, Gujarat - Gujarati, Tamil Nadu - Tamil, and when India was fused together and made one country in 1947 the official language was proclaimed Hindi. Many of these states are very proud of their language and do not even speak Hindi - I mean well educated people; therefore the common language has seemingly become English instead of Hindi - watch, in 20 years this will be the first language! As the English have been gone for more then 60 years, they are slowly creeping back in, so to speak..

I'm writing you from the comfortable abode of the reasonably posh Regency Hotel in Mumbai, 50 meters from the world famous Taj Mahal Hotel which was attacked by Pakistani terrorists just two years ago. The reason we have somewhat splurged on this nicer hotel than our backpacking budget provides is due to a very very invisible small problem. This problem is not noticed as you check into your hotel and its very common in India; so common as we have faced the problem in about half of the hotels we have stayed, mid-range and budget. The cause, as little as they are, visit in the middle of the night and bite all over. India has many diseases and dangers, but the one that plagues many travelers along with us is bedbugs. So as you sleep sound tonight be thankful they haven't come to visit you...

I mentioned I would write about the trains, however we have not stayed in the cattle class area which looks like something out of Shindler's List, we have tried a few different parts. As long as Indian trains are; seemingly 1 kilometer long (3,100 feet) - maybe not that long, but they go forever. Its all very organised, many times you even have your name on the car. The service is phenomenal - the Europe could learn a thing or two and the food and coffee is excellent - coffees are $0.10. There are even electrical outlets everywhere which is not common in the UK. Now this is not exactly a pleasure cruise though, as mentioned above you will find these little invisible "friends" in the blankets for overnight trains and also the little black roaches everyone loves come to say Namaste at the most inopportune time - possibly when your reading and he says hello next to your face... :D The trains in our experience have been very efficient, on time and a great way to travel, but I think the trains may not have been modernised or improved since the British left - windows are tough to see out of and all high class seats have the brown leather seats you saw in old European trains. One thing I recommend when travelling in India, especially in December and January, buy your tickets very very early - even a month if possible. There are a billion people and lots of tourists so they sell out quick.. Thatbeingsaid, to truly travel India, you must take a local commuter train. This is an experience on its own. Firstly, on all trains in India, the doors are never closed (hmm dangerous)? When we took a commuter train on Saturday, we just arrived at the station and were travelling maybe 7mph (10kph) and a guy jumped out knocking down about 3 people in the large crowd eager to board. Then another, followed by another. People were now jumping on - it was still going atleast 5mph!! It was utter chaos; and this was noon - not rush hour!!!! They didn't let people get off and shoved their way on - very roughly! I was especially concerned for Marina's safety at this point. So going back to my American football days, I rammed about 5 guys, almost to the floor and then people let us and the other passengers through. I'm still in awe - and when we got back to Mumbai - the same thing occurred!

Here is our past week; Baga(Goa) > Mumbai

Monday to Wednesday - The wild and fun beaches of Goa: Ladies if your bad packers and you have forgotten your bikini on a trip to India, don't worry, you can do as the locals do; swim in all your clothes! Well, unless you're of the male gender. Yes, I'm serious, in India most women swim in their street clothes - which is typically a Sari. That being said, in Goa, Indians do wear bathing suits, elsewhere its quite riskay or controversial to do so in this conservative country.
In Goa, we just chilled. Our hotel was 50 meters from the beach in Baga and every restaurant on the beach provides wooden relining chairs to lounge on and sell you food and drinks. For three days we repeated this routine.
If the cold war reappears and the US wants to invade Russia, I recommend they start with Baga, Goa (Little Moscow as I call it)! AS you're trying to relax on the calm golden sand beaches, that is fighting off pushy Indian sales people, you see comrades in arms, along with Indian men holding hands while hearing Niet, Niet, Niet as the Russians fight off buying hippy jewelery, dirty peanuts, dodgy pedicures, ear cleaning services and the opportunity to be massaged by a big hairy Indian man!
So why did we leave Kerala for Goa, well, Goa has a GREAT nightlife! Which was why we usually just lounged. Goa was a main trading centre for the Portuguese, and did they leave something great behind; the ability to make Port Wine - not as good as the real stuff, but with a whole bottle for 300 rupees in a posh bar; we drank lots of it!

Thursday - Dabba-Wallahs: I heard lots of travelers who missed Mumbai intentionally or unintentionally; boy did they miss something special. If you are a fan of gorgeous architecture - buy a ticket now for some of the best in India. From what we have seen of India so far, this is by far the best city! What is a Dabba-Wallah you may ask. We heard about this before we left and I was itching to see one, which we did on Thursday. Many Indian men who go off to their work in offices have food made by their wives, and rather than bringing it, its delivered (probably still hot) by Dabbah-Wallahs. In Mumbai 200,000 meals/day reach their intended owner. They ride bicycles and most are illiterate using a coding system. When we met one, I say are you a dabbah-wallah and he very proudly said "yes" and let us take a photo. One other amazing activity we saw in Mumbai this day was at the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, Mumbai's biggest laundromat. Now, you're probably saying, wow - you are really "living it up"; well you have to see it! They beat the clothes to death making a huge amount of noise and fields of clothes are drying on dirty roof tops - whites with whites and colours with colours.

Friday - Partying Mumbai style: As you would expect within all this stunning architecture is a lively party scene. After our boat trip to Elephant Island we started the night at the Taj Mahal Hotel, enjoying the Posh confines which seem to have healed from the 2008 attrocities. We also had one of our best meals that night; just when you think Indian curry can't get any better - there is Kyber restaurant! We had a few drinks with some young Indian businessmen and learned more about arranged marriages. When you ask, some will say, no India doesn't have arranged marriages any more; or its not arranged, you meet the girl, then choose yourself. There is a Super Human push to show how modern India is. Despite the older chap (29 years old) telling me how its not like that anymore and he got to chose his wife. He decided to marry her within 40 minutes of the introduction by parents. So even in high society, this is occuring regulary. From middle to poor, my understanding is this is very frequent. Marina was in need of dancing so we hit Polly Esthers the end off the night!

Saturday - Kaneri Caves: Yesterday was a bit rough with all the partying, but we picked ourselves out of bed and took the train to Ghandi National Park - just outside Mumbai. You would have read above about our crazy train ride. The Keneri caves were amazing. These were built in the 1st century and have elaborate Buddha carvings everywhere. Thankfully we didn't' eat the whole samosa bought from a street vendor. We have not experienced any troubles with Indian food so far as most people get whats called Delhi Belly - food poisoning from the poor conditions. Marina felt the samosa, but was fine by daytime. However, I think the 5 months in Asia has helped build our stomachs to be pretty tough!

Whats happening next on our agenda - which you probably have noticed has slowed a bit. Well we are getting back in gear after acquiring a decent sun tan. On Sunday the 19th we fly to Udaipur, Rajistan. We will then see Pushkar and Ajmer before heading to New Delhi.

My next post will be a festive one which despite my purchase of a Santa hat, lacks all the great Christmas spirit I'm used to.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

Dan and Marina

Week 22 - India

The beach at Varkala

Great waves

Cooking

Tandoori Fish

Classified ads: Find a spouse by your caste level!

Namaste! Hello from the remarkable region of Kerala!

The past week has been more of a holiday (vacation) than arduous backpacker style travel. We have stayed in comfortable hotels, ate 5 star quality meals, and swam in 5 star quality waves, but before I get too carried away, let me tell you something that I've finally just come to grips with....

In India people are not equal, by any means; with 20 people, there are probably 20 different levels. This is referred to as the "Caste System". With my American ideals, I believe people are all equal regardless of race, religion, wealth, etc, UNLESS, you are a Manchester United fan, then you are the scum of the earth! I'll do my best to explain this phenomena known as the caste system. If your father is a rickshaw driver or a fisherman then this will be the level of your caste, regardless of your education, job, or intelligence. There are thousands of castes and its a way of probably aristocrats thousands of years ago, creating a hierarchy within society and then the people following it to a tee all the way down. People almost always marry within their caste. In fact we have read the classfied ads in newspapers detailing ones caste; looking for not a girl/boy friend, but a spouse. I know this happens a bit in many counties, but in India its a serious problem, in my opinion. The reason: The people of India don't progress - hence the mass scale poverty! As the believe in reincarnation, they are seemingly told just don't rock the boat and you will be reborn in a higher caste. From what I've read, the first Buddha tried to change this in India in the 500's, but Buddhism wasn't accepted and Hinduism prevailed.

I was going to tell you about what its like to ride the train in India, but this morning I realised that we hadn't ridden in a lower class carriage yet, so we will do so to give the full story.

In the mean time, let me tell you about the bucket. In all hotels, no matter of the level, (well, we haven't stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel yet), they have a big bucket with a scoop. At first, we weren't sure if it was left by the cleaner or if it was for laundry or what. Then we noticed homeless people using this on the street to bath. Somehow its worked its way into hotels as well. What is a bit frustrating is many of the showers do not have hot water, but the lower taps to fill the bucket do; so when in Rome, we have been using the bucket and its hot water to bath :D

Our past week in the Indian state of Kerala: Varkala > Ernakulam

Monday to Friday - The chilled beach town of Varkala: This cliff side beach town (if that makes sense), is very hard to leave. Such a splendid and charming small bastion of relaxation in chaotic India. Let me tell you about a few highlights of our stay here. We had a cooking course one day, learning to make Chicken Tikka Masala, Palak Paneer, Parata, and Prawn Biriyani - well, Marina had the lesson and and watched, well just wrote down the ingredients, eager to steal their secrets! I'm sure Marina's mother Ludmilla will be happy she has now cooked for me on this trip. This was the only time we had curry during the 5 days; the reason, SEAFOOD. Not just seafood, but the best seafood of my life!!! I can tell you for sure, this has beat the Seychelles and is the number one destination for seafood I've been to! Let me describe the normal dinner for us EVERY night; 4-6 Tiger Prawns (jumbo shrimp) each about 3 huge bites for me, several good sized calamari. Both the prawns and calamari would be grilled with butter, garlic and lemon. Then for the main dish, we would have a tandoori fish, HUGE Red Snapper, tuna, barracuda, or my favourite Butterfish -you can only imagine what that tastes like! Along with sides of salad and grilled veggies! :D And all of this would be about $15 total for both of us. YES! Then lunch was a huge steak of Mahi Mahi, or the above with sides for $4/each.
Another great thing about Varkala are the beaches, which is tough to say about India as they are usually dirty. Not in Varkala - its BLACK sand beaches are fantastic! Also, the waves, maybe we were lucky, but we had 10 foot (3 meter) waves, every day! So fun! In the restaurants all night we would hear the waves crashing!
Lastly the fun people, we had a good time partying, well kind of partying, they can covertly sell you beer as its not fully legal, so its pretty open, but the bottles need to stay on the floor.. Varkala -what a great place! Its our best food place of this entire trip so far and one of our favourites as well!

Saturday - Fort Cochin: We have come for our last night in Kerala to Ernakulam and spent yesterday at its island area of Fort Cochin. This was an island occupied by Europeans for trading purposes hundreds of years ago and as a result its full of churches, trees, parks, and its clean! Seemingly its run by Muslims, Christians, and Jews, its a phenomenal atmosphere to stroll the streets without hassle, looking at the beautiful colonial buildings, watching the fisherman hauling in their catches (although I was unhappy to see the two baby hammerhead sharks). We also visited St Francis Church, founded by the Portuguese in the 1500's is where Vasco De Gama was buried!
I just wish we could stay longer here! Seemingly, I've been saying that about most places in India!

Well time to get going, I'm ready for a delicious curry! So whats next, today is Sunday and we are taking a long train journey to Goa for a few days and then up to Mumbai and Bollywood!

Until next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 21 - India

Beautiful Neil Island's Pier

Out for a ride

India safety practices at Port Blair's Cellular Prison

Ramakrishna Mutt temple

St Thomas

Valluvar Kottam

Party time kingfisher style!!!

Namaste! or excuse me, I should say - Vanakkam as we are in Tamil Nadu (India's southwest state and not a big fan of the Hindi language)!

It was a shame to leave the islands and especially to Chennai (formerly Madras) which all travelers seem to avoid due to the guidebooks and people who say Chennai is boring. Well, let me tell you, yes, we hated leaving the beautiful Andaman islands, but Chennai has been a great surprise. Yes the rickshaw drivers are the scum of the earth, but besides that there are loads of great sites and fun nightlife!

Just a few tidbits on India before I tell you too much of what we have been doing;

If any of you want to fine tune your negotiation skills - come to India... if you are a sucker you will pay triple the price, which usually isn't that much, but they laugh at you after - which is a bit infuriating to say the least. And you can hear them say.. 150 rupees hahaha to their mates they past as you drive. So in India its all about negotiation - remember my comments about Nepal and they act as if you are taking food out of the mouths of their children; well it hasn't been quite that bad here, but I'm expecting it could be.

Next - Eating... So the Chinese use chopsticks, Europeans use knives and forks, what do Indians use; hmm, let me give you a hint, its neither of these; you normally get 10 utensils, but only use 5... still thinking... You can take them everywhere with you and have to take them.. ok, if you still don't know get on a plane to come see... You wouldn't believe it, in a nice hotel restaurant, knives, forks on the table, people sit and eat with their fingers... I don't mean tapas, I'm talking wet curry and rice - its dripping all over the place... seriously funny...

What is with the bobble heads... If your not north american you will not get the term - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSRnU8rV3ig&feature=fvst
When you ask an Indian something, his head just bobbles, so you will not know if it means yes or know; its very strange and very funny. I'm not sure if they know this....

Poverty... Its very sad to see and I mentioned it in my last post, but Chennai, like Kolkata has a serious issue of poverty, probably 1 million+ homeless. The really sad part is these people seem to work very hard and they just get paid so little. I know its been this way for decades and probably centuries, but if India is going to move to this world super power that it has aspirations to be, it really needs to improve the poverty problem.

On a more positive note.... Where have we been - Havelock Island > Neil Island > Port Blair > Chennai

Monday: Queasy two hour boat ride and Marina's first wreck dive - These two were our last dives of the Andamans and were pretty good ones. We took a narrow fishing boat out to the dive sites which putted along rocking side by side until most people were sick. We were the only ones who didn't take pills for this (part of my phobia of no putting unnecessary medicine into my body and we survived. Nice dives, we saw lobsters, crabs, baby shrimps, small squid, lionfish, and lots of other reef fish - unfortunately no sharks :D

Tuesday: Neil Island - We left Havelock Island on Tuesday for the small sleepy island of Neil where they barely have any vehicles on the road - not as quiet as La Digue in the Seychelles, but pretty nice nonetheless. However the island is very over-populated, not by people like in the mainland, but by crabs. Everywhere you look you will see hermit crabs and coconut crabs roaming around. So on Neil island if you hear something at night lurking in the bushes, BEWARE, they do have claws and it could case a nasty ouchie for a few seconds...

Wednesday: Biking Neil - Marina's second time on a bicycle was a success other than the patience needed due to the poor bikes they have on Neil Island - she managed to stay on without any serious incidents. The bikes are so bad (despite being almost brand new), my brakes fell off within 5 minutes... Yes, fell off! For the first time in India we saw rain - I thought it was a myth, but it did come and it did rain cats and dogs - luckily it was just one of these tropical showers that comes and quickly leaves. So by afternoon we were chilling on the deserted golden sand beaches!

Thursday: Port Blair - This is the main island of the Andamans and I can see why people quickly leave, there is not much to do. However, later that night, still rocking from the 2 hour ferry from Neil Island to Port Blair, we found a decent hotel bar which as it happens was decorated like the inside of a ship - so the rocking seemed to increase. Also, due to the fact that they were out of Kingfisher premium and we had to drink the 8% bottle. Yes, 8% - if your Chinese and used to the water beer of China, beware in India! :D

Friday: Cellular Jail and an Indian Hen (Bachlorette) party - Cellular Jail was quite an interesting experience, the Andaman islands during colonial days housed Indian Political prisoners, kind of like a Guantanamo bay. If you were Indian during the rule of the British and were outspoken with followers, you could be sent here. The inmates were forced to do hard labor and spent their time in solitary confinement. Very interesting to see. So after our flight to Chennai, we started to learn that this city certainly does have something to offer; partying. We hit a few places and then settled on 10 Downing Street - despite the name, it wasn't a haven for expats. Inside were about 100-200 Indian girls all dressed in modern western clothes having a good time. But as 10pm came, dozens of husbands also showed up to ensure their wives were not up to any mischief - and it just almost seemed like the west.. :D I'll tell you later about all the conservative stuff we have been seeing, its pretty amazing.

Saturday: St Thomas' Grave and the workman's restaurant - Its not every day you get to see the tomb of one of Jesus' 12 apostles! India is seemly a major stop for Catholics, with Mother Teresa's in Kolkata to St Thomas in Chennai. He was here until 72AD converting people until he was martyred. There are only two other places in the world a church contains the body of an apostle - St Peter's in Rome (obvious who) and St James in Valencia, Spain. All I can say is wow - it was VERY special! Later that day we went to a local basic workmen's restaurant or thats what they call it. There, you were given a banana leaf for a plate, served rice, and then some types of veggie curry on this. As mentioned above, we used our Indian utensils to eat... and it was ok, it kind of made me feel like being a kid and was looking over my shoulder for mom to say, stop playing with your food and eat it! Playing with the food is actually one of the reason people like using their fingers, so I'm told.. :D

Sunday: Rain - well the rain has followed us indeed and after a late night out at a club called Dublin - yeah I was surprised, should have been called Tantra or Pasha, we are taking it easy today. We have a night train that takes us to Kerala and luckily I was able to get some good AC sleeper seats. As there are over a billion people in India, tickets sell fast. So leaving Chennai, I am very happy we have come here, the sites are very impressive, not just the Christian ones, but the British East India Company fort, the Hindu temples, and the bars!

So our next week is really dedicated to Kerala's beaches, backwaters, and possibly national parks. Stay tuned for next week to find out all the scary details...

poyittu varukiren!

Dan and Marina

Week 20 - India

Flower salesmen in Kolkata

Having a Shisha at Shisha bar in Kolkata

The Victoria Memorial

Having a nice romantic ride

Havelock Island

The tropical feeling

Namaste!

Intriguing, Interesting, and Invigorating India! For all my life I could only image what this crazy country would be like; mostly basing my expectations on a Londoner's viewpoint (my buddy Raj).

India is an ancient and traditional country still practicing traditional values along with maintaining an sometimes ancient activities. Just to tell you a story, in Kolkata we were at a young man's internet cafe and his mother came into bless it with their Kali statue ensuring he would be protected; from viruses, maybe as we were cleaning viruses off our USB sticks containing our pictures. You have to be careful what you can pick up in these places...

Let me tell you my favourite part about India; THE FOOD! Oh man, this place is a curry-hound's dream! I could eat these Indian curries for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner; well I kind of tried this and now I've realised, its not exactly low calorie food. I had lost about 7 kilos (15lbs) on the trip so far, and then we came to India... Marina is a dream wife as she somehow just maintains her weight. I on the other hand just realised that I can't eat curry every meal if I want to keep my SUPER athletic figure... :D haha, I won't comment on who is skinny and who is not in this country, but I'll leave you with this on the subject, Marina picked up a Cosmopoliton magazine and Cosmo was recommending diets that had women eating full dinner meals at 930pm and some other bizarre stuff.

So where have we been jumping around;

Kolkata > Andaman Islands (Havelock Island)

Tuesday: Crossing the Indian Boarder - You heard about our great experience leaving Bangladesh. In Kolkata they had exactly what we needed after two weeks in Bangladesh; a nice cold BEER!!! Wow, It had been over two weeks without a beer and we were loving the first one. People in the bar must have thought we had been trapped on a deserted island for 3 years! That was really our highlight of the day, or month, that one cold tasty Kingfisher beer!

Wednesday: Mother Teresa's Mission - Wow, going to Mother Teresa's mission was overwhelming. Probably one of the top 3 humanitarians of the 20th century we had goosebumps going in. The nuns were as you expect in the blue and white saris. I can see why she settled in Kolkata. We really liked Kolkata as it was a gorgeous aging colonial city. Littered with lovely buildings, great bars and restaurants, incredible sites, and on the downside, the people there are very poor. It was heart-wrenching to see whole families on the sidewalk sleeping on a blanket, or under a roofed shop. We saw a lot of homeless in Bangladesh, but in Kolkata, there must be several million homeless people - it was pretty tough to see. This is why Mother Teresa settled here, its a place they can make a world of a difference.

Thursday: Victoria Memorial - Lonely planet has a great quote, and I hate stealing from the guidebook, but this was excellent; "Had it been built for a beautiful Indian princess rather than a dead colonial queen, it would surely rate as one of India's greatest buildings". We haven't seen much of India yet, but the white marble gigantic Victoria Memorial building is impressive and certainly warrants a trip to Kolkata just for this. This day was thanksgiving and those of you who have been at my place for my annual feast, I hate to say we didn't repeat this in India. Despite calling many of the 5 star hotels, I couldn't find anyone cooking a turkey - so we settled on delicious Indian food.

Friday: Fighting Con-artists - This day we flew from Kolkata to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. You may have to google map the Andamans; they are roughly 1000 km east of Sri Lanka and west of Thailand in the middle of no where. Before I tell you about this tropical paradise, let me tell you what happened at the harbor as we were trying to get the last ferry of the day which left in 45 minutes. The ticket counter was closed and showed this so a man told us just to give our money to the guard and he would get us tickets; for a small fee. I was not too bothered as they were not asking too much extra (about $5 for our 3 tickets - we had another person with us). For traveling on the Andemans you need a permit which is almost as important as your passport (its an official paper with our personal details on it); so he took these papers, our money and after about 5 minutes we noticed them acting fishy. Marina picked up on this first and she went past the gate that the security guard had blocked off and Marina asked some people who said she could buy tickets there. I saw one of the guys walking away from the scene suspiciously. I jogged after him and he started running; so I knew they were thieves, so I chased him down, he was surprisingly slow and just as I was about to tackle him he stopped an began to cooperate. Its not the money, but if we lose the permits, we were not getting to the tropical paradise that day. Marina grabbed the phony guard by the shoulders - he was about 10kgs smaller than Marina and very scared. They quickly gave our money and permits back and fled the scene. Hilarious!

Saturday: Diving - Firstly let me tell you more about the Andamans - Spectacular; not much to do, but the place is very nice! I wouldn't rank it with the Seychelles, but its an excellent destination to forget about the world. Being India, they have great food. On this Saturday we went diving. Now it used to have the reputation as one of the world's premier dive sites, its good, and has a great aquatic life, but the coral has been destroyed from the Sunami. On top of this the underwater visibility wasn't the best, but diving in 28degree water (78F) without a wetsuit is what I like!

Sunday: Scootering around Havelock - Our casual day, we rented a scooter and drove around the island seeing the gorgeous #7 beach. We spent most of the day here until our night dive. It was Marina's first so she was scared. Let me explain what a night dive is if you haven't hear do this; you go scuba diving at night. Yes pretty easy to figure out, but when its pitch black, in the ocean, it can be a bit scary; even if you have done it a few times. What was great about this dive and the others is you see so many critters, crabs, lobsters, loads of sleeping fish - yes they just float there sleeping and you wake them up with a torch (flashlight) - its pretty funny. Along with the illuminescent plankton which lights up the water, making a night dive is a very tranquil experience.

So what are we up to next; Neil Island, Port Blair, and then over to Chennai (Madras)

Thanks for reading,

Night,

Dan and Marina

Week 19 - Bangladesh

Our travels through Beautiful Bangladesh

THE OTTERS! Beware!

Me on the otter fishing boat

We were interviewed at the Rashpumani Festival for Bangladeshi National TV

Marina! Beware!

Apnee Kamonachen!

Ok, I may have mentioned in the previous blog about how nice the Bangladeshi people are, well forget it! They are not nice! They are Phenomenal and could also be called angels and saints; albeit Islamic saints..

From the moment we entered Bangladesh until the moment we left, we were treated with the utmost hospitality, friendliness and friendship! It really seems that in this country of 150 million people that each and every person makes an absolute effort to treat tourists like family. I am sitting and writing this blog from Kolkata (Calcutta) India in pure amazement reflecting on our last two weeks!

The worst thing in Bangladesh for tourists is people are just to incredible. It actually makes it tough to travel the country, but in a good way. Everywhere you walk you hear hello friend (and our experience was these people were just being friendly), which then turns into their interest about you. Its difficult to accept all the invitations for tea, dinner, meeting ones family, and even staying the night. Its just not possible to actually see the "sites" if you go with everyone.

Not once did I feel concerned or worried, these people are just nice. I'm sure there are a few bad apples, but at times I said to Marina, of course we can walk down this dark alley, as if someone would do anything in Bangladesh and if they would, like the other 30 people around wouldn't stop him.

My good friend Matt Thorogood pointed out to me that Lonely Planet (the worlds main travel guide book) recommends Bangladesh as the 2011 best place to go for value for money. They also commented that it has the world's friendliest people and I can testify to this.

HOWEVER, one funny anomoly occurs in Bangladesh; whats with the Gingers (red-heads)??? So its a very funny situation, they dye their hair and beards red.. for beauty, sorry you red haired people, but I'm sure you will agree its quite funny seeing old Islamic men in religious clothing with red beards and hair - I mean bright red! :D

Let me give you a travel tip - go to Bangladesh NOW! Before it changes or gets touristy - only on a handful of occassions we saw foreigners in the 15 days there.

So where have we been: Kulna > Bagerhat > Narail > Sunderbans > Jessore

Sunday - Trip preparations: Simply we were very lucky to book our trips due to the Eid holiday. But this was a very productive day

Monday - Bagerhat: We spent the day seeing the old mosques of Bagerhat. Most from the 1500's and in quite good condition. In Bangladesh there are brick factories galore. You may recall from the last blog how we visited one. All of Bagerhat's old mosques are constructed from high quality (it must be to stay in good condition) Bangladeshi bricks. We had a great time going with different rick-shaw drivers around the town after lunch we accepted an invitation from a nice local to visit his house and meet his family.

Tuesday - Otters: Let me elaborate, when I say Otters, I mean Otter fishing!! Yeah that's right! For those that are not familiar with the kind of ancient (at least several hundred years) way of fishing - for fish... We hired a nice 13 meter (40ft) boat with four crew members all to our self and started north up the main river of Kulna. Just the ride itself was worth the price of admission as we saw sublime forests, crocodiles, hundreds of river dolphins, thousands of friendly faces smiling, people waving, and some close enough to say Hello! We got to the village, which was absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Many of the locals and especially the children came to greet us. We then waited until the night and we left at 130am. We boarded the boat with the four fisherman and our guide and they let the otters out of the box. The three cute, grey otters jumped out and proceeded to play. We were told not to treat them to nicely as they have a mean bite so we kept our distance. What the otters are for is to scare the fish into the nets. So the otters play, hunt and scare the living daylights out of the fish so they move towards the nets. Now these are Bangladeshi river fish which on this occasion were minnows; I think one fish they caught was the size of my hand.. All in all, this was the greatest moment of our time in Bangladesh, being fed like kings, the people along the river and seeing the age old tradition of otter fishing.

Wednesday - Eid: This is one of Islams two main celebrations; the time when many people join the Hajj and go to Mecca. In Bangladesh, pretty much EVERY family purchases a cow to sacrifice. They kill the animal themselves as instructed in the Koran and divide the meat among their family and the poor of their area. On our way back to Kulna after otter fishing, we were invited to a village to witness this. The village chairman (kind of the mayor) waited for the sacrifice of the cow for us to join. Let me say it wasn't a pretty site and yes I did turn my head at the moment of seeing lots of blood. The means was a knife to the throat as about five men hold the cow down. It was cruel, but it is the cycle of life and it was certainly an honour to witness this with the village.

Thursday to Sunday - The Sunderbans: We booked a four night cruise to visit Bangladesh's famous Sunderbans Mangrove forest. Its the largest Mangrove forest in the world and home to hundreds of Bengal tigers! The main highlight of the trip (just as the main highlight of being in Bangladesh) was the people. There were about 50 passengers, including a General, a major, doctors, lawyers, large business owners and even a folk band. Oh, and a Colonal who we spent time with on another boat which was party of the tour. We sat with the general one night and he told us about the Pakistani war when he was a young officer and had to report on the American Battleship entering the Sunderbans waters. He told us; "I responded on the radio to confirm we had the battleship in our sites and had many men which could stop it if ordered". The response from headquarters was hysterical laughter. Then he realised the funniness of his statement. His militia consisted mostly of farmers and fisherman. In the Sunderbans we didn't see any tigers, but we did see dozens of deer. We also joined the Rashpuniman Hindu festival which was mostly a performance by our band for the fisherman who would be there for the next five months. These fisherman leave their homes and go work for this period for 13000 Taka (about $200) for the entire period.

Monday - dinner at the MPs: On the bus ride a week earlier we met a very friendly lawyer named Sadat; yes, there are a few friendly lawyers in the world; maybe all in Bangladesh; haha :D We were going to Jessore his home town this day and we kept in touch since meeting. There he invited us to his parents home (he was back from Dhaka for the Eid celebrations). His father was previously a member of Bangladeshi parliament. We had a great night dining with his family and hearing more about their lives and how it is in Bangladesh. Marina and I had a great time and it was a terrific cap to the trip.

So what is next: We are now in Kokata until the 26th when we fly to the Andamen islands for some sun, fun and SCUBA! We can't wait and see this as our true vacation on this trip! We then fly to Chennai (Madras) and then train it to Kerala and then up to Goa.

Until next time,

the Campbells

Week 18 - Bangladesh

Just a small crowd; talking to one quickly becomes 25!


The local bootlegger!


A normal day in Dhaka - gotta love rickshaw traffic!


The Pink Palace or Ahsan Manzil


Marina picking tea at the plantation

Apnee Kamon Achen!!!

So if there has been one major unexpected country to be great - its Bangladesh!!!

Japan was fabulous, but Bangladesh has something on all of them, you never saw it coming. Firstly they have the friendliest people of all Asian countries, which means the friendliest people in the world as far as I'm concerned!!!

Tell me... Are you afraid of crowds?? Well Banglaedesh is certainly NOT your place then! Not just because its the most densly populated country in the world (excluding small city/countries like Singapore), or because Dhaka (the capital) is the 9th most populated city in the world, but because every time you speak to a local, it quickly becomes a crowd who are so friendly and eager to listen and talk - when I say crowd, anywhere from 10-40 people! No joke, its very common for you to be on the street and within a minute have thirty people next to you, just interested in why you are visiting Bangladesh and how they can help you! And they expect nothing, they are just some of the most hospitable people towards foreigners that exist. Now I'm sure you are saying your countries are friendly, but let me tell you, these guys are poor! Its the third poorest country in Asia and the way it seems sometimes, it could be number one! And still; these people are so incredable!!

Let me you a few things about Bangladesh:
Besides its high population of 150 million people, its in a country the size of England & wales - maybe the size of Montana for the American viewers. Bangladesh is has the 4th highest population of muslims of any country. The main mode of city transport is by rickshaws or motor rickshaws which is essentially a tuk-tuk. Looking at the stats, there are probably about 600,000 rickshaws in Dhaka alone - so you can imagine how crazy this looks!

Despite the praises, Bangladesh is not for someone looking for a chilled holiday - being a third world country there are many challenges, but with pretty much every person smiling and waving, its difficult to really care about the hardships.

The Power of Being Foreign: So... where do I begin, we have walked straight into the backroom of the following places, National ID office (where they make national ID cards), the passport and immigration office (visas, etc), and numerous factories where its not a big deal for us to just walk straight into the CEO's office and ask for a tour and he would kindly ablige! We have been absolutely treated like celebrities! One funny thing, in all these places, its very rare to see a computer and all is done by hand - so people who know english really try to perfect their handwriting - which is excellent might I add. And most people know English; even rickshaw drivers know a bit!

Bangladesh is certainly a hidden gem!

So what have we been up to;

Dhaka > Srimangal > Dhaka > Kulna

Monday: Nepal and its dodgyness - As you probably noticed on the last post, we were not too impressed with Nepal. Having travelled frequently I've seen quite a few scams, but not one like this. Nepal's airport and planes are kind of like their buses - they squeeze everyone on they can. The plane was the same - they have two fake companies that each run on a day apart - so we showed up for tickets to one, but it didn't run that day - so they just try and squeeze you on the other, its essentially a way of getting it full. We were lucky, but other tourists, had to go back to Kathmandu and stay the night. So once on, Marina had a ticket for 1st class, me in cattle and then I just moved up - then came a wave of people without a seat. It was pretty crazy and silly, but what did I expect from Nepal.. We eventually made it to Dhaka!

Tuesday: The Liberation museum - I'm always interested to find out new things that I hadn't learned about when living in America. You may know and I was just not paying attention in 1971 (not that I was born then), but have you heard about the Pakistani genocide on Bangladesh? It was about a one year war where Bangladesh (being called East Pakistan when separated from India) was trying to salvage its culture and rebelled against Pakistan. Millions were killed including a large number due to ethnic cleansing or to make a point. I had not heard of this before and am still surprised its not being talked about publicly by the Hague. On a more positive note, this was our first taste of crazy Dhaka. That day we also visited a mosque with true Bangladeshi style, they took me up to the top and all over the closed areas of Bangladesh's nation mosque - called Baitul Mukarram.

Wednesday: Patience, Axel Rose has not been to Dhaka! - The past two days we had been trying to gain approval for a change of route permit. A silly document needed if you leave via another port (for us, anywhere other than Dhaka). So it took us quite a few hours each day to get this. Before it was approved, I went into the back room and visited with probably about every person that worked for this department in the building - I mean about 20 rooms of people! So its a silly document, but necessary to get or face being refused to leave. Yes, I thought about bribing them and the visa for us both was $100 - so I would expect the bribe would need to be a few multiples of this... ;D Also this day, we met a local named Imran who brought us around to some of his student's house and we got to see what normal Bengali's live like.

Thursday: Bootlegging - We had taken the train to Srimangal this day. Srimangal is the gorgeous tea plantation area of Bangladesh. For the day we had a tour around the plantations, meeting many of the Hindu workers they employ for $1/day to pick the tea leaves. We also drove past an elephant which was walking down the road - having finished work for the day (hauling trees) and the owner gave us a ride on it! Pretty fun! That night was the crazy part. As we finished the tour we went to a place where they sell illegal alcohol. Bangladesh is not like Turkey, you cannot get beer or alcohol in restaurants or much else anywhere. At the Sheraton hotel in Dhaka they sell cans of Heineken for $10, but we passed on this.... So there in Srimangal we bought a half liter of this moonshine for $2! Look at the picture - it was out several km or miles in the country and in this house - more like a hole that was lit by candles! :D

Friday: Gibbons - This day was our tour around Lowacherra national park. There we saw several cute, shy gibbons jumping from tree to tree. Also, we went to a minority village to see how they lived. Might I add, better than many of the people in Dhaka! This village sold beetle nut and leaves - kind of like a south Asian chewing tobacco - so they probably did ok.

Saturday: Boat fire on the Ganges: Well its not called the Ganges in Bangladesh, but its the same river. One more for needing patience in Bangladesh. We arrived at 0830 yesterday for our bus journey south to Kulna. The bus left at 1600 - apparently due to traffic! We then arrived to our destination at 2am the next day! On the way, we had to board a boat to cross the Ganges river (called Padma) as there is not a bridge so they have ferries. Our ferry caught fire - not horribly but they had to turn around and we had to wait to get another ferry. Crazy Bangladesh!

So what are we up to next! So today we booked our tour of the Sunderbuns - the world's biggest mangrove swamp/forest! We are going there on the 18th and hope to do some cool stuff beforehand, but that is yet to be organised. We will also be doing a day trip to Bagerhat.

So until next time!

Dan and Marina

Week 17 - Nepal

Children singing for Divali

Enjoying a romantic rickshaw ride

THE BEAR!!!!

In the game reserve - surely the tigers were just behind the grass! :0

Our route around Nepal

Namiste!!!

Today is our last day in Nepal and it has been a bizarre place! At first we really were not big fans of Nepal - as you may have read from our blog. Dealing with lots of dodgyness and having to go to the root of everything you buy. We have actually cut Nepal short for this very reason. That being said, this past few days has been a good relaxing time and certainly the festival of Divali has been a main reason. We have also met some great Nepalis that have shown us that the people who approach you on the street or try to con you in shops are not the true representation of the country.

In reflection of our past two weeks, its certainly an experience.It just takes a good few days to start to understand how things work. I really do think Nepal at one time was possibly one of the coolest destinations on the planet as they geared up for tourism quite a long time ago. What I think has now happened, as they really reap the tourist fruit for every cent, regardless of how the tourist feels. We have seen dozens and dozens of people who have been cheated, tricked, etc into buying trips which were not as told. Nepal will learn this will not bode well for their future. I do think its now overhyped, but still a good place to go. Nepal, is not the place I expected, yet it still has been a fun time and the trekking is top class!

One great thing about Kathmandu is the sanctuary area called Tamil. This is a bit like the Koh San Road if you have been to Bangkok. As you probably know from reading these posts, Marina and I are not the hippy type that just sit around, that being said, in this region of the world, a bastion of bars, great restaurants, and organisation of activities is well appreciated.

So what have we been up to; Pokhara > Chitwan National Park > Kathmandu

Monday - Pokhara: Pokhara is the northern city near the Annapurna circuit. After having spent the week trekking, we enjoyed the choice of restaurants and actually having bars to go to - along with changing the clothes we have been dragging around.

Tuesday - The Bus Accident: They say travelling on the Nepalese roads is certainly an experience, so last week, we had a bus break down, surprisingly they fixed it with a well known male prophylactic! This day, we had a bus accident. I don't think its that we are unlucky, but this is just commonplace and if you ride the bus a few times, something is bound to happen. So our bus slammed into the side of a cargo truck (lorry) and smashed out our windows - lucky no one was injured, including a baby which was covered in glass. One now funny example of the dodgyness of Nepalis is this; we arrived at the Chitwan National Park on Tuesday afternoon and decided on a hotel which we negotiated a fair price. The owner wanted us to buy his tours and we said, we would if he gave us a fair deal. After having shopped around we found the true price was about half what he offered. We had decided to buy another and when we told him he was not happy. An hour later he told us we could not stay in his hotel for more than one night. Being who we are, we just grabbed our bags and told him to shove it and that we weren't staying that night either then - this surprised me then, but having been in Nepal for 2 weeks and hearing other peoples issues, its all normal. Luckily, we found a hotel next door which was twice as good for $1 more/night.

Wednesday - Bears and Bears oh my: We were expecting a true African safari as it had been described like that in guide books, but for some reason they were not running jeeps so we had reluctantly purchased a walking tour into the game reserve. Now there are tigers and rhinos and many dangerous animals in this place so I wondered why we were going on foot, but we were there and wanted to see the animals! The highlight of the day, well two highlights were coming face to face with two Black Bears!! On two different occassions. You will see on the picture (note my camera is a compact with only 5x zoom) that this thing was close! Probably about 10 meters (31 feet) from a wild bear - which was hunting! Luckily they weren't hungry for human that day. I told Marina, we don't have to outrun the bear, just the guides :D...

Thursday - Indian Visa: Today we returned to Kathmandu, and were very pleased to see our Indian visa was approved, so the trip continues as planned.

Friday through Sunday - The Divali celebrations: Kathmandu certainly has become a different place during this festival. Which has allowed us to really enjoy these past few days. Friday, most shops and houses, painted flowers outside their house and there were singing groups of children and adults. Its a very festive time and it seems a bit like Christmas. During these days, many shops close and the chaos becomes very mild. People are dressed nice, the streets are cleaned, there are any fireworks and people just seem in a good mood. We went to quite a few temples during this time. One of which was the Pashupatinath temple - the most famous hindu temple in Nepal. This place was a myriad of bizarreness. Firstly we entered to see bodies being cremated along the river. Also, this was our first upclose encounter with the sadus. A Sadu is a Hindu holy-man. I'm not really sure why. Firstly, they cover themselves in ash, barely wear clothes, sit around smoking marijuana all day and beg for money. In the middle of this temple, on sadu took off all his clothes and bathed in the river (in front of 50 people). The river, which may have been holy, was full of litter and one drop of its water could probably pollute a whole clean lake.

So whats next, well are eagerly looking forward to our flight to Dhaka, Bangladesh this afternoon. So I'll tell you more when we get there...

Till next time; Namaste!

Dan and Marina

Week 16 - Nepal

Thorung Lo Pass - 5416 meters (16,7909 feet)!

Near the top of the Thorung Lo Pass - On top of a glacier!!!

Me and the baby lamb.... Moussaka anyone??? :p

The early stages of the Annapurna circuit

Namiste!!

We are fresh back a 92 kilometer (58 miles) that took us from 1100 meters (3410feet) to 5416 meters (16,7909 feet). As you would guess, the feet are a bit tired, but I can still use my fingers to write you - Well barely, it was kind of cold at the top.. But more to tell later...

So we are a week into Nepal and let me tell about how we have found the place;

When we walked across the friendship bridge - as mentioned in the last blog, we really stepped into a different world. That day, I didn't really realize what Nepal was and boarder towns are certainly not the best place to judge a country - those of you who have been to Mexican boarder towns would certainly agree. We saw considerable poverty compared to Tibet and China. Just a few facts about Nepal - its the 3rd poorest country in Asia, it has the 3rd worst infant mortality rate in the world, 50% of the population is literate, the water even when boiled can still give you serious diseases, but most people speak English...So I guess that makes up for it.. In seriousness, this country really relies on tourism. The poverty is quite bad, today we saw a mother picking flees out of her teenage daughter's hair. I expect disease is pretty bad having seen sores on peoples faces and the conditions they live in.
Its also a very strange country in respect to prices. Normally for a very poor country, you could live like a king on a little money - its kind of true in Nepal, depending on a few circumstances... Firstly, accommodation is cheap - we have paid $2/night to $7/night for a nicer place, but for a bottle of local beer, it costs $5 up to $8/beer - and I'm talking in normal restaurants. So drinking is expensive. Food is still cheap. And for everything, you need to be able to haggle - I mean everything, water, bus tickets, visas, airfare, etc. Nepali people have an imaginary price for foreigners, its lets add a few zeros on. When you haggle with them, even if you pay double the price they will act as if you have taken food out of the mouths of their babies. Its really amusing...

So what have we been up to;

The past week has been all about the Annapurna circuit!! This is one of the world's highest mountain hikes and it goes through numerous little Nepali villages. I'll tell you more about Kathmandu after we have seen the city in greater detail. We started by traveling to Pokhara which is a fun little town in northern Nepal near the Himalayas. This place was a great reprise from the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. Having organised our permits in Kathmandu, we stayed the night in Pokhara enjoying our last night of civilised life. We took a bus and a mountain jeep to the town of Syange (1100 meters) and stayed the night. The next morning we would start hiking. Now many people who trek or hike the Annapurna circuit hire guides and porters. By this time I expect you know how Marina and I roll... So we packed the essentials in our day packs (clothes, bathroom supplies, snacks, water) and tied our jackets and sleeping bags to the backpacks sleeping bags we rented in Pokhara. So all in all, we probably had about 4-5kg plus water.
Each of the little towns you walk through (about every 3-6km between towns) has guesthouses and they each have restaurants. The path is pretty clearly trodden so the only thing you have to worry about is carrying enough water, dealing with altitude, and getting to the next town to sleep.

The first day of our hike we hiked a grueling 34km up seriously steep areas - some of which we had to climb with our hands. On our typical day we would go at least twice as far as guide books would recommend; sometimes three. This day we hiked from Syange>Chyamche>Tal>Koto. Staying in Koto, we had to stay, Marina would have died otherwise (we were both very exhausted), but our room at the hotel, which cost us $2, had a perfect view of Annapurna 2. Annapurna 1 is the tallest in the range and its the 10th tallest mountain in the world at 8091 meters.

The next day was tough to start walking, but after an hour the muscles and joints were accepting their fate. This day we hiked 28km and reached our destination of choice, the bustling mountain village of Manang (3540 meters). When I say bustling, it probably has a population of a few hundred souls, but it was one of the biggest. During these first two days, our hike was through forests, on cliffs overlooking river rapids, across dodgy looking bridges, and through some of the best scenery around. Snow covered mountains all around!

Our third day on the trek was to Thorung Phedi going 17km up to 4450 meters. You can guess, by climbing so quickly one its tough, but two - you need to be mindful of altitude, so to ensure we didn't have any side effects we had a few cold beers at this level - I hear it helps.. Well, we also had quite a few liters of water at this level to help. At this altitude it gets cold at night. None of the accommodation is heated on the circuit so we slept in our cloths, in our sleeping bags, covered by several blankets. It wasn't the best night of sleep in the world, but we got a few winks.

Yesterday was summit day! Writing you now it seems like several days ago. So when we woke, it was snowing. We pressed on to the top called Thorung La Pass at 5416 meters. This is a pass between two 6,000+ meter mountains. The three hour climb to the top in what was now a blizzard was just a bit cold to be modest. When we got to the top, just like at Everest, we didn't want to stay too long. Also, given there wasn't much scenery due to the snow, we pressed on down the mountain. Near the top, was a gorgeous glacier that we climbed on - see the pics. As the snow was really thick, we hiked for about 4 more hours to the town of Muktinath (13km today). In Muktinath, there was a jeep trail. All the parts we hiked it was not possible to have a car, both due to law and terrain. So in Muktinath we hired a jeep and began our decent in DRY conditions :D

After a sleep last night in Ghasa, hear we are now in Pokhara, happy, clean (they did have showers, but usually cold ones), and looking forward to chilling out tonight with good food, music and people around - who don't go to sleep at 9:30pm :D

So that was our trip - fun, exhausting, and gorgeous!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Chitwan to visit the national park and have a few safaris! After we are going back up north to the Bote Kosi River for some rafting and canyoning!