Friday 23 November 2007
The end of the road!
Well we're in our last stop - Delhi and having survived the hellhole that is Agra relatively unscathed, Delhi is slightly better, but not much! We are however treating ourselves to a nice hotel so we have a place to go where all the touts and scam artists can't reach us - I know, we've turned into cynical travellers!!! Jaisalmer was absolutely fantastic however - everything out of Laurence of Arabia and more! It is exactly what I hoped India would be like although when we were there we felt like we could have been in Pakistan, which we almost were but not quite. We stayed in a beautiful hotel that is part of the walls of the fort, were treated to homecooked meals by the manager's wife and just loved soaking up the atmosphere. There's cows and pigs and goats and dogs lying around everywhere, all the houses are sandstone or painted bright colours, everyone wears bright pinks or yellows and you have to watch your step to avoid all the fresh cow patties - it's wonderful!!!! We also did a camel safari in the Thar desert and slept under the stars on the sand dunes which was very romantic...and very cold - roasting during the day but really freezing at night. Give me an elephant over a camel anyday though - camels, it turns out, are just really smelly and grumpy and have serious flatulence issues - which is particularly unpleasant when you're stuck in a line of camels! It was a fantastic experience though. From Jaisalmer we did a road trip through Jodphur, Jaipur, Agra to Delhi. Jodphur and Jaipur are pretty nice - the fort in Jodphur is particularly good and all the houses are painted sky blue which is lovely. It's pretty interesting travelling by road as well - both the sights on the road and at the side of the road! Performing monkeys, all sorts of transport always packed inside, outside, on the roof and over the edges with people, roaming cattle etc etc. Great fun!
Agra is however a scar on the face of India - dump, hellhole, scam ridden, horrible place! We had to go however to see the Taj which is beautiful, we can even still admit after being pushed, touted and lied to repeatedly when trying to get into the place in the first place(!) We also met a nice Scottish couple there and decided to ditch any attempts to find a nice Indian restauarant and head to Pizza Hut together (the more Scots together the better!) So a pizza and a few beers later and we could almost imagine that our supposed mid range hotel was not a filthy, mozzie infested nightmare!
So we're just relaxing in Delhi as best we can - by the pool and in the shops - before we fly back home. We've had a completely wonderful time - exceeded all of our expectations - actually we can't really describe how much we've enjoyed it but we have, lots!!! Looking forward to seeing everyone though - thank you for looking at our blog!!!!
Love Dene and Nic x
Agra is however a scar on the face of India - dump, hellhole, scam ridden, horrible place! We had to go however to see the Taj which is beautiful, we can even still admit after being pushed, touted and lied to repeatedly when trying to get into the place in the first place(!) We also met a nice Scottish couple there and decided to ditch any attempts to find a nice Indian restauarant and head to Pizza Hut together (the more Scots together the better!) So a pizza and a few beers later and we could almost imagine that our supposed mid range hotel was not a filthy, mozzie infested nightmare!
So we're just relaxing in Delhi as best we can - by the pool and in the shops - before we fly back home. We've had a completely wonderful time - exceeded all of our expectations - actually we can't really describe how much we've enjoyed it but we have, lots!!! Looking forward to seeing everyone though - thank you for looking at our blog!!!!
Love Dene and Nic x
Wednesday 14 November 2007
Jagminder Island Palace
Having a beer today at Jagminder Palace in the middle of Lake Pichola in Udaipur (and a particulary cute photo of my fiance!)The queue!
This is the chaos inside the City Palace that resulted in us taking double the time to see the place! It was however chaos organised in a very British queue!
Halloween in Chiang Mai
Given that Dene and I have missed having our normal Halloween party we had to compensate and party in Chiang Mai instead - the local efforts at fancy dress were....unusual but there were the usual Darth Mauls and Osama Bin Ladens amongst the crowd!Bollywood
Well we've reached India and although it's a bit of a shock to all senses, we're loving it! We had an absolutely amazing time in Thailand - rocked fom start to finish with the help of a lot of friends! Spent some time on a beach in Phuket (which, if you could forget about the go go bars a plenty would have been a relaxing experience) and a few days in Bangkok where we bumped into a couple of friends we met in Chiang Mai on Khao San Road which led to a night of drinking whisky buckets, dancing on podiums and eating cheese and ham toasties at 6 in the morning! Once again, Dene came out the worst (!) but we just about managed to make our flight to Sri Lanka for a one night stop over before heading to Mumbai.
Mumbai is crazy to say the least but we approached it from the comfort of our posh hotel and a chauffeur driver taxi which dropped us off at all the main stops. So we enjoyed it although can quite appreciate that it would be a difficult place to live or stop in for any lengthy period of time. Everyone is cricket mad so you see little boys, living on the street without much to say is theirs except for a cricket bat. We're now in Udaipur which is outstanding. So beautiful and can quite see why a Bond film has been shot here. We're staying in a hotel overlooking the lake with a fantastic view of the Lake Palace. We've had plenty of stares which we're getting used to as there aren't that many tourists here - Dene got asked to have his photo taken with a local for the local to show his folks!
We've hired a taxi and driver for the rest of our stay so next stop is Jaisalmer on the Pakistan border which is supposed to be something out of Laurence of Arabia - forts, camels sand duens, that sort of thing - right up my street! We're getting quite nostalgic about coming home now - don't want to stop being travellers!!!! But will be lovely to see everyone again.
D&N x
Mumbai is crazy to say the least but we approached it from the comfort of our posh hotel and a chauffeur driver taxi which dropped us off at all the main stops. So we enjoyed it although can quite appreciate that it would be a difficult place to live or stop in for any lengthy period of time. Everyone is cricket mad so you see little boys, living on the street without much to say is theirs except for a cricket bat. We're now in Udaipur which is outstanding. So beautiful and can quite see why a Bond film has been shot here. We're staying in a hotel overlooking the lake with a fantastic view of the Lake Palace. We've had plenty of stares which we're getting used to as there aren't that many tourists here - Dene got asked to have his photo taken with a local for the local to show his folks!
We've hired a taxi and driver for the rest of our stay so next stop is Jaisalmer on the Pakistan border which is supposed to be something out of Laurence of Arabia - forts, camels sand duens, that sort of thing - right up my street! We're getting quite nostalgic about coming home now - don't want to stop being travellers!!!! But will be lovely to see everyone again.
D&N x
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Our hotel....
This is the shack n the village where we stayed for the night! It consisted of one large bedroom where the twelve of us slept side by side, a "kitchen" where our guide cooked us delicious curries for dinner and an outdoor toilet which was also inhabited by rather large spiders. A guy on our tour said that he awoke in the middle of the night with a spider crawling across his neck - and I survived it!!!! Not a good nights sleep though - you will not believe the noise that chickens, dogs and insects will make in a village in the jungle!The uphill slog....
We trekked 3-4 hours steep uphill to a Lahu village north of Chiang Mai and Oh My God (or Oh My Buddha as our crazy guide Johnny Walker would say!) it was hard work but so rewarding - the scenery is stunning. We walked through fields of banana trees, rice paddies and corn fields. Really beautiful.
Elephant Trekking in Chiang Mai
On the start of our two day hike to a village in the hills of Northern Thailand we were assisted by some friendly elephants!Saturday 27 October 2007
A fine introduction to our stay in Thailand!
We danced head and shoulders above the rest that night!
House of 10,000 Buddhas
Inside the oldest Wat in Vientiane which houses over 10,000 buddhas being all the buddhas that were salvaged after the Siamese war in Laos.Friday 26 October 2007
Bling!
Today has been a very exciting day - I got my engagement ring - aaahhh! Bought it in Chiang Mai where we currently are in Thailand which was actually slightly stupid timing given that we're off to do trekking through the jungle to visit hilltribes the day after tomorrow with some bamboo rafting on the way home!!! Ah well, I loved it too much to be sensible! I'm not going to put any pictures of it on the blog so that I can show it off properly when we get home!
We started our trip to Thailand in style. While out for a few drinks last night we got talking to a bunch of Thais who took us under their wing, plied us with drink and took us dancing - all quite surreal but a lot of fun. So we actually bought my engagement ring while suffering massive hangovers! Chiang Mai is lovely - lots of temples in the old city but lots of Western stuff in the new city with nice restaurants and bars. As tacky as it sounds we both whooped with joy at seeing the golden arches of a Macdonalds when we arrived yesterday! Looking forward to getting further up north to see the scenery.
(A very excited) Nic x
Saturday 20 October 2007
He just needs a Beer Lao in his hand!
This is how we have spent today, tubing down the river in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng itself is a bit of a dump - at the least in the sense that it's 18 year old backpacker tastic. Every second building is an internet cafe or a restaurant showing Friends re-runs so we've seen it, we've tubed and now we're leaving tomorrow morning for Vientiane! The scenery is beautiful so the tubing was great fun but not the sort of place that we want to hang around for too long.
So happy on my elephant!
Unfortunately we didn't get many of us riding bare back on our elephants because it takes quite a lot of concentration to stay on and avoid being knocked off by low branches in the jungle. We do have a lot of film of us bathing them though.
Thursday 18 October 2007
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Long Time No Chat
Well hello from Laos.
Been a while since we've posted as been up to a lot recently. Since Nic's last post we've moved on from Vietnam, stopping in Ha Long Bay on the way. Seems the best way to see Ha Long Bay is using a tour, and we'd heard that you should try to get as expensive a tour as you can afford, so stayed on board the luxury VIP junk boat (The Dragon Pearl) for two nights - it was awesome. For anyone who has been they will understand just how amazing and mystical the place seems to be - stetches of ocean punctured by gigantic limestone monoliths, covered in jungle. The pics Nic has taken are amazing, but still do not convey just how beautiful and eerie the place is. Anyway, got a tour around the bay and then spent some time on a crowded beach, then before dinner we were told we could go swimming of the back of the boat. Nic and I were the only ones of the 30 people on board to do it so got chatting to some of the crew and they took my up on the top deck to do some jumping off the side - really cool!!! Second day went sea-kayaking around the bay and through some caves. It was really funny - 4 kayaks trying to blindly find their way through the dark, accompanied by swearing with English, American, Scottish and Spanish accents!! On the tour met a really nice American couple, and when we got back to Hanoi they took us out for dinner at this great local restaurant they had found. Food was amazing. Then we went on to a bar they had in their guidebook, which says that the bar is famous for its 'medicinal' shots of local liquor. We were the only Westerners in there and ordered there '5 times a night' special - not exactly sure what that means :-). It was disgusting!!! All 4 of us really had to struggle not to empty our stomachs all over the table. Fun anyway and ended staying till closing time before being chucked out by the bar staff.
So, next day, moved on to Luang Prabang in Laos. I have got to say that this is the most beautiful city I have ever seen and blows anything else we have seen right out of the water. It is difficult to put your finger on why exactly I love it - probably a combination of the laid-back atmosphere, the amazingly friendly locals, great food, good pubs, outstanding views etc etc. So, as a result, we have had a slight change to our plans. Instead of staying only 1 week in Laos and 2 nights in Luang Prabang, we have cancelled our last stop in Nepal and pushed back our India flights (India will now be the last stop before home) so that we can spend longer here. Booked our hotel for a week, but still not convinced that it will be long enough. Some people talk about getting to places and not wanting to or never leaving, and we can sympathise. Will definitely be back here in the near future.
Anyway, yesterday and today were particularly good days, as we stayed at the Elephant Lodge just outside Luang Prabang. Got there yesterday morning and was very quickly introduced to a baby elephant, before having an elephant ride on a bench on the back of a very large female. Most tourists visiting the lodge stop there and head home, but we'd paid extra to stay overnight. As a result, Nic and I, along with two other German woman got to ride an elephant each bare-back back into the jungle where they stay overnight. They were very easy to get on to as you use a podium at the lodge, but to get back down from them in the jungle, you had to order your elephant to bend down and then basically jump off. Then, this morning at 6am we met up with the elephant trainers again to go and fetch the elephants back from the jungle. Climbing up on top of each elephant was even harder. I managed after a lot of help from both the trainer and the elephant (she lifted her leg up for me to use as a step) but Nic was last to get on hers, while we were all away in the jungle, and she said that if I had seen her trying to get on I would have needed a change of underwear from laughing so much!!! Once we were all on, we had to march the elephants to the river, where we took them for a bath. Each elephant waded in the river with us on their back and lowered themselves in so we could wash and scrub them. It was brilliant!!! The tour guide shot some great video for us and it was definitely one of the best activities we've done so far. Finally, Nic and I kayaked back to Luang Prabang with our tour guide, on a 3-hr journey through alleged rapids and whirlpools (although i've seen more white water while flushing the toilet than I did on the river today!!) .
Unfortunately, Nic is unable to post any photos, as she is currently sitting feeling sorry for herself after getting some sunburn while kayaking. She says it's a little sore, so she's taking plenty of cold showers, I've given her plenty of painkillers (2 every 4 hours - just in case you're thinking I'm trying to do her in!!!) and bought her some good after-sun cream. She's currently laid on the bed, reading and getting slowly drunk on a very large bottle of Beer Lao!!! Think she'll be a lot better after a good nights sleep.
Anyway, got to go as it's getting dark and Nic will finally be able to leave the hotel (and people said that I would be the Night-Walker!!!).
Will post pics asap.
Dene
Been a while since we've posted as been up to a lot recently. Since Nic's last post we've moved on from Vietnam, stopping in Ha Long Bay on the way. Seems the best way to see Ha Long Bay is using a tour, and we'd heard that you should try to get as expensive a tour as you can afford, so stayed on board the luxury VIP junk boat (The Dragon Pearl) for two nights - it was awesome. For anyone who has been they will understand just how amazing and mystical the place seems to be - stetches of ocean punctured by gigantic limestone monoliths, covered in jungle. The pics Nic has taken are amazing, but still do not convey just how beautiful and eerie the place is. Anyway, got a tour around the bay and then spent some time on a crowded beach, then before dinner we were told we could go swimming of the back of the boat. Nic and I were the only ones of the 30 people on board to do it so got chatting to some of the crew and they took my up on the top deck to do some jumping off the side - really cool!!! Second day went sea-kayaking around the bay and through some caves. It was really funny - 4 kayaks trying to blindly find their way through the dark, accompanied by swearing with English, American, Scottish and Spanish accents!! On the tour met a really nice American couple, and when we got back to Hanoi they took us out for dinner at this great local restaurant they had found. Food was amazing. Then we went on to a bar they had in their guidebook, which says that the bar is famous for its 'medicinal' shots of local liquor. We were the only Westerners in there and ordered there '5 times a night' special - not exactly sure what that means :-). It was disgusting!!! All 4 of us really had to struggle not to empty our stomachs all over the table. Fun anyway and ended staying till closing time before being chucked out by the bar staff.
So, next day, moved on to Luang Prabang in Laos. I have got to say that this is the most beautiful city I have ever seen and blows anything else we have seen right out of the water. It is difficult to put your finger on why exactly I love it - probably a combination of the laid-back atmosphere, the amazingly friendly locals, great food, good pubs, outstanding views etc etc. So, as a result, we have had a slight change to our plans. Instead of staying only 1 week in Laos and 2 nights in Luang Prabang, we have cancelled our last stop in Nepal and pushed back our India flights (India will now be the last stop before home) so that we can spend longer here. Booked our hotel for a week, but still not convinced that it will be long enough. Some people talk about getting to places and not wanting to or never leaving, and we can sympathise. Will definitely be back here in the near future.
Anyway, yesterday and today were particularly good days, as we stayed at the Elephant Lodge just outside Luang Prabang. Got there yesterday morning and was very quickly introduced to a baby elephant, before having an elephant ride on a bench on the back of a very large female. Most tourists visiting the lodge stop there and head home, but we'd paid extra to stay overnight. As a result, Nic and I, along with two other German woman got to ride an elephant each bare-back back into the jungle where they stay overnight. They were very easy to get on to as you use a podium at the lodge, but to get back down from them in the jungle, you had to order your elephant to bend down and then basically jump off. Then, this morning at 6am we met up with the elephant trainers again to go and fetch the elephants back from the jungle. Climbing up on top of each elephant was even harder. I managed after a lot of help from both the trainer and the elephant (she lifted her leg up for me to use as a step) but Nic was last to get on hers, while we were all away in the jungle, and she said that if I had seen her trying to get on I would have needed a change of underwear from laughing so much!!! Once we were all on, we had to march the elephants to the river, where we took them for a bath. Each elephant waded in the river with us on their back and lowered themselves in so we could wash and scrub them. It was brilliant!!! The tour guide shot some great video for us and it was definitely one of the best activities we've done so far. Finally, Nic and I kayaked back to Luang Prabang with our tour guide, on a 3-hr journey through alleged rapids and whirlpools (although i've seen more white water while flushing the toilet than I did on the river today!!) .
Unfortunately, Nic is unable to post any photos, as she is currently sitting feeling sorry for herself after getting some sunburn while kayaking. She says it's a little sore, so she's taking plenty of cold showers, I've given her plenty of painkillers (2 every 4 hours - just in case you're thinking I'm trying to do her in!!!) and bought her some good after-sun cream. She's currently laid on the bed, reading and getting slowly drunk on a very large bottle of Beer Lao!!! Think she'll be a lot better after a good nights sleep.
Anyway, got to go as it's getting dark and Nic will finally be able to leave the hotel (and people said that I would be the Night-Walker!!!).
Will post pics asap.
Dene
Monday 8 October 2007
Scammed!
We've been travelling in Vietnam for nearly 3 weeks now and you'd think we would have become wise to all of the hawkers tricks but no...shortly after this picture was taken we had to run away from the sweet wee lady in front of Dene who was swearing at us for refusing to pay a ridiculous amount for a shabby piece of soggy pineapple and the photo. My offer to delete the photo would not appease her so I am putting it on the blog (a) to anger her even more in the unlikely event that she would ever look at our blog (!) and (b) because Dene looks incredibly ridiculous.
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