Dave & Claire´s Travels

Annapurna Base Camp

2008-10-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu, Nepal, 21- 28 September 2008
Pokhara, Nepal, 29 September 2008
Annapurna Trek, 30 September - 17 October 2008
Pokhara, Nepal, 18 - 19 October 2008
Kali Gandaki River, Nepal, 20 - 21 October 2008
Pokhara, Nepal, 22 October 2008
Kathmandu, Nepal, 23 - 26 October 2008

Leaving our mark on the
Thorong La Pass

Following completion of the Everest Base Camp trek we spent the week relaxing in Kathmandu. The only sightseeing we did was a trip to Durbar Square and Freak Street, about 15 minutes walk from our hotel. The walk was a bit hectic as the streets were even narrower and busier than those in Thamel. Durbar Square, with its old temples and palaces epitomises the religious and cultural life of the people. It was here that kings of Nepal were crowned and their coronations solemnised ….before they became a republic earlier this year and turfed the king out on his ear. Durbar Square is probably better described as a living open museum of Nepal.

Then, all too quickly Saturday morning came around. Claire was due to fly home to Scotland with Qatar Airways to London (with a short stop off in Doha) and then BA to Glasgow. We said our goodbyes in Departures and then went our separate ways for the first time in 15 months. What made it even stranger was that we would not even be able to communicate for the next month as I would be on the Annapurna Circuit trekking. With Claire winging her way to Doha I made my way to arrivals to meet Paddy, the first of 3 people flying in to join me on The Circuit. Just as I was expecting to see Paddy appear through the arrivals gate Claire made a reappearance. Her flight had been delayed. She was only due to have a 45 minute stop over in Doha so we did not know what impact this would have on the remainder of her day. Then Paddy came through to a fanfare of live local music. We had somehow missed the signs declaring that it was World Tourism Day. Claire then had to head back through security to await an update (the result was a series of delays that resulted in her missing the two connecting flights and required a stay over in London). Paddy and I then caught a taxi back into Thamel.

Kevin, Paddy, Tom and Dave

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Again, in celebration of World Tourism Day the streets had been closed off to cars and so for the first time it was almost a pleasure to wander the many narrow streets where normally chaos reigns. Later we collected Tom, trekking companion number 2, from the airport. He had us worried as it took him almost 2 hours to come through immigration. Then on Sunday morning, Kevin, trekking partner number 3 arrived safe and sound and we had our quorum. So far so good. The remainder of Sunday was spent getting our trekking permits, TIMS cards (an additional requirement if trekking in Nepal) and making those last minute purchases. Tom, Paddy and I had scheduled about 23 days to do the full circuit plus the trek to Annapurna Base Camp. Kevin would trek with us for 12 days and then fly from Jomosom back to Pokhara and home to New Jersey USA.

John Rambo

Day 1 Kathmandu to Bahundanda
On Monday morning (Oct 29th) Tom, Paddy and I caught the Greenline bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara, a journey of about 8 hours. Kevin, in true American style, chose to take the 30 minute flight and we all met up later in Pokhara. Kev also decided that he had no intention of carrying his own pack on our arduous trek and so enlisted the services of a local porter called Bosanta. After one overnight in Pokhara it was time to get down to business – we took the 5 hour bus journey to Besisahar, had lunch, and then piled into a 4x4 jeep to Bhulbhule. Everything went very smoothly…except the jeep ride, it was an incredibly bumpy affair. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that it only broke down once and even then they had it going again after about 30 minutes. From Bhulbhule it was leg power all the way. Bosanta, the porter, was keen for us to stay in Ngadi, only a one hour walk away but we were all fired up and insisted on continuing an additional 2 hours to Bahundanda. The day was very hot and as we climbed the 380m (1100ft) from Ngadi to Bahundanda we questioned the wisdom of our decision more than once. Then, as though to add insult to injury, we couldn't find anywhere to stay – all the lodges were full. Bosanta eventually found us a 4 bed dorm room in a very basic lodge. It wasn't exactly a barn but it wasn't too far away either. It didn't really matter though because all we wanted to do was eat dinner and go to bed and that's what we did. Day 1 successfully completed.

Day 2 Bahundanda to Chamje
Day 2 had a bitter sweet beginning - a nice gentle 2 hour walk downhill to the village of Syanje from where we started the task of then regaining all those lost meters, an exercise we would quickly need to get used to. It really wasn't too bad though as we soon got into a routine of scheduled stops for a large pot of black tea, and that doesn't include all the impromptu "photo opportunities". "Huff, puff, pant, I'm just going to …whew…stop to take a photograph lads…no, no, I'm not tired". The day went in quickly and we reached Chamje at about 2pm. This had been another extremely hot day so we were all glad of the powerful hot shower available at our guesthouse. Man, it felt gooood!

Day 3 Chamje to Bagarchhap
Already we were getting into a routine of rising at 6am, breakfast at 6.30am, start trekking at 7am. The 3 lads joked that they would never think of getting up that early back home. They have to go on holidays to get up at this ungodly hour. Each day we would continue our walk along the valley with the Marsyangdi river ever at our side. The scenery was stunning and changed daily. Initially rice terraces dominated the landscape but after a few days these gave way to forests of pine and fir. At all times the huge soaring peaks of the Annapurna range loomed large around us.

Day 4 Bagarchhap to Chame
Day 5 Chame to Ghyaru
Day 5 was a little longer than usual as we chose to get off the main trail. During my pre-trek research many people who had completed the trek recommended taking a detour at Dhukure Pokhari and following a diagonal trail up the side of the valley to Upper Pisang. After a leisurely lunch in Upper Pisang we started the steep uphill climb to Ghyaru, a quaint little village situated 400m above the main trail. The entire time we were trekking from Dhukure Pokhari to Ghyaru we didn't pass another person on the trail – it was great. While I'm sure Kevin cursed me more than once as we made that last steep ascent into the village even he had to agree the view was nothing short of breathtaking. From the balcony of our guesthouse we had incredible views across to Annapurna II (7939m), Annapurna IV (7525m) and Gangapurna (7454m). The village reminded me of those old French / Spanish villages consisting entirely of stone built houses with external ladders used to gain access to the upper floors. The following day we would make our way to Manang where one is recommended to stay for 2 nights to acclimatise but as Ghyaru was at an altitude of 3670m, 100m higher than Manang, we took this as our first acclimatisation day.
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Day 6 Ghyaru to Manang
The day opened with a rather sub-standard breakfast but was quickly followed by a very pleasant walk, still high above the valley, to Ngawal. Here we made the mistake of trying to stay off the main route so instead of dropping down to Mungji we attempted to continue on to Chulu where we believed we would then be able to drop straight down to Mungji. Even Bosanta deserted us in Ngawal, which we should probably have taken as a sign because, yes you guessed it, we quickly managed to get ourselves completely lost. Fortunately we happened upon a Buddhist monastery perched on a cliff overlooking the Annapurna range, where one of the local monks soon set us straight. Once back on the main trail it was a little disappointing to rejoin the throngs of trekkers, primarily Israeli, as it felt like we were rejoining the rat race hell bent on getting to the Thorong La Pass.

After lunch in Manang Paddy, Tom, and I decided to trek up to Desi Lama, a Buddhist monk who lives in a cave perched 500m above the town. He is 92 years old and performs a special blessing for trekkers which he claims will see them safely over the Thorong La Pass. It was a tough steep climb up to his cave but to meet this monk and to have him perform the blessing in his most humble of dwellings was a very special moment on our trek. Afterwards he gave us a cup of tea and we sat in his company attempting to communicate. What we could gather is that he had spent his entire life in Manang and the last 38 of them in this cave. He was a pretty cheerful guy though and even asked us if we had any Cadbury's chocolate with us. We didn't, all we could offer him was a clove rock (a hard boiled candy). A pretty poor substitute but he took it graciously.
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Day 7 Manang to LetdarDay 8 Letdar to High Camp
Not too much to say about Letdar other than the fact that it was cold, very very cold. The guesthouse we stayed at appeared to light a fire at about 6pm but I was sitting only 5 feet away from it and can safely say it generated no heat whatsoever. The only other thing of interest was the cluster of yaks on the hill outside. Having seen plenty of them on the Everest trek it is still hard to believe that these were the only yaks we saw on the whole Annapurna circuit. Then the clouds rolled in and the rain started to fall. This worried us as we were getting closer to the pass and were really praying for clear weather. Hopefully Desi Lama would work his magic.

On Day 8 we decided to stay in High Camp which is a tough 1 hour trek above Thorong Phedi but it means that you are that bit closer to the Pass in the morning. We did not have high hopes for the quality of the accommodation as it is the most remote point on the trail but I think it is fair to say that we were blown away. The food was better than anything we had previously experienced and the dining area was warm and comfortable. The weather conditions continued to bother us as it was very changeable with low cloud giving way to clear skies giving way to frequent snow drifts. We really couldn't call how the next day – Pass Day – was going to go.

Day 9 High Camp to Muktinath (via Thorong La Pass)
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It was with some trepidation that we woke on October 8th. It was still dark outside but we were comforted by the fact that we could see the stars and therefore knew that, for the moment at least, the sky was clear of clouds. After some discussion we compromised with Bosanta, who wanted us to start walking at what we considered to be an unreasonable hour, and agreed to hit the trail at 5.10am.

The snow that had fallen the previous day made the going treacherous in places particularly as it was still dark for the first 30mins. We walked by the light of our head torches. Once it started to dawn it became evident that we were in for a real treat. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the view of the surrounding mountains was crisp and clear. The blanket of snow gave the landscape a smooth undulating appearance that glistened in the morning sunshine. Paddy and I got to The Pass first and were happy to find a large sign stating that we had made it. Yahoo!!! It had taken us 2 hours 20mins and we were on a real high, both literally (5416m) and metaphorically. We climbed a nearby hill and enjoyed the most incredible views in every direction….then Paddy rugby tackled me and we both tumbled back down the hill in the snow. Brrr.

To our delight there was a small "café" located right on the pass where we were able to get 2 large mugs of black tea. It is hard to describe just how much black tea was consumed between the 4 of us whilst on the trail. Black tea with breakfast, black tea at 10am, black tea with lunch…and so on. Nor were we ordering cups of tea, we were ordering large thermos flasks of tea so that at each sitting we could enjoy 3 to 4 cups each.

Tom, Kevin and Bosanta arrived an hour later and we all congratulated each other on a job well done.

After Tom and Kevin had enjoyed a cup of the obligatory black tea (they don't have the thermos flask option on the Thorong La Pass) we took some photo's with the Irish flag that Tom had brought along, and after a few more high-fives we all started the descent on the other side of the pass towards Muktinath.The trail to Muktinath was one thing and one thing only – down, down, down. In a relatively short space of time we dropped 1800m and checked into the Bob Marley guesthouse. Kev had mentioned that there is an "Eternal Flame" in Muktinath so we decided to go in search. After we discovered it was in a monastery complex a short distance back up the trail Kev decided he couldn't be bothered…or didn't have the energy. This was amusing to us as this was the one item of interest on the Annapurna Circuit that Kev actually knew about. Anyway as it turns out he really didn't miss anything. The "Eternal Flame" turned out to be a very uninspiring natural gas flame that everyone wanted to see and nobody cared once they saw.I should also mention Kev's flight changing efforts. Almost from the moment he arrived in Nepal he decided he had too much time available for the trek so instead of simply enjoying the extra time in this amazing country he decided he would try to reschedule all his flights, at considerable expense, to get home a week earlier. He enlisted a travel agent to reschedule his Kathmandu to Delhi flight. He would need a new flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu and, finally, he could change his Delhi to New Jersey flight himself on-line. As he would need to be pretty sure of when he would arrive back in Pokhara he bought a standby/changeable flight from Jomosom (a small town on the trail with an airstrip) to Pokhara. To cut a long story short the travel agent confirmed that he had successfully changed the flight to Delhi from the 18th to the 15th as requested. But Kev wanted to fly on the 11th now, not the 15th. Then when he arrived in Jomosom he discovered that his standby ticket was essentially worthless and he would not be able to get on any of the outbound flights. His house of cards had begun to tumble.

Day 10 Muktinath to Jomosom.

On Day 10 there were 2 routes we could take from Muktinath to Jomosom. One was a more direct route and the other, about an hour longer, would go via the town of Kagbeni. Kev, Tom, and Bosanta decided to take the shorter route while Paddy and I, gluttons for punishment, decided to checkout Kagbeni.The first thing we noticed on leaving Muktinath was the reappearance of motorised vehicles. We had not seen anything of the kind since jumping out of our cramped jeep all the way back in Bhulbhule. Kagbeni turned out to be a quaint, almost medieval town. There were many covered alleyways that appeared to lead to someone's front door only to turn at the last minute and continue in this labyrinthine fashion, twisting and turning through large sections of the town. Then the weirdest thing happened…we turned a corner and there on front of us were the "Golden Arches" of McDonalds. Incredible, my mouth watered at the thought of a Big Mac. Needless to say it was false advertising and I will be contacting McDonalds' legal team as soon as I get home to put an end to this flagrant copyright infringement. Kagbeni is also the start of a restricted zone into the Mustang region of Nepal that leads right up to the border with Tibet. We broke the law and trekked into the restricted zone for about 15 minutes before deciding not to push our luck any further and turned around to visit the 500 year old gompa (monastery) back in town. On leaving Kagbeni we didn't realise that the wind blows strongly up the valley in the afternoon so for the next 2 hours we were well and truly sandblasted. It didn't help that there seemed to be jeeps continuously passing in both directions.

When we arrived in Jomosom Tom and Kevin had checked us into a nice guesthouse where the first stop was an obligatory shower. As this was going to be the last night all 4 of us would be together – Kev and Tom both decided that they had done enough trekking for one "holiday" – we splurged on a couple of bottles of Everest beer each. Our spirits were high and it wasn't long before our beer-starved bodies started feeling the effects of the alcohol.

Day 11 Jomosom to Kalopani
The following morning Paddy and I bade farewell to Kevin and Tom. Kev was still on standby for a flight to Pokhara but later, as Paddy and I were walking out of Marpha, a small village on the trail, we spotted Tom, Kevin, and Bosanta going by in a 4x4 jeep. I guess Kev decided to cut his losses and overland back to Pokhara. Arriving in Kalopani we were glad to finally be off the rubbley path of the raised sea bed. Hard to believe we were walking on what was once the bottom of the sea…now 2500m up in the air.

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Day 12 Kalopani to Tatopani
The walk to Tatopani was not all that interesting and we were thinking that the other side of the Thorong La Pass had the better scenery. But what the other side didn't have was thermal hot springs. In Tatopani we enjoyed soaking our weary bones in a toasty warm hot spring and I really can't describe how good it felt. Afterwards feeling as squeaky clean as squeaky clean can be we stopped off for a few contraband cans of Carlsberg in an attractive beer garden. I call them contraband because we didn't buy them in the guesthouse we were staying in. Then something surreal happened – a horse walked in through one entrance, walked the length of the beer garden between the tables and exited out onto the street at the far end. It just looked so odd, I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.
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Day 13 Tatopani to Ghorepani
What we didn't realise at the beginning of Day 13 was that it would be the toughest day of trekking to date. After dropping down initially, then crossing the Kali Gandaki river yet again, the trail sloped uphill and gave us little relief for the next 7 hours. The only consolation was that everyone felt the same way. From High Camp to the Thorong La Pass had taken us only 2 hours 20 minutes, then it was all down hill to Muktinath. This was a different story…it was just up, up, up. When we stopped for lunch I asked the waitress the name of the spectacular mountain to our west. She said she didn't know its name. After referring to our map and compass we determined that it was Dhaulagiri (8200m). On leaving after lunch we noticed the name of the restaurant… "Dhaulagiri View". I still don't know if she thought I was being smart or whether she really didn't know.

Once we had relaxed for a time in Ghorepani we decided to trek to the top of Poon Hill for sunset. The fact that it was completely overcast didn't deter from our enthusiasm. We brought a packet of Pringles along for sustenance. Once on top, about 45 minutes later, guess what…it was a complete white-out. Only a Korean couple were as crazy as us so we all stood on the platform of the look-out tower and admired the fog. Then, as though to reward our determination, the cloud parted enough to give us good views of Annapurna I (8091m), Annapurna South (7219m), and Machhapuchhre (6993m).

We then dropped back down to Ghorepani in the dark.

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Day 14 Ghorepani to Banthanti

We set our alarm clock for 4am so that we could do as everyone does…climb to the top of Poon Hill for dawn. This time we were armed with some cheap local biscuits to keep us going until breakfast. We were first to the look-out tower at 5am and were very happy to find we could get a large mug of black tea from some local entrepreneurs.

The solitude was quickly broken though as group after group of eager trekkers began to arrive. The dawn, like most dawns, was perfectly cloudless and everyone shuffled to get that panoramic shot of themselves with the mighty Himalaya's in the background. After breakfast down in Ghorepani we allowed ourselves an extra hour back in bed before setting off down the trail to Tadipani…or so we thought. There appeared to be only one path out of town and in our over confidence we didn't think for a second that we were heading in the wrong direction. For 2 hours we power-housed down hill, flying past all in our path before stopping in Ulleri to consult with our map. Aargh!!! There had been another path that left from behind a guesthouse in Ghorepani…apparently. We simply couldn't believe that we would have to go all the way back up to Ghorepani to get onto the right trail. There was just no other way. We swallowed our pride and started back up hill to the bewilderment of all those we had passed earlier, our heads hung low like 2 solitary swans. We took some comfort in meeting a Spanish guy who had made the same mistake.

When we arrived in Nayathanti, still about an hour away from Ghorepani we determined that we could cut cross country and get onto the correct trail. Paddy had decided that he really couldn't face having to go back into Ghorepani again. Word of advice though, be careful when you decide to take a "shortcut" in the Himalaya's…you might just run into a mountain!! We slogged uphill for about 2 hours before, alleluia, were back on track, literally. Fortunately we were still feeling strong (amazing what 14 days of trekking will do for you) so we trekked on through some small villages reaching Banthanti just before dark. We had completed about 10 hours of trekking and were very happy to be fed, watered and given a warm bed for the night. It had been a very long day.

Day 15 Banthanti to Chamrong
Hard to believe but we almost went the wrong way at the beginning of Day 15. Needless to say as soon as we got the slightest inkling that we might be following the wrong trail we stopped and corrected ourselves. We're no fools you know. The trail to Chamrong seemed to drop endlessly down into a valley whereupon we were obliged to regain all that lost altitude again, and just when we had, the cycle started all over again. We considered walking further but after lunch in Chamrong, we liked the place so much, we decided to check into a guesthouse. The rest was very welcome. We spent the rest of the day eating and relaxing. Ah bliss.

Day 16 Chamrong to Deurali
This was a relatively easy day particularly given our "short" trek to Chamrong the day before. The only annoyance was the long wait for our lunch in Himalaya. Our frustration was compounded by the fact that we were less than one hour from our final destination and we heard that there could be an issue with accommodation. Part of the problem may have been that we decided to experiment and find out what "rosti" was. It turned out to be a large greasy hash brown topped with fried eggs. It must have contained at least 20,000 calories….perfect. We made fast time to Deurali through a mossy subtropical rain forest type landscape. On entering town, the first of the 4 guesthouses said they were full but offered us a small tent they had set up in the outside dining area. Not sure whether to take them seriously or not we continued to lodge number 2. "Sorry full". Then lodge number 3. "Sorry full". And finally lodge number 4. "Sorry full….but we do have one room you could have". He brought us out the back through the kitchen and into a storeroom that had one single bed shoved in the corner. With our options severely limited we accepted his storeroom offer. We might have thought that our accommodation on Day 1 in Bahundanda was basic, well let me tell you, it didn't have a patch on this place. There were old kerosene lamps, rice and flour containers, and large oil drums strewn all around. Paddy and I decided to sleep "tops and tails" in the single bed. Good thing we're both small. Out in the communal dining area they fired up an open kerosene flame under the large table and this kept all sitting around it warm. There was metal sheeting on the underside of the table but it still seemed like a major safety hazard.

Day 17 Deurali to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC)
While it was a bit cold during the night and a bit cosy in our single bed we both slept reasonably well. We ordered breakfast for 6.30am and planned to make our way as quickly as possible to ABC to ensure we wouldn't have a repeat of our previous night. Before we left Paddy peered into one of the large rice containers and was quick to point out the mouse running around on top. Eek!! "Did we have any meals with rice", "No", "Whew, thank goodness for that". The trek to ABC from Deurali is supposed to take about 4 hours. Paddy and I took off like prize stallions and had hit the halfway mark (MBC) within an hour. I somehow lost Paddy here and I arrived in ABC on the 2 hour mark and was very happy to be offered a "normal" room for the night. The sky was clear and blue and the views all around were incredible. After Paddy and I had relaxed for a while we strolled off in the direction of Annapurna South and got snap happy with our camera's. Reaching ABC was a psychological milestone for me. Not only did it mark the last stop for Paddy and I on our Annapurna trek but it also marked the last point on my around the world trip before beginning the final journey home to Cork. ABC provided stunning, up-close, views of the Annapurna range. Poon Hill was good but nothing beats the feeling of being right in the heart of the mountains. For the remainder of the day we simply lounged around outside before the sun dipped behind one of the many peaks and the temperature got decidedly cooler.
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Day 18 ABC to Chamrong

We got up early to witness yet another daybreak, as you do, and we were again greeted with clear, cloud-free skies. There was a full moon sitting just above Annapurna South and that proved to be a great draw for anyone with a camera in their hands (which of course was pretty much everyone).Then it was time to start the long descent back to Chamrong. All went well until we got to Sinuwa and were reminded of the fact that, from this lofty perch, we would need to drop a long long way down to the river and then climb a long long way back up to Chamrong.
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Even after 18 days of trekking we both found that final drive up those endless steps a real slog. It was gruelling. But a quick shower later and we were both renewed and ready for more..
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Day 19 Chamrong to Pokhara (18Oct08)

Claire and I had met 2 Spanish girls in Arthur's Pass NZ who had completed the same trek as Paddy and I were now on the brink of completing. They had drawn a trail on my map that they assured me existed. Paddy and I, always up for an adventure, decided to track it down. Outside of Chamrong we quickly left the main trail and followed a smaller, yet still very well defined, trail down to the Jhinu Danda hot springs. Even though it was early in the day, i.e. not too many miles behind us, we decided to don our swimming trunks and take to the water. After passing a pleasant half hour or so in the company of 3 local children who were fascinated by Paddy's hairless head, we continued on the trail. We quickly realised that the trail drawn by the Spaniards was not as obscure as we had originally thought. The remainder of our day was refreshingly isolated as we dropped all the way down to Nayapul where our long trek ended and we picked up a bus bound for Pokhara.

That evening we treated ourselves to a steak dinner washed down with a few bottles of our beloved Everest beer. It had been an outstanding 19 days in the Himalaya's and a trek I would highly recommend to anyone who likes nothing more that pulling on a pair of hiking boots.
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Paddy and I relaxed around Pokhara the next day by taking a row boat out on the lake, but, never one's to relax for too long, we also booked ourselves onto a 3 day white water rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki river, departing the next day.

At 8am the next morning we boarded a beat up bus and headed back in the direction from whence we had only recently returned. It should have been a 2.5 hour journey but ended up taking us about 5 hours (flat tyre, detours, dal bhat for the crew, etc). Once there we were quickly put to work unloading the bus, inflating the rafts and generally getting ourselves ready for a new adventure on the water. We were a group of 12 paying guests and 6 crew members split over 2 rafts (plus one raft solely for the food, tents, and suchlike).

Before entering the water we were taken through all the commands that we would hear shouted from the rear of the raft by our guide. By carefully following these commands we stood every chance of never having to end up in the water. These were Grade III – IV rapids. However, I think Paddy must have been taking a whiz at the time because we weren't long on the river before he found himself tossed out of the raft and floating downstream. Did I mention that Paddy can't swim? Fortunately he didn't manage to get too far before we were able to haul him back aboard. A quick refresher class for Paddy and we were on our way again.

Not even 5 minutes had elapsed before some particularly choppy water had again landed Paddy in the swim. After this second incident he made a point of practically tying himself to the inside of the raft and, I'm glad to say, that was his last tumble into the water. Of course I should also mention that Paddy and I had chosen to ride up front so perhaps that was a contributing factor also. At the end of day 1 we found a nice beach at the side of the river where we set up camp, ate a dinner of dal bhat and sat around the warmth of a campfire and got to know each other.

Next morning we were back fighting the rapids and enjoying the incredible scenery. Our guides chose not to run one set of rapids called "Big Brother" as they deemed it too dangerous. What we later found out was that just the week before, with another company, an Israeli had smashed his head open on a rock while trying to navigate this stretch of river. However, the ordeal we had in trying to drag, push, and carry our rafts seemed equally dangerous at times. It must have taken us at least an hour and really if this is something that they have to do regularly they need to find a better way. It is a miracle that no one was badly hurt. Day 2 ended on another pleasant riverside beach.

Paddy and I had brought a few cans of beer along for the ride and so proceeded to polish those off over the course of the evening. There was no campfire on night 2 which was a real disappointment. Not as easy to get the wood here apparently and consequently most people retired early. Our final day on the Kali Gandaki started with some good white water but this quickly gave way to smoother, sit-back-and-relax, conditions and we eventually coasted into our final port of call near a large dam that precluded us from travelling any further.

Back in Pokhara we only really had time for a meal with some of the gang before heading home to bed and catching the 8am bus the next morning back to Kathmandu where everything seemed oh so familiar. The guys at Poon Hill guesthouse gave us a warm welcome (remember this was now my third time staying there).

For the next 2 days we ate well, indulged in a massage for our aching limbs and did some last minute shopping. Then Paddy flew out and for the first time I was all alone (is that a violin I here playing?).

2 days later I caught my flight to Delhi and my journey home started in earnest. Alas, I only had standby tickets from Delhi to London and from London to Cork and in Delhi I would have to wait almost 17 hours for my first opportunity to get on a flight. I deliberated over whether I should venture into Delhi for the day but Claire was adamant that I remain in the airport. The long wait wasn't too bad but I certainly was happy to see BA start checking people in 4 hours before departure. Now the question was, would I get on the flight? Thankfully the plane was half empty and I ended up having a row of 3 seats to myself.

Once in London I quickly made my way to terminal 1 in an effort to get on the 10am flight to Cork. Unfortunately, as it had been a long weekend in Ireland, and this was now the Tuesday morning, there were lots of people heading back to Cork, so many in fact that I was unable to get on the flight. Doh!! Not to worry, only another 5 hours until the next available flight. If I'm ever on Mastermind and asked for my chosen specialised subject…."WAITING!!!"And then, at 3.45pm on a bitterly cold October 28th, I touched down in Cork airport and the epic journey was finally at an end. As I waited for my beat-up rucksack I did one last check that all my limbs were still in tact (can you imagine my embarrassment if someone was to say "um Dave…where's your left arm?") and then popped the world travelling bubble that had been home to Claire and I for the past 17 months!

Everest Base Camp Trek

2008-09-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Kathmandu, Nepal, 5-6 September 2008
Everest Base Camp Trek, 7-20 September 2008

Mount Everest, also called Sagarmatha (Nepali: meaning Head of the Sky) is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level, which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet.

We arrived in Kathmandu (KMD) at 8am and had no issue with obtaining our visa. Outside we took one of the many hotel touts up on their offer of a free taxi ride into Thamel (the tourist hotspot of KMD). Everything was going so smoothly, it was great to be out of India. Once settled in our guesthouse we immediately set about organising our Everest Base Camp trek (EBC). The first thing we required were return flights to Lukla, the head of the trail (unless you are crazy enough to start from Jiri). After checking a few agencies it became clear the price of the flights were fixed so we we just bit the bullet and booked to leave in 2 days time (Sunday). Later we found out that we were very very fortunate because flights had been canceled for 2 weeks due to bad weather but thankfully were up and running again. Next we made our way to the tourist office where we collected a TIMS card, a requirement for trekking in Nepal. We had also hoped to collect our permit but the office was closed but we heard that we could purchase it at the start of the trail. With these two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle in place we could relax and simply enjoy being in a new country.

Thamel has it's fair share of touts but they are pussycats compared to those in Delhi. Some tourists find KMD too hectic but to us it was a breath of fresh air. We ate well and then walked the streets lined with outdoor stores and made a list of everything we would need for a successful trek to the foot of the worlds highest mountain. The next day felt like Xmas Eve and we hadn't a gift bought. We ventured out, collected sleeping bags then dropped them back to the room. Without a moments rest we were back out looking for Gortex jacket & trousers. Then back to the room... then back out again and so on all day. By the end of it we were exhausted but we were ready!

Our flight was at 6:15am the next morning & following a misunderstanding with the guesthouse staff re ordering of a taxi we found ourselves at the tiny Domestic Terminal of KMD Airport. It didn't actually open until 5:40am by which time a sizable mob had gathered outside. We had heard some horror stories about getting on your designated flight even if you have a ticket so we were eager to be at the head of the queue. It all went very smoothly and we were soon standing at the door of our 12 seater plane (Agni Airlines). Only problem was that there were 13 of us, no worries following a quick staff hussle an additional seat was sourced and fitted in no time at all. Our luggage travelled with us in the fuselage. The flight itself was surprisingly smooth given the size of the plane and afforded spectacular views of the Himalayas. 30 minutes later we commenced our approach to the tiny runway perched on the side of a cliff at Lukla. The pilot only had enough time to land then break hard before it was time to turn right and park up. Yes, it was a little hair raising.

The airport at Lukla is named after
Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary.

We had intended to stay in Lukla (2,850 metres) for 1 day to acclimatise but having had breakfast and walked the full length of the town by 7:30am we decided to put a few miles behind us. We had actually checked into a guesthouse in Lukla but the Sherpina Dawa Futi (her father was a Sherpa with Edmund Hillary during the first successful Everest ascent in 1953) was happy enough to organise a porter for us (Rai) and send us off on the trail. We stopped at Rai's house on the way out of town, so that he could pick up some essentials and tell his wife and 2-year old son that he's be gone for 2 weeks, and then we were on our way.

On Day 1 we put in about 5 hours trekking our way to Monjo (2,840 metres). As Monjo was at almost exactly the same elevation as Lukla we felt like we'd gained a day without jeopardising our acclimatisation program. It was an amazing feeling to finally be on this trail. Weather was perfect and scenery was nothing short of stunning. The deal with the guesthouses is that you check into one at a very cheap rate (1-2 Euro) but are then obliged to eat all your meals at that guesthouse. We were surprised both by the quality of the accommodation and the wide spectrum of food available on the menu (however as you moved higher on up the trail vegetable availability was nil & void). The nearest road was about a 5 days walk away, we had seen porters carrying loads on trails all over the world but without doubt the porters on this trail were carrying loads larger and heavier (up to 120 kgs) than anything we'd ever seen before.

Day 2 - we marched on to Namche Bazaar (3,440 metres) which is the largest town on the trail. The guidebook recommends spending 2 nights here in order to aid acclimatisation so that's what we did. Having checked a few guesthouses it soon became clear that we were hiking out of season as there really were very few trekkers about. While en route to Namche Bazaar we met a couple dropping back down to Monjo, the man had come down with serious altitude sickness and was unable to venture any higher. We would hear similar stories many times over the following days. So far we were not exhibiting any symptoms. On our second day in Namche we walked visited the local museum & walked up to the ridge.

The trail took us past small settlement villages with stone houses, terraced potato fields & "mani stones". Tibetan prayer stones or mani stones carved with the sacred Tibetan mantra, OM Mani Padme Hum, the venerated syllable OM, & the peaceful eyes of lord Buddha.

After two days of glorious sunshine on the trail on Day 3 the cloud descended and while we didn't experience any rain during the day any chance of snatching an early glimpse of the mighty Everest slipped away. After our 2 days in Namche Bazaar we walked along an excellent trail towards Tangboche where the largest Buddhist Monastery in the Himalayas is located. A signpost outside stated that women were not allowed to enter without the permission of the head monk (Lama). I, Dave, ventured in and after a few minutes had gained the necessary permission. Claire and I were then given a tour of the prayer hall before being allowed to sit at the back of their room where all the monks were deep in meditation. It felt a little intrusive but they didn't seem to mind. Every few minutes they would pick up their various musical instruments and create a racket. Outside again, we had only planned to walk on an additional 20 minutes to Debuche and stay there for the night but Rai (along with another couple we met) convinced us to keep going as far as Pangboche - they assured us it was 30 minutes beyond Debuche..... they lied.....Claire was starting to show early signs of altitude sickness so the additional 1 hour 40 minutes we had to walk beyond Debuche really didn't help. In Pangboche we stayed at the Everest View Lodge. Inside there were certificates stating that the Sherpa owner had been to the summit of Everest three times. Most impressive.

On Day 6 we walked a short distance (2 hours) to Pheriche (4,270 metres). Again, the guidebook recommended spending two nights here in order to aid acclimatisation. On Day 8 feeling adequately acclimatised we trekked to Lobuche (4,910). En route we passed memorials to those who had died on Everest. Claire had bought the book "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer while we were in KMD. It tells the story of how a storm on Everest in 1996 claimed the lives of 12 people. Reading the story in the book was one thing but actually passing the memorials on the trail was another thing entirely. Suddenly it was much more real.

On Day 9 we walked onto Gorak Shep (5,140 metres) which is the last settlement on the EBC trail. After checking into our accommodation we climbed Kala Patar (5,550 metres). The heavy mist meant visibility was down to about 50 metres but knowing how quickly the weather can change in the Himalayas we trudged on regardless. On this particular occasion the weather decided to remain steadfast. Claire got quite emotional when we finally reached the top of Kala Patar and we couldn't see a thing. Apparently on a fine day you will not get a better view of Everest than from the top of Kala Patar:

"9 days of hiking with only two hot showers (nights 1 & 2) , few (if any) nights sleep & a diet based on rice and potatoes and we can't even see the tiniest piece of Everest - we deserve better".

And it was a hard slog because at 5,550 metres there is only 50% of the Oxygen in each breath than there is at sea level and boy do you miss that extra 50%. The following morning (Day 10) we'd intended to walk to Everest Base Camp but as conditions were good we decided to give Kala Patar another chance.... and it paid off. We finally got some excellent views of Everest, now we could go home happy. Mission complete. Well, almost......

A lot of people don't make the effort (5 hours return) to visit the base camp as you cannot really see any of the surrounding mountains from there. For us however, it didn't make sense for us to come this far and not make the extra effort to see where all expeditions vying to climb to the summit from the Nepalese side kick off. Most expeditions take place in April/May but we were fortunate that both a Korean and an Italian team were present and preparing for the heady task when we arrived. It was a tough walk (Day 11) over uneven glacier moraine but well worth it, it really was the end of the road. If you wanted to go any further you were going to have to start mountaineering.

Claire was feeling run down as she had developed a nasty lip infection and a head cold. The nearest medical facility was in Khunde - 2 long days of hiking away. The following morning (Day 12) we bade farewell to Gorak Shep.

We walked back down to Pangboche stopping off briefly for lunch in Pheriche. So, what had taken us three days walking up was an easy going one day walking down. Day 12 wasn't so easy going. Downhill to Debuche, uphill to Tangboche, downhill to Funke Tengi, uphill to Khunde. "Phew, that was a long day". We stopped off in Khumjung while on the way to visit the Sir Edmund Hillary school. I think it's fair to say that Hillary is revered like a god in the shadow of Mt Everest, a mountain that he, along with Tenzing Norgay, was the first man to summit in 1953. At the Khunde hospital the resident Doctor admitted he'd never seen anything like Claire's lip before! He prescribed a course of antibiotics.

Day 13 - from Khunde we passed back through Namche Bazaar and then down, down, down to Monjo where we had stayed on our very first night. Here we enjoyed our first shower in 11 days and it felt so gooood. We'd originally planned to fly out of Lukla on the 25th but based on circumstances and the fact that we'd achieved our goal we decided to bring this forward to the 21st. We'd left our flight tickets with the lodge in Luka so Rai was able to call them and they had no problem making the amendment on our behalf.

As always seemed to be the case the last day (Day 14) seemed to go on forever. We thought Lukla must be just around the next corner... but it never was. It was murder. Finally, almost unexpectedly, we were in Lukla and our 2 week trek was over. We were greeted warmly at the Paradise Lodge (even though we had never actually stayed there before). On the morning of our flight the landlord (Ang Pasang Sherpa) insisted on bringing our bags to the airport and checking them in while we sat and enjoyed breakfast. Once we'd passed through security, if you could call it that, word came through that all Air Agni flights had been cancelled due to "technical difficulties". Luck was on our side though because Ang Pasang Sherpa was till on the scene and managed to get us shifted onto a Sita flight at no extra charge. Funny thing is that earlier we'd been looking at the Sita planes saying "would you look at the state of those rust buckets". Now we were clambering to be first aboard. If we didn't have our man on the ground in Lukla it was unlikely we would have managed to get out when we did. So once airborne we thanked our lucky stars we weren't part of the group still scratching their heads in the airport.

In the travelling game coming to a place for the second time is always so easy, so comfortable. Arriving back into Thamel we were able to direct our taxi driver all the way to the door of our hotel. Then it was, yes - you guessed it "operation recovery". Hot shower, clean clothes, good food etc etc.

We would recommend the EBC trek to anyone. It's more like a long serious of day hikes than one continuous trek. The fact you can get hot food every night and curl up i a bed warm and dry makes all the difference. When we think back to the "W" in Torres del Paine... now that was real hardship. Icy cold nights in the tent, no hot food, carrying everything on your back. Yep, give me the comfort of EBC anyday. Also, Rai our porter was second to none. He was always good humoured, always laughing & joking and would have offered to carry us on his back if we'd have let him.

The children of the Himalayas would greet us with "namaste" when we passed. When spoken the greeting is accompanied by a slight bow made with hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointed upwards, in front of the chest.

Tibetan Prayer flags. The sherpa people migrated from eastern Tibet to Nepal within the last 500 years.

Porters carrying loads to base camp

A sign on a door.... wise Himalayan people

Goodbye India

2008-09-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

Amritsar, India, 2 September 2008
Delhi, India, 3-4 September 2008

In Amritsar we were very much back to the hustle and bustle of big city India. Traffic was horrendous. Pavements were either non-existent or completely cluttered with tuk-tuks, motos, rubbish, food stalls, generators and so on. We checked into a nice hotel and locked ourselves away from the chaos outside. All we needed to do in Amritsar was visit the Golden Temple, attend the changing of the guards at the Pakistan border and catch the train back to Delhi. That wasn't very much but unfortunately we had 2 full days in which to do it. We decided to combine the two things (not counting the train journey) into one excursion. As the changing of the guards takes place at 6:20pm we would not leave our hotel until 4:30pm. As we lay in bed watching TV, Dave took the notion to double check the details of our train journey. Panic stations struck when we noticed we had booked the train a day earlier than expected ie 1 hours time. Ahhhhhhhh. We tried to cancel it online but it was too late. We tried to re-book but there was a waiting list. Nothing for it, we packed up our belongings and high-tailed it to the train station. We couldn't believe we had spent the whole day in Amritsar doing nothing when we could have easily visited the Golden Temple. But the hits didn't stop there. Having paid the extra (£35) to travel 1st Class Air-Con we had images of unsurpassed luxury but what we got was one very small step up from AC Chair Class. Now we had another dilemma on our hands... we had originally intended to go directly from the train to the airport and wait for check-in to open at 3:30am for our flight to Nepal. But now we were a day early for our flight. Do we still go to the airport ad hope that they will let us on the flight or do we check into our hotel and resign ourselves to spending one more day in "delightful" Delhi? After one flick of the coin, then a best out of three... we checked back into a hotel in Delhi. It wasn't far from the train station so we decided to walk. To say Claire was curt with the touts and tuk-tuk drivers would be putting it very mildly indeed. She certainly didn't mince her words.

It was a wise decision to stay as we got a good nights sleep, updated the blog on the internet, enjoyed some surprisingly good food on the rooftop cafe abd were very happy to catch the taxi ride to Indira Ghandi International airport.

Closing Statement India:
India is what India is and it was a privilege to be able to come here and witness it for ourselves but we are reminded too much of the fable of the Emperors New Clothes. Everybody who visits India knows it is a dump but they all seem reluctant to say it out loud. There are simply too many better places that one can visit in this world to waste your time trawling through India. Harsh but we feel we are in a position to pass judgement.

Chai is the drink of choice in India

Would you eat here???

The Dalai Lama's Home

2008-09-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

McLeod Ganj, India, 31 August - 1 September 2008

The 10-hour bus journey from Shimla to Dharmasala wasn't as gruelling as we had expected. We took a taxi to our hotel in McLeod Ganj.. home of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1959, Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama), came to India after the Chinese conquest of Tibet and was offered refuge in McLeod Ganj. We had hoped there might be a chance of getting an audience with the man himself but unfortunately he had been admitted to hospital in Mumbai with stomach pains. Nothing serious we were informed.

McLeod Ganj has a feel all of its own. It has a high population of Tibetans (refugees) and Buddhist monks and we can only assume that this is the closest thing to visiting Tibet without actually visiting Tibet. McLeod Ganj is affectionately referred to as "Little Lhasa and The Tibetan Government in Exile is headquartered in McLeod Ganj. The narrow streets are lined with small stores selling all manner of Tibetan merchandise. It is not a large place so within 30 minutes we had walked the entire town. While there is a relaxed air to McLeod Ganj it must be very frustrating to the inhabitants to have the taxi drivers from Dharmasala constantly speed through the streets blowing their horns to shift the pedestrians who need to jump for their lives.

Prayer Wheels: is a wheel (Tibetan: 'khor) on a spindle made from metal, wood, leather, or even coarse cotton. On the wheel are depicted or encapsulated prayers, mantras and. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning such a wheel will have much the same effect as orally reciting the prayers.

We spent our few days visiting the temple (Tsuglagkhang) and frequenting the many cafes & restaurants. It felt almost normal. At the temple it was very entertaining to watch as the monks became super animated while engaging in what we have been a daily argument session. If a monk had a point to make it invariably ended with a loud clap of his hands. One monk would pretend to charge another monk only to be held back by the others in attendance. Most entertaining and they certainly appeared to be enjoying themselves.

Being in McLeod Ganj was wonderful, it felt like we had escaped India and were in another country. Peaceful, reasonably clean and no-one hassling us. Aghhh. After 2 nights in McLeod Ganj we treated ourselves to a 3 hour taxi ride to Pathankot from where we caught a train to Amritsar.

Pictures of Pro Tibet Independence Literature in McLeod Ganj:

Street Stall selling "momos"

Monks & Mobiles!

Shimla: The Hill Station

2008-08-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

Delhi, India, 28 August 2008
Shimla, India, 29-30 August 2008

Our train from Jaipur got us into Delhi late (11pm) and our next train got us out of Delhi early (7am) just the way we wanted it! We had deliberated over whether to simply fly to Nepal, in the end we decided to give India the benefit of the doubt, & get off the major tourist route of the Golden Triangle and head north into the foothills of the Himalayas.

Our train took us first to Kalka (5 hours) where we then changed platform & boarded the "toy train" to Shimla (5.5 hours). It was called the toy train because of it's diminutive size and narrow gauge on which it runs. The train quickly started climbing into the hills. Hugging the mountainside it offered outstanding views of the valley below. The line was completed in 1903 and runs the 97km from Kalka to Shimla. The steepest gradient is 1:33, there are 107 tunnels covering 8kms and 969 bridges over 3kms. Ah, that's more like our romantic image of India. Sitting across from us on the train were a middle class Indian couple, they frustrated Claire because during the entire journey they would dispose of their crisp wrappers, empty bottles etc out of the window into the countryside. What chance does India have to stay green and keep clean?

Arriving in Shimla at 5:30pm after our new "personal best", three 5 hour train journeys completed in 24 hours. We should take some time out to complement the Indians on their rail network (or perhaps the British). Of the five journeys we had taken at this point they were punctual, comfortable and reasonably clean. We had travelled Air Con Chair Class, 2AC and 3AC. We had even inadvertently sat in a 1AC private cabin for about 30 mins before realising we were on the right carriage but the wrong section. We knew it was too good to be true. They also have an efficient online booking system airline style so you can do it all yourself and then print out your confirmation receipt. Bravo!

Shimla was a breath of fresh air both literally & metaphorically. For the first time we were in a town that had a coherent centre. We checked into a very nice hotel and went out in search of food. Claire was hopeful we could find somewhere serving safe western food. I didn't fancy our chances but then there was shining like a beacon on the main street Dominos Pizza! Had it just touched down in answer to our prayers or had it been there all along? Either was we didn't care it was the best pizza we'd had in a long long time.

In the main plaza there was an attractive Church (Christ Church) and statues of both Mahatama & Indira Ghandi & gringos can walk around reasonably unmolested by touts & Indian tourists wanting to take there picture. We walked the street until we felt a drop of rain & then another one. Next thing we were dashing for cover from a torrential downpour. Fortunately there was a nice coffee shop where we could sit in comfort and look out on the poor sods still dashing hither and tither. The rain didn't last long & after we had booked our tickets for the Dharmasala (for the next day) we walked the steep uphill climb to Jakoo Temple. Alas, we didn't heed the warning advising that one should hire a stick to ward off the aggressive red faced monkeys. As we got close to the entrance one frightened the life out of Claire as he appeared to make a real attempt to take a bite out of her ankle. He chased her, teeth exposed while she ran in a most animated fashion back down the hill. After that wild horses couldn't have dragged her back into the temple so we cut our losses and strolled, acutely aware of our surroundings, back downhill.

After a reconnaissance mission to the bus station we pottered through some local markets (disturbing experience) before ending up in an internet cafe where we enthusiastically booked our flights out of India. We would spend the following few days moving west before travelling 1AC (1st Class) taring for Amritsar to Delhi & then catching the flight to Kathmandu.

Luxury Coach "Indian Style"

The Pink City: Jaipur

2008-08-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

Jaipur, India, 25- 27 August
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We checked into Atithi Guesthouse and almost immediately Claire started to feel unwell. Yep, the infamous Delhi belly had arrived. For the remainder of the evening and all the next day she did not leave the confines of the room. I popped downstairs from time to time to get some food (for me, not for her) and basically laid low for the day. The following morning she was felling much better so we decided to go out and explore the wonders of Jaipur also known as the Pink City and the gateway to Rajasthan.

First stop, the City Palace. Our tuk-tuk driver "Smiley" tried to warn us that it was overpriced and that only a small number of areas are open to the public. Did we listen to him? No. Should we have listened to him? Yes. It was okay but certainly very miss able. The one highlight (or two really) was that it has the single largest pieces of silver in the world. Two by 390kg urns ratified by the Guinness Book of Records no less. As we were hungry Smiley brought us to an overpriced tourist restaurant where he would obviously get commission. Claire was still tender from the day before and was understandably suspicious of dining establishments so we decided to ask Smiley to take us to the "Four Seasons Hotel" restaurant....in reality it was an upmarket restaurant that played on the recognition of the hotel chain (it was not associated with it). It looked ok, there were Indian businessmen and the interior was spotlessly clean. We took the plunge. The hunger satisfied we hoped back in the tuk tuk and visited a few more minor sites before arriving at the Amber Fort.

You cannot help but be impressed by this huge defensive structure sitting atop a lofty hill. This was a proper fort. Some elephants were being washed in the waters of the foot of the hill while others transported paying guests the 15 or so minutes uphill to the main gate. Once inside there were great views in all directions - probably why it made a good site for a fort. While we didn't get to the Great Wall in China this place gave us an idea of what it must be like. A large defensive wall had been built from one hilltop to the next, everywhere you looked you could see it stretching for miles around the Amber Fort. Most impressive.

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On the way back to town we stopped to admire the Water Palace set out on the middle of a lake but at that stage high winds had picked up and blinding dust had been blown everywhere. It was a hurricane scene with branches being stripped off trees, tuk tuks and cars pulling in to find some shelter & even the cows were running for cover. Then Smiley ran out of petrol. Fortunately we had gotten to a sheltered area before rolling to final halt. A few phonecalls and 30 mins later his brother arrived to bail us out. It was actually a blessing in disguise as it gave us a chance to ask Smiley some of the more important questions....like....who owns the cows? Answer: they are left out in the morning by their owners & will wander back themselves in the evening or when it is time to be milked.

Back in the room Claire took unwell again. Doh.

Our final day in Jaipur we saw no need to head out into the chaotic streets & so stayed in the safety of the guesthouse where the staff were friendly & the food was good but more importantly hygienically prepared.

Having left Delhi & experienced Agra and Jaipur (the Golden Triangle) our impression of India had not improved at all. While the Taj Mahal and the Amber Fort were without question impressive it was everything else around them that had us scratching our heads wondering why people would choose to holiday here. Maybe things will be different up north.

Doorway at the City Palace

The Taj Mahal

2008-08-24T02:09:00.000-07:00

Agra, India, 24 August 2008
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At the time of it's building the large gates at the front of the Taj Mahal were designed in such a way that anyone coming to see this global icon would only be able to see it in all it's glory once they had passed through the large arch to the other side. With that in mind we felt a little like cheats as we sat on the rooftop cafe and had a birds eye view of the Taj Mahal. We were some distance off though so still very much relished the prospect of getting up close and personal the next day.

As it was still only mid afternoon we decided to hire a couple of rickshaws (cyclos in SE Asia) to take us to Agra's other big draw: The Red Fort. Akbar's magnificent fort dominates the centre of the city - the fortifications tower above the 9 metre wide, 10 metre deep moat. There is an outer wall on the riverside and an imposing 22 metre high inner main wall giving a feeling of great defensive power. We enjoyed wandering the various courtyards and the view across the Yamuna River to the Taj. On our return the cyclo drivers asked us if they could take us to the market where we could see how Persian rugs are made and the crafting of silver jewellery. We had become used to this in SE Asia, needless to say they get commission from the vendors who are hoping for a sale after their demonstration. As the guys told us up front that they get 20 Rupees each (30 cent) for taking us to the carpet shop... we agreed and they were happy. What we hadn't realised was just how far they would have to cycle before arriving at the destination. Was all this effort really worth an extra 20 rupees? It's at times like that that you get an idea of just how low the average income in India is. We tipped them with a further 20 rupee. The carpets were nice.
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The Red Fort

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Before retiring for the night we deliberated long and hard over whether or not to "do sunrise" at the Taj. Given our track record for under performing sunrises we decided to get a good nights sleep and hit the Taj at 9am instead. We started teh day with cornflakes & milk at a local cafe - highly recommended by our guidebook might I add. After a few mouth fulls Claire pointed out what she suspected to be dirt particles floating in the cereal bowl the proprietor assured us this was not the case! Claire was believing none of it, I finished my breakfast and we headed to the Taj. If there was one thing in India we both felt we had to visit this was it.

Entering through the huge gates at the side of the Taj Mahal was truly breathtaking. Our recommendation would be to enjoy the views from the rooftop cafes after your visit and let your entry through the gates be your first view of this marbled wonder.

We spent the next couple of hours visiting the interior and wandering the gardens that surround the Taj, viewing it from every angle. The day was a real scorcher though so we needed to hop from one shady spot to the next. The grounds were busy with Indian Tourists who were more interested in asking us to pose with them for photos than they were of photographing the Taj. For some reason our guidebook stated that you should allow 1 hour for a visit, 5 hours later we walked back outside those imposing gates.
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It feels surreal now to look at the picture of me relaxing on a bench with the Taj Mahal reflected in my sunglasses. That's me! I was there!

And with that we commenced train journey # 2 from Agra to Jaipur.

Impossible to resist!

Dave in the rickshaw

Incredible India

2008-08-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

Delhi, India, 22-23 August 2008

We successfully navigated our way through customs, collected our bags and proceeded to look for our airport pick up guy (from the hotel we had booked and paid for on the internet). Guess what, no sign anywhere. This was the last thing that we needed, 10pm at night entering the mayhem of India for the first time. All we wanted to do was get to our hotel and sleep. To cut a long story short, we took a prepaid taxi into the city where a tourist office official alias local conman found us a hotel. He did ring (not) our original hotel but told us a fabricated story about them not being able to accommodate us. We really didn't care too much because what was certain is that they had not been at the airport to collect us, all we wanted was to secure a clean hotel room for the night. Toursit man found us another place at equal price (where no doubt he obtained a nice amount of commission).

The following morning we both had "sore heads". Word of advice, not the best condition to head out onto the streets of Delhi for the first time. We had no sooner stepped outside the door of our hotel when the barrage of tuk-tuks, rickshaws, beggars, agency touts and "helpful locals" descended upon us. They were tenacious, unrelenting and omnipresent (quote of the day from Claire). One driver in particular was aggressive, jumping out of his rickshaw and preventing us from passing him on the street. This was coupled with the dirt, squalor, filth and smell of the streets. People were urinating on the street, we had to pass piles of excrement and the flies were everywhere (we could not speak for fear of one flying into our mouths). It was a nightmare.

We visited a few local tourist offices to discuss our onward passage from Delhi. Given our experience it didn't take us long to figure out they were trying to rip us off. Then we made our was via the super crammed metro system to the train station to book them ourselves. The guidebook states that there is a special office for "International Tourists" but a local "plain clothes official" tried to convince us that it was no longer there and directed us to the new office. We thanked him politely but made our way to the other end of the station ignoring his advice. We noticed that he was still following us at a distance though. It was here that we saw a sign "Beware of touts who tell you the International Ticket Office has moved". Our helpful friend arrived as we were reading the sign he still contended that he was genuine. He even proceeded to follow us as we approached a uniformed staff who confirmed the office was still indeed at the train station. Only then did he accept he was beaten. In the ticket office we booked 5 train journeys to take us on the Golden Triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi before taking us north to Shimla in the foothills of the Himalayas.

During every monetary transaction without exception the locals tried to shortchange us and it became clear we would need to be on our guard ALL THE TIME. With our rain tickets in hand we proceeded to visit the Backpacker Ghetto of Pahar Ganj. Our guidebook stated "Pahar Ganj offers an instant immersion into the chaos into which India is capable, as stray cows & cycle rickshaw's tangle with a throng of pedestrians, hotel touts and salesmen hawking knock off handbags books and cheap clothes.

All we can say is that you really need to see & smell it to believe it! Life is cheap here and unless you keep your wits about you a driver will have no qualms about hitting you and he swerves to avoid a "sacred cow". And what are cows doing in the middle of a mega city anyway? Mayhem, absolute mayhem. By the way, footpaths are non-existent. And talk about rubbish, the city is nothing less than one large municipal dump. We reckon all 14 million of Delhi's residents just chuck their garbage on the street. We knew it would be chaotic but this goes beyond anything we could ever have imagined. And to think we though Bolivia was dirty, Bolivia was positively 1st world compared to this. Having well and truly reached sensory overload we retired to the safety & sanctity of or hotel room. Thankfully there was a good supermarket next to the hotel selling Cadbury chocolate, digestive biscuits, crisps and all manner of other comfort foods. We watched some TV, binged on junk food and were asleep in our bed by 7pm. "Welcome to Incredible India".

The following morning we took a deep breath and dared to face the outside world again. This time however we were feeling much stronger, the hangover was gone and we had a good nights sleep under our belts. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the train station which was actually a mistake. We had to hang around with all the oddballs waiting for our train to arrive. We had decided to pay the extra to take a taxi rather than a rickshaw to shelter us somewhat from the dirt & smell however that turned into a circus........ the roads were crazy and our driver crashed as he made the turn into the train station. Both himself and the fellow driver got out the cars and brandished fisty cuffs. It was all a bit scary and I (Claire) recalled the guidebook advice suggesting one should leave the scene as quickly as possible if involved in a car crash because it can turn nasty. We were in the middle of a busy road & had to wrestle our backpacks out the front seat before legging it across to the train station. Aghhh, the hits just keep on coming.

We were shocked by the condition of some of the trains. People were crammed in like cattle. There were bars over the windows where those lucky enough to arrive early could at least get some fresh air, and believe me they would want it... because the smell emanating form the carriages were nothing short of revolting. For our first train journey in India we were travelling 3AC, this was nothing fancy and certainly nothing like that we described above but at least it guaranteed us a seat in an air-conditioned carriage. We were sitting with an American and his Chinese girlfriend. He had spent one year working in India and had decided he would like to become a Buddhist monk. All he needed to do was give up meat, drop the girlfriend and quit smoking. The first two he admitted he would have no problem with but the cigarettes would be a real sticking point! Needless to say this confession was made when his girlfriend was at the toilet. Once she returned the two were like a pair of newlyweds again. Even the most pious of monks have to start somewhere, right? Three hours later we arrived in Agra where we checked into the Shanti Lodge and then caught our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal from the rooftop cafe.

The Cameron Highlands

2008-08-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12-13 & 19-21 August 2008

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, 14 -18 August 2008

Taking the long bus journey from LCC Airport into Kuala Lumpur (KL) we couldn't help but notice the huge improvement in infrastructure. Indonesia hadn't been that bad but KL was definitely 1st world. We might have considered travelling directly to India had it not been for one vital piece of paper.... a visa! The following morning we made our was to the Indian High Commission, we checked teh address on the internet and felt confident we had all the necessary documents. This was going to be a breeze. What we didn't count on was that for the past 18 month's the visa application office had been moved to a downtown location. Do you think that someone should have updated the website? Travelling has an ability to uncover societies incompetencies. With our visa application lodged, we walked a short distance to KL's most iconic landmark - The Petronas Towers. As it was now 10:30am we were too late to snag a couple of tickets to visit the sky bridge that links the two towers. No matter, we walked around viewing them from all angles before dipping inside to the extensive shopping mall. Having watched the construction of the towers on Discovery Channel it was great to finally see them for real. We then walked through Little India followed by Little China slowly making our way back to our hostel.

We were told the visa's would take a minimum of 5 working days......& that the day of submission didn't count and guess what....Friday was an Indian holiday so that didn't count either..... needless to say Saturday & Sunday didn't count so we had one week to occupy ourselves. We decided to leave KL and head for the Cameron Highlands. The following day we checked online and Claire's visa had been approved!!!

The bus we travelled on to the CH's had an advertisement on the front proclaiming that one should visit the highlands. On it was a picture of a Rafflesia. This is the largest flower in the world and while they are present in Borneo we didn't have the opportunity to see one. They only flower for a few days each year so it is a special experience to see one in full bloom. The following morning we were collected at 9am for our full day tour of the CH's. After taking our 4 wheel drive up the muddiest trail imaginable we commenced our 90 minute trek into the jungle in search of the elusive Rafflesia flower. We had two local Orang Asli (indigenous Malaysian) who apparently knew where there was one in bloom. After backtracking about three time sit became clear that they really didn't have a clue but credit where it is due - they persevered and eventually we came across the most beautiful of flowers. It was a great moment and made all the more special by the hardship of the jungle trek we had to endure to find it. On the was back we had to re-cross the rivers we encountered previously and Claire accidentaly plunged her boot into the rushing water. Doh. Then we stopped by a waterfall and we both got stung by a wasp! Double doh! On the way out our 4x4 got stuck in the mud, thankfully one 4x4 had got through just ahead of us so they were able to pull us out.

Later we visited a local village and the Orang Asli demonstrated how to use the blow pipe which they still use today. We then distributed some small gifts to the children. Claire decided against sweets and opted for copy books and pencils (we have visited several of villages on our travels where guides suggest we bring sweets and we find children with rotting teeth, they have no access to dental hygiene or care).

Picture Opposite: Orang Asli child with one of the notebooks and pencils

Next stop was the Boh tea plantation, founded by a Scotsman J.A. Russell. It was the first highland tea garden in Malaysia. It has a stunning setting nestled in the lush green hills of the CH's. We stopped for lunch, a factory tour and to sample some of their finest teas of course. Boh is one of only a few tea plantations in the world which plants, processes, packs and markets it's own premium brands.

Collecting the tea leaves

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As if we hadn't had enough excitement for one day we then made our way to the butterfly farm where let me tell you, butterflies are definitely not the main attraction. They have all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures for you to handle. Rhino horn beetles, stick insects, lizards, leaf insects, scorpions and oh yeh butterflies. I, Dave, had a rather large scorpion placed on my chest, and as he started to approach my groin I pleaded with the staff to remove it and it's intimidating stare.

The final stop of the day was at a Strawberry Farm. After about 5 minutes of hearing about the strawberry growing process we made our way to the shop to enjoy strawberry milkshakes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry jam. It was an excellent day out and made all the better by our witty and knowledgeable guide.

Nice views from the watch tower in Tanah Rata town.

We stayed 5 nights in the Cameron Highlands and spent the majority of the time simply enjoying the cooler climate. For a relatively small town it was a surprise, a pleasant one, to find a Starbucks occupying pride of place on the main street. So, put simply our routine was one of coffee slurping, draughts playing, movie watching, internet surfing, scones with jam & cream scoffing nirvana.

We headed back to KL on the Tuesday, 3 working days post visa application, and on Wednesday morning it was approved. Hurray! (Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for). We had met a nice couple Dan & Phi in CH's and we had travelled back to KL together. Early (7am) on the Wednesday morning we all made our way to the Petronas Towers in order to get tickets to visit the Sky Bridge on the 41st floor. The tickets are free but if you are not in the queue by 8am you can forget about your chances of getting one. We were in good time and while Dan & I waited in line the two ladies went and fetches some freshly brewed coffee. O'Briens no less! The Irish franchise is spreading it's wings. The coffee even came with a cinnamon shamrock on top. Because we had arrived early we were able to proceed directly to the Sky Bridge. Before ascending to the 41st floor however we were obliged to watch a movie extolling the virtues of the Petronas Petroleum Company. This reminded us a little of the advertisement they had played at Speights Brewery in Dunedin (NZ). But Speights had a catchier background tune. Without any further delay we made our way to the Sky Bridge and enjoyed the views it afforded over the city. One's gaze invariably came back to the majesty of the twin towers. When you hear a Malaysian referring to them as the "Twin Towers" it is impossible not to think of the tragedy in NYC. While the Petronas Towers are not the tallest buildings in the world they are the tallest twin towers. Once our 15 minute slot had expired we were escorted back to the elevator for our 40 second journey back to the ground. We bade adieu to Dan & Phi and the hopped on the Monorail to Times Square - a large shopping mall in the Golden Triangle area of town.

For our last day in KL, Claire's eagle eye had spotted that Le Meridian Hotel were doing a rather exquisite afternoon tea special. There were two options to choose from, aptly names "This" and "That". So we had "this and that". It was sheer indulgence. We each had about 12 hand crafted open sandwiches, pastries, tarts, miniature desserts, scones with jam & cream. We were full after 5 but persevered to polish off the lot. Tea and coffee were free flowing to wash it all down. And the bill, a mere 6 Euro each. Cheap at triple the price. And with that we said goodbye to South East Asia, we jumped on a bus to the very attractive and modern KLIA airport and boarded a Malaysia Airways flight bound for New Delhi India. To put into context what happened next one needs to remember that Malaysia is a Muslim state and consequently drinking alcohol is discouraged. One method to discourage is to make alcohol prohibitively expensive - even more pricey than Dublin establishments (that's when it is available on a menu). So, you can imagine our surprise when we discovered that all alcoholic drinks on the flight were included. Being so used to no frills airlines this concept was novel to us... so we proceeded to take full advantage. Needless to say by the time we arrived in Delhi we were both inebriated.

Bali

2008-08-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

Kuta, Bali (Indonesia), 4 - 5 August 2008
Ubud, Bali (Indonesia), 6 -11 August 2008

Offerings to the Hindu Gods are placed out on the streets early morning

Having spoken to Kelly & Mark about their adventures in Indonesia we decided to catch a cheap Air Asia flight from KK to Bali. Bali, the name conjured up images of endless white pristine sandy beaches flanked by rolling surf.... or at least it did for us. Getting in late we were glad to see our hotel rep waiting for us in "arrivals", wonders will never cease. We were staying near Kuta Beach and so after a good nights sleep we went out to see what all the fuss was about. First impressions were not good. All street vendors were going for the hard sell "Come in, Come in", "Good price for you"..... What really annoyed Claire was when they would physically grab her arm and try to lead her into their shop. Even the beach offered no escape. "Surfboards, surf lessons" and so on. It felt very tacky for us. Yarg, get me out of here. We decided to leave the following morning. At first we considered moving to one of the Gili Islands but transport was an issue (for the fast boat) and then we met people who told us they were swamped with drug-taking, lager drinking backpackers. Lousy backpackers. So we decided to backpack our way inland to Ubud instead. With our remaining hours in Kuta we escaped into the familiarity of a Starbucks before venturing into one of the many stores to purchase the obligatory copied DVD's. This purchase helped to psychologically justify our time at Kuta Beach.

We arrived in Ubud early afternoon and were met with a number of touts. We went with one of them and incredibly he brought us to a beautiful second storey en-suite room with a very private balcony in a modern building (family run). The price 8.50 Euro with breakfast served to you on your balcony. Maybe Indonesia wasn't so bad after all. Next we stumbled upon Kafe - serving all the stuff Claire loves.... "organic-wholewheat this", "freshly squeezed that". Things were definitely starting to look up.

The following day we hired a driver to take us to all the local sights, the first thing we noticed was just how sprawling the town of Ubud was. We thought we had seen most of it the previous day when in fact we hadn't even seen the main street! Ubud is the art capital of Bali and has a bohemian character with quirky art galleries, wood carving stores, jewellery makers and colourful clothing boutiques. We passed the day stopping at lush green rice terraces, ancient Hindu temples, foreboding volcanoes and yes we even managed to squeeze in a little shopping when we passed a vendor that looked like they had something a little bit different. We also spent time at a coffee plantation. Our interest was peaked by their LUWAK coffee. Luwak coffee is produced from beans that have been eaten off the coffee bush by cheeky mongoose type animals. Because they can only digest the outer fleshy parts surrounding the bean they excrete the remainder. This "remainder" is then found by the workers when harvesting in the coffee plantation. These beans are then processed as normal to produce a coffee with a distinctive caramel taste. It was pricey but we couldn't resist buying a jar. We passed a few more pleasant days in Ubud (with Claire clocking up 3 massages in 6 days) before calling it quits with Indonesia and jumping on a flight to Kuala Lumpur back to peninsular Malaysia.

Rice Fields

Offerings at the Temple

Batur Volcano

Wooden Artefacts making their way from Bali for Dara, Megan, Ellie, Katie, Eilidh & Orla

Survivor Island

2008-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Pulau Tiga, Borneo, 1-2 August 2008

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, 29-31 July & 3 August 2008

Sunset on Survivor Island

Back in KK we decided to check out 1Borneo - a huge hyper mall 5km outside of town. We took the courtesy bus and it stopped at all the swanky hotels in the hope of luring some big spenders out to the suburban shoppers Mecca. It didn't happen so 1Borneo turned out to be a very nice, very modern, very large and unfortunately very empty hyper mall. Imagine Heathrow Airport with no tourists, that's what 1Borneo was all about. Claire was delighted though, the cinema was showing amongst other things the Sex and the City movie! She had been ranting on about seeing this movie since the day our travels began so she was doing cartwheels with excitement.

The following morning we were collected at 7:30am for a 2 hour bus ride and 30 minute speed boat to our final destination - Pulau Tiga... otherwise known as Survivor Island. This island was the location for the original survivor reality TV program filmed in 2000. The island had a real castaway feel about it. Beautiful sandy beaches backed by dense unexploited jungle.

After a buffet lunch we struck off in search of the mud volcano. We had first experienced this phenomenon in north Colombia and so considered ourselves old hands. While the setting of this volcano wasn't as spectacular we did have it all to ourselves! Having wallowed in the mud for 30 minutes we then had the 1km walk back to the beach completely covered from head to toe in thick gloopy mud. People seemed at first shocked and then amused as these two "Bigfoot" type characters emerged from the jungle and plunged themselves into the warm waters of the South China sea. Then it was time to get down to the real business of life on a Paradise Island - rest and relaxation. For the next 2 days we mingled jungle exploration with R&R beach time. Other than a few pieces of memorabilia back in our clubhouse there was little to belie the islands recent past on the global stage when the Pagong Pagong tribe battled it out against the ....... other tribe who I cannot remember the name of. It was stunningly beautiful with few tourists so it was a pleasant end to our time in Borneo.

We recommend Borneo as a holiday destination, it has so much to offer. Hopefully the Malay government won't mess it up by allowing the continued destruction of the rain forest to make way for ever more rows of palm trees. Palm oil has become a major export for Borneo. Only time will tell.

South East Asia's Highest Peak

2008-07-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

Kinabalu National Park, Borneo, 26-28 July 2008

South East Asia's highest peak was calling out to us "climb me, climb me"..... she stands at a mere 13,435 feet high and is a popular hike. On a recommendation from fellow travellers we met in Vietnam we had booked to stay at the base camp accommodation (Laban Rata) before we even set foot in Borneo because it gets booked out during high season. Laban Rata is where you climb to on day 1 before making the early morning (2am) ascent to the summit for sunrise on day 2.

Conditions were perfect for our hike on day 1 and as we set off we had crystal clear views of the challenge that lay before us, yarg! We paired up with Kelly & Mark (a British couple we met previously) and along with our guide Rahila we struck off at 9:30am. At Park HQ we were provided with a hefty packed lunch along with a book of vouchers for our meals. While the trek was a steady climb there were plenty of shelters along the way where one could take repose. At about 11am clouds rolled in to obscure our views of the surrounding countryside. We were happy to reach Laban Rata at 2:00pm and after a hot shower (well....for some... unfortunately by the time Mark took a shower the well ran cold) and a wholesome feed we were all in good spirits and enjoyed the craic with Kelly, Mark, Holly & Adam. The cloud however did not roll on as expected but stuck around and the heavens opened. The weather in Borneo had been consistently good up until this point and whatever showers we had seen had passed quickly. This rain just got heavier and heavier. 2am, 3am, 4am.... still raining. Sunrise was no longer an option. At this stage we would be lucky if we got to summit at all. Back to bed to catch a few more Z's.

They started serving breakfast at 7:30am and it was at this stage we heard that the Park Warden had locked the gate to the summit trail for safety reasons. This was very disappointing as the rain had now stopped and the sun was even trying to make an appearance. After breakfast we determined to walk the 10 minutes uphill to the gate to see for ourselves that access was being denied. Even as we climbed other guides were coming down against us declaring that the gate was locked. We persevered and low and behold when we got to the gate.... it was locked. Surprise Surprise. But there was another group of people waiting who told us that the warden was opening the gate shortly and he did. Hurray! We all scurried through as quickly as we could before he had a change of mind. Once through the gate we knew we were going all the way to the summit. Panaromic views were not on the menu but we didn't care, this day was all about climbing a mountain. To reach the summit (Low's Peak) we had to pull ourselves up the steep granite via safety ropes - once we got there Dave and I couldn't help but do a celebratory dance. We then took photos, looked around at the non-existent views, paused in a moment of self satisfaction and started our descent to base camp.

We had about 90 minutes to relax in Laban Rata before Kelly, Mark and Rahila caught up and we all descended together from there. Every so often Rahila would lead us of on a little side path to view large and colourful carnivorous Pitcher Plants (see photo). The last 3km was the worst with everyones legs keen to see the bottom of this mighty granite behemoth. Ironically we were almost as happy to get to the bottom as we had been to get to the top.... almost. Then, as was always the case in these situations, the recovery process began. Good meal, warm shower, frosty beer, clean clothes and a lighthearted movie before an early bed. The following morning Dave couldn't resist wandering out on the balcony to check weather conditions, just as suspected - crystal clear views of the summit. The bad weather had just prevailed for that one day. We didn't mind though because for a moment we had been the highest people in South East Asia!

Reaching Laban Rata

Gate is now open!

Mark, Holly, Adam, Dave, Claire & Kelly (left to right)

Old Man of the Forest

2008-07-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Kinabatangan Nature Reserve, Borneo, 22-23 July 2008

Sepilok, Borneo, 24-25 July 2008

Vincent, back in KK, had booked us onto a 3 day/2 night tour to Kinabatangan Jungle. This is wild remote Borneo. We were scheduled to take boat safaris, night walks and day treks into the jungle. While we felt confident we'd see monkeys we were hoping to see some truly wild orangutans and if we were really lucky some Pygmy elephants. The first stop was a river Cruise and it wasn't long before we spotted some playful long tailed macaques. Further downstream we came across some Proboscis monkeys, these are really funny looking fellows - they have a huge belly and a big fat droopy red nose giving the impression that maybe they have been hitting the jungle juice a little too hard. Finally we had an orangutan pointed out to us but really it was little more than a brown amorphous shape in the foliage. For all we could see it might just as well have been a big leaf or some exotic fruit so it was difficult to get too excited. We didnt see much on the night safari other than a few sleeping birds and a couple of centipedes. The early morning boat trip bore even less fruit. but we felt confident that our 3 hour jungle safari would have us running to avoid Pygmy elephants while jumping over sleeping orangutans. We didn't see a thing, nothing/nada/ziltch. Not even a solitary monkey!

All was not lost however while on our afternoon river cruise we stopped to check out a croc in the river. What we didn't realise is that he was stopped to check out an orangutan at the waters edge. No, we didn't have one of those David Attenborough moments where the croc lunges from the water to snag the over confident great ape but what we did have was a close up encounter with this endangered species in the wild and everyone in the boat knew this was special. We walked along the ground in front of us and then swung up into a tree to gorge himself on ripened fruit. As is the orangutans were apologizing for their absence earlier in the day we quickly came across another one on the bank of the river. This guy was just as big but a little on the shy side. After swinging through a few branches he turned his back to us and became like the amorphous blob we had seen the previous day. We never did get to see Pygmy elephants although we did see a lot of their dung on the trail. We felt satisfied with the orangutan and proboscis monkey experience.

Orangutan means "old man of the forest" in Malay language

From Kinabatangan we took a short bus journey to Sepilok, home to Borneo's orangutan rehabilitation centre. No, this is not where misbehaving orangutans are sent to get them back on the straight and narrow. Rather it is where orphaned or displaced orangutans are brought to teach them natural survival skills before releasing them into the wild. The centre had a zoo feel, you are only allowed to enter during the two daily feed times. There is a large viewing deck set up in front of where the orangutans are fed. At the designated times these great apes swinging and fill up on free grub and then swing out again. We went to both feeding times and there were more orangutans present in the morning than in the afternoon. This fact helped us appreciate that Sepilok Orangutan Rehab Centre is not a zoo. It is a large jungle area where the orangutans accept food for a period of time as a stepping stone before becoming completely independent at which point they will no longer turn up for feeding time. "Orangutan sightings are not guaranteed" was clearly printed on our tickets and I guess if you don't spot them then SORC is doing a good job. It is a nice place to visit but these sightings do not compare with the excitement we felt on spotting the large male in the wild during our Kinabatangan trip.

Feeding time at Sepilok

Kinabatangan River

Jungle Bug

Diving in Sipidan

2008-07-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, 17-18 July 2008
Semporna, Borneo, 19-21 July 2008

Air Asia is to Asia what Ryan Air is to Europe - "a no-frills airline". We arrived in Kota Kinabalu (KK) at 9pm on a balmy Thursday night. We had pre-booked a hostel close to the airport providing a free pick-up but as always seemed to be our luck in these circumstances they were nowhere to be seen. A phone call later and they magically appeared to take us to their super dingy accommodation. We couldn't believe that the place had gotten good reviews on Hostleworld because it truly was a dump. The following morning we caught a bus down town and checked into the Tropicana Lodge. The owner, Vincent, is a local who speaks about 6 languages, chain smokes marijuana joints throughout the day and, for sustenance, is never without a can of Tiger beer in his hand. He is a good guy and spent a lot of time with us devising a suitable itinerary around Sabah (one of the 2 Malaysian regions of Borneo, the other being Sarawak) This is just what we needed as he knew all the bus times and connections to get so as not to waste any time and ensure we never had to double back on ourselves.

First stop Semporna for some scuba diving off the island of Sipidan. This is regarded as one of the worlds premier dive sites and so was a no-brainer for inclusion on our trip. In the Malay language "semporna" means "perfect"....and nothing could be further from the truth. The place is a dump, plain and simple. Thankfully we would not be spending too much time in the town. I, Dave, was booked in for two days of scuba diving while Claire signed up for a day of snorkeling. If it was as good as they say she would go for the second day also. With all this talk of Sipidan you might think it was a sizable island but in fact it is little more than a speck in the ocean. What makes it so special is the fact that it rises 600m from the ocean floor providing shallower waters for the growth of coral and associated marine life. There were 3 dives per day with a break on the island between each one. It didn't disappoint.

It wasn't long before huge sea turtles were gliding effortlessly past us. They were everywhere. For our last dive of the day we entered an underwater cave known as the "Turtle tomb". Turtles enter this cave, get disoriented, can't find their way out and...well. let's just say the name says it all - Turtle tomb. We only entered the mouth of the cave and so, thankfully, didn't get to see the turtle graveyard down the back. Claire, the "surface skimmer" had to work a little harder to see the turtles but pure determination drove her on. She eventually had some one-on-one time with 2 rather large specimens and one baby right off the beach of Sipidan. Day 1 over we headed back to Semporna on our super high powered speed boat. It was at this point that Claire started to feel the heat on the back of her legs. Normally ultra-careful, she had forgotten to apply sunscreen there and so burned herself pretty badly. She had also recently started on Deoxycycline for malaria prophylaxis and have heard that gives you a hyper-sensitivity to sunlight.

Consequently I was on my own for Day 2. I could have opted to dive off some of the other islands in the area (Mabul, Sabuan, etc) but with only two days at my disposal why would I bother. It was back to Sipidan for me. The other islands are for losers!! On Day 2 we encountered all the usual fishies, along with an octopus, lots of reef sharks and a huge school of jack fish. It felt amazing to be completely engulfed by a million of these little guys (they measure about 1 foot (30cm) long). Then, sadly, it was back to Semporna, purchase the obligatory "Sipidan Scuba" t-shirt and hop on a bus to Kinabitangan Nature Reserve.

Sipdan (view form the boat)

The town of Semporna!

The only attractive landmark in town was the Mosque

Fabu..Laos???

2008-07-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Luang Prabang, Laos, 8 - 11 July 2008
Vang Vieng, Laos, 12 - 13 July 2008
Vientiane, Laos, 14 - 16 July 2008

As we had arranged our Laos visa in Cambodia we were able to quickly breeze through immigration at Luang Prabang airport (LP from now on). Then we had a most surreal experience. We walked out of the airport doors to where all the tuk tuks drivers were waiting, but get this... not one approached us, in fact they completely ignored us. Then we noticed the desk where you purchase a tuk tuk ticket and then the next guy in line would show you to his vehicle and away you would go. All very civilised, all very strange. LP itself is a bit odd too. I guess by Laos standards it would be considered a city but it has a real small town feel. In a nutshell it has non-existent street lighting, a large concentration of Buddhist monks (or judging by their ages novice monks), different style tuk tuks (why are the tuk tuks in Thailand different from the tuk tuks in Cambodia and the tuk tuks in Laos different again? Vietnam doesn't have tuk tuks but that's a different story again), an attractive night market, and a town that is coming to terms with it's new found tourist industry. We spent our first day simply wandering the streets, but we did take time out to book a trekking/kayaking tour for the following day. The attraction for a lot of people coming to Laos is the calmer more relaxed atmosphere and this is the case however we just weren't sure yet whether it was selling anything else that would justify its claims as a premier holiday destination. LP was nice but no more so than a hundred other places we had visited.

The following morning the rain was coming down so we decided to postpone our trek and opted to take a long-boat journey up the Mekong River to the Puk Ou caves instead. While the boat journey was quite nice, the caves were a disappointment. Their selling point is that there are lots of little Buddha ornaments inside that have been deposited by the devoted followers of Buddhism for hundreds of years. The truth is it looks like someones overly cluttered mantelpiece!! Then there were all the young children that wanted to sell you a small caged bird that you could set free for $1. "Hmm, so that you you can catch it again and sell it to the next punter that comes along.... I think not".

The following morning weather conditions had improved so we made our way to the tour agency where Claire just had time to check her email before we were bundled into a mini van and away we went. There were only three of us (Claire, myself and Lee - our guide) on the trail, and as seems to be our luck, it was exceedingly muddy. One of our first stops was at a village where three different tribal communities lived together. This place felt much more natural and harmonious than the "Union of Tribal Villages" we had visited in northern Thailand. As we rounded one of the village huts we came across a black aggressive dog foaming at the mouth. The animal was clearly rabid and didn't like us entering his territory. Thankfully we were able to back away without the dog advancing on us. Lee told us afterwards that rabies is a real problem in Laos. So, happy that we didn't have to test the efficiency of the Laos emergency response to a bite for a rabid animal, we left the village. I wouldn't have fancied our chances.
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Our trek continued up into the hills and Paddy fields for another 90 minutes before we arrived at another tribal village. We stopped here for lunch and engaged the local children in some playful chatter. Claire decided to buy them a treat from the village store....and that's when disaster struck. Where was her purse? Then she remembered she had left it beside the PC that morning when she checked her email. About 4 hours had passed and when Lee rang the office there was no sign of it. Someone had obviously come in to use the internet and swiped an easy target. B******ds. We continued the remainder of our trip which consisted of a little more trekking, a short kayak to an impressive waterfall and finally a 2 hour kayak downstream to our end point. Needless to say it was difficult to enjoy any of it knowing that some scumbag was walking around with our money.

Back in the office we performed a thorough search but to no avail. A trip to the "Tourist Police" Office gave no reprieve from the pain as they were little more than children who found Claire's reporting of the incident all very amusing. The ring leader tried to explain that they weren't really the tourist police while still attempting to watch the TV with on eye. Claire, getting a little bit "crazed" went over and started pulling cables, sockets out of the wall until the TV fell silent. Still finding it all amusing the main man re-states that we needed to go to the "real" Tourist Police. They however closed at 5pm and it was now 5:15pm. Well, they were closed obviously. We were booked on the early morning bus out of town & decided against postponing our exodus in order to amuse the "real" tourist police.

Van Vieng has become, thanks to the Lonley Planet, a must stop of point between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Young backpackers seem to love this place. Personally we mourned the demise of the town that must have existed before LP marked it for superstardom. Now, it is little more than a soul-less string of budget accommodation and something else most unusual... some genius had the idea of setting their restaurant up in such a way that the customers sit as though sitting up in bed with a low table across their waist and pillow supporting the back. Then the piece-de-resistance, they had TV's at the front showing nothing but back to back episodes of friends all day long.... and every other restaurant in town copied them! One place had just started showing Family Guy so maybe there is hope for the town yet. But what is there to see and do, what is the draw for V V?

It would appear that the town is blessed with more than it's fair share of geniuses, another bright spark got the idea of renting out inflated tractor tubes to enable customer to float downstream on the Nam Song river. Then as though a genius convention was taking place bars started springing up along the riverside where "tubers" could stop off for a whisky bucket whilst on their journey downstream. We met quite a few people who had partaken in the aforementioned activity and came a cropper. One girl had gashed her leg and needed to go to hospital and another had banged her head and could not recall the last 30 mins of her experience. And the stories went on. Claire, in her wisdom, decided to abstain. I was to go down with a couple we had first met in Vietnam (Sophie and Graham) however both had to pull out. Graham because he had pulled a muscle in his abdomen on his first outing and Sophie because she had a cut on her leg during her first outing and it was infected. Hmm, this did not bode well. I got talking with 3 Irish girls during the tuk tuk ride to the drop off point so we all hit the water together. After floating 100 yards we arrived at the first pub. Staff were employed to throw out sticks on rope for you to catch onto and be dragged into shore. So far so good. We each sank a bottle of Laos beer (which is pretty rough). For entertainment purposes, in case the booze wasn't enough, the bars have set up high trapeze-like swings for you to swing out over the river and plunge from a height into the murky brown water of the Nam Song below. Belly and face flops were the order of the day. At Bar # 2 and 3 we were intrigued to see unoccupied tubes floating past, then we saw tubeless swimmer #1 fighting for her life. She was pulled into safety but was clearly shook by the ordeal. We later met a girl who had her leg cut on an underwater rope. She had one persno trying to keep her head above water while another pleaded with the locals for a knife with which to cut the rope, apparently by Laos standards ropes are pricey and so none were too keen to see one cut just to save the life of a careless tuber. They relented and the girl was glad to be able to tell the tale. A funny thing then happened to our band of 4, the next bar required you to make your own way into shore and while 3 of us made it one floated on by. Not wanting her to be on her own, and assuming there would be endless bars on the riverbanks, we got back in the water. After 20 mins and no additional bars we arrived at the finish point in V V. Trip over. All in all it's a sociable day out and if you keep your wits about you there is no reason to come to any harm. The problem is that a lot of the young ones are irresponsible with alcohol.

Claire loathed the town of Vang Vieng and was adamant that we catch the first bus out of town the following morning.

Vientiane was lauded as the most laid back capital city in the world and it certainly lived up to it's reputation. It was sleepy, very sleepy. It was strange to stand on it's main street during what should have been rush hour and witness so very little going on. It has much more of a small town feel than that of a capital city. We decided to treat ourselves for our last few days in Laos and checked into a fancy hotel with all the trimmings. There isn't very much to do in Vientiane so consequently we didn't do very much. We walked along Lan Xang Street, Vientiane's answer to the Champs Elysee to Patuxai, Vientiane's answer to the Arc de Triumphe. It was constructed in 1969 with cement donated bu the USA for construction for a new airport. Hence, ex-pats refer to it as the vertical runway. Fro here we took a tuk tuk further out to Pha That Luang, Laos most important National Monument. It is a temple and also home to the supreme Patriach of Laos Buddhism. It came as a surprise that here was the country's most important monument located in the capital city and we saw maybe 20 other people in all the time we were there (including a novice monk who wanted to have his photo taken with Claire).

Other than that we just mouched around town and enjoyed the comforts of our hotel room before catching a flight to Sabah in Malaysian Borneo.

Candle glowing in Puk Ou Cave

The notice (#6) in our hotel room informed us that "under Laos government you have to go to bed at 11pm"

the "ladies room"

We hear that safety standards are questionable

The Mountains of Sapa

2008-07-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

Sapa, Vietnam, 2 - 6 July 2008

In Sapa Claire stayed with the bags while I went in search of suitable digs. Everywhere I went prices ranged from $5 - $10, and yes, the price was a reflection on the quality. Was there anything a bit more upmarket in this town? We settled for the best of a bad lot, but later met the French-Canadian couple who put us on to the Sapa Summit Hotel. This was a proper comfortable 3 star hotel...and our room was still only $10. Best value room to date - no contest.

We laid low for a couple of days enjoying the cooler climate of this former mountain outpost. We were promised there were amazing views down the valley but for now low cloud and rain completely obscured what hope we had of seeing it. We didn't mind though as there was a serious blog backlog to catch up on.

By day 3 the weather was good enough to take a most enjoyable walk down to Catcat village and its associated waterfall. Finally we got to see the sweeping views and were suitably impressed.

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The next day the weather was even better so we took the even longer walk out to Sin Chai village. This was an incredible walk and we were lucky enough to be the only barangs (foreigners) on it. When we arrived at the village we couldn't believe the number of young children who were busy playing games, swinging from tree's and everything else young children should be getting up to. It was a joy to behold, they were so happy and so full of life. Sapa, and the surrounding area, is full of men trying to sell you trips on the back of their moto's and today they must have thought they had a fare in the bag. It was after 6pm when we left the village and they kept telling us we wouldn't make it back to Sapa before dark. Under different circumstances we would have taken them up on their offer but we didn't want this beautiful and isolated walk to come to an end. We got back with time to spare.

For our last day in Sapa we took a trip to the Dragon's Jaw. This is a conservation area and the highlight, literally, is a look-out (Cloud-Yard) perched high up on a hill with commanding views of the surrounding countryside.

And then it was time to go. We knew we wanted to get to Luang Prabang in Laos but our options were limited. Take the train back to Hanoi and fly or take a 4 day, death defying bus journey through a newly opened border crossing (Tay Trang) in N.W. Vietnam. We chose to fly.

Dao Tribe wear red-headress

Whistlestop Hanoi

2008-07-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

Overnight Train from Hanoi to Sapa, Vietnam, 1 July 2008

About half an hour outside of Hanoi, on route back from Halong Bay, it started to rain but perhaps rain is the wrong word. If drizzle is the word for light rain, what is the word for absolutely bucketing out of the heavens? By the time we got to the Old Quarter we had to step off the bus and into water that came almost to our knee's!! At the office where we were storing our luggage the water was pouring in through the doors covering the entire floor, right to the back, in about 6 inches of water. We were catching the train to Sapa that evening so we only had time for one more tourist stop - The Water Puppet Show (how appropriate). The show was scheduled to run for about an hour but after only 20 minutes we had had enough and left. The music was bad, the singing was worse and the puppetry itself was entertaining for about, oh let's see, 20 minutes. Very miss-able.

The train to Sapa was very comfortable. We had a sleeper cabin for 4 people which we shared with a French-Canadian couple. We decided to splash out and go business class, which was an extra $2 on this 8 hour train ride. It was the most comfortable journey we have taken to date.

Halong Bay

2008-06-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hanoi, Vietnam, 29 June 2008
Halong Bay, Vietnam, 30 June 2008

Having learnt our lessons in Phnom Penh and Saigon we were determined not to get bogged down in Hanoi for any longer than was absolutely necessary. First stop - Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The guy had asked to be cremated but against his wishes he lies here in a glass case while millions (and I mean millions) of people file past. I doubt he is going to do anything about it at this stage. We were agog at the number of people here, it really was astounding. Then there is the argument "is he real or was Madam Tussuad's given a covert operation?" Either way, it is a must do (I guess) if passing through Hanoi. Next we set about booking a trip to Halong Bay...leaving tomorrow preferably. We opted for a 2 day/1 night trip. You could pay as little as 30 dollars but we had heard a few horror stories concerning the lower end options so we plumped for a bit more comfort and that's precisely what we got. We checked out of our dingy little hotel in Hanoi the following morning and were met by our bright and cheerful guide Son. His English was good and it didn't take us long to feel we had made a good choice.

We had a good sized double cabin on board the Phoenix Cruiser with an en-suite, 2 large windows and our own private deck chair/lounging area out front. But whatever the boat was like it soon paled in comparison to the majestic beauty of Halong Bay. As I sat on the front of the boat i thought "how are we going to describe the beauty of this place in words?" Then I read the Lonely Planets description and that seemed to capture it nicely. "Majestic and mysterious, inspiring and imperious, words alone cannot do justice to the natural wonder that is Halong Bay where 3000 or more incredible islands rise from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Halong Bay is pure art, a priceless collection of unfinished sculptures hewn from the hand of nature". It felt like a land before time. If living dinosaurs were to be found anywhere they would be found here.

We spent our first day exploring caves, kayaking to secret lagoons and jumping off the boat into the warm, Gulf of Tonkin, waters. The second day we spent entirely on the boat meandering our way slowly and silently through the waters of Halong Bay before, alas, arriving at the pier in Halong town and our awaiting shuttle bus back to Hanoi. We had thought that Halong Bay would be to water what Saigon is to roads - traffic mayhem, but that wasn't the case. Sure, where we moored for the night there were plenty of boats but as we were sailing we only passed a handful of other vessels. I won't go on but will finish by saying that Halong Bay should be a "must-visit" on everyone's itinerary.

Floating Houses in Halong

All the way to Hue

2008-06-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hue, Vietnam, 27 June 2008

Overnight bus from Hue to Hanoi, 28 June 2008

Then it was on to Hue, a short (4 hour) bus journey up the road. This was nothing more than a stop-off point for us on our way to Hanoi. Many people visit the demilitarised Zone (DMZ) from here but it is a long way out (approx 100km) and we just weren't interested enough. We contented ourselves with a cyclo ride around town followed by a tour of the huge sprawling citadel. Our cyclo driver stopped at part of the old citidel wall that had been modified by the American's during the war & talked of the history with charming use of English expletives.

All very interesting but we were happy to catch the night bus on to Hanoi after spending one day in town.

Like shooting fish in a barrel

Fish Pond in the Citadel

The National Flag is more prevalent in North Vietnam

Hoi An

2008-06-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hoi An, Vietnam, 22 - 26 June 2008

Overnight Bus from Hoi An to Hue, 27 June 2008

Hoi An is a quaint & attractive town lilluminated by colourful lanterns by night. It was an international trading port as far back as the 17th century & influences from Chinese, Japanese & European culture are well preserved in the local architecture & art. It is a nice place to lay low for a few days, so that's exactly what we decided to do.

Hoi An is also the place to go if you want to get some custom clothes made. You simply would not believe the number of tailoring stores in this town. Fortunately we got talking to an American couple who'd been here a few times. They had learned the hard way that the quality can be frustratingly variable but finally they had found Ya Ly. Ya Ly is quite possibly the worst kept secret in Hoi An, everybody goes there... and rightly so, they are excellent. We started off slow just getting a few small pieces made but once Claire saw how good the quality & attention to detail was she went off the rails completely. I couldn't blame her though, I was getting custom fitted cotton shirts for $15. Madness.

As it was Claire's birthday we went out for a fancy meal that evening. Once we had ordered Claire went to powder her nose. Excellent, just enough time for me to run up to the waitress, give her a couple of candles, order an appropriate dessert and get back to my seat. A few minutes later the waitress came to our table with the menu and told me there was no more Tiger beer, which I had ordered, but she handed me the menu open on the dessert page. Realising what she was telling me, I pointed to the chocolate biscuit cake declaring that I would have a Fosters instead. It all went like clockwork from there. After our meal, which was excellent, we relaxed for a few minutes before Claire stated she would like to see the dessert menu. I asked the waitress to see the menu, wink wink, and moments later Claire's birthday cake arrived. She was completely surprised and couldn't figure out when I could have organised this. We sang Happy Birthday as she blew out the candles and it was a great end to what had been a great day in Hoi An.

As we planned to stay here a few days I, Dave, decided this would be a good time/place to do the advances open water SCUBA course. I booked with Cham Divers, I would be 1:1 with master diver Alex from England. My two days out on the water were really great. Each day there were about 15 people on board and it was a real social affair. Over the two days we did 5 different dives each designed to build on topics that were first introduced during the open water course. Each day we had lunch on Cham Island followed by chill out time on the beach before taking the slow lazy boat ride back to Hoi An.

We had seen posters around town declaring that something Miss Universe related was taking place on 25th June. Sure enough, all the contestants were to be paraded through the streets on cyclos (bike with a seat for one person at the front - see picture). This was clearly an event not to be missed, what luck. We reserved a balcony seat in a nice restaurant & waited with anticipation as the excitement grew. About 8pm the beautiful ladies started coming through. And what an excellent spot we had for viewing the affair. Normal street lighting is very poor so additional floodlights had been arranged. Everything was going well until the first ladies decided to leave the cyclos and walk, then the floodlights blew and everything was in almost complete darkness then the gaps between the contestants became so great that you constantly thought it was all over before a few more forgotten souls would march through and finally, as though to add insult to injury.. the heaven opened for the first time in days and it poured down. Now that's entertainment you just cannot buy.

Meanwhile back at Ya Ly all our tailored clothes were ready and they looked great. We deliberated whether to send home by sea or air but in the end Claire's nerves could never have survives 3-4 months of waiting to hear they had arrived home ok.

I met this charming old man when I was out for a stroll when Dave was diving, he offered to take me a ride in his boat. What a gentleman!

We took an early morning (5am) trip to My Son, the home to Cham ruins.

Nha Trang - the Costa del Sol of Vietnam

2008-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Nha Trang, Vietnam, 20 June 2008
Overnight bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An, 21 June 2008

The first thing that struck us as we entered town was the many posters advertising Miss Universe 2008. Now we understood what Peter was trying to tell us when he said... "the model ladies are visiting Vietnam". That's right folks this years pageant will be held right here in Vietnams equivalent of the Costa del Sol and compered by the rather kitsch combination of Jerry Springer & Mel B. To Dave's chagrin the finale wasn't due to take place for another few weeks, doh!

Nha Trang is a beach side town with a very long promenade for romantic strolls. Looking out across the crystal clear water of the South China Sea the time seemed right to re-don the Scuba gear and see what there was to see, see, see at the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea. The following morning, 6;30am, we met at Rainbow Divers HQ before catching a slow boat out to the islands.

Claire, the non-swimmer, spent the morning snorkeling on her own - she is becoming more confident in the water. Meanwhile I did 2 dives and enjoyed being back under the water. The water was warm and the scenery was great. Lot's of coral coupled with an unending variety of fishes. Having not seen any clownfish/nemos when we were at the Great Barrier Reef it was a delight to see the little fellas here tenaciously defending their patch. Claire didn't see any snorkeling so don't mention teh war!

Back in Nha Trang we spent the remainder of the day socialising with a nice English couple, we met on the boat, before catching the night bus to Hoi An.

Central Highlands: Dalat

2008-06-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Dalat, Vietnam, 18 - 19 June 2008

In Saigon we hit a psychological low point. After the dirt of Phnom Penh, the chaos of Saigon and the inability of a global icon like the Mekong Delta t impress we wondered if perhaps we'd had enough of South East Asia. But then we collected & posted our Boteros then caught the first bus out of town & up into the hills of Dalat (guidebook says it is popular with Vietnamese honeymooners). The scenery was once again inspiring and the heat a little less oppressive. We determines to speed up the pace of our travels and endeavour not to get bogged down in a dump like the aforementioned cities again. "Are you listening Hanoi, get ready for a whistle stop".

In addition to it's beautiful scenery, Dalat is also famous for it's "Easy Riders". This is a group of motorcyclists who hang around town trying to sell you a tour of the area by uttering their immortal catchphrase "I am Easy Rider". I (Claire) was not keen to spend the day on the back of a maniacs bike so we chartered our own private minibus. Our guide, Peter, accosted us at the ATM machine and we were almost blown away by his standard of English. It transpires he lived in Canada, for 5 years, with his Scottish girlfriend before caught by the authorities and given a free flight back to Vietnam. We passed a very pleasant day together visiting a minority village, waterfall, temple, rose garden, coffee plantation, silk worm factory and finally the Crazy House with it's Alice in Wonderland architecture.

True to our word the next morning we left Dalat and caught the bus to Nha Trang.

A handful of silkworms

Silk Worm Cocoons

Mekong Delta

2008-06-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

We took a daytrip from Saigon to the Mekong Delta, the region is hailed as the Rice Bowl of the country. We had romantic visions of blankets of green paddy fields tended by Vietnamese ladies in conical hat all living a slower pace of life. However, truth be told we were not hugely impressed. Another boat trip, more floating markets, terrible lunch including a cringe worthy traditional folk performance coupled with a tour guide speaking indecipherable "English". It did rain too so that didn't help.

Life on the Mekong Delta

We went to a small family workshop where they made coconut candies, rice cakes & rice paper. The picture to the left shows the steaming of the rice paper.

Lotus Flower

Ho Chi Minh or Saigon?

2008-06-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Saigon, Vietnam, 13-17 June 2008

Having initially thought we'd head north to Laos we had a last minute change of plan & caught the bus to Ho Chi Minh instead. If there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing there must be at least 9 million motos in Saigon. Coupled with this is that there are very few pedestrian crossings. Consequently crossing the road is an art form all in itself. Briefly, find a small gap and step into it. Now that you are on the road head slowly to the other side, don't worry about the torrent of motos, they will avoid you... hopefully. Many of the roads are incredibly wide and words don't do justice to the number of motos that will have whizzed past you before you reach the other side (hoping that you do reach the other side). People who complain about the traffic in Bangkok have not had a look-in until they have played chicken on a Ho Chi Minh road.

Then there is the question of what to call the city. Officially it is now Ho Chi Minh since re-unification after but everyone still calls it Saigon especially the Vietnamese. So let's do the same.

We took a trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels. This tunnel network facilitated Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30 kms from Saigon. It is a fascinating place to visit. You get the opportunity to wriggle through one of the expertly disguised entrances and travel through 100 metres of tunnel. It is mind boggling to think people lived down here for weeks on end coming out only at night. We saw all the raps the Viet Cong set to maim/slash or impale the advancing Americans. Pretty gruesome. Next we had the opportunity to shoot our weapon of choice , "what will it be today then Sir? AK47, M16? Or would Sir prefer something with a bit more oomph?" We chose to abstain from this bad taste form of escapism tourism. Finally the tour ended with a rather odd, somewhat bizarre, very old & rather biased documentary about the war showcasing the Viet Cong's greatest "American Killers". Propaganda aside it was an informative day out.

We also visited the War Memorial Museum, Notre-Dame Basilica, the Opera House & we must give mention to the Post Office (see picture opposite) ... the building was constructed, of Gothic architecture style, by the French colonists in early 20th century during French Indochina . It is worth a visit.

While wandering around the backpacker area (Pham Ngu Lao) of Saigon we came across plenty of art stores selling replicas of famous paintings. Once Claire had spotted a few by Fernando Botero that was it, she had to have them. Botero is a Colombian artist with a very quirky style, all his characters & still life have an over sized appearance. We saw his work for the first time in Bogota (see Botero - What an Artist blog entry) and enjoyed it immensely. We were able to find one off the shelf but the other 3 painting we wanted would need to be prepared fresh. This, needless to say, would take a few days and as much as we didn't want to stick around any longer than necessary we couldn't bear to leave without our beloved paintings.

Phnom Penh - Capital of Cambodia

2008-06-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 9 - 12 June 2008

From Siem Reap we travelled south to the capital Phnom Penh. We took the front seats upstairs on the bus but within 15 minutes Claire had moved to a seat near the back. Her theory: "it's one thing to think that your driver is a lunatic, it's another thing to have all doubt removed.... on a continuous basis for 6 hours". First impressions of Phnom Penh were not good. The city is very very dirty. There is rubbish everywhere and you cannot walk on the footpath for more than 10 yards because it is completely clogged with stalls, cars, motos, cyclos, tuk tuks and of course rubbish. And man o man were the tuk tuk drivers tenacious? You have no idea. Every time we set foot outside our hotel/restaurant etc there was a swarm of them ready to pounce. Now we know what it must feel like to be a celeb beating off the paparazzi.

Under normal circumstances we would have simply rolled in & out (on the same day preferably) but we had business to attend to in Phnom Penh. Having heard on our travels that the Chinese had made it more difficult to obtain travel visa's on the run up to the Olympics we decided to make the Chinese Embassy our first port of call. Sure enough, because we were on a tourist visa in Cambodia we were not eligible for a Chinese visa. The guy recommended we return to our home country and make an application from there. "Ok, thank you, that is most helpful..." Next stop, the Laos Embassy. Thankfully there were no issues here followed by the Vietnamese Embassy which went equally smoothly.

While waiting on our visas to process we took a trip out to the Killing Fields. This is where, during the time of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79), thousands of people were brought and killed. An air of gloom resides over this surprisingly small site. Even after 30 years you can still see pieces of bone and clothing protruding from the ground as you walked the short circuit. They, the Cambodian government, which incidentally is still run by an ex-KR man have done very little with the area other than to build a large glass tower. The multi level tower is filled with the unearthed skulls, bones & clothing of the victims that were buried here. As if to get all the gloom out of the way in one day we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum where many of the victims were first tortured before being dispatched to the killing fields. These are very sad places indeed and it is made all the more disturbing when you think about how recent the events were. Very sad, very sad.

Footnote on Cambodia:
Of all the countries we have visited it is here that is pulling at my (Claire's) heart strings the strongest. Cambodia is a country that is struggling socially & economically following years of political experimentation, civil war & continued corruption. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime left it's legacy with over 2 million deaths (from disease, malnutrition, torture) during their failed ideal. They executed anyone intelligent (Dr's, teachers, lawyers etc) or anyone perceived as being an intellectual (wearing glasses), artists, dancers, young & old. They were ruthless and a visit to the Killing Fields & the Genocide museum brings home the harsh reality of this countries harrowing past. What a mess. Landmines are still present in abundance in the countryside and many adults are HIV positive as a result of rape during the KR rule. Maternal mortality is very high while many die from malaria/ dengue fever/TB.

On a positive note there are many people who care. A Swiss Dr set up several children's hospitals that operates primarily from private donations. NGO's have invested in non-profit or ethical profit operations creating sustainable social impact through high quality training & access to employment eg:
you can dine at a restaurant where food is prepared by former street children
have a massage by a blind masseuse
buy handicrafts prepared by landmine victims

Floating Villages of Siem Reap

2008-06-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia, 31 May - 8 June 2008

Following our trips to the temples our next excursion out of town was to the Tonle Sap lake. We asked Chantha to take us to the less visited Kompong Phhluk village. Little did we know the adventure we would have to undertake to get there! After 30 minutes on a paved road then 10 minutes on a bumpy mud road the tuk tuk finally came to a stop. At this point, during the wet season, you can simply take a boat out onto the lake. But the wet season had not yet arrived, Chantha unhitched the tuk tuk. Another guy turned up with a moto (motorbike). With me (Dave) on the back of Chantha's bike and Claire on the back of Mr New's bike we travelled another 10km on a severely bumpy dirt track. This felt like "real" independent travelling. We finally rolled into what was like a surreal wild west town. It had the obligatory dusty road running through the middle and all the houses were constructed from the stereotypical well worn wood.... the only difference was that these houses were 20 feet up in the air. That's right all the houses were supported on long wooden stilts that wood keep them safe from the Tonle Sap's annual expansion. From here we took a boat out on the lake. Even at this, the end of the dry season it stretched off as far as the eye could see in every direction.

On our way out onto the lake we passed mangrove forests that, before too long would find themselves completely submerged beneath the surface of the mighty Tonle Sap. I would love to say we were the only tourists this town had seen in years but I said Kompong Phhluk was less visited not unvisited. There were many children & we went inside the local school (see children opposite). There were few other farangs/fabangs/gringos/whities whatever you want to call us... but not many. We counted our blessings as we got back on the motos that it hadn't rained. the road would have been impassable. Once back safely in the comfort of the tuk tuk Chantha headed back towards town. As always he couldn't resist throwing in a few extra stops....

First he swung into the courtyard of a working Buddhist temple then he stopped outside Bakong, a 5 tiered pyramid temple.It is part of the Roluos Group - the very first site of the Khmer civilisation and the inspiration for many of the temples that followed. As our pass had expired we could only admire from outside. I think we had psychologically moved on from the admiration of temples anyway and so were happy to head on back to town.

That evening we went to Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital where every Saturday the Swiss hospital founder/director, Dr Beat Richner, plays works for cello by Bach along with some of his own compositions. He told us of his efforts to provide free health care to every child in Cambodia. He was a medical Dr working here in the mid 70's before he was forced to leave when the Khmer Rouge took power. This amazing man has opened 5 hospitals in the past 15 years in Cambodia. We made a monetary contribution and the next day Claire contributed 350mls of blood. They need blood that is free from Hep B & HIV as many children need transfusions as a result of dengue fever with underlying TB. Cambodia has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in SE Asia.

Below: Chantha wearing traditional Khmer checked scarf called the "krama"

Chantha dropped us back at our hotel for the last time. He had been so good to us all week.....bringing us warm bread at 5am, introducing us to such delicacies as baked bananas, jack fruit, deep fried grasshoppers and the myriad of "other" foods for which he would accept no compensation. We bought him a t-shirt at the landmine museum but it was a fight to get him to accept it, and in the end he would not accept our $20 tip either. Claire was exasperated trying to force it on him but he humbly told us to donate it to charity. What a guy.
Apsara Show Traditional Khmer Dance Performance:
We felt like VIP's because there were long rectangular tables leading all the way to the stage (a buffet meal was included) and there was one circular table for two people right at the front at the side of the stage. Yep, that was for us! The performance only lasted 1 hour but it was a quality show. It was like a play in that the dances depicted farming & fishing traditions not to mention a liberal sprinkling of courting traditions.

Jack fruit: a relative of durian

Blue Pumpkin, quickly became a favourite for breakfast. Comfy sofas & free WFI not to mention fab food.

Another cafe of choice for us was the Singing Tree Cafe, a not for profit cafe which offers training/employment to disadvantaged youths. The food was fantastic & the service first class.
http://www.singingtreecafe.com/

Roadside treats: grasshoppers

Temples of Angkor

2008-06-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia, 31 May - 8 June 2008

Monk posing for a photo at The Bayon temple

Not sure what the visa application process would be like in Siem Reap we were pleasantly surprised to find it was fast and efficient. The officials are only interested in collecting your $20 and sending you on your way. Ideal. Why one needs a visa is another argument entirely but we won't get into that. Hard to believe but there was a real Vegas feel as we tuk tuked our way into town. Night had fallen and the road was lined with huge, brightly lit luxury hotels. You were snapped back to reality once you looked at what was outside the hotel boundaries. Dirt roads, food vendors and an ocean of underpowered motos. Chantha (our tuk tuk driver) tried his best to convince us to visit the temples the following day (in his tuk tuk of course) but we put the foot down. As we were not on a short holiday we could afford to "waste" a day simply wandering around Siem Reap getting our bearings and deciding on a plan.

We bumped into Chantha "by chance" outside our hotel and we organised to spend the day visiting the Silk Farm and taking in a sunset at the temples of Angkor. I, Dave, had occasionally pondered how the whole silk worm thing works. Was the "farm" we were about to visit set up like a little milking parlor for worms. Needless to say it is all straightforward and shattered many of my ludicrous ideas. There is a metamorphosis step in the worms lifecycle where it changes from a worm into a moth. The worm forms a cocoon around it's body and it is the unravelling of these cocoons into single threads that gives the farmer his silk. Simple really.

We had deliberated over whether to get 1 day, 3 day or 1 week pass for the temples. Would we be temples out at the end of Day 1? We decided to give this global icon it's fair due and opted for the 3 day ticket ($40 each). You can buy the ticket the day before and are allowed to visit the temples that evening between 4:30pm and closure (6pm). People take advantage of this to sneak in an extra sunset at the temples and so we did too. On Chantha's recommendation we headed for Phnom Bakheng. En route we passed the beautiful moated Angkor Wat and our excitement levels rose at the prospect of spending the next few days amongst these ancient wonders. The sunset was a non event but we were happy to get up close and personal with our first site in the park.

Feeling adventurous or maybe just plain crazy we decided to do sunrise the next morning. Having not worked for over 1 year and consequently not having had a need to get up too early we found this whole experience excruciatingly painful (alarm set for 4:30am). The sunrise as we had envisioned it didn't really happen either, the day simply got bright with no sign of the sun anywhere. Most people with limited time do either the grand circuit or small circuit in a day which takes them to all the major sites. I think Chantha was surprised when, after visiting Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, we asked him to drop us back at our hotel. We had been out for about 5 hours at that stage and it was still only 10am. More sleep was needed. We met him again at 3pm feeling much better, amazing what some Zzz's and good food can do for you. Next stop was Ta Prohm. This is the temple immortalised by the movie Tomb Raider where the huge roots of trees hang down over the ruins and give them the appearance of being engulfed by nature. Very picturesque indeed (see photo above). Afterwards we tuk tuked west to Pre Rup in a second effort to catch an amazing sunset. Again it didn't happen but it was most agreeable to sit on the highest point and have frosty beers delivered to us as we watched the light fade over Cambodia.

Day 2 of our pass and we took the long trip (37km) to Banteay Srey. Sunrise wasn't even a consideration. As if to make up for the diminutive size of this site, every square inch is covered in carvings of the finest detail and artistry. On our way back to town we visited the landmine museum, a real wake up call to this country's grim past. A landmines function was not to kill but rather to maim. The reason for this is that it would cost your enemy more to look after a maimed soldier than it would to simply bury a dead soldier. Millions of landmines were used in the time of the Khmer Rouge and there was no record of where they were being laid. It is a legacy of those harrowing times that every year hundreds f Cambodians inadvertently activate these landmines and end up severely maimed for the rest of their lives (if they survive the initial blast). The number of amputees in this country is a human catastrophe.

www.cambodialandminemuseum.org

I think we surprised Chantha again by asking him to drop us back into Siem Reap. We were a long was from town and could've taken in a few more sites but the tummy's were rumbling and we simply couldn't face what the roadside eateries churn up. We asked to be dropped at the Singing Tree Cafe, which had quickly become a mainstay of ours. In reality we didn't have that much time before we were back out to an Apsara performance.

Last day of our temple pass and we chose to take in those temples we had not yet seen on the Grand Circuit.... "but first let's have one more look at Ta Prohm". We ended our last day at Angkor Wat, it seemed like the right thing to do.

The Golden Triangle

2008-05-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Chiang Rai, Thailand, 26-28 & May 2008

After the bed bug incident Claire always does a thorough "clinical"examination of all new rooms. Once bitten, twice shy. In Chiang Rai she spotted one bb, we checked out in the morning into a business style hotel. There was a sign in the lobby stating "No Durian". Durian is a fleshy fruit with a rather pungent smell. We tasted it when we did the cookery course, but we had to spit it out. the locals love it though! You cannot come this far north in Thailand without visiting the Golden Triangle. This is an area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and it is synonymous with poppy fields and consequently the opium trade.

We hired a private guide/driver for the day so that we could take in the local sights. First stop was the Union of Tribal Villages. This was clearly the brainchild of some shrewd businessman, previously if you wanted to see 5 different hilltribes you would have to spend several days trekking in the local hills. Now you can simply visit this completely manufactured hilltribe compound. Well, perhaps that is being a little harsh. They are real tribal families that live here. They each have their own distinctive clothing, religions and build their own distinctive huts. We deliberated at length over whether we should visit or not because we had read reports of how this was nothing more than human exploitation used to line the pockets of some greedy entrepreneur. Our guide however told a different story, he told of how these tribes were protected here, given education and how all their medical needs were met. Swaying between what to believe we decided to go in and make up our own minds. Once inside it didn't take us long to realise this place was nothing more than a human zoo. Because it was low season there were very few tourists around. As we entered the 1st village (Akha tribe) we saw the members coming from all around until they were all lines up inn front of us. They then performed their tribal dance but each of them looked as though the life force had been sucked out of them, there was no joy on their part and consequently no enjoyment on our part. We moved onto the next village (Yao tribe) and the process started all over again. The tribal members went through the motions and we moved on quickly, we felt sick. There were only two of us and as we left the village we saw a group of 3 tourists enter and heard the tribal dance start all over again. Thankfully the other tribes were not required to perform a dance so we could enter their villages and well.... look at them.

What really sells this place to tourists is the presence of one specific tribe, the Long Neck Karen. The females of the tribe wear heavy brass rings around their necks, the addition of new rings eventually pushes the clavicle and rib cage down giving the women the appearance of having unusually long necks. Rings worn on the arms and legs may way a woman down with an additional 30 lbs in brass. Since leg coils hamper walking the women waddle. Constrained from drinking in the usual head back position a ring wearer leans forward to sip through a straw. They may look well in a photograph but watching them walk around, hunched forward under the weight, it is not an existence I would wish on anyone. Apparently the women in the Long Neck Karen tribe had started to abandon the wearing of the debilitating rings but in touristville they are obliged to give punters their full moneys worth. We really wouldn't recommend a visit here because by doing every paying tourist supports human exploitation. Hopefully or visit is not in vain and we will encourage any friends/acquaintances. Instead don a pair of hiking boots and get out into the hills and see these people in their truly natural environment.

From here we continued north, stopping off briefly at the monkey cave before arriving at Thailand's most northerly town Mae Sai. After taking the obligatory "most north point of Thailand" photograph (they really should get a native English speaker to proof read before they spend thousands of $ on these monuments) we contemplated crossing the border in Myanmar. For $10 you can enter the country but are only permitted to travel 1km inland. We decided to give it a skip, we didn't want to give our money to a military junta that continues to deny aid to the cyclone stricken areas. We wandered the many markets before jumping back into our air con taxi and heading on to the Golden Triangle. It felt good to be our own bosses with regards to how long we wanted to stay in a place.

The Golden Triangle is a tri border area: Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. If you didn't know any better you might be forgiven for thinking it is just a bit of land with two rivers flowing through it but because everyone does know better the tourist buses line up & photos are taken based on the size of you memory card rather than the quality of your composition.

We visited the Opium museum which was very interesting- high praise from non-museum goers.

Hippy Pai

2008-05-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Pai, Thailand, 23-25 May 2008

An Israeli chap we shared a taxi with in Bangkok had recommended a visit to Pai. After a 3 hour twisty, windy, uppy, downy bus journey we found ourselves in this hippie sanctuary. Pai is awash with coffee shops, bars, trinket stalls... and oh yes hippies. Again the scenery here is nothing special, that can be said for most places we visited in Thailand. It's not breathtaking but it is simply pleasant. Pai is a place to come and chill out and that is all we did there. A word of note should go to a restaurant called Charlie & Lek, the food there was simply amazing, it was so full of flavours and unbelievably inexpensive. The hosts, husband and wife, were charming.

How Original!

Hill Tribe Trekking

2008-05-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

South of Chiang Mai, Thailand, 18-19 May 2008

...peek a boo

We spent a day in Chiang Mai before we headed out of the city on a 3 day trekking trip. It was a fairly relaxed affair as our guide "Rambo"liked to take regular extended breaks where he would lie in a hammock! It was nice walking through the paddy fields and local villages and getting a glimpse of how the country folk (Karen Tribe) live in these parts. I think we were expecting to see a lot of poverty but in reality it simply isn't there (thankfully). The people live in a land where there is a huge abundance of fruit, vegetables and of course rice. So while they are not rich there may be no fear going hungry either. Houses are basic but adequate.

Our sleeping quarters consisted of a wooden hut with about 12 mattresses on the floor. Fortunately there were only 6 of us so we had plenty of space. We walked through the village and engaged the locals as best we could. By purchasing beverages or handicrafts the locals make a little profit from our visit (the Tour Company pay the family for our overnight stay but it doesn't amount to much, needless to say the rich get richer). The people seemed genuinely receptive especially the children. The children were beautiful and loved to pose for photos. We would show them the picture we had taken of them and they would respond with a fit of the giggles!

Rambo prepares dinner...

Playful children

Day 2 saw us trekking through denser forest and past some stunning waterfalls. Our number halved as some opted for 2 day trip only. Having seen a lot of rainfall we thought we'd be caught in at least one downpour on the trek but it didn't happen. When we got to camp on night 2 we realised the wallet containing our credit cards and malaria tablets was awol. We were able to call the previous nights lodging but they did not find anything when cleaning up after we left. What would we do? We hired a motorbike from a local and Dave and Rambo went back to look for it. The holy grail was eventually found in the bin at the place we stayed the previous night! Beers all round. Back at Camp #2 there were large numbers of fireflies, we enjoyed watching them whirr about in the darkness.

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.Making souveniers for toursits

Catching some ZZZZ's

Local School

Day 3 was devoted to Bamboo Rafting & Elephant Riding. Both were fun, both were bump affairs and the day was exceedingly hot. We then caught a mini bus back to CM and our air con room. Overall it was a really enjoyable experience, although Claire found the squat toilets to be a rather unsavoury challenge.

Phew, it's hot

Ah, that's better

Chiang Mai

2008-05-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

Chiang Mai, Thailand, 16-17, 20-22 & 29-30 May 2008

Chiang Mai (CM) is Thailand's northern capital and the old city is surrounded by a man made square moat 1km by 1km. We walked around the entire perimeter and truth be told we weren't that impressed. We had seen seedy older western men with their very young Thai women in Bangkok but here they seem to be really coming out in droves. We wondered, other than the money, if their was any attraction on the part of the women?

After a day of relaxing with luxurious leg massages after the hill tribe trek, we donned the aprons for a day of Thai cookery lessons. Our Chef, Perm, first took us to the local market where he introduced us to all the various fruit, veg, rice and noodles we would be using. We each selected from a list of dishes those that we would like to learn how to prepare. Once the ingredients had been purchased we all piled into the back of his van and away we went to his suburban hideaway/kitchen. We spent the day preparing soups and curries, mango & sticky rice, spring rolls and Pad Thai and each dish was more delicious than the one before. We ate everything we prepared, we really wished we hadn't had breakfast at our hotel! By the time we left we were all completely stuffed, but in a good way.

Our time in Thailand almost at an end, we headed back to Chiang Mai from Chiang Rai and collected Claire's custom made clothes from the two tailors who were completely drunk at the time, take in a night at the kick boxing stadium, visit the Panda's at the zoo before jumping on a plane for Siem Reap in Cambodia.

Thai Boxing

The First Capital - Sukhothai

2008-05-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

Sukhothai, Thailand, 13-15 May 2008

Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand even before Ayathaya was the capital of Thailand. The Lonely Planet states "if you can only digest one ancient city Sukhothai should be top of the list" and we couldn't agree more. It was all here on a grand scale. Temples, chedi's, stupa's, big Buddha's, little Buddha's, and all the other good stuff. While the other towns we had visited had Buddhist ruins scattered here and there, Sukhothai has a large number of them all together in one big parkland area, and they are bigger and more impressive that those seen elsewhere

On our 2nd day we rented bicycles and went exploring outside the old city walls. It was nice to be cycling around in the countryside but, again, nothing topped the ancient ruins and architecture found within the park in old town Sukhothai. Rolling ever on we caught a morning bus to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Lopburi

2008-05-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

Lopburi, Thailand, 12 May 2008

We caught the train further north to Lopburi where we explored some, yes you guessed it, Buddhist ruins. These one's were more interesting though because there were countless loitering monkeys around them. One of them stole the water bottle from the side of my bag and I ended up chasing him like a lunatic until he dropped it. Claire was also a target for attack on a number of occasions. They were good fun. We went for as meal that evening and almost as soon as we sat down the heavens opened. It was like someone had flicked a switch. Rain, rain, rain. We stayed in the restaurant for about 3 hours. Well, I stayed in the restaurant for about 3 hours. Claire found the courage to venture across the road for a Thai massage after the meal leaving me to sup on a beer. Afterwards we caught a night train to Sukhothai.

Cheeky monkey

Mangostens & Rambutin

exotic fruits

Ayathaya

2008-05-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

Ayathaya, Thailand, 11-12 May 2008

Back in Bangkok we were dropped off at the train station for our journey north to Ayathaya. Our guide bought our train tickets and then quickly bade us adieu. Our tickets were the cheapest of the cheap and we were crammed into carriages containing only Thai people. Not another farang in sight. I, Dave, was without a seat and so stood along with countless others.

The journey which should have taken about 1.5 hours ended up taking almost 4.5 hours...and then we missed our station!! Half the carriages did not make it onto the platform and so we were not aware that we had arrived. At the next station, about 20 mins further up the line we managed to get a local man to drive us back to Ayathaya for 500 baht. The guy was a maniac. First of all he couldn't see out of his windscreen with all the condensation and secondly he kept overtaking like a....well, like a maniac. Claire later told me she had been thinking about what her last conversation with her dad had been like and how the police would make sense of these of these two farangs killed in a car crash outside of Ayathaya with this crazy guy. We were very very happy to arrive at our hostel. It had been a long day.

Ayathaya had been the capital of Thailand before the Burmese laid siege upon it, whereupon the king then scampered to what is present day Bangkok. It is not the most attractive town although it does have plenty of Buddhist ruins to keep the tourist occupied. Also home to the famous Buddha head sacked by the Burmese and left at the base of a bodhi tree at Wat Phra Mahathat.

It was here however that we got our first taste of monsoon rain. Our exploring was curtailed by a series of torrential downpours. If you received an email from us recently it was probably sent from Ayathaya!

Kanchanaburi

2008-05-11T04:19:00.000-07:00

Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 10 May 2008

From Bangkok we headed west to Kanchanaburi on a 2 day trip. First stop was the bridge on the river Kwai made famous by the film..hmm, now what was it called, oh yes, "The Bridge on the River Kwai". The bridge itself is quite ordinary but the history is extraordinary. Over 100,000 people lost their lives building what is know as the Death Railway. During WWII the Japanese wanted to build this track from Myanmar to Bangkok to aid in the transportation of military supplies. They used the Allied POW's as slave labour. We also visited a nearby cemetery and saw the names of countless young men who never returned home. The inscriptions on the headstones were made by parents who never saw their sons again.

After lunch we visited The Tiger Temple (Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno). This is a working monastery that doubles up as a wildlife sanctuary where the monks care for wild pigs, peacocks, buffalo's, cows, horses, wild goats, and of course tigers. It was amazing to be brought around their enclosure and to be able to place your hand on their belly and feel them breathing. My advice, get in quick before they maim somebody and the authorities shut the place down. Spoilsports. Next it was onto the tiger cubs where again, who could resist patting these playful little creatures.

After dinner it was a quick boat ride up the river to our accommodation for the night. Our rooms were right on the river and by our best estimation were also right in the middle of nowhere. We had a good night though drinking too much beer and chatting with the others on our tour. The following morning feeling a little the worse for wear we visited the Erawan National Park home to the seven tiered Erawan Falls. It was a really nice spot and plenty of the locals were to be seen sporting picnic baskets. This was the second place we had our photograph surreptitiously taken only to later see our ugly mugs plastered across a souvenir plate. Only 100 baht. I don't know the Thai for "no gracias"...but I wish I did.

Erawan Waterfalls

The Floating market

2008-05-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to the floating markets at Damoen Suduak, 105km southwest of Bangkok. The Lonely Planet describes it as "wooden canoes laden with multicoloured fruit and vegetables paddled by Thai women wearing indigenous clothes and wide brimmed straw hats".

After taking a larger boat around some of the larger canals we hopped in a smaller, manually propelled boat so that we could get right into the thick of the mayhem. These canals reminded me of the M50 in Dublin at rush hour. The small boats could barely squeeze past each other and no one was going anywhere fast...which was the perfect pace at which to enjoy the floating markets.

On our way back to Bangkok we stopped off at a place where wood carving was the name of the game. Tables, chairs, screens, cabinets, you name it, these guys had painstakingly carved it. The detail was so intricate that all I could think was "dust collectors on a grand scale". Our final stop was at the gemstone factory where fine pieces of jewellery were made and sold. We were beginning to get the idea that someone was working hard to get the cash out of our pockets. We were herded like cattle around cases of rings, earrings, necklaces, etc, with one pushy clerk to every two customers until we reached the exit and like a diver who has held his breath under water for too long we gasped for air glad to be out of that pressurised environment.

We passed some local houses before arriving at the market

Sawasdee Ka
"hello"

Welcome to the Land of Smiles

2008-05-09T09:01:00.001-07:00

Bangkok, Thailand, 5-9 May 2008

Time for a new country, a new language, and a new set of challenges. Thailand offered it all. After breezing through immigration we made her way to the nearest cash machine. I'm not sure whether I (Claire) entered the wrong pin number or what but it immediately proceeded to swallow my card. Doh!! Fortunately there was an associated counter beside the machine where we could "talk" to people and managed to get the card back relatively quickly (20mins). An Israeli guy asked if we would like to share a taxi to the Banglamphu district and we did and very soon we were whizzing our way through the bright lights of chaotic & exotic Bangkok by night. It is always nice when a cabbie drops you right at the door of your accommodation and they actually have a record of your booking. So far so good.

After the cold of Melbourne Bangkok felt hot and sticky and that's because it was. We were staying very close to Khao San Road so we decided to go check it out. It was now 11pm and the road was hopping. I was reminded of that early scene (maybe it was the opening scene) from "The Beach" where Leonardo Di Caprio is walking along Khao San and it's just crazy with people and madness. That's how it feels. Lots of bright lights, ladies touting massages, others holding placards stating that they sell cheap drinks and "we don't check id cards". There was no shortage of gringo's either...eh sorry, over here they are called farangs. It didn't feel unsafe, it felt more like a crazy theme park for adults. Knowing that I'd have to bare my legs the following day I decided to have a leg wax, that's where the fun began. The tiny Thai lady led me to a a private room at the back of the busy salon and proceeded to de fuzz the legs, all was well until she asked me to remove my knickers. I refused & informed her I didn't mind if she got wax on them but she was having none of it. Whilst wrestling me to remove my knickers she told me not to fear because she sees "it" every day! She may have been tiny but she was a strong and feisty lady. Jeepers, I was exhausted by the end of the struggle never mind the incident involving the hot wax on regions that, let's just say, had never seen hot wax before. Aghh.

The next day was a write-off as the heat, the jet lag, and the travel caught up with us. After some early reconnaissance we slept for the remainder of the day (it helped that our room was really nice). Having bought a Lonely Planet from a street vendor "a funny thing happened" on our way to the tourist information office. A local spotted us looking at our map and to cut a long story short before we knew it we were in a tuk tuk (motorbike with carriage for 2 people in the back) en route to what we thought was a government TAT office (Tourist Authority of Thailand). No sooner had we entered the office but they managed to swipe our credit card for what would be considered a small fortune in this kingdom, they were clearly professionals! We don't know how this happened, maybe we somehow lost our traveller savvy travelling through NZ and Oz after we left South America?!

Next we went back on the tuk-tuk to some of the local sites. We visited the huge standing Buddha, then the Lucky Buddha, then probably for commission reasons the driver took us to a fine-suit tailor. We played along looking at their brochures and asking about prices. He would make a fully fitted suit in top quality cashmere for 17,500 baht (355 euro). Dave was almost tempted before he thought about how little he would actually use a suit. Before we left he was almost on his knees saying that he could do one up for 2000 baht (40 euro). That's more like it but what part of "I don't need a suit do you not understand?". The tuk-tuk driver finally dropped us off at a water ferry pier where we took a ferry to downtown Bangkok. The ferry was a speedy, low-to-the-water, longboat fitting about 5 people per bench (all facing forward). The canal on which we travelled was disgusting in the extreme. Raw sewage seemed to pour into it from pipes on either side. You learn quickly when you see locals ensuring that they don't get splashed.

What we hadn't realised is that in Banglamphu no building is allowed to be higher than the Royal Palace. This is clearly not the case in downtown Bangkok. It was modenr, vibrant, and wall to wall with ultra hip shopping complexes. We checked out a few of them and let me tell you, anyone of them would have been considered plush if located in a European capital city.

Dave's Entry:
No trip to Bangkok would be complete without a trip to the Red Light District...right? There are a few different places where one can see the action but we decided to go to the most touristy spot - Patpong. We were immediately accosted by men trying to lure us into a "ping pong show". Claire, in her innocence thought this would be naked women playing a game of table tennis. Bless. I, because I had seen "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" years earlier knew a little better. We decided not to take in a show but felt we should at least have a drink in one of the many bars. We were first led to a seedy upstairs bar that didn't meet with our high standards before we settled on the safety of a street-side establishment where we could see the outside world at all times. We had a fear of being handed a bill for ten times the price of our drinks while a muscle bound bouncer moved to block our exit. Fortunately that didn't happen. I have to say though that I felt infinitely more uncomfortable in this place than Claire did. There weren't very many people in there and we had this rather unattractive, scantily clad woman wriggling her body at a pole on the stage right on front of us. As if this wasn't bad enough she then came down and sat with us. Aargh!! I just wanted to get out of there, the place was freaking me out. Claire insisted on sticking around long enough to take a photo with the phone (don't get too excited guys - see above). She was about as subtle as a kick to the back of the head. Next thing we knew there was another scantily clad woman (equally unattractive) racing over shouting "no photo, no photo". She then sat down and put her hand on my knee. Double aargh!! "Drink up Claire, we're outta here". Very stressful I gotta tell ya, very stressful.

For our last day in Bangkok we made our way to the Grand Palace and this was closely followed by Wat Pho. A Wat is another name for a temple monastery. Wat Pho is home to the country's largest reclining Buddha. He is huge at 46m long by 15m high. The heat and humidity were intense so we really couldn't bare to be out in it for too long. It was then a quick tuk-tuk ride back to our cool air conditioned room. Ah, that's better. With a television in our room we were able to keep up to date with current affairs. We were shocked by the volcanic eruption in Chaiten in Chile as we had stayed there for a couple of days when we visited Parque Pumilin. Next there was the cyclone that hit Myanmar and how slow the military government were to allow aid workers into the country. It was scandalous to watch the death toll sky rocket while counties fell over themselves to get aid into the affected areas. We had moved on from Bangkok by the time the earthquake hit China and so, as was most often the case, did not know anything about it until a waiter mentioned it some time after the event.

Reclining Buddha

Anyone for a spot of jasmine tea?

What shall we have for dinner tonight Darling??

Last stop in Oz - Melbourne

2008-05-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

Melbourne, Australia, 1-4 May 2008

Our trip to Melbourne started with another first. This was the first time someone was actually present to meet us off a flight. Jo and Rowan, friends we first met during our Antarctic cruise, were able to come through security and so, quite literally, met us off the plane. Another first was the fact that both our backpacks were on the carousel by the time we got to baggage claim. Did I mention that our flight was 20 minutes early? Melbourne was off to a good start.

city lights!

Jo took the following day (Friday) off work and so took us on a driving tour of some of Melbourne's most affluent suburbs. It has become common practice for Melbourne's rich to buy a house, knock it to the ground, and build the biggest, most ostentatious, mansion they can fit on the site. They have been coined "McMansions" and needless to say there are many who are up in arms over this practice. One well-to-do individual who went through the process went one further by putting a stained glass window over the front door. Letters in the glass read "DILLIGAF". We have been reliably informed that this is an acronym for "Do I Look Like I Give A F**K". A little cheeky don't you think?

Once parked up in town we hopped on the free tram service and started to view and appreciate Melbourne's architecture, green spaces, dockland area, modern art, sculptures and markets. The city had a good vibe about it. The weather was cold but clear. Not Antarctica cold, more like Ireland on a nippy Winter's morning cold.

The next day started with Rowan and I (Dave) cycling into Melbourne's CBD. We were staying in Boxhill so this was a nice hour and a half cycle along leafy bike paths. After a coffee in town we decided to get the train home. Obviously we would have had no problem doing the return cycle but time was pushing on and we had an AFL game at The MCG (or just The G to us in the know) to go to. Hawthorne versus Collingwood (The Hawks versus The Magpies). Go Hawks!! So just time for a quick turnaround back at the house before all 4 of us headed to The G. We were sitting in the members section and were very impressed by the grounds. Very clean, very open, lots of bars for thirst quenching purposes, and plenty of memorabilia drawing the eye in all directions. Then the game started and everything else became insignificant. We had excellent seats on the center line right down by the pitch. I won't give you a blow by blow account but suffice to say that The Hawks won by a comfortable margin in the end. Yeah, Go Hawks!!

For our last day in Melbourne we took to the countryside and enjoyed some incredible autumnal shades. Rich reds, browns, and yellows filled the landscape. We rolled past the Dandynongs and into Marysville for some light refreshments. Afterwards we continued to roll through the countryside stopping off periodically for a short stroll or to take some photographs. Before heading back to the big smoke we visited several vineyards in the area, spotted a few kangaroo's, and finally watched the sun setting over the city. And almost as soon as it had begun our time in Australia had come to an end. Thanks Jo and Rowan for all your hospitality.

Great Barrier Reef

2008-05-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

Our final activity in the Cairns region was probably the main reason we had come to this part of Australia - snorkeling on The Great Barrier Reef. Peter Pan had booked our day with HABA out of Port Douglas. This meant a 6.50 pick-up as P.D. is about 45 minutes north of Cairns. Right from the word go it was clear that HABA was a quality organisation. Pick up was bang on time, staff were friendly, food was excellent, guest safety was taken very seriously, and the level of professional was beyond reproach. It was a joy to behold. Claire, as a non-swimmer, felt very safe in their hands. We visited 2 sites and were blown away by the beauty of the reef and the seemingly endless diversity of the marine life. Shoals of fish swam all around us as we snorkeled over and around this natural wonder. In between sites the on-board marine biologist gave a comprehensive talk on everything that lurked below the waters surface. He did a great job and we thoroughly enjoyed our day out. It was indisputably our best snorkeling experience to date.

Back in Cairns we basked in the glorious sunshine for one more day before catching a flight south to the state capital of Victoria - Melbourne.

Cape Tribulation & Cairns

2008-04-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Cairns, Australia, 26, 28-30 April 2008

Cape Tribulation, Australia, 27 April 2008

In Cairns Peter Pan's had booked us accommodation in the Bohemia Resort. Another good choice on their part. In keeping with our hectic Ozzy schedule we were up early next morning for our overnight trip to Cape Tribulation (C.T.), so named because it was here in 1770 that Captain Cook ran his ship onto a reef and this was the beginnings of his tribulations. A good man for naming stuff was old Captain Cook. On our way to C.T. we saw a few Kangaroo's in the wild and we stopped off to do a little salt water crocodile spotting on the Daintree River. Our guide was excellent and it wasn't long before we were looking at a healthy 4 meter long specimen. One girl on the boat dropped her camera in the water and actually wanted to dive in to get it. Now let's be clear, the camera wasn't floating, it had sunk immediately into these crocodile infested waters. I think we have a new contestant for the Darwin Awards.

Unfortunately our guide wouldn't let her out of the boat. Pity, it would have made for great video footage. C.T. is an area of lush thick rain forest that runs right down to the coastline where it meets beautiful sandy beaches. It is like a little piece of paradise hidden away in the north east corner of Australia. We enjoyed walking along the beaches and generally taking it easy, all the while keeping our eyes open for the elusive cassowary bird. We never did see one but there were lots of other birds along with spiders and ants to keep us amused. I, Dave, even licked a green ants bum and got a tangy shot of citrus. Great in the olden days to keep the scurvy at bay.

This spider was outside our room!!!!
Next day we watched the sunrise then had a walk on the beach & were collected at 1.15pm, by a clearly hungover "guide", and had a leisurely trip back to Cairns stopping off at Alexandra lookout, Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas.

As there were a few indigenous animals that we did not have the good fortune to spot in the wild we decided that a trip to Cairns zoo was in order. It was a great day out and again taken at a nice relaxed pace. We fed kangaroo's, patted cuddly koala's, held baby crocodiles and shook the hand of a rather large wombat. Good wholesome fun for all the family.

Whitsunday Islands

2008-04-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Whitsunday Islands, Australia, 22-24 April 2008
Airlie Beach, Australia, 25 April 2008

When we booked with Peter Pan we really gave them free rein with regards to the excursions and accommodation they booked for us....well almost free rein. The one thing that was non-negotiable was that we wanted to sail on the Solway Lass whilst out in the Whitsunday Islands. Claire's friend Ciara, my sister Kate, and my cousin Una had all been on the Solway Lass and couldn't seem to praise it highly enough. So, having taken the overnight bus from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach we hung around town for the day before boarding the Solway Lass (henceforth called the SL) at 7pm. We would have 3 nights/3 days onboard. The SL is a beautiful tall ship with tons of history. It is over 100 years old and served, in one capacity or another, in both world wars. It has transported goods around the world and more recently was a floating restaurant in Sydney Harbour before making the journey north up the coast to Airlie Beach and The Whitsunday Islands.

Our room was small in the extreme. Put it this way - I had to go outside to change my mind (boom, boom). Seriously though, the room was almost exactly the same size as the bed with just enough room to stand inside the door. Having acquainted ourselves with the ship and its 6 crew members we retired for an early night as we were still tired from the previous nights bus journey....and that's when our troubles really started. The following morning we overheard a French guy telling the captain that there were bugs in his bed. Almost immediately Claire started noticing little red bites at the top of her arms. That's right folks, the ship was infested with bedbugs (BB's). Eeek!! Our worst nightmare had come true, after 10 months on the road, here we were in 1st world Australia and we were on a boat infested with BB's. When we informed the captain he said he would change our linen and fumigate our room. Meanwhile we took a morning excursion onto Whitsunday Island and enjoyed flicking a frisbee in the shimmering sunshine on its startlingly white sandy beaches. Almost pure silica apparently - great for polishing up your silver and gold (like we would know).

That afternoon all the sails were raised onboard the SL and we made our way to the north of the Whitsundays in a most eco-friendly manner. We all lounged around on deck soaking up the rays. That evening all was not well however. After a close inspection of our sleeping quarters our "friends" the BB's were again detected. Yarg! We killed those that we could see and Claire covered herself from head to toe (pj's tucked into socks). Next morning and yes, there were more bites. The French guy had even taken to sleeping up on deck in an effort to avoid these little biting critters. This situation really did take the good out of the trip for Claire and the bite marks around her body were really beginning to mount up. That said we spent the day snorkeling at three different sites and conditions were excellent. It was like swimming in a well stocked fish tank. We saw all manner of little fishies, including some not so little. One Maori Wrasse was about 1 meter long by 2 feet high (apologies for mixing my units of length - 2 feet = 60cm). Pretty big when he is right in your face. That night again we killed several BB's before, reluctantly, hopping into bed. We had considered sleeping on deck but people tended to party up there in to the wee hours so not really an option. There was no clean linen left on board and we also discovered that what the crew used to fumigate the rooms with was a can of fly spray...which was clearly ineffective. So after another bad nights sleep Claire had a grand total of....wait for it....150+ bites!! Some people don't react to BB bites (4 out of 5)and thankfully I, Dave, am one of those people, although I think it would have comforted Claire if I was in the same boat (pardon the pun).

Our last day - Alleluia - saw us snorkeling at Langford Island before cruising back into Airlie Beach. 7 people (ourselves included) stopped off at the office in town to complain about the condition of the boat. We knew this wasn't an isolated incident as we had read an entry in the SL guestbook (in Irish) stating that there had been BB's two trips previous to ours. So synopsis: Whitsunday Islands - beautiful, weather - glorious, Solway Lass - bug infested. The ship should be condemned. What we have learnt since is if you are going to the Whitsunday Islands do not book with a Southern Cross boat (of which SL is one), book a Suncrest boat instead. We did ultimately get 100 dollars refund each. Moving on.

Fraser Island

2008-04-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

Fraser Island, Australia, 17, 19, 20 April 2008
Hervey Bay, Australia, 18 April 2008

We took the Greyhound bus from Brisbane to Hervey Bay, the jumping off point for our Fraser Island excursion. Our guide Peter picked us up at 7.30am... 10 minutes early! Blast, two cups of tea down the drain. We boarded his large 4x4-bus and, as we were the first, occupied the front two seats. It wasn't long before the bus was full (approx 15 passengers) and we were on the ferry to Fraser Island. We didn't really know what to expect other than the fact that it's a must do when travelling up the east coast of Australia. So, here's the scoop. Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island. But it doesn't look like one large sand dune, there is plenty of vegetation on the island - it just happens to all be growing in the sand. You are only allowed to take registered vehicles over so no Quad, dirt bikes or beach buggies. All vehicles must be 4 wheel drive but you are allowed to take your street legal motorbike over. We started by driving to the centre of the island and then doing a hike along the road through the Yidney Rainforrest. afterwards we drove on to Happy Valley for some lunch and were very pleasantly surprised. We had a notion that we'd be eating food from our laps whilst swatting away the bugs. No, this was a proper restaurant & there was a full buffet at our disposal.

Then it was on to Lake Wabby before heading north along the beach stopping off periodically, before reaching our final destination of the day - Cathedral Beach. We were staying in tents but really they were more like cabins than tents - Queen size bed, lots space, bedside locker with lamp - most luxurious. It was also here that we spotted a couple of dingos, I'm not sure what we were expecting really but they were a little underwhelming - they looked like dogs (which of course is what they are). All the time Peter, our guide, was telling us about the flora, the fauna, the logging history, the inhabitants and regaling us with his witty anecdotes. He was a really nice fella. There were four Dubs on the trip so we enjoyed sharing the craic with them. Dinner was another huge success and we were beginning to realise we'd landed on our feet with this trip. Later we got stuck into the lagers (like true backpackers do) and played a few hands of cards. We all slept well apart from when the dingos weer making a racket outside the tents.

Day Two and we headed north past the coloured sands to Indian Head and the Champagne Pools. There had been a few showers on Day 1 but Day 2 was perfect. Finally it was time to turn our 4x4 around and start heading back over to the west coast pick up spot at Moon Point. We took some time out at Lake Allom to view the cute little turtles and walk around the lake. It was a top notch 2 day tour made all the better by our knowledgeable & charismatic guide Peter, the sunshine & the bit of auld craic with the Irish lads.

Champagne Pools

Shipwreck SS Maheno

Lake Whabby

Indian Head

our tent!

Coloured Sand - Red Canyon

sunset at Hervey Bay

Brisbane

2008-04-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

Brisbane, Australia, 14-16 April 2008

Not too much to say about Brisbane other than the fact that it is a more attractive city than we had been led to believe. The river twists around the CBD (central business district) and like Sydney the ferries are part of the public transport system so we enjoyed a leisurely cruise in both directions. There are also some alluring green spaces where the students can be seen studying or more often resting their brains.

All around the city are Traffic Signal Boxes which have been converted from dull, lifeless, pieces of visual pollution into fascinating and varied works of art.

Classy area in Brisbane

Blue Mountains

2008-04-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday 13 April 2008

Tired, but not willing to slow the momentum we struck off early for the Blue Mountains, chauffeured by Ian & Emma. As we arrived there were some loud claps of thunder and some spectacular flashes of lightening out over the mountains. We thought there would surly be a downpour but again the luck of the Irish (?!!) held and we passed a very pleasant afternoon walking around Echo Point, the Three Sisters, Devils Staircase and over to the worlds steepest railway.. which of course we had to ride (it must be said Oz & NZ love their superlatives). We stopped off for Vietnamese takeaway on the way home before curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea.

Dave with two lovely Sheilas

Emma makes a new friend

Handels Hits at the Opera House

2008-04-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12 April 2008

We had sat down at the beginning of February and looked at what would be playing at the Opera House during our visit. Feeling that a proper cultural performance was the order of the day we booked two tickets to Handels Hits in the main concert hall. So, with our best garb on (not easy when you're a backpacker, however Claire was delighted that Emma helped dress her up from her own wardrobe). We sashayed up the steps of the Opera House and into our primo seats. The performance consisted of a conductor (Brett Weymark), a 30 piece orchestra & 300 person choir (Sydney Philharmonia Festival Orchestra and Chorus) and 3 operatic singers. Impressive, very impressive. We had pre booked our interval drinks and so quickly made our way out onto the balcony to enjoy the 360 degrees nigh time views. Again, most surreal. Then it was back for the second half. The conductor would pick up the microphone from time to time to tell us about the life and times of Handel and to put the performance into context.

City lights stretched out before us