Sunday, 30 August 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Nick and Nat learn to drive motorbikes!
It's been a while since I put a blog up so thought I'd take the opportunity...we're heading off from Cochin tomorrow, heading south for a few days to Allepey and the Backwaters. Going to stay on a houseboat for a couple of days and drift along and a very slow pace! Since leaving Mumbai however we've had a great time!
The train was cool, OK so it was 26 hours but the ac worked, the food was great, and the family across from us were fantastic. They didn't speak much English but they tried. We seemed to be drawing a bit of a crowd at one point, think everyone loves to try their little English out on natives whenever they can!
Got to Cochin and then the ferry across the bay to Fort Cochin a small peninsula full of character! We went from a very industrial harbour to one with ancient Chinese finishing nets, men in long wooden canoes going out for the day and lots of Rickshaws ( by the way I have now driven one and it's not going to be easy!
Fort Cochin has been occupied by the English, the Portuguese, the Chinese as well as others I'm sure...and you can tell, you walk along the streets and there are beautiful old buildings everywhere, some rather more dilapidated than others but it certainly has its own charm.
We got off the ferry and met up with Craig 'Deano' and Ems. Deano for those that don't know is an old family friend who has been traveling round India for 7 weeks in the opposite direction than us. It was pot luck really that we contacted each other but we've just spent 5 days together and had a great time! First day we hired mopeds and drove to the beach. Hang on, so we're waiting for the ferry to cross onto the other island where the beaches are, and as we're watching the fishing boats and ferries travel between us and the other island, out of nowhere appears a great big bloody submarine! Didn't see that one coming!
Anyway so we drove about for a few hours discovering some beautiful little spots and establishing that we are going to suffer on these roads on the Rickshaw Run! Did a bit of swimming and headed back for some beers.
The only non-hotel bar was the ' Bob Marley ' Bar playing psychedelic remixes of the Marley...think that's a bit strange, in Cochin alcohol is not really licensed so to make sure there was no sign that we were drinking beer we had to use teapots as bottles and tea cups as glasses...so Raj!
Next day we went up to Munnar on a 4 and a half hr bus journey, these guys are the ones I'm worried about, they drive like utter maniacs! anyhow, he got us there so fair enough. Munnar is a tea plantation town right up above the cloud line. It was a manky little town but we found good places to eat and litre bottles of beer for 50p
We rented bikes once again and spent 2 days driving to waterfalls, through the tea plantations and through little villages on the hillsides.
On the second day we drove up to the top station, at the peak of the Western Ghats and could look all the way down into Tamil Nadu, the next State. Unbelievable views and having Deano and Ems with us made the few days really amazing. It was great to see them and hear their stories about the north of India in particular, i think we may well be staying for a bit longer after the rickshaw run now, so much to see! On a slightly crazy note...
Took my shoe off when we got back to the hotel on the second day and a leech fell onto the floor...thought it was a slug until it wouldn't shift. Here's the video of the little bugger, apparently you have to wait until it's full and then it'll just fall off...must have had it's fix and was ready to go!
Nick
After a few days in the fine drizzle and freezing mountains we headed back to the heat and Fort Cochin for a last night before Craig and Ems headed north. We really loved being with them for the past few days, they're great to be around and there's certainly not many quiet moments when Deano's about.
Nice to see that Leeds have managed to start the season well, wonder how long that'll last. We'll see. We've now got a few options for xmas so we'll keep you updated once we reach a decision but it'll be fun no matter!
Hope you are all well, we're loving it here and both have managed to stay healthy ( touch wood although I've pretty much been veggie for the past few weeks, need a fat steak dinner or a nice Sunday roast...i even daydreamed on the way back to Cochin of fish fingers, chips and broccoli...i don't even like fish fingers that much.
We're setting up a twitter account for the Rickshaw Run so once we're up and running we'll be able to text updates and let you know we're safe...but that's still a couple of weeks away.
Love you all and hope you're safe.
Nick
The train was cool, OK so it was 26 hours but the ac worked, the food was great, and the family across from us were fantastic. They didn't speak much English but they tried. We seemed to be drawing a bit of a crowd at one point, think everyone loves to try their little English out on natives whenever they can!
Got to Cochin and then the ferry across the bay to Fort Cochin a small peninsula full of character! We went from a very industrial harbour to one with ancient Chinese finishing nets, men in long wooden canoes going out for the day and lots of Rickshaws ( by the way I have now driven one and it's not going to be easy!
Fort Cochin has been occupied by the English, the Portuguese, the Chinese as well as others I'm sure...and you can tell, you walk along the streets and there are beautiful old buildings everywhere, some rather more dilapidated than others but it certainly has its own charm.
We got off the ferry and met up with Craig 'Deano' and Ems. Deano for those that don't know is an old family friend who has been traveling round India for 7 weeks in the opposite direction than us. It was pot luck really that we contacted each other but we've just spent 5 days together and had a great time! First day we hired mopeds and drove to the beach. Hang on, so we're waiting for the ferry to cross onto the other island where the beaches are, and as we're watching the fishing boats and ferries travel between us and the other island, out of nowhere appears a great big bloody submarine! Didn't see that one coming!
Anyway so we drove about for a few hours discovering some beautiful little spots and establishing that we are going to suffer on these roads on the Rickshaw Run! Did a bit of swimming and headed back for some beers.
The only non-hotel bar was the ' Bob Marley ' Bar playing psychedelic remixes of the Marley...think that's a bit strange, in Cochin alcohol is not really licensed so to make sure there was no sign that we were drinking beer we had to use teapots as bottles and tea cups as glasses...so Raj!
Next day we went up to Munnar on a 4 and a half hr bus journey, these guys are the ones I'm worried about, they drive like utter maniacs! anyhow, he got us there so fair enough. Munnar is a tea plantation town right up above the cloud line. It was a manky little town but we found good places to eat and litre bottles of beer for 50p
We rented bikes once again and spent 2 days driving to waterfalls, through the tea plantations and through little villages on the hillsides.
On the second day we drove up to the top station, at the peak of the Western Ghats and could look all the way down into Tamil Nadu, the next State. Unbelievable views and having Deano and Ems with us made the few days really amazing. It was great to see them and hear their stories about the north of India in particular, i think we may well be staying for a bit longer after the rickshaw run now, so much to see! On a slightly crazy note...
Took my shoe off when we got back to the hotel on the second day and a leech fell onto the floor...thought it was a slug until it wouldn't shift. Here's the video of the little bugger, apparently you have to wait until it's full and then it'll just fall off...must have had it's fix and was ready to go!
Nick
After a few days in the fine drizzle and freezing mountains we headed back to the heat and Fort Cochin for a last night before Craig and Ems headed north. We really loved being with them for the past few days, they're great to be around and there's certainly not many quiet moments when Deano's about.
Nice to see that Leeds have managed to start the season well, wonder how long that'll last. We'll see. We've now got a few options for xmas so we'll keep you updated once we reach a decision but it'll be fun no matter!
Hope you are all well, we're loving it here and both have managed to stay healthy ( touch wood although I've pretty much been veggie for the past few weeks, need a fat steak dinner or a nice Sunday roast...i even daydreamed on the way back to Cochin of fish fingers, chips and broccoli...i don't even like fish fingers that much.
We're setting up a twitter account for the Rickshaw Run so once we're up and running we'll be able to text updates and let you know we're safe...but that's still a couple of weeks away.
Love you all and hope you're safe.
Nick
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
The lap of luxury...followed by Mumbai
So, we've had a crazy whirlwind of a trip through the Middle East and into India.
We landed in Dubai and headed straight for Abu Dabi, an hours bus ride away, to stay with our new friend Graeme. We met this lovely chap via facebook as he is also taking part in the Rickshaw Run in September. He offered to let us stay with him in Abu Dabi and we jumped at the chance (apparently they only have 4 star or plus hotels in the UAE!). It was unbelievably hot in the middle East, 50 degrees or more, but the wonderful thing about that area of the world is the power of AirCon!
The phone number we had written down for Graeme didn't work so we decided it best to rock up at the British embassy, as we knew that he had some sort of dealings with them! The walk from the taxi to the gate (10 metres) left us soaked in sweat, and we asked the security guards if they might be able to get in contact with Graeme. They very kindly did, as it turns out he works just behind there office in the embassy, and they let us sit in the cool office while we waited for Graeme to come back from home, as at 3 he had already left (those expats and their laidback lifestyle!).
Anyway, turned out Graeme is super jolly and entusiastic about all things Abu Dabi and straight away we were walking around the Palace which is the most expensive building to have ever been built! Graeme lent us his car (a jeep with no AC-sweet!) which was so generous and useful as otherwise we would've been stuck in the flat all day everyday!
We spent the next three days visiting everything there is to visit in Abu Dabi. We took tea at the palace (quite outside our budget!) and had gold topped cheesecake which was the yummiest cheesecake I ever had! We visited the Grand Mosque which is just unbelievably beautiful, and holds lots of world records including the worlds biggest carpet (it is BIG) and the world's most expensive/large chandelier (around 50 million dollars!).
We also saw the world's biggest car and various other oddities owned by "The Rainbow Sheikh" and held in a big warehouse where few people bother to go (Graeme has been 3 times!).
It was so awesome spending time with Graeme, and we also met two of his teammates for the Rickshaw Run, so we're looking even more forward to it now!
After 3 days we headed back to Dubai to spend some time with Mark Hughes, a friend from Dhahran. He has an amazing flat in the marina, but unfortunately for Mark he works ridiculously long hours so barely has time to appreciate it! Nick and I spent our days watching Extras on DVD and our evenings out for dinner with Mark. It was so great to have some down time and just relax before hitting India.
But hit India we have and by jimminy it's insane! People always tell you about the poverty but you just cannot imagine it until you see it. During the day you become used to seeing families sitting in the street surrounded by the few things they have and the kids begging for money or just a drink of water. But it's nighttime it really gets you. To get to our hotel on the fourth floor of a building, we walk over sleeping families, and when we returned last night a father was laying his child down for the night on a thin sheet outside the elevator shaft on the second floor. It is insane how divided the rich and the poor of this country are.
We have only seen Mumbai thus far, and we had an amazing first couple days with our couchsurfing host Hemal. We were his first ever couchsurfing guests, and having seen that I am an artist on our profile he heard about an event this past Saturday and knew he had to take us along.
There is a wall in Mumbai running along the railway line that up until Saturday was brown and dirty. The government, after encouragement from a group of graffiti artists, invited anyone and everyone to paint the wall, even providing a van full of paints and brushes. Hemal is a big Michael Jackson fan, so Nick, Hemal, Umang (Hemal's brother) and I did a Michael Jackson tribute mural! It was a great way to spend our first day in Mumbai. We got on the news and in the Sunday Times of India! Pictures and quotes! Not bad eh?
The last few days have been spent generally trying to get things done and not getting very far. Mumbai is FRUSTRATINGLY slow. It took us 3 days to get anyone to agree to give us a sim card, even after following all their instructions. You have to give all your information before getting anywhere near an internet cafe, and it took us 3 hours today to send some parcels home. They SEW UP THE PARCELS. With a needle. And string. And then you tie the custom declaration form to the parcel and write on it with a black marker. It looks great but it takes forever to get done.
So we're looking forward to getting our train out of this crazy place tomorrow morning and heading for Kerala where we hope things will be slightly less hectic.
On a positive note though, we visited a charmingly named restaurant called Gaylord last night and ate the best curry of our lives. We are looking forward to the yummy curry trend continuing. And as of 8.08pm Indian time on this day the 19th of August 2009 there are still no jippy tummies...yet. Watch this space.
Natty
We landed in Dubai and headed straight for Abu Dabi, an hours bus ride away, to stay with our new friend Graeme. We met this lovely chap via facebook as he is also taking part in the Rickshaw Run in September. He offered to let us stay with him in Abu Dabi and we jumped at the chance (apparently they only have 4 star or plus hotels in the UAE!). It was unbelievably hot in the middle East, 50 degrees or more, but the wonderful thing about that area of the world is the power of AirCon!
The phone number we had written down for Graeme didn't work so we decided it best to rock up at the British embassy, as we knew that he had some sort of dealings with them! The walk from the taxi to the gate (10 metres) left us soaked in sweat, and we asked the security guards if they might be able to get in contact with Graeme. They very kindly did, as it turns out he works just behind there office in the embassy, and they let us sit in the cool office while we waited for Graeme to come back from home, as at 3 he had already left (those expats and their laidback lifestyle!).
Anyway, turned out Graeme is super jolly and entusiastic about all things Abu Dabi and straight away we were walking around the Palace which is the most expensive building to have ever been built! Graeme lent us his car (a jeep with no AC-sweet!) which was so generous and useful as otherwise we would've been stuck in the flat all day everyday!
We spent the next three days visiting everything there is to visit in Abu Dabi. We took tea at the palace (quite outside our budget!) and had gold topped cheesecake which was the yummiest cheesecake I ever had! We visited the Grand Mosque which is just unbelievably beautiful, and holds lots of world records including the worlds biggest carpet (it is BIG) and the world's most expensive/large chandelier (around 50 million dollars!).
We also saw the world's biggest car and various other oddities owned by "The Rainbow Sheikh" and held in a big warehouse where few people bother to go (Graeme has been 3 times!).
It was so awesome spending time with Graeme, and we also met two of his teammates for the Rickshaw Run, so we're looking even more forward to it now!
After 3 days we headed back to Dubai to spend some time with Mark Hughes, a friend from Dhahran. He has an amazing flat in the marina, but unfortunately for Mark he works ridiculously long hours so barely has time to appreciate it! Nick and I spent our days watching Extras on DVD and our evenings out for dinner with Mark. It was so great to have some down time and just relax before hitting India.
But hit India we have and by jimminy it's insane! People always tell you about the poverty but you just cannot imagine it until you see it. During the day you become used to seeing families sitting in the street surrounded by the few things they have and the kids begging for money or just a drink of water. But it's nighttime it really gets you. To get to our hotel on the fourth floor of a building, we walk over sleeping families, and when we returned last night a father was laying his child down for the night on a thin sheet outside the elevator shaft on the second floor. It is insane how divided the rich and the poor of this country are.
We have only seen Mumbai thus far, and we had an amazing first couple days with our couchsurfing host Hemal. We were his first ever couchsurfing guests, and having seen that I am an artist on our profile he heard about an event this past Saturday and knew he had to take us along.
There is a wall in Mumbai running along the railway line that up until Saturday was brown and dirty. The government, after encouragement from a group of graffiti artists, invited anyone and everyone to paint the wall, even providing a van full of paints and brushes. Hemal is a big Michael Jackson fan, so Nick, Hemal, Umang (Hemal's brother) and I did a Michael Jackson tribute mural! It was a great way to spend our first day in Mumbai. We got on the news and in the Sunday Times of India! Pictures and quotes! Not bad eh?
The last few days have been spent generally trying to get things done and not getting very far. Mumbai is FRUSTRATINGLY slow. It took us 3 days to get anyone to agree to give us a sim card, even after following all their instructions. You have to give all your information before getting anywhere near an internet cafe, and it took us 3 hours today to send some parcels home. They SEW UP THE PARCELS. With a needle. And string. And then you tie the custom declaration form to the parcel and write on it with a black marker. It looks great but it takes forever to get done.
So we're looking forward to getting our train out of this crazy place tomorrow morning and heading for Kerala where we hope things will be slightly less hectic.
On a positive note though, we visited a charmingly named restaurant called Gaylord last night and ate the best curry of our lives. We are looking forward to the yummy curry trend continuing. And as of 8.08pm Indian time on this day the 19th of August 2009 there are still no jippy tummies...yet. Watch this space.
Natty
Saturday, 8 August 2009
My mother's mother's motherland...
So, as the title suggests, this is Nat typing from Armenia! We're actually at the end of our journeys here, and Nick has been asking me to blog for about a week, and I suppose it's time to stop putting it off.
We've been here for about two weeks and have yet again spent most of our time with the boys, Asaf, Kovi and Nick (t'other one aka Shaggy).
First impressions? Yerevan is a much more 'developed' city than Tbilisi or indeed anywhere we've been since Istanbul and in some ways it felt a bit closer to home, with a real modern European feel to it. Cranes line the horizon as there appears to be plenty of money going into making sure that Armenia's capital catches up with the rest of the world after much distraction and devastation has left the country a little behind in terms of it's appeal to tourists, other than Armenian diaspora. Yerevan is home to the genocide museum which we visited on our second day in the country.
Despite the fact that we had all visited various Jewish genocide museums, you can never become hardened to the images and words you find in these places, and as I have been finding throughout Armenian genes are strong and I see in the faces of the photos (and peole who live here) similarities with Omama and even Mum and her brothers, and that made the Armenian genocide museum a bit more personal to me. That Armenian streak seems to have faultered at the 3rd generation in our family, as Nick and I have been told frequently that we look like brother and sister (what?! Me look like that ginga?!).
We hired a car for what turned out to be 7 days and drove around the country. It was wonderful to have the freedom to go and do as we pleased without relying on public transport, especially in a country that despite being small is quite spread out in terms of places to visit.
The first night we stayed near an old monastery in the north (forgive me forgetting the name) and we arrived at a very unsuitable camping location on the side of a road where we discovered many a cow enjoys a good expulsion of waste. Along with that splendid aroma we were also very hasty in putting up the tent (due to aproaching darkness and a fear that we had no idea what was up or down tentwise!) and therefore found on lying down that we had placed the tent on what can only be described as a mound of rocks with a bit of earth to hold them together.
One appalling night's sleep later and we were ready to get out of there nice and early (especially since we'd left the matches and the wood outside to get damp all night and therefore could not start the fire to make a nice cup of tea English style milk and all).
Nick, Shaggy and I set off again, due to meet Asaf and Kovi the following day by Lake Sevan as Asaf had decided to join his friend in seeing the Sabbat in with a fast, and therefore remaining in Yerevan.
We made our way to Lake Sevan that day and found a lovely (?) little spot where we had to pay for the pleasure of camping but where there were very few rocks (a great relief) and a ten metre walk to the lake. The lake was gorgeously cool and not crowded in the area we stayed, and the three of us made a lovely meal and had a leisurely evening. Nick was highly impressed with my firemaking skills, and I reminded him that I had actually picked up some very important skills up in Utopia in Scotland a few summers ago, and it wasn't all about drinking wine at the local pub, going to Tescos and sleeping in Yurts!
So, the following day we were joined by our lovely Israeli boys, only to be left as three again as Kovi returned to Yerevan and Shaggy went off into the world to do some solo travelling before meeting his friends in Euroland soon.
The three of us, Nick, Asaf and I, spent a lovely 2nd night on Lake Sevan, although due to a mega super storm and our cloth 1970s tent, we didn't quite trust sleeping in the tent, so we ended up kipping in Dolores, our trusty Lada circa 1984, bright Orange, maximum speed 110kph, up a hill 30kph, the legend that is Dolores.
Thank my 5 foot 4 lucky stars I got to lie down in the back seat (would've been wasted on the boys) and the other two slept with their feet on the dashboards. At about three Asaf and I tried or luck with the tent, and found it to be very dry inside, leaving Nick to stretch (hee hee) out on the backseat.
We met Kovi in Nagorna Karabagh, an unrecognised country that is wartorn between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The people speak Armenian and it has a very similar feel and of course landscape to Armenia. The only difference is the world recognises it as the property of Azerbaijan despite the fact that the people within the country are ethnic Armenian.
We visited a 'town' called Aghdam which was almost completely obliterated when it was bombed to smithereens by the Azeris. You can climb to the top of the mosque there, which the boys did but I found it all just horrible and didn't want to go any further or see any more of the awful place.
I was relieved to return to Armenia (I think we all were) and here we have been back in Yerevan for a few days, and heading to Dubai tomorrow on our way to India. All the boys (apart from Nick obv) have left and although it is nice to have some alone time after so many weeks, we've had such a wonderful time with them and became quite close. Asaf was the last to leave yesterday morning, back to Georgia, and we miss his big smile and jolliness!
That's the thing about travelling, you meet so many wonderful people, but ultimately you're from different lives and you have to go your seperate ways at some point. But now we have a great reason to visit Israel...but that's for our next trip...
Onwards East...via the Middle East.
Much love,
Nattyxxx
We've been here for about two weeks and have yet again spent most of our time with the boys, Asaf, Kovi and Nick (t'other one aka Shaggy).
First impressions? Yerevan is a much more 'developed' city than Tbilisi or indeed anywhere we've been since Istanbul and in some ways it felt a bit closer to home, with a real modern European feel to it. Cranes line the horizon as there appears to be plenty of money going into making sure that Armenia's capital catches up with the rest of the world after much distraction and devastation has left the country a little behind in terms of it's appeal to tourists, other than Armenian diaspora. Yerevan is home to the genocide museum which we visited on our second day in the country.
Despite the fact that we had all visited various Jewish genocide museums, you can never become hardened to the images and words you find in these places, and as I have been finding throughout Armenian genes are strong and I see in the faces of the photos (and peole who live here) similarities with Omama and even Mum and her brothers, and that made the Armenian genocide museum a bit more personal to me. That Armenian streak seems to have faultered at the 3rd generation in our family, as Nick and I have been told frequently that we look like brother and sister (what?! Me look like that ginga?!).
We hired a car for what turned out to be 7 days and drove around the country. It was wonderful to have the freedom to go and do as we pleased without relying on public transport, especially in a country that despite being small is quite spread out in terms of places to visit.
The first night we stayed near an old monastery in the north (forgive me forgetting the name) and we arrived at a very unsuitable camping location on the side of a road where we discovered many a cow enjoys a good expulsion of waste. Along with that splendid aroma we were also very hasty in putting up the tent (due to aproaching darkness and a fear that we had no idea what was up or down tentwise!) and therefore found on lying down that we had placed the tent on what can only be described as a mound of rocks with a bit of earth to hold them together.
One appalling night's sleep later and we were ready to get out of there nice and early (especially since we'd left the matches and the wood outside to get damp all night and therefore could not start the fire to make a nice cup of tea English style milk and all).
Nick, Shaggy and I set off again, due to meet Asaf and Kovi the following day by Lake Sevan as Asaf had decided to join his friend in seeing the Sabbat in with a fast, and therefore remaining in Yerevan.
We made our way to Lake Sevan that day and found a lovely (?) little spot where we had to pay for the pleasure of camping but where there were very few rocks (a great relief) and a ten metre walk to the lake. The lake was gorgeously cool and not crowded in the area we stayed, and the three of us made a lovely meal and had a leisurely evening. Nick was highly impressed with my firemaking skills, and I reminded him that I had actually picked up some very important skills up in Utopia in Scotland a few summers ago, and it wasn't all about drinking wine at the local pub, going to Tescos and sleeping in Yurts!
So, the following day we were joined by our lovely Israeli boys, only to be left as three again as Kovi returned to Yerevan and Shaggy went off into the world to do some solo travelling before meeting his friends in Euroland soon.
The three of us, Nick, Asaf and I, spent a lovely 2nd night on Lake Sevan, although due to a mega super storm and our cloth 1970s tent, we didn't quite trust sleeping in the tent, so we ended up kipping in Dolores, our trusty Lada circa 1984, bright Orange, maximum speed 110kph, up a hill 30kph, the legend that is Dolores.
Thank my 5 foot 4 lucky stars I got to lie down in the back seat (would've been wasted on the boys) and the other two slept with their feet on the dashboards. At about three Asaf and I tried or luck with the tent, and found it to be very dry inside, leaving Nick to stretch (hee hee) out on the backseat.
We met Kovi in Nagorna Karabagh, an unrecognised country that is wartorn between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The people speak Armenian and it has a very similar feel and of course landscape to Armenia. The only difference is the world recognises it as the property of Azerbaijan despite the fact that the people within the country are ethnic Armenian.
We visited a 'town' called Aghdam which was almost completely obliterated when it was bombed to smithereens by the Azeris. You can climb to the top of the mosque there, which the boys did but I found it all just horrible and didn't want to go any further or see any more of the awful place.
I was relieved to return to Armenia (I think we all were) and here we have been back in Yerevan for a few days, and heading to Dubai tomorrow on our way to India. All the boys (apart from Nick obv) have left and although it is nice to have some alone time after so many weeks, we've had such a wonderful time with them and became quite close. Asaf was the last to leave yesterday morning, back to Georgia, and we miss his big smile and jolliness!
That's the thing about travelling, you meet so many wonderful people, but ultimately you're from different lives and you have to go your seperate ways at some point. But now we have a great reason to visit Israel...but that's for our next trip...
Onwards East...via the Middle East.
Much love,
Nattyxxx
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