Nick & Natty do Laos...and meet a famous actor!

Well, we're currenly in Pnom Phen, Cambodia after a long 12 hour bus journey from the border ( which was meant to be 9) we have spent a couple of days here and are heading up to Siem Reap tomorrow. PP is a mental place, we went to the killing fields yesterday and S21 which is the prison where Pol Pot kept over 20,000 people over a few years back in the 70's. It was quite a heavy experience, not to say that it wasn't worth it but seeing the memorial a the killing fields is incredible, there are 12 floors of skulls and bones that were pulled from mass graves in the area, in 5 years Pol Pot killed over 3 milliom Cambodians, at the time there were only 7 million in the whole country...

Anyway, before all this we spent a great 2 and a bt weeks traversing the incredible Laos. So at the end of the last post we were in Luang Nam Ta, a great little place, so peaceful after a week in bangkok! Now Laos was lovely, but the north is VERY hilly! We spent 9 hours on a bus that got us 250k...but it was worth it.

Luang Prabang was wicked, its a world heritage site now so hardly any development has take nplace, still has te 'old charm' we had baguettes for breakfast and some crazy hot noodle soups for dinner! Met some crazy Europeans but hada great tome, one night we were sat with 4 Germans, a Dutch couple and 2 guys from Belgium we were all speaking English with funny accents but was great, bit weird hearing them not speaking their first language but using it to talk to each other!

Then onto Vientienne where we were going to spend a few days as we had to get our Cambodian Visa, turns out it took 1 day and we got a 90 visa whichwe certainly dont need but it wa the same cost so... Vientienne was cool though, we stayed in a great little guestouse with a lovelyfamily, we bought food from the market which we took back and they gave us stuff to eat it with, we had fried fish from the Mekon, some of he est fishi've ever had and the pancakes! oh my god the pancakes! these were crazy though, folded over and then sprinkled wit sugar and condensed milk. I know sounds weird but ate 3 in a row they were that good! the belly's back!

We were kinda sad to leave but lookng forwad to the next stop, the 4000 islands. Now a lot had been said about these islands and we were eventually not dissapointed...first though we had an overnight sleeper bus, see video




and then a night in Pakse where the street chef tried to blow my face off with the Beef Laap! but we arrived safely if a little jaded on Don Khong. The big isalnd. Crap, nothing there and nothing to do. To be fair we met some lovely people but really the lonely planet let us down again...familiar story there then. Next was Don Det, a totally different story. Despite the electricity running only from 6 -11 every night, we had a great time. Hired bikes and cycled around, relaxed on the varanda, read books ate good food, Natdid a yoga class one morning, i did a cooking class and this is where we met Keifer Sutherland. Legend.



The memorial at the killing fields



The one, the only, Keifer Sutherland!



Sunset on Don Det



On top of Champask ruins outside of Pakse



The waterfall just outside Luan Prabang...so much fun

So that was Laos, we're doing our little tour of cambodia now and then heading back to thailand before our flight out to oz on the 20th december. Can't believe it's here already but i guess we've been going long enough. It kinda feels that once we hit Oz the 'travelling' is over i mean we are more like on holiday at that point before we get to korea and can move out of our rucksacks! Hope everyopne is well, Love to you all, Nick x

Phew...Nick and Natty get pulled back into a consumer society and hence fail to blog or do anything else for about a week...

So, Bangkok was AMAZING!!! We have obviously both been before, and I recall the first time I arrived there I was overwhelmed by the chaos and couldn't wait to get out. BUT thanks to our sojourn in the manic land that is India, there was relief and calm rather than shock and we both felt rather at home in Bangkok. Siam Square is dominated by malls aplenty and HOORAY they love Boots in Thailand (must have happened since I was last here 5 years ago) so I went body butter, eye liner and general toiletries crazy! There are some crazy posh malls with posh car show rooms up on the top floors (how did they get them there?). Nick also got his tattoo in Bangkok, I will post a video on here (when time allows), so yes, it was an expensive BUT highly enjoyable week.

nick's a badass now...

Oh yeah, and we saw 3 movies here, which was such a pleasure! It's between 1 and 5 pounds to watch a movie, and for 5 you get really mega posh sofa sort of seats and I got a nice latte and it's just super cool! But the 1 pound tickets were good too, much better than home! We also ate Korea BBQ three times, our friends Mel and Josh told us we'd love it once we got to Korea, and we do love it and can't wait to eat more! They bring you all this meat and veg and you steam the veg in a moat thing around the heated grill and you cook your meat on it! Nick had a little system that developed over the 3 visits, which consisted of a marinading bowl that he had all his garlic and sauce and chillis in and then it became 2 bowls (one for fish and one for meat) and then he began hording his food in there so even when it was all gone from the plate he still had two courses to get through. He's special isn't he?

I could happily live in Bangkok, it's great. The guesthouse we stayed in was recommended to us by Mr Joseph Weeks of Bristol and we are truly grateful as it was a pleasure staying there for the week. There was free internet, free washing machines and a swimming pool and some great and affordable food. There was also a lot of chatting and meeting of many nice people and we will be going back there when we return to bangkok in early december.

So , we left BKK a couple days ago, getting the (awesome) VIP night bus up to a place called Chiang Rai. The bus was unbelievable and I will get a video on to illustrate this, and even this will not do it justice. I think we both actually slept, so apart from the random 2am wake up with music and tea (not complaining on the tea front) it was pretty special, as night bus and sleep does not go hand in hand.

2am tea...awesome

We arrived at 7 in the morning and our room was not available yet so we decided to rent a moped and go and see some sights while we waited, as we were only staying 1 night. Yes, we were tired, but there is no kind of wake up like a fast ride al fresco styley! We drove about 15k to What Rung Khun otherwise known as the White Temple. It is this crazy modern temple (1997?) and is still being painted now. It is almost entirely white with mirrors too that make it glitter and some really modern sculpture. It also has some crazy murals such as the twin towers being crashed into and some star wars stuff and various other trippy things.


We also visited a lovely waterfall in the hope of getting a swim...no such luck after monsoon, it was bursting with water, so we stood as far away as possible and got pretty wet, which was refreshing for all of 10 minutes!


We were pretty tired after our nightbus so we had an early night, but unfortunately my alarm was set for 4.45am so we could catch the bus to the border, and catch it we did! A river crossing and a few buses later and here we are in Laos a place called Luang Nam Tha about 3 hours north east of the border of Laos and Thailand. We did plan to take a boat for two days down the Mekong but after we started to talk about it and heard that they pack people on tight (ie max copacity 80, minimum passengers in high season tending to be 100) we decided to do things differently and we've come here to do some cycling and trekking. We are in a Unesco protected area and there are lots of larger mammals to been seen if we go trekking (maybe even a tiger...?) so we shall see. After that we'll head down to Luang Prabang to immerse ourselves in all the ex-french colonialism, maybe sample a few couissons here and there, and see sone lovely temples. Then down to the capital at Vientienne and after that we shall see. We plan to reach Cambodia around the 16th of November to have a bit of time to see the place before we head to the beach with Graeme and Rachel from Abu Dhabi and Inge and Bart from the Netherlands for a week of fun (with mine and Cina's birthday in the middle!). Then it's back to Thailand and up to Chaing Mai to see the McGuire's and have a generally nice time before we fly out to Ausland! hoorah!

Our wholesome lunch

We've just had a lovely lunch, some huge bowls of soup with sticky rice for a very reasonable price and I feel sleepy now. So I'm off to see Nicholas in our air conditioned room to watch bbc news on our satellite tv and relax after excessive bus journeys before doing all our biking/trekking for the next few days! Not bad for 4 pounds! I think I'm going to like Laos!

Much love and hugs to everyone, can't wait to see you Houghs for Christmas and hopefully you Wades in the new year!xxx

Nick and Natty ... are back in India!

SO, firstly sorry for not updating sooner but the Internet in Nepal was temperamental to say the least!

Going on from our last update we did go kayaking, amazing! had such a great time and would definitely do it again. Scary as hell but its an adrenalin sport so yeah...




the trek, the 14 day base camp trek...yeah well that was too much, so we settled for 4 days. Much better, although not easy, at one point we had over 3,000 stairs to climb all in one go...nice first day that was in the driving rain too!

Luckily for us the skies cleared and we had some great views over the Himalayas, awesome. Did the trek with Bart and Inge from Holland, absolute stars.





Got back to Pokhara and the next day spent 9 hours sat in the cabin of a tourist bus to Kathmandu, the same kind that had been trying to kill us on the RR. Not fun in terms of comfort, there was no in flight entertainment, but the views were really incredible. Seems like i am repeating myself but honestly there can't be many places in the world that are more naturally beautiful, except for maybe Elland Road and the Lurpak stand...

Kathmandu drove me mad! It was find for a day, maybe two but after that the constant hassle sends you loopy! I was pretty damn glad to leave even if thta did mean heading back ot India and into the chaos of Kolkata...

Wrong again, this place is lovely. I mean there is still the gut wrenching sights of the dirt poor on the streets. A guy today may well have been dead, and nobody cared as he lay across the pavement. But i think there is something slightly different about this place. There seems to be more greenery, the Maiden in the middle of the city is a huge park, with a great big monument to Victoria. Flying in and we thought we were flying into Leeds & Bradford with rolling hills all around us, (Except that at closer inspection these hills were infact fields of palm trees )so yeah just like leeds & Bradford!

We've met a lovely Irish couple and shared a cab from the aiport, apparently there is a lovely bar with very cold beer that would be devastating to miss so we've got to pay a visit tonight. We've got 3 more days before heading to the calm and tranquility of Bangkok...hhhmmmm.

Incase you don't already have them the links to our photos are:

www.flickr.com/photos/nattyandnick

www.flickr.com/photos/nawade

Nat's are just about half way through the trek, the one of me is at 4 in the monring before heading up to the viewpoint...and mine are up to the end of the rickshaw run...when we find a mo we'll add the rest, or more, but don't hold your breath!

Love you all and hope everything is going well back home

Just an update on travel plans. We're heading to thailand,then Lao and Cambodia before heading to Oz for xmas and new year with the Hough's ( What have I done to deserve that!?!?!) then heading back to thailand for a few weeks with my mum and dad... ( What has Nat done to deserve that!??!?!!) WE'll then be heading to Korea to start work about the middle of Feb...

Much Love,

Nick
xxx

Nick and Natty finish the Rickshaw Run with all body parts still attached!

Just before we set off...

Phew...what a mental few weeks! We have made the bestest friends and had the most wonderful time! It is far too difficult to explain all that went on during those 12 days, and the few days prior and after, but here is a few high, low, and downright odd points...



Hanging with the Abu Dhabi teams the night before the big off...


1) There are lots of dogs in India.

2) There are lots of truck drivers on speed in India.

3) This means there are lots of dead, bloated smelly rotting roadkill dogs in India. It is rather the most horrible thing about the drive we did. Number 1 gross dog moment... dog eats other dog (which is dead) through other dogs bumhole. Nice.

4) We were photographed by a mental AP photographer who while riding in a car with our friend Josh in the passenger seat hit a water buffalo. Just because. We were shocked the following day to find ourselves all over the internet and in various Indian and Canadian papers (there are prob a few other countries out there too!) and in the legend that is the Metro!

5) Stayed in a tiger reserve which was closed so hence saw no tigers but did see the biggest stag with the biggest horns I have ever seen! And a load of monkeys. And we drank loads of super strong beer and had a giggle and felt awful the next morning.

6)Drove on 'highways' that would be hard pushed to be described as a dirt track! This resulted in the total obliteration of our roofrack and the need for it to be welded twice and still we returned it broken! This also caused our one and only break down in the form of a flat tyre. Luckily as we came to a stop in literally the middle of nowhere we found we were among a large group of taxi rickshaws, apparently waiting for business in the least frequented spot in India! They proceeded to change our tyre for us and refused money! This is when we realised that the Ganesh statue that was in our rickshaw when we picked it up was a magic Ganesh (he is the elephant god that represents prosperity) so we started touching it in a touch wood type manner and nothing went wrong, so thank you Ganesh!

7)Saw the 'standard' burning body in Varanasi. As you do.

8) Almost got into a brawl with a guy at a petrol station, long story but one of the yanks drove into his motorbike and broke the tail-light...wanted 150 quid for it...we refused and he picked up a brick...there were 7 of us and 1 of him, the sight of us all running towards him unsurprisingly led to him putting the brick down and accepting the 2 pounds we had been offerings.

9) Nepal - literally crossing the border and the horns stopped, the roads were cleaner and the beer was cold!

10 ) The convoy, we travelled the whole time with 3 english lads from the Abu Dhabi Team they work there and Josh and Mel from the 'Monkey Legion ' lovely couple from Mississippi and Nova Scotia, they've been working in korea and are hopefully going to get us a job!


The Abu Dhabi Green team freestyle it in their Rickshaw...

11) The drive from the Tansen ( another highlight, stayed at a hotel which overlooked the most beautiful valley scene ) to Pokhara, not only was it the last leg of the journey and everyone was all giddy, but the road was amazing. twisting and turning up through the foothills!

12) The finish Line - Seeing all the guys we'd met 2 weeks previous and hearing their stories, some of which were amazing!

Right that's enough for now, we have a briefing now for our kayaking trip, we're heading down the river, white water kayaking down to the Chitwan national park to see some tigers and elephants! we'll be back in Pokara in about a week and then we're going to trek to annapurna base camp which is 14 days and involves a pass of over 5000m...altitude sickness here we come!

hope you are all well and we'll be putting some pictures up when we get back next week!

Lots of Love,
Nick & Nat

Nick and Natty are Ready to Goa!

The sun is shining, it's bloody boiling and our Rickshaw has turned up!



We're setting off on Sunday and it's all very exciting! We had a lovely lovely lovely time the last few days, staying with Richard and Drbbie and their cutey kids in Candolim! We'll write a proper blog after the Rickshaw Run, just want to relax now and enjoy the sun before the big journey!

You can keep track of us at http://rickshawrun09a.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=ontheroad for the next 2 weeks! Us and all the other teams...we're Team Some Like It Hot!

Much love,

Nattyxxx

Nick and Natty see water, water, EVERYWHERE

By Natalie Hough Part 1 of this blog will explore water of a positive nature. But part 2 will explore the downsides of excessive hydrogen hydroxide. Part One After saying our goodbyes to Deano and Ems, Nick and I set off into the backwaters of Kerala, finding ourselves in a strange town called Alleppey. Strange in it's air of a small town, but a population of a small city! In the evening the streets were packed with people and you had to push yourself through the crowd and avoid all the young boys selling flutes. Nick noted that for every boy carrying flutes for sale of which there were atleast 100 flutes, maybe more, there were not enough children in the area to buy all the flutes. While sitting on the beach one afternoon we saw three flute-sellers all walking along within 10 metres of eachother pipping away on their flutes, (that's atleast 450 flutes in a 10 metre radius) and there were maybe at most 100 children on the beach, and that is pushing it. What's more, none of the children had flutes, and to be honest none of them looked paticularly interested and preferred to play with the kites made of recycled material on sale.

So aside from the not particularly thriving flute industry in Alleppey, there is a much more lucrative houseboat industry which we had come to the backwaters for.




We ended up using the guesthouse we were staying in to organise the houseboat just like Deano and Ems had, and their recommendation was brilliant! We looked at one other boat which was more expensive and pretty grotty! Our houseboat was lovely. We had to 2 nice men (whose names have left me I'm afraid!), one the captain and one the cook, on the boat with us. We made our way slowly through the backwaters from midday onwards watching the world go by and lolling in the sun or under the shade. In the evening we were left to our own devises as we moored by the guys village so we relaxed with a couple beers and did some fishing (or attempted to with no bait-it got pretty boring pretty quick!). The cook had promised to return to feed us at 8, but a bit after 8 his brother showed up from the boat moored next to ours saying his nephew had been taken ill and his brother had gone to get medicine, and did we mind if he cooked for us? Of course we didn't, we were grateful to be fed, and before he'd finished cooking his brother had returned with time to serve dinner up! What amazing food we had on that boat! My goodness! Definately without a doubt the best food I've had in India! I put on about a stone in 24 hrs. Our boat costs us 3000 Rs for 24 hours, which is approximately 40 quid, about all we could afford with the months left of travel we have. The boat that was moored next to us where our cooks brother worked was 80000 Rs per night, which is around 1000 pounds! No way! It had AC throughout and it was basically an amazing posh apartment on water! We slept in our comfy but sweaty room and woke at 7am just before breakfast. We had yummy omelettes and set out for Alleppey with legs dangling in the fresh backwaters and the sun on our faces! Not the worst way to wake up!

We had to spend a couple more days in Alleppey after this waiting for the day of our train's departure, with a little trepidation that our train ticket would not get us seats, as in India if you don't book well ahead for sleeper train you tend to get put on a waiting list which can be hundreds of people long. Despite this we somehow had our sleeper seats and settled in to a not so long 19 hour train journey. At this point the monsoon decided to show it's not so pretty face for real, and this leads me to part two of my story...

Part Two

With tired eyes and hopeful hearts we settled down for a wobbly (and seasicky in Nick's case) nights sleep in the sleeper, dreaming of sunny days spent on the beach in Goa, relaxing and reviving ourselves before our long and arduous journey on the rickshaw. The reality of the situation is this: we have arrived in Goa just as the monsoon has decided to really show up. For the past 3 days there have been few moments when it hasn't been raining and half the time this is not just rain, it is a downpour of torrential proportions! We rented a scooter and yesterday we ventured 40 miles away to the capital of Goa (there was no point sticking around the wind and rain whipped beach) with Nick driving through what can only be described as a natural liquid exfoliation, rain tearing at exposed flesh and blinding our eyes! I was lucky enough to have Nick's body to partially shade me but poor Nick despite our newly acquired waterproofs, was soaked to the bone all day. Despite all this we managed to look at some old Portuguese houses which are in the process of rotting to the ground, and also to visit Old Goa where all the old Portuguese churches are and where the former capital stood. It was a shockingly fun day, as once we got over the fact that we were wet and were going to stay wet it didn't really seem to matter anymore! So there you go! We plan to head up north in the next couple days to stay with a friend of Nick's cousin's husband who apparently has a nice house on the coast, so that should be nice! After that we'll return to Colva and get ready for the Rickshaw Run! Not long now! The party the night before we leave has been confirmed as a beach theme party, so I'm now trying to think of some exciting ideas to make a more original costume than just a bikini. Nick says he plans to wear his lungi, that skirt thing he bought with Deano, so maybe I need to man up for the event since my boyfriend will be the most effeminate man there. Keep your eyes peeled for pictures after the 12th... Much love and hugs to everyone, Nattyxxx

Here is a random video to illustrate the wierdness of India...this is taken outside a jewellery shop.

Nick and Natty put some pictures of Nat up cause she's feeling left out...

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 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

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