TravelStream™ news feed for member beverleywhite on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/beverleywhite en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:55:22 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1245911216/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1245911216/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1245911216/tpod.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:55:22 -0400 Kingfisher-wallahs at a glance

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Pokhara, Nepal

Hope you enjoy the glimpse of our adventures. Gary has now rejoined the group and we are 5 once again. Tomorrow (weather permitting) we fly to Jomsom to begin our 10 day trek xx

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Umariā, Madhya Pradesh, India

So Jonny arrived,
with red wine in tow,
To Calcutta this is,
and it made us all glow.

Then onto Darjeeling
via overnight bus,
didn't get much sleep,
as the horn was a fuss.

Cyclone Aila was on our tail,
Many roads were washed away,
to escape was to no avail,
so we sat it out and ate cake all day!

To Sikkim we next did go,
Into the Himalyas where we saw snow,
We may have eaten human flesh one night,
at a place called 'Snow White'

Please don't go there,
it ended in dispair.

Yuksom was next,
we did some great treks,
The leeches were bad,
they made Hana sad.

Then onto Bodhgaya,
via Patna which was dire.
We tried to meditate,
but instead we just ate.

Varanasi was dirty,
it made Hana shirty.
The Ganges was immense,
but made our tummy's tense.

We had fun boating,
until we saw dead bodies floating.
Hinduism is enlightening,
but a litle bit frightening.

We're now in Bandhavagarh,
seen six tigers so far,
have downed a bottle of gin,
hence this poem is quite grim.

Goodbye from us all,
we're now off to Nepal!
Let's go type this up,
before we sober up.

Love from us all xxxx

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Arambol, Goa, India

Ok, so firstly we should apologise for not updating this for so long. We are sorry but I'm afraid we've been having far too much fun! Sitting in a cupboard on the internet for hours hasn't really appealed to any of us..... Sorry. We will try and get you all up to date as best we can.

It seems that as soon as we left the haven of our village we all started to get struck down by illnesses. Vicky has had a mystery flu thing twice! (Although it turns out it wasn't such a mystery to Doctor Fonseca who told her she had a virus and a temperature. Booo). Bev fainted on a bus between Munnar and Madurai on Vicky's shoulder and had water thrown at her from all directions to bring her round. Scary stuff! Gary has had chronic diorreah which he eventually went to the doctor about and is on the mend at last, up to his usual tricks and Hana has had a few stomach issues of her own. ( I should point out that I (Victoria) am typing this up on behalf of Hana who is currently in bed after having a huge undigestible breakfast / throwing up on the side of the road incident! ).

The last blog mentioned that we had arrived in Munnar which was a little town up in the hills surrounded by tea plantations. We all got excited about being able to wear our coats and boots and spent our time desperately trying to use the Malayalam that we had learnt before we left Kerala. Vicky spent some of the time here in bed because of her flu but it passed quickly and we were able to move on.

After a month without a kingfisher we all ( except Bev who was still recovering from her fainting drama ) enjoyed one on the roof of our hotel in Madurai, our next stop, which went straight to our heads and led to a heated debate about the role of women in architecture. Oh what we get up to when we're drunk hey! Madurai was pretty chaotic but the temple was amazing. Crazy bright colours and even an elephant who blessed us with her trunk for a rupee. We struggled to get around it barefoot though because the stones were so hot. We had to dash from shadow to shadow looking very suspicious I would imagine. I think our feet are toughening up though. A layer of hard skin seems to be forming on our well travelled soles.

Pondicherry was the next port of call where we went over our budget enjoyiong all the amazing food. Being an old French colony this consisted of steak, croissants and the like. A welcome break at this point from the curries. It seemed to be a bit of a holiday from India in a way and as if we had entered Europe for a day or two. Its funny how there seems to be so many places like that here. There was more of this holiday atmosphere to come in Mamallapuram where Vicky, Hana and Bev had aryuvedic massages. An interesting experience to say the least! We also lived it up a bit and shared some freshly caught lobster - a first for Vicky and Bev. Mamallapuram itself was fantastic, a big temple and cave complex to explore and lots of amazing rock carvings. We took a bit of a side trip from here to a hilltop temple which had some great views and some cheeky thieving monkeys, one of which stole Vicky's water from her and bared its teeth when she tried to get it back!

We moved on from here to Mysore, via Chennai which we didn't stop in. We got a fancy overnight bus with pretty much fully reclining seats and blankets and everything. A bit of a change from the usual buses that we get! It even had proper big windows without bars. We forked out for a/c (mostly through an accident of mis-communication!) but Vicky and me were sitting above the engine and so it made no difference whatsoever. Rubbish! We arrived in Mysore at about 6.30 in the morning and spent ages wandering around, laden down by our big backpacks, looking for somewhere to stay because everywhere seemed to be fully booked. We were at the point of giving up when we stumbled upon a cafe serving good masala dosas (basically a type of indian pancake filled with potato curry) that had a hotel attached. When we arrived they said they were full but by some miracle, some of the people that they must have known were going to check out actually checked out and by the time we had finished we had two rooms. Result! After a much needed shower we wandered around Mysore, went to an art gallery and to the market where we got ushered into a perfume shop by a very "charming" salesman who said he had friends all over Europe! Who were we to argue when he knew such classic phrases as "cheap as chips" and "alright guvnor"!! After some chai and testing quite a few fragrances we left with a couple of bottles, smelling a little better but slightly disgusted by his confession that he likes to go to Goa to take photos of the topless women. As you can imagine, we weren't impressed!
We saw the spectacle that was Mysore palace lit up with 100,000 lightbulbs and got crushed as we walked around it the next day by the hoards of indian tourists who don't push, they just shove.The next day we got out of the city and escaped to a little town called Sravanbelangola ( I think ). Here we climbed up to hilltop temples and gate-crashed a wedding. All in a days work! From there we went to a couple of smaller places, a bit off the beaten track to see some more fantastic temples and we managed to meet up with Woody. We stayed a night in a place called Hassan where I had to sleep on the floor amongst the many many cockroaches. It was awful and we unsurprisingly didn't stay there for a second night!

After all the hectic rushing around to see everything, we came to a bit of a halt in Hampi where there is an amazing landscape strewn with ruined temples and palaces. So much to see and we had a great time exploring and enjoying the best banoffi pie we've ever tasted ( so good in fact that we went back to have it three times! Shameful I know but you would understand if you had tasted it ). Unfortunately it was at this point that Gary got really sick and spent the majority of our time here in bed. At least we were in a good place to be able to do that I suppose. When he was able to move again we made our way to Goa which is where we are now, soaking up the portuguese atmosphere in Panjim and enjoying the beautiful sandy beaches in Arambol.

Promise to update this again a bit more frequently in future.

Hana ( with a little help from Vicky! )
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1240413360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1240413360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1240413360/tpod.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:50:07 -0400 Kingfisher-wallahs at a glance

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Munnar, Kerala, India

Hello the world out there!! Our time with the tribal people is no more. There will be no more tribal singing and dancing and certainly no more tribal comedy acted out in kerosene lamp light on the veranda of our wonderful ridge top house whilst we watch fireflies flashing away, though they kind of look like LED light and are a little disappointing when you see them and their shiny bottom up close. There will be no more crab hunting along the lake with the energetic Manoji-kudi (baby) or have your name shouted out whilst washing out clothes with Super-GS washing soup (which smells slightly like mud but makes up for it by having a cool name) at the lake seconds before the water explodes ten meters into the air from the fish bomb the locals sometimes illegally use to stun the fish, which was exciting. Lastly there will be no more need to hide back up in our house because we don't want to present the local communist candidate flowers when he came round for his election rally.

We had the most amazing night for Kunjama (Victoria)'s birthday when Merely(lord of the dance) and Manoj dressed up in coconut leafs as per the tribal way and danced our night away to tribal songs and drumming. Was also fun for myself (gary) to climb a tree after Manoj only to get stage fright coming back down and needed much help, and have the incident filmed by Vicky... We have also given up on Volleyball because the locals are just too good and having caused my team to lose a few times has finally put me off. As my mentor told me, when I practice I am Kolam (good) but in a match I am Kolam-ila (not good) ... Nachimoni (Bev)'s obsession with dogs has sadly not gone away after having a puppy (Jimmy) and an old dog follow us around for our 4 week stay as she predicted it would. There is a path dubbed the puppy way with more puppys for her to play with en-route even though the puppy way is also the ant way... And milk tea (pan-chia) has become our new favourate drink with a small tea shop being the place to be as they do real milk!! and amazing savory donutty things.

But anyways I am losing myself. We worked hard!! (kind of...) We built 2 toilets, 1 for the clinic and 1 for Merely, Lord of the dance. Finished off another 3, 1 of which is for a lady who does amazing black coffee with cardamom. Gave the insides of the clinic and complete paint job and finished Anil Marmoon (uncle)'s foundation for his new house so he can get married when its done!! The fact that we hired many stone masons and helpers and carpenters as well doesn't mean we stood around and watched at all... :) The fact that I will remember village life for sitting on top of the ridge on the rocky outcrop watching the sunset over the Western Gats and lake/stars/lightening doesn't mean we had it too good at all... :)

Sorry for the random order of the post but we only left this morning and civilization (we had chicken in a restaurant with cutlery!!) needs time to settle in my head. We are in Munnar now, a town surrounded by tea plantations and rolling mountains and mist. Which is nice if you like scenery and that kind of things. :)

Will post photos soon.

Gary/Rengachami.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1238949000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1238949000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1238949000/tpod.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:15:57 -0400 Kingfisher-wallahs at a glance

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Kozhimale, India

So, after a very relaxing few days in Fort Kochi we jumped into Nitins car and headed into the mountains. We are now staying in a village called Kozhimale with the Mannan Tribe and are throwing ourselves into tribal life.
We have all been given tribal names so have all been getting a bit confused when introducing ourselves to people around the village. Especially Bev who's English name also seems to have changed to Kimberley!! Not sure she's too pleased about that! Her Tribal name is Nachamani, Vicky's is Kunjamma, Hana's is Velachi and Gary's is Rangashami.

We are staying in a house built by one of the previous volunteers and its fantastic, very simple with no running water or electricity but its surrounded by palm trees and it ( and the whole village ) is beautiful. We are being very well looked after by two guys called Manoj and Anil as well as a lady called Laxmi-amma and another called Sindhu. In the mornings before work we collect water from the well at the bottom of the hill and carry it back up in metal pots balanced on our heads. Its really hard and we are the cause of much hilarity for the villagers! We are still carrying the smallest ones and always get pretty wet but hopefully with a bit of determination we will be able to carry the big ones by the end. We usually have a long lunch which invloves curry and a nap (much to Rangashami's disgust!) and work for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Not sure this is exactly what we need to do if we want to meet our targets so this may have to change. After work we sometimes have a quick game of volleyball with some of the village and embarrass ourselves by screaming in pain everytime we ( or I at least!) hit the ball. Then we head back to the house and help with "curry making" and attempt to learn some more Malayalam to make communications a bit easier. We are getting to grips with it slowly and have picked up quite a few useful words and phrases that we use on a daily basis. The most popular one is Vegham Vegham (FASTER FASTER!!).

So far we have managed to get the walls of two toilets up and have dug the foundations for Anil's house which means we are a bit behind schedule but we should be ok. This week, while we are waiting for the stones for Anil's house we are going to repaint the medical centre but first it has to be scrubbed down with a coconut husk. A messy but very satisfying job! We are in the village for another couple of weeks and will then head off on the next leg of our adventure. We are making the plans just now so will let you know as soon as we do.

Vicky
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1237826160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1237826160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beverleywhite/1/1237826160/tpod.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:17:30 -0400 Kingfisher-wallahs at a glance

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Kochi, India

Finally managed to book a train ticket to Ernakulum, Kerala but it meant firstly going back to Mumbai to pick up the connection. Jumped in a taxi...Poon was not fooled by the smudge mark on the meter and bargained a fair price. The taxi driver reversed back to give us our delicious curry crisps gary had 'forgotton' - just can't seem to get rid of those things! 27 hour train journey was relaxing...we slept, read and ate a lot (though Hana was still hungry!) Chai was very very good!

Met by Nitin and Joseph at the station and jumped into a luxurious 4x4 with a/c and suspension! Arriving into Fort Kochi was like leaving India and entering a European stryle holiday resort. The amount of tourists was quite a shock! But we soon overcame it by relaxing into the easy going way of life - this was aided by finding a few cheeky Kingfishers. We have certainly indulged here and tasted just about all the chocolate cake in town! Last night we cooked a delicious Kerela fresh fish dinner (well actually Tresa cooked and we mostly watched in awe, taking in all the fantastic aromas and after a couple of attempts Vikki suceeded in creating a pretty good Chapati). We took plenty of notes and step by step pictures so hopefully when we return we will be able to recreate something similar!

We hope to leave behind the swarm of mosquitos that Kochi is famous for. Though we are armed with incense coils and cockroach spray just in case... however these are small measures compared to the electrified badminton rackets that we've been playing with in our homestay - Switch it on and wave it about and a satisfying spark will send a mossie spiralling to the ground like a shot down fighter plane. The game of course is to try and make it spark multiple times before it hits the ground.

We sign off now as we prepare to head off into the mountains tomorrow where we will no longer have the luxury of electricity and running water. We get our full briefing on the project tomorrow, though we were told when we arrived the priorty may be to build the King's house. Wonder if he'll be like King Jullian!!

Hope everyone is well xxxx
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Pune, Maharashtra, India

We arrived in Mumbai last Tuesday, a week ago today. After spending a great few days getting to know the city and seeing all it has to offer we foolishly decided to go to the Konkan coast. This seemed like a very good idea and continued to seem so for the whole time we were lying in the hammocks by the beach. We were staying in bamboo huts in a little town called Murud where there was an amazing fort on an island and an even more amazing (or perhaps not so much for Hana!) boat ride to it! As the sails unfolded Hana and Vicky were almost knocked off the side by it and were watched by a gleeful Gary and Bev (+ a boat full of Indians) who sat and laughed. However, the tables were soon turned as the boat did and the sail moved to the other side. Getting onto and off of the island proved to be tricky as the gateway was a bottleneck filled with indian tourists pushing each other pretty much into the sea. It was a funny experience.
The problems really began when we tried to leave this place. We had just settled into a very slow pace and were expecting a reasonably easy trip down to Mangalore on the train. This did not prove to be as easy as it sounds. After a very bumpy bus journey (the roads are not paved and the bus had no suspension) we arrived at a train station and attempted to get tickets. When told we couldn't get any we had a very quick change of plan and decided to come to Pune instead. This involved getting another bus, this time for 5 hours, in the heat and big backpacks with nowhere for them to go. Luckily we were looked after by two lovely indian men who took pity on us, especially when Hana was sick out of the window while the bus was still moving causing alarm for many locals who looked on in horror as the oncoming traffic approached. In the end though we arrived in one piece with new knowledge such as the popularity of Harry Potter throughout India. You learn something new every day! Also we now know that we need to book train tickets in advance. This second piece of information might be more useful to us than the first in the months to come.
We are now in Pune fighting with the tuk-tuk drivers and with tickets to Kochi in our hands, although this means a back track to Mumbai. An eventful first week.
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