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Pokhara, Nepal

Ok first of all sorry for not doing this sooner. I said in my lastentry you might not hear from me for a few weeks but it's been threemonths - whoops!So, the Annapurna Trek. This wassomething I had wanted to do since, well since I flicked through myNepal Lonely Planet while in Goa looking at what to do next. I'd neverheard of it but once the word Annapurna was in my vocabulary I heard itagain and again from other travellers who had done it or were about todo it. My regret of not writing this up sooner is that this accountwill not do the experience I had justice.At theslide show in Kathmandu I met an Aussie guy Glenn who was a bit olderthat me but was also going to do the trek. We had a beer after the showwith the presenter and pretty much decided to do the trek together in afew days time. I spent that time in Thamel (the backpacker district ofKathmandu) gathering up the bits and pieces I would need for the trek.That included a sleeping bag, a down jacket (for serious warmth on coldnights), thermal underwear, gloves, a hat, iodine tablets (to purifywater) and several other items I would have failed to take had I notdone the slide show!I met up with Glenn at 6am on thefirst morning and we got a mini van to Besisahar where the trek began.It was a tough five hour drive along the Kathmandu-Pokhara road. As the main road in the country you would think it would at least be a dual carriagewayor something! In fact it was a windy road following rivers and hadcrazy lorry drivers and crazier minibus drivers. We saw a few wrecks onthe way and quickly realised road safety or the lack of it was aserious problem here.The last hour of the journey weturned off the main road and the new menace was local children who werestopping each vehicle with ropes straddling the road and demandingmoney to pass. It was Diwali, the Hindu/Sikh festival of light, and stopping cars like thiswas a festival tradition. Our driver was ready for this and had smalldenomination notes to pay off the kids each time. We arrived inBesisahar and transferred into a jeep which took us along a mud road tothe start of the hike. We were in the the locals now and one womanacross from me was comforting a chicken who didn't like the bumpy driveand much preferred having his head buried into the woman's lap. Glennand I elected to get out of the jeep about 10 minutes before ourarrival and walk the remainder since the ride was not fun at all! That10 minutes was the only walk we did on day one as we arrived at a teahouse around 4pm and dropped our bags and booked in for the night. Itwas excellent to get out of the polluted Kathmandu and into the pureHimalayan air. I enjoyed the last beer I would have for a few weeks here... sob. The Annapurna trek is a 250km trek through theAnnapurna mountain range. Most people aim to do it 18 days or so and Ihad an open mind about how long it would take me! The beauty of thetrek is the mixed landscapes and the local villages dotted along thetrail. There are no cars here. That jeep we just took would be the lastcar I saw for weeks and that was a glorious thing. The first landscapesare the sub-2000 metre altitude green slopes and rice fields. As thedays go on the land changes into rocky slopes and the trees start tothin out. Then as you go above 3000 metres the snow topped mountainsdominate the sky and let you know you're at the top of the world. Altitudesickness is a very real problem on the trek. The high point of the trekis the Thorung La Pass which at 5,500 metres is seriously high - twothirds the height of Everest. You can't rush this trek, if you doyou'll get nausea, start very ill and if you don't descend quicklycould die. Plenty of people get sick like this and sadly several dieeach year doing this trek. The thing you are told most of all is listento your body. If you're getting headaches, slow down. There is muchtemptation to plod on regardless especially if you're in a group, butthat seems to be where most people get in to trouble - going on toplease the group. At 3500 metres, in one of the larger villages,Manang, a charity group give daily lectures on this very subject. Thereare doctors stationed here who look after people who fall ill but arerightly more intent on preventing altitude sickness. Each daywe would get up early, trek four hours or so before having an earlylunch around 11am then trek for another 2-4 hours before settling downfor the night at a tea house for the night. Many people had guides orporters or both. Glenn and I just had ourselves and our guide books.After a few days we would meet the same trekkers time and time again soafter a week or so we were operating as a group of eight. A Dutchcouple, Willem and Ramona, another Aussie Karl, An English guy calledTariq, An American called August and his Canadian girlfriend Nathalie.Then there was a nice older Scottish couple, the guy did the whole trekin a kilt! The Aussie Karl was the tightest arse I have ever met. He ate once a day to save money and only drank stream water. When eating at the tea houses you are given extra portions until you refuse. Karl took the piss a bit here and what started as looking like a healthy appetite turned into eating with gusto, then the obscene. It was embarrassing watching these poor local people feeding this guy bucket fulls of rice. I clashed with Karl a few times and since I tend not to clash with people I can only say it was his fault. Other than that our group was an excellent one and it was a privilege to trek with them all. Food was usually Dhal Bat. This is a simple nationaldish of rice, lentils, chutney and the odd extra thrown in. It wasn'tparticularly inspiring but nutritionally excellent for trekking. Pricesrose each day as all the ingredients had to be walked the increasing distances by porters.Trekking gives employment all throughout the region but is not the onlyactivity here. It was amazing watching the local Nepalese getting onwith their lives. You would often walk past great trains of donkeysdoing the trail packed with supplies for the villages. Kids would beselling mandarin oranges - they tasted great. There was a real feelgood factor along the trail. All the trekkers were friendly and thelocals very tolerant and welcoming to us. The tea houses usually had nohot water (or pretty bad solar water set-ups) and huts or very simple wooden rooms to sleep in. There wasno heating and your water bottle would often start to ice up by morningtime. In the evenings the people staying in the tea house gatheredaround the fire in the dining area and talked until 7.30pm. If youweren't in bed by 8pm you were some sort of party animal! The local people along the trail are a delight. This children havenothing but are as smiling and friendly as you could imagine. I've hadsome amazing insights into their lives on this trek. I've seen porterscarrying loads of 80-100 kgs, too much for me to even lift off theground. I saw one porter carrying a sackful of fresh meat that wasdripping blood all over the place. They walk bear foot, in all weathersand from age 15-70. There are Buddhist features everywhere. There arethe monasteries, Mani walls, prayer wheels, prayer flags and whitestone monuments things called Chortons. You have to keep these onyour right as you go by in order to show respect. The villages go fromwooden shacks in the lower regions to medieval looking stone buildingsbuilt to last in the desperately cold winters. They burn wood, or yakdung or anything to keep warm but since there are no trees higher upwood has to be lugged up by porters too. Igot Giardia. This is a nasty little bug that gives you the runs andmore alarmingly really stinky eggy belches. This bug seems immune toour water purification tablets and I wasn't the only person to get it.Fortunately someone's guide had the one-dose treatment for it and I wasgood to go after a day or two. The Maoists hit us at around2500 metres on about day four. They are a political group who aretrying to get legitimate involvement in the Nepalese parliament. Ithink they are no better than terrorists. They come to the treks toextort money out of tourists. The cash they take goes not into pushingforward their political goals but on gambling and alcohol. Admittedly Iwould spend it on those things too but hey I'm the one who earned it!We argued with them for a while but knew there was no point riskingthings getting ugly. Eventually we handed over about 10 pounds each andwent on our way. The Annapurna circuit is a loop. At halfwaycomes the Thorung La pass which is also the highest point on the trekand the thing everyone is talking about in the days preceding it. A fewdays before I was due to attempt it I started getting knee problems.This was really common and I was able to get enough ibuprofen to stopthe pain if not the inflammation. We were at a place called Manang -where they do the altitude lectures and I decided it would be better ifI spent an extra day there before continuing. This would also help meacclimatise to the thinner air. Glenn was happy to do the same as itmeant he could go explore some local Buddhist points of interest whileI sat in the tea house all day reading.  That delay meant thatTariq was a full day ahead of us and by the time we got to ThorungPhedi (a tiny outpost you stay at before doing the pass) he was goingover the pass himself. That afternoon we saw him return and lookingcompletely broken. He was being helped down the path by some othertrekkers and literally fell into a room where he slept for hours. Hehad been just 200 metres from the pass when he starting being violentlysick and did the right thing in coming straight down. During thatevening I took him tea and soup and kept an eye on him. There was noway he was going to be able to go over the following day with ourlittle group so his only option was to go back the way he came. Idecided I would accompany him as it seemed he needed help especially ifhe was recovering from altitude sickness. I didn't want to missout on the pass though, so the following morning I got up at 5am withGlenn, Willem, Ramona, August and Nathalie and we set off over thepass. It was first light and the path was visible. Hours earlier othertrekkers had gone up in darkness with only torch light. This wasbecause today is easily the most demanding of the trek and people worrythat they won't get over the pass and down the other side by nightfall. Unlucky for them I think since they missed some of the bestsights of the trek. About half an hour after we started Nathalie andAugust were already far behind and had stopped and we got concernedabout them. August shouted up to us that they were turning back so wewere down to four! We were walking through snow at this point and itfeeling like proper mountaineers. In all fairness that's what we werefor a few hours at least - only mountaineers would ever be this highup. The reasonable pace we had set in the days leading up to this paiddividends as I was feeling good. We were taking it slow and enjoyingthe majesty of it all. At around 10am we reached the summit and it wasa glorious thing to be up there having talked about this point for twoweeks solid! There was a total sense of achievement and I loved it. Ihad trekked without my main pack for the last few hours so probablyenjoyed it a bit more than the others. I had left my main pack down atThorung Phedi with Tariq so it was time for me to say goodbye to Glenn,Willem and Ramona and head back the way I had come. It was ashame I didn't do the whole loop but I didn't regret anything. As Idescended I passed people who were on their final ascent and it wasgreat to tell them how close they were to the top. I passedthe kilted Scotsman and to my delight August and Nathalie had rest ed briefly at Thorung Phedi and decided to give it another go. They were inmuch better shape now and completed the pass no problem. Back at thetea house I went and discussed the next few days plan with Tariq. Wewould spend four days trekking back the way we came to an air-strip atHomde. There we would hustle our way on to a plane and fly into Pokharaand get there in time to meet the others. Tariq got his strength backafter a couple of days and became certain that it was probably astomach infection and not altitude sickness that had caused histrouble. Still, he did the right thing by coming down and not ascendinghigher because we were told to always assume it is altitude sicknessand err on the side of caution. Walking back the way we came was just as awesome as one the way up. Theviews are mind-blowing and I feel lucky to have seen them twice now! Wegot to Homde after some serious trekking - 30 kilometers on one day. Wewere gutted to find out there were no seats to Pokhara. There are onlythree flights a week and they were all booked taking locals downto spend winter in the larger towns. That meant Tariq and I had to trek anotherfour or five days back to the complete start of our trek! Oh man thatidea took some getting used to. Still, stiff upper lip as we continued ondown. This fast descending was having two effects on me. Firstly theextra oxygen in the air is like a having a high energy caffeine drinkevery half an hour! Secondly, my knees were having a torrid time. We eventually got to a road and got a rocky four-hour jeep ride back toBesisahar. Besisahar is a crappy little town but to us it was like areturn to civilization! We got a hot shower and even had a TV in ourhotel room! We spent the night recovering and caught a five hour localbus back to Pokhara the following morning. Pokhara was a new town for me - very pleasant place with plenty of goodrestaurants to while away the days. I caught up with Glenn, Willem,Ramona, August and Nathalie and we spent time together going over theprevious three weeks over beers. It's been a truly amazing experience. I'm sorry my blog entry has beena bit long and windy and not entirely in correct chronological order.Now have a look at my photos and see I wasn't lying about the views! One last thing, Glenn, Willem, Ramona and I all took a bus back to Kathmandu from Pokhara. That journey was supposed to be five hours but ended up being thirteen. Somewhere along the line a child had been killed by a truck and the locals were arguing with the driver about compensation. They set up a road block and did not let anyone pass until the situation was resolved. We didn't know whether we would get back that night and heard further along the queuing traffic some people had already spent a night waiting in their cars. We were relieved when the traffic finally started to move - I had a flight back to India the next morning and then a following flight back to London - which is where this blog finishes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1194323760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1194323760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1194323760/tpod.html Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:26:29 -0500 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Kathmandu, Nepal

After a good 36 hours and an uncomfortable night in transit in Delhi I arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday morning. It felt good being out of India. While I definitely liked India I didn't quite fall in love with the place like so many others do. I found that the hassle factor was ever present and even though I'm used to Asia in that respect it still was a bother.Kathmandu seems busy, hectic but more chilled out than any of the cities in India. I spoke to guy in a bar the other night who put it well... "in Kathmandu you either get travellers who have just arrived from India and think it's bliss or you get them come in straight from home who think it's a nightmare". Walking down the main streets in Thamel is fun where the rule of the road is "see a space and go for it" and that includes cars, cycles and pedestrians.I already mentioned the pub where I watched my first premiership action in ages - Man Utd drawing away to Arsenal. I spoke to a few other travellers but didn't find a likely candidate to join me on a long trek in the Annapurna mountain range. I did a bit of sight seeing the next morning through Durbar Square and went back to the same pub in the evening with a French girl I'd met at the airport.On Monday night I attended a slide show presentation by an experienced trekker which concentrated on the Annapurna ranges. I'm tempted to go it alone and hire a guide for the duration but we'll see. His show was great so I'm going back tonight to see the Everest Base Camp trek show. Talking of Everest, I had a terrific morning this morning. Up at 5.30am, at the airport for 6.30 where I boarded a small plane that did a loop around the Everest mountain range. As soon as we were through the clouds above Kathmandu you could see the range and it looked truly awesome. The plan had two columns of seats only so everyone got a window seat. As we flew parallel to the range I was sitting on the worse side but I waited patiently knowing my turn would come. Just before we turned around at the head of the range Everest itself came into view. I was invited up inside the cockpit where the co-pilot showed me the main event through the front windows. It was fantastic. As I re-took my seat the plane turned around and I got a great view all the way back. It's one of those things where you can't stop taking photos but hey I'm sure I'll only see it once. Just for the record, Everest's peak is on the left of photos 7 and 9. There are 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the world in Nepal which is why it doesn't quite look peerless from these shots!Lots of people do the base camp trek but I suspect it's a lot of snow, and if you don't get above the clouds you might not see the summit anyway. I'm busy today sorting out this Annapurna trek. If I do the entire circuit it will take three weeks so don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193558700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193558700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193558700/tpod.html Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:36:22 -0500 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Goa, India

We took an internal flight from Delhi to Goa which turned out to be both cheap (30 quid) and very good quality for a budget airline. The plane wasn't full and took just over 2 hours to arrive in Goa. Goa is to be Tom's one week beach holiday before flying back to Dublin and his new job there. I'm not going to complain about chilling on the beach for a week either so this place is perfect. First stop after the airport was Palolem. It's a good hour away and we took a pre-paid taxi ticket and found a driver. As soon as we were in his car he was trying to talk us out of Palolem (it's full of Israelis he would warn) and suggested one much closer. I'm sure it's so that he gets a full fare for a short journey so we disregarded his comments. When we arrived in Palolem he was after a tip and we politely told him to get lost. Palolem is a bit touristy to say the least but we found some beach front accomodation and went out for a few beers. The bar was lively and we considered going on to a club afterwards but when we left the bar later on the street had turned into a ghost town so we returned to our digs disappointed.Up the road from Goa is Agonda a much quieter place described as the undiscovered Gem of South Goa. We rented a motorbike to go and check it out before carting our bags up there by rickshaw. It was just what we were looking for and we've set up shop in one of a nice set of three beach side bungalows owned by a nice local family.Swimming is good fun here and the waves give you something to think about as they crash over the top of you hurling you towards the sand beneath. Our neighbours are nice people and we've settled in nicely.There are lots of hippy-types in Goa. They look ridiculous and look just as out of place here as they do walking down the high street at home. Tom and I call them EIBs (Elite India Backpackers) whereas we are CWBs (Common Western Backpackers). I've already read two books here which is pretty much my annual quota. We'll be here until thursday I guess.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193126640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193126640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193126640/tpod.html Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:05:25 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Delhi, India

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]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193039100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193039100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1193039100/tpod.html Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:04:07 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Agra, India

So my alarm went of at 5am and I got us up and out of the hotel at 5.30am. We aimed to be at the gates of the Taj Mahal by sunrise and we were. The gates offically open at 6am and we were second in the queue! That was a result as we'd often heard that the volume of people visiting can make the whole thing a bit of a circus. Still the doors opened and it was eerily quite as the first few visitors went in. We turned a corner and saw the magnificent sight of the Taj Mahal for the first time. It really was awesome and we started snapping almost immediately. Walking along the gardens up to the tomb we realised we were the very first punters so we took off our shoes and entered the building. Tom and I were alone inside and you could here a haunting echo of the wind as we walked around the interior.Back outside and the place was filling up but you can't really be distracted from the sight of the Taj Mahal. It was a real highlight of the trip and much better than I expected.Later that day we took a train to Delhi. We seemed to have bought the cheapest tickets possible and were faced with the prospect of a long journey in an over-crowded cabin. As the first few unreserved cabins went past we could see they were already full to bursting. A porter who had been annoying us with his offers of finding us a better seat suddenly seemed like a good bet. He found a ticket inspector from the 2nd Class Air-Conditioned cabins and we were ushered in to a much nicer space. We had to pay "Baksheesh" of 100 rupees to the porter and 400 rupees to the ticket inspector but it was worth it.At New Delhi train station we found our way down the main bazaar easily and got installed at a cheapy hotel for the night. We had a long day so went to get some beers in a crowded bar. We had a table to ourselves with a spare seat - the bar staff sat down two people with us during the night. First was Ricky, an Australian traveller who has been there and done everything so we let him do all the talking till he had to leave for his train and the second guy was a much more entertaining Spaniard who had already had a few by the time we met. We discussed the Grand Prix of the previous night and all relevant football issues between Spain and England before staggering back to the hotel.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192952220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192952220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192952220/tpod.html Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:45:03 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Jaipur, India

We didn't want to hang around in Jaipur since we're more interested on getting to Agra. But we decided to do the lonely planet's suggested walking tour which started near the train station. It wasn't such a good idea and we didn't really enjoy the walk in the hot sun. We did manage to get a good breakfast in a nice hotel though.The bus station was a sight and we managed to get on a non-air conditioned bus which would take all afternoon to get to Agra. We stopped in a half-way service station where an indian bloke followed me in to the toilets just so that he could hand me some paper towels to dry my hands. This practice which seems to be getting more popular in British public houses and night clubs (men of usually African descent hang around in loos with paper towels and cologne in the hope of a few coins) has found its way to Rajasthan. I'm used to fobbing the UK guys off so this chap's half-hearted effort stood no chance. He followed me back out and only went back in there when Tom decided to go take a leak (having ignored scores of Indians).In Agra we were suspiciously dropped off some way away from the centre and not-suprisingly there were auto-rickshaw drivers on hand to take us the remainder. One of the auto-rickshaw drivers even boarded the bus as it stopped to tell us all that this was as far as it went for tourists. I'm starting to get weary of all the scamming but hey-ho. We found a nice hotel and I got my wish and we found a bar that was showing the Formula 1 Grand Prix- no joy for Lewis but we watched the race in the company of an amiable Spaniard who was also disappointed that his own countryman did not take the title.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192885980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192885980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192885980/tpod.html Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:53:54 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Udaipur, India

Tom and I left Diu a little sad to be leaving. It was a great place a bit off the tourist trail (cos it's such a git to get to) and we knew we could have spent much longer there. Still, onward ever onward!We took a night bus back to the hub-town of Ahmedabad. The bus journey was another horror though. It wouldn't start so most of the customers had to get out and help push the few times we stopped! The road was very bumpy and over one bump Tom and I literally hit the ceiling - the driver didn't slow down at all and both our heads crashed into the roof. That only sent us flying back down and our backs and backsides got the brunt of it. We were in a sleeper cabin trying to get some shut-eye at the time. I didn't sleep any of the twelve hours and arrived in Ahmedabad in a zombie-like trance. We planned to spend the day waiting in our favourite hotel for a night-train bound for Udaipur. I was too tired though for the swimming and lounging and had to check into a cheapy hotel around the corner for a bit of day-time sleep catch up. The train to Udaipur was much more comfortable, the sleeper cabins are really nice so I managed to catch up with my sleep eventually.Udaipur is a sizable town, we could sense that there was lots going on and that it was definitely on the tourist trail. Lots of markets, touts and noise. We found a small guest house called Soni Paying Guest house and settled in for a few days. There is quite a lot to see around, the town is wrapped around a beautiful lake and Bond fans will have seen it and it's floating hotel before in the movie Octopussy. The bars and restaurants therefore play the movie every night so we were sure not to miss it.The Hindu festival of Navratti was on so during the evenings the main bazaar turns into a splash of colour and music and the locals get excited with lots of dancing. On one dance all the eligible men and women form two circles (men on one side and women on the other both facing each other). The music starts and the circles rotate so that everyone faces each other for a moment or two. To music the couples hit their sticks and basically check each other out. Think of speed-dating to music. It was fun to watch with a beer from one of the many roof-top restaurants.We took an auto rickshaw for the day but the driver seemed more interested in showing us his craft factory which was a sweatshop in the suburbs. He really got on my nerves, one of the classic scams was unfolding before my eyes and I just wanted to sight-see. Basically they impress you with the quality of their goods but then lament at the lack of a route to the European market where the goods can fetch their "true" prices. The trouble was, the quality was bad and I wasn't falling for it. He was keen to tell me how expensive everything was - "I paid 80,000 rupees for this, and 2,000 rupees for that" he would say. "So how come you've hired yourself out to us for 300 rupees for the day then?" was the question in my mind. He whisked us round the sights eventually but I was glad to get rid of the pest in the end.I enjoyed the few days in Udaipur, mainly because we took things easy, the 75ish year old guest house owner was a total gent, and the food was great. Next up is a push on through to Agra and the Taj Mahal.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192169460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192169460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192169460/tpod.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:47:37 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Ahmedabad, India

Ahmedabad looked ok from the guide book but was a bit of a miserable town. What is more the state of Gujurat is a dry state - Ahmedabad even has a prohibition centre! We had to spend the whole day there before catching a night bus to a place in the South of Gujurat. We dumped our bags on a temporary basis at a budget hotel and went to find breakfast. We found a top-end hotel with a great restaurant and ate a good meal there. The place also had a great swimming pool and another high class restaurant so we just kicked back and spent the day in the posh place which was a welcome barrier to the hectic pace of life in the city. Our evening meal was a Gujurati speciality - the Thalis. We had very small portions of all sorts of nice spicy treats. The waiters came and kept topping up everything. They even brought warm water for us to wash hands first. Everything was eaten by sweeping up food with chapati and paratha bread. It was excellent.Our night bus left from a different part of town and we were the only tourists in town it seemed. The bus was non-ac and we had two bunks that were suspended above another four seats with other passengers in them. As we got farther from Ahmedebad the roads deteriorated and it I found it impossible to sleep with all the bouncing around. Worse was to come! Even though we stopped several times for the bathroom I had a sudden attack of stomach cramps and reached for the immodium! I had to get the bus to stop so I got out of my bunk and headed down the front of the bus. The driver kindly stopped and I scampered off barefoot into the wilderness. I came back a much better man I can tell you!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192515720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192515720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192515720/tpod.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:40:34 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Diu, India

We arrived in Diu at around 7am. I had only managed two hours sleep but was feeling ok and no more stomach cramps which was good. Diu is a tiny island of about 25,000 people and sounded pretty amazing from the guide book. Portuguese influence is very strong here and the place is very chilled out compared to Mumbai and Ahmedabad. We booked into the Sao Tome Retiro guest-house whose owner was described as "Cruisy". I'd guessed that meant camp and George and Ricky didn't disappoint! The reason we'd picked that one was not the effeminate hosts but because it was in an old church with excellent views around the island - have a look at the photos.At the guest house we met up with a few other travelers which was good since we hadn't really spoken to anyone else yet. Diu is separate from the main state of Gujurat  and is allowed to sell alcohol. The Gujurati people know this as well so there are regular trips made here by the Indian people looking for a bit of a piss up! I really like Diu, so we're going to stay here a few days. Our room is tiny with no AC and costs 20 times cheaper than our Mumbai hotel! Ricky said we could upgrade once a few people check out but we might just keep it and spend the difference on beer.We have spent the last three nights kicking back and enjoying the surroundings and relative tranquility here. Diu is one of the few places tourists are recommended to hire motorbikes so we did that and have been exploring all over the island. Tom and I got cut-throat shaves yesterday and I got told that a bald head meant prosperity! Excellent news!This morning we set off to a fishing village on the island, it was just as the sun was coming up and the boats had just docked and were unloading their catches. We saw dozens of varieties of fish and lobsters and manta rays too. The whole place stank! There were teams of women working to wash and sort the fish out. It was a kind of organised chaos and I thought that these people must do this job every single day of their lives. I really enjoyed looking around and the people didn't seem to mind us taking photos.Diu has been the first place we've mixed with some other travellers and that has been good. The food has been brilliant and I will miss Diu. Tonight we leave for Ahmedabad again and then on to Rajasthan.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192085760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192085760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/poolman99/india-2007/1192085760/tpod.html Sun, 14 Oct 2007 03:22:36 -0400 South Asia for Dummies - My trip to India and possibly Nepal if I get there!

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Mumbai (Bombay), India

In an attempt to cut down the pages of minutae I'm going to be posting one blog entry per place rather than per day (though you still may have to read about mealtimes and toilet visits!)I'm travelling with my old buddy Tom for the first half of seven weeksin India. My parents dropped us off at Heathrow for 9am and we arrivedin Mumbai a while after midnight local time. I'd heard a few storiesabout rats in the terminal and hordes of people waiting outside to mobyou with taxi offers but we found a pre-paid taxi with minimal fuss andwere on our way to the hotel in Colaba district very soon. The taxi journey was45 mins and we traveled through slum areas and saw literally hundredsof people trying to make a night's sleep in doorways, under cars on topof concrete walls everywhere really. It was dark and a bit intimidatingbut the hotel was a fancy one (by Indian standards) for our first few nights so we got a goodnight's sleep after a day in the air.Daytime transformed thesurrounding area into a vibrant market area full of life and a fewtourists too. We walked to the Gateway to India - a big monumentmarking a Royal visit by George V and Queen Mary. We were too late toget a ferry to Elephanta island so we went on a walk across town. Therereally is some impressive old buildings and the roads are all linedwith nice trees. The overall feeling is a charming bustling warts andall town.We stumbled across the Brabourn cricket stadium and wemanaged to get inside and look around. People were having drinks ontables on the outfield so Tom and I grabbed a table in the hope ofgetting served. Things were going well until the waiter asked for ourmembership numbers and we were soon on our way out. A short walk fromthe we say the main bay area which was very pretty and hazy in theearly evening light.That evening we found the traveler's institution of Leopolds and had some cold beers and garlic naan before heading to bed.Thursdayand we went to Elephanta Island which turned out to be a litter strewndisappointment. There were some nice sculpted caves but it wasn'tparticularly impressive. It took an hour each way by boat so itswallowed up a big part of the day. In the evening we visited theWankhede Stadium in search for cricket tickets but no joy. Wewere travelling North to Ahmedabad that evening on the night train andwe had to validate the tickets we had bought from the station a dayearlier. Originally we had wanted second class air conditioned twosleeper bunks. The woman decided she was going to save us money by notmaking our reservations official and stick us on the waiting list whichwas cheaper. "Don't worry Sir, you will 100% get the tickets" she toldus. Well that was a load of baloney! We went to the same woman to getthe tickets confirmed and she said "sorry Sirs, there is only one bunkin third class left, I did say yesterday that there was a 99% chance soyou have been very unlucky" then she added "you can share it though -you're young why not?". We were annoyed but took it anyway. It turnedout ok since there was a spare bunk on the train so I had that one andgot a good night sleep on the way to Ahmedabad.
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