Tag Archives: budget

14 Jul 2011 · 4:24 PM

The Long Road to Paradise

After our fantastic adventure with the elephants on Monday, we spend the last day in Chiang Mai sampling more local food and fruit smoothies at

Fried goodies for sale in Chiang Mai

the market and packed up all of our goodies. We even hired a scooter and took turns riding it around the old town, T doing most of the riding and M and I catching a lift on the back :) After that it was time to start the long journey Southwards to Koh Phangan. We got to the Chiang Mai Railway Station, a very nice, clean place, in plenty of time, and boarded the Special Express to Bangkok. It was an overnight sleeper train, with a little too much AC (you can’t win), but it was comfortable enough and we all had a good few hours of sleep. We arrived in Bangkok before 7am, and had 12 hours to kill before our bus to the South. Luckily we could store our bags at the train station, with the tour company that we bought our bus tickets from, V.C Travel and Tours, a very reputable company if you’re looking to tour around Thailand.

First stop was Lumphini Park, an easy three Metro stops from Hua Lamphong Railway Station. Here we wandered around, in an early morning daze, watching the Thai people enjoy their morning in the park. We found that there is a whole section of weights and gym equipment that the public exercise on for free, there were a few people doing Thai Chi classes, a group or two of older people singing together, and people some just walking through the park to work.

Watching the Monitor Lizzards in the river

Next we decided to visit the Dusit Zoo. It was a fair distance from Lumphini so we took the bus to the Victory Monument and from there we walked, and we walked, and we walked, until we eventually found the zoo! What fun we had, looking at all the different animals. There were deer and binturong, bears and sharks, chimpanzees and lions, panthers and snakes, elephants and birds and monkeys of all shapes and sizes.

Albino Golden Thai Python

Hippo showing us her teeth!

We spent hours and hours looking at all the animals, and eventually, when we were starving and tired, stopped for lunch and headed back to the station by bus. Luckily, after such a long, hot, sweaty day, there were nice cold showers at the station that we could, and did, use. By that time, it was almost 5pm and we could relax with our books until the bus trip.

We had originally been told to be very careful with all of our valuables and belongings, as the buses going down South were known to be dodgy with the baggage. Some people have told us that someone sat in the bottom “cargo hold” of their bus with all of their bags and picked the locks and went through them looking for anything useful or valuable to steal. We were extra paranoid about getting our valuables stolen, and spent a good while securing all of our bags properly. Then we boarded the bus at 7pm and hoped for the best. Thailand also seems to be one of those places, like India, were you are shoved around from place to place and no one tells you exactly what is happening. On one of these unexplained moments, and there were many along the way, we sat for an hour on the side of the road, waiting for some unexplained thing to happen, whether it did or not we will never know, but we eventually made it to Surat Thani at around 6am. Well, I say we made it to Surat Thani, but to be honest, I can’t say for sure where we were dumped, as there were no signs or names in sight. We were dumped on the side of the road at a cafe, where another 30 people lay sleeping, clearly having already been dumped earlier that morning, and waited for the next instructions. We were each given a sticker with the name of our destination on it. Every so often a “mini-bus” would pull up and call a destination, and those people would scurry to get their bags and off they went to their island of choice. Eventually, after about 2 long hours of waiting, the ‘Koh Phangan bus’ arrived and we got on, hoping for a quick bus ride to the ferry pier. The bus stopped yet another three or four times before getting going but after about half an hour, we were on the open road, wind howling through the open windows and a very loud, skipping Linkin’ Park song playing on the stereo speakers. At about 9:30am we arrived at the pier, looking like we’d been dragged through a bush backwards, in two-day old clothes. No matter, a quick bowl of fried noodles for breakfast and a toilet stop and we were on our way to the ferry to the island.

Waiting on the side of the road in Surat Thani

A quick aside about the people on this ferry… In Leh we explained that there were lots of tourists, but the good kind, see this post on Leh to read it again. However, this ferry was FULL of tourists, like us, between the ages of 20 and 25, but not the good kind. I should have expected it, considering we are arriving on the island of the Full Moon Party (click here to read about what the full moon party is), but these young people seem really arrogant, rich and demanding. A far cry from the happy-go-lucky, tree-loving tourists in Leh.

The ferry took little over 2 hours, plus a good 45 minutes of waiting on the boat before we left, so by the time we got the beautiful island, it was lunchtime. Swarms of taxis waited on the pier to round up the tourists heading to the different beaches, and we headed through them, into the town of Thong Sala to find some lunch and plan our next move. After a healthy bowl of noodle soup and a fruit smoothie, we were ready to trawl the beaches for a place to stay. We took a taxi to Baan Kai, 80 Baht each, and started our walk up the beach asking at every bungalow for an available room. Not long after we started, and a short distance up the sunset beach, we found a little piece of heaven with an available bungalow at the Golden Beach Resort. Its not a luxury hotel, just 3 beds and a bathroom but our view is spectacular and beach is a few metres from our balcony. Paradise? I think so.

View from our room at the Golden Beach Resort

D x

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11 Jul 2011 · 6:00 PM

Elephant mahout, a humbling experience

When we came to Chiang Mai, all I wanted to do was see an elephant, but it can be pricey and our budget isn’t what you would call lenient. However, when my parents offered to pay for us to go on the elephant mahout day trip, we jumped at the opportunity. Little did we know that we would not only see the elephants but feed them, learn to ride them, and bath with them in the river. The experience was nothing less than incredible and the money WELL worth it, (even though we didn’t have to pay for it ourselves). The camp that we went to was called the Baan Chang Elephant Camp and is really well-run by Woody, a guy who has grown up with the elephants and trained them from a young age. The fees (upwards of 2400 Baht per person) are used exclusively to buy food (and elephants eat a lot!!) for the 8 or so elephants who live on the camp, and to pay their handlers who care for them day and night (interestingly, elephants only sleep for approximately 3 hours each night).

Below are some photos of our day at the camp!

Elephant Chair

Learning the commands from up top

"Yuut" to stop, "Baai" to go

Time for us to try out all of the commands we have learned on our own on a walk in the jungle!

Stopping for a short break in the jungle

Time for a dip in the river

Bath time-scrubbing the elephants clean!

Having fun in the river

Lots of fun!

The elephants and our group

Big strong elephant

Time to say Goodbye

If you would like to know more about the camp or book it for yourself (they also do 2 or more day camps) visit Woody’s blog on www.woodyelephanttraining.com and check out the photo gallery page in the next few days to see more photos of us in action! :)

D, T and M x

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10 Jul 2011 · 8:48 PM

Buddha, Wat?

On our short stay in Bangkok we managed to see but a fraction of the city, but just that small part was enough to give us a taste of what Thailand has to offer. From the hundreds of Wats or Buddhist temples, to the many markets selling everything from sunglasses to carved elephants…there is something for everyone.

Despite our efforts, we did not manage to see the Emerald Buddha (Phra Kaew Marakot) housed in the Grand Palace (always remember to dress appropriately when planning on visiting temples). This small Buddha, only 66cm in height, made of Jasper-quartz or Jade rather than Emerald holds a prominent position in Thai Buddhism. However, we continued the following day to Wat Pho (dressed more appropriately this time) to see the Reclining Buddha. This statue of Buddha, 46m long and 15m high, illustrates the passing of Buddha into Nirvana. Its gold-leaf covered body stretches out length-ways, filling the majority of the room that it is housed in. Its pearl-inlayed feet form a patterned wall on the one side of the room. The Wat Pho temple, houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, 394 to be exact. Wat Pho is also the headquarters for massage instruction, so if you had some extra cash you could go for a massage there as well, to break the days sightseeing.

A few of the 394 Buddhas in Wat Pho

The Reclining Buddha

The best way to see a lot of the sights in Bangkok is by river ferry, and its pretty cheap too. A one-way ticket will cost you 14 Baht each, provided you get the local ferry and not the tourist boat, which is 25 Baht each (and you can barely understand the guide’s English in any case). Once on the boat, you can sit and enjoy the sights from the river and hop off when you find something worth looking at.

On the Chao Phraya in Bangkok

The markets in Thailand are definitely my highlight, whether it’s the sidewalk or the night market, they are so much fun even if you don’t have money to buy a lot of things. You can just walk around for ages, bargaining and chatting to the locals. The food in the markets is also so delicious, and so cheap! You can get little satay sticks, corn on the cob, and fried chicken or even try some strange-looking Thai delicacies…if you dare. For dessert, have a few fried banana pieces, or a crispy pancake filled with melted marshmallow and orange rind! Divine!

Thai Delicacies-if you dare!

We’ve had to deal with quite the saga these past couple of days due to Marion’s bags being left in Johannesburg. The reason the bag didn’t get on the same plane as her in the first place was because her plane was delayed three times from Cape Town to Johannesburg, so eventually when she did get to Jhb, she got on the plane and her bag did not. When she arrived in Bangkok after a very long night, as we well know, we were under the impression that they would send her bag straight to our guest house in Bangkok. Not the case, apparently. So, we finally got the details of the flight that the bag was supposed to be on and because we were leaving to Chiang Mai that same day, we decided we would go and fetch the bag from the airport. What a drama!! We left with plenty of time to get there and fetch the bag, and get back to the station to catch the bus to Chiang Mai. When we got to the airport, however, there was no bag. We spent at least 2 hours being sent from pillar to post, trying to find out where on earth the bag was. Eventually, we were told that the bag was in Hong Kong and that it had missed the connecting flight to Bangkok and would not arrive until the following day. They promised to send the bag on to Chiang Mai and deliver it to our hostel. We said we’d believe it when we saw it! Now the saga was to get back to the station in time for our bus, and with 45 minutes to go, it was a tough ask. And of course, everything went wrong! First the express train left as we got there, and with the next one only coming half an hour later, we had to catch the slow train. Next we got off the lovely air-conned sky train to connect to the MRT, only to find that we had to walk 10 minutes to get to the Metro Station. And then it started raining. Of course, when it is 35 degrees and humid, a bit of rain is fantastic, but not when you’re running through it between two stations in a blind panic. Next the ticket machine went out of order, but finally we got onto the metro train and arrived at the station with 5 minutes to spare, dripping wet and sans Marion’s bag.

Despite all of the drama though, the bus ride was uneventful (besides the strange stop for dinner at the Thai cafeteria-type place at 12am), and Marion’s bag arrived as promised at the hostel while we took a nap!

Marion's Bag! Whoop!

While Bangkok was a restless animal, a city that never sleeps; Chiang Mai is a peaceful place with a laid back atmosphere. Here we have explored the streets of the old town, visited the Sunday Walking Street (best market ever), and paid our respects to the many Wats along every street. Oh, and we even jammed a little at the local Reggae club last night :)

Marion and Trist at Roots Rock Reggae in Chiang Mai!

Tomorrow we are visiting Baan Chang Elephant Park, thanks to a very kind donation by my parents (THANKS!!!!), and I’m sure we will have a few great stories and photos to show you after that!

D x

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06 Jul 2011 · 6:29 PM

Delhi Belly to Bangkok

On Monday when we jumped on the plane in Delhi we were full of excitement. Not because we were happy to leave India, it has been a spectacular time, full of colour, mountains, people and smells (some good, some not so good), but rather because were were traveling again. It is such a buzz knowing that you are on your way to another different place! Bangkok hasn’t let us down!

One thing that was very clear when we alighted was that we were not getting away from the heat or the humidity… not on your life! It has been a consistent 30+ degrees celcius since we arrived, broken only by small, heavenly stops in air-conditioned airports, trains and hostel lobbies. You are acutely aware of this novelty once you have been traveling in India for a few weeks. For those who have been in Bangkok before you probably think it’s a fairly grimy city, but once you have been to Mumbai, Delhi, Agra and Kolkata you gain a bit of perspective and Bangkok becomes a shimmering pearl of a city on the banks of the Chao Phraya! Please don’t misinterpret this as me saying that Indian cities aren’t beautiful, they are some of the most beautiful I have seen in my limited travels, but they aren’t exactly hygienic and it’s pretty awesome to not worry about falling ill when sampling the local fare.

Local fruit and veg

This has led on well, the food here is to die for. Dom and I both enjoy Thai food and often eat from the local Thai restaurant back home in Cape Town. This place has really blown me away though because whatever I was dreaming and wishing it would be, it is better! Thai prawns and sweet and sour veg for lunch, spicy pork with noodles for dinner, battered and fried banana slices for snacks and fresh fruit like you have never (ever) seen before! And the greatest thing… it’s ridiculously inexpensive and filling food! Too much for me…. Oh, the beer and “soda-in-a-bag” are great too!

Soda-in-a-bag

A small excited feeling has been growing in us over the past week because my sister is joining us in Thailand for two weeks from tomorrow!!! So the URT increases to three Saffas tomorrow, fun huh? And before we forget, our great friend Jade is also planning to pop over so we are going to be having a fun-friend-filled time in T minus 12 hours, yippee!

Patpong Road

More on the sights and sounds and smells tomorrow. For now, sleep… we must catch the 6am train to the airport to meet a no-doubt tired Marion (sans her luggage after ACSA left it in Cape Town) and this is troublesome for our holiday accustomed bodies! Nighty night!

Trist out!

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05 Jul 2011 · 5:49 PM

The things that I love, and love to hate, about India

Over the past three weeks we have been shocked and surprised and downright disgusted, but recently we have learnt that some of those things that are ridiculous about India, are also quite endearing. Those things, I will miss as we leave this place for our next destination, and then there are some things I will definitely not miss… Here are some things about India that I will never forget:

The song of the Chai Wallas as you walk past them on a street or in the corridor of a train, singing: Chai chai chai chai chai chai in a monotone, and then they stop and say it once more in a higher pitched question to make sure you didn’t miss out.

The Good Day “Rich Butter Cookies,” a staple snack for Westerners and Indians alike.

The colours of the clothes that the Indian women wear. No matter who it is, from young to old, they wear the brightest and most ornate saris and cloths…and they look beautiful in them, something I could not pull off without looking like a Christmas tree.

Beautiful bright coloured Saris

The animals, from cows to ponies to donkeys to camels to every kind of mutt you can think of, the animals rule the streets and they never cease to amaze me.

A camel-cart in Agra

The way the Indian people set up camp in the railway stations and bus stations: they arrive, lay out some blankets, sit/lie down in the middle of the platform, pull out their food and drinks and settle in for the long wait…and there will be a long wait, no matter what time you arrive.

The endless stares from everybody, wherever we go, whatever we do, they stare. From the tiniest two-year-old to the oldest grandmother, men, women, they indignantly stare right into your eyes, and then turn around to have another look, as if you’re an animal in the zoo.

The way many people come up to us and ask for a photograph and then thrust a baby into your arms and say, “smile.” And its not over yet, then its one with the aunty and one with the uncle and one with the little children too.

The plea of the shopkeepers, “Looking is free, no buy, just come inside and look” and then once you step inside and look around (if you dare), they start to bargain, “only Rs100, how much you pay, Rs80, cheap price, no expensive.”

They way the people latch onto English words and use them endlessly. For example:

“German Bakery”: A place that sells croissants and cakes, of any kind.
“English Beer and Wine shop”: If you’re lucky it will sell beer, sometimes only whiskey, and never wine.
“Share Jeep”: Any type of SUV or just a car that you can buy a seat in to travel from one city to another, mostly in the mountains. Note, middle seats are pricier and if you want to have a back seat to yourself, you pay a premium.

The "liquor" store in India

How we are pushed aside and pushed in front of in any queue. Whether you’re at the bank, or the airport, don’t bother standing in a queue because some one will just walk in front of you and ignore you.

The way the officials have a system, that they probably don’t understand, but they do it anyway, because it has always been done that way. The worst part is that they won’t tell you what the process is, or why. They will just take your passport (and you later find out  that they went to the next door shop to photocopy it), while you stand there mouth gaping, wondering if you should go after them or if they will ever give your passport back.

Lastly, but certainly not least, the one thing I will always remember about India are the smells. From the sweet, cinnamon smell of chai being brewed on the street; to the smell of incense wafting out of a roadside shrine; to the stench of  sewerage water running down the gutter…India has the most complex mix of smells of any country I have visited before.

If you start to build a picture of India in your mind from these idiosyncrasies, then I hope that this makes you intrigued enough to visit the place one day. Although a tough place to visit, India has taught us so much about ourselves and the world, an experience we wouldn’t pass up for all the Chai in India :)

This is where all the action happens :)

The past couple of days we have been on the move, getting ready for our next move to Thailand. We flew from New Delhi (out of a beautifully clean and sparkly airport) to Kolkata (a not so beautiful and not at all clean airport) and this morning we left Kolkata again to arrive in a pristine clean (well, compared to India anyway) Bangkok this evening. We were sad to leave India after all, but ready to experience a whole new culture in Thailand.

D x

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02 Jul 2011 · 9:19 PM

Trading in our Sleep Sacks for Silk Sheets

The 18-hour bus trip from Manali to Delhi on Tuesday/Wednesday was uncomfortable and uneventful. Once we arrived in Delhi, and felt a bit more confident this time than the last, we had a cup of chai and found an internet café to plan our next move. We had decided that it made sense to head straight to Agra rather than try to find accommodation in Delhi for one night. We soon discovered that there were many trains to Agra each day, but

Busy Delhi

we had to use the Foreign Tourist Office at the station to book tickets, as all the local seats were apparently already sold. So off we went to this little piece of A/C heaven in the New Delhi Train Station, first floor to be exact. It was a simple task, fill out a form detailing where and when you would like to go, and wait in a queue to speak to a consultant. About an hour later, we had a ticket to Agra and were on our way to find a spot of lunch. The Connaught Place area of Delhi is vibey and full of shops selling everything from bracelets to mangoes. We found a good, clean restaurant and even had our hands hennaed while we waited for our food. Outside the glass doors of the restaurant we watched massive bulls pulling carts full of all sorts of goodies trundle by. By just after 5:30pm we were ready to board the train, and after a brief panic seeing the condition of the train, we found our 2nd class A/C cabin and settled in for the 4-hour journey.

We arrived in Agra around 10pm, and found a taxi to take us straight to the Taj Plaza Hotel. Look out for the prepaid taxis, they have certification and can give you a fixed price according to where you are going. According to Solomon, our taxi driver, in Agra there’s “No hurry, no worry, no chicken curry” and in order to drive, what you need is a good horn, good brakes and a bit of good luck. This is definitely the theme throughout India, where you hoot to say you’re passing somebody, you hoot to say you’re behind someone, you hoot to say you’re in front of someone…you get the point. Solomon also informed us that we had come to Agra at the perfect time, as the Taj Mahal was free to enter all day (normally Rs750/$17/R115 each) on Thursday to commemorate the death day of the the commissioner of the palace, Shar Jehan. Once we got there, the Taj Plaza Hotel was pretty clean, and the staff were friendly, average by our backpacker standards. We couldn’t expect much for Rs400 per night ($9/R60). We even had a view of the Taj from the terrace upstairs, considering the hotel was only 600m from the East Gate, we were quite happy with our online booking, even if it was only available for the first two nights of our stay in Agra.

The view of the Taj from the Taj Plaza hotel...not bad for Rs400 per night!

The following morning we woke up at 5:30am to head to the Taj Mahal when we were told there would be minimal people. Already by 6am, there were rickshaw wallas milling around the streets trying to get us to take a ride down the road to the East Gate. It was a fresh morning, a light sprinkle of rain, and we were excited to see the Taj so we took a brisk walk to wake ourselves up. We arrived at the first gate to be searched and then walked through the courtyard to the main gate. There we had our first sight of the spectacular marble building through the archways of red sandstone.

First view of the Taj

My first impression of the Taj was just as you would expect, it took my breath away.  From the sweeping gardens in front, to the long thin ponds reflecting the Taj in their surfaces, the sight is one to behold. Even the many pictures I have seen of this icon throughout my life cannot convey the beauty of it in real life. There were already people there by the time we got in, and joined by the many tour guides and people willing to take your photo on the bench where Lady Di sat (for a fee), the crowd was growing, even at this early hour. We wandered around the gardens, having a look and a photo from every angle, and even had few (obligatory) photos with the locals. From up close, the translucent white marble of the tomb is

The jewel encrusted entrance to the Taj Mahal

encrusted with millions of semi-precious stones arranged in flower decorations (called Pachi Kari) over the doorways and around the walls. Inside, although pretty dark at this time of the morning, you can run your fingers over the walls and feel the stones under your fingers. Marble latticed (called Jaali) screens surround the two replica coffin-shaped structures, one smaller, for Mumtaz Mahal and one larger, for Shar Jehan himself. Whereas downstairs, lie the actual cenotaphs (coffins) sweating with condensation from the heat of the summer. After a good few hours, we left the Taj, ready for breakfast and to catch up on some much needed sleep.

We awoke that afternoon to the sound of a parade winding its way to the Taj, so we headed out to join the celebrations. Loudspeakers filled the air with singing and young children held reams of coloured material above their heads forming a multi-coloured line snaking along the road. Heading back into the East Gate, we were this time surrounded by thousands of people in stark contrast to the peacefulness of the early morning, but just as enjoyable. The Taj itself had changed colour only slightly to match the midday haze, but the bright colours of the womens saris filled the gardens and made the sight even more spectacular than before. However, before long we had had enough of being jostled around, and T, having had a baby thrust into his arms to have a photograph taken, was ready to leave!

Taj Mahal

The Taj during the festival

On the way back to the hotel, we popped into the Oberoi Amarvilas Hotel which was right next door to ours, to see if we could say hi to the GM and his wife, who are long lost family of mine.  We managed to chat to them for a few minutes but they were, of course, busy so we left our number and headed back to our hotel. After watching the most spectacular storm roll in, we showered and had dinner in the restaurant downstairs. After dinner we got a call from Ali, to ask if we would like to join her for breakfast and catch up. Of course, we accepted and the next morning, headed next door to the Amarvilas to a hearty English breakfast and some freshly squeezed orange juice…heavenly! After a quick tour of the Amarvilas, it was time to go as we had to check out of our hotel and take a rickshaw down to the next hotel we had booked. We settled into the Sai Palace Hotel, this one even closer to the Taj, and organised a tour to Agra Fort for the late afternoon. While we were waiting and enjoying a cold drink in our room, we got another call from Ali this time explaining that their spare room had become available and would we please come and stay with them for the next two nights.

The Oberoi Amarvilas

I was so taken aback at their generosity that at first I said that we would stay at the Sai Palace that night as we had already paid and that if it was okay we would come to them the following evening. However, after coming to my senses I realised that this was an opportunity not to be missed, so I phoned Ali back and accepted their kind invitation. Soon after that we got in an auto-rickshaw headed for the Agra Fort.

The auto-rickshaw bound for Agra Fort

The fort is located on a site that has been occupied by some form of fortification since the mid 12th century but when King Babar conquered the existing ruler he built an extension to the fortifications. Eventually when his son Akbar took over the throne of the Mughal Empire in he 1500s he started construction of the red sandstone fort that is located on the banks of the Yamuna today. It is really more of a walled city than a military fort and contains all of the imperial residences as well as the Hareem and various other important buildings like the treasury. It is the detail that really catches the eye though and it is something to behold, every wall has detailing on top of it and every pillar and internal area is carved with patterns and murals that makes this place one of the most impressive we have seen in India.

Detailed sculpture at the Agra Fort

After the fort, we picked up our bags again and headed back to the Amarvilas. We were met at every door by welcoming, friendly staff and cool, air-conned rooms, a far cut above our previous standard of living, and a welcome break from the budget lifestyle of the previous month. We spent the evening catching up with Ali over drinks, and eating divine food, all while admiring the Taj from above. After dinner I relaxed in a hot bubble bath – my indulgence – and T watched the Wimbledon while sipping a whiskey.

   

The bathroom at the Sai Palace

The bathroom at the Oberoi Amarvilas

Today was another fantastic day… From the delicious room-service breakfast this morning, to a visit to Fatehpur Sikri, to an afternoon lazing by the pool. We are being thoroughly spoilt, so much so that I worry that going back to living on a budget will be harder than before! Getting used to this kind of luxury is pretty easy! :)

Club Sandwich for lunch...yummy!

Trist chilling in the pool

Fatehpur Sikri was built by the Mughal King Akbar in 1571, when he moved the capital of his empire to a new walled city just outside of Agra. It is an incredible architectural wonder, with enormous public spaces, beautifully carved private areas and enormous imposing walls and gateways. It is certainly worth a visit!

Fatehpur Sikri

This evening we were treated to another fantastic dinner, this time at the Trident hotel, a sister hotel to the Oberoi Amarvilas. I must just say a big thank you to Nigel and Ali Badminton who took us in and spoilt us rotten these past two days. Tomorrow its back to reality, a train to Delhi and a very budget backpackers…but that’s half the adventure right? ;)

D x

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29 Jun 2011 · 7:32 AM

Choc Full!!

India is certainly a land full of opportunity for the traveller, something we have found in our, extremely limited, three weeks here. Our trip North to Jammu and Kashmir took us to Srinigar where we discovered that India wasn’t just hustle and bustle and heat like it was in Mumbai and Delhi but that it was also peaceful, friendly and incredibly hospitable.

The drive from Srinigar to Leh was one that we would prefer to forget, a long deserted stretch that seemed to blend into 18 hours of arse numbingly bad roads and small remote towns that would always have a life saving cup of hot chai. The reward was more than compensatory though because Leh is a place that every traveller to India shouldn’t miss out on and, by the looks of things, most don’t.

When someone says that a place is over touristed its usually a sure thing that we will avoid that place at all costs, Leh (and India) on the other hand is a place that has the most internal tourism that we have seen, the local tourists outnumber the international tourists 50 to 1. And although this still makes a place as small as Leh really busy, it keeps the authenticity that is lost when you visit a place that is overrun with international tourists. In other words, VISIT LEH ITS FANTASTIC!!

The very reason I have entitled this post “Choc Full” is because of the surprises that India continues to offer up for us. Our jaws practically hit the floor of the Jeep/Taxi when we arrived in the valley leading down to Pangong Tso (lake) on Saturday afternoon, a completely lunar landscape ending in a blue lake with crystal clear water and all of this surrounded by snow capped peaks… it really was surreal. Inx order to reach this small piece of untouched perfection we crossed the Chang-La and at 5360m ASL its one of the highest passes crossable by car… IN THE WORLD (that’s saying something)!

Top of Chang-La

The highest being Kardung La, en route to the Nubra valley, and is just a touch over five and a half Ks above the sea!

I have digressed, sorry! Pangong (like I said before) is perfection, it is a place that shouldn’t really exist in real life and is absolutely awe-inspiring! You really have to see the photos to understand and you really have to visit it to appreciate this! The first thing that blows you away is the sheer size of the place,

Panorama of the Lake approx. 3pm Saturday 24 June 2011
Pano on way out… Blueness!
My favourite of the day, reflection in the Lake!

and you can really only see 25% of it because the Chinese have increased their border into the area and now “occupy” ¾ of the Lake too! The next is the road sign as you arrive that reminds you of how high up you are, in feet it sounds even more impressive so here goes some imperial boasting, thirteen thousand, four hundred and fifty one feet (hairy ones at that)… the mind boggles!

Our obligatory!

We stayed in a typical Tibetan “homestay” in a room in somebody’s house and ate and talked into the night with some Israeli guys as well as some bikers from India who were vacationing around Kashmir for a couple of weeks and doing so on their Royal Enfields, madness I tell you considering the state of some of the roads!

Bikes and the dinner/chai tent

Funnily enough, what only consumed two full days of our trip felt as though we had been away from Leh for a week, and we were just 155km away.

The Chai Room

So, Mumbai: check, Delhi: check, Leh: check and Pangong Tso: check, we are quickly running out of time and have already modified our itinerary to include Srinagar. One of our new friends that we met up at the Lake nailed it when he said if you’re planning a trip in India always include 10 extra days for travelling time alone! Total tally by the time we get back to Delhi … 104 hours in transit, by the time we reach Kolkata on the way to Thailand it will be more like 110!!

That brings me to our latest surprise, the Leh-Manali highway and our last trip in a “Jeep”, EVER. This little adventure set us back a whopping 1500 rupees each (R230 or $33) and took us 19 hours and 473km all the way to the popular mountain resort town of Manali in Himachal Pradesh. The road was staggeringly beautiful and equally treacherous, a true adventure! On the side, 473km in 19 hours means an average speed of just under 25km/h, not exactly the speediest of trips but you would miss so much if you were going any faster. I’ve popped up some photos to assist with the description of this epic road but I will give a run through of what I remember as well.

To accomplish this two-day journey in a single day we left Leh at 2am on Monday morning. This was perhaps not the smartest of decisions considering we had been up since leaving Pangong earlier that day. Our route took us over (reputably) the world’s second highest vehicular pass called Tanglang-La at 5241m and our new friend Vinay informed us that the road had been swept away and rebuilt since he travelled it with a tour group the day before… not really what we wanted to know Vinay!

The rest wound its way up and over numerous other passes, past Sarchu (a tented night stop for travellers) and down into the Lahaul Valley dotted with small villages and towered over by gigantic peaks! At one stage we drove through some high altitude plains and our driver, in his ultimate wisdom, chose the most difficult soft sand to drive through! Needless to say we got stuck…

Stuck, right up to its axles!

But despite this,  the Himalayas really have stunned us and have made me want to take Dom to the Drakensberg and show her what SA has to offer! Dom’s just reminded me about the avalanche that we saw coming off a mountain as we drove past hundreds of meters below.

The final hump to cross is called Rhothang-La, it is small in comparison at less than 4000m high but it makes up for this minor issue with THE most stunning beauty!

The most beautifully terrifying pass in the world!

If this place is not protected at present then it should be. The Northern side is a twisted stretch of road starting in a small village and winds its way ever upward past enormous waterfalls and boulders precariously perched on the edge of the road above us. The total length of the pass is 35km and the second half is certainly the most treacherous. It had rained heavily during the night and our driver and Vinay were noticeably stressed about driving down again. There is a 300m section of the road that is renowned for rock falls and landslides that we had to pass, this made even more dangerous by the saturated condition of the road and mountainside. So with Dom clutching my hand and everybody silenced and holding thumbs our brave driver floored it,

The reality set in and everyone just held thumbs!

slipping and sliding about on the edge of a precipice and we made it to the end of the avalanche zone with our lives intact as well as our underpants :)

As if to make up for the moment of terror, the pass opened up into a magical misty pine forest and wound its way back down into the Manali valley.

The misty pine forest on the Southern side of Rothang Pass

We drove along with the Beas river pumping full of melted glacier right next to us, and through a couple of the picturesque mountain villages in the region. Palchan looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings with workers repairing a pipeline by torchlight! And finally we had reached Manali, bought some beers (priorities) and found a guesthouse to stay the night. A hot shower and some dinner saw us through to bed, something we hadn’t seen in about 40 hours!

Trist out!

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20 Jun 2011 · 7:46 PM

On the Weh to Leh…

So despite the fact that we never intended to end up here in Kashmir, Srinigar has been really relaxing and quite a change from the dense, hard life we saw in Delhi and Mumbai.

The view from our room at the Jeelani Guesthouse

We were seriously apprehensive at first, and when we arrived we were almost too scared to leave our room…but we soon realised that the people are friendly and happy and most of them are only too pleased to meet a foreigner, and they always ask if we like Kashmir. We have been stared at, asked to stand with the family and have a photo, chatted to in every shop and on every street and even made a ‘friend’ in a young student named Waseem, who took our email address with a promise of “learning everything about each other.”

We haven’t been out that much; we have been enjoying the hospitality of our hosts Ashraf and Laura, at Jeelani Guesthouse. We ate meals together with the other guests, an older American lady and an older German man. In the evenings, we read or watched one of the old movie reruns on TV.

On Saturday we spent the afternoon on the Nageen and Dal lakes on a Shikara (like a Gondola but with a roof).

Shikara's waiting for tourists

We were rowed along the serene lake by a guide who spoke pretty fluent English, and was generally a really happy person. He made us tea with Cardamon and Cinnamon by boiling water on a little gas burner on the back of the small boat. It was a fantastic afternoon, we watched the locals enjoying a swim and saw the villages on the islands in the middle of the lake. The villagers grow vegetables in ‘floating gardens’ around the islands. The gardens can be reached only by shikara and the vegetables are sold every morning at the market. Every so often someone would row along next to us and ask how we are, where are we from and ask if we would like to buy flowers or see the precious stones that he is selling. What I enjoyed was that they were not pushy, just opportunists!  We stopped off at Nishrat Bagh, the Moghul gardens, where thousands of Indian’s were enjoying their Saturday afternoon, kids playing in the water and big families sitting and taking photos in the manicured gardens.

Our Shikara on the Dal Lake

The Nishrat Bagh Moghul Gardens

Water Lilies on the Dal Lake

Camel Bridge from our Shikara on the Dal Lake

On Sunday we decided to take a walk down to the market near the local mosque, Hazratbal. It was not far from our guesthouse and we managed to find it pretty easily. Quite close to the market is also the University of Kashmir, where it is popular to study business or engineering – they even do “Short Courses in Mechatronics”?! We spent an hour or so walking through the market and even bought a couple of Kashmiri handicrafts; their specialty is delicately painted papier-mâché elephants and bells.

A shop full of papier mache hand painted ornaments

The market at Hazratbal

Today we found a lift into the town of Srinigar and walked around the shops and bought some supplies for our trip to Leh. We were surprised to see how modern and global it is, even in comparison to what we saw of Mumbai and Delhi. There seems to be more English signage and people are willing to speak English to us.

This evening we visited the Pari Mahal – the Angel Palace or Fairy Abode . It is right up in the mountain and boasts incredible views of the Dal lake. The “palace” itself is a stone-built fort with four or five levels of gardens, each with a more spectacular view than the last. There were many tourists and we found ourselves chatting with a few people about cricket or about South Africa and where we are from.

Pari Mahal - the Angel's Palace

One of the highlights of this place has been watching the sun setting over the lake. The orange sun and the reflection of the shikaras on the lake really is a breath-taking sight.

Sunset over the Nageen Lake

Tomorrow morning we move on to Leh, we will be sharing a Jeep with some other tourists and will drive via Kargil and arrive in Leh in the late evening. We have been told that the scenery is fantastic and although it will be another long drive, it will all be worth it when we get to Ladakh! :)

 D x

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12 Jun 2011 · 7:45 PM

A day out, Indian Style

Further to Dom’s post earlier when we arrived in Mumbai, we have had quite an adventure! This place is INCREDIBLE, and you can so quickly see the romance of the dusty potholed streets, the hooting cabs, the cows, dogs and people. They are the most amazing. Our super host Kumar didn’t let us pay for a thing, taxis, tour bus for tomorrow, dinner at a real Indian restaurant eating authentic dishes of butter chicken, masala dosa and this all accompanied by chapatti, butter and tandoori naan breads. The fact that we payed $12-14 for it all seemed ridiculous but maybe what we should be realising is that what we normally pay for similar things at home is in fact the ridiculous bit. This was all as a kindness to some first time visitors to India and all he asked in return after refusing to take our money time and time again, was that we email him about our trip. Such incredible kindness we have never experienced.

The bits in between were as mad as all the stories one hears about India are. I did a double take when Kumar said that it was really quite quiet because it was Sunday… Quiet here is like Long Street on festival day… I cringe to see what busy is but by the time everyone reads this I will probably have a fair idea as we have to go to the station to book our train tickets to Delhi in the morning!

Although we wasted a bit of time on a sleep this afternoon, we still managed to visit the Gateway to India and also to see where some of the important sights are that we’ll be visiting on the morrow. Updates will be a plenty in the evening.

Some first impressions though are that despite the clear poverty that people live in and the conditions are really bad (far more poverty than what we see at home) people are upbeat, trying to make something of themselves from the lowliest to the average 21st century citizen. People sell everything here, photographers at the Gateway with mobile printers, corn on the cob and even some sparky person selling the use of his bathroom scale for a rupee a weigh-in. Its also a free-for-all in the most literal terms, people are everywhere, going anywhere and paying absolutely no attention to the fact that there is a hooting tuktuk screaming towards them at a rate of knots! If you want to see a real city full of very real, very interesting people… Mumbai at the moment has equalled that of all our European destinations in an afternoon! It’s mindboggling… so lets see what tomorrow brings!

Trist out!

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09 Jun 2011 · 9:00 AM

A Mighty Great time in Dublin

Dublin is a fantastic place, just the fact that the main tourist ‘attraction’ is heading to the most authentic Irish pub you can find for a pint if the black stuff, should explain why Dubliners are so much fun. We had not been in Dublin fro two hours when we went for a walk and ended up in the middle of the Bank Holiday marathon. Thousands of women filled the streets and it made for quite an interesting day! In the evening we met and mingled with the Dublin student crowd at the local pub down the road.

We were lucky enough to be staying in Trinity College, a 400 year old university modeled as a continuation of the “Oxbridge” universities in England but now is Ireland’s premier tertiary education and research institution. Amandine, my very good friend from school days, put us up in her front court apartment on the top floor so we really got to see what student life here is like.

Trinity College Dublin Front Court

Her boyfriend, Barry, is also an excellent guide and he gave us the ’10 Euro’ tour for free with all the interesting facts thrown in. For instance, the two Oregon Maples in the front courtyard of the college are the oldest trees in Ireland! I wish I could remember more of the facts. The buildings at Trinity are amazingly beautiful, and quite majestic too. One building in particular that stands out is the building which houses the Long Room and the Book of Kells. The Long Room room holds over 200 000 of the oldest books owned by Trinity and is somewhat like a ‘book cathedral’. As you walk in the room you are overcome with an ‘old book’ smell and the beauty of the room with its dark oak bookshelves and vaulted ceilings. We snuck in at the last minute, as the guard closed off the one side of the Long Room, to see the original charter for Trinity College signed by Queen Lizzy the elder (QE1 for short). Of course, the Book of Kells is also really interesting to see as it dates back to the 8th century and is amazingly well illustrated for that period. What is most amazing is that in the 8th century Ireland was probably a pretty inaccessible rock in the middle of the Atlantic, so the fact that some of the red paint used to illustrate “the Book” came from a species of beetle native to Persia, is pretty remarkable. (Photos are not allowed in the Long Room but click here to see a 360 degree panoramic view of the room!)

An Excerpt from the Book of Kells

One of the main attractions that Dublin had for us was to visit the place where Arthur Guinness started brewing Guinness Stout. It’s a vast facility that includes a step by step explanation on how the beer is (and has been) brewed for 252 years as well as displays on the Guinness advertising through the years, a tasting lab and most importantly… Somewhere that you can pour your own REAL pint of Guinness. The Storehouse, as it is known, is in the shape of an enormous pint glass of which the atrium stretches 5 storeys and to top it all off is a 6th level called the gravity bar offering not only panoramic views of the whole of Dublin but of course… more Guinness! It was excellent!

Trist loves Guiness

On the North side of Dublin is the GPO (General Post Office) building where you can now get your stamps, but used to be a stronghold for the Irish Republicans in the war of independence in 1916. The building was shot at and heavily shelled at the time and you can still some bullet holes in the columns in the front of the bulding.

The GPO on the North Side of Dublin

In true Irish style we headed to the Porterhouse Brewery after dinner yesterday for a pint or two and some local music. Well, we certainly got more than we bargained for at this really great pub in Temple Bar – the name comes from a time when Jewish temples were banned in the area. Firstly, as you walk into the smallish front area and head for the bar you realize that above you are 3 other levels also housing bars and tables and even a stage for live music. The pub used to be a micro brewery and still has the copper boilers, pipes and brewing equipment running throughout the place, and on the walls there are hundreds of bottles of beer from all over the world. The best part about it was the live music, an Irish guy and his guitar. Needless to say the girls were melting at the sound of his voice and even the boys were singing along to his Bob Dylan and Counting Crows covers. Check Kris Finnerty out on iTunes to hear some of his original stuff!

Kris Finnerty at the Porterhouse Brewery

Dublin has a great small train system called the Dart, nothing quite like the maze of tubes in London or the trams in Berlin, but we took it out to a small town called Killiney (Kill-eye-ney) that was suggested to us by a good friend Mike G back home. Dublin is a pretty small city and within about twenty minutes we were on the seaside and in forty five had reached our destination. The village is well known for being a haven for the wealthy, some notable celebs who have houses (or castles) there are Bono of U2 fame and also the celtic singer Enya who really does have a castle on the hill. Not knowing where we were going, we just went up and up with a goal in mind of reaching the monument on the top of the hill, which we did by walking up ancient passageways slippery with moss and the occasional but persistent shower. See pics!!!!

Passageways in Killiney

Killiney from the top

We stopped at the Druids Chair, a pub almost at the top of the hill, for a pint and some Wifi (that didn’t exist) and almost fell asleep because it was so cozy. Deciding that is was a good idea to go to another Dart station instead of the one that we arrived at was in fact a mistake and after walking for what seemed like hours we finally found Station Road and a completely different station that we had passed through a while earlier on the way to Killiney… great sense of direction on our part! We had a plan to stop in Dun Laoghaire (Dun Leary) for some fish and chips but it turned into a hunt for some public loos as the pints from the Druid came back to haunt us! No luck in the fish and chips department resulted in a rather disparaged couple of saffers jumping back on the train and straight to Temple Bar where we knew that we’d find some reasonably priced supper, incidentally also fish and chips, to bring us back to the happy place!

We had a special request from one of our avid blog readers, Uncle Viv, to take some photos in Saint Patricks Cathedral, and although we didn’t go in, as it was 4,50 Euros each, we got some photos from the outside in any case! If you would like to see something specific in a place that we are visiting, let us know, we’ll be happy to explore it for you and send the photos!

D+T x

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