....Photos to come on this blog entry....connection a bit lame!!!
Well, the last time we spoke Jen was on her way to stardom in Bollywood and I'd been persuaded to wear friggin speedo's, lol. We're now in the North of India after being with our tour group for a few days. The state is Rajasthan and its hot and beautiful up here. In fact it kind of reminds us of Africa a little with its arid landscape. I think this familiarity will only increase as we head even further north and into the desert! Our tour leader told us that we needed to be prepared for about 40 degrees temperature!!! What the hell.....I think I'll spontaneously combust or pass out as soon as it hits me (if you didn't know already, im not one for the heat....im getting better though as Jen is encouraging me more...in fact, scratch that, Jen has gone off sunbathing altogether as 1 in 2 Ozzies get some kind of skin cancer....woh...scary stuff).
So as aforementioned we're now with a tour group of 2 others. This is very small in comparison to the tour in Africa as we were expecting up to 16 people. To be honest though its probably good practice for our individual tour in China. The main issue we have here however is that we're so used to travelling by ourselves that we don't in fact need a tour leader, lol! The guy is brilliant with information and background though, so we're trying not to dwell too much!
The one thing that I will continue to dwell on, im sure, is the fact that he tips people randomly and excessively! Our pre-departure information requested 100 rupees per person, per day for a 'tip kitty'....for the tour leader to tip guides and others. From a UK perspective this seemed quite reasonable (about 1pound 25)...but the dude is tipping everyone! He even tipped a lady, whom we'd already paid, to look after our shoes whilst outside a temple. And he gave her 20 rupees (50 cents)...slightly excessive as the going rate is 1 rupee!!!
Nevertheless, we envisaged this and in fact kindly declined to contribute to the tipping pot as we have experience of tipping people in India (waiters and guides etc). So we are managing our own tipping...and managing it much more realistically for two 'travellers' as opposed to 'holiday-ers'...if that makes sense.
We also need to eat separately from the other two generally as our guide is quite middle classed and so takes them to very expensive restaurants. For example, he'll take them for a Thali at a cost of 300 rupees. 300 RUPEES! We're used to paying 20 rupees for the same sort of thing! Wow thats expensive. So we obviously also declined this and went next door for a lush meal at a cost of 200 rupees for the both of us (5 dollars). And it was the best meal we'd had in India to date!
24/03/08 - After a very comfortable train journey from Mumbai Central involving reclining seats and some enthusiastic Indian kids singing Backstreet Boys, we arrived in Ahmedabad in Gujurat. A visit to by far the busiest market scene we've seen, and then a world famous Mosque could only be topped off with a visit to an Ashram (place of worship and learning) where none other than Gandhi lived for 13 years. Wow this was an inspiring place.Lots of stories and background and sadness surrounding this mans life. He truly is one of the most inspirational people alive. Oh yeah, and he was on the executive committee for the London Vegetarian Society...get in there Gandhi!!
25/03/08 - The next morning and we were on a 'local' bus to Udaipur. And by local, it totally doesn't mean truly-local on this tour! In a way its a shame for the two newbies to India that they may not get to experience a really local bus journey with 10,000 people on one bus, smelling and chatting and pushing. This 'local' bus (as our tour leader described it) was in fact a flippin comfortable-seat-allocated-clean private bus that would certainly have cost more than some of the rickety old things we've been on for long journeys. Not complaining though as it was a time for us to get some sleep. And there was a seriously cute little girl sitting in front who seemed fascinated by Jen. This journey provided us with some different scenery as it started to turn more desert-like...
Upon arrival at Udaipur, we all fell in love instantly. Its beautiful here. A mixture of small narrow streets all around a central, huge, city palace and surrounded by a lake. With a combination of guesthouses and 7 star hotels, we weren't sure what to expect!
Worrying aside, we were put up in a seriously nice room! We're a bit worried at the moment that we've booked some kind of fancy tour due to the food and accommodation choices so far, but we're not complaining about having hot water and a swimming pool...its a rarity and its brilliant! I never thought that having a hot shower would be so amazing.
Our guide gave us a quick tour around the city and then we went to a local dance show. Boy were we in for a treat! It was brilliant and involved some majorly talented musicians playing along to ladies in Indian dress and topped off by a lady carrying 8 metal bowls on her head whilst dancing..sounds random I know! There was also a pretty impressive puppet show to the local music which prompted Jen to buy a replica puppet for 100 rupees (1 pound 25) at the end!
Another decline by Jen and I to eat at the very upmarket place involved us eating at the Lotus Cafe...which was lush. We also made a mental note to persuade our group to come with us and slum it one night!
26/03/08 - Morning came around for us too quickly as the bed was lush! 4 slices of marmite on toast later (our own marmite) for a cost of 25 rupees (just over 50 cents) and a tour of the palace today was in order. Really enjoyable would be the best way to describe it, and for the first time on the whole of our trip we had a guide whom gave us lots of history about the architecture and the civilisation back then. PLUS...the guy gave us palm readings.....
I'm not one to boast about good things...but my palm reading was pretty damn good. Now I dont want to jinx anything and so I wont go on about it too much, BUT...he could see I was either a king or a prime minister in a previous life (lol). I was also an extremely lucky and intelligent person whom would have 1 son and 2 daughters....in summary he said there was nothing to worry about as I had small ears and a high forehead....apparently this is good!!!
Jen, on the other hand...had a mixed bag of information fed to her. She also, coincidently, will have 1 son and 2 daughters....but she may have another love in her life. We may be able to prevent this if she 'talks more openly' as he described it and buys a pearl necklace. She was also told that she will have 'stomach problems', a miscarriage and that she needs to meditate....BLIMEY OH RILEY! Thats a lot of info for the two of us, lol. The guy was awesome though, he was quite accurate with some stuff...or we were all sucked in. All I can say is that we didn't pay him anything for a palm reading as he was already our guide and we just got talking about palm readers....spooky or not? We'll see wont we.
After our tour, and after looking in 20 shops, we purchased 5 beautiful photo albums at a cost of 250 rupees each (about 6 pounds) for all of our piccies. They're made out of Camel Leather but the guy promised us the animals died of completely natural causes before we purchased. I even have his business card so there'll be trouble if I find out otherwise....not that im likely to be able to do that of course, lol.
Tomorrow we travel to Jaipur (we think). I hope it'll be as gorgeous as Udaipur...im sure it will be.
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Sunday 23 March 2008
Bollywood and Jehovas
Hello world! No, I dont think that Jehovas witnesses are currently the fad in Bollywood, but both are relevant to our last few days here in sweaty India. As a little taster....BOLLYWOOD - The "scene" was set (pun intended)...we were in Mumbai, dubbed as Indias most expensive city....great!...but nevertheless....Bollywood beckoned!!! And boy did it turn out to be a brilliant experience. Or rather, somehow, Jen took centre stage of all the 'extras'.....no surprises there, lol and so it could've been so much better for me had I been a speaking part in the film!!
21/03/08 - After making our way to the airport in Kochi, to depart for Mumbai (more Northerly) we discovered it was half run by the local population and the government. For those using the airport this meant:
1. that their 'paperless' ticketing system (for Indigo airlines specifically for us) would actually require you to go to a manned office prior to entering the airport building and obtain a PRINT OFF- to then go inside the building and check in where you can get a boarding pass - Justification of more people required to do one persons job number one
2. security screening requires passengers to put their luggage through an x-ray machine before checking it in, probably a good thing (and also a tactic employed by Malaysian airports), and then to have a further 4 security checks of your hand luggage before boarding the plane as well as at least 20 personnel to take your 2 checked bags to the plane by tractor - Justification of a further 25 peoples jobs
3. refreshments would of course be 8 times the price, with a cup of (crap) coffee for example costing a massive 30 rupees! (75 cents) as opposed to 5 rupees everywhere else in India (so far)
4. and the last thing it meant was that taxes would be harsh! We paid 4000 rupees in tax for a 500 rupees flight each, which meant in total, the cost was 5000 rupees for 2 of us to fly the 1 1/2 hours up the coast. Unfortunately the last point here was very justified as we would not have been able to stomach the 41 hour train journey!!!!
A day-flight-few-hours-later and we touched down in Mumbai. Boy it was hotter up here! The taxi and rickshaw drivers of course would try to charge us 500 rupees for the hour journey to the area we chose to stay (a crazy 6 pounds ish), but we managed to do bus-train-bus to the same part for a mere 28 rupees! Get in there! An hours search later and the best we could do with accommodation was a pretty rank-but-do-able guesthouse called Maria's for 500 rupees (negotiated down from 650). The trick here is to tell the guesthouse that you're staying for at least 3 nights, or 5, and then they are more likely to give you discount!
Mumbai was already proving to be crazy with at least a million people in a 2nd class train coach that perhaps accommodated 50, lol. Seriously though, there were tons of people here! But we survived and we were now in our pretty average guesthouse. It was the most expensive guesthouse we'd paid so far....damn it! An evening of looking at the street vendor offerings and a McDonalds later (I know, I know, Western losers!....but we did get a buy one get one free voucher) and it was bed time. But not before we were stopped in the street by a guy working for a Bollywood extras company. WE WERE GOING TO BE FAMOUS!!......for clarification, we were going to be Western extras in the background of a movie called Victory and not famous in the slightest....!
Excited and ready for action (pun intended once more) at 07.30, we found ourselves on a bus with two people we'd met the night before in a Shisha shop and had pursuaded to come to the shoot with us along with 6 other Westerners. We were on the way to the shoot that was in a 7 star hotel called The Grand, fairly close to the airport! Oh yeah, and it WAS Grand.
Everyone was excited at the prospect of doing it as well as getting paid 500 rupees for the privilege!
There were red carpets set up for the stars as they arrived!
Jen having her hair and makeup done
What a day it turned out to be!
A 10million dollar film about a small town cricket player turned superstar starring the England cricket team and a few famous Aussie players too. Harman Boweja, the main star told us this whilst we were shooting a club scene involving Jen as a speaking part!!! AND YES I WAS SLIGHTLY ENVIOUS OF HER CENTRE STAGING. She managed to score a part where she kissed another main guy in the film on the cheek and said something like 'hi, happy birthday'...and...'hey, where's VJ'.... Didn't mind that she had to do the kissing bit either as it was only on the cheek!
Some sexy dancing later by us extras in the background and it was lunchtime already. Sooo exciting....yay!
I was asked to do a swim scene in the lush hotel where I had to don a pair of speedos!! Not comfortable! So all you Germans out there....sort it out dudes, they're so not nice to wear!
....there's me in the background on the right hand side....awesome!
And then Jen scored another speaking part in the posh lobby! Her line was '20,000, thank you very much'...DAMN IT!!! 13 hours (in total) later and we were done for the day, had our 500 rupees in our pockets and I had taken an email address in case we could do it again...networking baby, networking! Check it out! So you have to buy the film in a few months to see if we're in it. Have a look at this youtube vid of an Oz player talking about it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vSHgCijW4Mg
A second pretty crap nights sleep in our very average guesthouse, due to a window that wouldn't close and some very hungry mozzies, and we were up early for our trip to meet the new tour group across Mumbai.
We were all packed and ready to take a local bus about 20mins up the road when a nice old lady offered us a free ride there as she was heading in that direction herself. Thinking nothing of it we continued to wait for the bus and then she turned up with her car! She was in the back and had two ladies seemingly escorting her. The car was the equivalent of a mini metro...pretty damn small! But we crammed ourselves in for the free trip only to discover that the ladies were Jehova witnesses and were on the way to 'a meeting'...whatever that entailed. How nice was that though?! No preaching and it saved us 16 rupees between us! Get in there!
We're now with our massive group of 2 other people and have been briefed about the trip which starts tomorrow (24th of March) at 05:30!!! The only thing is we now know how much things should cost in India so its going to be pretty hard adjusting to the tourist prices as we're used to pretending to be locals!!!! We'll see how it pans out......
Thursday 20 March 2008
Trains, 'ticks' and Backwaters
Welcome back to The Jen and Terry Show! What can I say...the reviews of my blog entry were so glowing (all two of them) that I've been requested to take centre stage once more and update you on another exciting few days here in Kerala, Southern India. I'm touched by the kindness, so here goes take two, lol.
The title of this entry is an adaptation of the classic film, 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' and suggests that we experienced quite a few transport types in the last few days...this is correct. The title also suggests something to do with ticks...this will require some clarification...but both parts of the title are interlinked!
6am, Wednesday 19th March hits us hard! Hardly any sleep the previous night due to a very strange sounding, loud-ass bird in the tree outside our room was combined with the fact that it is very muggy here in Kochi. There was also the unfortunate fact that the fan in our room only works on full steam and so is like gale force wind! These both resulted in a stroppy, early-rising Jen in particular! We were on the way to our intended destination for the day, the Backwaters in Alipeye. I've provided a breakdown of our journey below to whet your appetite about what to expect if you want to do things on the cheap......
Journey type/length Cost per person
Outward
A. 15minute walk from 'homestay' to ferry
2. 20minute ferry ride across to the mainland - 2.5 rupees
trois. 2km walk towards main train station
D. 1km 'rickshaw' drive - 5 rupees
funf. 2 hour (57km) train journey South - 12 rupees
6. 15minute bus ride to boat jetty - 5 rupees
Siete. 4 hour boat ride in Backwaters - 175 rupees
Return
8. 1.5 hour bus ride back to Fort Kochin - 34 rupees
Overall from the day we did a walk, ferry, walk, rickshaw, train, bus, boat and then bus!!
So, no time for breakfast, Jen, myself and Isabelle started the walk for the ferry (item A above) , whilst its still dark. Luckily for us the sun was rising beautifully in the sky over the river which proved to be a very nice journey. The morning 3km walk to the train proved too much at 7am so we negotiated a rickshaw driver to take us the last km. The trains here in India are mental! For most journeys you have to 'reserve' your tickets days in advance which is a crazy process of filling in 2 forms specifying everything from your age and occupation to the class of journey you'd like. This time it was only a 57km journey so we could just buy a ticket on the day.
A 10 rupee investment later and Isabelle and I were now caffeine'd up with a good cup of coffee and ready for the day. The train took ages! For 57kms it took almost 2 hours which is a nightmare!!
NEWS FLASH!!! **There are 'ticks' as well as leeches in the forest**
Disgusting I know but JEN HAD A TICK IN BETWEEN HER TWO TOES!!! Yep, and for some reason I still love her, lol. It was gross, but she noticed a small black bit of seemingly skin in between her toes. So she pulled and it hurt, then she pulled it some more and it detached....and it was a little, rank tick that must have attached itself during the trek in the forest we think. PICCY TO COME.....
We were now at Alipeye (or however you spell it). A short bus ride to the jetty and we managed to meet up with a random Greek guy called Illyous who is riding his motorbike around India. So far hes travelled through Iran, Pakistan, Nepal and Turkey...the guy has some really cool stories! I'd love to see Nepal (note to self: travel round Nepal one day). Great that we found another guy as it made the boat journey cheaper for us. We negotiated the guy down to 4 hours for 175 rupees per person...great price!
So the scene was set, we'd be exploring the massive interlinking streams, rivers and lakes called the Backwaters. They are all over the South Western parts of India but are particularly nice here in Alipeye. Small villages, locals bathing in the waters, washing clothes and lots of houseboats everywhere, usually makes for a crowded experience. But this is out of season so we were lucky and didn't see too many tourists. The boat ride started really well and allowed us to see a really green, wet part of India. In some parts the vegetation actually looked a bit like the UK with a tropical twist.
We had some great Paratha for breakfast (at a cost of 10 rupees each) and we were back on the boat, all really enjoying the scenery for the next hour or so. A quick stop off to a local man who makes beer from coconuts...which was royally rank and then....the heavens opened up....and didn't stop. In fact, this has been characteristic of our time here in the more southerly parts of India as it is nearing monsoon...but actually still the summer...so who knows! All in all the Backwaters were cool and we saved some money by doing it the local way! We braved another crazy ass bus ride back to where we were staying, which took much less time and probably shaved a few years off our time here on earth due to the heart palpitations from doing 100kms an hour in a 30 zone, overtaking trucks, cars, bikes and goats....
Back in Fort Kochi we had a bit of time to kill but were all quite knackered so we decided to go for some early dinner (and pay a bit more at a tourist restaurant) and then...wait for it...top the evening off with a 2hour viewing session of American Idol....YEAH BABY! Actually it was a bit of a let down due to the quality of song choice, but that was neither here nor there.
The total cost of the day for four hours of river cruising per person was 233 rupees each, which is roughly 3 pounds each!! This is in contrast to the 450 rupees just for 3 hours of river boating per person so as you can see we made the right decision to travel for 4 hours at 6am to get to our destination. We were tipped off that the Backwaters more South were much better than those around where we're staying, Kochi...and of course it was much more interesting to meet the locals on the bus etc.
Today arrived and we had no plans to do anything. The original plan was to go and visit a local amusement park but it turned out that the rubbish weather was not a good sign and so it was time to call it a day on the activities and have a chill out one before the craziness of Mumbai tomorrow. A bit of a Thali lunch, a short bus ride to a local festival where some elephants were and that was the day finished.....lame compared to some other days. Quite odd but whilst we were at the festival a guy came up to us and told us he had 3 elephants in his front garden....yep, he did!
India does not fail to shock, surprise and amaze me every day!
As aforementioned, tomorrow we fly to Mumbai where we're told its going to be slightly crazy. Then we start our arranged trip around Rajhestan with Intrepid Travels. We suspect that they'll attempt to take us to all the tourist restaurants etc where we'll be expected to pay crazy prices like a pound for a curry.....I dont think so sunshine! Everyone who wants to find some good, cheap local food....follow me!
See you in the North.....
The title of this entry is an adaptation of the classic film, 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' and suggests that we experienced quite a few transport types in the last few days...this is correct. The title also suggests something to do with ticks...this will require some clarification...but both parts of the title are interlinked!
6am, Wednesday 19th March hits us hard! Hardly any sleep the previous night due to a very strange sounding, loud-ass bird in the tree outside our room was combined with the fact that it is very muggy here in Kochi. There was also the unfortunate fact that the fan in our room only works on full steam and so is like gale force wind! These both resulted in a stroppy, early-rising Jen in particular! We were on the way to our intended destination for the day, the Backwaters in Alipeye. I've provided a breakdown of our journey below to whet your appetite about what to expect if you want to do things on the cheap......
Journey type/length Cost per person
Outward
A. 15minute walk from 'homestay' to ferry
2. 20minute ferry ride across to the mainland - 2.5 rupees
trois. 2km walk towards main train station
D. 1km 'rickshaw' drive - 5 rupees
funf. 2 hour (57km) train journey South - 12 rupees
6. 15minute bus ride to boat jetty - 5 rupees
Siete. 4 hour boat ride in Backwaters - 175 rupees
Return
8. 1.5 hour bus ride back to Fort Kochin - 34 rupees
Overall from the day we did a walk, ferry, walk, rickshaw, train, bus, boat and then bus!!
So, no time for breakfast, Jen, myself and Isabelle started the walk for the ferry (item A above) , whilst its still dark. Luckily for us the sun was rising beautifully in the sky over the river which proved to be a very nice journey. The morning 3km walk to the train proved too much at 7am so we negotiated a rickshaw driver to take us the last km. The trains here in India are mental! For most journeys you have to 'reserve' your tickets days in advance which is a crazy process of filling in 2 forms specifying everything from your age and occupation to the class of journey you'd like. This time it was only a 57km journey so we could just buy a ticket on the day.
A 10 rupee investment later and Isabelle and I were now caffeine'd up with a good cup of coffee and ready for the day. The train took ages! For 57kms it took almost 2 hours which is a nightmare!!
NEWS FLASH!!! **There are 'ticks' as well as leeches in the forest**
Disgusting I know but JEN HAD A TICK IN BETWEEN HER TWO TOES!!! Yep, and for some reason I still love her, lol. It was gross, but she noticed a small black bit of seemingly skin in between her toes. So she pulled and it hurt, then she pulled it some more and it detached....and it was a little, rank tick that must have attached itself during the trek in the forest we think. PICCY TO COME.....
We were now at Alipeye (or however you spell it). A short bus ride to the jetty and we managed to meet up with a random Greek guy called Illyous who is riding his motorbike around India. So far hes travelled through Iran, Pakistan, Nepal and Turkey...the guy has some really cool stories! I'd love to see Nepal (note to self: travel round Nepal one day). Great that we found another guy as it made the boat journey cheaper for us. We negotiated the guy down to 4 hours for 175 rupees per person...great price!
So the scene was set, we'd be exploring the massive interlinking streams, rivers and lakes called the Backwaters. They are all over the South Western parts of India but are particularly nice here in Alipeye. Small villages, locals bathing in the waters, washing clothes and lots of houseboats everywhere, usually makes for a crowded experience. But this is out of season so we were lucky and didn't see too many tourists. The boat ride started really well and allowed us to see a really green, wet part of India. In some parts the vegetation actually looked a bit like the UK with a tropical twist.
We had some great Paratha for breakfast (at a cost of 10 rupees each) and we were back on the boat, all really enjoying the scenery for the next hour or so. A quick stop off to a local man who makes beer from coconuts...which was royally rank and then....the heavens opened up....and didn't stop. In fact, this has been characteristic of our time here in the more southerly parts of India as it is nearing monsoon...but actually still the summer...so who knows! All in all the Backwaters were cool and we saved some money by doing it the local way! We braved another crazy ass bus ride back to where we were staying, which took much less time and probably shaved a few years off our time here on earth due to the heart palpitations from doing 100kms an hour in a 30 zone, overtaking trucks, cars, bikes and goats....
Back in Fort Kochi we had a bit of time to kill but were all quite knackered so we decided to go for some early dinner (and pay a bit more at a tourist restaurant) and then...wait for it...top the evening off with a 2hour viewing session of American Idol....YEAH BABY! Actually it was a bit of a let down due to the quality of song choice, but that was neither here nor there.
The total cost of the day for four hours of river cruising per person was 233 rupees each, which is roughly 3 pounds each!! This is in contrast to the 450 rupees just for 3 hours of river boating per person so as you can see we made the right decision to travel for 4 hours at 6am to get to our destination. We were tipped off that the Backwaters more South were much better than those around where we're staying, Kochi...and of course it was much more interesting to meet the locals on the bus etc.
Today arrived and we had no plans to do anything. The original plan was to go and visit a local amusement park but it turned out that the rubbish weather was not a good sign and so it was time to call it a day on the activities and have a chill out one before the craziness of Mumbai tomorrow. A bit of a Thali lunch, a short bus ride to a local festival where some elephants were and that was the day finished.....lame compared to some other days. Quite odd but whilst we were at the festival a guy came up to us and told us he had 3 elephants in his front garden....yep, he did!
India does not fail to shock, surprise and amaze me every day!
As aforementioned, tomorrow we fly to Mumbai where we're told its going to be slightly crazy. Then we start our arranged trip around Rajhestan with Intrepid Travels. We suspect that they'll attempt to take us to all the tourist restaurants etc where we'll be expected to pay crazy prices like a pound for a curry.....I dont think so sunshine! Everyone who wants to find some good, cheap local food....follow me!
See you in the North.....
Southern India snapshots
Beautiful and our favourite place yet..Hampi and surrounding areas.
We crashed a Hindu Wedding, very beautiful
The tallest and highest Buddha in the world...can you see us at the bottom?
So many child labourers here, its very sad to see, this boy was selling onions!
Terry's 25p hair cut!!
We walked all the way up these steps, stupidly at 12 noon!!!
Its amazing how they carry things here!
People just love to have their pictures taken here!! They look so funny as they just dont know how to pose!
They still use Ox's and Bulls to carry things around
More amazing pics from Hampi......
On our way to the backwaters i found this on my foot, a horrible, disgusting TIC!!!!!!!! Yuk...was so hard to get off and it hurt so much!!!!!
And to finish Southern India for us.....The Kerala Backwaters, an inspiring place, tranquil and peaceful....
We crashed a Hindu Wedding, very beautiful
The tallest and highest Buddha in the world...can you see us at the bottom?
So many child labourers here, its very sad to see, this boy was selling onions!
Terry's 25p hair cut!!
We walked all the way up these steps, stupidly at 12 noon!!!
Its amazing how they carry things here!
People just love to have their pictures taken here!! They look so funny as they just dont know how to pose!
They still use Ox's and Bulls to carry things around
More amazing pics from Hampi......
On our way to the backwaters i found this on my foot, a horrible, disgusting TIC!!!!!!!! Yuk...was so hard to get off and it hurt so much!!!!!
And to finish Southern India for us.....The Kerala Backwaters, an inspiring place, tranquil and peaceful....
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Kochi, the 'homestay' and a hilarious cinema experience (take 2)
Hi guys!
Ok, for all you 'regulars' I have to warn you that this is only my second attempt at a blog entry as Jen normally handles this part of our responsibilities as conscientious travellers who want to share their experiences with their friends, family (and the rest of the world). I'm looking forward to it though, so wish me luck.
Well, theres not much to report on as we only did an entry a few days ago, but we were just on the way back to our 'homestay', and I'll clarify what is meant by the inverts there in a jiffy, when we saw a nice looking internet cafe where we were given a free cup of tea with the seriously fast connection and so figured it was a good idea to keep you guys up to date.
Our journey on the previous entry left you at the end of our real homestay in the jungle, where we were literally attacked by leeches. We arrived back to civilisation in Mysore (South of Madikeri and our last stop in this part of India before the crazy North), we experienced another Thali for 25p and prepared for the night bus to Kochi. This night bus was refreshingly good and consisted of almost-fully-reclining chairs, some personal space and only one crazy snorer...however..it was the most expensive journey to date in India and cost us all 10 dollars, yes 10 DOLLARS to do 12 hours. In terms of travel in the UK, this is amazing value, but in India we have done the same length at least 3 other times for half the price. Guess thats the price of 'luxury'. For me the best part of this bus journey were the Tibetan monks all congregating in the bus station after a protest in Mysore due to 15 of their comrades being kidnapped in China I think....these guys are seriously good human beings and very, very polite to approach.
So we managed a bit of sleep on the bus as we were only awoken 3 or 4 times for tea breaks -where the lights came on the bus. At a few points I remembered waking up and looking out of the window only to see very thin, windy, jungle like roads as the bus meandered over the mountains towards the south.
Ten am, 17th of March we arrive in the tourist city of Kochi. It appeared to be so due to the ratio of westerners to natives around the bus station and for the fact that were almost immediately (nearly) ripped off by a rickshaw driver whom tried to charge us 150 rupees for a 2km journey that should have been 20 rupees (25p). Tired and all stroppy we (Jen, Isabelle and I) managed to negotiate a rickshaw for the correct price to the jetty where we decided to take a boat to another part of the town called Fort Kochi. This is essentially an island part of the city with Portuguese architecture and seriously high prices for everything in the tourist section!!
After a very reasonably priced 2.50 rupees (2p), 20 minute boat journey across to this part we explored and found a 'homestay' room for 350 rupees a night (about 10 dollars).....the cheapest and cleanest we could find. BUT...this was not a homestay we had experienced before and was basically a 4 bed apartment in a big building where a young couple rented out 3 of the rooms. It was still technically a homestay though, so they could market it as one.
No sleeping for us though, 12hours on a bus with about 3 in sleep mode is sufficient...off to explore some more. Bags down, showered with cold water and ready to rock, we set out to find some good food. As aforementioned, the food was all expensive and the regular, dumb tourists would happily pay 60 rupees for a thali...where we had been used to 20 for the same thing. We set a few goals where we wanted to find somewhere to do laundry, somewhere to eat and some chilling. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere wanted our money to do laundry so we purchased some powder and planned to do it ourselves!
A nice rickshaw driver gave us a bit of a tour under the proviso that we 'looked in a few shops'....haha. This is the age old trick of the rickshaw driver taking a few tourists into a shop, you dont buy anything, and then he gets some commission...or how they term it, 'some petrol vouchers'. So he took us for a good thali at a very acceptable 17rupees a piece, then we looked in the shops! There was no way we were buying anything though as they were crazy expensive!!! One man majorly looked down his nose at me due to the stains on my dirty shorts...haha...so I put him in his place and asked him about where in the world he had travelled...teach him to be nasty to travellers! 1-0 to the shabby, dirty tourist!!!
The evening came, the 2hour hand washing mission in the room was completed and we were ready to hit a cool local dance show called Katkhali (I think). We were psyched for the 2 hour show entailing men in costumes, speaking a strange body language to one another whilst accompanied by a dude singing in the background to a drummer...and stuff. Unfortunately, lethargy got the better of Jen and I, so we slipped out the back door during a part in the show where they use a big curtain and we wouldn't feel so bad....haha.
On the way out from the show a crafty entrepreneurial rickshaw driver managed to pursuade us to go into another posh shop...but this time we got paid 50rupees for it!!! Fine by me. I suggested we do the same with 20 shops the following day so we could make up some of our travel deficit from the long expensive bus journey...to no avail...haha.
Today arrived and we were all feeling quite lazy again. I had porridge for breakfast after establishing that my landlady did not grasp the concept of toast from our 20minute discussion. The porridge was fantastic though so we were both happy...toastless, but happy.
The three of us set off on another boat journey back to mainland. Refreshed and less sleep deprived we were stunned to see beautiful opportunistic, what seemed to be Bottlenose dolphins jumping out of the river on our way over. Once on mainland it seemed we were on a mission....not any old mission...but....A PIZZA HUT MISSION!!!!! Hell yeah we were! Porridge aside I was ready for the heavenous experience. Straight to pizza hut we went and boy did we splash out compared to our previous meals...but it was all worth it. I had my cheese fix (in fact I've saved a bit in my bag for tonight)...but there was no stuffed crust. I dont know what it is but we just can't shake the craving for western food. Every now and then we have a cheese relapse and have to splash out.
After pizza hut we trekked to the bus station and train station to check on times and availability over the next few days for our various departures. Specifically we looked at how to get to an amusement park called Veega Land, we looked at how to get to the 'Backwaters' and to the airport.
So we are now very satisfied from our food, we have our exit strategy planned, its raining - but who cares as its still hot...what would tip the day off is only the cinema right!! You got it. 10,000 BC was playing at the local cinema, and this one seemed like a big, professional cinema as it had a tuck shop, Britney spears playing over the PA and lots of posters of the next film to be shown (a Hindi film called Race...looks good too). For 50 rupees (65p) we got to see this, I thought, pretty cool film.
Out of all the empty 200 seats in the house a cool Indian dude sits next to me and starts to converse. Hes called Peter, is a tiler and has a brother in England studying. Speaks great English too. The fim starts and the locals cant help but keep their mobiles on. But I learn from Peter what 'turn your phone off' is in Hindi...luckily didn't need to use it though!
As with our previous cinema experience this one turned out to be hilarious. It was a great film and had all the lips in sync, lots of fighting, a love story and other bits. It also had a half time break of 4 minutes where we had salt popcorn. The end of the film experience here was friggin hilarious. For some reason everyone left 10 minutes before the end of the film!!!! I have no idea why....we concluded that they all chose to go home and make up their own ending to tell their friends and family, why else would you leave a film early!!! A deer with no eyes....(no idea). In fact, a deer with no legs and no eyes (STILL no idea).
Tomorrow we go to the backwaters which are a collection of waterways and streams that you can explore by houseboat. We discovered that its cheaper to go a bit further south and get off the tourist trail to experience this....wish us luck!!!
Hope this entry hasn't been too shabby!...Peace out
P.s from Jen....Note: Terry's blog is all about the money as usual. That'll teach me to allow the 'financial controller' to write an entry!!!
Here are the views from the 6000 feet mountains we climbed, me and tel at the top, with cloud all around us!
LEECH ATTACK!!!!!!! OUCH!!!!! This is Isabel's white leg!!!
Below is the house is our home stay in the middle of a huge coffee plantation, with amazing views all around.
Ok, for all you 'regulars' I have to warn you that this is only my second attempt at a blog entry as Jen normally handles this part of our responsibilities as conscientious travellers who want to share their experiences with their friends, family (and the rest of the world). I'm looking forward to it though, so wish me luck.
Well, theres not much to report on as we only did an entry a few days ago, but we were just on the way back to our 'homestay', and I'll clarify what is meant by the inverts there in a jiffy, when we saw a nice looking internet cafe where we were given a free cup of tea with the seriously fast connection and so figured it was a good idea to keep you guys up to date.
Our journey on the previous entry left you at the end of our real homestay in the jungle, where we were literally attacked by leeches. We arrived back to civilisation in Mysore (South of Madikeri and our last stop in this part of India before the crazy North), we experienced another Thali for 25p and prepared for the night bus to Kochi. This night bus was refreshingly good and consisted of almost-fully-reclining chairs, some personal space and only one crazy snorer...however..it was the most expensive journey to date in India and cost us all 10 dollars, yes 10 DOLLARS to do 12 hours. In terms of travel in the UK, this is amazing value, but in India we have done the same length at least 3 other times for half the price. Guess thats the price of 'luxury'. For me the best part of this bus journey were the Tibetan monks all congregating in the bus station after a protest in Mysore due to 15 of their comrades being kidnapped in China I think....these guys are seriously good human beings and very, very polite to approach.
So we managed a bit of sleep on the bus as we were only awoken 3 or 4 times for tea breaks -where the lights came on the bus. At a few points I remembered waking up and looking out of the window only to see very thin, windy, jungle like roads as the bus meandered over the mountains towards the south.
Ten am, 17th of March we arrive in the tourist city of Kochi. It appeared to be so due to the ratio of westerners to natives around the bus station and for the fact that were almost immediately (nearly) ripped off by a rickshaw driver whom tried to charge us 150 rupees for a 2km journey that should have been 20 rupees (25p). Tired and all stroppy we (Jen, Isabelle and I) managed to negotiate a rickshaw for the correct price to the jetty where we decided to take a boat to another part of the town called Fort Kochi. This is essentially an island part of the city with Portuguese architecture and seriously high prices for everything in the tourist section!!
After a very reasonably priced 2.50 rupees (2p), 20 minute boat journey across to this part we explored and found a 'homestay' room for 350 rupees a night (about 10 dollars).....the cheapest and cleanest we could find. BUT...this was not a homestay we had experienced before and was basically a 4 bed apartment in a big building where a young couple rented out 3 of the rooms. It was still technically a homestay though, so they could market it as one.
No sleeping for us though, 12hours on a bus with about 3 in sleep mode is sufficient...off to explore some more. Bags down, showered with cold water and ready to rock, we set out to find some good food. As aforementioned, the food was all expensive and the regular, dumb tourists would happily pay 60 rupees for a thali...where we had been used to 20 for the same thing. We set a few goals where we wanted to find somewhere to do laundry, somewhere to eat and some chilling. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere wanted our money to do laundry so we purchased some powder and planned to do it ourselves!
A nice rickshaw driver gave us a bit of a tour under the proviso that we 'looked in a few shops'....haha. This is the age old trick of the rickshaw driver taking a few tourists into a shop, you dont buy anything, and then he gets some commission...or how they term it, 'some petrol vouchers'. So he took us for a good thali at a very acceptable 17rupees a piece, then we looked in the shops! There was no way we were buying anything though as they were crazy expensive!!! One man majorly looked down his nose at me due to the stains on my dirty shorts...haha...so I put him in his place and asked him about where in the world he had travelled...teach him to be nasty to travellers! 1-0 to the shabby, dirty tourist!!!
The evening came, the 2hour hand washing mission in the room was completed and we were ready to hit a cool local dance show called Katkhali (I think). We were psyched for the 2 hour show entailing men in costumes, speaking a strange body language to one another whilst accompanied by a dude singing in the background to a drummer...and stuff. Unfortunately, lethargy got the better of Jen and I, so we slipped out the back door during a part in the show where they use a big curtain and we wouldn't feel so bad....haha.
On the way out from the show a crafty entrepreneurial rickshaw driver managed to pursuade us to go into another posh shop...but this time we got paid 50rupees for it!!! Fine by me. I suggested we do the same with 20 shops the following day so we could make up some of our travel deficit from the long expensive bus journey...to no avail...haha.
Today arrived and we were all feeling quite lazy again. I had porridge for breakfast after establishing that my landlady did not grasp the concept of toast from our 20minute discussion. The porridge was fantastic though so we were both happy...toastless, but happy.
The three of us set off on another boat journey back to mainland. Refreshed and less sleep deprived we were stunned to see beautiful opportunistic, what seemed to be Bottlenose dolphins jumping out of the river on our way over. Once on mainland it seemed we were on a mission....not any old mission...but....A PIZZA HUT MISSION!!!!! Hell yeah we were! Porridge aside I was ready for the heavenous experience. Straight to pizza hut we went and boy did we splash out compared to our previous meals...but it was all worth it. I had my cheese fix (in fact I've saved a bit in my bag for tonight)...but there was no stuffed crust. I dont know what it is but we just can't shake the craving for western food. Every now and then we have a cheese relapse and have to splash out.
After pizza hut we trekked to the bus station and train station to check on times and availability over the next few days for our various departures. Specifically we looked at how to get to an amusement park called Veega Land, we looked at how to get to the 'Backwaters' and to the airport.
So we are now very satisfied from our food, we have our exit strategy planned, its raining - but who cares as its still hot...what would tip the day off is only the cinema right!! You got it. 10,000 BC was playing at the local cinema, and this one seemed like a big, professional cinema as it had a tuck shop, Britney spears playing over the PA and lots of posters of the next film to be shown (a Hindi film called Race...looks good too). For 50 rupees (65p) we got to see this, I thought, pretty cool film.
Out of all the empty 200 seats in the house a cool Indian dude sits next to me and starts to converse. Hes called Peter, is a tiler and has a brother in England studying. Speaks great English too. The fim starts and the locals cant help but keep their mobiles on. But I learn from Peter what 'turn your phone off' is in Hindi...luckily didn't need to use it though!
As with our previous cinema experience this one turned out to be hilarious. It was a great film and had all the lips in sync, lots of fighting, a love story and other bits. It also had a half time break of 4 minutes where we had salt popcorn. The end of the film experience here was friggin hilarious. For some reason everyone left 10 minutes before the end of the film!!!! I have no idea why....we concluded that they all chose to go home and make up their own ending to tell their friends and family, why else would you leave a film early!!! A deer with no eyes....(no idea). In fact, a deer with no legs and no eyes (STILL no idea).
Tomorrow we go to the backwaters which are a collection of waterways and streams that you can explore by houseboat. We discovered that its cheaper to go a bit further south and get off the tourist trail to experience this....wish us luck!!!
Hope this entry hasn't been too shabby!...Peace out
P.s from Jen....Note: Terry's blog is all about the money as usual. That'll teach me to allow the 'financial controller' to write an entry!!!
Here are the views from the 6000 feet mountains we climbed, me and tel at the top, with cloud all around us!
LEECH ATTACK!!!!!!! OUCH!!!!! This is Isabel's white leg!!!
Below is the house is our home stay in the middle of a huge coffee plantation, with amazing views all around.
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