Val and Fab

Fruition of our trip...

2009-11-29T17:48:00.002Z

...a baby from Ladakh!

There are touch-points in life which entreats us to change and grow, to mature, to take responsibility, to be happy as a person, a couple...this trip has been a major one for us...as is... this pregnancy!

Some things will stay embedded in our hearts and minds forever – the many extraordinary sceneries, the laughters, the adventures, the vibrant cultures, but there will always be a special place, somewhere in India, far far up North....some snowy summits magnified by the crystal-clear sunshine, arid plains interspersed with a moonscape of deep gorges and an aura of greatness...a little clandestine decided to come back with us from Ladakh and take us on another journey. Parenthood!!!

One that hopefully will help us listen to ourselves, enrich our lives with a sense of connection where communication can happen in silence or through physical contact. One that compels us to defocus and let go, to live for the experience and to expand our horizons in all sorts of directions...

Conceiving, carrying during those long months a baby, seeing it coming to life is probably one of the most profound and beautiful adventures that can be lived...after this wonderful journey around the world.

Next stop: March, London when we will become three!

The Very Last Days

2009-11-29T17:44:00.003Z

28/06
It's 5am and we wake up with a sore heart. The sun rises over the Himalayan mountains in a symphony of purple and pink. It seems the skies are also saying goodbye in a marvellous style. We're leaving for Delhi this morning and we're excited but also very sad to leave this beautiful part of the world that worked its magic on us...
Our lovely host wakes up to get us some chai and to say goodbye, we are very touched. Wrapping up our bags and sipping our tea away, we say farewell to our fabulous bedroom and get in the taxi. We are pretty silent, looking at the mountains and the roads we've rode on passing in front of our windows. Leh is still, quiet and deserted, the shops are closed, like a little mourning, the town shying away, fading away. New adventures wait for us, Delhi is near, so does the end of the trip. We try not to think too much about it but it's there. We're both very emotional and our eyes speak for ourselves. We pass in front of the gigantic army camps on the way to the airport. We get our numerous luggages through the check in and customs and wait for our plane in the less than fancy derelict airport. We chose to fly in order to stay in Leh longer and avoid that dreadful 3 day trip on the bus to Delhi. Our carbon footprint is getting a little bit too much but things we want to do in and around Delhi can't wait...
For some reason we got an upgrade once again for this flight...it's only one and a half hour flight but we're in first class...loads of legroom and seats are twice as large as normal ones...self indulgence...We take off and after few moments we see all the Himalayan range from a different point of view...green valleys inserts between these enormous sharp teeth that are the summits, few clouds around and peaks piercing through them...then the mountains shrink to make space for larger valleys, slowly covering themselves with trees. The Himalayas draw to a close and in a spectacular drop, disappear underneath the arid plains...the landscape is absolutely stunning from the little plane windows...I try to take pictures, Val passing out in her comfy seat. Slowly we see buildings and the gigantism of Delhi unravelling. And we finally touch down in Delhi. We knew about it but it's early morning and we're already near the 40 degrees here. And a little more humid than two months ago...the monsoon is arriving soon...The next three days will be HOT. Period. We get our bags and make our way to Pahar Ganj in a taxi we're sharing with a Hungarian guy. We find a small hotel, cheap but with aircon in a side alleyway to the bazar. It's a great location as it is not on the main street but many more locals are around and we get to see loads of local life with local eateries and chai shops busy with locals and (nearly) no tourists. We rest for a little while and go visit a few shops in the area, talk to shopkeepers, street vendors or simply smiling indian people etc. We then decide to explore some further areas outside of Delhi to try and find some furnitures...It's sunday many furniture shops are closed. We visit Hauz Khas village near a very posh new part of the town and some other colourful markets nearby. Then the sky breaks up in a massive storm which leaves us soaked once again. But within minutes and thanks to the heat (a little less hot now!) we dry up quicky. We then move back to the city, near Connaught Place where we go to an emporium. And we decide to walk back to the bazar. We really want to take in as much as we can of the people's kindness, interest, curiosity, vision of life during our last days. We smile to everyone around and walk and walk again. We buy a few souvenirs and discover some parts of the bazar we did not know. At the end of the day we come across a ceremony in the middle of the street. Women are making offerings to deities, candles, burning oil, flowers, candies, asking for the protection of a newborn. We go for dinner in one of our favourite local we discovered the last time. The kids still remember us and we have fun with them as they play fools when the boss turn around...and we go to bed...tomorrow we'll wake up early again: we're going to the Taj Mahal!!!!!!!!!!!

29/06
Our train is at 6am so we wake up very early. It's been raining all night. The bazar is muddy and we walk in the middle of the street trying to avoid the puddles, but at this time the bazar is still asleep so we have loads of space! New Delhi train station is already very busy, some people going on business, some going on holidays, some still sleeping on the floor, some around a ticket office probably still queuing since yesterday to get second class tickets to wherever...We find our train which will take us to Agra and the legendary Taj Mahal. We take place on our train with a lot of Indian tourists going on a day trip like us. Two hours later we make it to the station of one of the most touristic place of India, if not the most touristic. Hords of touts and desperate taxis and rikshaw drivers are waiting outside and jump on the freshly arrived people, Indian or not. We try to make it to the taxi boot but are being sort of rescued by a German couple who are going to the Taj. The've already been negociating for a while and are looking for two other people to share the cost. It won't be much! We're at the lowest of the season here, not so many tourists are around because of the temperature. Many drivers will not make a roupie today, surprisingly they're haggling between them, it's madness, they're argueing and the prices are still dropping...it's very disturbing, we start thinking they won't even cover their costs...so we get one of the nicest guys and not the cheaper and get in his taxi. The Taj Mahal is few kilometers away and the taxi takes us to the outside of the West Gate, on the outskirts of the external walls. Once again a large number of street sellers come to us desperate to sell a wooden box, a plastic snake, batteries or even useful stuff like light bulbs or bicycle tubes...We take our extremely expensive entry tickets comparatively to the standards of India. But hey it's the Taj Mahal right?!
We make our way to the first inner gate, the West gate, where we get thoroughly checked for security (I had to leave my newspapers?!) and process along the red walls to get to the gardens. Our hearts beat fast, the moment is magical and the mausoleum reveals itself slowly to our eyes. The set is theatrical, in a sort of movement of curtains created by the walls and the porch of the gigantic gate, the marvellous white splendour is uncovered...our eyes are wide opened and we're holding our breath. The moment is magical. Like millions (billions??) of people, we've seen it in books, on post-cards, on tv, in cinema...it's part of our world heritage and one of the most well know monument on earth...and it's in front of us...I don't know what to feel or think...this dream has become real and for a long time since I knew I would come here I was scared of having this myth crumbling down in front of me...being disappointed by something that would not be as beautiful I expected, or simply sad of the dream becoming a reality. But nothing as such...the Taj Mahal IS REALLY a splendor.
We walk around this piece of architecture built in 1653 (the work lasted for 22 years) by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is said that he was so sad after the loss of his wife that the emperor looked for an architect who could understand his vision of desperate love, found the best Persian architect and killed his wife so he could understand the pain and build the most beautiful testimony of love. The monument is entirely made of white marble with inlay of semi precious stones. We take a few pictures and walk around the magnificient gardens and walk towards the mausoleum. It is actually much larger and taller than I ever thought and we understand why it's taken so long to built it. We are really struck by the beauty of the place, the proportions, the symetry and the precision and perfection. The craft is impressive, the stone inlays are stunning, beauty and such a fluidity in the movements...we're in love...The mausoleum chamber is sensational, really moving, with the carving of the thin marble pannels surrounding the tomb. Ceilings, floor, walls, dome...all marble and all splendid...We're so glad to be here...We then walk around and visit the symetrical mosques that flank the Taj, we observe (and ARE observed) the many local tourists, some with modern outfits, some in traditional dresses and saris...there is a feeling of time suspension here. We stop for a while and sit to watch the Taj...but we have to leave after few hours as Agra has other things to visit.
We take a rickshaw and go to visit the Red Fort, few kilometres away. The fort is one of the most important complex of India, made of many buildings and gardens. Its foundation dates back to the 11th century. But it took its present form under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, the same behind the Taj Mahal. The fort in mainly made of red sandstone but also of inlaid white marble and sometimes gold. The emperor was at some point emprisoned by his son, and a white marble palace was built inside the fort so the emperor could still see his wife mausoleum. The compound is splendid, the gardens very well kept and the very strong sun reflecting on the white surfaces dazzles us despite the sun glasses!! We also spend a long time here, wandering around...but the day is soon over so we make our way to a place called the 'Baby Taj' (the real name is I'timād-ud-Daulah's Tomb). It's another mausoleum actually older than the Taj Mahal and is said to have been an inspiration for his more famous sister.
We hire a new rickshaw which is going to take us there, it's far but really worth it. On the way we see colourful markets, local life...not so many tourists around here. We witness the sad example of a widely spread corrupt system, a policeman is guarding a bridge and takes a bribe to any motor vehicle that may wish to cross. But not directly!!! A 'bribe collector' sits nearby and is a sort of intermediary...the policeman doesn't want to be seen being given the money!!! The rickshaw rides in the traffic, some motorbikes so heavily loaded they take three quarters of the road, other rickshaw with ten people inside...dear old India...and we arrive at the monument.
Val and I both loved this place, there is nearly nobody here, only us and a few monkeys...the mausoleum is not as big as the Taj but the inlaid marble is largely used here which is slowly turning red with the setting sun...and carved on the inside and the outside. The inside walls are covered with beautiful frescos, marble floor etc...In one of the wings some craftsmen are actually restoring the wall, manufacturing detailed inlays with traditional hand tools. Their father, and the father or their father worked the same way...We feel happy and privileged to share a moment with them. We then wait and watch the beginning of the sunset. Time flies and we have to return to see our rickshaw and go back to the station. We ask him to drop us in a nice eatery on the way and have a quick dinner before heading back to the station. We eat, read and start walking to the station...but it's much further away than planned and we have to take a cycle rickshaw on the fly! We make it the station and find our German friends on the platform...Streets kids are begging, some aggressively, some too young to be so, some crippled guys...'Agra cant't' station is a real theatre of India's drama...After a while (it's now 9pm) the different kids gather at the foot of the stairs, a policeman gives some of his baton...minutes later a man in a suit with a Panama arrives...they all show their hands and he picks the few rupees a couple of the kids have. The ones who have raised money will come and eat with him tonight...the others will have to beg for longer...maybe all night....We looked at each other and me and the German guy are really near to go and have 'a man chat' with this guy...but what about the kids???! We really feel useless here...
Our train finally arrives (rather late) and takes us back to Delhi. The bazar is now closed and we go and have another quick meal. The day has been rather filled up with intense emotions and we are very tired...we come back to the hotel and go to sleep quickly...

30/06
It's our last day here in India, and is also the last stop before our final destination...
We decided that we'll spend our last day trying to combine the excitment of shoppping with the sadness of our last day. The task seems hard as we are rather anxious about the next days as this incredible part of our life is coming to an end...so...we're going shopping, trying to find everlasting memories of our journey here...a mission...
We first get on a rickshaw to Sunder Nagar village. People have been recommending this place as we may find some nice antique furnitures. It's set in a very luxurious area with beautiful well fenced and guarded villas...But there is no furniture shop here so we do some window shopping for a while as the square presents some nice little shops of various junk from all over India. Inside the small shops, it's a symphony of so called antique jewellery, fake aged reproductions of various tribal objects, real pieces of ethnic art and imported stuff... Before we set off we enter a shop held by a Sikh guy, Singh. This short stop turns to a real head turning (or buzzing) event! We were just watching some old Indian movie posters and we end up talking Tibetan singing bowls and sound therapy with him...With another couple, we start experimenting the beneficial resonance of the singing bowls on our heads one after the other. We spend around an hour there....and a few roupies on a singing bowl!!!! It's a great purchase, from all the one we've seen in the North of India, this one DOES have a beautiful sound, unique, soft and pure...We're very happy...Then following a tip from our friend, we head off to Sharma Farm in the Southern outskirts of the city. After nearly an hour drive, we reach a vast area with several warehouses...filled up with...antiques!!!! They're not even restored yet!!! We walk through the alleys looking left and right in search of THE piece we'll bring back with us...We could furnish an entire house with what they have to offer: chairs, tables, coffee tables, doors, palaces wooden porches, wardrobes, chandeliers, beds, carpets, plantpots, garden benches and so on...This place is absolutely fantastic...We keep walking in the hope we'll find what we want...then after a long while, we finally find a buffalo cart we can transform as a coffee table...it's got some work to be done on it but we love its shape and look...then we carry on our search...after many ideas and conversations, we suddely see a pair of beautiful wooden doors...that strikes us: that it'll become a dining table...
After many more conversations with the sellers (and heavy negociations!!!) we decide to go back to the guesthouse. We've spent about 4 hours in the warehouse and it's getting late. We take our taxi back (we asked him to wait for us) to Pahar Ganj but the sky has completely change colour. It's nearly black due to the thickness of the clouds. Then, on a large road, it starts pouring down as the pre-monsoon season is tearing the sky away...pure deluge, it seems that the see is falling from the heavens...we can't see much...and, suddenly, our taxi breaks down as a lorry passing by drives through a massive puddle and literally floods the car in a huge tidal wave...a little mud tsunami get the engine to drawn and splashes all over me through the small gap of the slightly opened window...we laugh out loud despite the discomfort...but the car does not start anymore...the engine is flooded. After waiting for a while on the motorway the driver calls for another taxi to come and pick us up. 20 minutes later our new taxi arrives. We are slightly soaked but never mind, it's about 45 degrees out there and we'll dry fast.
The bazar is as muddy as Verdun battlefield in the middle of the autumn...we kind of carefully walk in the middle of the puddle, slaloming between the patches and diverses obstacles...unexpectedly, in the middle of the brown and shiny ground, a man dressed in white on a white horse is parading like a prince in a sort of hallucinated vision and incredible drum noise...The groom and his family are going to pick up his bride...On the last day of our honeymoon we witness a beautiful traditional Indian wedding in one of the poorest and dirtiest area of Delhi...a beautiful flash of remembrance passes between us...In a rush I grab my camera and take a short movie of the scene...We make it to the hotel, rest for a little while and decide to go out again to eat and enjoy our last moments in the bazar. We walk the dark back alleys and enjoy sights of the life here, the barber shop still opened late at night, the corner outside, the restaurant kitchen busy with the sweaty glaring cooks making chapatis and other culinary delicatessen, the jeweller still making copper bracelets, the laundry man ironing at the light of a candle, the temples under a wan neon striplight, candy makers etc...few dark figures walk at some distance in the poorly lit alleys...few stray dogs emerge from nowhere and disappear in the dark...We live a very atmospheric moment...quite meaningful and meditative...We then arrive at our local restaurant, the kids are still there, playing with us and the camera again...they're funny...we need this on our last night...after a lovely dahl meal, we go and get a last chai...we make our way through the traffic of rickshaw, delivery boy with a massive cube of ice on the bike carrier, the rickshaw loaded so much it looks like an elephant, cows eating garbage, we meet 'Shiva', a young guy wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt who just wants to know where we're from and that I take a picture of him so we can remember him and Delhi, a very smiley figure...we then sit on the front step of the hotel and watch life going past...We're not talking much at this time, our throats are tight, our eyes humid...it's been six month we've been away...how is going to be the return? We go to bed and dream of all the experiences...

31/07
We wake up and finish packing. I order some tea for this morning and we make our way to the airport. The flight seems very long and we're not in great joy...we watch a movie or two or three, cry, sleep a bit...
We then arrive at Heathrow airport, it seems surreal...they aren't many travellers around, and we feel a bit 'mis-casted'...everything is so modern, sleek, people look down, grim....even the ones coming back from holidays look unhappy...luckily the sky is blue and it's kind of hot here today...around 30...that's still 15 degrees difference with this morning but at least it's not raining...We then see a familiar face round the corner...Bertrand is here to pick us up...it's a nice touch from our dear friends, the shock would be soften...We drive through London, see familiar places, we respectively talk about our last days...To welcome us home, they've also prepared a duck confit...one of our favourite dish. So nice of them...we then chat for a while and go to bed...
Tomorrow, our life will return in a familiar surrounding but it's down to us to make it different after all these months exploring, discovering, loving, laughing (see: smoking), hating, enjoying, crying, walking, surfing (wooosh), riding, trekking, panting (hard-breathing), diving (nice bubbles), flying (bad carbon footprint), crawling (can't remember this one too well), swimming (35 degrees in the sea, anyone?), eating (I could eat the world, but Vietnam will be enough!!!), drinking (I testify, you can find beer anywhere), smoking (not so much), driving (too much?), meditating, levitating (for joking, see: smoking again), yoga-ing, snapping, photographing (gosh, my first finger hurts), singing (la-laa-la, om, om...), writing, drawing, talking (see: drinking), and for the last two, please READ THE BLOG: dreaming and just LIVING...

Leh, Last Days

2009-06-27T15:07:00.001+01:00

25/06
We spend the day shopping and walking around Leh. We buy a nice small local table and some shawls from the region. Not much to say about today, the shops are busy, the roads even busier, there are more and more tourists (Indians and foreigners) escaping the Indian plains and the heat. We walk along the alleyways and streets and it feels more like a summer town now...Interesting...Soon we will go back to Europe...How would that be? We both feel anxious and happy at the same time...so many things have been thrown in the air during that journey...We bump into Lisette and Matteo, nice to see them, it has been a while since Manali, we will meet up tomorrow and catch up properly, so many stories to share!!!
Dinner time, we meet up with our Italian friends and a lovely Indian couple from Delhi, nice eve, chatting away, sharing and having fun!! Our friends are leaving tomorrow for Srinagar so it is goodbye time...until Europe!

26/06
Today we hire a bike to go to Kardung La, the highest pass (5602 metres), it is an amazing journey on the highest motorable road in the world!! The road goes through rock canyons, sand desert, snow clad peaks...it is enjoyable until we reach the lst few kilometres before the pass: we are now fighting with the elements and the dirt road is so bad, holes, bumps...My bum is suffering at the back of the motorbike and Fab has to drive so carefully to avoid the bumps...It is so isolated and so cold, from time to time, miraculously we meet some road workers, destroying rocks, building the road....right here in the middle of nowhere...so weird!!!
Apparently we need a permit for this zone but at ever check point, we keep riding and nobody stops us: good!!! The views on the Leh valley are impressive, we can see the fields cultivated, the small houses...we keep going up and up...Funny enough we don't suffer from altitude sickness today!! We finally reach the pass, nothing special but the view, some military base, a small temple, lots of snow...and that is it but it feels joyful to be so high and so close to the world's summit!! We look around, take few piccies then start going down, slowly until we reach Leh. Small lunch break then we decide to go visit Stakna, a monastery 20 kilometres from the town. Another ride, not so enjoyable, as there are so many military trucks and big lorries polluting us...We cross the Indus valley, a small bridge entirely decorated by floating prayers flags then reach the monastery. We vist the gompa, the paintings are fairly new, some are scary, some horrible deities, the buddhas seem very Chinese, it is the new style...We then look around, take a smaller bumpy road, through small villages until we make our way back to Leh, the mountains are gold and fiery with the sunset...We both almost forget our tiredness and the bumpiness of the road!!! Short rest then we meet up with our Manali friends for a good catch up and a Tibetan meal. We hear about their stories, everyone seems to have adventures in India, the crazy drugged up driver, the meditation retreat, the trek...etc etc...Already time for bed, one of the last nights here, again hearing the muezzin and the dogs...

27/06
Last full day in Leh, we are sad to leave...it is coming to an end so quickly...We laze around, email, go and check the airport restrictions then meet up with our friends for a last lunch. They still have one month in India and are going to spend few days in the Markha valley...another place we would have loved to go...but hey, it will be for another trip...it is not the last time we come here, such a diverse place, it finds its way under your skin even if you don't want it to...A bit of shopping, packing, chatting to the lady at home, sorting out the medications to donate to the local hospital then the day is already gone...one last meal and then...6am tomorrow we are leaving to go back to crazy Delhi and 45 degrees...

Pangong Lake

2009-06-27T15:04:00.002+01:00

23/06
We have booked a jeep with our Italian friends from the trek and our Swiss friend to go to Pangong Lake, a high altitude lake, actually the biggest saltwater lake in Asia. It is far away, 5-6 hours of jeep on crazy bumpy dirt road but the journey is amazing, taking us through picturesque villages. We all must have a permit as those zones are striclty restricted by the military and very few are open to foreigners... First check point: we realise our guide has made a mistake on our permits and forgot to add Gloria, instead he puts her partner's name Vincenzo twice...We spend half an hour trying to explain it to a very narrow minded military who doesn't speak English, he is not getting it!! He cannot see Gloria's passport number on the permit so we cannot pass and go through...We try anything, to explain to him slowly, to smile, Gloria even loses it, shouting a bit at him, we try to ask him to let us go, that we will hide Gloria under the seat for the next two check points: 4 passports, four permits and only 4 foreigners..the fifth one will be clandestine under the seat...he is not impressed!!! Finally after some phone calls, he decides to allow us to go but keeps our driver's driving licence until we come back tomorrow...then we have to hide Gloria under the seat at the next check points!! The joy of military in India!!! We keep going, laughing at this mad moment and the atmosphere is fun in the car even our driver has a laugh!!! We drive more and more, pass two check points, Gloria clandestine under the bags and coats until we reach the high mountain area...
Snow, glaciers, peaks, wild horses in cultivated valleys far away from us, stupas everywhere and down below, we finally reach the pass: Chang La (5360 metres), the pass over the Ladakh range of mountain and the third highest pass in the world! A strong military presence on the pass, we stop for some tea and pipi, I feel a bit dizzy and high, the altitude is getting to me...I somehow feel detached from the landscape, the people around...weird feeling, I go and wait in the jeep for my companions to come back, I try to communicate with our driver but his English consists of yes and no so it will be hard, still we will manage to exchange a bit during those two days. The views are breathtaking, a manificient panorama of snow cald peaks, rock mountains, arid sand dunes. I think of Ladakh as a name, it comes from La-Tags in Tibetan, the land of the La, the land of the high moutains passes...so true here, right now. We keep going more and more, the road is worse now, so bumpy, I am happy to sit at the front...what a variety of landscapes, arid and wild terrains then beautiful meadows then more often bare rolling hills and peaks. So amazing, we stop on the way to observe marmottes, to eat in the last village before the lake, a small village...noodle and soup for lunch before driving the last 35 kms which takes us 1 hour and a half!!! A crazy mountain road, slow serpent on the hills, we see sudden glimpses of ravines, far peaks of moutains, bare rocky surface with sheeps, we finally get a glimpse of the lake: unbelievable!
Pangoing has blue green purple water, the colours are really amazing, unbelievably clear water, surrounded by majestuous mountains all around and sand dunes. We stop at the beginning to taste the water, a bit saltish and cold and take many piccies...it is truly spectacular, the mountains are strong but the lake is sparkling, it is practically an inland sea, as it is 150kms long and 2 to 10 kms wide. Two third are in China (occupied Tibet) and so we are not permitted to go further than the small village of Spangmik, the furthest point to which foreigners are permitted...a bad war between China and India happened here in 1962 so the area is still restricted and very much under strict military surveillance because of its strategic importance. We drive again another 10 kms to the village and stop there, we will spend the night here, no guesthouse, but tents or homestays. After visiting few options, we choose to stay in a traditional family home, an elderly couple welcomes us and accepts to host the five of us tonight!! Padma and Tashi are typical Ladakhi farmers, tough, hard limbed, small, skin darkened by the harsh sun but with great toothless smiles!! They are both beautiful in their brown robes in front of their isolated farm, the highest in that small village, we agree with them then sit on the balcony and watch the landscape drinking chai: the power of the landscape, the lake so blue, dark moutains, we all smile and feel so happy here!!A paradise!!! The air at that height (4267 metres) is very thin and so full of light!! We go for walk around the lake, we pass the forbidden one kilometre zone allowed to the foreigners but there is no check point here, Fab and I keep walking, looking at this desert, the village disappears away from us, it seems so tiny, this arid land around, we have found out that there are two more villages and a town until the Tibet border around 100 kms from here...amazing to think people live here, there is nothing, just this impressive austere landscape...We walk back, observe th few villagers with their farm animals, pashmina sheeps and goats and few dzos, we go home and at 7.30 all meet in the living room with the family to haev some rice and dhal, we chat to the son, a very charming educated man, his English is almost perfect! He tells us about life here, during winter when temperatures are below - 35, -40 degrees!! How the lake is frozen, how people sometimes go to the border and celebrate parties with the Tibetan on the other side, how life is slow during winter times...The old dad keeps observing us, aliens on his mats, trying to communicate with no Ladakhi, still many smiles...such a different life far from our Western lifestyle...life of the village, of the fields, of the mountains. We go out to observe the sky, thousands of stars again, air so thin, the milky way then bed time....We light up a candle and make our bed on the traditional mats...a tranquil night for me, hidden under two heavy blankets (it will go down -7 this night!!), Fab is more restless....

24/06
We wake up at 5.30am to see the sunrise on the lake, it is hard to get up but we meet the man from the home, we have a little chat, observe the sun suddenly burning the lake and the barren peaks around, watch the ochres and red of the rocks. The little stream close to the house is still frozen, it feels misty and beautiful. We take few piccies, admire the view...and go back to bed as breakfast will be served at 7.30am!! I cannot get back to sleep and decide to get up at 6.30, go wash (cold stream water) and chat with Vincenzo, both watching the changing colours of the lake, until everyone else wake up. Ladakhi bread and mango jam for breakkie with chai, then we all go for a walk , walking far far from the restricted zone (no check point this year), admiring the lake, the deep blue-green colours, touching the cold water, watching few geeses, and enjoying the walk, the sand, the sun. After this long walk, time to say goodbye to our lovely family, old man and woman with wrinkled brown faces and take the jeep back as it will be a long journey. We leave around 11am and start the road, it is a brilliant cloudless morning. The last images of the lake are very strong, powerful barren moutains with many crevaces, blue deep water, the silence of snow, rock, water, silence sustained over millenia in that small village...The journey will be long, yes but again it is great, an education into wilderness: wild forms of mountains, snow, rocks, wild horses, small fertile valleys...We stop few times but we are all exhausted by the bumpy road!! After a long da drive, we are all happy to reach Leh, its familiar palace, the streets. It feels busier now, more and more tourists, many Indians are here, there are more noise, more jeeps around...We feel glad to reach our little home and see the family again, the joy of going back to our little room and chill out...watching the snow clad peaks from our little sofa, see the last sun catch the top of the moutains and the Shanti stupa! We go for dinner very close to our place, after watching many piccies from the trip...sadly it is coming to an end and we want to keep being relaxed, slow, laze and not become too anxious about Europe. Funny enough, what this trip has done for me, for us is to start us on a journey...We have a long way to travel...finding a new kind of strenght...

Leh - The Trek

2009-06-27T15:01:00.001+01:00

17/06
Today is THE day. The trek will finally start today so we wake up very excited about it. After our traditional breakfast, we tae our litlle day pack and go down the town to meet up with our driver, Jigmet our local guide and our trekking companions: an Italian couple, Gloria and Vicenzo from Bologne and Rome, and two young English girls from Cambridge, Bex and Flora. We all climb in our big 4wd and leave or a three hour drive to Lamayuru where we are going to visit the monastery. The atmosphere in the car is great, we get to know each other, we laugh, we talk a lot. The road brings us once again to high altitude passes but nothing bad really. We get stuck for half an hour as a landslide has blocked the road. We contemplate the landscape and bare sandy mountains and the beautiful cathedral-like erosion of the mountain flanks.
We then reach Lamayuru monastery, set at 3390m, one of most famous and picturesque gompa of Ladakh, holding a spectacular position on the rock. It was built in the 10th century and is one of the oldest in Ladakh. It hosts every year a big festival, but we are there 4 days too early!!! We meet old Ladakhi women in their traditional outfit, prayer wheel at hand swinging, here to pray...Few monks are around as the monastery is still active. We vist the temple and monks are chanting...a monk stands out as his hair are very long...he looks like a sadhu but he is a buddhist monk...The monastery is under preparation for the festival and we get to see 'tomas', small votive objects made of barley and butter, representing deities, humans and animals. After few more moments spent around the place we leave to the car and meet women in their celebration outfits, with their ancestral family coiffes made of turquoise... They shine in the bright sun and it's a real pleasure to the eyes and we feel privileged to see them. So far the only ones we saw were in antique shops... We get back in the car and drive down the old Lamayuru road, which laces up the mountain side to the start of the trek. We have lunch from our lunchbox. We then walk for about three hours, an easy road over the river to get used to the walking in the high mountains. The mountains are bare and the sun is strong this afternoon. We reach Hinju a small village at the end of the track, overlooking the valley with a lovely and very small monastery. The village is mainly inhabited by shepperds of pashmina goats and we witness the goats coming back home. Then at the corner of the house we were standing, an old woman in her dark traditional clothing starts talking to us in Ladakhi of course. We laugh a lot during a very weird conversation and all of a sudden Val and her start talking about exchanging their shoes. We spend half an hour laughing as Val gets one of the traditional woolen shoes and the old woman one of Val's trekking shoe. We all laugh so much, and they exchange again their shoes: the woman prefers her shoes, softer and more comfortable!!! After this peculiar moment, we make it back top the camp that our guide, (who will be our) horsemen and cook have set up for us. We take our dinner and talk quite late around a mutton dinner, the first non vegetarian meal for two months!!! We chat around dinner to get to know each other more and then all go to bed as tomorrow something big is waiting for us...

18/06
At 6.30am Jigmet comes and wakes us up with a cup of chai, which he calls 'bed chai'. Litteraly stil in bed we sip our warm beverage before getting ready for breakfast and unsetting the camp. Whilst we are pulliung the tents apart, the horsemen arrive with our new trek companions: seven small donkey which will carry all the food, camp gear and cooking stuff for the next four days...and a two month old baby donkey!!! He is too young to carry anything and still needs the milk from the mother. So he'll come with us and enjoy the landscape!!! The start of the day is gentle, slowly going up along the river bank. The village slowly disappear, like the vegetation around it, and we go deeper in the bare rocky mountain. The lanscape is breathtaking, the light is really strong, the slopes appear even whiter and the sun washes away all the tints of beige the mountain can offer. Only the clear colour of the pure river water running at the bottom of the valley strikes out... But two hours later we are at the foot of the biggest climb of the trek. For three and a half hours we need to go over the Kungski La pass which culminates at 4950m high. The climb is strenuous, we need to stop every twenty steps as the air is so thin it feels that there is no oxygen...It is our first real experience of high mountains and we soon realise that we will not experience this in Europe. We are here above the Mont-Blanc, highest mountain of Europe at 4807m. I feel a lot of excitement because of this and really pushing some limits. We make it to the top safe, if not cold as the wind is blowing hard here. We all need a long rest, on the sheltered side of the pass, lying under the sun. The girls are exhausted and some of them even fall asleep! I push a little higher and make even it to 4957m (or around)! The view from the pass is mind blowing, the snow capped peaks around us are enormous and we feel very very small, grandeur of mother nature. The valley on the other side offers views of purple, green, blue-ish stones all co-existing in a palette of amazing colours. The mountains here are young and we see all the different layers of the ground that one day started emerging from the earth, raw, sharp like a razor egde or a shark tooth... We all contemplate the beauty offered to us and feel blessed...We then start the descent down the valley...a long stretch of near constant inclination that breaks the legs a bit...or what remains of our legs! On the way we meet a group of Ladakhis going up the pass, the have a beautifully dressed up horse in colourful robe. It appears that it is the Rinpoche's horse and they are going to meet him in Hinju tomorrow. We'll discover later that the Rinpoche is more or less taking the same route as us and will attend some celebrations around the various valleys around. We'll be a day early in front of him in all the places, but won't meet him! A little further down, we meet for the first time the real mountain inhabitants, the yaks! They are really big and some of them can reach the weight of 1000kg!!! Their hair is really long and thick and make them appear even bigger!!! What a discovery!! Crossing rivers, low rise bushes and rocky river beds we reach our camp set in a bend of the river banks. Our horsement are already here and the cook is getting the dinner ready. But before hand we enjoy a noodle soup at 4.30pm to warm us up. The area is bear and quite cold, and the valley emphasis the cold wind strength. We wrap up in our warmest clothes and lay down under the once again deep blue sky and soothing bright sunshine to get warm. All of us, trekkers, horsemen, guide, cook AND donkeys are tired and we all laze under the warm sun...We talk a lot more and exchange about our feelings and still can't believe we made it!!! We then wrap up in more clothes and have our favourite dinner, rice and dahl!! We talk a bit more after dinner, laugh and kid around for a while and then go to bed. It's been a long and surprising day, full of beauty and challenges. We fall asleep quickly in the cold ans starry night...

19/06
6.30am and Jigmet wakes up up with a cup of chai...It is blessing as the night has been extremely cold. So cold that it kept me awake for some time (we went out in the freezing cold temperature which allowed us to witness the beautiful sky) as I was trying to warm up despite the multi layers and the warm sleeping bag... We wake up under a bright deep blue sky and we gather for breakfast under the warming sun... The sky last night was absolutely amazing, clear, loads of endless shooting stars and the stars so close it felt we could have picked them like picking a fruit from a tree. Just before we leave, the baby donkey comes close to us as the mother is eating porridge out of the pan... We all enjoy a very touching moment as the baby donkey drops on his side and lets us stroke him like you would stroke a pet animal... None of us can resist... But it is now time to resume our trek and we set off, down river. But shortly after the start of our walk I slip on a rock and twist my ankle pretty badly. The pain is so violent that it takes me a long time before I can even utter a sound. I am so scared I've sprained my ankle and that I won't be able to carry on... My foot is numb because of the shock. Val and the other ones gather around me, worried. The pain is so bad and because of the altitude I struggle to find my breath. I get rid of my shoe and after a minute or two, I manage to move it. Slowly but surely I stretch it. I put my shoe back on, lace it up tight and put the foot on the floor...gently...and it holds without too much pain. I start walking slowly, step after step the ankle holds and I gain confidence...the trek can go on!!! We walk down the river to the next stage, in the middle of the valley, flanked by dry slopes overlooked by snow capped peaks, we meet women working on the maintenance of the track, and arrive in a small village where we visit the small monastery. It is under preparation as the Rinpoche is coming...tomorrow! There will be celebrations all day and a sort of marquee has been put together to receive all the guests. Gloria, Enzo and I decide to go to visit the temple, the girls decide to stay low and avoid another climb. In the temple Jigmet explains to me a few things about the paintings and the representations of Buddhas. I take few more pictures and we start our walk again to the foot of our next climb, the Dundunchen La, 4700m above sea level. Leaving the village we meet two ladakhis on their horses who are coming to help for the preparations The climb is not too steep and we arrive at the top not too exhausted...nothing compared to the Kungski La! The views are impressive once again and we stroll on a gentle slope down to our next camp. At the end of the rather short walk, maybe an hour, and just before reaching the camp, we stop on the river bed and bath our burning feet in the cold mountain stream. It feels absolutely great and so soothing! We then head off to our beautiful camp in the birth of a valley near spring waters. We are surrounded by an arch of dry and high mountains and set in a patch of green, which makes it very unique...like a little oasis. Many dzos are around as the place is used by shepperds during the summer as a grazing station. We watch the donkeys that have been here for a while. As usual, they overtook us during the climb.... We set up the tents and then relax, read and let the time go by until dinner. it's now 9pm and we go to bed, tomorrow will be a challenge...

20/06
We had a good sleep last night and feel good to face the day. After breakfast, we start the hike with a steep climb, no warming up, no preparation and a belly too full of another great breakfast...our legs are hard and it's very difficult to get into a rythm. Adding to my cold twisted ankle, the day does not start on a jolly note! The climb should take about an hour and a half to two hours and will take us to 4600m, to the Lanak Pass. 500m inclination but the track is quite vertical. After a very painful climb, many stops and few tears, we arrive at the top an hour and ten minutes later. Not bad! The lanscape that unveils in front of us offers once again breathtaking views, very high peaks, we can see the Stok Kangri (6200m) and the Kangyatse (6400m)piercing the horizon, purple, grey blue and bronze green mountains alternating in a dance of colours changing under the sun.
We take a rest here, watching the landscape, chatting about ladakhi culture and history with Jigmet. After a good rest, we start the descent to our next camp. The slope is quite steep, dusty and rather long, with no flat area. It is very stainuous and the knees and legs and my ankle decides to play a trick again! Not as bad as the first time but twisting it a second is rather painful...and frustating. After a few rants and lovely words (shame on me) I get up and carry on the very slow (now) and long journey to the camp. It is set in the grounds of a shepperd station. We have lunch in the pen, surrounded by various donkeys and goats little souvenirs, and set the tents in the same spot. No smell though so all is fine! We spend the afternoon talking and reading in the warm sun. Towards the end of the afternoon we decoide to play cards in the 'dinning room' as the sun sets and the fresh air is wrapping us. We have a fantastic laugh playing 'Cheat' and 'Wist', games the girls taught us. Our laughter are shortly interrupted by dinner and we crack on for few more rounds of funny games...We then all go to brush our teeth in the same spot, 'group therapy activity' according to Enzo, I take some night sky pictures and we happily go to bed...stars in the eyes...

21/06
The night was not too cold, but I could not sleep very well. The hard floor and thin matress start to show no mercy to my back. I woke up a few times and it is a bit tired that we have our breakfast early morning. Short walk downhill to Chilling. We go down fairly steeply to follow the river. From desert we end up following a track alond the river with flowering bushes. Nice little touches of pink and green in the middle of the beige sand and limestone mountains. We arrive in Chilling, visit the small monastery that is under intense preparations as the Rinpoche is coming here...tomorrow!!! Wait for our jeeps, one will bring Bex and Flora back, the other will take the four of us as we want to go back to Lamayuru today as there is the festival going on. The girl's jeep arrives and it's time to say goodbye to our young fellow trekkers. Few minutes later we take the road, but the driver does not want to take us to the festival, this is being against his 'orders'. But apparently it will carry on tomorrrow...little hope here! We are pretty silent in the car, all of us are rather tired, Val dozzing off against the window. We manage to decide to go for another experience with our transalpin companion in two days time, to the lake.
We make it to our guesthouse where our little family has kept the big room for us! We unpack and start sorting out the laundry. We have so many dirty clothes...A bit of sewing for my trouser (I ripped it the last day!) and shirt, a bit of admin, washing the stinky shoes, Val naps, she's tired...But MOST OF ALL, we have a wonderful and regenerating HOT SHOWER!!!!!

22/06
Lazy today, we recover from the trek and as we're going to the lake tomorrow, we chill out. Val reads on the roof terrace, I stay in the room, have a nap. Later we meet up with our friends and Chris joins us in our favourite Tibetan canteen to eat momos and special thenthuk! We go to bed late-ish and get our stuff organised for tomorrow as we are leaving for a two day trip to the Pangong lake.

Leh, crazy journey, monasteries and stupas

2009-06-27T07:23:00.001+01:00

8/06
At 2am, we leave Old Manali in a small mini van to reach Leh, it will take us around 19 hours, it is the second highest road in the world...We both feel sleepy, we chat a bit with Christopher, a Swiss guy met few days before and some Israelis in the van. Everyone is trying to sleep, the road is crazy, bumpy, slow, but slowly we are reaching some peaks, some snow clad mountains. I cannot sleep, the road is too bumpy... We stop around 6am for a tea break, all feeling weird, altitude is high, it feels isolated and deserted, this small place in the middle of nowhere...We keep going, more and more, another break around 8am in Keylong, the last town before Leh, at 3350 metres, there are fabulous landscapes around, amazing beauty of the scenery... We keep going, amongst mindblowing nature, we all observe the sheer beauty of the himalayan scenery. It is magnificient but also so harsh, yes such a harsh environment. Most of this region is isolated, the road cut nine months of the year, covered in snow... We go over many passes, including the crazy Tanglang La (5429 metres), I feel bad, Fab too and many in the van too... We start feeling anxious for the driver as he is meant to drive for 19 hours without a break and he is obviously tired...sniffing benzine as all drivers do in India to stay awake... We joke thinking of the health and safety regulations back in Europe, here, it is total madness, crazy roads, peaks, the van driving so fast, honking and overtaking all the time on high mountains roads... We keep checking the driver for signs of tiredness, asking him if he needs to stop or rest... but he keeps going... I make him to stop few times for a pee (the joy of peeing in nature for a woman) behind rocks or behind the van... We all are becoming insane, at 3pm the driver stops in a weird place, Pang, a camp open only in the summer with tents and few chai shops... We eat some crappy noddles, rest a bit, in the middle of that desert and then back in the van for more insane driving time... I swear I will not do that journey again as we are all becoming crazy...time is suspended, I have a big headache, a mild altitude sickness symdrome. However the nature is of course spectacular: strates of mountains, a phantasmagoria of rocks, the more and more valleys, the Indus valley... The landscape slowly changes and becomes more arid, it feels weird to think we might reach a town in the middle of this wilderness of rocks... maybe Leh doesn't exist, it s been so long... We are stuck in that mini van... My consciousness somehow floats away... The journey is like a rite of initiation, from the lush green places close to Manali up the long winding mountains roads slowly reaching Ladakh, the bareness of the peaks, the snow and finally a valley but still feeling very desertic. Ochres, yellow rocks, mud bricks houses, small villages, all dry and sandy... We finally reach Leh at 8pm!!! We are all 'destroyed'!!! It is dark, we can only cach a glimpse of the palace, we share a taxi to reach the Changspa area, full of backpackers haunts, it is dark, everything seems closed... The first impression is bad as we are exhausted and anxious, we need a bed and a shower... We finally find a cheap hotel, not great but it will be enough for tonight... of course no hot water here tonight, only from 7am, there are heavy restrictions on water here... The dream of taking a hot soothing water quickly evaporates... HELL!!! We go for a quick dinner then fall asleep...was it all a dream or did we survive this mad journey?? We wake up around 4am, to hear the muezzin calling muslims to pray, some dogs bark, different barking noise from the hills, the valley...an interesting night!!

9/06
We wake up late, enjoy the hot shower so much and after a late breakie, go for a wander around town, discovering Leh which seems so huge last night and is in fact quite self contained. I will have to fight a small headache all day, getting used to the altitude, we are now at 3500 metres high and it will take few days for the body to adjust and also recover from the journey... the land of high passes here... We walk around, there are few big streets, a market-bazar, many alleyways, the mountains around, the palace... despite some messyness, it does have some charms. Many labyrinthine small roads, some fields, some shops, many gompas, prayers wheels, many people, local Ladakhi, Tibetans, Kashmiris who come here to rent the shops for the summer season, tourists, we hear many languages, see many different faces here. The view of the palace is striking, nearly from everywhere you turn a corner and suddenly a whole flank of the palace is standing in front of you, bare and stark as the peaks and mountains that surround it... We are happy to walk, to search for a new home, as we want a nice place... We feel the peace here, admire the picturesque village, watch the small streams, the rock and snow mountains all around. The valley is quite lush as the melting water from the glaciers nourishes the land, which is quite green...for 3 months of the year!
We meet many Ladakhi in their tradtional outfits, all very friendly and smiley...beautiful in their brown robes, faces tanned by the Himalayan sun. We catch up with Christopher who takes us to a new area, we find a beautiful family home guesthouse, a lovely traditional house with amazing views on the mountains... The Solpon Guesthouse will be our home for our stay in Leh, a lovely home, a great friendly family, a lovely house temple and our bedroom will have the best view of Leh, far from the hustle and bustle but surrounded by farms and fields. We eat in a small Tibetan restaurant, great momos, the electricity cuts out like it does 50 times a day and we finish eating with a candle...how fun!! This place will become our canteen, nice cheap good food and a lovely Tibetan family. The Tibetans are everywhere in Leh, they come for the summer season, selling turquoise and jade jewellery, jumpers, prayers flags, haggling with the tourists... We recognise the women easily with their outfits, different from the traditonal Ladakhi ones. Ladakh holds fragments of Tibet in its hand somnehow...but the culture so close is also very specific to here...the land of the passes, the tough people, the strong Buddisht feeling, an old culture maybe still alive...

10/06
We move to our new home in the morning, such a joy to have a beautiful view on the peaks and surrounded by so many fields. Our host family is ploughing, with dzos, singing to the cows to help them work... Fab is sick today, he needs to rest. We go and check our mails, rest a lot then in the afternoon we make our way to the Women's Alliance to watch a movie, Ancient Futures, which shows us the traditional culture from Ladakh but also raises questions about the social and environmental costs of modernisation or development... Very interesting movie, it strikes a chord for both of us. Like other regions of the Himalayas, Ladakh lived a self contained existence largely undisturbed for centuries...self reliance, local productions, and happiness largely due to the Buddhist philosophy, humane values and respect for nature, then some abrupt changes became noticeable since the opening of the region in the 70's... It made me think of what we call development which is mainly Western style development, building infrastructures and education based on Western values and an international monetary value system, often rejecting local knowledge... It is not about idealising traditional ways of life but here, because the changes have been so dramatic and quick (only 30 years), we can feel the impact on people's life and mind... People are not living off their land anymore thus becoming more dependent, learning the western way that has no relevance to this region or culture...
Fab and I have been reflecting on that very Eurocentric progress, this centralised economy, and how the messages from the advetisements and also from the tourists make the Ladakhi think the Ladakhi culture is backward. The movie showed us that development has destroyed local economy that had served people's needs for more than 1000 years, Westerners brought a very one dimensional view of progress... Is having money means better living standards? What about the negative impact of economic growth? Also more and more we notice that natural resources are limited, science will not stretch the Earth's bounty infinitely...even here we notice environmental problems: polluted streams, rubbish everywhere...
After that interesting moment, we take a walk and go visit the the Sankar Gompa, we get lost in the narrow village alleys and footpaths, we see many beautiful traditional Ladakhi housesd white washed with straw on the roof nicely displayed, prayer flags at every corner of the roofs. There is a sense of total 'depaysement', foreigness here but in a gentle way. We go down to the town, eat at the same tibetan restaurant...we love it!!!

11/06
It was a bad night, dogs have been barking all night, as it is often the case here and we will get used to it, like the muezzin at 4am every day! We then hear our farmers ploughing their field, singing to the yaks to guide them. Small breakie and we go down to the town, to visit the local monuments. Fab gets a shave, he feels he needs a change and a more practical haircut here, it will be no hair!! We walk around, see the mosque from the 17th century, wander in the bazar, full of shops, Tibetan shops, where everything is probably fake, and under stocked shops too, fake and real antiques, traditional clothes, jewellery and trekking gear, what a mess!! We slowly climb to the top of the Leh Palace, from the early 17th century, we admire it, climbing slowly as it stands in the full dazzle of the morning light, sand, rocks around... What a brilliant view from the top, we look at the lush valley, the small fields, all the houses, the mosques, the gompas, the prayers flags shooking in the morning breeze... The mountain sun is strong and our skins are burning everyday here despite the strong UV sun cream... We then climb to the top to the Tsemo Castle with fantastic view over the Leh valley. We go down, walk around town and book a trek, the Lamayuru to Chiling one, 5 days, quite intense, crossing big passes... Reconnecting and discovering nature here, powerful and harsh... We also hire a massive Royal Enfield to go and visit the monasteries around Leh from tomorrow. We have dinner with Christopher, a nice end of the day in our Tibetan canteen.

12/06
Today we are riding the Royal Enfield, exploring the area, discovering the villages and visiting some famous monasteries. The monasteries are everywere in Ladakh, they are the heart of the culture, the kings of the fields too, standing often on small rocks, strong but looking so small and fragile... The bike gives us a feeling of freedom, riding the countryside, watching spectacular landscapes, sand rocks everywhere and snow... We first stop at Shey, the Summer palace of the Ladakhi kings, high on the hill, surrounded by white chortens. Inside the temple there is a massive Buddha statue, so tall...so peaceful...The three of us (our Swiss friend is riding too) are ejoying this day so much!!
We then ride to Thikse, a splendid gompa, built in the 15th century, above the valley, a new and old gompa, a lovely courtyard and some amazing paintings, wheels of life, monks are chanting inside, we can smell the incense, observe the many little Buddhas and deities...a beautiful place.
More kilometres crossing villages, fields, chortens everywhere to finally reach Tak-Tok, build near a cave near Sakti, a small intimate monastery. We loom at the Indus valley, so green, the the temple is closed but we enjoy chilling out there, observing the green fields and apricots trees (a speciality in Ladakh: the apricot jam and apricot juice are part of our breakfast ever morning!!). Few stops on the way to repair the bike, the battery is falling, thanks for the plasters we have with us!!! We then ride to Chemrey, in a wild valley, an 18th century Monastery, hung to the mountain. Such an amazing lanscape here, the village, the farms falling down the mountain, so harmonious, river, fields, gardens... We take the wobbly wooden stairs, explore the temple, see the stuffed goats which symbolise the ephemere character of life...
Then after a nice ride in the valley and up hills on dirt roads (hard to be at the back of the Enfield: the noise and the may bumps!!!), we reach Hemis, a very famous monastery... It is nice, with wooden built veranda and three big gompas but funny enough, it is not our favourite...busy busy...It is known for its Lama party in July where monks with costumes and masks dance and reenact mythology scenes, pilgrims and tourists flock here in thousands... On the way down, Chris crashes the bike but miraculously is safe!! What a big fright: he missed a turn, luckily he has nothing but the bike is in a bad shape. A woman from the village comes and sits with us, worried for us, the guys repair the bike as much a they can so we can reach Leh...the bike is damaged, Chris decides to drop it for tomorrow and have a quiet day. We will ride alone tomorrow... It was a great day, despite the accident, fun to have the bike to explore and discover the region, really a high alttude desert, with awesome physical features. Such a spectacular environment, with some mightiest moutains ranges, streams irrigating the valleys in summer and this amazing concentration of Buddhist monasteries (gompas), near the Indus river. we both reflect on those landscapes, this treeless expanse and the breathtaking rugged beauty of the scenery here. Cheap dinner then bedtime...Riding is tiring too!!!

13/06
We start early this morning as we want to go quite far (60 kms) to visit some monasteries... The dirt roads are challenging and it takes a very long time to reach any destinations here, we take some amazing roads through desert and high mountains. We feel so free and so alone, there is nothing, just sand rocks and rocks...until we reach a military zone (so many here as Ladakh is very strategic in the region...between China and India and not far from Pakistan...). We ride again and cross many militar camps, isolated in the desert, small baracks, big trucks and jeeps...weird!! The road gets more difficult, we have to manage the dirt, the dust, the non existent road, a challenge, specially in some valleys, what a ride!! After this long journey, more than 2 hours in the dust and dirt, we reach the village of Alchi, like a little oasis in the middle of nowhere, fields, arid, flowers, apricots trees and the monastery...a splendor: 5 temples in that gompa, in the middle of a moon like landscape, sculpted wood, carved wood, small verandas, wall paintings so stunning and so differents from what we have seen: antiques and byzantines influences here, the Buddhas are so different: smiling, dancing, a very Indian but also Persian influence...amazing! The temples are really old, from the 11th century and the painrtings were not so formal yet... We both really like this place... After a nice chill lunch in a small garden restaurant where we meet up with some Indian guys we me in Manali, we ride more and more... It will be a long journey back, we both enjoy it but it is long and tiring (specially for the bums!!). Fab has decided to take his bike driving licence when back in Europe... We stop in Spituk, the closest monastery from Leh, a gompa form the 15th century, its environment is quite ugly, surrounded by military camps and the airport... I wonder what the monks think, being surrounded by the army in that desert...hidden thangkas everywhere here, monks preparing a sand mandala for some celebrations, deities painted, beautiful murals...then we climb to the small temple on the hill, the Gonkhang, small rock sanctuary with terrifying deities, many Indians also come here too as they are also worshipping some of those statues as incarnation of Kali... We get offered some traditonal butter cake then rest a bit waching a sweet cat and a monk playing... Many dogs in India but so rare to see cats... We reach back Leh after that exausting but exhilarating journey... Tibetan food then bedtime. The day has been great, amazing to explore this remote land, a repository of Buddhist culture and religion and to discover immemorial treasures like frescoes, paintings, sculptures in this crazy landscape!

14/06
It is a nice sunny day today, we want to take it easy as we are soon leaving to go on a trek, so rest time, and walk to the Shanti Stupa, the new modern stupa high up hill. It was blessed in 1985 by the Daila Lama and was built by the Japanese, it symbolises peace in the world! A very long walk-climb to reach it, very tiring but the views over Leh are great, we sit after having walk around the stupa, making all the prayers-cylinders around it shake, observing the modern buddhas and checking the buildings we know... A nice chill out morning, we end up in a nice terrace for lunch, reading books and Tintin for Fab. Another small walk in the town, then we meet up with Chris and James a Scottish guy, we chat and eat until it gets dark and we go to bed!!

15-16/06
We spend most of those two days trying to organise ourselves for the trek but...everything is closed: there is a STRIKE here!!! Unbelievable, all the shops and offices are closed down, to protest against new taxes and regulations...Mad!! We even struggle to find some foods!! We really need some socks and jackets for the trek and the guide cannot sort out our permits...so we wait and the trek keeps being postponed...in a way, it is OK as we are both tired and lazy, we enjoy having few more days doing not much!! Finally on the 16th, the conflict seems resolved and the shops very quickly reopened!! Shops keepers are happy, busy, smiling to the tourists...we chat to few of them and they tell us the season is so short her, only three months, that they cannot afford to lose too much money!! Leh was so sleepy and suddenly the city awakens, gently: some lights, some buzz, some noise, the restaurants fill up...We rush to get some equipment for the trek and spend the end of the day chilling out! Tomorrow, meeting time: 8am!!

Manali

2009-06-07T15:08:00.001+01:00

02/06
After a short night we make our way to Macleod Ganj bus station. It's 5.30am and we are everything but looking forward to our trip to Manali. Manali, Manali, Manali shouts someone and in a rumble of people gathering as fast as a lightning, our bus arrives. We thought it would be a crappy old local bus with (close to!) wooden benches, but it has rather nice seats....but no leg room! We look at each other and we instantly now that this trip won't be fun... We find two seats and make sure we can sit with the legs on the side. The seats in front are so close to us that we cannot fit our legs in the space provided! Even sitting sideways, our legs are still touching the back of the seat!! 11 hours of pain are to follow. The bus stops every 500 metres, it takes every single person on the road who waves to catch the bus. We have boarded a properly local bus. A local bus that will still cover 275km! The driver has a whistle he blows right in our ears once everytime someone wants to get off and twice everytime the bus can drive away again... We must have endured some 1500 blows in the time of the journey!!!!! Everytime we stop in a bus station (off course it stops there also!!) the conductor shouts 'Manali, Manali, Manali' at such a speed that it makes us laugh...A very entertaining journey indeed. The bus is sometimes a bit more empty (we deploy, one per seat or row, if possible, to stretch a bit), most of the time completely full. At some point I get a sleepy Val on one of my shoulders (she has the window!), a standing passanger leaning on my other shoulder (the bus looks like the tube in rush hour) and the guy in the seat in front resting his elbow on the knee I've managed to squeeze in the aisle between 4 passengers (yes the bus is FUUUUULLLLLLLL)!!!!!
We finally arrive in New Manali (Manali, Manali, Manali!!!) where we share a taxi with other tourists and make it to Old Manali (Manali, Manali, Manali!!). I check a couple of guesthouses and we check in a small hostel with character, communal stinky and as damp as sea bathroom, but a lovely garden. Dinner and we go to bed. We are exhausted, I have a migraine, and our legs are missing...I think we have left them welded to the seat in front...

3/06
Wake up after a cold and damp night. The guesthouse has some character but our room is on the ground floor and does not receive much light. As the climate is far from what we have had in other parts of the world, we decide to move before catching a cold!!! We still set off for a walk to Vashisht, a village close to Manali, set on the high banks of the Beas river. The walk is very enjoyable, in the middle of orchards and small agricultural farming lands where women harvest the mature wheat. Men, as usual are waiting under a tree somking a cigarette, a joint or simply sleeping under a tree!!! Some farmers are ploughing their minuscule parcel of land with cows pulling that old piece of wood with a single blade that splits the ground in a perfect line. We make it to Vashisht, a lovely village wrecked by tourism in its main part. There are hot springs (the water is not renewed, just constantly heated up) in a massive concrete tub, where indian tourists seems to enjoy splashing... and a famous wooden Vishnu temple. We have a drink in a nice cafe overlooking the main stage of the local attractions, entertainers with snakes around the neck passing it to daring men for the picture, snake charmers, himalashi women with their angora rabbits posing for the 20 roupies picture (did not managed to get a sneaky snap, they're really good at spotting cameras...), the odd saddhu waiting here for something (usually a smoke!), and off course the Indian tourists from all over the country. Some in their own traditional regional outfit and some other very westernised...It is quite interesting watching 'local' tourism in a different country. The way one interacts with compatriots whom they have not a thing in common... We go for a walk around the village and discover that the back streets tell a totally different story. We discover old and beautiful regional houses with their painted and carved wooden balconies which appear to be traditional himalashi farm houses, wood and stone houses, cows and sheep in the village (the small alleyways are ridden with cow faeces, dungs which makes them quite sensitively interesting!), women washing their clothes, the newly harvest wheat is laid on every open part of the area, roof top, front yard, car roof, the road itself, we see farmers leading cows to walk on the harvest in circles to split the grain from the stem, men carrying the bunches back from the field to the village, they look like a big ball of straw on two min legs! It is very unusual and makes us feel like we go back 100 years earlier. It reminds us of old postcards and pictures of rural mountain areas we could see in our school books about farming at the beginning of the 20th century. It is very striking how we forget that we are disconnected from the reality of the world sometimes, and that technology and modernity has not come to some parts of the earth, even in a country which wants to show the world a modernity that is in fact very superficial and anecdotic. 70% of indian people live in rural areas and still cultivate the land. Only 6% of indians belong to what we refer in the west as the 'middle class'. Puzzling! We stop in a lovely cafe,the Seven Space, located on the balcony of one of the farmhouses. Cows are just below, and the farmers are fouling the wheat with the cows. We have lunch here, the smell does not even bother us. It smells... natural! As natural as the cigarettes our neibourghs smoke, cannabis everywhee hee, it gros like weed! We then make our way back, crossing the wobbly wodden bridges over the Beas river, and we see the same women working and the men still smoking. Some other women are digging a big rock which fell and smashed the road, and the men sitting on the tractor, simply waiting for the trailer to be loaded by....women!!!
On the road, we meet Matteo and Lisette, thay arrive few days earlier and after a quick chat we decide to meet up for dinner. Back to Old Manali, we decide to check a few guesthouses around, a bit less damp and we end up finding a (tired) room with bathroom and a lovely balcony wide open to a fantastic landscape of snow capped mountains. We move in. We catch up with our friends and have a chat till quite late.

4/06
We decide to go walking today, to explore the area, there are many waling trekking paths here. We set off to walk the path to Solang around 11am, get lost in the steep slopes in the forest, it is nice to see the mountain, to see the view on the valley but we arer lost and cannot find our way back...no path...we have to ge down and climb down, under the heat....after going down, we keep following the river but get lost again in the middle of little streams!!! we both feel tired so we stop for a very nice picnic near a stream, lovely day. It feels like being in Switzerland though, nice river, nice moutains, snow capped summits, sun, fields...What started as a wonky trek ends up in a nice romantic walk along the river bank. We push a little further and finally find the track to Solang but it is time to turn around and get back before dark. We then go for a quick walk in the Old Manali village, very rural still with a mix of guesthouses and farmhouses in the same area, it feels like a serene moutain village wth rock houses, farmers, cows and brilliant views on some of the peaks. I go to a tabla lesson to larn how to play this instrument, it is fun, but quite challenging as I never played those kind of instruments before. My hands are so uncoordinated, it is unbelievable! Anyway I have a good laugh with the teacher and I really enjoyed the session. We meet up again with our friends for dinner at a nice place called People, we ca and draw some pictures, sheets are provided for people to draw and because most of the people here smoke non stop, the drawings are interesting!!!We are reminded that we are in the Kullu valley and so close to the Parvati valley, the capital of charas (cannabis) and an impotant place for drugs here in India. Those valleys have a bad reputation because of the drug stuff but also because many trekers and travellers disappear here....sure it is linked to drug trafficking...Our feets are tired and we ae happy to sleep despite having to fight hundred of small creepy crawlers on the walls....joy of being in a cheap hotel!!

5/06
Day off today. We chill out, we walk to the Manali temple, the Hadimba temple, build in wood in the middle of a small park, for a goddess, Hadimba, associated with Kali. It is so busy so we don't get in and just look from te outside. We then make our way to new Manali, to do some shopping: some socks as we are a bit cold in the evenings, books, and walk around New Manali. The town is divided in two parts, the old bit where we are staying, an old village with some guesthouses and the new part, more urban, more modern with many expensive hotels and lots of Indian tourism. We reach our old Manali in time for the rain and seek refuge for a late lunch at the Shiva Garden Cafe, then we spend some time on the internet. We meet up with our friends to have dinner at a Tibetan restaurant and go back to our hotel, observing the little shacks we see from our windows, the farmers coming back home with their yacks, the women carrying loads of wheat on their shoulders, kids running around, all of that in a very alpine landscape, it's so strange! We fight with more bugs then sleeping time!!

6/06
Today we are hiring a motorbike to go explore the Kullu Valley. We hire a beautiful Royal Enfield Bullet 500 (yes 500cc, and yes without a motorbike license!!!!). The strat of the day is grey but it suddenly clears up. We get on the noisy machine, it sounds half between a tractor and a powerfull Harley Davidson!!!) and we start the ride through nice rural villages, wheat spread on the road, farmers and women in local dresses, cows, yaks, alpine fields and flowers, through villages until we reach Naggar. The road is so full of pot holes and bumpy, a challenge to ride, at least we do not go fast, and even more for Val at the back!! I can hear her grunts in the effort to stay on board, she laughs, that makes me laugh also!!! Our first stop is a visit to the castle, from the 11th century, when Naggar was the capital of the Kullu valley and it was built by a Raj, entirely made of wood and stones and now has been transformed in a posh hotel. Nice wooden work, nice to visit some places. We also go and check some amazing stone temples dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu but from the 11th and 12th centuries, some amazing stone carving work, the deities all have a painted orange dot on the forehead, red, we walk through some lovely paths in that charming village. We then walk all the way to the weird Roerich Gallery, dedicated to the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich and his son, we see some paintings, weird style mixed of surrealism and russian style. The painter was the one who initiated the international Roerich pact which protects cultural monuments during war times. We see the house, the garden and walk to the small Himalayan Folk museum, observe some local dresses and crafts then come down under the heat for lunch at the small German bakery. We set off again but cannot find the temple we are looking for so we decide to make our way back as it will take us some time and we want to see some small villages in the valley and and go back. We reach some villages but suddendly the sky becomes grey, dark and a dusty storm starts before ending in big lightning and pouring rain. We have to ride completely drenched, wet everywhere, it is fun but really hard to steer and see, I have all the rain coming to my eyes and it feels like having open eyes in a swimming pool... We manage to come back safe, completely soaked, head to toes, wet to the bones, everything is dripping, our shoes must contain a liter of water and mud each. We take a hot shower to warm up, go for dinner at the Tibetan place and tuck ourselves, together, in bed, to keep warm!!!!

7/06
We take it easy today, we will be leaving tonight fo Leh, where the temperature will drop sub zero during the nights. We need to do some warm clothes shopping (we regret sooo much to have sent all of our warm stuff back!!!). We find a shop that can make us jackets cheap and made to measure in a day. We take our lunch in the nice little cafe where a blank sheet of paper is given to everybody with crayons... We go back to the guesthouse and do some homework. We start packing because tonight a hell 20 hour-journey in a minibus is waiting for us!!!! We leave at 2am to reach Leh may be at 7pm the next day...Scary scary...

Macleod Ganj, Tibetan India!

2009-06-01T12:50:00.001+01:00

20/05
The night has been horribly long, like everytime we take a night bus. Fab manages to get a bit of sleep but I cannot. The road has been very bendy and uncomfortable. We are going up in the Himalayas so the road keeps turning, I feel frustrated that we cannot see anything, there might be mountains, ridges around but it is total darkness...We arrive around 5.30am in Dharamsala. The temperature has dropped compared to the mornings in Rishikesh, it's only around 20 degrees! We take a small taxi the four of us and start driving up the small half dirt half concrete small roads to reach Macleod Ganj, a few kilometres away. We get there for 6am, everything is shut, no shop to have tea, no guesthouse has the doors open.
We take the village road and start walking down with our bags. The village sits on the top of a high hill and all the roads either go down or up, steep ascent again. The village is very quiet at this time. We start knocking at a few guesthouse doors, but the few we check are rather expensive or dirty. A guy then shows up and offers to show us some 'good and cheap rooms'. We follow him with our heavy back packs down some (leg breaking) stairs to find ugly rooms, with a view not on the mountain but...on the stinky sewer that run at the foot of the guesthouse! We make him understand that his rooms are not what we are looking for. We climb up the stairs back to the road, where we decide that the girls would be exploring and scouting to find more suitable rooms, and the boys waiting with the bags. The guys sit a the terrace of a cafe that has just opened and we carry on our exploration through the hilly village. On our return, the guys go and check out the rooms and we finally opt for a nice but not too cheap guesthouse with a marvellous view on a very high peak, the Dhauladhar snow clad moutain, and a nice roof terrace. We have breakfast then go for a well-deserved rest.
The day goes by fairly simply as we both feel tired. We walk shortly around the village, meet up with our friends and talk about our first impressions of the place. We're in India but the vast majority of the people here are Tibetans! In 1959, after China took over Tibet in order to 'free' the country, the Dalai Lama looked for a place to settle his government in exile. Macleod Ganj was 'given' to the Tibetans as a place where all the refugees could gather and live protected from the constant assaults of the Chinese police. 50 years later we are here amongst those people who fled their home country to avoid persecution. The village boasts many organisations, associations, charities, hospitals and doctors to take care of the new migrants and refugees. Not so many Indians here and it really feels like we have changed country!!!!!
Later we have dinner and go to bed.

21/05
We wake up this morning with the sun in our eyes! Our room has a splendid view to the East and the sun emerges from behind the high peak!! We feel peaceful and Fab gets up to find some cookies for our breakfast.
We then start our day slowly exploring the village a bit more and start our quest to find yoga courses, reiki courses and so on. We see some good places, some bad, some nice teachers and some horribly arrogant ones... Loads of westerners come here to participate in some Tibetan activities too, to take yoga and reiki courses, there are some hippie travellers and some more mature ones. Something hard to point out is being felt here. The place is touristic and feels a little fake but intense too...It might be due to the fact that the town is full of refugees trying to make their way out of the precarious situation. There are many tibetan craft shops, few cafes and restaurant mainly oriented for the Westerners but it has a really nice feel. Few indian tourists around also. It is a weird beautiful place, the air is filled with energy and spirituality too, as we walked past old Tibetans swirling their prayer wheels, many monks, people from everywhere. It feels it is a very important place for Buddhism, but also a very cosmopolitan hub at the same time. We come back to the room and do some very awaited translation for the blog! We go and enjoy a nice tea cup in a wifi cafe we've picked up earlier on with cakes! Later on we meet up with Kevin and enjoy a pizza and a beer we've all been craving for for a while!!!! With our bellies full we walk slowly back down the village and go to bed.

22/05
Today Fab feels a bit ill, our bellies have been struggling for few day now...on and off!!! I go with Lisette to Bhagsu , visit the small town, walk to the waterfalls, neither big nor spectacular, its water flows down in a thin stream, monks, nuns, people doing their washing, we watch nuns washing their maroon robes, some coloured wollen blankets spread out on large stones. Sad to see all that detergent in the river! We visit the small Shiva temple, we then walk to Dharamkot the next hilly village, green, rural, with pine woods, and a quiet deep forest. A favourite haunt for young backpackers, many israelis here too, we walk up little paths and steps, then walk back by the Tushita meditation centre, many come here to do some meditation retreats, it is a nice walk, prayer flags everywhere in the wood pines. I meet Fab, we get some lunch at a Tibetan cafe, walk to buy some books, Fab gets his shoes repaired, I treat myself with a threading! Then I go with Lisette to the astrological institute, a steep walk up and down. It is closed but we see all the government in exile buildings. In the evening, we go to a small charity doing work with political refugees, they organised a documentary night about the situation in Tibet. We eat Tibetan pizza, chat to political refugees, watch a documentary about a guy who goes back to Tibet as a journalist undercover after emigrating to Britain. It is horrific to see the Chinese dictatorship in action, enforced sterilisation on women, no freedom at all, monbks and lay people in prison...we also watch a small documentary about the bad treatments in Chinese jails and a diary of last year protests led by the Buddhist monks, many people dead or languishing in jails now. Very compelling and we feel quite shocked. We learn how Tibet has been destroyed, how monks are destitute, how the Chinese demographic invasion is going on, how the lack of civil liberties is so difficult to bear and why the Daila Lama often stresses the importance of learning about Buddhism to monks and Tibetans here, to preserve tibetan culture. I know understand the importance of all those institutions in exile: to ensure cultural continuity, to support the people. We both feel a strong connection even if we have nothing in common with those Tibetan who brave rough terrain and snow looking for freedom in an alien land.

23/05
Breakie, internet. We look through the window at the pre dawn mist, the crisp clean air is nice even the drain seems less smelly with that sky and sun in the morning! We watch the Dhauladhars mountains range, we go to a yoga class, eat at the Corean restaurant (MacLeod Ganj is very cosmpolitan so there are many restaurants from everyhwere, a nice break from Indian food!!)We walk around, observe the people, the town...We think of the movies and documentaries about Tibet a lot and it is a humbling experience. The refugees in Dharamsala have nothing, they have no land, no home, many have lost family members, yet there is resilience here. We see strong confident Tibetan business women, dealing with customers,
here the shops are laden with Tibetan arts and posters urging us to 'Save Tibet' everywhere, music stalls selling CDs of monastic chantings and so many charities. Every day after 3 or 4pm, the sky gets darker, the storm arrives, it is weird the sun is high in the sky then the dark clouds fall and it is a fury of rain! It usually rains steadily after that for few hours! Time to read or eat cake! Then we go to a yoga class again. We meet up with our friends for dinner, go to a party in a nearby hotel, dance with the drums, then Fab stays longer as I need to rest, I feel a bit sick again.

24/05
We start the day with a yoga class with Amit who will also be Val's Reiki teacher. It is great to keep doing yoga, we both enjoy it and want it to be part of our routine. We then have breakfast together then I start my reiki class, it is my first session today. We learn about energy, abourt chakras, how to channel the energy and heal yourself and others. The class is formed of 4 people, Lisette, me , a french guy, Romain, and an italian, Matteo, a nice group. Amit is a great teacher, compassionnate and witty, he is open minded and tries to communicate some Indian wisdom to us, all very interesting. We finish around 3pm, go for lunch, I then meet up wtih Fab who has been busy, walking around, checking charities and bookshops, photographing monks, people walking around. Dinner then bed early.

25/05
We struggle to wake up this morning, we feel tired but we attend our daily yoga session. We go for breakfast with the team, Lisette, Matteo, Amit and Fab, we have a very healthy muesly, curd, honey and fruits salad. I then go to my second Reiki session today. It'll be about learning how to heal other people. Fab goes back to the room to chill out and to do his own things. After the end of the lesson, Fab goes to a Reiki treatment with our teacher, while I go for lunch with Lisette, Matteo and Romain. Fab joins us at the end to pick up the keys. He needs to rest as he found the treatment quite intense and feels a little tired. We then decide to go to Gu-Chu-Sum association, an organisation that helps Tibetan political refugees, by giving them English lessons, a room, food, IT courses etc. We spend some tim there doing conversations, teaching English, face to face with a refugee, a nun or a monk, and we get them to practise their English. I end up talking to a nun then a monk, Fab starts talking with a refugee and then a nun. It is quite involving as Fab's companion spent 6 years in prison for making a 'Free Tibet' flag and showing it during a protest in Lhassa! We then go for a walk around the Namgyal Monastery where the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is. It is a very nice walk, quite busy with women tibetans in traditional outfit and men praying, chanting mantras. We think of all the object of faith and arts that have been destroyed but then funny enough, the faith hasn't been destroyed, a new sacred place has been created here as we can ee walking the small path with countless prayers flags and mani stones with the beloved Tibetan mantra: Om mani padme hum. A really great walk, many Tibetans walking carrying prayers wheels and recitating the mantra, many turning their rosary, bead by bead with every sacred whisper from the breath. I think of the Daila Lama, he was the dispossesed ruler of a secluded mountain country when he arrived here in 1959, and he found a refuge but also a place to manifest and promote the ancient Buddhist truth. I am amazed at such an extraordinary adaptability, despite violence he still stands firmly by a peaceful freedom struggle. How amazing! Maybe we can attribute the devotion of the Tibetans to the Daila Lama as cultural conditioning or blind faith but even me, here I can feel the power and strength this person exudes, something connective and universal, the possibility of a different way of being. We feel strongly the holiness of the place and its importance for the Tibetan people and the world. Ceremony flags are hung all over between trees, rocks painted white, carved stoned laid on the rocks, we look at the window ledges of the small praying huts and small temples af it feels peaceful. We finish the walk and make our way back to the guesthouse, to rest for a bit more. As we're both tired and Fab ridden with a headache, we decide to eat next door at the Japanese restaurant, Lung-Ta, a non-profit organisation which works in partnership with the Gu-Chu-Sum association. We then go to bed early, it's only 9pm, but both need some good rest.

26/05
After a good night sleep, we start our routine with our Yoga session. We both feel so stiff today, compared to yesterday, it's quite painful. We have breakfast in the same place again, eating our healthy muesli, curd and fruits salad. I then go to my Reiki session, the last one, it is intense, practice more learning and some fun too as we get our 'diploma'. Now we have to practice for a month before being able to give reiki and let the energy flow. Fab chills out in the room. He meets us for lunch, I then feel tired and struggle with a migraine, I go to rest all afternoon!!! We meet up again for dinner then go back to our teacher's flat to watch a movie about Buddha Boy. Ram Bahadur Bamjon became famous when tens of thousands of people flocked to watch him sitting cross-legged under a tree for almost ten months, in Nepal. His followers - who say he is the reincarnation of Buddha - claimed that during this time he neither ate nor drank. It is puzzling, this young man not eating or sleeping, the video films him and we all chat about the yogic belief that prana (the energy) can feed some yogi from the air or the sun. Amit our teacher is convinced it is possible, we Westerners have more trouble believing it!!! An average human being who stops drinking will die of dehydration in three to four days. Whether he eats or not, it is impressive to see him, in a perfectly still stature even during an evening climate that seemed unbearably cold to the much more fully clothed journalist!!

27/05
Fab is sick this morning, stomach problems again. I go to the yoga session alone. Have a light breakie then go and check on Fab, he is feeling a bit better and wants to go out. We walk to the Dal lake, which is supposed to be picturesque and surrounded by nice trees. Not really....quite dirty and not pretty.... We then walk to the Tibetan Children village, a charity with schools for the Tibetan kids, we walk through schools and uphill to go to the Tushita centre. After this gentle stroll, we walk down under thunder and rain, it is now pouring down!!! We have a late lunch at the Japanese. Then go shopping for some Tibetan crafts. We buy some Thongka painting, some Mandalas. There are important paintings in Tibet as they form many decorative sets in the monasteries. I like to think of this town as a mandala, a map of the world of spiritual journeying, a circle here. There are different worlds: the buddhists, the wanderers, the refugees, of course it is not an ideal place: it is also a hill town with acute water shortages and inefficient sewerage, greedy builders endangering the moutain, and it is also full of materialism, but this fragile town has something more, the opportunity for mindful living, and the presence of the Daila Lama is like a beacon, travellers and refugees follow.
We then go to the movies, to watch Kundun, the Martin Scorcese movie on the childhood of the Daila Lama, interesting and beautiful.

28/05
Yoga for Fab, I chill out this morning and do some washing. We all meet up for breakie, then we walk again around, do more shopping. I have an ayurvedic session, I am meeting with a doctor to find out about my profile. Interesting session learning about ayurvedic medicine and nutrition! Apparently I shouldn't eat too much brown rice, shame as I eat that all the time in London!!!!We wander a bit more than meet up with our friends for dinner at Lung-Ta the japanese restaurant which has become our cantine. I then go for an ayurvedic massage. Fab goes to the Tibetan cafe to have chai with our friends. We all met up again after the session and have a short chat about the next stages of our respective trips. We also try to plan a trek to Triund on Saturday, weather permitted. Bed quite late.

29/05
It is our last yoga session with Amit today as he is leaving tonight to go South to teach some retreats, we have breakfast, go to the post office to send back our summer clothes as we are heading up north in the Himalayas where it will be much colder! We buy some gifts, meet up with Amit and few people for cakes to say goodbye, we chat, exchange emails. Then dinner time, we go to our little charity to watch some documentaries about Tibet and eat Tibetan pizzas, we chat in the kitchen with Lauren the Australian girl who helped set up the association with political refugees. We chat to a nice young man, the one who cooks amazing carrot cakes and learn that he spent 6 years in Chinese prison, being tortured and mistreated for holding up a Tibetan flag for 6 minutes. His friends only got 5 years as they held the flag for 5 minutes. Horrific. I hope to be able to help them fundraise and give them my email. Back to our hotel and bed time as we are all going to Triund tomorrow trekking!

30/05
We start the day by having a breakfast in Bhagsu before heading up to the mountain, it is a steep ascent, with fields and rocks averywhere. On the way, we pick up a team of 7-8 dogs, very friendly, they will follow us up to the top. I am getting cured from my fear of dogs here, they are a gentle nice company, supporting us as we climb slowly but steadily. I often feel breathless but it is beautfiful, the ridge, the view of the valley and of the Dhauladhar mountain, very tiring though! We stop at a chai shop, only half way and still so much to climb!! After the last steep ascent, we reach Triund, a lovely meadow surrounded by mountains but we are unlucky today as it is overcast, we cannot see the beautiful snow cast peak, hidden in the clouds!! Still it is great to be high up, many climbers, the military around, some dogs and some Indian kids camping!!! We decide to keep going after our improvided picnic and meeting with two nice Indian guys from Rajasthan who are here to escape the heat and visit the region. We share mangoes and they decide we are now the Mango connection team. A fun walk but rough and steep in the rocks to the snowline, it is raining and full of mist. The trek is enjoyable but challenging! We make it under the rain, until we reach the snowline cafe and refuge, a big plastic tent, we get some chai, all gather, chat to a Canadian couple who is staying here for the night. Fab and few others decide to stay for the night to see the glacier tomorrow and camp here tonight. Lisette and I decide to climb down, a challenge as it is already 5pm... but we want our beds!!! A long long walk, difficult going down sometimes in the rocks and we are running against time as we want to reach the village before darkness....We walk along nice trees, nice fields but we keep going, keep going....We finally reach the place where we start seeing the lights and have to finish the last hour in the dark, with one torch, on the steep descent, small rocky paths....We reach Bhagsu and treat ouselves to an Indian meal as we are exhausted, it tooks us three hours to arrive here, our feets, knees and ankles are kiling us!! We walk back to our hotel slowly, like two old women with no more knees or ankles at 10pm!!! I enjoy taking a hot shower and watching silly movies tonight...I go out watch the little light coming from far way in the moutain and I imagine Fab sleeping in the big tent under a big blanket, the small fire in the tent and the cooking pots on it, many people, the Himachali family and the climbers....He will told me tomorrow that it was great, eating dhal rice, vegetables, chatting with the family and the other guests in the tent, waking up around midnight to watch the sky and then, early morning looking at the glacier, the snow peaks, the flowers, the grassy fields, enjoying the panoramic views over rocky ridges.

31/05
I have breakfast in towm, meet Fab on the way to the bus station, he was so quick to come down, less than two hours!! Our other friends will take all day and nearly miss their bus tonight!! We chat, Lisette is leaving today at 5pm for Manali, the two others too but still not back yet from trekking. We have lunch in a Tibetan cafe, shop around, walk around, go to the bus to wave goodbyes to our friends, the local bus is full and scary....we are taking it tomorrow morning and it will be a hellish journey for sure... 11 hours to Manali....but for the moment we decide to go back to the Namgyal tremple and do the walk around the monastery, it is nice, we chat, meet one of the American girls from the retreat, we observe the Tibetan walking, praying, reflecting on the fact that they really have to preserve ther culture here. 6000 monasteries were burnt down in Tibet, every Tibetan knows that much of their cultural heritage was destroyed by the Chinese, so many institutions have been recreated here on a small scale, it feels right. We meet more people from the retreat here, then go for dinner in the Corean restaurant. Fab is tired, unsettled and doesn't want to lave tomorrow, he feels he needs another day to rest before heading up north. We agree to take it easy tomorrow and leave Tuesday morning. I am a bit anxious as sadly we are now reaching our last month, time flies and I really want to keep going and move on but it is only another day....Compromise, we will leave Tuesday, reconnect as we have spent so much time wth people recently and rest tomorrow.

01/06
Lazy morning, packing, late breakfast, Fab feels more rested, we talk abut where to go next, after Manali, Leh and the Ladakh region, we are tempted to go through Kashmir but there has been some tensions recently so we will avoid this region and come down through another route. We have lunch here too, we read, I write the blog, Fab rests and we go for another walk around the temple, there is a massive ceremony with many monks, nuns, we watch them chant, pray and sit quietly with them, how beautiful. Spirituality in everything, it really feels like we are not in India anymore...tomorrow will feel different leaving this Tibetan enclave! We then go for some cakes, and ginger tea and relax for our last night here.

Rishikesh and the Retreat

2009-05-21T14:52:00.002+01:00

08/05
This morning we are leaving Haridwar to go to Rishikesh, a pilgrim but also hippish town since the Beatles came here to meet their guru in the 60s, it is now officially known as the world capital of yoga! We struggle to get in a bus, full , really full and meet a group of Israelis and Belgian people, we chat, exchange about Nepal, they all loved it, talk about the harsh reality of India, the stares, the poverty, the business, the garbage, the way we react to all of that....the journey goes quickly, we then take a rickshaw and try to find a nice place to stay, the first impressions are that the town is quite big, we were hoping for something smaller, there are few good areas for pilgrims and travellers. After inquiries, we end up on a hill, on the high bank, a small area on a small hill overlooking the Ganges valley, in a very very cheap guesthouse, no electricity, an OK room, a big terrace overlooking the river! Sounds idyllic, well think again...the view if we look down is on a pile of garbage, it smells, the trees look naked and dead, the river is quite dry, it is very dusty and there are many many lorries on the road just below us!!! India again...
We go for lunch in a cafe around, take a small nap (we tried but impossible to sleep with twenty lorries a minute!!), Fab is so not enjoying it today, he hates it, feels freaked out, disgusted, annoyed and so full of emotions towards the country...I worry for him, he is not coping and is feeling vulnerable.
I have gone beyond today, I feel OK, more detached somehow, the days before I was suffering from the heat, the noise, the honk of cars, the dust, the massive sensory overload, but today I feel it will be fine....I think India will teach us many lessons and show us many paths, we will adjust and love this place!!! I try to clear my mind from the smell, the noise, the garbage...There is something in this putrid air...but what??
We then decide to explore the town and go down to the area called Laxman Jhula, just below our little hill, there are small streets, a big bridge, waterfalls of plastic bags and rubbish down the slopes, many shops, ashrams, classes of yoga, reiki, cooking, ayurvedic medicines, very new age, some gigantic temples, many hippiysh looking Western kids, all dishevelled and very very dirty, the unwanted children of Mother India, face encircled by Medusa-like dreadlocks, dirty bodies, hippish ragged clothes, all searching the meaning of life or just enjoying smoking some pot here....Many Indians pilgrims too, a busy activity, cows, donkeys, dogs, sadhus everywhere, a busy but quite pleasant little neighbourood. It feels less intense than Haridwar, quieter somehow, less people, less pilgrims...We stroll around, avoiding the jeeps, cars, rickshaws honking like mad, the noise is so overpowering, they all honk constantly and so loudly, nothing compares to that, Vietnam seems so quiet now in comparison. I enjoy the walk, the Ganges looks nice, even pure, we walk around then decide to go back to our hill as Fab is tired, fed up and we need some food and rest, we eat just around our little guesthouse, then reach our bedroom. We are both full of dirt, dust, this country is unbelievable, 5 minutes in the street and we are covered in a thick coat of dust!!! It is all too much for Fab tonight, he has to sleep, tomorrow will be better. I sit down and write, reflecting on those last few days here. A country of paradoxes really, love and hate, poverty and richness, spirituality and dollars-rupees capitalism, beauty and ugliness everywhere, dirt dirt dirt but also peaceful, beautiful women in their colourful saris, kids smiling, sweet little cows on the roads! Lets see what tomorrow brings us.

09/05
Today we go for a walk and stroll to another area, Swarg Ashram, a nice walk along the river, trying to forget the smell and the garbage falling in the water, looking, observing the people, the sadhus: sadhus are men who have abandoned their families to travel India's sacred sites and dedicate thier lives to worhsip, many look more like beggars to us...so many ashrams and yoga centres here. We stop in a nice bookshop and get some books about yoga, India and spirituality to get in the mood. Tomorrow we are entering a retreat in a small ashram outside of town, meditation, silence, yoga for a week. Seems exciting...we are also looking for a perfect place to adjust to India, feel OK here and rest a bit.

10/05
We take our time, get ready, I have been unwell for few days, stomach pain and feel a bit weak so it feels hard for me to leave this morning even if we both feel it is going to be great doing the retreat, in a peaceful setting far from the agitation...We manage to walk across town with our heavy bags, a challenge, many people, a bridge, many cars, cows, honks, noise and the heat!! Fab tries to negotiate a taxi to take us to the ashram, 6 kms away in the mountains but it is hard...We finally meet an Indian man who is going in the same direction and share a car the three of us....After a bumpy road and little journey on this jeep, we reach Phool Chatti Ashram. The ahram is in a fantastic location, in the mountains but very close to the sacred Ganges river. The ashram is formed of few little white buildings and our room while very basic (bucket shower outside) has a view of the river and some great mountains, it is so quiet and peaceful...We feel happy! Just nature, the river and this small spiritual place. Today we are free, we arrived early, we go for a walk along the Ganga, we look around, get used to the place...Some participants arrive too, we chat, discover...A nice day. We feel better, much more relaxed in this calm setting, the atmosphere in the ashram is nice and quiet! At 7pm, we participate in the temple pooja for the gods (the worship ritual) held in the courtyard, after the ringing of the bell (waking up the gods), we sing along for Shiva, play instruments and recitate mantras...a spiritual moment with the ashram community. The nigt is pleasant, we feel relaxed and happy here.

11/05
Today is the first day of our retreat, the induction day, we have the morning free then meet after lunch to get the programme, the rules of the place...Bucket shower cold, a hot day in front of us...This retreat has been designed to promote the integrated health of body, mind and spirit. It is a strong introduction to the yoga tradition, but not as we know it in the West, reducing it to the asanas (the body postures, the physical aspects of yoga), here there will be many yoga exercises, meditation, breathing techniques, contemplative walks and lectures on hinduism and yoga traditions. It will be interesting and challenging as we have to wake up and start meditate at 6 am everyday!!! After an intro, we are quite a big group around 25, many nationalities and ages, and a group of young American doing a retreat trip in India. First talk today then a first hatha yoga session! Hard with the heat but we both enjoy it, also commenting on the lack of flexibility of our bodies and their stiff ways...Diner all together in silence, eating the chapathi, rice, curd, vegetables and dhal which would be our lunch, dinner everyday for the next week!! We each get a massive metal plate with different compartments, a spoon and a cup, we have to keep them for the next week too and wash them after each meal with water and soap! Back to basics here....but we will adjust very easily. We have to go to bed early as the bell rings at 5.30 am every morning for the meditation...I cannot sleep, very excited, anxious too, some silly issues such as 'how will I manage to do a meditation session, some yoga and breathings excercises from 6am till 9m without breakfast?' Fab sleeps quietly and seems relaxed,I am pleased he joined in this spirtitual adventure and agreed to come here to experience it with me.

12/05
It is Fab's birthday and it will be our first full day at the retreat, hard to celebrate as we have to keep silent from the evening meditation (last time) until lunchtime...we make eyes contact, share few kisses and small talks in our bedroom but then ...silence!!! So hard to hear the bell at 5am, I rush to get a cold bucket shower in 5 minutes then the day starts....Meditation from 6 to 6.30 only half an hour but so hard to keep still, at peace and focus on your breath, I juggle around as my back is painful, my thoughts are mad, the famous monkey mind jumping from one branch to the next, and I feel sleepy...
We then do some chanting (recitating some om mantras) then some yogic cleansing (jala neti: nasal cleansing: warm salted water is made flow from one nostril to the next) to rid the body of mucus. After that, we have a pranayama session, some respiration control excercises to increase energy and focus. Then it is time for a yoga session, I feel exhausted today and find it hard to have nothing in my belly (even if I ate a mini banana at 5am!!). The asana practice is gentle this morning, some hata yoga, we coordinate our movements, stretch, do some asanas (postures), I feel so annoyed at my lack of flexibility but it takes time and our yoga teacher, Lalita ji, the instructor of the ashram's yoga program emphasis that yoga is for life, and it is only the beginning....I try to stretch properly and keep in balance, not do some wrong movements, a big effort! I look at Fab and he is really enjoying it.
Then it is 9 am and after this full on morning (and again it is only 9am!!) the bell rings and it is time for breakfast, I find the silence hard, difficult to be around people, to sit with them, especially Fab and not share. After this hour, we meet again at 10 am to go for a contemplative walk, we walk to a waterfall in silence, trying to look at things without labelling them, obersving them with focus and walking mindfully in nature...It is weird to walk like that and hard under the sun, a big climb until we reach the waterfall, many including Fab bath in the fall, I watch and relax...breaking the rules a bit exchaning few words with some nice people, including Katarina, an Austrian girl who has been travelling for three months in India, our room's neighbour. Back to the ashram, and lunchtime already, the same dishes are served, we eat calmly, we observe silence until after lunch, the joy of sharing, speaking and drinking chai!!! We are free till 3pm, we rest, relax in our room, sleep as we feel soooooo tired then we all meet again for the discussion and lecture time, we talk about yoga philosophies. Yoga means union, the union of the individual soul with the Universal spirit in the Indian beliefs. We could say that yoga is the union of the body with the mind and the mind with the soul.
I like the idea that yoga and meditation are universal, that they are tools for the spiritual and physical developments of the individual. After that we do an ashtanga yoga session, a more strenuous, active type of yoga, it is hard, we both sweat (the all group struggles and sweats a lot), the flow is quicker, the asanas are more challenging...I struggle and again am aware of my body limitations. Time for a bath in the Ganga, it is cold, and women have to bath with long clothes, so it will be just a careful cautious dip, no head in it....The river is nearly at its source here, so it is supposed to be clean, on top of being holy, cleansing you of all your sins and regenerating, so cold so very enjoyable though!! Bathing here is part of the retreat activities and feels nice....despite the clothes and my worries about the water!!
Little time until the ceremony, the evening ritual then dinner time at 7.30 (again the same but quite good, I guess we will start to feel frustrated after few days..)then a guided meditation before entering silence and going to bed at 9am-10pm!! We struggle not to communicate, to share our impressions, feelings, specially when we are in the bedroom.....hard to ignore each other but we manage to stay silent most fo the time. It was good but challenging too today, I start thinking again about the Vipassana meditation, the 10 days buddhist retreat in total silence and 10 hours meditation per day that I want to do in Dharamsala but wonder how I could manage as even two hours a day of seated meditation are difficult...Fab enjoyed the day too, I feels positive, he left aside the spiritual bits that are not for him but is determined to gain more knowledge and practice yoga as he is enjoying it....and loving the peace here, all very SHANTI!

13/05
A similar day, same schedule, waking up doesn't get easier yet!! We struggle in the asanas, in the morning meditation, some people fall asleep. We do some lauging yoga, laugh like crazy and it is really fun! The meditative walk is nice, we go to a small river, walk on some small paths, bathe, we relax then Fab and I come back early, to rest, relax, our bodies are aching and we feel tired! I skip the ashtanga session as I am worried I will overstretch my body and feel lazy, very bad!! Dinner time then the meditation is a chanting one tonight, it is all about vibrations. We repeat a mantra, sacred chant in a loop, nowhere else has the potency of sound been investigated as in India and it is really powerful. The Aum vibration (we sing the aum shanti shanti very often here) is so powerful and so universal!! I really enjoy this meditation, I forget time, place and get in a sort of transe...The energy is great in the group and I really feel some vibrations, energy going on...A beautiful strong moment for me...deep... Fab then tells me we sang for 45 minutes non stop!!!! I am touched and really wonder if there are ways to free oneself from emotions, intelligence and instincts...Bed time already...

14/05
Same routine, still hard to wake up, but the yoga sessions the meditation moments are great. I really want to play the game today and not speak but it is impossible as we are two. Fab goes for the walk in the morning, I rest, write, stay in the ashram. It is getting hotter now, hard to cope with the heat around 45 degres, the schedule and I really want to focus this week but it is not easy. The day goes on, again resting, yoga, meditation, talking to the group, very nice people from all over the world, Inge from Asutralia, Ralph from Germany, Pinard from Turkey, Lisette from Holland and Kevin from England, with Katharina are some of the people we really like here.

15/05-16/05
Days are very similar, with some nice moments, reading, observing the lightning in the evenings from our terrace, swimming in the Ganga, meditating. We both feel happy here, some sort of emerging exhilaration, we are happy to learn to control our minds, I personally really want to find peace in the only place possible in India: within me...Slowly we fall under the spell, we start to love being here, this ashram is special, the Ganga is tumultuous here, many waves, movements, the river is quick, running, and the mountains despite being so dry are still serene and beautiful. On the saturday eve, we have a big bonfire on the bank of the Ganga, as a present to the group each person has to sing a song from its country, we sing together 'la vie en rose'!!! Guitars, fire, some hippish kids joigning us from the rainbow beach (true!!, a hippish community living on a nearby beach!!). We finish the eve on our terracce a small group of us talking about trips, retreats, life etc etc...We go to bed, tomorrow is the last day, finishing at lunchtime but we have decided to stay few more days here to keep the peace and the quietness.

17/05
Wake up at 5am, maybe for the last time, then meditation, yoga, cleansing excercise, we then have to meet up all cleaned up at 11am for the fire ceremony...the final farewell as a group. We have been told to write on a piece of paper what we want to get rid of within ourselves (thoughts, habits, anger etc etc) and bring the paper to burn it during the ceremony...a bit like leaving in the Ganag what you don't want! We all sit in two circles, chanting some mantras and throwing soome special herbs in the fire, 108 times, before throwing our paper in the fire. It is a beautifl ceremony, a nice group vibration, we all feel a bit sad and happy at the same time, we take pictures, have a last lunch together and some of us leave. Some stay, we rest, we talk about what to do next, when to go, we go for a walk, a swim along the river then dinner and rest. Fab goes into town with Lisette and Kevin to look for train tickets, it feels hard for him to get back into the craziness. I stay in the sanctuary, enjoy the peace!! We are sad it is ending, we both loved it, the structure helped us, we aim to keep doing yoga and meditate to feel healthier and at peace. In the eve, one of the dogs goes missing and our yoga treacher Lalita-Ji is very upset, we all take our torches and go in search of the dog...walking in the darkness...nobody finds it, but it comes back few hours later!!!!!

18/05
We sleep late this morning, then Fab goes back into town to sort out the tickets, we are finally going to Dharamsala by bus tomorrow with Kevin, it will be easier to tavel as 4 people. I rest, go for a walk, watch the river, sit and read, Lisette and I go for a bath in the Ganga then last eve, we pack, feel a bit sad but excited..anxious too as it feels so peaceful here, we want to come back maybe before the end of the trip to the ashram as there will be no more retreats, just pilgrims and the staff.

19/05
We wake up really early to go for walk at 6am and do some pranayamas (breathing excercises) on the bank of the Ganga, so pleasant and the light is amazing, then we meet up with Kay, one of our teachers, she has offered to teach us a last yoga session, it will be ahstanga this morning on a balcony waching the river!!! We are only 4 of us, it feels like a private lesson!! So nice and energising, it is challenging, hard to keep the momentum from one posture to the next, so many dynamic movements but we are really enjoying it!! Sweat sweat sweat, last chai, last breakfast then we sadly leave the ashram around 11ish to carry our big bags on such a long journey...first we try to hitchhike to get to Laksman Jhula, after a moment waiting and sweating, we negotiate a jeep to the town, then take a rickshaw to Rishikesk then another bus to Dehradun!!! After few hours we arrive in this capital to find out the next cheap bus for Dharamsala has left before us, the next one is at 5pm and it is deluxe!! Well, we have to take this one, after a quick lunch in the dirty station, we board on our deluxe bus (a normal bus really but with AC and proper seats reclinable) for a 13 hours journey in to the Himalayas!!! The bus is full of Tibetans, very few Indians and just the 4 of us as tourist....we already feel we are going in a different country, Dharamsala is called Little Lhassa, MacLeod Ganj, where we are going, is the spiritual centre of exiled Tibetan Buddhism, and the exiled Tibetan goverment, the town of the Daila Lama, a tiny settlement perched on a ridge of the Himalayan foothills. It is a long journey, sinuous mountainous roads, Fab manages to get some sleep, I cannot, I have cramps in my belly, start to feel ill, and sleeping while the road is turning so much is not an option! Little hell but somehow manageable, the ashram retreat has made us stronger and more at peace, India seems easier now, we feel lighter, able to cope more and we even start to love this crazy intense place.

First days in India: Delhi and Haridwar

2009-05-21T14:49:00.002+01:00

3/05
We leave Colombo and after a short flight arrive in Delhi. We get an airport pickup and the driving feels mad, loads of people walking everywhere. It feels busy already, intense. We arrive in Pahar Ganj, the Delhi seedy area full of bacpackers and cheap hotels. We settle down in the Hotel Cottage Yes Please, fairly recent and clean. I go for a quick look around, many cars, rickshaws, cows, many people and then we have some food in the restaurant across the street. Quick walk in the bazar to have our first impressions. We feel tense, anxious, it is so different...A realy dirty and dirt road (the street is in really bad state) but it is late and the street is not too busy. Few cloth and souvenir shops around and apart from a couple of guys, not many people seem to care about us too much. Bed time and we find it hard to rest.

4/05
Wake up. We then have breafast across the street, we can already feel the heat and the dust. We go for a walk in the area, Pahar Ganj, trying to walk in the middle of rickshaws, cars, cows, many people, managing our ways in the dust inside the bazaar and side alleys. Val starts getting oppressed by the men looking at her in her 'chest eyes'. She feels vulnerable and rather disturbed by it. We have been warned, Indian men stare and stare and never stop staring..We will find some more Indian clothes for her as many female travellers advise her to protect herself that way....We then take the metro to Connaught Place. So different again, a certain order here, in the middle of the chaos. We go to a travel agent for some info and he is trying to sell us a package holiday with driver and all the bling...We walk around, oberving the masses, the people around. We take the tube back and it is amazing to see some endless lines of people queueing in a way never seen before!! So organised and quiet!!!Not indian at all!!! Londoners could only be ashamed in comparison of the calm and order of the users here. Each door has two waiting lines, each composed of no less than 50 people...okay it was our mistake, it's rush hour!!! Stormy weather, the rain starts, lightnings. We walk in the streets back to the hotel, the dust blown by strong wind...Dinner at a corner eatery (local). We are the only foreigners in that one, the kids stare at us. Feels strange as they look but with an empty glaze. Is this curiosity, challenge, arrogance? They don't look down...we smile, they smile back...The area is not brilliant but we could get used ot it, even the dirt, if it wasn't for the constant mad noise, the horns, the shouts, the real assault on our sense is through our ears here...

5/05
Today is sightseeing day. We have booked a car with a driver to take us around Delhi as there are many areas to visit and under 45 degres, it seems mad to struggle and walk around. Our driver, Gail, a devout sikh, is going to take around all day. Old Delhi first, to see Jama Masjid, the mosque very sobre, we walk through the market, and through an extremely poor area, it feels weird to walk through this. No bad feeling about security, more...disgusted! We are now dealing with a real indian street, crowded, poors, beggars, cows, dust, rubbish everywhere, bad smells...amazing how people don't seem to be affected by it!!! We see the Red Fort from outside (the one in Agra is apparently similar but more beautiful), a lovely red stone fortress built by a Moghol emperor in the 17th century. We also see a Jain temple and its bird hospital on the way. We then visit Taj Ghat, the Gandhi memorial, in a beautiful garden, with only a black stone with a burning flame. The place is peaceful and many Indian come here to pay their respect to the Nation founder. We have food in a very posh restaurant, our driver refuses to let us eat in small cheapies!! We then visit New Delhi in the afternoon, it is more airy, big avenues, we see the India Gate, Humayun's tomb, the Parliament and government House, Gandhi's killing place and then our driver takes us to a big Sikh Temple. It is the second temple in the country (18-20,000 devotes a day). We get in, covered, walk around, observe the devouts, see the rituals, it is nice and feels intimate and quiet despite of the crowd. After a short break, we go to the train station to book some tickets. An adventure in itself, crossing the station, the many many people, the crowd, finding the right place, getting our tickets...a struggle..like many things here, so many contrasts, such plurality in everything, religiosity everyhwere, business like mad, uncoherent mixes... We realise it will take time to adjust...We go to a nice cafe for meal, we have some chai across the road from the hotel, then bedtime.

06/05
We take it easy this morning. A quick shopping session to try and find more appropriate clothing for Val. We stroll in the main bazar and stop for lunch in the small canteen around the corner. We have our thali and the very good chai from the old man across the street before heading off to the station. We hire a cyclo-rickshaw and climb on the small seat with the bags behind us. It is a bit of an epic, we're obviously so heavy, the guy sweats like mad, it is hot. The driver smiles to us, a smile on which we can read the pain. Val feels so guilty, but I sort of don't. He's a proud guys and I respect him for that. He works hard and we pay him a price probably relevant to the effort. We're trying to adjust our good-thinking European mentalities to the indian way. It is hard, believe me. But a man who works will be able to afford some food and some kind of accomodation. I prefer hiring this rickshaw-wallah rather than the tuk-tuk guy. The last one charges more for the same journey (same duration also), but without any effort. The road is bumpy and full of potholes, there is not much left of the tarmac, the ride is not comfortable but we get to the station. We load our backpacks on our backs and start crossing the station grounds, scattered with litters, beggars, entire homeless families, other families waiting for their unprobable train, the queues are so long for the cheap second class or unreserved seats, that some of them will maybe wait for a day or two to get on one of the trains. We make our way around them, slowly progressing through the station, smiling at people smiling at us, being stared at by others we stare at back, smiling again. This is crazy, nice, mad, demential, interesting, infuriating, entertaining, confusing, annoying, amusing, irritating, funny, strange, weird and god knows what. Hence the warning from everybody and the stressful constant announces from the rail company for watching belongings, suspicious passengers, potential terrorists, pickpockets, street kids...where the f*** are we!!!!!??? I acknowledge that I freak out a bit, but there is nothing threatening around here...If you ever buy a guide book to visit India, please start by ripping the danger and annoyance pages...It is mad but somehow manageable!
We find our train and talk a bit with a guy from Austria. We board our conditioned coach (it's about 40 degrees inside!!) and soon set off to the North in direction of Haridwar. The train is packed with indian tourists, all of them middle and upper middle class. We will not have much of an experience here as we are not in the popular carriages but didn't feel adventurous for our first trip in train!! We slowly leave the megacity of Delhi, going through the suburbs, some clean, some nearly like slums, with kids running naked on the piles of garbage, some digging in the hope of an item they'll be able to exchange for a few rupees, rubbish in the water, waterfalls of garbage in the fields. We then pass the dry landscapes of the countryside and finally reach our destination just after sunset. The near entire carriages unloads here. The hussle and bustle carries on when we thought it would become easier!!!Loud noise, horns, shoutings. The dark helps, but hundreds of people walk around us, rickshaws and auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks), horns, buses, cows, dogs, beggars...Wow...we walk along the dark and murky road to end up in our hotel. Not nice, but we don't want to walk around at night so heavily loaded...We were expecting something quite nice, but the rooms are tired, not really dirty (a bit though), bear...It is far from the luxury of our Sri Lanka Palaces...We are desperate to go somewhere else nicer but what will we find at this time? After a long chat, we decide to take the room and go for a walk around the small streets of the bazar and check some other place on the way for tomorrow. The city is busy with pilgrims, we are the only Westerners around, but it feels fine. There are many small streets, alleyways, tons of ashram all around the place, some ghats, a busy markets, some bridges with many sadhus (spiritual local wise men), a strange and very religious atmosphere.

7/05
Short night. Wake up late today for Val's birthday, a bit tired and apprehensive. We have recovered and try to think pink for this special day. After breakfast we go for a walk in the bazar in direction of Har-Ki-Pairi, a very holy ghat on the pilgrimage route to the Ganges sources. We were aware of the fact that Haridwar is full of Indian tourists and that the summer holidays are taking place now, but the city is buyant, a continuous flow of people arriving from the entire country but it feels that we weren't fully prepared. Not scared or anything bad but during the past four months we haven't encountered this intensity...
We arrive at the ghat surrounded by Sadhus and Holy Saints of hindhuism and beggars and poor pilgrims and middle class pilgrims, bathing, taking pictures, I get a street guys to show me a King Cobra straight under his nose (but alive and not to be eaten this one, spine shivers...), the place is definitely holy but there is some kind of paradox that it is more a spa but also an asylum...it is very strange. It is so disturbing and confusing. Poverty is overwhelming, noise is omnipresent, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, cars, lorries are honking constantly, even close to your face, swerving in front of your nose in such a normality that is so unsettling. I don't think we've ever felt in danger anywhere because of the traffic but there is this 'so be it' attitude here from everyone that makes my heart pump sometimes.
Because we feel slightly overstimulated we decide to go and hide in the only 'nice' restaurant of the town. It's air conditioned, but overlooking the street behing thick glass. At least we can enjoy watching the stream of people and avoid the shouting loudspeakers, honks reving engines and bells. All our senses are overloaded, and we feel a bit lost...We catch ourselves spotting westerners. There aren't many of them...far from it!!!
We want something special today...but it is a bit in its own way. India way. We have no reference here, everything is different and we sort of look around trying to find something. There is some sort of vertigo, a whirling that takes us. We have a quick walk to check the buses to Rishikesh after lunch, feeling a bit more relaxed and ready to confront our surrounding but 20 metres later we feel tense again. India will be a complete and unique experience, we have to learn new skills to be able to cope with the singularity and forget about plans, as it seems it is always changing here. We rest again and then go for a walk in the market, I buy Val some small pink bracelets for her birthday, we then go to see the ceremony at Har Ki Pairi, it is a fascinating fire ceremony but a bit scary as the ghat is really crowded by thousand of pilgrims, offering flowers and candles in some small boats to the Ganges, mother of river. Flowers, powder, incense, flames, gurus, pilgrims, a fabulous mix! Amazing to see such a mass of humanity: the pilgrims with long hairs, bright saris, some smells: shit and burning onions, incense and urine, sandalwood and spices...We try to reduce the sensory overload from time to time by closing our eyes but you can still feel the buzz. Spirituality everywhere here. We then go for dinner in the nice restaurant again. We manage to find an internet cafe, in the middle of the street and Val checks her birthday emails, she needs it, we both have to feel strong and it will be an education this raw humanity around us!!

The Villa!

2009-05-21T14:47:00.001+01:00

27/04
We leave the hotel around 10 am and leaving Colombo is not easy, many military checkpoints, policemen everywhere, guns in their hands, we suddenly feel we are in a country devastated by conflict in a state of emergency, after 4 hours of coach, driving along the coast, looking at villages and seeing the blue sea, we reach our destination the Villa Victoria in Talpe, a true magical place!!The villa is breathtaking, two aisles with wood everywhere, old shutters, 5 bedrooms (we will be ten this week) old genuine antique Indian furniture, paradise garden with coconut trees, a swimming pool and a fabulous view over the beach! It has been created to be a home away from home and it feels magical!! We even have some staff members, a cook and a house dog Billie!! We all feel enthusiastic, a really luxurious amazing house!!!We spend the rest of the day swimming, resting and looking at the indian ocean, a tranquil atmosphere, a really restful house! We watch the sunset on the beach, it feels like we have entered paradise!!!

28/04
The day is spent lazing around in the villa, observing the waves, the sea, the coconut trees, the frangipani trees, swimming, talking together, sleeping, reading in the pool, a paradise!!
So cool to have our lunch and dinner prepared by the villa's chef and to laze around, we both feel we need that time to feel on holidays to recharge our batteries before the next BIG challenge: India! We relax, rest in a magical environment! It feels so secluded and protected, we are so not in touch with the conflict that is devastating the country up north. We hear the violence has escalated and that the LTTE is still encircling people in the north. So sad but so weird to be in a paradise and so close to a violent conflict.

29/04
After a little swim in the pool, Fab and I decide to go for a walk,to discover the beach and explore the coast, it is wonderful, lovely beaches, wild, white and black sand, active sea, lots of waves, the water is green, turquoise, and the places are delightfully unexploited by mainstream tourism. It is beautiful, fishermen on their stilts, nice villas and villages, again very clean. We observe the people, the natural wonders and it is great!! The waves are too big to swim but I manage to dip myself in the water. So nice to stroll gently with my man and the dog Billie who comes with us all the time, a great walking companion!! After so much sport, we have to rest!!The afternoon is spent chilling out, lazing around, swimming, reading in the pool and then it is time to celebrate our birthdays in advance!!! A BBQ has been organised, lobsters, gigantic shrimps, some champagne and creme caramel!!So nice to feel loved and surrounded, thanks to our friends!!! A really lovely eve!

30/04
We spend the morning chilling out in the villa, swimming, chatting, reading under the sun then after a fish soup the 4 of us decide to go visit Galle which used to be a very important port until the 19th century. We take the local bus, noisy but fun, and arrive in town, after looking around the new city, we make our way to the old part of town, the Fort, with its remparts and fortifications. It is hot and sunny and we are strolling gently, slowly, stopping to eat rotis and looking at shops, dreaming of buying old derelict hospitals or colonial houses to renovate! The fort is really interesting to visit, many small Dutch houses, narrow streets, boddhi trees, mosque, churches, greek temples, remparts, old gates, all those buildings were protected from the Tsunami thanks to the fortifications. So nice to walk in a town full of history, it is a really good well preserved colonial era city, it feels very Dutch and very colonial, so interesting and lovely too, watching the sun, walking on the fortifications, observing life, people around us. After a bit more shopping in the new town, we have to meet with Marie and Xavier (friends and guests at the wedding) who are in town for one night, we bargain hard to get a tuk tuk to take the 4 of us to their hotel! A mad fun drive, the tuk tuk is too heavy and I am on top of Fab, lying on Bertrand and the driver is struggling to keep the tuk tuk straight, we then arrive at the hotel to find out that our friends left this morning: complete mix up with dates and mobile phones messages arriving too late!!! What a shame!!We have a drink the 4 of us there, thinking of them, then decide to stay out for dinner, baby Timeo is looked after by his grannies so the parents can stay out late! We find a little local cafe and stuff our faces (literally) with parathas, kuthis and rotis, so good, we are the local attraction, people come to watch us eat, again we find the Sri Lankan very nice, very chatty, very friendly people. After this cheap feast, we decide to take the local bus home, and start to wait for 25 minutes at a corner of a street, buses go past us and never stop!!!Then somebody tells us, after having watched us for half an hour that it is not the place to stop bus and that there is a bus stop nearby!!! What a laugh!! We then go and wait, wait, wait at the bus stop, a tuk tuk driver is waiting for us to be fed up and do business with him, but we wait despite buses going again and never stopping too full or not going to our place!! Then suddenly what seems to be a big red bus stops, as we waive for it and we go and jump in it, it is NOT a bus but a big lorry, looking like a bus but the two drivers agree to take us home, we have a fun ride, laughing in the noisy lorry, imagining the tuk tuk driver seeing us jump in the lorry, so much fun!!! The noise is mad in the driver cabin and we all try to recognise the sights close to our village, hop we are home, thanks for a great hitch-hiking moment! The end of the eve is a bit dampened by finding out that baby Timeo has been ill again, many guests here have been affected by belly issues. Sandra and Bertrand will call a doctor tomorrow to check it is OK. I struggle with a big migraine and managed to fall asleep in pain...

01/05
We both wake up late, Fab goes into town with Sandra and Bertrand, I stay in the villa with the rest of the group, they are leaving tonight, we are leaving tomorrow, I want to read, rest, write, enjoy the view of the sea. Fab is going to book the Delhi hotel and do some shopping. Baby Timeo is still weak, and the doctor has been called in, a bad gastro, contagious so he needs to rest and be rehydrated today! Later after dinner, the group is reducing in number, Bertrand's family is heading back to France. Only 6 of us left tonight including baby!

02/05
Sandra, Fab and I wake up in the morning and visit a sea turtle hatchery. Endangered species eggs are being artificially hatched in order to try and maintain the population of the beautiful animals. We learn a little bit about the process, the charity buiyng the eggs from the local fishermen and burried in sand in a protected compound. When the turles hatch, they are being released in the sea under tight supervision so a maximum number of babies survive. Nature still does the selection after all, but more babies make it to the water. We see Green Turtles, Hawksbill, Loggerhead which head looks a little bit like a dog...Sandra and I pick some babies up (Leatherbacks), the tiny animal holding in the palm of our hand. It is funny to think that they will grow so big a few decades on...
We come back to the villa enjoying another fun bus ride before our lunch, we mange to spend few hours in the pool before going back to Colombo. A few hours later, we're back in the heavily policed and militarised city. We walk to get some dinner in a local, and stop on the way to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel (a palace) to have an ice-cream. The place is hosting one of those impressive wedding in the main atrium. Women in colourful saris, men in elegant suits, gigantic bunch of flowers. We watch the show...and return to the hotel to sleep through our last night in pamperland!!! A bit anxious as we are leaving for Delhi tomorrow and have so many expectations and fears about India!How will it be? Will we struggle? It will feel strange to get back on our bacpaking adventure, after having been pampered and in a group...but it is time to start the journey alone again.

03/05
We wake up and meet up with Sandra, Noelle, Timeo and Bertrand to enjoy a last breakfast. We've had a fantastic holiday, we've spent some time with dear friends. In a few hours we'll be in Delhi but the story will be different. We're looking forward to it but we're also a bit apprehensive. Fab especially. The holiday did him loads of good, the comfort, the good food, going back to a familiar surrounding, settling down in one place for while...and not having to deal with the bags...We're excited because we will go back to a more normal and real life, closer to the roots and to the people also. Luxury is fantastic but the drawback being that one tends to live cut off the realities of a place. But for a holiday it is priceless!!

Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Colombo

2009-05-21T14:44:00.001+01:00

22/04
We leave in the morning for Kandy. En route we stop to visit a spice garden in Matale then drive through geometric fields of rice paddies, forests, wild flowers and amazing vegetation, very lush. We arrive at the end of the afternoon at our next palace, the Amaya Hills in the mountains around Kandy, a charming hill capital, 465 metres above sea level. The city is nice, with valleys, hills, temples, shrines. After a good rest, we set off to visit some gem stone shops, in which we finally decide not to go. A little later we visit the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy. The tooth relic was brought to SL and became the most sacred object of worship in the country. It's a public worship, with the ceremony starting with trumpets and heavy drum beats, an unforgettable spectacle. It's a very beautiful temple, comprising wood and stone carving, wood painted walls, stone friezes, frescoes depicting the story of the Tooth, and its miracles. The temple is quite impressive. We attend a ceremony where devotees pay their respect to the Tooth, some sort of beautifully carved stone box containing the remains of the Buddha. But the process is quite ruled and we do not have too much time to look at any of the main relics, but we do get a gist of the importance of the pilgrimage. The place is very holy and any room it contains is very well maintained and decorated. The people present here in large number are patiently waiting for their turn and everybody is impressively well dressed up. Then we visit the grounds of the temple and slowly make our way back to the hotel, nice dinner, chat and bed time already.

23/04
After a good night we set off to visit the botanic gardens of Peradeniya, spread over 50 hectares, and containing many species of trees and plants. Along the walk we discover trees onto which thousands of giant bats hang head down in an eery and screekie scream. Some of them fly in order to cool down. It is rather special... Beautiful plants and flowers, some with an incredible flashy turquoise-blue tint, giant fig trees. It is a very relaxing start of the day. We spend the afternoon at an elephant orphanage, see the massive baby elephant milk bottle feeding (each is around 5 litres and each elephant needs a good half dozen of them). We then cross the road and head for lunch over the river. Just as the food is arriving, so is a herd of hundreds of elephants, going to the river for their daily bath. The moment is magical and each one of us really gets hysterical... The experience is absolutely magical, some elephants dip in the water completely with only their trunk (or their bum!) sticking out of the water. The little baby elephants are also present, the young ones playing or even wrestling in (giant) splashes of water. The rain starts to fall and the colour of the sky and the river change to a golden colour. What a background, what an experience...we're delighted, we take our fruit plates and go feed the big animal. They come and pick the fruit with the end of their long trunk, funnily terminated by some sort of finger that allow them to literally grab the smallest edible things. The enormous and imposing animals are however very delicate and gently pick the pieces of delicacy we hand them out...we love it...Such a nice moment! Us, adults feel like children again in this magicval setting!
At the end of this lovely afternoon we return to Kandy to attend a traditional dance performance. The show is split in different parts and scenes, alternatively showing aspara dances, warriors, musicians etc. The entire show is accompanied by drums and the dances slowly become acrobates, jugglers and stuntmen. The dresses and costums are colourful and the show is quite spectacular. Back at the hotel we meet up with Marie and Xavier for drinks after a massage for Fab and Bertrand and a reflexology session for Val. It feels nice to relax, visit and not worry about anything!!

24/04
Today will be another beautiful day. We leave Kandy for Nuwara Eliya, not in the tour bus, but by train. This journey is one of the most beautiful route and way to explore Sri Lanka. The track climbs up the hill to the mountain town in the middle of tea plantations and overlooking the valleys, rivers and waterfalls. Lanscapes are breathtaking and superb. Men and women working in the plantations hand picking tea leaves, in a sublime combination of tendre green leaves and colourful saris... On the train, locals play music, sing, watch the rolling lanscape, take pictures and films, interact with us. All eyes keep looking outside, and all of us spend time switching between our sits and the train steps, sticking our head or our entire bodies out of the open door and windows. Kids smile to us, play with us, the train officer literally falling in love with Timeo and plays with him the entire length of the trip. Station after stations we progress, stopping here and there, watching the ancient tradition of the toll ring catching. After this very scenic and spectacular train ride, we reach the Nuwara Eliya Grand Hotel. The hotel is one of the relics of the British empire, a very beautiful colonial building, very exclusive, but quite old. All the rooms and corridor and made of dark wood, in a Victorian style. We feel like going back in time, a suspended time. We team up with Sandra, Bertrand and Timeo for a walk to the town centre and visit bazaars and old market. We leave them for further explorations but the town is quite small and does not offer much to see. We all have dinner together and some of us go to the old bar for a snooker lesson we've arranged with the bar tender, stuck in his mid 1800's all white costume!! The snooker tables (3 of them) are enormous and sometimes receive Sri Lankan and international tournaments. It is a real honour and experience to play on a 120 year old snooker table, brought here by the first colons on the back of elephants from Colombo!

25/04
Today we take our bus to Colombo, through the beautiful tea plantations again. Pretty much same route as the train but closer to everything. We also make a couple of stops for lunch and tea. The road is quite challenging and bends are numerous. Late afternoon we arrive at our next palace, another British empire heritage splendour, the Galle Face Hotel, on the sea front in the middle of Colombo. Once again, a stunning colonial influence building with a great swimming pool, in which we all have a swim after a straining day on the bus. We watch a beautiful sunset under the American embassy mirradors and machine guns and coastguard boats patrols...weird!We feel the city is under alert and that the war is not so far, many police patrols, military men in the streets but the hotel feels like a secluded palace...while outside there is a certain tension.

26/04
Today is shopping day and we trek aboard tuk-tuk to the fashion malls and shops of Colombo. We have lunch in a local eatery with Bertrand and Olivier. More military presence and few stops at police checkpoints but not much more than that...again so strange for a country in conflict! We spend some more time in the swimming pool and do absolutely nothing else at all...Little note on this; we both start feeling something is missing a bit and slowly realise that we did not have to organise anything for our stay. This is a holiday, pure and simple. The buzz of looking for an accommodation for the night has disappeared. How did we get to and from any place? Where is the dodgy hotel, the grubby room, the badly wired electricity, the shabby backpackers, the disfunctional air-con (forget this last one, we found it!), where is the bloody heavy bag (21.5kg!!) that has been killing Fab's back for too long?????? Where are we?? What's happening??? Which planet is this??? Is this normal?????? Well, yes, in the world of luxury travel and four or five stars hotel, all of this is normal...We are being pampered. It feels REALLY good. Nothing to worry about, we're being taken care of! For a while...but we also long to get back to our backpacking experience. For the moment we are enjoying the friends, the lovely palaces, the safety and luxury feeling.

The Wedding!

2009-04-26T18:38:00.004+01:00

21/04

The morning is busy for Fab who goes to visit one of the finest caves temples, in Dambulla while I decide to chill out and spend some time with the bride to be and friends at the swimming pool, we chat and do manicures and pedicures under the sun! Sandra is very relaxed for somebody who is getting married in a few hours, I am impressed!
Fab enjoyed his morning, he thought the temples, in 5 caves, full of sitting and standing buddhas were inspiring and outstanding. He loved the mural paintings of scenes from the buddha's life and the solemnity of the place. We all meet around 12ish and go for lunch, a nice moment. Fab is Bertrand's best man so he gets ready with him in our villa while I stay with Sandra and her cousin to prepare the bride, make up, hair, dress, hard with the heat!!Sandra looks amazing, we all feel quite emotional but it is already time for them to meet to do their wedding piccies. A bit of a rushed time for Fab as he is also the wedding photographer!!!
All the guests gather around 4pm, we are then taken to an idyllic spot near the lake by dancers to wait for ther couple. They arrived led by an elephant, on a buffalo carriage, impressive!!!
The ceremony is a mix of traditional Sri Lankan rituals (prayer, tieing the fingers together, cutting a coconut shell) and more Western elements (readings, flute, music). After this special moment, we all share some drinks, looking at the lake and the sunset, such a wonderful location!!
The diner is then served in a fantastic wooden house, with hundred of lanterns, multicolored lihting the path, very magical. It reminds me of Hoi An, it feels surreal and so beautiful. The evening is nice, diner is traditional Sri Lankan food, we dance on 80s music and some even finish in the pool fairly late!! So nice to be with our friends to share their special moment here, in a superb and wonderful place.A truly unique experience and a memorable wedding!

Dambulla

2009-04-26T15:50:00.005+01:00

18/4
We leave Singapore, and after a short flight, we finally land in Sri Lanka, very excited to meet our friends soon!!In Colunbo, a driver meets us to drive us another three hours to the little resort in the North West of the country where the wedding will take place. It is hot and humid but the sky is red, warm and the first impressions are good, we feel surprised: the driver rides the car like a mad man, overtake badly, speeds, it feels mad but the villages we see are clean, nice, the forests lush and everyone wave at us from the cars around, we discover the country in the light beam of the car in a crazy way. The driving is even madder than in Vietnam!! Loads of people are walking on the road making things a little scarier (for them). Fab sleeps in the taxi as the driving makes him feel uncomfortable, I let go and trust the driver ability to manage the traffic, and his mad crazy drive takes us to the beautiful Amaya Lake hotel. As soon as we arrive, we met with Sandra, Timeo and Bertrand, we feel quite emotional to hug them, catch up, see them after 4 months on the road and for such a special occasion. Hugs, drinks then bed time!! We feel excited, exhausted and happy to be here with them in such a gorgeous hotel: nice swimming pool, a lake, forests, in a 4 stars palace!!! What a change for us!

19/04
Today is a free day, we are all relaxing before the wedding, the guests are slowly arriving, dealing with their jetlags and the heat! We relax, swim, eat a lot ( so nice to eat tons of food: I so enjoy the breakfast, with croissants and little cakes!!), we chat a lot with our friends, catch up with the group of friends and family: it will be a small wedding around 30 people, mainly from France and some Sri Lankan guests, how exciting!! Both of us are hapy to be in a nice setting, a gorgeous lake, a swimming pool and I even treat myself to a brilliant massage in the ayurvedic centre of the hotel: FAB!!! A nice day to ease in as it somehow feels weird to suddenly be in a group, even of people we know, in a different easier nicer environment, what a shock after nearly 4 months alone on the road!! The luxurious bungalow we are staying in is very posh in comparison with our $10 a night guesthouse and we have very different conversations to the ones we have been having for the last few months with travellers, we feel a bit outsiders, on a different planet but nothing bad, just very different!! This little time here is going to be a holiday within the trip, an easy fun moment for us.

20/04
We are in the cultural triangle of Sri Lanka and there are many sights to visit and our friends have planned some excursions so we can discover the area even before the wedding! Today is sightseeing day and we end up in a small bus with a guide, feels weird to discover the country that way but easier, so much easier!! The mood is really positive, everyone chats, laught, despite the tiredness and the heat!! During the drive, we see many ripe rice fields, lots of lakes around, they are actually artificial reservoirs (ancient ones)to hold rainwater! We arrive in Polonnaruwa, the ancient medieval capital of the country, we visit some large structure built of bricks and see lots of ruins. We then go and see some massive buddhas sculpted in stone, those statues are full of dignity, strenght, and it is beautiful, very inspiring!!
I like watching those colossal figures carved in the stone, the recumbent buddha and the seated buddha in meditation are particularly amazing. I find it a bit hard to focus on sightseeing as it is weird to be in a group, to see our friends, to be with people, we chat all the time, spend some time with baby Timeo who is so brave, coping with the heat and the changes with big smiles, there is so much to catch up on!!! But we are happy to go with the flow, to see this site, full of archeological importance (long ancient old civilisation here) but also of important religious significance!! We have lunch then it is now time to climb Sigiriya, the lion rock, the citadel which rises high above the flat plains!This place is really impressive: a massive rock fortress built in the 5th century AD, a mad man's vision, a king who transformed a rock into an almost impregnable fortress! There are great paintings in some rock pockets, some steep rock surface so highly polished that one can see its relflection in it, hence the name mirror wall. I love the paintings: beautiful women painted on the stone. It is hard to climb, so many steps and so steep!!!Above the courtyard are a number of hornets nests, quite scary!! We then reach the pathway in between the paws of the lion, it is a difficult climb, despite the railings, quite mad!!! The summit was used for the palace of the king, we all watch the remains of the foundations, like the pond filled with water and the crazy beautiful view. Fab and I keep being surpprised by this country, clean, beautiful, lush and with a great culture, so many ruins of very old civilisations, temples, monuments, buddhas everywhere (apparently Buddha visited Sri Lanka three times!) and 70% of the population is buddhist!We also feel the hindu influence a lot, in the architecture, in the way people act or dress. Weirdly enough, we are not very much informed of the conflict going on in the North of the country, yes we see many police and military check points (the bus is often stopped and there are military men everywhere) but it doesn't feel unsafe or too tensed. We feel secluded here, in the tourist oasis, we don't really hear about the humanitarian crisis or how the government is fighting the Tamil Tigers! The day has been so tiring with so much to do but we now both have to run around as soon as we reach the hotel, as it is the stag and hen parties tonight (we are both organisers!)
A quick shower, more running around to plan things, then men and women split to start the eve!! It has to be soft as the wedding is tomorrow...few silly games for both of them, reenactement of the proposal under water in the pool, some drinks,Sandra and Bertrand are a bit of a hit in the hotel tonight, him running around with a superman underwear, her with a mad pink t-shirt, looking for men to sign it!!!Some little presents, some drinks and we all meet again to finish the eve, quite cvilised!!

Ubon Ratchathani and Singapore

2009-04-18T07:10:00.003+01:00

16/04

We wake up early to see the monks coming to the guesthouse and observe the family party for the new year before taking our bus for Thailand. A very effcient ride, but in a very hot bus, we cross the border easily: the bus stops, we walk to the border control, few stamps, then suddenly, we are in a very modern air con building:Welcome to Thailand!! what a shock, we drive for anothe two hours and we realise we are in another place, a modern clean country, big road signs, advertisements, clean fields and big houses...what a change!!We forgot that Thailand was so different!!
We reach Ubon Ratchathani then fight to get into town (why do bus stations always have to be miles from the city??), then check in a doddgy hotel...we both feel tired but after an hour, we realise it is really wrong: dirty place, a little bag with white powder on the table and Fab sees a man doing coke with his bedroom door open....bad place and it is Thailand; we do want to spend 15 years in a horrible jail!!So we move, after fighting wth the lady to get our money back, we lose a bit but end up in much nice hotel, a bit more expensive too, but it is only for one night and we are both quite stressed out....Lunch, shower, internet to find a hotel in expensive singapore for tomorrow, we don't manage much today....Fab is really travel sick today, fed up iof being on the road and not resting....a difficult moment for both of us. I guess it is also part of travelling, not always easy to be on the road, to be challenged and in unfamiliar territories. We go for a walk around town, easy Thailand, we stroll in the streets, find a big temple and a huge party with a gig for new year celebrations. We end up buying some foods in the stalls, after looking in people's plates (still not sure what we ate), but it feels good, sitting in the open air and watching the concert:Thai dance and music, cheesy at times but fun!!

17/04
Nice night then up early again to reach Bangkok and |Singapore, first flight is cheap so not much fun but manageable..We reach the capital and found out the city is now in a crisis state again because one of the opposition leader has been shot!! Great! But nothing is interrupted at the airport...Few hours later, we are in another plane, landing in Singapore, this dynamic modern city....first impressions are of a SUPER modern city, sleak, efficient, uber clean, full of technology...We reach our little hotel apprehensive as it is in the seedy red light distric, but seems clean enough and the view of the city skyline is impressive from our 5 th floor...the working ladies will probably be around tonight but now it seems to be a very hectic Chinese area of town,shops, cafes. I stay in the room to write, Fab goes in search of his camera lens as ours is in a bad state. Around 9pm, we go for a wander as we want to see the city, it is quite strange here. A very modern cosmpolit city, a mutliracial society, people from everywhere, all speaking English, trendy poeple, lots of shopping malls, old and new building, air con everywhere, the river, some massive skyscrapers...a weird mix but full of energy and vibrancy. We have dinner in a street foodstall, amongst the singaporeans , all well dressed, and trendy (we feel a bit weird with our backpackers clothes!!!!Here, it is a different Asia, aseptised, clean, modern, efficient!!A different soul too, fusion of modern and ancient and so many different people!! We go back to our seedy area around midnight but are disappointed, nothing much here, few prostitutes, clients lined up, and that is all!!!Still quiet and so warm, the humidity is a killer!!

18/04
We wakeiup early as we want to go for small boat tour to see a bit of the city before leaving Asia. A nice small boat trip, watvching the buildings, the harbour, the areas in the middle of Asian tourists who don't care about the views but want their piccies taken everywhere, a real cliche!!! Little walk then we feel too hot to walk with our big bags and decide to treat ourselves to a taxi tio the airpoort, it is already 33 degres and only 11am! Last moments in Asia, it feels strange, sadness and happiness at the same time, tiredness, a new chapter soon, a turning point in the trip, lots of mixed feelings!!

Pakse and the 4000 Islands

2009-04-17T12:24:00.005+01:00

10/04The night was not too bad. The bus had double beds, still a bit short in length but we've managed to sleep, even without earplugs for Val!!! The Laotian man behind us doesn't like the trip and keeps being sick, just behind us, the road is not too bumpy but it seems many people again here are car sick!!! We arrive in Pakse very early and book straight a tour from our guesthouse to visit the Bolaven Plateau. It's 8am, quick shower, quick breakfast (even for Val!) and we jump in the van, we're only seven of us, two guys from Latvia, a young Italian woman and a nice French couple on a short holiday. We visit a tea plantation, and the Lao tea tastes good, a coffee plantation, and the Lao coffee tastes very good. The plateau has an average altitude of 600 metres, hilly, lush and very fertile terrain. The plantations were developed by the French during colonial times, but it is again very successful now.
We go to see some waterfalls, Tad Fane waterfalls, very high in the middle of a jungle, one of the highests in Laos. Then drive to some animist tribe villages. The first village Ban Kandone we visit is not spoiled with tourism yet and we meet some women weaving traditional skirts, children running around naked. On and off it will take them three months to complete one skirt. The village is composed of two tribes. the Katu and the Nge cohabiting very well in the same community. Only the ceremonial place, a community house on stilts, has two different stairs to get on the ceremony platform. One is a proper staircase made of different elements, the other one on the other side is a tree trunk where the steps have been carved in (the nge people). All the houses in the village present the same characteristics depending on the tribe. We reflect on old age existence and how people still live here.
The second village Ban Kokphoung, of the Alak people is much more used to tourists and the kids attitude doesn't lie. Children are insistingly saying 'Hello' and showing the palm of their hand muttering 'pen' or 'bonbons'. We give a kid one and she instantly frown her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side now asking for 'bonbon' with a very angry look. We feel a bit lost and puzzled...so much anger. Interesting place here, the tribe people make their coffins when they are alive and store it under their houses, we can see many under the wooden huts. People smoke tobbacco here from a very young age (small children too) and I try it in their bamboo water pipes! There is a party going on and we can see many men and women dancing, some seem drunk or merry, already celebrating new year!!
On the way back we stop at some waterfalls. Tad Lo where I have a swim. The current is very strong and it takes lots of effort before I manage to reach the foot of the waterfall before letting go, drifting back to where I came from. Amusing!
We drive back to Pakse, go to book our tickets for Si Phan Don, the 4000 islands, and, most importantly, to Ubon Ratchathani as next week is Pi Mai Lao, the Lao New Year and we're a bit concerned that, if we wait more, we won't have any seats in any buses to catch our flight to Singapore. Thailand is starting to have few political problems and tensions again...Hopefully we can cross the border! Pi Mai is also celebrated in the neighbouring countries, lasting for a week, everybody travels back to the families or simply for tourism. We come back after a short walk in the town and have dinner with Virginie, a French girl travelling alone, who stays at the same guesthouse we met briefly this morning. Val stays up late, talking about India, spirituality, life in France when I go to bed early as we're travelling early again tomorrow.

11/4
We take a mini bus to the harbour to reach the 4000 islands. We meet up again with the French couple, Philippe and Elizabeth, we met during the bolaven trip, nice to see friendly faces. After two hours drive, and a great example of decerebrated babble from a retarded teenager who spent far too long drinking in Vang Vieng, we arrive in Hat Xai Khoun, the ferry harbour to Don Khong, our destination. They're not really ferries but more small narrow river boats crossing the 500m wide branch of the Mekong to Muang Khong, the village where we're going to stay. First impressions are great, many small islands and islets, the river, lush vegetation...We start walking around carrying our bags under high heat, looking for a guesthouse. It is very hot and the few hundreds metres we walk make us loose an amazing amount of water, so much sweat!! Our pick is finally a hotel to the north of the village, the Souksun Guesthouse, nice huge room with two beds, a nice balcony. We enjoy a short cold but welcome shower before having lunch over the Mekong River. The restaurant is not so good but the terrace is located above the water. We watch the river, rural life revolving around it, the fishermen, the little flooded forests, the banks. Here the Mekong concludes its journey through Laos, before going to Cambodia. There, we meet Beatrice and Oliver, a French-German couple who are cycling all over South-East Asia. They started their trip in August and are still going...brave and admirable people!!! We chat a lot, get on well as we share some similar issues, travelling, life, where to go, what to do...We then go for a walk on the Mekong river heading south, the views and the scenery are fabulous. We go back, rest for a while, go eat in a crappy restaurant, the village is small and we have very few options to eat, then bed time! The room is unbearable as it is so hot and the fan doesn't cool it at all. Maybe one of the hottest nights since we are in Asia, it is really excruciatingly hot as we have been told, before the rain comes.

12/4
It's an early morning for us as we are going cycling today to explore the South of the island. It's a 20km ride but we only have a short time to do it. By noon the heat and sun are such that cycling will become rather challenging, if not impossible. So we set off on our small bikes (it feels that I'm riding my younger sister's bike when she was eight)on a narrow path tucked between the Mekong River and the village houses. It is very scenic and a fantastic way to experience life on the island, passing traditional wooden houses on stilts to more modern houses, also on stilts, made of cement and concrete, but more or less preserving the local style. We visit Wat Thepasoulin temple, some parts dating back to 1883, teak-plank wall monk quarters, with terracota tile roof and a really pleasant sight added to the bright colours of the temple. A bit further away, we stop at Wat Silananthalangsi, with its derelict monk school house. Around 11am we make our way back on a tremendously hot road through the rice fields, the cultivated lands. But there is not one tree and it might be around 45 degres here and even the small breeze has turned hot. Eight kilometres of pain, making us feel like we're crossing some kind of saharian portion of desert. It's so hot that it takes us around 45 minutes and two litres of boiling water to reach our guesthouse. We run to the shop and buy some cold water to quench our thirst! After a quick lunch and a cold shower, we spend the afternoon in our room as the heat makes any activity impossible. We've been really hot in some places in other parts of the world, but this is uncommon. Early evening we try to book a boat with our guesthouse as a couple staying here is also planning to go tomorrow to visit the small islands around. It's a bit of an odd encounter but we go and speak to them to enquire about their plan. Ingrid and Wolfgang, both German, have finally booked their narrow boat somewhere else, cheaper, and Wolfgang offers straight away to come with me to speak to the man and try to negotiate a better price (more people on the boat), which we actually manage to obtain. Around a beer we agree to have dinner together. We talk about their life, our life. They lived in Nepal 30 years ago, went back to Germany to raise the kids and now that they are grown ups, they are travelling again. Ingrid is currently under contract with an NGO in northern Laos where her role is to improve the hill tribes quality of life (health but also agriculture). She works mainly with Akas. Wolfgang is an architect and an expert in buddhist architecture in Nepal, he has worked for many years in the preservation-protection of the Kathmandu buildings and temples. We exchange a lot about travels and experiences abroad, about Ingrid's difficult work and the harsh issues inherent to any developping countries work.
After an excellent dinner (honey chicken) and beautiful lightnings on the Mekong's horizon, we're back in our room when a violent thunderstorm breaks. Thunderbolts are tearing the dark skies in long and powerful strikes and the rain now pours down heavily, pounding on the building roof. There is half a metre of water in the coumpound. But the air cools down rapidily and we slowly fall asleep, listening to the falling rain...

13/4
The entire night has been very wet, rain flooding the garden. The thunder has been striking until this morning. Luckily enough it's not raining anymore even if the sky is overcast with threatening black clouds. We're up early to get the boat that will take us to see the waterfalls and the southern islands, Don Det and Don Khon. We go with Ingrid and Wolfgang. As we set off with the boat sailing down the Mekong, rays of sunshine pierce the big puffy clouds. Few local boats are sailing up and down the river, fishing, transporting goods, but not so many carrying tourist passengers. The Mekong River is quite wide here, sometimes shallow, and it takes all the ability of our young captain to avoid the submerged rocks, the flooded plants. After an hour and a half of beautiful sights and interesting conversations with our two companions, we reach Ban Nakasang where we take a tired van (it may explain why we paid our boat quite cheap!) to reach the Khon Phapheng waterfalls, the largest of South East Asia. They're only 15m high but nearly 1km wide at the largest point. This place is very busy with tourists, mainly Asian, lined up with small souvenir shops. We climb the rocks to get away from the crowd and after a couple of tree trunks or bamboo made passerelles, we sit down for a long moment to look at the falls. Impressive sight and the water is roaring loudly. We go back to get our boat and sail to Don Khon and its little harbour, Ban Khon, where we stop for lunch. It's a smaller island than where we stay but it's busy with cheap bungalows and youth arriving from Vang Vieng!! Quite the opposite to our little village. However the island looks nice and we could have also come here. The electricity has just arrived permanently last week, a change to the previous two hour time per day. We can already feel that the island is going to change in no time. We have a chatty lunch on the river and then walk through the inner island to try to see Irriwady dolphins. When we reach the boat departure area down river after the falls, we realise that we won't have enough time to see the dolphins. It's such a shame, as they're critically endangered. A wildlife organisation is trying to protect them, but the nets and even the dynamite of the Cambodian fishermen are a great threat. The only other part they can be seen is in the Irrawaddy River in Burma (Myanmar). We walk back, still talking with our friends about our lives. On the way, we first stop at the smaller Somphamit waterfalls that all of us like better. They are accesible and more diverse as the water escapes the falls through an interesting canyon. It is much quieter here and we can have a look and enjoy the view without the crowd running and shouting all around to take family pictures. We set off again as our conversations tend to slow down our rythm a lot. We admire some French vestiges, a school, the locomotive that used to run between Don khon and Don Det on a specially built railway and bridge by the French. At that time boats were unloaded from their goods at Don Khon southern harbour, goods were then put on the train to the northern point of Don Det over the bridge in order to go over the falls. Different boats would eventually transport the goods upriver to Vientiane or Luang Prabang. We get back on our boat an hour late, and we start a very slow return to Dong Khong, against the current. We enjoy the beautiful landscape, scenery and the evening activities of the Mekong River. Fishermen are gracefully throwing their circular nets high in the air. This is so graceful that I cannot get tired of seeing this and photographing it. Kids running naked, enjoing splashing ythemselves in the river, women washing in their sarongs, doing the family laundry, men washing the bikes, the boats, the Mekong is now a very sociable place, neigbhours washing and chatting, monks bathing too... At the same crowling pace as our boat the sun declines gently over the Mekong and the sky starts dressing up into its flaming robe. This is such an amazing and magical moment that discussions are now stopped and four pairs of eyes just look at the burning sky. We're only distracted by the young captain friend who falls asleep in an uncomfortable position at the front of the boat, but in great style: the sunglasses will stay on until the boat pier!!! As we come back it's dark. The day was full of various interests, in the nature but also in ourselves. We part with Ingrid and Wolfgang to meet up again with Oliver and Beatrice, our cyclists friends for dinner. We eat local fish hotpot and talk. These guys left everything for a trip of an unknown length through South East Asia on bicycle. They left Europe, France in August (starting their cycling trip around Europe for a month in July) and have been to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are not sure where to settle next...We're completely admirative, such a physical effort but they both seem relaxed about it! Impressive. We carry on our conversation until midnight, chat, laugh, think, reflect. We head back to our room in the complete darkness, the village is fast asleep, only the moon guides our steps...

14/4
The breakfast is quite busy this morning. We're all here, with Ingrid, Wolfgang, Oliver and Beatrice. Ingrid and Wolfgang are leaving this morning. It's been another very interesting and rich encounter. After breakfast we hire a motorbike and we're off to the northern part of the island which makes a 35km loop. Cycling would be far to difficult with the heat, we are not as brave as our friends here. We see the small villages, the North East town getting ready for celebrations of Pi mai, the Lao new year. Rice fields, shacks, villages, water buffalos. Heat. We go to see a temple in the middle of the countryside, with many black rock formations in the fields, nothing much but there are dogs barking that scare Val so much. Back to our village, we walk to try find the celebrations and to see people washing the buddhas, one of the ritual for new year. The village is sleepy, as dead, no adults around, everyone hidding from the heat!!! then an ambush in front of us, we get soaked on the way by the water thrown by the kids, squirting water guns and emptying buckets on people's heads. It is part of the Lao new year festive moment:throw water at people to wish them happy new year! Very joyful and fun! We retaliate to their surprise, I run around the little kids, throwing water at them! We laugh. Lunch at our guesthouse, relax. Around 4pm we leave the guesthouse to the nearby temple to see a very important ritual of the Pi Mai celebrations. Villagers gather around to take all the buddhas out of the temple and wash them with lotus leaves and rinsing them with plenty of water. We're invited to join in and Val lowers herself to the ground to help the girls wash a small buddha figure. So nice to join in, the be partb of the celebrations. We stand out as we are the only farang (westerners) in the temple, people look at us, kids smile, say hello, we sit with people in the shade. Today the women, girls and kids look after the statues and men are supporting them by bringing the water and carrying the heavy buddhas. The entire process goes on with laughter and a jolly mood of happiness and joy. Later there will be parties, huge amount of lao-lao (rice whisky) drank, games, music (blastying from stereos as they like it here), dancing...
The buddhas are then placed on a big table, some sort of temporary altar, where a head monk presides the prayer. He then blesses the buddhas with more holy water. Pi Mai is also thecelebration where all the kids and teenagers throw water at everything, or everyone should I say, that moves, big water battles start now. But this time we leave at the right moment and do not get soaked again...
We come back and get ready for dinner with Beatrice and Oliver who are still around. We chat until late at night and Val and I come back through the little alleyways, the night is pitch black, our path only lit up by tremendous thunderbolts...

15/04
A bit late for our breakfast, we miss our friends who left to go up north with their bikes, good luck guys!! Enjoy the cycling! We go for a last stroll around the banks of the river, a little stray dog comes along, we watch the village life, it is quiet today as it is the holiday, people with their family, we take some photos, relax before leaving the island. A truly scenic place, we both loved it, so much to see, a relaxing stunning place: wooden houses, small villages, riverbanks, lush forets, the magical river, a labyrinth of islets, rocks, beautiful tropical islands. After a short ride on the boat, we ait for a bus to come, we wait then we have to put up with a bad smell in the bus, a young traveller forgot to wash..for a very long time..I sit next to him, nice, Val hates the smell, but laughs about it, we are bohemian but not that hippish...Dirty clothes, sweat, dirt...We laugh and listen to some REALLY cheesy old 80s music (Europe: the final countdown, so appropriate right now!!)Only two and a half hours, could be much worse!!The German couple behind us hates it so much and she feels sick so they spray some deodorants in the van, even nicer!!! Another funny encounter: when we jump in the van, Val recognises a girl from a previous school Science Po, she is living in Vientiane and works in Laos since 2 years, amazing to meet here!! We agree to meet her and her partner for a coffee at the end of the day. We finally reach Pakse at 3pm, go for a shower, browse the net, we are off to thailand tomorrow and needs to sort out some admin stuff. The all town is celebrating, and we get soaked every 5 minutes, ambushed by kids and adults, nice to get soaked as it is so hot, water battles in every street, music blasting, people drinking and dancing! We meet with Elsa, the Scpo girl and her boyfriend for a drink, chat about life, development work, Europe, nice for Val to see her here, they then exchange emails and they have to leave to take their night bus. we have a quick Indian meal (preparing ourselves!), then back to our guesthouse...we want to get to bed as tomorrow we ae leaving the country for Thailand early and want to get up to celebrate at 7am with the family from the guesthouse, they are holding a family celebration and the guests are all invited!!Our last night in Laos, soon the chapter Asia will be closed.

Vang Vieng and Vientiane

2009-04-09T08:54:00.003+01:00

4/04 (Fab)
We leave Luang Prabang for a 6 hours journey to Vang Vieng which we have chosen as a stopover on the road to Vientiane. The journey is ok, Val manages to get a bit of sleep, I don't but I do enjoy the landscape rolling down. This part of Northern Laos is made of mountains and valleys. It's beautiful but a slight haze hangs everywhere. This is due to all the uncontrolable and non-ecological slash-and-burn foret exploitations (answering the Chinese and Thai demand for precious wood). The sun is bright but we can only guess its shape throught the smog. The road is very windy, sometimes quite spectacular. Unlike Vietnam, Laos is very peaceful and the driving also. This makes the trip a bit more comfortable. We get to Viang Vieng northern bus station. Sharing a tuk-tuk with an Aussie guy, we make it to the town centre. My first impressions are very mixed. I spot already a high number of late teenagers, early 20's. It looks like a seaside resort coupled with a theme park. We manage to find a cheap guesthouse (paper thin walls!), exposed electrical cables. There is even a note explaining that to avoid electric shocks, power should be switched off at all times!!! And the bathroom power/light switch is the least protected!!!!!!!! We settle down anyway and moments later we are discovering the town.
One thing that strikes us the most is that numerous bars, sometimes one next to each other, play DVDs of Friends in loop. If one's willing to, I'm sure it might be possible to watch the entire collection in one day!!! Young Western people are lying on bamboo beds around a little table where they sip beer and do not talk to each other from early morning (ok lunch time as they're hangover) until late afternoon when they go tubing, then start again in a different bar or restaurant over a movie (cheap american blockbuster that is, no Woody Allen or Cassavetes here). We are baffled!!! Van Vieng seems to have lost its soul to mass youth tourism...But the nature is beautiful around here and because we've already seen Friends many times (!!), we go and explore around, try to get to a cave (it's closed) but we enjoy the walk in the rice fields. In town, we are lucky to witness a Baci celebration, this is a traditional ceremony to restore family and community cohesion. All members start with a prayer and offerings. Then a meal is prepared by all and few drinks shared until late at night. I guess this ritual has even more sense here than anywhere else in the country! Meanwhile we make the decision to leave tomorrow for Vientiane. We also realise that the Lao new year's celebrations will shut all the country administrations for a week but we absolutely need to get our Indian visas done here.
Dinner in town over the Nam Song river and Val gets a crepe with Nutella from one of the trolley in the street. Whomever has seen crepes being made would have laughed as much as we did (discreetly!) when the guy took a little ball of paste or batter, flattening it like a pizza base and fried the thing with chocolate in a table spoon of margarine and oil in a wok-like pan!!!!!! Val gets the fat dripping thing and we taste it: a little fishy, a little gamey, very fat and a vague taste of chocolate in the background...We just laugh!!! We manage to sleep despite the music blasting from bars around the hotel!

5/04
We get up early and get ready for a boat trip up the Nam Song river for our first and last morning in Vang Vieng. The nature is stunning, the small river (very low water) overlooked by limestone peaks, a beautiful countryside. It feels like the Halong Bay on land. We wish we had a bit more time to explore the back country on a bike, but the trip on a small narrow river boat makes our day. The river is also used for fishing and collecting waterweed by the locals, cows and buffalos grazzing around, kids are playing in the water. It's a bit of a naive landscape and nothing seems to trouble the serenity of the place...until we see a stream of 18 years old going down the river on their tractor inner tubes, some of them obviously very drunk if not more (it's 10.30am!), and around a river bend, I experience a day time revival of a scene from Apocalypse Now. Our boat goes under thin bamboo bridges connecting one bank to another with a dozen of 'River Bars' providing booze by the barrel to hords of drunks, very high and dangerous swings over shallow water (below are some very sharp rocks) and the music is blasting our eardrums in a complete cacophony. I CANNOT believe what I see and try to think of what the locals make of Westerners. Most of them have never left their village and have obviously not met other tourists than these ones. I feel very depressed when I see what the world is sometimes and even a bit horrified...There is no sense whatsoever of respect to local traditions (discretion, reserve and moral behaviour especially in a Buddhist place). But I don't blame the people from here. They only answer a demand that's probably growing, more and more since Van Vieng is on the backpacking map. In one of the poorest country on earth, every dollar is a step to hopefully a better future.
Back in town we pack and get a quick lunch and take our bus to Vientiane. It's a bit of an experience, a crammed small bus, no air con as promised but all windows and doors opened, no leg room at all...a bendy road most of the time but we made it!! 5 hours later we're in the Lao capital city, sweaty and tired. We walk around town with our heavy backpacks in the heat, to find an hotel, most of the guesthouses are full and we are wondering where we are going to sleep...finally we find a big guesthouse on the Mekong river, a noisy overpriced room full of mosquitoes...We go for a walk around, watch the sunset on the Mekong, eat, dicover briefly that Vientiane is a sleepy town, somehow a small city which feels provincial...surprising...We were expecting another one of those big busy South East Asian capitals, polluted, busy and full of touts and hassles!!! Here, the public pavement is often in a bad state, no light in many streets at night, some sewers opened, some dirt roads, no hasslers or people shouting at you in the streets: indeed puzzling for a capital city.

6/04
We decide to change accommodation but we need to go first thing to the Indian Embassy (two different locations, the first one now being the Ambassador private residence!). We go with a tuk-tuk, afrte walking in the ehat for few kilometres as the proper visa section is far out of town. We might be lucky and get our visa in few days before the holidays...tricky timing! We have to stay few days here waiting...Few hours later on the Lao/Indian rythm we check in the new hotel, the Saysouly guesthouse which we saw the night before and found the balconies very attractive. It is set on a side street near to the town centre. The room is very spacious and quiet, exactly what we need on the last floor with a big balcony overtlooking some shops and restaurants!! In the afternoon, we spend some time at the internet cafe in order to avoid the heat and to prepare our trip to southern Laos. On the way back, we discover that a few single ladies well dressed up are waiting for something at the corner of the street...and obviously not the bus!! We look at each other and smile... The city feels very suburban and quiet, somehow our little street seems to be the seedy centre!!!Cars, tuks tuks, clients, ladies and even young men dressed in woman's clothes all standing at the corner!!
We have dinner on a foodstall, a noodle soup, reminding us so much of our Hanoian time...Once in the hotel room, we spend a bit of time watching the sexy lady in red across the road waiting for her next sugar daddy, soaking the quiet ut hot atmosphere from our balcony, observing the shops owners closing down, people eating out, life at night. A languish female singing voice escapes the night bar next door...

7/04
After breakie in our local patisserie (oh, French croissants and pains au chocolat every morning here, not good for Val's waist), it's the start of a sightseeing day. Ventiane centre has few temples quite close one to each other. Our first destination is Wat Inpeng, a small temple, quite recent. Next, Wat Ong Teu, also recent. Not too interesting. We cross through the grounds of Wat Mixay where a primary school is. Visiting during a school day is a refreshing experience! The temple is closed but loads of guarlands decorate surrounding fence, and the stupas are all drapped in different vivid colours. Kids line up before leaving school and dispersing in an army salute. As most of the monuments are not opened during lunch time we go shopping a bit in the morning market Talat Sao. There is a modern mall in the middle of bamboo huts and stalls. You can find everything here. Clothes, shoes, mobile phones, washing machines, air con units etc. It is rather eclectic! Nice experience to watch people go about their daily business.
We walk to Wat Sisaket, the marvel of Vientiane. It contains a copy of the Prabang Buddha. Wat Sisaket dates back from the early 19th century and is the only temple that survived the Siam invasion of Lao in the early 1800's. The temple is surrounded by a roof-tiled cloister containing thousands of Buddha of different shapes and sizes in the wall niches.
The place breathes serenity. It is very quiet despite the big road nearby and at the time of visit, only a handful of tourists were present. Across the road, Haw Pha Keaw museum is in the former royal buddhist temple of the Presidential Palace. This place retains beautiful examples of relics of wood, stone, bronze, silver and gold buddhas but also holy fragments of doors and others. To emphasise on the holyness of the place, people still use the Wat to pray and make offerings (money). A bit like if the sacred objects in the British Museum where covered in notes and coins...It's a bit strange but very interesting. The brown color of the temple associated with the colours of the well maintained garden makes the visit enjoyable.
We have a late salad lunch, I have a Tam Maak Hung (green papaya salad). Well, never again! I can resist most of the spices but this is definitely HOT. And combined with the cuttlefish sauce (who has ever complained about the Nuoc Mam?) I'm blown...
It's now 4.30pm and we go hide in the A/C of our hotel room. The heat is now really present, maybe aeounds 38-39 degres (not so humid though) and we relax for a moment before going to watch the sunset on the Mekong River. It's beautiful to see the sun descending on the horizon, in a flaming red and light pink. Loads of local are here too, and they keep stopping on their motorbike to watch this. It is a romantic activity here. Some kids play down and the sandy strip that forms a sort of island in the middle of the river. On the other bank, Thailand feels as close as a stone throw (going to the beach is sooo tempting!). But the Mekong is very wide here, five hundred metres, maybe more... We have dinner across the street of a student residence (understand dormitories of dozens of boys in one building, girls in the other). They are all outside, chating up, relaxing. The meal tonight is Thai and not spicy! Phat Thai is 'de rigueur'! Bed time after another short walk.

8/04
We carry on visiting today. We want to see more temples and the main destination for buddhist celebration is That Luang. To get around we hire some bicycles. It is hot today but the light breeze cools us down when pedalling. Val is a bit uncomfortable at first but soon after she gains confidence and enjoys the ride. We make it safe to the temple (the city traffic in Vientiane is nothing compared to Vietnam!) which is also the residence of the Lao buddhist patriarch and is made of several buildings. None of them are old. We visit the only accessible part which is the main stupa, surrounded by smaller other stupas, witin a cloister, slightly Chinese in inspired. The whole monument is painted in gold, which is absolutely colourful under a bright sun and blue sky, but honestly, it is not very beautiful...However it is the most important religious monument in Laos and a national symbol (it is on every Lao official papers and seal) and where takes place the That Luang Festival (religious) where the place is completely decorated and filled with decorations, lights and candles.
We ride again to Wat Simuang. This place is very kitsch but extremely interesting. Here takes place a tradition of pagan rites alongside traditional rituals. This place is heavily frequented by devotees seeking answers...Worshippers attempt to lift a baby-size crude image three times over their head, success is an auspicious sign. Devotees whose wishes are granted must later return and appease the guardian spirit with offerings, like flowers, coconut or bananas. It is a real pleasure to observe them from our little corner and to enjoy some spirituality. The sacredness of the place, its busyness, the fervour is somehow pleasant and touching.Outside, the temple is surrounded by extremely colourful statues of animals, divinities and mythical figures.
We go for lunch in a trendy cafe, over cooled by the air con, where we have a salad and a sandwich...noodles are nice but once in a while a dear old club sandwich is a joy! We kill the afternoon relaxing as it's too hot to go anywhere. A[ril is the hottest month here and the heat is difficult! Val is deeply caught in a book, I nap, write. Late afternoon we cycle to a temple quite far out of town, Wat Sok Pa Luang, famous for its Lao herbal saunas. The temple is rather run down and does not offer any excitment. We are only lucky to witness a nun praying session and a few monks walking under the trees that surround the temple. The saunas are in huts in the middle of the woods and few garbage lay around...we head back to town, but the traffic is denser now and we're not having a great moment as nobody cares about cycles and we are not as powerful as motorbikes to go with the flow. Val is getting scared and I am getting quite nervous, fearing an accident. But we make it just safely to watch the sunset over the Mekong. It's different from last night and quite sublime. The sun is bright red and the reflections on the river are absolutely stunning. We both loved this ealk along the Mekong, dirt road, shops, food stalls, people around, the mighty river.
Dinner time at a foodstall in town, another walk around the sleepy town (except in our street cornber which is very busy tonight) and we have to pack as we're leaving tomorrow evening for the South.

9/04
Today is our last day in Vientiane: we relax, go for breakfast in our little cafe, (ah the little croissants), do some shopping, visit some bookshops, get new books, novels but also some books on Hmong culture, as we want to find out more abot those hill tribes. We walk along the Mekong and in the streets of the capital, wach people, women in their traditionnal skirts but still very modern in their ways of being, students chilling out, businessmen, shops keepers... The heat is becoming more and more unbearable, even at 10 am, it is such a harsh sun, it is going to be difficult in the South!!! After lunch, we go to sit in a nice air con cafe, eat some bananas cakes, do some web research and emails, reflect on our experience here...no culture shock really, no massive challenge, a slow pace, but for both of us the connection is less deeper here than in other places in South East Asia, we both feel a bit far away today, distant, as if disconnected from it all...maybe a certain tiredness as well in the trip? Who knows? We then go to the Indian embassy to get our visa...

Luang Prabang

2009-04-03T13:20:00.006+01:00

01/04 (Fab)
New day, new month, new country, new town. We sadly leave Hanoi early in the morning to get our flight to Luang Prabang. It's a misty morning and a bit damp amd cold, like our hearts. We have truly and purely loved Hanoi and we could have spent more days here. But beautiful and peaceful is waiting for us, arms wide opened. We embrace and leave Hanoi full of images and memories. The sky is overcast today and we don't see Hanoi fading away behind us...maybe it's a sign...
A 50min flights takes us above the North eastern mountains of Laos. The sky is blue and we can already appreciate the beauty of the place. Hills and mountains connected by small dirt roads and windy rivers at their foot uncover underneath the small plane. We land safely in Luang Prabang where a Tuk-Tuk is waiting for us to take us to the hotel. A little cloud in the sky though, Val's mum should have been there with us for this journey. She had to cancel. Another time Marie-Jose, another place, we're thinking of you.
We arrive in the beautiful old and historic town of Luang Prabang, declared a World Heritage area by the UNESCO in the early 90's. Funny enough the ressemblance with Hoi An is striking. Mustard yellow houses and dark wood. The only major difference being that the French colonial influence is more visible in nearly every building. We arrive at our hotel, a bit tired but above all really hot. There might be 15 degrees difference with Hanoi and the sky is blue. We check in to get to our lovely room on the first floor of a very nice French colonial house, with a balcony overlooking an active temple, Wat Sene, where we relax for a moment with a tea...We sleep a bit as the overwelming temperature makes us feel sleepy.
When we wake up we go for a walk around town, it is indeed beautiful and very clean. Scores of Buddhist temples are tucked amongst towering palms, in this small peninsula, where the Mekong River meets the Nam Khan River. There are many 19th century colonial French villas on the main roads, some small cobbled alleyways and little back streets. We visit the most important temple, Wat Xieng Thong, a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture from the 16th century, amazing with its golden facades and mural paintings. The temple was used for the highest royal ceremonies and to temporarily house the bodies of deceased kings. Young monks walk around, vacating to their daily duties. We walk along the Mekong river and the Nam Khan, it feels nice. No wonder this spectacular little town is the main tourism destination in Laos, so many nice places and you can feel it...
Lunch, little break at the hotel, then we go out for dinner, walk a bit more. There is an interesting night market every day in Sakkarine Rd. The road is cut to traffic in those hours and you can buy many stuff from hill tribes and local handicrafts. We go for dinner then back...The city is lovely at night, a nice pace, peaceful...but our first impressions of Laos are mixed. Lao are not so welcoming compared to all the good things we've heard from fellow travellers: they are supposed to be extremely welcoming, friendly and easy going....not that much here!!! The only main difference with Vietnam is that there is no touts and if you say no they don't come back to insist. The city is really touristy to the point that sometimes it feels artificial despite its amazing beauty and stunning architectures and sights...Val compares it with Hoi An which was touristy but a bit more messy, chaotic somehow more alive...

02/04 (Fab)
Bing bong bang, it's 4am: the monks get up to start their daily routine. Right across the street from the guesthouse, our temple is one of the working temples where monks receive their religious teachings and singing. We manage to get back to sleep, the night has been a bit uncomfortable. The A/C has not been working and there is no fan. At 6am, some agitation takes place in the street. The monks are getting ready to gather and leave the temple to walk in silent to receive the morning alms. This ritual has been taking place since the beginning of buddhism and it is amazing to see the monks line up on the pavement and get the food donations from the local people, kneeling in front of them and generously donating in the little jar the monks carry. It is only a little spoiled by ever so stupid organised Western groups who talk, laugh, snap the monks with their camera right under their nose. The morning is grey but this is a beautiful ritual to be witnessed and so colourful thanks to the saffron of 250 robes highly contrasting with the white temple walls.
After an hour or so, and the last monks gone we decide to go back to sleep for a bit longer, it was a great moment, silents in our bacony, observing the religious fervor.
Wake up, we start organising our trip in Laos. We cannot do the whole country so decide to go South, we will see the North another time. The south is supposed to be less touristy and wilder, that suits us. we book some bus journeys with travel agents, have lunch on the Mekong river. We watch the villagers, the boats and fishermen, we both enjoy the natural beauty of the Mekong river banks, it is stunning. We walk to see more temples, exlore the alleyways, admire the distinctive colonial architecture and dazzling temples. Then after a nutella crepe for Val, we climb the Phousi hill, hill right at the centre of the old town, there is a temple and the view is simply breathtaking. From here, you can get an almost 360º view of Luang Prabang!! On the north side, you can see the Mekong River. In a small monastery, there is a Buddha footprint, such Buddha "footprints" are found in all Southeast Asian Buddhist countries. Usually they are richly decorated ornaments with the approximate outline of a footprint, here it is simple. There are too many tourists at the top but we go down a little and find a nice spot to watch the sunset, over the Mekong and hills. The scenery during sunset is truly magical, with the monks chanting in the background, amazing!
A litle walk in the night market, a stop in a temple to listen to the chantings of the monks, a nice dinner then it is time to go back to the hotel. Here is the relaxed pace of life in Luang Prabang! We write a bit then bedtime!

03/04 (Val)
I wake up again at 6am to watch the monks from our small balcomy, Fab stays in bed. For five minutes it is very quiet, few people in the streets getting ready, the monks preparing to exit the temples...They emerge from the back entrance of the temple, joining the tail end of the line formed by their neighbours...so many temples in the street and many monks here...:This ritual of saffron-clad monks collecting offerings of Alms (often in the form of sticky rice) from the faithful residents really touches me, simplicity and beauty, quietness in the streets. This tradition is very unique in Laos, being the only Buddhist nation still preserving the ritual. Buddhism is really central to life in this lush World Heritage-listed city and the daily alms-giving ceremony is a major attraction in itself,drawing hordes of tourists...suddenly few groups of Asian and Western tourists appear and they start giving alms too...They try to do it nicely but mosdt of tem aren't robably buddhists...I admire the monks then reflect on the tourism here...the city is beautiful but I feel a bit spoiled by the mass effect. Though World Heritage status and tourism have probably brought economic benefits to Luang Prabang, they have brought change that could ultimately alter the very character that made this Lao city the historical and cultural gem that it is. Already, many buildings have been converted into hotels, shops, restaurants...The town is beautiful but sometimes feels artificial as so perfectly refurbished, preserved with so many cafes, restaurants, shops for tourists...
I go back to bed for an hour then we get ready to embark on a cruise upstream on the Mekong River to reach some buddha caves. The cruise is nice, only 6 people on the slow boat and the driver and his kid, we see breathtaking views of the tranquil countryside, small villages and the Mekong, fascinating river...Along the way, we stop at the village of Ban Xanghai, where they make the local rice wine, the village is now full of tourists shops, very spoiled by tourism, people selling wine and scarves, jewellery....eels very artificial. We ten reach the mysterious Pak Ou Caves, two linked caves crammed with thousands of gold lacquered Buddha statues of various shapes and sizes left by pilgrims. There are approximately 4000 Buddha figurines, inside we find many little Buddha statues as well as offerings, it is really nice.
After a cruise back to the town, we rush to have lunch in half an hour before going to Kuang Si Waterfall, a beautiful multi-tiered waterfall located 30 km outside Luang Prabang. The ride is bumpy and bendy, the waterfalls are nice but with many tourists swimming and chilling out...at some placs, it even feels like a giant swimming pool full of Westerners!!! again it is beautiful but it feels a bit too touristy for us...Again we feel the negative effects of tourism...more here than in Vietnam!
Back to our hotel to chill out and listen to the monks chanting in the temple opposite. Their chanting is mesmerizing, very constant melodius rythm...beautiful.

Hanoi

2009-04-02T18:05:00.003+01:00

24/03
The night went rather quickly despite the worry of getting kicked out everytime the train pulled in a station...
We have also made some plans with the british guys for the arrival at the station. It is 4.10am when we arrive and there are not many options to get a hotel opened at this time. So the 6 of us decide to share a taxi to get better chances and limit the risk of getting ripped off by one of the famous city scams. Soooo we find a taxi for the 6 of us and tell the driver to take us to one of the recommended hotel...but, bingo!!! the hotel we've picked up is 'closed' but he knows different places we can go to...We end up in a hotel which looks nice at first. The first thing we do is check the reputation of the hotel...We end up staying there for only three hours until the nice places open and we go somewhere else after a bit more sleep.
We check in a guesthouse tucked in a typical and authentic Hanoian alleyway in the Old Quarter. The Thu Giang is held by a lovely family, keen to help, fun and charming...We get our room and shortly after we're in the common room (that is the reception area) making friends with the clients. A french couple is a regular client, a Vietnamese guy, Ji, is a long term resident of the guesthouse, Mark and Kim, two Americans, one living in Beijing who have been here before, and the other one on vacation...This feels good and make us feel home-ey!!!
We go for lunch in a fantastic little corner shop eating a delicious Bunh Bo...This is the starts of a delicious palatable journey in Hanoi! We then go for a walk around the old quarter, visiting some of the city highlights, like the lake Ho Hoan Kiem and different historical streets. Each street is named after the trade or corporation that use to share the old quarter. One is the silk road, another the tin box road, the next the altar street or another one the stone carver...Ater spending some time there, we book some tickets for the Water Puppets show which has been created in the 11th century by farmers. The show is divided in 12 scenes relating either agricultural activities or re-enacting ancient legends. The music is being played live and is absolutely sublime. The puppets are beautifully and skilfully moved on the top of the water, sailing like little swans and ducklings, playing with the element. We're having a fantastic time and sad when the lights ending the show come. But the puppeteers present themselves, dressed up in traditional costumes...and waist-deep in the water. I find this gives even more beauty to the show. We get told that they will be presenting the show in Beaubourg in Paris next month...keep your eyes opened!!!
After the show we finish the walk and go back to the guesthouse. We meet up with the guys and go for dinner. We have quite a few drinks and come back very late...

25/03
This is an active morning. We book our tickets for the Halong Bay tour tomorrow. We made some plans yesterday to go and visit the Ho Chi Minh Mosoleum and complex. Very interesting, not necessarily the man himself but more for the experience around it. The progression within the mosoleum is very strict, people from all over the country and more line up very well dressed (there are some restriction regarding the dress code) to pay their respect to Uncle Ho. We cannot talk or even whisper, cross arms, or put our hands in our pockets. Most importantly it is forbidden to take pictures or stop in front of the glass box. It is a very strange, and quite amazing to see the devotion of the people for their ancient leader. i am also amazed by the entire complex itself and the size of it. It is nealry pharaonic! It is also rahter ironic when you know that Ho Chi Minh wanted a cremation!! We also visit the Presidential Palace that used to be the palace of the general governor under the french occupation, the humble house on stilts where Ho Chi Minh stayed instead of the colossl colonial building. We then manage to visit the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The building hosts an important collection of personal effects of the president, and retracing his life, from a simple man who went to France to write as a journalist, to the founder and thinker in the history of communism. Strangely enough and depite an understandable political bias, the propaganda is kept to a minimum. When we end the visit rain is pouring down on the way back. We then go for lunch, we have nems and Bunh Cha, a delectable speciality based on pork in a soup with noodles and vegetables. We love it. Ji knows all the best places to go to. Ines, a Swedish girl, joins us and we exchange on trips and countries.
In the afternoon, we take some time to nap, read an write. We go for dinner with the gang to have another great dish, the Cha Ca, a secret fish based reciepe served in only one restaurant which gave its name to the street around 150 years ago...Wow...We pack. Tomorrow we'll check if the Halong Bay is really the 7th marvel of the world!

26/03
We wake up around 7am this morning and get ready to depart to the Halong Bay. The bus comes and picks us up and we drive for 3 hours to get to Halong Harbour where we catch our boat. It is a little scary when we arrive as thousands of boats wait for their share of the business. Halong is indeed a very busy a successful tourist attraction and all sorts of boat providing all sorts of entertainment for all sorts of natonalities...Our boat is, luckily enough, kind of small and we will be only 16 passengers on board overnight... We sail off. We start exchanging with our fellow passengers and get to hang out with a lovely american couple who live between Portland and Mexico. Throughout the conversation we find many common grounds between us and the conversation flows, like the bay underneath the boat stern...We spend a lovely afternoon between chats, relaxing moements on the deck and I enjoy taking many pictures of this really unique landscape. Our first halt in the bay is to sea some world heritage classified caves, a bit like the Disneyland of the stalagtites and stalagmites, tackily flooded with colour lights. The guide keeps making funny comments, trying to compare the cave formations to in turns a monkey, a jellyfish, an italian ice cream and Romeo and Juliet on her balcony...Back on the boat and moments later,w e stop and embark a little duo kayak for a paddle in the bay, in the middle of a floating village. It is a small town, made of shacks floating on barrels or bamboos or whatever floats...It is interesting...At 6.30pm, dinner is served and we have one of these pre-made dinner which tastes like nothing...We even get french fries...very authentic! Outside allthe junks have gathered in a rather large area. It is a little town on the sea with all the little lights around within the rocks. After more interesting deep conversations, we go to bed. It's 10.30pm, and we are in our little cabin, lovely if not a bit dated but which retains a certain charm from another age. I enjoy myself dreaming of being Captain Franz or Jack Sparrow...or thinking of the famous chinese sea pirates ships which may emerge from any corner or islets...It is quite magical, one of the most famous landscape of Asia, 2000 rocks emerging from the sea in the mist, the view is everchanging, the atmosphere is singular.

27/03
We wake up early around 7am to have breakfast. The night has been ok if not a little cold. We gather on the upper deck of the boat, outside after the morning rain to enjoy the sailing back to the Halong harbour. It is very quiet and even the junk engine seems to respect it. The water is flat and sleek as a mirror. The mist is thicker than last night. The impression is still very peaceful. Few sea eagles glide and duck to grab fish. The Halong bay is beautiful despite 200 boats around us. Really atomspheric due to the dense fog. Off the boat all the different tours and group gather in one of the tourist restaurant (500 hundred of us!) for a terrible meal. We try to go for a walk the time our bus comes back but there is nothing reachable on foot. So we decide to sadly wait there like everyone else. We say good bye to Doug and Judy. who are going west to Haiphong. The bus arrives to take us back to Hanoi but Val starts feeling a bit sick. This is the start of a long painful 3 hour journey for her. The legroom is inexistant and the aircon is not working...and the sun is now shining brightly...on Val's laps. We finally get to Hanoi and meet again with the friendly family and people from the guesthouse. Val is staying in tonight, a bowl of rice and a movie. I go with Mark, Ji and Kim to get a seafood hotpot in one of the local restaurant. It is very good and extremely fresh but I miss my little lady... Back to the room, we chat and go to bed...

28/03
We stay in bed in the morning, we do not really feel like getting up. Val is not great still so we stay in for a bit and have a light breakie in the reception area. We chat to the guesthouse girls here and Mark and Kim are up for a snake lunch. So I hire a motorbike which I am really looking forward to...Vietnam is meant to be one of the craziest place to drive and I am really up to the challenge (I'm 15, right!). I kiss goodbye and (sadly) leave behind my other half for an adventure on the Hanoian streets wearing a mountain bike helmet! We drive throught the busy city, honking at every corner, bikes are cutting the way everywhere and in everyway but it is quite fun...Just need to stay alert really and wait to hear if a horn goes at the back...We take the Long Bien bridge built by Eiffel, bommbed many times by the US army during the war but which has always stood. There is a rail track that runs in the middle and was a main artery for bringing all the amunitions in the country from China through the North. Once on the other side, we quickly stop for a glass of sugar cane juice to refresh ourselves. The road are quite dusty and it is hot today, unlike the previous days where we were a bit cold actually! We finally arrive at the snake village, Le Mat, where we find a restaurant serving what we came for: a King Cobra! We choose the beast in a little cage and once happy with our future meal the guy takes it out and proudly shows us our meal...by holding it by the tail and waving it in front of us!!! This creature is one of the most dangerous snake on the planet and it is just dangling 1 metre from us. I had no choice but step back, rather impressed (and uneasy - I love snakes so much!!) already and then drops it on the floor!!! The snake has its famous cheecks right opened and it is really impressive now...The animal is however really beautiful and majestic. I do feel quite bad to be here and witness this: the guy is now killing the animal to get it prepared for the ritual that is eating it. Drinking the blood, eating the heart whilst still 'beating' etc... We then have lunch around smla but numerous excellent dishes made out of the cobra. The experience is quite unique and I am really happy to have come here...
After lunch we head back to Hanoi and I catch up with Val. She stayed home and chilled out watching a movie and reading. We head out again on the motorbike to visit the West Lake, well-known to the local as the youngster couples go there and seat on a bench and kiss...Vietnam is a busy and crouded country, and privacy is a luxury. It is vey touching and the lake and ride around it is quite nice. We come back to the hotel and start walking to take our dinner with our favourite bunch. This is a fish soup for me and sticky rice with crabcakes for Val. Another succulent meal and, on the way back, we stop to have Banh Cuoc on my request. They are little rice springrolls. I feel hungry of Vietnam tonight!!! We then go for a drink at our local corner vietnamese cafe where we exchange until late at night. It's time for bed afer another rather full but exciting day...

29/03
A lazy day today starting with a lie in. After breakfast we go for a walk around the local streets to suck up a bit more of the hanoian atmosphere. We go back to our little kitchen to have Bun Bo, and decide to go and try to find some books. Val has finished hers and wants to find an exchange book store where she can get a new one. It's nearby the lake and makes the walk very nice. But the shop has moved! So we decide to try and find it, but it's at the complete opposite of town. No problem for us, we love walking. After few detours we find the shop and stop on the way back for a drink at the 'Cafe 11', perched at the top of a very interesting house overlooking the lake with an amazing view, the front being a random souvenir shop stall. Inside is a really intersting architecture of recessing platforms and staggered storeys. One of them is entirely dedicated to the family shrine in a pure chinese style. We then meet up again with our fellow guests at the hotel to have dinner and a quick drink in a horrible Irish pub! Time for bed.

30/03
We spend the morning buying some last minute shopping, going to the Insian Embassy to sort out the visa: imnpossible to do it here, it takes too many days, we will have to do it in Vientiane...walking around town again to sort things out, get a parcel box, go to the post office...it is already lunchtime and we meet up with Ines, Mark and Ji to go for lunch, we end up in a lovely place, eating fresh hand made springrolls then go for a lemon juice at Pho Co Cafe (Cafe 11), We then walk to the market to see the bird cages, it is messy down there, many birds, puppies, cats in cage, some turtles too. Ines and Val try to haggle for some lovely wood cages but the guy only wants to seel them used cages, full of bird poo...amusing...We then go for a stroll the two of us, start packing our rucksacks, sort out few things and it is already dinner time!!!
Last dinner for Ines who leave for the Phillipines tonight so we go to have...a pizza and some wine, a change from Vietnamese food!!!
We laugh, chat, talk about destination, more and more we hope to go to Tibet after Nepal...it seems feasible...if the borders reopens....We say goodbye and then have a last drink with Mark on the terrace, then off to bed quite late. We had some nice encounters here, met nice interesting well travelled people, we hope to stay in touch. It felt good being part of a friendly gang and gather together few times a day outside in th alleyway. The streets here are the center of social life. People gather in them, sitting on small plastic chairs and tables, we do the same. Frequently, Vietnamese people cook small meals and share them immediately on the sidewalk. Groups of friends drink beer and play cards and majong (chinese chess) at all times of the day. Life begins and ends early here. Most people are awake by 6am and asleep by 10pm, often we are the last people up in the streets!!! I like the fact that there is a strong sense of community and unity.

31/03
We spend the day getting organised for Laos, going to the post sending parcels back home, our bags keep getting bigger so we ruthlessly sort out things, very few clothes left...the bear minimum really...we walk around the old town, around the lake, it is grey today, we feel a bit sad to leave here, we spend some time in the house, chat to fellow travellers, to Li and Giang. The guesthouse has been like a real home for all those days, a very family-friendly atmosphere, we are going to miss our fellow buddies and the lovely family here....We reflect on this city, we really like it....
Hanoi brims with commerce. The ground floor of almost every building is an open-air shop. Much of the merchandise looks identical in quality and price. The upper floors are presumably the residential property of the store owners. We both wonder how each store can stay in business, especially amongst a sea of similarly stocked venues!! Social relations and familial connections probably dictate where people shop. Even so, the economic viability of this system is a mystery to us. Sticky rice for lunch on bamboo leaves, Val cuddles the dog at the house, and tonight we are going out for our last meal here with Ji and Mark. We have what is called an 'ordinary dinner' which consists of several dishes, meat, fish, fried crabs, different veg. It's very nice and traditional. And the last drink comes, at our local cafe. We talk for a bit and we go to bed not too late as we'll be up early tomorrow for our next adventure: Laos!

Hoi An et Hue

2009-03-27T12:37:00.003Z

18/03
We arrive after a hard night in the bus, we walk about town with our big bags to find an hotel, we book the Hoa Binh hotel, a simple hotel, a nice room but noisy, on the street, above the reception area. That will do for today, we go to rest, as Val is not too well and I'm also pretty tired despite a bit of sleep. We go for lunch, walk around the town, Hoi An s an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port. We walk around and the city has a distinct Chinese atmosphere with low, tile-roofed houses and narrow streets; it is truly beautiful...People also visit for the numerous art shops and tailors, who produce made-to-measure clothes for a fraction of the western price!!! We find one too as we needs to get some clothes made for our friends wedding in Sri Lanka, it is fun to find fabric, bargain like mad and think of models....now cross fingers, we will get some clothes on time and with a good fit!!! We go for dinner in the port, and it is great to chill out....

19/03
After breakfast, we go for a stroll in the market, the heat is hard to bear already so we sat by shopping around for caps and t-shirt!! I end up buying a bag crumpler and manage to upset the shopkeeper with my hard bargaining!!! We go to do some fitting at the tailor, few adjustements to make but the results are good already and so quick!!! We also go to another tailor to get some dresses made for Val, the girls there are smiley and friendly, it is refreshing....
The heat is hard so we sneak in the hotel close to ours for a swim and chilling out next to the pool, it is gerat to unwind here. Simple dinner then we walk around town, strolling through the lantern-lit streets is like walking into a fairytale. It is all the more picturesque since motor vehicles are banned from Hoi An's Old Quarter. There are so many lantern shops and unique lights in the streets, people here experiment with new shapes and materials, including lights made from hollow bamboo tubes, we both like it very much. We go to bed early as we have to wake up for 5 am as we are going on a tour...

20/03
After a very short night and a near catastrophe, we're on the mini-bus that going to take us to the My Son (pronounced me-sun) temples. It's 5.20am and we've nearly missed the van our alarm clock (or our ears) failing miserably. It does not take us more than 5 minutes to get ready, the puzzled and completely sleepy hotel portier waiting for us to get out of the room. What a mad rush...
It's a small group of 8 people. The site is considered here as the local Angkor, remains from the kingdom of Champa. We get very excited at this thought. Once at the temples, built by Cham emperors, we learn that not much is left of them. First time did a bit of work, then the American bombs finished off the job. A European archeologist even sent a letter to Nixon to end the endless bombing of the temples, at that time considered as a backline for the Viet Cong guerilla. It's a nice setting though and we peacefully walk around the little remains of what would have been an Hindu influenced splendor. The site is deserted as we're the first one in, way before the assaults of big tourist coaches. It is really worth it. In the background, the rising fog slowly unveils the 'Beautiful Mountain' (translation of My Son). It is beautiful indeed.
We gather again in the bus and go back to town. Today is sightseeing day and we buy the old town heritage building visit tickets. We visit some historical houses in the old town, dark woods everywhere, colonial houses, little temples,pagodas. All the houses were made of rare wood, decorated with lacquered boards and panels engraved with Chinese characters. Pillars were carved with ornamental designs. Hoi An emerged when Japanese and Chinese traders built a commercial district there in the 16th century and you can really feel the fusion of influences here, amazing. The original structure of some streets still remains almost intact today and you sometimes feel back in time. Tan Ky house has been owned by the same family for 7 generations, with little alterations to its original design. We then visit a couple of temples, the ceramic trade museum (the building being the attraction, not its content) and the traditional art and craft museum. It's around 1pm and everyone in Vietnam takes a big break around lunch time...but the shops are still open. It's rather fun tiptoeing in a shop in order not to wake up the shopkeeper (who by the way cannot try a forced sale on us as he's asleep!). We have some lunch rather late and go hide in our air-con'ed hotel room for a bit as it is now really hot. Dinner and off to bed. Tomorrow is an exciting day for me, I'm going to learn a bit of vietnamese cooking! Yummy!

21/03
This morning is also an early start for me. I've booked a cooking class at the Red Bridge, a well known restaurant in Hoi An. I really wanted to learn how to do good fresh spring rolls and a couple of other things...These are one of my little sin and I could eat hundreds of them. Val stays at the hotel but gets up early too. It's fitting-adjustments day for her at the tailor!
In the hot morning I go to Hai Cafe to meet up with the guide who takes us-we're a small group but very international- around the market to show us the fresh products we will use during the class and do some side business as any good guide/tout/tourism trade people all do! We then hop on a boat for a short sailing trip to the Red Bridge, located up the river in the rice paddies. We get to see fishermen skilfully and beautifully throwing the circular net in the air, some other collecting the very little shells (snails) we saw many time being sold by old ladies around town. It is a delicacy patiently savoured by the locals.
The cooking class is fun, the chef punctuating the tuition by little canny jokes. I get to meet two girls, one American, Brendy heading to Hong Kong and an Aussie on vacation. The class is fun and very interesting. Cooking our little dishes, we munch them in between two recipies. We then have a great 3 courses lunch with some fresh lemon juice. The location is beautiful, rice paddies one side, the herb garden on another, the local fishermen rowing boats on the river as a background. Time to get back and catch up with my beautiful wife around 1.30pm. She's also been very active this morning.
She went to the tailor for the fittings. As there was only a couple of things to do, the young shop assistant took her to the workshop a bit further out of town. She enjoyed the ride and chats with the witty girl who has big plans for the future. She just needs to work to finance it and wants to become a teacher. Val enjoyed meeting some girls, having an insight into the tailor trade, it was fun apparently. We talk while strolling around town, looking at the people, the kids playing on the pedestrian streets. We both notice that there are loads of kids running around throughout Vietnam. They are not ultra protected behind close doors. During our trip here we got to see many of them, free of movement, but the parents still very close but somehow withdrawn. No barrier, no tension like in Europe. Everybody seems to look after everyone else's progeniture. It is a fabulous feeling of freshness and naivity. We smile... We soon do a bit more shopping, and a pair of made-to-measure sandals later we're back at the hotel. We rest a bit before going out for dinner on the harbour, at the foodstalls. Mr Hi, table number 5, remember! table number 5!!!!! He keeps saying! We sadly pack, we liked this mustard coloured walls houses and little town a lot. Lights off, tomorrow we're back in Val's favourite bus!

22/03
Wake up early as we take the bus to Hue this morning. We go to get our free breakie in the posh sister hotel. We then get our bags and get on the bus. It is another one of the sleeper bus, more recent but the legroom is even shorter than the one we had to get to Hoi An. I am completely cramped and can't even stretch my legs. Luckily enough the journey is only 3.5 hours (for 130km!), Vietnam style. Which means once again ten stops in the middle of nowhere, a 30 mins lunch break at 10.30am which in reality is 1 hour. Anyway, we get to Hue, and as soon as the bus stops, a swarm of touts trying to sell their hotel get onboard. No real room to get off and take our bag. It is really hot today and it takes a few minutes and upset touts (I tend to be polite but reckless with them!) before we're off to our little pick of the day, Huang Hong, a little guesthouse, very cheap, but quiet, tucked in a cul-de-sac, where the air is stranglely enough quite fresh. A simple room with two double beds(!), a basic bathroom and a fan. What do you need, hey?! We go for a quick lunch and come back to the room to relax and to let the heat go down a little. It is actually around 38 degres and it is hard!!! We decide to go for a walk around 5pm to see the town but most of the old sites are inside the citadel, we stroll around, the city is busy and not so pelasant despite the lakes and river. Val feels weak tonight, dizzy and we decide to get a take away and eat in the room tonight....

23/03
We wake up early to sort out our trip to Hanoi and go and visit the citadel before the heat, it is supposed to be 38 degres today...again!! I go and find us some train tickets for this afternoon as we are not so keen on staying here for long, the city in itself has not hooked us. After a lovely breakfast on the terrace at the guesthouse, we walk to the citadel, along the Perfume river, a long walk, busy town, many scooters, the heat is already difficult to bear and we are both feeling tired ! We reach the Citadel, a city whithin the city, old ramparts, 10 km long wall where the majority of the people live...Nice to see that for once, the town even a cultural one doesn't belong to the tourists but is still a REAL town... The sights are beautiful, imperial enclosure, Chinese temples, palace, amazing pavilions, little lakes,a forbidden city for the emperor, the residences of the queen, few elephants in a garden etc etc... it feels very Chinese here again, this capital of the Nguyen Emperors. We forget the touts for 3 hours, walk around this secluded place, funny enough we catch up with a Malay guy I met during the cooking class...It is already noon and hot...we decide to head back to the guesthouse to get some food and go to the station. After a bad lunch, we check out, and let the lady from the guesthouse sort out some mortobikes for us. She ends up driving me, hard to say stable at the back of a scooter with a 20 kgs rucksack!!! We leave Hue with no regret, happy to have seen the sights, the lovely citadel but not convinced by the city, specially after magical Hoi An.
The sleeper train for Hanoi is supposed to leave at 3 pm, we wait, wait, few Westerners and many Vietnamese until 4 pm when the train appears...we discover we are not in the normal sleeper 2nd class as we wanted but in a posher coach!!!
Well actually there are no Vietnamese people here and the air con is not working...Great...after crap bus journey here comes the train journey!!!
We are both melting, asking the staff to sort out the air con, it keeps stopping...oh joy...Val talks to some English people in the luxury carriage, next to ours, it is soooo much cooler there...The staff members come to the next cabin and start smoking drinking beers and play loud music...it is getting a bit too much for Val, we paid more to avoid crazy night bus and it will take longer to reach Hanoi but we were hoping to sleep!!! Action is necessary here!!
We chat to the guy in charge of the luxury carriage and he offers us an upgrade, cash in hand of course and unofficial!!! We move to a luxury cabin, just for the two of us, a risk as we might get kicked out in the middle of the night as we have no real tickets...but will see....
Feels so much better...we go for a stroll in the train, chat to the 4 English guys next to us and finally relax...the night might be good in the end! We should reach Hanoi around 4-5 am.

Mui Ne

2009-03-20T10:13:00.003Z

12/03
We leave HCM around 9am, hard to get up as we went out so late last night...We wait for a while for the bus that takes us to Mui Ne. We arrive around 1pm, a long trip, we see the country, the bus ride is crazy...vietnamese driving...but we go along with the flow, we then walk struggling with our bags to find a nice place on the beach, many of them but expensive...finally we discover a cheap little resort with nice wooden bungalows, quite basic but very near the beach, with hammocs on it and a nice vibe. Then as we check in, we discover it is full of kitesurfers!!!! Some pros come here to surf and stay for months...a fit atmosphere here!!! Boys and girls with amaxzing bodies around...The town itself just consists of one main road, with small hotels spaced some distance apart, punctuated by small restaurants and tiny souvenir shops. Nice enough but not much to do...it will be perfect for a little break.

13/03
Fab decides to learn kitesurfing and today is the start of his training, he spends most of the day on the beach learning to control the kite, on land instead of learning in the water, there are many kites here and it is nice to see them floating, flying...like butterflies in the sky...The beach here is shaping up to be the kiteboarding center of South East Asia, with waves and wind year-round!!
I am also impressed by the skills and style of the kiters, I notice many people doing the same as me, being distracted from their book and spending hours watching them....I go for a walk along the beach, an amazing 10kms of white sand beach with red dunes around. Fab comes back, he had fun but there is a lot to take in, we go for a walk, we see a really beautiful sunset, the colours are vivid here and the sky is red, burning, then pink, then mauve...amazing views...

14/03
Fab spends most of his day hoping for less wind to continue his kitesurfing training, I read, we go for lunch, we walk, then it is dinner time again...the day goes quickly, not doing much, dreaming, observing the pros in the water. We go for a stroll along the street and discover that Mui Ne is full of shops and restaurants, many for Russian tourists...funny, there are many Russians here on holidays, as they don't need a visa to get here and it is easy and cheap for them....It is lively but seems artificial, a little resort created for the tourists. The day goes like that, we chat with the lady in our resort, she has a little dog Coco, she loves him to bit, funny to watch her play with him, treats him like a baby...Again our impressions of Vietnamese people are very different from what we've heard, people are nice, smiling, direct, yes, but nothing more than the French!!!

15/03
Another quiet day again on the beach in Mui Ne, Fab continues his kitesurfing training, we walked in the morning, early before the waves arrive so we can swim. I spend my day, reading in the hammoc, watching the kitesurfers, the wind, the long beach. We chat with some French people here for the weekend, Mui Ne is a popular place for expats at the weekend, they come for the sports and the beach and it is only 4-5 hours from Saigon...convenient...Benjamin is working in Saigon and has some friends visiting, nice to chat, to talk about life in Vietnam as an expat, seems like a good experience to be living in Asia.

16/03
Our last day here as we have decided to move again ad go to Hoi An in the centre of the country, slowly making our way up to Hanoi...another day on the beach for me, hot day, wind, waves, walk, swim, reading in the hammoc, I start feelin restless and realise that I cannot be still for more than few days...funny this tension between sightseeing, discovering and chilling out...we both feel we should move on, see more, explore more and at the same time, we want to stay put...Weird...and still unresolved...
Fab is in the water, kitesurfing, I observe him, struggling with his board, succeeding with the wind, the kite, up, down, sometimes, he even starts to rise off the water, trying to steady the kite overhead with one hand while holding the board with his other and trying to wiggle his feet into the board's foot straps. Interesting!!!! At the end of the day, he manages to kite for a bit, he is happy of his achievements and full of adrenaline, it is a good sport, he likes it and wants to do some more...good good... last dinner in a cheap place on the beach, and off to bed, tomorrow morning we are up early...

17/03
Last morning on the beach before taking the bus for Hoi An at 1pm...we rise early, go for a walk, a swim, it is so nice to stroll on the sunny beach....it was nice to be here chilling out for few days, being quiet and resting...now another adventure starts...an 18 hours bus journey up to Hoi An....We say our goodbyes to Saiho and her dog, it was nice to be in this relaxed atmosphere and head to the bus with Mike a Canadian guy, kitesurfer who has been staying here too....one of the pros...he gave Fab some useful tips and is on his way to another beach before heading home...the first part of the journey is fine, 6 hours in the sleeping bus, until Nha Trang, another beach place, funny to be lying down during the day, the bus is quiet, few people, I listen to the iPod, Fab chats with Mike and it goes quickly, watching the country, staring out the window at rice-fields, and Mui Ne's sunshine fading behind us...The bus driver is mad again, crazy ride towards Nha Trang...We reach this city at 6.30pm, we have 1/2 hour break to eat, go to the loo then jump in another one this time for 12 hours to reach the centre of the country...HELL...We say goodbye to Mike, then find ourselves in a bus packed full of bunkbeds! The beds are very small, typically built on an ‘Asian’ size scale, the over-night trip is completely stuffed, making an uncomfortable night nearly unbearable. There is a mix of Vietnamese and travellers, we may be 30 people here, the drivers shout I feel very anxious and hate it...trying to stay positive as it is all part fo the experience but I already know it is going to be a sleepless night for me...Fab seems a bit more Ok despite the size of the bed...The bus makes a dozens of stops for all sorts of unknown reasons during the night...Picking up people and cargo in the middle of a dark night was the norm for the rest of the evening. Crammed people sleeping on the floor, bags around us, one driver close to Fab in a hammoc and...to finish: a girl pucks just behing us!!!!! HELL!!! Her friends try to clean it up but we wil have to put up with vomit smell for 12 hours...I feel slightly unsane and agitated!!!! I try to remember it’s just a test of patience and Buddhist calm!! No sleep of course, Fab manages to sleep few hours...Quite a funny scene at sunrise when I am able to survey the whole disorganised lots, but I am rewarded by an amazing sunrise close to Hoi an, rice fields, red sun rising slowly...it feels peaceful...so glad to arrive!!!

Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon

2009-03-20T10:12:00.005Z

9/03
We spend the day in planes, a stopover in Singapore then arrive in Saigon-Ho Chi Minh around 7pm, we get our visa checked, and then get into a taxi to our hostel in the backpacker area. There are millions of cars and motorcycles in the streets, a noisy mad city, but the vibe is great...We are both tired by the day and amazed by the busyness and hectiness of this place...An hour later, we arrive at our little guesthouse in a small alleyway, Bich Duyen. A small windowless room awaits us, it is going to be our little home here for few days. We go out around the corner for a bowl of pho (rice noodle soup with meat) and are stunned by the city, it is full of people, 11 millions of human beings here....and tons of noise....after that quick meal, off to bed as we want to visit and to explore tomorrow...

10/03
We tour Ho Chi Minh today, the city is hot, hectic, millions of motos in the streets, a complete chaos but again a great vibe. We go and see the market, the Ben Thanh Market, shops, food, clothes, a real mix, we stroll around the busy people and have some lunch in one of the many food stalls, nice to sit so close to the ground and chill out despite the heat...a good colourful market, full of many things...
The warm weather is different from Bali but still so hot...After this break, we continue to explore the city, visit Notre-Dame cathedral, built by the French, the nice old colonial post office and walk to the Chinese quarter to see the Jade Emperor Pagoda, a nice Chinese temple, a colourful pagoda, filled with statues in papier-mache, woodcarving, many burning sticks of encens, people come here to pray, to give offerings but also to rest in the courtyard and escape the rumble of motorbikes and noise.
We also visit the war museum, all about the American war, we learn about the mines, the chemicals, napalm, the terrible agent orange, the mad US bombings amd massacres...a terrible war, traumatic for both sides but with terrible effects still visible here: areas being defoliated, children being born deformed and disabled...still now, a horrible cost for many future generations. The museum is a traumatic place with haunting pictures of massacre, disabled children, horrible tortures...it is hot and I feel dizzy, the shock of seeing this horror and the heat...I have to sit down and rest for a bit , drinking an entire bottle of water!!
Of course it is one-sided but still shows us the tragic legacy of this war...
We walk back past the Reunification Palace, again Ho Chi Minh is intense, busy as hell, the rumble of millions of motorbikes around us, a mad metropolis. Most inhabitants refer to it as 'Saigon', the pre-reunification name. Since the city fell to the North Vietnamese Communists in 1975, the city's name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City, after the heroic founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
We go for a rest then it is time for dinner around our area Pham Ngu Lao, there are many shops, hostels, cafes, it is very lively, we lose ourselves here but in a nice way, it feels peaceful despite the crazyness around us. Our first impressions are good, we were worried as so many travellers were put off by Vietnam, Vietnamese people are full on but nice, direct but not too pushy and we cannot feel this aggressivity we were told of... Yes, true, the constant sounds and smells of hectic Asian city life combined with the hazy, damp heat has an effect on us, an intense sensory overload but a good one somehow.

11/03
Today we book a tour with a small group to go and visit two things: the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. The Cao Dai temple is part of a Vietnamese sect that seeks to create the perfect religion by fusing the secular and religious philosophies of both East and West. We drive for few hours before reaching the temple, very colourful, we see the noon prayer: few hundred people pray in white dress, there are amazing murals, with some pictures of eyes, their representation of God everywhere, lots of colours, sounds...we see some portraits of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, a melting pot of religions...weird...it is nice to get out of Saigon and see around, vivid rice fields. We then reach Cu Chi after a quick lunch, we chat to the people in our group, an Aussie couple, a Brit girl, an Austrian guy and another from Singapore, all nice and friendly travellers.
Around Cu Chi, there has been intense bombing, destruction during the war. The tunnel network of Cu Chi is very famous, there were more than 250 kms of tunnel, they made comunication possible between the different Viet Cong controlled areas and allowed for surpise attacks against the Americans...this zone was heavily bombed, defoliated, gassed and devastated during the war...It was an amazing achievement considering it was dug by hand and during bloody conflicts. We visit some renovated parts of the tunnel, it has been enlarged to allow tourists in, we see the camouflaged kitchen with no smoke, the tunnels. I go in, so narrow but Fab feels a bit too claustrophobic to get inside...they are only 1.2 metres high...imagine what the real 90cm ones would have been...we imagine the VC guerilla living here and fighting and the American boys arriving in this heat and fighting them...
We go back to crazy Saigon and decide to go out all together as we all get along well. We meet up for dinner, have some drinks, end up sharing a table with some locals who treat us to some local delicacies: dried cuttlefish, salted fish, water snails, and so on...a funny little bar, wher we stay close to many scooters and motos, fells like being in a garage but in the heat and outside...weird but nice! A great jolly mood and festive night out....nice to be with many people to share about our lifes, our culture, a real melting pot tonight, stories about travels, other countries, experiences....laughter and drinks!!!

Ubud, Bali

2009-03-10T13:07:00.003Z

01/03
We leave Nigel and Nikki around 6am: a little hard after a very short night and lots of wine yesterday. Very kindly Nigel leads us up to the highway. A good half hour drive later we reach the Brisbane airport, the sun shines, it is our last moments in Australia, just a bit sad to leave and we will not be in Western countries before a long time... We return the car and board our plane to Singapore, the day will be long, we'll make a Singapore stopover and another flight back to Bali, a 10 hour journey! It's pleasant to fly this morning, we have space, we can sleep, watch movies, eat, more movies, eat again. A quick stop for a Singapore stopover. Two hours in the airport, we connect to the free airport internet whilst waiting for the next departure, then another flight to Bali. We arrive at 7.30pm. We have organised a pick up from the airport to the villa that takes us to our new accomodation: we are staying in 'luxury' this week, my friend Nona from Jakarta has negotiated for us a nice little villa in quiet Ubud, a mountain town in the middle of rice paddies and also the artistic and cultural centre of Bali. It's hot, the thick and humid air wraps us and I feel the next two days will be hard! We reach our home for the next 9 days in the village of Nyuhkuning, next to the Monkey Forest. The villa is lovely, beautiful Balinese architecture, a swimming pool shared between 4 villas, air conditioning, a small tropical garden, dark Balinese wood furniture. We are delighted and pleased to have a place for ourselves! A quick dinner and then bedtime, we are tired and the humid air is hard to cope with!

02/03
We rest this morning and then decide to go explore the city, to get a feeling of the town and discover this place! We are close to the Monkey Forest, we cross it to reach Ubud, a dense forest inhabited by macaks monkeys. The shaddy trail goes through the forest, a funny little jungle! I begin to stress about the dogs... There are millions of stray and ferral dogs in Bali, wild, ill and in a pretty bad state... It's a real pleasure for me who fears these animals! However, they are not really aggressive and I will quickly get used to them...
Strolling in Ubud, we find shops everywhere. Ubud is quite touristic, but clean, a pretty prosperous village.
It is the end of the monsoon season, the humidity is very high, about 80 percent and we struggle a little to adjust. We walk around town, through the streets and side alleys, we stop for lunch in a warong (the local cafes), rest, then a little more exploration of the city. The houses are beautiful, temples magnificent, the sens of ornament, of decoration is present everywhere in Bali. We enter villas and family compounds, admire the splendor of the Balinese gardens, a mix of species, colors and contrasts. Superb! Altars are everywhere, in and around all buildings, street corners, in front of the shops, on rooftops and roof terraces, simple offerings everywhere for the Nature, Gods, Spirits and Human celebrations. Walls, gates and doorways are all carved, orned, family temples are visible in each house, pavillion, altars, the Hindu influence is everywhere. Balinese Hinduism is very specific, a true conglomerate of indigenous beliefs, of Buddhism and Shivaism of Indian origins. The worship of natural elements is very strong, as we see in the ritual of the offerings: small package presented to the gods of the house, the weaving of palm leaves containing flowers and seeds. A real expression of Balinese art, the smoke of incense floating above our small altar in the villa day... beautiful! The beauty of gestures, of flowers, of these simple but meaningful offerings touches us greatly. It inspires reverence, but also serenity. After this beautiful walk, we rest a little, swim in the villa pool and then walk again into town for dinner. It's fun to cross the forest at night, a little scary but really fun actually!! The monkeys sleep and I control my fear of dogs with little difficulty...hanging to Fab's arms!! Nice dinner in a local cafe then time to return home.

03/03
A quiet day, relaxing, pool, walk in Ubud, which we really like, we explore new corners, we see some rice fields, just out of town, chat with Balinese people affable and smiling. We also chat with our neighbours, an English couple travelling, excahnging some tips and ideas. We both want to see the island, see everything, explore each temple but decide to chill out this week and live at the Balinese time, being in serene Ubud. We discover a nice place to eat, Dewa Warong, good local cheap food with shared tables, a place to share, which will become our canteen. We meet some French, Dutch, Belgian people, a slightly alternative atmosphere floats around, travelers from all corners of the planet put together here. We like it!

04/03
Quiet morning, we chat with our neighbours, discuss Bali, an island which seems quite elusive, beautiful and complex. We decide to hire a scooter to go a little further. We leave the villa around noon to reach some villages, the village of Mas, a village of wood carvers and furniture, and Celuk, a small village of goldsmiths, disappointing. We go through some poor villages, dogs are ill, there is rubbish in the streets, and this humidity,wetness of Asia, but flowers are everywhere, at every street corner, a luxuriant vegetation ... We reach Mas, looking for furniture and wood work, a little disappointing, factories and shops along the streets, but little sculpture...just Balinese furniture in large quantity, very nice but not what we are looking for. We visit two antique shops, but are reasonable, we are on a traveller's budget!!!Same in the silversmith village, disapointing, jewelry are all the same, bad styles for tourists. We go back to Ubud to get a massage, Balinese massage is offered at every corner here!!! We go to a small spa that was recommended to us, a very pleasant hour and a half, very relaxing! The rain is suddenly torrential, funny to have a massage and hear the water flowing on the roofs (alang alang), we get back to the scooter and in time to reach our canteen Dewa, are completely wet up to our underwears!! The monsoon rain again and again!! Nice dinner again, we chat to some Belgian and a Dutch, the tables are so convenient to share, exchange, and have a great meal!! When we leave, we run into a French couple met few days ago. A place definitely cool, the food is excellent, the nasi goreng, Nasi Campur or the gado gado, all the local dishes are fresh and good. A delice and so cheap! I start eating vegetarian agan, the Indonesian cuisine is full of soy or tempeh, very healthy... After a convivial evening, we go back to our beautiful villa, this time in scooter! Crossing the Forest seems longer in scooter that by foot that night, strange ... but the monkeys are sleeping and we see very few dogs!

05/03
Early start: we drive to Padang Bay, a long ride up to this small port city. Padang bay is not a success for us, a small port with ferries going to Lombok, many restaurants, plenty of diving clubs but quite disappointing. lots of driving to see an area that we don't connect with, shame...We meet a French couple there and have lunch together, they have spent 9 months in Australia, and are travelling in Asia, they are disappointed with Bali, we tell them about Ubud, talk, exchange tips and impressions, nice. We then drive to Sidemen , a village in the rice fields, recommended by a couple in Dewa, two days ago. A very nice ride through villages, beautiful scenery, tiny rice fields clinging onto the side of the mountains, a highly sophisticated landscape of rice terraces, it's a pretty spectacular ride. Farmers work hard, we can observe the cultivation of rice, its different stages, fascinating. The sky becomes threatening, we leave for Semarapura-Klunggkung to visit Gosa Kerta, the masterpiece of Balinese architecture, a courthouse with beautiful wood panelling, painted ceilings, wooden pavilions. We want to avoid the rain, but it is impossible, a rainstorm hits us!! I like the rain in Asia, violent, strong and intense. We get soaked head to foot, when we reach the villa, the streets are innundated!!! Fab is doing really well driving the scooter in mud and puddles! He is now driving like a local, using the horn, every 5 minutes!
Short break at home to get warm and then we go to see a Balinese dance performance, an episode of the Ramayana this great Indian epic, the episode of the abduction of Sita by Rawana. There are different types of dance in Bali, we decided to go see the Kecak. There is a chorus of men sitting in a circle, chanting and scanding the scenes, words and gestures are apparently designed to exorcise evil spirits. These are vocal percussions without music, the pace is very strong, powerful, supported by undulating movements and the body lexicon-vocabulary really impresses us. The dancers are supported by these singers, the dances are graceful, with beautiful fabrics, brocade of green, red, some diadems. Each movement is one of great precision and of technical perfection, the movements of the wrists, hands are fascinating. It is truly beauiful, fingers are pointed out, so much flexibility! We then go for dinner at Dewa, find Ariane and Alain, our couple from Montpellier, Alain is a sculptor, who does some land art, and Ariane is very much into India, spirituality , yoga, we share and chat with joy. Dewa is as usual so friendly, everyone chat, relax and eat well!! A must! I wonder what it would be like to spend few months here, Bali is full of yoga, meditation classes and I slowly reconnect with my spiritual search...all about reconnecting the mind and the body. A good atmosphere, quite spiritual here and I really like it...

06/03
We decide to go walk in the rice fields throughout the small villages, despite my fear of dogs, dogs are everywhere here and in quantity! It is very hot this morning but after a good breakfast and chat with our neighbours John and Mary Louise, an English couple who are travelling in Asia after living 8 years in Hong Kong and Malaysia, originally from Streatham, very close to home!!!!! It makes us smile to think of London. We reach a temple Pura Ungegen Lebah, between two rivers, we walk the slopes of alang alang grass, the grass used for the thatched roof houses. The path-trail is nice, we finally get to Bangkiang Sidem , a small village, enjoy the view over the rice fields, visit the temple of the village, always very well maintained, very beautiful. A wall divides the various sacred spaces, everything is decorated, sculpture everywhere, mythological figures, gods are all there. We then continue on to Keliki, a village of painters, a little bit disappointing tho. The Balinese reproduce in mass Hindu images or lifestyles scenes, thinking that is what tourists want. There is little originality in what we see, each stall has the same paintings. The sun is very strong, we then decide to return home, have lunch in an organic cafe, chat with another neighbour, an American Morgan, a musician who lives here. We then go to a yoga class: the first one for Fab! The course is organised in a villa, in an outdoor studio overlooking the rice paddies, beautiful! The class is nice, despite the thousands of mosquitoes that attack us! Fab appreciates the mental and physical relaxation provided by the postures, I reconnect with yoga, with joy, despite my lack of flexibility: a rich and relaxing time. We go to Dewa warung, our canteen, which unfortunately is closed for one day! Drama! We decide to have dinner next door. a bad choice....the food is not the same, by chance we see Alain and Ariane, chat, have a beer, exchange our details, we hope to catch up aghain on Sunday night before we leave Bali. Then back to our scooter and villa for sleeping.

07 \ 03
Up early to go shopping, we go to Sukawati, a city with an art market, an active city, we do some shopping and then go to Mas again to llok for some wood furniture, but find nothing....The thunder rumbles, a monsoon rain is coming, we leave for Ubud. A short break at home to leave our bags, then go for lunch in our little organic cafe, a salad, some internet, we book a guesthouse in Ho Chi Minh, then go foir a walk in Ubud before going for another massage. We asre temtpd to buy some batiks, the ikat from Bali, the richness of Balinese fabrics is amazing but stay reasonnable again! The joys of Balinese massage, an hour massage, very relaxing, a small dinner and then off to bed early. We want to enjoy Sunday, it is our last day here!

08/03
I wake up very early, around 6 pm, spend an hour quiet before Fab rises. We have breakfast, talk with two U.S. ladies from Hawaii, here to do a retreat. We then go to the market, do some shopping, haggling like crazy. Fab go for a pedicure, we then had lunch at Dewa, then run to the post office. It's Sunday, but we are lucky, it's open: a parcel has to be sent home again we must be light and we are not!!Our bags are so heavy!! I then go to a yoga class, at the yoga barn, the studio is always pleasant, overlooking the rice fields, a moment of relaxation and to myself. Fab during this time, go for a ride in the surrounding villages, get lost in the rice paddies and small, witnessing some rural life scenes, very unique. We go for our final dinner at Dewa with Alain and Ariane, we share our impressions on the island, our feelings, talk about a study on water and its receptivity to emotions and intentions .... well a very nice dinner. Back to our scooter, and then we have to pack again....hell!!!tomorrow ... we leave for Saigon...

09/03
Last breakfast in the villa, with John and Marie Louise, we chat about London, life in Asia, their experience in India, Hong Kong, a nice breakfast, we exchange our emails, and we hope to catch up in England, a nice encounter... Departure for Denpasar and the airport, we chat with Made our driver, we talk about the local rituals, the difficulties to survive here, especially since the bombing and the decrease in tourism. We speak about Hinduism, as most other islands in Indonesia are Muslim, it is fairly unique here...an interesting time .... we leave Bali with regret, a beautiful island, diverse, rich, complex, far from the cliches of a tropical paradise: a strong culture, spirituality highly integrated in daily life and close to nature ... we want to come back here, but longer, maybe...A beautiful and gentle introduction to Asia before Vietnam ....

Rainbow Beach, Fraser Island and Brisbane

2009-03-01T07:54:00.007Z

25/02
We wake up at 7am as our flight to Brisbane is early. The flight is pretty short (2hours). We still dream of our dives, Val reads the inflight magazines, I write a bit about the past few days. We now touch down in Brisbane. It not as hot and humid as Cairns! Which feels nice. We have hired a car and at the rental office desks, we're being asked if we would like a free upgrade to a bigger car (we originally hired a small, tiny and cheap car!). Of course! We are upgraded to a big Holden (Aussie made), very luxurious. Nice because we have quite a few kilometres to our next destination: Rainbow Beach. The choice is simple: sandy beach, surfing and diving!
Few hours later we reach Noosa for lunch. It's a seaside resort, famous for its surf waves. It's quite big and quite posh in fact. The beach is lovely, but it feels a little bit too built up. I get new flip-flops as mine are pretty tired. We then drive again for a while and we make it to Debbie's, our new accomodation, in Rainbow Beach. It's the start of the low season and it's not busy. Instead of staying in the main house, we're upgraded (once again!!!) to a lovely semi-detached house, bedroom, (great) bathroom, kitchen and living room. What a change from the boat cabin and the grotty place!!Nice to have some space and a house for ourselves! We walk around town, watching the burning sky of the sunset. We do a bit a shopping for tomorrow's breakie. We watch a bit of TV and off to bed. The past few days have been intense, we need more rest and it seems to be the perfect place.

26/02
The night has been really rainy. But the day is welcoming us with a great blue sky. Slow start but we go to have a look at the beautiful sandy beach, quite wild with bushes arouund and no houses. We walk along the breaking waves. It's quite windy but it feels like a proper holiday time. The feeling of rush is slowly fading away. We do a bit of food shopping, book tomorrow's excursion, and then go home where I fire up the BBQ, Aussie style. We've bought some chicken with Teryaki marinade. It's great to wind down this way! We're really enjoying our time here. We're very relaxed and peaceful. Rainbow Beach is a very small resort town (more like a village really). And it's not crowded. And the house is so quiet. After lunch, a little nap (I think we took that nice little habit on the boat!) and we're off to the beach. I decide to enjoy my afternoon surfing the Aussie waves. Val stays on the beach reading, chilling out and sunbathing. It's a nice day, warm despite the strong wind. Good to have a bit of sun. Back on the beach we walk on the golden sand before sunset and then go home. Tonight it's lamb BBQ and fresh salad and a glass of rose. Lovely!

27/02
Early start today, we're going to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. We booked a tour even if we are not big fans of them but we have no time here so one day on the island will do. We drive around to pick up the group, we are 12, mainly foreigners and everyone seems nice. We take the small ferry that cross the sandy straight separating the island from the mainland. It is pouring rain, we are very annoyed as it is supposed to e amazing...Nice ride on the beach, it is all sandy so 4WD ride on the sand and it feels quite fun! Our small coach gets stuck in the sand, a great start of the day!!!We drive around, go for tea in a resort then visit the Lake McKenzie, a stunning lake with blue water, white sandy beach, it is a perched lake, depending on rainfall.
Fraser Island is a world heritage site because of its exceptional natural beauty, its sandy beaches, dunes, its tall rainforest, dune lakes and it is truly incredible. The vegetation has grown despite the fact that is it all sand, the plants find nutrients from thin coatings on the sand grains and then from the forest floor, incredible! The rain has stopped now, we can enjoy the place, it is a huge island stretching over 123 kilometres in length. The lakes are great, the island is surrounded by saltwater but has more than 100 freshwater lakes!! We visit the rainforest, a proper rainforest with tall trees, a thick canopy of leaves, pines, eucalyptus, satinay trees (only found here). Truly beautiful. We have a short lunch break then we head on to the famous 75 Mile Beach, an amazing beach which is also a highway where all road rules apply, but also a runaway!!! We go to Eli Creek, visit an old logging camp and see the Maheno shipwreck which was struck in 1935 by a cyclone, we observe some coloured sands, the weird coastal dunes formations. We learn about the strong history, the logging industry, it is very interesting and this island is incredible. We both feel this day was a great introduction but we want more so we will have to come back here as it feels magical. We get back to Rainbow Beach around 5pm then go for a long walk on the beach until dusk, it feels peaceful and serene, we both reflect on our time here...our Australian moment is coming to an end, we both loved it, felt connected to this continent with so many aspects and contrasts.

28/02
We are leaving this country tomorrow, feels weird and a bit sad as we both really loved being here, it was fun, beautiful, magical, exciting and sometimes intense, a country gigantic and diverse, with amazing landscapes, strong history and friedly people. We have seen friends here, stayed in homes, met new people, overcome fears, had fun...It was a really good experience and we want to come back to dscover more!!
We wake up around 8sih to finish packing, go to the post office and then walk to the beach, we are sending many stuff back home as our bacpacks are too heavy and soon we won't have the luxury of cars in Asia so we are from now on travelling light!!! It is really sunny and hot, the vibe is a holida one, people in shorts, bikinis, the beach is quite busy, I am going surfing this morning and Val swimming, reading and resting. A beautiful morning. I enjoy the surf, the waves, but it goes very quickly. Already time to go, Val loses her sunglasses in the waves...a gift to this place then!! We leave around 2pm, to go to Brisbane, our last stop before our flight to Bali. Tonight, we are staying at Nigel's, who used to work with Val in Oval. Going to be nice to meet new faces and stay in a home again! The drive is long and a bit boring, but we manage to arrive a bit early so rush to the koala sanctuary to see some little animals before going to Nigel. We are late!!It is closing in 10 minutes and the guy doesn't want to let us in, Val is very disappointed but a kind lady tour guide sees us and sneaks us in discreetly and so we get to see two cute koalas before leaving the country! They look like furry toys, very cute and cuddly...
We reach Nigel and Nikki's, Val is really pleased to catch up, we meet the boys, have a BBQ, lots of wine, laughter anfd many interestring conversations, Nikki lived in Oz before and worked with Aboriginal communities, a truly intense experience. Very enlightening for us to share with them, about their life here, the many changes and challenges...Inspiring to hear about relocating, starting afresh here and dreaming of a new life with your family...a great night!!

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

2009-03-01T07:49:00.004Z

18/02
Landing at Cairns airport, we pick up our bags and head out to grab a taxi, making our way to Cairns City Backpacker, our base in Cairns.
The hostel is set within a complex of 2 Queenslanders houses surrounded by trees. It has a swimming pool (more like a big tub, really!) and outside sitting area. The first thing that strikes us is the humidity and its smell. We experienced this in NZ too. That sort of smell, which is a mix of rotten leaves and humidity that does not go away...sweet and hard at the same time, stays everywhere in the bags, the clothes, us and so on.
The hostel and its buildings are definitely not recent. It's dated and probably in need of refurbishment, but hey, it's cheap and we won't stay there much (and prepares us for the wet!!). We unpack and decide to go do some breakfast shopping in the nearby supermarket. And then it's already the end of the day! We head off to our free hostel meal at the Woolshed, a bar/restaurant hosting evening events everyday, every week. There is a free shuttle service from the backpacker to the restaurant.Cool! On the way we speak to a young canadian girl and Richard, a young Aussie from Perth who's just come back from Vietnam. We get some very good information from him: where to go, what to see etc.
We arrive at the bar, it is ramed with backpackers (mostly in their early 20's) spending their cash on booze and meal upgrades. The free meal consists of Chili con carne, spaghetti bolognese or vegetarian pasta. We both opt for the chilli.
Once again we feel a bit weird there, we are not this age anymore. We've spent the past few years hosting or going to dinner parties, enjoying (too?) deep conversations around few bottles of wine. But here it's different, welcome to Party Land!!! Drinking, flirting, drinking more, and flirting even more...Sexual young energy in the air! We are both puzzled to feel that bit older! It is funny though and we're having fun watching them. We then come back to our hostel and have an early-ish night because tomorrow is a big day. We'll start the Open Water Diver course, that will teach us how to become closer to marine mamals!

19/02
The pick up time for the course is at 8.30am, we drive to the Pro Dive centre. We run through the course introduction, fill up all the paperwork, and start with the theory all morning. It feels like going back to school (and it is!). The morning goes very quickly (funny, in my (Fab) school time, I felt minutes were hours and days were very long!!!!) and we take our food order for the lunch break. Meanwhile we have the diving medical exam.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the swimming pool exercise starts: getting our equipment ready and how to look after it, how to breathe underwater, which turns out difficult for Val. Some other exercises involve removing the mask underwater, filling it up with water and flushing it with air. The mask is extremely hard to remove underwater, and Val experiences a big stress, she panics a bit and this stress is enhanced by some problems with her contact lenses. She ends up losing one. The first drills are painful for her and she'll now be very tensed everytime we'll have to do do some masks and regulators exercises.
Susan (Sue), our German instructor tries her best to reassure her and goes through some tips to get Val back on a more relaxed attitude. But the course is quite intense and the schedule is busy. We need to get on with the tuition. Val feels a bit rushed and wishes we had more time to get used to the new environment.
Out of the water again, we learn a bit more about the equipment we are going to use. And it's the end of day one. We get a drop off to our hostel. We rest for a bit, a debrief. Val becomes anxious as the night draws close, she want to give up, as she feel she can't overcome her irrational fears. The moment is intense. I (Fab) feel OK and try my best to calm her down. The night will be difficult...

20/02
Around our morning breakfast, Val is quiet but agitated. The night has not helped her too much and she's very anxious, as we start the morning in the pool, trying out different type of equipments, masks, snorkel, finns etc. before doing the second part of our pool exercises. Val is stressed with the mask exercise again, still not succeeding to keep calm. Eveytime she gets to do the mask thing she feels like she suffocates, that she's going to drawn, her nose filling up with water. It's extremely stressful for her, even in the shallow end of the pool. More difficulties arise as we are now in the deep end of the pool. We need to practice the emergency ascent. Val hates it. But she bravely persists and with a lot of Sue's persuasion, she succeeds (uncomfortably but brilliantly) in all the exercises.
We break for lunch, heading out to the centre of town before going to the Pro Dive shop to see if we want to buy the equipment we tried earlier on and register for the boat trip. After the bad mask/contact lenses experience and hours of chatting together, Val decides to buy a prescription mask to feel safer and have less to worry about as tomorrow is a different story: we'll be in the Big Blue!!!
Our wallets lighter of few dollars, we go back to the classroom for more theory and the final exam, we pass the test, Fab being mister 100 percent!
It's been a long day and we have to wake up really early to get to the boat and sail to the reef. We're not lucky as few youngsters party hard all night in the hostel. Some Irish guys get really drunk and we have to ask them to be quiet, twice, but it doesn't work. We'll end up with only two hours sleep...not a great night before the big trip!!!

21/02
The pick up is at 5.50!!! It's hard core with barely no sleep. We need to stow the bags, to check in. We wait at the shop, then we're all ready to go, 32 passengers and 7 staff! We arrive on the boat, Scubadiver 2. We get a briefing for what is going to happen in the next three days, get the security briefing and procedures.
We are 2 groups of beginners and some advanced divers as well, first briefing: we learn about the boat, we get to know the staff, the schedule. The boat leaves Cairns harbour.
We take some time to rest (at last but only a little bit) until we moore in the great barrier reef around 10.30am.
Everything goes quickly, we're here to dive and if it is too slow, we can't do all the training dives we need to be able to do the free dives after the certification. We get ready for the first training dive. It is funny to see 36 people getting ready in such a short time, on the same deck, dressing up in black protective lycra suites, BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, that's the inflatable jacket in layman's term), the (heavy for Val!) weight belt, mask, snorkel etc. A total of 15Kg on the back. We feel a little bit like donkeys really! It also feels a bit like an army operation...or a James Bond movie!
And there we are, ready to go, looking high, hand holding the mask, one big step ahead and we fall in the big blue, heart beating hard, all our senses completely alert. A big 'splash' later, that noise everybody heard sometimes on TV or else, that very noise of breathing underwater, well, we're producing it... amazing and up we go up, the BCD makes us float like a big buoy! It's crazy, dear old Archimed! But the fun's quickly over, we need to 'sink' to dive, down there, and meet some of the GBR locals... We deflate our BCD, looking at the bubbles going to the surface and disappearing...We feel the increasing pressure on our eardrums, we need to 'equalise' the pressure between the inside of our bodies and the outside. But we go down fairly quickly without much problems (a bit for me, Fab, actually, well you know, ears...work stuff!!!!)
Val is stressed in the ocean, she's apprehensive for the mask exercises but we do not have to do anything for the first dive. We just need to follow our instructor, 12m below, looking at what we've been all dreaming of for the past few days. And here they are, little Nemos (clown fish), anemones, all sorts of corals and beautiful angelfishes, surgeonfishes, parrotfishes, butterflyfishes...and few minutes later, round the corner of a rock, a green turtle! She's swimming 'like a bird in the sky', munching a jellyfish away (good on her we're all thinking!). It's beautiful, so serene, so relaxing...Val is relaxed, sucking fast her air away like I also do (we both are 'air pigs', great huh!!), I've also managed to calm down. It's funny, I keep having that sensation of 'falling' when I dive!
And between two animal discoveries we also practice our new skills, and the buddy system. It's a great dive, a good start! We then stop for the lunch break, Val is seasick, many people are, lots of (small) waves, but the boat rocks side to side.
She is also tensed as she worries she won't manage to do the mask exercise again...It's now time for the second training dive. We do lots of exercises, and the mask stuff comes. Val nearly suffocates under the water and has to be held by the instructor, she starts to worry she won't pass, with that weird feeling of suffocation (which does not happen) and anxiety...I am fine, but feel worried for Val, she's not quite enjoying her time here. We break, come back on the boat to chill out. We debrief, like after each dive, we chat to people. The group is very mixed, different ages, nationalities. There is a nice atmosphere on the boat. We have our meal and off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be challenging, we have the practical test. The boat is still rocking. And Val is getting extremely nervous.

22/02
After a very tensed night we have our first dive at 7am. It's hard to wake up and go straight in the water without a breakie!! We see a green turtle, but Val is getting low on air quickly. She's is very tense because of the exercises again. We learn about compass navigation. The masks stuff comes back again. And another panic for Val with the mask. But the group is small. It's quite nice for her to feel surrounded, supported and encouraged by all.
We break and we go for our last training dive. We all have to succeed or we won't pass the certification. After much worry, the mask exercise is finally cleared by Val without too much problem but it still feels difficult and stressful. We surface. It's now 11.30am and during the debrief, it's a success for both of us. We are now certified divers (yipee, no more mask stuff, ever!!!) and we can dive alone with a buddy up (or down!) to 18 metres. Lunch break, then it's time for our first dive ALONE, as a team, with no supervision. It is 3pm, we see sharks, stingrays, many fishes: triggerfishes (beautiful but stear clear, they are the pittbulls of the ocean!), clown fish, little Nemos etc. It feels great and peaceful, we're both comfortable in the water but Val's still breathing too quickly. It will be a big challenge to learn to regulate her breathing and feel more relaxed under water.
We then chill out, sleep a bit to recover, and then we get ready for the next dive. The night dive. Big anxiety for me. I feel scared of diving in the darkness. In fact I feel anxious again to experience what I would now qualify as the 'Milford' syndrom! Sue, our instructor, tries to make everyone laugh with a funny but brilliantly scary briefing with big great white sharks stories...We actually do see some sharks (not the big great white!) very close to the boat and many people are uneasy. Weirdly enough Val feels good about it, she really wants to do that dive and feels excited about it. I am anxious but make it to the water, we all slowly dive in the dark, with torches, feeling peaceful, following the little lights of the diver in front of us. We all (7 of us) stay very close to each other...Some people panick and go back to the surface, like little balloons flying up to high skies. We both feel relaxed, I even manage to overcome my fear of dark. We dive under a small overhang (yes me, too!) and see a gigantic sleeping green turtle tucked under a rock! It's magical, I lay down flat on the sandy bottom and stare at the beauty! We see fishes asleep, like the parrotfish in his snort bubble and then slowly start to ascent and we see some sharks around, quite impressive! Back on the boat around 9ish for some cake. We both feel really good, and empowered! We spend some time chatting with a French couple met on the boat and then off to bed. Good achievement, it feels great!

23/02
It's a very long and intense day today as we have to fit in 3 dives before 12!! We wake up and do the first dive a 6.30am. It's so hard to get in the water so early, we feel unmotivated...but are rewarded with a great dive, seeing two turtles eating corals and jellyfish. We managed to get very close to them. They're beautiful creatures swimming so graciously! We get to see more sharks, even a black tip, pretty rare apparently. We feel good to be alone in the water and relaxed. It's one of our best dives, with many fishes. We break for breakfast and then another dive at 9.30am. It is pretty exhausting! We are a team of three this time with Ryan our divemaster as he has no buddy. It's not that interesting. It is now raining and the water is a bit murky. Well, not that much in fact as it is the Great Barrier Reef and the visibility is still great but not as perfect! We are lucky to learn to dive in near perfect conditions and water! We chill out then the third dive comes, Val feels lazy and I find another buddy to go with, Sam. Val stays on the boat, chats with Sue our instructor who is the vigil-look out for this dive. A moment later I come back. The dive was very enjoyable. I swam under an arch, saw enormous maori wrasses (they're as big as my dive buddy!!!) and more little clown fishes!
Last lunch as a team on the boat, we have a debrief then agree to all meet for a goodbye dinner tonight. We make it back to the shop to pick up our bags then we're off to the hostel, we are staying again in the grotty backpacker but want a different room as the first one was too close to the action!! We take a hot shower, the proper first one in 3 days, so nice! We chill out a bit then off to town for our dinner. Nice evening, dinner then drinks with the group, we all end up in a club-bar, full of youngsters. We do feel very old at the moment, everyone in their twenties!!! Val feels like an old granny, I do not quite feel adequate... but we have fun, we dance, we have few drinks. We leave and go back to the hostel under the tropical rain at 2 am!! We both feel dizzy, wobbly because of the boat, we got used to having the floor moving and it keeps doing that now.... And it is not the alcohol!! It was nice to socialise, be with a group of people and share some common interests. Lights off.

24/02
We are lazy today and spend the morning sleeping. We spend a part of the day planning the trip. We are leaving tomorrow for Brisbane, we have to book a flight, find a car and some cheap place to stay for few days before Bali. It is hot and we feel tired. The boat trip was great but intense and full on. We are a bit exhausted, but in a nice way.
We finally leave the hostel around 2ish, go for a light lunch and a walk, but it is really humid and hot. We chill out in the pool at the Esplanade. Cairns does not really have a proper beach in town. So they've built a splendid pool overlooking the sea. We then go to the internet cafe, book our trip, then back to our canteen for our free meal (part of our hostel deal, we still get a free meal each day...chili con carne or spaghetti...a bit boring after three nights but it is free!!!). Back to the hotel as we have to pack and get ready, the flight is early again tomorrow. A lazy planning day then!

Melbourne, Wollongong and Sydney

2009-02-18T02:36:00.002Z

12/02
The morning is gone quickly as we have to take a plae at midday so we do a quick shopping in Alice Springs around town then drive to the airport, we dsay bye bye to our fun 4WD then it is a long flight back to Melbourne.
We pick up the new car, the last one here, we will then use public transports, and back to our little hostel in Melbourne. We spent the eve watching tv and I eat lots of nutella!!Naughty me...nice to chill out and do nothing...

13/02
We sped the morning in the Queen Victoria Market, the mother of all Melbourne markets. I leave quiuckly as I decided to do the cheesy Neighbours tour!!Yes!!!! Fab goes to the barber, gets his hair cut, then shops for a bag in the Crumpler factory. I have an OK time, atching the sopa set, meeting some member sof the cast,. seeing the street, the famous Ramsay Street!!How cheesy is that!!!
WWe met aain around 6.30pm whee we leave Melbourne and reach Albury at 11.30pm. Such a logn drive to reac Syden, going to taketwo days....We find a motel as we are too tired to drive more. We need to be in Wollongong at Amy and Dion's on the 14/02. Luckily enough, we get a nice room at discounted price, nice t have a bit of luxury: an esnuite bathroom!!
We reflect on the bushfires, we saw the desolation, the consequences of those horrible fires in the north of Victoria, desolated empty burnt lands, very depressing...

14/02
We leave the motel around 10.30am, drive all day along the Hume Highway. we do a little stopover to see Jervis Bay under the pouring rain, one of the most stunning spot in east coast, white sand and blue water apparently...We found everything grey and it is a bit depressing!! We see some dolhins in the grey sea...nice! We drive off to Wollongong to Amy and Dion's. Amy is a friend of Fab from wor, and she moved back to Oz a year ago. We meeet up with Baby Sofia. We hae an amazing dinner, Dion is a real chef! The house is beautiful and it is nice to be with friends in a home. we are only 82 kilometres south of Sydney.we chat, drink and eat until 2.30am, we talk about travelling, life, baby, Oz, etc. A relaxed time for us!

15/02
We have a good morning, very chilled, we ae being pampered, Dion cooks us some pancakes, with fresh fruits and honey. It is pouring rain again, funny to be in Oz and see so much rain, remindsus of London!! But it feels very tropical here if a little cold. We chat till 2pm, then make our way to Sydney. Was so good to catch up and be in a home, and be looked after!!
It rains the wole journey, we just have time to go and see the Sydney Harbour, the soul of the city. We get a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House, such an icon in Oz and the nice Harbour Bridge, built in 1932. We then drive over the bridge to Tanya and Mike's in an affluent northern suburb, Mosman. Tanya is our friend Cara ' sister, so nice to be welcomed in another home!! It is a beautiful Federation house. We meet up wit the kids, William and Lara then have a nice dinner, finding out more about themselves, their experience of Oz, quite inspiring. Again nice to be with people in a very homely atmosphere.

16/02
We start the day, relaxed, doing our washing machine and chatting with Mike about life here, we then drive off to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is one of Australia's most famous beaches and among the world's most well-known beaches!!Funny to go there! Miraculously the weather cleared up on another one of Sydney's icon and we get to see it with a bit of sun...won't last tho!!It is a cool place, shabby chic, a great beach with impressive waves. Lots of surfinghere, surf life saving was started in Australia and the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club was formed in 1906. We sart the long coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee along the clifftops via Bronte where we have lunch in a lovely cafe. We see may swimming baths, panoramic views, big waves. But is now pouring rain again and badly, we are so wet!We fight with the wind. How funny to be in of the sunniest spot of Oz under the rain! we watch the rain, the sea, we talk about sharks, a shark attacked a surfer here yesterday, almost severing one of his hands. It was one of the first reported attack in 80 years on Bondi!!
The walk back is exhausting, we are wet and a bit fed up!!!We stop over at the skate park (weather cleared up again on Bondi!!!), Fab feels he wants to ride again, nice to watc tem , they are really good! We observe the joggers, there are so many of tem, eery body is fit and healthy, running around the bach, impressve!!!A real cliche but a nice one...people go running before or after wor, the beach lifestyle seems nice. We go back home and have a nice dinner with Tanya and Mike, nice to be with people, to hear about their experience here as expats. Bed time.

17/02
The morning is very relaxed, we have a chat with Mike, then he drops us to the ferry, we ride to the city, it is nice to be on the water, there are great views of the Opera House, the bridge, the harbour, nice. We decide to do a bit more visits ad walk around the Rocks, the site of Sydney's first European settlement, many old buildings, wharves, old pubs...nice walk in an interesting part of town, we learn about the history, the wharf workers, te bubonic plague in 1900, the construction of the bridge. We then walk to the Opera House along the waterside, it is such an amazing building from every angle, there are so many tiles, it feels light, airy and so ahead of its time. Revolutionary really and such an incon in the landscape! We both reflect on how architecture can influence the feel and vibe of a city, defining it deeply. We have a light lunch close to the water, then we take a ferry to Manly, despite the bad weather ad grey clouds. Nice ferr ride, atching the water, the beaches, it is a really nice laid-back suburb with great views of the city, the harbour and apparently an amazing coastal walk to do but we are unlucky and it starts pouring rain so we rush to get the bus and back to Mosman to get our car back. We drive to Epping where our friends Nadia and Keith live. so cool to see them in their place, we spend a great eve, chatting, catching up, remembering our trip to the Cook Islands, Keith bbqued for us and it is great to be together. Late night then off to bed!

18/02
We have a good breakfast and time with Keith, then we drive to Newtown on the way to the airport, it is a nice suburb, edgy, trendy, with many shops and restaurants...a good bohemian vibe...nice litte stop before rushing to jump in a plane, we are now off to Cairns to do our diving course!

The Red Centre

2009-02-11T23:38:00.010Z

8/02
We go to the airport very early and spend a long time waiting to get in our low cost flight to Alice Springs. Not as much space as previously, my back has been painful for the last few days and the big lady behind me keeps pushing her knees into my seat... pure joy! After 2 and a half hours of flight we land in Alice Springs, the capital city of the Northern Territory, change our watch, the time is different here as the country is so big... get our bags back and get the rented 4WD!! We have been upgraded for free and get a BIG Nissan Patrol!!! We are planning to do lots of tracks as we want to see few sites and leave the sealed roads. Very exciting!! After driving Pepe for a month, Fab is pleased of his new car! We drive to the cheap motel, very old and dated, quite dirty but again we get an upgrade and get a shower in our room. The motel is dirty really, old carpets, dated equipment but it was the cheapest in town and we know why!! We got for a walk in Alice to buy some food and see the town, despite the heat, it is around 39-40 and the sun is really killing us... We stop to buy a hat for Fab and get some fly nets to protect our faces as the flies are MAD and all over the place, hundred of them relentlessly attack us!!
The town of Alice Springs is the product of 19th century pioneers who opened up Australia’s interior. It is supposed to be a modern outback town, the base to explore the region. It is Sunday so everything but tourists shops are closed, we wander around the little streets but our impressions are not great... Many Aboriginal people are in the streets, begging or resting, looking very dirty and poor, a lot of them drunk... The shops seem to be owned by white people and the exploitation of the Aboriginal culture seems very strong... Maybe we are mistaken but it feels like the communities are very separate. We go back to the motel, have a late lunch then decide to drive to explore a bit. We go to the West MacDonnell Range, a mountain range stretching east to west for 400 kilometres around Alice, we drive to Standley Chasm, to see this narrow cleft in the Range. But have to pay to get in... It is owned by some indigenous communities and we will found out that all is about tourism here and making money... People have to find a way to make a living in this vast land... We don’t like having to pay to see some nature, but hey... We go for a little walk, the heat is bad and the flies are crazy, Fab is carrying a bag that is soon covered with flies, we are glad to have the little nets on our faces!!! It is beautiful, the rock formations are red, orange, very impressive with cathedral-height walls, creating a nice passage in the rocks. The colours are strong, ochre, fiery, with beautiful sun reflections. We drive again for a while on sealed and unsealed roads, the landscape around us is glorious, we go to the Ellery Creek Big Hole, a nice waterhole but don’t stop for long, we drive back to Alice and the sunset is amazing, the Ranges offer spectacular scenery with changing colours, the desert is really red and fiery, it is truly beautiful and feels peaceful. I connect a lot with that nature, it feels strong, harsh and intense. Inspiring, also for Fab who takes many pictures, we reflect on the significance of the land, on the Aboriginal culture, how the people are the custodians of the territory... We both want to find out about their culture but not sure how as everything seems to be touristy and not really authentic... I like the idea that they connect spiritually with their places, how it is feeding their arts... So different from what we have seen and the physical state of the people we saw today... We found out that the town has a massive problem with alcoholism and domestic violence, apparently mainly in the Aboriginal communities. It has now being declared a DRY TOWN! It is illegal to consume alcohol in public within the town boundaries except in bars or hotel... The take away purchases of alcohol is also restricted... All that to make the city safer... The heat is still on, it is now 8.30, it is probably 30 degres, we were hoping for a cool evening but that is not the case. A bit of food, we chat to a Spanish couple who came to Australia for a research project on penguins we tell them about NZ. We then get ready for tomorrow as the drive to Kings Canyon will be unsealed and we need to be ready for the big outback adventure... very exciting!!

9\02
We wake up early and manage to leave the hotel around 8.30, it is already 31 degres and very dry, we first drive to Hermannsburg to get our travel permit to drive onto Aboriginal lands. It is a small village, with an historical element, it used to be a Lutherian mission and one of the first ‘towns’ in the region, we see some missionary houses and get the permit to drive on the Meerenie Loop which winds west from Alice to Wattarka National Park (Kings Canyon). The morning is a real adventure, driving on unsealed roads, seeing rugged mountains, the desert is greener here, we are both surpised expecting it to be very dry. We will find out later tat there has been some rains, the flora is quick to develop and it is very green, arid type vegetation, with red sands. Challenging driving route but very fun! It takes us the all morning till 2pm, we stop few times to take pictures, to look at wild horses, we even see a wallaby or kangaroo, jumping around! We finally reach the resort were we are staying in the Park, it is the only facilities here, we get a small lodge in the campsite (a concrete small room with no bathroom) but there is a pool in here so we might use it... But it still to hot to do anything... We have a quick lunch then Fab naps and I write... We are here to do some walks and see Kings Canyon, in the George Hill Range. The National Park is supposed to be great with nice tracks, nature, rim walks and creek walk with nice views of the Canyon walls... We buy some juices at the resort shop and spend half an hour chatting with Simon, from Brisbane, he gives us some tips and advice on his region and where to see the sunset here... nice. Around 5ish we go for a walk around the Canyon, we do the easy walk on the canyon floor, he mountain range is beautiful and it is a really nice easy walk, we see many birds, many plants, trees with white trunk, admire the rock formations, we then decide to drive to a better spot to see the sunset over the Range. We spend an hour or so on the roof of our 4WD car, watching the sunset on this mountain, colours change, Fab takes many piccies trying to capture the gradual colour changes of the rocks, the moon is nearly full and looks striking, there is a nice breeze, it feels so nice, the serenity and peacefulness of the landscape really touch us. We both feel very happy, it is nature perfect... Back to our little lodge, for a quick meal of Chinese noodles and cheap soup, as we are waking up at 5am to walk to the rim of the Canyon and see the sunrise... Apparently it is a wonderful walk, quite rocky but worth doing... Bedtime, trying to avoid crossing dingoes (wild dogs running around the campsite!)...

10/02
Hard to wake up at 5am, I still manage to get a shower and a quick breakie, we drive to the Canyon at 5.45, it is dark but also bright as the moon is so full, we both feel sleepy but excited, few coaches and 4WD cars are already there... It is popular! The nice breeze keeps us cool and we won’t suffer from the heat until 9am, good!! It is probably ‘only’ 27 degres right now!! The beginning of the walk is not easy, a big rock climb to the rim of the canyon, many steps, I feel breathless and tired but keep going, Fab is taking millions of piccies already... The sun is slowly coming up, we reach the top and start walking along the rim, we are rewarded with marvellous views of the canyon and of the National Park. We are only 900 metres above sea level but it feels higher, the sheer red rocks start changing colours and being lit up by the sun, truly beautiful, there are many different levels, we walk around for 3 hours, seeing rocky formations, waterhole, the river bed, the garden of Eden, a little oasis with native plants dating back from prehoristorical times... Amazing... Nice to see the sunrise light up the canyons walls, it is magnificent. We slowly go down the hills, the walk is over, it is 9.30am And the sun starts to be really hot and we are baking on those red rocks... The sun starts to bake us... We can check out at 11am so decide to go to the pool to refresh ourselves, nice little dip, a shower then we jump in the car... Off to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park... After 3 hours drive, under the sun, in the desert, we reach our destination, the Ayers Rock resort. Nice drive, but a bit monotonous, the desert is green, lush with many red rocks and sand, some valleys, plains, nice though, we stop at Curtin Springs, a working cattle station in the desert... And finally see the ROCK, Uluru, from far away, it is big but not that big, a huge monolith standing 348 metres high and red! The resort is the only place to stay in Ayers Rock, it is very commercial, 6 hotels, and a campsite, 23 kms from the Rock, we are here to see Uluru of course, probably the most famous natural landmark of Australia, the big rock, an icon really but also a place of great significance to the Aboriginal people, a very spiritual place but te national park has also other sites to see. It is said that the Aboriginal have inhabited this region for at least 50 000 years. The local Aboriginal the Anangu people are the traditional owners of Uluru, the park is jointly managed by them and the government. We reach our little cabin, nice, but a bit dated, a little wooden house in the campsite, we go for a drive around, try to find some food, it is funny and commercial, a town has been created around this rock, and just to service tourists, weird... We are planning to go for the sunset and tomorrow wake up early for the sunrise walk, around the rock, it is a long walk, around 10 kilometres. We decide to chill out until 6ish, when the sun is not so hot anymore... Fab naps, again, he is tired, I write on the terrace protected by my face net... I look weird but the flies are even worse than in the Canyon, they relentlessly attack you... We are both impatient to see the rock from close. Around 6.30, we go to the view point, a car park where we end up with few other people waiting for the sunset. The atmosphere is nice, we settle on the roof of our car, Fab chats with a guy from Singapore, I look at this monolith, impressive. Slowly the sun falls, the shadows evolve, distort themselves, the light changes. The rock turns red, ochre, it radiates, it's pretty spectacular. We are both touched by so much beauty... Funny to think it is just a big rock... but much more in fact... The night falls, the cars leave the car park, we stay there, chat to the ranger, and suddenly the moon rises over Uluru! There is nobody here, and we are amazed by the rise of the moon, it is full moon, we are lucky!! An incredible moment! After this brilliant eve, we go to bed early as we have to wake up at 5 am to see the sunset... It's going to be hard!!! The room is filled with insects and the camping toilets have information panels on venomous snakes, fun!

11/02
Hard to wake up, we rush to arrive before sunrise on Ayers Rock-Uluru, a race against time... We're vampires this morning, arriving before the sun! We stop along the road to see the sunrise: the rock is burning, it is different this time, red, intense, the desert landscapes become red, it is really magical and we suddenly forget how tired we are!! We then start the 'base walk', hiking around the rock, uber motivated!!! 10kms!! It is 7am and we are happy to be standing here, early and first on the scene!! The sky is deep blue, the sun begins to bake but a slight breeze spares us from heat and flies! We walk around, find the rock caves with Aboriginal rock paintings, see the sacred places closed to visitors, and observe the vegetation so close to this amazing monolith. It is beautiful and very quiet, we meet few people, it is still too early. The Park has been classified World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987 for two reasons: its biological and geological as well as its cultural significance. Uluru is bigger than it seems, masses of rock like waves, dunes appear at every turn, the forms are different, the colours too, the textures, shapes also... Very impressive! The beauty here is pure. The walk is a bit long, we stops few times, find the place where idiots climb the rock despite the fact that it is an offense to the aborigines, and such a lack of respect for cultures drives me mad!!! Uluru is very important to Aboriginal culture, it is a holy place, here as elsewhere, nature and culture interact, they are permanently connected. Because for these people, there was no difference between nature and culture, between past and present: everything comes from the Dreamtime, the time of the Dream and all returns to it. For the Anangu people, the Dreamtime is called Tjukurrpa. Katja Tjuta and Uluru were not places to live but places of passage and ceremonies. Anangu tribes were nomads who walked for miles in search of water and food. Their sacred law told them how to maintain the landscape and protect its resources. Unfortunately the tourists demand to climb is very high, the Anangu urge visitors not to succumb to this temptation. The access road to the summit is one of their sacred routes... After this beautiful walk, we visit the cultural centre which gives us an insight on those people, exterminated by the first European invaders. A culture closely linked to land and ancestors. Whole generations of Aborigines have been destroyed, with no culture and heritage. We understand better now the people we saw in Alice Springs, the legacy of a program of eradication... We browse the shops, owned by Aboriginal people, we talk about paintings and their meanings, do some shopping!
Then we drive to Mount Olga, Kata Tjuta, a group of rounded rocks, which are older than Uluru, in the same national park. We do a small walk but the heat is terrible and flies assail us... A picnic in the car and we hit the road to Alice Springs, 450 kms to do: thanks for the air con in the car!!! We want to arrive before 7pm to chill out tonight and rest before the flight to Melbourne tomorrow. Long drive on the dusty roads across the desert, we exchange about this experience. For me especially the Red Centre is the real Australia, the huge red sand dunes, stunning gorges, desert are fantastic. We both love the region very diverse and huge, very inspiring. The natural beauty of these places, their mythological footprint touched us, we hope to return one day to contemplate those places again. Arrived around 7pm, back in our little urban oasis in the desert, we find our motel room and go for a naughty Mac Donald tonight (bad!)... Time for bed!

Melbourne and the heat!

2009-02-07T14:29:00.002Z

6/02
The morning is gone so quickly, we use the free internet at the hotel and plan the rest of our trip to Australia: booking our diving courses in Cairns, booking planes, cars etc etc. This is time consuming and frustrating, we are impatient, and want to explore the city but this time, we have to plan to do less and relax more…
We go food shopping, have some basic lunch in a food hall, the concept can be found here too, as is the strong presence and influence in Asia, very similar to New Zealand! We go for a wander around the centre, Federation Square, a great place with interesting architecture and modern buildings. It's hot now so we decide to visit the Ian Potter Center, part of the National Gallery of Victoria. We see some 'Aboriginal art', and a fantastic exhibition of photographs of Rennie Ellis, an Australian photographer who took more than 200 000, documenting Australian life in the 60-70ies.

Then we go exploring the city, using the free tram - City Circle - which encircles the city centre: Flinders Street, Flinders Street station, main railway station and a Victorian monument typical of Melbourne, the Harbour Esplanade, the Yarra River, Spring Street etc etc. We're a bit lazy, we stay in the tram and listen to the comments on the city. This feels like an American city, the blocks, the vibe but with a strong Victorian influence. The CBD (downtown) is very small, our small backpacker hotel is well located in the centre, near Chinatown. Our first impressions are good, Melbourne is a busy, buzzing city, very bohemian, very cosmopolitan, quite trendy and relaxed at the same time. The cafe terraces, the galleries, exhibitions, small bars, well rather nice ... The evening is quiet, more Internet and planning. I watch my Australian soaps, nice to see them here and not in London!! We try to rest but there are several bars in the street and Australians are feeling festive… Everybody seems to fear tomorrow, temperatures will apparently go up 45 degrees, the highest temperature ever recorded in Melbourne! It's hot today but it's weird to think that tomorrow will be a day of OVER heat!

7/02
After a short night, we spend the morning in the hotel to finish our bookings (we leave tomorrow morning for the desert and the red centre, so we must organise the rest of the trip), do laundry ... the temperature seems to rise but the fan in the room somehow reduces heat. It is getting late, we want to go to St Kilda beach, an area of Melbourne that is reputed to be very lively with cafes, bars and restaurants everywhere. We leave the hotel around 1 pm and it is the big shock: it is extremely hot, the wind blows and is hot! It feels like walking in the breath of a giant hair dryer and hot! We hide in the shade, we can walk but after two minutes, it is a real effort, crazy! After half an hour of tram, we arrive in St Kilda, nice neighborhood, we are fighting against the heat but visit the city, nice shopping streets, lively cafes, people go for some air in the restaurants and bars.... Very bohemian but very Australian also ... after a quick lunch in a Japanese, with air conditioning (happiness), we go to the beach, it's funny, everyone wants to feel fresh and is in the water, covered with sunscreen ... the sun is very hot, very tough, the wind is burning and there is a sandstorm on the beach! Not fun ... we remember the news yesterday and the TV images of London in the snow ... a surprising contrast!
We spend time in the water, we watch the people, the beach... then we go for a mini walk to a small bar, there is a rock concert. Nice to listen to some music and chill out in the bar…but it is really too hot, we are able to return into town, take some pictures, look at the bakeries! We have never been so hot in our lives! I remember Egypt, the desert heat, but the heat here is far more overwhelming. We go back to our Japanese restaurant for a coke and wait for the storm! The sky darkens, the sky is grey, blue, beige, very special, but no rain, we go back into town with the tram, back in the city centre. The temperature drops, it is about 28 degres but we are finally feeling OK... whew! A little walk, we buy some pizza and back to the room, we will rest tonight. We are tired, Billy Elliot is on TV, and we are leaving very early tomorrow morning. The day was hot, suffocating, temperatures have reached 46.7 degrees in Melbourne, it was the hottest place on the planet today: mad! Unfortunately, many fires broke out in the bush and 14 people lost their lives, many firefighters are still mobilized, a real disaster. Temperatures are falling but the firesnwill probably take a few days before being extinguished.

Christchurch

2009-02-07T14:21:00.008Z

04/02
We wake up early, we clean the van, we sort out the bags, we are giving Pepe back to its owners. On the way, we stop by the Coachman, our hotel tonight, a large Victorian building of four storeys where we store our bags on the way.
Some complaints later (we are able to get a refund for 2 nights of van) we go back into town for an afternoon of shopping. Christchurch is full of souvenir shops ... difficult to find something else, it is very touristic... It takes a while to find a more sympathetic Christchurch, gardens, Victorian houses etc. etc. The buildings are low rise and Victorian, many in stone. Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the 2nd largest city in New Zealand. It is known for its cathedral, gardens, parks, museums. We knew the city was very British, but we are both surprised by this influence... The museums and official buildings although recent are similar to some English churches, we could be in England, with canals, boats-punts as in Cambridge, red telephone booths etc etc ... Very different from the rest of New Zealand. The weather is grey today and it is cool.

We go for a wander, we are getting used to the cit, slowly, it has 400,000 inhabitants, a 'great' city here, but the centre is small enough, we quickly get a feel of it, waling around. It is actually very good. After the great outdoors and wildlife , a gentle immersion before the real urban environments of southern Australia, good for us. Last dinner in NZ, a Thai restaurant, then we go for a digestive stroll on the main square in front of the cathedral and in the cultural district. Back in our room for a small glass of champagne, before a good night. Our first night warm, in a real bed, with no bugs, wind, humidity for a month. It is very pleasant, we get re-accustomed very quickly to a minimum of comfort, but we miss something…yes the good old Pepe... we will remember this van fondly!!

05/02
Again we wake up early this morning, after a real good night sleep in our (large) room, it has four beds (but we are just two !!!!). We ge the bags ready, go to the post to send a parcel, back home... We decide to spend the last morning in the Museum of Canterbury, and then depart for the airport.
We are stuck in the airport for two hours. The plane that we should take is victim of a bird attack (!). Apparently, a plane crashed in Boston few weeks ago for the same reason...quite serious! We need to change aircraft, a brand new airbus. And once again, we receive an upgrade (we have more space for our legs, good). Fab is happy! 3 and half hours later we touch the Australian soil in Melbourne. It's hot and clear here. We go for a small bus ride, the city resembles an American city, highways, motorways, an impression of grandeur, a huge change from the cities in New Zealand. We arrive at our hotel located in the heart of Melbourne. A little faded, a small room without bathroom, but the Internet is free! A great luxury for us as we have to do lots of planning and booking...

We go for a quick walk through the neighbourhood, the CBD, the city centre, we are tired but not hungry, we ate again in the plane around 4pm, so off to bed and no alarm clock tomorrow, no specific program... Ah, idleness, finally! We still have these desires to see everything, learn, explore everything but we need to do less... Not yet clear and easy but our pace is slowly changing...

South Island Fiorland to Otago Peninsula

2009-02-03T13:56:00.003Z

30/01
After a restful night and more browsing on the net this morning, we drive to Queenstown, the drive is nice again with many fields, green pastures, fields and mountains, still very few houses....it feels isolated! We see no people but tourists stopping to take piccies of the scenery. The one thing we see all the time is what we call sheep fields!!! Hundreds of sheep scattered in plains or hills, from far away they look like little rocks…but are sheep...amazing to see the number of sheep, there is a joke that there are more sheep than people in NZ. It must be true as there are only 4.5 millions people in that country and it feels like we have seen many more sheep!!!
We see sheep and cows and mountains and hills, green hills...That will become a private joke, every time we drive we count the number of sheep fields...
It is nice to arrive in Queenstown, a busy little town, fairly international, we hear lots of accents, it seems very cosmopolitan, many people come for the adventures and stay here, in this action packed little city...it is the adventure's capital of the country where everyone comes to do bungy jumping, skydiving, jetboating, etc etc...it is a nice town on the shore of a lake as well, very scenic but quite hectic. We do some shopping, Fab needs new walking boots as his are painful and they have to last six months...There are lots of people, many young coming to do adventure activities...we watch a video on the nevis highwire jump, where people jump from 134 metres high, really scary! We both feel tempted to do something mad but then decide to do it somewhere else!!!
it feels nice to be in a city again, we have a nice stroll, we even have a Thai lunch, big change from our home made sandwiches... then we hit the road again to drive to Te Anau, the town entry gate to the fiord land, we do some food shopping as there will be nothing in the area, complete wilderness...The drive to the entry of the Fiordland National Park is great with many misty peaks, cute lakes and a real remoteness feel... no house or human here...in the middle of the way, we stop for the night in a conservation remote campsite, on a very nice green field, there is only one tent and us, the Totara campsite in Fiordland. This part of the country, the Deep South is protected as a World Heritage Area, with glacial fiords, dense rainforest, it is supposed to be raw wilderness and it is!

31/01
We feel lazy again this morning but have to sort out our bags. As we have been infested by bedbugs...We are now sleeping in a plastic bag cover and in silk sheets that protect us from the bugs but they probably are in every cloth we have, oh joy!!! So we clean, sort out the bags, it is a nice morning alone in our quiet campsite, very pleasant. We then drive to Milford, the scenic road is amazing apparently but we are unlucky as it is completely foggy, we can't see more than 2 metres in front of us, stressful on a mountain road in a big van....After a tortuous long road, we reach the Homer tunnel, a one way tunnel of 1207 metres, it is small and very dark. Fab feels very uneasy driving it and starts having claustrophobia symptoms, not a nice feeling....the tunnel has been carved by men and is the only way to access fiorland. We stop after the tunnel and we decide not to cross it again tonight and stay in Milford for the night...we have a walk on the township, go and see the sound, magnificent, with imposing peaks. We sleep at the Milford Sound Lodge because it is the only place there! Feels nice to have hot showers, to cook in a kitchen, we spend the eve, chilling out, Fab writing, me reading in the big lounge, amongst other travellers.

01/02
We book a small Milford sound cruise, it is the best way to see the fiord and cruise through it. it is A nice small boat, we are only 9 people as it is early morning. We chat to a German girl, she has been travelling around for 4 weeks, we exchange tips and marvel at the fiord. She tells us about a rape that happened in a campsite close to here, quite scary...
The fiord is simply stunning, it is inspiring and feels exceptional, Fab takes so many piccies! We cruise through the fiord and see lots of peaks, luxuriant rainforest clinging to rocks and mountains, all washed by many small waterfalls. The Mitre peak dominates the skyline. It has been raining heavily this night so the peaks are full of rainfalls, some are temporary and will dry in two hours. It is a gentle start of the day, with magnificent views, we see more dolphins close to the falls, and we even get a muffin on the boat, I am happy!!!
We then decide to tackle the tunnel as Fab is worried he will feel uneasy again... this time, he managed to overcome the claustrophobia feeling and feels OK driving through it, what a relief. I really wished I did take my driving test before leaving London! We stop for a picnic then go for a long walk-climb in the Milford region, the Key summits walk, a steep ascent to see many peaks and lakes, it is truly beautiful, we really want to come back to walk the Milford Track (4 days walk, 54 kms). We drive the alpine road again to Te Anau, and this time we enjoy it much more as it is sunny. It travels through impressive alpine scenery. We stop to admire the valleys, the summits, the waterfalls. We do more driving as we want to get closer to Dunedin, we drive to a very muddy campsite, looking more like a building site...I start feeling uneasy, what the German girl told me didn't help....A car with two men stops next to us and I am now worried...what if? They move their car but then come close to us again around 1 am and I start panicking....We both won't sleep much, checking the car!! But at 6am, the both leave...and we fall asleep...till 10 am...silly me, anxious for nothing!! They were probably campers too tired to set their tents in the middle of the night, under the rain than thugs!!!!!!!!!!!

02/02
We drive to Dunedin, a city proud of its Scottish heritage, with lots of Victorian buildings, we decide to not stay here as we will soon be in Christchurch and in big cities. We go and go visit the Otago peninsula, which stretches along the southern end of the Otago Harbour, it is very close to Dunedin, it is a nice scenic drive with small bays, green fields, mini beaches. Cute. This place is also known for its wildlife...We go to the Albatross centre but decide not to pay to see the colony, we saw some flying at sea in Kaikoura and it as great...we don't want to pay to see some more but enjoy reading about them, they are so endangered, mainly because of human fishing and long lines...It makes us more aware and from now on we will be cautious when buying fish...it will have to be dolphins and albatross friendly! We then go to Sandfly bay, where we walk in sand dunes and see some ...sea lions!!!! A mother and its pup playing in the sand, so close to us, truly magical!! By chance, we meet some conservation volunteers on the beach and they tell us the baby is only 1 month old and he is special as he is the first one to be born on that beach!! We feel very privileged to see them playing in the sun!! We continue walking seeing seals and more sea lions o the beach, then we reach the viewing hide (hidden in the dune) to observe the penguins!! Nice to seat there, chat to the volunteers, they tell us about the different penguins, the seals who love the rocks and the sea lions who love the sand. We wait, we wait but see nothing, the volunteer advises us to go to another beach, close to where we were planning to camp...so we leave the beach and lucky us, just at the end of the beach, we see two small penguins and they are yellow eyed penguin, one of the world rarest penguins!!!! Slowly, we sit down and watch them, mum and chick are coming back from the sea to their nest!!! A true moment!!! Touching AND magical to see those amazing animals so close to us, free and undisturbed in their natural habitats. We drive to the other reserve, in Moeraki, through a mountain road, the Highcliff road, quite impressive...sea and mountain again. As soon as we arrive, the lighthouse keeper tells us we only have 5 minutes as the reserve closes when the lighthouse lights up...it is around 9.30pm so we rush but from the hide, we see more seals and two penguins, coming out of the sea and walking along...amazing!!! We then drive to another to see more seals and penguins. After a little drive on gravel road with nearly no petrol (tank is nearly empty and we couldn't find a petrol station so late), we arrive safely at the conservation campsite, Trotters gorge. So funny to drive on gravels roads in the dark for 10 minutes in the middle of nowhere and suddenly be surrounded by few other campers!!! Late dinner and off to bed!!!

03/02
We wake up late again and decide to go for a beach walk before leaving the area, so we go back to Moeraki to see the Boulders, some weird big rounded rocks, looking like big balls scattered on the beach, nice walk then we managed to find some petrol and make our way to Oamaru, it will be our last stop before Christchurch. We stop there for lunch and walk around the cit, it is a very historical little town, with many limestone buildings, it was very prosperous in the 19th and could have been the capital...funny to see little streets and stone buildings as we have seen so few on them, most of the architecture in the country is made of wood, even the old government buildings in Auckland! We visit a whisky cellar, we see some arts galleries, then make our way to CC, a long drive, the last one as we are giving back our Pepe, our campervan tomorrow morning! We find a campsite in Christchurch, no free camping here! The eve is spent writing, washing our clothes and getting ready...one more day and we are off to Australia...

South Island, West Coast

2009-01-29T09:59:00.005Z

24/01
Before leaving this morning, we go for another big food shopping, I love it, I always find supermarkets interesting, always funny to see what a country eats…similar to ours…but I love discovering and tasting new cookies, biscuits etc etc…naughty me!!! We then drive to Arthur's Pass National Park, the village is in the middle of the park, it is the highest altitude settlement (around 950 metres) in NZ, we arrive around lunchtime and after a nice picnic on a car park (!!), go for a walk on the bed of a river, the Bealey river, it is a great walk, easy but with beautiful scenery. We observe the river flow and relax under the sun sitting on rocks. We both really love this national park and start to feel more connected with the nature around, good feeling. We feel less tired and happier to be here together. We manage to find a nice conservation free campsite, Klondyke Corner; it is great, a nice large open campsite close to a river. We just chill out, watch the amazing sky, again so many stars and the Milky Way and off to bed early.

25/01
We are going for a long walk so before we head up to the mountain, we go to the alpine village to get some bread for the sandwiches, it is early around 8ish and already full of life, everybody seems to leave so early to go walking, climbing…a nice feel. We see some kea, the local parrots on the car park, they are very funny animals, trying to steal food from humans…We have a laugh observing them. We spend the day ‘tramping’ – the NZ way of describing hiking-walking, the Bealeys Spur Track is hard but beautiful, we see amazing views of the river Waimakariri, the valley where we sleep ad have a great view of many peaks in the Southern Alps (yes called like that too here!). It is quite challenging, sometimes very arduous, there are lots of walking up hills, after a really long climb, we stop for lunch close to the hut, and relax under the shade (sun is way too hot here!). I feel like resting as I am exhausted…but Fab is braver than me and wants to climb till the top!! I settle in a nice spot and watch him ascent and go to the top of the mountain. It was really hard and took some time but he made it and came back with some amazing piccies, as usual. Such a nice walk with diverse landscapes, some peaks, mountains with snow, lots of alpine flowers. The diversity amazes us, and it will be the case every time we go for a walk here, you can find many different landscapes in 5 minutes, lakes, swamps, mountains and even the sea!!! Amazing to have such diverse ecosystems so close!
We go back to our little campsite and spend the eve in the same spot, it is actually quite nice to have a sense of routine!!! The evening is not brilliant as we both feel annoyed with the van company: the fridge is not working and the battery seems to be dead…we are losing some food and the smell is not great in the van, cheese and butter melting in the sun, lovely cheddar smell!!! Fab calls them and they cannot do anything as it is Sunday, we will have to call back Monday a.m.

26/01
We leave early as we want to call the van company to sort out the battery, after few phones calls and a bit of stress, we have to drive to Greymouth, the big town on the West Coast to get it sorted, a tiny detour from our initial plan but manageable. The route is interesting, amazing landscapes and some little gold mining cities, feels very much like we would imagine a Far West region in the states!!! Despite so many little gold towns, it feels very empty. We read about the Gold rush in the 19th century and it is hard to imagine it happening here!! We arrive at Greymouth to sort out the van at a garage, it takes 1 hour, we then stroll and go for some shopping, internet and we are ready to go again, a little picnic then a drive till the end of the afternoon to the Glaciers region. We arrive in Franz Josef around 5ish, but we really want to see the glacier despite being tired so we go for a short walk to see the glacier: spectacular!! Nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean. The danger is real as two tourists died here two weeks ago, getting too close to the ice.. We will have to be cautious and stick to the tracks. It is an amazing scenery, the ice is blue at some point, the glacier seems so tranquil but it actually moves every day!! We find another conservation free campsite close to a lake, the lake Mapourika, it is a nice site but infested with sand flies and mosquitoes, we have a hard time all eve, chasing them as we become their dinner!!! Many people told us about sand flies, so far we escaped them, here they are, in numbers, biting and attacking…pure bliss!!!!!! We will both from now on have tons of little red bites on our legs, very VERY itchy….

27/01
We again wake up early and go for a beautiful all day walk-climb, in the rainforest. Yes, weirdly enough, there is a real lush rainforest, very close to the glaciers. It is very dense and humid and at times, it feels like being in a tropical country…weird…we will then find out that ecosystems here are a bit all over the place and coexist where they normally shouldn’t. The walk is steep and hard, with many hours of climbing up, river crossing to reach a nice spot with great views on the glacier as we climb to the top, exhausted! Franz Josef glacier (named after the emperor) is very impressive, it advances 1 metre per day!!! We see the blue ice, the canyons created by the snow and ice, the high peaks. It is truly magical to see an amazing glacier, which descends deep into the rainforest of the Westland National Park. After a difficult descent, where I managed to slip and fall in the mud in front of the only person we meet on the track (!), we go back to our campsite for the night. I wash my hair with a bucket outside, helped by my lovely hubby….the joy of no hot shower and freedom camping!!!! We just chill out for the eve, I read about the Maori legend on the glacier: the Maori name is 'The tears of the Avalanche girl', Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tawe to climb with her, he fells from the peaks to his death, she was broken hearted and her many tears froze to form the glacier!! We both reflect on the incredible landscape, the superb scenery. The West Coast region is really wild and untouched, with serene lakes, birdlife, fern everywhere, lots of streams and rivers, mountains and of course dramatic glacial valleys but I miss the humanity…the nature is impressive but not many human beings here and I miss the human touch, the human arts, the human touch on the landscape….Fab connects more with the mountains, the gigantism and the purity of the peaks touch him a lot.

28/01
We go to see Fox glacier this morning, it is 300 metres deep, we take a little walk close to the river to see the terminal ice face. This one has more stones, feels rockier but has an amazing blue icy colour. After a nice stroll, we drive to visit the Lake Matheson, to see reflections of Mounts Cook and Tasman in the water. It is a nice easy bush track around the lake, we see the Mount Tasman but the Mount Cook, NZ highest peak, hides behind the clouds!!! All around, it is still the rainforest, even on the mountains which have huge canopy of rainforest…again it feels like an untamed wilderness, great natural beauty with a beautiful flora. We both again are puzzled by the fact that the dense rainforest is so close to the alpine vegetation, WEIRD!!! We then go for a picnic on Gillespie beach. Gillespie was a small gold town gold, but quickly became a ghost town less than 2 years after the gold rush….we can sense this, a feel of the isolation but also something of a pioneer era. The beach is a beautiful black sand wild beach with a lagoon, we walk for hours, it looked more like swamps, tropical, it feels like Asia!!! We walk, write our names with stones, Fab attempts to sculpt the dead wood on the beach, we hesitate: shall we stay here tonight or move on?? We both feel restless again and in need of new scenery…. But numbers of campervans invade the small beach campsite, so we decide to drive a bit for 2 hours before sunset to find another spot….We are heading towards Lake Wanaka so we need to stop in between and decide to go to the Mount Aspiring National Park. The night arrives when we find a conservation free campsite, it is already 10 pm and hard to cook here as you are not supposed to make noise after that time, it is buys and everyone is so quiet and goes to bed early…the eve feels short, we both fall asleep quickly but struggles with bed bugs…yes the mattress seems to be inhabited by many insects and the multiples bites on our legs are annoying!! We thought that would happen in India, not here!!!!!

29/01
We wake up early again and decide to leave to reach Wanaka in the morning, we both feel tired and a bit low, it is grey and we need to chill out, Fab dreams of a hot shower as it is cold and humid today. I feel sleepy…The drive is nice, amazing mountains and lakes, Fab is touched, I am sadly finding it a bit monotonous…how bad is that, amazing landscapes yet I find it repetitive now…mountains, lakes, forests….We arrive in Wanaka around 10ish, it is a nice little town on the lake front, yes people!!!! I am glad to see some houses, shops and people, yes!!!!! We both decide that after many days of cold showers and freedom camping, we need a treat so check in a nice commercial campsite with spa and sauna!!!! The morning is lazy, internet, shower, shower, shampoo and that is it!!!! Nice to wash, to wash clothes with powder and not soap, yes we are not 20s anymore and sometimes it is nice to recharge the battery!!!! We go for a walk around town, nice shops, organic food, people, we even go for lunch in a pub…nice treat!!!
We then go back to the campsite and enjoy the spa and sauna…Fab decides to BBQ some lambs in the communal BBQ area, he has a chat with some Swiss guys, I stay in, writing and relaxing before a nice meal.

South Island

2009-01-25T23:32:00.002Z

22/01
After waking up on the beach, we drive to Kaikoura, a sweet little town with mountain plunging in the sea, it is amazing to have the sea and the mountains together!!! The area is famous for its wildlife: penguins, whales, dolphins, seals etc etc.... On the coastal road, we already see many seals colnies, they are called kekeno here, so close to us on rocky beach, amazing to see seals in their natural habitat!!We look around the town, then have lunch at the view point, watching the black beaches. Fab is still unhappy with the campervan, so we spend lots of time on the phone trying to change it...not working...we got it cheap for a reason: relocation, in fact us driving it to Christchurch is a favour to the company...so we got a deal but we have to stick with it and deal with it!!!! We then decide to go for a long walk, the Peninsula Walkway, three hours walk through cliffs, a lovely peninsula, an amazing coast track, it is truly beautiful and feel serene. We both start to really enjoy the country and its amazing landscape. aftert this walk, we drive around and find a nice spot close to the beach where other vans are parked, this will be our place for the night!!! We have a chat with Collin, our neighbour, again an English man, him and his family left England 6 months ago to relocate here and start afresh, they have been living in the campervan since September and enjoy the freedom of it, while they wait for their house to be built! Daring people starting all over again....inspiring! We chat a bit, he tells us about places we are going to,whee to find free spots for camping at nights, what to see, we talk about England and how they hopoe to become self sufficient here. Nice night despite opur battery running down and our fridge getting warm...horrid smell in the van!!!

23/01
Val wake up really early (7am) and wach the sea while having her breakfast, nice to be so close to the beach. We drive to a better spot to spend few hours there and meet with Collin and its family again!! Fab chats a bit, then we decide to go to a campsite as the fridge is dead and we ned to plug the van to get some power!!! We choose a nice one with swimming pool and hot shower!! The treat!! We find a nice spot on the grass with a table, we wnat to chill out for while so spend the morning there, doing our washing, talking and not doing much...until we got to our whale watching trip!!! As mentioned before, the region is famous for its marine mamals and we really want to see some...the trip is 3 hours ona boat, we sail around the bay, until we see a gigantic sperm whale: so amazing to see it!! It is resting then go again for a plunge...Truly unbelievable!!We then go on to see more seals colonies and some pods of dusky dophins!!! They play around the boat, swim along ...truly magical!!They are known as acrobats of the sea and it is funny to watch them dance and jump in the air! What a unique day!! The whale watchers organisation is very eco friendly and we learn a lot talking to the guide....New Zealand has a law to protect all marine mammals and they ban hunting, it is good to know that most of those animals are starting to recover from the human slaughter and that they start breeding again. An amazing encounter with magical animals, we both feel blessed to have experienced it! Picnic on the beach around 4pm then we go for a walk and decide to enjoy the campsite and its facilities: a swimming pool and some hated little jaccuzi!!! Nice to chill out, we chat to a couple from Dunedin (one of our stops) and then really enjoy the dip!! Nice dinner outside, and off to bed!!

North Island

2009-01-25T23:22:00.007Z

16/01
We wake up and get a lift in order to pick up the campervan, we are a bit disappointed as it is a gigantic van, yes with shower and toilet but more suited to a family than a couple...well, we will have to get used to it, but Fab is really unhappy about it as it is heavy, not stable and drives very slowly....we then leave Auckland and stop in a massive supermarket to do the big food shopping. Off we go on the motorway for a drive to the north. It's not easy to get used to driving this campervan. Whomever has ever lead a filled up to the top supermarket trolley will know how it feels. Heavy, slow and really hard to manoeuvre around (less the visibility!). We take it slowly and watch the landscape. Val mainly.
We pass Whangarei, and misjudging our way we end up driving for miles on a gravel road to a wild remote conservation campsite on Otamure Beach near Whananaki. It's right on a marvellous bay with black sand. We settle down. The campsite is not too busy but with basic facilities, pit for toilet and this is it!! The big van is useful as we can have a cold shower (not hot in there!!going to be fun for the next three weeks!!!). We have diner, read for a bit. Night comes to unveil one of the most fantastic sky we have ever seen...the milky way is very visible, and there are millions of stars, truly amazing.

17/01
after this resting night, we head up to the Bay of Island, in the north, and drive to Paihia. The bay has many small islands, turquoise water and it is apparently a great spot, it is also an important place for the history of this country th as the first European base and the stat of European colonisation...Pahia is a little town, nothing exceptional, we walk around, then spend half the afternoon on the grassy beach, reading, watching people making sand sculpture and baking as the sun is really hot!!! We then walk to the Treaty grounds and the Treaty House in Waitangi (Vive la reine!) where the maori chiefs and the British Governement signed a treaty in 1840, giving Brititsh sovereignity over the whole country and protection . Officially, it is an agreement between two people to live together in one nation, but isn't it the start of colonialism??? The treaty house is nice, cute, and there are amazing gardens with a maori meeting house. We then drive to a campsite, owned by Maori family. We stat to get up really early so we go to bed around 10!!

18/01
Today is not great, we planned to go swimming with dolphins but we wake up and it is pouring rain, the trip is cancelled and we decide to leave the Bay of Islands, we didn't really appreciate the place or had time to see anything that retained our interest...WE then make the mistake to drve to Ranglan, on the WEst Coast. We are looking for surf and beaches to compensate, Fab wants to surf and this town is supposed to be the perfect surfing town, with amazing breaks and rugged beaches. We sped many hours driving through nice green countryside, it is Very windy when we arrive. Nothing as described in the lonely Planet (from now on, we will followour instincts as it seems the gide keeps telling fibbles..), nice little town with great surfing beaches, we go and watch the surfers, great waves , the place is famous for competition....We ten spend lots of time trying to find a free spot for camping,m of course, there is big business here so all the parks and car parking are forbidding overnight stay so we end up in this horrible tacky campsite with hundreds of caravans lined up one after the other and people looking crap and red necks....Very depressing...Some people probably live here, and have recreated a home with planpots, garden floor slabs and mini dwarfs!!!!! HORROR!!!! We freak out, argue, feel so annoyed with the trip....From now on, we will have to plan better as the itnerary is really long and we are slow...We don't enjoy and drive too much so we decide to do less stops and relax a bit more, as it is very unsettling...

19/01
After a bad night, Fab decides not to surf here and want to escape, we drive to Rotorua and after many houes of driving we arrive in this very famous geothermal town with a strong Maori influence, thee are many amazing natural phenomenon here, and the sulphur gas (the town smells of rotten egg....unique!!). It is a very touristy area in NZ but we must be lucky as it doesn't feel too crowded... The city is surrounded by many lakes and we decide to go to one for lunch...we spend some time at the Blue Lake, have lunch and a break on the lake's beach. It is a bit chilly but sunny...Back in town to book the visit of Te Puia, a geothermal park with a cultural maori show, it seems to be less commercial than other Maori type shows as it is run by the Maori Arts institute. The Maori culture is heavily commercialised here and we will find it difficult to escape that vibe... It is an interesting mix in that place, we walk around a nature park, discover hot springs, geysers (the biggest one Pohutu erupts every hour and up to 30 metres...), mud boiling from the earth, bubbling mud pools but we also have a visit of some Maori workshops, weavers and carvers, we learn about the culture, the way of life and how people try to cultivate some elements of it and blend it with a more contemporary lifestyle. We have the same feeling as in Auckland, it is a very rich and complex culture, with guardians of natural elements, many subtribes, a strong sense of the spiritual and natural world. We then see a maori cultural performance with dance demonstrations and of course the haka, the war dance where the dancers are really scary with eyes bulging and tongues out, they seem to get themselves really ready for a fight. We then have a painful dinner, eating traditional food, but seating with strangers...the dinner dampens the evening as it feels commercial and way too touristy for us, we try to communicate but our neighbours are not our style a all...drinking beers and beers...and stuffing their faces...The evening finishes with a nice touch, a beautiful singing moment in front of the erupting geyser with a hot chocolate, it is touching, to witness the beauty of a human voice in front of such an impressive nature. Then we drive back to our lake, to the remote nature reserve behind, in the Whakarewarewa reserve car park whe we have decided to sleep...It is hard we both want to save money, not stay at horrible campsites, as we hire a campervan to be autonomous but find it difficult to be isolated in the wild...We start discussing the dangers of being here, far from town, alone, anything can happen...blah blah...Luckily for us, a car arrives and a young Brit Michael travelling alone is also spending the night here. we both feel a bit reassured to have another human presence with us and sleep then but an uneasy feeling is still here for both of us, maybe we see ourselves as cooler and funkier than we are in reality...We would love to still feel careless and at ease in those kind of situations but it is not the case, we worry about our safety (there might be no reason)and both feel disappointed about ourselves...Then we decide to see how we feel each night, travelling is also trying to challenge ourselves but it shouldn't be too hard...We want to be adventurous but not so much,is it that bad?? We should relax and camping in very isolated places might not help...we decide to find some alternatives to the wild and horrid campsites for the next weeks, the free Department of Conservation campsites seem a good compromise: they are in remote places with basic facilities, toilets and sometimes water from a stream, for the moment they will amongst our options, as staying in less isolated places, in car parks with other campervans...and from time to time to have a hot shower, go to a nice campsite...

20/01
We wake up and offer Michael some breakfast as he is literally living in his car, he left England a year ago and has been working in OZ before coming to vist NZ, he is going up North, nice to chat a bit and get some tips on where to go. Our day then starts with Hell's Gate, a visit to another thermal park but also a spa!!! The real name is Tikitere, but George Bernard Shaw renamed it after his visit in the early 1900's. Atfer seeing the post apocalyptic aspect of the area we understand why!
The specificity of this spa is the proximity of the pools heat source, being only 1.5 or 2km underground. Others sources are generally around 10km. The temperatures of the pools range between 68C to 145C for the hottest. The different pools have different colours depending on the mineral they contain and the type of sulphurous waters and mud. After the visit we treat ourselves at the spa facilities, a private mud bath and a dip in the sulphurous waters. Colder though: the temperature is only 40C!
We then have a picnic lunch near the Rotorua lake before deciding to hit the road, our itineray is still too full at the moment and we have to drive many hours to reach the South Island...We both feel a bit restless and we need to replan our South Island bit, not that many stops and more time to enjoy and settle for few days in each place....A very long drive follows, to the south of Levin through the desert and mountains range of the Tangariro National Park (Mordor in the famous NZ movie) and plains. We have a laugh driving through 'Gumbootville' the world capital of the gumboot.Nice landscapes but we see very few humans and towns, many regions seem pretty wild and remote, we drive miles and miles without seeing anybody or any houses, feels weird...and isolated.
At 9pm we reach our destination: a lovely conservation campsite on a river stream near to the Tararua Forest Park. We hear what We think might be Tui birds. Their singing sounds like they're saying Ti Tu-i! It's sort of short but sweet, added to the stream gently flowing, the atmosphere is very serene.it is isolated but there are few campers and few tents...in the middle of nowhere!
In a dreamy mood we have a quick diner, and lights off.

21/01
After a healing night (we did not sleep well the night before!!), We wake up and are greeted by a rooster on the van doorstep! We have a morning walk in the park to start the day gently before heading off for a little drive to Wellington.
we walk around city. The time is a bit short, so we do a quick visit of the capital centre. Once again we are not too impressed with the city. There is an undeniable american influence here. The buildings (even the older victorian, they look like small versions of the ones in Mahattan), the look of the shops, the widespread burger shops, the urban furnitures (traffic lights...), the lorries (we see loads of them as we spend loads of time on the road!). It sometimes feels like we haven't left L.A.
Wellington is very similar to Auckland, with the financial district overlooking the industrial harbour. We see wooden houses up the hill, in the distance. They look nice. But time's up for the ferry to Picton.
It is not a very nice ride for Val as the big swell rolls between the two islands. The coastline from offshore is spectacular though. Hopefully a sign for the south island! After arriving in Picton, we drive at night until we reach a DOC campsite on a remote beach, beautiful setting and again an amazing sky. We both feel tired but a bit more positive...

Auckland City

2009-01-15T11:19:00.007Z

13/01
After a 4 hour flight leaving Rarotonga very early in the morning on Monday, we arrive in Auckland on Tuesday!!! The shortest Monday ever...New Zealand...the customs and passport inspection are very long, you cannot bring food, plants,animals,soiled camping gears to this country...to protect the biodiversity...a bit extreme,it takes forever...even worst than the US!!!
We finally take in a taxi, too lazy and tired to take the bus....we make it to the city lodge accommodation, our backpacker hostel for 4 days. Tiny clean room with an even tinier bathroom but at least it is not a dormitory!! Nice big communal kitchen, a laundry and some nice staff willing to advise...good start...It is warm but not too warm, sunny...
After resting a bit, we decide to go walking around the city centre and discover Auckland. We walk to the Viaduct Harbour, the main commercial street Queen Street, the Sky Tower, we wander around and the first impression is not great. Auckland city is not pretty depite the water and the volcanoes: many big avenues, motorways cutting through the city, it makes us feel like we are in a badly designed small US town.
Lots of shopping, big roads and tons of asian restaurants...this is the amazing fact: the Asian population, mainly Korean, Japanese and Chinese, is huge here. In some areas, all the shops and restaurants are asian. All the signs are written in chinese or korean...feels weird, it is so multicultural. In some places, you could easily forget you are in New Zealand!!
We go for a lunch in one of those Asian food halls, a very specific widly spread concept here: a large shop basement lit with neons lights and hosting many food stalls: Malaysian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Chinese food...all for a very cheap price. We eat Thai food, then walk a bit more but we are not falling in love with Auckland...not very nice city...
Back close to the water, We observe all the commuters taking ferries to go to the islands suburbs (we will later discover that is where many people live). Getting out in the water is part of life here. We see many boats, it is the city of sails after all and the America's Cup Big Boat is exhibited as a Christmas decoration...funny...
We go to bed early, tired and not sure what to expect here, first impressions aren't fantastic...

14/01
The morning is spent sorting out the van, we have to hire one to visit the country...After studying many companies, Fab calls them. One seems to be perfect...nice cute campervan...Luckily for us...they have nothing!!! For once, being late paid off, they cannot offer us the cheap van as they are all booked up, so as a result, we can get a 'luxury' campervan (ie with toilet and shower) for a very cheap rate....a really good deal!!! Even cheaper than the basic ones!!!
We have to spend another night in Auckland as it is not available before Friday...not a problem as we want to get out of the city and see one of the islands in the gulf.
We feel very excited about it!! A campervan, seems fun...We book it then go for a long walk to the Auckland Museum, it is now very warm and sunny, a real summer!! Again not a very nice walk, in between motorways, gigantic ugly streets, industrial estates, shops, nothing really nice for pedestrians...again very American.

The museum is a surprise, it is surrounded by an amazing park called the Domain, has gigantic gardens, on one of Auckland's volcanoes. We get to see the city and harbour from up and it looks stunning with this sea of islands, little green suburbs.
We spent few hours checking the display of Maori and Pacific islands arts and objects. The Maori culture is facinating but quite complex, such an amazing culture, we see a really long war canoe, we enter the Maori meeting house, we look at amazing carvings with details and sculptures.It is a fascinating culture, with a very strong link to ancestors and the land, even the objects are treated with respect and given names... The legends and mythology are very complicated with many gods, we try to understand their story of creation with Rangi the Earth nother and Papa, the Sky father but it gets more and more complex....We then have to walk all the way back to the centre, it is sunny but we both feel exhausted. We still decide to take another way home and explore another area, including the famous K Road, supposed to be one of the trendy-edgy areas, with vintage shops, designers....we arrive there around 6pm and everything is closed!!
Yes, here everything shuts down after 6pm and very quickly the city feels dead....
Another long walk to the food supermarket as we have to feed ourselves, the walk is horrible again, alongside a motorway, no real architectural sense here...
We then spend most of the evening in the communal kitchen, cooking and chatting to people, it is busy, maybe 15 people cooking and discussing...many nationalities. Funny enough, we meet a French couple living in Blackheath, for the past 20 years!!! South London is never far away!!

15/01
We want to escape the city and experience the islands as it seems to be the best bits here. Our choice is Rangitoto (what a name!!) This island is a volcano! It emerged from the sea around 600 years ago with eruptions forming the island.
Rangitoto is the largest, youngest of about 50 volcanic cones in the Auckland volcanic field. This funny name is derived from the phrase: 'Te Rangi totongia a Tamatekapua - the day the blood of Tamatekapua was shed'. Tamatekapua was the chief of the Arawa canoe tribe and lost a major battle with another tribe and was injured on this island. Nice ferry ride, it is a gorgeous sunny day and feel very warm...the sun is strong in the Southern hemisphere and we feel it.
The island is stunning, amazing lush short vegetations and lava fields....It is also a place of significance for the maori but was unsuitable for settlement as as only layers of basaltic rocks. The lava rock seems an inhospitable environment as no soil but there are lots of plants on the island, including the largest remaining pohutukawa forest - the flame tree (the local tree) in New Zealand. Mangroves which usually grow in the mud of estuaries are found here too, growing directly on lava and many lush bushes....We spend the day walking, first we Walk to the summit, a long climb through lava fields and forests, it is warm and the dark lava retains the heat, making it even warmer...specially when ascending a steep path!!!But we make it to the top and are rewarded by panoramic views of Auckland and the gulf. It is stunning. We then go on to walk to McKenzie Bay, a natural black sand beach, we have a quick picnic, attacked by wasps and worry about reaching the ferry warf on time...no rest today for us....feels a bit rushed.

We reach the end of the walk and start seeing all the baches, the holidays homes that were built in the 1920s and 1930s. The bach sites were leased to pay for the development of the island and a community was created at that time, people would come on holidays here....very wild camping first, then they would build out of wood some hut-cabins, then houses with basic equipments then a bit better, using the rain water and kerosene lamps. We are amazed by them, they are all abandoned and derelict but many have some furniture inside, some old clothes...we peep through the windows, go in the gardens, see glances of lifes...feels a bit like being kids again and going to see an abandoned house, a bit scary and exciting...even if we both know they are empty!! Then, surprisingly, one of them seem to have inhabitants, windows are open, shoes, clothes and bath towels outside.we even see a little girl playing in the yard!!!! We decide to be brave and knock at the door...Angela opens the door and we asked her about the house, do they live here? We thought all the houses were empty and abandoned and no one lived on this island!! She laughs and invites us in...Paul her husband is here to with the twins girls and they offer us a drink, we chat for an hour, the bach house belongs to Angla's grandfather, he built it and was amongst the first people in the bach community...it then passed on to her mother then her, she tells us about the governement wanting the baches to be destroyed, the conservation organisation wanting the island to be without humans (apparently the island is now a nature sanctuary). A significant number of houses were removed when the lease expired, some were burnt to the ground. Finally we learn that following a trial and public outcry, the baches are now listed as historic areas and that the government wants to preserve some of the baches for their historic interest but still willing to get rid of the people. We chat a lot, politics, life in Europe, here, we look around the house, Paul shows us all the inventive bits and the improvements done to the house. They might loose the house, when the lease is up...but at the moment, they still manage to come here on holidays...It has an historic significance we feel, as we learn there are many baches sites scattered around NZ coast...may house will be 80 or 70 years old.
In few hours time, when the ferries are gone, Paul, Angela and their twin girls will be the only people on th island until tomorrow, how exciting!! they are very friendly and it is a shame we have to go and take the boat. Paul tells us where they live and we are invited to come and visit once we will be in the area...which we plan to do. Such a great encounter!!
We leave the island and enjoy the ferry ride under the sun, walk home, shower then we finish the night in a japanese take away, eating stir fry at the counter....

Bed time, tomorrow we pick up the camper and go up to the Bay of Island.

Kia Orana!

2009-01-13T02:34:00.005Z

05/01
We land into Rarotonga, on the 5th of January, after a long flight, tired but excited!!! It feels weird to arrive at 5am and be welcomed by a ukulele's player in a small airport under the heat! Robin, our kabana's owner is here with flowers necklaces to take us to our new home,it is very hot and humid...short drive, amongst villages and vegetation. We discover our lagoon, Muri Beach and our kabana, a little beach hut in a lush garden, so close to the lagoon and a white sand beach, quiet and amazing view...it honestly feels like paradise! We are both amazed and excited as hell!!!We fight to stay awake and go for a walk, surrounded by an incredible white sand beach and wild landscape of forests and mountains...first lunch on the beach in a nice restaurant, served by a French girl from Paimpol!! Far from Brittany but she fell for a Kiwi and they moved here. Funny to speak French here on this small island. The colour of the sea is incredible, like we have all seen in travel brochure or movie: turquoise, clear,pristine....I discover Ika Mata, a recipe of raw fresh fish (usually tuna) marinated in coconut milk and lemon, with vegetables, I am going to spend the next week eating this fabulous dish...it is my next culinary obsession. Fab also eat some nice raw fish (Muri Tataki), we both agreed that Polynesian flavours are great.
We then go for a walk and experience the torrential rain, the weather changes dramatically in minutes, it is tropical and it is typhoon season. Water keeps falling, how funny to be wet and hot under the rain, very healing,somehow liberating....the nature is strong here, powerful and it feels right. There is amazing natural beauty and tranquility despite the violence of the rain.

We learn a bit about the cooks islands: 15 islands scattered over the pacific ocean, Captain James Cook sighted the islands in the 18th century but the first time a European man put foot on Rarotonga was in 1814,the majority of the population is still maori but here are many NZ living here too. Christianity plays an important part in the local life now, and we will see many churches along the road. Dusk comes quickly and we wander around before heading back to our kabana and sleep like logs despite the heat and many mosquitos.

6/01
First swim in this amazing clear water, we are up early as a bit jetlagged and hot...feels like paradise, we play like children in the warm turquoise water (only time we will see the Ocean that colour!!Rain is coming...and will stay!) Then Helmut, our German neighbour who has been living in a Kabana, here for few months gives us a lift into the small town Avarua (the capital of the Cook Islands). It is a busy township with many shops. We spend the morning organising the bike driving license for Fab (we BUY it ater a short test!!), we then go on touring around town with our little scooter, no helmets of course.... Island way!!! We go to the big supermarket to find food and expecting to find fresh stuff, are very dissappointed to find only very basic stuff, junk food craps and very few fresh stuff...all expensive...pasta, cheddars, frozen stuff...We will survived on brown rice and raw fish this week!!Every thing has to be imported so it is very minimal.
More swimming in the afternoon, ride at night around the area and bed time already. We both reflect on the soothing qualities of the ocean, and are amazed by the unspoilt natural environment of this place. Even the tourists places are small, hidden behing trees and not disturbing the scenery. Somebody will tell us later that it is advisable not to build houses taller than a coconut tree!! I love this place, it is surprising but simple and amazingly beautiful,so natural.

7/01
This is a grey day today, the weather has changed over night and it is colder (still 27 degres!!), we go back to the town, kayak around the lagoon, snorkel a bit, we managed to see some fishes but are a bit disappointed, nothing compared to Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, the reef where we are seems dead...Grey day for both of us, not finding it easy to adjust and relax.
Only highlight was eating Ika Mata on the beach, 9 pm in bed, after watching the lagoon at night. I feel a bit worried, will I managed to enjoy those 6 months, will we manage to adjust to so many changes and be happy together? Funny to be anxious in the middle of a tropical Paradise!I feel sometimes restless and bored and not able to enjoy being here. Fab is tired and still needs to recover, he is still stressed, work might be over but we both feel his long lasting effects on him, more naps and rest needed before being in the being here.

8/01
Rainy day today, we have a lazish morning then go for a ride around the island, amazing back road, leading onto the montain, Rarotonga is a volcanic island and today, the powerful nature is impressive, dark angry grey sky, vibrant colours, lush vegetations, mosquitoes, very dense forests. We fall in love wth the natural environment. We observe people's houses, how they live, we both love being on the scooter, childish feeling of freedom, especially in this tropical moist. Raro is lush and carpeted with plantations and forests, we are amazed by the colours of the plants, We rode the ancient road called Ara Metua, built by an ancestor chief Toi (there are only two roads on the island, one circling the beaches and the ancient one inside),I love the fact that Polynesia has much more to offer than blue lagoon and amazing white sand beaches, it is a real discovery and I realy connect with the place, specially the nature. Lazy afternoon, I do some writing and collages, Fab naps...then we go for a canoe moment with the outrigger, feels fun. we then have a BBQ with our Aussie neighbours, Keith and Nadia from Sydney, nice eve, drinking wine, eating BBQ meat,talking Raro, life, Australia, England, Paris. There are only 4 kabanas so we get to meet everyone here and chat a bit, it feels nice to socialise a bit. Everyone is quiet and frendly, an English family ending a Kiwi trip here, a young English and Irish couple getting married on a nearby Island, our German guy. Life is lived at a gentle pace, we all spend many hours on our deck reading, sleeping or watching the lagoon! Feels secluded. We both spend many moments looking at things or landscapes...There are many big holes in the ground around us and they are all inhabited by gigantic crabs, I spend many hours watching them, they make me laugh, they look like old chinese wise men. They remind me of the crazy martial arts teacher in Kill Bill!!! They move so slowly, look around so suspiciously, afraid of everything!There are also many dogs around, some stray but all seem nice, funny enough I am not that scared of dogs, they seem to be like us, suffer from the heat as much as we do and bath in the ocean too!!!A little white and ginger cat decides to spend many days on our deck, feels nice to have a cat even here. Reminds me of my little Milly at home.

9/01
Bad night, the rain and wind were mad, heat is hard, not much sleeping..at the same time I love the torrential rain, very healing and soothing, feels again right to see the Nature powerful and in charge...the forest needs the rain and it comes with furor. We go for a safari tour, trying to discover the ancient culture and the lush rainforest interior, as we have been told that it was dangerous to go alone, as too slippery...It rains heavily but we are inside a big jeep....we see few sites, sacred maori sites, a waterfall, some amazing mountains views, we see our own lagoon from far up, surrounded by its 4 motus (small islands that close the lagoon from the ocean). All OK but touring in group is not our cup of tea even if we enjoy talking to an Italian couple and tried to communicate with alovely Japanese couple with nearly no English. I am happy to exchange for a bit, touched by our guide who tells us about his life, how he never managed to learn English properly as a child as he was too scared in school and only wanted to speak Maori, until he went to live in NZ. There are only 16000 people in the Cook and 10000 live in Raro but there are many (I heard something like 50000) overseas, mainly in NZ. We talk about the associated goverment, The cooks are freely associated with NZ and every islander has a NZ passport. We learn about the land system, how the land belongs to the family and how it goes to the next generation, foreigners, like in Thailand, cannot own the land but lease it for 60 years. The land is precious here, and one day, it could become complicated if all the overseas cildren come back to reclaim a bit of their own.
Most people are buried on the family land, which explains why we see so many tombs in the gardens, around the house. You look after your ancestors and grandfathers even when they are dead.

We talk about the similarities with other places in Polynesia, how Tahiti is the closest culturally to the Cook. Our guide is warm, so happy to be back in Raro, so proud of his home, we get a sense here that they are a proud people with a rich culture, proud of their land and history, and above all of the natural land. He describes the society here, all seems a bit rosy...we have seen helpline numbers for suicide, saw many shacks and poor houses and it seems to us that it might not be as idyllic as described to us, tourists, but tourism is the first employer here and all has to fit the magic of a Pacific island holiday....Nice moment but the touristy concept of it (BBQ on a beach feeling more like a corporate tacky lunch) is really not for us. Back after lunch in our little retreat, we then go off to snorkel on another beach, called the Fruits of Rarotonga, we see many fishes, the tropical marine life is much more interesting today, nice corals, colourful fishes (some big ones, parrots fishes), the visibiltiy is good but the water is not that warm today , it feels fresh. We meet Nadia and Keith, they came all the way from our beach, on the outrigger, we are impressed as it is a few kilometers to row!!!!

We then go into town for the eve, Friday night is the night in Rarotonga, and we are going to see an Island night, been recommended to us to see local dancers and drummers. We are afraid it is going to be touristy but acutally funny enough, islanders love Island Nights and tourists are a minority in the restaurant, we eat chat, relax after our crazy ride under a torrential rain, mad but such a laugh, we both arrived completely soaked at the place...not classy at all...We then see some dances from Polynesia, I am a bit dissappointed by the dancers, I hoped they would be from Raro as I really want to take some pictures, I find their faces amazing, very beautiful, it really reminds me of a Gauguin painting, but our dancers seem to come form other Pacific islands and they even look south American!!!The show is good, complex choreography, amazing sensual moves very similar to arabic-belly dancing moves, fearless maori warriors but it is short, only half an hour...the place then transformed into a night club, many locals arrive, drinks, dance, funny to be in a bar club here, we go home after a drink as Fab has to ride the scooter in the middle of the night under the rain. We laughed again a lot on the scooter, so fun, despite the mosquitoes!!!

10/01
Saturay and soon we are leaving for NZ, it is going so quickly, I just start to feel at home, start to relax, to appreciate being here, observing the crabs, the rain that rarely stops now...A part of me would love to see this place under the sun and with turquoise waters but I am also happy to experience it with tropical rains, downpours of waters and a more intense nature, it feels less like a fake paradise, more authentic and I am connecting wit this moist hot tropical environment.We get up early to go to the market and experience the hub that is Avarua, the township, many stalls in the market, saturday is the important day, locals are out shopping, tourists are here browsing, buying black pearls, everyone out..., many people, food everywhere, people eating curry, burgers, fish at 9am. Locals sell local craft, pareu (sarongs here), wooden carvings and black pearls. The tropical heat is back, it is going to rain but for now on, it feels suffocating...We browse around, we take many pictures, especially of people, we both find the Polynesian so beautiful, men and women are all very large, no size zero here, far from it! Many adorn their bodies with multiple tattoos, women have flowers in their hairs, there is a real sense of a gentle elegance. I look at them and search for something in those amazing faces. Funny to be so puzzled by physical details. We buy some ika mata for the next few days, some local vegs a bit like spinachs, some paws paws smoothies (papayas) and some naughty papayas jelly cakes...
Home, then we go kayaking and it is hell with the crazy wind, we hit many rocks, fight the wind and give up after an hour...The rain starts, we jump in thre sea for a swim the home for late lunch. Fab is tired and naps, I sit on the beach until the torrential rain rinses me and everything around...I am now sitting on the deck, looking at the rain, i am observed by big crabs, the heavy grey sky is not even scary. I finally managed to sit down and write this blog post. We eat at home, then spend the eve watching the Cook Island TV (only one channel and quite funny.)

11/01
Our last day on the island, feels a bit sad but we want to enjoy it, so we start the day by going swimming, so nice to be in the water, under the rain. The sky is a mix of blue and grey, we spend a bit of time in the water as we are not sure when will be the next time as New Zealand is supposed to be much colder now!
We then go for a last ride along the island, watching people go to church, looking at those amazing views for one last time. We leave tyhe scooter at the rental place, then decide to be adventurous and go kayaking before lunch: it is very shoppy as the wind is strong...a very good excercise!! We kayak to the reef and explore it a bit, watching the corals and stones and noticing the difference between the Ocean and the lagoon. The cruise back to our home is strenuous, we fight against the and the wind is getting stronger...We managed to arrive safely and eat some more raw fish, we then spend the afternoon chilling out on the deck, discussing our plans for NZ and planning our next moves...
Tomorrow morning the flight is at 7.45am and we are leaving the bungalow around 6am....next stop Auckland and the start of our campervan experience!!!

Polynesia has been a great place to start properly and make sense of this adventure but it feels there is so much more to see and experience here. I guess this is going to be a familiar feeling, that we will have to tame, as we leave places we both like and feel safe and content.

Rarotonga

2009-01-07T00:20:00.006Z

After a sleep deprived long night in the plane, we land on Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands,a Pacific Country!!It is tropical here, and our little bodies are struggling with the moist and heat of the rainy season...total body shock!!!However we are welcomed by an old man singing and playing Ukulele, in the airport, at 5 o'clock in the morning!!

Robin is here to pick us up and takes us to our beach bungalow, set on a carpet of lush vegetation, within the Muri lagoon.The view is amazing, blue sea, clear waters, dazzling tropical colours, friendly dogs (yes...), gigantic crabs, stray cats sleeping on our deck, palm trees, a little wood bungalow.We rest, try to make sense of the surroundings, go for a walk, a swim, watch the lagoon, try to adjust to the heat, get completely soaked wet by the tropical rain (more like a monsoon shower...) and eat some amazing local raw fish and that is it....We hope to be on 'island time' soon, walk a little slower, think a little less, be a little more, relax together and savour each moment... in paradise.

Los Angeles

2009-01-07T00:09:00.006Z

First post from LA, where after a very long flight and few movies, we managed to get an upgrade in the airport hotel and are staying in a suite with a nice living room, plenty of space and light, close to the plane runways but not much noise....feels nice to have two rooms, a bit like an appartment!! The first of January, first day of the year, first day of the trip, we sleep late then go and hire a car...no other option here as the city is gigantic...Fab decides to go for a beautiful black Ford Mustang, to live a bit of the Californian life but we are not daring enough to go for a red convertible!!!
So starting in style (not going to last for long, but this is LA!!) We then decide to start exploring the city landmarks in Hollywood.....cinema land, is it? We walk the Walk of Fame, see many star names in the pavement, put our hands in theirs in the Grauman's Chinese Theatre pavement, we stop to eat Mexican (the joy of eating burritos even in a noisy soccer bar!!). Well, it is very touristy, crowded with many attractions but somehow it feels more illusion than a real cinema industry. Weirdly enough, the area seems shabby, with run down buildings, many homeless people (a common feature in this city as we will discover soon). Far away from the Californian cliches....We then decide to drive to explore the Westside, passing through Beverly Hills down to the Pacific on the famous Sunset Boulevard at dusk. A long drive, bendy ride lined up with amazing mansions and palm tree lined gigantic streets for the far too wealthy. Impressive difference with Hollywood, we both feel puzzled by the wealth, the excess of it, the many contrasts and areas.Lots of rest seems needed, we both feel overwhelmed and exhausted.
The next day, we decide to go urban as the weather is grey, we find ourselves en route to Little Tokyo and Downtown LA. We see one one great piece of architecture, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an amazing architecture with lots of curves, but the rest is disapointing, empty and souless, feels like any city in the US or even Europe despite of the scale, not LA. Thankfully our afternoon becomes nicer when we explore West Hollywood, more boHo, many nice shops, galleries, the Farmers Market and the Grove, a friendly arty atmosphere. We start to like it, both for different reasons, the city is growing on us and as Fab says it takes time to ease in here. One impression still prevails: shops and fast food....and gigantism. Seems a bit simplistic but this is how we feel, spending hours in the car doesn't help (but what an amazing noise it makes!!).Having freeways in the city feels weird, like a gigantic ring road, so hard to deal with the traffic.Every eve, we feel glad to go back to the hotel and rest, maybe our physical state reflects how we feel at this stage, excited but exhausted and finding it hard to relax and slow down....SLOW...not yet.

Saturday we go to the beaches and start seeing a different California, we really enjoy the vibrancy, the vibe of Santa Monica and Venice Beach, funny to see many disparate communities gathering in this place. The energy is intense, between the fortune tellers, the stoned, the tourists, the bourgeois bohemian lucky to live on amazing beach houses and the muscle men....what a weird combination, which works for us....it is loud, brash, seedy, fake, messy but somehow real, intense and fun!! Funny to walk on legendary or iconic beaches, but as the weather is hazy, it doesn't feel like this cliche of sunny California. Marvelous sunset though.We both start to relax and appreciate what the city has to offer. Amazing architecture, houses on the beaches, a cliche of a healthy edgy (compatible?) sunny lifestyle...We go back to our little nest.

Our Sunday, last day is our favourite day, the sun is shining, magnificent blue sky, we then drive to the long awaited Mulholland Drive cruise...and the Hollywood sign. A long bendy road offering plenty of opportunities to enjoy the canyons and many more amazing mansions! We spend the morning at the Getty Center, a nice arts museum in an AMAZING building, the architecture is mind blowing and to the size of that Californian demesure: a little tram to get there through the canyon, a white marble entrance, enormous but tranquil zen gardens, breathtaking views, a backdrop of spectacular post mordernist architecture, we both feel inspired and Fab takes many piccies with his new toy!A lunch in the sun, then we drive to the Pacific Ocean to spend our last afternoon on Malibu beach, walking, people and building watching, and yes Val did get the Starbucks door opened by Dennis Quaid! And yes we are being brainwashed buying tall take out lattes from Starbucks!One last drive then it is bye bye California, on our next stop....Polynesia, the Cook Islands...

Funny enough, we both feel a bit unsettled and sad to leave the city....This car crazed city, where distances are huge and massive suburbs sprawl everywhere and never feel the same. Lots of poverty, homeless or stoned people in the streets, tons of fast food shops everywhere, a far cry from the cliche of THE health conscious Californian skinny ladies (didn't see many of those ones...)We loved it as we found it a challenging city,very different in reality from the Hollywood caricature. We'll be back!!
See Album for more pics!

Two Stowaways...

2008-12-21T02:00:00.016Z

...are hiding in our rucksack!!!

Mr Ducky and Mr Caganer!!!!

Mr Ducky is a yellow duck toy, rattle for baby, made in London, fed up of being shaken by baby Timeo.
Mr Caganer is from Catalonia. In Catalonia, traditional Christmas decorations consist of a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to the Nativity scenes of the English-speaking world but encompassing the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. Accompanying Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds, the caganer is often tucked away in a corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for "caganer" translates from Catalan to English as "pooper", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating. Mr Caganer has decided to test toilet facilities around the world.

They have decided to accompany us on the trip, they also want to see the world… We will take picture of our two mascots in pretty corners of the planet and will keep you informed of their peregrinations...

The Itinerary

2008-12-20T16:49:00.016Z

U.S.A.: January 2009
Cook Islands (NZ): January 2009
New Zealand: January 2009
Australia: February 2009
Bali: March 2009
Vietnam: March 2009
Laos: March - April 2009
Singapore: April 2009
Sri Lanka: April 2009
Nepal: May 2009
India: June 2009