THE FINAL ENTRY... Back at home

Hey hey there,

After delaying this so much I'm not sure how many people will read this! Anyway we made it to our flight, only to find out that we were sitting next to Flawless off Britain's Got Talent - Steady was incredibly sweet and nice for the whole flight.

He even wanted to come say hi to Mum - I phoned Dad up when we were collecting our luggage to ask whether he was waiting at the barrier. He only told me they were 20 miles away stuck in traffic. Not funny. He was joking. We got the last laugh when we walked out with Steady though! Huge surprise to see Maddy (Hayley's sister) and Loz waiting for us too! So nice to see everyone again - and even managed to get a few photos with the whole of Flawless. Made the flight more entertaining anyway...

So back at home now. Finding it actually quite hard settling down - and am unpacking the house etc. and finding my way around Lichfield. It seems a horrible deja vu - reminds me of when I was around Stonar, reminds me of Northern Ireland, yet it's not actually quite right. Found it very hard around town high streets as there's so many assaults on the senses - even the quiet and cleanliness is distracting. And the amount of adverts in this country...! Attempting to have a conversation with people in phone shops was quite challenging...

But then the Stonars and KES guys came up for the weekend (and Haz's family for lunch) - only 14 of them stayed up over the weekend (slightly manic) and we had a fantastic time. So things are settling down again a little but enjoying being around Mum. Dad's away for this week so it's nice for us to have a little girly time together. But it's so strange being back in the UK. Still feeling slightly uneasy the whole time. And really must start looking for a job! Very weird being alone at night, very weird just being back in the UK. But I'm sure things will get easier and will start job hunting soon.

Anyway this is the last entry - sorry if haven't managed to be in contact with many people yet - life is very hectic. But thanks for supporting us and all the help you've given us this past year. We really appreciate it. And hopefully I'll see you all soon!

Love love,
Alice xxx

Our final day...

Hello all

This is the penultimate post (will do a final one after arriving home tomorrow) as today is our last day.

Mumbai is great - so unlike the rest of India we've seen: relatively clean, few holy cows walking around, traffic generally sticks to the lanes, and people leave us alone more. We explored Colaba yesterday (following Lin's footsteps in Shantaram), and went to the lovely Chowpatty Beach, to watch kids selling balloons, men selling chai and to watch the sun set on the buildings and sea. Unfortunately the water is toxic so you cannot swim in it at all - very disappointing.

We're going to meander around the town today seeing famous landmarks, before a bit of last minute shopping (Haz suddenly realised this morning that I am, in fact, a shopoholic), before our flight tomorrow morning.

We're feeling such strange emotions. So happy to be seeing much loved family and friends, and to getting on with our lives/careers and even enjoying a routine. Yet the thought of applications and hopefully interviews is petrifying. So is the thought of facing routine everyday, and our loss of freedom. For the last year we've been doing exactly what we want, when we want to. Now we have to compromise.

Can't wait to leave India as it is filth, but I also love it. Haz and I were talking and discussing upcoming trips (when we have money) - places we desperately want to see
- Borneo to go diving - could do it in 2 weeks or more
- Galapagos Islands - again 2 weeks
- Brazil - 1-3 months
- Colombia - 1-2 months
- Red Sea to go diving - 1-2 weeks
- Indonesia - 1 month
- India - 2 months

So got things to plan (even if they don't happen for another 10 years!) and places we desperately want to see. There are so many places we would like to explore more, or come back again to (South America). We've definitely got the travelling bug, but in retrospect, a years trip was too long. We became tired and complacent and unmotivated in Asia - probably much to do with the heat, and it was just not as exciting as our previous travels in NZ and Oz and South America. It was a great place, but somewhere to come for a couple of months - it's very easy travelling. And you see far too many western tourists.

India gave us a well needed kick up the arse and demanded our complete attention from day 1. It is difficult sometimes travelling here and very dirty, smelly and frustrating, but also so friendly, colourful, and tolerant of so many incredible people. But next time I visit I'm going to stay in nice hotels instead.

So it's our last day. We're happy and sad, tired and energised, excited and dreading things. We are looking forward to being busy today and really looking forward to the flight - FREE food and WINE!!!! Must remember not to eat too much when I get back...

But wanted to say thank you too, to everyone who's supported us, to our families for helping us and putting up with us buggering off for a year, and friends who've kept in contact with us and kept us sane. Also a HUGE thank you to everyone we've met travelling - you have been so kind and so generous and really made our trip. We've laughed for hours, had a seance, learnt things I never knew were possible, and nothing now will be the same. Thank you. (If you ever come to the UK - those who live elsewhere - please look us up!)

So now, before I get too weepy, I'm going to go, but thanks again, and see you very soon in the UK!!!
With much love from us both,
Al xxxxx

A few more reflections...

Hello all,

We woke up this morning and fly home TOMORROW! A little conversation took place:
'Do we fly home tomorrow?' says Haz.
'Yes' confirms Alice
'Oh goodness' says Haz (well it wasn't actually 'goodness', but though I'd tone it down!).
'It's our last day. Where did the other 364 go?'

We were thinking again and thought of a few more things we'd done...
- cycled down the World's Most Dangerous Road
- Learnt Spanish (and learnt to run away when a guy asks for a beso - a kiss)
- Lit dynamite in Potosi (and took photographs of us holding it)
- Reversed into a tree in Airlie Beach
- Got acquainted with locals in Byron Bay
- Visited the very cultural marajuana museum in Nimbin, Australia
- Learnt to surf in Bali
- Sex shows in Bangkok
- Bamboo and white water rafting in Thailand

Most importantly, we learnt some more lessons:
- We are extremely naive with men
- Never trust Argentinian bus drivers
- NOTHING is ever a fixed price
- When you see tear gas, run OUT of the way
- J can float.
- Men are disgusting. And smell.
- You can walk for hours on a bottle of coke.
- Guinea pigs don't taste great, nor alpaca. But llama and kangaroo are delicious.
- You need MP3 players to sleep on buses and in airports
- It is possible to watch Grey's Anatomy series 5 in 3 days in Kuala Lumpur
- Alice seriously overestimates how many tampons a girl needs for 3 months
- Arrival times are irrelevant. You arrive when you arrive.
- J and Haz realised that Al's slightly neurotic. And wee a lot.
- H can now drink coffee.
- Most people will rip you off but Haz's eyelashes and beautiful eyes work wonders.
- India is filth.
- Lonely Planet needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially the maps.
- Britain's Foreign Office Travel Advice needs to be interpreted creatively.
- We would do a lot for cheese.
- Always carry loo roll.
- It's not unusual for someone with a 3ft long rifle to guard an ice cream parlour.
- But most importantly, to quote Dean and Josh, NEVER rule anything out.

Reflection on our trip

A little summary for you all reflecting on our past year...

Things we’ve done
- Eaten grasshoppers in Mexico
- Wrestled anacondas and cobras in Bolivia
- Learned to dive in Utila, Honduras
- Marveled at the salt flats in Bolivia
- Braved San Pedro prison in Bolivia (and refused the opportunity to buy cocaine from there)
- Loki La Paz. Enough said.
- Climbed an active volcano in Guatemala and melted trainers over lava
- Alice has been splattered by cow pat, tripped over elephant poo and fallen into monkey poo
- Visited Great Barrier reef and dived there
- Met Marvin, the beautiful Maori Wrasse
- Dived the Yongala ship wreck, off the coast of Ayre, Australia
- Scaled Cerro Fitz Roy up 700m, and down again walking 27km in one day, Argentina
- Conquered the Inca Trail in Peru (and survived)
- Survived Coober Pedy in Australia
- Said hello to alligators and caimans in Bolivia
- Conversed with Tibetan refugee monks in McLeod Ganj, India
- Ridden elephants and cuddled tigers in Chiang Mai, Bangkok
- Visited the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia
- J was pick-pocketed by a monkey in Bali
- Slept in a 5* hotel in Australia, courtesy of 3 random Aussie boys
- Cuddled koala bears and kangeroos
- Alice had an ECG and ultra-sound to diagnose tonsilitis, Vietnam
- Visited (and adored) the Taj Mahal in Agra, India
- Seen public cremations in Varanasi, India
- Practised yoga (badly) on a rooftop at the foot of the Himalayas, India
- Learned Tango (well almost) in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Drove a Big Rig at full speed down the highway at night in the Australian outback (plus turning round and parking). All without hitting any kangeroos. Or camels.
- Walked among the millions of penguins in Peurto Madryn, Argentina
- Partied all night at Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan, Thailand
- Climbed the Petronas Twin Towers, well 170 metres up to level 41 (out of 88) in KL, Malaysia
- Snorkled with seals on South Island, NZ
- Made our own tribal necklaces out of cow bone, NZ
- Had our only bath of the year at the hot water beach on North Island, NZ
- Went tubing in Laos and lived
- Cruised up mountains on the back of motorbikes to watch the sunset in Udiapur, India
- Climbed the Fox Glaicer in torrential rain, South Island, NZ
- Took a boat ride UNDER one of the waterfalls at Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Things we’ve learnt
- Tequila is wrong
- Alice is responsible for Imodium’s profits this year
- When someone buys you a hotel room, they intend on sleeping in it with you
- Alice isn’t good hungry/full/tired/cold/hot…
- J eats toothpaste
- Dirty washing packs down smaller than clean laundry
- If you put clothes back in your bag they come out clean after about 3 days
- It’s acceptable to wear a top for 3-4 days in a row with lots of sweating
- Hayley loses stuff (especially sunglasses)!
- Australian boys have a few special talents
- You can get a litre of very drinkable red wine for a dollar in Argentina
- Israeli boys are very hairy, and always wear the same shoes
- Goon is great
- You get drunk quicker when at altitude
- If the Cadburys chocolate isn’t made in England don’t eat it
- Vegetarian in South America means meat with vegetables
- The buckets in Koh PhiPhi give you the worst hangover ever
- You can drive 30km with no petrol if no one gets in your way

Times we have wished we were back at home:
- When being vomited on during the bus ride to Cuzco, Peru
- When the shower is so bad you have to wash your hair under the tap (India)
- When the shower is sooo cold it gives you brain freeze (Austraila)
- When there are lots of little cockroaches crawling up your legs and you cant escape them because you're wedged into a train (India)
- When someone steals your passport between countries and the Peruvian officials suggest you bribe them with sexual favours (Peru/Equador)
- When you have a 24hr bus journey from Vietnam to Loas and they FILL the bus with rice and probably illegal drugs
- When you have to pick up your bag yet again and realize that it’s gained 10 kilos since the last time you carried it
- When you get bitten over 300 times in one night by bed bugs
- When you're rammed into a train in the wrong carriage - men only - in Mexico City and they help themselves to your arse

Really winding down these last few days. Arrived in Mumbai safe and sound this morning - it's so much more Western! Big roads, calm traffic that sticks to lanes, leafy suburbs, and we're visiting all Lin's hideouts from Shantaram such as Leopold's. Such a diferent attitude here. But no holy cows, although I've already received a Hindu blessing for Shiva for good luck...

Will write the final entry tomorrow before we leave early for the airport on Monday!

Much love from us both,
Alice and Haz xxxxxxx

A few comments

Been reading a couple of books - this extracts are words of wisdom from Sarah Macdonald (2004) in 'Holy Cow'. She's an Australian who's gone to live in India with her husband. Haz and I think she sums up things perfectly! Enjoy...

ON TRANSPORT -
'Blokes - and a friend or two, perch atop tall, rusty bicycles. Entire families share motorcycles. Toddlers stand between dad's knees or clutch his back, and wives sit sidesaddle while snuggling babies. Auto-rickshaws zip round like tin toys. Ambassador cars - half Rolls-Royce, and half Soviet tanks cruise with class. Huge tinsel-decorated trucks rumble and groan and filthy lime-green buses fly around like kamakaze cans squeezing out a chunky sauce of arms and legs...

Everyone seems to drive with one finger on the horn and another shoved high up a nostril...'

Roads - there is a 'strict species pecking order: pedestrians are on teh bottom and run out of the way of everything, bicycles make way to cycle-rickshaws, which give way to auto-rickshaws, which stop for cars, which are subservient to trucks. Buses stop for one thing and one thing only. Not customers - they jump on while the buses are still moving. The only thing that can stop a bus is the King of rhte Road. The Lord of the jungle, and the top dog.

The holy cow.'


ON RELIGION -
'You Western people are all science, all fact. You don't even believe in God anymore because you think we came from a monkey' - Sarah talking to an Indian man.


ON SOCIAL GRACES -
'The North Indian men on the streets stare so hard and are so sleazy that I often feel like I've somehow starred in a porn film without knowing it'...

Pretty much sums it up! xxx

Golden Temple, Amritsar

Oooo forgot to tell you about Amritsar!

Ok - very quickly - arrived here last night and went to a great hotel. Slept soundly for about 11 hours, and enjoyed our clean room. We tried walking 15 minutes to the Golden Temple (Sikh) today but got hopelessly lost so gave up and got a rickshaw.

The complex is great - it is huge, square and white, with a big pool of holy water in the middle, where people are bathing. The temple itself is small and in the middle of the water, but it is covered with about 750kg of gold, from donations of jewellery to the temple. Absolutely incredible what individuals can do when they act together. We had a great time talking to an older gentleman who taught us about Sikhism, and walked into the temple before escaping the heat for air conditioning. Such a lovely building - will put up photographs soon - probably tomorrow.

Anyways must dash,
love love xxxxx

Back to Delhi, McLeod Ganj and Amritsa

Hey hey there again,

Well we spent another night in Delhi and Romey very kindly donated us another hotel room. Very fancy - being very spoilt! We did the usual and I collected my suit (cannot put any weight on now!) before heading to McLeod Ganj on a rubbishy bus. We left 4 hours late due to broken air conditioning (we all complained until they fixed it, despite the long delay) and only had a couple of break downs along the way to fix leaking oil and so on.

McLeod Ganj was lovely. So unIndian (is that why we liked it?!) The town is 1700m above sea level so nice and COLD - we weren't sweating from morning to night! It's the home of the Dalai Lama and many Tibetan monks who left Tibet due to it being unsafe. The atmosphere is brilliant. It is so calm and respectful (men weren't getting in our faces too much), the roads were clean - surprise - and even had rubbish collection vehicles. There was very little traffic and when the clouds cleared, we could see the beautiful mountains and nearby villages.

We basically spent the time there eating. The food was delicious, Western and soooo cheap. We ate lemon cheesecake (divine, although I could've eaten 5 of them), I had 4 tuna melts (not all at once), gorgeous hot brownies with hot chocolate sauce and best of all, hot apple crumble with cream. I haven't had apple crumble for about 18 months, and it was delicious. There was Tibetan food which we tried, - some yummy noodles, and the odd place offering Indian cuisine, but we just had to eat about 4 times a day as it was so tasty! We weren't able to do the massage as we didn't have enough time (what a shame, we had to eat again), but we did volunteer doing conversational English with refugee Tibetan monks who were learning English. Fantastic to talk to and such a privilege too. So we did that one afternoon, then another session of yoga. Very sexy instructor this time, very French, not creepy and sleazy like our Varanasi one. And very encouraging, letting us do half poses if we weren't able to do them fully!

Our hotel was like a little ski chalet - someone's home with cute furniture, and even our own en-suite bathroom and working TV. We spent the 4 days taking things easy, seeing the Tibetan temple there, walking to the nearby village, eating a lot (first proper latte coffee in India - beautiful) and enjoying ourselves.

It was a lovely break from the hectic India that we've seen, and we were very glad to do McLeod Ganj last, despite it meaning we have to travel for longer. We are soooo obsessed about foods, and the ones we crave, that it was perfect gorging ourselves for a few days! Absolutely lovely.

So travelled all day yesterday on a bus and train to Amritsa. The bus was very bumpy and dusty, but we made it (eventually). The train was worse. They had overbooked the seats so we were very crammed in, but worst of all was the cockroaches. The place was infested. So many (thankfully little) beasties walking around all around us, and on Haz. (Thank God wasn't me!!!) They were on her legs and back - really really disgusting. Absolutely horrible. The 3 hours we were on the train were horrific. Worst train journey by far. So uncomfortable and just wrong with the number of cockroaches.

But we have to get another train tonight for 10 hours back to Delhi. We arrive at 7am (hopefully) and then leave again late afternoon for a 15 hour journey to Mumbai. We arrive there Saturday morning (hopefully) then fly home on Monday.

Can't believe that there's only 4 days left of our trip. At the moment we're tired from the humidity and the constant attention, and don't really want to travel on the trains either. The temperature is 35 degrees with 60% humidity, so it feels like 43 degrees celsius (according to Yahoo weather).... We both need a strong coffee and some food, and to cool down a little. So home sounds pretty great at the moment - can't wait to eat and drink and eat and drink and eat... lots of very strong cravings!

Anyway love to all, and see you sooooooon!
Love from us both,
Alice xxx

The TAJ MAHAL and Varanasi

Hello hello again,

Well we made it! We finally arrived (only a few hours late) into Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We found a great taxi driver called Waseem, who took us to somewhere we could dump our bags and shower for the day. Fully refreshed with food, we ventured out. Annoyingly, the tourists have to pay 750 rupees (15 US dollars) to enter, while the locals pay 25 rupees (50 cents). The difference is huge! Still, we felt we couldn't really turn around at this point, so carried on.

You walk through various gateways to enter the main part of the complex. The Taj is 'described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love, this sublime Mughal mausoleum is India's most ogled icon' (Lonely Planet, 2007). Built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who in 1631 died giving birth to their 14th child (not in a road traffic accident as 'Slumdog Millionaire' says!) What can I say really? Apart from that pictures never do justice to just how huge it is, how elegant and calming (despite hordes of tourists), how tasteful it is , built in marble, in a country awash with vibrant and garesh colours. An absolutely humungous building, with gorgeously inlaid flowers and writing on the walls with semi precious stones. Fortunately the sun shone a little while we were there which just transformed the place. The inner area houses 2 marble coffins for the Emperor and his wife, surrounded by a marble screen - actually the bodies are underneath in another basement room. But such a tranquil place on the river - and we weren't hassled by touts or little children selling us stuff half as much as I thought we would be. I did succumb a little to a very cute boy called Assif though and bought a little something! See the pictures on picasa that I put up - you can read far better descriptions of the Taj than from me!

We watched the sun set on it and headed onto another night train to Varanasi. By the time we arrived, we passed out for the afternoon in a deep sleep under the fan, and ended up eating at the hotel that night as we were told it wasn't safe for women to walk around alone after dark, as the daily electricity blackouts mean that men often grope women or worse in the dark alleyways.

So yesterday we woke at 5am - yes FIVE am, to get a boat along the holy Ganges river. Surrounded by Hindu people going about their morning business, we got into a (leaking) wooden boat, rowed by 2 guys and set off down the river. The water was very high and fast making rowing very difficult, but we (the guys) rowed us along, showing us the sights. Lots of buildings face onto the water, and at various points there are huge steps down to the river, called ghats. There are approximately 80 ghats around the area. When the water is lower you can walk along from one ghat to another, however at this time you have to walk through the alleyways instead.

We watched the sun rise, lit candles in lotus petals and set them on the river, and saw the beautiful buildings, temples, forts. And the people. So many! They bathe, pray, wash their clothes in the river, as well as their cows, they gossip and meet friends, and then get cremated after death and scattered into the river (where others are washing) as if you die in Varanasi, you break the life-death cycle. And there are huge numbers of holy men, shown by their huge beaded necklaces, shaven head or dreadlocks, or long curly hair, wearing usually less than others, sometimes with grey ash all over their bodies. Very extraordinary.

Such a strange and wonderful and unique place. We really feel as though we are in a completely different world! We also saw the evening ceremony last night, where we sat on some steps at a ghat, and watched 5 people play drums, sing, wave fire and flowers around, and thank the mother earth and mother river for providing for them. It was stunning and a lovely thing to do - to appreciate all that they have. (It would be nice if they didn't tip their rubbish into the water though)...

We've done yoga twice with a lovely guy who looks a little strange (not sure I'm used to male yoga bodies yet, especially very short ones), and who's stretched, pulled and massaged us into pain and relaxation. Yes into pain. His massages really hurt - he was doing chinese burns on my wrist! I did stop him pounding my ears though, as I'm not sure his 'massages' would really help them! But we feel virtuous, and can eat a chocolate brownie at the delicious bakery today when we go there to write our journals. (So busy or chatting so much, either to each other or to other people here, that have no time for journals! Very very bad).

Heading back to Delhi tonight, got one night there then heading overnight on the bus this time, to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj, to hopefully learn some tibetan massages, chill out in the mountains and do some more yoga.

So hope all's well with you, and see you soon!
Much love from us both,
Alice xxxxxx

Udaipur

Hey hey

Doing lots of entries here as things happen so fast! We've spent a great time in Udaipur so far. Viki at the hotel was fantastic about Haz's birthday - they even went out and bought a birthday cake for her - of the Western variety, so very very creamy and chocolatey. Even had a cream rose on it, pretty impressive. The chef cooked us a typical Rajastani dish that wasn't on the menu - full of cooked cherries, pineapple and vegetables, and I treated Haz to a delicious meal washed down with beers. We were sat on a balcony that had a bed mattress on the seat, with a very short table on it that groaned under all of our food. We ate by candlelight, and watched people milling around in the evening, playing by the river or crossing over the bridges. It was certainly a much calmer birthday than previous ones! We'll live it up another night...

We woke up early yesterday and Viki drove the 2 of us (and him) on his very very sexy black motorbike, through the countryside to see a beautiful dammed lake. Not on the tourist trail, I felt very glamourous with my shawl billowing in the wind (though not too far behind, didn't want to choke myself!) It was gorgeous and hilly, and very refreshing to be out of the city again. So much nicer! Hopefully the north of India will be like that too. Rajastani is half desert and half green hilly areas. So pretty out of the city, absolutely love it.

We saw the City Palace - 2nd biggest palace in India - 144m long and 30m high. It was beautiful. We took our time and had lots of rests in the shaded marble alcoves, watching other tourists. Very very pretty and we managed to dodge most of the tourists. Just had time for a leisurely lunch, a spot of shopping down the alleyways and then a gentle siesta. What a peaceful day!

So this morning we were heading to a Haveli (house) when we stopped and talked to a guy who had been standing outside his restaurant every day trying to get us come in to eat. The menu was nice so we sat down and ended up learning that he did massages, called Raju - he reads your body in your hands, then he touches pressure points on your body to sort you out. He also combines it with some spirituality, and he's incredibly interesting.

He took Hayley's hands and felt that her main problem was her back - she has suffered for years from a wonky back - but luckily most of her organs were ok.

He took my hands, and I was soon yelping and screeching in pain as he triggered certain points.
First - one leg is longer than the other and also my coxycs (spelling?!) is bent wrongly - that is why my back aches when I stand/walk for too long. That puts pressure on my shoulders and neck, and gives me headaches. My poor circulation in my legs causes my frequent leg cramps (especially when I'm under a fan or in air conditioning, and they can be excruciating). He ended up measuring my leg and true enough, my right one is half an inch longer! My right shoulder was half an inch higher too.

He pointed to my throat - thyroid glands - the last time I had a blood test the doctor said that mine are failing at the moment.

He did my stomach and I was writhing in pain! Two years of an upset stomach, apparently I have digestion problems. Also my heart, liver and kidneys weren't working great either.
And womanly things -apparently not all exactly how they should be - I won't go into details, but it needed fixing too. I was feeling rather broken by this point!

So with Hayley holding my hand (until he said we had to let go as she'd start getting my aches and pains,) I got completely naked and he pushed/prodded/pulled me for over an hour. I was in so much pain, - it wasn't a pleasant experience - but if it helps at all with my stomach it'll be worth the money, and for my back to stop hurting as much too is great. By the end of the session he measured me again and I was even! Walking around I felt as though I was tipping to the right, as I wasn't used to it. And felt slightly dizzy. Very strange. He didn't sort out my coxycs or my female problems as that was far too intimate - definitely wasn't ready for that.

Raju was so kind and professional that I didn't mind the experience (much) and if it helps at all it will be worth every penny. Got nothing to lose anyway! (apart from the money!) You couldn't lie to him at all, he was so accurate with his diagnoses and reading you. Very freaky.

Finally made it to the Haveli which was beautiful, and saw the lovely buildings and paintings, before it started raining. Well it is the end of the monsoon season! Two friends we've met are taking us to the Monsoon Palace this evening if it isn't raining, before we catch our night train. People here are so kind and we've had such a great time.

We're on an overnight train tonight to see the TAJ MAHAL tomorrow (eek!) before heading overnight again to Varanasi. Lots of travelling around, so quite exhausting but it's absolutely great. Just need some time to write our journals now!

Lots of love from us both,
Alice xxx

More of 'Incredible India'... now in Udaipur

Hello hello, or 'nameste' as they say here,

From 10 days without a blog entry to another one today - no, I wish I could say I felt guilty but the truth is that this place is amazing and I wanted to tell you all about it!!! (This doesn't mean you shouldn't read the WHOLE of the last blog though, haha...)

We took the night train to Udaipur last night. It took us 15 minutes to get to the station by auto-rickshaw (or tuk tuk) and 15 minutes to find our coach. A very very long train, where the letters and numbers had a mind of their own, or an Indian order and logic that we had no idea about. Eventually we found it, the train pulled in a couple of minutes later and we boarded the coach. The sleeper compartments were absolutely fine and adequate. We had a lovely elderly couple sleeping under us (who had a lot of food in their bags), - in fact the elderly man went in search of bed sheets, came back with them and made the bed for his wife. So touching to watch. The train was so much nicer than a night bus - we could lie down! The beds weren't huge, but they were sufficient and even had cables that not only held the bunk up, but also stopped us falling out. I know Haz made use of them! The journey wasn't too rocky or juddery, and we turned off our light and fell into a light sleep for the night. Gently rocked to sleep, we woke up a couple of times but fortunately fell straight back to sleep again.

We arrived in Udaipur and got an auto-rickshaw to the Hotel Thamla Haveli. Oh my goodness. It is a present for us from Romey in Delhi, and paid for for 2 nights. We have the most beautiful room - a white WESTERN loo that not only works, but is actually white. We have electricity (most of the time), a TV, the shower has enough water to actually shower under, we have white fluffy towels (I know, I'd forgotten what those were!) and even a desk and chair in the room. The whole hotel (our room included) is a mixture of new and old architecture, its floors are clean marble and its walls sheer white, with blue flowers painted around the ceiling and wall edges, and light fittings. Absolutely stunning. The menu isn't too pricey, and there is an alcove on the rooftop restaurant with a sofa area with cushions, where we enjoy the gorgeous view. The hotel overlooks the river, so we see children swimming and women washing their clothes, we see the other side of the city with the famous City Palace (featured in Octopussy), and turning around 180 degrees we see mountains. Absolutely beautiful.

A lazy day, enjoying the company of 2 delightful men who own a restaurant nearby. It's Haz's birthday today so Viki, the owner of the hotel, has asked us to celebrate it with him on the rooftop restaurant and watch the world go by. Can't think of anything we'd rather do more.

So we are very happy and are meandering around the alleyways that form the town, filled with shops, restaurants and travel agencies. We've seen the everpresent holy cows, and an elephant who had his face decorated with coloured chalk. A very friendly people here, and a great contrast from the hectic chaos that is Jaipur and Delhi.

So 'shukria' (bye) for now, and we'll write again soon.
Lots of love from us both,
Alice xxxxxxxx

India... and all it's quirks...

Well hello my lovelies

Sorry for such a long post - really should have done it earlier but unfortunately we've not been too well recently, and there's soooooooo much to tell you!

The first thing I think of is that I'm so jealous of the comforts you have! The western loos, no urinals on the street (actually no weeing on the street, certainly not the amount that there is here!), the clean bathrooms without ants or cockroaches, the clean sheets on your beds (and if you don't have that, stop being a lazy arse and change them), the fact that you're not dripping with sweat seconds after showering... although here it is perfectly legitimate to wipe the sweat away with your scarf, they do come in pretty handy...

Ok so India is filthy. Dirty. Scummy. And incredibly poor. There are huge disparities between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. I know people tell you this, but it's difficult to actually believe it until you see it. There are over a billion people living here in a country 6 times the size of France. It's pretty intense.

Oh anyone interested in the country must read 'Shantaram' - it's a story of an Australian guy who broke out of prison and made India his home while on the run. So well told, and it really captures those small cutural differences and experiences that made India so... Indian. Am reading it at the moment and loving every page.

So... we tried to walk down to see the zoo on Saturday morning, after a delicious meal again. (Also found another rooftop restaurant that was beautiful and friendly, but did delicious steaks for 1.50 quid... I've not had red meat in a long time, it was kind of a special moment)... anyway we were hassled non stop down the road.

'Madam, you want tuk-tuk? Cyclo? Rickshaw? Where you going? Where you from? Lubbly Jubbly.'
or...
'What you want? I got water, toilet paper, cigarettes, lighter, paper... everything. What you want?' (the fact we don't want ANYthing isn't really understood here)...

We ended up being accosted by various people who were trying to steer us to different travel agencies (we needed a map as our photocopied version of the Lonely Planet we'd bought on the cheap in Bangkok didn't really have suitable maps)... in the 2nd tourist office we were herded into, we met Romey and Prince. Lovely lovely guys, they fed us chai (tea), and lunch (various vegetarian food with chapatis and rotis). They also explained to us that we couldn't get up to McLeod Ganj/Dharamsala because the roads/bridges had been washed away during Thursday's downpour, that also saw our flight diverted.

So... we booked up our train tickets with them, and they gave us a free car for that day and the following day, with such a friendly guy, called Cooldeep (not the right spelling!) or KP, to show us around. SO much easier in air conditioning, rather than fighting the non existent public transport system, and being hassled every other minute. Perfect.

So we saw the India Gate (reminded me of another European gate, can't remember which one, will ask Dad) with the inscriptions of people's names who died in various wars. We went into a Sikh temple that was made from marble and stunning. KP (and all the other Indian men we've seen religious buildings with) always make certain marks of respect, and pray, and donate money even when it's not their religion. It's very interesting to watch, but it does make us feel uncomfortable as we don't know whether these are generic Indian gestures or religious gestures, and we simply don't really know what we should do! Anyway that didn't stop us from enjoying this gleaming white building, and the people were certainly very friendly.

We stopped in the National Museum for Contemporary Art and it was HUGE. Only saw one building in the complex and that kept us going for a fair while, until we could absorb no more art. There were some lovely pieces, but you'd really need to go in there on separate days to do it justice.

We drove to Raj Ghat by the Old Fort, where we saw the spot that Ghandi was shot (we think). There is certainly a memorial to him and many people circle the square memorial, paying homage to the man. A beautiful, simple monument, - very peaceful and quiet, - fitting to such a man.

Final stop for the day was the Lodi Gardens which were full of manicured gardens, and also full of mosquitos. So after we'd climbed over the bridge, taken photos of the numerous wild chipmunks here and been bitten enough, we went back.

It was great sightseeing so much in one day, but our day wasn't nearly over! After a very speedy shower and food we met up with Romey and Prince in Piccadelhi - a London themed bar/restaurant that even contained a double decker red bus. Amazing. Pedestrian signs pointed to Covent Garden, Bank and so on. And the food looked delicious. Prince and Romey then took us to a club under a 5 star hotel, called Capitol, and treated us to a brilliant night of luxury (champagne) and dancing. It was so nice to be treated (rare for us travelling) although we did feel a bit scruffy with so many well dressed Indian ladies. And great to see that side of Delhi, as we wouldn't have had the nerve (or knowledge) to go to this place by ourselves. Definitely an experience and much more comfortable with Romey and Prince along too. Prince dutifully delivered us to our hotel at 2am and we crashed out in exhaustion!

But the following day was even more hectic... KP and we visited a gorgeous lotus shaped Bahai Temple that flowers from green manicured lawns, we went shopping in a crafts emporium, KP bought us a delicious lunch - thali - is a big plate with lots of smaller portions, so you eat a small amount of different dishes. Very tasty and very well cooked... until we saw the food again. But more about that later. We saw the Presidential Estate and offices (an aweinspiring, pink palace, that looks vaguely similar to the American Capitol building) and the Mahatma Ghandi museum. Prince had turned up by this point and KP and he were chivving us along in the museum, which was a real shame as I could have happily spent a couple of hours there reading all the information. Might go back when we're in Delhi again.

We managed to lose the boys for most of the night, although collecting our train tickets took 75 minutes and many refusals of food! They are so kind, those boys, though rather exhausting, always talking very loudly on the phone/phones, to each other, to other people... everything in India is loud. Enjoyed an early night of sleeping as we were starting to not feel too well. I started to get an ear infection so started myself on antibiotics but both Haz and I started to get dodgy stomachs too though, Haz with painful cramps.

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed on Monday for our 5 hour train ride to Jaipur, but unfortunately we couldn't eat the free food due to us feeling so sick! It was horrible. I rarely turn down food. Even the thought of it makes me feel rather nauseous. Stumbling around Jaipur we managed to find a hotel with the help of 2 local guys, and slept solidly for 20 hours. With a lot of paracetamol and imodium.

So we woke up yesterday feeling worse for wear but had to get up and out of bed because Romey had organised for a car to come and take us around the city for free(!) All we needed to do was to go into a few shop with the guide, and all would be ok. We had to make the point early on that we couldn't afford the entrance fees to most places, so we saw Jaipur's City Palace, Water Palace and various other buildings from the lovely air conditioned comfort of the car. Perfect.

Old Jaipur is a rose pink colour. It was painted a couple of hundred years ago for the visit of the Prince of Wales (who later became Edward VII) as pink in India is a welcoming colour (and also maybe luck/success - we can't remember) and they've kept it this way ever since. Very funny. Indians are symbolic too. A woman's sari tells people how long she's been married for, a turban's colour and style signifies social status and religion and their animals are symbolic too.
National bird is the peacock, national animal the tiger and national flower the lotus.
Camels are seen as signs of love, elephants are good luck and horses signify power. Fascinating!
Anyway, Old Jaipur is beautiful and very calm on the eye, when you look up and away from the chaos in the streets! It is crazy here! Roads made of mud a lot of the time, rubbish EVERYWHERE, people sleeping on their tuk-tuks, rickshaws and cyclos, on pavements with a blanket around them - basically as soon as the sun goes down they find an empty spot to rest their weary heads. Everywhere.

We saw the Amber Palace which is on top of a hill overlooking Jaipur, and it was stunning. One of the maharajas had 12 wives and 40 concubines, and ended up building them separate apartments. The palace was huge with incredible views and inside the architecture was stunning. So many carvings and painted areas on the walls. They could provide years worth of inspiration for artists. One area was covered with small mirrors which was glittery and very unique for us. India has such a strong identity, - one which we've not seen at all on our travels yet - and it's so interesting to see. It is hot and clammy and filthy, but definitely worth it all when we see places like that.

So another gentle night in Jaipur, only venturing out for some much needed food after not eating for over 24 hours) and a relaxing day today before getting the night train to Udaipur. We've decided to keep the room on as we'll be so hot and grubby we'd like to shower before the train, and also have somewhere nice to chill out before our train tonight.

Also need to find somewhere to eat without chillies - omelette last night had green chillies in it, our cheese sandwich today was covered in pepper, onions and green chillies - really must remember to tell people to not put chillies in it, even if we don't suspect that they would! Not great for our little stomachs...

Ok so must stop this rambling now, very impressed if you've got to all the way down here! Hope you're enjoying the UK and see you soon!!! (home in 19 days, very very strange)...

Lots and lots of love from haz and me xxxxx

India!

Hey hey there,

Ok, so we managed to get back to Bangkok alright and find accommodation at 6am. Ran a few errands and ate a lot of food before saying bye to J on the 2nd. She flew home to do her masters at the end of September, and Haz and I headed to the airport on the 3rd....

It was so strange flying again and I LOVE Jet airways! The most delicious food on board, great wine and the films went down a treat. I have no idea how BA and other British airlines can get the food so wrong! Our flight was only 4.5 hours, but unfortunately due to bad weather over Delhi we were diverted to another city, had to refuel and then fly back. We then got chatting to a very interesting and lovely guy while collecting our luggage, so didn't get out of the airport until 2.30am (1am new time)... a little shattered!

We are staying down Main Bazaar in Delhi, which we expected to be similar to Koh San Road. Not at all. It is much narrower, and has some of it roped off with chairs and rope for wet cement. It it mainly mud with lots of stones to trip over, and is far more hectic, intense and more challenging than Koh San! We knew things were going to be strange when we saw cows walking down the road last night...

We managed to find a great little hotel with an en suite room (loo on the floor, have to use measuring jugs to pour water over me to shower as the water pressure is non existent) with our own beds, great fan and a TV with HBO. Sorted. We bravely ventured out this lunchtime to have absolutely gorgeous and such cheap Indian food. We can get eggs, toast, porridge, something else and coffee/tea for 80p in a respectable backpacker cafe here - so cheap!

Saw the Red Fort, balked at the price of entry and decided to return another day to look at it with more time, and went to the biggest mosque in Delhi, capable of containing up to 25000 worshippers! Mental. Called Jama Masjid, we weren't allowed in until the men had finished praying, so sat down. We were soon surrounded by the most entertaining and friendly street children who played games with us and wanted to say hi. We turned around and there were about 50 people standing around watching us, about 3-4 rows deep. Very very strange. They also want to have photographs with us all the time - but one by one rather than a big group, so we get stuck places for ever! It's hectic and crazy and dirty and smells of urine all the time, - far more challenging than easy Asia. But it's so much better. It's far more rewarding, far more strange and if this is the least popular city (apart from Mumbai) backpackers go to in India, I think we'll be ok.

(But I'm continually taking imodium as the state of the loos is pretty horrific!)

So had a great day, but need a bit of mental quiet time and a drink to absorb it all! Luckily we slept for about 9-10 hours when we arrived so don't feel too physically tired.

Leaving Delhi Monday afternoon for an overnight bus up to McLeod Ganj to hang out with the Dalai Lama, learn some Tibetan monk massages and do yoga and meditation too. Can't wait!

Anyway getting hungry, so lots and lots of love from us both,
Al xxx

Chiang Mai... elephants, tigers and a lot more!

Hello there,

Hope everyone's doing ok in the good ol' UK - nearly the end of our trip now! J goes home in 2 days, and H and I follow her in 28... scary! We're kind of winding down now from our trip - talking about what we're going to dump out of our rucksacks before heading home (despite being home a couple of months ago, I still have managed to accumulate far too much in my bag!) and discovering lost things at the bottom of our bags - J found 2 pairs of knickers this morning that she hadn't seen for months! I think they were clean...

Anyway, we've been having a wonderful time in Chiang Mai. We're taking things slowly at the moment - not sure if it's the heat and humidity (although luckily it cools down in the evenings), or general lethargy after travelling for so long, or in my case, the effects of a 2 year old dodgy stomach, but we have been catching up on sleep and taking things slowly. Perhaps the night buses have taken more than we thought out of us, as the 2nd time we saw Map, at the travel agency, he did say that we were looking far better than the first day he saw us - and that was after a 12 hour sleep! Oh well...

We've found cheap places to eat, have attacked the markets as much as possible and have been drinking lots of delicious and fresh fruit shakes. J has a funny foot from stepping on a sea urchin in the south of Thailand - about 6 weeks ago, and Haz cut her foot while tubing, so we've not walked huge amounts around the markets with them limping about. But they're doing well and that didn't stop us from retail therapy!

Both the night bazaar and the Sunday night market were huge, with indescribable amounts of gorgeous textiles, jewellery, umbrellas in wine bottle things, dolls, and delicious foods - rotees with nutella and banana, waffles, pad thai, fresh and addictive sushi, cripsy spring rolls... I could go on! We've been quite restrained so far on the buying front, but it would be so easy to fill 2 suitcases with things!

So... on Saturday we got up early and headed out on a day trip to the countryside. We can't drive motorbikes (definitely want to learn now) so can't do it ourselves very easily, so had to go with a tour. We went with an asian couple who joined in the more sedate activities, a dutch couple and an English girl who was very hungover! First stop - butterfly farm and orchid farm. Pretty, but seen nicer ones elsewhere, so quickly moved on.

(Ooo strange guy sat next to me started singing, very weird)...

Next stop - white water rafting. Really fun for the half hour we did it, but unfortunately nothing above grades 3 really. Had a nice guy in the boat with us (just J, H and myself in one boat), and we spent most of the time trying to splash the other boat with 'Johnny Depp' or 'Jack Sparrow' in - the other guide who was slightly mental but very good fun. Unfortuantely he was also very good at splashing us! The scenery was gorgeous - lushious green trees, palm trees and plants, a brown river (typical) and the sun was shining... pretty stunning.

Next stop, seeing a tiered waterfall, which provided us with a great opportunity to jump into the water (H was the bravest, jumping from a higher position than me!) and cool down. So tranquil, and very beautiful. Onwards and upwards to elephant trekking. It was amazing - the elephants are very comfortable to sit on as we had proper seats on them, and their stride is gentle and not too jerky, apart from you have to hang on for when they go downhill! H and I were on one elephant, who had a little baby that followed us and misbehaved everywhere! J was with Fiona, the English girl, and they were walking through the river, (we couldn't go as our baby was too little), meeting us and dodging the bamboo rafts that were also in the river and couldn't stop easily - just! It was amazing being so close to the elephants. Our mahout was sat on the elephant's head and using his feet behind the elephant's ears to steer it. And a slingshot to guide the little baby when it was being naughty!

Next stop, delicious lunch, before heading down the river on a bamboo raft (even had seats so our little bottoms stayed dry!) So relaxing and peaceful, with 2 guys on the end of the raft, steering it like gondaliers in Venice. Was very chilled out and a gentle way of seeing the countryside too.

Final destination, the Karen hillside villages where we met refugees from Burma, who have set up their villages as a tourist attraction (slightly strange, kind of felt like we were visiting a zoo in a bad way, but at least they rinse us of money!) as the tribe extend their necks with brass metal rings. The full neck piece weights 7 KILOGRAMS, and they work and sleep in them. They also have brass around their calves... all very different and very illuminating. But also made me very thankful we don't do that!

So a busy day... with a lot crammed in. Would have been nicer to spend a little more time rafting and elephant riding, but it was a great day out and the cheapest way to do it as well.

And Sunday we got the most amazing taxi (a plush 4x4 car with a lovely driver called Mel), who took us to Tiger Kingdom, a tiger sanctuary. We chose to see the biggest tigers and went in and petted them. Seriously. They aren't drugged at all but dopy during their siesta time. They are well trained and looked after, and tame. They were absolutely magnificent. Although before we went in, as a joke, one of the keepers asked us where we were from, and if we had contact numbers for next of kin... just in case! Luckily we survived and had such a great experiencing being with them. They were HUGE!

So the night market yesterday and meandering around the delicious food stalls (sushi was amazing!) We are having a gentle day today as well before catching the bus to Bangkok tonight. J flies to the UK late on the 2nd September, and H and I fly to India on 3rd to Delhi. So excited about it all - the final push before home. Got a few errands to run in Bangkok before the flight, but it's nice returning to somewhere we've been before, as we know what it's like, where to eat etc. And hopefully can return to the same guesthouse we were in before, as the family were incredibly friendly and nice.

Anyway more than time to stop writing! Check out the photos again - put new tiger ones up yesterday.
Lots and lots and lots of love from us all,
Al xxxxx

Tubing... and more

Hey hey there,

Well... the following day we rented out our tubes, and got a tuk tuk with the tubes attached to the roof, to the river. Started at the first bar (actually the 3rd one, Banana bar), where the family were soooooooo friendly, offering us so much food - free bananas, and asked if we wanted to join them to have lunch (probably because she was so motherly and wanted us to line our stomachs!)

We started drinking buckets (whisky and soft drinks, I think), and were given free shots at every bar. A recipe for disaster! In fact the lovely motherly lady gave us the bottle of spirits to help ourselves to shots. With a huge millipede in it. Photos to follow.

We resisted the rope swings (having just met a girl who didn't 'swing' on it, fell straight down and horribly bruised her legs!) and started floating down the river, being hauled into different bars by people with ropes. So much fun! Mud swimming pools followed, as did 'tug of war', lots of drinking, lots of chatting to fantastic people, lots of floating and general mayhem.

When we woke up the next morning we had to do an inventory of ourselves... bruises, grazes, cuts and achyness, but we survived, and had a thoroughly great day. (Well as much as I remember)... Photos from my waterproof (and mud proof) camera to follow tomorrow!

Bus to Luang Prabang... so windy and 6 hours long. So windy! Beautiful scenery and stunning mountains. Luang Prabang is such a wonderful town... so beautiful, with many temples and a strange French feel. We had great fun just chilling out watching films, and meandering around the wonderful night market and food stalls. So many sumptuous and gorgeous textiles - from placemats to scarves to quilts. Beautiful. Spent a couple of days there relaxing, especially in our lovely hotel - so pretty. We even got fresh flowers on our beds! That's better than chocolates! We never get that, they are normally reserved for 'expensive' hotels. We felt very spoilt.

So... another overnight bus to the Laos/Thailand border. Not the most comfortable, and we then had to stamp out of Laos (no problem) and get a boat across the very fast moving river to Thailand, to get stamped in (luckily no problem either). Another local bus down to Chiang Mai, where we are now, in the north of Thailand.

Chiang Mai is 10 hours bus ride north of Bangkok, and is quite huge. We feel like we've hit civilisation again, with 7/11 shops and Starbucks! We can use Starbucks' vouchers and air conditioning, very exciting. The city is renowned as a trading place between countries and tribes, and has beautiful crafts here - much is taken down to Bangkok and sold at inflated prices. We're going to check out the famous night market tonight, and grab some food in the food hall there. Can't wait - Thai food is gorgeous and so cheap! Nothing like England... Pad thai for 50p, pretty great.

So many things to do here, finances permitting. Will put up more photos tomorrow of the tubing - the rest are up. Enjoy!

Loads of love to you all, from us all,
Al xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lovely Laos

Heylo lovelies,

- As Lonely Planet says, if countries were tuk tuks, Thailand would take you to your destination via a silk shop, Vietnam would run you down for your custom and in Laos you'd need to find the tuk tuk, wake up the tuk tuk driver and try to persuade him to do some work!

Laos is so French in feel (hardly surprising), with lovely bakeries, coffees and most importantly, the people are so nice! So gentle, friendy and helpful, such a contrast to horrid Hanoi. There is very little traffic in Vientiane or Vang Vien, so we can cross the road without praying first, we have pavements to walk on (rather than to park tuk tuks on), and accommodation and food is cheap and tasty.

Vientiane is so quiet and calming for any city, let alone a capital city. On the Mekong River, (the other side is Thailand), it is so hot it feels like 40 degrees celsius (according to yahoo weather) - no wonder we found it slightly on the sweaty side! A pleasure to be, to walk around and to sit and watch the world go by.

Unfortunately the first hotel we stayed in, in Vientiane, Syri 1, had awful bed bugs, so I hardly slept which wasn't helped by the bus ride the day before. Shattered and exhausted, we changed hotels to a beautiful one instead, and set about enjoying ourselves. The temple we saw had thousands of small niches, each with 2 Buddhas in them, (they were silver, now are clay painted gold) and was so peaceful and tranquil with its gardens, despite being in the city centre.

So this morning we took a local bus to Vang Vien. The bus was fine - for only 4 hours. Such friendly driver and ticket collector, and there were fans on the ceiling for when the bus was stopped. Haz and J were slightly confused until they realised that there were 2 chickens underneath their seat (luckily they didn't crush them!) but the journey passed without incident, although we did need to pick up the passengers from the earlier bus, which had broken down, and so was slightly squashed afterwards...

In Vang Vien at the moment, which is a small town catering for backpackers. Restaurants, bars, hotels, travel agencies and internet, - everything we could need, plus Friends playing constantly in the cafes and restaurants! (We didn't watch 3 hours of it this afternoon in the restaurant we had lunch in)...

So going tubing tomorrow - basically floating down the river, being pulled into various bars on the riverside before heading to Luang Prabang the following day. Time is getting rather tight so we're having to go relatively quickly. But Laos is gorgeous, and so much nicer to be in!

Lots of love from us all,
Al xxxxxx

The rice bus from hell

...Which leads me to our journey. It was so horrific it warrants its own entry. Sammy, you jinxed us wishing us a good journey!

Ok, here goes... Well, we were 30 minutes late leaving the hotel in a taxi, which was slightly disconcerting until we realised that we were being picked up in a full minibus with other backpackers. There was one seat left after we got on, (bags up round our ears and in the gangway), and we only needed to pick up 6 more people. Plus bags. We managed to cram everyone in (luckily) and got dropped off in a non descript muddy road somewhere in Hanoi.

My stomach fell when I saw the old, rubbishy bus, with boxes on its roof, under the bus and inside the bus, up to the ceiling, taking up half the seats. We all scrambled on, (uncomfortably), our bags were put in the aisle and we started off. With a helper guy continually smoking out of the front passenger door. The guy also continually shouted abuse at people we passed, and bribed the policemen who always pulled us over at security check points. We were convinced that there was something dodgy in the back of the bus.

A couple of hours later, with numb bums, we were all herded off the bus, our bags were put on the roof and more stuff was loaded onto the bus. Under the seats, over the seats and around the seats. Not great. Back on the bus again - at this point we were bonding well with the other passengers, who were all shocked at the 'International Transport and Freight' company we'd been shoved onto! We paid good money for these tickets! And not made any happier for seeing the plush sleeper buses passing us...

A few more stops, more things put on the bus, before we stopped again at 3am for our final major intake of goods. Wheelbarrows of rice. Literally. We now all had bags under our feet, the boxes had been readjusted (after a suitably long period of time of course), and there were so many bags of rice in the aisle, they came up to our SHOULDERS. We had to CRAWL along them to get out of the bus!

Luckily we continued pretty much straight to the border, which we managed to pass uneventfully, although because our bus looked so horrific, we were checked at every point. As soon as we got into Laos we felt much better - moving away from horrible Hanoi and at least we made it to Laos! Again, many security check; we were shouted at to get on the bus, off the bus - we were treated worse than animals. With few loo or food stops, most people extremely frustrated and angry. Such an uncomfortable bus! Also during the night, Haz had had a fat woman sit on her lap for hours and hours, despite Haz trying to get her to sit on her seat only! Not the best for a good nights sleep.

So we eventually made it onto the outskirts of Vientiane (the capital of Laos), where we were dropped off outside the city. Luckily made it into the place and got ourselves accommodation, and were very very glad to see the back of the bus!

xxxxxx

Back to Hanoi

Hey hey there,

Another update for you, nearing the end of our trip! We loved Sapa, talking to the local villagers, whose knowledge of English was astounding. Such friendly people (if masters of the hard sell), but a beautiful area with steep mountains to walk around, and rice fields everywhere. A walk into a local village was gorgeous to look at, and we tired ourselves out for the trip back to Hanoi.

Spent another day in Hanoi waiting to catch our bus to Laos, and made use of our local knowledge to eat pasta buffets, and had a pizza evening in front of the TV (special deal!) chilling out in the air conditioning. Hanoi was sooooo hot and busy! Was very grateful to leave the city, (with many bought DVDs)...

xxx

Sapa

Hey hey,

Just thought (as I'd written this in an email) - that I might as well put this up. We weren't having a great time in Hanoi but luckily in Sapa now and it is lovely! Worth the overnight bus...

The bus company came 30 minutes earlier than we were expecting (well 2 hours earlier than the original time) so we ended up sitting in the bus terminal for 1 hour waiting for the wretched bus. But... the bus itself was looooovely. Three seats across, very comfortable, and managed to sleep well despite the crazy crazy driving and the winding roads! Even slept through the military coming on board to check passports etc... apparently they took a look at us and decided not to bother! (Although don't think H or J slept as well as I did as they told me about this!)

Had to wait 2 hours instead of the specified 10 minutes in Lao Cai town to transfer to a smaller bus for the hour journey up the mountainside to Sapa, but we eventually arrived and found a lovely hotel for $4 each a night. The climate here is soooo nice - we actually need jumpers even during the day, and the humidity is virtually nil. Hanoi at the moment is about 35 degrees celsius with 85% humidity, which feels kind of unbearable. So this is such a welcome for us, we keep on sinking back into bed and sleeping very heavily!

Sapa is so much nicer than Hanoi. The people here are friendly and helpful, and the traffic is much less. It is a little town in the mountains - we were 3km away from China when we switched buses in Lao Cai, and we can see mountains and rice terraces from our room, which is beautiful, clean and the beds (and DUVETS!) are wonderful too. Everything is easy here, shops sell souvenirs, as do the markets, there are lots of restaurants and internet, and we are going to walk to a village, Cat Cat, tomorrow morning sometime, as it's only 3km away.

The villagers here are wonderful and speak excellent English. They are dressed so crazily (to our eyes!) - really look incredibly different. I took some photos today of us with them, and they are very friendly (of course wanting you to buy their wares!). I will eventually put photographs up when we get back to Hanoi on Sunday.

So far happier in Sapa, where it is beautiful, easy, clean, friendly and we can sleep well. We will be around Hanoi for a day and a half before we go to Laos on Monday night on a 20 hour bus. Nice.

Lots and lots of love from us all,
Al xxx

Halong Bay

Hello hello,



How are things with you all? How's the good ol' UK at the moment? We are sheltering from the rainy season in an internet cafe filled with boys playing computer games.



So........ we left our hotel in Hanoi and after walking around a LOT with our rucksacks, finally ended up at the agency's office where we booked our Halong Bay tour. The guy was walking around collecting lots of different people, and when we realised this we said we'd meet him there. Three hours on a bus, and got to Halong City to get our boat. The boat itself was lovely, and we were met with a delicious lunch on board. The boat was wooden, and had a restaurant on it, with rooms underneath, and an open deck on top to sunbathe on the broken sun beds. We were doing three days and 2 nights, the first on Cat Ba island in a hotel, the 2nd on board the boat. Unfortunately the way the agency worked, we were constantly being transferred between boats and islands, so whenever we made friends with people we were shunted onto another boat without having a chance to say goodbye which was annoying.



Anyway the bay is filled with over 3,000 islands, that are very tall and very grey and silvery. The sun wasn't out when we were there, and it could often be quite misty, so it took on a kind of magical air. We stopped and saw 2 caves - the first was lit with multicoloured lights and very pretty, although reminiscent of Disney. This wasn't improved by our guide making up the stories as he went along! Still pretty cool though. We were convinced that one natural fountain in the cave was actually a hose pipe under the rock. The second cave was hardly lit and hardly filled with tourists, very natural and pretty.



Back on the boat and went to Cat Ba island. It started POURING down at this point, so unfortunately we could see nothing of the 28km drive through Cat Ba island to our hotel in Cat Ba town. The hotel was lovely - huge rooms and a TV that was getting no signal due to the storm and rubbish Vietnamese wiring! But if I could do cartwheels, I would've done. Loved staying there, although 2 hornets lost the right to live in our room after they flew back in after Haz released them through the window. She also fell off the bed onto her arse, which was funny for us, not so much for her...



Couldn't really go out that night as had little money and it was raining, and unfortunately it was raining the following day too. So we couldn't do the 3 hour trek up the top of the mountain for the view of Halong Bay. Our guide was still trying to get us to go up the mountain, but we refused as we wouldn't have seen anything! We did walk 2km to the beach to enjoy the sea in the rain, - which really cooled us down luckily. Cat Ba town was bigger than we expected and seemed to have most things, including beautiful and cheap pearls. Gorgeous!


Back on the boat in the afternoon, went kayaking in the evening (watching H and J in a kayak is hilarious, you should do it sometime) and chilled out on the boat that evening. The company, Love Planet, had overbooked the boat and so we offered (well H offered for us) to share the 3 of us in a 2 person room. Slightly close and hot, but we managed. Some people on the boat were absolutely lovely, and we just relaxed, watching the islands go by. The following day we sailed a bit more before heading back to Hanoi.

So back in Hanoi today before heading to Sapa this evening. The hotel we are staying in, while vastly better than our first one in Hanoi, is very annoying as we were woken up at FIVE FORTY-FIVE this morning by the staff, wanting to know when we were checking out, when we had already told them the night before! Absolutely ridiculous. They then knocked on our door at 7.20am wanting us to come down for breakfast. We were fuming. We made a bit of a stink this morning so they're letting us use their shower before the bus this evening. Hanoi is dirty, stinky and some people aren't very nice, so we're looking forward to going to Sapa. We've been threatened with wooden poles and metal sticks, and have been disturbed in our hotel, not really things to endear us to the place!

Saw Ho Chi Minh this morning - (Madame Tussaud's?!) He's preserved and looks very strange, and it's very weird how people are soooooooo reverential towards him. So many rules and regulations in the complex, was quite strange for us. Need to read up more about him!

So off to Sapa this evening, - tried uploading photographs but the computer crashed and so gave up! Will try another day when have more patience.

Lots of love from us all,
Alice xxxx

Hanoi (and healthy!)

Hello all,

Well we went diving with Octopus diving, and they were absolutely fantastic. A beautiful boat, we had a dive master for the 3 of us (so many DMs and instructors, we were the largest group), and such a professional yet friendly service too. Even free coffee/hot chocolate and a chicken curry, can't beat that! It was fantastic to be back in the water again, and really enjoyed seeing a few things like the porcupine fish. Not as many fish as in some of our other dives, but great being underwater again.

Spent the afternoon asleep (shattered all the time at this point!) before waking up with a temperature of over 40 degrees celsius. Not good, incredibly sweaty before being ill! Haz and J were brilliant, bringing me back chocolate, water and coca cola (well I had to keep up my strength and not able to eat much!) Unfortunately I woke up with a temperature of 40 degrees again the following day, so we decided to brave the hospital. Didn't want to travel if I was contagious with swine flu.

So, the hospital was about 50 years behind. It was like a small medical centre, and I got ushered in to see the doctor. H very kindly came with me, and as soon as I was asked what was wrong promptly started crying, oops! He took my pulse, heart too fast so gave me an ECG. Not joking. I was strapped in by leather straps to my ankles, arms and funny poppers on my chest. Great. Then they gave me an ultra sound of my spleen, kidneys, liver etc. I now have a lovely photograph of my liver. Not that I was understanding what was really happening! The doctor saw me again... and looked in my throat. I had tonsilitis. Well, I don't think so as my throat wasn't sore, but very likely an ear infection. Brilliant! It wasn't swine flu/dysentry/malaria/any other tropical disease. And I could travel...

H and J were great, letting me stay on in Nha Trang for an extra day to recoup properly, and the magic tablets the doctor gave me were working well. They even brought me ice cream in bed, so kind of them! Luckily I wasn't actually feeling very ill in myself, just very drained, hot, cold and a very bad tummy. Managed to walk to the pagoda in Nha Trang the following day, we went to a great photography gallery, and chilled out on the beautiful beach, watching the locals come and cool down and play after a hot day working.

Night bus to Hoi An - sleeper bus again, yay! Hoi An a beautiful little town that we walked round in about 2 hours. Full of people making clothes of any kind, crafts, lanterns, - very crafty. A river flowing through contained huge models of a lotus flower, a dragon, and a strange cow with a flowerpot on its back. Life is strange here! We were staying in a beautiful hotel, very friendly, with a POOL! So lovely after being so hot for so long, and only costing us $4 a night. We also found a great little cafe, called Cafe 43, that did half pints of beer for 10p, beautiful food and a fraction of the price we normally pay. Great service, and we only wished we could stay the next day too!

Unfortunately ever onwards, we visited Hue for about 5 hours, and walked around the mainly demolished citadel. Not much to see in the city itself, we just meandered around the ruins and the newly renovated buildings (renovations usually 10 years old so not too impressive), before our night bus to Hanoi.

And we arrived today, eventually sorted out accommodation and avoided a little incident with some nasty hotel people in the city. We were with 2 guys at this point and they were really friendly and helpful. Been walking around the Old Quarter today, eating delicious Fanny ice cream, sorting out tickets and generally getting our bearings. Hanoi seems hectic, quite frenetic, and not quite as beautiful as we were hoping. Not actually that much to see, we only want to see the embalmed Ho Chi Minh's body before we leave here. Should be interesting!

So... off to Halong Bay tomorrow, and visiting Cat Ba island at the same time. For $45, it's a 3 day trip with a boat ride on the bay, staying overnight on the boat the first night, then the 2nd night we're staying on Cat Ba Island. So will be returning to Hanoi for a night on Wednesday night.

Hope all's well at home,
Loads of love from us all,
Al xxxxxxxxx

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Nha Trang

Hello hello,

Now in Vietnam, and how different it is! Cambodia was great - nicer than Thailand as less touristy, more 'raw' and fascinating. Vietnam is even better. The transport system works better here - well the roads are mainly tarmac, but this doesn't necessarily make them smoother... the people are friendly, their very fast jump into the technological and Western culture means that relatively fast internet is everywhere (very useful for us!) Many counterfeit products (Billabong boardshorts for less than 3 quid), Diesel jeans for next to nothing, whole series of TV shows for less than a fiver... they estimate that about 90% of products here are counterfeit, although many companies are trying to change that.

Ho Chi Minh City - HCMC - or still Saigon to people who live here - is great. Bustling, friendly, a little raucous, we stayed in the main backpacker area and were within walking distance of the Fine Arts Gallery (great exhibition, fantastic building), the Notre Dame Cathedral (seemed out of place in the middle of a busy road, no stained glass at all), the Reunification Palace (where tanks drove through the gates when Saigon was seized) and the War Remnants Museum. We had a busy day on Saturday walking around, (dodging the traffic on the roads, extremely difficult!)

The most harrowing experience was the War Remnants Museum (formerly called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes.... objectivity didn't really feature here!) I understand that the international media pretty much focused on the US perspective, and that horrific things happened here, but it was such a one sided museum, it detracted from its message. Especially difficult to stomach were the stories and photographs of the new generation of Vietnamese people who are growing (and dying) with incredible deformities, (allegedly?) caused by Agent Orange. Awful to see, it was a sobering experience.

The backpacker area is full of cheap accommodation - we were offered accommodation by a guy who met the bus (a lot of business is done by touts that way) - for $4 each, we had a lovely room with a TV, fridge(!!!), our own en-suite bathroom, and the loveliest family who looked after us extremely well. Lots of delicious and relatively cheap restaurants around too, and many tourist agencies and shops. (Not tried the snake wine yet - scared of the actual bottle which contains a preserved little cobra and scorpion in it)...!

So yesterday we went to see part of the 200km network of the Cu Chi tunnels. A bus for the 2 hour ride there and back, we had the best guide. Chister regaled us with information delivered in a very engaging way, jokes, - generally lots of things that helped us understand the country and people more. Asked how the Vietnamese think of the Americans and the war, he says:
a) the war never happened (for the young generation who have embraced Westernism and popular culture, and who are focused on the future)
b) the war never finished (for those who are scarred or traumatised, mentally or physically, without adequate healthcare or mental healthcare). Very illuminating.

The tunnels housed the Viet Cong for 20 years (in Vietnam, they say the war lasted for 20 years against the Americans, very different to the American version). These tunnels were so cramped you cannot walk upright in them. They slept, cooked, washed, went to the loo, everything - down these tunnels. Saw a tiny foxhole and spider hole, and passed up the chance to shoot an AK47 as it was rather expensive, loud, and I got scared when we got closer to the gun shots! A fascinating day, we finished it off with a coffee in a lovely cafe, chilling out for a couple of hours until we got our overnight bus to Nha Trang (only 10 hours away).

Last night we were waiting for our bus when a 'sleeper' bus arrived - with about 30 seats that go nearly flat. Somehow, we managed to get on the bus! Because there was space, they put us on the bus and we were at the very back where the seats went back even further! We hadn't paid for this luxury! It was absolutely great, and meant that we actually managed to sleep at night, until we arrived in Nha Trang at 6am.

Again, lovely accommodation - fan, TV, fridge, ensuite - $4 each. About 100m from the beach, we sorted our diving out first before getting very red on the beach. We're taking doxycycline antimalarial drugs again now, which makes us very sensitive to the sun. We forgot. I put sun tan lotion (factor 30) on 4-5 times over a couple of hours, and still got burnt! Next time the factor 50 comes out...

So going diving tomorrow morning, seems to be a great company (rather than a couple of other companies in the area who are having issues with PADI) with good dive shop banter, always a must! I'm going to do a 3rd and 4th dive (for only $10 each! Bargain!) on Wednesday before we head up overnight on Wednesday night to Hoi An.

Anyway lots of love from us all,
Alice xxxxxxxxxxx

Angkor Wat, Sihanoukville, the Killing Fields...

Hello there,

Well we dragged ourselves out of the gorgeous beds at 4am and walked around Angkor Wat. We saw Ta Phrom first, where they filmed Indiana Jones and the temple has been given to the jungle. Slow restoration is happening here, but we walked into the forest a little while to get to the jungle while it was still dark (we forgot torches!), tripping over tree roots (well it was better than when I stubbed my toe and tripped over elephant poo the evening before!) and delving into the ruins until we got to the centre. Angkor Wat is the biggest religious place in the world, and it has inevitably been damaged by past fighting and the weather. Nevertheless, it was an enchanting place to watch the sun rise from. And so big!

Bayon Temple - 216 faces all staring at you! Fifty four towers (the amount of provinces Cambodia used to have, but is now 22) host the faces of Buddha, which are absolutely beautiful. This temple was tiered so we climbed up into the centre and rested a little on the cool stone. It was about 8am by this point and starting to get quite hot. Onto the elephant terrace where pillars are elephants' trunks, and into a temple where, doing reconstruction work, they dismantled the whole thing, painstakingly making a note of where every piece went. (Think it was the French). Then they lost the paperwork. Typical! The world's biggest jigsaw puzzle - Corinne you would love it! Ten years after starting to sort out the mess and they have only done a part of the temple, with a lot of new bricks. Very sad but also quite funny in a way...

Angkor Thom was massive holding these temples, and we ended up at Angkor Wat. It is huge - the width across is well over 2km, and surrounded by a substantial moat. We loved walking around looking at the murals, the reliefs on the stone walls, generally loved walking around it. It was a great day, with Johnny our tuk tuk driver doing a great job - he left us to look around it, and snoozed in hammocks surrounded by his female admirers! Unfortunately at 1pm (after EIGHT HOURS of sightseeing) we decided we'd had enough of the heat and the walking around and decided to siesta back at the hotel... beautiful.

Next day was spent reading books in a comfy cafe about Pol Pot and the Killing Fields, until our 'Luxury bus' in the evening. Not so luxurious really! Hopelessly overcrowded, a very kind US navy guy offered his seat (for the 10 hours) to a breastfeeding mother. The seats were uncomfortable (luckily ours weren't broken) and small. We got chatting to the navy guys and ended up having a few drinks the following night with them in Sihanoukville. Really interesting people and great to listen to more 'grown up' people - a nice change from 18-20 year old backpackers! They were fascinating as they were divers, so we were very intrigued, and were just really nice, normal guys. Such a pleasure to meet them.

Sihanoukville - lovely seaside town on Cambodia's southern coast (well the town is in 3 parts, annoyingly), really geared for the tourist. Stayed in an alright hostel with delicious food, about 10 minute walk from the beach. The beach was side to side restaurants and bars, with beds/chairs outside under umbrellas, free to use. We ended up eating down there anyway as found a cheap place to have banana shakes, or fruit salads and it was so comfy! Dove into the water to clean off every now and then - not very clear water and ominous brown stuff oozing into it, but very refreshing anyway! I enquired about diving there, only to be told that the visibility was poor due to the rain and that they've eaten all the sharks and big fish in the area. Decided to give it a miss, so sad!

Had the most amazing massage in my life in Sihanoukville. Run by the Starfish Project which helps disabled people who don't get any assistance lead sustainable lives, we were massaged by a blind woman and another lady who might have been partially sighted. Being blind might heighten other senses - anyway, this was sensational. J and H had reflexology, and I had a neck and shoulder and back massage. It was sensational, and $3.50 for 30 minutes. Bargain! Never wanted to leave that place, absolutely incredible, cannot really describe it! And that was followed by a pedicure on the beach for me, which was desperately needed and a bargain at $4 - needed to pay her a little more to sort out my hooves! But now my feet look beautiful. So hard travelling!

Onwards to Phnom Penh yesterday morning on a leaking bus, and we arrived in this sprawling city where few buildings are more than a couple of stories high. Flanking a river, it is chaotic but friendly, bustling but relaxing, although crossing the road is a little dicey. Unfortunately sometimes you have to do it. Seeing as they drive on the right, but driving on the left is ok too, they don't stop now for pedestrians after a couple of traffic lights were put in the city. Actually, they don't stop for these lights either. So crossing the road takes a little prayer, a little blind faith, a little timing and a little sprint. Or to follow a local, putting them in the way of the car/motorbike/tuk tuk/lorry/elephant instead.

And the elephant... imagine walking along London during rush hour, when the most humoungous elephant just strides past with its keeper. HUGE! It was incredible, tuk tuks and cars dodging it, it was serenely meandering past. Photos will come of that! It made my day and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Also visited a coffee shop here - beautiful - with comfy seats where the proceeds go to street children. Much better than handing out money on the streets is to give it to certain organisations, and we certainly enjoyed our coffee and massages!

So today, we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields. The Tuol Sleng museum was a school (think of an army barracks school - pretty much the same) where S-21 was housed under Pol Pot's regime of 1975-1979. We were so glad we had read up on this, as out of 20,000 prisoners here, only SEVEN survived. They were tortured (we saw the instruments) and housed worse than animals, before being sent to the Killing Fields 15km away. When S-21 was discovered there, 14 corpses were discovered too and there are graphic photographs in the rooms where they were found. Words cannot describe this place, but imagine Auschwitz with graphic photographs. Not for the faint hearted, but almost vital to see, to learn from.

At the Killing Fields you first see the stupa (monument) when you first enter. This monument contains over 8,900 skulls. And bones. And clothes found at about 85/126 mass graves here. Not a huge area, one grave contained over 450 bodies, another over 100 headless people, another mainly women and children... and we saw the tree where babies were thrown against to kill them. Bones abound here, and it is such a strange, sobering, horrific atmosphere. Yet, as when J and I visited Auschwitz, it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining.

So... back for a siesta and just woken up over 3 hours later! Think we'll need a beer to assimilate the day we had here. Hopefully heading to the Russian market or the animal sanctuary tomorrow, but not in a rush to leave here as our room is gorgeous! Flushing loo, cable TV with multiple films... absolute heaven, plus not too hot.

Can't put photos up until get to Vietnam as internet here is horrific! Going to Vietnam probably on Saturday, to Ho Chi Ming city (Saigon), so will put photos up after that hopefully. Mobile phone's a bit temperamental here in Cambodia - not all messages are getting sent/received, but will check emails every couple of days.

Anyway, lots of love to all,
from us girlies,
love Alice xxxxxxxx

ps met 2 awesome Italian middle aged ladies - so friendly, so now we have a Laos guidebook in italian! Score! So funny, they admit they're not great with the boutiques, and not great with money...!

Cambodia... and Siem Reap

Hey hey there,

Well we eventually left Bangkok after my Vietnam visa came through on Tuesday. H and J were very kind in waiting until it was processed, despite them hanging around for ages! Nevertheless, we had great fun in visiting the floating markets, experiencing some of the social scene and spending countless hours in Starbucks...! (We had lots of vouchers which meant it wasn't too expensive, and a real treat to be out of the heat and in the air conditioning)...

So yesterday we got on a bus horribly early and arrived in Siem Reap in Cambodia yesterday evening. Spending our nights in a gorgeous hotel with pristine white tiled rooms, 3 huge beds (small doubles), our own bathroom and also cable TV, such luxury! Siem Reap is quite tatty looking, and not as great as the LP makes it out to be, but we managed to find ourselves a nice cafe to park ourselves for a couple of hours. Also went to watch the sunset in Angkor Wat this evening but unfortunately the weather wasn't great and so didn't spend huge amounts of time there. We have our tickets ready now for tomorrow so are leaving at 4.30am to catch the sunrise there... quite painful!

Anyway hope everyone's ok, will write again soon,
Much love,
Alice and the girlies xxx

3 weeks later... in Bangkok!

Hello all,

First of all, thank you so much to people I managed to meet up with in the UK. It was absolutely marvellous to see you (albeit very briefly!) My 4 or 5 days ended up being very cram packed with trying to see as many people as possible in between running errands. So apologies to everyone else who I didn't get to see! We'll be back for good at the end of September... not long now!

So spent a few weeks at home helping out. Not going to say too much about that here apart from it was absolutely incredible seeing Mum again. A pleasure spending time with her, listening to her and realising that she had come back to us. My Mum as I knew her had returned, plus she is very funny! She had us in stitches multiple times, and it was harder leaving this time round after spending such a magical time with her.

So... after continually bawling my eyes out in LHR (I blame the hormones, only took me about 4 hours to stop crying!!!) I flew to Bangkok on Thursday. After a little hitch up with the timetable (I misread my flight arrival time and so H and J were expecting me 12 hours before I actually arrived. Luckily I had managed to email them to let them know this so they picked it up in the morning after getting a little concerned that I might have got quarantined for swine flu!)

Bangkok is far cleaner and organised than I expected. The people are a mixture of very sweet and helpful people, to the most convincing con artists around! It's a daily battle not to get scammed too much, but I think we do alright. H and J have been great in sussing out the best places to go, where to buy things, what to do, and had accommodation ready for when I arrived, which was much appreciated.

We are staying in Khao San Road, which is basically designed for backpackers, with 24 hour bars (not tried those yet), stalls, food stalls on the street, little supermarkets, internet, travel agencies... basically everything you need. It's a little intense with all the bright lights and crowds of people, not to mention the music blaring out of stereo systems until 3am. (I know, I was awake then last night. Luckily I managed to 'borrow' a few face masks and ear plugs from the plane which have come in extremely useful since). A very cool place but very overwhelming, especially with the high population here of 'gringo' tourists (Western tourists). The Irish bars are always full!

Today we got up at 5.30am (yes I know, very painful), to taxi and bus our way 105km out of the city to go to the floating markets. It was such an experience - we paid for a little boat (similar to a gondala but with an outboard motor) to drive us around the canals, and to pull up at the stalls on stilts or stalls on boats. So weird! We were driving around, as were lots of other tourists (luckily we got their quite early when it was quite quiet), and pulled up and grabbed the stalls or other boats selling food or goodies. The water was looking quite murky, but it was such a great system of getting around, and they were very used to dealing with the boats, and their subsequent traffic jams. Very very different to shopping in the UK! We just let our driver take us to the next stall or boat to have a look at what they were selling. Luckily we were restrained and only bought breakfast (I ate 16 mini bananas) and a little elephant pouch. It's nicer than it sounds!

Yesterday H and J recommended I went to visit Wat Pho (think that's the right name) - basically a Buddhist palace with a 46m long, 15m high reclining Buddha in gold leaf. You know the type of typical Asian photos in travel programmes with pointy gold and red roofs? Well pretty much exactly like that! Huge palace (got lost in it) but finally managed to find Buddha. He was very impressive, but kinda claustrophobic in a building very small for him, and pillars obstructed a lot of the views of him. However photographs to follow! Really feel as though I've arrived in Asia now. And it's exhausting (jetlag), not as dirty as I was expecting, completely surreal and noisy and chaotic. But somehow very fun.

Absolutely lovely to see the girlies again. They were very kind and waited until I arrived to go and see the floating markets, which I really appreciated as it wouldn't have been half as fun by myself. And they have been very kind in waiting until I get my Vietnam visa in Bangkok before we move on, despite there not being that much to do on a limited budget, especially as the main thing to do in the evenings is to drink. So we're getting expert now at finding things to do to keep ourselves entertained.

Anyway, must dash, but love to all, from us all again!
Al xxxxxxxx

Still in KL... and watching the rain.

Hey hey there again,

Well am sat at the internet cafe again during my last night in Malaysia... feels very very strange! Had a great couple of days here - went to the Batu caves this afternoon which were pretty cool, although we gave the aggressive monkeys some much needed room! Spent the afternoon chilling out as it was just too hot, but unfortunately it really started raining which wasn't great this evening. Huge thunder and lightening storm, the first time it's rained on us in ages - but hopefully the humidity will clear.

So... heading home again tomorrow for 3 weeks. Flying from KL to United Arab Emirates, then to London Heathrow, then an 8 hour stopover before heading to Dusseldorf on Friday... (if anyone happens to be around LHR terminal 5 during Friday daytime before 2pm, feel free to come say hi!) Not sure when am moving to the UK during the 3 week period, and money will be very very tight after shelling out hundreds of pounds for this air ticket, but hopefully will be able to see a few people, before heading back on the 16th July to Bangkok...

Feeling happy and sad about leaving Malaysia and the girlies, and happy and sad about going home too. Will be nice to not live out of a rucksack too for a while, and to drink red wine again. At least I can leave again after 3 weeks and meet up with the girls again...

Anyway, hope you're all doing well and enjoying the UK summer,
Loads of love,
Alice xxx

Perhentian Islands, Redang Island and back to KL...

Hey hey there,

Well we made it to Kuala Besut on the bus (not very comfortable, but we survived), and managed to pick up the speedboat to the Perhentian Islands. We went to the bigger island first, but as accommodation was all booked up with the Malaysian school holidays - they have a kind of 'spring break' or our 'summer break' here on the islands - we went to the smaller island by taxi. Managed to find some very basic accommodation but about half the price and nicer than the next more expensive hotel. So we were happy, especially when the dive shop let us use their showers...

It was soooo hot on the beach. Almost unbearable even under the umbrella we hired out. Jumped into the clean water occasionally, but really suffered in the heat. So decided to go diving with Turtle Bay dive company the following day. They were absolutely brilliant - great banter, friendly service, really kind and very professional. What more could we want?! We went diving around the Pinnacle off the Perhentian Islands first of all, which is basically a huge pointy rock that sticks out of the water. The base is quite wide, and loads of fish and coral live there, including a 3 legged turtle nicknamed 'Tripod'... a huge mass of fish, was something really special, and reminded me of a bigger version of Julian Rocks in Australia. Saw loads of boxfish, pufferfish and porcupine fish, which made my day. They are my favourite fishes of all, and absolutely love them. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Second dive was on the Sugar wreck, which went down 10 years ago and is about 88m long. It took 2 days to sink, and fortunately no one was killed. It has grown lots of coral already, and we saw 3 baby coral cat sharks asleep under a blanket there. Had great fun swimming around the mast, and in and around the wreck. There is an air pocket made by divers' bubbles during the season, so we could stick our head into it and talk to each other (although not breathe the air in, as the air itself isn't very safe). But a really surreal experience! Was quite difficult navigating around the wreck when there were so many sea urchins with their long spikes on the floor, and lots of barnacles and sharp shells stuck to the ropes and the wreck... but was brilliant fun.

So much so, that we decided to go diving on Redang Island, as it's meant to be the best dive site in Malaysia, and better than the majority of Thailand. One hour away by speedboat, Redang Island is where the rich Malaysians come for weekends away from KL, with the white sands, clear seas, beautiful snorkelling and diving, and the resort hotels monopolise the island, charging exorbitant fees. There is a campaign to do the same for the Perhentian Islands, so we were very glad to get there before the backpacker scene becomes priced out, and not many people can enjoy the natural beauties Malaysia has to offer.

Anyway, we went diving and both times it was brilliant. Again, the coral was different to other places - very flat against the sea floor, but then huge rocks towered over us, creating chasms we could swim through. Sometimes the current was awfully strong, so we had to turn back, but the volume of fish was marvellous - as soon as we jumped into the water and descended, we were greeted by many many schools of fish. We also saw a couple of disgustingly ugly (and scary) moral eels - (look up on youtube about the moray eel that bites off a diver's thumb).... but lots of beautiful blue spotted fantail rays - so graceful. And managed to see a puffer fish, so I was very excited. Hired out the dive company's camera for this day, and you can see the photographs on picasa. Loved having a camera down there... someday I'll have my own!

So the Perhentian Islands were very small and remote, and had glorious beaches and tropical forests. We stayed on Longbeach, which had a few shops, reasonable places to eat, a couple of dive companies, and our accommodation. So everything within about 100m - brilliant to have things so nearby! We loved our time there, and enjoyed the balance between falling asleep on the beach, and having something structured to do like diving. The weather was beautiful, the food was good (we managed to get some western style food for a reasonable amount of money, which was greatly appreciated after our time in Chinatown)...

So took the boat back yesterday morning, and had to change speedboats half way through as our boat had a 'problem' and we needed to get the bus very quickly... 9 hours later we were back in KL, and settled down to relax for the evening. Got up horribly early this morning (6.30am), to go up the skybridge in the Petronas Twin Towers (it's the same towers they filmed in 'Entrapment') before coming back to the hostel for some food...

So maybe going to the market this afternoon, but having a few days in KL chilling out. I have to fly home to the UK on Thursday (will have an 8 hour stopover in Terminal 5 on Friday if anyone is desperately bored!) arriving in Germany on Friday, so just seeing a few last sights.

Anyway, hope all is well in the UK,
Loads of love,
Alice xxx