Goodbye India, hello Indonesia!

28

Jan

January 28, 2013 by Karen

“It is impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does humanity present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions, races and tongues…..Perhaps the only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India would be to describe or understand India completely.”

Rough guide to India

As much as we love India, after forty-nine days there it was time to get ready to leave. We enjoyed two more nights in Kolkata before saying goodbye.

We even bumped into an old friend!

We stayed at the gorgeous Fairlawn Hotel where the eccentric 92 year old owner told Nick behind her hand that she was looking for a toyboy! She was quite a character!

The very over the top Christmas decorations!

We loved it there! It was like visiting grandma’s house!

Our lovely room!

The view from our window down to the jewellery market.

We enjoyed wandering around the local area near Sudder Street.

And visiting the markets.

After India we were planning to go to either Sri Lanka or Myanmar but decided we wanted to end our year somewhere a little more relaxing, where the travelling would be easier. We settled on Indonesia and after a one night stop over in Kuala Lumpa we landed in Denpasar. We caught a taxi straight to Ubud where we spent three nights in a great villa we found on Airbnb.

We tried out the fish spa on our hands before letting them nibble away at the dead skin on our feet!

It was strangely relaxing as long as I did not look down.

This macaw decided to randomly land on Nick’s shoulder as we were walking down the street. I think he thought Nick’s hair was his nest!

We saw this poster outside the supermarket and as Gili Air was somewhere we wanted to go we checked the retreat out on line before booking.

New Year’s day was very wet and I was the unlucky one who had wear the poncho to protect the bag containing all our worldly goods. Yes I was as impressed as I look! Nick’s head could not fit through the hole! What a fashion statement I was making at the start of 2013!!!

We loved this row of mossy Buddahs in the main street.

On day four we moved to Ben’s Homestay in a family compound closer to the centre. It was cheap, beautiful and probably the cleanest place we have stayed in all year.

A stunning sunset from our verandah!

We booked a one day cycling tour to escape the madness of Ubud and to see the countryside.

View from our breakfast spot.

The clouds threatened throughout the whole tour but we managed to stay dry!

This guy was thrilled when I asked If I could take his photo.

Anyone who has been to Ubud recently will know how annoying it is to be asked if you want a taxi every two steps. We loved this guy’s different approach and decided to get him to take us out to The Green School.

He showed us all of his previous advertising tricks!

We could see why some of them had not worked but loved the fact he was willing to try out new ideas.

And he could do more than drive a taxi as well!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9MDTxz9qlI&w=500&h=305]

The tour of the Green school lasted for an hour.

Whilst the open air buildings and furniture were absolutely beautiful, I was left with a lot more questions about the quality of the the education. Perhaps I should return when it is not school holidays.

We decided to do something cultural so I took a Balinese cooking course. It started with a trip to the local market.

The course was very hands on.

In the end we made six dishes.

Balinese soup

Chicken satay sticks, corn fritters and tempura

Nasi goring and sticky rice pudding!

Nick did a full day wood carving course. The teacher was carving his own new creation while helping Nick with his.

The view from his lunch spot.

The beginning of his carving with a completed version just behind it..

These two reminded us of our cats Pudda and Rangy!

“The world’s fourth most populace country – 240 million and counting – is a sultry kaleidoscope that runs along the equator for 5000km. It may well be the last great adventure on Earth. From the western tip of Sumatra to the eastern edge of Papua is a nation that defies homogenisation. A land of so many cultures, peoples, animals, customs, plants, features, artworks and foods that it is like 100 countries melded into one (or is it 200?).”

Lonely Planet Indonesia

1 Reply Categories: Blog, UncategorizedTags: Ben's homestay, Fairlawn hotel, Indonesia, Kolkata, Ubud

Seven sensational sleeps in Sikkim

20

Jan

January 20, 2013 by Karen

‘The tiny and beautiful state of Sikkim lies south of Tibet, sandwiched between Nepal to the west and Bhutan to the east. Measuring just 65km by 115km, its landscape ranges from sweltering deep valleys just 300m above sea level to lofty snow peaks such as Kanchenjunga, at 8586m the third-highest mountain in the world. A small but growing network of tortuous roads penetrate this rugged Himalayan wilderness, but they take a massive battering every monsoon, with large and frequent landslides disrupting communications.’

Rough guide India

We said goodbye to Lynne and Les and left Varanasi excited about going up to Sikkim. We had to contain our excitement with a four hour delay at the Howrath train station, probably our worst train station experience yet! Our train finally arrived and by the time we reached NJP we were seven and a half hours behind schedule. We decided to take a shared jeep from the NJP train station and were all set (sort of comfortable) in the very back seat with one other local. Suddenly a rather large man came along and apparently he was coming in the back with us. This would have made two people in the front with the driver, four people across the middle seat (with only three seats) and four people across the custom made back seat which was barely comfortable with three of us! This is common practise but there was no way another person could physically fit in the back with us or anywhere else in the jeep for that matter. It would have been torture for five minutes let alone for a four hour drive up some notoriously bumpy roads. We got out, pulled our own bags off the roof take and got our money back. By this stage we were pretty tired but found a autorickshaw to take us into Siliguri where we negotiated our own jeep to transport us to Gangtok.

It was great to wake up in such a beautiful, clean place.

A very scary Santa was wandering through the mall. He made a few children cry but was handing out lollies!

We took a day trip out to Lake Tsomgo, about 11 km short of the Tibetan border.

I loved this sign along the way and we were actually driving slow enough to get a photo.

It is only a 35 km drive but the roads made it a much longer journey.

Tsomgo lake (3750m above sea level)

There were a lot of beautiful yaks just waiting to be ridden. The prices they were quoting were ridiculously high so we walked around the lake instead.

The area is restricted and we needed a special permit for this day trip. There is a big army presence in the area as it is so close to the Chinese border. These were some of the Indian army barracks which I am sure we probably should not have been taking pictures of.

These tourists were obviously rich!

We enjoyed a walk through the market just before lunch.

Nick loved the sweater vests and thought about getting himself one!

We enjoyed momos and veg fried rice for lunch in the sunshine.

We took another day trip out to see the Rumtek and Lingdum monastaries.

Arriving in Rumtek

Rumtek Monastary

Lingdum Monastary

We loved this sign which was clearly for the Indian tourists!

We were stuck in a traffic jam on the way back to Gangtok thanks to a truck breaking down and having to transfer its load.

The view from our hotel on our last morning in Gangtok was spectacular when the weather finally cleared up! We stayed at the Hotel Pomra in Gangtok and would definitely recommend it!

We hired a driver from Gangtok to Pelling. This was the view from our coffee stop along the way.

We also had a quick stop at the Bon Monastary.

We finally arrived in Pelling and checked into the Kabur Hotel, breaking the record for the cheapest room of our trip. It cost a total of $8.45 for the night!

View from our room

Our first afternoon was spent walking up to the Monastary.

We then went to visit the ruins of the ancient Palace.

We loved these encouraging signs!

The view was spectacular and you could see why they had chosen this site as the ancient capital.

On the way back to the hotel we noticed this ‘name dropper!’

The beautiful sunset

;

On Christmas eve we walked up to see the Karma Rabtenling Monastary. Why were all the sights uphill??

We made it!

We checked out of our $8.45 hotel and thanks to the generosity of Nick’s mum and dad, and his gorgeous sister Danielle we checked into The Elgin mount Pandim. Thanks for our amazing Christmas present!!

We celebrated Christmas with a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve, complete with party hats and Christmas crackers that almost set the table cloth on fire. Only in India!

On Christmas morning we had some fun at the local fair! The object of the game was to use the bamboo stick to put the ring over the end of the beer bottle.

We spent the rest of Christmas day enjoying the sunshine in the garden of the hotel, reading and drinking….tea!

This made me laugh on the menu for our Christmas dinner!

Tshering and Ian, the gorgeous managers of The Elgin Mount Pelling made us feel very welcome.

Our seven sensation nights in Sikkim ended happily as we made our way back to Siliguri to spend the night before our A/C chair class ride back to Kolkata.

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I feel like I am on a movie set!”

10

Jan

January 10, 2013 by Karen

“………every day in Varanasi feels like eavesdropping on a party. Life in Varanasi plays out like the scene after a major celebration in any other city – except here it’s every day……It’s kind of like being a little kid at an adult’s party. You’re curious, in awe, and not quite sure what the hell is going on.

Ibtimes.com ‘Conversation with an Undertaker’

They say you should visit Varanasi once in your lifetime and we were glad to finally have made it after yet another delayed plane. Our wonderful host arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the Varanasi airport. The driver entertained us on the way with his comments about the traffic in Varanasi.

‘ Incredible India, incredible traffic.’

You need 3 things to drive in Varanasi:A good horn, good brakes and most of all good luck!

On our first full day we decided to walk into the old town. The sights, noise, smell and traffic that we encountered were like nothing else we have ever seen.

Lynne: I feel like I am on a movie set!

Les: I have never seen a bloody movie like this!

We had some coffee at the FAKE Brown Bread Bakery thanks to a flyer given to us by our host. We only found this out when we bumped into the owner of the real bakery in the street and shared an autorickshaw with him to his bakery. He has moved his bakery and the address in the current Lonely Planet is wrong. The fake people have kept his sign, menus and donation box for the school he funds. They have used the money to fund the building of a guest house. There is so much money involved they have also threatened to kill him. The owner’s mother was even taken to the fake bakery by her German tour company. Touts are also paid a commission to lead you to the wrong bakery.

The Real Brown Bread Bakery website

We wandered through the back lanes of the old city.

We found a friendly barber who gave Nick a shave and seemed to enjoy squirting him in the face with water.

Nick did enjoy the face massage that finished off the whole experience.

We liked the barber so much Les also went back for a hair cut.

We found ourselves wandering the ghats. We were asked to pose for more photos! Maybe we should start charging!

The ghats were certainly the place to be with all sorts of activities going on!!

One of the MANY cricket matches we stumbled upon.

Massage anyone?

Do you want to buy a bag?

A bath perhaps? Don’t forget to use the soap!

Next on the agenda was the sunset boat cruise to see the Ganga Aarti Evening Ceremony/

One of the burning ghats in the distance. This particular ghat offered both the traditional wood and the electric cremation options!

We took a day trip out to Sarnath

Seems the sign is not working!

Even without the mo, the gold chain and the toupee, Les felt he fitted the requirements to use these male toilets!

It was an early start for the sunrise cruise down to the main burning ghats, Manikarnika Ghat

We decided to give the cycle rickshaws a try. They really are not as comfortable as they look, with the seat tilted forward so you feel like you are going to fall out!

Lynne could not wait to get out!

We stayed with Harish at Home stay and enjoyed a hassle free four nights in Varanasi.

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Tasty tea, amazing animals and a birthday bash in Darjeeling!

3

Jan

January 3, 2013 by Karen

Tasty tea, amazing animals and a birthday bash in Darjeeling!

We finally arrived in Darjeeling after a delayed plane and a few road blocks.

It was a relief to arrive at our beautiful hotel, The Mayfair .

Our first morning in Darjeeling was spent at the zoo.

Some visitors were more interested in us than the animals!

After the zoo we headed for the plaza and main street to have a look around.

Some of the gorgeous locals sunning themselves in the plaza.

Waiting for Our dinner at The Park

Our second day was Leslie’s birthday.

Les celebrated his birthday in style with lots of hand shakes and a Khata from the staff. I am sure you can guess who gave him the glasses!

Is that Burt Newton or Dame Edna?

We spent the birthday morning walking down to ‘The Happy Valley Tea Estate ‘ where we had an amazing free tour.

Saw this for you Cal!

Tasting some great Darjeeling tea!

The birthday boy seems pleased with his cup of tea.

We needed a rest on the way back up the hill. It was a good excuse to take some photos.

The birthday boy was a little concerned when he saw where his surprise birthday activity would take place!!

More birthday greetings and another Khata.

Les relaxed after we told him we were going to do a momo cooking course.

We were given the comments books to read while we drank tea and waited for the course to begin.

This was my favourite.

Les and Nick with Rumba before he set off to the pub!

A special apron for the birthday boy.

Lily, our patient and encouraging teacher!

The finished product, our vegetable momos ready to be steamed!

Ready to be eaten!

Sampling the local homemade millet beer!

Back at the hotel a cake was waiting for us!

The mist finally cleared up for us on our final morning. It was great to be able to enjoy the spectacular view of Khangchendzonga, the third highest mountain in the world.