A Plan!

Well we have had a nice time in Darjeeling, spending most of our time reading, playing games, and sipping on hot drinks. The weather here has been cold and damp..we have literally been in a cloud the whole time. Not been able to see more then a hundred feet because of the fog!
We visited a couple Bhuddist monastries, but enjoyed the hot tea afterwards better.

We have found a way out of Darjeeling. First a bus to Siliguri, then a train to Calcutta, then a flight to Bangalore, and lastly a bus to Ooty! We leave this afternoon, and arrive tomorrow night. Not to bad really.
Another couple months in Ooty trying to help as much as possible..hopefully working on a vegetable garden with the girls. This has been a fantastic trip!

Darjeeling

Well we made it overland from Kathmandu to Darjeeling, but now are a bit stuck...granted a nice place to be stuck in! Two and a half weeks ago when we decided to do this trip we tried to book train tickets that were from just South of here all the way down the East coast to Chennai where we could catch a short train and then a bus back to Ooty...However, the train was fully booked with a huge waiting list. Our only option was to wait untill 5 days before we wanted to go, when they release a batch more tickets at 8am. This is for foreigners and last minute travellers and is called TATKAL. Unfortunately again, we were in Nepal 5 days before we wanted to leave and nobody in Nepal knew what Tatkal was. We decided we would have to wait a couple days and book tickets in Darjeeling. We have arrived to find that the Darjeeling Train Station is on strike.. for at least a week, and the travel agents are not so helpful and assure us there are no train tickets available for weeks! Daves been researching all morning, and says we could make our way to Calcutta and then fly to Bangalore and then take a long bus home! We are not quite sure about Calcutta as its at least 24 hours by bus! Ha ha..I'll stop boring you all with travelling adventures... Darjeeling seems nice, and full of good food. I think we may go to the zoo today, which has a good reputation and then sample some teas. We're just leaving to have breakfast and decide on the best plan of action, I think a pancake and a mug of Horlicks sounds pretty tasty.

Trekking in the Himalayas

Well after Chitwan we took a bus to Pokhara, where we spent three days with our cousins Phil and El, and their gorgeous daughter Evey...who took a certain liking to Daves beard and was always asking for Unka! We had a super relaxing time, and even found an authentic English restaurant that served fish n chips! We ate there twice.
Phil and El were really hospitable and looked after us so well. They even set us on a trek providing us with directions, map, water filter and T shirts! We had four wonderful days trekking in the Anapurna National Reserve, where the views of the mountains were so beautiful and we were trekking a lot of the time through Rodhedendron forrests. We were making fun the whole time, imagining what Elsie and Penny would be exclaiming about how gorgeous everything was!
On one of the mornings we woke up at 4:30am and climbed to the top of Poon Hill, this had the most amazing view of several huge mountains including Anapurna 1 and south, Dalaghuri and Fish Tail. We watched the sun rise, cuddled in a yak wool blanket eating a Cadburys Fruit and Nut bar! Well worth the hard hike up there in the dark!
We had one night back in Pokhara, where we rested our incredibly sore legs, and then hopped on the bus today to Kathmandu. We'll have one day here, shopping and visiting some temples and then onto an 18 hour bus ride to the India Nepal border before catching yet another bus to Darjeeling! Not sure if Im ready for that trip yet!
We had a really nice Italian dinner tonight though and are feeling so blessed by the wonderful experiences we have been given. Hopefully we will be able to upload some photos soon and maybe even a video of the elephant rodeo!

Royal Chitwan National Park, April 13th

What a day, what a day, still hard to describe all we did and saw in one 16 hour period. We began by taking a dugout canoe downriver with our guide Kumar in the early morning. We passed people fishing, and saw some birds and long snouted crocs lazing in the mud. We landed on a sand bank and before setting on in to the bush on foot Kumar gave us a little pep talk. You see rhino and he charge, climb little tree, no little tree, run around big tree, round and round, no tree anywhere, run very fast, throw your clothes and bag. You see sloth bear, every one get together, make very big, much noise, scare bear, he keep coming, i hit him on head with stick. I was liking him more and more by the minute. "You see tiger, you freeze, maybe make eye contact and back away slow, you see tiger with baby, close eyes, say namaste and start to run, nothing you can do". great. Here we go in to the tall grass where you can't see more than 15-20 ft and their are all sorts of great predators around. We stalked for a while wandering around looking at birds, when kumar's eyes popped out and made some danger motions. There in the trail in front of us was a big rhino catching a snooze. We backed off and came around for another look, only about 25 ft away, but he woke up and shook his head and we lit out quick. Kumar said, "that one chase me twice all ready". Back at the river we had a lovely refreshing drink at a cafe and then the elephant washing rodeo started. The elephant guides bring their charges down to the water(about3-5ft deep) and then get you to climb on their backs and then they go beserko and try and chuck you off. You can't imagine how much fun this is. Again and again suzie and i climbed on and held on for dear life as they bucked and plunged. I have to say we did quite good compared to many others. We stayed in the water for over an hour just loving to be so near such wonderful animals. If you ever get the chance wild bucking elephant rodeo riding in water is well worth the $3 tip you pay the driver. As if this day couldn't get better, we set off in the late afternoon on elephant back for a couple hour tour through the forest. We were in a little wooden howdah(saddle) with two others, actually really comfy. We're all talking in the first few minutes saying , we probably won't see any rhinos but this is fun anyways. We come around a tree and there is a mom and her baby right in front of our elephant. Mass panic in our howdah as everyone tries to take a pic at once and after a few secs they disappear in to the brush. We think that was awesome but wish it could've lasted. A few seconds later we come out in a field and there are 7 rhinos grazing along with another baby, absolutely amazing. We saw 6 more in the next hour, they were bathing in a mud hole and returned to the riverside amazed at all we had done and seen in one day. Chitwan you done us right.

Welcome all ye sardines

People, masses of people, a vast swarm of brown humanity crowding on to concrete piers waiting for their "ships" of steel to come rolling in. India like i always imagined it would be: turbans and saris, businessman and beggars, huge piles of goods waiting to be pushed and shoved in to any available space on the waiting train, rats dancing on the rails, samosas frying in hot oil, and the smell, ah, the smell, one minute a delight of savoury and spice, the next the stench of the dark water flowing out of a thousand slums. Train after train flows into New Delhi station packed to the brim and somehow more people manage to cram themselves on, a literal sardine factory. I don't know quite what i was thinking, but it was something like, surely our train will be better, everything will be has its been before, nice, orderly, and our seats will be waiting to welcome our tired butts in to them. Ah, the ignorance of Delhi trains. Suz and I pushed and shoved our way on to our carriage only to find 15 people sitting in what normally accomodates 8. Somehow the number swelled when it came time to sleep and i kid you not 21 people were sleeping in, on, and around 8 bunks. Suzie and i slept head to toe and the chain holding our bunk kept digging in to my calf and i tossed and turned all night as people brushed my head as the passed. But God is still good, he stilled suzies stomach so that neither of us had to go for 14 hours. Suz did try once but their were 10 people sitting on the floor outside the toilets. Their were even people sitting in between the carriages on the outside of the train. So if you ever find yourself needing to leave Delhi on a train, pay the money and sit with the other white folks, otherwise, sardine city.
The rest of the journey to the border and on to Royal Chitwan National Park passed with relative ease. The people of Nepal smile more often, are more relaxed and there is just generally more space everywhere, very therapeutic. A lovely guy named Kumar met our bus and whisked us off to a great hotel beside the park.

Delhi and the Belly

To make up for our relative health when traveling in Rajasthan, Delhi struck back with a vegenance. But before that we were once again treated royally by our friends Dave and Nancy Byrne. Their lovely driver Khan picked us up early in the morning at the train station and whisked us off to the extreme comfort of the Byrne's. We had a couple more great meals at an italian restaurant and the embassy, as well as a dip in the swimming pool. Then the belly kicked in and Suz, Joy, and Gibbs all felt its wrath, not so nice. Gibbs and Joy headed to the airport and we to the New Delhi train station on the next leg of our journey. Again, so much thanks to the Byrne's helping us to navigate the chaos of New Delhi.

Tigers in the Wild!

Agra and Jaipur

Udaipur

We have had a great time in Udaipur, eating out, shopping and playing cards. We had 2 lovely days of horseriding to celebrate Daves 29th birthday. The horses were super beautiful Marhawaris that wanted to gallop all the time. The first day was not so good for me...I was riding a rather surly horse. We now have two days of relaxing here before heading back to Delhi.

Colour Festival- Painted Up!

We travelled from Bundi to Udaipur, making a very worthwhile stop in Chittaurgah for a few hours. When we arrived at the station there was a crazy thunderstorm and then a hail storm with stones a cm wide! Madness..we've had rain everywhere and the monsoons aren't supposed to start for at least 2 months!

We hired a rickshaw to take us on a tour of the old city and fort where there are palaces, monuments and 130 temples. It was the gruesome site where over 14,000 women commited Johar (burning themselves alive) in the 16th Century. Their city was being overtaken by a foreign army, their men all rode to their deaths in battle, and to save their honour the women, led by their Queen, chose death rather than becoming the wives of other men. This mass suicide heppened three times in Chittaurgahs history! The fort had beautiful buildings, including many Jain temples which had incredibly raunching sculptures carved all over them!
We came to Chittaurgah on the festival day Holi..the festival of colour. This is the day when everyone goes into the streets throwing paint powder and water over each other. We were very sad to find out that the chaos had already happened that morning before we arrived, but enjoyed seeing the after math. Tonnes of multi coloured people riding past on scooters smiling and waving, the roads had colour splashes, and the drains ran pink.

While stopped at the fort, a group of 9 guys dove up and decided that we needed to be included in the festivities..dousing us in paint and water. Haha..we looked a state, pinks, silver, green, blue, purple and gold..much to everyones amusement who passed us! Unfortunately the colour is not so washable and in fact when you try to rinse, the colour becomes richer and covers your whole skin in a deep shade of pink! We travelled this way to Udaipur on the train recieving smiles, waves and shouts of Happy Holi! After 2 showers, painful scrubbing and much soap, I am now almost the right colour..my hair however and the pearl in my wedding ring might take a while longer! Dave says I look like a Swedish Punk Rocker..he doesnt look much better!

Kipling's Kingdom

From tigers we went to Bundi, a small, quiet town where Rudyard Kipling wrote much of Kim and the Jungle Book. We had a really nice time here, the fort and palace were huge, and beautiful but not very well looked after. Half the palace was entirely given over to monkeys. In fact monkeys played across the whole town- you walked everywhere with a big wooden stick to ward them off! Being here it was easy to see Kiplings inspiration for the monkey palace, as they sat on our hostel roof, swung along the telephone lines and tumbled down through trees and along the fort walls.
Dave and Gibbs tried pan, a leaf painted with lime and calcium filled with sweets, cardamom, fennel, peppermint and a load of other things, all wrapped into quite a sizable pouch, which you shove in your cheek and eat. They said it was pretty strong. I had a taste..it was nice, but the whole package would have been way too much!

Jaipur and Rathembore

Jaipur was not as nice as expected..it was very busy, most of the shops were closed and the Palace of Winds had a nasty new paint job. However the fort was nice and we had a lovely, pretty genuine tasting, Italian meal. We did not make it long stay though and took a train then bus to Rathembore national park. We stayed in a beautiful hotel with a very refreshing pool. At six the next morning we were picked up in an open top bus jeep thing, which was going to give us a tour of the park. After an hour of driving around picking up the other passengers, including some rich, drunk, Indian business men we finally arrived at the entrance. Our driver picked route number 5 from the bag, we had heard 3 was the best, and proceeded through the gate. However there seemed to be a problem and the business men got out of the car. And we waited...the weather was getting hotter, and the sky lighter, and we were becoming more irritated..all the wildlife would be disappearing! There seemed to be a problem...and we drove back out of the park! We waited and finally everyone piled back into the bus, the business men looking very smug. We later discovered the route had been mysteriously changed to 3...in India they call it Baksheesh..bribery.

Finally into the park we go, chances of seeing wildlife greatly diminished and all a bit skeptical of seeing anything. Not 5 minutes into the park we see a tiger coming towards the bus. Freaking awesome. It just stalked down the road for about 40 metres before heading into the underbush. We were amazed. Unfortunately I had the camera and was so excited that all the photos are shaky! It got better though. We had about an hour and a half solid of seeing tigers...and some got really close to us. We could have spat on them. We saw four in all and saw them multiple times.

We also saw crocodiles, parrots, peacocks, monkeys, birds, deer, coyotes and a black tailed mongoose. Inside the park was also an old fort, a perfect back drop for the animals. It fulfilled one of my lifes hopes...seeing wild tigers up close.