Blue Mountains, Featherland And Sunset Cruise

OK, so as I said at the end of my last blog, I would write a blog for the Blue Mountains, so here it is.

I booked the trip through 'Activity Tours' and it would be a full house with me booking the last seat on the bus. I was to meet today (Friday 30th) at 7.50am at Circular Quay ( I seem to know this place inside and out now). Being situated in Randwick, out of town the tour company the tour company didn't pick up from there, only central Sydney from Hotels and key places. I had an early start, jumped in the shower and caught the bus down to the quay. At 8.10am I was getting a little worried that I was in the wrong place, as I was speaking to the main office the bus pulled up. I hopped on board and took my seat, looking around even at nearly 32 I was the youngest on the bus. The driver, Mark, seemed pretty cool and gave us a little chat before handing the mic round for us all to introduce ourselves. There were India's, Singaporean's, Chinese, American's and as I am increasingly meeting Pom's who have now emigrated to Australia, of these a couple from Cairns and another guy, Mark, from Perth. After introductions and about a 45min ride we arrived at out first destination 'Featherdale Wildlife Park'. As I mentioned in my last blog I really have seen enough animals but Mark the driver had changed my mind a little when he said that we could interact with Kola's, Wallabee's and Kangaroo's quite freely and even feed them. He wasn't wrong, the Park was very more open than the past million zoo's i had seen in the last week or so. I had my picture taken stroking a Kola, which in the 3 times i had been to OZ I had never done, which was quite cool and without sounding like a girl, they were so cute. We then headed into an enclosed but still out door area where many a Wallaby and Kangaroo roamed around. On entry we had chance to buy some food for them, ice-cream cones filled with some sort of what looked like bombay mix. 

I soon had them eating out of my hand, literally, I had seen plenty of Kangaroo's and Wallaby's in my time's in OZ but had never been this close never mind fed them, they were so gentle and not threatening at all and as you can see from the photo, he even grabbed my hand while he ate from it. Again very cute. The rest of park was your normal Aussie wildlife, Taz Devils, Cassowary's, Dingo's and endless birds. After the Wallaby and Kangaroo feeding everything else seemed a little boring. Luckily we had a packed day and only had an hour in the park before moving on. 

The promised sun that Ed had mentioned as yet was not to be seen, thankfully I had dressed in long trousers T-shirt and Fleece, with a pair of shorts in my bag just in case the weather forecast was actually correct. Was I glad with my choice of clothing. We started to drive up into the Blue Mountains, passing through the town of Katoomba (which i think is a really cool town name), and started hitting various look out points. Mark the driver said that he knew a really good one off the beaten track, and unlike a lot of the other look out points shouldn't be so crowded with tourists, he was right we were the only ones there. As we made a short walk up on to the plateaux the valley and Blue Mountains came into view. The view was spectacular, with the sun now coming out to play the shadows on the mountains and Valley looked amazing, what also was amazing was the wind swiftly blowing across the plateaux, it was fierce and cold. We hastily got some pictures in and headed back to the bus. We were now moving onto 'Scenic World' which was north of Katoomba. Scenic World is privately owned tourist attraction which host's a couple of 'Skyways' (cable cars) and a Sky rail, which believed to be the steepest cable driven in the world with an incline of 52 degrees over about 500m. We had around an hour and half to explore and both the Skyway's and the Sky Rail were good, with the Skyway's offering amazing views of the Blue Mountains and valleys that they surround. The SkyRail was very steep but only lasted all of a minute, blink and you missed it, still not bad and I can now say i have been on the steepest cable driven train in the world. 

We were back on the bus and away back towards Sydney for 3pm, we had an hour so drive to the next destination, 'Olympic Park'. The Olympic Park for those of you that remember was built back in 2000 to host the 2000 Olympic games. We weren't actually going to be going in any of the venues, just drive around the park itself and take a few pic's while Mark gave us a bit of history. By 5pm were at the Olympic ferry Wharf were we would leave Mark and the tour bus and grab a 'Captain Cook' ferry back to Circular Quay.

This was a pretty large ferry with a number of large outside decks, the Sun was starting to go down so we would be able to cruise down the river while watching Sunset. What a sunset it was, with some great cloud formations and the fading sun reflecting off the water, it made for some great 'arty farty' photo's (as my friend Mr's Milly's put's it). I think i must have taken around 70 pic's, messing around with various settings on my camera. The good thing about this ferry was that they had a bar, so as we cruised into Sydney harbour i enjoyed a nice cold beer. As we approached the Sydney harbour the sun was now down and the light fading, the lights on all the high rises were on and Sydney bridge and Opera house were also lit up. For me, and its one of the reasons I love Sydney its one of the best sights I have seen and I never get bored of it.

I hope you like the pic's just a couple of the few hundred i took today, I will post more on FB soon. In the mean time, thanks for reading as always and please keep reading. Take care everyone and catch up with you all soon. 

Manly, Old Friend And Captain Unco

Hello friends, family and foes, hope that you are all keeping well and for my fellow Englishman and women, i hope your enjoying the current heatwave. I have now been in Sydney for a week and though the weather hasn't been the greatest and I thought i hadn't done a great deal the time has flown by. I last wrote on Monday 26th after visiting Sydney Zoo, its now Friday and as i said the time seems to have dwindled away. So Monday I decided to again head on down to Circular Quay and head out to 'Manly'. Manly is North east of down town Sydney and is popular with not only with tourists but locals also. I caught the midday ferry crossing which was around a 45 minute trip. The Sun was out but a reasonably strong wind took the heat of the midday sun. So nearing 1pm I arrived and headed straight for Manly beach. This was just a 5min walk from the Wharf. As I said the wind was pretty strong and even though i had shorts on i also had a T-shirt and fleece top and to be honest was still feeling a little chilly. I imagined the beach to be quite empty, how wrong i was, it was packed. There were people swimming in the sea, people playing on the beach and sunbathing! Me on the other hand was trying my hardest just to keep warm. Either these people were on holiday from Alaska or Siberia or I was just being a wet lettuce (no comments please) perhaps being in India for 6 weeks sweating my bollocks off every day, I had become accustomed to only high temperatures and humidity. Either way, no way was I going to be sunbathing never mind swimming in the sea. I was hungry so grabbed some sushi and a drink. After lunch i headed back towards the Wharf, there is a small stretch of beach next to it, this side of Manly was covered from the wind and with the sun still out I decided to set myself down here and listen to my iPOD. Before i knew it was 4.30pm, I had fallen asleep. I have been sleeping well but ever since arriving in Sydney i have been so tired and lacking in energy, i think maybe the go, go, go of India has finally caught up with me. The ferry was just arriving on the Wharf, luckily it was less than a five minute walk, within the hour i was back at Circular quay and catching the bus back to Randwick. Rest of the evening I just chilled and watched TV.

The following day the weather was back to being cold and raining. I had arranged to meet my Aussie friend Annie, who shall we say I had become acquainted with back in 2007 when i came to Sydney.  She was familiar with Randwick and agreed to come to me. We had lunch and chatted for a good few hours, since seeing her she had joined the police force and had some interesting stories to tell. It was great to catch up with her. She left around 4ish and again with the weather being rubbish just chilled out for the rest of the evening.

The following day I rose early and headed down into the City with Lorna who took me to 'Paddy's Market'. She had told me about this the night before and thought I would have a wonder round. On getting to the market I soon realised that I had in fact been there the last time I was in Sydney. Lorna had to shoot off to work and left me to my own devices. I wondered around the market, not really in the shopping mood, so headed to find breakfast. I was soon heading towards Darling Harbour, again I had been here before but remembered I liked it, the sun was trying to break through but with no success and soon it was pouring with rain. With this I decided to fork out $60 to see the Sydney Aquarium, Wildlife centre and Sydney Tower, an apparently 'superb' deal. If i am honest I had seen enough animals, with Singapore Zoo and Taragon Zoo earlier in the week but as the weather was not on my side and these were all in doors I thought fcuk it. The Aquarium and Wildlife centre were actually not bad with the highlight being a 5m, 750KG salt water crocodile, that was one big Croc. After my animal fix I headed for Sydney Sky tower, i was looking forward to this. The tower stand's in the Centre of the CBD and is the highest building in Sydney as well being the second highest observation tower in the Southern hemisphere. The rain had now stopped and the sun had made an appearance, so I was looking forward to some good views and pic's. However this was not to be the case, enter 'Captain Unco', (cpt unco is the name given to me by Kate from India, as I kept doing stupid things, 'Unco' short for uncoordinated) from the time of leaving the Wildlife centre to getting to the tower, which by the way is all of a 15min walk, I had lost my bloody ticket, I searched all my pockets and emptied my rucksack, it was no where to be seen, I had dropped it or I like to think that I had been pick pocketed, even though i had still had my wallet. Another ticket was going to be around $30 and by this point i just wanted to go home, so angry with myself for having another 'Unco' moment i stormed to the bus stop and headed back to Randwick. I grabbed some food from the shopping mall and decided that a run was needed to elevate some of my frustration. I did the same route as before down to Coogee beach, though i must have been so tired as it felt like i was running with concrete in my trainers. All week i had been saying that i wanted to go to the Blue Mountains. lack of motivation and rubbish weather, I had put it off. Ed had said the night before that Friday was supposed to be nice, so when i was down at the harbour, booked a day trip to the Blue Mountains, which included 'Featherland Wildlife Park' (more animals), 'Scenic world' which was a tourist haven spot for views of the Blue Mountains and a River Cruise back into Sydney Harbour, all for $90, I was looking forward to it. In the evening after Lorna and Ed had got home from work, myself and Lorna headed to Bondi Junction, Lorna needed a few things and i needed to return a T-shirt i had bought at the weekend. On returning we just watched some TV and had an early night.

So, it would seem i have done quite a bit this week and also had some chill time on an evening. I guess with Asia coming up in a few weeks, were I really think I may turn into a Alcoholic for a few months, i should welcome the chilling time, and also with feeling so tired since getting here in OZ, I am catching up on sleep. I have decided to write a separate blog for the Blue Mountains as this one was getting to be epic, which i guess your all used to be now. I'll post the Blue Mountains after this one. Thanks for reading as always.

Sunshine, Feeling Good And Lion's

G'day followers.. I must admit since arriving in Sydney i have been mildly depressed, mainly due to being so tired and of course the rain, wind and coldness. OK, i know that its still only spring and living in England for 32 years i should be used to it, I guess hearing of 30 degree heat before i arrived i was expecting more. I didn't get to sleep until 3am this morning, no reason other than i didnt feel tired, i some how even though the time difference from India is only 4 hours and Singapore being even less at 2 hours, seem to be suffering from Jet lag. However, i believe i am now all sorted and body clock back to normal and i rose this morning around 8ish. After breakfast of eggs and weetabix and a shower i was full of beans and ready to face the world.

I decided i would head over to Taronga Zoo. I caught the bus down to Circular Quay which is right next to the Wharf where i would catch the ferry over to Taronga Zoo, a short 15minute crossing. I had the day before purchased a 'MultiTicket' travel card. This is a god send and at a $41 dollars a bargain. It allows me unlimited travel on Buses, trains and ferry's for a whole week, which means i can pretty much anywhere within Sydney, i think for a Tourist its as i say a bargain and very handy. So i was just about to board the ferry when i went to turn my camera on.. nothing.. dead.. cant be i thought i had charged it all night, then of course it dawned on me, i opened the battery compartment and it was empty, 'captain unco' strikes again (private joke from India, will explain another time) i had of course left the battery in the charger. As the Ferry crosses the harbour straight in front of Sydney bridge and the Opera house as well as great view's of the CBD (central business district) i really wanted my camera. So about turned away from the Ferry and set looking for a camera shop, one, luckily was not far away. 10mins later i was on the Ferry, $40 dollars down and in possession of a brand new canon battery. The weather was around 17degrees not cold but still no sun. As i sat on the outside of the ferry looking at the Sydney bridge, Opera house and tall high rise buildings i soon remembered how much i loved Sydney (for those of you that dont know this is my 3rd time here) there something about it that makes me feel good, happy and content, i really could easily leave here. Everything is accessible and getting around seems to be a breeze, perhaps spending so long in India, anything is easy now. I arrived at the Zoo purchased my ticket for $44 and set about exploring the zoo. WOW. OK, its just a Zoo but its by far the best Zoo i have been to. Now i may not have visited every Zoo in the world and i am sure that there are some amazing Zoo's around the world but for a city Zoo this was pretty awesome. It had every animal you could think of, all the Australian animals of course, Wallabies, Kuala's, Kangaroo's, Tasmanian devils and so on. Its also had, Elephants, Crocodiles, Alligators, Giraffe's, all kind of reptiles, Gorilla's, Sea-lions,  you name it, Taronga Zoo had it. Now i haven't mentioned Lions, Tigers or Leopards, the reason being is that i wanted to give them a special mention. Big cats are my favourite animals, they had 4 Lions, 3 females and a male, of course they were behind protected glass but they were not shy, and came right up to the glass, they were beautiful and magnificent. I know i maybe making a big deal of it, but they really are beautiful creatures, i think so much so for the first time in my blog's i have added one of my photo's, as you can see above. (alright, alright perhaps i just realised you could do it, so you'll be seeing more from now on). So after taking a million photo's of the Lion's i headed for lunch at a cafe which overlooked the harbour. After lunch, at last, finally, thank god, the sun made an appearance, this added to my already relaxed and chilled mood and thought 'yep, life is good today'. I wondered around another hour so, seeing a Snow Leopard and  an enormous bear, which was cool and many other animals, however i didn't get to see what i really wanted to see and that was the tigers, they seemed to be a little shy today and though I waited for what seemed an eternity (maybe 10mins) they didn't want to play ball. I headed back to the ferry, now with the sun out, managed to take some great pictures of the Sydney Bridge, Opera house and down town Sydney, as sad as some of you may think i am for getting another battery, i was glad that I did.


I headed back home, picking up one of my favourite snacks on the way, Suishi! YUM!. The rest of the evening was made up of chilling, sorting and deleting the 300 odd photo's i had taken and watching TV, not before though going for a 30min run down and along Coogee beach, very nice beach and will hopefully be attending this again with sun lotion and beach towel!! Oh yes i was feeling good again.



(thought i'd add another picture in, now that i know you can and how to do it).

Seeing all the animals today at the Zoo, especially the big cats made me think about my next big trip, and when i say think i mean not left my mind, i have to go to Africa, maybe next year or should i say definitely next year, the old cliche, 'The world is my Oyster'

Just want to say thanks to all of you that read my blogs, i get stat's for each post and can see the numbers are still the same as when i started, I hope you enjoy reading them, i know i do babble sometimes but good to see people still following me. Just to let you know, if your new i only post on FB the latest post, if you want to read post's from the past you can select them on the right hand side of my blog page or just visit http://ruffysworld.blogspot.com which will take you to the start, come on peeps i know you all now going to hit that 'add to favourites button' ;o).

'If you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything and everything'

Sydney, Bavarian Cafe, More Shopping and Bad Weather

Hello from Sydney. Hope you are all well and good? So i last blogged on Thursday having spent the day on Sentosa island in Singapore. I decided after a heavy night the night before that i would have a quiet, chilled night in the hostel as i had to be up at 6am the next morning for my flight to Sydney. It was a quiet night but ended up being a late one. Lots of backpackers arrived that day due to the Singapore grand prix starting the next day, there wasn't a bed free in the whole place. I ended up chatting to a bunch of Aussies, sharing travel stories, they were especially intrigued to hear about 'incredible India'. So after many a laugh, piss taking and pom bashing i hit the hay at 3am! I had found 2 other girls also leaving for the airport at the same time so we agreed to share the taxi fare, bonus, especially with the amount of Singapore dollars I had put into the local economy in my short stay. I rose at 6.15am, showered paid up and was at the airport for 7.30am, still in good time for my 9.40am flight to Sydney. It was all going too swimmingly, of course this was about to change. At the check in desk I managed to place myself in a queue which had a family of 6 who about 100 bags, it took around 15mins just to process them alone. 25mins later i was heaving my rucksack on to the conveyor belt, i handed my passport over, after few bashes of the keyboard the lady asked me for me Australian Visa, i stared at her with a 'WTF you on about' look, I explained that it should have been all sorted by my travel company who i booked the RTW ticket with and that they advised that it was all electronic and on the system. After a few more bashes of the keyboard she politely explained that i didn't have a visa! Magic i thought, it was the middle of the morning in the UK so I couldn't even contact the my flight company! The nice lady explained i could buy one for $75 dollars and i could still make my flight. I was sent to Quantas customer services where though frustrated, just wanted to get a Visa and be on my way. I gave my details and was asked to take a seat, 30mins later i had my visa, checked in made my way to my gate still with 30mins to spare. It was only on the plane that it dawned on me that i hadn't paid $75 and nor did they ask for it, Result! The flight was 7hours and must admit went pretty quick, i think because of how great the service and plane was. It was a brand new Boeing 380, it was bright, super clean and airy. The in flight service was top notch and by far the best airline service i had ever experienced. I was handed a menu of the food, snacks and drinks and when they would be served throughout the flight, including an ice-cream. The entertainment system was certainly top of the range with plenty of films, TV programs (with lots of different genre to choose from) music and games, the piste a resistance was an option called 'Skycam', this enabled you to watch the whole flight from a camera in the tail fin, as you can tell i was pretty impressed, watching take off and landing from that view was pretty cool.. fair play Quantas, overall, excellent airline.

So i arrived in Sydney at around 6.45pm and was greeted by my English friends who are currently working and living here on a sponsorship, Ed and Lorna. I stepped outside the airport, i knew it had been good weather all week, however that had certainly changed, Ed and Lorna advised it had been up to 31 degrees that day, i found it hard to believe as it was now around 12 degrees, it was freezing and the rain was soon to follow. We had a short 15min journey to their apartment in Randwick, which is about 20mins from central Sydney. Their place is a one bed modern flat, its pretty spacious and has a big balcony on the first floor, the view isn't the best but nice place, my bed for the next 10 days was a mattress on the floor in the open kitchen/lounge, was just perfect and a also found out that night, pretty comfy, not too shabby for little Ruffy, not too shabby at all. I slept like a log and even slept to about 10am the following day, unheard of for me with my usual 6am energetic starts, i clearly was tired and my body was enjoying the home comforts. It was Saturday, raining and cold, my plans for the beach an getting a tan faded away. So we hopped on the bus to Bondi Junction, and went shopping. I clearly hadn't shrugged off my shopping fever! I left the mall a few hours later with a unlocked mobile phone which cost only $30 and allowed you to have to sims in it at once, of which you can switch between very easy, 2 T's, a pair of 'going out' shoes costing $150 (they are pretty sweet) and $30 dollars top up for my new phone, along with a few other bits and bobs. And the spending didn't stop there, on the way back we stopped at the supermarket and i picked up food for the week, at least i wont be spending loads on takeaways and restaurants. I am very surprised how expensive it is here, definitely on par with London prices, i guess being one of the biggest cities in the world, i shouldn't be too surprised. That evening myself and Ed headed out to a local entertainment center to meet one of his friends, Gary that Ed worked with, Gary is Irish who now had permanent citizenship. We ordered some food and had a few beers. we had headed out early, around 5ish as Gary and his mate Kev (who joined us around 6ish) were off to a comedy club at 7. They shot off and Ed and myself chatted, watched England smash Romania and of course sank a few more Schooner's (for those of you that don't know a schooner is not a pint nor is a half pint, its in between). At around 9 Gary and Kev had finished in the comedy club and headed to another bar in the complex, the 'Bavarian bier cafe'. This place was very cool and had loads of character, the food was supposed to be amazing and waitress' dressed in tight German style waitress uniforms which produced some great cleavage, not that i had noticed, it was only when Gary had pointed this out had I noticed.. of course! The cafe of course was all about the beer, mostly from Europe, there was plenty to choose from and a choice of sizes, Schooner, 500ml and a whole litre, which would have set you back $20 per glass. We sat chatting, drinking  and getting slowly drunk. Gary and Kev who i will mention at this point in their 30's treated us to some rather interesting and hilarious of tales of times when they had shit themselves!! yeh not really dinner talk but very funny nether the less and by this point we were well on our way anway! Gary and Kev left around 11pm, we decided stay for a few more and of course the inevitable happened, we started on the whisky's. We soon got chatting to a local couple, Jody and Rob by all accounts also had, had a fair amount of drink, they seemed to have a strange relationship and Jody who i will mention was pretty hot kept stroking mine and Ed's leg's at every opportunity, she seemed a little unstable with a couple of outbursts of tears.. very random but they were both a good laugh. We left at around 1am but not before the barman had said to Ed very smuggly if you can flick a dollar coin into a glass behind the bar the round of whisky's you just bought are free, of course first go Ed popped the one dollar straight into the glass.. Mr Barman was no longer looking so smug but Ed sure was.. good work Edward. We finally got kicked out as we were the last ones to leave, it was pissing down and blowing a gale the four of us shared a taxi not before getting soaked to the bone and headed home.

That brings us up to today, must admit i was feeling hanging, more tired than anything, Lorna was out for the day, myself and Ed had your typical hangover day, TV, PlayStation and of course KFC, the colonel always seems to be calling me after a night out! Yes before you say it, i did buy food the day before so i wouldn't eat fast food, this however was a special occasion!!!! I am sure you understand. Keep well peeps.

PS. Its still raining and hasn't stopped and is fcking freezing! the sun better return soon, i need a tan! and having heard from Caz who is still in India, now travelling through GOA i am nore envious as she advised me that its been in the 30's and they had been sunbathing getting burnt and awesome tans! NOT jealous at all!!! Grrrr.

Supreme Singapore

Hello peeps.. Well i have to say i am loving Singapore, I loved India also but in a different way. I could very, very easily live here. So last night i did end up getting my gladrags on and meeting up with my friend Steve for food and more than 1 or 2 drinks. Steve gave me so directions of where to meet him which meant me using the MRT. The MRT is the underground tube which runs all over Singapore. I must admit i was more than impressed with it. If you compare it to the London underground, its 5* where as London would be only just pushing 2*. It was amazingly clean, it was air conditioned throughout, it was spacious and airy, you didn't even know that you were few hundred feet underground. Even when you were on it, it didn't feel like a train, it was fast and smooth, Singapore underground really is the dogs bollox!!! So I met Steve in Somerset, which hosts 'Orchard Rd' which is infamous for shopping malls and rows of shops, a Shopaholics heaven. At the top of one the big malls there was a huge food court we had some good food for pretty much nothing, a huge contrast from the dinner i had the night before, i think it was around $7, only a $110 less than my fish dinner the night before. So we chatted and caught up and then wondered to a bar just round the corner. Wednesday night is ladies night in Singapore, Ohhhh what a coincidence, it was busy, busy busy! lots of ladies and of course lots of men trying to pull the ladies, of course i was not one of them. We hit the bar and straight into the cocktails, which by the way were only a dollar less than the beer, even the local stuff! weird, even weirder was that they had 'Tetley' bitter on tap! Brilliant. We also had a free flowing bowl of monkey nuts, of which the custom is just to drop the shell on the floor, again for a city so anal on being prim and proper, a little strange. We then headed down to Clarke Quay were all the action was, we found a club and Steve's famous last words were 'just a couple mate, got to get up in the morning'. It was $28 to get in but included 2 drinks, the place was packed to the rafters. Around 3am Steve chipped off and i stayed a little longer but not much, the long island ice tea's had taken their toll. I staggered back to the hostel, of which i am sure i took the scenic route. Good night though, thanks Steve.


I awoke today not feeling too bad despite less than 4 hours sleep. It was peeing with rain, so chilled out until lunch and then myself and Irene headed out. The plan was to go to Sentosa. Sentosa is an Island just off the Harbourside. Formerly known by the rather unattractive name of Pulau Belakang Mati ("The Island After Death" in Malay) and the cente rpiece of Britain's spectacularly unsuccessful "Fortress Singapore" strategy in World War II, Sentosa has been rebranded and resculpted into one big tourist attraction, popular among Singaporeans as a quick island getaway. The island is accessible a number of ways, we chose to go by Cable car. The views from the car were awesome, you could see the Singpaore port, and the high rise buildings of the city centre. The ride was only 10mins. There is plenty of things to do on the island. Underwater sea world, universal studios, casino's, beaches you name its there. We had bought some sort of package ticket which included Sea world and also a 3D log ride. The 3D log ride was awesome, you sat in a 6 seater cabin thing and then watched a huge 3D screen which was a film about logging, yes i know sounds weird but its hard to explain it on here, anyway the cabin thing moved you had huge fans blowing on you, it was a great 15min ride and  I actually felt a little sick afterwards. We then rolled down to Sea World, were we watched a cool dolphin show. The most random thing i have done this trip then happened ( well maybe the Rat temple is the strangest thing) I fed a Stingray, that's right a stingray took squid straight from my hand, pretty cool though. We wondered around for a while longer and then caught the cable back to mainland. We jumped on the MRT and headed for Chinatown for some food. There were plenty of places to choose from included a Vietnamese place, the food and especially the spring rolls were awesome!!! 


Now back in the hostel, its my last night here, I could have been telling you tomorrow about an awesome night with Steve who had tickets to 'Fashion TV', i am gutted i couldnt go or more to the point couldnt really afford to, i would have to have bought shoes and a new shirt and the the table alone would have been $100 each!! Even writing now i am regretting not going, but with the money i have spent already or should i say wasted on my first night dinner and the fact that i have a 6am start i think its a wise choice to sit this one out, Sorry Steve! next time my friend, i am sure i will return.


So tomorrow i head for Sydney where i'll be staying with my friends Ed and Lorna for a week or so, its farewell to Singapore, in a way thankfully, i am sure i would be bankrupt within a week if i stayed. We had 'Incredible India; and now i am giving Singapore the name 'Supreme Singapore'. 


Its been expensive Singapore and you ruined me but it has been a pleasure.

Singapore slings, Raffles And Money, Money, Money

Hello from Singapore... So i arrived yesterday in the one of the wealthiest and most highly developed countries in the world. What a difference from India, high rise buildings, overly clean, efficient, wealthy, shopping malls galore and EXPENSIVE!!! I have arrived 3 days before the Singapore grand prix and for those of you not familiar with the Singapore grand prix its run at night, it looks spectacular on TV i am sure its just as amazing watching in person, unfortunatley i was unaware the race was this weekend and having spent £200 changing flights previously to stay longer in India i opted not to change them again, its a real shame and in the back of my mind i am still thinking i should stay and watch, though after less than 24hrs here I have already spent over £600 dollars but will come to that shortly, so i think the less time here the better. 

On arrival i still hadnt a hotel or hostel, my friend Steve who lives here suggested a hotel but when i rang they wanted $160 dollars a night (by the way its about £1 = $2.2 Singapore dollars). I contacted Steve, still sat in the airport, within 15mins he had booked me into the 'River City Inn' hostel based next to the Clarke Quay in central Singapore. He said he had put a deposit down and looked nice. I jumped in a taxi and within 20min was outside the hostel, it didnt look the greatest and the driver advice it was on the 3rd floor. I was soon to find the exterior was more than misleading, the hostel is probably one of the best i have stayed in, shoes off before entering, wooden floors, modern with free WIFI, clean hot showers and 4 man dorms, a very cool communal area which allows you to mingle nicely with other backpackers, 4* hostel i would say and its popular, not a single bed free, i was lucky to get in especially with the Grand Prix so close. So i dumped my stuff, showered and chilled on the sofa's, caught up on emails and my blog and then headed down to the quay. Here is where I realised how expensive Singapore is. My aim was a big fat beef steak after no beef for 6 weeks in India, that soon changed when i came across a seafood restaurant, only my favourite food. I ordered a whole fish and egg fried rice with of course a 'Tiger' beer. The fish was out of this world and so it should have been, at this point i ask you to take a seat, now don't get me wrong i didn't check the price, which was mistake one and the biggest mistake i'll probably ever make, i knew it wouldn't be cheap but thought i'd treat myself after 6 weeks of Curry's! so are you ready?!?!? $117 dollars, yes you read that right, $117 dollars, now i will also point out that this was no fancy establishment, it was on the quay which was nice, but it was outside, under a canopy with menu's and signs which clearly were 20 years old and faded in the sun and paper table cloths! So for 1 fish, 1 fried rice and a tiger beer (which was $8 dollars alone) i paid around £60 for one person! I sat there for a moment wanting to ask the guy whether i should bend over the table also then decided fcuk it, sucked it up, paid and left to walk around quay, putting the cost out of my mind, you only live once! The quay was surrounded by skyscrapers and beautifully lit hotels and walk bridges, there were more restaurants which i told myself surely were way more expensive that the one i had just been in but i doubted this thought, there were also lots of bars. The quay was horseshoe shaped on the other side i could here a pretty loud sound system, i wasn't really dressed for entering the bars but thought i'd take a peak. The bar/restaurant was packed to the rafters and guarded by many bouncers, as i walked by who did i see, yep the one and only 'Martin Brundle', i was soon to realise everyone was dressed in designer clothes, glittering jewellery and stank of money, it was an F1 party!! I tried to stare in for any further sighting's of celeb's but was starting to get a few stares myself from the bouncers, so i moved myself on.  I wondered back to the hostel and by now it was gone midnight. Got into my bed and slept the best i had in many weeks.

I awoke today, refreshed, feeling clean and raring to explore Singapore, i had met a couple of people, Henry from just outside Sheffield and Irene a teacher from Amsterdam. I invited both to join me, Henry had stuff to do but Irene was up for exploring. So we set off in search of China town. As some of you know Singapore is famous for electronics, especially Camera's. Within the hour i had parted with another $300 dollars, i had bought a new lens for my Canon 1000D, the lens i had was only 18mm - 55mm, i wanted the wide angle of the 18mm still but wanted more zoom but didn't want to be changing lens every 2 mins, so i went for a 18mm-200mm, having used  this afternoon, i am well happy with my purchase. We wondered round china town for a while and grabbed some lunch, this time spending less than $15 for 2 beers, huge prawn dish and beef fried rice, man i was seriously robbed on the quay! After lunch we headed for the infamous Raffles hotel. For those of you that don't know, Raffles is famous for the cocktail 'Singapore Sling' and originated from the hotel. We didn't actually go into the hotel, i really think i would have been asked to leave within seconds of stepping through the door but of course they still want to take advantage of silly tourists who are willing to pay $26 dollars for a Singapore Sling at the infamous Raffles Hotel, so they have a pretty smart outside circular bar, something you would see on a fancy beach in the Maldives or Bora Bora. Of course not  to disappoint Mr Raffles, myself and Irene pulled up a stool and ordered a $26 dollar cocktail, i must admit this was another fcuk it moment but the cocktail was amazing! Sinking the first ones pretty quick, it would have been rude not to have another, so we did!! After we had finished the second ones and paid the $115 dollar bar bill for 4 cocktails we headed back to the hostel, en-route walking past part of the F1 circuit, even if we could only get within 50m of it.

So here I am, chilling back at the hostel writing to you good people, i think after a rather expensive 24hrs i may stay in tonight, though i did see a bar offering 3 big bottles of Tiger beer for $15, Mmmm.. decisions, decisions!! Hope everyone is well, despite having spent a small fortune since arriving in Singapore, I love the city and the people, there are many, many westerners here but you still get a feel for the Asian side too. Speak soon followers and keep well.

Kate's Second India Poem...

Part two of our awesome adventure began in crazy Delhi.

We watched 'Who wants to be a millionaire' while filling up our bellies.

We got three new people that we didn't have before,

and got annoyed at our taxi drivers who took us to their friend's store.

Our explorer Carlotta with her growler is the Lonely Planet guru,

She got covered in pink powder in Jodphur and loves to chat about poo!

There's our smiley Scot Katie  who managed to get a seriously bung eye,

She's popular with the locals and will give anything a try.

Then there's well-travelled Roland or Rolski with guts made of steel,

He loves a sly comment and a Kingfisher with his chickpea curry meal.

We set off without Josh to see rats in Bikaner, then to the desert of Thar.

The camels hurt our arses but we enjoyed a rain-free night under the stars.

The Jaisalmer hotel staff were cool and the fort was defintely a winner,

we shopped til we dropped, walked in cow shit and hoed down on curry and pasta for dinner.

We continued in the AC bus passing crazy horn trucks and weeing men in Jodphur city,

where we learnt to cook on the ground with spices and some people's bums got shitty.

We took ourselves audio touring in a fort that was big and old,

but the best part were the samosas, omelettes and lassis that the locals sold.

We did a homestay in style with a cool roof top and and a dog that was fat,

the food was seriously awesome and we survived one long-winded chat!

By now we'd embraced India with masala, head wobbles, saris, penises and chai,

As well as bananas, paneer, tuk-tuk rickkshaws, dead dogs and bloody flies.

 

Then our smelly group continued to Ajanta caves where we met a hawker or two.

Our guide talked his own form of speed English as he showed us around,

we climbed lots of steps , enjoyed the view and then another bush camp was found. 

Rafik and his fam overfed us again in the rain,

then the next day we only did a short drive so Paul could stay sane!

We camped in a hotel, had much needed showers and then ate something new,

we said hi to some monkeys, explored the Ellora caves and had time to relax too.

Quicker than we wanted, our awesome trip has come to an end,

In Mumbai the sexy 11 will become 5 but we'll leave with great new friends.

Thali, motorbikes, rupees, naan, turbans and packed buses will always stay in our minds,

Incredible India - a dirtier, louder, more poo, wee, cow, dog, goat infested country will be hard to find!!

Long Time No Blog... Goodbye India

Hello all... its been a while a since I last blogged, have you missed me? i am sure you all have withdraw symptoms from my daily blogs, or perhaps not! Well there has been a number of things to explain my absence. Firstly limited access to Internet, even though we have been in hotels with Internet access we have been told there is some issues with the Indian government and WIFI usage!?!?!?! when  I Say WIFI i mean WIFI, Internet is all good but WIFI there is issues? if your sat there thinking what the hell can that be, well I have also been wondering the same and still have no real answers.. so your guess is a good as mine, secondly the last 4 nights we have been bush camping, so that means camping where ever we can with no facilities at all, so no showers and finding a safe spot with no sharp objects, no animals and no insects to munch away at you when taking a crap. Lastly the day after my last blog i came down with a fever and was ill for a good 4 days.

So i am now, after 5 weeks in India sat in Delhi airport waiting to depart 'incredible India'. It really has been a mixed week or so since I last blogged. I know i always say it but i will really try and keep this blog as brief as possible however it has been 7 days since i wrote, so hear we go... I left you having spent the night in the desert in Jaisalmer, it was the morning after the sleep under the stars that i woke up feeling not so great, though i thought it was the whisky, beers and lack of sleep. My body was aching all over and severely tired which for someone who only needs around 6 hours sleep was unusual for me. So the following day we made our to the 'Blue City' of Jodhpur, here we were going to stay in a guest house and shop and cook traditional India food from scratch with the owners. On route though we made an unscheduled stop which Jodie (the tour leader, if you had forgotten) had arranged for us. We were to stop at a school which was run by a n organisation called the 'Sambhaliu Trust'. The trust was set up in 2007 to help to empower women and girls from the under privileged areas of Rajasthan and based just outside Jodhpur. Dragoman actually support the organisation and have done for a few years but this would be the first time a group has visited one of the schools. We arrived around 11am to the smiling and excited faces of about 30 children both girls and boys. We were to spend 2-3 hours with the children and their teachers, it was a fun day and gave the children to interact, play and experience westerners. The school was very basic with just one classroom which was outside, the walls were covered in poems and nursery rhymes all in English. We played games, sang songs and even had a Turban making constant (of which i didn't partake, i volunteered to be photographer) it was the kids against the group. Was very funny and 'Goon bag' some how managed to make such a big turban it looked like he had wrapped a duvet on his head, very funny. The girls than had a saree competition, we then headed outside and randomly played 'tug-of-war' again children against the group, we played more games than i can remember, the teacher kept saying 'just one more', i thought we were going to be there all day, the funniest was when Ken ended up the dirt after falling over. Ken I haven't really mentioned, he is the oldest of the group at 57, Canadian and well travelled. he keeps himself to himself but will join in conversations and has vast knowledge of many things, interested guy but maybe just a little quiet for most of us, though slipping in the dirt in the tug of war certainly got us all giggling. we ate lunch then had some free time with the children, as you can imagine they were mesmerised by our camera's, constantly wanting us to take pictures of them in various poses. We left at 3.30ish later than we wanted to and at the disappointment of the teachers, who got a cob on because we wouldn't stay ,longer, a little strange but i guess they just wanted us o stay and show us more stuff but we had to move on as we had food shopping to do and dinner to make with the guest house owners. It was half way through the this day that i started again to feel a little off, it was a hot day and usually i would be wearing a 2 tone sweat infested tshirt as everyone else was, now don't get me wrong i was hot but not my usual and in fact felt a little cold at times and felt a little spaced out, again i just put it down to tiredness and nothing to concerning. We arrived at the guest house at around 7ish, most went to the local market with the lady of the guest house to get the food for dinner, i really wasn't in the mood and nor was Caz, her eye had got progressively worse and she was in a lot of pain but she was looking forward to the cooking experience so sucked it up and went shopping with the rest only a couple of us stayed behind. We were one room down for some reason and it had to be me that didn't have a bed, however you could sleep on the roof under the stars which i personally didn't fancy, especially after being bit to shit in the desert by mozzies however couple of the guys were up for it so i had a bed, though this didn't work out as it rained and i ended up sleeping in reception on a made up bed! ( I think this was the final nail in the coffin fro me and my 'monsoon fever' which I'll come to later. So the group chopped, peeled and prepared dinner with the guest house owners, they basically gave everyone a lesson on how to make a number of different Indian dishes and then cooked them, not feeling too great i watched and took photo's, Caz also was struggling with her eye. We ate and everyone went to bed, i had a couple of whiskeys to help me sleep better as i was gonna be outside. I slept pretty well and my make shift bed was quite comfy, still not ideal and for the second morning woke up feeling not the greatest. Today we visited ANOTHER fort, however this one was pretty impressive, we all paid for an audio tour which was highly recommended. The tour was to be short lived for myself and Caz anyway, she is in excruciating pain with her eye and i was having freezing spells even though it was in the high 20's. Caz had, had the bad eye now for nearly a week and the pain wasn't subsiding, we decided to make our way back to the guest house and call a doctor. The guys at the guest house suggested an eye doctor, i was feeling better but still not great, Caz really was in a lot of pain now, we grabbed a tuc tuc to the hospital and the eye doc, we both wondered what would await us, we were pleasantly surprised, the hospital was clean and seemed pretty new, the eye doc wasn't busy at all and only waited around 20mins. The Doc confirmed an abscess on her retina, any wonder she was in so much pain, apparently caused by a 'foreign object' getting in her eye. We picked up a 4 different kinds of eye drops and headed back to the guest house.

We were leaving at 3pm and made it back in time. We had a short journey still within Jodpur to a home stay, where we were going to be spending the night. The home stay was like luxury, it certainly was the nicest and largest house i had seen in India. The family run home stay had been used by Dragoman for many years. I was sharing with Caz which worked well as she was feeling the effects from various painkillers and antibiotics. She was tired and just wanted to sleep but doc said she had to have her eye drops every 30mins, so i would leave the communal area wake her for her drops and then leave her be, in the mean time we all chatted with the owner who told us history of India, religion and anything else we wanted to know. I was still going my hot and cold spells and gradually getting worse, however this didn't effect my appetite and enjoyed a buffet dinner. That night I the fever really kicked in, i had a fleece and the air con and fan was off yet i was shivering most the night, Caz was feeling a little better and provided some warmth but i had little sleep.

The next morning both myself and Caz feeling worse for wear really could have just stayed in bed but it was another early start and back on the road, this time to Pushkar. The journey was around 6 hours, we still hadn't got Josh back but had news from Jodie that Paul had made to Pushkar, we would be back in the Overland truck, we had all missed it. The journey dragged for me, my fleece was on and off more than a prostitutes knickers. The fever had taken over, i ached from head to toe and had no energy, i think i had been fighting it and looking after Caz also helped, now i had couldn't fight. We arrived in Pushkar and i decided that it was time to call in the Doc. With all the mozzie bites i had got over the last 4 weeks, i had to make sure it wasn't Malaria or the start of it anyway. The doc came out, he suggested a blood test of which i had to make my way into town to the medical center. Caz, Paul and Jodie came with me. The medical center where they took the blood certainly was nothing like the hospital in Jodhpur. a small, dark, mouldy room with a middle aged man in a white vest with stains all over it. I paid just under a RS1000 and thought i was waiting in the waiting room and that i would be asked to go to the back for the blood to be taken, nope this is India, it was taken there and then. We were told to come back in an hour, by now i was fighting to stay awake and kept passing out, not sure what from. Caz took my back to the hotel and Jodie and Paul said they would get the results for me. 3 hours later, Jodie and Paul returned, it wasn't Malaria but something the locals call 'Monsoon fever' which is common even with locals. I had a bunch of tablets to take, rest and water was advised, i had slept a little and was feeling a little better. Caz feeling better but far from 100% still just wanted to sleep, we ordered room service and rested. We had seen only a medical center in Pushkar and that was it, we had been advised before shopping was good and i was hoping to do some myself, that definitely did not happen. Again we only half a day and 1 night in Pushkar, not of course that i had seen it. We were now heading to Udaipur. For those James bond fans out there, i am sure you will know that 'Octopussy' was filmed here. Jodie promised a great hotel in a great location, she wasn't lying the hotel was lovely and the roof top restaurant overlooked a huge lake which hosted in the middle a Palace. Was amazing views and sunset was something to savour ( i do like my sunset and sun rises). We ate great food and had a few drinks, i was feeling and looking human again and so was Caz, it was great to feel back to 100% again. Just like Pushkar, Udipuir was a shoppers paradise. The next day we took a boat trip round the lake and the pretty much shopped all day. We all bought lots and for the first time on the trip so did I. Not that it was a lot but at least i had put my hand in my pocket for something more than alcohol. We ate dinner and i finally was able to book a flight from Mumbai to Delhi, which i had forgot to do since changing my plans and deciding to stay in India longer. The next day was an early start, 6am leave from the hotel, we now going to be bush camping for the next 4 days. We set off towards a town called 'Mandu' we would camp 20K's just outside somewhere and the next morning spend the morning exploring the 'ghost' town of Mandu. Josh had other Idea's, we had the truck back for 3 days and on the way to our first bush camp Josh decided to blow a head gasket! bad times.. so after waiting on the road side for a few hours the cavalry arrived in the form of 3 jeeps to take us on to Mandu.Of course without the truck we had no camping or cooking gear so it would be a hotel upgrade courtesy of Dragoman. Again the truck had let is down and we were all disappointed but fair play to Jodie and Paul who quickly arranged alternative transport, it may not have been the truck but it got us to where we needed to be. So the next day we explored Mandu, that took all of a couple of hours. I am now going to skip the next few days, purely because this blog will be so big and i am so behind with it so here is a summary. We bush camped in Aganta were we visited some caves and then following day we bush camped on a hotel grounds in Ellora, where we also visited some caves. Though i must admit Ellora was the final day of my trip in India so i decided to upgrade to a room with Caz, the following day was a whole day driving to Mumbai, of which i would arrive have dinner and then shoot off to the airport at midnight to catch a 2.45am flight to Delhi. We had a good last night camping, by the way i had forgot to mention for the bush camping we had picked up a local cook in Udaipur who was going to spend 3 nights with us cooking traditional India cuisine. His name was Rafiq and he good whip up a curry in no time, as well as pakora's, fried chicken and chapatti's, he was an awesome cook and definitely saved us from pasta, tuna and banana's for dinner. We were up at 5am the next day as it was a long, long drive to Mumbai. Josh was back with a new head gasket, however it would seem he didn't like this one either, with 150KM to go, the head gasket blew again and again we were stranded on the side of the road, this was getting a little ridiculous now. This time we assistance from the local RTO (road traffic officers) they arranged a minibus for us, our bags and many bags of shopping that people had accumulated along the way. We were on the road side for around 3hours. It was another 3 hours to Mumbai and we arrived at around 9pm. I had lots to do, as i wasn't staying i didn't have a room so i shared a room with 2 of the other guys, just so i could shower, use the Internet to transfer some cash onto my global travel card and just relax for 30mins, i had no such luck, time flew by and before i knew i was saying my goodbyes to the group, i had little time to spend with Caz which was a bit gutting but we had, had some time the night before.

I was soon on the plane to Delhi, i then had a 4 hour wait in Delhi before my Singapore flight, which given i was shattered and exhausted went pretty quick. So I boarded my Singapore flight at 8am and after 6 weeks was saying good bye to India. Was I sorry to leave? i don't think so, i had, had an amazing time, 'incredible India' was incredible. India truly is world away from England and even from anywhere i have been on my travels, however its hard to love the culture, the people and some of the sights. I wont miss pissing/shitting in holes in the floor, i wont miss the constant beeping of horns, I wont miss the smells, the dirt and the rubbish but there is something i will miss but as yet not sure how to describe it. Kate as she did for the leavers on the last trip wrote another poem, i think she sums up India very nicely and what we have seen and done the last few weeks. I will miss the people i have been travelling with, some more than others and i am sure I have made some long lasting friends. So i bid farewell to India, on to Singapore of which i am sure will a complete contrast to India.

Just want to say thanks to Jodie and Paul the Dragoman leaders for making the trip so great despite the issues with the truck. Also thanks to the rest of the guys and gals on the trip for making it so memorable especially Caz, Kate, Joe and Goon bag, the 'party group'.

And a special mention has to go out to Carlotta, i hope she one day finds out whether she has a 'growler' or not!!!

And also Joe.. we all missed you very much, and we saw some Don-keeeeyyssss!!!

Jaisalmer And Camel Safari

G'day peeps, hope yo are all well and good. Its currently 3.30pm in the afternoon and i am in my hotel room, in bed. After 4 weeks of travelling with lots of annoying energy (according to peeps on my trip) I am finally shattered, tired and feeling a little worse for wear. Perhaps the Camel Safari and sleeping in the desert last night didn't help too much but i think early starts, late night drinking and not being able to sleep on any kind of transport has taken its toll on my ever so ageing body! I realised yesterday how much i miss swimming everyday, playing football and going to the gym, so much so when i got lost in Jaisalmer town yesterday on my own i decided to run back to the hotel, its the first bit of exercise i have done in 4 weeks, i must admit it certainly felt like it too, though the humidity and heat does you no favours and it took nearly 20mins after the run just to stop sweating. Anyway, So the night before last we arrived in the desert town of Jaisalmer. A relatively small town in comparison to some town's in India hosting only 60,000 people. The hotel is lovely and again i am sharing with Warren and Goon bag, the room is huge and plenty of space for all 3 of us, we have free WIFI  and the staff are amazingly friendly and helpful. We arrived at around 5ish and agreed to meet for dinner on the roof top terrace for 7.30pm. So we just chilled out in the rooms, caught up on emails and of course Facebook and skype'd family and friends. It was a great couple of hours for me, after checking my on-line banking and realising that some compensation money that i was sceptical about getting finally found its way to my account, i danced around the room like an idiot and announced drinks were on me that evening. We all met for Dinner at 7.30 and for a change there was no waiting for the food, the hotel had put on a buffet for us, which included Pasta, everyone was over joyed, the buffet as much as you could eat was 250 rupees, which is around £4. Bargain. I ordered a bottle of whiskey and Vodka to celebrate my win fall and bought beers for those that didn't want spirits and soft drinks for those that didn't want alcohol at all. We drank, chatted and drank some more. The bar tab came to around £70, that included a bottle of whiskey, a big bottle of Smirnoff vodka (which is usually very expensive as its imported) quite a few beers and same amount of soft drinks, if that was England i am sure the price would have been 3 times as much, good night was had by all.

I awoke the next day at around 7am, after passing out at around 11.30ish, apparently anyway, according to Warren who took great pleasure in telling me all about my drunken antics the night before, which i had to cringe at and hang my head in shame and perhaps make a couple of small apologies, though it was all taken with a pinch of salt, luckily they know me and my drunken antics by now. At around 11ish after chilling and getting come breakfast myself, Warren, Jodie, Claire and the new Katie headed in to the centre of town and also to visit the huge fort which stood high on the hill overlooking Jaisalmer. We grabbed a tuc tuc and headed for the fort, which was actually right next to the main town centre. The fort wasn't really a fort any more, but was almost a mini city within a fort, it was pretty cool, with narrow streets, hosting small shops selling the normal Indian favourites, Sari's. silk scarf's, woven bed spreads, jewellery, post cards and such like. I up to now hadn't done any shopping but felt like getting in the mix and getting involved in some bartering. I picked up a nice white 'Lawrence of Arabia' shirt and a couple of scarf's for the desert in case it was windy and the weather was hot. We walked around the 'Fort city' for a couple of hours, it was nice and had some cool temples. Cows as always mixed with humans along the narrow streets which for me the novelty has now worn off and they can be quite annoying and dangerous, the night before when we had popped out to look for an ATM, poor Caz who was still traumatised from the rat running over her foot earlier that day was actually rammed by one with horns in the side of her leg, luckily it wasn't too hard. With cows all around, this means cow shit and with cow shit comes flies, Indian's are not the cleanest anyway and even without the cow shit there would be plenty of flies, with cow shit its ridiculous, there annoying and dirty and yesterday i was really starting loose my rag with constant flies, buzzing round me. After the fort we headed into the town centre, i had decided that i needed a haircut, barbers are plentiful but not all had electric shavers as i wanted my normal short back and sides, i eventually found one, the guy did a great job and finished off with a relaxing head massage. On asking at the end how much, i was amazed to hear that it was all of 40 rupees, which is around 50p, tell me anywhere in England or the rest of the world you would pay that.. bargain!! 

As i mentioned earlier i ran back to the hotel, showered and grabbed some lunch from the hotel. At 3.30 we headed out to the desert for our camel safari. It was 1 hour by Jeep and then an hour so by camel to the where we where camping for the night. The Jeep's were un-comfy and squashed, we had 2 for 13 of us an we really could have done with a 3rd. we arrived at the Camel's and headed off trekking through the desert to the camp site. I had never ridden a camel, so loved the experience, we had one each and luckily they were saddled, a lot of the others found it uncomfortable and held on for dear life, though it wasn't the most comfortable form of transport i found it pretty easy going, i think my many hours of cycling sat on a razor blade saddle had toughened my ass and legs up. The weather was over cast which was nice and made the ride more enjoyable than blazing sun. We arrived at the camp at around 6.30 just before sunset, which i was looking forward to, however due to cloud cover we would miss out on sunset in the desert. Beer and soft drinks had been brought in with the Jeep's and i had still some whiskey left from the night before which i had brought with me. We were then treated to some local singing and dancing by some Indian gypsy villagers, we joined in the dancing and had enjoyed the local entertainment. Dinner was served, Thali was on the menu, which is a mixture of curry, Dal, Roti and rice, this was fun as there was no cutlery, i am sure you can imagine eating curry and Dal with your hands is messy but there was plenty of  Roti (which is a kind of bread) to help mop up. After dinner we had more entertainment and the we sat sharing stories of travelling fun, mishaps and shannanigans. At around 10.30ish we all found our places in the sand dunes and under the bright moon which lit up the night sky and dark desert and stars got our heads down for the night. Not having a sleeping mat or sleeping bag, as it had been stolen in transit to Kathmandu , myself and Caz grabbed a couple of blankets for laying on and one to put over us, it still wasn't cold and but would shield us from bugs and the like. Neither of us slept well, i got bitten to shit by mozzies and by now have realised that I react so badly to them that i get huge welks which itch like mad. We awoke at 5am feeling now that we just wanted to get back to the hotel shower and get some sleep. I really wasn't feel good this morning and decided that i'd walk back to the Jeeps and give the Camel's a miss, Carlotta also not feeling great with a dodgy stomach also decided to walk, it was just over an hour to the Jeeps, we squashed ourselves back in them and we were back at the hotel for 10am, were I promptly got my head down (as did most of us). We now have the rest of the day to ourselves chilling and sleeping if you wanted to (which is exactly what i am doing) or heading into Jaisalmer. 

Tomorrow we leave for Jodpur, Jaisalmer has been really good and despite mozzies and not feeling the greatest, Camel Safari was awesome. Keep well all.

Pink City, India extension and a Rat Temple

Greetings followers, i am going to attempt with this blog to bring you up to the present day. I have had no WIFI for the last few days and yesterday was travelling for 13 hours to Bikaner and today after visiting the 'Rat Temple' in the morning now have another 9 hours travelling to the city of Jaisalmer where we stay for 3 nights 1 of will be in the desert under the stars, travelling 2-3 hours via camel, i am really looking forward to it and glad that i decided to stay another 2 weeks in India with Dragoman. I will come back to the Rat Temple at the end of the blog.

So, i ended my last blog heading for the 'Pink City' of Jaipur. The city obtained its name when ion 1876 the Mahjara Ram Singh ordered the entire old city to be painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales as the color pink was associated with hospitality, since then the tradition has been maintained. Personally i didn't see many pink buildings and the ones that i did were more Orange than pink, still pretty cool. Still without the overland vehicle we had a 6-7 hour journey to Jaipur from Agra, arriving late afternoon. The hotel on the out skirts of the city was lovely and the rooms very old and authentic India decor. Its also had a pool, which of course we all welcomed and as standard when we had a pool, bags dropped off and swimming costumes fished out was the main priority. Joe hadn't been feeling well for a few days suffering from Delhi belly but had been trudging along and still getting involved in activities, however it had taken its toll and decided that he needed some R&R. We soaked up the sun ion the pool and chilled out till 7ish when we were given a traditional puppet show in the hotel garden, as Jaipur was famous for its puppets, it was OK but didn't really tell a story just a a man pulling some strings, another banging a drum and one man singing. Dinner was a bit of a fiasco and the hotel really tried hard to sell the buffet, probably because another tour group had ordered it, i was easy and took the buffet others ordered AL acarte and had t wait a good hour for their food. Next day we visited the Amber fort, yep another fort and then had a bus tour of the city with a local guide, who i might add, had the most monotone voice in the world, for the first time on the trip i was bored and constantly yawning. Joe had decided to get some rest and try and get rid of the shits, Kate also decided not join the exhilarating days activities, it was a wise choice and they really didn't miss much. We got back at 4ish and myself Caroline, Warren and Cli decided to wonder the many shops and bazaar's, we jumped in a tuc tuc and headed to where we thought all the great shopping was, we got our bearings wrong and ended up wondering round aimlessly, the rain started and Warren at this point decided enough was enough and headed back to the hotel. Claire, Caz and myself decided to stick it out, after an hour of walking we came across the bazaar's and shop lined streets. After a few hours shopping we jumped in a tuc tuc and had the white knuckle ride of our lives! After many tuc tuc rides already India this one by far had us closing our eyes, hearts in mouth and colourful language, if the driver wasn't trying to kill us, he was trying to kill everyone else, hair raising yet pretty amusing.

We arrived back at the hotel to find Joe was feeling better and had even wondered out with Kate on the streets of Jaipur where they had come across some local kids playing cricket in a back alley, they of course invited Joe to play, i think this was one of the highlights of his trip and which i had been with them. Dinner was at 7.30 and tonight this was on Dragoman. It was an apology and thank you for 'josh' being out action. We also had a few drinks included which was pretty cool. It was going to be the penultimate night for some as we headed for Delhi the next day and some people including myself were going our separate ways (as you already know I decided to stay on). Everyone was at dinner, we had Indian buffet and drank beer and wine, was a really chilled night and everyone in good spirits, Joe was definitely back to his self, cracking jokes and taking the piss, think he said more in 10mins than he had in the last 3 days!

The next day we headed for the vibrant, busy up and coming city of Delhi hosting around 12million people. This would be the last stop for the Estonian's, Carl, Wendy and myself. We wouldn't arrive until around 5pm, so it was a case of dumping bags, chilling for a few hours and taking advantage of the free WIFI before dinner at 7.30. Kate had been working on the poem i mentioned in my last post all day on the bus and had almost finished it. Caz hadn't been feeling well all day with a sore eye which she think she had picked up from the chlorine in her contact lens in the pool in Jaipur and it had been weeping all day on the bus. Myself Joe and Caz chilled in the girls room and helped Kate finish the poem ready for our final dinner. Caz was feeling rough and weak and decided to miss dinner. The food and service was good at the hotel and lived up to its name 'Hotel Good times'. I told Jodie at dinner i was thinking of staying on till Mumbai, which she welcomed and there was plenty of space 5 were leaving and only 3 joining in Delhi. She said she would contact Dragoman the following day at get a price, hopefully with a 20% discount. This for me meant changing around 3 flights and having to book another one, so i told her that i would get onto my side first thing and let her know for definite but lunch time that i was going to stay. Kate read out her poem to the group and everyone loved it, we said our goodbyes to the Estonians, as they left the next day, Carl and Wendy were staying one more night as was Joe.

The next morning I worked on contacting airlines, looking at funds and so on to try and see if i could stay for another 2 weeks onto Mumbai. Caz was still not feeling good and stayed with me, the others including Joe and Kate paid for a taxi for the day, to take them round the sights if Delhi and shopping, they would come back later to pick us up in the afternoon. By lunch time after racking up i am sure a huge roaming bill and firing off multiple emails i was sorted and could tell Jodie for definite i was staying on! wahhooo!! Kate and Joe picked myself and Caz up at around 3ish and we headed for a shopping mall and hopefully it had the one thing i had been craving for since seeing a billboard on the drive in to Delhi KFC!!! The colonel was calling me! The mall did have KFC and it was alright, not they same as back home but still KFC, however i was later to regret this as by dinner I was destroying the toilet in the hotel, i have eaten Indian food for almost a month everyday, curry, spices, lunches at places that looked liked they bread flies and havent had the shits, 1 KFC in Delhi and i am playing a different game of 'ring of fire'. After KFC we shopped, or should i say i did, i was desperate for shorts and Tshirts. So far my relationship with my clothes hadn't gone too well, I had sat in yellow paint in Chitwan, I had 3 tshirts shrank at one of the hotel laundry services, i had spilt curry down my nice white cotton shirt and it hadn't come out and i had lost weight so that another pair of shorts after 2mins of walking were round my ankles! So we found an apartment store where i managed to pick up 2 Levis tshirts with 50% off one of them and 2 pairs of shorts with 30% off them, in all around £30 for all 4 items. OK, i am sure some of you well travelled peeps will now be saying 'how much?' and i should have gone to a market, and maybe i am regaining my 'flashpacker' name however none of the markets sold shorts and thus far i had not found a Tshirt that either wasn't 2inches thick or had i love India with some weird pattern or random animals. I am sure i would have found something if i had looked hard enough but when your in a group on a tour your time is limited. Anyway i was now a happy chappy with some new glad rags, we headed back to teh hotel with really not seeing anything of Delihi, however from what the other guys and gals said there really wasn't all that much to see that we hadn't seen elsewhere, i will remember Delhi though for getting Delhi belly even if it did only last one night and ironically was caused by KFC!

That night we all ate out, it was Joe, Carl and Wendy's last night and 3 new peeps joined. Carlotta from London, Kate from Aberdeen in Scotland and Rowland from Worcester. All 3 seem cool and i am sure i will get to know them more in the next 2 weeks. We said our goodbyes to Wendy (carl wasn't well and dint come to dinner and i was sharing with Joe anyway and was going to see us off the next day) who was very emotional, Wendy in her 60's was the mother hen of the group and though very quiet at times, was very sad to leave us all as she had an amazing time, i give her full credit and admiration for coming to India on her own when India is really not an easy place to travel.

The next day we set off early, we had a 13 hour drive from Delhi to Bikaner, we said our goodbye's to Joe, i was loosing my roomy and i was sad to see him go, as was Caz but perhaps maybe not as sad as Kate!! bless her. The journey to Bikaner was a real drag but i passed the time writing my previous post, finally getting in the mood to read my book 'into the wild' and playing games with the other guys and gals. Bikaner is west of Delhi and would be just a stop over on the way to the desert city of Jaisalmer which is situated in the 'Great Thar desert' where we would be camping out under the stars. We reached Bikaner at around 8pm. As Joe had now departed and we had odd numbers i was room mateless, so i would now be back with Warren  but also goon bag who had paired up with him after i had joined Joe half way through the trip. We were all shattered so had dinner and hit the sack. The next morning (which is today, wahoo.. i am up to date) we set off for jaisalmer again another long day on the bus, around 8 hours. However this morning we took a slight detour to visit 'Deshnok' a small town 30KM outside Bikaner which hosts one of weirder attractions in India Karni Mata Temple or the 'Rat Temple'. I'll give you a bit of background on this one, taken straight from lonely planet or as Jodie calls it the 'Lying Planet' guide. According to legend , karni Mata, a 14th century incarnation of Durga, as the god of death, Yama,  to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller. when Yama refused, Karnu Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats, depriving Yama of human souls. The Rat Temple is basically a homage to Rats, its an important pilgrimage site and is visited by Indians in their mass's. I can tell you this is noto for the fainted hearted or squeamish. A this is a holy and sacred place we had to remove our foot wear, not really what you want to do. I didn't know what to expect, i guess i thought i would see a few rats here and there, oh boy i was wrong, there were hundreds, thousands i am sure, they scurried around the floor, they climbed walls and railings, they drank milk from large bowls which had been especially put out for them. The floors were lined with Rat food which locals bought and then scattered i guess in some sort of offering to these sacred rats, amongst the food was rat crap, shit loads of it.. did i mention we were bare foot?!?!?!? not nice and the smell was even less nice. However it was a good experience if not a little nervy, it is deemed good luck if a rat scampers over your foot, i am pleased to say i didn't have the pleasure, however Caz did, which is typical as she probably the most freaked out of all of us, she promptly left. The people in the town however were very friendly and chatty, not the usual stop, crowd around and stare, they were open and willing to engage in conversation and shake our hand, as you can imagine we weren't here long and soon back on the road to Jaisalmer.

well, that was a big blog, apologies if i bored you, i am sure most of you would have just enjoyed reading about the Rat Temple, or maybe not. Once in a life time experience and i am pretty sure i wont be doing it again any time soon. So i am now all blogged out but it has passed the time away and think we are around 4hours from Jaisalmer, really looking forward to the desert sleep over and Camel riding, the weather is OK, rain here and there but at last we have some rest bite from humidity and mozzies, my legs were starting to look like i had chicken pox or something. Keep well people.

Ps.Just a quick one, on leaving, the Estonians asked if we could write down our life motto's on a piece of paper as Siggy is quite spiritual. Just a one liner, i had to laugh at Joe's, 'life is a struggle' hahahaha... good one Joe! i liked his positive attitude.

Kate's Poem....

One hot night in Kathmandu a bunch of strangers met,

All excited for the adventure ahead and monsoons getting us wet!

Jodie and Paul gave us a briefing then we ate momos for tea -

We stocked up on water and snacks, not sure what the local food would be.

On day 2 we met Josh, our loveable truck with a serious leakage issue,

We wound our way through some amazing mountains and stopped to bush pee with tissue.

 

Everyone played the waving game and loved seeing gorgeous Nepali people smile,

Then we arrived at the Royal Beach Camp where we drank Everest and chatted awhile.

Some cool people went rafting with Hemal and his crew,

the best part was Lee falling out and riding on a bus roof too!

 

Over buffets and beers and beach fun we got know each other a little more.

There's 2 Canadians, 3 Aussies, 2 Estonians, a Kiwi, a Swede and Poms galore.

 

Let's start with Karl the quirky pom who makes up random games and loves to dance,

His photo taking is hilarious and he does a great Indian accent when given the chance.

 

There is Ken, the quiet Canadian with great knowledge and insight,

he has many great stories of his travels and dared to get an indian haircut one night.

 

Next is our mother hen and worry wart Wendy who is so gentle and kind,

She loves a good shopping trip and joined in ring of fire when we all got blind!

 

There is Susan the well travelled Aussie with cheeky sarcasm and wit,

She is a gun at finding good markets and hunting for foreign men with visas is her shit

 

The Kiwi with a thousand bags is Clare or Cleo or Clee,

"I will take Indian mangoes please, a pool session and enough wine for 3!"

 

How could we forget Frederik, our beloved Swede known as Goon Bag,

With hilarious one liners, banana eating skills and the occasional drunken fag!

 

We all love good ole Warren, the well pierced Aussie with 13 tattoos,

Two coffees and a cigarette for our shopaholic who becomes Captain Queen with enough booze!

 

Captain Unco is our gentleman Lee who sounds like a thunderstorm when he snores,

his speciality is insect bites sitting in wet paint and stubbing his toe on doors!

 

By his side is beautiful Caroline whose smile will brighten your day,

The rummi and monopoly queen, who hates photos of herself and always has something clever to say!

 

Monkey man is our quiet pom Joe, who attended the Ganges pissed,

He tore it up on a local cricket pitch and his rockstar sunnies will be sorely missed!

 

Sigy our honeymooner has so much energy, eats anything - until she gets the shits,

her hubby is Mr Money or Lurch who loves his camera and always has us in laughter fits.

 

Our pakora loving leader Jodie is a tower of strength with beautiful eyes,

the queen of problem solving and organisation - maybe it's the wine that makes her so wise?

 

Paul is our pommy driver extraordinaire who you'll always find listening to dance music up the front

He will always get Josh out  of a traffic pickle using colourful language such as 'you fucking c***'.

 

Now that we're all acquainted let's remember Chitwan National Park,

Where we saw pretty much nothing on safari so got some local booze after dark.

This led to several 'Karl games', a plank off, Ring of Fire and much much more...

The next day was more successful with elephant rides, rhino spotting and Nepalese dancing galore

 

We continued along bumpy roads to India, stopping for a roadside Thali,

with weird truck horns and crazy traffic all the way to Sonauli.

We had a border crossing comp and Captain Unco paid a bribe of 850 ruppees,

our intro to India was a shitload of cows, shitload of shit and men doing poo and wee.

We found more shit at our amazing Sunrise Hotel stay,

With bathrooms of mould, creepy men and several rats at play!

 

We continued on our journey passing inquisitive people in colourful towns,

With a pool and yummy food our Varansi hotel got rid of our frowns.

We ate paneer burgers, Karl spilt his banana split and we met a barman named Sanjay,

After cocktails and Kingfishers we were all struggling big time the next day.

There were ghats, dodgy temples, cremations, oil and silk early one morn,

but the highlight had to be the carpet mullet man whose dance moves verged on porn!

 

Our next stop was Ken river where we camped with shitloads of frogs,

then we headed off early after curry breakfast and avoiding 25 dogs.

 

We didn't make it very far before Josh had a small heart attack,

So Jodie got jeeps to take us to sexy time at erotic temples and back.

Josh was out of action so we stayed in Ken river one more night,

We had cool log cabins, then Waz hit his leg - the sunset was a beautiful sight.

 

Our next stop was Agra where we saw the stunning Taj Mahal,

We also went to the fortified city and ate a bit more dal.

We got saris and henna and got fed breaky at Ali's place,

then the rickshaws took us shopping to over fill our suitcases.

 

Next we went to Jaipur with great toasted sangers by the pool,

I was too lazy to  go along but I'm sure the fort was cool.

 

The journey ends here in the huge arse city of Delhi

And tonight we will eat together and not get sore bellies.

 

Now we say a big thanks to Jodie and Paul and goodbye to some of our news friends,

the journey has been sweet, everyone has kept upbeat and we wish it wouldn't end. 

Agra And The Taj Mahal At Sunrise and Sunset

Hello all, i am still well behind on my blog and thought that I'd be able to catch up the next few days as my trip with Dragoman officially finished in Delhi on the 5th September and i had 4 days in Delhi before flying to Singapore to see and stay with my friend Steve. However I now write this travelling from Delhi to Bikaner on the bus with Dragoman, i decided that i love India so much and that I have been to OZ twice before that i would stay with the group until Mumbai, at cost of course but i did get a good 20% discount for this leg of the trip (by the way the whole trip is Kathmandu to Kathmandu, 84 days and people get on and off depending on what they want to see and some even doing the whole round trip). So here i am still travelling through India and loving it, we have now lost Joe, my roomy for half the trip and also the Estonians, who said that they had an amazing honeymoon and everyone made it great, they invited us all to visit them for good food and sauna's, i think i might take them up on the offer. There was a leaving dinner in Delhi of which Kate, Caz and myself had put together a poem about the trip and people, i will post it after this post, its not the best poem in the world but pretty funny.

So lets track back a little, i ended my last blog arriving in Agra at 9pm, the hotel was OK, nothing special but did have A/C and hot and running water, and a 24hr restaurant. Myself and Joe went down for food as did most of the group, some just went to bed after the horrible 13hr journey in the mini vans. Due to Josh breaking down and plans having to be re-organised we were having an extra night in Agra, which was cool and meant the following day was a free day, which also meant a lie in. Jodie did however arrange an afternoon visit if we wanted to to 'Fathepur Sikri' which is a beautiful fortified city 40KM outside Agra, we all were up for it. The fortified city was built by Emperor Akbar in the 1500's host a stunning mosque and 3 palaces which he built for each of his wives, 1 a Hindu, 1 a Muslim and 1 a christian. The sun was blazing hot again today and again we all sweated like pigs but we had a good local guide and the palaces and mosque made for some great photo's. We arrived back at the hotel at around 3.30ish, Kate and Caz wanted to get traditional Sari's to wear for the visit to the Taj Mahal (i am sure you would have seen my photo's by now). I thought I'd go along also to do a but of shopping as up to now i hadn't bought any souvenirs or presents, Warren and goon bag also came along. It was a 10 min ride and the shop we were taken to sold everything from Silk scarf's to Incense sticks. The girls picked and tried on their Sari's while the rest of us browsed. I ended up with some tea, incense sticks and a couple of silk scarfs, not that they know yet but one for the mother and step mother ;o). Warren also bought plenty of goodies, this was now i realised Warren's thing 'shopping'. As of writing this he has an extra 5KGs if not more of goodies and to be fair a lot of what he has is pretty good stuff and not tat picked up from a street vendor, he is worse than a women, well he is gay and a bit of a queen (joking Warren if you read this, well about the queen bit anyway, only when your drunk does she come out).The girls picked out a Sari and we left.  We all met for dinner in the hotel restaurant and we had the low down on the next days activities, it was going to be an early start and long day of things to see. We met our local guide for Agra, Ali, he and his family had been working with Dragoman for many years and he arranged rickshaws, tours, anything you wanted and helped with the locals, we were all going to be having breakfast at his house the following day. The Taj Mahal was first, then breakfast at Ali's, followed by a visit to a marble shop, then a a bit of free time before going to Agra fort, then the baby Taj mahal before ending the day watching the sunset over the Taj Mahal, it was going to be a full on day.

We were and out of the hotel the next morning by 5.30am, it was only a 15min Rickshaw ride to Taj, it had been arranged to watch sunrise come up on the Taj. Caz and Kate had their Sari's on, Caz in Red and Kate in Purple, they had also had traditional henna tattoo's on one of their arms along with Siggy (the estonian) and a bindi. They all looked beautiful and very traditional, perfect for photo's at one of the seven wonders of the world. However not being Hindi's they struggled to get the Sari's to fit as they should. However help would be on hand from one of the female guards at the taj gate, i think they found it quite funny at the way the girls had attempted to fit them, the guards pretty much took the girls down to their underwear and redressed them, i think the girls in all honesty were pretty thankful for their help. All in the grounds of the Taj, we walked through the archway which was the gateway to the perhaps one of the most photographed views in the world. I must admit i thought it was going to be a little cliche and maybe not as good after seeing so many pictures of it over my 31 years. I was so wrong, it was magnificent, it really was, on top of this was that we got to see the sun rising on it, illuminating the east side of the Palace and the fact we were only probably 13 of 60 people in the grounds, alot different to what i had been told and seen in many pictures. This meant amazing photo's of the Taj, with ourselves in front of it, to the side of it and so on, we had picked the perfect morning. The next few hours were spent walking round the grounds and the palace, taking photo's and by mid morning sweating like a pig, but think we were all used to it now. The Taj lived up to its reputation of being one of the seven wonders of the world, i was more than impressed as we all were.
From the Taj we headed to Ali's house for a traditional Indian brekkie, we all sat on the floor in his humbling small house and his wife brought out parantha's, potato curry and Roti's as well as toast, banana's, tea and coffee. All was really great and was so nice to meet his family and see his home, the only down side there was a power cut and within 5mins, especially after the curry breakfast we were all sweating hard, the room quickly vacated. I have babbled on a bit now, nothing unusual for me but the rest of the day was just sight seeing the Agra fort, which we visited at midday in the blistering heat and left quite quickly, then onto the baby taj mahal which to be honest after you have seen the Daddy Taj is just another palace. After the baby Taj we left to get back to daddy Taj and a viewing point from the other side of the river from the Taj to watch Sunset. Again was an amazing site and very peaceful, pictures galore were taken by all, beautiful sight and again unforgettable.

That evening we all went out to a restaurant which Ali had recommended, it was OK, but in all honesty the food at the hotel was 10 times better, the following day we were leaving for the 'Pink City' of Jaipur. Still no Josh but Paul had managed to limp it to Agra so we did see him briefly. Agra was 5 days ago now and as i write this we still have no Josh, Paul is still with him in Agra and Ali helping with local mechanics to try and get it fixed, its not easy as the Truck is a Mercedes and India doesn't do Mercedes. Whether i see Josh and Paul before Mumbai is questionable, which is a huge shame, though  the truck isn't the whole reason i booked with Dragoman it was a big part and the customised Mercedes truck certainly heightens the experience of overlanding, we have had letters from Dragoman apologising and we did have a meal and a few drinks paid for by them but i think a few people will be complaining. I think i will also, even though i have stayed on, knowing the Truck was out of action, but Jodie has been amazing and the group is a great group and i love India.

Sorry its a long one but Agra was a busy time and lots to see and do. The Taj was amazing and if you plan to go i suggest this time of year at sunrise, avoid the mass of tourist and get some great photo's. If your on my facebook check out my albums 'Snippets of Nepal' and 'Snippets of India'. If you want to add me you can search for me by my email lee.ruff@hotmail.com, keep well peeps.