monkeyrat.com

A to Z of Zen

2010-05-10T13:38:00.001Z

A – Avoid negative sources, people, places and habits

B – Believe in yourself

C – Consider things from every angle

D – Dont give up and dont give in

E – Everything you are looking for lies behind the mask you wear

F – Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches

G – Give more than you planned to

H – Hang on to your dreams

I – If oppertunity doesn’t knock, build a door

J – Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it

K – Keep trying no matter how hard it seems

L – Love yourself

M – Make it happen

N – Never lie, steal or cheat

O – Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values

P – Practice makes perfect

Q – Quality not quantity in anything you do

R – Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer

S – Stop procrastinating

T – Take control of your own destiny

U – Understand yourself in order to better understand others

V – Visualise it

W – When you lose, dont lose the lesson

X – Xcellence in all your efforts

Y – You are unique, nothing can replace you

Z – Zero in on your target and go for it

Fifi does Vietnam

2009-01-31T15:03:00.002Z

Vietnam, last day of Jan '09

Travel smells

Memories came flooding back after a took a deep breath of air. Those smells tingled my senses and opened the travel part of my brain. I felt awake once more. Travelling has a profound impact on me and never ceases to excite me. For some people its a taste of chocolate or coffee that makes them alive, for me its the smell of travelling.

Its the association of fun memories, new sights, tastes and smells that makes me want to explore. Ten years ago I was last in South East Asia, so it is a a pleasure to be here again and to be in a new country, Vietnam. How lucky I am to travel for work, it is something I have always aspired too and it was my aim 10 years ago. The only thing that is missing for me is my much loved travel partner in crime, Jim.

So first impressions of Hanoi in Vietnam:
Clean, smiley, lots to buy and quirky cafés to hang out in.

The old quarter, where I am staying, has lots of hidden streets, shops and colourful buildings. It is very easy to walk around and the temperature is very pleasant a mild 20oc so great for walking.

The prices vary a lot, at the moment I'm sat in a café which is quite western (but free wifi) its around 70p for a beer and 50p for a tea, I have had cheaper (tea, not beer). My aim is to have an alcohol free 2 weeks (hmm, we will see).

I have booked my cycle rickshaw for later, a very sweet man called Vin is picking me up for a cycle tour of Hanoi, 1 hour 3 US dollars.

Vin was a star we cycled for over an hour and a half. He showed me loads of places which was cool and I even got to cycle with him as a passenger, the locals all smiled.

Next place – Cat Ba

Thanks for the memories!

2009-01-31T11:23:00.004Z

Thank you for making our wedding such a special day!

Link to our wedding photos on flickr.

Our honeymoon was in far west cornwall, where we enjoyed living by the sea for 2 weeks, the Scilly Isles and Sennen Cove.

Basking sharks, surfing, good walks, cycling and lots and lots of fresh, clean air - bliss!!

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year

2008-12-16T15:43:00.004Z

What a year! Thank you all for being part of it :)

Hellloooo,

Well you could say that we've have had a busy 2008....

We started the year in India visiting old haunts and eating fantastic food again.

Jim then decided to make a honest women of me and asked me to marry him (in the back of our van having a bbq in the rain and wind – forever the romantic)

We then started looking for houses...

We did our adventure holiday and cycled from Bristol to Padstow in Cornwall – 300 miles of pure fresh air.

Both working hard, I'm loving managing a small international charity and are we are both doing well at work.

Then in September we got hitched in a field in my wellies, marrying the best person ever – Jim, who has keeps me in mischief and spent my wedding night in a tent....well you wouldn't expect anything else...

Moved house from a small flat to a terrace with a garden – going to be DIY experts (well in time)..

And then 2008 is finally nearing an end so we are going to have our first Christmas in Brighton and we are going to join another crazy bunch of people who think it is fun to swim in the sea on Christmas day.

Hope all is good with you and don't forget if you are ever in the deep South East pop in to the retro-ness that is Brighton

lots of love, Fiona and Jim

Wedding Details - for our special day ;)

2008-04-08T11:19:00.016Z

All the invites for our Wedding have been sent out, if you are coming don't forget to RSVP. The evening invites will be coming soon.

Date: Saturday 13th September 2008
At: St Matthew’s Church, Hayfield, High Peak, SK22 2PG
Time: 2pm

After formalities: You can join the bride and groom who will walk you to the Sportsman pub for a quick drink then up to the party field. (about a mile from St Matthew’s – up hill).

The reception will be in a marquee at the bottom of a field – please bear this in mind when choosing footwear….(the bride will have wellies too!).

All the family welcome, bring the dog, cat, or goldfish - all welcome.

Rough plan for days events:
Next stage: 6pm buffet meal in the marquee.
8ish – Speeches
After: Party…….no official finishing time, party till you drop.

RSVP (We need you to reply to your invites so we can plan food and numbers):
Email: wedding@monkeyrat.com
Snail Mail: 10b Queens Place, Brighton. BN1 4JY

01273 818546 - Home / 07888701590 – Fiona / 07888701588 - Jim

When driving into hayfield you will pass St. Mathews Church. Park in the Royal Hotel if you want to keep the car near the church.

Location of Wedding Marquee - Buffet, dancing and merriment:
http://tinyurl.com/5b6sqk

If you need printed info please let Fiona know.

=========================================

Wedding Accommodation

Just a quick note - if you want to stay in a local B&B or hotel you will need to book very soon as they cannot guarantee the rooms will be free for too much longer…..

Camping – you can join the bride and groom and camp overnight near the marquee – all free and toilets provided near by.

Hotels and B&B – in Hayfield:

The Sportsman - Kinder Road, Hayfield, High Peak, Derbyshire SK22 2LE
01663 741565
Email: info@thesportsmanhotel.co.uk
6 rooms all on suite
Cost: £60/night

The Royal Hotel – Market Street, Hayfield, High Peak SK 22 2EP
01663 742721
www.theroyalhayfield.co.uk
5 rooms all on suite
Cost: £60/night

George Hotel – 14 Church Street, Hayfield, High Peak SK22 2JE
01663 743691
www.georgehotelhayfield.co.uk
6 rooms all on suite
Cost £60/night

Kinder Lodge - 10 New Mills Road, Hayfield, High Peak SK22 2JG
01663 743613
www.kinderlodge.hi-peak.net
5 rooms all on suite
Cost – will need to call

More very suitable b and b's here: http://hayfieldvillage.co.uk/pages/accommodation

Cottages:

In Hayfield village - 01663 745090, 01663 743 590, 01663 747241

Mrs Jackie Searle
Booth Farm, Kinder Road
Hayfield, High Peak
01663 749118

Other locations for accommodations near by:

Buxton – 10 miles away
Glossop – 7 miles away
New Mills – 5 miles away
Chapel-en-le-firth – 5 miles away

Posh hotels near by:
www.moorsidegrangehotel.com

=========================================

Wedding List

There will not be the usual wedding list for a department store in our invites to you. As we are in the process of moving home, and the only 2 things that we really want are: A wormery and a special tent..

But as those are not the most practical wedding gifts vouchers from the below shops would be gratefully received (brown links go to the online shops where you can buy online):

IKEA - Gift Vouchers can only be bought in shop, not online
MARKS AND SPENCER - anything for house, or garden
OUTSIDE - for outdoor gear
JOHN LEWIS - anything for house, or garden

or anything which you think we would like :)

Useful websites:

www.hayfield.uk.net
www.derbyshireuk.net/hayfield.html

Really hope you can all make it, it sure will be a wonderful day as well as fantastic setting. Just don't expect us to do this dance!

Engagement Party - Brighton

2008-03-28T20:59:00.011Z

BIG NEWS, for we are having a party for our engagement at Ohso Social on Brighton Beach on May 31st 2008.

We will be there from 6/7pm.. We have a section of the bar to ourselves, so you can make yourselves at home during this special event.

Why don't you come down a bit earlier and do some shopping, or even enjoy the English Seaside?

You can order food at the bar, or try out any of the numerous restaurants along the seafront.

Brighton Fairground Carousel

The important bit: Get there using Google Maps

View Larger Map

Contact details before and on the day:
Jimothy - 07888 701 588 // Lady Fifi - 07888 701 590

Of course any details, questions or special requests please call us.

Hotels to stay in Brighton - Just Google these: Grapevine, Travel lodge, Premier lodge, St Christophers (hostel).. and a selection of Brighton B&B's

We want as many people to attend, there is an unlimited guest list here. Get involved!

We are Engaged!

2008-02-18T19:13:00.002Z

On valentines night, whilst having a picnic in the back of our van by the sea, Jim asked Fi to marry him.......Of course she said yes......

No finalized plans, but it might happen September time and up north in Hayfield - watch this space for updates, but for now - yipeeeeeeeeeee

A cheeky weekend in Edinburgh, Dec 07

We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!We did it!!

Mumbyebye!

2008-01-16T15:42:00.000Z

We are sat here in what feels like an attic room with air-con, mecca and virgin mary effegies above us. And ship portholes to look out onto a back room. Ahh India!

This is our last blog from India, but we promise to keep telling you how good India is when we get back. And will also blog about our other adventures we have planned for 2008. Watch this space!

I have just spent some time in Benetton and bought a few rather nice items. Fi has been trying on silly hats and wheeling those annoying bags around like you get at the airports!

Now we are going out for a drink and to toast to our latest 'holiday' here.. It's been really good to catch up on our favourite things here, and in South India. India is growing as a power, with changes in the last 3 years when were here last.. Fi: There are now tv monitors in the big stations (with all the new stickers still on them), billboards in big cities are now no longer painted but made from print but you know what the people are as lovely as ever and the only thing to do in India especially if your not sure or if it goes a bit wrong - smile................ Jim: and dont forget if you look lost, someone will say "yes?" or "Can I help, coming from which country?"

See you soon Mother India!

Tamil (Nadu) Tastic

2008-01-14T13:40:00.000Z

We are now in Mamallapuram and relaxing by the pool and beach - heaven.

Catching up with the locals again and great to see how things are improving after the tsunami. Although the numbers of orphans have increased, but they still smile so beautifully. It is amazing to see that all they have been through life still goes on.

We are staying back at the same place again - hotel Lakshmi and have a great room. The staff remember us which is incredible as so many people pass through here, mind you Jim does have a reputation to keep up as he is always joking with the local staff.

I have to say that our hard core traveling days are not happening during this holiday - taxis and luxury all they way - well not as luxurious as you would expect, but good for us and its not a tent or the back of the van!!!

The food is still great although we have both been ill - it was our pay back for rescuing a fellow traveller who was very ill on the train - we took her in our taxi and found her somewhere to stay and then we caught her bugs - nice......

We are still enjoying the sunshine and its back to Mumbai tomorrow for SHOPPIN.... YIPEEEEE (says fifi).

Jim here: There are times everyday where it feels like we are million miles away from europe, the smells, the sound of indian music one minute and temple music the next.. Just venturing out of the hostel/hotel/beach bar your senses are overloaded with the colour of India.. Something which we truly both love and almost definitely will crave after our trip.. just like the last time..

And to all cider fans: The Revolution is here!!!

Over and out, will do a blog post in Mumbai once we arrive. Hope everyone reading is well!

Tilda the Riceboat

2008-01-09T18:04:00.000Z

24 hours on a riceboat for 2 with all our food, drink and the best scenary in the world - cannot be bad hey! We had a wonderful overnight stay on our rice boat - Tilda. We saw our next home, a hut on its own island with 2 canoes parked outside surrounded by coconut trees and mangroves. Perfect!

We finally managed to drag ourselves away from the beach and do some exploring. After our rice boat trip we heading to the mostly southerly point in India, Kanyakumari. We saw a wonderful sunrise with the rest of the crowds of pilgrims and it really was like glastonbury festival, cheers when the sun popped up. The temple in Kanyakumari is magical and as we were walking in I was pushed out of the way by a goat - only in India!!

The trains are still as great as ever and a really good way to meet with locals and see the amazing landscapes that pass by. We are now in Maduari, the temple city and off to the east coast tomorrow.

I feel like I am eating my way around India - it really is veggie heaven

Beaches and sunshine - at last

2008-01-03T08:54:00.000Z

We are finally back in the lovely village of Varkala in South Kerela. It is still as beautiful as I remember. I hate to say that it is fantastic lying on a warm beach and swimming in the sea in January. I have been eating masala dosa's again, yipeee.

Me and Jim are still recovering from jetlag, new year and a long year of work so it is lovely to be able to relax again. We have been having adventures in ricksaws and sitting on the beach cliff drinking special tea (beer to you and me)

New year in Mumbai was as very funny, we stayed in a bar with a great mix of locals and tourist. I'm not sure who got the most excited at 12am Jim or the locals around us, I think that Jim encouraged them to sing, dance and jump around.

The only downer is that we have had our flat broken into in Brighton. We are still not sure what is missing but our poor neighbour, Michelle and Jim's brother Alun are having to deal with it all. We are insured and it certainly isn't going to ruin our holiday.

Anyway that is it for now, I must get back to the beach, the sea is just too nice not to jump in.

Sending you all some Indian sunshine, oh and happy new year

lots of loveFi and Jim xxxxxxxx

South India and into 2008

2007-12-31T15:18:00.000Z

Well, it had to happen, we are only back in India-aahHH!

I must say it was very exciting getting off the plane at Mumbai this morning. Fi and I nudging each other as we notice things that can only happen in India.. 40 staff doing each others job, and the customs hall with a dust cloud from the 'ongoing improvements' to the airport.

Getting out into the city was a breeze, taxi 3006 took us direct to our hotel in the Coloba district of Mumbai . Passing Chowpatty beach and Fi's favourite shopping malls on the way there.

Now we have truly acclimatised by having a lovely Veggy Indian meal and a few Kingfishers at Cafe Mondeal.

And tomorrow it's off to Kerala, where again we have been before, so we intend to relax and eat, then relax and maybe cycle, then eat again.. Very good therapy indeed!

Fi will be shouting "Masala Dosa!" as we enter the true south of India, and where food is all 'Pure' Vegetarian.

India hasn't changed much, but then deep down neither have we. We get into this traveling lark very quickly and it amazes me how Fi and I get on so well when we do it..

I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A FANTASTIC NEW YEAR AND GOOD LUCK FOR THE START OF 2008

Fi and Jim, signing out (for now). Catch up in a few days, once on the coast of Kerala

welsh cider notes - new leaflet

2007-04-13T10:44:00.000Z

heres a really handy way to keep up to date with the latest cider notes in Wales.

the producers here have been winning lots of CAMRA awards across the border in England at the Reading Ale and Cider festival.

Check out the dates for your diary in the leaflet.. happy cidering!

view welsh cider leaflet (pdf)

cycling weekends in southern england

2007-04-13T10:36:00.000Z

heres some info on cycling.

some of my favourite routes in the south east/west of england..

the dorset purbecks > www.dorsetforyou.com/index.jsp?articleid=3916

the somerset levels > www.southsomerset.gov.uk/media/pdf/m/6/WEB_Cycle_low.pdf

the bristol/bath area > visitbath.co.uk/site/media_centre/press_release_cycling

the herefordshire area > www.ciderroute.co.uk

the oxfordshire chilterns > excellent for off roading > www.chilternsaonb.org/site_results.asp?siteCat=11&offset=10

the surrey hills > www.guildford.gov.uk/GuildfordWeb/Tourism/Sport/

the wiltshire downs > www.wiltshire.gov.uk/travelwise-wiltshire-cycleway-guide.htm

isle of wight > www.cyclewight.org.uk/cycling.htm

and normandy france > routeducidre.free.fr

usually you can get hold of the leaflets by emailing the county council tourism department, or google for a PDF version.

also of course, the sustrans who do excellent maps of national cycleways. www.jayonline.co.uk/blog/category/cycling/

these are some of my favourite counties for cycling.. I've just started in this area and Kent... the routes above are best for weekends away and an overnight camp or something similar.. combine the cycle guides with a camra good beer/cider guide and you've got a great weekend spent outdoors!

have fun :)

London to Brighton Bike Ride 2006

2006-06-22T21:51:00.001Z

On Sunday 18th June, Jim & I joined 27,000 other people to cycle the 56 Miles from Clapham Common, London to Marine Parade in Brighton in aid of The British Heart Foundation. We had an early start, 7.30am after staying at Alun and Sarah's flat in Herne Hill - cheers guys.

The atmosphere was fab and there was lots of laughter amoungs all the cyclist. We had our first stop after about 15 miles to fuel up with mars bars, eggy sandwiches and water.

The next stop was just before the dreaded Ditchling Beacon Hill at Wiversfield - we went to Heather's sisters stall run by Wiversfield School PTA, the guides had hijacked the other site - great melon. Then it was all up hill for 1 mile up the very steep Ditchling Beacon Hill.

Yipee both of us cycled all the way and made it to the top dispite the 30oc heat and pouring in sweat, it was then down hill all the way to Brighton.

It was a great feeling cycling with all the others over the finish line and then only having to cycle 1 mile back home.

After a BBQ on the Level (and a few G&T's) we both collapsed in a heap and fell asleep by 6pm.....

2006-06-21T16:02:00.000Z

Next cider festival please! Ok, how about "Glastonwick 2006"?

Adur's 11 th beer, music, poetry and more beer festival at Shoreham Airport, West Sussex

Lots of ales, not so many ciders, even so we headed straight for these lovely titled barrels!

A great site as you can see right up the Adur valley and lovely panorama views of the south downs. Just wish we got their earlier as we may have seen light aircraft coming in to land. The airport is still used for people lucky enough to travel around the country by plane, imagine that!

They was lots of merriment and good music, if not a little bit political :)

The Gwatkin boys did a lovely job and represented themselves with "Norman" "Kingston Black" and "Yarlington Mill" ciders. Fi liked the Westons perry which is thankfully in some better pubs everyday now.

We got the train there from Brighton and on the way home we got a minibus back to the station. Lots more singing!

We will be back next year!

Welsh Cider Festival 2006

2006-06-21T15:47:00.000Z

The fifth one in welsh cider history. By far the most extensive one since its beginning.

A range of 66 ciders and 23 perrys on offer all served up by some very friendly volunteers.

The tasting panel from various corners of england were: JP, Ness, Beth, Cath, Jim, Fifi, Angela and Halvin. >> check out the pics on flickr

Favourites were:

Cider
Black Dragon, Toloja Cider, Bragdy Broydyr

Perry
Silver Lady

and the worst once being - Pen Perry by Swan Cider, and Laughing Juice by Three Saints.

Visit welshcider.co.uk for more information, ENJOY!

Merry Christmas from the monkeyrats

2005-12-22T11:35:00.000Z

We hope you all have a wonderful end to 2005, what a time! Hope you all enjoyed it, wherever you are, we very much forward to having a new and exciting adventures in 2006 with you all.

Jim & Fifi

untitled

2005-07-25T23:04:00.000Z

realising that all in life is not forever.. and thats a good thing. arriving at the beach with expectations boosted by the sight of clear water and sunshine. 7 days on an Indian island..

midnight on the beach.. cicadas, wild dogs and of course waves breaking.

being able to return to a land i love with a loved one, and being able to share such an adventure which is totally magical.

to be able to laugh when staggered at all the things we went thru, even when we were meant to be taking it "easy".

what i never tire of

stars, moonlight, falling snow, fire and flames, water - seas and rivers, the buzz on travelling and meeting new people.

the hardest thing

>> having to leave somewhere you really love, not knowing what date you may return, if at all..
>> not always being able to understand people who have nothing at all

learnt in india

>> to channel emotions and feelings - ie: not to get angry so quickly
>> to understand more than ever peoples struggles and challenges, and the spirit to overcome them
>> to appreciate people do get the same results by doing things differently

every experience offers lessons

2005-07-25T22:58:00.000Z

lesson 1: run inspiring, imaginative pictures thru your mind for this to become ultimately reality

either close your eyes, or look at the reflection of yourself in water, like a river or lake and imagine a successfull person (in what ever you want) to become true.

lesson 2: make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into the flames of achievement.

lesson 3: every second you spend thinking about someone elses dream, you take time away from your own.

best of india, well my our favourite bits anyway

2005-07-25T22:52:00.000Z

Palaces

taj mahal, uttar pradesh
mysore palace, karnataka
jodphur fort, rajasthan
jaisalmer fort, rajasthan
mamallapuram, tamil nadu

temples

kanyakumari, tamil nadu
madurai, tamil nadu
chennai, tamil nadu
tanjore, tamil nadu (UNESCO site)
banganga tank, mumbai
manikaram baths, himachal pradesh

cities

mumbai
chennai
bangalore

not forgetting hampi for its sheer cosmic charm

and its difficult to sum up rajasthan in one word, but the camel safari, jodphur fort and jaisalmer desert festival were the real highlights of the desert.. om shanti

indian recipes

2005-07-25T21:56:00.000Z

flicking thru the page of my Indian journal, i came across some recipes i havent written up yet, so here they are. they are based on a Keralan cookery class i took last december in varkalla.

quantities of the ingredients are up to you, and the type of veg doesnt have to be so strict, use the correct spices and you'll be recreating those authentic kitchen smells in no time :)

dosa (dosai)

prepare 10hrs before

rice powder
yeast
black gram

>> onto greased skillet, 1.5 ladel spoons, 5 mins each side, or cook until brown.

serve immediately with sambar and coconut chutney

idly

ground rice powder and water mix 10 hrs before cooking,

add slices of ginger, green chillies and salt

steam, like poached egg for 15 mins, use fork to test if spongy - cooked.

serve immediately with sambar and coconut chutney

coconut chutney

coconut flesh
2 fresh chillies - chopped
slices of fresh ginger

>> into blender for 2 mins

put into pan with oil,

add peppercorns
cup of water, pinch of salt
curry leaves

heat for 5 mins, leave to cool and serve

sambar

ladyfingers
unripe banana
carrots
cucumber
potatoes
green beans
green chillies
aubergine
salt

>> all veg chopped = thick and chunky

in a pan with yellow lentils in that have already boiled for 40 mins, add all the veg,
boil untill the water forms a stock/gravy,
add onions, then 3 tbsp of sambar powder - boil for 10 mins,
add garlic, curry leaves, ginger, peppercorns at end to bring out flavour, reheat then serve

dhal

turmeric powder
coconut flesh
fresh chillies x 3
garlic
salt
cumin
water
ginger (all veg chopped)

>> into food blender for 2 mins

add to a pan with yellow lentils in that have already boiled for 40 mins, boil all together for 10 mins

cabbage sabji

cabbage
onions
garlic (all veg chopped)
coconut flesh
turmeric
salt
1 tbsp oil

>> fry in a pan until brown (approx 10mins)

green bean chutney

green beans
garlic
onions (all veg chopped)
salt
1 tbsp oil

>> fry in a pan until brown (approx 10mins)

indian salad

onion
tomato (all veg chopped)
curd/yoghurt
salt

recipe for basmati rice

wash in cold water, put into already boiling water, cook for 30mins with lid

glastonbury 2005

2005-06-30T20:53:00.000Z

we were in india when we had our volunteer work permits organised for us by matt we soon took it for granted that we were on our way to the mystical isles of avalon where the 35th festival at glastonbury is held.

after a few pinta's of london ale we were on a bus westward.. after a few missed turns, trying to back up a 60 seater coach on a b-road is quite a feat, we saw the lanterns surrounding the festival site..

after a great revisit of our haunts, stone circle, stages and the cider bus we retired to our tents.. this was when the rain started.. and it didnt stop!

we had to evacuate our tents in the morning as otherwise we would of drowned, then after a morning shift we were back in the cosy dance tent watching some top class DJ's.

as for the rest of the weekend, dont want to go into too much detail becuase of legal reasons, but lots of ciders, late nights and good company.. great to hook up with friends by accident walking across a field for example

the best thing about glasto is the type of people you meet.. they are so funny, lots of nakedness and anything goes, it really does.. probably the closest you can get to india.. no boundaries, or racism, sexism..

this year was quite different, not only did my birthday fall on a monday, but we also worked which got us in free, which i loved and also there was a feeling a solidarity, determination that we were not gonna let the weather beat us.. in fact, i think some one must of been impressed upstairs as the weekends weather just got better and better..

favourite acts of 2005: the killers, alabama 3, fatboy slim, stereo mc's and coldplay

over and out, the badgers of somerset

jim

welsh cyder report 2005

2005-06-14T10:50:00.000Z

From Friday May 28th to Sunday 30th May 2005 in a tiny hamlet in South Wales a very important event was held.

It was the Welsh Perry and Cider festival. With over 50 ciders and perry's to taste it took 6 professional judges to pick 2 ciders and 2 perries to win the Monkeyrat cider award 2005 (Wales).

The judges were:

Jimbo Monkeyrat - know for his years of tasting and supportng of the cider industry in England, Wales, France and even as far a field as India, ciders have gone through the Jimbo tasting school.

Fifi Monkeyrat - likes a drink or 2 and has a keen eye for picking the worst tasting ciders and perry's

Halvinator - Well after a record breaking month of beer tasting he was well up for judging our fine display of products

Robster - Know for his chosing of fine perries and ciders he didn't let us down this time

J.P. - Another keen judge, his cider taste have matured after a year of tasting. It did take him a while to get over the Glastonbury cider experiance, but great to have his honest opions of this years crops

Ness - From the West country this judge has had years of experinace in the cider industry and again vauable advice was given at this years festival

Most people might think that cider and perry is for drunks on a park bench, but we would like to squash this imagine and tell you some little know facts:

Natural cider is 100% fermented apple juice and contains no additives at all

Its environmentally friendly, with little packaging used and fruit trees from from sprays and fertilsers. and its a local drink so sustainable for local producers

And it really does taste great! - if you pick the right one

Its cheap, it only cost £1.50 a half and its all done from the barrel by hand

The judges had a great night and enjoyed the merriment and dancing with the local band.

Our winners were

Ciders:
Cynet - Swan cider
Yarlington Mill - Piston Broke Club

Perrys:
Nuff - Bragdy Brodyr farm
Blakeney Red - Seidr Dai

For more information please visit:
www.welshcider.co.uk

For more photos please visit halvin.co.uk - nice one halvinator! :)

Fi and Jim

monkeyrats back by the river

2005-05-03T17:20:00.000Z

we got back from our travels safe and sound, we felt like we would never sleep off our jetlag, a bit like when we arrived in india at the start of our trip..

its been really good to see family and friends again, it seems like we have to set aside a lot of weekends for weddings, stag do's, etc..

the most weird thing about being back:

not eating spicy food every meal
not having the colourful chaos at railway stations (porters, vendors, beggars)
not getting rickshaws
no hot weather
no chai

the best thing about being back:

not being stared out
having bluebells in the local woodlands
cycling and canoeing - yippee!!
I cannot believe that Jim missed off 'cyder'

Jimbo Monkeyrat: I am currently doing freelance web design consultancy interspersed with canoeing teaching in Berkshire.

Things are slowly getting back to normal, its hard to know where to start after being out the system for 5 months.

Fifi Monkeyrat: Well freelancing doing outdoor stuff and off to Malawi in July for 1 month with World Challenge -Taking 18 young people! and missing 3 weddings - soz guys

We aim to update Monkeyrat with future travel events later this year, like fi's trip to Malawi and my trip to various campsites and cider houses! Keep the vibe alive!

jim

the time has come

2005-04-12T05:16:00.000Z

Well, its our last day in India

I have mixed feelings of excitment to be coming home and sadness to leave such an amazing country.

Ok, its time for highlights, some of my favourite things about India:

The people - We have meet some incredible people, been stared at for a whole 5 months, laughed and shared chai with strangers, and watch some of the most colourful people in the world. The Indians are wonderful and their hospitality has been the best. People like, Ramesh, Vijay, Anup, OF, and to the lovely fellow travellers we have met to like, John, Irish Nick, Leah, Arjen and Flora just to mention a few
The Food - How I am going to live without Masala Dosa?.... and Jim is gonna need his onions and pickles. The food in India is the best, yum, yum!
The Landscapes - We have seen mountains, lakes, rivers, Oceans, cities, wildlife, paddy fields, temples, mosques, churches, deserts, and salt flats
Transport - Well I'm not going to miss sitting on buses and neither is my bottom, trains - the best! And don't get me wrong that there are some horrible things about India but I'll bore people with those back in the UK

Some of my favourite moments have been:

Camel trek
Seeing lions, elephants, crocodiles and snakes
teaching English to Tibetans
lazing on the beaches
flying down a snowy mountain on a rubber ring

But most of all my most favourite bit of travelling in India has been travelling with Jim.

We have shared the most incredible moments, funny moments - Jim walking around the desert festival with a false beard and moustache, Jim pooing his pants in Mumbai Central Train station (jim - you did this too fi, 4 times in one day?), and wearing his trousers the wrong way on new years day (i was hungover and rushed) .

To the very sad moments and our thoughts are still with the wonderful people affected by the tsunami that we met in Tamil Nadu.

After travelling on our own for many years its been the best experience to share memories with someone else.

And do you know what our first question has been today? So, when we coming back then?!!

Fi

grr in Sasan Gir

2005-04-10T08:41:00.000Z

The Southern tip of Gujarat has a wildlife park called Sasan Gir, which is home to the last wild Asiatic Lions in the world, around 300 are left.

India is famed for its wildlife and also for the fast speed in which these rare creatures habitats are being lost as well as the constant decline in species numbers. From what we have seen there are many people in India who dedicate their lives to saving these places and the plants, animals and birds that live in them.

Unfortunately, they seem to be fighting a huge battle with other people who are not as bothered about these places! A tiger park in Rajasthan - Rathanbore is the latest victim as they have just found out that no tigers are left, when they have been taking tourist in under the false pretense that 30 are left. Who knows where the tigers have gone, but a good guess could be medicine bottles!!

Anyway, let me concentrate on the amazing sight we saw in Sasan Gir national park.....

We went on 2 safaris and teamed up with a Dutch couple - Arjen and Flora.

The first safari was from 3pm until 7pm. The park is comparivley small and because Lions and there fellow species don't have passports and don't see human boarders they wander in and out of the park and lions have been spotted sunnin themselves on the beaches of Diu.

We didn't see Lions this time but we saw loads of other animals such as:

Chital, spotted and sambhar deer
wild boar
jackals
Indian Marsh Crocodiles
and Arjen spotted a red bellied snake

The park is covered in shruby trees and with it coming into the very hot season there are no leaves so it looks very wild and hot.

The next morning we started at 6.30am and it was at least 35'c then! On the island of Diu the temperature soared to 45'c!!!!

This time monkeyrat came with us and brought us luck, within 10 mins we heard the deep meowing of a lioness and got within 50m of her. She was beautiful. Her call was for her cubs, which we didn't see but I will never forget the meowing.

After that we saw:

honey buzzard
spotted owlet
parakeets
tree pie (bird)
painted storks
heron, ibis and kingfishers
as well as all the deer
but the best was seeing a 2m king cobra

All in all it was a fantastic 2 days and a great last look at India's wildlife.

Fi

'The earth has enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for anyone's greed' - Mahatma Gandhi

10,650 KM

2005-04-01T07:38:00.000Z

this is the distance we have travelled by rickshaw, train, bicycle and bus.. the most novel means by coracle boat to our hotel..

we have been missing the water, kayaking and canoeing, and will be the first thing we do when we get back to the UK

~~we are currently relaxing on the beach, enjoying indian beach life..~~

** UPDATE ** in mumbai, fi shopping and jimbo.. getting our heads ready for our return to blighty on the 14th april

2nd earthquake

2005-03-29T07:19:00.000Z

we saw on tv last night, 10pm (3pm GMT) that sumatra had been the epicentre of another quake, going to bed not knowing what the death toll would be once we woke the next day.

all the tsunami struck countries soon went into alert during the night..

in india, people in chennai, in tamil nadu state, didnt feel any quake so this may of been a good sign.. curiosity gets the better of indian people as they still went down to the beach at night to see what was happening!

things have quietened down now here, and the alerts are now off... repercussions of the tsunami in december still haunting communities in south east asia and the indian sub-continent who are still struggling to rebuild their lives and families. we are heading to the island of diu today in gujarat, on the arabian sea..

after being in a "dry" state for over a week, we get to taste indian beer again! nice

jim and fifi

monkeyrat in gujarat

2005-03-27T07:36:00.000Z

heres some funny, and interesting things we have seen and experienced here:

in ahmedabad we:

donated our blanket which we bought to keep warm in the himalayas to a lovely family that adopted us
read and later visited a wildlife sanctuary in the desert, advertised in the leaflet as a "wide ass" (wild ass) sanctuary
went to a catting saloon - where i shared chai with the barber in a saucer
fed bananas to raja the elephant, not something you do every day in england
fi also having to improvise as cricket fielder during an evening stroll round the city, whilst i got my hand autographed by a boy
were driven out of town to the desert by a very nice bus driver with the most amazing sticky out eair hair, about 2-3 inches long per hair

gujrati world records:
worlds longest continuos chant, jamagarh temple chanting since 1964!
longest dosa - lentil based pancake - 7.5 metres, restaurant in ahmedabad
10,000 stone steps to temple in junagadh - takes some beating!
has to be the friendliest people in india

fifi's birthday

2005-03-27T07:11:00.001Z

fifi had been looking forward to this day for a while, and we didnt really know where we would be celebrating it we just had to reassure ourselves it would be a day of rest (yeah, right!)

we had arrived in Bhuj, in the Kutch desert, the most westerly town in india.. it is known amongst indians and NGO's that this is the epicentre of an earthquake that struck in 2001. 10,000 people losing their lives, indeed our hotel manager had walked out of his bathroom in his house two minutes before the same room toppled 30m into the lake.

we had also arrived during the holi festival, a national holiday. renowned in gujarat and rajasthan states for their wild coloured paint throwing, bonfires and music.. was this true?

as we set out to find out for ourselves we saw old men get "coloured" by teenagers on motor bikes, and other younger kids on foot, all had their hands full of dye that was just waiting to be "placed" all over us.. as word got around there were some tourists about, we had more and more people throwing dye over us.. oh dear! :)

we retreated back to our hotel, showered, and promptly threw our clothes away! fi said "that's the way my shirt would like to go!". it was amazing experiencing this festival, and we are thankfull we were in a small city to see this, not like the mayhem that occurs on the streets of larger towns - where you cannot escape!

in jaipur, the tourists where driven around in an open toppped bus so they are safe.

in the evening, i surprised fi with a date with the hotel manager, vinod and his wife.. he drove us to an oasis in the middle of the desert where they had a dam, lots of irrigation channels that fed a lush tropical forest, a shaded temple and a first class safari lodge.

on the way back thru the desert in the car we saw a cobra moving across the road in the full moonlight,and also two desert foxes feeding in the roadside channels.

fi was presented with a traditional embroidered bag which she hasnt stopped wearing and smiling about.

a memorable day :)

jim

congratulations to rave & bex

2005-03-27T07:04:00.000Z

congratulations to the new parents of a healthy baby boy, Oliver Masri

>> weighing in at 8lbs

can't wait to meet the little guy, and looking forward to see how you are getting on as a family, im sure you are doing very well

best regards, and WELL DONE BEX, brave girl!

jim and fifi

Heading south again

2005-03-22T08:06:00.000Z

After an overnight stop in Punjab we got on the train ready for the journey south, 1348km by train to the state of gujarat.

The station was close to the Pakistani border, and the train at one point came through a border town. Loads of tanks and soilders, but no border camels!

After not knowing what was going to happen we suddenly had every kind of person come through the carriage:

Hunch-backs
acrobats
lady-boys
soliders
chai wallas
fruit sellers
shoe shine
keyring sellers
bad tat sellers
and that was just inside the train!

After 29 hours we passed through the bread basket of India, Punjab. Also the wonderful desert of Rajasthan, which was now colourful in spring time and we only knew we were in Gujarat by looking at the car registrations (GJ)

By the last hour of the train journey we were ready for firm land and we looked like chimney sweeps - very dusty! Ahmedabad is a hot but fun city, friendly, busy and great for sorting out broken cameras and eating ice-cream - yum!

Jim and Fi

teaching, meditating & donating

2005-03-16T16:34:00.000Z

we are in dharamsala, the residence of his holiness the dalai lama

there are thousands of tibetans here in exile after they have suffered extreme hardship from chinese rule in their home country since 1959.

fiona and i are teaching intermediate and beginner english respectively, to tibetans. we are loving the challenge and the satisfaction is proving to be be very special. the tibetan monks are very attentive, but fi's class are more cheeky i hear.

we have been doing group meditation on the rooftop of the LHA organisation as well, in the evening. its crazy to think we are doing things we have only read about, until now.. its a dream come true.

tomorrow we are going to donate some items that we no longer need, ie: gloves, hats and raincoats..

the view of the snow capped himalaya is never far from our sight, and the tibetan food is proving to be quite addictive.. cookery classes for jimbo tomorrow..

I've worked with alot of communites in the last few years but never have I seen such a supportive, warm, communicative one as the community in McLeod Ganj. The Tibentan people, dispite having no country to call their own, have kept their traditions, culture and beliefs alive here in McLead Ganj.

It has been a real previlidge to work and share time with these amazing people. Although Jim and I have had a limited time here teaching English has been fantastic. The students are so keen and work soo hard its a treat. There might be a few monks walking around this area with incorrect English spellings or English sayings that are the wrong way round, but that doesn't matter one bit. There smiles and warmth says it all.

When you get talking to them about Tibet you find that most have crossed the Himalaya, fearing for their lives from the Chinese. Having no food, water and limited warm clothes. They leave their families, home and friends behind to come to India in hope that they can keep their tradtions alive and learn skills so that one day they can go back to their own country. It takes some of my students one month to walk from Tibet to India. You would think that they would be tainted by their experiances but no, they are very positive people. I suppose it helps by having such an amazing leader - The Dalai Lama. Its a shame that other world leaders cannot learn from him.

I feel very humble that I have been able to spend time here and been treated with such kindness. Its certainly a memory that will stay with both me and Jim for a very long time.

So next time you see a refugee on TV or in real life just remember that the thing they most proberley want most is to go home!

Fi

dinner with the maharajah

2005-03-14T09:48:00.000Z

we arrived in mandi, unknown to us it was the international shivatri mela 2005

basically a holy festival dedicated to lord shiva, with organised loud music and a very big fair

we had already been in mandi so we checked back into the raj mahal hotel, and met the owner who was interested in where we had come from. he was very kind from the start and invited us for dinner that evening, after finding our feet back in town we got freshened up.. i went for a shave at the barbers, and fi went shopping.

we soon realised that we were dealing with a well respected person when all the customers of the hotel bowed and smiled at our man, was he the maharajah that used to rule this town?

once we sat down to tikka masala and rice dishes, he told us of his time as son of the maharajah, he was 17 when their rule ended in 1955, but he showed us all the artifacts and photos on the wall his mother had collected.. portraits of king george V, and swords..

fi and i were on best behaviour, but soon relaxed once he starting cracking jokes and tricking fi.. for example, "do you know there where lots of people in norwich today?", "no, why?", "because they live there!". he told us of his time in bournemouth, england, and we then promised to send him a postcard from their on our return in payment for a wonderful dinner date.

the following day we bid our farewells, and thanked ashok for his hospitality.. he had given us a wonderful glimpse into the indian raj and his life experiences.

observations at the shivatri mela, mandi - how does india do it?

i mean how how does it have so many festivals and celebrations for gods, godesses and melas, etc. and all of them to be accepted with no raised eyebrows, just cheeky smiles from the locals that turn into grins!

the music of the mela is infectious, sufi melodies that twist your mind with its looping drumbeats, horn call and screaming mango seed whistles.

to show of their skills they still play on thru a powercut, still no one blinks an eye!!

well, one thing that im sure of is that i will never know about the order of all these events, but then theres no need to understand! just "namaste" and a big smile..

india: welcome to the biggest carnival on earth! :)

jim

Hot springs and landslides

2005-03-13T14:00:00.000Z

Roads in Himalchal Pradesh are not for the faint hearted. You need a strong stomach and a good head for heights, but the surrounding scenery is worth it.

The words Hot springs sold it to me, a hot bath, mmm! So we took a tour up to a placed called Manikaran. The village was 45km up a v shaped valley towards the snow line. The road up to this village was a bit of a rollercoater ride and the pouring rain didn't help. Jim tried to make me feel better by saying that landslides could happen and it was really easy to slide off the road into the river below.

Anyway, 6km before Manikaran there was a real landslide and it had completely blocked the road. Luckly no one was hurt. So with the rain stopping we put on our ruksacs and walked the rest of the way. The route was fantastic, trees, river, snowy mountains and now blue skies.

The road carved into the side of the mountain finally wound into Manikaran. Most of the village was on the opposite side of the river and could be got to by crossing 2 footbridges. One was covered in tinsle and shiny decorations and lead to an amazing Sihk temple. We got to our guest house which claimed to have hot springs. And I was ready for that hot bath after our trek.

Unfortunately the water was cold...The manager saw, or rather heard my disapointment and took me to a secret bath which he let me and Jim have for the evening, it was bliss. That evening we vistied the Sikh temple and were allowed to join in the worship which was really interesting. The next day we had a free lunch in the temple before we heading down the valley. The landslide had now been cleared - there is no messing about when it comes to getting transport moving in India.

Fi

fi goes skiing

2005-03-13T13:40:00.000Z

note to self: HPMC Kalpa Apple Cider, produced and bottled by MPMC Ltd, a govt of HP undertaking. 7%, 12.25' proof, 650ml.

sorry, anyway, heres how it happened:

after arriving at the solang valley from manali, the last thing we expected was to see the amount of snow they had received.. toilet blocks and houses snowed in, hotels closed.. its no joke in kashmir, where the snow has killed 400 people it is called the "north indian tsunami".

we got dropped off as the snow started, only the brave 4wd vehicles could get thru, also sherpas, mules and honeymooners on sledges (who looked very terrified!)

on the ski slopes we saw a yak and angora rabbit. fi negotiated a good deal with a local for retro ski boots and skis, then off she went up the slope by foot to get reacquainted with her skills. she didnt realise she has to dodge paragliders landing just below her and men on skii-dos.

after fi finished skiing, we hire out an inner tubesle down the side of an icy slope on, us two on a rubber ring.. fi tried to video it, but was screaming too much!

as the sun was setting behind the huge snowcapped mountains, we trekked back, and managed to dry out our boots from all the snow at the same time..

back at the hotel bar in manali we have a debrief and head for some tibetan momos

jim

all aboard the himalayan queen

2005-03-13T13:17:00.000Z

eating breakfast outside delhi station at 4am, we were very excited to be heading from the indian plains to the indian himalaya!

Fi still not sure we are at correct station (like in mumbai).. get onto chair carriage and kick back, sleep 4 more hours.. passengers think we are dead again.. train leaves on time as usual, past all the slums to new delhi station, where we where found playing on the tracks a few hours before.

wake up some hours later gazing at sugar cane fields and the cloud filled horizon, occaisionally glimpsing some of the foothills.. wahey@! and the scarecrows in the fields with turbans and moto cycle helmets on to ward off the eagles and large birds..

at the train head where we swap trains from broad gauge to narrow gauge we have a few chais in clay pots.. then get tkts inspected by some lovely sikhs, now the pace of life has immediately calmed down, not out of the clutches of capital city.

the train ride to shimla was very scenic as you can imagine, 103 tunnels, rice terraces into pine forrests and lots of villages and very english train stations.. with blue paint, slate roofs and flower pots, in a station named "summerhill".

arriving in shimla, the british summer hill station in the 1950-60's, we are greeted not only by rain, but by porters who look like the lving dead, in their long brown woolen gowns... once checked into hotel we soon set about buying a blanket, gloves and hats.. its freezing!

the following day in shimla, we find cyder made locally in the hills, we also visit the monkey temple where before entering we have to hire monkey sticks to ward off the cheeky devils.. we witness one monkey stealing spectacles from an indian lady, to be tempted very quickly by a peanut vendor once the lady has paid for the peanuts which are swapped for the glasses!

a great introduction to the mountains after a few days walking locally, and aclimatising to the altitude of 2205M.

jim

Jim is in Himachal Heaven

2005-03-13T13:00:00.000Z

Back when we first arrived in India Jim came running over to me in a train station and said ' Fi, I've just found apple juice made in the state of Himachal Pradesh in North India, and if they make apple juice then they have to make cider...'

So 4 months later we have arrived in Himachal Pradesh and yes Jim is a very happy boy, not only have we had cider but we have now tasted 4 different types. It not very easy to get hold of but as most of you know Jim has a sixth sense for finding the golden apple nectar.

Well we do need something to keep us warm up in these big, snowy mountains...

Fi

agro in agra?

2005-03-13T12:35:00.000Z

a relaxed arrival in a town renowned for hastle and dodgy food

after our best bus journey so far, im sure the other passengers would have thought that we were dead, as we slept for 3 hours of the 5 hr journey against each other.. hardly surprising as we travelled around 100km in less than 24hrs by train and bus.. (a good plan if we ever needed to escape somewhere very quickly!)

in agra, from the bus staton, the rickshaw driver gets fined for not having correct papers, gets fined the equiv. of one months salary (about 12 pounds). walk to taj mahal from our hotel, with rooftop view of taj. its really hard to believe that near one of the 7th wonders of the world.. nervous, anticipation, will it live up to the hype?

the most photographed filmed, drawn, and described
building in the world. it is one of those places that consistenly meets (or
exceeds) expectations.
you do not have to be romantic to fall in love with the taj, it moves even the hardened cynics.
meeting it is one of those few times in life when fantasy and reality perfectly collide.

in the evening, we find a hotel to have dinner on, another one boasting the "highest rooftop view", i order biryani and receive fried rice.. what a view after a hard day..

the rickshaw driver on return to the train station for delhi, gets fined again.. we think we must be bad luck! but then see later scams, me getting short changed for train tkts, army manon train getting baksheesh from a beggar, another man trying to fine us for sitting in the incorrect carriage (not knowing whether he was genuine or not), and

totally outnumbered by locals again which is good, good for their photos anyway to have some westerners in :)

the monkeyrats

more pictures

2005-02-27T05:46:00.000Z

heres some photos from our recent travels in the north

fi and jim at sunset in pushkar
camel shadow during 2 day safari in thar desert, rajasthan
jim and the boys at jodphur fort
drinks at the palace
view of beautiful blue buildings, jodphur
have you seen this man?
fifi in local rickshaw
the taj mahal

jaisalmer desert festival 2005

2005-02-24T15:19:00.000Z

approaching jaisalmer by road is like viewing a huge sandcastle rise up from the desert,

entering the fort is like entering a labrynth of streets and havelis (old merchants houses), because this town is famous for its camel caravan routes to pakistan, bringing with it jain merchants and bankers of great wealth and power. the border is only 55km away, we cannot travel any farther west in india.

inside the sand-coloured fort of jaisalmer there are intricate ornamented windows and arches, the women in their coloured scarves and skirts, and men with bright turbans and slippers.

besides that there are beautiful temples in the fort and the view out towards the thar desert in unforgettable..

we were there in time for the desert festival, which proved to be a front runner for the best photograph opportunity on our trip (so far).

nuclear missiles were detonated 100km from here, the last one in 1998. didnt really please pakistan.. this is why today there is a fence cutting off each country, in india, 10,000 border security force camels patrol the fences, covering 3 huge indian states in the west of the country.

the force bought their camels to the festival you see, and the weekend was a cultural event/army tatoo.. camel polo, camel racing, camel tatoo, best dressed camel and mr desert during the day, with music and dancing in the evening. the best camel demonstration was a army man in a sari with a water pot on his head, riding a camel.. (wonder what they did out in the desert)..

i bought a beard and moustache set to compete with the men in the moustache twirling competition, making a few new friends along the way. and saw a man riding a motorbike doing a handstand and holding an umbrella across the desert.

the fireworks at the end were interesting, they started off with the huge bang, only realising the fireworks were only 20 metres away, then all of a sudden the local kids started running towards were they were being set off!!

the second night of fireworks, the fire brigade were there.

indian rule #007

tell the street vendor how much you pay, not "how much
?". nothing is ever fixed price here, food, lodgings, transport, and
drinks

indian rule #666

never eat at empty indian restaurants, especially
if offering western food

jim

Desert, camels and stars

2005-02-24T08:17:00.000Z

Another Highlight of our trip so far....

Most people go to Jaisalmer to go camel trekking but when someone suggested that we went on a camel trek in Pushkar, we did!

Let me introduce you to our camels:

NAME: Krishna Charles
AGE: 3
PERSONALTY: Generally well behaved, apart from the occasional bite. A bit lazy but he is only 3!

NAME: Rama Camilia
AGE: 6
PERSONALTY: Naughty, rude, trumps alot, blows rasberries but very strong, needs a girlfriend

With our camel guides, Shiva and Bhawana we had quite a team. We left Pushkar with me sitting on the front of Krishna and Jim behind me and in front of us the boy's cart pulled by Rama.

As soon as we left Pushkar we were into the desert.

Let me give you a guided tour of Pushkar:

It is in a valley surrounded by 2 mountain ranges, to the East, Snake Mountain and to the West Carbara Mountains. Our journey took us 30km around the back of the Carbara Mountains and back into the Pushkar valley.

We rode for about 3 hours to our lunch stop, a flower farm. An oasis in the middle of the desert. Dal, rice and veg were served and made spicy to our request.

It was not long before we were back on the camels and into the desert again. Jim this time took the cart option with the boys. I think it had something to do with the whiskey!

This left me alone with Krishna it was amazing being 8 foot off the ground, the views were stunning, desert, trees, birds, villages, farms and temples - we saw them all.

Krishna had been great up till about 1km from our campsite, when he pulled a 'camel paddy' on me. The boys were about 100m in front so I was left to deal with it on my own. Krishna made lots of grumling noises, biting sounds and did try to bite my leg (its amazing how flexible a camels neck is) then he sat down with me perched on top. So with some big leg kicks and sweet talk he got up. I think it was because I told him dinner was near by!

Anyway we soon were trotting back to the boys cart. The camels guides were very impressed with my camel riding skills and so was I!

Our campsite was in an incredible setting. We were in a dried, sandy river bed surrounded by sand dunes and hills. In front of us was an 11th century fort called 'Tila'. Whilst our guides cooked us tea Jim and I went to the top of one of the dunes and watched the sunset, it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

After tea, cooked on an open fire with fresh baked bread we settled down for the night on the sand next to the cart. We were all curled up under blankets and lay back to watch the stars. It was very romantic.

After a great nights sleep we woke up to the sun rising over the mountains - beautiful. Soon we were on our way again. This time Jim sat on the front of Krishna and me at the back.

We stopped after a while for chai at the side of the road before we headed over the pass back towards Pushkar.

For lunch we stopped under a sacred tree, next to a water pump. This was a real social place where goat hurders and farmers met on their return from grazing the animals. We shared fresh goats milk chai with locals - a real treat. The women took a shine to me and tried on all my jelwellery, glasses and hat. They plaited my hair and for an hour we laughed and joke - neither side being able to speak each others lanauage.

Soon it was time to return to Pushkar so through a few more villages with shouts of 'hello, Namasta and wot u name?' It was great to wave to everyone.

Just as the sun set Rama and Krishna got back to their stable area and we had to say our goodbyes. I think Krishna was sad to see me go!

It was truly an amazing adventure and a real highlight in India. We were the only people doing this trek and we saw no other groups. The memories will last for a long time...

Fi

blue desert buildings

2005-02-23T13:19:00.000Z

recipe for banana lassi (north indian)

one big banana
natural yoghurt or milk curd
topping - cashew nuts, dessicated coconut and chipped pistachio

sign outside barber shop

catting (cutting) centre and saving (shaving) hair

jim to indian man on bus in middle of thar desert, rajasthan

"its very crowded in here?!", "of course, this is india!"

we arrived in jodphur slightly weary and dusty after a slow journey on a local bus from pushkar, we were ripped off with the bus ticket we purchased promises of being comfortable and smoke free.. these promises didnt mean much once we experienced the other extreme. fi and i looked at each other, smiled and said "oh, lets go back to south india!" as we heard about the challenge of travelling in north india.

jodphur itself was a bustling town, a fort town and still occupied by the current maharajah. yet these towns often expand to live outside the city walls, it was the old city we were interested in..

its famous for its blue buildings, and huge city palace high up on the fort escarpment. after a very good self guided tour round the palace with headphones we had a few surprises.. i was offered opium by a guard (popular medicinal treat for military) and a cold kingfisher beer in the palace lounge - we had drunk alcohol for 8 days before, as the town before was so holy no alcohol or even meat is allowed..

walking back down the winding lanes opf blue houses to the new town we witnessed an interesting muslim festival.. apparently to do with tests of strength.. there were men taking it turns to do all the following tasks infront of a huge colourfull chariott with their god on:

men getting lashed and men also doing the lashing
men fighting each other with bamboo sticks
and other men banging very heavy drums whilst hanging from their necks

>> all this was done until they could do it no more..

we were tired again becuase i thought i was going to get lashed and fi thought she was going to get pickpocketed so we legged it past a bunch of guys having a fight then we found a most agreeable place to sit for a few minutes to catch our breaths and enjoy a chai and omlette (the man was proud to tell us he cooked 1400 eggs a day).

we then met two of fi's friend from manchester, sally and marcus in a desert bar with open fires, more beers were enjoyed!

found a lot of the street kiosks here sell apple juice (due to the perfect mountainous climate in the north) - mohuns gold coin apple juice.. bliss :)

four weddings & a funeral

2005-02-23T12:57:00.000Z

a recap of adventures the last few days, just hope theres no power cut before i publish

quote from fi

"i have a affinity to give money to old people with glasses, and thats the only people i will give to"

its wedding season in pushkar, rajasthan! so far we have witnessed around 4 weddings a day. huge events that last two days and requiring courtyards that can accomodate up to 5000 people. whilst we were having a late breakfast, we heard the roar of a mobile band getting louder and louder down on the streets.. the wedding crowd then swelled in the street, the groom in a very smart white suite and red turban, sat on a white horse, then followed by all men.. there was another procession for the bride and women in another part of the town..

the band consisted of a fruit and vegetable cart with a sound system on, there was a kid pushing it, a man with a old bontempi organ and lots of vague looking indians with symbols, turmpets, tabla and whistles.. most of them not knowing where they were going, let alone what they where playing!!

in the evening, the procession went back onto the streets of pushkar (probably to walk the lunch off). the same arrangement as before, however the outside of the crowd was lit by people carrying light bulbs, powered by a noisy old generator being towed at the back..

it was soo colourfull it actually was very tiring to take it all in after a while, so fi and i bought some henna oil amidst this chaos to do some tattoos on each other..

update: no word on bollywood movie, like a job interview you dont hear from i assume i didnt get it :(

india media

2005-02-13T12:59:00.000Z

heres the travel magazine we have been reading in india, great for inspiring ideas for train journeys and hotels. www.outlooktraveller.com

also for you movie fans, try tracking down these movies:
dhoom, shoobay, taal, kai ho haa ho

and any cd by ravi shankar (father of norah jones)

more funny names

2005-02-13T12:52:00.000Z

train stations: manki, ginigeri, hubli

shop signs: loundry and londry service (laundry), salipar (sleeper) coach

and our animal friends: colin cobra, nandi cows, gary dogs, charles camel, barry bat, lakshmi elephant, and temple/music/bus stop/hotel dog

quote from russian guy in pushkar:

i have a big memory card for my camera, but india seems to require more!

quote from fi:

whats in a planetarium? plants!?

quote from jim:

you know there are a lot of undercover police dogs here? like that one (lying at temple gates),
and Is this a North indian Lassi? in Rajastan - North India....

indian scams on tourists

2005-02-13T07:25:00.000Z

you gotta love 'em, here goes, im sure this list will grow..

train ticket: in first class with second class train, ordered off train to pay penalty.. can haggle penalty price, we got two for price of one
being blessed: "you make $100 donation right?", "yeah, sure!"
food in agra: (taj mahal) and varanassi.. poisoned so when you become unconscious you get mugged
jaipur auto rickshaws: they dont just rip you off, they ask you to conspire with them to rip yourself off!. If a policeman asks you "is this man using his meter?" you are supposed to say "yes" when he's not.
being driven to a hotel, rickshaw driver telling you that "its full", then driving you to his
kids riding brand new bikes and in new clothes begging for money, and endless people looking at the money in the palm of their hands and saying "just 10 rupee more"

saying that, it doesnt happen every day and its only a few people doing this.. once you are settled into a new place, once the backpacks are out of sight you have more time to spot a good scam..

into rajasthan

2005-02-13T06:56:00.000Z

well, what can we say.. we are now very much in north india.. rajasthan, a land that is soo diferent to the southern states. the exotic 'land of princes', rather than temples, we are seeing forts, palaces and barren desert.

we were quite nervous (well i was anyway, as we have been so spoilt in the south) travelling to the north as it has been renowned for its scams and hard sell to the tourists.. (ie: poison food, touts, police rackets).. we have had a few, but got away very lightly, i think this deserves a blog entry of its own, eh fi?

its also the place we have been compelled to learn some hindi, once we have made the effort we soon realised the people here are the most hospitable in india. i had a crash course on the way up north onboard the jaipur express, with an indian man called 'VK' who sold hesian sacks, he made me order snacks on the train in Hindi. the actual journey itself a feast for travel fans: 1400kms, 3 states.

then he described the sleeper system in the train, (which he i think was the same as cinema seating): top bunk > balcony, middle bunk > first class, bottom bunk > second class, floor > unreserved.. even though all of our carriage was second class..

we had the chance to get the train to jaipur two days earlier, but this guard showed us to a doorway where he said we could stand! we didnt fancy this as the journey was for 18 hours! and he wanted baksheesh (money) for this too! (this worked out to be okay as i had my bollywood screentest) i met a few men on the train who were doing just this, they were on the waiting list for a bunk, rajesh was the 550th person in line for a seat, but made the standing journey by being accompanied by a bottle of gin! going to the toilet at night meant jumping and crawling over an jigsaw of bodies!

the stars i gazed at from the bunk of the train, as the 22 carriage train hurtled into rajasthan were amazing.. from desert floor to the heavens..

fi also had some fun on the train with two very confident israeli girls, i will let her fill in the blanks.
fi's comments on entering rajasthan: deserts, camels, vultures, flat arid landscapes, and pink turbans.. bloody israelis!

so after two days trying to aclimatise to northern culture and cuisine in jaipur. we saw our first snake charmer, but after visiting the animal home is goa where snakes are taken from these guys we didnt quite feel so happy about seeing this. so we had our photo taken next to a guard and mini guard at the city palace.

we are in the town of pushkar, a very holy place for hindi's.. 52 ghats and 1000 temples, the religion is brahma here > something which we dont quite understand how it works, but its certainly very colourfull, with lots of traditional (loud) music

From Bollywood to real life drama

2005-02-13T06:26:00.000Z

Travelling with Jim is never a dull experience. After missing our first train ride north we had to more days to spend in Mumbai, not a bad thing as this city is really good fun. After drinking a bit too much beer the night before (well we needed a debrief after our train trauma) we thought "what shall we do today?"

Before I knew it Jim had an interview with a "Bollystar" agent for westerners, for a lead role in a film about a BBC correspondant who falls in love with a local Indian girl and then dies. We end up in the really posh end of town and meet some very nice people, Dan was also being interviewed for the part. He was a veteran, he had already been in 3 films!

After screen tests, yes, really....i am now his agent!!! I can just see me with my mobile, sipping Chardonnay with Guggie glasses on... sorry where was I?

After all this me, Dan and Jim went to get the train back to the centre of Mumbai, (by the way we hear about the results on the 15th Feb). The local trains are packed so we ran for it when the train pulled in to the station. What we didn't quite release was we were in 1st class and we only had 2nd class tickets.

Anyway a very nasty weasel of a man smuggly asked us for our tickets and then demanded us to get off at the next station. We were frogmarched to a cupboard and told we each had to pay a fine. The fine should have been 500 rupees each, but beacuse we were forgiens he would give it to us for 1000, 2 for the price of one - how kind.

Well any change of Jim ever getting an oscar were thrown out of the door by Dan and Fiona's performance. Dan played the cool, nice British guy "As we are friends visiting your country I think that the fine is a bit harsh" and Fi, well all hell broke loose. The weasel was the same height as me and I squared up to him and didn't take my eyes off his - he didn't like that.

Bascially this was no fine, it was baksheesh - going into all there pockets that was why we were soo mad. We did get it down to 300 rupees for all of us, but not with out humiltation on their part, there is nothing worse that a women scream very loudly and embrassing them with phrases like "so this money is going into your pocket then!" I thing in rectrospect we got away quite lightly.

Dan still wanted to kill the weasel when we finally got back on to the train.

It was our first encounter with the dark side of India and its a shame that this really does happen, but I felt qutie good after a shout and at least we found it funny!

our own type of laughter yoga really does help!

Fi

13/02/04: im stil waiting to hear about my screentest, a most bizzare exeprience: camcorders, photo profiles, scripts and acting in hindi! didnt expect that one!

Jim

laughter yoga

2005-02-05T18:09:00.000Z

as you may have noticed by now, fi and i are pretty care free in our travels and itinerary in india

we are definately having some luck on our sides with travel connections, and the people who we meet who give us juicy tips about further travels and current info. apart from a few dodgy phone numbers for hotels in the lonely planet which i am still finding a reluctancy to use.. im using a independent authors guide to india i picked up in an oxfam shop, by frank kusy, only thing is its published in 1996 and its a bit out of date, however its reccommended some gems in mumbai which are still here..

today or tomorrow i hope to visit the gateway of india to meet the fellows of the laughter yoga society, laughter being the best medicine and all.. especially keeping a sense of humour when here.. and of course patience..

in the last two days i have been mistaken for nasser hussein and eminem. wow, im not sure how they expected me to respond to this.. ive also been asked to contact a scout about a bollywood movie, not bad money so i will have to feedback on that one too..

apart from all that, mumbai is great! a pickpockets paradise, probably due to the 10,000 new families per day that arrive here and end up living on the streets.. even so, thats what we expected, out on some of the most amazing street life in the world

jim

mumbay, bombmi, ohhhh muddly

2005-02-05T14:47:00.000Z

Jim and I came to Mumbai with very mixed views, we had heard that it was a very messy Indian city to be avoided.

We arrived on the night train from Hampi - taking 24 hours (phew!). As the sunrose we arrived at the suburds of Mumbai, I could smell the suburbs them before I saw them! There were lines and rows of shanty housing but more offesive was the mountain of rubbish on the side of the tracks. The morning was greeting with the slum dwellers having their morning pee on the tracks (and no. 2's) bottoms ahoy! The slums went on for a long time! 60% of Mumbai's population is living on the streets and 10'000 people a day arrive in the search of fortune.

Eventually we arrived into the city and headed for Gateway of India and the Taj Mahai hotel, well thats where the taxi driver thought we were staying, if only.... alas our budget is only for the Salvation Army resisdency along the street from the mighty Taj. And I have to say the south of Mumbai is a great place. The buildings are amazing, very gothic and you could even pass for being in a European capital, even the rickshaws are banned in the city, thankfully I don' miss being followed on the pavement anymore..

Even though both Jim and I were tried from our journey it didn't stop us from seeing as much as we could. We did the normal - fi/Jim tour (jumping on the nearest bus and seeing where we end up) and a great day we had. the aquarium, jain temple, "fashion st" and various bookstalls

As Mumbai will be our last port of call in April so we are scouting the area of goodies to buy and we will definately need to buy a few more bags.

We are here for 2 more days then its 'up north' to Rajastan and beyond..

Fi

happy in hampi

2005-02-05T11:47:00.000Z

we heard about hampi from another traveller who described it as a cross between a star wars set, indiana jones on acid. hundreds of semi ruined temples amongst a amazing space landscape, with boulders strewn everywhere, even the houses are built between and over them.

we got across the river using old coracle boats, i wanted to show the man how to paddle, but he did a good enough job considering we had 20 people in one boat, others had motorbikes in.

we cycled around the town and surrounding villages by bikes,

fi fed the temple elephant (no she really did!), lakshmi the elephants name was, pretty quickly a banana went up lakshmi's trunk, and then her trunk went in fi's bag for a nose around for afters.

meanwhile, i observed a new truck being blessed outside the temple by a guru - the truck was painted and splashed and all hell broke loose when the sound system came on. people chasing monkeys who stole the offerings to the gods.. learning from the monkeyrats obviously..

we had a bit of a fruit frenzy ourselves on the roof top of our homestay, watermelon, papaya and bananas.. its great being able to eat whole tropical fruit everyday

we found a great bar with hammocks and cold beer in, played the sasha cd we love and everything was right again in the world.. ahh

good and bad menus

2005-02-05T11:29:00.000Z

typos of food items seen at various restaurants, fi and i have a competition to find the best dish name, then it takes us another 30 mins to order!

cheese butter nun, scrumbled eggs, breaded beans on toast, mashroom, mixed veg. tribal rice, green piece (peas) curry, hars (hash) brown patato, veg. nudles (noodles), chucken shaag walla (? didnt ask about this one just incase),

and my favourite: cabination of cattage chese in exotick indian grevy (well, they got the indian bit correct)

any tried 'maxicon' food and 'chainese' food?

other names that make you wonder what the hell you are ordering:

rava idli, dhahi wada, ghee dosai, sweet lassi, girmit, panjabi thali and sabji..

bon apetity

goa, going going gone!

2005-02-05T11:11:00.000Z

highlights of the smallest state in india, and most visited by westerners

walking the dogs at the animal rescue home
mopeds - racing around the state (no repeat of fi's last escapade in brighton, heather!)
cliff sunsets at vagator
anjuna temple rave and nine bar dancing - techno music all night long
markets and beach bars in the sunshine (toasted to all the office workers in UK)
and leaving goa by train for magical hampi

everything was very nice, but after a week it felt like we were on a package tour not travelling. also we felt a bit like we were being ripped off with the prices

question to fi from jim:

"am i grubby?"

question to jim from fi:

"why dont we get a rickshaw to the bus station?" jim: "ok then fi, oh what about this bus (right next to us in the middle of a goan high street)?", "sure why not!"

mangled in mangalore

2005-02-04T11:23:00.000Z

we stopped at a town called mangalore, on the way to goa. we had a connection to make, but one of the highlights has to be:

fi and i getting blessed by a cashier clerk in the supermarket

fi: you dont get that in sainsbury's!

jimbo getting haircut in ganesh saloon, micheal jackson on stereo, am asked to do a little dance.. ok then :)
fi walks out of hindi movie after becoming restless and picking her feet

jim

google ads & housekeeping

2005-01-25T13:37:00.000Z

please click on the purple vertical advert bar as it means we will be getting money to stay out here longer.

we have also put a link to our photos incase anyone missed the blog entry link,

and also the latest on the tsunami efforts in india - if you havent dontate please do, unicef are here for 3 years so your money will be much appreciated.

jim

its hippy heaven, man!

2005-01-23T15:27:00.000Z

visiting the sea for the first time since boxing day felt strange, however we were distracted by the amount of westerners we saw.. most since we left the UK 2 months ago..

went to a really cool beach called gokarna, bumped into another couple again, that have been travelling north as well. managed to top up the tan on some great cliff walks, and put in a regular excercise regime, well, fi ran every day! :)

however, one thing which made us run for cover was these middle aged hippy white guys, with beards, turbans and tye dye thong.. it really doesnt need to be seen to be believed! Fi and I were walking back from breakfast at the other end of the beach to our beach cottage, when we saw two yoga tastic hippies stretching and worshipping the sun.. unfortunately, there wasnt a lot left to the imagination when they bent over in their thongs.. :?

we left for goa this morning, and we are hearing all sorts of english accents, geordie, liverpudlians...
had western food for the fist time since being here, the indian food really is that good! one thing about goa, happy hour!

fi and jim

metropole palace

2005-01-18T07:16:00.000Z

we stayed at metropole palace, built by the majarajah in the late 1800's for british guests

we couldnt have anything less than our own very suite (bigger than the whole of jim's flat in brighton), with a huge terrace and bath tub (how we've missed a hot bath).. swimming pool and superb room service.. i have pressed lots of flowers in my diary to remind me of this.

We were in Mysore for a festival called Pongal - its a bit like harvest festival. They paint the cows to thank them for there work. So the streets are full of mulitcoloured cows with tinsle on their horns. I thought I should do the same at my Mum and Dad's
but with there sheep, I could spray paint them pink and green and tie ribbons on the horns, could be a real toursit attraction - My Dad could make money.....I'm sure the neighbours would love it too!!!!

The majarajah palace in Mysore is amazing too, they light it up for 2 hours once a
week, its light a fairytale castle. The only thing is the rest of the towns electricity goes - so Indian :)

We are back on the West coast and tomorrow vv early we are catching the train north - we are heading more northerly than Chennai (madras), the town we first arrived from the UK in.. after nearly two months of travelling.

We are coming away from the mountains and hugging to the coast line again, first to a placed called Gokarna, in karnataka - the beaches are meant to be beautiful. Then to the state of Goa for a little dancing!

Its true what people say about 'treating india as lots of different countries together'.. its quite extraordinary, but thats why we travel!

Fi

Congratulations Alise and Pippa!

2005-01-14T07:57:00.000Z

Congratulations on your engagement
Thats fab news. Looks like we'll be having another party to celebrate..

Lots of love
Fi and Jim

(I'm sure Jim will add comments later, at present he is in bed with Regular Use Medcine imbalance)
No Fi, it was a naughty bug that had jumped into my stomach..
thats amazing news, hope you are both excited about your future together as Mr and Mrs Brown.

all the best indian wishes,
jimbo :)

obervations at Mysore Zoo

2005-01-13T10:58:00.000Z

I think Jim and I are much more fun to look at the the animals

All we need to do is sit down at a bench, and a few minutes later indian teenagers (usually school groups), or very large families begin to swarm, very friendly, but their mission "must get photograph of funny white people!"

All smiles and lots of handshakes, and then they are gone!

You are never lonely in India! :)

Tomorrow night we are checking into a palace built by the Maharajah of Mysore exclusively for British guests.

Fi

into bangalore, trains and bars

2005-01-13T10:41:00.000Z

we arrived in bangalore, karnataka province by sleeper train..

ive heard nightmare stories of these overnight journeys, but it was actually quite relaxed in indian terms, no boisterous groups of teenagers or screaming babies.

we met a family who had emigrated to australia who were touring india to visit their relatives. we found the guards very efficient at allocating people seats and beds, its the first time we have sat in our proper seat numbers, as other people have always been in ours.

our distance or an eight hour journey is considered a short distance in India, so it was a small train, only 15 carriages and no food! we ran out onto the platform of another place i cannot pronounce to buy biryani. Only the trains which travel 3 days seem to have pantry cars attached to the trains.

sleeper trains are not good for people with feet phobia, from oevery bunk was emerging bare feet.. i suppose the smell wakes you up on the way to the toilet, if the toilet doesnt! saw a rat the size of a dog dead on the tracks. we slept next to a fella who covered himself in his sheet like he was in a body bag, i think he got off at our stop..?

Bangalore is famous for its nightlife, india does not really have a nightlife so it was our duty to represent this fine opportunity for an outing.

Went to a pub called "NASA", a space ship theme pub, say no more, apart from i got a salute from the DJ when waving at him. there was a sign above the DJ booth saying "no dancing"..
the folowing bar was "guzzlers", more draught kingfisher.. nice job.
the final bar was "pub world" - menu: "welcome to the world of pubs, first of its kind in india, featuring a carousel of drinking places the world over!", family bar: "this is an area which gives you a feeling of a typical english pub", "oh! to be in england, drinking english beer!"

pleeease!! music: instrumental version of raindrops keep falling on my head, and soft rock ballads.

the following day fi tried out saris at the worlds largest toy and sari shop.. after she greeted the party animals outside who were dancing to michael jackson tunes.. nice touch :)

jim

eating thali's - you realy get looked after!

2005-01-13T10:13:00.000Z

this is what you should know about eating the mothership of all south and north indian lunches

On arrival you will be shown to your table by a
group of eager waiters, asking you 'coming from (which country?)', you may be
lucky enough to make it into the family air con room if the restaurant is full
already.
The calm before the storm is the banana leaf you
will get put next to you, this is your plate. In North india you just get a
meatl tray with all the items on.
Then another person with comes along with thali
items, such as coconut chutney, bean sabji, lentil dhal, popadoms, sambar, curd and rice pudding (fi's favourite aka 'frog spawn').. then followed by another person with rice.. a whole pot of the stuff..

Eatas slow or as quick as you like, no matter what happens as the piles of food items gets smaller, the items will be replenished by one of the many walla's.

unilimited food for around 30 pence..

the record so far is 14 waiters/wallas in one restaurant.. as you can imagine it gets a bit busy around the tables..

the grand finale is a hefty burp of approval..

then once you have washed up at the sink, you would of eaten meal with right hand fingers, you start saying goodbye to the waiters until out of the premises.

which ever way you look at it.. you will not have to eat for a long time!

volunteering

2005-01-13T09:56:00.000Z

After the tsunami Jim and I decided that we would really like to try and volunteer in some way. We saw an advert in one of the papers wanting volunteers, so we contacted them. They asked us to go to Nagapattinam - the worst hit area of main land India.

So off we went - it took us 2 days to travel across Tamil Nadu. When we arrived we entered a hectic town with a sad edge to it. The bus station was taken over by tv camera vehicles, and NGO vehicles. All we could smell was bleach which was been put on the edge of all the streets to stop diseases spreading.

In this town was the headquaters for all the NGO's - which I have to say where all working together really well. Unfortunatley 'our' organisation wasn't so orgainsed and we were told that we were not needed. Both Jim and I were very frustrated, especially as we had travelled so far. There was no accomodation in the town either which is actually quite a good thing, as at least income is being generated for the local people. So we had to head inland instead.

The conclusion was that although we both felt sad that we couldn't volunteer, from what we saw the NGO's are doing a great job, not just in the short term of cleaning up the areas but strategies were being made for the long-term rehibitation of all these communites, from new houses to how generate incomes. So if any of you have donated to the diasater you will be please to hear that your money is being well spent!

As for volunteering, well we are still looking out of opportunities and I'm sure we will find somewhere soon.

Fi

bus driver from Ooty

2005-01-10T13:55:00.000Z

This guy started the journey driving in his socks, so we knew we were in for a good ride :)

Usually the bus horns are very loud but this guy had 2 wires on the steering column to sound his horn - parp is all that came out!

He used the passengers to look out on hairpin bends (38 in total) for oncoming traffic. Fi sat shotgun on the engine cover at the front of the bus, she was later adopted by the driver and taken to the front door of the hotel. All in all a great service.

On the way back up the 38 hair pins Fi slept through all of it and Jim read his book - now thats what I call talent!

Getting on the bus can be a real challenge - as everyone jumps into the entrance at the same time even when the bus is still moving. When exiting the bus u also have to be prepared to jump off whilst the bus is still moving just like a skydiver, however, u do get a whistle clearance from the guard!

We have often wondered why bus's have such accurate timings on the front on the windscreen. For example, departing 8am, arriving 12:08pm.. why?! no wonder they drive so mad.

Fi and Jim

Welliphants

2005-01-10T13:45:00.000Z

We caught the the last day of the temple elephants annual hoildays in Masinagudi National Park.
81 elephants were in the national park being pamered and having a great time - a glastonbury for elephants.

3 rules to tame elephants (good for humans too)

discipline
food
love

We watched the elephants being washed in the river and had a walk through their hoilday camp. I have to admit although it was great to see the elephants up close nothing compares to seeing wild elephants and some of the elephants owners used discipline more than love!

After we watched the elephant we went on a walking safari and an evening drive safari, we saw bears, 2 types of deer, loads of birds including eagle-owls and wild cats. - well worth the effort..

Snooty Ooty (or otty if u r Fi)

2005-01-10T13:34:00.000Z

Former capital of the madras presidency. There are RAJ reminders everywhere, notably the terraced botanical gardens, the english public schools.

Highlights of this Old British Raj Hill Station

Jimbo's shoe repairs
Madras horse racing club - virtual horse racing from Mumbai
bazaars to buy Fi pressies
Snooker was invented here, but the place was closed down!
Old English street names such as Greenbanks, Glenmoran, Windermere etc.
Pedallo on smelly lake in rain
party animals at 'Jolly World' theme park (Indian's version of Alton Towers)
New years day trek throu tribal villages in hills, really good hangover cure, shame Jim cannot put his trousers on the right way (quote from Jim ' I wondered why I couldn't walk proberley, knees in the wrong place')

We decided to leave to leave after new year as food was limited to 4 items: any other item was served cold. We learned this mistake after we walked out of 5 resturants in the same evening.

indian mountains

2005-01-10T07:29:00.000Z

after two weeks in kerala we left the coast.. Fi prefers Tamil Nadu, it more real india, and not as rich or touristy.. therefore we get better food and not ripped off as much.. some beach resorts just drain your money..

from our arrival in chennai we had aimed to be in the hill stations for january. we headed for mannur, an interesting tea plantation town which had three hills surrounding the town, all with a religious building on - temple, mosque and church.. as you can imagine it is quite a racket at sunset > loudspeakers, bells, and other musical instruments coming from each one.

we only stayed there one night as was very busy with indian tourists, a highlight was viewing the massive nativity display in the church, we wrote our postcards on the steps, and on leaving the town by bus we got stopped by jesus, or a truck named this anyway..!

the journey further into the hills took us into lush tea plantations, and near the tamil nadu border semi arrid forest with pristine trees and waterfalls everywhere.. more like africa.. we saw our first spotted dear from the bus window, and were escorted thru the national park by eagles and kites overhead.

the bus had to reverse around the series of hairpin bends down the other side of the mountain range..

all thru the day it was a little bit daunting as fi and i neither could pronounce the towns we were trying to reach.. like 'udumulpet' and 'coimbatore' >> said with a local accent, quite tricky :) mind u Fi's pronounciations are very individual...

new photos online - adventures in Kerala

2005-01-03T07:10:00.000Z

some more goodies for you

we've added some more pics to the kerala album and have created a second tamil nadu album.. as this is where we are again, in the hills and national parks..

http://community.webshots.com/user/fijim/

questions we think indians must think of tourists

2004-12-29T15:59:00.001Z

what makes people suddenly want to buy tye dye t shirts when they travel in asia?
whats in that backpack?
why do japanese tourists need to wear face masks and plastic bags on their feet?
what are tey hiding behind their sunglasses?
do they think they will die if they let go of the mineral water bottle they are clucthing?
do they actualy know what they are ordering in the restaurant?
what do they think will happen when they wear white (ashram) gowns?
do they haggle for fixed price items as much as when they are back home?

indian new years resolution tips

2004-12-29T15:59:00.000Z

from indian times newspaper (incidentally, 5000 newspapers are published in india daily in many different languages):

motivate yourself to work hard and sincerely. develop a passion towards the work you do.
have fun and joy within the set limitations. relaxation is an essential tool to reduce your tension and boredom in life
make a list of the items that you can take pride in having handled well. at nthe end of the day, read the list so that you can pat yourself.
realise that you are not living alone. you are part of the whole, your acts will have effects on those around you. develop perseverance to others. trust and care for others around you.

funy indian shop names and roadsigns

2004-12-29T14:11:00.000Z

heres a few signs we have found along our way

shops

kims bag world
pen discount shop
macro man underwear
mummy daddy bakery (cute, eh?)
EVM spices and automobiles
Brothers electricians - "we specialise in electric chokes and torches"
Cochin hospital for piles (ouch)

road signs

lane driving is sane driving (!?)
dial before you dig
road signs, respect them
no hurry, no worry
black smoke, makes you choke (!)

heading to the hill stations

2004-12-28T06:34:00.000Z

thanks for all the comments, much appreciated..

we are going to the cooler climbs of the hill stations in central kerala today, to be near bangalore, karnataka, for new years.

we are going to try and avoid watching the press reports, its very distressing..

however, we have offered our help to oxfam aid over here.

jim

Asia earthquake

2004-12-27T11:45:00.000Z

90% of the places we have visited in the last month have been affected by the tsunami and flooding. with casualty numbers increasing by the hour.

we are shocked to realise that we escaped tradegy ourselves by getting a train out of danger. we planned to say farewell to the beach the morning of the disaster, however, fi was ill...

we just want to say that our thoughts are with the people and families that we have met along the way that will have been affected.. livelihoods and property.. including morgan, the fisherman, and anna the angel, in kanyakumari.. the latter where 1000 people were swept off the beach into the sea.

fi and jim

we are okay - earthquake

2004-12-26T16:07:00.000Z

We have just found out about the earthquake and the devistating waves its has caused across India and Asia.

Fortunately, we were up in town this morning when the waves struck and then caught a train north.

We didn't see what destruction it caused in Varkala, Kerala, but no doubt we will hear tomorrow. We are in Cochin at the moment and the sea is pretty high there were reports of 8 foot waves early this morning here.

We will keep you posted, here's an up to date report from Reuters

Fi and Jim

guess what i got for christmas?

2004-12-25T06:42:00.000Z

guess what fi got me for a xmas pressie? she had been carrying a can of strongbow for a month to present it to me on xmas day!

it was funny to drink, but refreshing in the heat..

jim :)

merry christmas & happy new year

2004-12-24T06:00:00.000Z

hope everyone has a great christmas season and a prosperous start to 2005

it is still strange getting used to the idea that it is winter here, aswell as back home.. and exciting that fiona and i are spending our first christmas together..

the days here on the beach seem to have a very relaxed routine, still being recognised by more and more locals on our bikes as we tour from our homestay in town to the beach. very funny, and will make it hard to leave.. especially as ramesh at our homestay is saying "this is your house now, really!"

travelling with another person makes it easy to laugh at the times, when otherwise it may be a bit too much.. like being asked "coming from? (which country)" 1000 times!

obervations on xmas in india: no holidays in most towns, only in smaller pockets of catholic communities. however, most houses have a star outside making the streets even more colourful.

in some of the bakeries there are xmas cakes, and papier mache santa claus masks (sunburnt) in stationery shops.. in a bar last night where we took some friends we have met here, there was a palm tree with dandruff (snow) on and some tinsel.

anyway, have a good one all!

jim and fi

Delia Taylor Vs. Jamie Callender

2004-12-22T13:20:00.000Z

keralan cooking masterclass

fi and i wanted to learn how to make the real south indian cusine, so we could understand what we eat, and for future reference.

we were cooking in the kitchen of a local restaurant, on a raised bed frame on bricks with a big gas hob.

we cooked 10 dishes, breakfast items, and individual chutneys, sabjis and curries.. the dishes kept on coming, sometimes we didnt know what we were making until it was served up!

fi and jim cried when they accidentally rubbed their eyes with the fingers they cut the chillies with earlier. however, it was okay as monkeyrat helped out.

we were desperate to get to taste the fruits of our labour, whilst the wallaa washed up the steel plates and trays on a pink three legged table, we sat outside very attentively, on another bed frame to eat our thali items with lots of rice.. it tasted great!

recipe for dhal curry:

(amounts depend on how many servings)

turmeric powder
coconut flesh
chillies, green
garlic cloves, chopped
salt, pepper corns
cumin
ginger, chopped
200mls water

put into blender, mix for 2 mins
then add to boiling pan of yellow lentils (previously boiled for 40mins), boil for a further 10mins

serve with rice, enjoy :_

kerala backwater highlights

2004-12-21T07:03:00.000Z

after an dawn departure by train north up the coast we head to a busy little market town to jump onto a private ferry to take us on our excursion of the keralan backwaters.. surely a must on anyone's visit to this part of india:

just as we were leaving a very clever indian guy jumped onto the boat to talk to us, he was studying a PhD in literature, however, when he started talking cockney i thought he was alright! i tried to remember old 'only fools and horses' episodes.. we did him justice and told him he had a good 'boat race' and that he should hit the 'frog and toad' as the boat was about to leave!

as soon as we departed we noticed the abundance of wildlife amongst the channels and creeks of the backwaters.. a great variety of tropical plants and trees. fi's mouth was watering as she spotted a few ripe mangos on a set of trees.

sea eagles, kites, kingfishers, bee eaters, cranes, cormorants, and many other birds where perched along our route and made the journey even colourful.

boat traders waved to us as we had a glimpse into their daily lives here; hay, sand, brick, and fruit is transported here locally by wooden canoe.

and of course the rice barges that are now a main tourist attraction whilst on the water for overnight stays.

most boats were unpowered, poling using bamboo canes, sailing to aid paddling, along the wider channels of the backwaters.

as evening approached we saw a lot of men start to fish with 'chinese fishing nets', a huge contraption which is hard to believe it only takes one person to operate..

the colours, shapes and sounds ever changing as the daily life of the various communities went about their lives, oblious to the fact that we were learning so much about them..

arriving back in varkala we meet a rickshaw driver waiting for a fare outside the station,

hi, you want rickshaw?
no thanks..
oh its you, hi, wheres your bicycles? no problem.. goodnight!

thats the friendliest and least hastle we have had from a driver :)

as the sunset on another fascinating day, its a safe feeling to know these keralan people will hopefully to continue these trades and use such historic crafts, long after we have gone..

jim

mobile curry restaurant

2004-12-21T06:38:00.000Z

heres what we had for breakfast on the train the other morning:

paratha (indian pancake)
bolied egg, chapati and onion sauce
deep fried whole banana fritters
indian 'masala' chai (tea)

I dont know how they do it, but it sure tastes nice travelling that way

Female view of a male India

2004-12-18T13:18:00.000Z

When you travel as a lone female, normally you get treated very well and with great respect but you do tend to miss out on the 'male way of travelling'. Most of the fun of this trip has been that Jim has enabled me to see a completely different side to travelling, one that boys see....

One of theses event happened the other night when Jim took me to a bar. We have been to bars before and they have ranged from 5* where we get popodums, fruit and lots of snacks with our beers to the bar parlour in Varkala.

This particular bar was down a back alley (I know, I should have known what was coming?) We entred this dark, messy hole and took a rickaty seat in the corner. Jim went to the bar as I was being stared at from all corners, as I was the only girl, again. Rum was about 5pence for a double and a big beer about 20pence. A group sat next to us drinking 'xxx sexy boy' rum, mixed with beer started to talk to us. They were hysterical, we discussed cricket, football and beer. The bar filled up with all the beggers and all the rickshaw drivers that had hasseled us from outside .

When we left we had a hearty fairwell and as we walked home one of the Rickshaw drivers stopped to offer us a free ride home - how cool. They still reconise us on the street and usually we are on the bikes!!

Fi

fi also observed that every person in the bar had a moustache.. not sure whether to feel nervous about that :)

Jim

paradise for christmas

2004-12-18T13:03:00.000Z

well then, thats it we're staying here for the rest of the trip.. varkala on the west coast in kerala.

lush, very green, a warm tropical ocean and great sunsets.. we have spent each evening lifting ourselves off the beach to enjoy a fruit juice or in my case yesterday a teapot of beer in one of the beach cafes. beer served in a teapot as many of the cafes do not have licenses to serve alcohol.

today we have been basted like turkeys in a ayuvedic massage treatment centre.. sounds complicated, but this town has a spa, so everything is massage this, and yoga that.. cool, good time to recharge. we were in a darkened room on a wooden meat slab for an hour, an we took it in turns to get oiled up and rubbed down by an indian guy that looked like a smurf (with a few missing teeth).

fingers and toes were all clicked and cracked

we were blessed before all the fun and games started, not sure why?

jim

Going to stay here until xmas as we have a lovely place to stay and its fun playing in the waves and cycling everywhere
fi

apart from all the forms we had to fill in on arrival at our homestay, 4 x A4 forms.. then lots of maps about where we should go.. i am on commission, one bottle of champagne for every person we bring to the home.

ramesh is very kind though, ' this is your house now..'

jim

photos now online!

2004-12-14T17:31:00.000Z

check out our photos of our adventures so far..

@ http://community.webshots.com/user/fijim/

there are two photo albums here :)

keralan sound system

2004-12-14T14:14:00.000Z

we are in a very hot town called 'trivandrum' on the west coast in southern kerala. probably one of the hottest places we've been and will be at as theres no wind, being inland. so its very sweaty and dusty!

it feels like we are travelling again, but tommorrow we head on a train to a town which sounds a bit more relaxing than here, 'karvalla' or something like that.. used to be a hippy town 30 years ago so we should fit right in, me with my guru beard and fi with her dreads... only kidding! although we are losing weight rapidly!!

guess what we met a couple from Twyford, Berkshire at the end of the road in a mountain top hotel last night. i produced a postcard of wargrave to show where i lived and they nearly fell off their chairs!

yesterday we travelled into kerala from tamil nadu by train, later by bus up to the mountains. so from the end of the line in the south to the end of the road in a hill station in a day. quite something, and not planned either - we flipped a coin at the train station to decide what we did..

there are 6 classes of rail travel in india, we travelled on the most quietest section yesterday from the southern cape. we had a whole carriage to ourselves, something which the everday indian would not believe!

gotta go now and practice some keralan - 'malayalam' dialect. new province, new language!

jim

on a southern tip

2004-12-12T13:34:00.000Z

woken up in a storm, 5 floors up in a posh hotel, with horizontal rain coming in thru the window from the bay of bengal. fi thought the rain water splashing her back was some sort of government blessing included in the room price.

i got blessed near the temple earlier today, by a wannabe guru. he took me down to the ghats (no it wasnt painful), he pronounced to me 'you will own a scooter!' really useful information.

saw a few parrots performing card tricks too, but still havent seen any cobras in baskets, however as with all things in India, its just a matter of time! :)

jim

we've run out of land!

2004-12-11T05:53:00.000Z

we've arrived at the most southern point in India, Kanyakumari -> where three oceans meet, the bengal (east), arabian (west) and Indian (south). From now on we can only head north as we've run out of land!

Its a very sacred place, a pilgrimage town for hindu's. As shiva battled one of the other bad gods on a rock offshore from the town. And Gandhi's ashes were kept here for people to pay worship to before his ashes were cast into the ocean. There is a memorial here now.

Walking round the town and sights yesterday Fiona got adopted, her adopted sisters dragged her around a temple whilst i was trying to keep up being the good sherpa that i am.

ran out of times fiona said "that's beautful!" :) but it really is..

jim

movie review, or is that revue?

2004-12-08T15:10:00.000Z

I thought it would be a great idea going to the piccies - if only I knew....

The film was called 'funny girl' I thought this might be a comedy - oh no - in fact it was an early 80's American porn movie with all the porn cut out. Again I was the only girl in the whole cinema, ( but we did sit in 1st class - like that made a difference)!!

After about 40 mins, and not really following the plot - the editing was that good, oh - apart from it was about hot tubs and plumbers in tight t-shirts. We had a break - everyone out of the cinema. The cinema had a outdoor courtyard but all we all locked inside just like a prison, infact all the single Indian men walked clockwise around the courtyard until the bell rang for us to go back into the movie house.

The next bit had random scenes of naked women running out of changing rooms but darkened so you couldn't see to much flesh. Then 5 mins later the movie finished, another bell rang and we were let out of the locked courtyard gates. Me followed by Jim, who was laughing very loudly.

Movies will never be the same again..........

Fi

Highlights so far

2004-12-08T08:16:00.000Z

Fi's best bits so far..

Veggie food
friendly people
bike rides
Jim's shaves
train journeys
clean toilets

Jim's best bits..

indian beaches
not wearing winter clothes
not working
being asked what perfume i wear, and what my salary is by indian natives
sharing LTJ Bukem CD with farmer on train, he went to sleep! (so did i!)
indians when they nod their heads, so cute, means yes, no, or maybe.

we are going to the movies this afternoon, after a slap up thali meal :)

trains and a close shave

2004-12-07T15:17:00.000Z

today was our first train journey using the largest rail network in the world.

we left the french town of Pondicherry for Mad-Mad-Madurai. A small city (1m) with the one of the largest hindu temple complexes in South India. Tonight on arrival we saw the band put shiva to bed. Fi thinks i was blessed. The women were throwing butter at the other god effigies.

Anyway, we arrived at the train station early to enjoy a chai, then once on board we settled down with some other travellers.. and jim sat next to a Lieutenant in the Indian Army. Who was in a very good mood as he was near theendof his 3 day journey home to the south, from patrolling the India/Pakistan border.

Fi - mmm Jim left the carriage with the army guy and returned looking very sheepish.He told me the army guy had given him some Regulary Used Medicine, I'm sure it smelt just like RUM - (it was only 10am).

We got turfed out of air con carriage as we got the seats wrong, you should see the size of these trains! its very easy to get confused!

The food on board was fantastic! onion bhajis, lentil things and egg biryanis (Fi likes eggs).

Just got back from the barbers, had a shave from a 15 year old boy. the whole package! i mean, cut throat shave, face spray, cologne, face massage and soft towel. 10 pence. saves me blunting my razor!

Still having lots of fun, and getting good tans, mind you it could just be all the dust.

monkeyrat in picture on profile is keeping well for all you monkey fans. gourangu = tamil word for monkey.

jim

the art of cycling - indian style

2004-12-04T15:05:00.000Z

learnt whilst navigating the streets of Pondicherry:

cycle slowly
ride in straight line,and only move if cattle, cart, parker vehicle get in way
always give way tolarger vehicles
use bellif behind people, or cycling towards pedestrians (so that they know you are coming through!)

memories of pondi:

exploding beer, bazaars, locals in woollen jumpers and balaclavas (even though at nightime 28'c.

bikes, swimming and dead snakes

2004-12-02T16:07:00.000Z

Fiona:

Great day today... We were up before lunch, a miracle.

Hired bikes, a great way to see India and you don't get hassled as much as you can ride faster than they can run... Met some friendly locals today, morgan and his brother who gave us fresh coconuts and showed us there boat. Jim conviced them that he was James Bond and I was the girl from the titanic movie!!!

On our way back we saw our first snake, well Jim did Fi rode passed it twice before seeing it squashed on the road. It was at least 3 foot long, couldn't identify it as its head was squished.

jim: had an amazing banana lassi (indian milkshake) and fi getting the taste for chai masala (indian tea).

The only thing that spoils this paradise is the atomic (kitten) power station we discovered down the end of the beach, nice... jim: no wonder the lobsters are so bloody big!

now wheres my sarong? :)

chillin

2004-12-01T15:29:00.000Z

Its been a hard few days of relaxing, swimming in the sea and pool, eating and generally not doin too much...

Seen a few temples overlooking lush fields and rivers. We have met a colony of real monkeys too - mmm, got surrounded by a couple and I didn't like that too much. Its very cheap, lunch - all we can eat costs 35p!!!

I've got a top being made for 300 rupee, about 2.50p. Still find the cows walking down the street amusing.

fiona

as for the rest of the animals, there are dogs, pigs, goats, geckos and feathered birds all on litter patrol. think they must be veggie as well as the human locals.

as there are quite a lot of international tourists here (swedish, israeli, german, norweigan, canadian) we have seen spaghetti and fish and chips on the menu.

we have looked back at the last week, we havent woken up before 12 noon every day, apart from when we had to catch the bus out of chennai. now it really feels like the ball is rolling, with this travel thing >> we will wait for our bodies to adjust, rather than forcing them into it

3 years of work, partying and playtime has caught up with me, ay foxy?!

jim

the coastal road south

2004-11-29T16:05:00.000Z

do you know where we are?

Fi can't say the place name yet alone spell it so bear with us please.....

mamalapuram > 50 km south of chennai, 2 hours by government bus

we got on a bus in chennai, almost ended up going north as i got confused with the pronounciation. yes, so it took about an hour leaving the city, never thought we would see the outside of a city again. then we saw the rolling waves and sand dunes of the sea of bengal.. monkeyrat!!

staying in a groovy beachside appartment with ensuite and swimming pool - hardlife.... we are actually starting to get a sun tan now and it feels great cleansing the skin with clean sea water!

more temples tomorrow, by foot, by bike.. but certainly not by rickshaw! sorry wallaa (name for young indian boy)

we are here til saturday, maybe

eating, beach, festival temple - and sunday night debrief

2004-11-28T15:40:00.000Z

after a long soak in the spacious outdoor shower at broadlands lodge, we head to the new woodlands hotel for a late sunday lunch.

this hotel is located in the posh area of chennai, we look at the lovely clothes and eating manners of this middle class that the restaurant attracts. we use spoons today to eat.

south indian thali: 12 vege side dishes, unlimited rice and indian tea. this meal lasts me all day. fi has a masala dosa which is like a cross between a pancake and cornish pasty with curried potatoes in with chilli. our mouths are becoming absestos lined with the more of the little green guys we eat. on the beaches they deep fry them whole in batter.. better than a 99' with flake, eh?

we carry on after being carried out by security, on a rickshaw to elliot beach

we get to the beach expecting to be mobbed by locals, however crowds only gather when we both sit down on the shore. we are asked to be a young groups photo.. of course, we may be in the indian hello this time next week!

the groups get bigger as i look very white when i enter the ocean. a distinct taste of oil and sewage effluent.. i get out very quickly when i realise my shorts have dissolved..

after taking a few photos of the indian version of blackpool we head to a trendy rooftop cafe for a couple of juices.

our reliable rickshaw driver is waiting for us, we are quikly enroute to the largest temple in chennai, a funny name, cant remember.

>> amazing! we are given a tour around, and see a wedding being blessed, hindu style. then a childrens temple, where kids whisper all their problems into the ear of a cow.

we have to walk partly home as the rickshaw runs out of gas. this works in our favour as we buy a sarong. back in triplicane, chennai we head for a sunday night debrief **hello monkeyrats!! #%$@** lots of cheezy bollywood music videos with the audience learing at the actresses dancing.. some videos they even played twice!

fi was the only female in the bar, she was escorted to the downstairs toilet as the upstairs wc was male only. it was ok as the lift operator waited for her!

we walked three doors down, past a cow, to our city home

jim

dodging traffic

2004-11-27T17:14:00.000Z

hi everyone,

woke up late again today after finally sleeping at 4am, went on a bit of a mad bar crawl last night with fi to a posh part of chennai.. we are here for some kind of festival that involves fireworks >> "festival of lightning" something like that, there are festivals everday for different gods and icons.

so we were dodging traffic, cows and fireworks whilst going in hunt of a recommended restaurant, by rickshaw. we got a video of us hanging onto a rickshaw today, which i hope to upload soon.

we've been to the beach for the last two days (the second longest on the planet, brazil is #1), so today we haggled a fare to the fort in downtown. formerly an english settlement, king george and queen victoria have been there.. so the monkeyrats had to follow in royal footsteps.

oh for you ciderheads >> found a link on google to indian cider and perry.. fantastic! not that the kingfisher lager isnt too bad :)

tonight a three course dinner in chennai, india's 4th biggest city cost 150 rupees, that just short of two punds including drinks!!

Fi's comment - Its veggie heaven, no worries about wot I eat here. The best bit is seeing loads of veggie goodies in a shop front then a little pack on its own with 'non-veg' written on it, yipeeeee

chennai rocks

2004-11-26T15:03:00.000Z

we have arrived safe and sound..second day in chennai and we're becoming more like locals every minute!

>> just had a lovely lunch of curry dhal on banana leaves.. eating with ourfingers.. now off to the beach which is very long and wide.. may go andsee the fort later and check out a temple in town.we are having a great time discovering the indian way, we are living in ahotel lodge which has large inner patios and big trees..a double room costs 200 rupees which is about 2.20 pounds..we've done lots of sleeping and we were up to 4am today walking about theroom, we even made it up to the rooftop of the lodge where we saw somestars, huge fruitbats and then suddenly a rainstorm from the coast camein. mossies arent really a problem, although they like our english blood!

the eve of our travel day

2004-11-24T01:09:00.000Z

Well its nearly time to depart. We have just been for our farewell debrief in the pub (whitehart of course!) Jim was doing monkeyrat impressions all the way down the high street to Rob and Hal as they cycled home.... Had a great curry at the local Nepalise restaurant - very yummy and giving us a taste of whats to come - thanks Stan and Ann...

Anyway next time I'm on it will be in India, yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Just doing our final packing, my bags seems to get smaller each time I go away. I'm now on a 30L rucsac to my 70L a couple of years back! Just check the temp in chennai and its 30'C, mmmm!

fiona

books & camera film

2004-11-05T15:32:00.000Z

on this road trip so far we have read:

andromeda strain - michael crichton
timeline - michael crichton
congo - michael crichton
five patients - michael crichton
google whack - dave gorman
readers digest - monthly
karma cola - gita medha
kevin and i - frank kusy
history of insects
timbuktu
god of small things
runaway jury - john grisham
ghost on the path - john mccarthy
travels - micheal crichton
the broker - john grisham
the monk who sold his ferrari - robin s sharma
amsterdam - ian mcewan
mans search for his meaning - viktor e frankl

check on amazon for further details and synopsis. the books have been found, exchanged, swapped and bartered for.. any reccommendations on what is hot or not please email us

to date ive also taken 13 films of 36 exposure in 2 and a bit months.. and we havent even reached the colourfull part of india yet.. ouch!! ive limited myself (or rather fi has limited me) to taking pictures of people as they are more interesting, unfortunately this hasnt really worked as every market and train station offers a new glimpse of indian life..

jim

predeparture quotes

2004-11-01T15:49:00.000Z

"unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow"

Ronald Osborn

"Now that I'm here, where am I?"

Janis Joplin

map of india

testin

2004-10-22T17:26:00.000Z

hello, Fifi's first blog : )))))