The Roses Adventures

Cambodia

2009-02-15T03:55:00.015Z

Here we are again! Let's talk about our adventures in Cambodia.

Before we crossed the border we had to go to the bank somewhere to re-pay the guest house, and it was so funny. Andrew stayed with the bags and I jumped on the back of a bike (no helmet here), with a crazy driver answering his mobile every 2 min!). Got to the bank and eventually got $ after filling at least 4 withdraw papers (got very confusing), all with one eye only as lost a conact lense on the back of the bike!!

We got the money and eventually crossed the border only to realise that something was wrong with our Laos visas and apparently we were never stamped in ... so we had to wait till everyone got their visa and eventually they stamped us out and in! Whatever we got our Cambodian 30 days visa so all was good.
I always laugh when we cross borders as there are always new fees ($1.00 for stamping, visa cost etc, makes me wonder if during their spare time the officials just come up with ideas to make money and get more $ from the tourists! Very lucrative little business hey!), the border crossing looks so unofficial! Little wooden shack in the middle of nowhere, only the uniforms make you realise you are at the border!.

Our 1st stop in Cambodia was Kratie, small city in the middle of nowhere (we like those, always end up there! Actually the lonely planet which I start to hate often makes such a thing about places that you go there only to realise it's crap and there is nothing there, I think Cambodia is the perfect example of how crap the lonely planet can be! I actually wonder if they go and visit the places and if so they may be actually drunk when they write the descriptors!! Must be!).

Cambodia reminds me a lot of India, the way the city are laid out, the dirt a bit, dust, horn, life happening all in the streets, small shops everywhere, kids running arund, begging and poverty here too.

Then it was off to Siem Reap for a few days. Great city better than Phnom Phen I think, well safer as you do not risk there to be run over every 2 min! Got a lovely guest house and set out to dicover the town in the heat! We were a bit cold in Laos, especially in the north and Phonsavan and I moaned about it, well Siem Reap changed all that, swety, sticky, smelly ... nice honey moon!
In Siem Reap we walked and walked some more, in main streets, markets, talked to some monks doing exams, went in back streets which I am fond off - like you see people's way of living there better - took lots of photos (I am so sorry for the people back home, I am on my 4th memory card, will not say how many GB!). Convinced Andrew to get his hair cut in a small dinky place for $2.00 (had enough of Liam Gallagher's look!), and got a bit worried when I stared to see his skull, still the end result is short (very short), and he looks gorgeous (like if he was in the army, or ordaining to be a monk!)
The next day we set out to visit Ankhor Watt temples, the best thing out of Cambodia, beautiful temples, built I think from 9th to 11th centuary, something the cambodian are very proud off, on the national flag and nearly every house has a photo of it. It was really good, went there for sun rise and visited all key temples, some really stange ones like Bayon, with heads everywhere, some nearly all destroyed with trees growing out of the stones, really cool - where apparently Tomb Rider was filmed. I spent all day pretending to be Angelina Jolie (Andrew kindly kept calling me Angelina pas jolie, he is charming!). It was a great day, hot and sticky and hard on my little legs - the people who built the temples must have been giant, as the steps on the temples are so tall! - but good, and amazing all the temples.
We really liked Siem Reap, although there was so much begging from kids, man victims of land mines, mum & babies .....
Loas was ment to be poorer, yet we did no see this poverty, Lao people are proud and keep themself to themself, more discreet and private. In Cambodia, there is a lot of poverty everywhere, lot's of begging, disability, it's everywhere around you and it breaks your heart.

After Siem Reap it was bus to Battabang another 'in the middle of nowhere' recommendation from the lonely planet! There we went with moto driver 'Buffalo' to small villages, killing caves (where the Khmer Rouge dumped bodies), bamboo train. All that on the back of the bike, again no helmet only for the drivers - Cambodian logic!

Then it was Kampong Chhang where we visited (better than with Buffalo, this time for the visit both me and Andrew on the back of the bike, nice and cosy), some Vietnamese floating villages. Really cool, just nice to see life in these amazing villages, very prepared for the wet season!! I loved smiling, looking at people, trying to talk to them, playing with kids, discovering the place, really had a good day there.

We took the bus again to Phnom Phen the capital. It was crazy there and so hot, bit of a nightmare to be honest. The heat, the people, cars, bikes everywhere, insane this city. You cannot walk on the pavement as they are taken over by shops, food stalls, bikes, markets etc (life really happens in the streets), and walking in the streets is also dangerous and you risk to get ran over by everything! We did not like this city much, got lost a lot, not that much to see, felt claustrophobic there!!.
Still we wondered around for couple of days, visited markets, river fromt, royal palace, prison S-21, or genocide museum and killing fields, and it was shocking, after that you spend a very quiet day wondering how crazy can one be to kill a 1/3 of your population ...... and then you look at people in the street wondering how the Khmer rouge affected their life, wondering if the one above 30 years old were victims or bourreau?
It leaves you with a stange feeling, sad, stunned and also feeling sorry for people I guess. Like in Laos the people from Cambodia have suffered so much through history (Indochina war, Pol Pot, ..) yet they stand strong today and try hard to move forward and make the best out of life, remarkable, and probably helped by the buddhist philosophy.

After the capital we bused to Kampot, really quite river town famous for it's pepper! Rented bikes and went to Kep (had yum crab) which used to be a strong anchor for the Khmer Rouge and in the French time like the cote d'Azur (you can still see some shell of what must have been like huge French style villas before the KR). Read a book called '1st they killed my fahther - hard but recommend it to everyone to understand what suffering the Khmer Rouge brought on it's people.

We wanted to go to Bakor hill station but the road was closed, so we could no. Instead we headed for Sihanouk ville where I am writting this. Great place, seaside resort which you would not exept to find in Cambodia. It's great here really chilled, nice beach, islands everywhere, sea water as hot as your bath, bars & retaurants. We celebrated Valentines day yesterday with lovely meal on the beach, and before that a massage (which Andrew hated! was so funy to see his face - they are not the softest masseuse here!) and a manicure and pedicure, it's so cheap would be a shame not to!

We are planning to stay here for a few days and then go to Thailand for 10 days or so before flying back on the 1st March to the UK. I cannot beleive that 4 months have gone, it went so fast, and I loved all of it really so much. We shall be staying in the UK for 10 days (wash our cclothes as Sarah says!) and then off again on the 14th March for another 1 1/2 months in South America. Must do the lotery in UK, and win some pennies to be able to go travelling some more as really do not want it to stop ever!

Will post some photos later on, here it takes too long and got to go and perfect my tan (and beer belly!)
Lots of love to all and speak soon.
The Roses xxx

The Roses in Laos

2009-02-15T03:17:00.010Z

Hello again, it has been a very long time since I wrote (may be one month?) Not sure. Anyhow, we have done and seen a lot in the last month and it has been great. We have discovered Laos and Cambodia - where am writing this0, 2 countries which we did not know much about and which have both surprised us in a very good way.
Starting with Laos. We crossed the Thai / Lao border on a little barge (we did not have enough money for it, but they were kind and let us pay less!), and made our way to Luang Nam Tha, small place, not much to do there, only beautiful scenery and absolutely lovely people (change from the Thai!). We decided to head further north to Muang Sing (even more the middle of nowhere! 2 streets and that's it!), where we booked our self for some trekking! Why I do not know as for one day we went up up up up and up. We thought the guide was having a laugh when he showed us where we were going (ridge of mountain), well he was not! I never done a walk so hard in my life and glad I did it (well there was no alternative really!!!). We camped at night in a village at the top of the mountain and it was great, playing with kids, trying to talk to the Akka people, drinking lao lao to forget the sore legs and having a very strange and a bit violent Akka massage (Andrew will never forget his hip nearly being dislocated!). We did the trek with some guys from Alaska and had a very good time!
We then headed to Nong Kiaw still north and met some nice French people (they are everywhere in Laos!), and enjoyed it there a lot too - again nothing to do but the scenery was amazing, river, mountains, lots of monks!!!
We then went to Luang Prabang on a boat a 5 1/2h trip with some of the best scenery ever, something out of lord of the ring as Andrew said.
Luang Prabang was fab, nice to be back in civilisation after few days in the mountains, no phone, e-mail sometimes. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, lots of French architecture, wats, little markets (with so many beautiful things!!! which we cannot buy!), had a lovely massage there and visited / chilled there for a few days.
We woke up early there to see the monks doing alms and make merit, so we sat down and gave food to the monks in their bowls, was really nice indeed.
We then headed south east to Phonsavan where we visited the plain of jars (bit like stone henge stone jars everywhere and they don't know why / how). Liked it there and also there we realised (seeing old ammunitions and craters in the landscape) how much Laos suffered from the USA bombing - Laos is the most bombed country in the world, and it is a real problem still today as so may UXO that the land cannot be cultivated and not much other resources for the country placing it in one of the poorest in the wold).
We planned to cross to Vietnam from there but we did not plan on Tet (Chinese new year), which meant that buses were cancelled for 2 weeks and we could not go there .... so we went to Vientiane the capital to see if we could fly to Hanoi. Unfortunately it was too expensive so we gave up on Vietnam all together (visa ran out soon) and decided to concentrate on Laos, Cambodia, Thailand rather than rushing it all! We just will have to come back again sometime!
From Vientiane we headed with the overnight bus to Sin Phan Don or 4,000 islands, lots of big and small island on the mekong. It was amazing there, hardly developed, river surrounding, lots of little islands, so chilled, which we needed after nearly 1 month moving a lot, on the go!
We stayed there 4 days, chilling, tubing on the mekong (we laughed so much, was scared to end ou in the waterfalls!), visiting the islands on the bicycle (got puncher in middle of nowhere!), and having to get credit from guest house as no ATM on the island and we ran out of money! People are so nice in Laos, they gave us credit!
And that was Laos, a beautiful country, poor but I think rich at heart, with extremely friendly people - truly remarkable, they have suffered so much (being a colonie, bombs, Indochina war), yet the Lao people are the nicest I have met so far (yes nicer than Indian people) and lot's of kids everywhere!!
Next is Cambodia!!
The Roses!!

South East Asia - part 2 of our travels!!

2009-01-15T06:46:00.009Z

Hello everybody - I am glad that a few people read the blog, I have received some very nice comments on my writting skills, who knows may be a new carreer for me!.

Anyhow, as I was saying in the previous post, we have left India and arrived in Bangkok on the 3 January, my daddy's birthday. By the way happy new year to all of you, may it bring you everything you want and more, my daddy's birthday!

I have to say that we were very shocked when we got to Bangkok airport as it was sooooooo clean, we could have eaten on the floor, a massive change from dusty ad dirty India!!! It was dead easy to get to the center of Bangkok as well, here the buses run on time and everybody speaks English, is very helpfull and not pushy at all - again a massive change from India!!.

In Bangkok it was easy to find a guest house, we stayed near Kho Shan street. We are now getting used to turning up in a city, look around, find a room and it is even easier at the at the moment as Thailand is 70% down on tourism due to manifestations a few weeks ago, so good for us! And double good that we do not have to search too much as our bagpacks are getting a bit heavy!!
The 1st thing we noticed walking in the streets is the photos of the King, his photos are everywhere, posing with his wife, in uniform, young, old, sometimes playing saxophone, they love their king and we like him too!

We spent 3 days exploring Bangkok, went to the royal palace and few more temples (bit templed out I am afraid at the moment!), overall sighseeing ... moved around via the river express boat, so nice you can go everywhere for only 14BHT, it is cheap and a colourfull way to move round the citty. Another reason for liking the river express boat is that there are always lots of monks on board, except that as a women I cannot talk to them, touch them (shame!), basically do nothing with them. They even have their own space allocated on the boat and sometimes someone travelling with them kind of protecting them from people touching them, real shame if you ask me, as they are all so cute in their orange robes!!

On our second day to Bangkok, we walk around the city some more went to China town, and in the evening decided to take a trip to Lampuni park, a bit of a outdoor leisure center where the crazy Thai people do outdoor aerobics!!! Funny. We went to a night market and then to the red light district!. In Bangkok, you cannot move anywhere without bumping into a night market - where they sell so many fake bags, sun glasses, shoes, you name it they have it! - Carly and Jack would love it as it is full of Tiffany's and LV / Gucci bags!
The other thing that is everywhere is food, bars, restaurants, food stalls, it is everywhere and God knows what they sell, some food look good and some other stuff look so yukky, and the smells are a bit much sometimes, it's like fart smells in many places!!!
Food stalls are everywhere in the streets, it is absolutely amazing and so are the rats too living near the stalls! We ate twice at some dinky places and everytime I saw rats which puts you off your food a bit, big fat not as cute as ratatouille! I guess with food everywhere rats will be there.
After the night market we went to the red light district, to check it out and had a few beers there. It was quite fun, people in the street offering you 'ping pong' shows and all sort of lady attractions. They have a menu that they keep flashing at you and I have to say that some stuff look very intersting, in a weird way, like 'electric chighi' or things like this! Basically you can pick up a girl in a club, see a sexy show, anything you want! I was quite surprised to see lots of middle aged couple, may be in need of spicing up their sex life after so many years married!!! I was fun to see anyway, and we laughed a lot when without noticing we arrived in the gay area, I was the only girl there and I think Andrew felt a bit vulnerable!

The day after we went to the floating market which was very cool, what you imagine of Thailand, check out the photos, it's full of people selling again tourist stuff and food on long boats, really cute, liked it a lot.

After 3 days ish in Bangkok, we took an overnight buss to Chiang Mai, north of Thailand. The overnight buss was so good comparing to India, 1st none of the sits were broken, we had regular stops for loos, and the drivers were not crazy and beeping every 2 minutes to wake you up!!!

Chiang Mai was ok, it's another city and from there we went on a trecking trip to the jungle! Did 3 days and I cannot beleive I am saying this but I really loved the walking! It's was hard on my jelly legs but I managed it and was really proud of me - and now have got legs of steel!. Andrew did well too, he is much fitter than I am! We also did bamboo rafting, and white water rafting wich was great fun and reminded me of Cristina and the one she did in New Zealand!!!We got a bit pissed off with the trecking tour as it was very touristic and not what we were sold (going to see tribes ...), so as a good French person that I am, I went to complain, but give it to them the Thai are clever and my complaint went nowhere! Still one positive thing out of complaining is that our trecking guide took us to a local restaurant to make us happy where we spent a great evening. We dicovered some of the local delicasees! It was a buffet like restaurant with a little pot on the table where you cook your own food, you can make soup in the pot and also grill the meat! Great experience, as so far I did not feel like I was getting Thailand it seems to commercial, big cities, so it was nice to go where the locals go and chat with the guide about life here.

After trecking we booked ourself in a meditaion centre, in a Buddhist temple!! I always wanting to do it, but never thought I could not think / do anything for more than 10min! Still Andrew and I decided that it could be a good challenge and if anything a cheap way to spend 2 days relaxing! We got to the temple at 8am, had to change into white outfits, which made us look like inmates!!! We laughed so much even though we should not have done. We go taught a bit how to meditate and practised 4 times a day in 2 hour long sessions sometimes indoors and sometimes in the forest! We could not look at each other without laughing. There was a couple of very nice French girls there and we got rapidly used to our routine ...get ready ... 4 times a day 2h meditation, no talking in between (did not really respect that!), separate rooms, which looked like prison cells, no eating after mid day, no smoking ( still had few crafty ciggies behind the temple along with a packet of crisps!!!), bed by 9pm bright and early to allow you to get up at 5am for 2 more hours of meditation!!!
I have to say that the 5am meditation did not go that well, both Andrew and I nearly fell asleep and then went backto bed!! Never mind we tried and had a taste of it and checked out after just under 48h to go to Pai.

I am writting this in Pai and it is so nice, at last I feel like getting to see Thailand. The town is surrounded by moutains, lots of waterfalls, hot springs, we rented a bike yesterday and drove around, and the landscape is absolutely amazing, so green and beautifull. We stopped off in small villages, walked around, and just had a fab day. We suddenly felt so free outside the cities, independent with the bikes, and this is definitely the kind of travelling we love! In Pai, we are staying in a cute place, a little bamboo hut near the river and overlooking the mountains, it is so peacefull, we could stay there for ever, yet we must move on and we shall be going to Laos in the next couple of days. We will return to Thailand after Cambodia and do the south of the country, the Island for a bit of TLC before going back to the UK for 10 days. We will be home on the 1st March and off again on the 14th to South America.
I cannot beleive how quickly this travelling is going, nearly 3 months on the road, we are half way through .... I never want to go back home (well of course we want to, to see friends and familly), this experience is so great.

We really do not regret doing it, the things we see, learn, people we meet, it is also great for our confidence and our relationship. We are still amazed at the fact that we spend more or less 24/7 together and hardly argue!!! Married life is great, thanks you God!!

More photos of India!!

2009-01-15T06:23:00.008Z

Well now we have found a super duper fast way to upload photos (vs 5 in 15min, let's indulge and add more photos on the blog! And one day I will learn how to put them all nice and neatly too on the blog! I am losing my monica's way!

Delhi to Mumbai - some photos

2009-01-05T08:02:00.004Z

Delhi to Mumbai

2009-01-05T06:30:00.021Z

Hello everybody and happy new year to you all!

Hope you had a great Christmas and new year, looking at the messages and photos on facebook it looked like great fun! Whish I was there, then again Xmas and new year in Goa, could be worse hey!!
Right back to the blog, I know I have been crap at updating it, and now that we are in the land of fast internet connection, Thailand, I will endeavour to update our travels more frequently! One more new year resolution!

So where were we?? I think in Delhi. We spent a few days there and then joined a new group and truck to travel to Mumbai. It was not as good as the previous ones, the crew were not leading and there was some grumpy people on the trip who quite frankly should have booked with Thomas Cook 2 weeks in Spain, as the overland adventure was not for them. Still we made friends with some nice chaps, became professional 'shit head' players and had some good laughs, always helped with few beers and magic juice (Vodka & Mango juice yum yum!).

After Delhi we arrived in Bikaner and went to the rat temple. I did not particularly want to get up at 6am to have rats crawling along my bear little toes (temple obliged you have to take your shoes off!), but had a bottle of gin bet with Anjli, so I had to do it!!. It was gross, they feed and look after the rats in this temple, they are supposed to bring good luck, I think they are barking mad personally!

We then drove to Jaiselmer which is a gorgeous city, Golden walled city. Chilled and visited the place and then went on a camel safari with Mr Desert, interesting guy full of stories, who was once the equivalent to the Malborough face of Indian cigarettes! After a couple hours on the camel back we stopped at our camp site to watch the sun set in the sand dunes, very beautifull. We had dinner around the fire and then slept under the stars - Andrew and I moved our beds on top of a dune, and it was very romatic, us in the Thar desert with just a materas and blanket looking at the sky and rumbling camels.... also a bit nippy and weird to find a wild dog asleep on our bed the next morning!.
It was fab and really good fun (thanks to the special cookies we found in Jaiselmer!) to sleep under the stars, a great experience which I would love to do again. After that night, we headed back to Jaiselmer on our camels and I asked my little guide to go fast, very fast! Little did I know how I would regret this the next day ... 1 hour of trotting on a camel leaves you with a funny way of walking for the next 48hrs!! Still it was good fun at the time!

We then went to Jodhpur, our guest house there was great and we met some cool guys giving us great advise for the next leg of our travels. I love this about travelling, there is a real sense of community, you meet nice people always very helpfull, have a nice time and some fun with them, exchange memories and then you are off again.
The fort there was grand but that's about it, for some reason I imagined horses and jodhpur trousers everywhere (7 years of horse ridding in this unflaterring trousers have marked me!), but nothing like that. ocal market was ok but then we have seen so many!!

After that was Pushkar where we had a very relaxing time. Pushkar is one very holy city in India and there they do not sell alcohol (dam) or eggs ... not sure what the connection is there! Still we had a laugh when a dodgy priest gave us blessings around the sacred lake and a little bracelet to mark the occasion, and when he asked for the magic donnation (which we knew was coming, they do that all the time ...), Andrew pretended to be a policeman from the fraud department and I gave them a lecture on false Gods like money, whish we had thought about this lines earlier on our trip as it would have saved us lots of hassles and roupies!! In Pushkar you can also go tracking, but we decided to just sit in one of the many opened cafes, watch the world go by (very interesting and colourfull .... local people, tourists, camels, monkeys, cows, nik nak stalls, all sharing the same streets in an organised chaos!), and enjoy the special lassis which helped a lot with the relaxation!!

After Pushkar, we headed to Udapur. A lovely and quiet city with a big temple and hotel in the middle of the lake - it is where a bit of the James bond Octopussy film was filmed. We relaxed some more there, walked leisurely in the narrow streets, went to the city palace which was amazing.

We then set off to Ellora after a very long, painfull and frustrating drive! Ellora is famous for it's caves and like the pyramids in Egypt the construction of one of the monilithic caves is a bit of a mystery and may be a gift from the Gods. I have to say it was so impressive, a huge temple carved from one rock, with so much intricacy and details that it must be from the Gods! We could have stayed longer there as there are more than 30 caves, Hindu, jains and Buddhist, and could have moved onto Ajanta to see more caves, but we had another option more appealing, which was to drive to Nasik, 200km further down and visit one of India only wineyard, called Sula wines.
We got there late in the day but it did not matter as suddenly it felt like we left the Indian dust / dirt / noise / chaos to arrived in a peace sanctuary. There red, white, rose wines and cheese were on abundance .......... it was heaven. After 2 months of not having any descent wine and any cheese except paneer, Frenchy felt like being back home and dare I say it was better than ...... Only joking, we just spent an great evening there drinking away, and gorging on cheese, crackers and later on an amazing Italian dinner. It really makes you realise how at home we take things for granted!!!

The next day was a bit hard to wake up, sore head but worth every drop of lovely wine! We went for a walk near a sacred water tank chilling and then we heard music and saw the groom on his horse (traditional for Indian's wedding!). I stared to take pictures of the band playing, people dancing in the streets and of the groom (who looked so miserable!), and before we knew, we were invited to the wedding! Andrew took part in the Indian dancing which was so much fun, saying this I did not look any better trying to wiggle my hips! After the dancing, we went to the ceremony and saw the bride arriving! It made our wedding look so small with our 120 guests as there the hall was full of people may be 400 people or more! It was fun as we were treated as special guests, made to sit at the front, given gifts and decorated on our foreheads! We even had our photos taken with the bride groom and their families. Two little girls kept us company and took us to help ourself to a lovely buffet - well looked lovely but nearly blew my mouth out, so spicy, then you have to be polite and finish it all off, nightmare!. We had a great time there and somehow it summarise Indian people for us; so welcoming, nice, inclusive, friendly, smiling and humble. Would we invite strangers to our wedding, certainly not. There they were just happy to have us and laugh with us, dance and share their food, quite humbling experience really.

After Nasik, was Mumbai. We got there late again as the crew are so crap at driving and finding hotels ... I was so cross with them. One time cross in India is not a bad result knowing myself I think I did well!
We stayed in the Colaba area, which is where it all happens (and also where the shootings happened a few weeks before). We went to cafe Leopold's, which I really wanted to see, not for the shooting but because I read Shataram and the guy spends all his time there, was interesting to go, like walking on his footsteps.
We met Miss Corner's friend there after nearly 2 months of talking to him by text, Raj, a lovely gentleman who then took us to another bar (we felt like locals) called the Ghetto where we laughed so much with the bar owner. The next day we chilled try to book a train to Goa (not possible as fully booked oups!), went to a heaven shop called fabIndia. Was good, did not buy anything just got cute outfit for Lisa Lou, and rajastany shoes, she is going to look so cute! We then went back to Leopolds and notice this time the bullet marks on the walls and ceiling, felt very very strange about this, I suppose you are used to see atrocity on TV but being where it all happened and seeing the marks of it put things into perspective.

After the next morning sightseeing (doby ghatts are so funny, it's where all the clothes are washed in Mumbai, amazing place ran by men only, interesting concept, India gate, Taj hotel, hanging gardens, malabar hill etc), we departed for Goa having found an overnight sleeper bus. We traveleld sharing a tiny sleeper with Andrew and made friends with David and Martin, nice Sweedish guy and crazy Irish buddhist guy! We 1st stayed in Mandrem beach and spent Xmas eve there, in the swimming pool, drinking away!
On Xmas day we moved to Arambol in a guest house on the beach ... at night the sound of the waves were helping us to fall asleep, amazing! We loved it so much there that we decided to move back our flight to Bangkok (painfull as bank holidays in UK). To summarise our time in Goa, it was 1 week relaxing on the beach, between the sea (so warm it's like getting in your bath) and a sweet lake (fresh water) with nearby a natural mud bath place (which we used a lot and looked very silly all covered in mud!!), toes in the sand, eating, drinking, having fun.... We also went round Goa on bikes which we rented and the sense of freedom and fun was awsome + Andrew my husband is a very sexy bike ridder!
New years eve was eventful, fireworks, fresh seafood dinner on the beach, sand in toes, no wories about what to wear, which party to go to, what make up to put on etc... my idea of heaven. Only black spot was Andrew losing his mobile at 11.45, so as everybody was huging and fire works were going off, here I was, sat on a chair being grumpy whilst Andrew was trying to find his mobile in the sand with a torch, comical looking back! Dare I say that we did not find it!

We left Goa on the 1st January 09, with another overnighth bus (with broken seats & windows! Nice) and spent our last day in India and in Mumbai with Raj waiting to catch our overnight flight to Bangkok.

It was very very sad to leave Goa as we had a amazing time there. Great people, scenary, sea, sand, relaxing atmosphere- after a week we felt like home there, all on our door steps and starting to know the people working in bars!.
This sadness was enhanced because we also were leaving India that night too. India has been the first leg of our adventures and it was a great introduction to our travels.
We both had a great time going round this amazing country, full of contradictions, colours, friendly, smiley, helpfull people (who also try to rip you off every 5 min!), full of dust, dirt, noise, a country of organised chaos which can be fantastic and also frustrating at times. India has been overall a very humbling experience.
Seeing people with so little, so poor, yet somehow so rich in their heart smiling at you made us feel very spoiled westerners and from now on we will make an effort to appreciate life more and not take things for granted so much ................another new year resolution!

But enough of looking back, our adventures continue and Thailand is next on the map! Can't wait
Lots of love from the Roses!
xxx

photos - Darjeeling to Delhi

2008-12-14T09:14:00.013Z

News from New Delhi

2008-12-07T11:32:00.014Z

Hi everybody,
It has been a while since we updated the bolg, too much fun and things to do / see to spend time in a internet cafe! We are now in Delhi (and yes Andrew has got Delhi belly!) and have a few days here before we start again on the road to head off to Mombai.
So what have we been up to? Lots, after Darjeeling we went to Gangtok, after a while driving on the truck roof top (awsome feeling) we stopped off for some lunch near a river and started on our noodles, only to realise that it was a popular spot for cremations too!.
Gangtock was good too, best bit were visiting a Budhist temple and be surrounded by lovely monks (lovely), riding a yak (she was beautifull, my Culy wanted to take her home!!) . and having a great group party between our bedroom and the hotel lobby with Phil & Dan playing guitar and making up silly and very funny songs about all of us.
The next 3 days were a nightmare as we could not cross the India / Nepal border were we thought (a dam broke and floaded the entire area!), so we had to drive a long long time to get to a border very late at night to realise that it was the wrong border ..... so off again driving and becoming a bit crazy, camping in something which was proaby a public toilet (stank so much) . We were so happy when we crossed the comedy border (2 guys and a hugh book and a lighter for light where they put the visas entries that nobody will ever look at!).
1st stop in Nepal was Pokhara, hotel was great, shopping too, we went to the peace pakoda and then took boat trip on the lake, our rower was 100 years old scary granny who did not look phased at all when we told her that there was water in the barge, she just handed us a plastic bottle so we could start scooping! Not a great place to be in when you carry with you all your valuables! It was good fun though, shame we did not have enough time there as would have liked to stay longer.
We then arrived in Kathmandu, and this place is something, great temples (went to the Monkey temple, Dabbar square!), nice city, really buzzing with locals / tourists / bars / restaurant were you can have a steak (YESSS). Sam's bar was were we spend some late nights and say goodbye to some of the guys for whom the trip stopped there, very sad. Was planning to shop there but they had political demonstrations and eveywhere shut down (one place we were actually in!), as the shop keepers were worried that brick would damage their stores! Fair enough, had to wait 1/2 to get out the breakfast place!
We then went to Chitwan national park and elephant sanctuary (Cristina, I have more photos of elephant for you!), the best bit about this was bathing with the elephanats, it was so much fun, they were spraying us with their trump and making us fall in the water. Loved this bit so much! We also went on a cannoo trip and I am not kidding I thought it was Pokhara all over again, nobody relaxed in this cannoo for fear of tipping it over! Walked back and saw big fat crocodile (nice and safe not !), and then our guide started to give us the health and safety tips in case we met a rhino ... did not realised we were doing something so dangerous!

Passed the Indian border again (hotel there was gross, could hear something in the room, moving at night, prefered not looking!), and did another couple of national parks. In one of them according to the lonely bloody planet you have 99.99% chance to see a tigger ......well we went on 3 bloody safaris and never saw one, fat luck hey! I was so pissed off arrhhhh - on our 2nd safari the jeep broke down in the middle of the park ... we were waiting for help as the sun went down (it is when you really don't want to meet a tigger!), Andrew actually fixed the car and was so gratefull as when we left the park and talked to the ranger there he told us that he did not know we were stuck there ...

We then drove to Varanassi, stayed in a fab hotel all nice and clean after a few nights of camping, food was great (anything but Indian, bit fed up with Thali and paneer!). We woke up very early to take a boat trip on the gangis (and I dipped my toe in it, what you would not do for a free bottle of gin these days!). I so loved this part, just rowing and watching all these people bathing in the gangis, washing clothes, praying, pooing too (nice you just have to hope that your laundry is being washed before the poo station!). People are crazy, there was some laughing yoga weirdos, just all sorts, got some great pictures. Was weird to see dead people about to or being cremated a real mix just amazing - especially washing in the gangis when you know that the water is actually septic for som much shit being in it!

Agra was the next stop, where we woke up early again (bloody sun rise, why cannotit rise at 10am!) to go and see the Taj Mahal. I felt so priviledge to be there, you see the place in books and hear about it but actually being in front of this beautifull, pure, elegant and amazing building was something else. Built for love hey, the atmosphere around it was calm and peacefull, we arrived early so we took some fab shots and in one I look like the one with princess Diana, just fab place. Would love to get back there again.

Jaipur was a cool city too, and the hotel awsome. It is what I originally thought India would be like, Maharajas, beautifull palaces, lots of bling and fab architecure (yet 3/4 of it is dust, dirt and sad cows!). It is the pink city as some king decided to have it painted pink once and since all is pink there. We visited the great Amber palace, observatory, and city palace, all great but we are staretd to become a bit templed out now and cannot wait to chill in Delhi. The pace of this trip is fast and busy. Went to see a medium there and it was good fun. I am happy I am going to be rich and live a long life according to his prediction .....yet he did not realised I was married and I am supposed to marry again in 2011, oups Andrew your time is up soon! Had some hena done too on my hands and feet looking good with this and my alibaba pants! Could pass as a local - except for the blonde hair and blue eyes!. Loved Jaipur best and really would like to come back again and spend time with Eugine our guide

We arrived in Delhi on the 4th done a bit of sightseeing, finished my Chrsitmas shopping, need to find post office now and pray it arrives safe! W e also said goodbye to our friends from this trip ass we are the only ones carrying on to Mumbai, made me so sad to say goodbye ...

I will post photos later on as run out of time! Let me know if you want to know any more about our travels and feel free to send us some comments and chat with us.

Lots of love
Caroline & Andrew

2008-11-10T06:40:00.038Z

From Calcutta to Darjeeling

2008-11-10T05:44:00.016Z

Hello everybody,

Nearly a week since I last wrote on the blog, and what a week.

We left Puri and arrived in Calcutta on the 3rd Nov. We got there by train which was an experience, not only because it took 8h to get there but also because of all the stuff going on in the train, never a dull moment!Between people coming all the time to sell food, chai, coffee, the number of people on the train, the smells (poo poo go straight on the train track!), and the bugs! We got there safe though and checked in our weird hotel, to find out a later when we went to the bar that it was a brothel! Nice, we did not realised that we were staying in the red light district! Still we had a good laugh about it and got very amused watching the women dancing and singing on stage whilst being handed out cash!

We visited Calcutta over the next 2 days, an amazing city, with a lot of poverty (so many people living on the streets, children and disable people begging), but also with a lot going on (city never seem to sleep), lots of energy, and resilience. There are 17m of people living there, with lots of poor people coming from Bangladesh, crazy hey! We saw the flower market, walked through Ghandi Road, took the tram to the Victoria memorial, Andrew plaid cricket with some Indian kids which was very cool! It was chaos, so much traffic (which changes direction at 2pm every day, nightmare, the tram was going against the traffic most of the time, bit scary!), so many people yet we always feel very safe!

We were in Calcutta went Obama won the US presidential election, all the US guys from the trip are very pleased with this result. We visited Mother Theresa house (were Andrew and I bought each other a copper ring on the market as we have left our wedding bands in the UK, very romantic, we both now have a green finger too!), Kali temple, took the metro (so busy again! people were like litle crazy and busy ants!) to the marble palace which I loved reminded me of the film Great Expectation, amazing and amazing art collection inside.

Its weird the English made Calcutta look like London (there is Saint Paul Cathedral, and the building look just like London!), but now everything has faded, is dirty it is a bit sad really.

After Calcutta we visited a kids school from the Bangali Service Society, very humbling as thanks to this place 200 kids get educated and fed, so please check it out on internet and give them a little money it make a big difference. Loved it there we played a lot with the kids and had a great time.

After a long and painfull drive and another 2 bush camps (1 in a graveyard...) we arrived in Darjeling and this is the best place ever, I so love it and want to live here.

Its beatifull, people are so friendly and smiley, the views on the Himalayas are breath taking, warm weather, clean and pure air. Our hotel is amazing - well with our new standards (!) it is called the Bellevue hotel, (Twinings guys should check it out), and we are in the old part of the hotel which has a lot of character, hot water (1st time since we left Bahrain!), it is located right at the top of Darjeleling with the best view ever. We found a shop and God I could have kissed the guy, we found crisps, chocolate, wine, it was like Christmas had arrive early, we were all so excited about it! Makes you think that you should go on this kind of trip every so often to really appreciate things and how fun life can be even with hardly anything, quite humbling experience so far.

We got up yesterday at 3am to go and watch the sun rise on the Himalayas on Tiger Hill, it was amazing, beatifull (bit crowded though, popular spot!) loved it so much, we even could see a bit of Everest but will get a better view when we gate to Katmandu. Rest of the day was spent chilling, walking round the city (very hilly, my legs do hurt this am!), visiting some botanical gardens. We had a big party last night for Missy's birthday, drank a bit, and laughed so much, I had not laughed so much for ages (makes you realise that I had become a bit too serious, caught up in work / life routine). The group is really getting togeter, we all get on great and I am having the time of my life!

Off to the toy train in an hour or so, and we leave tomorrow am. Will be sad, as this place is just awsome, but I am so happy I have seen it that it is all that matters.

I hope you are all well and I speak to you all soon to keep you updated on our adventures.

The roses xxx

Puri, India - few photos

2008-11-02T08:36:00.003Z

We are leaving Puri tomorrow to take the train to Calcutta (I am very excited about the train journey!!), but apparently it's hell there, or so people we have met said, should be fun!So far I loved Puri, lovely and relaxed, if anyone wants to go on holiday there I can give you some tips!! We got up at 5am today and went to the beach to watch the sun rises amazing as the fisherman were getting out to the sea to do some fishing (whatelse hey!) which they will sell on the market later (nice and smelly!). Went back to bed afterwards though!Loving it. We are getting our bearings here and discovering all sorts of things (including a ganja shop! Governement authorised apparently! Took a picture of it, very funny!), taylors who make everything you want and amend stuff, guy from the corner shop is our new friend!! People are so friendly here (and always trying to sell you something or rip you off, haggling is a must!). We are starting to get travel savy which is great and make us both feel good! Hope you enjoy the few pictures and if someone knows about a web site where you can dowload photos quickly let me know as failing on photo bucket, it takes hours, and would love to show you all more than a few photos!Love from the Roses xxx

Puri - India

2008-10-31T06:50:00.002Z

We are now in Puri, South East of India (roughly in the middle).
It seems like ages away since we wrote on the blog last, it was in Bahrain when we had just started our trip. We are now 2 weeks in and all is going so well.
We arrived in Chennai on the 21st October and it was pissing down with rain, apparently the monsoon are a bit late this year! Great! Chennai dare I say was a shock to the system! So busy, chaotic, noisy, smelly and well quite dirty too! But it seems like an organised chaos for some reasons! You get use to it very quickly!
We meet our group and our truck in Chennai and everybody is very nice. It's like being in big brother! 1 week in we know everything and more about each other, shared many toilet stops and discussed at lenght our body function (loving it!) and we have started to fantasise about the food we are not getting here (anything but rice!), it's funny!
I have been eaten alive by mosquitos, last week I could count 67 bites (my legs look yuk- thank you so much Cristina for the mosy cream you gave us!), but I am happy as I have excaped so far the dreaded diarhea!
After Chennai, we drove North and our truck got stuck so we had to stay somewhere in the middle of nowhere! We carried on North and camped two night which is good fun, we are all chipping in to cook (thanks Elizabeth for the head torch, a life saviour!). Life in the truck is great, just watching life go by, all the great scenary, reading, chatting with others, stopping for Indian snacks, listening to I pod, all is so relaxed and friendly.
We were glad to stop in a hotel after that in Visakhapatnam and wash our hair - thank you Carly for the shampoo, could have kissed you if you had been here! (1st night of camping was in a graveyard, nice). Everywhere we arrive we attract the attention of the locals, we set up camp and they are all around, staring at us, and they even follow you when you are trying to find a quiet spot for your pipi/caca!
We then headed off in land to spend 3 days going around some tribes, camped another 3 nights (we had a guide and a chef there which was great, no cooking and fab Indian food!). Amazing to see them, and spend a bit of time with them, they just have nothing, and yet look so happy! I fell in love with all the children and have so many photos of them, which I will bore you all with when I get back no doubt! It was a very humbling experience, and very informative, some of the rituals they still have in place are a bit scary, let's say the feminist movement has not got tere yet! Yet they have simple values which are good to follow, love, family, laugh and that's about that. We celebrated Diwali with the tribes and teh new Indian year too, it was quite as the tribes do not follow the Indu religion, still we blew a few fireworks, lit some candles and ate sweets.
We are staying in Puri now for 3 nights and then, we will travel by train to Calcutta (our truck is a bit poorly) cannot wait for the experience of Indian trains!
I will post some photos next time, as forgot the lead in the hotel!
Hope you are all well and speak very soon
The Roses

Bahrain

2008-10-20T12:14:00.003+01:00

Hi Guys,
We are in Bahrain, have been for a few days and we are off tonight to Chennai in India. So far so good! We left the UK on Friday and flight was great apart from a women fainting in front of us! It is very hot here about 30C, people are very nice, all the men look like kings of petrol, liking the outfit! We have spent the last few days mainly visiting few places, bit of walking, swimming and relaxing around the pool or at various bars!
Looking forward to arrive in India and start the adventure!
Speak all very soon
Love
The Roses

Only 1 1/2 day to go!

2008-10-15T18:46:00.002+01:00

Oh my God, so little time left before we go and I am still challenged by the technology and setting up blog, web site with photos etc ... nightmare! Still we have a very exciting trip ahead of us and cannot wait to go (as long as I have ticked everything in my to do list!)
Right better get on with things!
Speak soon
Caoline

The Roses wedding!

2008-09-16T15:18:00.001+01:00

Hello,

Well what can we say, we had a wonderful wedding day, or wedding week-end as it happens!
We are very lucky to have found and marry each other and feel blessed to have such great families and friends. We were very touched by all the support and effort made by our loved one to make this day truly special.
There are lots of photos, the professional ones and the ones from friends and family, please bear with me till I understand how to post them on the internet somewhere! I will post the address very soon promise
Love
Caroline & Andrew
P.S. Only 4 weeks to go and we are off on our travels!