Catherine and Greg's travel blog

New York... part 3

2009-09-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Thank God for late check-out! We staggered out of the hotel around noon, weighed down with bags and a hangover caused by Daryl’s favourite “Delirium Tremens” and an even scarier beer he recommended called “Arrogant Bastard”, into Charles and Laura’s flat, our home for the next five days.
We filled the afternoon with a tour of the Tenement Museum and a walk through Lower East Side and then Little Italy.

NY is famous for its immigrants and this walk showed us why. From what my friends tell me, today’s immigrants arrive, rent a shoebox flat, and find a familiar bar to hang out in, probably just like their Italian, Irish and German predecessors a century before. But the Tenement tour showed us how much tougher the old guys had it.
We saw grubby crowded landings with no lights, heating or water, and rooms reconstructed with original artefacts to show how families struggled to cook, wash and relax in their tiny dark spaces.
The building had dozens of pointless brown-painted windows built into internal walls, an early attempt by landlords to circumvent public health laws. We also heard the fairy tale story behind the museum itself: a house that lay boarded up for generations until someone looked inside and found a century-old time capsule and a new vocation as a curator.
After that we walked through Little Italy, thriving with pavement restaurants and Italia football shirts, and Chinatown, where we heard no English at all.
Queuing later outside a restaurant with Charles and Laura, the sky clouded over at sunset in a spectacular fashion, bringing a crowd of amateur photographers out into the street.

If they were tired after a long week, they didn’t show it. C&L had us up, coffee’d and onto our hire bikes early on Saturday morning for a tour around Manhattan. We pedalled along the East Hudson past the replica tallship HMS Bounty (used in the films “Mutiny on the Bounty” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”), past the spot where a US Airways Airbus crash landed in icy water last January, a marina of stupidly flash motor-yachts, Ground Zero where the construction of the controversial 105-floor Freedom Tower is taking place, Wall Street, and over the Brooklyn Bridge to the fabulously named district of Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), a fancy former dock area, like London's Shad Thames. We then pedalled, a bit wobbly, back to the East Village via some of their favourite places – a German been hall, a wine bar called Grape and Grain, a cocktail bar, sake bar and a fancy icecream shop (chickheaven).

New York … part 2

2009-09-03T08:16:00.001-07:00

Wednesday morning and we were back in New York again with a fantastically empty week stretching ahead of us. I lazed around Jess and Brian’s Latino neighbourhood of Jackson Heights while C honed her Carrie Bradshaw skills, lunching with Abigail and shopping all afternoon.
On Thursday, we left our generous and long-suffering hosts - thank you so much J&B!! - and decamped to the Hilton in Times Square, in the heart of the midtown buzz, courtesy of C’s airmiles.
Hopping into a yellow taxi cab, we went to Columbus Circle, HQ of the Time Warner empire and the CNN studios. Colleague Yana’s husband, Richard Morris, works there as a producer and had offered to show us around, an irresistible offer for both of us, especially as C’s new job in September might see her in front of TV cameras again.
Richard works for a daily current affairs talk show hosted by Campbell Brown, America’s female answer to Jeremy Paxman. In a very informative tour, Richard talked us through the production cycle for each one-hour show, from brainstorming topics, booking guests, morning editorial calls to live filming. A hot topic was whether the news station should broadcast videos of Iranian election riots, such as mobile phone footage of a woman shot by security forces. Apparently, CNN initially broadcast the clip, but after an urgent debate about verification and the risk of manipulation, decided not to show it again. It was a fascinating glimpse into editorial life in TV, where technology and reach are so different from the print world.
We visited the news studio with its famous touch screen where election results come through, Larry King’s studio (above), an editing booth and the control room. This high-tech bunker – which Richard saved for the end - is where the team of producers and directors edit the show as it goes out, directing and mixing camera shots, adding music and graphics, and counting in ad breaks with scientific precision. It is a dark room with rows of swivel chairs facing a wall made entirely of TV screens. Each seat has a flashing panel of switches, a bit like a flight deck. The room was empty when we went in, but you could still feel the adrenalin.
We emerged into the sunlight – many thanks to Richard for sparing his time – and headed to Greenwich village for my highlight of the week so far, a crawl of NY bars and beers! News of Michael Jackson’s collapse broke as we arrived in the first bar, triggering the first of many unprintable jokes from Jeff (surfer dude we met in Cambodia), Daryl (from Euromoney days, now at Pearson) and Charles. Strangely, I cannot remember too much more after ...

Heidelberg

2009-07-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'm now in Heidelberg for two weeks, following an intensive German course at the "Collegium Palatinum". C, who is in Frankfurt for a dental operation over the same period, dropped me here on Sunday after a relaxing day at her parents' house chatting in rusty German and trying to hide the foul hangover that Mac and Lucie inflicted the night before on Lower Marsh.
My host family runs a metal bashing business from a workshop in front of the house. Four of the six children have left home and the parents rent the spare rooms to various odd-bods, currently including a German theatre set designer, a super-earnest public health researcher from Harvard, a demographer from Burkina Fasso, a jurist from Budapest and me. As the only language student, I get to eat dinner with the parents and their two teenage sons, quite entertaining although the father is a little obsessed with house prices. I think he's also the one who made the weird metal scultures that dot the house.
At breakfast, I have a table for one in the kitchen and never see the others, perhaps they're still in bed.
The house is in Handshuesheim, a suburb of out-of-town stores and farmland north of the old city. The jurist, who has been coming to Heidelberg since 1968, told me that the locals have been trying to form a break-away republic from Heidelberg but no one has taken them seriously so far.
Twenty minutes bike ride across the river Neckar is the old town, beautiful old squares and ornate pubs and shop fronts. The school is in a high-ceilinged villa next to the law faculty and a short walk from the pub area, which we will explore tonight.
I am nearly 20 years older than the other students, who come mostly from eastern and southern Europe and the states, and the only Englishman. The students are shy but friendly and speak English to each other during the breaks, though I am stubbornly sticking to German. Bets on how long that lasts?
Tomorrow we will spend the afternoon on the Philosopher's Walk.
G

ps - more NY blogs to appear here soon...

Rhode Island

2009-07-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

I know, we are behind with the blog... sorry! But we are catching up and will post more in the next few days.
So on Monday we spent the night at Jessie and Alex's house in Rhode Island, the house that Alex built with his bare hands (and some help from me, if you look carefully above the front door you can still see the plank I nailed on). It's always impressive to visit and think back to the patch of mud that Alex showed me five years ago. We make a good construction team, no doubt about that.
When we arrived Jess was baking cookies to welcome Ian, who is now SIX, back from his first day at summer camp. Ian lost no time showing us how Luke Skywalker stands with a light sabre, which was lucky as I had forgotten, and telling us all about camp and his baseball team. He is a great talker and very entertaining. Alex then told us about his windfarm business and the big project they have won to install 60 turbines, good luck! Then we had a lovely evening of homecooking, whisky drinking and gossiping.
Next day we took our hire car down to Newport, the seaside town favoured by millionaire industrialists at the beginning of the last century. It has a Great Gatsby feel (though far from Long Island); the centre piece is Bellevue Avenue, a street lined with swanky mansions in various European styles. To C's delight, we visited The Breakers, the 70-room summer home of the Vanderbilts, and had an hour's upstairs/downstairs tour, taking in the sea views, gold-inlayed dining room, platinum-inlayed music room and dozens of slightly gaudy but impressive rooms.
The tour tells how the house was built and lavishly decorated in only two years, with whole rooms assembled in France and shipped in boxes, Ikea-style.
There are also tales of famous parties, the social heirachy of the day and the sad family history.
From one millionaire's mansion to another, that evening we drove back for a dinner party in NY's Upper West Side hosted by our mergermarket boss Charlie in his newly acquired "brownstone". Rick proudly showed us around, while caterers made dinner for a room full of editors (not sure what the collective term for editors is, a correction?) That was a great evening too, and a nice boozy way to start thinking about work again
G

New York ... part 1

2009-07-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

Like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, I have a long and enduring love affair with NY – how can one not love a city that is at the same time full of familiar sites and new discoveries, where the streets are constantly buzzing yet a short walk through parts of Central Park makes you think you are in a forest far away from all the craziness, where you meet people from all over the world who all share my enthusiasm for the city ... what can I say, I just LOVE everything about this place!!!!! Our love affair started after a weeklong trip to the city that never sleeps with the Raisig clan in 1997, blossomed during a short visit a few years later and fully came into bloom when I spent 6 months working there. Ok, enough of the smoochiness otherwise my HTB may get jealous!
We have arrived in NY on Friday and take up Jess and Brian’s kind offer to house us for a few days ... little do they know what they are letting themselves in for  A short trip from the airport takes us to their wonderful flat in Jackson Height’s, Queens. Both J and B are very artistic and so their flat is full of little quirky touches which we will shamelessly copy as soon as we are back in HTB’s flat in London. Our two hosts are out-and-about and so we just drop our bags and no 10 minutes later are on the F train over to Manhattan where we meet my good friends Abby and Charles for a speed dating session disguised as a salsa class ... seeing that Abby and I are both spoken for we feel it wise to leave the venue after the lesson and dinner and spend a wonderful evening sitting in a street side bar. When the evening draws to a close, HTB and I discover that getting home by cab is not an option ... please learn from our mistake: DO NOT MENTION that you want to go to Queens before you are seated in the cab, buckled up and well and truly on your way! We spend the entire w/e with J and B and afterwards, HTB and I once again remark that really the highlight of our trip is the fact that we can spend some serious time with our friends! J and B take us along to a wonderful bbq where delicious food is accompanied by far too much wine and beer and interesting conversation, after so many weeks on the road and only eating in restaurants it is a real treat to be in someone’s home and eat home cooked food! Sunday we go for a bike ride in Central Park and chat the afternoon away in a little bar in Long Island City. In the evening J and I pretend we are domestic goddesses and cook the entire content of their recently delivered veg box ... yummy!
Next we are off to Rhode Island to visit Greg’s friend Jessie, who along with her husband Alex and son Ian lives in a beautiful New England-style wood house in the middle of the RI countryside!

Traitor!!!!!!

2009-06-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

It only took one day for my HTB (husband-to-be) to be seduced by SF and to now proclaims it ... his favorite city in the US! While I am still reeling from the shock, I have to admit that I can see the attraction – the city is buzzing but at the same time laid back, there is a huge focus on an outdoorsy lifestyle and generally having a good time, the weather (at least while we were there) was near perfect with balmy sunshine and a light breeze, the bay is right there ready for you to go windsurfing or running and cycling along the shoreline, the architecture where is survived the big earthquake and fire of 1906 is amazing, it's streets are filled with quirky cafes, bar and restaurants all serving locally grown food – a real SF craze by all accounts! Last minute planners that we are, we ended up only having a single full day in SF which does not do the city justice but we still had an amazing time.
I, for once, got up early and went on a walking tour of Victorian homes. We wandered around a neighborhood called Prospect Heights admiring this amazing houses and learning what a “painted lady” is ... NO, not that kind of painted lady, you people with dirty minds!!!! A SF painted lady is a Victorian house in which the redwood of which the house has been build has been painted in at least three different colors. Originally the wood was painted gray, white or brown to fool neighbors into thinking that you were able to afford the much more expensive stone to build your home ... entertaining considering that your neighbors were doing that same, thinking they were fooling you :) Anyway, since then however the owners have done away with wanting pretend that there houses are made of stone and they now just go crazy with the paint pots ... so you have houses that are white, with purple cornicing, pink window frames and gold gingerbread which is that lattice work that decorates the houses – that looked amazing!!!!! I then met my HTB for a cycle tour but was so taken by these little go-carts that you can rent that I bullied the poor chap into renting those and zipping around in them instead ... BOY, was I foolish!!!!!While he was loving every minute of it, I was scared within an inch of my life and at two stages had to even get out of the little thing to push it up the hill because it was too steep and the little soapbox's engine to weak to make it up alone. That said ... going down SF's famous Lombard Street was amazing and I am sure much more exciting in our soapbox than in a car – please see video!
In the evening we meet my old NY friend Ryan and his partner Rhonda for dinner in a bar called 21 Amendment – geeks may like to know that the 21 Amendment was the amendment that lifted prohibition. After a very tasty meal made with the afore-mentioned locally produced ingredients (the menu even told you which farm the beef came from!!!!!), the HTB and I went on a little pub crawl ending up at the rather swanky W Hotel and few G&T's rounded off what was a perfect day in SF!!!
Having said all that ... NY is still my favorite city in the US and so I am super excited about getting on the plane and visiting this fabulous city!!!!!!!

Mendocino to Santa Cruz

2009-06-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Mendocino is where East of Eden was filmed. It's a small, 19th century settlement of sun-baked wooden houses, complete with whitewashed picket fences and flowery gardens.
We spent an hour there, breaking our drive south on the California 1 highway.
Until Hollywood abandoned it a decade or so ago, the town was the setting for Murder She Wrote and dozens of other films. The inhabitants now are mainly kind-faced coastal folk who make their living selling tea cakes and - as this is the West Coast - cultivating marijuana.
Back on the road, we passed clifftops and hairpins on our way to San Francisco (without flowers in our hair), and crossed the Golden Gate bridge around 8pm as the sun was setting. This meant we had completed our overland journey from Vancouver with a couple of days in hand, so we carried on to a motel in Santa Cruz.
A word on American motels. These places are brilliant - cheap, all with internet, big rooms, no nonsense reception, and if you're a fan of cheesy films about outlaws on the run, strangely familiar. I loved them.
The main attraction in Santa Cruz is the boardwalk, where you can ride ancient rollercoasters, eat colourful junkfood and shop in Momo's beach shack. We stayed two nights in our motel, walking around the town and beach and visiting the world famous Mystery Spot, a brilliant outfit that turns a garden shed into an international tourist attraction by building it on a slope. Apparently, it is situated above pieces of space metal planted years ago by alien visitors, and the normal rules of physics don't apply. Mysterious indeed!
Next morning, with my sense of balance honed by the space metal, I took a surf lesson. Thanks to a timely shove from John, my professional surfing coach (now there's a job), I managed to stand up and ride half a dozen little waves into shore, along with about a hundred other learners, mostly aged 12 or below. I finished utterly exhausted but feeling ready for Hawaii. C, who had been waiting patiently on the beach, suggested we go to San Fran first, so that's the next stop.
G

Northern California

2009-06-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

We found where they filmed (bits of) Jurassic Park; no, not the side of California Highway 1, but in Redstone National Park.
We arrived in the park after leaving Oregon and spent most of the day there, driving and walking through the prehistoric forest. Redstone trees really are staggeringly, neck-achingly big. Stands of them line the roads and even the small ones are enormous.
The trunks are as wide as a house and 350 feet tall; anyone walking by immediately looks like a toy and feels like an insignificant little blip.
According to the blurb they used to grow all over America and Europe, but the mists of Northern California suit them very well and they are still here (apart from the thousands that were cut by loggers during the gold rush). I was fascinated and awed; these trees inspire respect.
So, like good tourists we paid $4 to drive through one with a road carved in the middle, and then took turns photographing each other shrinking into the giant forest. On the ranger's advice, we also drove down a dark, steepish track lined with ferns and Redwood stumps, half-expecting a dinosaur at each bend, to Fern Canyon, a spooky high-sided river bed with ferns lining the walls and strewn with fallen logs. It's highly atmospheric, though now best known as a setting from Jurassic Park. Movie buffs might like to know that some Star Wars scenes were shot nearby too.
After dark, C bravely drove us along the Redstone-lined Avenue of the Giants and we spent the night, after too many hours driving, collapsing into a very retro motel at Laytonville.
G

Interesting, Oregon

2009-06-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Douglas Adams and John Lloyd would have loved Oregon, as it is full of silly place names. Their book "The Meaning of Liff" matches place names with things that have no word in the English Language, such as "FARNHAM (n.) The feeling you get about four o'clock in the afternoon when you haven't got enough done; PAPPLE (vb.) To do what babies do to soup with their spoons; and EMSWORTH (n.) Measure of time and noiselessness defined as the moment between the doors of a lift closing and it beginning to move."

In Oregon, home of Yankton and Sitkum, they would not need to be so imaginative. Sunny Valley, Pleasant Valley, Gold Hill, Sweet Home and Happy Camp give a fair idea of the Oregon state of mind (as long as you don't visit Hemlock).

There are plenty of websites listing silly place names but here are some that jumped off the map as we got into day two of our big drive (Seattle to San Francisco). Damascus, St Paul's and Lebanon; Goose Nest, Remote, Finn Rock, Swisshome, Denmark and Norway; my favourites Goble, Lookingglass (not to be confused with north Oregon's Looking Glass), Wagontire and Whisky Peak. Just spare a thought for the people who live in Boring.

We've passed the Oregon Dunes, a field of 500ft high sand dunes stretching 3 kms inland, and stopped for a walk around Eugene, a classic sprawling town of clapboard suburbs and downtown businesses where it would be impossible to live without a car (or a thai-dye t-shirt, if the local market is any guide). After about 400 miles we're now in a motel in Bandon, less than three hours to the California border.
G

Birthday birthday girl

2009-06-11T19:49:00.001-07:00

Apparently, if you travel across the International Dateline on your birthday then you don't grow any older. But if you go across it backwards - as C did last week - you get two birthdays!
C insists that she is only one year older than before, but somehow still argued for two presents and two parties. So we spent the first part of our 36 hour long Sunday in Tokyo lunching with Chani, Dani and Figgi; the second on board a Japan Airlines plane (no upgrade, before you ask); and the last part on the beach at Vancouver with Mark and Ling and a serious case of jetlag.
It was great to see M&L, nearly two years after the left London. They are now living the good life close to the beach, blending in with lycra-locals and claiming to be completely used to the alarming chirpiness of west coast Canadians. They've just opened a funky gaming store (www.cheekymonkeygames.ca) but still found time to take C handbag shopping and indulge me in a little beach-side "frisbeer".
The surprise birthday present for C was a half-hour seaplane flight across the water to Victoria BC followed by a whale watching trip. I think I'm still in credit for that one. We followed two Orca killer whales dipping in and out of the water for an hour, spotted an eagle and heard the story of lucky Thomas Argyle, a favourite story among the locals.
Argyle was the lighthouse keeper at Race Rocks in the late 1800s and so poor he had to swim for abalone and mussels in the freezing water to feed his six children. Then one day he started buying supplies from the mainland with gold coins. When he died he still had not spent all the treasure he'd found from the wrecks around the rock (bit of a conflict of interest if you ask me).
After that we visited my old Windlesham and Salamanca friend, Andrew Trinder, his wife Lara and baby rugby-player, Julian, before flying home for a pub quiz with M&L and a spot more jetlag.
We're now in Seattle, highlights so far: having our picture taken outside the original Starbucks (hmm, perhaps we spent too long in Japan); seeing fresh fish being caught at Pike Market (they throw each fish sold across the store front) and watching a honky tonk piano man busking in the sunshine.
Next stop - the SOUTH
G

All that dancing makes you hungry!

2009-06-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Weird and wonderful Tokyo!

2009-06-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

I ended the last blog entry with a profound comment on the contradictory nature of Japan ... our last few days in Tokyo were a perfect example of just that!
Friday, we did manage to get up early – well Dani and I did, G was somewhat engrossed in his new hero's book, “Cityboy”, and had to be dragged from bed – and make our way to Tsukiji fish market where we spent a few hours wander around arming the weird and wonderful wares the fishermen were selling. This “dawn raid” was followed by super fresh and highly delicious sushi eaten from a counter right in the market ... usually I am more of a “baked goods for a breakfast" gal, but fatty tuna rolls are certainly something I could get used to. After a short visit to the mm office, the three of us wandered through the rainy backstreets of Shibuya and Omotosando, looking in on some weird and wonderful shops and admiring the trendiness of Japan. While I do not always necessary “get” Japanese style – Little Boo Peep anyone? School-uniform? High-heeled wellies? - there is no denying that Japanese people have plenty of it and are not scared about expressing their own, individual style, something that fascinates me over and over again. The slavish dedication to one style you see in the streets of London is something you will never see in Japan; pretty much every person has their own style.
Saturday, we set off by super punctual and immaculately clean train to a sea side amusement park where Fat Boy Slim was playing at a Sunday afternoon rave for crowd of excited but extremely well behaved Japanese ravers (with a few gaijin mixed in for good measure). We had a fantastic day, dancing away to old tunes and jumping around like crazy, all in the semi-sunshine. A odyssey-like journey , during which we must have used every train line possible, got us back to Tokyo where we stuffed our faces in a very interesting Chinese restaurant in Rappongi ... I can not mention what the place was decorated with for fear of having our site x-rated. The last two days were a pretty perfect end to a great time in Tokyo and has certainly helped me change me my mind about the “land of the rising sun”. Thank you VERY much to Dani and Figgy for letting us stay in their “flat of awesomenesss” - it truly was awesome!
Next stop ...Vancouver!
Love C and G xxxx

Geisha gone wild!

2009-06-03T21:15:00.001-07:00

Konichiwa from Tokyo!

2009-06-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Before saying anything we'd both like to say a big THANK YOU for all the kind messages, it's so nice to hear from so many people we care about.

We arrived in Tokyo on Friday afternoon and started of our Japanese sojourn with celebratory drinks at Dani and Figgy's “flat of awesomeness”. We hit Tokyo nightlife with dinner at a traditional Japanese Isakaya and then Dani and I entertained our men with karaoke performances of “Moskau” and “Gen Gen Genghis Khan” ... the less said the better I think :) (but the video's on flikr for any masochists out there).

After a weekend of gallivanting around Tokyo, meeting friends and generally spreading the news of OUR ENGAGMENT (we still have both have huge grins on our faces and I only just mange to control the urge to hug strangers in the street), we had an early start (shock horror!) on Monday and boarded Japan's famous bullet train Shinkansen bound for Kyoto.

Kyoto is home to 17 Unesco World heritage sites - observant readers will have noticed that we seem to be visiting only Unesco World heritage sites – so in the time-honoured tradition of our sabbatical we once again went templing. The temples we saw were once again very different from anything we saw in either India, Cambodia or China. The best way of describing them is to say that they are incredibly elegant and formal – low storied and made entirely of wood and rice paper, they sit in manicured gardens with rocks, ponds and small trees and shrubs inviting you to sit down and have a Zen moment ... which we did until all the seriousness became too much to bare and we felt the need to re-enact scenes of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, which was in fact filmed in a bamboo groove by one of the temples – please see exhibit A.

We are now back in Tokyo and have happily fallen back into our routine of eating delicious food, drinking local brews, staying up late chatting too friends and sleeping away most of our time. However, tomorrow we will be getting up super early and hitting Tsukiji Fish Market to see the tuna auction and breakfast on fresh sushi ... Dani and G, you both promised it!

As you can see, we continue to have a great time!

This must be my eighth trip to Japan but as on every other one, I am once again struck by the many contrasts of this place – it's a country of incredible refinement and elegance yet at the same time it is loud and brash. It's the place where you can see a traditionally clad geisha hurrying to an appointment in one of the many old tea houses that line the streets of Gion in Kyoto and twenty-something women dressed up as Little Boo Peep carrying a stuffed sheep in the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo - please see exhibit B.

It's the country of the most delicious sushi you can possibly imagine as well as the most horrendous junk food you can think of. Recycling is part of the national psyche here and heaven forbid if you throw burnable waste in the non-burnable waste bin, yet everything you buy is wrapped into five layers of plastic. It's ok to pass out stone cold in the streets of Rappongi after a heavy night of drinking with your colleagues but heaven help you if you blow your nose in public. It's just as famous for anime as it is for the traditional art of wood block printing ... I am sure you follow my drift.

As some of you know, Japan and I have never been the “bestest of friends” but on this visit, without the strain of work, I think we have come a little closer - it is hard not to like a country that is so wonderfully weird and pink!

Sayonara
Cxx

WE’RE ENGAGED!!!!!

2009-05-31T03:59:00.000-07:00

Right now I feel a bit like Monica in that “The One with the Proposal” episode of Friends, the one where she runs around yelling “I’m engaged” at the top of her lungs … ‘cause that is what I am doing!!!!! We’re engaged!!!!! We’re getting married!!!! I will be Mrs Ford!!!!! I always assumed that a proposal would be a serious and solemn affair and I would say “yes” in a very dignified manner … Nope, that did not happen at all, this proposal was SO SO SO much better! After an amazing 4 hour hike along the Great Wall of China between Jin Sha Ling and Simatai -clambering up and down a very steep and in parts decaying part of the wall – and a beer to cool down at the end of the hike, we found that the were two ways down from the mountain ridge on which the wall is back down into the valley… a scenic walk or a super exciting slide down a steel rope on a flying fox. No guessing about what we did … we got strapped into our harnesses so quickly that I had no time to freak out and were half way down the rope and into the 1minute ride when I stopped screaming for the first time … only to have G say “will you marry me” … so of course there was more screaming and, once we got down to the bottom, lots of jumping around!!!!! I said yes and now we are both totally over the moon …. Maybe I should now let my fiancée write :) …love it, my fiancée!!!!!
C

C has said it pretty well so not much to add. Apparently the smart money was on late June so I was early (for a change). But that doesn't matter, I'm thrilled that C is now meine Verlobte, and very excited about the future. C has a travel ring from a Cambodian shopping mall, so we'll be visiting David the ring maker when we get back. I haven't seen that Friends episode, but perhaps I will now... Thanks for the messages, there will be more celebrations when we get home in July!
G

Beijing

2009-05-30T04:40:00.000-07:00

Now onto China where blogging is verboten, so I am writing this from Japan, where the Great Firewall of China cannot stop us.

Beijing is much bigger and smoggier than I imagined; each block is half a mile long and you can hardly see past it. It's a mix of construction dust, industrial and engine exhaust and sand from the gobi desert, which acc to the Lonely Planet is approaching at 3km a year and will one day engulf the city.

The buildings are either ultra-modern, with squiggles and off-set angles like architectural cartoons, or soviet-style blocks. The old alleyways, or hutongs, in between are colourful, one-story slum-like areas but they are being cleared fast or gentrified by ex-pats. We toured one with a tuk tuk driver who showed us houses with big bricks for important folk, little bricks for the poor, dragon-topped doorposts that were defaced during the Cultural Revolution, and some that hadn't, whose heads we were told to rub for good luck.

Our hotel window looked onto a construction site, with workers welding girders eight floors up in the air, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Tiananmen Square was our first major stop. It is enclosed with railings and overlooked by skinny armed guards standing to attention under green umbrellas. It's a bit eery and supposed to be full of plain clothes policemen, but the atmosphere is softened by an ice cream van and hordes of Chinese tourists. Chairman Mau's pickled body is on view in a mausoleum at the back of the square; we didn't buy a ticket, although C managed to buy a nice wristwatch with a waving chairman hand on it. Nothing subversive, officer, it's for telling the time, honest.

North of the square is the Gate of Heavenly Peace, an impressive red monument from which the great helmsman proclaimed the Communist Chinese People's Republic in 1949, and the entrance to the Forbidden City, where The Last Emperor was filmed.

The Forbidden City use to house the royal household and thousands of concubines and eunochs (apparently the eunochs often ended up running things, but it was a risky business as half of them didn't survive the snip, yikes!). Ordinary people were executed if they tried to sneak in, and even ministers and dignitaries had to touch their head on the ground nine times (kowtow), so it felt great to be trampling through with an audio guide.

A moat surrounds the complex of courtyards, with pavilions ranked by the number of dragons on each corner. Symbols of power are everywhere and lots of steps, which early emperors were carried up (the last one had things modified so he could get round on a bicycle). The buildings felt more about power than spirituality, a contrast to Angkor Wat.

Outside, we climbed the hill in Jingshan Park and C insisted on having our photo taken in emperor costumes. C was finally a Princess! The less said about this the better, but at least we made some friends of an English couple, Mac and Lucie, who were watching the whole performance.

Food and drink highlights: visit to a famous Peking Duck restaurant with Mac and Lucie, where we ate duck hearts and deer tongues and authentic Peking duck from Peking (bird number 419,923 according to our certificate). A visit to the Temple of Heaven Park and dish called “The Palace Explodes the Diced Chicken”. An evening in bar area Houhoi, where C bought a panda bear hat, and we were invited to an underground bar for “hip hop and fine dining”, which turned out to be transvestite pole dancing.

We saw the impressively dusty Bird's Nest stadium and toured the aquatic centre, now a tourist trap for merchandising, and toured the 798 Beijing contemporary art area, a kind of Brick Lane district created from an old factory.

Something else happened in China too, but that merits a separate entry.

Rain, rain, go away ....

2009-05-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

... come again another day .... which it did, annoyingly so!!!! Before coming to HK, I told G about those dreaded and dreadful HK weekends, the weekends where it rains when you come home wet from work on Friday night, wake up to rain on Saturday, call of any evening extravaganza because of fear of being washed away and are utterly amazed that when you wake up on Sunday …. Yes … it is still raining.
Guess what happened while we were there? … Yes exactly that!
We still had a great and action packed two days – initially relishing the fact that we were staying in a nice hotel (courtesy Air Miles, gathered on all my trips around Asia while working for mm) with a brand new bathroom, windows that actually closed properly and no mosquitoes in sight; then meeting up with friends (and the ever-reliable Chinese Elvis in Lan Kwai Fong) and getting all their news! After the last few weeks on the road it was fabulous to meet up with people that you know and be in a place where you know where to find great food and have a drink, without the help of our ever present friend, the Lonely Planet Guidebook. It was great seeing everybody there and after this little pit stop on “home turf” we felt more than prepared to conquer China.
C and G

Phnom Penh, where we nearly saw the King

2009-05-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

We left Sihanoukville beach on Thursday and boarded an intercity bus to Phnom Penh, along with a half dozen Cambodians and a stowaway dog. Five hours later we had checked into the Bright Lotus guesthouse and, like the cheapskate backpackers we are, logged onto the wifi from the internet cafe across the street. The hotel had views over the national museum and the king's palace, perfect for sightseeing.
Everywhere in Cambodia are pictures of the country's shaven-headed king, Norodom Sihamoni, who is mainly known for ballet dancing and, unlike his father Sihanouk, for avoiding politics. As we'd had a week off to celebrate the king's 56th birthday, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of him and went straight to the palace after breakfast.
The palace is in a late-1800s compound of pagodas and pavilions that is quite impressive as long as you don't compare them with Angkor Wat. We bought our tickets and were about to walk into the throne hall when a troop of elderly palace guards appeared, wearing ill-fitting ceremonial uniforms and rows of identical yellow medals. They milled about in front of us, then stamped out their cigarettes and marched up to the hall, where they formed two lines either side of a red carpet and stood swaying back and forwards.
There was to be an official visit from the Vietnamese ambassador at 11am. It was only 10am and hot so we backed away from the throne hall and went to the silver pagoda, another royal pavilion containing the emerald buddha. This is a lifesize green buddha that looks down over less elevated gold, silver and bronze buddhas, which in turn look down on the crowd of tourists. The floor of the pavilion is paved with silver tiles, beautifully patterned but very tarnished and some held in place with sellotape.
Access to the throne hall was blocked when we went back, forcing us to give up on our celebrity spotting and settle for a tour of the rest of the palace, including a photo exhibition about former King Sihanouk, who at various times had been king twice, president, prime minister and leader in exile. Mentions of the Khmer Rouge years were conspicuously absent.
By now we had only a few hours left in Cambodia so went to the Russian market and snapped up a bag of goodies for folks back home (bet you cannot wait!) and a last rainy tuk tuk ride to the airport. Next stop Hong Kong.
G

PS, As Ian Dury would say, this has been got out by a friend.

Cast-away city dwellers

2009-05-21T05:06:00.000-07:00

So this is what Robinson Crusoe must have experienced every day - walking along a deserted beach, going to sleep to the sound of waves, waking up with a view of the turquoise green sea ...

My good friend Friday (aka G) and I have just spent a couple of days as cast aways. We set off on a day-long snorkeling trip but Bamboo Island, 45 minutes off the coast of Snookerville, proved to be too much of a temptation and so we spontaneously (ie utterly unprepared, sans toothbrush, contact lens solution or clean clothes, or any real clothes for that matter) decided to spend the night in one of the very tempting ocean-view bungalows ... it would have been a sin not to :) The remainder of the afternoon, which would have otherwise been spent chugging back to the mainland, we lazed around on the totally secluded and deserted beach – lazing is mandatory – and (I have to admit) congratulating ourselves on our good luck! The evening was spent quietly getting drunk in the company of our new island friends and exchanging traveler's stories, we are such backpackers now. The friends had in fact planned to stay for a few days, so came prepared, and very generously gave us some sun tan lotion and made sure we were not totally wild looking. The next morning we were woken up by the gentle sound of waves lapping against the shore and had our morning shower in the sea. Breakfast was followed by more lazing, this time in the shade (Friday and I are now both nicely tanned but still unable to fully worship the sun, pasty people that we are) before heading back to the mainland ... BLISS!

I will stop with my island description there because we do still want to have friends and family when we come back and I fear if we carry on gloating you will all no longer talk to us ...

After getting back to the mainland, we only had half a day left which to G's delight we spent on a windy beach so he could indulge his “surfer dude” fantasy while I was being a beach bunny (is there such a thing or is that actual a real animal???? Replies to this questions are welcome!) before today making our way to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh. Right now I am sitting on the balcony of our little guest house, with a view of the National Museum and a crossing that was just made for people watching – I have lost of count of how many ladies in pj's sitting on motorbikes I have seen. Myself being a fan of wearing the pj's at all hours of the day but having been mocked for still wearing them past noon have the biggest admiration for the Cambodia ladies who think nothing of not only wearing them way past noon but also going about their daily business in them ... spotting them has become somewhat of a sport for us, the record is two of them on one motorbike, which in our game of weird motorbike luggage trumps two monks on a bike (they are a dime a dozen) but I have not yet given up hope of seeing three such clad ladies on a bike which would in turn trump the monks and crown me queen of the game ... once again I digress ...

G is sitting next to me right now, furiously engaged in writing postcards. Tomorrow we have a busy day ahead of us, including an early start (arghh shock horror) - the National Museum for that last dose of Angkorian history, the Royal Palace with its Silver Pavilion held together by sellotape (... yeah, also not quite sure about that ... ) and then to do some last minute souvenir shopping in one of the famous markets (all those who do not want a Cambodian carving, say so now!). And then we head off to my third home, Honki Town (first being, the original Fatherland, Germany; second being the Motherland, England; third being ... Honki Town) which we are both looking forward to A LOT!!!!

Reading over this again I dread to think what Editor G (aka my good friend Friday, although Friday could not read and would not dare to question Robinson, hmmm) will say ... “too many brackets” would be one thing, and “why am I now being called Friday” and finally “no way will you win motorbike trumps”

More from us soon, if you are indeed still reading this .....

Love and miss you all

Cxx and her friend Friday

Beach buddies

2009-05-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

Whenever we told people about my sabbatical, everyone assumed we were going to be spending the entire time lazing on a beach …. but it’s only now, 5 months in, that we are doing that!!!! We have arrived in Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s answer to Thailand’s beaches, and have joined the scores of gap yearers soaking up the sun and living the easy life.

Yesterday, after a slow start to the day and an amazing breakfast at our guest house (home-made muesli and real bread and ham), we made our way to remote and empty Otres Beach, a bumpy tuck-tuck ride away from the main drag. There are still a few beach shacks for food and sun loungers but far less people and – Greg’s day – a windsurf rental place!!!! While I spent the day being a lady of leisure, reading and dozing in the sun, Greg was out a surfer dude. In between our individual pursuits, we drank beer and snacked on fresh crab and langoustines, that ladies sell and peel for you along the beach. The day was rounded off with an amazing sea food bbq on the main beach, a whole load of drinks and dancing til the small hours of the night, under the stars and rain (it is the rainy season after all). Both G and I felt as if we had stepped back in time and were reliving our uni days, dancing to club anthems and few party classics (Faye, G made a valiant effort to match our crazy dancing to “Its raining men” but it just wasn’t the same without you… sorry G, still love you though!!!!) Today our heads (well, mine really, I am such a lightweight) hurts but hey … what can you do?

Off to work on my tan now, while G will perfects his windsurfing.

Love and miss you all

Cxxxx

Battambang beer snacks

2009-05-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

Disgusting aren't they! We found these – together with stacks of deep fried toads and similar delicacies - at a road side stall in Battambang, a provincial capital on the other side of the great lake from Siem Reap. We didn't eat any...
We had traveled up on Tuesday by river boat, a seven hour trip through pretty floating villages, after finally leaving Siem Reap. We'd been there for a month and both felt sad to leave.
The night before, Catherine had left her last lesson at Chey with a huge pile of gifts and cards from the kids (see separate blog entry). After wiping away the tears, she and I had a farewell dinner with Lori and packed our bags.
The van came at 6.30am and took us to the edge of Tonle Sap, the big fresh-water lake that links the middle of Cambodia with the Mekong river. The journey takes 6-9 hours depending on the water level. The first hour was across open water, flat and glassy to the horizon. The next six took us along a narrow bendy river clogged with hyacinth plants and edged with bamboo houses on stilts. We passed through villages with floating shops and schools, and past the open front doors of countless tiny house boats. We were a dozen tourists, all clutching the Lonely Planet and swapping tips on cheap hostels, and a handful of Khmer passengers with bags of rice and children.
Along the whole the river there were kids everywhere, normally naked, swimming and jumping in, waving hello to the tourists. In one place a group were sliding down a mud chute on the river bank. In another they had made a human pyramid which collapsed in screams of laughter as we passed by, all very cute (apart from the one that threw stones at us, the little xxxx...)
As we approached town the houses became more permanent and surrounded by rubbish. It wasn't far off a slum by the end, though still built on twenty-feet high stilts.
Once in Battambang, a driver whisked us from the throng of touts to our hotel, which billed itself as the finest western-run boutique guesthouse in Battambang but turned out to be a horrible grimy dump (ah the joys of internet booking!)
We toured the town and its piles of fried cockroaches by bicycle, returning after dinner to find the hotel owner's infant son and Cambodian mother in law asleep on the floor of the bar, while the owner sat in silence at the bar with two drunk ex-pats and a third slumped over a card table, snoring atmospherically.
We decided the best thing to do was head asap to the beach, which is where we are now, in a nice place with pink walls. Next post from Sihanoukville...

Motorbike luggage - part 2

2009-05-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

On our 7 hour drive from Battambang to Sihanoukville we spotted more interesting motorbike luggage which we wanted to share. We saw:
- two trees
- a rag and bone man carrying brooms and clothes and rags and similar stuff
- a lady on a drip, her co-passenger was holding up the drip
- a stack of wooden planks carried across the bike

Watch this space, there is bound to be more!!!!

School's out ....

2009-05-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

My last day at Chey school, where I have been teaching kids how to use a computer, turned out to be a rather overwhelming experience and a great examples of how kids here respond to even the slightest bit of attention.

My last day was supposed to be Thursday last week but the kids more or less begged me to come back on Monday, for a proper farewell ... they wanted to give me presents, and boy did they give me presents!!!!!! Our Monday lesson ended 15 minutes earlier that normally and we then just chatted about all sorts of stuff, they had clearly all prepared questions that they wanted to ask me - how many brothers and sisters I have and what I do when I am not in Cambodia and what is my favorite food and if Greg is my sweetheart :)

At the end of the lesson, Rithy (the actual teacher) divided up the boys and the girls and first the boys were allowed to give me presents and then the girls. I was utterly overwhelmed, each child had written me a card and given me a present ... mangos, a pen, a used cuddly toy (someone had clearly given up their own), a shawl, hankies, soap, tooth paste, a necklace, a hair clip - have a look at the picture!!!!! All this gifts must have cost them money, so I was more than a little overwhelmed ... and, me being me, I of course cried which they all thought was very funny :) The thing that is most staggering is, that this generosity comes from a set of children who have next to nothing and after I had only taught them for one hour a day for only 3 weeks - that alone tells you quite a bit about the people of Cambodia!

Both Greg and I are very very happy to have spent as much time as we did in Siem Reap, working in the schools and getting to know actual people. It has made a huge difference to our experience of Cambodia and will certainly be one of the highlights of our trip.

Take care
Cxxx

What a day …

2009-05-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday will have to go down as one of the most memorable days of our trip so far, every part of the day was utterly amazing and quite a few were utterly bizarre!

For once, the day started supper early with a 4:45 alarm, to get us into a hot air balloon to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately a cloud decided to drift right in front of the sun just as we got up but it was still amazing to see the temples shrouded in early morning mist and once again appreciate the scale of it and how it is surrounded by forest.

After a pretty dreadful breakfast we clambered into our air conditioned car – a novel experience after doing all other visits by bike – and set off to Banteay Srei … on the way we passed Pre Rup, another temple, and because there was no one there decided to have a look around there first. Having visited all other temples with at least a few other people milling around, wandering around this one all on our own was a fantastic experience. The temple is built of bricks which were covered with carved sandstone most of which has now fallen off. It is set up in a pyramid-like structure which means you can climb all the way up to the top and have this amazing view over the surrounding area. Without the sandstone I found its stark appearance really appealing.

Banteay Srei however was a totally different story – tiny in comparison to other temples, it makes up what it lacks in size with its ornate carvings. The bas-reliefs here are extremely deep, going 10cm into the stone in exquisite detail … reading over this I do sound a bit like a guide book, I do apologize but it really was rather special :-) The carved scenes are the usual Buddhist and Hindu myths featured in most of the temples but here, because they are so deep and the sandstone is pink (!!!! made for me clearly), they do look very different and come to life even more. Greg took some great detail pictures of things like individual toes, which you can also see below. What was upsetting was the amount of looting that had gone on, some even done by a French government officer, and how destructive it is. We saw one really detailed pediment in which the central figures head had been chopped of and is now no doubt gracing the mantle piece of some head honcho somewhere … all of a sudden I found myself supporting the Iranian approach of hacking off thieves hands.

From Banteay Srei we moved on to Kabal Spean, another 20 minute drive away in the mountains. This site is not a temple but a river with lingas (regular readers will remember that a linga is the male symbol of fertility … eager beavers might want to know that the female symbol of fertility is a box shape called a yoni) and bas-reliefs of Shiva and Vishnu and crocodiles and other mythological symbols carved into the river bed. Because it is still only the start of the rainy season, the river bed was quite dry but the hike up to the river – some of the hardest 1500m I have had to hike – was spectacular, leading us on a path through dense jungle, over boulders and giant tree routs, and we had been warned NOT to veer off the beaten path because of the continued risk of land mines.

Hot and sweaty, armed with our 4th 1.5litre bottle of water (and it was only 11am) we got back into the car (air con seemed like the best thing since sliced bread at this stage, although … after weeks of eating only somewhat soggy baguette (the French would be outraged), sliced bread sounds pretty nice) …er … anyway, where was I? Ahh yes, we got back into the car and drove off to Beng Melea, which one Cambodian guide had said was his favorite …and how right he was!!!! Totally off the beaten track, a good 1.5hours away from Siem Reap and expensive to get to, only few people make it out here but to me it was the highlight of our trip. The temple is in total disrepair because no restoration or jungle clearing has ever been undertaken, huge stone boulders are scattered everywhere and trees are growing out of the walls. There is no “visiting trail” through the temple like there are at the others so to explore it you hire a local guide and start climbing over stones and trees and crawling through caved in galleries … which was really fantastic and gave you totally new angles to explore things at. In some areas there are wooden gangways which were erected by a film team a few years ago when part of “Two Brothers” was filmed here (Raisig clan, this movie was made by the same director as “The Bear”, maybe we should have another crying session and watch this one when I am home in the summer?) Overall, this temple was by far the most amazing of the temples that we have visited.

A 1.5 hour car ride back threw us straight into our next adventure … the opening party of the Golden Banana’s Boutique Resort. Granted, the name is somewhat questionable but they do know how to party. The party started off quite sedately with some pretty amazing traditional Khmer dancing (our favorite Apsaras were out in full force), heated up with free booze, bar snacks and an Ibiza-style rave with a scientist-cum-DJ (weird right???) from Bangkok and culminating in a drag show, courtesy of the Siem Reapean lady-boys of the night. Seeing a Cambodia drag queen in a basque and bejeweled thong perform high kicks on a balcony to the sound of “And all that jazz” from Chicago has to be one of the more surreal memories of this trip …… oh and there was also a “lady” in a floor length gold lame dress giving her rendition of Beyonce’s “Listen” ….. bizarre does not even begin to describe the spectacle!

The day ended with far too many drinks in ZoneOne, a Siem Reap nightclub full of locals knocking back vodka and dancing to music that makes Eurotrash seem cultured … as some of you will know, I have never been one to turn my nose up to bad music (Aqua “Barbie Girl” anyone?) but this was BAD BAD BAD by even my standards …. so bad it was good again. We danced away for a few hours, including a few slow dance turns around the dancefloor to some Khmer power ballads but had to call it a night just before our tuc tuc turned into a pumpkin and got to bed at around midnight, very drunk and utterly exhausted by this day.

Anyway, I have gone on for ages and editor Greg will tell me off for forgetting all the rules of good journalism (not fair! – ed), but you have to admit … a day like this deserve a detailed blog, no??

Take care all of you

Love
C

Banteay Srea pics

2009-05-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

Motorbike luggage

2009-05-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

Last month Sky News ran a piece on its “strange news” column about six people riding on one motorbike. They have obviously not been to Cambodia; here you can see almost anything being carried on a trusty ‘moto’, regardless of comfort, safety or apparently the laws of physics. Seeing whole families, including mum, dad, and three children, or a cargo of three robed monks riding pillion, is quite normal. Here is a list of some of the odder things we have seen in only a month here:

a basket of squealing piglets
one hundred chickens tied upside in pairs by their feet
a crocodile (spotted by Jeff)
a cow
three dead pigs
large dining table
pane of glass 1.5m x 1m
stack of food boxes
four car tyres, worn as a Michelin suit (spotted by Lori)
five foot wide bunch of coconuts

Please feel free to post extras for this list!

End of term

2009-05-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

With next week’s holiday for the king’s birthday, this was my last week teaching and C has her last computer lesson on Monday. I’ve been saying farewell to my Khmer teaching colleagues and handing over textbooks, coloured crayons and other goodies. The main impression I’ll take away is that all the students – from rural primary kids at Chey who could hardly say their names, to ambitious tuk tuk drivers at the ACE evening school in town – were very enthusiastic about learning English, which made them easy to teach and a lot of fun. Thanks to Simone and Rithi at the Chey school (and Lori), Shally and Togh at the Volunteer school (VDPCA), and the long-suffering students there and at ACE. No more homework, I promise (from me at least).
G

One of the hidden queens (pls note the lipstick)

2009-05-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

Busy bees

2009-05-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls

sorry that we have been MIA for the past few days, I know some of you actually check our blog every day ... believe it or not, but we have actually been really busy.

Here are the highlights of the last few days:
hearing tales of how the deputy general director of water at Apsara was able to fill the Northern Baray (an ancient, Angkorian water reservoir) with water for the first time in 500 years, against all odds and after teams from India and Australia had failed to do the same ... guess who was a happy bunny!
looking at “general interest” pictures on a laptop and telling a teacher about space rockets and the moon landing ... he looked at me as if I was insane
going for dinner with two deputy general directors of Apsara and being given the low down on office politics ... a career in tabloid journalism clearly beckons for both G and I
seeing a rainbow connecting the only two clouds in an otherwise baby-blue sky (Faye, I think I have found where the care bears live!!!!!!)
hearing about the disastrous impact of ill conceived “restoration work” being undertaken by well meaning teams ... removing lichen from bas-reliefs with acid and leveling century old dikes for no real reason whatsoever are just two examples
being given mangos by the kids I teach how to use a computer ... may not sound like much but a) they are delicious and b) its a pretty big thing to give for them
visiting the “hospital temple” (actually called Neak Pean) with an Apsara archaeologist who gave us far more information about the temple than any guide book could ever do; he even pointed out some ancient drainage systems and how they used to work as well as background on how the temple's religion was changed from Buddhism to Hinduism – carvings of Buddha just had their arms and head chopped off and were remodeled into lingas (male symbols of fertility)
revisiting Preah Khan (a former Buddhist monastry temple) and being taken down an Alice rabbit hole, clambering over stones Tomb-Raider-style to see two totally hidden bas-reliefs of Jayavarman VII's two wives ... Lonely Planet made no mention of this!
.... and these are just a few things and my favourites, G has a whole load more

As you can see we are trying to cram in as much as we can since we have decided to leave Siem Reap a little earlier – today is a public holiday (Buddha's birthday) and most of next week is also off because its the King's b'day, which means all our projects will be closed and so it makes sense to move on. We plan to take a boat to Battambang, which is supposed to be an utterly amazing boat journey through swampland. Battambang itself is the provincial capital of Battambang province and it is supposed to have loads of great colonial architecture. So I look forward to seeing that. We will just spend a day there before heading down to Shinoukville, billed as “Cambodia's answer to Thailand's beaches” .... we will be meeting up with some people who we got to know here in Siem Reap for a birthday party and generally chilling on the beach. There is also a great coral reef for snorkeling; wind for G to get some windsurfing done; some tiny uninhabited islands to visit as well as cocktails to drink and seafood to eat on the beach ....
But before we do that, we have a hard core sightseeing day ahead of us tomorrow so watch this space :)
Take care and as they say in Cambodia, good luck to you!
Cxxx

Cambodian wedding

2009-05-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

We are just back from the wedding of Rithi, a teacher at Chey school, and his girlfriend of four years, which was huge fun! It was in a small village in the middle of padi fields. The ceremony took place in the bride's parent's house and the party under a colourful marquee, where most of the village and we three foreigners (Catherine, Lori and I) squeezed around a dozen tables and got rapidly drunk.
We learnt that in Khmer weddings the rice is for eating not throwing. Guests throw coconut flower seeds over the happy couple (and any foreigners) instead, and we ate the rice later with delicious beef, salad and cat fish. We didn't understand much of the ceremony, but it included a lot of chanting and seed throwing, and fantastic gong beating － I hope the video gives some idea.
The priest wet several pieces of red string and tied them around the couple's wrists, with a third being snapped and thrown out of the window to symbolise a clean slate. Gifts were offered, including a pig's head that we saw later on the back of the priest's bicycle, and silver boxes containing “special water” for the two mothers.
We sat on the floor without showing our feet – boy does that hurt if you're not used to it!
Afterwards, the groom and bride did their first of four clothes changes and the party went outside to the marquee.
We sat by the entrance with a good view of the receiving line where the other guests arrived wearing their best clothes and toothy grins. One gentleman sported a number of throat and face tattoos which Lori said marks him as an old Khmer soldier. I didn't like to ask more, as he looked fairly scary and Lori's friend Ponheary was with us, who had lost her father to the Khmer Rouge somewhere near this village.
Everyone seemed keen for us to drink beer, so I did my best to oblige. To help things along, a huge sound system blasted Cambodian pop into the tent at ear-splitting volume and our glasses were constantly topped up with ice, which dilutes things a bit and keeps the hangover away. The glasses were frequently emptied in one, so it didn't take long for the dancing to start. We were all dragged reluctantly to the dance floor and circled around it to Cambodian hip hop.
Yesterday someone explained to us that Khmer grooms pay for their weddings from guest donations, which are carefully and publicly recorded in a book that stays in the family's house for future reference. The system means favours can always be returned and doubles as a savings scheme; the groom pays for his wedding in installments every time he goes to someone else's. The head teacher from the VDPCA school said his wedding last year – a large one with 700 people- cost $1,500 but raised $5,000, a decent nest-egg when the average wage is $30 a month.
Today's wedding was smaller but still lavish: at least two traditional costumes for each of the eight-person bridal party and the whole village fed. From the way the party looked when we left, it's probably still going on now.
G

A day with Apsara

2009-05-02T05:27:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, back from an adventure with Mr Khuon, aka Apsara-Man. Ever since we started volunteering at Apsara Mr Khuon, deputy general director responsible for Land and Habitat Management in Angkor Park, has taken us under his wing and is spending a lot of time and effort in explaining the whole operation to us ... and it has been much appreciated since it is giving us a totally unique insight into Angkor and the machinery behind it. Both G and I feel that it is making a huge difference to our Cambodia experience.
Apsara was called into life by Unesco when the Angkor area was made a World Heritage Site in 1994, with the mandate to preserve the monuments. However, since then it has been realized that the monuments and their preservation for mankind are closely linked to the wellbeing of the people who live around them in the park. Therefore, Apsara's mandate was expanded to also be responsible for the sustainable development of the park and the people that live in it.
And this was what today was all about:
Mr Khuon, an urban planner by training with extensive experience in the field, has initiated a number of projects all aimed at improving the living conditions of the park inhabitants, some of whom are desperately poor. The thinking is that because the people are so poor they are engaging in activities that ultimately threaten the monuments such as cutting trees for firewood and to clear farm land and illegally settling in the park, which puts an additional strain on the already stretched water table and in turn destabilizes the monuments. Some of Mr Khuon's projects are small, aimed at “quick wins” to get the population on board with other initiatives and build trust with Apsara... where things aren't rosy right now.
The largest project under his umbrella is the construction of an eco village for sustainable development called Run Ta-Ek, into which he hopes to migrate some of the park's growing population and thus develop a new community outside of the park. The project is aimed at young families, whose parents are living in the park. Due to planning restrictions, these young families would not be able to build their own houses in the park (they could only stay living with their parents) and by granting them not only a plot of land for a house and garden in the new community, but also one hectare of rice paddy, Apsara is hoping to lure them out of the park. We visited the site of Run Ta-Ek today but right now it is very difficult to imagine it all since there is just a huge hole which will be the community's fishing lake that is being deepened and that is about it ... yet people are supposed to move there in June. Both G and I have a number of concerns re this project, not least of all because by his own admission Mr Khuon's is basing this project on housing developments that were built in the 60's and 70's in the UK ...and we all know where that ended.
I feel somewhat disloyal towards Apsara and dear Mr Khuon, who is making such an effort with us, but I can not help but feel jaded and cynical re the development work that is being done here. I have spent quite a bit of my time at Apsara reading up about these different development project, focusing on a report that describes phase one of a project aimed at reducing the poverty of park inhabitants which Apsara is running the the government of New Zealand. The document is very wordy and worthy, full of good intentions, plans to consult the populations but very little in terms of action and what they will actually do. I got to the end of the 75 page document and was only able to find three action points: we will
1)increase the capabilities of Apsara and the park population ..... no comments on what these might be and how this might be done
2)map the land in the park because right now no one knows were one plot begins and another ends ... no comment on how this will help alleviate poverty
3)provide vocational training to get people into the tourism industry ... yet in the same sentence the document says that without English it is very hard, and still ... there is no mention of teaching English anywhere in the document ...
I end this day with a new found respect for all my friends who at the end of a 3-year course of Development Studies at Sussex University did not sell their soul to financial journalist but instead are out there saving the world!!!!!!

Introducing Tim Lasse

2009-04-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

Planning applications

2009-04-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

The first field trip today with the APSARA Authority turned out to be a planning inspection. We visited two very different sites, where families living inside the Angkor Archeological Park had applied to build new houses.
To protect monuments from sprawling development, APSARA has banned new house-building in the park unless it replaces an old house. But the indigenous population of 120,000 is growing fast and unauthorised houses are sprouting up like weeds. Planning applications – often made late if at all - are running at about two a day.
Our guides for the morning were an archeologist and an architect from APSARA's Department of Land and Habitat Management. We drove north of the ancient city of Angkor Thom along a dirt track to the village of Nokor Kroa (meaning “Outside the city”, apparently it dates from the eviction of citizens who had brewed alcohol inside the city walls, the scoundrels), and stopped at a house on the outskirts of the village.
A line of four young children guarded the entrance to a low, single-roomed hut, set on suspiciously new-looking two foot high posts in a scrappy field of young banana trees and litter. The family said they had lived there for 15 years. “I don't believe them, the trees are young and I heard they moved here recently from their parents' house,” said the archeologist. The dwelling looked poor and disorganised, and the parents seemed anxious about our visit. A stack of new 10 foot high concrete foundation posts stood behind in readiness for the new house.
“Their house is already illegal and I think they cannot stay here,” said the archeologist. “But I expect they will build the new house anyway and then it is a matter for the police. But it is very hard for them to move people,” she said.
APSARA is planning a new sustainable eco-village at Run Ta-Ek to absorb the overflow from more than 100 park villages, but it's years from completion and will be small, housing only 850 families. In the meantime, this family of six would have to carry on sharing their illegal single room.
The second visit was more upbeat. The family was a bit older, more relaxed and seemed proud of their home. The parents had lived there since 1979 when the Khmer Rouge era ended, and had since built a profitable small holding. There were six pigs, a run of ducklings and well tended fields at the back. The house was equipped with hammocks, electricity from a car battery, a yard with bikes and motorbikes and a separate kitchen block. Outside the kitchen was the source of their wealth – a traditional rice wine still. “They can make 10 litres a day and sell it for 3000 riels ($0.75) a litre,” our guide explained.
“I think they will get approval,” she said, stopping to photograph the posts of a large new house, already in advanced stages of construction.
G

Auntie again - welcome Tim Lasse!!!!

2009-04-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

The big news of the day first ... I have become an auntie again!!!! Tim Lasse, my sister Helen and her husband Stefan's second son, was born early today!!!!!! I am super excited!!!! But I am also a little sad that I will not be able to meet him in person until we get back from our trip; I am hoping his proud parents will send a picture over soon ... right now he is still a bit camera shy!

Today G and I had our first day working at Apsara, the authority responsible for all the ancient Angkor monuments. In an amazing departure from our usual “lazing around until noon” routine, we actually got up just after 7:30am and were sitting at our desks at Apsara before 9am ... woho!!!! The gentleman with who G had sorted out our volunteering was away on a field trip but his deputy (so, the deputy general's deputy ...) gave us our assignments and we got on with things - G proof read and summarized a document for the website and I translated an article about one of the departments recent projects from German into English. The work was quite simple and we were done within a few hours but both of us came away saying how much we had enjoyed doing something productive, which is more than I can say for anyone else sitting in our office .... one chap was playing computer solitaire for the entire time that I was working on my translation, while what I initially thought was a team meeting turned out to be a gossip session about the boss ....things clearly are the same the world around :) Tomorrow we will be issued with our Angkor passes (super exciting and incredibly generous, considering how expensive they are) and then we are being taken on a field trip with “our” department ...not sure what I am more excited about :)

We then had a lunch time laze by the pool, as one does, before heading off to our respective teaching jobs. For me it was my first computer teaching session and it turned out to be great fun, particularly the part where the kids call me “teacher” and how I got them to line up by the door at the end to say good bye and then gave them a cookie ...not sure that was strictly necessary but I had seen that Anne Shirley do that in Anne of Green Gables and thought that looked like quite a nice little tradition to have :) but not that I an writing this, it actually sounds a little insane .. oh well! In all seriousness though, I was really impressed how quickly the kids work out how to use the computer and how intuitively they know what buttons to press. I think they will take no time at all before they all become right little tech wizards. This was only their first lesson and the teacher, who was in fact MIA today, has so far only managed to teach them who to turn the thing on ...bless him, he himself has not really ever used a computer. Anyway, so I got them started with the painting program which they really enjoyed and tomorrow we will learn to make a little movie, so watch this space ... yay!!!

Anyway, G has just come back from his class and I have, while writing this note, befriended a fellow traveler and we will all now head off for dinner together ... so ...

Take care, kids!

Lots of love
Cxxx

Enter a bat

2009-04-24T02:59:00.000-07:00

My first primary school class today was interrupted by a bat. In broad daylight, it flew in through the window and circled the room twice, before flying at my head and leaving. I chalked up the word “bat” in large letters and a moment later the children were singing out “it is a bat, I spell B-A-T bat!” as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The rest of the class went well enough, with Simon Says proving a popular game. We did a clothes vocab exercise, which quickly became an excuse for the boys to tell the girls to “take off your skirt” (or their little brothers to put on your skirt).
This morning I met someone from the APSARA Authority, the government department that looks after monuments. Catherine had sent them a fax last week requesting the meeting and it looks like from Monday we will be proof reading and translating for them in return for access to the monuments and some special field trips...
We just had ten minutes of rain. C is feeling a lot better today. Rice harvesting continues over the weekend so no lessons now til Monday
G

2009-04-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hot and humid

2009-04-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's 35 degrees and humid, and C has had heat exhaustion. After a day in bed and gallons of water and salts she's out of bed and feeling much better, but still tired and not speaking much.
It's the last few days before the rainy season is supposed to come and cool things down, at least in the evening when it can reach 90% humidity. But for now it's no more cycling around at noon, or clambering up temples. School is closed today as the kids are harvesting rice so we are staying in Siem Reap, close to the pool...
At the temples, the Kmers just ignore the heat, always selling and guiding with the same urgency. The foreigners stagger along in slo-mo with soaking t-shirts and plastic water bottles. Some tourists wrap scarves around their heads against the sun, others are followed about by air conditioned SUVs issuing chilled hand towels. We have opted for straw hats and bicycles, which are breezy until you stop moving. Up next - video of clambering around Ta Keo, a so-called "temple mountain" (the one they didn't finish after it was struck by lightning)
Happy St George's day
G

Faces we like

2009-04-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

Back to work

2009-04-21T04:51:00.000-07:00

OK, enough lazing around it's time for some work now! Our "voluntourism" began today, after a few days of tentative meetings and exchanging messages with local schools.
Catherine is helping develop a curriculum for computer studies at a rural school about to receive a shipment of PCs (see http://laptop.org/en/); I will be trying to teach primary school English.
We visited the Tchey school by rickshaw earlier today with Lori Carlson, founder of the Ponheary Ly Foundation. After a quick tour of the classroom blocks, kitchen, padi fields and various NGO buildings each with their own story, we spoke to our new teaching colleagues and even spent ten unprepared minutes teaching.
More on this to follow, including on Lori and the foundation. Now time to write some lesson plans...
G

Cambodia

2009-04-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls and greetings from Siem Reap in Cambodia!

First of all, thanks for all your replies to my last round robin - I am glad you liked it!

Second of all, I wanted to let you know that from now on you will be able to follow our adventures via our blog:
http://catherine-and-gregs-blog.blogspot.com/
There are just a few posting on it so far but we hope to update it every other day or so. G has just posted something about our time in Siem Reap and a very entertaining video clip from one of our many tuck-tuck rides in India … have a look!

As you will see from the blog, we decided to abandon the overland trip to Thailand and instead flew straight on to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Many of you know that going to Angkor Wat was high on our wish list for things to do during our sabbatical and I am delighted to say that the place is living up to all our expectations. On our trusted little bicycles we have spent the last 3 days zipping around Angkor, visiting temples and each and every time being stunned by what we see ….

While there are certain things that are found in almost every temples – such as some mention of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk – each temple is in its own way unique. Ta Prom is overgrown and many walls are crumbling under the weight of trees growing on it. Ta Keo was struck by lightning during the building work and so abandoned before it was finished, you can quite clearly see where carving work was begun but then given up. Preah Khan is so remote that hardly any one goes there which makes it very peaceful.

G’s post gives you a great idea of what we have been seeing, along with some pictures, so I will leave it at that and say bye-bye now.

Take care all of you and do stay in touch.

Love
Cx

PS: We now have a Cambodian mobile, so feel free to get in touch. Our number is +85517238473

transport in India

2009-04-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

Temples temples temples

2009-04-19T00:02:00.001-07:00

What takes 300,000 people and 6,000 elephants to build, and a week to visit? Angkor Wat, of course, which turns out to be a monument to a king's mother (Clinton cards weren't around then).

Like everyone else who comes here, we've been completely awe-struck by the temples at Angkor. We've visited every day since arriving, biking through the heat and water sellers around each amazing site. The "new" temples from the 10th and 11th centuries are at least as imposing as the European cathedrals from the same time.

Some of them lie in ruins with their stones spread out and numbered optimistically by archeologists from India and Japan. Their half-standing walls and chambers are overgrown by huge “Spung” tree roots (think Narnia, or Tombraider). But others, like Angkor Wat itself, are intact enough to be thrilling.

There are dozens of temples. According to our guide book each Khmer king built more to “keep people busy”, something of an understatement given the weight and carving of each stone block.

The carved faces are undeniably Cambodian – a lady in our restaurant last night was a dead ringer for the god-king face carvings at Bayon – spooky but oddly reassuring.

In Bangkok airport there is a slightly disturbing lifesize sculpture in which two teams of men pull a huge snake apart. This is not a monument to animal cruelty (or a cartoon on recent Thai politics) but a reference to a local creation myth called “Churning of the Ocean of Milk”. It also appears on an intricate 50m long bass-relief carving at Angkor Wat.

In the myth, gods and demons have a tug of war over the snake Vasuki, which is looped around Mount Mandara in the middle. As they tug, the mountain rotates, churning the cosmic sea of milk for 1000 years until it releases the elixir of life (or a very pungent cheese). Apparently the gods and demons were going to share the elixir when it was ready but the gods reneged and kept it all, forcing the poor demons to steal it and setting the scene for all kinds of trouble. I don't know whether ancient Kmers believed it literally but the statue appears at every main temple entrance and gate.

The other bass-reliefs at Angkor Wat are about war and judgment. Mythical gods and demons (again) fight in one, while human armies led by god-kings fight in another. The details of each battle are just as elaborate and grizzly. A further panel on judgment shows good citizens going to a heaven full of semi-clad maidens, and bad citizens being dragged by their noses to a hell packed with carpentry-inspired tortures that make the battle scenes look quite appealing (no wonder they had such a big army).

Today we are taking a break from templing and chilling in our hotel, the dubiously named "Golden Banana", to plan the next phase, working in a local school.

Thailand was revolting, let's go to Cambodia

2009-04-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

Things have calmed down again, after a bit of a scare before tonight's flight from Mumbai to Bangkok. Clashes in Bangkok between "red shirt" protestors and police brought some travel advisories and made us look at alteratives to our planned Thai overland - go via Laos, or fly via HK. But we're flying as planned now, we'll be in Bangkok at 10.20am local time on Weds 15th, and flying straight again at 3.30pm the same day to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

India

2009-04-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Hello my little Woozies and Greetings from Bombay,

G and I have been on the road for over a week now and so, as we near the end of our second “country”, I thought it was about time for me to get in touch and provide a bit of an update on all the exciting adventures we have been having so far ... would not want you to think I am neglecting you all!

We got off to a great start from London, and contrary to all gleeful predications that I would not have learnt from my Kenya mistakes and would once again be carrying everything plus the kitchen sink with me, my luggage weighed in at under 10kg :) yay, I was so proud of myself, although it does mean that I only have five tops and thre trousers to wear and even now, ten days into a three-month trip am distinctly bored of them, hmmm ...

Anyway, as you may remember, we started our round-the-world trip in Helsinki, which was a bit of a shock to the system since it was super cold and meant that we had to wear all our clothes on top of each other to keep warm! But that did not stop us from exploring the city, including its nightlife with dinner at the famous Seahorse Restaurant, which was mentioned as one of the 10-best-dining experiences in the world by the NY Times food critic, and then a pub crawl which ended with far too may G&Ts (me) and vodaks (G, he plans to drink “local booze” wherever we are) in our hotel bar (Thanks for the recommendation, Pia). The next morning we were both feeling distinctly sorry for ourselves but after fresh shrimp soup in the Old Food Market we felt well enough to go for a very brisk walk along the windy sea front before heading out to the airport and our red eye flight to Delhi.

We arrived in Delhi at 4am the next morning and, still somewhat blurry-eyed (a red eye flight after a night of heavy drinking and too little sleep the night before was a tough even for me) clambered into a tuck-tuck to the other side of the city to catch a train straight on to Agra and the Taj Mahal. The train ride itself was uneventful, aside from that fact that as tourists we were quite the attraction and that seat numbers obviously count for nothing ... at the time it did all seem quite adventurous but after our overnight train ride to Udaipur, this one was really nothing to write home about, but more about that later. We got to Delhi and checked into our very nice hotel (Thanks for the recommendation, Lex) and after a shower and a disco nap felt human enough to brave the tourist trail and set of straight for Fatepur Sikri, a palace complex 40km outside of Agra that was abandoned because of lack of water. It was every bit as special as the guide book has promised, even if the tourist toots immediately identified us as “fresh meat” and hounded us relentlessly .... The complex in particularly interesting since the ruler for whom it was built had three wives – one Hindu, one Muslim, one Christian – and each had her own palace within the complex, each designed with her religion in mind. The evening we spent on one of the many roof terraces with a view of the Taj Mahal, eating some delicious Indian food while at the same time being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

The next morning we got up super early and headed out to the Taj Mahal before the swarms of tourists from Delhi arrived ... we had a view of the Taj from our hotel room but I was a little disappointed because it seemed so small, but I was totally blown away when I did then see it up close ...the marble really is translucent and changes its shading as the sunlight changes, it started off being nearly see-through, only a misty shape against the sun, then turned golden as the sun rose and by mid-day was snow white in a bright blue sky. One rather entertaining element of our Taj visit was that I got to feel like a super star, because of the very large number of people who wanted to have their picture taken with me ... at one stage I found myself surrounded by about 20 teenage boys, all clamoring to stand next to me while others took the picture :) We then also visited the baby Taj, a somewhat smaller and older mausoleum with similarly intricate carving and inlays as the big Taj, but a little off the beaten track and so a lot less crowded which made it a really nice experience. After a swim in the hotel pool we got ourselves to the station ready for our overnight train to Delhi ...

OMG, despite very detailed instructions on what seats I should book us, I managed to book us into the ultimate cattle class which meant sharing a tiny cabin with ostensible 9 people, only in our case it was 11, not sure what happened there, no air con, no bin, no windows, no bedding and 9 very hostile people, G was worried I was going to burst out in tears, little princess that I am (just for the record, I did not!!!!!!) ...... Faye, I have learned my lesson well, from now on each email you send me with instructions will be read three times at least and then printed off (on recycled paper) and then the relevant sections will be highlighted.

Anyway, I survived the train ride and we made it to Udaipur, the city by the lake (only, after little monsoon rain, the lake was really more like a muddy puddle) in one piece, checked into the beautiful, heritage Haveli Kankarwa (Thanks for the recommendation, Faye) and had breakfast on a sunny terrace overlooking the lake and the famous Lake View Hotel, setting of James Bond Octupussy. We treated ourselves to an ayurvedic (spelling) massage, which included a holistic diagnosis in which I was told that I have on leg shorter than the other and suffer from stress ... hmmm ... and then spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Udaipur and visiting the spectacular City Palace, which was just like I had imagined an Indian palace to be – lots of courtyards with exotic green plants and fountains, spacious rooms with mirrors and paintings on the wall and beautifully carved balconies overlooking the city below and courtyards within the palace complex. Much like in European palaces, each ruler wanted to add his little touch to the place, so bits were added every few years, but the overall effect is very cohesive and at this stage this palace was the highlight of the trip for me. In the evening, we had dinner on yet another roof top and indulged in one of the key Udaipur experiences ... watching Udaipur in a DVD of Octopussy, very amusing! The next few days in Udaipur were spent with visits to the Monsoon Palace, a derelict palace high up in the hills above Udaipur from where you can seen the most amazing sunset over the hills of Udaipur; to Ahar, the ruler's grave yard full of ornately carved cenotaph's; a cookery class in which we learnt to make my favorite dhal, G's favourite chipatis, paneer and all sorts of other delicious things; a local dance performance, featuring a middle-aged lady with ten pots on her head walking over glass shards; a lazy afternoon by a roof top pool with views over the city, the lake (aka the muddle puddle) and the many smaller palaces and havelis that are scattered around the town.

Sadly I was struck down with a case of “indigestible peas” on our last night in Udaipur, which meant that our drive to Jodhpur (Thanks for arranging that, Jane) the next day was not as much fun as it could have been. In any case, the drive took us through the mountains surrounding Udaipur and passed Kumbhalgarh, an amazing fort in the middle of the mountains (not even mentioned in the infamous Lonely Planet!!!!!! I felt like a real backpacker, venturing off the beaten track ... only I was being chauffeured around by a driver ...), part of a 33km long wall that was some sort of defence system. We also made a stop in Ranakhpur, a Jain temple complex, again in the middle of nowwhere, with 1444 totally different pillars carved out of the snow white marble that is used for almost all palaces and temples in Rajasthan; an utterly amazing sight to see, even more so considering that the marble was brought to the site by elephants from many miles away. We made it to Jodhpur by 9pm, by which stage I could all but collapse in bed.

The good news was that after a good night sleep I was all well again and ready to explore Jopdhur, which was described as being smelly and hot but we found to be neither. First stop on our tourist itinerary was the utterly amazing, medieval fort Merangarh, which is every bit as mystical and amazing as the name sounds (personally I feel Peter Jackson should have given it a staring role in his Lord of the Rings Triolgy, but that's just my take on the matter). The palace, again adapted and added to by each ruler, was even more ornate and intricate than all the other places we have seen and made very accessible by an utterly amazing audio guide which gave us some historical insight and background to the palace and the rulers along with lots of really entertaining anecdotes about what life was like in the palaces along with some local music, fantastic! The narrator was also very entertaining, speaking in this super posh English voice with a slight Indian twang to it ...what a combo! We then walked down from the fort into the town and bazaar, winding our way through the blue houses for which Jodhpur is famous, with me getting my hands hennaed on the way, not quite what I was planing to have done but I was accosted by this little old couple and my hands were painted before I could even say stop :) The next day G and I went on a mad shopping spree, spending hours (and some serious cash) in two “antiques shops” buying some bed spreads, a side board, a wooden box, some sort of storage implement (not sure about that, G choose it), a tin elephant and two over-life-size silver peacocks which have been named Ethel and Dougie ... all the loot will be shipped to the flat in London, so we are told, and should be there by the time we get home .... watch this space! And then all of a sudden our time in Rajasthan was over and we were back on a sleeper train - rebooked to 2tier AC, thank god! An all-together different experience, including a pillow, sheets, a blanket, windows, AC and a full dinner for 20p. Delightful, finally I understand why everyone raves about trains in India. From Delhi, we flew straight on to Bombay where we are now enjoying being in a real home (Thanks for having us, Jane and Len) and will spend the next few days sightseeing before heading off to Thailand and Cambodia mid next week.

Ok, little woos, I have gone on long enough now and G wants to use the laptop ... so I had better say bye! I will try to give regular, comprehensive updates like this but will also try to send you individual responses whenever you email me ...if that isn't an incentive!!!!

Take care and happy Easter egg hunting!!!

Love and Kisses

Cx (aka, die gleine Lala xxx)