Around the world

back again!!

2009-03-10T18:24:00.001-07:00

Feeling inspired to blog again after a 'little' break. Right now I'm on Pelcian, a 65ft research sailing catarmaran. We are nearing the end of a 8 day project working with a film crew shooting a penguin doco mainly around the Wilsons Promitory coast line here in Victoria. Unfortunately the only penguin filmed was a dead one that floated past us :( We have been to a Rockery on one of the little Islands off the coast and saw where the little guys live but conditions weren't suitable for filming. They are quite elusive little guys and being a documentary film maker must be one of the most patient professions around. Rory the main doco guy has travelled extensively in his field and spent 3 months filming for 'Happy Feet' in the Antartic. He has some great tales to tell like jumping over crevases in Ski-doos!

Being the multi-tasking kind of a guy I am, my main role has been..wait for it...'The Chef'! Not my normal gig but hey if i can't be in control of the boat (need extra licences for Aust) then at least I can be in control of the galley...Hmm makes me sound like a control freak..Anyway..Yeah a really important job though! Creations to-date have included home made pizzas, including base, curries, roasts, Greek Salads, nori rolls etc...So far have managed not to run out of anything! I think the hardest part of the role is provisioning as we have only been in a port once since we left, though 'Washpool' really only has 1 pub and a fish and chip cum convieance store that was closed when we were there. Speaking of Washpool, we were hoping to go to the pub on a Sat eve after spending a few cold and rough days at sea to find that it was locals only allowed inside. So we had to get takeaway drinks and sit outside in the driving wind and rain like naughty kids. The morale of the story - don't go to the Washpool pub at 11 on a sat night! Anyway I digress, there were 11 of us at one onboard at one stage but have had 7 for a few days now.

Well it might be summer in the rest of Australia but it has been winter down here. On our first night out of the 'heads' (the entrance to port phillip bay) we had up to 40knt gusts and 5 seas with temps under 20deg. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my sea legs and had the worse sea-sickness I have ever had! I could not move without throwing up. Forget about cooking dinner! Luckily one of the other crew Raf saved my butt in the galley. So far we have had one only one day that hasn't been blowing over 20knts . Yesterday we had a fast sail (avg 9knts) back from the prom to the heads (90 miles) and had a competition to see who could clock the fastest speed hand steering the yacht down waves. I clocked 16.4 knots but the autopilot took the record at over 17knots. There is nothing like catching a wave on a 65ft surfboard! Then last night the winds dropped right down and it was a magic moonlight sail for the last 20 miles or so.

So there are 4 of us crew. Garry the skipper, Raf the mate, Colin the deckhand and of course me. Then there are 3 film crew. Rory on the camera, which is worth 150k including the underwater housing which is custom made and worth 40k, his son Che who is a commerical diver and acts as sharklout while Rory is filming and Ben who occasinally dives, a general assistant and films the topsides on a second camera. Pelican has a 'beach' which is basically a 9' x 6' platform on the stern that lowers into the water and is what we launch the guys off. The guys usually do 3 dives a day with all the gear. As crew we help the divers gear up and get the camera in the water (it takes 2 of us to lift it).

While we haven't seen much in the way of penguins we have been to some pretty amazing seal colonies on the little islands off the coast. On some of them there have prob been 1000's of seals all sunning themselves and generally having a good time. The smell is something else and u can usually smell the islands quite a way off!

So today is the last day of the shoot and we are in Port Phillip Bay. The crew are using a spotter plane to help local 'Bait Balls' - large schools of small fish that attract penguins. Hopefully today will be our lucky day to get some penguin footage. Regardless the crew are doing a second shoot later in the year when conditions are meant to be more favourable.

Enjoy the pix and hope to be bloggin soon!

Damon.

another day in the office....

2007-07-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Mykonos..wow finally a week off and a chance to update this most neglected blog!...this work block was 4 weeks straight....I feel like i've run a marathon...phew...and gawd the year is flying by!

Guess some of u might think what i do is hardly work but the dream job is hard work and long hours sometimes...Especially when u have 10 hours of bashing to windward through wet and lumpy 2m swells, rip not one but two sails, have puking guests to settle, as well as totally unpredictable Greek winds that can be blasting u one min the next not a puff of wind! Challenging and exhausting as it is, it is still fun...

Some highlights from the last month:

Athens to Mykonos with 7 girls roughly my age...There was 8 to start with but one jumped ship on to the waiting ferry on the second day. This was during the heat wave that hit Greece last month. It was 48deg in athens! Unfortunately she got heat sickness due to sitting on the deck all day in the full sun...Made note to explain the risks of sun exposure in my pre-trip spiel.. This turned out to be a legendary trip. It was like we'd all been friends for years and were into doing the same things like not eating out so much and instead bbqing and preparing meals on board. Maureen from GAP head office in Toronto was especially good value and could be handy to have connections :)

Santarini to Kos. On board were a hilarious family of 4 from southern usa, a couple from toronto, he mad professor type who spent 99% of the trip sitting in the cabin tapping out his book on a laptop! She a blond travel agent..Interesting mix. + a Brit and a Candian dude. Did a big detour all the way down to Rhodes. Stunning. Especially the island of simi. Managed to get a beach bbq in under a starry night. Brilliant.. Also hiked into a live steaming and stinking volcano crater on the island of Nisiros. Was really interesting and different.

Finally. Kos to Santarini. A mid 20s cruise with a couple of Aussies, Canadians and a Swiss guy..More stunning island stops. Highlights was mooring eva to rocks in a fjord on the island of kalimnos and hiring cars on Leros and visiting a impressive 11th century fortress perched high up on hill top with commanding views of the surrounding ocean and island..

Have to say while i have gained a little more sailing knowledge, the main thing has been learning about group dynamics. The crew mixes are totally random and u can never predict what unlikely friendships happen. Sunday is a weird day for me. In the morning a group of guys that u've bonded with (and sail trained up) in a confined space over the last week leave and then in the same afternoon you have a totally new bunch of people. Its like have a week long one night stand and then waking up on sunday...hmm ok not the best comparison in the world but kinda of fitting....

So tonight am leaving MYK (mykonos) and catching the 1am ferry to Samos where i'll jump over to Turkey ending up in Istanbul in a few days. Really looking foward to a change of culture and food!

So signing off from MYK....yasis!
ps enjoy the pics from the last few weeks...

pps having trouble reading my usb data key so pix will come in a few days!

A few charters on...

2007-06-19T01:37:00.001-07:00

Hi again,

Is now my week off and i'm spending a few days on the island of Mykonos, which i'm sure everyone has heard off as it is definitely on most tourists radar. Last night there was not one but 5 massive cruise ships visiting! However i've done some exploring on my bike and found some magic spots off the tourist track.

Sooo the last few weeks have been full on. On one of my trips to Kos i had no pax (passengers) so sailed it with a friend, Suzanna from Munich which was brilliant. A highlight was hiking up to the traditional village on Anafi, with stunning views and really off most tourists radar. Also meet this cool old Swiss Guy Eric, who every year sails his yacht around the med for a couple of months solo while is non sailing wife stays home. Nice to meet these guys and not just other charter yachts.

The funny thing was when i arrived in Kos which is in the eastern med, next door to turkey i was told i had no pax for the next charter back and told to sail eva solo straight back to Santarini! GAP can be a bit crazy to work for at times. Eva is pretty easy to sail solo thanks to the auto pilot and being able to handle all the sails without leaving the cockpit. She has a furling main which means that the main sail furls inside the mast rather than sitting on top of the boom. As you'd expect, this is super easy for one person to handle. It took two days and i spent the night in magic cove on the island of Astpalaya with only goats and full moon for company.

Eva got left for a week in Santarini while i took Frank's (head skipper) Virgo up to Mykonos with 2 kiwi girls, one aussie and a new GAP guy as crew. We call Virgo the 'mother' ship as it is the biggest, is fast to motor with its big engine, which it needs as it is a heavy boat with a seperate generator, electric stove and oven and aircond! Is a true Greek boat, more like a house than a yacht..It also has nice 'toys' such as electronic chart plotter, radar, bow thruster and even a microwave. Unfortunately it had a few issues that frank has yet to sort out such as hatches that leak like a waterfall and a leaking fresh water system. Issues asside we had a great trip up and everyone had fun with only 2 wet bunks :).

After arriving in Mykonos the other week it was straight back to Santarini to do the same trip again on Eva. I had a full ship with 8 pax. 6 of those were friends (3 Can, 2 Aus, 1 US) which is good as the hardest thing about working for GAP is not the sailing but managing 8 people who don't know each other in a confined space for a week! Luckily i had two psychologists on board, one a Dr so had good help if i needed it, luckily we didn't. Again it turned out to be a great trip, even though there was literally no wind for most of the trip so we had to use the engine a lot. A highlight was taking the guys to a traditional bouzouki music and dance night a historic Venetian castle on the island of Naxos. Brilliant night.

So has been a great few days being a landlubber again and catching up on much needed sleep and r&r...Later in the week I plan to go to Munich for a few days and then will be back in Athens on Sunday for my next charter back to Mykonos with 7 American, British and Canadian girls! Think i'll have my work cut out!

Yasou!

Damon.

The first charter....

2007-05-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yasis, from the charming port town of Naousa on the island of Paros. This is my week off! Seems strange after only really working for one week to have a week off. Well i did have my so called 'training' week and then delivered two of our other yachts before spending some time getting my 'Eva' ready for her first trip ie buying lots of bits and pieces and wait for it...having to do some maintenance on a very smelly holding tank that is located under my berth! This job is def not all glamor baby! Anyway pleased to say my efforts helped and now the smell is hardly noticeable .

My first charter for the season went well. 4 Candian couples all younger than moir. We started from Athens and headed out to Cape Sounion on the mainland before hitting the islands of Kea, Kithnos, Serious, Paros, Naxos and finally Mykonos. Not big distances as i find sailing more than 30nm is a drag for most people...Highlights were firing up the mini bbq at the stunning anchorage on Kithnos before going to the same beach for some thermal pool soaking and star gazing... Magic!!! The guys were also up for some onboard cooking so picked up a huge fish (forget the name) in a market for 24e (they wanted 240e for a similar sized fish in a tavena) and baking him in the oven! See pic!

Being a bit of a 'shakedown' cruise we had a few things happen including the engine throttle and gear leaver that snapped off in my hand as we were anchoring! The only way to stop was killing the engine and dropping anchor... VERY lucky this didn't happen in a crowded marina!!!! Worked out a improvised a system of hand signal (not entirely unlike a couple of Italians speaking) to one of the guys who was working the throttle and gears manually on the engine which allowed us to continue until we could get a new part shipped from Athens. Another greek drama in itself...pick the part up from here..go there... no part...ring again oh go and meet the ferry...meet the ferry no part...ring again...oh so and so has the part..go back to the shop...part eventually turns up...install the part...happy ending...

We also had every sailing weather type. From calm windless days when i would stop the boat miles from shore and just jump off for a quick swim to, ideal 15-20kt sailing c0nditions (eva does a respectable 8-9kts for the salty readers) to being caught in a serve storm on our last day that closed the Mykonos airport with lightening, squalls, low vis and even rain (something almost unheard of over here!). Got to try out my new swanky sailing gear which works a dream. A few got seasick in the storm and all were sooo happy to see the harbor...Funny the partying was very subdued that last night! Anyway great fun group and the tips were nice!

Not sure what is happening with my next trip from Santarani to Kos as there are no bookings at the moment! So if anyone can make it to Santarani by next sun...

Funny thing today...was cruising around the harbour and 'Eva' turned up with the fill in skipper Walter and his crew! The boat is following me!!!

Ok time to get out of this crazy gaming kid filled cafe!

Yassou from Naousa!

d.

Feeding the fish.....

2007-05-02T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yasis from the island of Kos, a stones throw (6 miles) from the turkish coastline. Its a different experience sailing between two countries. Its a wet and cold afternoon not exactly what i remember Greece to be but then again its not quite summer yet. Strangely enough yesterday was quite sunny and warm and i even braved a freezing dip! So this is the final stop for our delivery of the yacht 'Dimitris' .

Like i said in the last post its just me and the head skipper, Frank from Germany on a boat that sleeps 8 people, sweet! Most importantly Frank has aa great sense of humor and is easy going for a German. He's 'cracked me up' with some of his stories including how he 'crashed' a German mafia dinner party and flirted with the 'bosses' girlfriend and claims he didn't know either. He has also told me some classic stories about the misadventures of one of the skippers from last year. Lucky for all this guy isn't coming back this year. Frank is also a great sailor who knows his stuff. This week was meant to be a training week but none of the other skippers could make it so we've basically been cruising around eating and sampling the local vino! Frank has shared a few useful tips and made sure i know how to sail and go in and out of the sketchy Greek harbors. Its taken us 4 days to get down here. We've checked out the islands of Siros, Amorogos and Kalimions and a few other spots. The islands are looking great with their white houses and blue churches, picture postcard perfect as ever. Even better without the loads of tourists that will arrive in the next few months. I have to keep reminding myself i'm getting paid (including a generous food allowance) to do this. Though on our first day out of athens we had 35kt winds and short and lumpy seas. I had my first ever real taste of sea sickness and ended up 'feeding the fish'! So far this was a one off and hopefully it will stay that way!!

Thats pretty much it. Tomorrow we're catching the overnight ferry back to Athens and on Friday will deliver the 2nd boat. Expect that to take 4 or so days.

Ok its now Wednesday and i'm about to post this. The sun is out today and it feels almost like summer. Have to say Kos is super kitschy package touristy but one thing i like is their is a bike hire place on almost every corner so is great to see all shapes and sizes of tourists out pushing pedals!

Now in Athens, net troubles and couldn't post yesterday.
Just got off the ferry. Good trip and even slept. Hardly anyone on the ferry..

Enjoy the pix.
D.

South America Finale and Greece

2007-04-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hola from Athens!! Arrived from Barcelona about 3 days ago after a very busy last week or so in Peru (more later). The yacht training has been very informal with the main activities being doing yacht handovers (we're chartering yachts from a charter management co and have to basically check all the bits are on the yachts and that everything works) and spending a lot of time checking out restaurants and bars with my boss and the big boss from Spain! Must say Greek food is a nice change from latin!

I have 'Eva' for the season, a 5 year old 50ft Bavarian that is my home and office for the next 6 months. I've been lucky and scored the nicest yacht in the fleet of 3 except for a slight problem which is my berth is above the toilet holding tank! Phew! Hopefully working on a fix...Anyway she's a sloop, 2 sails one up front (Genoa) and the main sail (the main), has not one but two steering wheels, sleeps 8 maybe 9 with all the usual sailing gear. I'm going out with my German boss, Frank on Friday. My first charter is 4 candian couples on the 13th of May..

Greece is a crazy place. The traffic rivals south America in terms of speed and intensity. Unlike SA catching a cab is hard work. On average it takes about one has to stop 5 cabs(thats the ones that will stop) before finding one that wants to go where your going! Most just shrug and drive off if their not interested. Greece is also the last reprieve for smokers. Everyone smokes here and they smoke anytime anyplace! The taxi drivers, the bank tellers, the supermarket checkout people, the girl next to me here in the cafe smoking a cigar. etc...It is also extremely laid back but also can be incredibly bureaucratic. For example their is nice pool next to the marina that i want to swim at. However its not a matter of simply paying the admission fee and jumping in. If i want to swim i have to get a certificates from the dermatologist and the cardiologist, present my passport, provide them with a photo and pay a 15 euro registration fee! Think i'll stick to swimming at the beach..

So thats Greece..Before coming here i spent a couple of days in brilliant Barcelona staying with friends Sandra and Lidia. Sandra was on one of my charters last year and we have stayed friends. Lidia is her flatmate. It was great being able to chat in Spanish this time..

My last week or so in Peru was full on as i tried to do everything! In Copacabana i did a stunning 4 hour hike along the edge of lake Tittica and then got rowed in a tradition fisherman's skiff out to Isla del Sol. He had two sets of oars so i chipped in and it took us a hour or so two cover the 5 k out to the island. It was stunning being on the lake. A magic place. On the island i walked to the south end and stayed at a great little village on the shores, returning to the mainland the next day. Then bused it back into Peru to Puno, also on the lake to check out the floating reed islands before doing the overnight bus to Cuzco. The reed islands were fascinating. The villagers make them from reeds overlayed on top of each other and actually anchor them to the bottom using long poles. It was super touristy but interesting to see how these guys live.

After arriving the next day in Cuzco, i decided in true Damon style rather than doing the usual Macchu Picchu tourist thing i would hire a motorbike and go a back way to this amazing place. I had the bike for 4 days and toured through the scared valley and over a 4200m pass to drop into the jungle and a little town called St Cristobal where its a 2 hour walk to the base of Macchu Picchu along a the railway line that cuts through a spectacular gorge with the occasional magical glimpse of MP. A tough but brilliant tour. The views over the pass were spectacular with the road easily rivaling that of Boliva's most dangerous road. Coming back i had to wait 3 hours for road works and had to ride the final section in the dark. Even with a good jacket and gloves it was FREEZING! I had a friend, Kathy who runs a hostel in a great place called Ollyatambo come and join me on the back of the bike. Was great to have some company.

My Macchu Picchu experience was equally brilliant. I arrived late in the day and only got to spent a hour in the sight before it closed. However apart from a handful of other tourists the site was deserted. It is a magical place not so much for the impressive ruins but the setting on top of the mountain. Bummer but forgot to take my disposable camera so no pics, oh well the memories will remain for life!

Didn't spent a lot of time in Cuzco as i didn't arrive till after 11pm after my 3 hour delay at the roadworks and then had a 76:30 flight the next morning. But it looked like a great place and i can see why its so popular with tourists.

I spent one day checking out Lima before my 14 hour flight back to Spain. A nice city with some impressive buildings and squares. I didn't meet many travellers who like it but i thought it was ok..

Ok have to run and do a yacht handover so yasis from Greece!

Boliva the land of the worlds most everything..well almost

2007-04-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hola from La Paz in Boliva!

The worlds highest capital city at almost 4ks above sea level. It literally takes your breath away! It also has the worlds smelliest trucks and buses that spew massive black clouds as they negotiate the many steep streets, that aside its a great city! Have been here now for 2 days and am heading back towards Peru to spend a few days at Copacabana on the shores of lack Tittica which borders Peru and Boliva. Its been a great couple of days here and have been busy exploring the chaotic and congested narrow cobblestone streets crammed with stalls, vendors, great gringo cafes and restaurants, markets selling loads of potions, llama fetuses and other unidentifiable objects and all set in a 5km wide valley surrounded by mountains. The people are super friendly and there is a large Indian presence that makes it feel very South American.

Yesterday i joined a cycle tour down the 'Worlds Most Dangerous Road'!!..As recently as 2 weeks ago tourist died when he went over the edge while doing a bike tour. A sobering thought.

Luckily the only traffic on the road now mainly comprises of gringos tearing down on bikes since the opening of the new paved road. There are dozens of tour company's offering trips cashing in on the scare factor...So ok i'm a sucker too! Its a 60k decent starting at 4700m and ending up at a little town at 1700m. The route starts on bitumen road that descends through spectacular mountain scenery and ends up on a steep and windy narrow dirt road, with straight 300m drops off into the cloud forest below and with the occasional waterfall trying to wash away the road. It was a awesome ride. There were 4 of us, 2 dutch girls, a English guy that i've been travelling with and me plus our guide. A backup vehicle was also following to take us back up the 3000m to La Paz at the end. It was a great deal, 35us for transport, guide, a tshirt, a photo cd, food along the way and a huge buffet lunch at the end..For bike buffs, our wheels were front suspension treks with much needed disc brakes..

What else...Border crossing from Peru to Boliva was muy tranquillo ...The quickest one i´ve been through, no computer on the Bolivan side to hold things up, just a old fashioned stamp and form! Why are all border crossings in South America over ´no mans land´ bridges, something i've been pondering? And what would happen if u accidentally dropped ur passport into the river while crossing between the two countries?????

Ok now in Lake Tittica...Nice bus ride...Interesting bit was crossing a peninsular. Bus was driven on a very rickety wooden barge powered by only 1 outboard engine then putt putted across the 500m of choppy water! Pleased to say we made it...

Copacabana is a great little town. Views of the lake are brilliant but is overcast,windy and freezing so a good night for curling up in bed with a book....Or seeking refugee in a internet cafe...

Adios, amigos!

Peru...

2007-04-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Have some time to kill while waiting to catch another overnight bus. It is a busy hot night here in Nazca and everyone seems to be out on the streets and in the main square. I literally had dinner on the street tonight - rice, salad, chicken and a drink of ice tea for $1. I´m looking forward to this overnight bus. I could only get on a ´pricey´ one tonight so have a bus cama which means bus bed. Oh and i´m heading to Arequipa, a colonial town in the mountains surrounded by more volcanos. Nasca is famous for huge ancient (around 600AD) drawings of animals and shapes in the desert. The best way to appreciate them is by a 30min flight in small cessna which is exactly what i did today. Incredible. There are many theories as to why they were created but the most popular is they were used for ceremonies and are linked to constellations. They were made by digging channels through the dessert some go on for 100s of meters and all are perfectly straight and aligned. It was really mind blowing to see them from the air.

First, the day began in Hurranchincha, which is best described as a ´Lawrence of Arabia´ type place with dune buggys instead of camels. It is a little green oasis type town with a couple of hotels and hostels and restaurants around a lagoon in the middle of some impressive sand dunes. I arrived the day before from Hurraz, quickly passing through the huge metropolis that is Lima before heading 5 hours south. Içm spending a day in Lima on my way back. Anyway Hurranchincha was great, even if it was a quick stop on what now has become a hectic schedule as i try to digest as much of peru and possibly boliva in a couple of weeks. This am i took a dune buggy tour through the dessert on a machine that looked like it was straight from the mad max set. I was a little apprehensive about tearing though the desert like some bogan redneck but have to say it was a damn fun, aendraline pumping experience as we screamed up and down huge dunes. Some the drops were about 70deg so it felt like being on a roller coaster. Also got to try my hand at sand boarding (same as snowboarding but warmer) down some of the dunes and managed to get down at a decent pace without stacking it. Then i checked out of the friendly backpacker resort (complete with pool) and clocked some more bus hours to here..

Hurraz was great as well. Managed to have two spontaneous adventures. The first was mountain biking around some beautiful mountain lakes with a couple of South African girls, Gail and Nicky i meet in the hostel. One was a doctor and the other a physio so couldn't´t have been in better hands! We taxied it up some 1500ms to the lakes then later descend the 1500ms calling out ´Hola´to all the friendly locals living in the villages and dodging all the excited dogs that seemed to love chasing and trying to scare biking gringos.

The second adventure was a two day hike along the Ishinka track to a mountain of the same name. Once again i hooked up with some fellow hostellers, a nice English and Polish couple, Andy and Maltivia. The walking was brilliant as we hiked through a brilliant forest of twisted trees into a valley only a couple of 100ms wide strewn with massive bolders and enclosed with impressive rock walls. We didn't do a huge amount of walking as it was tough going at 4500m and it was Andy and Maltivias first serious hike in south america. It was a really magical place and the surrounding snow covered peaks were very impressive. Its still the rainy season so everyday at around 2 or 3pm it pours. You can almost set your clock by it. Luck was on our side as we had our camps setup by this time and on day 2 we had just returned from a hike to check out
a huge moraine when it started pelting hail. Afterwards there was about a foot of hail around our tents. Close call..

Along the way we meet lots of colorful indigenous women either driving a few cows, sheep and dogs or spinning wool dressed in brightly coloured shawls, skirts and blouses and top hats. The men were also very smartly dressed with bowler hats, vests, long pants etc. All were very friendly and stopped for a chat to ask us about where we were from and where we were going. It is really great being able to converse a little in spanish.

Peru is a great place. Not only is their unlimited adventuring, most of the people ive chatted to have been super friendly and helpful. There is also a lot of indian in the population and some of the women look stunning. I wish i could spend more time here but April the 18th is fast looming and im keen to try and get a few days in Boliva to cycle the worlds most dangerous road and get really get close and personal with the amazon jungle!

Peru - sin fotos!

2007-03-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hola!

So began today by taking a early am walk along the Huanchaco beach with the Pacifico Oceano crashing in. Love walking along the beach early in the morning, that fresh salty air smelt so sweet...Opted out of a swim as the water was freezing! A shame, would have been nice.. Did have a chat with some fisher dudes and got offered some extremely potent moonshine they called 'Vitamin C'! Stuff was rocket fuel.. Also checked out the one man Torta fishing boats lined up on the beach. The boats are made out of the torta weed and have been made the same way for 2500 years! True...They actually paddle them out through the breakers, catch the fish and then surf them back in making them the oldest surfers.

As i mentioned im in Huanchaco, which is just outside Trujillo which is halft down the peru coast, 8 hours noth of Lima..Its been a made couple of days with many, many bus ks under my belt..Note i must work out how many solid weeks i've spent in buses in SA...I reckon its at least two!

Ok a quick run down:

From the Galapagos i jetted in to Guyaquil, ecuador with new swiss friends Karine and Seb. We had the best sushi i've ever had in Guyaquil (the main reason for going there) before busing up to the southern highland town of Cuenca. Cuenca was a cool colonial town with funky bars, great gringo restaurants and huge shopping malls with multi-cinema complexes! That would put Indooroopilly to shame back home.. Total indulgence...Went and saw the quirky 'Little miss sunshine' and ´The illusionist' both in english with spanish subtitiles.

From Cuenca it was down to Vilicamba, a tiny town in the southern highlands, close to the peruvian border. In Vilicamba we stayed at this great German run traveller resort with swimming pool, bar, cafe with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys for 8 usd a night including breakfast with fresh fruit, yogurt, homemade bread, and eggs and bacon! Sometimes its good to live it up and go gringo! While here we did a horse trek up into the mountains with a kiwi guy, Gavin that runs overnight trail rides to his cabin in the mountains..It was a top trip, my horse was big mountain beast and powered up the hills..Gavin put on a great spread including cocktails...He seems to like a drink or two as we counted no less than 300 vodka bottles stacked up on the side of the cabin. He is planning to build a cabin with them.

Also caught a funky colombian band playing at one of the cafes in Vilicamba. I was relieved to see that they had no pan pipes. Apologies to those pan pipe fans out there but i've been over dosed on pan pipes!

So after 5 days that was only suppose to be two i finally left the German resort with the swissies and caught a overnight bus to peru with a 3am Border crossing! Something different. On the ecuadorian side we had to wait for an hour in the rain and mossies for the police guy to get his computer working then we had to wake up the Peruvian guy. He didn't seem so impressed but let us come in to his country anyway.

So almost there. Arrived at the coastal town of Pirua, said goodbye to the swissies who opted for a flight to lima and then cuzco..Not bus fans like me. Smart.. Then i bused on down to Chacalayo, which has some impressive pre-inca ruins one of which is the famous king of Sipan's tomb that was only discovered in 1987. Went to a impressive museum and checked out the huge find of jewellery, weapons and other aterfacts. There was even dressed up robot indian manicans playing instruments!

Finally today i went and saw the mud city of Chan Chan, a huge 40 sqm site with huge crumbing mud walls, that once contained 10000 structures from huge walk-in wells, canals and temple pyramids to royal places lined with precious metals. Sounds impressive, it was!
Tonight guess what? I'm catching another overnight bus to Hurraz, in the mountains home to some of the best trekking and mtbing in Peru! Then Lima and cusco to some place called Macchu Picchu..

I fly back to Greece on the 18th where i have a skippering job with a Canadian adventure tour company waiting! See www.gapadventures.com should be able to get a mates rate if anyone wants come! Meet the GAP guys last year when i was working for FYLY and got offered a job a couple of weeks ago. Always nice when the work finds u! Actually as much as i'm looking forward to seeing Southern Peru i can't wait to work again and nor can my bank balance!

Ok so that's it...until next time..hasta luego!

Meetings with Iguanas and other Galpagos locals!!

2007-03-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hi there, just got back from the Galapagos Isls.

It was incredible!! A wildlife experience of a life time. Worth every cent. The islands were teaming with wildlife including, sea lions, land and sea iguanas, lava lizards and many different species of nesting sea birds. We snorkeled with sharks, eagle rays, sea turtles and penguins as well as huge schools of fish. Though at times it felt like we were on a tourist conveyor belt with dozens of other boats all landing their passengers on the same islands. The islands are quite well managed with designated paths and in some cases landing jetties (dry landings) otherwise it was beach landings( wet landings) with the boats dinghy. The islands vary from barren less but weirdly shaped volcanic lava to scrubby and sandy with brilliant white beaches set against the back drop of turquoise sea.

Prior to going I trawled through the 100s of travel agents in Quito, checking out the mind-boggling number of tours on offer before finally deciding on a 8 day tour with the ‘Friendship’. Tacky name I know! The ‘Friendship’ is at the budget end (800 usd ) of the scale but what it lacks in flashiness it makes up for in character. She is made of wood and has loads of space for 18 passengers including a great top deck for watching the islands slip by with a pilsener or two.

The trip began when we landed at the tiny but jam packed with US tourists Baltra airport on the main Island, Puerto Aoyra. Walking off the plane and onto the hot tarmac it was obvious the next 8 days were going to be shorts and t-shirts gab. A nice change after the cool and rainy weather in Quito.

After handing over our 100 usd park entrance fee (this trip is not cheap and cost just under 1200 usd!!) we were meet by our the sprightly 69 year old English speaking guide, Cesar before being whisked off to the boat.

Cesar is a Galapagos local and has been guiding on the islands for 28 years so he knows his stuff and also speaks English. His jokes were pretty funny too. He was on board with us for the whole week except for the night we were in Puerto Auyora when he stayed with his 50 year old girlfriend!

The crew of the trusty ‘Friendship’ were brilliant and the food was the best I’ve had in Ecuador, with loads of fresh veggies and salad. Every meal has been different and we’ve even had pizza!

The cabins were basic but comfy enough with aircod and ensuites . A lot of travel between the islands was done at night which made for great sleeping with the roll of the boat. It reminded me of my Greek island touring though instead of 1000s of people on the islands there were 1000s of animal and mammals including birds, iguanas, sea lions and red rock crabs. I shared a cabin with Katrin from Germany. Other, mostly young passengers were from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and there was even a fellow Aussie in there. Halfway through the trip we had a change of passengers when we called in at Puerto Auyora, a chilled fishing town on the main island.

The days began at 7am with breakfast and then usually a walk or snorkel around the islands observing and photographing the very photogenic inhabitants. One of the greatest things about the islands is the complete lack of fear the wildlife has humans. It’s like we were invisible or at other times we were objects of curiosity for the sea lions, blue footed boobies, land iguanas, sea iguanas, lava lizards and sea turtles. The amount of wildlife we saw was simply unbelievable. It really is a wildlife trip of a life time. The islands, although some very barren were literally teaming with wildlife. Cameras worked overtime. Mine finally died but thanks to my crew mates and the fact that i'm now travelling with a second hand laptop i picked up in Quito, I have loads of pics. After our mornings exploring it was back to the boat for lunch and a very civilised siesta. Most days were around 32deg and as a lot of the islands were volcanic rock it got pretty damn hot at times.

In the afternoon there would be more walking\snorkeling. One of the greatest snorkeling trips we did was off a group of rocks a mile or so off island. The sea was literally teaming with fish. Not only did we see schools of colorful fish we also swam with white tipped reef sharks, eagle rays, sea turtles, curious seals and even penguins! We were all blown away. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Another highlight was just sitting on the many pristine white sand beaches while the baby seal pups waddling up to sniff us and check us out. Priceless. On a sad note 10% of pups are abandoned and left to die by their mothers due to lack of food and humans touching the pups. Luckily you can’t go on the islands without a guide and part of their role is to ensure that u don’t get too close. On some beaches there were quite huge and territorial males that were quite keen to let us know that this was their beach!

In Pueto Auyora we also went to the brilliant Charles Darwin Research Station (www.darwinfoundation.org) and checked out there great land turtle and iguana breeding program. A lot of land turlte and iguana populations were decimiated on a lot of the islands due to introduced species such as cats and dogs as well as poaching.As well as some new turtle arrivals they also have some oldies including lonesome George who is the last of his species and unfortunately won’t breed with any females that are closely related. He is 150 years old and is expected too live to 200 and weighs 170kgs! Also while in Puerto Auyora we took a bus up to the highlands and saw some impressive extinct volcanoes and had thee best chocolate brownies with ice-cream at a café!

Phew so that’s how I’ve been spending my last 8 days. I’m going to brave some crazy city traffic to go and post this. From Guayaquil, I’ll head down to Peru possibly stopping at another Ecuadorian highland town called Cuenca en route.

Volcanos, markets, bicycles and pigs...

2007-03-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Phew another busy adventure week gone by. Bused it a few hours north from Quito to the highland town of Otavalo. It is very much on the gringo trail thanks to its huge Saturday indigenous market dating back to pre-inca times. Its damn touristy but great for people watching. The Otavalenos still wear their traditional colourful garb and both the men and women look stunning. Can´t say i actually bought much but there were tons of of tourist orientated crafts, shawls, jackets etc for sale. Made for interesting wanderings as the streets are jam packed with stalls.

The market takes over pretty much the whole town. For me what was interesting was the huge food market that is jam packed with stalls selling the most bizarre looking fruits, others were selling unidentifiable animal parts (not for vegos) not to mention all the people and dogs milling around. There are also lunch stalls selling cheap meals for 1$ or less. The most interesting was the pork one. The front half of a bbq'd pig is displayed in a tray. The head faces the front allowing the attendant to scoop out the meat with her hands and then place it the bubbling juices warmed up at the back end of the tray that is over a flame. Hmm sounds good eh? It´s served on a plate with some maize and salad. So what it means is as u walk along the aisle have 10 or so piggy faces staring out. A bit like those clowns at sideshow alley. Truly macabre. Is a reason go to vegie here...Bummer was having camera hassles so couldn't get a pic of the pigs..

Having survived the markets, the next day i hired a mtb with some newly meet Czech and Slovakian friends to do a ride around the lagunas de Mojanda (lakes of Mojanda) which are in a huge volcano crater at 3700m. We decided not to ride the up the 2000 mtrs to the volcano crater and instead caught a kind of ute taxi! It turned out to be a brilliant day even though it was freezing and overcast up there. Got some great riding in and chatted to some friendly locals on horseback. Coming down the 17ks of crappy, rough as hell cobblestone road i lost it and hit the deck pretty hard and fast! No bones broken but it hurt like hell and lost a bit of skin..was worth it though.

Having made it back to Otavalo on the bike we jumped in a bus and headed to back to Quito. I said good by to my new friends and bused it south to Banos. Banos is another highland town in the middle of the country that is under the shadow of Volcan Tunguracha. In 2000 the volcano was given a red alert meaning that an eruption was imminent and the town evacuated. Nothing eventuated and it was downgraded and everyone returned. Last year there was also an eruption warning but once again nothing happened. Seems like Tunguracha is playing games...Haven't been able to catch a glimpse of this monster as the weather has been overcast and rainy...But being a thermal region there are some great thermal pools in town that i've made use of...

Back on the bike yesterday and did a 60k decent following an stunning gorge down to the amazonian town of Puyro. The views were damn impressive with 200ft drops at some points. A cycleway has been constructed that skirts along the gorge. Also took a motorised firefox type cage suspended by cables across the canyon to the other side and back for the grand sum of 1 buc. Once again camera hassles so no pix..Puyro is a rickety and not that attractive looking jungle town. Was def about the journey and not the destination. The best part of the trip is u don't have to ride back up the 1700 mts or so of hills - u simply throw the bike on top of a bus and watch the hills roll by from the window eating hot chips sold by vendors that do their rounds through the bus!

Tomorrow am making my back to Quito town before i fly out to hang out with some iguanas, turtles, sharks and blue footed boobies on the Galapagos isls! Ended up booking a 8 day cruise on the 'friendship', a small motor boat that takes 18 or so...until next time..hasta luego...

Climbing Chimborazo!!!

2007-02-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Well i´m safely back from my first serious mountaineering attempt...Have to say this was the physically hardest thing i have ever done!!! Didn´t make it to the summit but did make it to 6000m, almost 3/4 of the way up. The last section involved climbing a huge glacier with crampons and a ice axe. It was bloody tough going and i almost made it to the top before hitting the 'wall' and becoming completely exhausted and unable to take another painful step.

We started the hike at 10pm from the refugee so was a unusual experience hiking up a mountain in complete darkness and only being able to see 2ft in front! None of us really got much sleep either as we arrived at 3pm and had dinner at 5 before going to bed at 6!! Don't think i've ever gone to bed that early before! It was a really different weekend experience. There were 7 of us all up 3 guys, one tough english girl + 3 excellent guides!

The conditions were also very tough with near gale force winds blowing and a -15 wind chill factor! Yeeckks..One tough army guy in our group of 4 was the only one to make it up. I saw his one and only pic from the summit and he looked completely miserable so I don´t feel so bad about not making it up!!!

So am now back in Quito planning my next trip - to a somewhere warm and a bit more inviting, the Galapagos islands! Enjoy the pics, hasta semana....

Quito

2007-02-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

Hola from Quito in Ecuador. Have been here for over a week now and am really enjoying it. It's a pretty hectic place with 7 mill living here. The city has a great old area with some impressive plazas and churches. One of which, San Francisco allows u to climb right up inside the spirals and actually out onto a super scary tiny ledge 20 floors up! Of course there are so safety rails just a sign in spanish and english saying 'Take Care'!!!!

The city sprawls along a big valley surrounded by mountains and yesterday i took the nearby telefrico up to a 4100m lookout and then hiked for a couple hours up to the a peak of Pichincha at 4700. It was a great afternoon - I left at 2 and was back by 7! Tomorrow am off on a organised hike up the glacicated peak of Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest peak at 6300m. Its a weekend trip and we cheat a little as we drive up to a refugee at 4800m before getting up at 12am to tackle the summit. I've been chowing down the pasta so feel fully carbo loaded up. Yes this city is the place to do outdoor stuff. NB The South American Explorers Club is a great place to hook up with other outdoor freaks http://www.samexplo.org/

Is also great to be in one place for more than 4 days. Am staying in yet another top and cheap South American hostel with million dollar views of the city for a bargain basement price of $5 a night! Everyone here is super friendly and a lot are teaching english so people tend to stick around for a while. I've been taking spanish lessons with a tutor so will be talking like a local soon!

Coming from Popayan was eventful. It all started when i woke up early and decided to get a early bus. It was still dark and i crazily thought it would beok to walk the 20mins to the bus station. After all the town seemed chilled enough. Wrong. I was just getting my stuff out of the hostal door when this dodgy looking guy called out from down the street and started heading my way. Hmmm i thought and started to make a retreat when the dog belonging to the owner of the hostel shot out from the door and started barking crazily at this guy. The guy responded by pulling out a mother of all machetes (obviously intended to convince me to part with some dinero ) so i speed up my retreat and managed to get mysef and the dog safely back in before closing the door..Moral of the story - always use cabs in south America.. Anyway the rest of the trip was long but incident free. Managed to stop on the way and check out this huge church build in a gorge called San Blas. Arrived in Quito later that night and of course caught a cab to the hostal.

Gotta get some sleep so adios....nb pics coming soon...

D

Eating Dust!!

2007-02-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hola from Popayan, a kewl preserved colonial town, about 9 hours from the Ecuadorian border.

Had a brilliant time exploring the tombas in Tierradentro, the town close to the ruins is called Sand Andres De Pisimblia. Its a pretty small place with some super cheap guest houses and restaurants that were all pretty much empty. The only other tourists i meet in my two nights there were are really nice Chilean couple travelling around Colombia. I actually had a good chat in my spanglish! Think a lot of travellers are put off by the fact that this used to be a big FARC area and its a long and dusty ride to get there. The tombs were excellent and are unique in the Americas. Some were 7m in diameter and a lot of paintings and carvings are still intact. Some are in a staffed park and others are 2 hour walk away up a ridge with spectacular views of the surronding countryside. The dust eating, bone jarring ride in and out was totally worth it!

A story..On the way out of San Augustin, i caught what is called a collectivo and is basically a shared ute or a van that takes passengers were the buses don´t go. So anyway i was sitting in the back of the ute with my pack in its packsack on the roof rack, speeding along when i noticed this huge black ufo flying overhead..Hmm well the ufo turned out to be my pack and in a few seconds it was a couple of hundred metres on the road behind us! Luckily drivers in Colombia are used to swerving to avoid the many potholes, rocks etc on the roads here so it didn´t get squashed and i was able to stop the ute and get it back. Lesson learnt!

So yeah arrived in Popayan yesterday arvo with all my luggage and did some cool recon off the place. Lots of whitewashed old buildings, churches and great leafy squares. The place was half destroyed by a earthquake some 15 years ago but has been remarkably restored. Its quite a big place and modern with heaps of bars, cafes, internet cafes and a uni. This place is totally undeveloped but modern at the same time..

Last night some familiar travelling faces, that keep popping up in my travels and I went out to El Sotareno, which is this great old bar that's been going for 46 years and plays nostalgic old tunes including tango, bolero, ranchera and milonga from scratched vinyls. Not normally my style of music but atmosphere was awesome and everyone there was super friendly. It also has the cheapest beer in town! A top night was had..

Went back into the hills today to check out ´market day´in a little town, a couple of hours away called Silvia. It was cool. Lots of indigenous indians, rock up in the chivas (big old painted truck/bus thingies) to trade their wares and veggies so was very colourful and buzzing...

Tomorrow am leaving Colombia (sob) and going to Ecuador (yeah). Should be about a 9 hour bus ride but on good roads with spectacular views. Have already decided next time i´m coming back to SA am going to do it on a motor bike. Got inspired by a Japanese girl i meet who travelled from Chile, all the way up to Colombia by bike on her own! Impressive...

So signing off from Colombia. It has been a truly brilliant experience with the friendliest and most generous people i have every meet. Not to mention the spectacular country side and archaeology and colonial history...Get over here ASAP!

Hasta luego,
d.

San Augstin and the tomb raiders

2007-02-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

Hola!

Volcano walk didn´t work out due to a problems with the guide...So decided to hit the road again and head down south. Nb camera is alive again after its swim, still no screen but am getting pretty good at shot-guessing..Have also gone and added some pix to last post.

Its a hot afternoon and have just spent a dusty morning riding around to check out some pre-inca archaeological sites consisting of tombs and carved stone statues. I went with a couple of fellow american and german travellers that are staying at Casa De Francisco, a funky hostel on top of a hill overlooking the town. It was great riding, through, farmland, coffee plantations and a little jungle. The horses were pretty spirited so we got quite a bit of a gallop in. All for $6, with guide!

A bit about the sites from the ´go.southamerica.about.com´ website "The sites are relics of a civilization that that flourished and died between the 6th century B.C and 12th A.D.. Thought to be a cultural center and used by a succession of varied indigenous groups that disappeared before the Incas arrived on the scene, this region has several sites with the same type of statues and carvings, but the most important is the site at San Agustín, now the Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín, and listed in 1995 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.

The park sprawls over an area of 500 square kilometers and is considered the largest of the pre-Columbian sites in South America, and brings together cultural influences from peoples of the Andes, Amazonia and the Caribbean groups. Though not much is known of the cultures who created the statues, dolmens and carvings, these relics tell a tale of their own. The lush landscape serves as a foil for statues representing mythical and real creatures, perhaps gods and actual men, as well as the Goddess of Motherhood. There are about 500 statues and tombs are scattered in groups over an area on both sides of the Rio Magdalena Gorge, and there may be more undiscovered to date."

So potential tomb raiders take not of the last bit of the above. If anyone is keen?

Arrived yesterday after a uneventful but windy overnight bus ride from Salento. Managed to find my way up the hill to Fransico´s chilled out hill top retreat. There are several buildings mostly constructed from bamboo and mud brick. Fransico is a French guy, no surprises who arrived here some 15 years ago and setup the hostel. It´s good having a kitchen again and this am had a smothie-off - who could create the best smoothie..My mango, pineapple, banana and yogurt number was a knockout!

Tomorrow i´m heading to Tierradento, which has more archaeological ruins including impressive tombs. Is a 7 hour or so bumpy and dusty ride..yeah!
later,
d.

Salento - a lush mountain paradise

2007-02-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Finally left Bogota after a very,very big night with the hostel crew that involved the local rum and the other stuff that begins with c. Am getting way too old for this but when in rome i guess...Can understand why so many aussies can´t leave that great town and its abundance.

Shared overnight bus with some over `Bogota Escapees' to Armenia (Colombia), arriving at the very wrong hour of 4:30am. Then a short bus ride to the gorgeous Salento situated on a plateau surrounded by mountains and some of the lushest and greenest valleys i have ever seen. The town is small, untouristy and super friendly. People actually come up to us and thank us for visiting their town and country. No wonder Colombia was voted number 2 for having the happiest people (src: mum). The ´Plantation Hostel' ison a ridge overlooking a valley 10 mins walk from the centre. Its run by a super friendly English Tim and his colombian wife.
Yesterday a group of us went for a great hike through some stunning cloudforest at a nearby town called Cocora to see the 40m wax palms that are unique to this area. Tomorrow poss off for a 3 day hike to a 5000m volcano. Bring it on!

Last night a group of us from the hostel went out to play ´Tajeo´. Basically u have to ´throw a metal disc at a clay target several metres away and get points on how close u get to the target. There is also paper envelopes filled with gun powder pasted on a metal ring in the clay and if u hit them the right way..BOOM!!..Interesting and original. The locals playing on the full size ring were very impressive. One of crew is a journalist and is going to do a story on it. I want to bring it back home...Though could have some trouble getting it passed by the police and licensing and gaming authorities, not too mention work place health and safety! U don´t actually get charged to play the game but are expected to buy a few beers. Our crew bought beers and the evil aquadente, a local version of sambucca.

Sorry there are no photos on this post. Unfortunately i managed to get my camera wet so couldn´t take pix. This is after accidentally sitting on it in Bogota and killing the lcd screen! I could still take photos before yesterday without seeing what i was taking! 3 cameras in 1 year! Might be going back to disposables afer this! I´m drying it out now so hopefully it can be brought back to life.

Ok time to get away from the computer and to take a leisurely stroll around town.

Chow,
Global tripper!

Bogota!

2007-01-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hola!

Now in Bogota, the capital of Colombia and wow what a city! Its a funky and vibrant city with lots going on and really friendly locals. There are heaps of great bars, cinemas and markets as well. Parts are a little dodgy and there is some very shady people getting around. You just have to use some commonsense. The flip side of that is there is hardly any tourists here. Anyway arrived on Sunday and am staying at a hostel right in the centre of things next to the old town. The hostel is full of aussies and is really friendly and homely.

The city is a surrounded by a spectacular rim of mountains one of which has a monastery with access via a cable car and funicular. Speaking of views, I took a lift up to the top of a 46 story building in the middle of the city on sun and the views of the metropolis (7 mill live here) were superb. I even got to look down on a bullfight in process saving the 20 bucs entrance fee but didn´t really get into it. Also on sun, they close the major roads and everyone jumps on their bikes and rollerblades and hits the streets! There is also heaps of markets and street performers.

Today I went to the police museum which was interesting. Especially the exhibit on Pablo Escabar who was won of the biggest cocaine lords. At one point the cartels were so cashed up they offered to pay off the country´s 6 billion $ foreign debt in exchange from indemnity from prosecution. The government thought about it but then said no and all hell broke loose. Anyway Pablo was shot by police in 1993. Got to see some gruesome pics plus his $120k gold plated Harley! The museum also has a alarmingly huge collection of guns and weapons!!

From Santa Marta
Caught the overnight bus, with aussie mate Narelle, down to a little colonial town called San Gill which was very relaxed and had a true ´local´ favour. On the bus down i found i had a little ´friend´ from the lost city on a very intimate place - i had a tick on my d_ck!! Pleased to say i got the little sucker off asap (in the bus loo)! After San Gill we went to a Barichara, a even smaller town completely untouched by the 20th century with cobble stone streets, stone churches and beautiful white washed colonial houses. Really pretty stuff.

From San Gill it was 6 hours bus to Villa De Leva, another town completely untouched by modern architecture. With cobble stone streets, a huge square, cute houses, super friendly locals, a huge sat vegie market all set against a great mountain back drop. Being only two hours from Bogga its hugely popular on the weekend and has tons of great bars and restaurants. While we were there they had a astrological evening with telescopes setup in the main square and home made rockets being shot up into the evening skies. Colombia is cool! Also hired a bike and did a ride around the countryside and visited a awesome monastery built in 1620.

So from Bogota the plan is to head south west to Salento, which is famous for huge palm trees and then to Cali, the salsa capital. Plan to leave in a couple of days if i can get away from this rocking city!!!

Hasta luego!

Indiana Jones and the lost city...

2007-01-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hola from San Gill, a pretty little Colombian town in the mountains 12 hours south of Santa Marta and halfway to Bogota. Just arrived today after a bumpy and windy overnight bus trip. Needless to say am feeling a bit ´zombied` out...

So yeah made it back from the 6 day lost city (Cidudad Peridia) hike. Was brilliant!!!..Complete with Indian villages, snakes and paramilitary..The hike is a reasonably tough trek with some steep never ending sections through heavily cleared areas to remote virgin rain forest. The area is heavily controlled by paramilitary and we passed through their ´posts´ on route. While some of them were friendly their not the sort of guys u want to upset or meet in a dark alley! I learnt that they are actually employed by some of the wealthy landholders in the region to keep the guerrillas away so i guess they were on our side. While being illegal the government turns a blind eye to these private armies as they do a pretty good job that the government doesn´t have the resources to do.

Back to the trek. I´d never done a organised hike before where all food and gear is carried for u. But in this case it is the only way to do it and was good fun. There were about 11 of us all up, a couple of other aussies, swiss, german, canadian, english and a colombian. So a real multi-cultural mix. Everyone got on well and i meet some great people. We had great nights playing cards, stirring each other and generally just mucking about. Accommodation was in purpose build cabanas with open air kitchens and space for our hammocks. Food was lots of rice, pasta, vegies, tuna and dodgy salami type meat. We had two porters and cooks and a guide. Horses were used to carry food in to the first 2 camps. Our guide, Omar was very knowledgeable and entertaining.

The Tayronian Indians who inhabited the lost city (Tayrona) were the most advanced indigenous groups in the region. They had evolved complex social and political systems as well as advanced engineering. It´s believed the city was abandoned in the 14th century when the spainards came and decimated the local indigenous cultures in their search for gold. Surveys have found about 300 other cities in the surrounding slopes with Tayrona being the ´capital´. Today it is still very impressive. It is set on a steep ridge at 1500m and has some 1300 small stone steps to climb! A great leg work out.. As well as lots of steps and paths there are lots of round house sites and there is even a map of the city carved into a rock.

Our camp at the lost city was set in a spectacular jungle setting close to the ruins. There were a couple of other groups doing the same trek so in total there was about 30 of us staying there. I think the lack of other tourists and amenities is what made it really magic. We spent one night there before returning via the same route. It was a lot quicker going back and we probably could have done it in a day less but it was nice hanging out in the group, swimming in the many creeks, teaching the local kids how to make water bombs, sharing meals, playing cards etc.

I´m travelling with a fellow Aussie, Narelle from the hike so is great to have some company. The plan is to spend a few days checking out some of the colonial towns on the way from here to Bogota. Then from Bogota i will make my way down to Ecuador where i´m hoping to check out the amazon and get out to the Galapagos islands! This trip keeps getting extended. I´m also considering ditching my return ticket home and poss going back to skippering in Greece or possibly Croatia for the European summer season. So have some serious thinking to do. Australia is great but just so far away!

Hasta luego,
D.

Back in Santa Marta

2007-01-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hola again,

Now back in Santa Marta after 5 days in the lovely Cartagna, a couple of 100ks west of here.

Cartagna fascinating. It used to be the main port for shipping all the stolen indian gold back to Spain. For this reason it was also a repeatedly attacked by pirates and other nations jealous of all Spains stolen Indian bounty. The Spaniards responded by building some pretty impressive forts and circling the city with almost imprenitable inner and outer stone walls. Today a lot of these walls are still left and the forts are still standing. The old city has also been well preserved with many colonial buildings, paths and squares. It deservedly gets described as one of the most impressive and beautiful cities in south america. It is also a bit of a gringo capital and i haven't meet so many aussies since back home! Funny how aussies are always in the dodgy places.. There is a lot of cocaine here and the expected shady characters lurking around waiting to pounce on gringos..The hassle factor was pretty big here.. Meet some great people and did some big partying (i'm def one of the more 'mature' backpackers around) as well as visiting some of the stunning surrounding beaches and islands.

Have backtracked to Santa Marta as have decided to go on the lost city trek to 'Ciduad Peridia' with a a fellow traveller i meet in Cartagna. Its a 6 day hike and i was a bit apprehensive about having everything carried for me and someone cooking for me! However, this is the only way one can do it and it provides jobs for the locals and there is a rumour that part of the fees go to the local guerrillas in the area! Besides the 'city' is supposed to be spectacular and was actually the capital of the Tayrona Indians.

Until next time...hasta luego!
D.

Colombia!

2007-01-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hola from Santa Matra on the coast in North Colombia! Safely made it over the venezualian border from Coro. It took about 12 hours in a bus, shared taxi (huge old chevolete) and another bus.. Every since crossing the border have been pretty impressed with colombia and is living up to the great expectations passed on to me by other travelers. People are super friendly and helpful here even for a gringo speaking broken spansih! And people actually smile here.. Coming from the border there were several military/police/and drug police check stops. All with heavily armed guys but really friendly and i generally feel much safer here than in Venezuala.

Funny story to tell. In the colombian bus as i was watching one of the many dodgy dubbed war/action movies that play on most buses in SA while there was some tank action on the screen I happen to look out the window to see a real tank parked on the side of the road!!! Was a little surprised and had to blink twice..

So far have spent some time checking out the beaches here and spent a night in the Tayrona National Park which is a huge park along the coast and has postcard beaches and mountain scenery. Hooked up with a couple of kiwis and a German and camped on the beach last night even though i was intending to only do a day trip in the park..It was just too damn nice to stay for only a day! Did some hell man body surfing in 2m of dumpy surf with Matt from NZ. It was great to be back in surf again. Access to the park is by foot but there are a couple of huge camping areas complete with restaurants, cafes and juice bars. Everything is brought in by horse. At first i was a bit 'oh my god this place is so packed out, i would never stay here if u paid me too' but after spending a night there and listening to some local musos play a session with everyone getting into it, i'm converted to camping in mass!

So that's about it is really hot here so am going to go for another dip followed by a couple of the local brews...

Tomorrow its off to Cartenga further west along the coast....

Venezuala the land of oil, big cars, beauty queens and cheap plastic surgery

2007-01-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ok one of my NY resolutions was to get back into blogging so here i am, all fresh to go with lots to tell...Currently am in the pretty colonial town of Corro in Venezuala! My fav town so far..Tomorrow i'm off to colombia as i have heard very good reports that the scenery is spectacular and people really friendly (those that don't want to kidnap you, ok bad joke) . While i've enjoyed Venezuala the people are sometimes 'hard work' in that they are not overly friendly or helpful.

In Greece
From Delhi it was a flight back into the 'normal' western world. Greece, where i managed to score my dream job in 4 days after some ´dock walking´. I was skippering yachts for a charter company in Greece and was getting paid quite well to basically sail to fantastic islands (there is almost a 1000 all up in Greece alone), swim, eat and entertain! My clients were from France, Spain, US and Canada (this charter was moir and 7 girls, tough job i know!) The yachts i sailed were really well appointed and ranged from 40ft to 50ft. Every trip was on a different yacht. I got to meet some great people and did some visiting after the season in france and spain. The season in Greece ended in October and i spent a couple of months (and way too much money) travelling through Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. I really loved Rome and Barcelona. Rome for the impressive ruins and Barcelona for the funky scene. Lisbon was also a great laid back city. As impressed as i was with all the history and culture i was missing the outdoors, guess u can take a aussie out of australia but u can´t take the australia out of the aussie! So it was then off to answer the calling of the jungles and mountains in Venezuala where i´ve been since the start of December.

Venezuala
Petrol here is about 20cents a litre! However new cars and spare parts are heavily taxed so what u get is a lot of really old big cars that are falling apart...Once on a bus trip there seemed to be a constant string of broken down cars or bits of cars on the roads including a fuel tank that fell off a old truck in front of us! Anyway during my time here i have:

Survived 2 days in crazy Caracas which is like a India meets America. Hung out in a great fishing village called Puerto colombia surrounded by the jungle of Henri Pitter national park.

Went on tour in the catacombs which is a huge lake where villages are built on stilts and the area is famous for its nightly lightening shows. The tributaries are full of monkeys, birds and the hugest butterflies u have ever seen. Our guide was a renowned butterfly expert and teller of really bad jokes.
Survived election madness. Elections were held a couple of weeks ago and political fever gripped the country at some times fanatical levels. There was utter chaos in the streets with convoys of cars, trucks and utes complete with pa systems in the tray blasting out salsa music crusing the streets. Not to mention the constant explosions of firecrackers being set off by kids. The chavez government got back in which was a relief as no one was quite sure what would happen if it didn´t.
Spent 6 hard days doing a solo hike in from the mountains of Andes to the low lands. The trek when through this great semi-abandoned village called El Carrizel, complete with church, school and a village square. It was 2 days walk from the nearest road surrounded by the jungle. Also meet some great permacutlure people that were looking for native bees that are being threatened by the introduction of african killer bees. Hung out yet again in great student town and adventure capital called Merida.
Finally just did a great hike up MT Roramia which was the inspiration for Arthur Conyan Doyle´s novel, ´the lost world´. It took 4 days and involved walking through a lot of hot open country (thank god for mp3) then scrambling through the jungle to the top. I went with a interesting American couple (Elane is teaching english and Ethan is doing his masters in oceanography) and our compulsory guide, Ray. Unfortunately Ethan developed a fever on the way to the base camp so didn´t make it to the top. I ended up spending two days camped on the top. I wasn´t alone as there were heaps of groups up there (some 4000 people climb up every year)!

Hitchhiked from Santa Elena, 15ks from the Brazilian border to El Pauj, which is a little community 70ks down a dirt track famous for honey and diamond and gold mining. Travelled with a Argentinian guy, Pablo who is a splitting image of Che Guavera. Had some interesting rides on the back of battered old landcruisers and found that venezualians drink almost as much beer as aussies but only when their driving!
From El Pauji we walked to the Albasimo, where the grann sabana ends and the amazon begins. It was spectacular.

Finally for new years got ''adopted'' at the bus station by a local family and spent it with them and their huge extended family in their village called La Cruz in the mountains. It was lots of fun and total spanish immersion as no one in the village spoke any english! Its funny over here as the celebrations don't really start until after 12 and then the salsa and dancing starts...

Ok that's a biggie but have caught up now. Stay tuned for colombia coming soon!
Damon ..

A long time between posts! India finale....

2006-09-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

Gawd it's been just on 2 months since my last post. Wow time does fly. Am now in Athens, Greece working as a skipper for a local charter co. If ever being at the right time in the right place it happened to me when i rocked into Athens fresh from the highs of Laddakh. Anyway will do a seperate post on Greece soon!

Leh the capital of Laddakh was an extremely captivating to say the least. I seriously couldn't leave and ended up splurging on a flight from Leh to Delhi only 3 days before i was due to fly out of india and 4 days before my visa expired! Apart from meeting the friendly and hospitable locals other highlights included:

1) witnessing the Hemis Tao festival. Where traditional buddhist evil-warding dances were performed. The festival ran for 2 days and featured hundreds of masked dances and tibetan horn and drum playing musicans. As much as it was traditional it was for the tourists with only a handful of locals present.

Staying in the monastery was also a great experience well except for a 2am emergency toilet dash that didn't quite have a happy ending and a certain person was running around looking for a tap (Laddakhi toilets are a whole in the ground sans water, even inside the houses) to wash himself...Enough said on that one! On a more positive note i made some 'monk' friends and got to share an insight into monastery life. It is quite common for at least one family member to become a monk and as it invovles young boys moving out of their homes and into the monastery. A few westeners expressed shock at the boarding school similiarites. However most monks i meet really enjoyed the experience and valued the education!!!...How different to the west...

2) So after serval days of quite meditation and contemplation in magical Hemis it was time for a adrenlian hit..It came in the form of hiring a 125cc Honda Hero and going for a little tour over a 5500m mountain pass! The highest motorable road in the world if u believe the signs and trust me it was damn high! There was snow at the top and the 'road' resembled a creek at times. The little hero performed well apart from a bit of 'missing' near the top as it suffered minor altitude sickness. Pleased to say the rider was unaffected...Think it would have been different if i'd chosen my preferred two wheel option - the bicycle. Zooming down the other side of the pass was magic - sweeping winding curves, no traffic and a stunning mountain backdrop. I took soo many photos. Then it was 3 days exploring the lush nubra valley before returing back over the pace. Though this time the wheather wasn't so kind - snow! By the time i got to the pass my fingers were frozen solid thanks to my woeful gloves. Luckily there was a canteen that i almost rode through the door of where i was able to seek much needed relief from a hot cup of maggi noodles - indian masla flavour of course!!

There is also some great meditation and yoga options in Leh that i checkecd out..Def one place to come back to...

My splurge on a flight was well worth it. Not only did it save 3 days of road travel (flight was only 1 hour!) but flying over the himalyas was beyond words...see pix...Everyone must do this once in their life....Also sat next to the director of conservation in Himalpradesh (an area where i had previously hiked in) so made for interesting converstation.

Delhi was a made 2 day rush but managed to see the national muesum, railyway museum, a couple of temples and made it out to Taj Mahal. I meet some spanish girls when booking my train ticket so had some great travel buddies for the day. I enjoyed the taj but it was so so hot (40+) and we made the mistake of going in the middle of the day thinking we could get back in later...wrong..Oh well still got some great pics but didn't get that sunset pic i'd been hankering for. On that night it was back to Delhi on the super fast train then out to the airport to catch the 2am flight to athens... I was so shattered i actually slept on the plane....

Already have plans to go back to India. It feels like i only scratched the surface of what is a truly amazing, out of this world country!

Leh...

2006-07-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

Hi from Leh, the capital of Ledakh in the north west of India. Leh is a little oasis set against
the back drop of the himalaya. It has a large Tibetan population and has a long history of
Buddhism. Yesterday some travelers I meet a long the way hired a minibus and visited a few
impressive monasteries , one dating back to the 7th century, in the area. There is also some
impressive hiking options in the area that I def want to explore next time I come back. NB I did
the inevitable and changed my ticket to the 18th of July to give me some time to explore this
area..I'm sure i'll get out of India one day!

There are two ways to get here, one from Kashmir and the other from Manali, both are epic
mountain journeys to say the least! We came from Kashmir way and the road passed through some dramatic moon-like mountain scenery. More about the trip later...First Dharamasala..
After some dodgy stomach action and a really bad cold i was able to get out of my sick bed and
make it to 2 sessions of the Dalai-Lamas reading at the main Tibetan temple. It was a great
experience to see the spiritual leader of Tibet and he really does not stop smiling and cracking
jokes. He passed within 5m of where i was sitting when his entourage left the temple after the
reading. The place was packed and foreigners had their own special area. His speech was
translated and broadcast on FM radio.

I really enjoyed Dharamasla mainly due to the really friendly and laid back Tibtetans. Not that
Indians aren't friendly, it's just a bit more hectic and manic in Indian towns. The monastery we
stayed at was also really friendly and would have been perfect if I hadn't had my camera pinched!

Someone else had the same thing happen to them too..Actually picked up a nice little sony number in Srinigar so more photos coming!

Ok so from Dharamasala it was a long bus ride to Jammu then a over night trip up to Srinigar in
Kashmir. Spent a couple of hours in Jammu and was glad to get out as not a lot to do and a very
strong military presence in the streets gave it a 'unsafe feel'.

The overnight bus to Kashmir didn't actually drive all night (which is a good thing in India) and
we stopped at a Dhaba (kind of like a Indian fast food cafe) where I was able to unfurl my
sleeping mat and grab a couple of hours sleep on the floor..Something different! The thermarest
has been one of the best things i've brough to India as some beds a no more than a blanket on a
wooden base!

In Srinigar I stayed on a two houseboats on the huge lake in the town. This is truly a water world with 1000s of permanently moored houseboats from huge floating palaces to crusty pirate boats! There are even floating shops that u can buy almost everything from. Unfortunately the owner of the first houseboat was very snakey and kept telling little lies that eventually started to add up. I moved off the next day and stayed with friend Natalie on a really nice houseboat run by a really hospitable and honest family! Apart from just chilling out on the boat also went to a floating market, checked out some mosques and gardens and as mentioned bought a new digital camera!!...Srinigar has great shopping!

Of course i should mention there was a pretty messy war in Kashmir not that long ago and there is the occasional insurgency. Needless to say there was a super heavy military and police presence that gives the place a 'city under seige' feel. At first it's a bit unsettling to see heavily armed soldiers and armored trucks driving around but after a few days u tend not to notice it so much...

From Kashmir a group of us took a bus to Kargil on the way to Leh. It's a two day trip to Leh (actually we made it 3 day as we wanted to stop at a little town on the way called Lamayuru) unless u have a death wish and take a 'rally' jeep to race through the windy mountain roads in one day. Kargil was nice enough, meet some photogenic kids and spent a couple of hours checking out the city. This town also is super close to the Pakistan border and unfortunately gets shelled when relations between India and Pakistan aren't so great. Luckily things were good the day we were there!

After a night in kargil and recruiting another group member to come to Lamayuru, we ended up taking a more 'interesting' transport option - we hitched a ride in a truck! It was definitely the more scenic way to go as we made a dozen stops on the way and it took 12 hours to go 100ks! This was not helped by the fact that we had to wait over 2 hours for two tow trucks to pull up a truck that had gone down a cliff! Luckily enough the truck didn't appear to be that badly damaged and i don't think the driver was seriously injured.

Laymayuru was a great little town in a valley with a really nice monastery. Apart from the
monastery there wasn't much else to do so next day we caught a much faster travel mode, a jeep to Leh.

Phew and here we are. Planning to spend a couple of days staying in a monastery just out of town. There is a traditional Tibetan festival happening over the next couple of days. Should be great!

The Golden Temple - Amritsar

2006-06-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Dharmasala - the home of the Tibetan govt in exile and also home to his holiness the Dalai Lama. Visited the latter's residence today but he wasn't in...Did see the main temple and got to witness the monks debating in the main courtyard. Very animated and entertaining. Dharmasala is also home to hundreds of backpackers and there is every imaginable western convienience. Even went to a authentic french cafe and had a scrummy omelet...

Have been here for two days now and is quite a nice change to be in the cool mountains again after the hot plains. Had yet another never-ending train ride to Amritsar from Rishikesh - but it was so worth it! More on Dharamasla in the next post.

Amritsar is home to the stunning Sikh Golden Temple. The temple is surrounded by a huge lake
full of giant goldfish and a marble walkway goes around the lake. So anyway it looks pretty damn impressive. Like Varanasi, the people watching is superb as literally truckloads of pilgrims flock here to visit this important Sikh site. Observation: In India people ride in trucks instead of cows! Back to the temple...It is also where Sikh extremists, who were wanting a separate Sikhist state occupied the temple in the 80s. Indria Ghandi, the prime minister at the time sent in the tanks and considerable damage was done to the temple. Not surprisingly she was later assassinated by her Sikh body guards a few months later. Hmm u'd think she would have fired these body guards after she ordered the tanks to be sent in, given the history of gallant fighting by the Sikhs.

Anyway, not only is there an amazing temple to visit, but u can also stay at the Golden Palace. Well, actually its not exactly a palace - is a dormitory but was air cond! Indians also stay here in the courtyards and in cheap accom. I ended up staying there for 4 days...

As well as free accom there is free food served in this massive eating hall that feeds 30,000 people a day with approx 600 at one time...Eating here was an incredible experience and it operates 24hrs a day run by a team of vollies!

Amritsar is also located a hour away from the Pakistan border. Every evening there is this border closing ceremony that can be descibed like a indian cricket game! Thousands of punters turn up to watch the biggest, best looking and most colourfully dressed guards march up, chests out, to the border, shake hands with their Pakistan collegaues then lower the flags before slamming shut the gate. A true spectacle with all the Indian singing and dancing!

I definitely got my fix of the 'real' India..Oh and on a not so great footnote - i got my camera stolen in from my room in Dharmasala. Wasn't so attached to the camera but had heaps of pics on the card...Arrrgghh! Luckily friend Natalie whom i travelled with from Amritsar had some pics i could grab...

Leaving Rishikesh

2006-06-12T02:59:00.000-07:00

Well, in finally did it..manged to leave this place. Am on a overnight train tonight to Armistar which is near the Pakistan border and home of the Golden Temple. Have 9 days left so figure i should get back into the 'real India'..

Today went for a look into the ashram where the beetles stayed in the 60s. I had to sneak from a whole in the fence as the place is abandoned and locked up. It dozens of these amazing looking egg-shapped fully self-contained meditation domes. Very bizaare and errie place...

Anyway hiking adventure posts below and have also added some more pics from the Tapovan trip.

The big trek...(part 1)

2006-06-11T03:36:00.000-07:00

Back in HQ Rishikesh after a epic 9 day trek in the Indian Himalayas with friend Liran. It was sensational - mountain passes, alphine forests,remote villages it was all there! We actually combined two treks, the Kuali pass and part of Rup Kund. Ok so those names won't mean a lot to most....
So as I'm a right brained guy here is a day by day detail of the trip...

Day 0 - Rishkesh to Joshimath..
Up at 4am to catch a 5:30am bus...Slight problem when i got to the bus station - realised i left my camera at a internet cafe the previous night when the power had gone off...Bugger...so back to the internet cafe and of course its closed...Anyway waited around and eventually got the camera and then was back at the bus stand by 7:30 only to find there were no more buses for the day! Strange as there is usually a heaps of buses a day to most destinations.. So after some impromptu travel planning managed to figure out a way to get to our dest by serveral buses and share jeeps. Guess the good thing is we got to stretch our legs a lot changing transport modes! Oh and yes the dodgy stomach thing was back after a 6 week absense..great! Anyway after many stops we finally got to Joshimath with no accidents on my part.

LP (lonley planet) describes Joshimath as a 'ugly administrative centre'. Hmm we found it to be a really interesting place in the mountains with a great deli with a huge array of imported stuff including good old muesli bars from Aust.. Point taken - do the opposite of LP and go as won't be any backpackers there..*I take a sip of chai - prompty bought to me while i type... so love this country*..ok so the only 'ugly' thing about Josh was the really bad music from the nearby temple blasting us from out beds at 5am in the morning (that was after the 4am chai wake up call - nice gesture but just a little early.. Anyway thought i'd give my tum a chance to redeem itself so spent the next day resting and checking out the town.

Day 1 'The Leg killer' Joshimath to Tapovan - then Kuari Pass.
So finally we were on our way after a quick windy jeep ride to Tapovan (different one from last trek). Tapovan was a dusty and hot place with not a lot happening. After some last minute chocolate supplies we were on our way up and up and up...roughly a climb of almost 2000ms to the Kuari pass which is something like 4300m depending on which map you read. We passed through our first of many traditional and friendly Gwalaee villages. Not much has changed in these villages and the people still tend to their cows, buffaloos and crops as they have done for hundreds of years. Most of the houses were traditional mud brickwith thatched roofs made from straw. However, in later villages the houses were more modern and some had basic government subsidised solar lighting systems.

After about 7 hours of hiking we arrived at out campsite - a lush meadow just below the pass with a bubbling mountain stream and views of the Nandi Devi range of moutains. Stunning.

Day 2 'Where is that bloody pass' Dakani,
On the way up to this pass that just appeared to be over the next rise but never was, we meet a great group of Indians from the Gujrat Himalya Adventure club who were here on a 'family' trip! Having said that of course they had the full entourage of porters, ponies and cooks unlike us who were porter, cook and guide in 2 ...It turned out they were camped only a couple of hundred meteres from us. Really enjoyed hanging out with these guys and after 100 or so photos we bid them farewell and continuned on our merry way. We had lunch just below the pass with the 16 year old entreaprenur potato wholesaler Ashesh who also comes from a sheep herding hertiage. Really bright kid who spoke excellent english and had a great geopraphical knowledge.. Oh and by the way lunch that day was hot chocolate and tuna and cheese sangas..yum!

We camped just below the pass in once again a nice meadow with moutain views. Later that night it rained and slept like a baby with the sound of the rain on the tent..

Day 3 'Happy Birthday Liran' - Downhill run to Jinghi
Liran spent his 32nd birthday in the mountains - magic. We started the day with a Jelly birthday cake complete with Kit kats and candles. After breakky it was a down hill run to a very impressive waterfall where we had a 'quick' (read: freezing) swim before acending to more meadows and pine forests and then descending to a shepards camp near the village of Jenghi. It had been getting gloomier all day and the second after we setup the tent it started raining. Perfect timing...this happened more than once..think the mighty lord Shiva was on our side.

Had some cute little visitors later that afternoon and they even danced as sang for us as we sat in the tent sheltering from the rain. That evening we had dinner brought to us (for a small fee) by some a crew that were building a lodge nearby. It was great to have fresh chapatis, rice and a soybean curry! We even found a little cave under a couple of rocks neary by and were able to have dinner out of Liran's cosy but dry tent. I also made Liran a Snickers and jelly treat for his bday...

Day 4 to Jingi - 'The Enchanted forest'
A crisp and misty morning. Stomach still dodgy..Had a great meditation in the 'cave' nearby. Then after breaky, some more downhill followed by a walk through some stunning mist shrouded forests. Meet a few friendly cows along the way. Was great to meet country cows that ate grass as opposed to al the urban bovines that eat everything but grass. Some great valley views enroute too. Passed a couple of big groups going the over way including 12 germans and 3 swedish. Unfortunately this was not the Swedish Women's beachvolley ball team that Liran and been assuring me were in the moutains waiting for us. Boys will be boys i guess...

Moving right along we arrived at the super photogenic village of Jingi at lunch time and after ordering a great lunch of rice with dal and a spinach like plant that tasted incredible and grows in the mountains, it rained. The afternoon's hiking was promptly cancelled which was a wise descision as it really pissed down that night.

Day 5 Jingi to unamed pass? 'I'm only happy when it rains'
Woke up to rain and so good not to be camping..By 11 still raining so we set off on a light rain break..A big ascent up to the next pass in the soaking cold rain. Really got test out my wet weather gear - those rain pants i bought in uttakashi seemed to be wetter on the inside than the outside..My pack is also not as waterproof as i thought but luckily everything didn't get totally waterlogged. Anyway after lots of trudging up paths that had become raging torrents and a 30 second lunch break of dry bikkies we came to the pass. Once again what a great place to camp. Liran was not convinced of the idea as was still raining. Then this really strange thing happened. A couple of hundred meteres past the pass we found a old abandoned village and one of the huts was realtively waterproof so was decided to camp here then wait for it - it stopped raining and the sun came out in the space of 5 mins. I have never seen anything like it before - one minute really pouring, set in rain the next bright sunshine. The roof and the walls of the hut quickly became a washing line with all our soaking wet geat hung out to dry. I got my way in the end as we ended up going back to the pass and camping in yet another great locn with top views. The rain held off to and next day was hot and sunny...

Continued..

The big trek...(part 2)

2006-06-10T02:56:00.000-07:00

Day 6 "hello sunshine" Unamed pass to just outside of Ramni.
Spent a top morning at the pass soaking up the rays before descending down to the town of Geri. First part of the descent was great - not too steep, views, lush forests etc. Second part was knee jarring hell - very steep scree (loose rocks) and really hot as we were going down at least 1000 mtrs and stomach still dodgy so not feeling 100%. Anyway finally made it tired and 'over-it' down to the village of Geri. A friendly place with a shop, so we were able to stock up on much needed biscuits, tea and noodles. Also had lunch at the friendly shopkeepers house which went along way to lifiting spirits. After lunch a long dusty and hot hike along a couple of ridges and then after some nav issues, we finally made it to a pretty camping spot near a river.

Unfortunatley for Liran the leeches also enjoyed this campsite and while i had a couple of near 'hits' Liran scored 3 blood suckers. Found out the msg ridden masala stuff in the maggi noodles packets works wonders on leeches. Apart from the blood suckers we had a great warm and dry camp...

Day 7 - Going up! Ramin - Wan
Up early and had a great yoga session and meditation at the local school. Think i freaked out a couple of kids who arrived early only to find some strange foreigner in turtle pose outside their class room! They literally put their bags down for a second then ran.. My left knee was really sore and i could hardly walk on it but it came good after yoga. More acending through stunning forests before the rains hit us again. This time i found my 20 rupee (30cents) poncho makes a great pack cover! We arrived at the pretty village of Cannole where we treated to an amazing homegrown organic lunch of wholemeal chappatis, potato and spinach as well as rice.

We were also reached celebrity status that day and had almost 20 of the town kids and adults come to check us out. Liran did some tackky magic tricks which the kids loved. After lunch it was back on the road and over yet another pass. This one about 2900m...We then camped at yet another great meadow just before the town of Wan. The skies cleared and near full moon was impressive that night.

Day 8 'The Climax' Bendi Bugael 3300ms
We took a short-cut around Wan before passing a gorgeous guest house and then ascending for ages until we came up to the plateu that is Bendi Bugel. Wow what a place. The LP trekking guide claimed this to be 'arguaby one the best himalyan camping spots'. A big claim indeed. Personally Tappovan (see tripping post) was my fav but this place was still damn impressive. Views of some truly great peaks including the mountains surrounding Nandi Devi (Indias highest peak at 7800m).

After a very cool night we woke up to a clear morning and were treated to views that were hidden from us the previous night by the cloud cover. It was truly a breathtaking place and we spent a great morning soaking up the sun and the views before the massive 1700m descent and 500m accent to reach the road and then La Jung, the trail head. This turned out to be a long and tiring day as were walking for over 8 hours. When we eventually arrived at La Jung it was pure bliss to to have a real bed again and a great thali was delivered to our room from the local restauraunt.

Unfortunately our knack for missing buses was still with us as we were told the one bus for the day left at 8am the next morning only to find it had left at 7:30! Seems the local shopkeeper we asked got confused with summer and winter times...Oh well another day of share jeep shuffling and lots of stops in 'interesting' towns.

Spent the night in Karayang, which is meeting place for two major rivers whose names i have forgotton.

Final
It was a truly awesome hike, nothing like which i've ever done before and in some ways was like a personal journey for me as it was very challenging at times and rewarding too. Liran was a excellent and very patient hiking buddy and we walked at a similar fast pace. Though I was the uphill champion and he was the downhill king. Felt really fortunate to be doing this trek. We meet one group of Austrians who had each paid 1000 euro to do almost exactly the same trek. We worked our costs to be about $50 aus each! It was also amusing whenever we passed a tour group and the porters/guides would enviably ask 'what no porters or guide?' to which our standard reply was to point at each other and say 'guide'/'porter'/'cook' - then a look of amazement would come over their faces...

Tripping in the mountains (part 1)

2006-05-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

Namaste,

Just arrived back in Rishkesh after a epic 10 day adventure with a crew from the Ashram. Was a excellent trip that involved relaxing in hot springs, freezing glacier lake swimming, enjoying stunning mountain views, hiking to poppy villages, soaking up ashram vibes in a non-tourist chilled out town, climbing 4600m to a shangra-la paradise with ashrams and mystical wholy men and not to mention breath-stopping 360 deg views of peaks, glaciers and himalyan valleys.

First, it is damn hot and humid here in Rishikesh! The monsoon is fast approaching and the tourists have fled! Well the western ones anyway as this is full power Indian tourist season. Eg crossing the foot bridge over the ganga can take a very long time as u need to make your way through the crowds getting their photos taken on a bridge that is only 5 ft wide and also takes cows and motorcyles! Madness.. The ashram where we're staying was full last week but is now only a handful of us hardy souls staying there. Actually it's not so bad as usually storms every day now so cools things down nicely.

Can't believe how quickly my time in India is going! Anyway the trip...

Ashram life was going pretty well with regular evening star gazing and sessions on the roof known as 'Cesars Palace'. Cesar is a deambay playing night club tycoon from Spain who is semi-retired so is able to spend 6 months or so at a time in India...Nice one eh? Joining Cesar is Doralla the redhead events organiser from Holland, Avivit the chef from Israel, Tasha with magic hands (ie massage therapist) from the USA, Jan (Yan) the budding photographer from France who 'swapped' his french passport for a Colombian one and of course moir....Anyway we all decided that after 2 weeks it was time to leave the ashram life to escape the building heat and do some mountain tripping.

After a little deliberation the date was set and destination was agreed on. Sweet. We chartered our own jeep taxi to pick us up and take us to Uttakachi which is only 200ks but takes 6 hours! Chartering our own jeep was the bestest option as not only could we travel in relative comfort but included photo stops and chai stops at places in the middle of nowhere overlooking mountain valleys and rivers.

Uttakachi turned out to be a little gem of a place rather than the dusty hole that we had been told to expect. Actually its a little like a mini varanasi, is on the banks of the ganga and has ghats with pujas happening every nights and also has car free streets with. But unlike varanasi the throngs of western tourists were delightfully absent and so were the touts. It is also home to the impressive Nehru mountaineering institute that has a great museum and cafe that serves chicken! Hopefully without birdflu. Uttakashi also has the best lassi and sweet shops! Go the sugar fix! But don't touch the Indian imitation rum...blaaa...

We stayed there on the way up and on the way down. On the up we all stayed in the hotel amba in one room with 8 beds Indian dorm style. Way fun...Except for the 5am Indian wake up. All the tour buses stop there on the way to the pilgrim site of Gangtori and at 5am everyone gets up and starts yelling at each other (think Indians are slightly deaf from all the horn blowing traffic)and clearing their throats like...uuurrrrrgggggghhhhhh....huuuuccckkk...spit. Lucky thing i can't put sound on this site.

Being a holy city, Dorella was doing a little jig in public and promptly told by a old local wearing BIG glasses that she shouldn't dance and upon asking why she shouldn't dance she was told 'dancing leads to sex'..You have been warned people! Classic...That one ran for a long time and i think is still going...

Cesar and I also experienced an interesting situation in a local cafe. We were doing the digital camera gig - taking pictures of our fellow Indian patrons and showing them to the subjects. When we almost started a riot. An inquisitive family complete with super photogenic kids had come into the cafe when one of the boys got a little too excited and was reprimanded by the owner but mum wasn't too happy about this so she pushed a big pot sitting on the bench (that was luckily empty) sending it and a dozen cups crashing to the ground right in front of us. Shit...We were sitting between the two groups and our peaceful lunch was no more...It was getting very tense with verbal insults and shirts flying between the two groups. We both jumped up (actually Cesar first, maybe something to do with his years in nightclubs) and were able to cool the tensions a little so that no more flying missiles were launched. I've always felt uncomfortable prancing around with technology that would cost these people a years salary. Continued....

Tripping in the mountains (part 2)

2006-05-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

....After Uttakashi it was back in a new chartered jeep (this one had air-cond ie canvas covered) and after some serious mountain scenery we arrived at Ganganani. What a great little place! It's no more than a collection of ramshackle guesthouses, restaurants and cafes all selling the same food but has great hot springs that run into pools that you can jump into, well slowly anyway as water must be about 40+ deg...The evenings were magic as the pools were deserted and we were could stargaze while cooking err soaking The mornings were a technicolour vision of saris and Indians taking a bath and getting puja...see pic. Unfortunately not only was this vision of serenity shattered by the usual traffic horn blowing but also by the twice daily (usually 6am and 7:30pm) earth shaking, heart stopping sub-sonic dynamiting of rock cliffs as part of the building of a new road across the river. Only in India of course.

Ganaganani is the first place that i've seen topless Indian women, not that i'm some sort of perv, honest. Generally indian women bath in pretty much fully dressed but u can imagine my surprise when i walked past the mens (there are separate male and female thermal pools) pool only to see naked indian breasts! My gawd am i still in India i thought...ahh India the land of contradictions as for a western women to do that would cause a riot.

Around Ganaganani, there were some great photogenic villages to hike to surrounded by dope and poppy fields. Makes for great pics. Not too mention heaps of crazy monkey village kids running around asking for 'photo sir'.

After a couple of days of relaxing in the pools and opium fields, it was time for the gang to move up the mountain to Gangortri - which is revered hindu holy place at alt 3000m high on the banks of the mother ganga with a great temple and hords of indian pilgrims and associated tourist stuff. Actually when i say the gang it was now down to 4, Cesar opted for an extended stay in Gangannni and Jan had already gone solo to Gangortri ..

For the next part of the trip we opted for the local bus, always guarranteed to be interesting. Apart from a couple of minor breakdowns we also got to witness the extreme driving skills of the driver as he was able maneuver the bus inches from the edge of the road that dropped off a couple of hundred meteres to the roaring ganga below whenever we had to pass another oncoming vehicle which was every 2 mins! Adrenaline pumping stuff. I was happy not to have the window seat on this trip even though the scenery was nothing short of spectacular with towering cliffs, deep gorges and impressive waterfalls. We were now getting really high...

Gangortri is a magical place surrounded by mountain peaks and pine forests and as mentioned is a important pilgrimage site so was 'buzzing' with Indian tourists and a handful of foreigners. While visiting the temple during puja we were invited in to sit with the singing and drumming priests during the evening puja which was magic. We also adopted a new group member, Samuel a Swiss cyclist who had cycled from Switzerland to India via turkey, Iran, Pakistan etc..very impresive and insipiring. This guy cyled up to a 3000m and then the next day came walking with us!

From Gangortri our new crew began our trek up to Gamukh where the ganga flows out of the glacier. Unfortunately Avvivit picked up a dodgy stomach thing so she opted out. The trek was quite easy as follows a well used path along the ganga and is dotted with chai and parntha (kinda fried bread with veges and spices - yum) stalls. The views of the surrounding peaks and valleys were stunning and just kept getting better as we got higher. The path was quite busy with pilgrims mainly on ponies and the odd dandy, which is a wooden platform carried by 4 porters and used to carry affluent Indians. Personally i wouldn't be seen dead on one and it was a most bizarre thing to see these platforms coming along with some large Indian sitting on the top like royalty!

We spent a acclimatization stop in Bhjopasa (alt 3900m) 6 hours walking from the start, which is the only time we used the bulky (read heavy) tent we rented from Uttakashi. I realize now we should have spent a little more time acclimitising as i had trouble sleeping due to the altitude here and further up. From Bhjopasa it was only a hour to the impressive Gamukh Glacier where the ganga begins its journey. Unfortunately Doralla wasn't feeling up to the walk over the Glacier and hike up to Tapovan so she went back solo to Gangotri. The rest of us were up for it although i went off the first being a bit over the slow group pace and Samuel and Tasha hooked up with some Israelis also coming up.

The path over the glacier was relatively straight forward and i'd be given rough directions by a fellow hiker who had been up before. We meet a lot of guides on the way up telling us how dangerous it was to go without a guide but obviously they had a slightly vested interest! Not saying glaciers are not dangerous. Besides the path was all on stable (well relatively) rock and not ice.

After the glacier it was a 500m tough climb straight up beside a waterfall to the plateu and then.....paradise...a true shang-ra-la. I was a unforgettable sight up the top, moutain streams, cave man looking ashrams, rolling meadows, huge boulders, glaciers all surronded by huge peaks including the 6500m Shivlinga peak that looks like a ice-cream cone..it was a place like no where i'd ever been before..very prehistoric and surreal..hard to describe in words..just go!

The name Tapovan comes from 'Tappas' which basically means to spend months/years in meditation/contemplation. We all ended up staying in the Shimla Baba Ashram. Shimla Baba's guru and built the ashram after spending some 35 years living up there. It was totally unforgettable with 14 of us at one stage enjoying the Shimla Baba's hospitatily and great cooking! Nights were really cold so we didn't mind all sitting in the Baba's kitchen/dining room enjoying the fire and of course chillim (pot). I even meet a Damon Baba - was really his name..See pic. This guy was a classic and all that he mainly carried was 2kg of pot (chakras) for 5 days!...

We (there was 14 of us at one stage including a nice group of Israelis) ended up spending two nights up there and it was truly a magic experience. By day we explored the many lakes and streams and check out views of the Gamukh Glacier that goes for some 30ks. One lake we hiked up to was this blue glacier fed lake. Being a warmish sunny day we all decided to go for a swim! Not surprisingly it was freezing but worth it.. To top it off Uvan, who'd i'd meet in Sikkim, bought up his stove and made chai and arabic coffee...as a non-coffee drinker it tasted pretty damn good.

I was getting pretty exhausted after two days of not so great sleeping so was both relieved and sad to head back down..ohh forget to mention the travelers cheque. I had been trying to change a travelers cheque since Uttakashi without much luck when i happened to mention this to Shimala Baba who asked me the how much it was worth and too my amazement said 'sure i can change it!'..Unbelievable..Changing travelers cheques on a plateau at 4600m! Only in India! There is a saying in Hindi over here 'Sub Keuch Melga' - anything is possible, is such a great attitude to life..So back down i went and made it to Gangananni that day - and gawd those hot thermal pools were so good and sleep plentiful even with explosions and traffic.. Also meet up with Doralla, Cesar and Avvivit which was a great bonus...

I spent some more time in Uttakashi on the way back and found this laid back Ashram with sunflower gardens on the banks of the Ganga. It was hard to leave but think i will def go back to Uttakashi and Tapovan some day...

Yeap so now in humid and rainy rishikesh and getting my western fix - internet and great food..Tomorrow am off on yet another 5 day hiking trip, in the mountains north of here to the Kurati pass. We're camping out for the first 3 nights and then staying in villages along the way. Should be magic, well maybe not the 10 hour bus ride...Feels like i've packed several trips into one! I've extended my ticket yet again..Now flying to Greece on the 20th of June so will get a good taste of monsoon!

Challow (sort of means I/we go)
Nb would have liked to add more pics but am on a really slooooowwww connection

Life in a Ashram...

2006-05-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Phool Chatti Ashram. Have been in the ashram for almost a week now and am feeling absolutely content staying there with no desire to leave. Which is nice after being on the move for several weeks. There is even a communal bike that i can use to make the 6k trip into town to indulge in internet sessions and treats such as ice-cream!

My day begins with a meditation and yoga session in a garden overlooking the river. Then its a quick dip before breaky. All meals are communal with porridge and bannas for breakky and Thali dishes for lunch and dinner. There is a nightly puja ceremony which is where we all come together for tabla and drum playing in the court yard. Everyone gets involved with tangerine's and chanting. As I'm writing this i realise its prob sounding like i've joined a cult...yes well have renounced all worldly possessions and this will be my last email...only joshing. It costs all of $6 a day including meals...Incredible value for paradise.

There is a quite a few of us staying at the ashram now. It's not strictly a 'true' ashram as operates as a bit of a guest house with mainly foreigners staying there on yoga retreats. At the moment there is over 50 staying there including a group of very serious ashtanga yoga practicing Russians direct from Moscow. The first day they arrived it felt like the KGB were moving in..all very serious and being the friendly Aussie i asked the the guy sittting next to me if he spoke English and the reply was 'Yes. What do you want?'..to which i replied with urr umm 'how are you finding India?'. Classic.

Not really else much to report on..Not sure how much longer i will stay in the Ashram. Am due to fly out to Greece on the 15th from Delhi. May look at doing some hiking in the Himalaya mountains north of here but as mentioned really don't feel in much of a hurry to leave the ashram even though it is getting incredibly hot during the day - 40+ deg but it always cools down during the nights and the mornings are magic..

Back again to finish this post off. Still at the Ashram although a few of us are feeling a bit restless and are looking at going north to the mountains to the mouth of the Ganges at a place called Gangtori. Will be very nice to escape the heat and it has just started to get really humid. Though will miss the nights on the ashram roof chatting and hanging out with friends.

Hired a motorbike the other day with a friend and went cruising around the mountains. Was great and found some great spots in the mountains. The roads were pretty challenging with pot holes, rocks etc to dodge as well as the crazy Indian drivers. The give way order in India is 1) cows, 2) trucks 3) Buses 4) Motorbikes 5) cycles 6) pedestrians!

That's about it for now. Gotta get back on the bike and be home in time for lunch...
Have attached some pics of the ashram and surrounds.

Ciao,
D.

Rishikesh - the yoga capital (and scene) of the world

2006-04-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Am now in Rishikesh in Northern western India. This place was made famous by the Beatles who hung out in a Ashram in the 60s for a while. Don't think a lot has changed since except maybe a million more tourist shops. It is very touristy here and you could be forgiven for thinking you are in Tel-aviv as this is a big destination on the Israeli tourist map.

The 24hr train ride from Varanasi was soooo sloooooowwwww. It felt like we spent more time stopped than moving. Luckily there were a few of us 'westies' so were able to organise some serious card cames as well as being entertained by the snake charmer busker. This guy was running around with a type of flute and a cobra in a basket! One of the more 'interesting' moments of Indian train travel. Glad i wasn't sharing a berth with him and his friend!
Anyway we eventually arrived at our destination and managed to bypass the pesky rickshaw drivers and take the local bus for a fraction of the rickshaw price.

Rishikesh is great and I really like it here and have meet some great travellers. I'm sharing a room with a Chillean/Australian guy whose a bit of the quiet contemplative side but a great roomie.

I'm actually staying in a chilledout little area of Rishikesh right next to the Ghanges called Laksham Jhula. There is also a great beach just up the road nicknamed 'Goa Beach' due to all the westerners who hang out there. I've been doing daily laps across to the other side. On a grim note I found out today 17 have drowned there in the last 4 months due to the strong currents. Hmm I found it ok and am a pretty strong swimmer so think will still swim there as a dip in the arvo is really refreshing. I have tried only one yoga class which i didn't really get into. Yoga over here is very different from home and apart from the language difference (he kept telling us 'u sleep now' instead of 'lie down') and the flow of the asanas didn't feel that great. He had us doing a 7 min headstand in the first 20mins which felt really wrong...

I was planning to go to the 'Valley of Flowers' tomorrow in the far north but have found out it is closed due to snow. Phew 10 hour bus trip from hell saved for another day!

Thursday....have moved guesthouses and now staying in this great place called the Bombay guest house. Like the same suggests is a bit like a old palace and rooms have heaps of character. It is also surronded by trees full of monkeys and everymorning we get entertained by this acrabatic and daring guys...

I plan to go and spend a few days in Ashram right on the river a couple of ks up the road from this town..Should be very 'shanti' and relaxing doing yoga nd meditation.. till next time.

Varanasi - part II

2006-04-18T03:31:00.000-07:00

It has almost been a week since I arrived in Varansi and am loving it here. It's tough at times: the 40 deg+ heat, the smell, the rubbish, the minefield of crap (cow, dog and human) everywhere not too mention the swarming mass of people, and the constant begging and 'wot u want, rickshaw, hashish, opium?' But the magic of listening to a free tabla and sitar concert on the banks of the river makes up for it all!

I've moved to the heart of the Godulia, the old city which is a maze of narrow alleyways. They say you haven't been in Varanasi until you've been lost at least a couple of times which i have! My guest house is right on the river and is run by a quirky Japanese women and her Indian philosopher husband. My room even has a little balcony and costs all of $2 night! There is even a roof top area which I've slept on during the really hot nights. Ah yes and also the power goes off here on a regular basis and a few times I have woken up in a pool of sweat when the fan has stopped during the middle of the night. NB pic to the right is the view from the roof!

Last night we had a big storm which was such a relief as the heat had been building up for a few days. And the cool air was a life saver.

There are a few travelers here that I have meet but is actually pretty tourist free due to the heat. The other night a few of us from the guest house went to a 'dance' party at a swanky hotel on the outskirts of Varansi. It turned out to be one of those great impromptu traveling moments. When we arrived, we doubled the numbers and the hotel was so impressed that we'd made the effort they gave us free drinks all night! There was plenty of dancing and the music was both good and bad. Not surprisingly it ended up being a late one and not before a 3am visit to the pool was had by all!

Today I borrowed a beast of a bicycle (at least it had gears) and cycled out to Sarantha, about 10ks from here which is where Buddhism began and Buddha gave his first speech in the 5th century. A really pretty place with some great ruins, Sarantha made for a nice break from chaotic Varanasi. Riding on the roads is daunting at first as the traffic is incredible but mostly other bicycles, rickshaws, pedestrians, cows and the occasional truck or bus. Even though there are virtually no rules and one has to be incredibly alert it actually feels safer than riding on some roads back home. Happy to say i made it back in one piece and felt pretty confident. I think with the boating and now the riding, I'm definitely becoming a local. Just have to work on the language!

Unfortunately time is moving on and tomorrow i'm catching a train for 16 hours to the base of the western Indian Himalayas to a place called Rishikesh, which is supposed to be the yoga capital of the world. Will be sad to leave Varnasi but definitely plan to return one day.

Varanasi - the heart of India.

2006-04-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

After the serene mountains and culture of Skkim its back to round 2 of India. This started as soon as I hit the sprawling mass of Siliguri.

Being a train veteran, I easily navigated the usual Indian railway station chaos and caught the 3pm capital express to Patna from Siliguri. Kathrin from Germany was also in the next sleeper so was nice to have a western conversation rather than the standard Indian one that goes along the lines of 1) 'where are u from?' There is usually a look of excitement when i say Australia and is followed by 'ah Ricky Ponting' 2) 'what is your name and age?', 3) 'what is your occupation?' 4) 'are you married?' . I also picked up a pack of cards from one of the many train wallas selling everything from music keyboards to towels. You never need to go shopping in India - just catch a train. Anyway with my newly acquired cards I taught the Indian family traveling in the same compartment with us 'Uno' which was greeted with plenty of Indian enthusiasm and laughter.

We traveled through Indies poorest and most lawless state "Bihar" so didn't really do any sightseeing and when we arrived at 'Patna' at 4:30 am! Luck was on our side and we were able to catch the 5am Varansi train which was a relief as we didn't have a onward ticket from Patna and had no real desire to spend any time there. We eventually arrived at Varanasi in the afternoon after lots of 'interesting' stops at sweltering dusty stations along the way.

As the guide book warned, were were savaged by waiting touts eager to get us to come with them to their number one guest house at the varansi station. I got to use my limited Hindi (Naah chow bhaar) which means 'no thanks' to great effect. The Singha guest house, at the quieter end of town, with 'Garden bigger than any other guest house' was where we eventually ended up and spent the arvo 'crashed' in the 40deg heat!

My first morning at the Ghanges was magic. First i felt like a bit of exercise, after being cooped up on the train for so long and chartered a row boat. I'm such a waterbaby. I just love being in it or on it. Anyway my days of rowing paid off as i was able to handle the floating tree with ease and the other boatwallas were full of praise.. Think i may have a job here:-)...post boat ride i did some much needed yoga on a stone platform with the locals. I shocked my self and couldnt resist having a quick dip in this famous holy river. Not to be a regular thing as it is extremely polluted according to the guide book. But hey my hair hasn't turned green and all bodily functions are normal. I've since found out that the water supply for the town comes from the main area in the Ghats. Another good reason to buy bottled water!

Varanasi is an amazing place. It is believed to be the oldest (over 2000 years) city still inhabited. It's is also a very spiritual place and attracts loads of people who come to wash away their sins in the Ghanges. Thus it has to be the worlds number one place to people watch! The perfect place for this is down by the Ghanges in the evening. It's hard to describe the 'buzz' of the place but there always is heaps to do. Last night I watched some brilliant Tabla and Flute playing by the river and meet heaps of great people, Indians and Foreigners.

Sikkim

2006-04-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

Next stop Sikkim, which is a couple of hours by jeep from Darjeeling. Sikkim is a tiny state in India bordered by Bhutan and Tibet. India has poured heaps of money into this state on roads and electricity so is one of the most developed places. It also has no taxes and is a big producer of booze. Not surprisingly it also has the highest rates of alcoholism! The people are of Tibetan and Nepelese decent so also has a 'not India' feel about it!

Foreigners have to get a special permit valid for two weeks to enter which is more a formality and a pain in the butt than anything else. So with permit in hand i arrived in Gantok, the capital. It's a little like darjeeling, on the side of a mountain, but not so big. There are some great monestries around the town and it also has a nice vibe. They even close one of the main shopping roads in the evening which makes u feel like your walking down a mall, something unheard of in main India.

After a couple of days of exploring I was off to Pelling, a little town in the mountains a couple of hours west of Gantok. The trip there was an adventure as we were in a share jeep (12 of us crammed in) negoitating this windy mountain road at night during a big storm. Indian roads are generally one lane only and safety rails are unheard of. Lumps of 2ft high concrete are placed randomly but don't think it would help that much. Needless to say it was quite a relief to arrive safely at our destination. The power was off (which it does quite often up here) so the candles were out which made the guest house really cosy and hooked up some friends i meet in darjeeling just happened to be staying there! Garuda is a funky guest house and next morning we were treated to views of the snow covered Himalyas from the roof top terrace. The boneless chill chicken is also to 'die' for...

The next day i went off on a 5 day monastic hike. Not as epic as the Singraliia ridge trek but still nice. Day 1 I hiked to lake Kuechperi (pronounced 'catch a perry') which is very scared to Buddhists and it they believe that birds remove the leaves that fall on to it. I stayed for 3 nights in this little monastic village perched up on ridge with stunning views (when it wasn't raining) of the surrounding mountains.Most of the kids living there attend the monastery. Pella and his son run a couple of guest houses and server up some great local food including local yak meat! Very tasty. It was a magic place and i meet some great travelers also including a couple of fellow aussies and a Spanish couple.

During my stay, I went for a solo mission to find some Buddhist caves and got a little 'geographically challenged' . I ended up going off track which was crazy as i ended up crawling my way through thick rainforest. Eventually, I found the caves but ran out of light and had to find my way down a mountain track in the dark! Luckily it cleared and there was a little moonlight. I didn't get back to 7 and everyone was really concerned. Ooops. Lesson learnt!

The next day was brilliant trekking on the next stage to a tiny little village at the base of the mountains called Yuksom. The first half of the trek passed through pristine forest in a valley following a river. The track passed a little cabin where a Lecha (one of the ethnic groups in the area) family live. The father called out for me to come down for tea and i ended up eating popcorn and drinking tea with Dad, mum, their son, baby and grandma. See pic.

After arriving in Yuksom in the pouring rain i checked in to a lodge and was checking out the town when i heard some great music. Following my ears, i came to a house where the family where having a purja as it was the 49th day of morning for their grandfather. I was invited in to sit with the monks and lamas and given Chang (see pic) which is a fermented millet drink served in this great bambo mug and food. One of those spontaneous travel moments. Later that evening, i also meet this peace activist Israeli guy who told some interesting and funny stories about serving in the army some interesting insight into the conflict.

Yuksom has a 'curfew' where shops and restaurants have to close at 8pm. To enforce it the local policeman runs around at 8pm blowing a whistle! A little bizarre. The restaurant simply put the shutters down and we continued on inside for another hour.

From Yuksom it was on to Tashiding and I walked with a entertaining Spanish couple, Mitre and Jatio and Mika from Japan. It was a nice walk along a road along with great views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Tashiding itself was pretty average but the 400 year monastery, half-an hour's climb up a steep track from the town, made it worth while. We were lucky enough to be able to sit on some monks chanting and drumming. Brilliant.

Then from Tashiding, we caught a early morning Jeep back to Pelling. The start of the trip was 15ks downhill along a scenic road to the bottom of a valley. I would have given anything to have had my bike with me!!

From Pelling, I caught another morning jeep down to Siliguri, where i was catching a train from and back to the madness (and heat) of India. It was a real shock after weeks of little traffic to be sitting in the middle of a car, truck, bus, rickshaw, bicycle, cow and pedestrian jam!

Singarilla Ridge Trek

2006-04-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

After a couple of days of running up and down the mountain roads of Darjeeling I felt ready to tackle the 5 day Singrallia Ridge trek along the Nepal/India border. The distance is over 70ks and highest altitude is 3800m. Just a little walk!

It's quite common to take a guide but not really necessary if you have some outdoor experience. I was able to find a fanatastic map at a local restaurant of the trek which proved to be the equivalent of the secret treasure map plus i also managed to hook up with some fellow outdoor freaks!

Day 1 Darjeeling to Manybahjang.
A super early start and to catch the first jeep out of Darjeeling to Manybahjang. There turned out to be 7 of us doing the same trek that day! Simone and Andreas from Germany, Tobias and Monica from Spain, Christine from France, Shay from Israel and of course me. One of the things i love about travelling is the guys u meet from other places.

So after a short but bumpy jeep ride we arrived in Manybajang and tucked into plates of momos (tibetan dumplings either steamed or fried) before setting off. The weather was sunny as we started going up and up and up following a road. First rest stop was Megma Ghompa which was a goregous serene place on top of a hill.

After the rest stop big black clouds started appearing and it wasn't long before it started to rain and later hail...Eeeck! Then after a couple of hours of trudging along we came to our first Indian check post - the army on the indian side of the road and the Tea house on the nepalese side. A couple of us were in front so we ordered some food while we waited for the others - except they kept on going which caused some minor confusion...

Anyway we eventually all ended up meeting in this great guest house in Tumling run by a larger than life and generous Momma. NB I managed to hitch a ride in a back of jeep on lying on sacks of wheat for part of the last stage as the weather was really miserable and i was over walking! Anyway mumma treated us to a 5 course meal which was heaven after a day of trudging in the mountains.

Day 2 Tummling to Kala Pokhari
We woke up to a gorgeous day - such a welcome after the fog and rain from the previous. The pic is of the guest house. Nice hey? Would have been very easy to spend a couple of days at Tumling eating big mumas gorgeous food.

Morning was great but by lunch time it was foggy and raining again. So half of us holed in at Kala Pokhari and hung out with the family running our guest house.

Day 3 Kala Pokhari to Phallut.
Half our group had to pull out as they had to go back early. I headed off solo to catch up with Simone, Andreas and Tobias. The place at the top of the mountain in the background of the pick is Sandkaphu where the others spent the night.. Anyway i was on a 'rol'l and reached the top in 30 mins...pretty buggered when i get there so have a nice cuppa of chai..Then i continue on to Phallut and enventually catch up with the others having cheese, olive oil and bread for lunch...yum!

It's really nice walking and is a gorgeous day in the mountains. Flowering roddendrohns, herds of yaks and vultures keep us company.

We keept climbing up to phallut and as usual after lunch the weather takes a dive so by the time we reach phallut it pretty miserable and cold and everyone is feeling a bit over it!

There is only one guest house at Phallut and its a huge dorm room that is cold and damp. Mist rolls in through the broken windows and door that won't close. Tom and Leo from Begium who are travelling around India via Vespas, were also staying at Phallut and we shared a rum or two with them around the kitchen fire.

After dinner we were treated to a unexpected cultural night of singing, tabla playing and dancing with the indian army! These guys were so nice, they made us cups of tea, shared their meal with us and gave us more rum. They showed us photos of their wives/girlfriends and described how tough life was so isolated but due to their wonderful major Tombo they felt like they belonged to a second family. It was hard to believe at times they were army guys. See pic. An unexpected highlight.

Day 4 Phallut to Gorkhey

We hoping for a another sunny morning and views of Kanchechunga (India's highest mountain) but woke up to more mist and rain. So we trudged off and headed 1000m down hill to Gorhkey! A awesome day. After 300m the we came out of the clouds and had a fine day walking on a small track through a stunning forrest.

Arrived in Gorhkey about lunch time and wow what a place. It's a tiny village along the banks of the Ramma river and is stunning. We stayed at the family run shanti lodge for a few days and loved it. The first night Andreas pulled out a bottle of red wine that he'd been carrying with him all the way! Legend. It tasted so good!

Days 6-8 Gorhkey to Dry lake

Hiked up the river to a 'dry lake' kind of like a peat swamp with tents and food. We spent a couple of days camping and cooking food over a fire. Magic! Finally got our great views of the snow covered peaks of Kanchechunga

Day 8 Gorhkey to Dragan
Hiked back to civilisation with a swim stop on the way. Water was freezing! We ended up 'camping' in school that night as ran out of light before we could find somewhere to camp. The people looking after the school were super nice and brought us cups of chai in the morn and gave us breakky. We made a little donation.

Day 9 Dragan to Rimmick.
Really easy walk back into civilisation. Treated ourselves with a big meal and lots of fresh fruit that we had been missing.. Followed by a 4 hour jeep ride listening to the driver's Van Halen tapes. Even the old guy sitting next to us was bopping away! Funny.

A brilliant trek and we all felt was really lucky to do it with such top people .

Darjeeling - Queen of the hills!

2006-03-19T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ok well its been a long time between drinks and am now in the holy city of Varanasi (more about this place in the upcoming blogs). I'll try to 'backlog' some of the great adventures i've been having starting with Darjeeling..

After the crazy holi festival in Sanitiketan it was with relief that i jumped on a night sleeper train to Siliguri in the north. The 2nd class sleeper is pretty basic and after performing some acrobatic/yoga feats i was able to get into the upper bunk (there is 3) and had a great sleep as the train speed through the night..

From Siliguri it was straight into a jeep for the hills of darjeeling..The jeep sounds very 'Indiana Jones' but is a very cramped form of transport (and cheap) for getting around the place. Though at one stage we took a detour from the windy mountain road via some steep track that had my fellow indian passengers praying!

Anyway arrived in Darjeeling some 4 hours later and it was freezing! About 8 deg...brrrr!
Meet a great english guy living in NZ..(hi Richard) and we managed to find the hotel aliment after a short scenic detour. Have to say here that Darjeeling is built on the side of a mountain (literally) and is a great place to train for treks as u are constantly climbing up and down..

Aliment is a great place run by a nepalese family that has a restaurant and rooftop mountain view area..see pic...Meet some great people there...Most amusing were my fellow dorm mates form chech republic who were cornflake addicts - cornflakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner - i kid u not! And were talking about a place where most meals are 0.50 cents to $2...!!

Anyway highlights of Darjeeling:

Gleanary's bakery - chocolate donoughts to die for.
Tea plantations.
The himalyan mountaneering institute.
The tibetan self-help centre.
The darjeeling toy train - cute.One of the highest narrow gauge railways in the world. Hitched a ride on puffing billy that kept needing to have 'rest stops'.

Actually it was a bit like going out of india - no touts, no diarrhea, not so much beeping and fresh mountain air.

Next the Singralia ridge trek...

Santinketan - Happy Holi!

2006-03-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of hours north by bus, Santinketan is this normally peaceful little university town. Its where the famous Indian poet Rabindrath Tagore lived and wrote many of his works. The university is a collection of buildings from the Rag (British India) era.

Once a year the town plays host to the Holi festival (a national public holiday)and half of Kolkata descends upon the town. Santi actually means peaceful but on this weekend the town goes off - Indian style. For a start I hadn't booked any accom so rocked up late in the arvo (after a day of bumping around in Buses) only to find all places booked...Oops. But thanks to the incredibly patient cycle rickshaw dude who cycled me all over town I managed to score the last room in town. Phew...

The festival was great and featured classical Indian dance and music. A cultural highlight. I had some camera battery issues (Indian batteries are cheap and dodgy) so only got to take some pics of the aftermath - red, yellow, green and orange tikka powder is used to 'decorate' faces and hair both of unwilling and willing participants followed by a 'happy holi' blessing. Gets very interesting and messy as is the only time I've seen Indians drinking beer (wobbly pops)!

Another rickshaw dude talked me in to coming on a tour of the town. Wow what a tour. We followed the stream of bikes, cars and trucks to a ethnic market in this little forest out of town. What a mind spin as well as traditional jewelry and clothes there were buskas and singers performing (check out the pick) all in the middle of the forest! Only in India of course.

Bishnpur - town of bicycles!

2006-03-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

After surviving my indian train experience it was a great relief to reach this peaceful little town northwest of Kolkata. And the best thing is bicycles rule in this place! Pretty much everyone is out on their bike (check out the bicycle school bus pic, kinda cruel looking but practical). Instead of blaring horns (the indian equivalent of indicators) I was greeted with the sound of ringing bells. My first cycle rickshaw ride was a bit nervy at first but I relaxed as the dude easily negotiated the bumpy roads and other traffic to take me to the tourist lodge.

Bishnpur is also home to some great 16th centurary terracotta temples and forts. Being the tourist I did the touristy thing and jumped aborad my trusty cycle rickshaw to do the temple tour. It turned out to be a really chilled out afternoon and the temples were fascinating.

Bisnpur is also home to Ujjad and his 'Bake Club' shop. I meet these guys while doing the temple circuit. I spent a bit of time hanging out with Ujjad and his friends at the 'Bake Club' eating cakes and talking about what else but cricket. Indians worship their cricket. The one day test with Australia and South Africa just happened to be on so this became the topic of many a converstation. Must say just from their enthusiasim I'm keen to watch more cricket!

They also took me on a bit of tour of the town and i got to ride one of their bikes - the 'hero'. These bikes, are heavy but solid and are the best cruising wheels. They've got big flared handle bars, single speed and springy seats! I'm going to try and bring one back to Aus. They rock.

Bishnpur was a great diversion of the beaten path and totally worth it.

Leaving Kolkata

2006-03-15T22:57:00.001-08:00

So with my ticket in my hot hand to Berhampore which is a town near Murshidad. I set off to catch the 9pm train. Unfortuantely, I didn't check the ferry times and missed the last ferry across the Hooghley. Time 8pm. No problem I thought I'll just catch a taxi to the Howrah train station. Big problem: massive gridlock like i've never seen. Buses, motorcyles, taxis, trucks, pedestrians, cyclists all in one big noisey, smokey heaving mass of metal. Eeeck! I managed to communicate in broken hindi and sign lanuage that i had a train to catch at 9. To his credit the driver got me to the station at 8:57. But Howrah is no ordinary station. There is over 20 platforms between a new building and a old building which both look old and worn out to me. Well, no surpriseI missed my train but hey managed to negotiate the infamous indian ticket counter queues and get a refund! Great system - u can stuff up and miss your train and they give u a refund. One of the many highs of india.

I rebooked my ticket for the next morning and stayed in this hotel that could have passed for the Adams family's place just near the train station. Quite an experience (sleepless).

Ok so all is good and i'm on the train the next morning enjoying the passing scenery of indian rural village life - rice paddies, cows ploughing the fields, mud brick houses. Then after talking to a friendly local I realise im on the train to Berhampur not Berhampore! Berhampur is 600ks south east of Kolkata and i want to be heading north! For a minute i panicked then realised i can get out in a couple of stops and go to bishnpur which is a chilled little town with these amazing 16th centruary terra-cotta temples. So plan B then.

In Hindsight, I was so glad that i missed my original overnight train as i would have woken up 600ks in the wrong direction! Lesson learnt. Kinda funny though..

Kolkata - City of Joy ##@@@?

2006-03-10T04:33:00.000-08:00

Yes I actually saw that slightly over optimistic statement on a power pole the other day...Maybe that's Indian sense of humor as I can't say i've seen a lot of people skipping and singing through the streets. What i have seen is extreme poverty in the middle of extreme wealth. It's really confronting at times. Anyway on a more positive note the locals do seem to love aussies (and more importantly our cricket team)..Another slogan i love is ''A clean city has clean walls" - even if the footpaths at times resemble a off track bushwalk with all the craters ready to swallow ignorant foreigners up and uneven surfaces. Then their is the clouds of affixiating black smoke from the vintage buses and trucks not to mention the open air urinals but hey at least the walls are clean!

So yeah have already been king hit with my first case of 'Dehli Belly'...Think it was some dodgy chicken. Lesson learnt and pleased to say after spending a whole day pretty much in bed feeling quite pathetic have bounced back with renewed enthusiasm to once again tackle this parallel universe that is India. My savior - Coldial Silver liquid and has been around for ages and is available in health food shops - awesome stuff!

Tonight I'm catching the overnight sleeper to Murshidabad which is a 18th century northern town on the banks of the Bhagriathi river. This used to be the main trading port before Kolkata was established..Sounds like a really fascinating place and my room has water views for the lavish amount of $10. Have been paying half that for my room in Kolkata which even though it is in one of the most crowded parts of town has views of a tree! Well it may not sound like much but I was impressed.

A quick word on the Varanasi bombs that killed 14. Yeah scary stuff as is only a couple of hundred ks from here and is on my itinerary. By all reports life is going on and those responsible are being caught. I guess we just have to live with this stuff now and if your time is up its up...

Will hope to upload some photos soon...Thanks for reading..

Namaste!

Oh Kolkata!

2006-03-08T01:38:00.000-08:00

So here i am finally in India..and loving it! Sure there is in your face povety but after months of reading and preparing, i was expecting a lot worse. Call me hearltess but i find the 'talk to the hand method' works pretty well for those persistent touts/beggers. I guess when in Rome....

India really started on the flight from bangkok. Meet some hare-krishnas on their way to just north of here for pilgrimage. After chatting to one of them I was offered a 'place' in the taxi to come and join them.Thanks but no thanks..Though i do love their food and chanting... Also on the flight 98% of my fellow plane travellers were indian. First time i've been on plane when people were getting up for a walk seconds before landing and seconds after landing people were getting out of their seats to open the lockers! One couldn't but help feel sorry for the poor thai hosties trying to restore some order.

I just love arriving into a new place late at night and Kolkata was no exception. I was meet by two guys from the hostel who ushered me into their white 30 year old 'ambassador' (looks like a big brother of the morris minor). All the taxis here are yellow ambassadors and I keep expecting to see Noddy and Big ears driving by. The ride to the hotel through the surprisingly empty streets (empty of people that is but hundreds of dogs) was eye opening and reminded me of being in mad max set. On the way i saw my first dead body, cruised passed a bollywood dance party and negotiated a herd of goats..Only in India i guess...stay tuned..