Back at Home in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia

Sorry for the delayed post...but I'm back at home! I arrived into the Halifax airport on time, at 9:30 pm on Monday night, with 8 members of my family patiently waiting to give me a hug...

The weather was a shock, although they said that it was a fairly mild day. I still haven't warmed up since arriving at home 5 days ago! Hopefully I will get myself climatized before the real cold weather begins!

So, it doesn't quite feel like I've been gone as long as I have. Things seem pretty much the same, until I see my nieces or my little cousins that is. The change in any of the kids is just unbelievable! I just stare at them in awe...

Anyway, it feels good to be home, good to eat some good ol' western food, and good to start getting ready for Christmas (which it felt like I missed last year)...

Only a Little Time Left in Mumbai

It's been very unfortunate that I have not been able to keep my blog updated during my month in India.  It seems that the amenities that were readily available in every nook and cranny of China and Thailand, are not so available here in India...even in Mumbai!  We have been in Mumbai now since Tuesday, the 21st, but most of our time has been spent looking for affordable, yet clean hotels (which doesn't exist) or looking for places to sit on the internet.  The problem is that once you set out on the streets to find things, there are signs, people, and vendors everywhere, that it's very easy to walk right by the exact thing you were looking for, three times! 

Mumbai has some very attractive parts, as the streets are lined with palm trees, and it is right on the water.  The feel of the city is very different, as most people are a lot more western here:  many people are speaking English, women work in some of the shops, and not all of the women are wearing saris.  However, the city is very busy and very smelly.  It's definitely the stinkiest place that we have been to yet (except for maybe the strong aroma of silk worms cooking on the streets in Korea).  We wanted to be very relaxed, having a comfortable hotel for our last week in India...but we are paying quite a dime to stay here.  We haven't even been staying at that great of hotels, the love hotels in Korea beat these places 20 times over...and we'd be paying half the price in Korea!!(weird, eh?)  It doesn't make sense, but whatever.....We have found coffee shops, a movie theatre, and a giant bookstore.  These things have allowed us to fill a lot of our time, as we are not really doing the sightseeing thing here now.  We saw the James Bond movie the other day, we spent an entire day at the huge bookstore, and we've been drinking a lot of coffee!  I think that we are going to try to head to another bollywood film before we head out also...

I can't believe that it is already November 25.  It feels like we have been travelling for a long time, but it also doesn't seem like it is coming to an end.  So, this is my last post from India.  This is also my last post for my travels in Asia...at this point in time.  Tomorrow night (really 2:40am Monday morning) I will be getting on a flight to London, to Toronto, then back to Halifax...for the first time in over 14 months!  Ray will also be getting on a flight tomorrow night (1 1/2 hours after me), except he will be continuing on with his travels to Mauritius, the beautiful sun-filled, beachy island.  I am beyond sad to leave Ray, but I am so happy that he gets to continue travelling, and onto a beach area (his favorite!), and I get to go home to see my family and friends....at Christmas time! (If only I could shove him in my backpack)

I will post again when I arrive back home, in Halifax, Nova Scotia....

 

 

                                                

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Only a Little Time Left in Mumbai

It's been very unfortunate that I have not been able to keep my blog updated during my month in India.  It seems that the amenities that were readily available in every nook and cranny of China and Thailand, are not so available here in India...even in Mumbai!  We have been in Mumbai now since Tuesday, the 21st, but most of our time has been spent looking for affordable, yet clean hotels (which doesn't exist) or looking for places to sit on the internet.  The problem is that once you set out on the streets to find things, there are signs, people, and vendors everywhere, that it's very easy to walk right by the exact thing you were looking for, three times! 

Mumbai has some very attractive parts, as the streets are lined with palm trees, and it is right on the water.  The feel of the city is very different, as most people are a lot more western here:  many people are speaking English, women work in some of the shops, and not all of the women are wearing saris.  However, the city is very busy and very smelly.  It's definitely the stinkiest place that we have been to yet (except for maybe the strong aroma of silk worms cooking on the streets in Korea).  We wanted to be very relaxed, having a comfortable hotel for our last week in India...but we are paying quite a dime to stay here.  We haven't even been staying at that great of hotels, the love hotels in Korea beat these places 20 times over...and we'd be paying half the price in Korea!!(weird, eh?)  It doesn't make sense, but whatever.....We have found coffee shops, a movie theatre, and a giant bookstore.  These things have allowed us to fill a lot of our time, as we are not really doing the sightseeing thing here now.  We saw the James Bond movie the other day, we spent an entire day at the huge bookstore, and we've been drinking a lot of coffee!  I think that we are going to try to head to another bollywood film before we head out also...

I can't believe that it is already November 25.  It feels like we have been travelling for a long time, but it also doesn't seem like it is coming to an end.  So, this is my last post from India.  This is also my last post for my travels in Asia...at this point in time.  Tomorrow night (really 2:40am Monday morning) I will be getting on a flight to London, to Toronto, then back to Halifax...for the first time in over 14 months!  Ray will also be getting on a flight tomorrow night (1 1/2 hours after me), except he will be continuing on with his travels to Mauritius, the beautiful sun-filled, beachy island.  I am beyond sad to leave Ray, but I am so happy that he gets to continue travelling, and onto a beach area (his favorite!), and I get to go home to see my family and friends....at Christmas time! (If only I could shove him in my backpack)

I will post again when I arrive back home, in Halifax, Nova Scotia....

 

 

                                                

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Leaving Rajasthan Behind

Well, we said goodbye to our driver, Ram, last night. We are in Udaipur right now, the last stop of our 'Rajasthan Tour'. Tonight, we will be getting on an overnight train to Ahmedebad, and tomorrow night, another overnight train to Mumbai. It should be an interesting and quite unpleasant couple of days, as all travelling days are always full of hassles.

Since my last post from Jaisalmer, we spent two nights in Jodhpur, which is also called the blue city. We visited the fort, which was very nice, and gave a great view of the city, where most of the rooves are painted blue. From Jodhpur, we drove to a little place called Ranakpur. This was such a nice area, as there was nothing to see but one Jain Temple. There were no shops, so crowds of people, just a whole lot of birds and monkeys! We spent one night here, and just relaxed the whole time. From Ranakpur, we arrived at our last destination, Udaipur. Here, we are staying in a really disgusting hotel, but the view is great, as it overlooks a lake and the city. There are many lakes here, and many ghats. We spent most of the day yesterday walking around the City Palace.

Now, we are finished with Rajasthan. We have been doing a lot of looking back on some of the things we have done here, and we are so happy that this is the route that we ended up taking. I disliked both Delhi and Agra, which we saw at the beginning of our trip, but there were many neat things in Rajasthan. There were still many unpleasant places in a lot of the cities, but there were also many quiet areas. It's been interesting spending this much time exploring an animal infested, desert 'state/province' of India...a place where there's often no power...

Now, we have our fingers crossed that the trains in India will be okay. We are hoping for a hassle-free few days, although I know that's not entirely possible, as everything comes with a little extra work or struggle!

We are just waiting for the time to come when we arrive in the Mumbai train station on the morning of the 21st...well, really.... once we find a nice hotel to settle into for our last week in India.

A Night to Remember in the Great Thar Desert

It's the morning after our night out in the desert. It was such an amazing little trip, it's definitely one of the biggest highlights of this trip. We started our camel safari yesterday around 3pm. Ray and I didn't ride with any other foreigners, so it was very nice and quiet. We each had our own camel, and a camel driver that walked in front. The camels were so funny, I just chuckled at them the whole time! My camel was really cute, although stinky. Ray's camel had really funny facial expressions, his bottom teeth stuck out, and were always showing!!

We rode our camels for about 2 hours, with the exception of a short break in a small village, where my camel had to go eat. We stopped on some dunes, and sat down to watch the sunset. It was definitely a beautiful sight, relaxing camels, sandy dunes, and a pink sky...

Once the sun set, we walked over to where we'd spend the night and set up camp. Ray and I thought that we'd be sleeping out on the sand at night, but they brought us little cots to sleep on...since there were a lot of beetles crawling around (which apparently don't bite...and Ray had fun kicking across the sand), and the sand got quite cold at night. So, we had a fire going for a few hours during the night, and we had water and dinner brought to us. (A few of the kid camel drivers went back to town to get all of our things for us). They fed us quite a bit of food, and gave us some pretty warm blankets. The sky was so amazing...there were so many stars out, and once the fire went down, you couldn't see anything, except the shadow of one of the camels. It was like the two of us were sleeping under a giant dome, and it was just us and the noisy, stinky camel!

We woke up this morning to the chilly air, and were able to watch the sunrise. At around 7:30am, we got on our camels, and rode for another hour to get back to the 'resort' to meet our driver. There, they fed us a pretty good breakfast with chai (the tea that EVERYONE drinks here...it's delicious).

Camel ride, sandy dunes (felt awesome sliding down on our feet), sunset, sunrise, campfire, bright stars...a good night.

A Small Update From Bikaner

We have been travelling to so many places in such a small amount of time...it feels like we have been here for a long time! Since I last wrote, we visited Jaipur (capital of Rajasthan), Pushkar (a very holy little town), and now we are in a desert town called Bikaner.

It seems like we have been doing a lot more sightseeing than we have done in our other countries, but we have some days that are full driving days, some are reading and relaxing days, and then some are full sightseeing days. We've seen many beautiful hindu temples, a few really cool forts (one, where we rode an elephant to the top), and we also went to the movies with our driver to see a really awesome Bollywood film. Driving days are usually my favorite. Since we are driving in the car, we are able to see so much more, and we usually drive on back roads, where we veer around herds of goats and cows, camel carts, and random hogs or donkeys that are on the roads. We are also able to see everyone out in their 'farms' working. These farms are more like little deserts...the scenery is very different. Oh, and the last place we were in (Pushkar) was really quiet and neat. It's a very holy city full of temples, with very strict guidelines (no: meat/eggs, public affection, alcohol, or drugs)...it made for a very nice break.

Anyway, Ray and I must share the internet, so I must go. Everything is okay here, tomorrow we will be heading to Jaisalmer, where we will be taking a camel out into the Great Thar Desert!! I am looking forward to that, as I never realized how funny camels were!!! Our driver calls them dinosaurs...

From Delhi and Agra to the beginning of Rajastan

Where to start? Well, I am in India now. That seems to be a good way to start. This will be a very small post as the key board is hard to type on, the internet is dial up, and there is a good chance that the power will flick out! Needless to say, it may be difficult to keep this updated while I am in Rajastan.

It is my 5th day in India, and already I have seen so many things that I never imagined seeing. I can't really get into it right now, but I will mention a few of the funny things I have seen: carts pulled by donkeys, horses, buffalos, cows(ox?), camels, elephants, and I have also seen lots of monkeys, goats, boars, everything imaginable. There are animals everywhere!

So, we have spent two nights in Delhi, and one night in Agra (where we saw the sun come up at the Taj Mahal!). We have rented a car/driver so we could experience Rajastan in a different way, road-trip style. We are going to spend most of our time between cities and towns in this 'state'. We are now in a place called Ranthaborne (spelling?). This afternoon we will be going on a 3 hour tiger safari, where it is sort of unlikely to spot a tiger, but it will still be cool.

This is all for now. India is very polluted, there are people everywhere, and the people do stare a lot, and they do come up to bang on your windows. This place is unlike any other. It may take a bit of getting used to...but it sure is definitely going to be quite a 'cultural' experience....

Happy Halloween from Bangkok

I am back in the oh-so busy city of Bangkok. We unfortunately had to get up Sunday
morning and leave the lovliness of the beach. I was not enjoying the idea
of leaving Koh Chang, or Thailand for that matter, but now I am back in
exhaust-filled Bangkok...with my Indian visa...and I'm ready to move onto
the next step. I guess it's good that people have to come back through
Bangkok in order to leave Thailand, because it gives you a little necessary
'shove' in the direction that you must go.

It's pretty crazy around here now, as it's Halloween. There are decorations
up, and loud music (louder than usual), and masked people around on Ko Sahn
at night. Yesterday, we had to spend our entire day waiting around the area
of Bangkok where the Indian Embassy is. It was good to walk around another
part of the city, but it's so hard to walk anywhere where there is traffic,
because the exhaust smell is horrible!!...Not to mention that all of the
sidewalks are very ripped up, and you are fighting motorcycles for a spot to
walk!

On this note, I am very sad to leave the nice people of Thailand. I am also
sad to leave the yummy pad thai, banana pancakes, and the sound of Black
Eyed Peas in every bar/restaurant. Thailand has truly been the land of
yummy street food (aside from the cart of cooked insects we saw last night),
dogs, the 'third sex' (as I saw on a book today, describing the
transvestites of Thailand), and last but not least....beautiful water. I
hope to come back again some day, and really get a chance to explore the
prettiest of Thailand's islands in the south....

Now, we have the rest of the day to pass here, probably reading in a coffee
shop. We leave for India tonight, around 2:40 am. Tomorrow, I will wake up
on the plane, and I will be in Delhi!!