India

We've been in India for just over a week now, and have just returned to Delhi after a tour around the 'Golden Triangle' and the Rajasthan area.  It's been a great adventure, although we had to dig deeper into our bank accounts that we had first planned.

Delhi:  We started our tour in Delhi, India's capital city and were driven around the sights.  We visited a few tombs, the Gandhi family memorial, and a beautiful temple built to resemble a lotus flower.  Other than that, our stay in Delhi was short, only one whole day before we set off for Agra.

Agra: The first place we visited in Agra was the Red Fort, a huge fort which was pretty much an entire town, containing many palaces.  The fort even had two defences between three outer walls.  The furthest outside defence was a crocodile infested moat, and if an intruder managed to infiltrate that, they'd have to pass the 'wild jungle' defence, which was apparently full of lions and tigers.  In fact, the emperor had a balcony built so that when he got bored, he could walk out onto the balcony and watch the tigers fighting, as you do.  Obviously the main attraction of Agra is the Taj Mahal, which we visited on our second day in the city.  We were taken round by a guide, which was included in the price of our tour.  It was very helpful to have the history explained and to have somebody we could trust to take our photograph without running away with our cameras.  The whole building was so beautiful, constructed entirely out of white marble, with decorations of semiprecious stones filling the archways with floral motifs.  The Mahal, built as a tomb, is actually larger in real life than it looks in photographs and is built to be entirely symmetrical.  One thing that we learned is that there was an identical Taj Mahal to be built in black marble, but the emperor who intended to build the tomb for himself was imprisoned by his son... it's a long story.  Well worth the visit.

Ranthambhore: Our next stop was Ranthambhore, famous for it's tiger safaris.  We stayed in a lovely hotel with a pool, our first swimming pool in four months!  We did go on safari into the National Park but unfortunately we didn't see any wild tigers.  We did however see an endless list of birds as well as deer, antelope, crocodiles and snakes.

Pushkar: This small city was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of Delhi and Agra.  A much more relaxed place with very friendly people.  We didn't stay here very long, and didn't do any sightseeing as we were both pretty tired, but we took it as a much appreciated rest stop.  We did enjoy the sunset over the mountains though, casting a brilliant light over the fields that we could see from the wonderful view from our hotel room balcony.

Jaipur: The final stop on our tour of the Rajasthan was Jaipur, also known as the pink city.  We did see a few sights here, as we spent two nights in the city.  We visited another very impressive fort, with equally as interesting history (I'd tell you but all of the fort-related history has become one complicated mass of confusion in my head) as well as two palaces in the city's old quarter, full of pink buildings giving the place it's nickname.

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So far, we have both enjoyed our trip to India.  Temperatures break the 40 mark daily, so it's going to be a big shock coming back home in a weeks time where apparently the daily highs are half a hot (on a good day).  It is true what everybody says about being hassled all the time, but you soon get used to it.  The traffic isn't quite as hectic as everybody makes it out to be but the car horns, my God the car horns are bloody irritating, there doesn't seem to be any situation in which an Indian driver will not use their car horn, whether it's to say 'get out of the way' or 'why is this traffic not moving' or 'I'm on a completely empty street, and am just making my presence clear to all those enjoying the quiet'.  Rant over.

We are both looking forward to getting back on home turf, and we're counting down the days we have left here in Delhi (three whole days after today, for the record).  We could not have asked for a better experience of Asia and there is no part of it that we haven't enjoyed.  See you all very soon!

Hitting the 100 day mark

James and I have now been travelling Asia for over 100 days, we hit our hundred mark here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and we have done, so so much.  Let me begin with our three day Jungle Trek.

We set off and first visited a butterfly and orchid farm, which was pretty bland, so we'll skim over that.  Next stop, the elephant centre!!!  We bought some bananas to feed the beautiful animals and then hopped on (or rather very catiously stepped on) to the seat upon our elephant's back.  He had great character and after every few steps, he'd stop and demand a banana before he continued.  The riding itself was actually much harder work than I expected it to be, almost like a slow motion bucking-bronco, but all in all a great thing to do.

Then, we set off up the mountain, a three hour uphill hike.  It was tough work but when we got to the mountain-top village of the Lahu tribe, we all shared a great sense of achievement (and mutual exhaustion).  Our tour guide, Puzaa, was such a laugh, he was an avid Manchester United fan, and constantly wore clothes related to the team and played United music from his phone.  Throughout the three days, he pointed out lots of interesting plants and wildlife in the forest: rubber trees, tika trees, eagles, tarantulas, a snake to name but a few.  He constantly joked around with us all and kept the morale in our group of eight high.  On the first night we stayed in the village, and in the morning, we were treated to a picturesque view over the valley below all the way to Chiang Mai city.  On the second day, four people headed back to Chiang Mai, as they were only on the two day trek, and James and I spent the rest of the trek with Puzaa and a French couple, so we were challenged to practice our Frech, and we were both surprised by how much we remembered.  The second day's trek consisted of visiting a few beautiful waterfalls, which we swam in, and even showered in (Puzaa provided shower gel and shampoo), all very Herbal Essences.  That night we slept in a jungle camp and stayed up playing cards by candle light.  On our third and final day, we went white water rafting on a river with some true rapids, so that was great fun.  Obviously this account of the trek has been vastly trimmed down to be concise enough for the blog, we have so many great stories!

Since our trek, just yesterday in fact, we visited a tiger park and were alowed into the enclosures to stroke the tigers and have photos taked with them.  We visited the park with two Irish girls who were staying in the dorm we're in.  We all started off with the tiger cubs, each ten months all, so cute!  We tried to formulate a plan to steal one and bring it home, but there were too many locked doors and guards to pull it through.  We then went to see the adult tigers, so that was a little bit more nerve racking, but they are such beatiful creatues and have such a sense of wonder about them.

Finally, James completed a bungy jump of 50m yesterday.  Obviosuly I can't tell you about the experiecne having not done it myself, so here he is.

Hear me now rude boi's! Well 50m may not sound that high compared to the 150m+ jumps that you can do in places like New Zealand and Macau. However, firstly and most importantly it was cheap. Price here out rivals danger, quality of equiptment and staff training. But the experience is still the same, so I wasn't too bothered by the seemingly laxidasical approach to people hurling themselves off a 50m high crane, attached by only a few elastic bands tied together. Secondly, you may turn your nose up at a mere 50 meters, but let me tell you now, when you are at the top, even though I tried my hardest not to look down, it still seems bloody high up! I feel that when you can view miles of Thai scenery uninterrupted, thats when your too high up.
 
The process is very simple; they tie your feet, take you to the crane, they tell you in very broken english where to jump off, the instuctor takes the last few photos displaying my sheer terror, then 3, 2, 1, and you have to jump. For a split second my body told me that it wasn't going to do it, but I leant forward and then I was falling. Before the jump I made sure I didnt look down too much as to not scare myself too much, but as soon as you are falling it is impossible not to see how high up you are, and how quickly you are plumetting toward the ground. The feeling is like nothing I've felt before. It is a huge adreneline rush as you fall so quickly, and then I touched the water of the lake below and then I was catapulted back towards the sky. After the first shock of falling I didn't feel too much of the next part, but I remember bouncing around for a few seconds, then dangling and spinning for what seemed like an eternity, before they lower you back onto good old terra firma. Then you get a picture with your certificate and off you trot. I think it was one of the best feelings I've had whilst being out here, but as to whether I'd do it again, that's another matter.

Laos... in a single post.

So, what with the extreme lack of posts recently, Laos must be summarised in a single blog post, and what a post it will be.

James and I arrived in the capital city of Laos, Vientienne, about two weeks ago.  We only stayed on night as it was a sleepy place with little to do.  We then travelled up to Vang Vieng, home of notorios Tubing in the Vang Vieng, an excuse for tourists like ourselves to get plastered and jump off platforms, swing from ropes and shoot along zip wires into the merky waters of the river below.  I'd probably be lying to you if I said it isn't as dangerous as it sounds.  But hey, don't worry Mum, we're alive, it's just our livers we have to worry about.  It really was a great thing to do.  We met up with the girls from Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, Anna and Elie, and they were with two of their friends from home.  The whole thing was basically yet another opportunity to meet a lot of backpackers and just have a good time.  Another treat that Vang Vieng provides is Friends cafes (which play Friends all day), which is where you spend most of your time when your not on the river or at bars.

After eight days of tubing, we decided that we'd call it time, so we headed to a beautiful town called Luang Prabang, in the North of Laos.  This town shares many similarities to Hoi An in Vietnam.  They are both ancient Frech colonial towns, and both are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  Quite understandably so, the architecture and location of Luang Prabang emphasises its beauty further, on the riverside, surrounded by lush green forests, the town is a maze of Wats (temples) and museums.  It was a much needed rest stop that we appreciated no end.  The highlight was visiting some spectacular waterfalls, located next to a Sun Bear Sanctuary.  Here, not only were we able to admire the picturesque yet powerful scenery of high waterfalls, but we were also able to jump off the smaller ones into the lagoons below, where we swam to cool down.

Laos really was a treat, and one of those countries that a lot of travellers visiting South East Asia simply skip.  There is so much more to the country than just Tubing, many hidden traditions, and even the simple things, like greeting locals makes the whole experience that little more special.