Red Brick Warehouse, Rain and Arcades

On Friday night I met Jonny after work at Bashamichi Station to go to the Red Brick Warehouse. These are two converted warehouse buildings separated by a large courtyard, overlooking the bay. They contain shops (gift shops mainly), cafes, restaurants and live music venues. We ate at an Italian restaurant called Cafe Madu, which we thought was just a mall-style cafe facing the shops, but we ended up sitting in a glazed terrace area on the courtyard, with a nice view of passenger boats going in and out (strangely all lit up like Christmas in the US). It was slightly overpriced but perhaps worth it for the setting.

View from our table

After dinner we ambled around hiding underneath an umbrella in the general direction of Minato Mirai (where the big skyscrapers are). Quite a nice little walk despite the rain - there were well designed walkways with framed views of the Landmark tower and skyscraper lights reflected in the canals (and puddles). Although we did agree that it was probably the novelty factor that helped us like the area, and more than likely if it was in the UK we would find it as soulless as Canary Wharf.

Rainy rainy Minato Mirai

We popped into a mall to look at what was on at the cinema. Not very much. But Jonny had the opportunity to win pink things in the very pink arcade. There are arcades everywhere, and busy too. I've decided that if there is a hell, it is probably arcade after arcade, with the accompanying din and only the chance to be conned out of money to win cheap and hideous stuffed toys. For. Ever.

Not winning stuff not worth winning

Baseball, sushi and sake

On Wednesday night we headed off to Tokyo to meet up with a friend of a friend, and watch the Yakult Swallows baseball team in action. The atmosphere was lively and jovial, we spent most of the time chatting and drinking smuggled beer rather than watching the game, but I did manage to catch the Swallows' only home run, and we joined in the team song and dance, which involves waving around small umbrellas. Don't think it would catch on in the UK, can't see thousands of umbrellas being allowed into football grounds!

Stadium sunset

Umbrella celebrations

We headed back to Yokohama and found ourselves a nice little sushi bar for a second dinner. I'm a fan of the standard sushi but not so keen on the fish eggs, not sure Jonny is either after I forced him to eat my share...

Yum yum fish eggs

All was going fine until we were bought sake and sushi by a couple of the regulars. We didn't feel like we could turn it down, despite the fact we were both aware we had had more than enough alcohol at this point. The hangover lasted all of the next day.... beer and wine = fine, beer and sake = ???

Japanese Toilet Roulette

As many of you know, the Japanese are well known for their high-tech toilets. I can't say that I'm a fan. 

For a nation that prides itself on its sustainability it seems a little contradictory to be heating a toilet seat all day long, especially when it's 30 degrees outside. And to me a warm toilet seat just means that someone has recently spent a long time sitting on there before you... and that's not something I want to contemplate.

But my main issue with high-tech toilets is when their button functions are indistinguishable, forcing a game of Japanese toilet roulette. One such game I thankfully won in a public toilet on Sunday. Not finding a handle, or the flush working automatically I realised with some horror that I would have to randomly press buttons until it flushed, and hope that I didn't end up getting squirted with toilet water. The flush button was not as obvious as it should have been for us newbie Gaijin.

Toilet buttons, photo stolen from some other blog

Do you like how the bidet buttons for men and women show the water squirting at different angles? Hygienic!

Jonny Drinking Pink Drinks

Home or abroad, Jonny just can't go out without drinking the pink drinks. This could become a blog of its own...

Florida

Bristol

Yokohama

Tokyo

Another Gaijin

Not knowing any Japanese, or being able to recognise the alphabet seems to be a lot more of a problem in Japan than elsewhere, perhaps because they're not so reliant on tourism. Nevertheless I made it (with some wild armwaving and asking of dumb questions) to my rendezvous with Jonny at the West Exit of Yokohama Station. This was also a feat because I was struggling with jetlag-induced narcolepsy on the train from Narita airport, so I could have ended up anywhere.

So my first proper experience of Japan was a greasy burger joint near Yokohama station where as Jonny gave me the directions to his room in Motosumiyoshi (25 mins on the slow train, 10 minutes walk already rehearsed using Google Streetview) I tuned into the background music to hear a Welsh Folk Song (The Ash Grove) playing. Pretty weird. Walking to his guesthouse I passed an elementary school playground where surreally after no sleep, there were various groups of children in coloured togas, shaking maracas.

The following day I mainly slept, although experienced two small earthquakes. It's hard to explain what they feel like, but I guess gentle rocking is probably the best description, and anything free hanging in the room was swinging gently. Having checked online and seen that there have been plenty Magnitude 4 and above since I arrived, I think I only felt the first two because I was sitting around not doing much.

Saturday was spent moving to Jonny's new room, a short walk from Yokohama station, and exploring the surrounds. His place we've estimated is 8-10m above sea level (based on the high water level in the nearby canal) and at the bottom of a hill, so we're pretty confident of our tsunami escape route if needed... We walked to the tallest building in Japan, the Landmark Tower, shocked ourselves with the cost of chorizo slices in the posh deli (£10) and around 5pm ish local time sat in a park overlooking Tokyo bay waiting for the world to end. Needless to say we were fine, and so we celebrated by looking at lego ninjas and getting lost on our way home.

Yokohama at night (Landmark Tower in background)

Today (Sunday) we made our way into Tokyo, which is a 30 minute / £2 train ride from Yokohama, arriving into Shibuya station, outside of which is the famous extremely busy crossroads (although it turns out not quite as busy on a Sunday). We made our way to Yoyogi Park and watched some of the entertainers, the 'street' dancing was pretty awful - guys dressed up like they were in Grease, dancing about as well as I do after a few drinks, but we spent a while watching 3 ladies mime / act / dance who were actually rather good.

Yoyogi Park - Pretending a pretend baguette is a violin

As I coughed and sneezed my way into a discovery that I'm allergic to maple tree pollen, Jonny noticed the dark clouds heading our way. Our attempt to see the Meiji Shrine before it rained failed miserably due in some part to our scenic detour, and wow did it rain. We spent an hour sheltering in the walkways and watching a few of the wedding processions )including over-zealous security guards and parazzi) and I took a few photos before Jonny had a sense of humour failure. We had left the house in sweltering heat and now we were more than a bit chilly (the temperature dropped from 31oC to 16oC in 3 hours) and without an umbrella. Jonny decided the rain had 'slowed down a bit' and I was guilted into running in the downpour until we found a shop with an umbrella. 

Wet shrine

Better prepared

After this we found a 'Jonathan's Cafe and Restaurant', which ironically was a major disappointment and not worth the trouble (think Little Chef pre Heston), although my pigeon English accompanied by manic hand waving appears to be improving. It was still raining so we decided on an early dinner, where Jonny upstaged my sign language with an apparently understood 'biiru o futatsu kudasai' (2 beers please). Before heading home we trundled around Harajuku, half of it was more teenagey bright coloured stuff, the other half was more to my taste, but with a wide range of price tags. And it doesn't pay to get your currency conversions wrong, there was a nice dress for £30 that I was thinking of trying on, until it turned out it was actually £300. We left the shop. However I plan to return on my birthday with a bit of notepaper with yen conversions... and my credit card.

Harajuku after the rain

South East Asian Adventures 2008 (copied from old blog)

currently sitting in an internet cafe in koh phi phi just before i head off to bed. the main town here is a bit like a themepark for backpackers with bars, restaurants, shops and tourist shops, and very noisy at night with lots of drunk students, not really my scene, id rather have a bit of peace and quiet to enjoy the beauty, and it is beautiful here. i would upload some photos but this archaic computer has no usb port1
the journey over here was long because i did it all in one go, consequently i spent most of tםday sleeping. got up in the afternoon to book my diving course, which starts tomorrow, and lie on the beach for a couple of hours
the dive course lasts 3 days, then i hope to do some kind of kayak tour on the 10th before i fly off to borneo on the 11th.
  
Mees yu awlreddy!

2008-07-13

Spent 6 night in Koh Phi Phi in the end, stayed in a hostel run by a Germany lady who I had interesting chats with concerning the tsunami and so forth, but that I will save for a later post because my opinion on that is quite long!
I did my Open Water PADI course on Phi Phi which consisted of a confined dive where I practised skills such as taking off my mask etc underwater (something that I thought would be difficult but was fine), and then I had 4 dives in 2 days out in the open ocean. I saw TONNES! The coral reef there is well protected, I saw clownfish, seahorses, a turtle, an octopus, etc etc etc.
I met quite a few people over in Phi Phi, one of them who happens to be good friends with one of my good friends from uni - it's a small world! I met an american guy called Rob who shared my passion for photography, and on my last day in Phi Phi, which I didn't spend diving, we went off on a mini-trek of the island taking loads of photos. It was nice not to feel like I was annoying people by snapping away!

Friday I spent mainly in a plane flying to Borneo. I flew from Krabi to Kuala Lumpur, then onto Tawau in Sabah, Borneo. The departure lounge at KL has a shop selling chocolate from all over the world! I was in heaven! At one point it appeared I would be the only westerner on the plane, so there I was, a lone female westerner munching on some food which seemed ridiculous to them in such a hot country, I got some funny looks! Fortunately 2 brits and an aussie also got my flight, I didn't chat to them on it but after I met Charly at Tawau airport we all ended up sharing a lift to Semporna which is where my dive school is based.
It turns out that these people are professional underwater photographers, and the guy (I think his name is Adam) worked for Associated Press as a news photographer. I mentioned that my grandad used to work as a freelance photographer in Wales, and when I mentioned his name he said he had heard of him, which made my day!
I've had two days diving here so far, the dives havent been as good as Phi Phi yet, but the islands we have dived off are beautiful! Tomorrow we are diving off Sipadan which is legendary for sharks, turtles and barracuda, so I'm very much looking forward to it. And by the end of tomorrow I will be an advanced open water diver!
On Wednesday I'm off to the Philippines, which I'm hoping will be a little less intimidating than being a woman in a Muslim country. Even though we have made sure to cover knees and shoulders we still get unwanted attention from men, nothing bad so far just unpleasant glares, honking horns and 'Mees yu awlreddy' as a nice chat up line. It's definitely nice to be in a group in an area, which apart from the visitors to the few local dive schools, is not a tourist resort.



Dumaguete, Negros Island, Philippines

 2008-07-17

I'm currently in an internet cafe in dumaguete on negros in the philippines, which is a geek cafe with smelly noisy boys playing crap computer games. it smells. im token whitey in town and getting ripped off as only a blonde haired white girl can (yes thats right my hair is getting blonder by the second).
on the other hand the filipinos are horrendously friendly and helpful, yesterday i got off a bus in the middle of nowhere in manila, and seeing my struggle to haggle for a taxi, one guy told me he would find one for me, he ran barefooted into the middle of the road in the rain to hail one, and then shouted at another guy for not holding his umbrella over me!
very different from borneo where the muslim malaysians did not appreciate western girls, even though i had knees and shoulders covered. we got stared at, and tutted at, and worst of all, horror of horrors, we got called 'amerikanos'.
im trying to get to a random island tomorrow (apo island) but there is no consistent answer as to when the boat leaves and where from, and like every other asian they wont say no, so conversations go something along the lines of 'does the boat go from dumaguete pier?' 'yes' 'does the boat go in the morning?' 'yes' 'are you just agreeing with everything i say?' 'yes'
so im trying my best to work it out on the internet...

Geev me your munee or food!
2008-07-21

I got up at 5.45 this morning to get a ferry at 7 only to find out they weren't doing a ferry at 7 today! So now I have many hours to kill until the 1.30 boat...zzzzzz. Those of you who know me will appreciate how difficult it is for me to get up that early!
I've stayed 1 night in Dumaguete, 2 nights on Apo Island and then another night just South of Dumaguete. I spent a day in the town until Charly arrived sitting on the water front promenade reading and getting harassed by men trying to sell me 'pearl' earrings (the fact that I told them my ears weren't pierced didnt stop them!) and also getting children coming up to me begging. Two schoolkids in uniform saying "Geev me your munee or food!" obviously didnt get anything. I feel slightly guilty not giving anything to others, they would have been happy with 5p no doubt, but I didnt want to be harassed for the rest of the day.
Apo Island was fantastic, we stayed at Liberty's which is a quirky building with electricity only at certain times, and the shower was a bucket, which of course is not the most useful after diving! The island is not really touristy, I think mainly it is a fishing village as you would expect. It had a great community feel to it and we were made to feel very welcome, everyone said hello and all the children wanted me to take their photo! The weather wasn't fantastic while we were there but we had two amazing sunsets, and our room a prime view of them from the balcony so we were extremely happy.
The diving was good, the coral was in excellent condition, and we saw an enormous school of Jacks which was pretty incredible. The Dive Masters were by no means marine biologists and we would have probably seen or spotted a lot more had we had someone who knew what they were looking for. Still, we saw an octopus, black banded sea snakes, more turtles and a cool electric-blue coloured eel that lived in a hole (at some point I need to learn proper names).
The place we stayed in last night was a complete rip-off, the same price as the really nice place I stayed in on my first night here, but dirty, smelly, no hot water and a resident frog. Although I made friends with the owners doberman 'spike'! Yesterday I got my first experiences of riding in a Jeepney and the Tricycles, all an order of magniture cheaper than a cab and much more adventurous! Everyone says hello when we drive past, although Charly laughed when I said I felt like the Queen waving from our trycycle. Apparantly the similarity is linked only my name, and the Queen would not ever wear my shorts, or no doubt my now very dirty favourite light shirt which I wear almost all the time due to it being the most comfortable thing to wear in this humidity!
As well as the photos below I have put some photos up on my facebook page, Click Here
I got up at 5.45 this morning to get a ferry at 7 only to find out they weren't doing a ferry at 7 today! So now I have many hours to kill until the 1.30 boat...zzzzzz. Those of you who know me will appreciate how difficult it is for me to get up that early!
I've stayed 1 night in Dumaguete, 2 nights on Apo Island and then another night just South of Dumaguete. I spent a day in the town until Charly arrived sitting on the water front promenade reading and getting harassed by men trying to sell me 'pearl' earrings (the fact that I told them my ears weren't pierced didnt stop them!) and also getting children coming up to me begging. Two schoolkids in uniform saying "Geev me your munee or food!" obviously didnt get anything. I feel slightly guilty not giving anything to others, they would have been happy with 5p no doubt, but I didnt want to be harassed for the rest of the day.
Apo Island was fantastic, we stayed at Liberty's which is a quirky building with electricity only at certain times, and the shower was a bucket, which of course is not the most useful after diving! The island is not really touristy, I think mainly it is a fishing village as you would expect. It had a great community feel to it and we were made to feel very welcome, everyone said hello and all the children wanted me to take their photo! The weather wasn't fantastic while we were there but we had two amazing sunsets, and our room a prime view of them from the balcony so we were extremely happy.
The diving was good, the coral was in excellent condition, and we saw an enormous school of Jacks which was pretty incredible. The Dive Masters were by no means marine biologists and we would have probably seen or spotted a lot more had we had someone who knew what they were looking for. Still, we saw an octopus, black banded sea snakes, more turtles and a cool electric-blue coloured eel that lived in a hole (at some point I need to learn proper names).
The place we stayed in last night was a complete rip-off, the same price as the really nice place I stayed in on my first night here, but dirty, smelly, no hot water and a resident frog. Although I made friends with the owners doberman 'spike'! Yesterday I got my first experiences of riding in a Jeepney and the Tricycles, all an order of magniture cheaper than a cab and much more adventurous! Everyone says hello when we drive past, although Charly laughed when I said I felt like the Queen waving from our trycycle. Apparantly the similarity is linked only my name, and the Queen would not ever wear my shorts, or no doubt my now very dirty favourite light shirt which I wear almost all the time due to it being the most comfortable thing to wear in this humidity!
As well as the photos below I have put some photos up on my facebook page, Click Here
   


Sipadan
2008-07-21

Read through my blog and realised I had written nothing about Sipadan! Sipadan is an island off the coast of Borneo which for you geology/ geography geeks out there is not situated on the continental shelf so therefore rises 650m above the ocean floor.
It is one of the top dive sites in the world and although I have hardly done enough diving to make that judgement myself, it is awesome. We dropped in at South Point practically on top of turtles, which pop their head up above sea level quite frequently. The fish that you can see infrequently at other places are in abundance, swimming in schools right in front of your face, and there are sharks. Not just the odd shark that you might spot elsewhere but everywhere you look! I managed to swim within half a metre of one to take a photo, and at the end of a dive hovered directly above an enormous turtle (bigger than me) until it got annoyed with me taking photos and swam off.
The second dive was at Barracuda point which is world renowned, similar diving but more of a current. You swim along the wall and then head up a channel which has quite a current.
The third dive was White Tip, and we very lucky to see around 20m below us a school of juvenile grey sharks.
The island itself is beautiful and has been conserved well. Tourists are no longer allowed to stay on it and you are only allowed on a small fraction of the island. The army have a small base on it due to kidnappings by Muslim extremists in the past, it is quite disconcerting to see machine guns pointed out at you when you step onto the island!

Bohol-Cebu-Manila-Kota Kinabalu
2008-07-26

I stayed on Panglao Island, just off Bohol from Monday to Thursday. Tuesday I spent diving around Baclisag island. On the dive boat it was me, a japanese guy and the filipino dive crew, which was quite intimidating at first, but after the first dive we all chatted about where we had dived before, and we had a good time. The actual diving I found better than at Apo Island, as well as the usual stuff we saw large schools of Barracuda and Jacks. They were mesmerising to watch, and I could have hovered there for ever watching them, a bit like staring at fire.

A guy offered to take me to a good spot on the island for sunset on his scooter, so we drove out there, saw a few sites on Panglao Island and then watched the non existent sun go down. The sky was beautiful though so the guy didnt understand why I wasn't annoyed, I got some good photos, very different from the usual sunset.

Tuesday I got ripped off a little, getting someone to take me on a tour around Bohol. I got up at 4am to drive to the chocolate hills in time for sunrise, I was the only one up at the viewing point and it was an amazing experience. We then drove onto the Tarsier centre to see the small monkey like creatures, but everything else there was to see my guide wanted more money for, and I was really tired so decided to head back and just sit on the beach in the afternoon.

I got up early on Thursday morning to go dolphin watching, expecting to get on a boat at 6am, although the guys who had organised it for me had messed up and I got more and more annoyed with them trying to sort a boat for me that I just walked off. Someone else stepped in and offered me my own private boat for 1000 pesos (just over 10 pounds) and so I spent an hour and a half watching dolphins in the wild. It was awe inspiring, and it felt like the experience was all mine because the other boats had disappeared so it was only me and my guides out on the water. I felt like the luckiest person alive to be doing that.

After breakfast I took a ferry to Cebu, and spent the afternoon in an enormous shopping mall. I got a bit overexcited, miscounted the money I had left and after buying a few items left myself very short to get to Manila... The next day I had to stop the cab after the meter reached 172 pesos (the airport taxis are more expensive than the usual ones), which confused the driver immensely who thought I was trying to bargain with him. I think he finally understood when I emptied my wallet into his hand! I had a couple of kms to walk to the nearest Western Union, which wasn't too bad. Taxis were stopping asking if I needed a ride and when I said I had no money they thought I was joking and started laughing, I was like 'no, really!'. (I'm not sure I mentioned this before but had my cards stolen in Thailand and my replacement Mastercard doesnt work anywhere, so I'm relying on western union money transfers)
So I arrived in Kota Kinabalu last night and have found my way to Borneo Backpackers. I met an american girl who I had dinner with and we got bought beers by the locals, so spent a relaxed evening after a manic day. Not really sure what I've done today, just been getting more western union money, walking around the markets and shopping malls. In the fish market I saw a shark which had its fins removed for shark fin soup, which was quite upsetting (they just throw the rest of the shark away).
We've booked our climb up Mt. Kinabalu for tomorrow, which has cost 690 ringit, (around 110 pounds), which is quite expensive, but the local travel agencies have created a monopoly on climbing the mountain, booking all but a small percentage of the accommodation in advance so you are forced to book through them with their extortionate profit margins. I think it is the same for Mulu where I intend to go later, so it could get quite costly, but these are once in a lifetime experiences so they're worth it


 Mt. Kinabalu - Poring - Sepilok - KK - Mulu - Angkor Wat
2008-08-10


Internet has been painfully slow in the last few places I have stayed so sorry for the lack of updates!
I succesfully climbed Kinabalu, although the weather was horrific, and at 2.30am when we were meant to begin our summit ascent the climb was called off. We all disappeared back to bed, but at 8am managed to persuade our guide to let us go up. Sometimes when the clouds briefly parted we saw some views of distant hills, but at the summit all we could see was cloud. I'm pleased I did it all the same, and despite thinking the climb might be struggle both due to altitude sickness, and also inexperience, I was well ahead of the rest of my group. Fortunately for the summit ascent I met a Dutch guy called Peter who was equally quick and we did up and down in a very quick 3 hours.

After Kinabalu I went to Poring Hot Springs to have a bath and also do the canopy walkway there. I was expecting to stay longer but it really only is day trip material, so the next day I moved onto Sandakan where I met up with some people I met diving in Semporna.
We spent a day wandering around the markets, where in the fish market we saw finless Hammerhead and Guitar Sharks, two endangered species, which was quite distressing, especially since they were all very young. In the late afternoon we ventured to the English Tea Gardens on the cliff overlooking the bay, and drank Pimms, ate scones and played Croquet. It was a very surreal experience in the middle of Sabah!
The next day we ventured out to Sepilok where we went to the Orangutan sanctuary and the rainforest discovery centre. We were lucky to see two adult orangutans up very close to us (photos to follow), and we were surprised to find the rainforest centre (a bit of an afterthought) very interesting. The botanic garden had a collection of plants and orchids and informed us what they were used for. Some of the plants were beautiful.

We were going to see the Proboscis monkeys but decided against a 4hr 4wd trip down a short bumpy road. On the way back into Sandakan Lisa and I paid a visit to the war memorial for the Sandakan Death March. A large POW camp was located in Sandakan during WW2, and all 1800 Australians and 600 Brits, apart from 6 that escaped met their deaths either at the camp, or along the death march trail to Ranau, hundreds of km inland. The survivor stories of the Japanese treatment of POWs was harrowing, and we were quite moved by it all. The memorial itself was in a well cared for park located on the site of the old camp.
That evening Lisa and I, after having trouble booking our trip to Mulu from Sabah decided to take a coach to KK, overnight it in the airport and then travel to Miri (the connecting town for Mulu) the next day to see if we could book from there. Sleeping in the airport was a little uncomfortable to say the least, but the airport closes for the night so it was quiet at least, unlike KL airport a week later.
We managed to book a 5 day 4 night trip from Miri to Mulu for a very decent price, and from our stay there it appears that many people have problems booking the park accommodation due to the incompetence of staff. In fact there is plenty of accommodation not far outside the park, which is perfectly adequate for most people, and if you want to do the Pinnacles or visit camp 5 then there are plenty of people who can help you.
I may have been fortunate, because the guy who organised all the guiding in the park, and one of the most experienced guides there both knew my old Professor at Bristol, Pete Smart, from his time at the park, and so I think my namedropping helped me to sort our Camp 5 accommodation.
Mulu was better than I imagined. The jungle was beautiful, the caves were awesome and the pinnacles were on a greater scale than I had imagined. We also met some really amazing people, including Richard, an experienced guide, friend of Pete Smart, important member of a Longhouse and a man with some very good ideas. We also met two guys who were keen to help the local community, and are also involved in ecofriendly water, aircon and sanitation systems.

An experience I will never forget is the enormous rainstorm that hit us going up the river, soaking us through (luckily I had brought a drybag). We had to trek through heavy rain and mud, I got 6 leeches on me (3 which bit me), and the forest was beautiful. I will definitely go back, 5 days was not enough, I could have spent that amount of time at Camp 5 alone in the middle of nature, and we didnt even start on the adventure caving options.
After a day in Miri with our two new friends (including a beautiful sunset, seeing the local billionaires chinese fortress house, and experiencing a city wide blackout) we had to spend a very restless and uncomfortable night in KL domestic airport. Now we are staying in Siem Reap and saw Angkor Wat this evening, the next couple of days will be packed full of the other temples.

Cambodia
2008-09-10

Bit of a while since my last post because since I've been back in the UK it has been non-stop sorting my life out!
I experienced my first bit of corruption in Cambodia 10 minutes after getting off the plane. We had to pay twenty dollars for the tourist visa and had to provide a photo for them to have. I only had a photocopy of my passport photo, which should have been fine for whatever purpose they needed it for, since they take an electronic photo of you anyway, but he tried to fine me I think 100 ringit firstly, and then when I said I no longer had ringit he wanted me to pay him 5 dollars. You can tell as soon as they start changing the price that it isnt an official fine, so I just stared at him blankly until he told me to move onto the next counter. I've found that whether on purpose or not the blank stare works a treat when travelling!
We stayed in the Shadow of Angkor guesthouse where we had a double bed each and free internet access, and bizarrely it had a restaurant selling great european food, I had some great hummus and pitta! Lots of people seem to hire bikes to go round all the temples, but having just been trekking for a few days, and Lisa with a twisted ankle we hired a tuk tuk for the 3 days we were there.
We saw A LOT of temples. I had expected them to feel more spiritual but there were so many tourists around that it was difficult to appreciate them for their religious significance. The ones I enjoyed the most were the ones we saw earliest in the morning when no-one else was around. There were also some that had been left in ruins with enormous trees growing out of the stone, it was an impressive example of nature versus structure.
In terms of their architecture it is an interesting comparison between that going on in Europe at a similar time. I think the European cathedrals have much more impressive structures, perhaps as a result of advanced engineering skills, but there was no denying how beautiful the carvings were on the temples.
On our last day we were taking photos of the South Gate to Angkor Thom and Lisa was bitten by a monkey who didn't like the look of her, so we also got to experience a Cambodian hospital! Getting bitten on holiday is highly unrecommended due to the amount of rabies jabs you need after!

Bangkok Airways is the only airline to fly between Siem Reap and Bangkok, and their flights would have cost a lot so we decided to travel by coach instead. Apparantly they bribe the Cambodian government to not improve the road between Siem Reap and the border to make people travel by plane, so during the rainy season the roads are in really poor condition. Unfortunately we were there in rainy season, and it had rained heavily during our stay, so our journey to the border was particularly uncomfortable.


 

The Rickshaw Run (copied from old blog)

Arrived in Old Delhi on Sunday and found an american guy who chaperoned me around to have a look at the red fort and an enormous mosque. Went up to the hotel rooftop at sunset and watched hundreds of people flying kites in the dusk air.

Flew down to Goa the next day and shared a taxi down to Palolem (1hr 30mins) staying in small hut like accommodation on a beautiful beach in a bay around the same size as Port Eynon beach in Gower. Made some German, Argentine and Israeli friends and shared advice on where to go next. Was odd to see cows on the beach and in the middle of the road but I quite like it! Half of the dogs have collars, and the other half are pretty wild. There were a group on the beach getting a bit angry and one split off and started following me, barking and growling, and indian woman shouted at it and it backed off, but I was a little scared (not normally like me with dogs) but I've learnt since then a firm 'pssssssht' reasonably early gets rid of them.
Pictures from Palolem beach:


I arrived at Longuinhos resort in Colva on Wednesday where I met up with the 'For Tuk's Sake' team, (I had met up with Jon previously in Bristol) and some other teams too.
The rickshaws arrived last night, much to everyone's excitement. I met Jack, our third team member, last night and he has brought along some tarpaulin and bungee ropes, and earlier went to buy some jerry cans for spare fuel. I'm going to fashion a funnel out of some old water bottles.
We've been working out what we need for the rickshaws, and so today we have spent cutting up some tarpaulin for our monsoon protection, and going into Margao to get some rope and net for making ourselves some compartments for stashing stuff in.
Shiv arrives in a few hours along with our gaffa tape, cable ties and bungee rope, so tomorrow morning we'll be adding our finishing touches, and from midday we have some test driving, possibly into Margao town to get some tow-rope and maybe electronics. I think our distance-pimping maybe for comfort rather than anything mechanical, although we are going to get some cushions so hopefully we can avoid whiplash from any heavy braking.
We leave at midday on Sunday (7.30am UK time) from the main street in Goa, and then we're on the road. I'm very excited about getting on with the journey, and a lot less worried than my dad made me about driving over here. We'll just be pootling along rather than zooming in an out of traffic, we'll be very visible, and everyone uses their horn for everything so people know where everyone is all the time!



Day 1: Colva, Goa to Belgau
Shiv drove first, took a scenic shortcut to Ponda which ended up being the long way round. Concerned when we broke down after stopping, took a while to realise shiv hadnt turned the petrol back on... Jack driving up steep potholed roads with quarry trucks overtaking us, a lot of stalling. Me taking over for some steep turns, a lot of stalling again, v difficult hillstarts (someone else has to crank it up to start because it would destroy my back, imagine lawnmower start but 100 times worse), perfected the running start (passengers hold rickshaw on hill while driver starts, avoids complications of using footbrake, handbrake useless). Major pothole road with trucks passing, felt like riding a bucking bronco, but Spud our tuk loves it). Downhill through paddy fields then kinda onto the flat. Shiv takes us into Belgau, we lose For Tuk's Sake, we stay in a crappy hotel, they have a nice one.

Day 2: Belgau to Poona
Day of highway driving, two lane roads, very nice. Still some cows in the road, saw one person sitting in a lane playing with potatoes at one point. First experience of rain, put all our tarpaulin on, stopped raining. Steep winding downhill into Poona (me driving), bit scary. Spud doesnt like having no acceleration. Shiv takes over driving, random guy drives Janet (For Tuk's Sake) to a hotel and we follow. Shiv's driving style is well suited to Indian city driving and Jack and I hold on for dear life as she matches the locals for speed, courage and sheer audacity. 'Best hotel in town' turns out to be overpriced and very average. They want to run off with our passports to an outside photocopying place, we have no trust and so Tom and I follow.

Day 3: Poona to Ellora
Another highway day but starts off with Shiv taking us out of Poona, Poona goes on forever and is a horrible city. Lots of near misses with cows and goats. Jack drives us into Ellora where a few other teams are. Stay in some nice bungalows.

Day 4: Ellora to Dhule
Saw the caves in the morning. I see the majority but wisdom tooth coming through is massively infected so I give up to find antibiotics. Antibiotics I need cost me 6 rupees (7.5p), cheaper to have these problems in India than the UK. I do all of the afternoon's driving. Awesome scenery, we were on the flat, v v green, farmland, and then suddenly we were driving down the side of a steep mountain, we could see for miles and miles the air was so clear, the hills round here are steep with plateaus. Scenery was awesome so we did a lot of stops. Drove into Dhule which was my first experience of city driving. Great fun! You have to treat it like a computer game. Going those speeds we cant get hurt, you just have to drive into any gap! Spent the night in a reasonable roadside hotel, where the staff pretended to understand us then brought us something completely different from what we asked for. Extra mattress=box of matches. Ordering papadoms was an experience.

Day 5: Dhule to Indore
I did the early shift, was very tired. Reasonable driving then we thought all the trucks were parking up, turns out to be a massive traffic jam as trucks negotiate steep winding pothole roads, we nip around the outside for the most part. A big truck did the same but got stuck, held up all the traffic coming the other way, we saw someone come out of their truck with an axe and they smashed the guys wing mirrors. Halfway up Spud decided clutch control was not his thing and died, we blocked the traffic until we managed to push him to the side. He started very quickly. Janet not so lucky, the clutch died, and she was pushed to the top of the hill into some shade where two guys at the side of the road started repairs. Took 4 hours as they whizzed off and back to get parts. Eventually made it to Indore where we stayed in a plush hotel for the night. Everyone convinced me I HAD to get my tooth looked at, which basically means they wanted to have a lie in and swim in the pool. Dentist at midday then we're off.

Day 6 Indore to Biaora
Had to have my tooth out in Indore. Scariest experience of my life, but had never had a tooth out before. Powercut while it was being done. Emergency generator kicked in. Drugged up drive with mouth mask. Reasonably nice highway goes bad. Driving late towards Biaora, end up in a 'town' that has never seen a tourist. Find a very average grotty motel. Hotel owner is a bit out of place, speaks very good English and has been to London, think probably local mafia. Decide to leave at sunrise, none of us eats a thing, wake up to find rickshaw gone. Find out that Jack has just moved it. Mafia guy laughs at us when we say we're heading for Agra.

Day 7 Biaora to Agra
Leave very early doors, get to see a pretty sunrise. Early morning means seeing young children sh*tting by the side of the road. Lots of dead dogs. Lots of pretty horrendous truck accidents. See a truck happily driving along with most of its front missing. Go through Gwalior which would have been nice to visit, but we take the bypass. Meet up with the Aussies and WWTD at a petrol station. Give a smiley kid the pencil I stole from the posh hotel in Indore. Drive into Agra together through some pretty small alley streets. Make it to Agra before it gets dark! Have a shower to wash off dirt from the day. Get out of shower. Realise still covered in dirt. Have another shower. Have a swim in the pool, get a tick on me, decide not to swim in the pool again.

Day 8 Agra to Kanpur
Get up at 5 to go see sunrise at Taj Mahal. Nice little walk to the gate as the city wakes up. Agra doesn't actually seem too bad considering how it could be. Discover the weird rules of what you are and are not allowed to take in with you. No tripods. Pens are allowed, no pencils though. No electronic equipment except cameras and video cameras. No headphones. Nowhere is this written down (obviously just a way to get more money for the locker charge). The Taj Mahal cannot be described in words or photos, because it is about its presence. You walk through a gate to see this shimmering white building which though surrounded by hundreds of people even at sunrise, still exudes an air of calm and grace. You walk around it and any stresses seem to be relieved, and nothing else seems in anyway important as you sit silently and stare at its enormous brilliance. I just wished I had Jonny sitting next to me and sharing the experience.
Walked back to the hotel through the less touristy back streets, felt quite Mediterranean. Got Spud a 'service' which involved us paying over the odds (although still only 50 rupees) for someone apparently having looked at him. Got told the best way out of Agra was to go South to avoid the traffic. I drove after recovering from the local anaesthetics and finally eating after a few days (couldnt really open my mouth before, then could only eat liquids after). Ended up going the wrong way out of town, drove down a single track road with small trucks coming the other way, so this involved spud leaning quite heavily with one wheel in a ditch, and Jack holding us up. Two guys on a motorbike offered to show us all the way to the highway. We drove along open sewers, then into the backstreets of a town, driving along alleyways packed with people and motorbikes and carts, ended up losing WWTD, got surrounded by people, eventually found them. Ended up driving through the brass band that was part of a festival to get onto the highway. Long drive. Ended up losing everyone else as we made our own pace.
Two guys in a truck decided they would chaperone us along our journey. They were a little high or drunk, hanging out the windows. Tried to lose them because they were scaring me. Failed until it got dark. Tryed to make it to Kanpur but the sun set with still 50km to go. Tactical night driving behind a truck to get us there safely. Missed the turning to Kanpur. Ended up going over a flyover for an extra 18km til we could turn around and go back. Got to a random hotel late. Felt a bit intimated by the porter guy who insisted on pushing into the room to give us soap, remote control, ask for money etc. Glad to leave.

Day 9 Kanpur to Faizabad
Get back on road to aim for Lucknow and further. Again apparently miss junction to Lucknow and end up on flyover. I decided I was fed up of driving down that bloody thing so plot another route to Faizabad. Miss another junction, decide next one would be fine also. From then on everyone we ask sends us the wrong way. Do an extra 250km to get to Faizabad very late. I end up driving at night along a potholed road, Jack and Shiv leaning out the sides to tell me when there is stuff coming at me or I'm going to overtake things with no lights on, because glare on windshield makes me blind, and 50% of people dont have lights. Drive in straight line and hope for best. Find a reasonable hotel in Faizabad after driving through a drum marching band (what is it with me and bands)?!

Day 10 Faizabad to Tansen
Left early doors again, aim to get to border by 9.30-10ish. Didn't take the correct turn. Neither Jack or myself could see on the map the town where the road was signposted to, and plus we hadn't even reached the town our road was meant to go from yet. Cue taking the next turning along a relatively slow road. Still, it was quite pretty. I started driving just before the border because Jack didn't have the correct IDP. The border crossing was 4 lanes of traffic squeezed into two lanes, two lanes for trucks, and two lanes for anything that considered themselves to be able to squeeze past trucks. I fell into the latter category. As with the general road rules in India, if you honk first you can be excused for whatever happens. I clipped a cycle rickshaw and a woman. But I did honk first.
Thankfully teams had gone before us and so we were ushered into getting stamped out of india, then we were ushered towards changing all our indian rupees to nepalese rupees at an appauling exchange rate, and then we were ushered through the large gate which marked the border to get stamped into nepal. It was then we realised the flat tyre. And that our socket wrench didnt fit. Cue around 30 people all helping, Jack went off (apparently back to India) to find the correct wrench, meanwhile a truck driver found us one, and a massive team effort lifted the rickshaw up onto its side (I claim I helped) as the wheel was replaced. Eventually found Jack who had wisely decided against going back to India. We got the official looking stamp for our rickshaw documents then we were on the road. Crossed the border by 2pm, so only 4 hours later than expected. We were aiming for Tansen where I was to meet up with Jonny. This was meant to take 2.5 hours but we arrived around sunset. The drive started off with some large potholes and water coming down the mountain onto the road which got us worried, but the road turned into my favourite ever. The late afternoon light was perfect as we wound our way through tiny villages where everyone waved us on, driving through sub tropical forest up higher until we eventually got a view of the town spread over the hillside. We passed a few teams who were camping by the river but we drove on. The climb into Tansen was up steep streets, and as we were the first team to stay there we were causing quite a stir! Stayed in Tansen two nights to unwind. Wandered around the streets, drank Everest beer, bought some stuff, climbed up the hill.

Day 12 Tansen to Pokhara
Left with the Aussies and WWTD for Pokhara. Lots of stopping on the way to soak up the scenery. Blinding green paddy fields, inviting river. As well as kids chasing the rickshaw, one of which Jack managed to run over. Poor boy was quite shocked but no obvious damage other than tyre marks on his ankle. Took him away from the rest of his friends and sat him down until he was a little more calm. Then we had to somehow drive off with them not jumping on again. Eventually arrived in Pokhara to cheers from the people in the bar.