Just one more :)

Varkala picies

Well we have had a really great xmas in Varkala great body surfing every day chillin on the beach and real tasty sea food and cold beer at night. We get back on the road again today with a 3 hour train ride to Cochi and 2 hr flight upto Mumbai where we can catch an overnight train to Jodhpur, back on the trail again :) !!!!

CHEERS

After a long old day !! :

Backwater and Varkala bits

Merry xmas from Varkala, Kerala

Well we,ve had a great week down in Varkala, got here about 5 days ago after taking a tour round the backwaters. I had no idea the backwaters were so vast at one point you hit a lake thats like an ocean with all the canals and backwaters feeding off of it. The wildlife is amazing, had a dawn cruise out to see the birdies. We gotta pukka little place sorted in Vakala for the xmas newyear.
All the cafes and accomodation are on top of the cliffs looking down onto a beach, the sea is nice and warm plenty of body boarding on the surf. Great place for some chilled Paragliding, laminar breezes blowing all day from about 10.30. Well we are off to hire a scooter now so i,m gonna shove a few pics on and split.

Pics - Amritsar, Western Ghats, Fort Kochin

Blimey time flies. Finally got 5 minutes for more frustration on rubbish internet cafes, i think they call it slimband not broadband :) cool i still have a sence of humour.

We went from McCloud to Amritsar and saw the Gloden Temple, and a visit to the border with Pakistan, really hillarious they have a mini stadium where Indian and Pakistanis shout insults at each oher and then the border guards perform the most rediculous parades in front of the gates all this is orchastrated by a bollywood style cheerleader and Officers who bellow the exact same orders and see who can shout for the longest!!! guess it beats shooting at each other:)

Amritsar is like something out of blade runner the air polution at night was absolutly the worst i have ever seen. Imagine neon lights flasing every mode of animal and combustion engine transport, beeping, mooing, spitting and grid locked at 3o degrees you have Amritsar. Nice temple though :)

We left Amritser on the overnight train to Delhi and flew out to Bangalore the next afternoon. Spent a great night in Bangalore. Good hotel shower change 17th floor rooftop resturant and the best Indian meal of the trip lookin at the lights. Headed for Puttaparty next day on a pukka pink super delux coach. Well it was super delux untill it reached forty mile per hour then it was like an episode from star treck "scotty, we need more power" cried the conductor as the coach shook"I,m givin it all shes got captain!! she,ll blow if i pusher any harder !!" screamed the driver:) Yea the coach deffinately needed some more dilithium crystals !!

I,ll let Diane write a bit about puttaparty, its an Ashram where a chap called Sai Barba is based. After a very enjoyable day and night we then headed for Chenai on the overnight and down to Malathaparomm and Pondycherry. Pondy was a great place probably because it was built by Europeans with a bit of prior thought. Hired a scoota and chilled on the beaches for a few days recharging the batteries. From Pondy we headed for Madurai, unbelivable Tenples in the middle. You can suffer from templeitous in India but this was a bit special, all the carvings and watching bizarr rituals with camels and elephants decorated, bangin drums and general hero worship by the locals. Strange night was spent killing mozies in the room, before giving in and fitting the net doh after i,d been hit at least 5 times. Fans had one speed which almost lifted the roof, little bit like standing behind a jet aircraft i imagine :) The morning brougha beutiful 5 hour coach to Munnar which is the heart of the tea growing area in Kerala. Spectacular scenery, classic rural India of rice and palms and climbing up over the Western Ghats, amazing 17 hairpin death defying bends with mad max at the wheel of the coach. White knuckle stuff but worth the 90p for the trip. Over the top and into the highlands. I,ve never seen anything like it. Its like the lake district covered in tea !! Just breathtaking. We spent 2 days in a pukka little place and hiked through the hills of tea gardens, and not another soul in site, just the birds and the bees for company. From Munnar we headed onto Fort Kochi which is where i,m sat right now. Lovely lttle portugese settlement on an island just off the coast. Had my beer served in a tea pot and mug !! And lookin at the sun go down over the ocean. Saw the chines fishing nets in action and will stick some pics up when we stop in Vakala. We,re gonna head fof the backwaters and a few wildlife parks over the next 2 / 3 days and will then be spanding xmas in Varkala by the beach. Strange that the whole christmas thing is passing us by hee but we,re thinkin about home at the moment and all the xmas fun we,re missing out on. Cheers to all and hope the lads aren,t missin me 2 much on a friday night !! sorry for the spelling i don,t have Diane to check it :) she is just having a 1 1/2 hour massage and stuff !! ciao for now - jonny

More piccies from Annapurna

Onward and upward

Well left Varashittynassi at 1300 and arrived in Mcleod Ganj at 7.00 the next morning. I have to say we were happy to be on that train our own AC sleeper to ourselves, feet up reading a book and watchin the world roll by as we headed back to the mountains. Its Gorgeous here in Mcleod Ganj really sweet, sittin on the roof top lookin at the view. Blimey never though a banana muffin and a cup of ground coffee could be sooooo good :)
Met a bunch of monks last night and had a right good chat, man they were so happy it makes you think. Visited the Temple today and got a good lesson on Tibet, really sad but uplifting to see all these people here and read a bit about the Dalai Lama, he,s out of town at the mo so i,m deffo not gonna get to have tea with him but there is an atmosphere about this place for sure.

Onto Varanasi

Landslides and flooding made our trip to Darjeeling a bit tricky so we headed for Varanasi instead. Said to be one of the oldest cities in the world and one of the holiest Hindu places on earth. Well let me tell you, it took about 7 and 1/2 hours on a bone shaker bus followed by a 3 hour bun fight for tickets at Gorokhpor railway station and a 6 hour train journey to pitch up in Varanasi at 5.00 in the morning. Well by this time we were feeling really chipper...... not. Famous for its Ghats where people come to bathe in the Ganges and bodies are cremated on individual funeral pyres was a bit of sensory overload to say the least, but I have to say its a filthy dump where every creature on 2 and 4 legs defecates and urinates everywhere with gay abandonment. There was probably a time many years ago when it was a beautiful and spiritual place but for us, it was squalid. smelly and needs cleaning up. I think these pictures say it all.......Goodbye Varanasi!

Kathmandu to Chitwan

Sorry for the delay but the internet is understandably a little dodgy at the mo, so no piccies just yet. Had a great time in Kathmandu care of John Mitchell and his family. John is the owner of the Hotel Garden, Damside Pokhara. A fine establisment that I can thoroughly recommend to anyone going to Pokhara for hiking or paragliding, John is a pilot himself. The details are http://www.hotelgardennepal.com/ . On hearing we were headed to KTM he offered us a free ride with his family and showed us the sights to boot. Top bloke and someone we will be staying in touch with on our return. Monkey Temples, more shrines and a visit to the Ghats (more about Ghats in the next post on Varanasi) saw us heading to Chitwan Park. Elephant rides, bird watching and jungle treks were all very nice and Jonny got to ride the great hairy beasts around in the river. Much to the amusement of the mahut who thought getting his Nelly the elephant to toss me in the water every 2 seconds was hilarious:) Sunrise over Chitwan is definitely an amazing sight as well as watching wild Rhino with the orange globe of the sun rising through the mist (how poetic). All for now........

Road to Katmandu

Spent yesterday travelling from Pokhera to Kat, blimey i thought the road to Monchegorsk was bad but this really was straight out of a mad max film. Talk about lap of the gods overtaking , these drivers are plum crazy, anyway 12 hours later with a clutch shot to hell we finally pushed the 4x4 into the hotel:) Good old TATA they sure make a good vehicle. Katmandu is a crazy place, lots of temples congestion madness and street action which doesnt disappoint. Some good old sightseeing today and try to get some pics up later. Today i am also going to engage each tout beggar or dodgy geezer tring to sell a cheap gurka knife in conversation. "heh mister look its real only 500 r" "yes i know that its a good knife but i,ll get @#$%^%$ arested if i try entering the uk with it!!" :) ok time for another cup of chai.

Visit to Tanting School in Nepal

Tanting School is situated in the foothills close to Pokhara. It's reached by an hour's jeep ride followed by a 5 hour trek up, up, up, up, up!!

Amazing scenery on the way up and great to see the villagers farming in the fields. The whole hillside is filled with terraces so every single bit of available land can be used for growing food. Stopped for lunch with some farmers and eventually got to the top for a hero's welcome.

Lining the approach to the village, about 50 kids and teachers were each holding flower garlands to place around our necks. It was a truly uplifting and totally unexpected experience.

The village was provided with a new school by The Pahar Trust which my ex-teacher Tom Allen is involved in. They raise money for part of the build and the villagers must agree to provide the rest of the funding and labour to ensure completion. Tanting is in a wonderful location (once you get there!) with mountain views in the background. Before the school was completed, the kids had to walk 2 hours each way to school.

We had bought a basketball and volleyball for the school and had great fun showing our non-existent skills.

We stayed at the Headteacher's family home in the village and had a few interesting experiences!!! The local Rakhi firewater will never be repeated. The local buffalo milk which tasted like weeks old ripe yoghurt with vinegar added was the worst thing we've ever tasted. The chicken soup was great but where did all the decent bits of the chicken go? Diane was terrified of taking a mouthful and finding the beak! Total respect to Bruce Parry :)

Had fun reading with the kids before heading back down the mountain.