Colourful Cities

We’re spending our next few weeks in the state of Rajasthan, the land of the Kings. For those of you who have not visited India, Rajasthan is what you picture in your head when you imagine it – it has the vast Thar desert, camels, palaces, temples, forts and gorgeous haveli (ornately carved sandstone mansions filled with murals). Aladdin would feel completely at home here.



Our first stop was Jaipur, where the oldest part of the city was once painted pink to welcome a visiting British monarch and has been maintained in pink ever since. The Pink City was incredibly beautiful, if somewhat shabby, and much to Dan’s dismay it had the best shopping that we’ve encountered so far. Here we were thrilled to see our first snake charmers, each of which had two de-fanged snakes in a small basket. I was saddened to see that as soon as the music stopped the snakes would immediately start hissing and try to pierce the charmer’s hands with their no longer present fangs... I pitied them, enslaved and robbed of their natural defences. We spent a very relaxing week in Jaipur taking in palaces, an ayurvedic massage and a McSpicy Paneer Burger and Chicken Maharaja Mac from you know where...


Beached in Delhi, thankfully we had plenty of time before our train so we could help the poor guy out. On the train, our favourite mode of transport.

Snakes! And camels! We'll be riding these soon on our desert safari... Camels that is... not the snakes.

The pink city gate and busy streets. Our next stop is the beatutiful Amber Palace... unfortunately on a scorchingly hot day! To our surprise we came across an air-conditioned cafe with cold coffees deep inside the palace... oh the little things.


And I finally got a picture of the locals taking a picture of us... happens every 5 minutes or so.We spend a lot of time speculating what they do with these photos! In an effort to spend more time viewing the attractions than posing for photos with the locals we have restricted it to one photo per family.


Tunnels under the palace that all the cool kids used, well the royals actually. And some sneaky graffiti...

Jumping monkeys and Maharaja Mac burgers, pretty good actually. I'm mostly just embarrassed to be eating at McDonalds...

We spent an evening at an enchanting little place that our local guy called 'the night palace', it did have a real name but I forget. Was great to see the locals out and about, enjoying the night. There were all sorts of attractions, elephant and camel rides, carnival stalls, and even fortune telling... turns out Sophie has met the man of her dreams and will live happily ever after.

Waiting at the station can be a harrowing affair when Dan goes to buy snacks! Our train to Jodhpur departed FIVE HOURS late, but our not insignificant disgruntlement quickly faded upon arrival because we were greeted with...


Jodhpur contains a plethora of blue buildings that are stunning to behold. The locals say this is because the chemical that makes the paint blue also keeps the mosquitoes away, while the historians say that it is because the Brahman priests painted their dwellings blue to signify their status , only to have Joe Public (or perhaps Amir Public?) follow suit. The main attraction of Jodhpur is the immense Mehrangarh Fort which sits omnipotently above the town like a parent keeping a watchful eye over a child. It was jaw droppingly, eye-ball poppingly breathtaking both inside and out. I particularly liked the intricately carved and hollowed screen doors that allow cooling breezes to enter the palaces, and through which royal women once secretly spied on palace affairs. I think I’ll build one in my own home one day...


A common sight at the local train stations, the narrow streets of Jodhpur.

The next day we scaled the epic fort... never fallen in battle... so epic

Local opium devices, hookah too. Also an old man.


Guarding treasures can be tiring work. On the right is the 'creative room' where all the musicians and poets would hang out and get creative...
View from the back, the old city.

Dan spent a very long time taking photo's of all the weaponry. This one must be his favourite.... (yeah it was hard not to include more, but I don't think everyone is as into ancient weaponry as I am)

And finally a visit to a cenotaph made of pure white marble, and a little music lesson on the way out.

Dar-chilling

After three days of transit (7 hour bus, hotel, auto-rickshaw, plane, auto-rickshaw, bicycle rickshaw, bus, bicycle rickshaw, hotel, bicycle rickshaw, 4 hour winding jeep!) we staggered into the bustling streets of Darjeeling and lugged our 23kg of baggage 20 minutes uphill to Chowrastra, half-heartedly vowing to live the rest of our lives there so that we would never have to travel again. (Ironically the downside of traveling is the traveling.)

We had been too busy being blissful in Nepal to do any Darjeeling research, and so were full of vague ideas of becoming tea connoisseurs within a Himalayan setting - probably with rainbows and frolicking lambs in the foreground. It turned out to be not even close to that time of year so we settled for the alternative of learning about tea within a setting of dense cloud and enjoying the attractions that were visible at 20 metres or less – the natural history exhibits, diverse wildlife, beautiful temples, delicious delicious food, the sweet locals, the intriguingly enormous number of stray dogs and the Beatles Revolver album themed hotel where we could buy coffee made from beans (supercool!).

Darjeeling turned out to be full of surprises that contradicted little suppositions and perspectives I’d never consciously thought about, but had nonetheless. For example: many types of big cat are of a similar weight to human adults; the perfect amount of time to brew a high quality tea is five minutes; a person can survive and walk with their hands when they have no legs and no hips; and Sherpa Tenzing was the first man to climb Mt Everest along with his friend Sir Edmond Hillary - and certainly not the other way around. Ouch New Zealand!

The view from our hotel, the Olde Main Bellevue Heritage Hotel.

The town square on Mall Road, no vehicles or smoking allowed. Dogs rule here at night.

Mall Road, never a lack of dogs... or to our surprise, sweet pastries!

So we're in Darjeeling, we love tea, we missed out in Sri Lanka...

First the leaves are gathered and spread over these tables to dry, the picture below shows the giant fans that keep the air circulating.

Then the crispy but still greenish leaves are then poured down a chute into the 100 year old rolling machines which rub out the flavour. They are then put through screens to sort the high quality tips from the leaves.

Finally the leaves are left to dry on tables (the smell is fantastic) and go through a heat process before being packed.

Some tea sampling... the cup on the right is the famous 10,000 rupees ($270 NZD) per kg silver tips enjoyed by the Queen and other rich tea enthusiasts. Unfortunately it was all gone by the time I took the picture... but it was a very clear colour, and very subtle taste.

Sophie with Mt Everest! (at 4am)

A Buddhist monastery we visited, and below the peace pagoda.

And finished of with a trip to the zoo.

Never end peace and love

Hi everyone,

I am finding it very difficult to write this blog entry about Nepal because I want to gush at great length about its beautiful and varied environment; the sweet and gentle people; the ornate architecture; the rooftop gardens and restaurants; Yeka - our fascinating and tireless trekking guide; the tiered mountain farmlands; the delicious Nepali tea (a bit like a chai latte); the exotic wildlife; the magic of Kathmandu with its maze of colourful alleys and where pan-pipe music fills the air; and the wonder of gazing at the Annapurnas at 6am while the sun rises and a Buddhist chant echoes throughout the valley.  Not to mention that many of the towns are open defecation free, according to the signs within...

We sadly dragged ourselves away after 15 glorious days, still half considering extending our visas. The customs official at the Indian border kindly cheered us up with an excellent vocal impression of the Darjeeling Toy Train.

I would need to write a novel to adequately cover all of the reasons why I loved Nepal, so all that I will say is that Nepal is  Wonderful  and I'll let Dan's photo's do the talking.


The streets of Kathmandu, heading up to the monkey temple. All these stairs turned out to be good practice for what was to come...


The locals would climb the epic stairs to do three laps of the shrine, turning these metal embossed spinny things. And yes, there were monkeys. Awesome.


On to Pokhara, the staging point for our trek through the Annapurna ranges. This lake reminded me a lot of Te Anau, or maybe Queenstown... very nice little town.


DAY 1: The trek begins from the town of Nayapul (1010m) with a few river crossings and generally flat terrain. 4 hours trekking, 600m climbed.

Our awesome guide Yeka, eternally cheerful & impressively fit (he didn't break a sweat the whole trip...). Favourite phrase "Dhal bhat power, 24 hour!". Dhal bhat being the favourite dinner among Nepalese as it has all the rice/veg goodness and is basically 'all you can eat'. Pretty soon Dhal bhat and tibetan bread became my staple trekking foods.

And finally, rest. Soph relaxes her taped up feet...

DAY 2: After a night in Hille (1600m) we continue upwards... many many steps... through the first section of jungle & on towards Ghorepani. 7 hours trekking, 1000m climbed



A very excited Sophie, this is over 5 hours in & we're pretty shattered!

This cute guy joined us about halfway through the day, leading the pack. Just after I took this photo he had a bit of a scratch and flicked off this fat leech... the first encounter of many.

DAY 3: We woke early (4:30am) to climb Poon Hill, the best vantage point on the whole trip. But when we looked out the window it was all cloud so we bailed... an hour later I peered out the window and the situation had changed entirely... so we quickly got our butts out of bed and climbed the 600m to the top.

About halfway up we were greeted with this...

A very relieved Sophie reaching the top (and a strolling Yeka)

And the views, front and back


We then descended back into Ghorepani (2600m) and continued on into the jungles. First climbing another 600m before a series of steep ups and slippery downs... 7 hours trekking, climbed 1200m total and descended the same again 

Our constant enemy, Soph managed to pick up 8 leeches (none of which actually dug in thanks to Sophie's extreme leech sense). Yeka and I remained leech free. Also pictured is the source of most of the mountain power, a hydro power station.


A well deserved lunch break. Probably the hardest but most rewarding day of the trek.


DAY 4: Sunrise in Tarapani (2600m). A beautiful town and yet another stunning start to the day. From about 9am it would cloud over for the rest of the day, we didn't mind. Kept the sun off & made the mornings that much better! Short trek today, 3 hours, descending 500m.


A couple of locals. These mountain folk are so impressive, this guy was carrying a 65kg load (mostly eggs and other foods) and he only weighed 80kg! They start small though, there were quite a few kids around carrying small loads of potatoes and supplies.


Coming into the largest town on the trek, Gandruk (2100m), super clean & beautiful with hydro power, sattelite dishes and Buddhist chants echoing through the mountains in the morning.


DAY 5: Our final day trekking, from here its all down-hill. We passed through a lot of agriculture on the way down. 6 hours trekking, descending 1100m.


Harvesting the rice crop, and preparing a terrace for planting. Every stretch of land that is not completely vertical has been terraced & made productive. Mostly corn, rice, potatoes and maize this time of year.

And our final rest before the last stretch out. By this stage we were pretty stoked the all the trekking was almost over... but at the same time sad to leave this beautiful place. 


And that's it! I'm impressed you read this far... off to Chitwan next for wild animals galore. See ya!