Day 69 to 71: Do Buy in Dubai

Spending money and showing off how much money you have seems to be the main activity in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, these crazy cities surrounded by desert where fancy shopping malls house ice-skating rinks and indoor ski fields. We stopped by for a weekend to visit our friend Teresa who is an old workmate of Michael's from his Genesis days in Hamilton. Teresa has lived in Abu Dhabi for 3 years and we enjoyed being shown around and lunching at tasty restaurants and enjoying coffee at the opulent Emirates palace.

Day 65 to 68: Goodbye India

Mumbai was our final destination and like much of India, it surprised us. We roughly expected it to be a steamier, bigger, dirtier and more polluted version of Delhi. Central Mumbai was in fact very clean, with wide streets and a lovely waterfront along Marine Drive. Around the Fort area the buildings from British-rule days made the city feel similar to London or European cities. At times we did come across choking rotting fish smells which reoriented us, but most of the time there was no rubbish or unpleasant smells. We were in town for Republic Day, celebrating independance from British rule and we enjoyed seeing dozens of holiday cricket games in play at the Maidan Oval park. We joined tons of locals and Indian tourists to see temple cave carvings at Elephanta Island and spent our last evening in India strolling along Chowpatty Beach, where families enjoyed the holiday with toss-the-hoop games and snacks from street vendors.

Leaving India after 4 weeks is strange and a little sad. Random things we'll miss include:

Constant attention

Everyone wanted to welcome us to India and although the fact that we stood out made us uncomfortable initially, we came to realise that 99% of people stared at us because they were curious and interested, and if you are curious and interested in something why wouldn't you stare? We've visited monuments where other Indian tourist seem more interested in us than the sight they've come to see, so we've granted requests and posed in many holiday pictures. We've been filmed walking along the beach and the most memorable question would have to be "why is your skin pink and white?" asked of myself and Laurain, the Dutch girl on our Kathmandu to Delhi tour.

Dated Celine Dion sounds

After hearing the Titanic themesong play in a number of restaurants/cafes and even have someone walk along singing it behind us, we may not exactly pine for "My Heart Will Go On" but it was an amusing blast from the past that seemed to follow us around

Chai wallahs and masala chai

By far our favourite drink was masala tea and it was available absolutely everywhere..many a train journey was made more enjoyable by a cup (or few!) of cardamom-spiced chai

Friendly people

We met some wonderful people who helped make our time in India outstanding. Our driver Vidu in Kerala and Bhupendra, our tour leader for Kathmandu to Delhi humbled us by the gentle way they served us and made our enjoyment their priority. So many people just wanted to greet us and find out how we were enjoying our time in their country. In our last week in India I realised how often I smiled with my whole face in response to those who smiled at me and how welcomed I felt.

From Mumbai we fly to Dubai, where we'll spend the weekend in and around Abu Dhabi visiting our friend Teresa.

Day 56 to 64: Cruising Kerala in the Ambassador

Tropical temperatures and sunshine welcomed us to south India. Our first stop was Bangalore, the IT capital of India. It's not exactly a tourist mecca, but we'd planned to visit a childhood friend of mine who was unfortunately called away at late notice. We'd treated ourselves to a fancy hotel for the weekend so we decided to take things easy, plan our travels for the next week and enjoy the free wifi. Michael's stomach was not enjoying Indian food at that point, so it was good to get in a bit of rest.

We flew from Bangalore to Kochi, where we hired a driver and car for four days (our vehicle turned out to be the stereotypical Indian car, the Ambassador, which made for a stylish ride). Our driver Vidu was a lovely Indian man who really enjoyed driving people around and seeing them enjoy their time in Kerala, so it was a real pleasure to have him introduce us to the region.

We visited Munnar, where vividly green tea plantations spread across the hillsides. A walk high in the national park introduced us to plenty of friendly mountain goats which can only be found in Kerala. Our hillside accommodation near Munnar served up one of the most delicious Indian feasts we experienced on our trip.

Thekkady was our next destination, where we took a jeep safari into Periyar National Park and spotted monkeys and huge squirrels. We hiked for a few hours, but despite our guide's best efforts, the elephants remained in hiding.

A pleasant four hour drive brought us to Alleppey, where we farewelled our driver Vidu and boarded a houseboat for a relaxed overnight trip along the backwaters - miles of peaceful palm-lined waterways, with houses and villages dotted alongside. We stayed an additional day in the town area of Aleppey and enjoyed an autorickshaw trip to a beautiful palm covered beach about 15km away. We went for a big walk around Alleppey, where many locals greeted us with obvious curiosity and pleasure. It seemed that few white tourists spent time in Alleppey town once they had finished their houseboat trip.

We finished our time in Kerala with a very laid-back stay in the small fishing town of Fort Kochi, where we wandered sleepy streets on Sunday morning, pursued by autorickshaw drivers trying sell trips to spice markets - the main selling point being that "business is very slow on Sundays."

Our week in Kerala was very rewarding and we were glad we'd changed plans to include it - we had originally planned to visit Goa, but it sounded like we'd enjoy Kerala more than Goa's beach and foreign tourist scene. Kerala was certainly well visited, but the majority of the tourists were Indian. With the world's first democratically elected communist government and a 100% literacy rate, Kerala seemed to have greater equality than most other places we'd visited in India and we didn't see anybody living on the streets, which was very different from the poverty in the North.

Day 42 to 55: (Not) as calm as a hindu cow

Two weeks into our Indian experience and certain things have become our new normal. Vibrant activity, sharing roads with cars, rickshaws, tuk tuks, cows, goats, dogs, and the occasional pig, spatters of red betel juice on the ground from paan-chewers...and of course, people, people everywhere.

I expected India to be intense with the sheer number of people, the dirt, and the in-your-face poverty...as well as being a fascinating country with awesome spicy food. Overall we haven't found it as much of a culture shock as we expected. It is a buzzing place, which often appears chaotic to our western eyes. Almost everywhere we go people are curious about us as we are clearly foreigners, so we are becoming accustomed to not being able to blend into the background. Cities tend to have lots of rubbish about the place and pollution haze from the hordes of vehicles and it is hard and challenging to see lots of people begging and struggling to eke a living, when we comparatively have so much. I think I find street children the hardest to see, as they always run up to you and pull at your clothing. The best way to get through them is to completely ignore them, which feels heartless but is better than trying to shake them off like bugs.

Taking the metro on the weekend in Delhi was rather like joining a rugby scrum, particularly for men, as women have a dedicated carriage reserved for them which is much less crowded than the rest of the train. Train travel has been excellent in the upper class air conditioned (heated in winter) carriages and it was easy to sleep on the seats that converted to beds for overnight journeys, but the lower class carriages are not heated, and it did get very cold in the past few weeks. Winter fog made for some very long delays - the longest delay we encountered was when our afternoon train from Orchha to Agra was already 8 hours late before it got to us - so our tour group abandoned the train plan and took a 6 hour drive instead.

Exploring northern India has been a very interesting time and highlights for us include:

Treating our tastebuds

with delicious curries, breads, varieties of dhal, lassi and incredibly sweet sweets. We have been really enjoying hot samosas on train journeys and English tea has been replaced by cardamom-spiced masala chai.

Witnessing life and death rituals along the Ganges river

Floating along the Ganges was at times a sobering experience. The river was alive with the activity of boats, Hindus washing in the waters and the flames of funeral pyres where Hindus mourned and tourists clustered above to watch. It looked invasive, like spectating at a funeral. Our boat kept some distance from the burning ghats (banks) out of respect for the families. Although most dead bodies are cremated, certain exceptions (including pregnant women, lepers, those who die from snakebites and holy men) mean bodies are put directly into the Ganges without being burnt. We passed a shrouded body bobbing along, with head and shoulders above the water, which was a rather disturbing experience for us.

Peaceful Orchha and stunning Khajuraho temples

We enjoyed visiting the small town of Orchha, which had an impressive palace and many temples lining the river. An Indian cooking class was a great way to taste new dishes we can try to recreate when we return home. We also visited an awesome temple complex at Khajuraho - known as the kama sutra temple, the beautiful buildings are decorated with thousands of "instructive" figures.

A fog-shrouded Taj Mahal

We visited the city of Agra on one of the colder winter days and saw a mysterious looking Taj Mahal. Our other tour members were disappointed by the fog but we didn’t really mind, and as we were leaving the sun came out in time to light up the marble for a more contrasted view of the Taj.

Seeing Bollywood in action and on the big screen in Jaipur

The Amber Fort in Jaipur was a beautifully preserved palace complex where we enjoyed wandering and there happened to be a South Indian film being shot, so we joined the onlookers. Later that evening we saw the latest Bollywood film at the Raj Mandir Art Deco cinema – we expected to be a bit bored after an hour of watching the Hindi film without subtitles, but it was pretty easy to follow and we enjoyed the music, the dancing, and the cheesiness. Other highlights of Jaipur were a beautiful royal summer palace set in the middle of a lake and the Jantar Muntar observatory with astrological instruments built in stone, which are still accurate today despite being built over 300 years ago.

A serene lake city and a local festival

After our tour finished we headed south west from Delhi to the peaceful lake city of Udaipur. Islands in the midst of the lake have beautiful white palaces and the city is much cleaner than Delhi. An enterprising rickshaw driver took us from the train station to our hotel and offered to be our guide for the day, so we enjoyed being driven around viewpoints, gardens and spice markets. From Udaipur we took an aggresively driven bus to the city of Ahmedabad in the Gujarat region and arrived in time to enjoy seeing many children and families out celebrating the Makar Sankranti festival by flying kites. We also visited Gandhi's ashram and saw where he and his wife lived and from where they led their non-violence movement.

That wraps up our time in the north, we're now off to Bangalore to begin 2 weeks in south India.

Day 36 to 41: Elephants and Nepali tea

Over the past 5 days we've wrapped up our time in Kathmandu and journeyed to Pokhara, Chitwan National Park and are now near the Indian border for New Year's Eve in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. Tomorrow we cross over to India. We've really enjoyed having a varied experience of Nepal, from the beauty of the snow-topped Annapurna mountain range near Pokhara, to the bright yellow mustard flower fields in the Chitwan National Park.

Long drives and bumpy roads are part of the experience, along with very different ways of driving than we are accustomed to. A vehicle in front of you will honk and indicate when they want you to pass them, a vehicle coming towards you will honk to let you know he's coming through and you shouldn't pass in the gap, and all drivers generally pass where ever possible. We'd experienced this type of driving in Morocco, so were largely able to relax and trust that the drivers knew what they were doing!

While in Pokhara we awoke bright and early to drive/climb up to a viewpoint where we watched the sunrise light up the Annapurnas. The sunrise was worth the steep climb before breakfast! Pokhara is a beautiful location, with rich tree-covered hills, snowy mountains and a peaceful lake. We arrived in town in time for the start of a New Year festival, so Michael and I enjoyed watching a lively procession of people in different traditional costumes.

From Pokhara we drove 5 hours to the Chitwan National Park, where we stayed in a "village lodge" which felt more like something you might experience in Africa – flat land surrounding, with a river where villagers washed their clothes and themselves, dry fields interspersed with yellow mustard fields. We enjoyed an elephant ride through the forest, where we came upon a couple of rhino peacefully hanging out, as well as deer, a vivid blue kingfisher, prissy peacocks, devilish jackals, and an alligator, who thankfully disappeared from the scene as our elephants crossed the stream where he was lazily swimming. I loved coming upon rhinos in a reasonably natural setting. Another highlight for me was elephant washing, where I helped a trainer bathe an elephant in the river near our lodge. This involved lots of falling off the elephant into the river (me of course, the trainer had better balance than I!) It was awesome to be so near such an amazing creature. We hired bikes with the rest of our tour group and spent a couple of hours cycling in the national park, concluding our time in Chitwan with a delicious Indian/Nepalese meal at a local restaurant.

Now we are in Lumbini where we plan to celebrate New Year’s Eve with our tour group and leader, Bhupendra. Buddhists aren’t meant to drink alcohol, so we imagine the town won’t be welcoming the New Year in any dramatic fashion, but we’re planning a bang with lots of fireworks unseen in NZ for a long time. Happy New Year!

Day 34 to 36: I'm dreaming of a Nepalese Christmas

Before getting to Nepal my emotions were a mix of apprehension and excitement. Our trip was actually starting to venture into foreign and previously uncharted (by us) lands.

As the plane flew north-west, the view of the Himalayan peaks was a stunning sight to behold. There was Everest amongst others! What a way to whet my appetite for what lay ahead in an hour or so. Landing at the airport and taxiing to the "gate" gave us a taste of how strict yet relaxed everything will become.

Impressions
A collection of thoughts and observations from the past couple of days:

• I am very glad for our time in Morocco earlier this year. It has helped to alleviate a lot of what would have been an intense culture shock
• Deep guttural hoicking and spitting: It seems to be perfectly acceptable to hoick up a wad of phlegm and dispense of it where ever you please :-(
• Everywhere we have been so far, there have been sparrows
• Kathmandu has so many people, everywhere
• The Thamel district in Kathmandu is so very touristy. You feel like you are betraying your adventurous self when you eat anything there, but in a land of things to make your stomach sad, it's one of the safest options.
• Pollution!
• Ground pollution: There's plenty of dirt and dust, but overall in the main parts of the city there are not big piles of rubbish
• Noise pollution: There's the constant honking of horns. Nepalese drivers use them to tell people that they are there, they need you to move, they are going to overtake, ... anything really. Unfortunately it makes for a bit of a din.
• Air pollution: Just like when we first arrived in London, I've had a return of "black nose". Dust, exhaust fumes, and who knows what else make my nose filters go into overdrive
• Powercuts: They are a constant in Nepal. Our second hotel in Kathmandu even has a notice on the wall outlining the schedule of expected powercuts! Thankfully there seems to always be hot water, and backup generators for hotels and some shops.

Christmas
Spending Christmas in a country where it's not celebrated as an official holiday was a bizarre feeling. It's a mixed blessing really, because if everything was geared up for it, I suspect that we would be feeling the distance from loved ones a lot more. So how did we celebrate? Slept in a little, had some breakfast, and sauntered though local suburbs to the Swayambhunath Stupa (a Buddhist Shrine known to tourists as the Monkey Temple). We followed it off with a western/local mix of food: momos and chips :-)


Tour

We start our tour this afternoon. Once again I am a bit apprehensive having never done a packaged tour before. It looks like it will be a gentle introduction with quite a small group of people. 5 people including us, plus the group leader! Yay.

Day 25 to 33: Silk Ties or Thai Silk?

Our time in Thailand is drawing to a close as we sit in a coffeeshop in Siam Square, Bangkok. Tomorrow morning we fly away onto Kathmandu where we will spend Christmas and join a small group tour.

Our past week or so has been spent exploring the beaten track of Bangkok and Southern Thai islands.

Phuket
We opted to stay in Karon beach on Phuket away from the madness of Patong beach. A wise choice. We hired a scooter for transportation and spent the next couple of days exploring the south of Phuket island, enjoying the wonderfully chilli soaked Thai food, wandering along the beaches, and dipping into the hotel pool.

Walking down the road, out of the corner of my eye I spied amongst a photo board in a tailor's window a familiar face. Lo and behold it was Nathan (Sarah's brother)! He'd been there a year earlier and shopped up large for custom made suits. The shop owner remembered him and his friends well.

Phi Phi Islands
The hype is true; the beaches are amazing, but you need to get away from the throngs of filthy tourists that flock to the islands every day. Having never seen the movie "The Beach", I didn't have any preconceived ideas of what Maya Bay should look like. I'm sure that if I had seen it, I would still have been wowed as the longtail boat entered the cove and I caught glimpse of the marvel. White sandy beaches and picture perfect vistas abound. Snorkelling amongst the tropical fish and furry purple starfishes was another highlight of the island.

Eating on the beaches of Koh Phi Phi Don would have been lovely, if the restaurants/bars were not catering to the tourist baht/dollar. We sought out where the locals ate and were rewarded with an "You like Thai hot, no tourist hot. You want 2 chilli or 3?" Glorious food and drinks for about 3GBP pp.

On a more sombre note, the isthmus that Phi Phi town resides on is wedged between two large hills. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be there about this time 6 years ago as the tsunami hit and people were caught unaware.

Phuket again
When booking places we stumbled upon a great deal on a 5 star resort in Northern Phuket. Luxurious and brand new at a fantastic price, but unfortunately for us it was isolated, tourist focused and boring. As great as the deal was, we've decided that we are not "resort people", but instead we prefer to get into the thick of things and local life. Needless to say we won't plan to stay at a resort again until we're ready to go somewhere and experience nothing of the culture.

Bangkok
Having been to Bangkok twice before on short stop overs my opinion was low. I was curious to see if 6 years and much travel experience had changed my view... thankfully it had. We've enjoyed a city of fewer than remembered smells and dirtiness. I guess my eyes are no longer fresh after being in several other big asian cities, and my stomach sturdier with the intense smells of Morroccan markets.

We've enjoyed the river more this time; riding the ferry all the way to the end of the line, eating, and wandering. We sought out a huge market where only locals seem to go. We were rewarded with no other white faces, stall upon stall of produce, and a very local experience.

After scammers tried to repeatedly tell us that the Grand Palace had closed for the day, we arrived at The Grand Palace to find it still open ;-) It's a wowey wowey place, full of gold and jewels. Wow.


Revisting Thailand has been good for me. I have come to appreciate the capital city of Bangkok as a vibrant Asian city, and have much enjoyed getting aquainted with the Islands. Thailand will go on the list of places for further exploration. Maybe the north next time?

Day 1 to 25: Wedding bells, fine wines and great times in NZ

An early start to the NZ summer saw us step straight into hot sun-filled days. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends and made the most of the weather with plenty of golf, a good dose of BBQs and lots of relaxing outdoors. Highlights of our time in NZ include:

• Nathan and Bridget's wedding (Nathan being my brother). This was a fantastic day and it was great to be involved, with Michael's photography skills called on, and my sister and I delivering Bible readings as part of the ceremony. With brilliant weather and the company of family and good friends, we thoroughly enjoyed the celebrations, and were pleased to see Nathan and Bridget had an excellent day.
• Wine tasting in Napier We sampled outstanding wines and enjoyed the picturesque surrounds of the Hawkes Bay. Craggy Range winery was top of our list, as Michael had been talking about the outstanding wine and food since a business trip to the region 5 years ago. The wine and stunning food from the winery restaurant more than lived up to my expectations!
• Great times with family and friends - meeting our newest niece Bella and spending time with little Eva-Ellice who is now 2 and 5/6th, as she is pleased to tell anyone who asks her age, a BBQ with friends in Hamilton, kindly hosted by David and Raewyn, a most enjoyable gathering at Mission Bay with lots of Auckland friends to celebrate Michael's birthday and plenty of lunches, dinners and fish n chips on the beach with good friends

All in all we had a fantastic time with excellent people and enjoyed being back in the NZ lifestyle. Thailand is our next stop for beachside relaxation in Phuket and Ko Phi Phi, city bustle in Bangkok, and lots of tasty, spicy food.

Day 0: The inaugural post

After a few long nights we managed to move our Londonly belongings into storage, pack our bags, clean the flat, and move out. After two of the best long-haul flights we've ever had (including 8 hours of solid sleep) we arrived in New Zealand at 8am, bright and fresh without a hint of jet lag!

After much promising (by Sarah) to set up a blog, we thought it high time to pull finger and do it so that interested folk can join us on our journey.

The route that we have planned is:

• London, United Kingdom
• (flying to) Auckland, New Zealand
• (roundtrip flights to/from) Napier, New Zealand
• (flying to) Bangkok, Thailand
• (roundtrip flights to/from) Phuket, Thailand
• (flying to) Kathmandu, Nepal
• (overlanding to) Ahmedabad, India
• (flying to) Bangalore, India
• (overlanding to) Mumbai, India
• (flying to) Dubai, UAE
• (flying to) Cape Town, South Africa
• (overlanding to) Nairobi, Kenya
• (flying to) Cairo, Egypt
• (overlanding to) Istanbul, Turkey
• (flying to) London, United Kingdom

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