Posts from — May 2010

When we had been planning our trip to India, I had pulled Ranthambore National Park off our itinerary because it’s a bit out of the way and also because I was under the impression that the chances of seeing a tiger were fairly minimal.

However, when we were offered this driving tour, Ranthambore was a part of it and even though I still thought our chances of seeing a tiger was nil, I was still looking forward to seeing the other animals in the park.

The safari was about 3 hours in the back of a really noisy truck that had been converted into an open top bus, over a dirt track that could never be described as a road!  The truck bounced over rocks and roared up hills and took off around corners when a jeep in front heard about a tiger in the bushes in the area.  We all sat in complete silence, sweating, peering into the scrub, straining to see anything that looked remotely like a cat.  We saw plenty of deer and antelope who all just stood close by looking at us curiously as we roared past. [Read more →]

Our next town was Pushkar – but this turned out to be our Indian hump town.  Pushkar is a holy town on a lake with temples and lots of sadhus (holy men in saffron robes).  The whole town is alcohol free and there are signs up everywhere to say there will be no eating meat or eggs, no drinking and no public affection between men and women.  Men hold hands in India all the time – it’s really common – but definately no touching with the women!

Anyway, we were tired and we just couldn’t be bothered.  We stayed in our hotel room in the air con (when there wasn’t power cuts) and only ventured out at night to get dinner.  Sightseeing  cannot be done on a continuous basis- it becomes just plain boring after a while.  Spending time just being in a place amongst the people is far more interesting, which is why we were starting to get tired on this driving trip and realised it probably hadn’t been the best choice for us. 

On the other hand, India was also our “hump” country.  We’d been travelling for over4 months and we were a bit tired.  India is not an easy destination – you have to be on your toes and it can be exhausting just getting from one place to another.  Add on the whole terrorism thing and we’ve forgiven ourselves by deciding that the car journey was probably the best of the options available.

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So have I mentioned up till now that India is hot this time of year?  On top of that, they’re also having a heat wave so apparently it’s hotter than it normally is at this time of the year.  It hasn’t been under 45 during the day since we arrived.

Luckily for us, it’s a different heat to Perth. There’s no way you could go outside on a 42 C day in Perth without being burned to a crisp in minutes.  The sun just doesn’t seem as burning – sure it’s hot, but we haven’t been sunburned at all.  Does make you crave water though – one thing you should never take for granted is ice and a cold drink..  When you can’t get them, you realise how wonderful they are! [Read more →]

We travelled onwards toward Jaisalmer – a town on the edge of the Thar Desert near Pakistan, most famous for it’s fort which stands high on a ridge like a giant sand castle.  It’s also a well known jump off point for camel safaris.

We had driven for a long time that day and we were hot and dusty when Singh pushed the car through the cows and bristly, black pigs that were running across the road near our hotel.  The kids got a big kick out of the half grown bull that wondered up the stairs into the hotel lobby while we were checking in.  Apparently they feed him there and he was hungry!

We wandered through the streets of the fort – which is basically a walled city – dodging the cows that were lying across or standing in the middle of the narrow lanes.  We happened across a man sitting outside his house, who invited us in.  He said that his 4 x great-grandfather was the secretary to the maharaja and that he had built this amazing haveli to entertain important guests.

The amazing thing was that the man was quite happy to show us through his home but he wanted no payment.  He was selling anything of any importance he could take from the house, as naturally the upkeep was expensive.  I was so impressed I gave him some money anyway. [Read more →]

So, we piled all  of our gear and ourselves and our new best buddy Singh into an 8 seater and off we went for a “casual drive” around Rajasthan for a week or two.

The first thing Singh told us was that it would take about 2 to 3 hours to get out of Delhi.  We thought he was exaggerating.  Actually he was probably being conservative.  The whole city is upside down with roadworks, metro works, sewer works – you name it, there’s “works” for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.  As a result, the traffic crawls along over piles of concrete and around massive holes and open sewers and all the rest of the normal road hazards – ie people, buses, trucks and rickshaws.  I was expecting to see cows as well, but then I found out that the government has moved most of the cows out of the city centre. 

The other thing that effects the traffic is the standard of driving.  We thought Vietnam was bad – it’s like preschool compared to India!  There are lanes marked on the roads but I think most drivers see them as a suggestion.  In reality, the order of the day is to drive wherever you think will get you there faster – that includes on the wrong side of the road; the verge; over median strips etc etc.  There may be 2 lanes marked at the intersection with traffic lights, but there will generally be about 5 lanes of traffic waiting.  My personal favourites are those intersections without traffic lights.  It seems like 25 lanes from 5 different directions all try to go through the intersection at the same time.  We just shut our eyes and prayed that Singh knew what he was doing. [Read more →]

So I mentioned earlier that our stay in “Little India” in Hong Kong was good preparation for India.  I’m guessing that anyone who’s ever been to India will tell you that nothing will ever prepare you! Lonely Planet describes it as “falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland where everything is upside down”.  I think this is a good description.  This is a place where women cover their faces but their midrifts are visible; where tiny donkeys carry massive loads while fat bulls laze idly on street corners; where over 300 gods are idolised and there is a temple full of holy rats; and last but not least, over 30 languages are spoken, but not all can understand the official language and around 35% are illiterate.  It really is completely mad.. [Read more →]

Hong Kong didn’t get off to the best start.  We hadn’t even gotten out of the arrivals terminal when we realised we were missing Georgie’s Goretex jacket.  She had to think back to where she’d last had it and worked out she had left it in the bathroom at the luggage carousel.  Great!  That was
on the other side of Customs – there was no way they were going to let us through but I asked security if someone could just walk the 40 metres or so and grab it for us. 

Of course that would be too easy – no you had to go to the 7th floor and fill out a lost property form in triplicate and then maybe in a month or two they might contact us.  Paul (aka Frank) decided that the Customs guy wasn’t being as helpful as he could have been and with Georgie providing the added incentive of standing there crying helplessly, he convinced Customs to get
on his radio and get someone to check the bathroom.  Luckily for us it was still there and within  30 minutes we had the jacket back.

By the time we did all that, got tickets on the airport bus and actually rode to Kowloon, it was almost midnight and we were exhausted.  [Read more →]

Not far from Hiroshima you can catch a ferry to Miyojima Island.  I had read that there was a community of deer living on the island but when I read notices at the hostel in Hiroshima warning tourists to protect their train passes, I was intrigued.

“Japan Rail Passes are non-refundable and cannot be replaced.  Please do not let your pass be eaten by a deer (this has happened!)”

When we got off the ferry, we soon found out what the sign was all about.  There were deer waiting for people coming out of the ferry terminal and as soon as you got close they were sniffing you over to see if there was anything interesting in your pockets or bag.

There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the deer as they get sick from not grazing properly – which they’re obviously not doing.  Within our first 10 minutes on the island, we saw a deer trying to get into a plastic bag that had had a sushi lunch in it.  He gave up trying and just started eating the whole thing – plastic bag, plastic box, chopsticks – everything!  I attempted to wrestle it off him and he was not happy!  Luckily they’re not that big, as he wasn’t backward in having a go at me.

A little way down the road, we found another couple of deer breaking into a pannier on someone’s bike.  They had already opened all the flaps that had been buttoned down and were now working on the zip.  After a few minutes of patient nudging they were in – and scoffing biscuits!  Only problem was the biscuits were individually wrapped in foil packs and they were eating the foil
as well.  It’s no wonder they all look a little bit mangy and sick.

Miyojima is a big tourist destination for the Japanese so it was pretty busy but the weather was beautiful.  There’s a shopping street, various temples and the famous red gate that stands in the water offshore.

There’s also a mountain you can hike up (or if you’re sensible take the cable car).  Typically Paul wanted to just go up a “little” way to have a look.  Turns out it was steps all the way and by the time we’d been going about half an hour, the girls and I rebelled and refused to go any further.  Paul, of course, insisted it wasn’t much further to the top and that he was going to keep going.  So we parted company – us girls to the shopping street and the boys up the mountain.

2 1/2 hours later, they turned up having discovered that we had been nowhere near the top and they had walked up another 2km of steps before getting the cable car down. 

Us girls had obviously made the right decision as we wondered through the tourists – many of whom had little dressed up doggies and we sat and had a nice drink and some M&M’s.  That was of course until the deer realised we had food…