Today is Saturday the 22nd of January and it has been a while since my last update. This one will not have any pictures unfortunately but I might be able to add some when I get home. The last few days have been awesome. After dropping Shannon off in Sydney I started my solo trip up the coast. My first stop was Newcastle. Newcastle was really nice. Lots of stuff to do and see including many old buldings from the mid to late 1800's. I found so many people to talk to that I didn't get everything done the first day so I had to stay another. I met a guy named Anton from Iceland in the Newcastle YHA (where i was staying). He highly recommended that I stop in Tea Gardens on my way up and stay at a small little hostel called Lazy Paddles www.lazypaddles.com.au. Boy am I glad I did. The hostel was small, had two rooms of three bunk beds (twelve people total) however the rooms weren't full. The hostel was run by a guy named Larry. He is a really relaxed and trusting guy who loves photography, nature, and kayaking. He let us take bikes out for free to see the town or to get to places to hike like Yaccaba. I hiked to the top of Yaccaba (300m) with two girls from Germany. We had a really good hike seeing Koalas in the wild. Since the hike includes about a mile of beach, on the way down we decided to cool off in the ocean. We found a really calm little bay with crystal clear water. It didn't take us long to discover that there were loads of stingrays hiding under the sand. They ranged from about 10-24 inches across. Also Larry has a pile of Kayaks for rent and also runs a 2 hour kayak tour most mornings at 9:00. About 50% of the time they see dolphins on the tour. Unforutnaly when we did the tour there were no dolphins but there were lots of birds and a high tide which allowed us to go into the mangroves. Apparently the best time to see dolphins is early in the morning. The next morning I took one of Larry's kayaks out for a few hours. I traveled up the Myall river in search of dolphins. I left at 7 and by 8 the sun was getting hot and I knew I had been traveling with the current and the paddle back would be longer. So i took a short break and was about to head back when out of the corner of my eye I spot a head sticking out of the grass. A horse? It was big enough... Then it stood up a little further and revealed itself as a massive kangaroo! The largest kangaroo I had ever seen. It was bigger than any of the ones at the zoo and even bigger than the cardboard cut-out of how big kangaroos get (also at the zoo in Sydney). He jumped away before I could get a picture but that's alright. Once I was almost back to the bay where I started I spotted them. Dolphins! I kayaked right along side them until we got into the bay and then I just sat there while they played all around (and under) me. It was really great. I sat out there for another hour or so getting a little sun burnt. It was worth it.

My first night in Tea Gardens I asked Larry to recommend a few good restaurants for me to try. Apparently there are two award winning, yet not to expensive, restaurants within a block of his place. I picked one and sat down at a table by myself in a corner of the nearly full restaurant. There was a guy at a table next to me also dinning alone. He invited me to join him. Turns out his name is Don and is a farmer as well. We talked so long that we closed down the restaurant and at the end of it all he bought me supper. Thanks Don!

My time is almost up on the internet here and those are just a few highlights of my last few days. To everybody back home I am having a blast and i will see you in 7 Days!

Sydney, Blue Mountains, and Hunter Valley

Ok so time to get everybody caught up on my trip so far. I arrived in Sydney on the 26th and found Nick and Tara without to much trouble. We spent the first day just wandering around Darling Harbor and Circular Quay. We saw the sites (opera house and bridge) and made plans for the next few days. The following day we went to the maritime museumsaw a military destroyer and submarine. We only saw half of the museum because it was so large we ran out of time.

The 28th we renteda car and headed out in the direction of the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountain area is beautiful. We saw the three sisters (not much of an attraction but it is amazing what you can do with a land formation and a story) and did a short hike to Katoomba falls. We had a hotel in Katoomba but it was fairly run down. So when we stopped for supper in Mt. Victoria at a cheaper and much nicer hotel we decided to try and get our money back from the first place and stay in the second place. It was successful after telling the people at the run down place that we had seen the town and were heading back to Sydney (they laughed and said "ya there isn't much to do around here is there").

The following morning we went on a very beautiful hike down to Wentworth Falls. We planned a two hour hike but ended up taking a wrong turn which lead us down a 4 hour trail. This was fine because it was so immensely beautiful and we saw at least 4 large waterfalls with another half dozen ones that just fall from nowhere and seem to go nowhere. Later that day we headed out to Hunter Valley (wine country).

We woke up in the Hunter Valley on the morning of the 30th ready to drink! We spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon driving around to wineries and sampling there award winning wines. I bought two semillon wines (the grape that the hunter valley is known for) and Nick and Tara bought one shiraz, one port, and one desert wine. We learnt a great deal about wines.

Then on the 31 we got up really early to head back to Sydney to return the rental car and bring our bags to our original hotel (who so kindly agreed to store our bags for the day). Late morning on the 31st we went to the Sydney zoo. Then at 3 went to a spot near the opera house to start waiting for the fireworks. It was really hot and sunny this day so we all tried really hard to protect ourselves from the sun. It was successful except for one patch behind my thump where i have new skin (because of the cast for three months). Ps. We had trouble finding a spot in the harbour 9 hours before the fireworks!. We had an awesome view of the fireworks on the bridge but the ones that were launched from the barge were obscured by a tree. Once the fireworks were done we headed out into the streets with the other 1.5 million people and walked to get our bags (about an hour). Then had to head back into the mob of people to find a cab and not just any cab but one that was empty! The cab dropped us off at the domestic airport at 3am (pity nobody told us that the airport only opens at 4!). Anyways we had no other option since all the hotels were booked months in advance or $750 a night. We managed to get some sleep on a patch of airport floor before our departure at 9am Jan 2.

Goa to Mumbai

March 2

Luxury started in Goa and has not stopped now that we are in Mumbai. In Goa we spared no cost on food and stuffed our faces every meal. We spent an average of 1000 Rs (rupees) a meal. This is only about 23 dollars but is lots when compared to a normal Indian meal. To give another comparison, our hut on the beach cost us 400 Rs a night. Now that we are back in Mumbai we are enjoying the nightlife of the upper class. We went to "not just jazz by the bay", a lonely planet recommendation, and spent 500 Rs to get in the door and over 1000 Rs for a martini and a Kingfisher. The band at the club played a good first set which included some jazz flute. Then they took a break and we heard backstreet boys followed by britany spears... talk about keeping the good vibes going. The next night we went to Dome. An equally trendy roof top bar with a Cuban cigar list and 60 000 Rs Moet & Chandon champagne. This bar is along marine drive and has a wonderful view of where the towering downtown meets the harbour. - Don

I am so glad that we made time to revisit Mumbai. Returning here has been great because our many experiances and conditioning to India have made it so that we enjoy and understand this city quite a bit more than we did. Mumbai is vibrant and lively and even more so now during the spring festival of Holi. We are so lucky to be here during this festival, just by chance. Lots of shops and businesses are closed so there is hardly a car on the streets (which is the complete opposite of what Mumbai is normally like). Instead there are boisterous cricket matches in the street and people everywhere having a snowball fight with powdered dye of all colours. Needless to say, people become works of art and it is a sight to behold. Sadly no one threw dye at us, it would have been nice to emerse ourselves in the festival. I have such mixed feelings about leaving. I guess some things about India have really made me appreciate home so I am looking forward to going back with new perspective. But on the other hand it feels like there is so much of India yet to be discovered and experienced. It feels so good to abandon cell phones and cars and bills and just be a wanderer. Don and I are already thinking of new adventures we'd like to have. Hai Holi! - Lindsay

Kochi to Goa

Feb 24

Ok so it feels like I have to catch up. Kochi was satisfying is so many ways. We did a few touristy things that cost more money than we were used to spending, but in the end it felt like it was worth it. Chilling out on boats in Kerala's back waters was our favorite excursion. In addition to friendly people and quiet villages we saw actual nature. Its weird how elsewhere in India the country side looks so dead, ravaged by agriculture and pollution (garbage!). On the back waters we saw all kinds of fish, birds, snakes, trees, vines and flowers. And we got some more sun! The kingfisher bird is brilliantly coloured and loved by Indians. I'm not sure why exactly but kingfisher is a huge company in India. Another trip we made was into the hill town of Munar where another huge Indian company Tata has an enormous tea plantation. Other than serenity a we didn't get much out of the tea fields because the tour we expected never materialized. The place we stayed made it worth while though. It was perched on the edge of a mountain and we had a guy making us three traditional Keralan meals a day. There were a couple of Swedes and a couple of Danes with us and we all got along really well. The interaction with other people was good for us . Our room wasn't part of the main building but was basically a hut (with toilet!) perched even more precariously over the hill. I have to say though that the driver we had for the trip to Munar was terrible. That drive was probably the most dangerous part of India. The Swedish woman we met had an interesting scheme: when each of her children turns 16 she takes them on a trip. It's a good idea and she's been to Cambodia, New York and now India with her kids. I'm really glad I traveled with my parents as a kid because I feel it made me much more prepared for this trip.We feel like we have "improved" as travelers since leaving Delhi. If anything we have become more wise from our experiences. Delhi may not have been our cup of tea but Kochi suited us just fine. We spent days wandering the low key, Portuguese style streets of Fort Cochin. This part of Kochi is friendly, sunny and full of great restaurants, shopping and Chinese fishing nets. It was also here that we took our Keralan cooking class. The woman who taught it was great fun and seemed to love eating her food as much as we did. We can't wait to go home and try some of the things we learned from her. - Lindsay

Feb 25

Last night we arrived in Agonda Goa. After some searching we found our hotel where we were greeted by a guy lounging at the bar with a beer saying "hey man" to which I said "hi", and proceeded to ask if this was Priara de Agonda and he responded with "sometimes, and I sometimes run it too". Anyways we have a nice little hut near the beach and everyone around is very relaxed. The bar here is open and on the honor system. Lindsay and I speculate it is because he is to lazy to keep track. Last night we spent about 2 hours out in the sun and are now crispy fried! It Hurts! However we are not letting that ruin our fun. We have been swimming and walking the beach still. We have seen lots of crabs on the beach and even a few sting-ray type fish that come on shore with the waves and scurry back when the water gets to low. I think we are bound to enjoy the rest of the trip. - Don

Jaipur to Kochi

Feb 17

We are now in Kochi, Kerala. Last night when we checked into the hotel the thermostat on the A/C said that the temperature was 37 degrees in the room. It took all evening and most of the night for the room to get down to 21. Today with the A/C running all day the temperature is 26. It is really hot outside. I am loving the heat but Lindsay is not so much. I bought some drinks at a roadside stand that claimed to be a "cold bar". Really what this was is a stand with a tarp for shade where 4-5 guys can stand and drink coffee. An Indian Coffee Shop! I joined the 4 guys who were having coffee and had a Limca (like sprite only better). One of the guys started talking about me to the lady who works there. At once everyone started laughing and the lady (who spoke english well) said " don't worry about them", with a laugh as she circled her finger around her ear, as if they were loonie. So that's my first coffee shop experience in India. I think I am going back for coffee tomorrow morning! - Don

Feb 22

It has been quite a while since we wrote anything. One of the reasons, at least for the last couple of days, is that in the time that we spend in the hotel room resting we have been watching the olympics. Right now Don is recovering from our mens hockey loss to the US. The other reason is simply that we have been enjoying ourselves. Jaipur seems like ages ago. We stayed in a great hotel (with the first hot shower we've had in India) and ate superb food. We spent our day there wandering as usual, admiring the intricate facades of ancient buildings and even doing a bit of shopping. Within Jaipur is an old walled city that is buzzing with bazaar activity and littered with cows and goats and beautiful fruit and vegetable stalls. It was such a nice day out that I managed to get a sun burn. It might sound weird but until this we hadn't got so much as a tan. Right now Don and I are in Kochi on the coast of the province of Kerala. It's like we have gone to a different country. The first thing you notice is that it is about 15 degrees hotter here than in the north. The heat and humidity are so exhausting so we find that our days just can't be as long. Sometimes we end up taking a nap in the afternoon in our air conditioned room or like last night I sit down for a minute after supper and wake up in the morning. The people and culture here are also vastly different from the north. It is refreshing for people to be friendly and not trying to take advantage of us. We think there are a few possible reasons that people here are happier and not as desperate or needy. Kerala is apparently the first place where the people have freely elected a communist government almost continuously. We have heard people talking proudly about how castes are not allowed in Kerala. One guy jovially told us that there are no slum dogs or millionaires in Kerala. Although they are exaggerating we can tell from our past experiences that Kerala is doing something right. People here are more shy and modest but also eager. Kids especially want to say hi and be waved at, but people back off after encountering you: They don't pester you or follow you and they don't leer nearly as much. We've had so many positive experiences here. -Lindsay

Disclaimer!!!!

Feb 20
We have been told that our blog sounds really depressing... Sorry! We are having a great time I assure you all. When we are down we tend to write more and have more time to write... and when we are having a good time we don't feel like writing. So it only seems bad. Besides which we both agree that some of the more difficult experiences we've had have been worth it.
Lindsay

Delhi to Agra (Taj Mahal)

Feb 12th Continued.

On our many walks in Delhi we have seen very few garbage cans. People eat and drop the container where they are standing. There is urine and feces everywhere and the men of Delhi are not modest. They will whip it out anywhere. I have never been anywhere so dirty and loud and pungent. We got lost so much in Delhi. The city is a maze of streets and alleys that weren't on any of our maps. There are no street signs of any kind. All cars have at least a door ding even if they are brand new. Driving seems scary enough that the whole time we were in Delhi Don and I didn't take any taxis or rickshaws but that's also because they were always trying to scam us. - Lindsay

Feb 13

Agra is beautiful! The little I've seen anyways. I've spent most of my time here either sleeping or on the toilet. After some deliberation over whether or not we should try to figure out the insurance and go to the hospital we decided to walk across the s from our hotel and buy some over the counter antibiotics. Normally I'd feel very unsure about this but the lonely planet mentions a few that are used in the treatment of travelers diarrhea and the guy had all of them. We ate supper on the roof of our hotel and watched the sun set on the taj. It was beautiful and peaceful. There was chanting coming from mosques all around us and monkeys everywhere. Too bad the service here is abysmal. - Lindsay

I think I like Agra. Maybe it is just the rooftop restaurants with views of the taj. Maybe it is that there are less people, or just that the touts are less aggressive. We are staying in a noisy and active part of the city. In agra I have been able to meet all sorts of other tourists. We sat with two Japanese guys on the train, Noori and ___ can't remember. They also happened to be staying at our hotel. At lupper today I met a flower grower from Montreal. Also at lupper today I was feeling so good that i ordered a lassi. My first non-bottled drink other than coffee and tea. It was a great banana chocolate lassie. Now I just hope it doesn't make me sick again! - Don

Feb 14

Happy Valentines day to us!.. NOT. We haven't exactly had the best day. The peaceful feeling we had about India after seeing the Taj yesterday have subsided. And through all of the days trials we have managed to stay positive.. until now. We didn't get the wake-up call this morning that we asked for. Fortunately, being sick, I wasn't sleeping well enough to not wake up at five. I woke don and we hurriedly packed and managed to check out on schedule ( the hotel staff claimed to not have any change) . Outside the gate of our hotel we sadly saw that there was only one autorickshaw, as apposed to the usual 50 during the day. He promptly demanded 100 rupees for the 5 minute ride to the train station which was outrageous. Don got him down to 80 but on the ride we realized it would be nice to have some smaller (precious) rupee bills for getting food on the train etc. So we gave him 100 which was fine because he got us there fast and to be honest it's only 2.50 CND. At the train station we found out that our train was to be three and a half hours late. "So what" we thought... It is just a few hours... But those few hours turned into seven (one hour at a time). Still we had the ability to stay positive. We were bored and hungry but my dad had told us a few times that it is a 3rd world country; you can't expect anything to run smoothly or be on time. The frustration comes now after having to cram ourselves onto the overcrowded train only to find an entire family sitting in our seats. They finally moved but then we experienced the first truly rude (or possibly racist) behaviour from Indians. The remaining men wouldn't let us put our packs on "their bunks" even though they were sitting on "my bunk". I'm not really sure it was any of their bunks. They refused to produce tickets for the ticket men who seem to have no authority and there were more of them than there are seats. This train has far more people that it has seats. And now these men insist on staring incessantly at me. We are ready for the south!

Delhi

Some of our posts might not make so much sense because we have been writing in a journal and then copying parts of those journal entries onto the blog. Sorry if it overlaps or has sections missing.

Feb - 10

Today wasn't really the best but after 4 or 5 rolls of toilet paper (keeping in mind that Indian rolls are a gimmic) we don't feel like dying... so that is positive. Delhi is a bit of an assault on the brain. More honking than Mumbai, drugs, scams, pervs, accidents, and urine and garbage everywhere. The thing you notice first is the air quality. As we came in on the train it looked like we were entering an area just south of a forest fire. The weirdest thing is that your lungs seem to adapt to the smoke and dust. You also learn how to sleep through constant erratic noise and to be rude to touts which is probably only hard because we are Canadian. The day we arrived was a particular pain because with our packs it was really obvious that we were looking for somewhere to stay, not to mention that all the "reputable" hotels we tried seemed to be full. We even had a strange encounter with a friendly Australian guy who Don and I both think was acting as a tout. He took us to pretty abysmal accommodations down some shady alleyways which fortunately we didn't take. Once we got back on the main road it wasn't long before we found somewhere that would take us. Starving, Don and I killed a god part of our afternoon at our hotel's rooftop restaurant! We spent Tuesday doing a walking tour of "Old Delhi" seeing mosques and old forts but also seeing what could have once been a beautiful city, ravaged by population, pollution and poverty.

Feb 12

Boy oh boy am I sick! Last night I started shivering so violently it probably looked like I was having a seizure. I spent the whole night going to the bathroom and alternating between sweats and chills. I think Don and I might have liked Delhi better if we hadn't been so sick the whole time. It really gets you down! I felt so bad this morning that we considered not getting on our train and going to the hospital. We are on the train to Agra right now and the view is even more depressing. There are mountains of garbage, mostly plastic. It looks like wall-e's earth. Where the garbage is bad plants don't grow, grass doesn't grow. Cows try to graze between wrappers, dogs sleep on the mounds and children play in the filth.

Mumbai to Delhi

Feb- 7
We went to see a move in Bombay like Don had hoped and it was entertaining despite not speaking a word of Hindi. We sat in the balcony and watched the peculiar pre show advertisements. We were then asked to stand for the national anthem and the movie goers were not afraid to belt it out. The crowd in the theater brought a few things to our attention. Every Indian and their grandmother has a cell phone which is like us but what is unique is etiquette/rules around cell phones. In India there are none!. You can have the most annoying ring on as loud as it goes for 10 rings and then answer it in a movie... same in a restaurant.



Yesterday was pretty relaxed. we got up and started a bad McDonalds for breakfast habit. Joe and Vickey recommended it because Indians don't eat breakfast the way we do. Believe it or not the McMuffins are heavenly after the other breakfasts we have had. We went to the train stations tourist office and learned several lessons on booking trains. We took a rather long train ride to Delhi. Yesterday we also did piles of walking and called our parents. Today at the Bandra Terminus train station we experienced the most severe and persistant begging yet. They were kids and I thought it was going to be hard not to want to help them. But it was not. For one we were told that they had made the decision to beg over a free education with a free daily meal. And for another they were kind of jerks about it. Rather than choosing to look adorable, helpless and hungry, they approached you with food crumbs all over their mouths yelling and swatting at you, leaving with a glare. Other than that our train experience has been quite nice! It's a good way to see the country side and agriculture as well as the back side of some slums. And you can't go wrong with 24 hours worth of AC. The people we sat with were unbelieveably nice and fed us some of the homemade meal they had brought. It was amazing food and they even gave us desset. Once we told them that we're Canadian they were eager to tell us that they had been to Niagra falls. India changes a lot outside of the city. For one we meet nice people but also we saw a lot of hindu temples, a few mosques as well as grass huts and ornate homes with courtyards and common areas. -Lindsay

Feb - 9

Delhi is far more crowded than mumbai. The horns are no longer just used as mirrors and signals, they are now used as "get out of my way" and "move". I am getting tired of the hustle and bustle of the cities, feeling like everyone that talks to us is trying to scam us. I am looking forward to heading south where hopefully people will talk to us without a hidden agenda.-Don

Mumbai

Hey, Moms sorry it has been a while but yes we are still alive!!!.

Feb 3rd. Don and I are so glad to be finally on our last flight. Our flight to frankfurt was delayed an hour and as we were only scheduled for an hour wait in germany we were concerned that we would no make our connection. To our delight after a weird bus ride to the terminal and a mad sprint to our gate we got there before the line had all gone through. The plane we are on now is by far the biggest either of us has ever been on. There are two levels, and probably about twenty bathrooms. We are having trouble deciding whether to sleep but really there is no way to avoid the jet lag that is to come. The guy that is sitting with us on the plane is very friendly and eager to help. He chatted quite a bit with Don about good sites in India and told us that he was a shipman returning home to mumbai from spain after five months. - Lindsay

Feb 4th

So as it turns out I had never really experianced culture shock before. Today, likely because of sleep deprivation and the fact that we arrived in total darkness... I kind of freaked out... Don was fine though so it was easily overcome. The only problem with cuture shock is that it can be very hard to sleep... Which as it turns out is exactly what I need. When you arrive at night all you see is dirty walls, streets, and stray dogs, and boarded up shops with the occasional person sleeping in a lawnchair. It seemed quite desolate and alien. Now that I have slept, the sound of strange birds and incessant honking is far more exciting. Looking out the window of our hotel room, I can see all manner of traffic as well as some trees that appear to be growing through the building. -Lindsay

We don't know what to think! We are very jetlaged and to top it all off we both feel sick. (already!) I feel weak, dizzy and cranky. Which may be why neither of us have found much about mumbai that we like. People so far don't seem very friendly with the exception of the odd kid. And few seem to know much english. Today we took the adventurous cab ride from the airport to colaba (the region where you find piles of shops, the taj and the gateway to india). We walked there stopping at "mac donald" to eat (food didn't seem great but it is hard to tell when you are already sick) and then we promptly got lost. Mumbai has a very busy and repeating landscape with few street signs not to mention that the map we have is far from accurate. -Lindsay

Feb 5th

Today we found a new hotel (very budget) in a more interesting part of town. The first people we got a chance to interact with were tourists (our age) from the UK and Scotland. They were really nice and took us to a nice restaurant and really really lifted our spirits. Now is the first time we have felt good on the trip. We have decided that most of Lindsays ailments have been due to Malarone. Luckly they are supposed to be short lived. Today we are heading to the CST train station to try and get tickets to Dehli. -Don