Goa

The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Panjim.

Cool Ryan the Tiger at Panjim Beach.

The Beach Crabs.

Sunset at Panjim Beach.

St Catherine's Cathedral, Old Goa.

Ryan the Tiger contemplating the bigger picture - St Catherine's Cathedral.

Slightly more modern art work than I expected to find in the Archbishop's Palace Gallery!!

Ok how good is your latin??? Ade's this one is especially for you (you did ask for a harder challenge!!) - what does it say - I'll give you a starter - this was on the wall at the Chapel of St Catherine in Old Goa.

The dead body of St Francis Xavier (well a photo of a photo) - this dude was sent over by the Portugese King in 1520's to sort out the corruption and immorality in Goa and other areas. After his death his body was moved several times (and bits were stolen!!) and now every ten years it is taken out the tomb and taken accross to St Catherine's Cathedral for a 3 hour ceremony where worshippers file past and touch it (thinking I'm glad I missed that service!!)

The Director's seat on the Bollywood film set (story below).

And the stars acting out a scene.

Kids in Panjim

My Beach Hut at Palolem Beach.

Collecting coconuts.

Shopping for dinner - the early catch.....

A dog taking shelter from the sun under my sun bed.

Dinner (yummmm!!) (sorry Alice/Jo & all my other veggie friends!!)

Sunset at Palolem Beach.

Ryanthe Tiger enjoying the view.

The locals houses at Palelom Beach.

A family washing at the side of the train track.

As you can see the trains are fairly long - this photo was taken half way along and doesn't even catch the engine at the front of the train!!

Me on the overnight train to Goa.

Arrived in Panjim,the capital of Goa, which is pretty nice city with a small beach and lots of colonial style buildings from the Portugese era. Went to the cinema here as thought it may good place to cool down - before the film starts they play the national anthem and everyone stands up - don't think 'God Save The Queen' would have the same impact at home??

Spent a day visiting Old Goa (the ex capital of this state) which is now a World Heritage site because of all the Cathedral's and churches - which is pretty much all that was there. It surprised me when I first arrived in India how many people are practising christians, although they still follow traditional Indian customs - like the ladies praying in church wearing saris.

I love the contrasts in India, the modern next to the new i.e. the cattle walking along next to the Mercedes car, the traditionally dressed standing next to the guy/girl in designer gear - everything seems quite acceptable - though it might not be so if it was members of a traditional family coming home in modern clothes. The Caste system still has a strong hold in certain areas of India with those that are born into certain 'groups' finding it near impossible to improve their lot in life. Though there are areas this is not so much the case with better access to schools etc (though public schools still poorly funded and families choose to send their kids to private schools where possible - the more money you spend the better the education).

Well whilst at Old Goa I decided I would make the 2km walk to the church on the Mound to see the views and I the church which was reportedly pretty impressive. But when I got there all hot and sweaty I found the church closed as they were filming a Bollywood Movie. The film crew were pretty cool and were happy for me to sit and watch, take photo's & video - they even offered me lunch!! I was assured the two main stars are very famous in Bollywood - the guy was such a poser right enough - don't think he was impressed when I got a photo of him getting his make up done - unfortunately it still wasn't George Clooney or co so I am unlikely to get enough money from Hello magazine to fund an extra couple of months travelling!! Was quite interesting watching the goings on though - and I met a traveller on the beach who said that he did actually go along and take part as an extra on a Bollywood film and it was a hoot!!

Other than that not too much to report as I have just spent the last four days chilling out (or should I say being toasted) on Palolem beach in Goa reading lots of books. This used to be one of the quieter beaches left in Goa but it is now completely covered in Beach resteraunts/huts....but as it is the end of the season here they are actually starting to dismantle them for the Monsoons coming in so it has been fairly quiet (especially mid week. I'm staying in a beach hut (costs 2.50 per night) - with own toilet/shower - and I am about 50m from the sea so can hear the waves all night!! Talking of which did some body surfing today as the waves were pretty cool - though I did manage to lose my sunglasses when I got caught off gaurd by a big one!! Only my second pair I've had to replace so far on this trip (sat on the first ones!!) - that's why I don't buy designer sunglasses (that and the fact I don't buy designer anything!!). Certainly tell the difference between the Indian ladies - who go swimming in their sari's (even saw one in her jeans) and the tourists who are in skimpy bikini's (other than me of course who has very sensible swimming suit!).

If you want a taste of India and like a good book(is a little chick flicky) pick up a copy of Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald - she describes in hysterical detail lots of things that are everyday life here which had me sitting with tears of laughter on the beach - I can certainly relate to a lot of her anectodes - the rows of bare bums as your early morning train goes past towns/cities, the kids asking 'Ma'am what is your good name?', the constant peeping of car horns which is not a sign of road rage but rather considered polite driving (in fact many trucks/cars have signs saying Blow Your Horn!) and of course the staring and letching of local men to western woman (particularly in northern India).

Anyway, enough from me I am off to enjoy the other good thing about Goa - Sea Food - after 6 weeks of self imposed vegetarianism (for health reasons) it is nice to be somewhere it is safe to eat some fish & it's delicous......tomorrow I am moving further South so will let you know where I end up.

Hope your all keeping well and thanks for all the e-mails/messages on the blog.

Jack xx

Sanchi, Ajanta, Ellora and Mumbai

No it's not a UFO - these are Buddhist Stuppas at Sanchi.....what??? Burial mounds of some of the earliest Buddhist followers in India. The Torano's (gate like pillars) at the entrance have detailed sculptures telling the story of the origins of Buddhism.



Ryan the Tiger and I at Sanchi


These contraptions are everywhere - sugar cane is fed through the machine to make a sweet drink - I haven't been brave enough to try it yet!

Ajanta caves used by Buddhists between 200BC and 650AD - 28 caves carved into the mountainside with loads of sculptrues and paintings. Unfortunately, due to time of year the river and waterfall were dry.

Paintings within Ajanta caves - paint was from vegetable colouring and as you can see some of them are still in good condition.

Ellora caves - these are not so old - 500-750AD - but are divided into three depending on the era Buddhist/Hindu and Jain - 32 caves in total.

Bats within the caves - there were hundreds of them and they are noisy (then again that might have been because I was shining my torch on them and taking loads of flash photo's!!).

The Kailash Temple at Ellora caves - quite impressive as it is carved out of the rock!!

A family day out - don't you love the kids hat?

Marine Drive, Mumbai

Everywhere you go there are people playing cricket - from organised games like this to the street kids - it is considered a second relioun by most Indian people....

Outside St Thomas Cathedral in Mumbai - you can certainly see the British influence around Mumbai

McDeliveries - a new approach to fast food!! And knowing the traffic here it would'n't be that fast.....

Out for dinner with Ashok a friend of Anji's in Mumbai

Ryan The Tiger's first boat trip - and he didn't even get seasick :-)

The Taj Palace (unfortunately not my hotel) and India Gate - the last sight the British saw as they left Mumbai in 1947 after Independance.

This monkey took a liking to Ryan the Tiger - when I put him back in my bag he decided he was going to go in after him - wasn't going to take no for an anwer even after I threw water over him - ended up having to move on from my nice shaded spot under the tree!! Well I wasn't going to argue with a monkey bearing his teeth at me that probably had rabies.......

Not sure if this is a Hawk or Eagle (or just a big crow!!) but there was about 6 of them flying so low above my head doing mad dives and hunting.....

A Hand Cyle - these are quite common and used by people with leg disabilities.

I can't believe another week has gone by already. I thought when I was away that time might go fairly slow and I was a little worried I might get bored!!! Certainly not so far. Always plenty to do and when I am not exploring or on a train/bus I am trying to keep my travel journal up to date as well as my blog and e-mails. How did I ever manage to work full time??? Oh and I've manged to read 6 books - long journeys come in handy for something other than meeting people and being interogated :-)

Well as you can see from the photo's since my last update I have been visiting some more historical areas of India. The caves were particularly impressive though hard work in the heat! I have no idea how those guys carved those sculptures out of rock all those years ago - there is so much detail and they are so big. I was exhausted just walking around them....

I arrived in Mumbai a couple of days ago, which I have to say I wasn't looking forward to it as I thought it would be a bigger and dirty version of Delhi, but in fact it is a lot more cosmopolitan - well the centre tourist area anyway. Rickshaws are banned from the centre of town, there is traffic control (even crossings) and you get very little hassle from touts. I have only seen one ox drawn cart and that was away from the main tourist/commercial area and no cows!! The downside is the hotels are more expensive though I did manage to find a fairly budget one, with for the first time a shared bathroom, but it is clean enough for the couple of nights I am here.

En route here I managed to get on a train going the wrong way - it's quite confusing as the trains have names and numbers on the side and the one I was supposed to be on was 3 hours late. So when a train pulled in with the same name and no. on it that I was waiting for at the expected platform and time on the information board was reasonable to assume it was mine, especially when I showed one of the workers my ticket and he nodded so I jumped on (should have known they would just say yes that is the normal reply to most things!!). Anyway, after a lot of faffing and looking hassled I managed to get a train going the right way and didn't even end up having to pay for an extra ticket or the fine for not having my ticket before getting on the train - thanks to Kevin the very nice and helpful Anglo/Indian train conductor who I think I just bamboozled.......To be honest I'm just surprised that this has only happened once so far!!

It is getting hotter every day and more humid - I managed to burn the cheeks of my butt today when I sat down with exhaustion on a very hot stone bench - won't make that mistake again!! I get the overnight train tonight to Goa for a quick stop before moving further south to Kerela - where I really want to spend some time but suspect that I will last no more than a couple of days (if I get there at all!).

Yesterday I was asked if I wanted to go be an extra in a Bollywood Movie (which appeared to be for real) as interesting as it might have been to see behind the scenes of film making the thought of standing about in fancy dress for hours in this heat for 500 rupees (6 quid) was not enough to make me want to risk missing my train and be recorded on camera looking like an overboiled tomato!! Now if I find out it is actually a Brad Pitt/Matt Damon production I will be forever gutted!!

Not sure what the internet will be like for my next few stops so don't be too disappointed if you have to wait a bit longer for the next update.....Keep me up to date with news from home - there must be some gossip your not telling me???

Jack xx

These bizarre monuments are the Budhist Stupas at Sanchi - burial mounds. The Torana's (gates) have loads of detail which tells budhist stories.

Madhya Pradesh

Ok so I know it has been over 2 weeks since my last update but I did warn you that internet access was sometimes hard to come by here and even when you can get on line it can be too slow for uploading photo's (and that's not to mention the frequent power cuts!!!)


Anyway, this is an extra long entry to make up for it so go get a cup of coffee/beer/glass of wine (yes I know you all too well) and enjoy........



I mentioned Holi, The Festival of Colour on my last update - so here is a cow that was coloured and I spotted dogs/goats and even a chicken that had been coloured!!



Oh and I got coloured by some local kids.

Ghekkos are my regular roommates - but that's good as they eat the mosquito's.

The view over Orchha - one of my favourite places so far - means the "Hidden Village" and is a serious of Temples and a Palace surrounded by forrest.

The Palace at Orccha - I got lost in the serious of interconnecting corridors (no signs!).

A different view over Orccha.

The Western Temples of Khajuragho - these lay hidden in deep forrest for centuries until the British Army found them in 1800's. But look a little closer not all is as you may expect......

These Temples have a number of erotic sculpures around them from the Karma Sutra - there are different theories as to why these are on the Temples - personally I just think the architect was kinky!!

And another one - should point out that although there are a lot of erotic sculptures they are in fact only a small % of the overall - but thought you would appreciate more than an elephant!

A dance show I went along to with costumes and dancing from the different states of India.

Pigs in the middle of a street in Umaria - much hairier that our native pigs.

Old Khajuraho Village.

Me, David and Emma - who are from Slovania and were staying in the same hotel.

Kids at Tala Village who were spending the morning collecting fruit (that their dads will make into alcohol then sell) when they should have been at school.

A party to celebrate the end of Holi that I gatecrashed.

The band at the party.

Bandhavgarh National Park.

A monkey family - sorry no naughty business this time ;-)

A spotted deer.

A big butterfly.

Sunrise on Safari -- great way to start my birthday.

Me on safari.

The signs that the Tigers were on the move were good when we spotted paw prints.....

The Vultures skulking about were also a sign of Tiger activity......

Right enough not far away the remains of the Tiger kill (after the Vultures had finished with it!) so I was sure we were not far away...then I heard a big Tiger growl and .........

I got so excited then realised that we had just found Ryan the Tiger who had gone to look for his cousin on his own!!!!

This Tiger was not wanting to be found so easy so we enlisted the help of the Elephants and went a bit deeper into the forrest..

After all that searching we found this 8 year old female Tiger having a nap in the long grass - she didn't even bat an eyelid at the silly tourists on elephant back taking her photo - well she'd had a hard night hunting......

The mad cow running for the train - and no I don't mean me!!!

Ryan the Tiger enjoying the view from Pachmarhi Hill.


A street party in Pachmarhi - there was even a DJ.

Pachmari Village.

Men at work.

The view over the newer area of Pachmarhi town from my balcony.

Trekking 23km through the forrest to Chauragarh Temple.

Look closely at top middle of photo there is a thin green snake (couldn't see in sun to get better photo) - according to my trekking guide this poisonous and as it refused to move and he made us change our path to keep out it's way I tend to believe him!!

Yes I did feel as hot and sweaty as I look!

Chauragarh Temple - at the top of the mountain!!

These orange Tridents are carried to the top by pilgrims during the holy festival of Shivratri every year - but the pilgrims now take the easy road up and don't do the forrest trekk (think they may have been told something I hadn't before I started!!)

And just to prove I did make it to the top.

My trekking guide Rajkumar and his family.

Bhopal - a small city by Indian standards (only 1 million residents) but still mixture of poverty and industry next to each other. This city is famous for a Gas leak at a US factory in 1984 where 1600 died and thousands more suffered medical problems - with little compensation!!

A street parade I happened on by chance this morning - no idea what it was all about but it was loud and chaotic - expecially when I caused a traffic jam when I caused a traffic jam when everyone stopped in front of me so I could photograph/video them - been the only tourist (and camera) in the area!!

More of the parade.

I have noo idea what the significance of this guy is but liked the photo.....

Well as you can see since my last update I have survived my travels on my own and Anji is safely back at work in the UK. There has been no more Delhi Belly (touch wood!!). I have been to a number of towns and villages, as you can see from the photo's. It is certainly never dull here and I am enjoying getting out the bigger cities as the people are so friendly and you don't get anywhere near as much hassle from beggars or touts. Though I did lose my temper with one rickshaw wallah (that's the official title for those who try to get you into the tuc tucs) as he followed me from the minute I stepped off the train and wouldn't take no for an answer and kept telling me there was no bus/tempo even though my guide book said different and what hotel I should be going to. Well after he had interrupted the fourth person I tried to ask for information he got told where to go - I did manage to refrain from swearing (well out loud anyway!) and found a tempo. Tempo's are just a slightly bigger rickshaw where they cram in about 14 people and bags!! But at 20Rupees (26p) for 10 mile trip - worth it for the experience (but not my regular mode of transport).

Had a few other firsts over the last few weeks, my first ride on a motorcycle - was by default I have to say as the hotel said they would drop me off at the dance show I was going to and I just assumed it would be by car!! But it was in a town with very little traffic and I quite enjoyed it. I also had my first ever experience at meditation - the hotel where I was staying in Khajuraho was a spititual guru and took me to an old ruined temple at sunset for meditation. Was quite relaxing though I didn't manage the whole blanking your mind thing (hard to believe I know!!) but did enjoying just chilling out under the stars...... So have been doing as I intended and trying out new things and keeping an open mind but not yet converted.

I hired a bike in Khajuraho as well for the day as it was the best way to see the Temples that are scattered around the town. After my first stop I got back to my bike and found I couldn't get the lock open - a very helpful boy came to my assistance and spent 10 mins oiling the lock and trying different keys. I was just about to jump in a rickshaw and get the hotel to collect their own bike when a guy came over and asked what we were doing to his bike!! Ok they all look exactly a like and mines had been the third bike when I left - how was I to know someone else with same bike would come up and park next to me!! Felt like a goose so tipped the boy 50 rupees (60p) as smallest note I had - not bad as it only cost me 30 rupees to hire the bike for the day!!

I decided that I was going to trekk in Pachamari, which is a hill station with lots of army and police training barracks and when I arranged for a local guide to take me to Chauragarh mountain Temple I thought he would follow the route the guide book says you can do yourself - I had decided not to cycle the first 8km as I am hopeless uphill on a bike so thought we would just walk the same route. No we went through the forrest and up the side of the mountain!!! Was excellent and I am glad I did it but did I struggle for the last couple of km's uphill only to get to what I thought was the top to find 350 stairs (ahhhh!!!). But I refrained from jumping a jeep back down and walked even though we did come down on the main road most of the way - which was much easier. Then got back to my hotel and remembered I was on the 5th floor - so once I hit my hotel room I couldn't even face going back out for my dinner and slept for 12 hours!!! Will wait till I head north to cooler climates before trying another trekk like that I think....

Some things that I have found on my travels around India so far:

1. Spitting - everywhere you go guys just do big dirty grogging spits - one of my most hated habits at the best of times :-(
   
2. Bucket Baths - most hotels you stay in have a bucket in the bathroom - even if they have showers. As many have low water pressure or no warm water you use the bucket to fill up and through it over your head - much more effective than it sounds (certainly wakes you up!!) and also comes in handy for washing your clothes.


3. Singing - not only do you hear the constant sounds of chanting from mosques & temples but everyone walks along and sings away to themselves. Though I did get some funny looks when I tried singing along to my MP3 they didn't seem to appreciate my version of Bryan Adams - Summer of 69 ........then again I am tone deaf (and Alice has never forgiven me for standing next to her in the school choir :-)
4. Bus Journeys - there is a driver, ticket conductor and at least one other guy who is mechanic/goffer. People hop on and off moving buses and as many people as possible are squeezed in for the ride.
5. Prayer - people openly pray and bless themselves and there is generally a very good tolerance between the different religous groups. For example on the bus journey the other day the driver stopped so the conductor could jump off and make an offering of coconut at a temple at the side of the road to bring good luck.
6. Genorosity - everywhere you go people will offer you food and water, even though they have hardly enough for themselves. It is difficult to politely refuse but there are warnings of food being drugged (sure that is not the case 99.9% of the time) but mainly it is for hygiene reasons (had enough of the runs!!).


7. Questions - it is perfectly acceptable for a stranger to ask you about your relationship, family, education, religion, salary even your phone number and email. I was asked by a 10 year old today if I was christian (said yes as I couldn't get into the whole undecided thing with someone who is 10!!). Generally I tell people I am married as most find it quite strange that someone my age would be single (not that some at home wouldn't agree) and it gets you less hassle from guys (my husband is always on business in the next town I am going to!).
8. Photo's - people love getting their photo's taken and will just stop you in the street and ask you to take their photo's.

So after your nagging I've made effort to include some photo's with me in them - just to prove to Audrey I'm not holed up in a bed sit in Saltcoats downloading photo's on line!! Also, thanks to various people for warnings about trouble in Tibet - it wasn't looking good for visit anyway as difficult to get a Visa so is now off the agenda. Going to start working my way down to South of India from here and hopefully be able to get there before the temperatures get too hot for me.

Better go and get organised as have to catch a train in a couple of hours (8 hour journey - if there are no delays - yesterdays 45 min journey turned into 3 hours!).

Hope you enjoyed the update (I did warn you it was going to be a long one)- will hopefully not be so long till the next one.

Jack xx

PS Sometimes difficult for me to tell who has left comments on my posts as if you haven't signed up it comes up annonymous so you need to add your name to the bottom (also know a few people with same name - so if I mix you up with someone please don't get offended ;-)