Intrepid as F*&k

Kia Ora

Just strolled for about a kay from our riverside bamboo hutt at Kao Sok National Park in the Surat Thani province of Thailand to the local dairy/internet/massage station. Have been in Thailand for 3 or 4 days now, and loving it.

Coming off the travel marathon from Mumbai-Calcutta-Bangkok, we pretty much slepft for our first 20 hours in Bangkok. Mike flew out home-bound the next day so we cruised to the airport with him for a final munch on some final curry. Spent the remainder of that day and the next immersed in the INTENSE tourist ghetto that is Kao San and exploring some of Bangkok in the search of a sweeeeet deal on a couple of mac-tastic suits each; stumbled upon the massive mall that is the MBK centre, where I bought a wicked pair of short-range walkie-talkies for leading the revolution throughout the rest of the country; chose our favourite fabrics / cuts for the tailored suits, which will look brand-spankingly wicked come first day at work and wasted the evening drinking on Kho San. Ran into some sweet aussie dudes who were across the hall from us at the hostel and had a big night with them, though we collectively have very few recollections.

Just came off a 19 hour bus mish south from Bangkok to where we are now, where the plan is to do some canoe trips, tube down the Kao Sok River, explore the nearby lake and maybe hit some elephant trekking. Today we're gonna grab some motorbikes and explore the local village plus the national park visitors centre for maps etc. Been eating heaps of streetside pad-thai's (all of like $1NZ and super-yum), as well as random food at bus-stops. Our exit strategy is probably to move from here futher south to Phuket for a bit, before probably swapping to the east coast for the Full Moon Party on Ko Samui and hopefully rendezvousing with Alex/Melza who's here for a week.

Looking backwards to hangin' in the 'gaam' (village) around Navsari, it was mean. Got a serious relax on and had most of our needs catered to by Dad's cousin and his wife. We stated at my late grandfather's house, on a field of sugarcane and rice crops. It was mint having a quality hot shower (best in India) and conveniences like a fridge. Ate waaaaaay too much. Slept waaaaaaay too much. It was awesome being in a part of India where my (attempted) Gujurati was actually understood by the locals. On the first day we grabbed a rickshaw into town and picked up a cheap blender and HEAPS of fresh fruit to make smoothies and stuff with. In the morning we'd have fresh chai brewed for us and in the evenings we got through heaps of chicken - including on a 'hota' (Indian style barbeque)

Turned out we had a few less days in the gaam than I'd initially thought, but think we managed to cover all the bases with a few trips into the village, a trip out to Dandi beach (starting point of Mahatma Ghandi's Salt March: we rode half the trip on the back of a rick-shaw truck, coz thats how we DO), special guest starring at a local 'lagan' (wedding)(awesome food), and way loads of sleep ins. It was sweet that some rellies from NZ were also in gaam for a few weeks too. Had a pretty intense last day with some obligatory visisitng, and meeting some rellies that I didnt know I had, before getting to Mumbai on a train and attempting (failing) to get comfortable for the evening at the domestic airport in Mumbai for about 10 hours before our flight to Kolkati. Dom assumed beggar-posture: lying on the floor between rows of seats, casually tapping travellers with hand-to-mouth gestures. Poor hungry bastard.

Sweet, off to brave the humidity and find some bikes to burn around on. Pictures in the near future maybe!
Nick

Fellas. Fellees.

Hows it all? Been a while since we've had any form of reasonable internet access. Mumbai internet cafe's all packed (burgeoning middle class); Goa pretty much never had both electricity and internet online at the same time, and it was all just too much of a mish trying to find a place with the net in Navsari.

Think it was up in the desert town of Udiapur that I last logged in. Probably all of two weeks ago but it feels like many more moons that that have passed. From Udiapur we flew in to Mumbai (via a few hours and massive feed at a city called Aurunabad). Arrived a Mumbai circa 9pm on xmas eve and, after finding out (super-shitty) hostel, proceeded out to Colaba (tourist district of mumbai) on what we'd decided was gonna be a huge night. Pretty warm all throughout our time in Mumbai - with lowest temperature probably being around 30'C.

And it was. Despite being quoted Rs4000 to enter one club (over NZ$100) and Jimmy and I holding hands to get us into a 'couples-only' club, we ended up at the pub above Leopold's (mighty Colaba restraunt bought to fame by Gregory David Roberts' book 'Shantaram') and got amongst it. Was a pretty solid backpacker/local mix, and we proceeded to get pretty smashed. No one can rememeber the walk home to the hostel; though Dom and Jimmy woke up with a few 'surprises' in their shower and a familiar sour stench. Was stoked that my vision cleared after I hit street level in the morning, so mike and I spent the day exploring on foot. Found this mint cafe/deli real close to our hostel, and went there often enough that figured it was okay to use their hospitality toilets as often as we wanted. Okay I did anyway. Faaaaaaaaaarrr better than the communal bathrooms at the hostel

Xmas dinner was at that deli... pretty low key affair as we were all fazed from the night before and just getting back onto solids. Everyone bar Jimmy that is, who was AWOL in the hostel. Think it was something to do with food aswell, coz he was sick as f*&k.

Ahh.... skiping a few more days in Mumbai; which we realised is a city of HIGH rollers (Mercs, $400 US per night hotel rooms. etc etc) and LOW rollers (beggars and the lies, a guy that [i] actually rolled after us on his board-on-wheels to try get some rupee) Crazy contrast - probably the place where the actual poverty hit us the hardest. Went out for a flash feed on the night of the 26th, as it was Jimmy's final supper before he headed back home. Ended up at a lounge bar / restraunt called 'Indigo' which served up some pretty decent lobster bisque, prawns, duck and the likes.

On the 27th we left the hotel before 8am (RIDICULOSULY early for us) for the 2 hour trip to the airport so Jimmy could get to his flight back to Aoteroa on time; and so we would be there to pick up cuzzies B (Bharat) and V (Vas), fresh off the plane from Aoteroa, for the trip to the beach state of Goa. Had 6 odd hours up our sleeve and figured it want worth missioning it back into a sane part of Mumbai, so made our way to the convenient Hyatt Regency; ordered a few beers and pizzas and proceeed to overstay our welcome in their restraunt before making our way to the domestic airport for the flight to Goa. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Goa pretty sweet, though rekon i was probably at varying stages of nausea throughout, which was a bit of a bummer! Some totally sweet beaches though, especially if you grab a car and drive away from the main spots. Our pad was rigthin the thick of it, and only 3min walk from the Out at night was a bit of a laugh, especially with the hoardes of middle-aged (and young) indian males from across the world converging. Like a Diary Owners Association Conference. But worse. I survived new years only till about half an hour into 2008, before I went home to spew my guts out and deal with my stomach cramps by boofing a cocktail of pills. Good times.

Did I mention they were trying to charge in excess of like $NZ150 cover charge to most of the clubs on new years night? Tried to sneak in. They had the place locked down with security gaurds. Tried to bribe the bouncer: have a few words with him, show a bit of cash. No luck. Dammit, where the corruption when you need it?

Caught a sleeper train from Goa to Mumbai. Late, as usual. But a whole lot of fun when you board at 5pm and reach your stop at 3 in the morning. Enjoyed lots of cool scenery, bridges and tunnells before it got dark. After which we mucked around in our 'sleep class' carriage until arrival in mumbai...keeping our fellow passengers awake, trying to throw peanut shells out the window and inventing even more new sports. Followed this up with another train, whcih was meant to take us to the town/city of Navsari..... but didn't actually stop here. So ended up getting off the train 40-odd kays further on and negotiating with a van driver to get us to Navsari for a decent fare.

okay im spent. would love to go on but its going on 2.30am and i'm planning to try get comfortable near our luggage for the next 4 horus until we check in. Navsari was awesome - totally different to everything that we'd experienced in India so far and it was awesome to be part of village life. Met lots of rellies who I never knew existed and had to try get by using my broken gujurati.... even playing translator sometimes. next update will try post up more pics too. Until then we've got about a day's worth of transit time ahead of us as we go from Mumbai to Calcutta to Bangkok. Ye-yah!

Nick

Sup dudes, finally got enough time to upload some photos from my camera. Probabyl gonna be average quality because had to be compressed for the net. Enjoy!

Nick

[b] Post sunrise at Tiger Hill, Darjeeling. Everest is in the background.

[b] 3 members of Sawai Madhopur's newest Cycle Gang

[b] Colourful sari-ed women while biking the outskits of Sawai Madhopur

[b] Welcome to Ranthambore National Park

[b] Day One - Deer spotting at Ranthambore National Park

[b] Footprint on the Tiger we just saw, Ranthambore National Park. No one got a decent photo of the tiger!

[b] The oasis town of Pushkar by day. Pic from our rooftop

[b] The lights of Pushkar

[b] Mucking around taking photos as I walked my motorbike back into town. It ran outta gas and Jimmy went on a missionto find a petrol station

[b] Jaisalmer Fort. If only my sandcastles looked this good!

[b] Italian for dinner on a rooftop in Jaisalmer Fort, Jaisalmer

[b] Sunset in the Sam Desert, Jaisalmer

[b] Dom ridan dirtyay on the dunes, Sam Desert

[b] Camel breakfast at dawn in the desest

[b] Me in desert garb

Just had a pretty massive day sifting around the city of Udiapur, after getting here at 4 in the morning!

Caught our first 'sleeper bus' from Jaisalmer to here, which was definitely different. Basically you get allocated shelves in the seating comparentment of the bus (stil rows of seats underneath the shelves), with windows, curtains and matresses in them. Not too bad for all of like $10NZ for the whole journey. Classic-ist bit was finding out the hard way why its essential to empty your bladder prior to getting on the bus!

The bus ride was after a sweet day on foot around the Fort in Jaisalmer, coz we'd got back from our 2 day desert trek the night before. Desert trek was totally awesome; the pretty uncomfy camel riding well worth it for the sunrises, sets, stars at night and campfires. not to mention the afternoon siestsas.

The camels were awesome - such random ugly animals! They were grazin on trees when we were gathering firewood in the dark for the campfire, and they totally looked like contemporary dinosours. They've got a bit of attitude too, with one of our caravan doing this heinous lip-flap-tongue-poke move heaps during the day. Mating call apparently.... but could seriously do with some refinement! They're into excreting stuff too - with plenty of farts and burps whilst riding thru the dunes.

Can't remember when we last posted, so briefly before the desert in Jaislalmer we were in Pushkar. The highlight here DEFINTELY being hiring motorbikes and burning around town, plus to neighbouring Ajmer. Absolute shitta motorbikes though, with no less than 4 trips back to the rental dealer in the first hour to fix stuff / swap bikes.

Sweet, have got a bit of time up my sleeve so will try jam thu some photos!

Nick

Sup

Been a while again, and so much has gone on. Will distill them to bullet points and maybe someone will add the guts later!

[list]delayed trains
the Amazing Race 3.0
delayed planes (why break the trend?)
Taj Mahal - awesome
Man down - spew count of the trip reaches 3
Jaipur's Jantar mantar - ancient observatory a-la Stonehenge, but with sun dials
Amber Palace - for the King with 12 wives
Running from the law
A punctual train
Posh beer at the Oberoi Hotel, Agra
Posh buffet at the Regency