I know you've all been waiting with baited breath...

Finally, some photos! Here is a small selection of India, starting from Fort Cochin. Enjoy!


 This is a very cool old tree we saw in Fort Cochin that has been graffitied into various animals. Not sure what this animal is but I like it...

 Some storm clouds rolling in over the cliffs of Varkala, the beach town we lazed away a whole week in. A few minutes after this was taken we were both drenched, having failed to seek shelter fast enough.

Varkala, again.

 An extremely full train. Will and I and all of our luggage were crammed onto this tiny bunk.

A crazy, colourful Mysore temple.

A photo-souvenire from the railway museum we visited in Mysore...it is an old Aston Martin that was converted by a train enthusiast so it could run on tracks; it was used to take the inspectors around to stations!

Welcome to Hampi! Temples. Lots of temples.

Apart from temples we also bore witness to this in Hampi...as far as we could make out it was some kind of Hindu exorcism/demonstration for the gods. Lots of shouting and making weird noises and falling about the place.

Temples and rocks.

Temples and monkeys.

And we saved the most Indian til last...an overfull ute/bus was struggling up the hill so out the men hop to push. (They made it to the top.)

So there is a small selection. There will be some more soon, but only for as long as I can use Isabelle's computer because, as we figured out, it is my crappy piece of technology that wont let us upload. 

La casa de paja y livin' la viva loca

We left Sri Lanka over two weeks ago and have subsequently been livin' la viva loca in Spain. We arrived exhausted after 48 hours in transit- some very bad planning on our part- but spent our first 2 days in the country in style, staying with the rich family Iz was nannying for in a very fancy suburb of the northern city of Bilbao. We ate some churros (deep fried stcks of dough with sugar...the healthiest of snacks) with beer in the park, went for a spin in the family boat and ate paella and pastries.
Then it was time to leave and head for the country, where we would spend our next two weeks helping 2 hippies build a house out of straw.

The day we arrived happened to be the day of the town fiesta, which meant everybody in town had the day off and went to the park for a long lunch of shrimp, paella and wine. And bread, of course (I defy anybody to come to Spain and not put on weight from the sheer amount of bread that is eaten, at every meal). It was a little overwhelming as we didn't speak Spanish and not a lot of English was spoken at the rowdy luncheon table- and we had just met at least 15 people who's names we had to remember. But it was a very Spanish introduction to the village...at least until a horrible DJ came on and started playing Gangnam Style.

After this first day of eating, playing squash and more eating, we got down to the real business of building a "casa de paja"...(house of straw). We, with the other volunteers comprising a few local Spaniards, an American who lived in Spain (and was fluent in Spanish so became our translator for the time he was there), a very Parisian Frenchman and an Italian vegetarian, were helping two lovely people finish their house built of straw, mud and a concrete mix which we are on intimate terms with now after spending two weeks smearing it on the walls trying to make them flat. And that was basically our whole job. So if you ever neeed anything smoothed into flatness, you know who to call. We are experts. It was very interesting though and gave Will another opportunity to refine his surfing skills- the guy we were working for was a very keen surfer and took every opportunity to head to the beach. I think he also ran a surf shop- it was a little hard to have complex conversations, everyone except us being fluent in Spanish and varying degrees of competent in English. Even though the waters of the Basque Country were freezing- I know, I swam in them without a wetsuit- the boys went out whenever they had a chance.

It was a lovely part of Spain to begin our journey in. A lot cooler than the rest of the country- I now know, as I am writing this from the stewpot that is Madrid at this time of year-, beautifully green and hilly, with a lot of lovely walks for us to do. And lots of blackberries to pick and munch on- they don't get sprayed here, much to our delight.

We left Basque Country- I think it is actually as separate as you can get from the rest of Spain without leaving the country; they have their own police force and all- two days ago and headed south to Madrid. It was a little sad saying goodbye to the lovely people we had spent 2 weeks getting to know and the house we were on such intimate terms with- the outside walls at least- and the wonderful coolth of northern Spain but we only have 3 months; the journey must go on.

So, as I said, we are now in Madrid. With my sister, on the last leg of her journey before she returns to Australia and her creature comforts and on nearly the last leg of what we have planned so far. As in, we have no idea what we are going to do when we have to leave Spain. It's very different from the down to earth vibe of where we were staying before. Everybody speaks English- in Artzentales (where we wwoofed) everyone spoke Spanish and some people even conversed in Basque, which is a whole other language we have no hope of comprehending-, everybody is well dressed and the city is host to a whole troupe of tourists. In comparison to the village we were just staying in where I think we were the only native English speakers. It did great things for our Spanish though.

Yesterday Will and I left Iz to her shopping and went to look at some really old paintings at the Museo Del Prado, which is, apparently, a must for all culture vultures in Madrid. Madrid is full of culture...chockers. We saw a lot of paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, when people loved to paint pictures of Jesus it seems. Also there were a lot of paintings inspired by the mythological writings of the Roman poet Ovid, which we preferred.

Today we all went to the Caixa Forum, the centre of cinema and moving image in Madrid, and had a look at an exhibition celebrating the inspiration and genius of Georges Melies, an early master of the fantasy genre and cinematic tricks. We learnt about his inpsiration- some of which was phantasmorphia (I think), the precursor to the modern horror film and all about spooky drawings and scary noises. It was very cool, all the early "special effects" and tricks that were used to confound and amaze audiences. Actually far more amazing than the special effects we have today becauuse back then- in the late 19th century- it was all done by slight of hand and physical tricks. None of this computer business of today. Our introduction to Georges Melies was the film Hugo, so watch that for more in depth information of this cinematographer who started his creative life as a magician and later used these skills to amaze audiences with his films.

So we are being so totally cultured and educated. Totes. We still haven't managed to crack the 'legendary' night life of Madrid though- we all get a bit tired by 1am which is when everybody is just starting to head out. But it is our last night here tonight so we are going to give it our best shot. Wish us luck...

the artful dodgers.

We have come to our last two days in Asia (indefinitely) so I thought, in the spirit of all things Asian, I would share some of the scams we've fallen victim to, and also some of the ones we were savvy enough to avoid, in the last 5 months in and around the subcontinent. Perhaps for the benefit of others, or just for your amusement...

First, the gem scam. This is the scam where you stand to lose the most and it is prolific in big cities. We were in Colombo only 15 hours and we had two versions of this scam pulled on us. The first was a man sidling up to us in a dirty alleyway, holding out his hand containing some tissue paper and a shiny thing that Will and I both first thought was some type of drug (dingy alleyway and all that). After a second we realised it was a 'gem' and this man, who had not said anything, was trying to sell it to us. We looked at him bemused for a minute, shook our heads and walked off smiling at how clumsy this attempt to rob us was. This was an easy scam to dodge- I am doubtful even the stupidest tourist would ever buy a 'gem' on a whim, from a shifty guy, in an alleyway.
The second attempt was a little more polished. A tuk-tuk driver drove up to us as we sat at the fort, looking out at the darkening ocean, and said "Oh, my friends, I can take you to the gem convention/festival/whatever for only 50 rupees, no problem!" Had we said, "great, fantastic, just what we needed!" we would have been driven to a gem shop somewhere in the middle of nowhere, forced to look at fake and expensive 'jewels' for ages before we could somehow find a way to escape. Luckily we just laughed at him and said we knew he was full of shite. And this is what you must do, without fail, everytime you are approached in Asia by anybody connected to gems. Otherwise it will end with you wasting time at best or spending vast amounts of money on shiny glass at worst. There is no version of the scam where you spend money and come out on top- the best you can do is make the scammer feel like a right git.

And with that, I'll move onto tuk-tuk drivers. After all of our time in Asia these are still the people I would be least likely to trust ever. With anything, for anything, we avoid them at all costs. We would rather walk two kilometres with our backpacks on than get into a tuk-tuk. In fact, after 5 months I think we have used their services less than 20 times, which is quite a remarkable achievement on our part considering they are everywhere, they hound you like crazy and we have moved around a lot.
The reason we have no time for them is that they seem to have a complete aversion to honesty. They will routinely try to charge insane prices for tiny distances, they will try to confuse you when you are figuring out which bus to catch- say, for example, you are checking information in your trusty guidebook they will dance around you clicking, clapping, repeating 'yes! where you go! you need tuktuk!', just anything to get you into their vehicle before you find the bus you are looking for, they will lie and say there is no bus/train/whatever and the only way is tuk-tuk, they will tell you your hotel is too expensive and to come to theirs and at night, if all else fails, they will try to sell you drugs. They are basically distrust personified. Just say no and get on a bus!

Another scam that has been present all over Asia is the 'no money, I just need milk' trick. This is basically any person, mother with child, dodgy toothless man, teenage boy coming up and saying "I don't want any money but buy me milk for my child/sister/etc.". If you agree, as we did the first time this happened to us, they then lead you to a shop and point to powdered milk that is incredibly expensive (think $20-30- in Asia that is heaps) whereupon you have to buy it for them. After you have left they return the milk and get the cash (the shop owner, of course, gets a cut of the profit). A waiter at a restaurant tried this on us the other night (it was a local restaurant, it would never happen in a tourist one)...he spent all evening buttering us up, piling food on the table, being very chatty and giving us discounts, then told us he had to go to a spice market and we could come and see where locals shop. Right then we both knew that we were going to have to escape from him at some stage but for some reason, perhaps inexplicable politeness or a weird urge to see the scam through, we followed him. He, of course, bought nothing, and we, of course, bought nothing (much to the annoyance of the shop owner- he clearly thought his friend had brought a gold mine to his shop), then as we were walking to the bus stop he said "my friend, I don't need money but my daughter needs some milk..." And upon hearing the punchline we both burst into laughter, told him the game was up and left him to his embarrassment in the dark.

The other, lesser and more ubiqitous scams are your basic 'oh you have white skin? Well let me just up the price of this product or service by a few hundred rupees'; the "here let me help you, give me the money and I'll buy that brandy/beer/anything for you...oh no there was no change from that 1000 rupees you gave me" (hint: there was indeed a wad of change, only it is in the scoundrels pocket); there's your "surprise guide attack" whereupon you are brought into a conversation with a 'friendly' local who then leads you around to sights and then demands that you buy something from their shop or just plain give them money (it was to this tune that Will parted with $30 on his first day in Kathmandu). This was tried on us when we were walking up Ella Rock and came to a fork in the path. 'Luckily' for us there was an old man there who told us not to go the way we were, there were dangerous honeybees that way, we should go with him and he'd show us. We told him we had no money and didn't want a guide, he said he was just an old farmer, not guide, no problem...we decided to ignore him though, went our way and surprisingly saw not a hint of a honeybee. What we did see, at the top of the rock, was several other tourists, in the company of 'trusty' old farmers. Hmmm...
Again, this also happens with tuk-tuk drivers..."my friend, only 50 rupees for a tour of the sights" roughly translates to "hey sucker, give me 50 rupees and I'll drive you to a bunch of shops where you'll be bullied into paying too much for stuff you don't want".
And lastly there's the drunken maniacs who come and up grab you, spilling some nonsense about how they remember you from somewhere you've never been before.


We have fallen victim to most of these scams before, it's a bit like an initiation into Asia. But after 3 months in India I think we have become so cynically hardened to anyone who appears even a little untrustworthy that we can now travel through the continent safe in the knowledge that no fool is going to rob us of our dollars. Although, this may be inviting trouble...