Yed Vashem

6/9/2011

The last place we visited before heading North was Yed Vashem, the holocaust memorial. Almost as powerful as the first time I visited, and like then there just wasn't enough time to take it all in.

Most of the information is housed in this weird triangular prism.

Jerusalem quartered and layered.

6/4 - 6/10

I tried to get a bunch of representative shots of the old city we spent so much time wandering around. The Jewish quarter seems to have more new buildings up and has the massive square by the wall as a focal point. The Muslim quarter is vibrant, noisy and full of activity, with the off-limits to us golden dome as it's focus. The Christian quarter is completely deserted as apparently lots of rich Christians around the world have bought property there but rarely visit.

Jerusalem

6/2 - 6/10

Our first night in Jerusalem we spent in the Muslim quarter of the old city in a really grotty room in a really grotty hostel. Watching the owner painfully shuffling up the steps to show us the room was... painful. We had a beautiful view through wire mesh though.

Playing dead in the Dead Sea

6/2

Back to the Dead Sea. Not so weird this time, the sky and horizon seemed to be in the right place, the water wasn't completely still and there were lots of other people around. Still amazing though.

To the desert! Again! But in Israel!

5/30 - 6/1

Couchsurfing requests sent and replies received we set off to the bus station. Not a hundred metres out the door we're hailed by a guy with a van who's going to the border and will take us there for about the same price as the bus. Bargain!

Dahab and diving. Way too many pictures.

5/18 - 5/29

Overnight bus to Dahab, tickets sold to us by the surliest and most unpleasant man in Egypt.

Again we were the only foreigners getting off the bus at Dahab. Far from the only tourists in town though, I suppose most people came from Cairo or Israel. We got a lift into town from a tout, but the hotel he was touting was pretty grim so I decided to have a look around.

Luxor, not the one in Las Vegas

5/12 - 5/18

You know the first four entries returned for Google on Luxor are for Las Vegas? In fact, it's only thanks to Wikipedia, Wikitravel and touregypt.net that Luxor is on the first page at all.

To the desert!

5/9 - 5/11

We barely made it to the bus on time, running through the streets after we were given a new and distant departure point just as we were leaving the hotel.

Talkin' 'bout a revolution

5/6 - 5/9

Tahrir square was busy every night with lots of flag-waving marching groups, locals out taking pictures and earnest political students. The students I spoke to expected the 'silent' (ignorant) majority to elect an army general for president in 6 months time, and seemed pretty depressed about the prospect, considering army rule a major step back for Egypt and potential disaster. Another guy, a very angry man, bemoaned the average Egyptian's political ignorance and all the unthinking cries of 'freedom!' "These people don't even know the value of the Suez canal!" he cried. Most people there were just really happy and full of hope.

Giza look at Saqqara

Visiting the Giza pyramids can be a harrowing experience, if the tales of other travellers and guide books are to be believed. It all depends how much you value your money. If you try to go in on foot and haggle for everything you'll have a rough time of it. On the other hand, one Japanese guy we met told us how lucky he'd been that a local had showed him round, treated him to lunch and been really kind, only asking for about 800 Egyptian pounds. To put that in perspective, that's double what we paid for a driver for the whole day, all the entry tickets, a tour of the Giza pyramids on camels, the Saqqara pyramids on foot, lunch, dinner and an evening horseback ride on the plateau. He was happy at his good fortune though, that's the main thing.

Cairo, mosques and citadels

Walking through town we were again struck by how hospitable and welcoming Egyptians were. So many cries of "welcome!" everywhere we walked. Whenever we told people this later they inevitably said "oh, they only wanted to sell you..." or something similar. That really wasn't the case. Total strangers walking down the street or driving by in cars with absolutely no desire to sell us anything were just shouting greetings as they passed by. It was weird, but nice. Of course we did meet some really persistent touts, and some stall owners would even go as far as grabbing my arm and not letting go for quite some time, but as long as you took it all with a smile it never became wearing.

Egypt! Well, a bit of Cairo anyway.

4/29 - 5/3

The overnight bus was less than fun, but not as bad as we had anticipated. We were unceremoniously dumped on the outskirts of Delhi though - I should have confirmed the exact destination. An hour of laid-back haggling while we woke up and sipped on chai got us a reasonable taxi price, but we got taken to a real shit-hole of a hotel. Luckily I recognised the area so we paid off the driver and found ourselves a reasonable place to stay nearby.

Northern hill stations, Shimla, Manali and Vashisht

4/21 - 4/29

CC trains in India, wow. Five seats in a row, yes, but tea, water, food and newspapers all served with a smile and included in the ticket price. Way more 'civilised' than the air-conditioned sleeper trains we'd been on, though for my money I prefer to have the option of going horizontal. Arriving at Kalka at noon we transferred to the 'toy train', another single-gauge tiny train that seemed somewhat overloaded when nearly everyone from the spacious CC train piled on.

New Delhi and two varieties of entrepreneur

Our first impression of New Delhi was of a metro station in the middle of nowhere. A policeman under a street lamp had a thick cloud of mosquitoes circling over his bare head. We stumbled about in the dark until we found a stall with a phone we could use, called Sidd and waited for him to show up. He surprised us with long hair, smart clothes and a motorbike - quite different from the backpacker we met in Malaysia!

Agra, home of the Taj Mahal

Met two Brits on the train, Warren and Joel, and chatted about our travels, bad air and asthma, filth and food. Restless night with an incredibly noisy family who moved in after dark to occupy all the lower level bunks and floor space.

After finding a place to stay in Taj Ganj with wi-fi we had our first view of the Taj Mahal from a rooftop restaurant. Note the bed in the foreground.

Varanasi, hanging out with Japanese backpackers

4/4 - 4/14

Jalgaon to Varanasi, the place where all those pictures of the Ganges come from. We found our seats and sat down despite the hostile young madam next to us who tried to convince us we had the wrong carriage! Not the best start to a 22 hour train journey. Luckily I had spotted a Japanese name on the passenger list before boarding, so partly just to be sociable but also to avoid the icy atmosphere in our cabin we spent a lot of the trip chatting with Makoto and Miisha further down the carriage. They turned out to be fun and interesting people, so we stuck together as we made our way to 'Baba's' hostel in Varanasi.

Daulatabad citadel and Ajanta caves.

4/1 - 4/3

Daulatabad seems to be overlooked by guide books in favour of the caves nearby, so we almost didn't visit but I'm so glad we did.

A straight razor haircut and the Ellora caves.

3/28 - 3/31

Took a train to Sholapur, met a friendly Sikh who was surprised to see foreigners in such a place and enthusiastically invited us to Nanden temple. We took a bus to Aurangabad anyway, arriving around midnight to have various awful or awfully expensive hotel rooms aggressively pushed at us. We eventually haggled a fancy room down to less than half the asking price.

Golgumbaz's whispering gallery

3/25 - 3/27

On the train leaving Hospet we opted to sit on the luggage racks, which was much roomier and more comfortable than the crowded seats.

We only got as far as Gadag Junction, which was clearly a place where tourists don't usually end up. Gadag hotel was the only place to stay, but the staff there were so much nicer than we were used to. Towels, soap, toilet paper, a morning newspaper quietly slipped under the door, all luxuries we weren't used to receiving.

Hampi and towels.

Early bus to Bangalore, good food. Get two berths on a sleeper train to Hospet, where we met a Finnish dentist who stays 4 months a year and an Italian farmer who lives in Auroville. The Italian entertained us all with stories of his trip to Japan - his first bath in Kyoto's YMCA, travelling and busking as a musician.

From Hospet we took a bus to Hampi, where we walked to the ghat and waited for the ferry across the river. While we were waiting Lakshmi, the temple elephant, awkwardly walked by for her bath. Amazingly docile and obedient, despite the painful-looking scrubbing.

Mysore (bum), surprise reunion and the wonderfully named Sravanabelagola

3/13-3/19

Just say that out loud a few times "Sravanabelagola". Lovely in't it?

Anyway, Mysore, lots of people trying to sell you or scam you into buying incense, but in a really nice way, so it didn't bother us.

Hill stations in South India

3/2-3/12

We visited two of the major hill stations in Southern India, Kodaikanal and Ooty (Ootacamund). One of them was great, the other not so much.

Just getting away from Tiruchirapalli we had a great experience. Wandering around the bus station, unable to find the right bus, ticket counter, or anything of use, we got waved into the station manager's office and treated to tea and a long chat about marriage and romance.

Puducherry and Tiruchirapalli

2/27 - 3/1

Puducherry, or Pondicherry, is one of the few places aside from the big cities that actually sounds familiar to me, so I expected it to be either nice or too touristy. It wasn't either really, but seemed a bit expensive and without a lot to recommend it beyond some tasty bread, a strangely clean French quarter and a Ghandi statue that seemed popular with the kids.

Mamallapuram and around

From Tirupati we took a bus to Kanchipuram, and from there to Mamallapuram. The bus took over 3 hours to travel 60km and as it got dark the bus got more and more packed. About a dozen young guys were hanging from the front and back doors, dropping off and running at every stop and start to give their arms a rest. Amazing that no-one got injured or left behind as they jostled for space. The bus diverted due to some religious float thing blocking its usual route, and the potholed mud tracks it took didn't seem to be going the way the driver wanted.

Tirupati, India

The next leg of our journey was very civilised, as we didn't seem to be able to get beds on anything other than an air-conditioned sleeper carriage. The cleaning staff were really chatty and friendly in our mostly empty carriage. They warned us about the rats and arranged to pick up a bunch of huge biryani meals for everyone by calling ahead to a station in the evening.

Konark and Puri, India

We happened to arrive in Konark at the end of a day of free admission to the sun temple. Although it was getting too dark to take decent pictures we enjoyed fine views of the sexual sculptures lining the temple walls and of the temple itself, which is designed as if it were a giant chariot for the sun god Surya. The next day we viewed the temple from the perimeter wall to take a few more photos in daylight. Since we didn't get any graphic shots of sex and masturbation good enough to upload, I'm cheating and posting a couple of photos a friend sent us when she visited the other famously sexed-up temple in India.

India, reduced to a list of dates, names and thumb-tacks

Here's where we went:

~4 months, 3 countries, a lot of blog to catch up on.

The longer I leave it, the more intimidating it looks, so there's nothing for it but to start writing.

Tomorrow is Shauvot, some religious festival involving blintzes and Torah, so the museums we were planning to visit are closing early. This gives us plenty of time to write - which isn't work, scary fundamentalist black-garbed Jewish guys! Honest!

About a hundred of these guys were blocking the roads, shouting 'Shabbos'  in a menacing bass tone and even throwing water-bombs at cars trying to pass through. Would have liked to take better pictures but the whole scene was more than a little intimidating. They are all looking at a taxi that they chased off after it had to make a U-turn.

Kolkata impressions

First impressions, walking around Kolkata.

Thick traffic, all trying to move at different speeds. Pedestrians, rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, yellow taxis and decrepit mini-buses. The blaring of horns is a ceaseless cacophony. Any and all manueuvres, or just simple proximity to anyone else, requires a sustained blast to let everyone know of your presence. Most trucks and buses have "sound/horn" or similar painted on the back. Most of the cars don't have side mirrors and those few that do drive with them pressed flat into the car doors.

Kolkata and skin.

In Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and now India Hozumi has been getting effusive praise from women for her smooth, fair skin and youthful looks. From people serving us lunch, passing by, sitting nearby in trains, out of the blue and from the most unexpected people. Gaggles of young women asking to have their pictures taken next to her. Less welcome is the stares and attention from guys, which has really peaked in India.

From Battambang to India

Someone claimed that Cambodia has the world's 7th fastest growing economy, though given it's current state any growth at all would presumably result in a high ranking. We couldn't leave Cambodia having only seen the economic marvel of Siem Reap, so we opted to visit the quieter town of Battambang to provide some sort of comparison.

Siem Reap, Angkor and way too many pictures

Sealed roads all the way to and through Siem Reap. Huge hotels, restaurants, tourist-only souvenir markets, neon lights and bars. The difference between the pot-holed dirt roads and wooden shacks of ten years ago was shocking, even if I had read about it prior.

Bangkok and Ayutthaya

A long, uncomfortable, overnight train ride got us from Trang to Bangkok, where we promptly got lost looking for the river. Biggest landmark in the city, but the winding little streets of Bangkok's chinatown present a pretty solid wall of buildings between a traveller on foot and the riverbank. Once you find a pier though, the ferry service is easily the nicest way to get around. Cheap, refreshing and efficient.

Trang and Ko Mook, Thailand.

From Langkawi we took a ferry to Thailand, although it was more like a floating freezer with propellers. Air conditioning set to 'freeze' was a common theme throughout Malaysia, leading us to seek out cheap, battered old transport without air-con wherever possible.

Immigration was hassle-free, but they only gave us 13 days in the country, down from the usual 15. Getting anywhere from Satun proved to be more challenging.

Langkawi. Malaysia-lite

Langkawi experienced an economic boom after being declared a 'duty free' island. With the normal tax rate on beer seemingly being about 800% in Islamic Malaysia, that makes the island an appealing prospect for drinkers, smokers, or lovers of anything imported. It also makes the island an extremely popular destination, and correspondingly expensive to visit. You'd have to drink a lot to recoup the money required to get to and stay on the island.

Penang and the new year

We said farewell to Melaka as we packed Caleb's essential possessions into his car, and farewell to Caleb when he dropped us off at the Kuala Lumpur bus terminal.

My own experience and all the advice about buying tickets says to avoid touts, but after wandering around a dozen or so ticket counters looking for a bus to Georgetown, Penang and ignoring the persistant tout who was following us around we were finally told at one ticket counter to follow her in order to get the next departing bus.

A Melakan Christmas

Staying with Caleb was awesome. Not that it inspired awe, like a snow-capped Mount Fuji or a whale shark swimming overhead, just that I've been around Americans too long and I've started using the adjective for want of anything else between great and fantastic.

Kuala Lumpur to Melaka

We're still not used to using Couchsurfing for surfing rather than hosting, so after sending out a bunch of requests way too late we made our way into town. The bus terminal was poorly signposted and the tourist information was on a 2 hour plus lunch 'hour', but with the assistance of a friendly tout and an uncle who wanted to show off a baby we found a bus into town.