Nadia Gets Tribal - Aotearoa

Waterfalls n natures n stuffs

2012-02-06T00:10:00.000-08:00

So uhh... i drank a bunch of wine and have had a kindof big day climbing up nature stuffs. So overall - yesterday sucked the big one because we were meant to go beach camping but bad weather came in and we couldn't go. We went to the beach anyway and mum had a swim and i got caught in the rain.

Today we went to a quarry which was full of gardens and some waterfalls and beaches and more waterfalls and an orchard. They were all maximum extreme pretty natures.

A good day if not an awesome one. Here's some pictures.

Waitangi

2012-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Today we decided it was finally time to tackle the greatest challenge presented to us as Australians visiting New Zealand. Maree's driveway.

You see, in order to live in a fabulous treehouse with breathtaking view of harbour, ocean and forrest one must get up high and in order to do so. Maree and Ian have constructed the worlds most terrifying driveway. Complete with twists and hard pounding blind turns, this 500m long atrocity includes dizzying inclines that had the 4WD grasping for grip in 1st gear. But in order to make it to Waitungi - or anywhere in life ever - we were going to have to take the proverbial - if slightly literal - leap.

Maree lent us her trusty Subaru. (Pronounced round these parts as Soo-BAR-oo) we typed our destination into the GPS and i put on an adult diaper. We made it safely down the drive and before ya know it we were on our way to the Waitangi treaty grounds.

Now the Waitangi Treaty is in my opinion a grand thing. A thing that makes me like these kiwi birds more than most people in the world. Its a document that in words far more eloquant and official, says "Dear england, ner ner ne ner nerr you pissy girly pants with your shiny brass buckles can't beat us, can't have our land, but we'll let you come stay at our place so you don't look too bad infront of ya mums".

So we drove out there to give a respectfully belated, psychological 'high five' to the tribes of the Maori for doing what every other country in the world never had the hakas to do.

It was one hell of a windy road though and I must admit the (actually ficticious) adult diaper was handy. Gearing up and down like a boss we flung that soobs around those moutainous corners at 100k's per h and boy was it fun! Also, I got to drive the whole lot as mumsy doesn't actually know how to drive a manual. A skill i only actually picked up about 12 months ago.

So yeh. We went there. It was pretty. We saw a nicely contrived yet still thoroughly entertaining 'cultural show'. Hung out in a cafe that had eels in its pond. Yeh... Eels. blergh. and on the way home we went to a cave that had glow worms in it which was freeekin ace and went for a bush walk through some really nice trees n stuff. The cave had eels too. really freeking big ones. Incidently glow worms are really cool and the glowy bit is essentially fluorescent poop. Falling stars in a glow worms cave means lots of closed mouths and a quiet little cave hike.

Ok thats it for now. tomorrow we're going to the beach and will probably do some more stuff and I'll tell you about that then!

here's some piccies:

sorry no glow worms. they are light sensitive and I didn't wanna give them pink eye.

Aotearoa - The Begining

2012-02-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well I apologise frends, a packed schedule and limited internet availability meant my burning man odyssey never made it to the www. However, I've been stationary in my home city of Perth for 5 whole months working and making on eo fthose career thingies the other kids have and prepping myself for a little 2 week jaunt into the land of the long white cloud Aotearoa or New Zealand.

I've been here for 2 days. having departed Perth on the good ol' red eye flight we hit Sydney at the lovely time of 6am Thusrday morning. After dragging our sad butts about the airport for a while we found a nice quiet bit of carpet and as I am finding is becomming a travel tradition, curled up on the airport floor with a shirt on my head and had a snoozington. 2 hours later we awoke bleary eyed to the amusment of the Sydney airport staff who were arriving for work.

A few more hours were wiled away and eventually we made it to check in onto an Aerolinas Argetinas flight to NZ. Now, my delightful mummy booked these flights and didn't really do her research so was not to know that Aerolinas Argentinas is South Americas most budget airline, and has a rather sturdy reputation for letting their planes fall abruptly out of the sky. Also, we found ourselves seated next to not one but two new born babies. Ohh it wasn't looking good for the likes of us. But would you believe it? That delightful plane of ours stayed airbourne for all the time it was planned to and those babies chuckled and gurgled hapilly the entire peaceful way! The gods of travel had smiled upon us and our journey was christened with a grand beggining. We had touched down in Aukland and our friend Maree was there to meet us.

Maree met my mummy in Thusrday Island and these two adventurous nursing gals had bunked down together during the Queensland floods last year. Thus forming a life-long bond of friendship that included the delightful perk of free-visiting accomodation - which even extended to close family such as daughters. So Maree whisked us up to her super groovy home designed and built tree house in Whangarei about 2.5 hours drive north of Aukland.

We promptly drank a cuppa ate some diviiine pecan pie and passed out.

the next day Maree and her husband ian took off to work and mummy and I entertained grand plans of exploring the sights of Whangarei. Infact what we did was lounge about in a couple of hammocks for the better part of the day reading our books and marvelling at the views. Maree came home and we went exploring on foot for a bit before tramping out to the local pub for some grub.

Quick update

2011-08-24T23:18:00.001-07:00

This is just a quick post so you all know I'm alive and well. We are having far tooo much fun and I am completely shattered. You will have to hold on for more stories. Sorry! ZzZzzzzzZ

T-minus 1 and counting...

2011-08-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

With just 1 more sleep till lift off things are getting very twitchy in the toes!

But first lets look back a little on the journey thats lead up to this point.

It started on Xmas night 2010. I was at a friends house after yet another exhausting 40 degree Christmas filled with mixed emotion and over consumption and I'll admit I was miserable as all hell.

I'd just moved back to Perth from 10 glorious months living alone in Broome. I was broke, really broke, living in my dads spare bedroom on a single i didnt fi,t in working as a data entry temp when i could get work, and my dreams of becomming a fashionista enrepenour had taken a turn for the complete fail.

Enter Helen.

Helen and I have known eachother since our nerafious meeting one hungover saturday morning back in 2001. We've been good friends all that time but we've never been back-pocket-buds. Helen was feeling a bit dreary to on account of a story thats not mine to tell. And as you do - with a good friend - we got to talking about ways the world could be a better place if everyone wasn't just a bunch of jerks. And as we together day dreamed about a utopian world where money didn't matter and your job and car were not the difining factor in your identity; (Areas in which Helen and I both were failing badly), we both touched upon the festival of Burning Man. We'd heard about it a bunch of times from wide-eyed associates who espounged ideals of a world of art, expression and community. A place where you could be exactly as strange as you wanted to be without having to show photos of your kids and discuss mortgage prices.

And a bottle or two of champagne later we'd made a commitment. We'd go to the 2011 Burning Man Festival in Nevada. We'd get ourselves jobs and get our shit together. We'd embrace our inner wierdo for the next 8 months and psychicly slap any jerk who thought they could hold us back from reaching our utopia.

And that we did. We've spent months improving our careers so we could afford this extravagant little expidition in such a short turn around. And we've spent many a weekend sampling our BM costumes and wistfully streaming Burning Man Radio and California dreamin' through the rainy winter months.

We've put together a killer itinerary with the support of our beloved American compadre Tim who will be meeting us when we step off in LA. And tomorrow... tomorrow we take off - tutu's packed - in search of a better world.

First stop Aukland.

6 sleeps till lift off!

2011-08-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

This is just a quickie post to get this little baby up and running again. Above you'll see the map of the Californian coast with some points marked out. Those are the travel checpoints for myself and the devine Miss Helen on our Road Trip extravaganza of America.

Its late at night now and its taken me hours to redesign this new bloggie so I'm off on some z's but stay tuned kiddies! Nadia's getting Tribal again!

I explain more about this poor fella later:

Getting it going again...

2010-04-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

So my last post could easily be understood as the 4am ramblings of a depressed travel-aholic who had subscribed to following the suggestions of influencial mature types hustling their 'security' focused idologies.

Its OK though. I'm back in the game.

Watch this space...

Party Town

2009-10-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

Well I'm in GOa,. I arrived here a few days ago and hung out with great UK couple who I met in the North. They took off a few days ago for Nepal and since then I have been wondering solo around the town. Staying in Calangute (the main tourist section) has been interesting. Its about 2 weeks before the tourist season kicks off so the town is pretty dead. I spent a night alone in my hotel room reading, not feeling safe to explore alone at night. The next night i went down to the hotel bar called "the Log Cabin' just for a change of scenery.

there I met Glenn the barman, his friend Riss the Indian boy from the English style restaurant next door called "The Chippy" and a taxi driver called Umesh who goes by the nickname UK. The three boys were terribly upset that I would be all alone and have no plans for my evenings in Goa their party town. And so Umesh took me out to a place called Bardays to sing kareoke. There I met lots of locals who were still relaxing together before the season started.

Goa seems to have a load of english people living here. They work in England 6 months of the year and here 6 months and live a pretty good life. I met a gay couple who are the owners of the famous Paradise Nightclub a gay party goers mecca and a few others who own bars, cafe's and restaurats. I had a ball singing Kareoke with them including dancing the night away with a gorgeous 6 year old girl who was so excited to have someone new and fun to play with. We stayed till stumps and I promised to meet them again soon before I left.

Yeterday i went to the Mapusa (pron Mapsa) markets to do some exploring/shopping. I WISH i had taken my camera because it was really extremilly interesting and I managed to while away quite a few hours (and dollars) there.

In the afternoon i met with a guy called Max who was organising the final adjustments on some summer dresses I'd had tailored in town and then spent the afetrnoon chillaxing and sharing yarns with Glenn over the downstairs bar.

Ramesh came to pick me up at 8 and we went out to a place called St Anthoy's, a beach front bar and restaurant. Much to my surprise Ramesh had arranged for a romanticly candle lit private table in a closed off section of the bar. It was nice to be dotted over but not long into the meal Ramesh was pouring out his heart as the lonely bachelor in a town of love and I realised this was a well rehearshed tactic. Ramesh told me all about this fabulous beach about 2 hours drive out of town and asked me if I wanted to go visit there the next day. On further enquirey I found that he wanted me to stay in a beach shack and, as it would be too far to go and come back, he too would need somewhere today... Perhaps he could stay with me in my room...?

The penny dropped and although the food was great the night lost its flavour. We went to a kareoke bar and met up with more locals for a sing along but by 11pm I wanted to go home and plans to spend the day together the next day were cancelled.

Today I changed hotels to a place called the Bougainvillia Hotel in Anjuna (the famous hippy part of town) and am tossing up weather to hold fast on my promise to meet those first night locals at St Anthony's for Jeffs birthday party and you guessed it... more Kareoke or to stay in my nice hotel, play a game of pool and watch TV alone...

We shall see....

As it is, tomorrow Im gonna hire a motorbike taxi and explore the northern beaches for the day. Still loads of fun to be had!

Spices Plantation and Heffalumps in Goa

2009-10-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

Me and my good friend Babu

Buffalow soldier?

This is a distillary for making cashew based alcohol called fenni . Tastes like pure rocket fuel if you ask me!

I'm in Goa!

2009-10-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Goa yesterday after a gruelling 2am to 2pm journey from Chennai. After getting off the plane I waiting, as is usual, for my luggage. I became frustrated after a while thinking "gee I bet mines going to be the very last one through" but alas, as it so turned out, mine did not arrive at all!

After chatting with the airport staff and a few frantic walkie talkie conversations it turned out that my luggage had arrived safely in.... Bombay... DOH!

They told me they would sort it out and I did my best to be relaxed and jovial about the whole thing. So far I've learned in my travels that most people will go out of their way to help someone who is kind to them when they stuff things up.

So I went into Goa, found my hotel and checked in. I've met up with some great friends I met in the North of India and we went out for dinner. When we got back to my hotel, there was my bag! In the lobby! they had got it onto the very next flight to Goa and then couriered it for me. How sweet!

I've changed to a different hotel today called Hotel Crossroads on Calendute the main strip of Goa. Its only 700Rs (around $18AUD) a night which is a bargain for Goa and although fairly basic has everything i need including lovely clean sheets on a DOUBLE BED!!! The beaches here are crap despite all hype and I think I'll avoid them and take the next few days to go elephant riding, d a bit of shopping and exploring in other ways.

I'm happy and feeling safe and confident. I'm really looking forward to seeing my loved ones when I get home but am also really relaxed and happy here.

Goodbye to a friend

2009-10-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

Together we have walked streets in 8 countries and countless cities. We have waded through jungle wet marshes, climbed to the highest peak of mountains. We've sweated it out in the desert and shivered in blizzards and snow. We've been through a lot together, but alas it is time to wave a final farewell to my beloved and favourite pair of travelling pants! *tear*

Vipassana 10 day Meditation Course

2009-10-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

"But what do you want?" asked Loren my oldest and dearest friend as we sat in her courtyard supping on a painfully strong spiced spirit drink she had picked up from some monastry in Southern Mongolia. "What I want... is to be without want" I said smiling internally at having made a profound yet very true, statement in the presence of someone I deem infinately more atriculate than myself. I took a sip from my glass, grimaced, shivered and sighed. There it was. The dream for my future in one sentance.

I had just told Loren that I intended to quit my stable, rewading and interesting job the following day to go to India. She, as a good friend does, had invited me around to get ridiculously drunk and explain my sudden and unprecendented reallocation of priorities.

And here I find myself. I've been in India for 5 or so weeks and more importantly I've spent the last 10 days observing the complete silence and lifestyle of a Vipassana monk in an ashram called Dhamma Setu just 80kms outside of Chennai in India's South.

I starated to write a lengthy account of my time in Dhamma Setu in this blog space but as I got into it I realised, that for the most part it would bore the the pants off you (and not in the good way). Below are some anechdotes from my time there. Its still pretty long but I did my best :o)

The South Indian Shuffle

This is the unique toes out, knees out, lurching, zombie-like stumble of the meditator who has been sitting cross legged for 2 hours without pause. Chorused by the grinds, clicks and pops of audibly enraged joints this activty is best performed with ones fist firmly planted in support of what appears to be a now perminently hunched spine.

Papaya Day

For 4 days our diet remained identical. A gluey flavour de-riched semolina mush, overcooked rice and vegitable curry-like mush for breakfast and lunch and a popcorn like substance with a banana for dinner. On the 5th day the evening meal contained a slice of papaya. Now, I've never really been a banner waiver for papaya. To me its always been a fruit that occasionally comes in 'tropical' flavoured things and used to be free when I worked at a fruit and veg shop when I was a uni student in NSW. But after 4 days of sensory deprivation that papaya was a source of unrivalled joy. I trembled with delight as the sticky juices flowed between my fingers and down my palm. When that sweet frangraced flesh hit my mouth. Such delight! Such an ecstacy of sensation. Ahh papaya day. What a day!

The Conviction of Colin McCurley

Vipassana meditation aims to focus the mind on the natural vibrations of the body. You find that the body has stored many experiences and memories in a phsical way and has learned predetermined ways (though past experience) to react to situations in life. Often one stores a 'Sankara" which is a craving or aversion experienced in the past which the body remembers and continues to react to when new situations arise in life. Sensory deprivation and continuous focus enables one to become in tune with these vibrations of the body. A simple example might be, if someone is bitten by a dog in childhood one can develop a sankara or aversion to dogs and so may become frightened and flinch when they hear a dog bark or panic when one comes towards them even if its not vicious. These Sankaras influence our decisions and reactions and essentially cause us mysery at a core level. Vipassana gives you an avenue to unlock th truth of these sankaras and through meditative control and by reeducating the body's reaction one can stop a sankara from cycling out of control IE After years of the minor aversion to dogs compounding, the person can no longer leave the house and is panic stricken at the thought of going outside or becomes hyseterical when walking past a park.

When you meditate you can use what is called a meditation 'cell' which is a toilet room sized room with white walls where you sit and are not distracted in any way. This should help one focus the mind. When i stepped into my cell sat down and closed my eyes a panic hit me. "Prisoners belong in cells. murderers and rapists belong in cells!" and although I knew there was no lock on the door and my exit was not barred I found myself a sobing whimpering mess within a few minutes and even cried out for my "daddy".

I was shocked by my own reaction having even worked in a prison a few years back i had no idea why i would panic like this. The next day when meditating my mind was racked by a violent rape scene and again I was shocked. I had never been raped nor had i ever witnessed a rape! What was this memory? And then through further meditation the realisation hit me The Conviction of Colin McCurley.

I was 20 years old and worked an evening shift at a market research company in Northbridge. I shared an office with a 40 something year old guy who was a delight to work with and would drive me home after work 3 nights a week to save me from the dangers of catching a train alone at night as it was "on his way anyway".

One day Colin didn't show up for work, that day became a week and after 3 weeks my boss called me into his office. My boss showed me a newspaper article from The West Australian. Colin McCurley had been convicted and sentaced to 8 years in prison. His crime; He had kept a woman drugged and bound in a rented apartment in Fremantle. The woman was 20 years old with long dark hair. She had been held hostage for 2 months. The time entire time in which Colin had been driving me home from work. He had been working and talking and building a friendship with me, dropping me off at home and then going to the apartment and raping her. I ran to the staff room and threw up everywhere.

At that time, I had been sleeping with Clinton for a year and he was still promising me he would break up with his girlfriend 'when the time is right'. I had just returned from a trip around Japan with my mentaly unwell brother and my very annoying house mate Pete was living on our couch and refusing to go to work to avoid paying maintenence for his 2 year old son whlst planning a European tour with his band. The ex boyfriend, my one true love had left me for another woman. It broke me.

I had pinpointed the one moment in my life when I gave up on men. At that point and through a series of later circumstances I had come to see all men as flawed, weak and gave up on the idea of "a nice guy". Like when you stop beleiving in Santa Claus. Nice guys had become a myth and all of them were corrupt on the inside. 5 years work in women's health had further compounded this and as I continued to meditate so many storys came to my mind. An old boss, an upstanding Christian citizen who threw himself off a highrise when his wife left him because of his addiction to prostitutes the guy who told me I was the most beautiful, amazing woman he'd ever met and then had sex with my friend the next night. The guy who slit his wrists in a park after telling me he had feeling for me and then abused me when I made him seek psychiatric help. My life had become a story influenced by one male fuck wit after another.

This Sankara was so deeply and profoundly established in me that I had come to a point in my life where I had begin to both hate all men and pine for the myth of the 'nice guy' so much that my whole life is a cycling mess of conflicting fears. I worked for days on this. Unravelling my fears, diescting my decisions one after another the choices I had made in life, the men I brought into my life, the constructs of so many acts I had carried out since had been influenced by the one shattering act of Colin McCurley and my own reaction to this man's hideous crime.

The truth of my own false knowledge. The power of my own compounded mysery. The healing, soothing and calming of my body that could occur when this truth was realised. Thus was my liberation through Vipassana.

The glory of love.
The 10 days was gruelling, hard continuous work that constantly toyed in the rhelms of . Day 4 I was meditating (of course) focusing my mind to hone in on my personal sadness, I'd been through a lot that day and somehow my instincts kicked in with some self soothing. These are some are the sensory experiences that popped into my mind:

The glory, as stunning as a sunrise, that can be seen in Loren's eyes when her pixy-like face fills with a full smile. That smile says "Mischief is about to occur and its going to be FANTASTIC!"

The incredible beauty in Jay's face when she is dancing. As her flushed face moves amongst a tangle of hair her whole essence seems to embody freedom.

The complete, satisfying and comforting smell of my mums hair when she gives me a really squeesy hug.

Tenille's deliciously devlish laugh that without words in any language tells an entire story of joy.

Sharng a glass of good red wine over a relaxed conversation on a cool summer's evening with Lisa.

The way my grandad lifts his feet off the floor and rubs his hands together before telling a great story or joke and the way my grandma rests her hand on his shoulder and smiles at me when I'm drinking a cup of tea.

The way my dad drinks tea through a straw and listens intently and seriously to everything I have to say without a trace of judgement.

The way Nathan assumes complete control of my kitchen when he comes around for dinner and unveils the ingredients of what he intends to cook in tupperware containers with performance-like enthusiasm.

The chorus of laughter my friends make when they all sit around eating and drinking together. The way ethusiastic dancing and singing always sporadicly errupts.

The way Kieran and Callum's toothy, eyes shut, rosy cheeked smile is exactly the same and appears at exactly the same time.

The scotch and honey sound of barry's husky smooth singing voice when he sings Jay's favourite lullabye. "Hush-a-bye, lullabye, time to go to sleep now my baby"

Madeleine laugh. Madeleine's wonderfuly mad and heart warming laugh!

These are just a few and they are not in any particular order. These are treasures at my core which I cherish and it appears, are able to pick me up from the bottom, dust me off and throw me back onto the dance floor of life.

In Summary

The release of this anger and fear leaves me feeling lighter and freer than ever. Not that I now believe that all men are wonderful, simply I hope to be able to see the reality of individuals and hope to have the power to better control my choices and actions in future. I feel I can face, without fear, the possibility of working in an environment with both men and women, a limitation that has seen me avoiding my potential for sometime. This, I believe made the aching joints from 12 hours a day sitting cross legged, the misery of loneliness and the unending boredom of bland food and meal times spent alone worthwhile. Lets hope its worked!

Last you'll hear from me for a while

2009-09-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

OK so in under 2 hours I am going to get into a cab and go to an ashram in the country side outside of chennai to observe complete noble silence and do nothing but meditate for the next 10 days. I am scared shitless. How fascinating that for a person who is at her core, exceptionally lazyy, the thought of doing nothing for 10 days terrifies me. I think its the understanding that I might lose my mind. Or the fear that I might lose some of who I am. I quite like who am and am less than inclined to change that. Yet Iwas drawn to this country to do this thing. I know it. I knew it from the first time i heard about it that I was going to do it, and it was going to change me. Theres a sense of destiny in me today that has my stomache churning with trepidation. Its like today is the last day of something. Like Tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of my life. And then at the same time, the practical, pragmatic me is saying 'dont be such a silly bugger its just a few days and it'll be over before you know it."

I guess I just dont know and the unknowing is both as breathtakingly terrifying as it is incredibly liberating and soul cleansing. I dont know what will happen, I dont know what will change, but something big is happening in my life and I am running at it full speed ahead.

Wish me luck. Think of me. I will think of you. I'll see you on the other side.

Physical adventure over - Spiritual Journey Begins

2009-09-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

If you look to your right you'll see a little map called "India Phase 1" believe it or not, I have now been to all of those places and have completed phase one of my travels here. I'm in Chennai in South India. I arrived here day before yesterday after saying goodbye o the Intrepid Group and my good friend Lisa in Kolkuta/Calcutta.

i was really sick when i left Calcutta, had this horrible cold sweating going on, was unable to hold down food and was experiencing this strange tingling feeling which made me feel like I was trapped in the middle of a cold shiver. Thanks to Ikshwarku my amazing North India tour guide, I have checked into a basic yet reasonably good hotel room with aircon and a TV and slept for the last 2 days.

I'm feeling considerably better today, but still can't be bothered going exploring or adventuring. I think i'm calling a time out and am happy with waiting 2 hours for my lousy room service meals, watching Charlies Angels on tv and reading my book in the comfort of my single (slightly odd smelling) hotel bed.

Tomorrow I go on the next phase of my joruney. I am scheduled to go to an ashram called Dhamma Setu just outside of Chennai for 10 days of silent meditation.

Its a rigerous schedule whch involves more than 12 hours of meditation per day (starting at 4am) and requires you to keep complete 'noble silence; meaning I will not be able to communicate with anyone at all for the next 10 days.

From their website:
Vipassana is one of India's most ancient meditation techniques. Long lost to humanity, it was rediscovered by Gotama the Buddha more than 2500 years ago. The word Vipassana means seeing things as they really are. It is the process of self-purification by self-observation. One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind. With a sharpened awareness one proceeds to observe the changing nature of body and mind and experiences the universal truths of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. This truth-realization by direct experience is the process of purification.

For safety sake below is all the contact information for the centre. In case of emergency contact the management there and they will contact me.
The Centre
Vipassana Meditation Centre,'Dhamma Setu',533 Pazhanthandalam Road,Thirumudivakkam,(Via Thiruneermalai),Chennai - 600 044.INDIA.
Telephone (Landline): +91-44-24780953, +91-44-24783311, +91-44-64504142
Telephone (Mobile): +91-9444021622 (Mr. Vinayak)
E-mail: info@setu.dhamma.org
City Office
Meridian Apparels Limited,Meridian House, 121/3 T.T.K. Road,Manickam Avenue, Chennai - 600 018. INDIA.
Telephone (Landline): +91-44-24994646, +91-44-42111000
Fax: +91-44-24994477, +91-44-42111777

After the emditation I plan to fly to Goa for the last 10 days of my trip to meet up wth some great friends I have met along the way and perhaps do a PADI dive course or something while I'm there. I havn't booked anything because I'm not sure how I will feel after all of that meditative 'purification' but I figre after 10 days of silence I will want to speak to some people.

I also seem to have found a fan in Pushkar called Kuldeep Singh (he was the incredibly handsome owner of the hotel I stayed in) who has sent me many emails in teh last few days and is keen for me to return to visit him before I leave India. You never know...

Catching an overnight train

2009-09-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

You wait at the train station sitting on your pack and fanning yourself with anything you have, its hot, REALLY hot and your surrounded by the entire spectrum of Indian life. There are people laying everywhere asleep on the ground. Some are homeless people and childen and some have been waiting so long for delayed trains they have fallen asleep. Theres at least one guy that you think is probably dead, but after an hour or so you see him twitch and feel some relief. There are families huddled together and business men proudly displaying their briefcases as if to say 'i am above these lowlives, I have a job that requires a briefcase". There are men walking around with enormous trays of apples and/or cucumbers balanced on their heads. (I'm talking a good 10kg's here) and every 10 seconds an anouncement comes over the PA in Hindi and then garbled Hinglish and you know no one can understand either. There are stray dogs and pidgeons wondering around and policemen (transit cops?) with big wooden sticks and rifles looking menacing in every corner. Street children pester you constantly for money and you're stuck with them because your trains going to be at least another 2 hours. Eventually you give the kids your bottle of water and bag of chips and you watch them sit down in a circle together as the oldest girl (around age 8) distributes them democratically. The youngest one (around age 2) gets to play with the chip bag afterwards like a tresured toy. You set off for a walk around the platform and stretch your legs. On the way you see a crippled man walking on all fours in a strange limping way and his legs are completely wasted. You see a mother crouched by the plaform edge in her sari, washing her naked baby boy in a bottle of water. Your artfully dodge the purtid glob of bright red bettle leaf that an old man spits in your direction. You're taking it all in until a drop of sweat drips into your right eye and you cant see anything for the next 10 minutes. You find a group of people huddled underneith a working fan and decide its worth it to get up close and personal and so you join them in fan worship the only unilateral religion in India. Inevitably a conversation starts,
"Madam wheruu frrrrom?"
I'm from Australia
"how many India?"
I,ve been here for 3 weeks but will stay for 2 months total
"two months not very plenty"
I know but I've only got so much money and travel is quite expensive
"You student?"
"No I'm not a student. I'm a circus performer. What is your job?"
"huh?"
"what do you do for work?"
"huh?"
what is your occupation?"
"ohh I am student. Business management. Study English 2 years. I practice with you"

By this time a good 20 people are staring at you in amazement. 2 people are translating your highly in depth conversation to the crowd and another is fighting over what you just said with his grandmother who casually smacks him arcross the back of the head to make her point.

An announcement comes over the PA that suggests that your train will be arriving shortly, but on a totally different platform, so you pheft on your pack again, sling your handbag over your shoulder and attach your day pack to your chest, wave goodbye to your new found friend who is asking you o visit his family's store next time your in town and waddle like a turtle up what seems like an enormous staircase.

Finally your train arrives and you see with dismay your carriage was at the front of the train and you are in the middle of the platform. You waddle at jogging speed with your extra 20kgs of luggage strapped to your body towards your carriage, hoping that your thongs dont give way on the slippery and uneven surface. You heft yourself into your carriage and are immediately rewarded with the cool slap of airconditioning running at full. You made it! Your on the train!

Its a 'first class' sleeper cabin which means there are three bunks one ontop of eachother and you are required to remain in yours for the next 13 hours. You slide your pack under the seat and secure it to the wall of the train using a metal chain and a padlock. This is so, if you fall asleep, its still there when you wake up. You fart about trying to make up your bed which is about 2 foot wide by 5 foot long and heft yourself up into your bunk. Your bed is reasonable and teh sheets are cleanish, you've rationed your water out so as to avoid using the toilets as much as possible in the next 13 hours. You've worked out that the best way to stop people staring at you the giant freakish kind-of indianish creature, for the whole trip is to rig up your scarf like a privacy screen from the top bunk and you settle in with your packet of chips, chocolate cream biscuits and and book and try not to think about the cockroaches as the train rocks your gently to sleep.

Getting busy God style.

2009-09-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

Dear me, in all that talk of myself, I forgot to tell a story!

Just before I get into it, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has sent me emails. I havn't always had time to reply to you individualy but need you to understand that these emails are greatly appreciated treasures which I cherish. Thank you for those who are following me and thank you for those whom have helped me stay in touch with home. I love and miss you all.

Now heres that story I promised!

The great God Shiva went away to meditate for 100 years. (Shiva was a bit of a thinker who enjoyed his funky green smoke and abstract philiosophical pondering) Parvati, Shiva's wife waited patiently his him for all of the 100 years and when he returned home to her welcomed him with great love. To show his gratitude and passion for his devoted wife Shiva took Partvati in his arms and made love to her.

Afterwards Parvati was so entranced by her wonderful experiences she was desperate to share her stories with someone. She saw a Sage on earth and tried to tell him her story of passion, but she was a Godess and so could not communicate in the language of mankind. Instead a beautiful lotus flower fell from her mouth onto the Sage.

The Sage took the flower and meditated on it for many days, until eventually falling into a trance and recording the words and images of Partvati and Shivas wonderous couplings.

Thus was documented the Karma Sutra.

Decisions!

2009-09-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

A few things have been bothering me since I decided to leave for India (and probably before as well)

1. Will I ever fall in love again?
2. Will I ever have a family of my own?
3. Should I stay in Perth?
4. What should I do with my life?
5. What are my priorities?

Interestingly I have answers for all of these questions now. How delightful.

The plan as it eists currently in my mind:
The love and family stuff is on its way but I have a few years in between (according to my fortune teller) This time of my life is finally about me and what I want which is why it has been so hard for me to figure out. I need not focus any energy on finding family and love, it will come to me in a few years, for now its time to fulfill my dreams and be the explorer I am at heart.

So I will return to Australia early (15th Oct) for Stefan and Kylie's wedding, get an easy travellers/summer job and save some money whilst applying for my Brittish Ancestory Visa. Once I have my Visa and the coldest nasty part of Euro winter is over, head to Ireland to stay with Milo in Cork. Get a job and work there for a few months, travelling to other European cities as I please.

Ta daaa! Clarity. At last!

The grandeur of eternal love and the river of a living Godess

2009-09-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Maharaja Shar jahan had three wives, but the one he loved most was his third wife Mumtaz Mahal who he enjoyed many years with. sadly this love story turned tragedy when she passed away at a young age. Shar Jahan was so profoundly bereft at the loss of his beloved that he set about building the greatest building known to mankind in which to house her ashes. The building would be built on the rivers edge of pure white marble and his own ashes would be stored in one across the river in pure black so they may look at eachother for all of eternity and the world might remember the meaning of true love. Thus was built the Taj mahal where Mumtaz mahal's ashes lie to this day. Sadly jahan was incarcerated by his son before work could begin on the black taj and so, mumtaz Mahal sits and stares for all eternity across the river waiting for her true love. Locked in an eternity of hopeful waiting.

The feeling when you approach this building for the first time is spellbinding. Who would think that anyone could sit and stare at a building for hours upon hours? But the Taj Mahal is enchanting and you feel a profound sense of calm and love when you are gazing at it. Its not cliche because everyone feels it. It is an experience that is unique and powerful to say the least. It is worth the trip to india for sure.

We have discovered two excellent travel schemes:

No 1. I look Inidian and so, if I dress and act appropriately I can get into tourist attractions for local prices! (this equates to ALOT of money ie at the Taj mahal entry for tourists cost 750 Rupees around $20AUD and costs 20 rupees fopr locals around 50cAUD!!)

No 2. Its best to stay at cheap hotels and then go relax and swim in the pools at posh hotels saving loads of money and giving the impression you are not a budget traveller at all!

Varanassi and the River Ganges

It is told that many years ago a King was walking through the land and stumbled across a sage. The great Sage had been meditating for many years and the King disturbed hs concentration and awoke him from his trance. So enraged was the Sage that he cast a curse upon the king. All of his family, all 60 000 relatives would turn to ash. And so it happened.

Deeply saddened by the loss of his entire family the king prayed to the Godess Ganga to cleanse the land of the ashes of his family and take them away to nirvana. But Ganga could not come down unaided for her mighty power would flood the world and destroy all mankind so the god Shiva assisted her. Ganga poured down from the heavens onto the forhead of Shiva who sent the water forth in a mighty river down the mountains. This river washed away the ashes of all the Kings family and took them to Mocksha (nirvana) where they would remain in eternal bliss.

The Ganges river is worshiped by Hindus as a living Goddess. To bathe in the water is a great honour and to drink the water is a great curative of ills. Many people make the pilgramage to the Ganges to make it the final resting place of their ashes and the fires burn day and nght on her banks.

We arrived here yesterday on overnight train from Agra and are very concious of the energy and power of this, the oldest inhabited city in the world.

We set out at 5.30am to watch the stubnning sunrise this morning:

Today we had our fortunes told by a man who knew so incredibly much about me I cannot dispute his knowledge. He sent my mind to rest about my hopes of family and chuildren and gave me the same answer as the strange man who unsolicited told me about my destiny many days ago in Udaipur.

Now Lisa and i are off to colect our sari's we chose yesterday and blouses we had made up to match.

I love India and despite my stomache ache, frequent toilet visits and constant dehydration, I am so glad I am here.

The day begins

2009-09-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

Waking up in Pushkar at the crack of dawn. Your bed is a foot too short so your back is stiff, your hips hurt from lying on your side on a bed as soft as a brick. You blink several times before yu realise you have had the fan on full ball all night to keep you slightly cool so your eyes are stuck together and your mouth tastes like you've tounge kissed a puppy after its eaten some garbage. Your roomie is up and about fumbling through her pack and you kow you have 25 minutes before you need to be at the bus station. You head into the bathroom and splash your face in tepid water doing your best to remember not to rinse out your foul tasting mouth with the local water. After some fumbling you find your toothbrush (which now tastes like shampoo from being in the bottom of your toiletries bag) and a bottle of water to clean your teeth. You have a quick "shower" - which means you turn the cold tap on full ball to recieve a pitiful trickle of water down your back and decide to fill up a bucket from the tap and just pour it over your head. The entire bathroom is now flooded as the shower is just a tap on the bathroom wall and there is no recess to catch the water. You cautiously walk over to your towel (noting with frustration that you have absent mindedly soaked the toilet roll on the floor next to the loo) and attempt to dry the shower water off you. You experience a brief moment of bliss. You are clean for 2.5 seconds before it is rapidly replaced by sweat. You trundle back into the bedroom, no longer caring about modesty- the towels are too small to cover your breasts and groin at the same time and fumble through your pack to find some clean underwear enjoying the fan on your bare skin. You dress and expertly roll, fold and tuck all your belongings into your backpack and zip it up. You then realise you have forgot your toiletries and money/passport belt. Undress, put on passport belt and redress. Unlok your pack, slide around the bathroom collecting toiletries and repack and lock your bag. You pick up the two remaining one litre bottles of water in your room and drink them. Put your pack on your back and walk down 4 flights of stairs to reception to pay your bill, careful not to fall down the stairs in your slippery thongs and your heavy backpack.

After the usual rigmerol of paying your bill which is inevitably incorrect and no one ever has the right change, you trudge out to the front of the hotel and you hit it. India. Its hot. It smells like incense fresh cow shit, garbage, flowers and sand. You can simultaniously hear 2 bus horns, 6 auto horns, 3 men selling chai, cars, cows, people starting their day. Your fellow travellers are chatting about which bus to catch and how its inhuman to be awake before 9am. three rickshaw drivers come at your offering to carry your bags for a price, take you to anywhere for a price, and ask you 'madame wheru frrrom? You lokk liddle beet india I give you good price"

Your tour leader arrives and before you know it your being jammed into a rickshaw with your luggage and 2 other people. Your thighs are squeazed in tight next to eachothers and you dont know whos sweat that is on your legs. Your being thrown around corners at speed, dodging busses and cows, over bumps - when your head hits the roof "ohhh soreee madame very bump" - youve got dust in your mouth and eyes and your thirsty again. But it feels nice to havethe wind on your face and its now quite fun watching as your vehicle stops less than a centremetre from the truck crossing infront of you with 800 cartons of ciggarettes mking a muffin top over the top of the tray. You watch india wizz by in a flurry of dark skins and blight saris, fresh produce and sleeping cows. You smell burning wood, see a thousand deep fried delicious somethings being lifted from a wok and grimmage as a child and dog disagree over a piece of edable garbage.

As soon as you pull into the bus station 3 children run at you, they are dirty and their clothes are rags but their eyes are huge and they beg of you for money to buy bread. You ignore them and keep walking, cringing on the inside at this practiced indifference. You think about children back home with their baby wipes, nappies, fresh clothes, baby food, nutritional requirements, lactose intolerances, special activity regimes and snuggle blankets and your heart screams at the injustice as you tell them "NO" when they tug at your clothes and signify their hunger by putting their hands in their mouths. A man runs at you with an arm full of puppets and yells prices at you in ever more desperate and decreasing amounts. Hes pushing them in your face and walking you backwards into a corner but you push through him with your head down "No thank you NO thank you NO THANKYOU!"

"AGRA AGRA AGRAAAAAAAAAA" shouts a man next to you as you dodge out of the way of his bus only to step into the path of a motorbike with 2 men on it who swerve around you at the last second with not a care in the world for your safety or their own. You push your way through the corwds of gawking locals staring at your spectacle of abnormal dress, movement, skin and luggage. No matter how much you cover up you still feel naked and obscene under their gaze. You manage to agree to paying 25 rupees for a bottle of water even though you know the locals pay less than 10 and grab a bag of chips for breakfast before your bag is grabbed and hefted into the back of a bus and you jump on desperate to find a seat that isnt brocken or crammed between undesirable travelling locals.

You're filthy already, your seat is uncomfotable and your stressed because you accidently bought super spicy curry flavoured chips for breakfast and your book is in the wrong bag and you have nothing to read for the next two hours. But you're on your way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and you feel incredibly alive.

Seranaded for bread

2009-09-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

After my very relaxing and calming experience in Pushkar city I decided to go for a walk to see the sunset. I walked around the edge of the lake and smiled at people as I went. No one bothered me because the could see on my arms and forhead that I had done a pooja that morning so I was free to enjoy the sights without hassle.

I had intended to make it to the Brahma temple but spent too long around the lake and before I knew it the sun was setting. I found a step to sit on and sat cross legged drinking in the marvelos view. Two locals approached me for a chat. Kali and Papu. They were lovely and as usualy were selling me something. I explained that i did not want to buy anything but would sit and chat with the as the sun set.

Kali soon left in search of the almighty tourist buck, but Papu remained and talked to me about his life in the desert, his wife and children. Papu was a musician who made his bread by singing and playing his instruent (something like a violin).

After a while we parted and I found a few people using twirling sticks and flags and dancing n the light of the sunset but to no music. i found Papu and asked him to pla so that we would all have some lovely tunes together.

Papu played and sang beautiful music until the sunset, truely a magical serenade to a beautiful day. But when I went to pay him he pushed my money back at me.

"I am not take money from you Nadia" he said. "I am good man who works for his family. I want you to buy flour for me to make chipatti for my children. You not give money."

So together we went and for 100Rupees (around $2.50) I bought Papu 10kg of flour. He told me this would feed his family for a week, hugged me and took off on his walk home to the desert.

I have no photos of Papu or the amazing sunset, but the memory will stay forever.

The Holy City of Pushkar.

2009-09-10T01:33:00.000-07:00

In Hindu Religion there are three main gods named the holy trinity. Brahma the creator, Vishnu the operator and Shiva the destroyer. It is said that Brahma had no home to call his own or for people to worship to him so he cast out a lotus blossum and where it fell he would call his home. Thus was born the holy Lake Pushkar as from the lotus blossum flowed a great body of water. The city around it is called Pushkar and is renowned as the most holy city in India.

Today I went to Lake Pushkar and sat with a holy man called Ganesh who did Pooja with me. Together we prayed to Brahma and envoked the power of the great lake to bring health, happiness and good fortune to my family, to my friends and to myself.

Together we cast vermillion, rice, sugar, flower, salt, coconut and rose petals into the water and he asked me to say goodbye to the loved one I have lost by asking Brahma to send him forth to a good reincarnation.

As we sat thousands of pidgeons passed over our heads and a cow came and sat by us. This was truely a magical experience for me and I took my time afterwards strolling through town in the soft daze of peaceful reflection.

I have just had a massage and a shower and sit here writing this so I will never forget this wonderful feeling of complete harmony.

This is a very special place and I feel as if I was meant to come here.

Yeah I know this is a cheesy photo but its the best I have !

Drifting

2009-09-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

I find myself feeling quite lost and down the last 2 days. My brain keeps asking me questions like "What are you doing here?" and "Will running away like this ever actually change anything?" "What would be the point in going home?" and interestingly i find myself sitting quietly and having a cry. Tears for Clinton mostly but sometimes for my family, Simon and for leaving my job which restrospectivly was the only structured thing I had. Its not regret, just sadness that I think I can look in on now from a different angle and let myself be sad about. I guess this is all part and parcel of travelling and I'm sure it will pass. Its also hard to focus on the present when your future is so uncertain. But I guess that the point...

Lisa is an excellent travel buddy, shes controlling in a lots of ways and needs to know more about stuff than me all the time, but I quite like it about her. It allows me to be super casual and not think about anything or be too concerned. We have a healthy balance of time together, going off to do our own thing regularly so we dont get too much in each others space. I'm really happy we are together, I don't think I would be having such a good time if she wasnt here.

I am having a bloody good time too! Every day is more and more exciting, the culture shock seems to have worn off now so its just about which palace to explore, which temple to energise in or which amazing food to sample.

One thing that does bother me about this experience is the box westerners seem to put themselves in when they get here. Its like "i'm in india now i can become a hippy" and everyione goes around wearing baggy dishevelled clothes, singlet tops and unwashed hair. I dont know where this mentality comes from, because you will never see an Indian behaving like this. Even your homeless street sleepers have the decency to cover their shoulders up and no self respecting Indian woman would care so little about her appearance. Its strikes me as totally odd that in a country so focused on status, image and propriety we westerners come in and behave like a bunch of beggars. I percieve it as somehwat insuting like "Look at me i'm super richer than you and I dont even have to try" that just my opinion anyway, I feel like I'm missing the 'hippy gene' or something.

We are in Pushkar today, its a very sacred place in India, the only place devoted completely to the worship of Brahma, the creator. I can feel this is a good place, it almost buzzes with an unearthly energy and I feel more vibrant and calm after a rest here than i have felt in days.

Big Belly is good, round is prosperity just like Ganesha!

2009-09-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

When you have a festival a huge crowd gathers in the town so many people that you cannot move your arms. Somehow when the Maharaja comes the crowd still manages to part and make way for the carriage. Just as this is possible, so is it possible to make way in your full belly for Gulab Jamun, for it is truelly the king of all the Indian sweets - told to me by Shakti cooking instructer in Udiapur as he loaded more and more gulub jamun sweets onto my place after an enormous lunch.

Opium, Immodium, Carpets, castles and cooking

2009-09-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Outer Jodhpur Bishoi tribesman after adjusting his Moustace for his photo to be taken
wading by the side of the road
Dhari Carpet maker just outside Jodhpur famous for selling carpets to celebrities including Prince Charles and Richard Gere.
Gorgeous Joseba trying his hand at pottery.
My new bedspread and its happy salesman
Joseba again getting his gear off for the locals' entertainment
Lisa getting friendly with the locals too (Road stop 2 hours out of Jodhpur)
Jain Temple 2 hours before Udiapur - amazing marble architecture
One tree hill
Monkeys Outside Jain temple
Udiapur water Gardens
and again - I do love lotus flowers. I had a few tranquil minutes of meditation here before an ant bit me on the bum!
The crew on our sunset palace cruise
Susan and Gemma cooking up a storm
Ello!
More opium making - weeee! (yes I had a try- just a little one though)
Bishnoi tribeswoman preparing maize.
Lisa getting her san for DVT at Goyle hospital in Jodhpur (she got the all clear yay!)
Guard in window of City Palace Udiapur
This man is the one who randomly told my fortune before sucking on his Opium Pipe... reliable source don't you think?

Hospitals, hire cars and holy places.

2009-09-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

"My hopes and dreams lie beneith your feet. Friends, I invite you to remove your shoes and walk them with me." Dhari carpet weaver of Jodhpur

So far the following things can be ticked off my travel to-do list:

Visit to non-english speaking Indian hospital (its ok I'm not dead) TICK
Experience a flash onset sand storm TICK
Ride on a local bus with locals staring at me like a sideshow for over 6 hours TICK
Dine wth Royalty TICK
Be rescued from a mob of teenage boys by a gentlemanly Spaniard TICK
Buy a carpet TICK
Sleep in the desert TICK
Meditate in a Maharaja's water garden. TICK
Drink freshly prepared opium water in remote Tribal village. TICK
Have convincing fortune telling experience from unknown holy man who refused payment. TICK
Watch two Indian boys have a dance-off in a nightclub to a Michael Jackson medly. TICK
Now that only leaves: Obtain spititual enlightement, Throw object into the ganges, prank call a telemarketing centre and fall in love. Not too bad really...

The last few days have been simply amazing! Lisa had been having a slight medical problem and when we ran into a delighfully handsome (No he wasn't gay Joseba you are just jealous) Frenchman who was a pharmacist on a rooftop in Jodhpur he told us to go check it out in hospital. So we did and boy I have to say, India has medical care sorted. We westerners could certainly learn a thing or two about India's coordinated chaos because we were seen by a GP referred to a secialist, saw a radiographer and were out of there with a diagosis and prescribed prescription in a matter of only a few hours and all in all enjoyed the experience. (Except me panicking and fretting like a mother for all those hours)

Then straight from hospital into a auto rickshaw to dinner, cocktails and a swish Indian nightclub to shake our booties into the wee hours. (yes this is where we saw the dance off and yes it was AWSOME!!)

the next saw us leave Jodhpur for Udaipur a journey which I will tell to you tomorrow in more detail. Apologies for no pictures in this post, but I left my camera cable in my hire car yesterday, its being returnedto me tomorrow and I will add some to this post then. Now I'm off to watch the sunset (yes again I know!) This time in a boat on the famous Udiapur lake overlooking the great Monsoon palace before a private culturaldance show and to watch Octopussy over dinner as this is the city in which the famous James Bond movie was filmed.

Thar Desert Safari

2009-09-03T23:34:00.000-07:00

Everyone meet Papu:

Papu is a 9 year old male camel who lives with the people of the Thar Desert.

Also meet Tiger, escorting Lisa and Michael escorting Jo our handsome Spaniard companion:

These new found friends were gallant enough to carry usraciously across the desert to last nights camp site. (a few mad dashes in between as Tiger and Papu seemed rather competative and Lisa and I turned out to be rather well skilled in camel riding - go figure) Naturally Papu won.... Of course ...

We arrived in time to settle our sore behinds into the soft sand, crack a local bevvie, and watch an amazing sunset.

Never to be upstaged, the lady moon rose in her full glory over the dunes, making the event a truelly magical moment.

We had arranged some local musicians to play for us into the night and they arrived in full garb and played in the light of the full moon as we danced to local tunes and they even managed a tune or two that we knew! I wasn't able to capture the lightning show that we witnessed as well. Truelly mother nature put on her best dress for us!

After the food, music, dancing and games we all fell asleep under the watchful eye of moon and stars and awoke to a clear blue morning.

I even managed to watch the sun rise again with a local dog who had been guarding our campsite.

Back aboard Papu I returned to Jaisalmer for a very much appreciated shower (argh the sand it was everywhere!) We set off on a local bus (ee gads!) for Jodhpur in 1 hour.

Dinner with a Prince

2009-09-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

Muamal crouched by the side of the lake filling her water vases when she saw him approach. A handsome man whos eyes were deep and soft. They spoke breifly and knew in that instant they had a deep love for one another. But alas, he already had 3 wives from arranged marriages and could not marry her as she was a great woman and he a lowly merchant. Muamal confessed her love to him none-the-less and he returned the next day to feast on her beauty. Every week he would take the long cart ride to the lakes edge to meet with her and the shared stories and and spoke of their hearts desires. His wives however, grew suspicious of his absences and so one night sabotaged the wheel on his cart. Stuck by the side of the road he was unable to come to his love. Muamal waited till the sun set and returned distraught to her home. Shocked by Muamals sadness her sister dressed up in a merchants clothes and laughed with her till she finally, exhausted fell asleep. When he arrived late into the night he saw her, in bed with another merchant and left, never to return. Muamal sent him many letters begging him to return, unsure of what she had done to turn him away, but his wives destroyed them before he could see them. Muamal, devastated by the loss of her love, walked to the lake where she had met him and drowned herself. When he heard of her death, he came to the lake where the sister explained the truth to him and he, racked with sorrow threw himself into the lake. For a life without love, is no life worth living.

-The great love tragedy of Muamal sang to us by palace musicians in Jaisalmer.

We are still in Jaisalmer and I wasn't expecting to update again so soon, but last night was so magical I simply MUST put it down here in words. After updating I met a lady on the street called Samgiita who took me to her salon for an Ayurvedic massage, facial, threading and once I was completely relaxed her beautiful daughter painted my arm and hand with henna.
After a quick shower it was off to the sari shop to be fitted up with an evenings dining at the Palace restaurant.

When we arrived however we were not expecting to be greated by the Prince of Rajastan himself!! who was residing at the palance that night. What an honour it was to watch the sunset over the beautiful Jaisalmer Fort standing by the Prince of this great land himself!!

The food was AMAZING the best I have ever eaten (despite Lisa, Susan and Gemma munching into the 'green beans' only to find they were infact, green chillis!) Musch to the shock of our lovely guide Ikshwarku, we ordered almost everything on the menu so we could feast like royalty on the local specailities.

No more than 10 minutes after we had feasted did the palace musicians come out to play for us. They sang and played with a variety of instruments entertaining us with a fabulous show of puppets and we all got up to dance on the roof and marvel at the pleasures of India. It was such an incredible joy and honour and we celebrated well into the night.
Holy Cow what and adventure!!!

The Fortress City of Jaisalmer

2009-09-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

Many centuries ago a great King took a hunting trip in the desert of Tar. His mind was abuz with the troubles of his people and the suffering of his lands due to the invasion of the Muslims from the north. As he walked over a dune he saw hidden away a Lion toying with its prey, a young goat. He watched with shock as the mother goat came towards the great lion and attacked, doing what she could to defend her innocent kid. The great King saw that the Lion was frightened by the passion of the goat mother to protect its young and set the kid free. From the distance appeared an old Sage who spoke to the King. "As mother protected kid so shall this land protect your people." and so was built the great Fortress city of Jaisalmer.

We arrived here yesterday from Delhi on a 19 hour overnight train journey. The contrast of the beautiful carved city filled with gentle people, cows and cool breezes is mind blowing from the heat, noise and suffocating population of the the streets of the capital.

Our flights were quite stressful as we had some problems with our tickets and visas not scanning in which saw us running across airports and diving through doorways for 3 flights. Our first day in Delhi we managed to make it as far as the hotel lobby for breakfast before unequivocably deciding to return to the room, keep our swollen feet raised and sleep for another 12 hours.

We bravely ventured out after catching up on rest and shopped on the streets of both Old and New Delhi, took a ride through town on a rickshaw with a pleasantly tame monkey and visited spice markets in the sweltering heat.

We are travellling with a lovelly group of 7 other people from England Australia and Spain who, although all quite different manage to be getting along incredibly well.

Last night after an afternoon exploring Jain temples and palaces we dined together on the balcony of one of the forts turrets on plush carpet and cushions in the cool gentle breeze of the night air. This city is stunningly beautiful and we were all filled with joy and celebration as we ate some of the best food we have ever tasted, drank cool beer and sang songs together into the night.

Above is the sunset from our rooftop private dinning area and below a holy man grinding stone in the great jain Temple inside the fort of Jaisalmer.

First things first! - The going away party!

2009-08-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

Bollywood or Bust Baby!

2009-08-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, despite the thigh destroying punnishment of the Andes, the deep freezeing torture of a Chilean blizzard and the many wiles of the reidiculously handsome New Zealand Maoris I made it home to good old WA.

And wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got here I realised "hmm travelling is more fun than working".

Crazy I know.

So, I woke up one morning and made the call. I'm gonna go 'lose myself' in my ancestral home land. And here I am. 3 days left of work living in my mums spare room with just $2,000AUD in the bank and I'm off to India.

This time Grizzly is staying home with his lovely new wife and I'm taking along a fabulous new travel buddy the enigmatic Lady Lisa.

We're off to the Taj Mahal, the Ganges, to camel trek through the Tar desert and to eat ourselves crazy on Indian cuisine before I take off for a spiritual journey into Tamil Nadu.

Wish us luck, strength, clean toilets and good times and join us here to keep in touch.

Nadia x.

Inca Trail Day 2 - Part 2

2009-06-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

I looked at the guide (Leo) and asked if I could turn back. This really seemed beyond my ability. He simply said "Too late now - no going back" So I sat down on a rock, closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. What was there to do? I stood up and started walking and one foot in front of the other began the journey anew, understanding truelly for the first time, that this would become the biggest hurdle i had ever faced in my life.

We reached the half way point where our walk leader was waiting. He looked at me and said "you will not make lunch but you will make it" and promptly wiped medical alcohol under my nose and across the back of my neck. The effect was fast... it woke me up and before we knew it we were powering up the mountain. Dad developed a rather effective technique that had us making good ground. Pick an object in view and walk to it. "That pretty flower 3 meters ahead on the left" "That unusual rock 5 meters infront and around the bend" We reached the summit around 3pm. There was a small group of climbers there, Americans from california who cheered for us at the top and I realised not only I, but everyone around me was crying! We had climbed a mountain! We meagre humans were witnessing a sight reserved for only very few and boy was it magnificent!!

--Interestingly enough the notion of this being Mother Nature's 'lovely lady lumps' crept into my mind at some point and before i knew it that damn song was going around and around in my head. --

Unfortunately, the moment of elation was short lived as we were at extremily high altitude and exhausted and so the pressure of 4650m.a.s.l was bearing down on us strongly . Dad was experiencing a fierce headache and it was time for us to begin the descent.

Going down started off well we were buzzing excited and were racing down the mountain trying to make up for lost time. but alas, the ground was very uneven and each step required thought and planning. After 3 hours of climbing down our knees were aching, our heads were pounding and the sun was setting...

We were in the clouds so visibility was poor but we knew we had a ways ahead of us yet so we put on our headlamps and just kept on going. After all... we'd done the impossible we could and had climbed a mountain and survived.

The truth of climbing moutains however, is that most mountain climbers die on the way down the mountain. Why? because you put all your power and mental focus into getting there and once the initial glory of success wears off you are exhausted, climbing down which is harder on your body and the day is over...

And as fate would have it, Mother Nature had yet another challenge for us... Rain. So it was dark, raining and we had been walking for 11 hours without stopping for food. Oh goodie!

Slipping and sliding in the rocks we picked out each step with great care. Maintain 3 points of contact move one. Slow going work. Exhaustion and fear were taking hold and my teeth were chattering, my tears were flowing heavy with the raindops on my cheeks as my brain chanted 'do not fall - do not fall". We didnt even slow down to put on raincoats, we just kept going.... and me made it!

To the cheers and hugs of our fellow climbers we made it just after 7pm. We had done it! We had survived! We were at the camp. Safe to rest.

Pete hugged me and asked in his casual joking tones"so how was your day?" My response "Well... its had its ups and downs" and we all had a bloody good laugh at the absurdity of our accompolishment.

I hugged my dad, went to my tent, stripped off, wiped down. covered myself head to toe in anti-inflamatory gel and passed out.

The Inca Trail - Day 2 - Part 1

2009-06-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

The day for me started with strong trepidation... Not the best nights sleep... as often occurs in a tent with a stranger... Woke up before the sun needing to pee and found myself an actual toilet. (well as good as one gets out there anyways) Hilariously, comming out of the toilet a donkey was waiting at the door as if to say "Are you done yet?!?! Geez! I'm busting" which simultaniously scared the bejeezus outa me and totaly cracked me up.

Breakfast was a no go for me -altitude sickness still- so Grizzly and I set off as soon as we could to try and get a head start on the others. We started at around 6.45am and the others caught up around 7.15am. We had all been told that day 2 was the biggest day. Not the longest distance but the highest peak - Dead Women's Pass (ominous much?) was at its high point 4650m above sea level and we starting out from around 3100m ASL but we had to go down some more first. We were given little baggies with some musli bars and and orange and told lunch would be served around 3pm on the other side of the mountain.

I was going well - resigned to the fact that this would likely kill me and that I may as well get it over with (such a princess I know!) and despite the occasional hyperventilation considered myself to be making rather good progress. At midday i asked my guide "How are we going? how far is it to the peak from here?" His response will stay with me until the end of time....

"We are about half way to the halfways point"

My response - "you mean we are half way?"

His answer "no - we are half way to half way to the top... the top is halfway to the camp"

At midday we realised that we were less than a quarter of the way into our journey... my heart sank to my stomache, made me retch then into my aching knees down my pulsing calves and out through my swollen toes and jumped off the nearest cliff.... I... was.... totally.... fucked.

Photos From Dad's Camera - Inca Trail

2009-06-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

Just mqanaged to get my hands on dad's camera and thought I'd upload some of his shots before we go our seperate ways. So here we are:

Oyantutambo = the day before starting the Inca Trail. Just a few warm up steps:

The beggining point of the Inca Trail, two intrepid travellers setting off on the journey of a lifetime...

The view of the journey ahead.

The terrain.... steps steps and more steps....

Waking up at camp the morning of day 2. What a view to wake up to!

The 'boob' in the distance. The high point of the walk day 2. Dead Woman's Pass 4650m above sea level.

Power nappin!

This is the big hill on day 3 I will tell you more about soon. Look closely you will see tiny electricity towers. Those are like those super huge ones back home - to give you an idea of the scale of this 'big hill'. (I'll give you a clue - we walked down this - in the dark....!!!!!)

Me at the Sun Gate - the entrance to Machu Pichu - Day 4 (I AM THE MOST AWSOME PERSON ALIVE!!!!! heh it certainly felt that way when this pictire was taken anyways :oP )

OHMYGOD Its snowing!!! - Day 2 in Chile's snow fields. My first time seeing snow - this is before the blizard - more on that to come!

The Inca Trail Day 1

2009-06-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

Ok guys,

So I havn´t been able to get to a computer that will upload pics so I´ve let this blog go a bit. But I think its important to put the Inca Trail down in words. If thats even possible. So begins day 1.

We had arrived in Cuzco city 2 days pior to acclimatize. We had joined a great group of aussies all at least 10 years older than me but a great group none the less and all eager to experience Peru. We also had with us our fabulous jungle buddies John and Pete. I hadnt been suffering too badly with the altitude just a little short of breath and a loss of appetite. No biggie.... Or so i thought..

Day 1 started out at around 6am i started to feel nautious. I knew it was anxiety and so ignored all the frantic races to the toilets and complete inability to eat. We took a couple of buses and stopped in a little town called Oylantytambo to get final supplies for the trip. You know.. the important stuff like chocolate, starbursts and anti-inflamatory gel....

We finally started walking around 1.30pm and all seemed to be going well. After all day 1 was the easy day right....¿ until we started going up hill anyways... So puffing and panting my way up the hill I watch as each member of the group passes me by and i huff and wheaze my way along stopping every few minutes to catch my breath. Grizlly stayed with me and thank god he did because about 4 hours in my ¨Í can´t do this´inner monologue got very vocal. ¨Fat chicks don´t climb mountains¨it said ÿou are not going to make it¨ÿou simply can´t do this¨said that nasty bastard and before i could realise anxiety had me in full choke and i was a wretching sobbing mess. But Grizzly was there urging me to just put one foot in front of the other and evetually we arrived at camp around 15 minutes after nightfall.

We were both a smidge (cough) annoyd to find that our camping arrangemnents had been changed and we were both to bunk up with strangers. Dad with Wayne and me with a lovely if not slightly mad, 55 year old psychologist called Dessa. Dessa and I agreed that there was no time or space for modesty in a 2 man tent in th middle of nowhere and commenced our routine of nightly wet-wipe showers and changing from sweat soaked hiking gear into long johns and thermals.

Dinner was served in a communal tent and though my tastebuds were delighted with the offerings my apetite was a victim of altitude and so I was only able to push my food around the plate and pass it on to a wondering dog. Everyone was very kind about pointing out that I was only a few minutes behiind them to arriuve at camp and spirits were generally high despite knowing that day 2 was the toughest day and only a few hours away. After the inital inconvienience of having to find a suitable peeing tree in the dark, it was off to bed for an early night.

Photos from the Jungle

2009-06-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Lush jungle

Pirhana fishing

Herons taking flight

The upper canopy

Tarzan vines! Aa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a--a!!!

Getting tribal with the local yagua people.

Senior Anaconda from the sharp end! (hes about 4 meters long and about 30 cm´s thick)

Super chilled three toed sloth

Grizzly with a tame toucan

Mother nature strutting her stuff

Well I finally found a computer that allows me to upload pictures from my camera huzzah! This is a very difficult task as I took over 400 photos whilst in the Amazon and all of them have some meaning or beauty or story. The other problem is that today is my adjustment to altitude day so im a bit tired and struggling to maintain any form of mental focus. I got very lost in Cuzco city today which was quite terrifying because there was a huge parade in town and thousandsa of people everwhere and no way of knowing where I was. I am now safe and sound and know where I am! Phew!

So The Amaxon... WoW! What an adventure it was! We flew to Iquitos a Peruvian port city and then carried on via speed boat for around an hour then swapped to a lesser motorised boat and traveled another 2 hours or so geting out to pass through villages and change boats until we arrived at our very secluded lodge in the heart of the jungle- Ot had basic amenities like a roof and floors, mozzie net walls and beer. basically all you need really no electricity or fresh water.. We ate a diet of rice, beans, fish and fruit (which was really wonderful and felt fantastic!)

Heres the lodge

I have been travelling these last few days with 2 great aussie guys called Peter and John from Bowral and Byron Bay and we have become pretty good mates along the way. I think we shared something very special together in that jungle. Something I hope I will never forget! Oh by the way, I swam in that water in front of th lodge

. The boys decided to go swimming and didnt think i would come being a girl and all - so i donned a tshirt and a pair of knickers and in I went only to experience the rather odd sensation of having a prihana swim up my shirt!! ARRGGHHH! No biteys though. Phew!
Here we are together, John in front of me and Pete behind exploring the Jungle via canoe using a machete to make our way through the vines! What a glorious adventure we had! Grizzly unfortunately couldnt do lots of the small boating outings in the jungle as his back wasnt permitting but he was off pirhana fishing with our guide.

Some stunning vistas

and some local wildlife!

Spider monkey

and Ignuana below (took me ages to see this guy in the trees!)

My new boyfriend Mr Monkey. He just jumped up on my and wouldnt let go! He was really lovelly and had a good play with the camera which he found really fascinating.

Ok im way to tired and sick of squinting at this litttle computer screen to tell you all the stories or put these pictures in order but check them out and I´ll fill in the blanks in a few weeks.

Buenos Noches!

Oh thats a snake that Pete decided to poke (yes with his finger - bloody boys!) and below a tree frog on the door to my room at the lodge.

The Amazon jungle

2009-06-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,

I am on really limited time here and can´t find a computer that will allow me to upload the pics from the jungle! ARRGGH!

All I can say for now is that I had an AMAZING time. At some points i was literraly moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the jungle.

I had close encounters with a purhanna, snakes (inclding an anaconda), monkeys, iguanas, all kinds of birds, got bitten b fire ants (ouch!) and we were even lucky enough to catch a few glimpses of the extremily rare amazonian pink dolphin!

Details and photos of all of these to follow. But just letting you know we survived and are in the capital of Peru, Lima tonight and then off to Cuzco in the morning to begin the adjustment to altitude before the Macchu Pichu trek starts in about 3 days time.

Nx

Note - No Contact for the next 3 -4 days

2009-06-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Just letting you know not to expect any contact for the next few days. I leave for Iquitos in the Amazon at 5.30am local time and return to Lima Peru on Monday night 9.00pm. We have a full day planned on Tuesday so I don´t expect to be online again to Tuesday evening at the earliest. I have no phone, and there will be no electricity so guarunteed no contact for a few days. Wish me well and boy oh boy am I gonna have some stories to tell when I get back. Tme to get tribal!

I can´t remember what day it is but we went to some museums

2009-06-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Thats right, Jet lag´s got me all confused and i cant count what day it is without asking someone. Best I can tell its Friday and we are meeting up with 2 others tonight for a meal and off the THE AMAZON JUNGLE in the morning! Woot!!

Today we hired a taxi and checked out a few musems in town. The first Museum was friggen awsome and we learned heaps about the Incans and the many races before them.

Here we see Incan pottery of a demon disembowling the unfaithful - or some such.

and below some neat pottery and artisty wihich was pretty advanced and incredibly detailed.

This scene includes some of the creepiest dolls ever known to man working a loom. Seriously... how friggen creepy do they look?!?!

Here´s some fascinating knowledge for you... The ancient incans had such a vast empire that they had to keep comprehensive records of th crops, families etc and did so using a ystem of knots on ropes as seen in the below picture. Each thread identifies a set of information and each knot describes the quantity recorded at a given time. Like the Hooba Whatsit familly had 22 Llamas and one cow on the date of 201AD. Or something like that anyways... granted I´m not very good at paying attention when people talk to me...

The below is a lovely pottery worek that I thought depicted like a family day out with fun and frivolity until I read the little sign that said that this pottery shows one of the forms of human sacrifice carried out by the ancients whereby they would take peopl eto the top of the cliffs and throw them off... Delightful!

The Incans worhsipped both the Sun and the Moon and their high up priests and important people worse Gold (sun) and Silver (gold) as homage. check out this funky bit of mega bling! No wonder the Spannish were so happy to conquer ad plunder these guys!

Well wasn´t that a lovely learning experience kiddies... now onto the next Museum... The EROTIC ART GALLERY.

Hehehehehe check out these dudes going for it!

Loveing the expressions!

Woah dude! These Incans really take this learning through art busines quite seriously....

And finally... but never to be forgotten... the boy on boy action... Go Incans!

Ok so, I really should be a lot more mature about this sort of things....

Day 5 Lima Peru - Pachamacac Ruins

2009-06-04T14:04:00.001-07:00

We made it to Peru!

Oh my god jetlag is a bastard! We woke up the other day in Santiago got to a place - caught the plane 3 hours) to Peru checked into the hotel had a nice lunch and a pisco sour (the local drink yum yum!) We were planing a busy afternoon of exploration and walking around Miaflores (the part of town we are staying), sat down for 5 mins and then just passed out. Like passed out! like Grizzly tried to wake me up and I just grunted and passed out for another 2 hours. Needless to say my explorations yesterday were limited to the hotel room and the restaurant. Although the bar staff were great sports with teaching me spannish and trying to get me to drink pisco sours instead of water. (Pisco Sour is a bit like a margharita). But today we were more alive. - awake at 6am style alive.

We had breakfast in the hotel where I noticed that everyone was speaking French. Instead of greating people with Buenos Dios I started singing Bonjour! como Ceva? which caught me in a complex conversation in french which I managed to fake my way through for a fair while before they realised my french is limited to basic greetings and gesiticulating. hahah we enjoyed ourselves anyways.

anywho... We hired a private taxi from a guy who we thought was the hotel receptionist´s friend Mario but turned out to be the driver from the Mariot hotel. LOL.

We are staying in a place called Mirafloes which is something like a cross between Subiaco and Scarborough and we had a lovely drive past the coast. The thing that is so noticable here is the air pollution. The coast would be stunning here if you could just see it through the hideous grey cloud. I´m glad I trained my lungs to deal with pollution (ie smoking too much in pubs) or I think I would be couhging up my lungs in this place!

Hilariously the driver put on an early 90´s american music CD so we were chauffered through the streets of Lima to the soundtrack of Alanis Morrisettes ïronic, ¨Back Street Boys and Ëternal flame¨who the taxi driver explained to me in brocken english was his favourite song by the Bangles. When I expressed my pleasure at his musical taste ¨Mi Gusto Senor!¨he cranked it up loud and we wound down the windows for maximum cruising pleasure.

Pachamacas Ruins is out just passed the slum lands, and although it dosnt say so anywhere you can tell that they stumbled across these ruins whilst developing the area for housing or factories. Heres a happy snap of how the people live round these parts

So we got to Pachamacac pretty quickly and our Taxi driver was absolutely astounded that we did not want us to drive us around the site - infact we intended to pay him to wait for us in the car and we would explore for a couple of hours on foot. He nearly feinted when Grizzly gave him $5US and said to buy himself some lunch while he waited. hahaha being ridiculously affluent can be quite enjoyable.

So Pachamacac is a temple of both the Earth Mother and the Sun God and was a place of pilgramage for the Incans. The site is the home of 3 pyramids, roads, temples and a very complex water a sewerage system. The quality of the buildings is amazing, you can see the skill of the builders in the tight detail of the stonework.

Here you can see a ramp leading to what was once a pyramid.

And here is how archeological resrtoration is carried out in Peru...

Yep, what you are looking at is two dudes with wheel barrows digging out ancient ruins. NEAT!

Heres a security guard at the top of temple of the Sun God... I guess when he sees me being mugged down the bottom he can jump off, Bruce Willis style and rescue me? Not really sure about his function here...

Ok so, all things said and done, this -is- just a big pile of rocks in a huge dust pile, so Grizzly and I entertained ourselves by showing off to a small bus load of Japanese Tourists who thought we were amazing attractions as we spoke some basic japanese to them.

And teaching a group of very cute Peruvian primary schoolers to say ¨G´day Mate¨. They seemed to think we were heaps more wierd and interesting than a bunch of ancient rocks and would smile at us and then run away squealing or try their best to say ¨helloo¨

Also, there was a Llama! Hi Mr Llama!!

Day 3 Santiago & Conche Del Torro

2009-06-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well today the touristing began and after around 28 hours worth of catch up sleep (ahh sweet sleep how I had missed thee) we got up and went out exploring with Pablo.

First stop was Conche del Torro, Chile´s largest and most highly reputed vineyard. Personaly I thought the wine was rough as guts and tasted like draino and actually poured mine out rather than finnishing it! (yes me - no seriously - dont look at me like that)

But the grounds of the vineyards were stunningly beautiful. Heres my first attempt at uplaoding a picture.

They also have the famous Diablo range of wines named so because Conche Del Torro invented a story that the devil lived in his wine cellar in order to stop the locals from stealing his best. The tour had a pretty tacky north american style to it but was enjoyable none the less. Heres a piccy of the wine cellar... mmm muchos vino!

We bailed on that place fairly quickly though because it had ´tourist trap´written all over fine spanish decor and Pablo took us to a funtastiko Chilean BBQ grill restaurante for lunch. Mui Bueno!

I ordered the steak and being that I look like the biggest Chilean woman known to man kind they served me a steak that looked like they had chopped off the entire left butt cheek of a cow and grilled it for me. It also came with fresh bread, butter tomato salsa and half a bottle of very palletable red wine. Oh my what a lunch!!!

heres a stunning piece of architecture I came across in our travels. Chile is the sad home to a fault line that sees earthquakes shake the buildings to the ground every few years. This happy snap is of a building that looks to me half of an original Spannish style apartment building and half a new residential complex. It just seemed to sum up Santiago so elegantly for me

We also checked out the famous hill in the centre of downtown which was the original spannish fortification that was the heart of Santiago city as all its building came from this central point. These days it acts more as a make-out-point full of lovers kissing under its lovely trees.

Oh also heres a great photo I snapped of Los Andes from the top of a hill in the upperclass end of the city. Cant wait to get up in there!

The other interesting thing (well just one of the many I guess) about the streets of Santiago is, the stray dogs.The streets are clean and Pablo tells me that eaxh inner city community prides itself on being cleaner and vbetter tahn the others and that includes the stray doggies! The dogs are everwhere but they are healthy and friendly and really very friendly. Apartently the government wanted to have them all killed recently which caused ahuge public outcry. Most of the people here live i apartment buildings and have sortof adopted the stays as pets. Restaurants feed the strays each night and passers by all toss them tid bits. Teams of local volunteers adminsiter vaccinations and free ventinary care which results in these huge healthy lovely dogs that ill hapuiily accompany you down the road just because. How nice!

Day 2 again Santiago Chile

2009-06-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Buenos Noches Seniors and Senioritas!

We made it to Chile! It was a bloody long flight and praise be to the gods that we scored emergency exit row seats! 12 hours is an awful long ime on a plane!

We arrived in Chile around miday (something like 2am perth time) and were collected at the airport by our Muchos fantastiko guide - the ruggedly handsome - Pablo who gave us a short tour of the city before dropping us off at our hotel to pass out. And indeed , pass out we did!

Woke up around 6pm and have been for a little wander around and had a divinee meal served by some very patient and considerate wait staff.

Hilariously, despite my complete inability to speak Spannish people here seem to think I am ethnic enough to communicate more effectively with me than with Grizzly who gets put out that everyone addresses me first and the wait staff expect me to order his meals and bring me the cheque. *chuckle snort*

i havn´t had much time to explore yet, but from what I´ve seen so far I totally dig this place! The people are friendly, the lifestyle is lovely and the mountains everywhere are just breath taking.

Pablo tells me it only costs around $40,000 US to buy an apartment in the downtown area of Santiago (its quite lovely downtown) and he has me seriously considering the possibility of living here! (Not yet though, don´t worry)

Tomorrow we ave a full day of exploring the countryside vinyards (hells yeah!) so I should finaly have some pictures to share.

Anywhos - we have arrived safely if not completely exhausted and the holiday part pretty much starts in the morning.

day 2 - aukland - santhiago

2009-05-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

well theres some things you find outaboutyourselfwhen you travel. yesterday i found out that when i cobine lack of sleep, a turbu;ent plane ride and one glass of beer i become drunk to the pont of hugging furniture and beggig to godto stop the world from spinning

so last nighht i spent a good amount of time on the floor of our hotel rooms bathroom wonderig why they would invent walls that move around in swirly patterns. fun!

i'm in aukland international airport atthe moment using a paid internet kiosk thati cant figure out how to use capitals or backkspace - so appols for poor punctuation and spelling.

all is well on my journey and im excited that today i get to travel bacwards in a time machine. the fligt im about to take departs auklandat4.30pm on 1st june and after 12 hours of travel arrives in santiago at 11.30am on the 1st june...

so now ican tick off mythings to before i die list "TIME TRAVEL"

yipee skippy! or to be less culturally appropriate SWEET AS BRO!

Day 1 - Perth- Sydney - Aukland

2009-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

So... went to bed at 10pm, got a text from, Jay and Helen at 1.45am and Lisa at 2.50am. Thanks guys who needs sleep anyways? After that counting sheep lost its charm and i stayed up and read a book till leaving for the airport at 3.45am.

Currently hanging about at Sydney International - worst airport EVER! next time I hear someone complain about Perth being backwards compared to Sydney i am going to point out all the failings of this airport, including no place to buy a meal any more substancial than a Mrs Macs meat pie... No wonder the world thinks we all get around in the pouches of kangaroos!

Anyways, enough compalaints. All is well so far. Another 1.5 hours here at boredom central then on to Aukland to stay the night at some uber posh 5 star that Grizzly booked. (Sweet) Then on to Santiago tomorrow afternoon.

Interestingly, I am at a free internet stall using a keyboard with no letters or numbers on the keys. Not doing to shabby a job really... I promise this blog will be more interesting in future posts.

To make it more interesting now, here are some words that i enjoy saying:

"Loofah"

"Constantinople"

"Tea pot"

"Sherpa"

"Quartz"

Please don't give up I promise to be more interesting next time. Also will probably make more coherent thoughts after some sleepy sleeps.

Fo shizzle!

The Final Countdown

2009-05-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

OK... Its 34 minutes until I knock off work for a whole month. I can see my desk ... Odd very odd... It means the work is all done... The bags are packed in my lounge room... My car is even clean... (Woah!) The anticipation.. Oh god the EXCITEMENT!!!

Stay tuned peoples.. things are about to happen...

HOLIDAY-E CELEBRAAAATE!!!

You're doing what???

2009-05-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

Heaving aside the day to day trials of life and seeking out that elusive land that casts back well before the origins of humanity. A beautiful, rich, wet land that motheringly slaps the childish face of modern civilization and artifully demonstrates that we meagre humans are but a daliance in the life of our stunning planet.

So here's how it works. This Sunday I'm setting aside my identity as Nadia Adams, ex-Fremantillian, suburb dwelling, over drinking, over thinking, single, 20 something Assistant Manager of a progressive Women's Health centre. I'm putting on a hell of a lot of kakhi, an over filled backpack and some very spunky (yet mostly I suspect, unecessary) hiking equipment, getting on a plane and taking off on a quest to the Amazon Jungle and the dizzying heights of Peru's infamous Machu Picchu.

My travelling companion, Grizzly is a 50 something suburb dwelling Doctor of Animal Behaviour with servere back problems and an unsatiable appetite for all things adventure.

Together we intend to have as much fun and adventure two rag tag, untrained, unfit, quazi-knowledgeable, semi-experienced, non-spannish speaking, over enthusiastic, cashed up travellers can cram into their annual leave entitlement.

Here is the place of records, should you chose to follow our quest...