Respiratory infections after 3 weeks in India (20th - 22nd Dec 07)

We have been spending a few days in the Rajasthani town called Jaipur.

We have both had a nasty cold for the last few weeks, which doesnt seem to be going away due to the pollution problems. So we are going through a bit of a despression about India, as it is hard to see all the positive things when our noses are pounding, and we are blowing out black stuff. Every time we leave our guesthouse there are horrible car fumes and dusk that is permantely around. Natalie has taken to wearing a head scarf and covering her face (looking like a Muslim women) just to filter out some of the dust. So now we are trying to arrange the remaining part of our trip that minimises our time in the larger cities. Yet this is hard as most of the great sights are in the larger cities.

In Indian towns there are two main means of getting around (other than walking). There are auto-rickshaws which are like the Thai tuk-tuks, and then there are cycle rickshaws. The auto ones are much faster, but after our little grumble about pollution we have since converted to the cycle ones. We feel a bit sorry for the poor man pulling us along on a rickety old bike without gears, but its a great environmentally friendly means to travel.

On the back of a rickshaw

(an autorickshaw ahead on the left, and a cycle rickshaw ahead on the right)

One thing that Jaipur is famous for is the Juntar Mantar, which is a type of observatory that has a collection of sun dials and other instruments that utilise shadows to pin-point the current time, suns position, longitute and latitude, etc. It dates back to the 18th century, so was pretty fascinating for the science-inclined tourist.

The largest sun-dial in the world


Jaipur is also known for its famous Hindu cinema. While we were in Jaipur we were told all about the latest releases of Bollywood movies. But unfortunately there were no English sub-titles so we decided not to go along. The cinema itself is also pretty famous for its lobby and exterior which looks a bit like a giant meringue.

A famous Hindu cinema


It is pretty amazing that today is the 22nd of December and Christmas is in 3 days. We have not seen a single christmas tree or heard a carol the whole time in India, and it has been fantastic. We both hate that pre-Christmas build up in New Zealand, along with all the stress associated with it, so we are glad we timed our return in the new year.

For those who are interested in our plans, Nat is coming back to Ak in mid-Jan, whereas Nick will be returning in mid-Feb as he has taken up a 1 month contract with his former employees in Aus (a way to replenish the funds after not working for a year).

"A teardrop on the cheek of time" (17th - 20th Dec 07)

The above quote was by an Indian poet Tagore, to describe the Taj Mahal. I really like this quote, as no adjectives that I use will quite compare. But the Taj Mahal is definately one of the most stunning buildings that we have seen on this trip.

The Taj Mahal


The Taj is situated in a city in Northern India called Agra. The beautiful story behind the Taj is that it was built by a heart broken Emperor, who dedicated it to his wife that died giving birth to one of their children. It is made of marble and semiprecious stones and the effect is stunning. Just looking at the detail of the work on various parts, makes anyone fully appreciate the skill in the work.

Us at the Taj


Visiting the Taj is one of the most expensive sites in India, at 750Rupees for foreigners ($25nz). And it is a bit hard watching locals enter for only 20Rupees, but thats the Indian system to have double-tear pricing at tourist attractions. It is a piece of their history after all, so we cant complain too much. But it was worth every penny.

The next day in Agra was Nick's birthday. And we had a few exciting things planned for the day. But unfortunately Nick was up all the night before with his first serious bout of Delhi Belly. Even water was hard for him to have, so we had to stay in bed for most of the day. That night we had train tickets booked to go to a town about 250km away called Jaipur. Nick was adament that he wouldnt be able to catch the train with his sickness. But we had all our accomodation booked in Jaipur and no where to stay in Agra, so we decided to splurge and get a taxi there. The taxi cost no more than from the north shore to auckland city, but for India it was a lot of money. It was worth it though, as it meant that we could travel comfortably with making stops if needed. Thankfully Nicks stomach behaved itself for the trip.

It was pretty crappy birthday for him all around. So the next day when he was feeling his normal self, we made up for it. We went full out shopping and splurging (which is totally unlike us). We spent a few hours at a great western style cafe that do excellent coffee, then hit the shops. We brought a fantastic Indian cookbook, a pair of handmade leather shoes each and some clothing. This is something that we rarely have done on this trip, but now we are near the end we can buy a few things for back home.

Nick drinking a Frappe(!!) with his new Cookbook

Delhi in a Day (15th - 17th Dec 07)

After getting off the train (after 2 nights) in Delhi the legs took a while to get moving, but once the touts closed in, the legs remember how to walk fast.

We decided to give the backpacker area a miss and stayed in the Tibetan area of Delhi. This is a truly amazing place. It is called the Tibetan Refugee Colony and it is a tight amalgamation of buildings. There are narrow lanes that weave between the buildings and around every corner is small markets and shops. It is like being in Tibet. There are 'Free Tibet' flags and 'boycott the olympics' posters not to mention the mandatory Dalai Lama pictures.

We only had 2 nights in Delhi before heading to Agra to see the Taj so we planned our day to the max. We spent the morning in Old Delhi which is a chaotic part of town with dirty streets, busy markets and street vendors on every corner. But this is where lots of sights from the Mughal era are located. We first went to the Red Fort then to a huge mosque called Jama Masjid.

The Red Fort


The chaos of Old Delhi

(notice the goats on the right)

It was then time to head to New Delhi on the super clean and efficient Delhi metro system. This metro puts New Zealand to shame that they cant even get their act together to organise a metro system in Auckland. The metro is only half completed, but still at present makes travel around the city much easier.

In New Delhi (which was built by the British) we spent a while in Connaught Place, which is a lot of roads designed in concentric circles around a park. We then visited the Supreme Court Museum to learn about the history of India's independent judiciary. A few cases of interest were highlighted such as the case against the 2 Sikh bodyguards who killed Indira Gandhi, a former Indian Prime Minister.

It was interesting checking out New Delhi to compare the broad, clean streets with what we saw in the morning in the chaotic Old Delhi.

We then visited the inspiring Mahatma Gandhi museum. This great museum, albeit pretty run down, documented Gandhi's life, from his days fighting (non violently) for Indians in South Africa to his work gaining independence for India. On display were some great photographs and even the robe he wore when he was killed as well as one of the bullets that killed him. Of special note was the story of how he marched 400km to a beach to make salt in retaliation to the British policy that no Indians could make their own salt and had to buy it (at high prices) from the British.

Overall Delhi had a great feel to it, a mix of chaos and a new modern vibe. Now we head to the mighty Taj Mahal!

Local kids playing Cricket in Delhi

Slow life in the Backwaters (12th - 15th Dec 07)

After finally leaving Varkala we caught a short train north to a small town called Kollam. We came here to do a canoe tour of the Kerala Backwaters.

Nat, Nick & Tahlia on a backwater cruise


The backwaters are a series of natural estuaries and man made canals that run for a few 100km the length of the coast and are joined to the sea, hence they are salt water. There are small clusters of villages that live on the small patches of land between the canals. We went on an excellent afternoon canoe tour of the backwaters. After driving for and hour out of town on extremely bumpy roads we reached our leaving point. At one stage the minibus driver while driving was trying to screw the gear lever back on as it had worked its way off after all the bumps!!

The Backwaters


The canoe trip was fantastic. We started in narrow man made canals and ended up in large lakes and wide estuaries. We saw locals fishing, collecting sand for cement and
also coconut processing areas. It is amazing how much they can get out of one coconut. They remove the husks and dry them for making rope (which is also used to make the boats), they use the water for drinking and they press the flesh for oil or milk. Along the way we also visited a spice garden where we smelt curry leaves, ginger and some cashew nut trees. MMMmmmmmmm

Some locals in their fishing canoe


After Kollam we headed further north to Fort Cochin, which is a small peninsular across the harbour from Kochi town. Life was relatively peaceful here compared to the normal bustle of Indian towns. Walking along the waterfront we were mesmerised by the huge chinese style fishing nets they use. These huge contraptions are balanced on a tripod of 10m high logs and they use huge rocks tied to rope as counterweights. They put the nets down for 5mins then pull it up and retrieve the (small) fish from the net.

The Chinese fishing nets at Fort Cochin


From here we caught a train up to Delhi. This train took 2 days, so we decided to get one of the nicer classes of trains with Air Con sleeper. On this train all our meals were brought to us, so we didnt have much else to do but watch the scenery and be feed 5 times a day. The food was actually pretty good, and it was interesting chatting to some middle-class Indians. We shared a berth with a young married couple, who had just been on their honeymoon in Goa. They are both doctors in Delhi and it was interesting getting their perspective on Indian politics and social issues.

We now have 3 weeks in the north of India. How fast time is flying, with already spending a couple of weeks in the south.

The Varkala Stranglehold (7th - 11th Dec 07)

Varkala is a small town right down on the southern tip of India. We heard that it had beautiful beaches and was a nice chilled out town, so we planned to stay for a couple of nights. But upon getting there, we couldnt quite get ourselves to leave after such a short time. So we ended up there for 5 nights.

The stunning cliff at Varkala


It has quite a travellers atmosphere, which means that all the restaurants are twice the price, but they were still nice to hang out in looking over the sea. The town is set up on a cliff, with all the shops, hotels and restaurants high up on the cliff, with the beach below. This was nice as it gave the beach a secluded feel to it, with out all the shoppers gawking at you.

There was a social atmosphere at the place we were staying and met other interesting like-minded people. One women in particular, Tahlia, we bumped into while we were in three different Indian towns, and we hopefully talked into joining us for Christmas in the north of India. After hearing that we cut each other's hair, she bravely let us near her with a pair of scissors, and she went from a long brunette to a short cut. So we are thinking of earning some money on the side, by opening up a travellers hair dresser.

One of the pleasures of staying here was walking along the cliff top road, eyeing up the fresh seafood on offer at the restaurants, and negotiating prices. We had fresh fish a few nights in a row, and it was absolutely fantastic. On offer was small snapper, but also large marlins and smaller sharks, and the most gigantic tiger prawns we have ever seen.

Other than the beach and cafes, we spend one afternoon doing a private cooking course. This was a great way to see how Indian curries are made from scratch, and also making an Indian flat-bread Chapati.

Nick making Chapati


We also caught a traditional dance while we were there, known as Kathakali. This was apparently started around the time of Shakespere, and uses elaborate costumes and make up to play out stories from the Hindu ramayana. The actors were men, and train for years to master the facial expressions which dictate the story. They are accompanied by live music, and singing. The plot brief provided to us before the show was a god-send in order to understand what was going on.

Kathakali costumes


But then after about 5 days here, we started to get cravings for authentic India, with cheap, good food and the chaos (although chilling at the beach was a nice break). So we headed out from the comfort zone to further north along the Keralan coast.

Trains, head waggling and masala dosa (1st - 6th Dec 07)

To those who have read 'Life of Pi' you will be familiar with Pondicherry, a small former french enclave in the south east coast of India. This was our next stop and was an interesting fusion of a seaside French resort in India. The town was divided by a canal with the French part near the sea and the Indian part inland. The French part had wide roads, colonial buildings at it seemed that as you stepped across the cannal the hustle and bustle stopped and there were no more motorbikes hooning past or bus sitting on their horns.

But Pondicherry had a lovely boulevard and a french feel, but there was not much else to do. So after a couple of nights we moved on.

One of our favourite meals has been the Masala Dosa. Dosa is a huge thin rice flour crepe. The masala version is filled with curried potato and onion. The dish is served with an assortment of coconut chutneys and a vege curry. A great dish that can be had any time of the day, for a mere 60cents.

A tasty Masala Dosai


The Indian Head Waggle:
Now this is something we are only now starting to get used to. When Indians agree with something or are confirming something they waggle their heads from side to side. It is kind of like a shake but with no rotation. When we first encountered it we were a bit confused.
"We will have the vegetable biryani and two coffees....." Then the waggle, we thought this meant no biryani, but it means ok. we have started practising our waggle, and hopefully in a few days will be brave enough to put it to the test with some Indians.

From Pondi, we caught a train to Trichy in the central south, a temple town. As you know we really love trains, and avoid buses at all costs. We tried our hand on the "unreserved class" which is basically a free for all - first on first seated. Since we did not get on from the departing station we were standing in the aisle. The carriage was packed but before long the people we were rubbing shoulders with were asking the 'set questions'.

Where are you from - New Zealand - ahhhhh - good cricket team. If it wasnt for cricket, no one here would know NZ.
What is your job.....
Purpose of visit.......
It starts to feel like a customs interogation but it is good natured. After this we were talking about the 2nd cricket test between India and Pakistan and who would prevail on the final day.....most agreed draw. And it was.

One of the best parts of being in the lowest possible class of train, is the hospitality of the people. There was one quite large women, who was flopping off the side of her seat as it was, who felt sorry for Nat and moved over so she was hanging off even more so that Nat could rest 1/2 her bum on the seat to. It was so kind of her. One of our criket c chatting friends dived for a seat when one opened up, only to give it to Nat, which was also lovely gesture.
Nick, being a man, ended up standing the whole 4 hours but it was worth it.

If the trans mogolian train was a bazaar on tracks, the Indian trains are a restaurant on wheels. Throughout the journey vendors were squishing their way past bodies, selling tea, coffee, fried vege patties, biryani, samosas and other premade meals. When the train stopped, more vendors jumped on to offer premade meals or sold them through the grates in the window.

Vendors passing an Indian train


We spent a couple of nights at Trichy visiting a few temples. There were some huge multi level dravidian temples and a ganesh temple perched high above the city on a huge outrcrop of granite which gave spectacular views of the tropical palm forests.

A Hindu temple on a rock outcrop

First impressions of India (27th Nov - 1st Dec 07)

From Turkey we flew into the Indian city of Chennai, which is on the south-east coast. While it is still a big city, it was preferable to flew into than Delhi or Mumbai so we could spend a few days getting used to things on a smaller scale.

So far we are really enjoying our time in India. One of the first things we did was head into a full-vegetarian restaurant for a set lunch meal called Thali. This comes with a selections of curries, sauces, sweets, rice and chapati all for around 35 rupees (about $1nzd). Then once you have had all that, they come round and top up your curries to the point that you are bursting full. It was a fantastic way to start our dining experience in India. In the south most people are full vegetarian, which suits us just fine as we are happy to eat vege food and it is probably safer for our weak-western stomachs to handle.

A smaller version of a Thali
(the bigger ones have up to 14 different parts)


As arriving in any Asian city there is always the first hit when you arrive in the city. The things such as the smells, the pollution, the heat and the poverty all hit you. But then there is also the fantastic smiling people, the interesting history and the food that makes putting up with the former so much more worth it. And we also love the chaos. Sometimes things in Europe are so efficient, clean and organised that it is boring. But here there is never a dull moment with something new to observe.

We had our go at trying out the train network to get round the city. It was super efficient, and the carriages are open style so you have people hanging out the train as it goes along (Nick had his go at this). A few years ago you use to be able to ride on top of the train, but they have since decided that it is too dangerous. The Indian train network is one of the best in the world, with lines all over the country. Also they are the largest employer in India, and the second largest employer in the world!! Pretty impressive. So we tried to buy our overnight train tickets for later in the trip early as we heard that they often fill up. This was a bit of a process and we had to reaarange our plans a bit, but in the end we got our tickets and are looking forward to trying out the long distance trains. There is no better way to experience a country than on trains (after a bicyle of course).

A few things have been quite funny so far. One of these is the language. Most people we have spoken to so far (in restaurants, guesthouses, train stations, locals) all speak perfect English. Sometimes they have a pretty heavy accent which is hard to interpret, but it makes travelling for us pretty easy with an english-speaker always there to help. A term used to describe the India form of English is 'Hinglish' (ie. Hindu English). Sometimes they make new words that follow English grammer rules that arnt used in English language. In our train book they talk about 'preponing' your train ticket (ie. opposite of postpone). Also on some back alley ways you see 'please enter by the backside' (ie. please use the back door). And then there are new words that I dont know where they come from, but 'eve-teasing' is a word that means sexual harrassment. But it is all pretty entertaining, and these are all part of the fun quirks of a new country.

From Chennai, we caught a bus to a small town south called Mamallapuram. This town is famous for its stone carvings. We showed up to the bus station to catch a public bus there, and after tracking down the right bus, a vendor man said in a thick accent 'this isnt a very express bus'. We laughed him off and hoped on the bus, and over two hours later we had only gone 50km. Cycling would have been faster. But we are in no hurry so its a nice way to see the city and countryside.

Beautiful saris at Shore Temple


Mamallapuram has lots of amazingly carved temples. Two of the main ones are the Five Rathas and the Shore Temple. The Five Rathas was fasinating as the stone carving were done into rocks already in the ground, rather than ones moved there. Heading off to these temples we realised that we have to do a lot more reading about Hinduism and Indian religions to fully understand the significance of the carvings.

Natalie at the Five Rathas


Mamallapuram is said to be a bit of a travellers enclave. This is pretty much right, as we have seen more foreigners here in the first hour than we did in 3 days in Chennai. While its a bit of a pain with touts hassling you more than at other places, and more western restaurants than Indian, its understandable why a town is so popular with foreigners with all the amazing stone carvings - hence the reason we came. But it will also be nice heading to some less popular spots to see a different side to India.

Incredible Istanbul (22nd - 26th Nov 07)

Istanbul is on the geographic border between the Europe and Asian continents, seperated by the Bosphorous river. So before arriving in Istanbul we expcted the city to have more of an European feel that the rest of Turkey.

Istanbul was more prosperous and sophisticated than the rest of Turkey yet it still maintained its distinct Turkey vibe. And we absolutely loved the city.

Here we met up with a friend of Nats, Scott, for the weekend. He flew out from London to catch up with us. It was great to see a familiar face and to explore the city with him.

Scotty and Nick enjoying Pomegranite juice with a local lady


There are so many sights to Istanbul. Agia Sofia was a massive church built around 500AD that was later converted into a mosque. Other than the grand status of the building, the conversion into a Mosque made it even more interesting as mosaics of Jesus and Mary were painted over with Muslim design. Only some of these layers of the paint have been removed to show the Christian aspects underneath, but it still has a very mosque-like feel.

Other sights of interest were the Blue Mosque and the Toplaki palace.

The Blue Mosque


And no visit to the city isnt complete with a few hours at the Grand Bazaar (market place), boat trips up the river, lots of Turkish food and of course Baklava.

Mouth-watering Baklava on sale all over Istanbul


Then of course there is the most hilarious aspect of the weekend. The hostel we were staying at hired a belly-dancer for a show. The women could definately get those hips of hers moving. But then to keep the audience entertained she got people out of the audience to have a go dancing with her. Scott was one of her first victims, and when trying to give the women a tip, she quickly moved her body away teasing poor Scott. It took Scott quite a few attempts to get his note of Lira into part of her costume.

Scotty with the Belly-dancer

(this photo is for you Jane to see what your lovely brother got up to)

Then later it came to Nicks turn. He got his hips giggling with the women, and after he sat down the women came over with a look of her face 'wheres my tip?'. Nick didnt have a single cent on him as his bag was downstairs, so Scott came to the rescue. But the smallest note that Scott had was a 20 euro note (about $40nzd). When that came out, the women had the 'give me' look on her face, so reluctantly the money went over. She did damn well out of Scott in the audience, but it was well worth the very entertaining evening.

So overall it was a fantastic weekend in a great city with great company. From Istanbyl we flew to India to spend the next 5 weeks.

Central Turkey (15th - 21st Nov 07)

On our way from Izmir to Ankara, the capital of Turkey, we had the pleasure of catching a overnight train. Turkey is currently revamping its train network, putting new lines in and buying new trains. Our near new sleeper carriage was one of the best we have had on this trip. The journey itself was very scenic as we moved away from the coast up on to the central anatlian plateau. The landscape of rolling grassy steppes reminded us of mongolia.

We only spent a brief but busy day in Ankara where we visited the Anatolian Civilisations Museum, which is a fantastic museum housed in an old Caravanserai displaying objects from Anatolias numerous historic groups. It is amazing to read about how many different people have at one time or another ruled in modern day turkey. The greeks, persians, alexander the great, romans, ottomans, and the anzacs tried....

After Ankara our next stop was Cappadoccia, a region right in the heart of turkey. The draw here is the amazing landscape and unbelievable rock formations (that got nick going....). There are huge rock chimneys of soft volcanic rock that have been preserved by a hard rock cap that stops erosion while the surrounding rock was worn down. But on top of that the early christians (2000years ago) in turkey carved extensive houses and churches into the rock chimneys. In the churches are well preserved frescoes that decorate the walls. We hired a scooter one day to see some distant sights such as the underground cities that were built to hide in during attacks. These cities are often 10 levels deep and have granaries and pits for storing important things like wine. They also have huge rolling stones used to block doorways to trap intruders.

Rock Chimneys


Frescoes in the Cave Churches


We spent another couple of days doing some hikes around some of the valleys. We were accomanied by spotty the guide dog who belonged to the owner of our guesthouse. Spotty lead us through all the poorly marked paths, took us to a few water wells, found some old biscuits then lead us home after a few hours walking. Fantastic...

We then headed south to Konya, a strongly religious city which has some of the best mosques in Turkey. We enjoyed the suprisingly laid back and young people here and got to see some beautiful old mosques, which were located about everywhere we looked. Come prayer time the muzzin rang throughout the town from every direction.

The West Coast of Turkey (9th - 15th Nov 07)

All the reading we did prior to arriving in Turkey got both of us very excited. We heard such fantastic things about the people, the food and the culture. And also it does not use the Euro, which makes everything far more attainable.

So we had high expectations but so far it has lived up to every one.

We arrived in a town called Çesme on the Western Agean coast. In summer it is apparently quite touristy but we were visiting in the off-season and so it had a nice feel to it. We found a fantastic pension that was about half the price we were paying 10km across the sea in Greece. (A pension is the name given to a type of guesthouse that is more family run with only a few rooms).

The owners were fantastic and served us Chai (tea) that would be the first of many to come. In Turkey, tea is an important part of the day. You have a tea many times during the day, and strangers welcome you over to have a tea with them. It is great way to interact with locals, despite big language barriers.

From Çesme we headed to the nearby large city of Izmir. Four million people live in this city, but it doesnt seem that large in comparison to Ankara or Istanbul. Various Turkish people and tourists told us not to bother with the big cities like Izmir and Ankara, but some of our favourite parts of travelling is not sights as such, but just wandering around watching how local people live and their way of life. That is something that it at its best in big cities where you are catching public transport with only locals (not tourists) and eating at cheap fantastic restaurants where the prices and quality is great as it is geared towards the local market.

Later we headed down to Selcuk, which was a nice little town and a good base to explore the nearby archaelogical site of Ephasus. This was an amazing ancient village from the Roman Empire, complete with an ampitheatre, baths and libaries to name a few.

The library at Ephasus


We also headed to Kusadasi for one day, but this was a pretty horrible tourist town with touts everywhere, pushing you into their shops. In Turkey, the carpet shop is the tourist trap, where they try and get you into their shop to see how they weave their carpets and then sell you one at twice the price for what it is worth. And of course they offer all sorts of services like delivering it back to NZ for us. Not our sort of place, where they pressure you to purchase, so on hearing the word carpet mentioned we quickly move along.

A Caravanseri in Kusadasi


So we caught the train back to Izmir to spend a bit more time there. The trains in Turkey are fantastic but unfortunately there are only a few lines, so to get across to Ankara we had to head back to Izmir. But while we were there this time we tried out a Turkish bath. Here you spend time in a big swimming pool like thing and a sauna. And then you have someone exfoliate you all over then give you a massage. Normally men and women are seperated, but the one we went to was only male masseurs. I didnt totally enjoy my male massuer experience, as he was a bit inappropriate, and Nick came away with grazes because they exfoliated him so hard, but it was a interesting thing to do none-the-less. Maybe we will head to another one in Istanbul that is more professional.

And of course the food has been fatastic in Turkey. Our meat-intake has quadrupled but there is great variety and it is all very reasonably priced.

A common sight in Turkey

Athens & the Greek Island Chios (3rd - 9th Nov 2007)

We coincidentally timed our visit to Athens when the Athens marathon was being held. This is a particularly interesting Marathon race because it is the original route starting in a place called Marathon and finishing in the Olympic stadium. It was hard on Nick meeting all the competitors at our backpackers and on the street pumped about the race, as completing a marathon is one of his ambitions. But the timing wasn't right for him to enter in the Athens one, as our cycle touring meant that he could not run as seriously as needed to compete. So the goal is the Auckland one later next year.

We went down to the Olympic stadium to watch the finish. It had an amazing atmosphere and you could imagine all the sports events held here over hıstory. Both a mens and womens race record was set this year, so it was also amazing watching them come in.

Olympic Stadium in Athens


The Acropolis was also a must-see of Athens. We unfortunately timed our visit with hundreds of tour groups, so we didn't linger longer than necessary and probably didn't appreciate its historical significance as much as we should have. In terms of other things to see in Athens, it doesn't nearly compete to those in Rome. So after wandering the streets we ended up spending a bit of time meeting new people at our social hostel.

Part of the Acropolis


From Athens we caught an overnight ferry to an island called Chios. İt is only 15km from the border with Turkey, and is described as an off-the-beaten track kind of island. This suited us just fine as it was a convenient jumping point for Turkey and we could explore a Greek island without the package tourists. One town in particular had interesting geometric designs on many of the houses.

Geometric designs in the village Pyrgi on Chios Island


Chios was a great way to spend our last few days in Greece, roaming around the old streets and chilling out in our fantastic guesthouse in a restored neo-classical building.

Then a short hop across the sea to our first destination in Turkey - Çesme. From here we have just over two weeks to explore such a vast country (regrettably it seems we didn't allocate enough time).

Greece: Olympia, the Mani, Ancient Corinth & Nafplio (24th Oct - 3rd Nov 07)

After a 20 hour ferry from Italy, we finally arrived at the port of Patras in Greece, in the SW corner of the country. From here we were in a great position to explore some ancient sites and nature. Our first spot was Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Games were held. The archaelogical site here was fantastic, with an equally good museum so you could imagine how it was under the ancient Greek period.

Where they light the Olympic flame - in the Ancient & Modern Games


Nick trying out the track at Olympia


Then off further down the Peloponesse to a town called Kardamyli (south of Kalamata where we tasted a few olives on route). We did some great walks here, one through a fantastic gorge. This part of Greece has amazing scenery, with small roads, so it was a bit of a stab for us to be sitting on a bus, rather than riding the fantastic roads. But we had to send home the bikes, so we now have to live with the decision.

Walking the Vorges Gorge in Kardamyli


On the Monday morning when catching our bus back, we were slightly moaning at it being over an hour late to arrive. Then at the train station, our train was an hour late too. It took us two days to realise that daylight savings finished in Greece, and we were going by the wrong time - stupid tourists we were.

Then off to more archaelogical sites at Ancient Corinth, and then to wander round a pituresque Greek town of Naplio. While we werent too interested in Classical studies in the past, being here and seeing the real deal is very impressive. So now even a piece of pottery at a musuem is fascinating and it makes us want to learn more about Greek history.

It has taken a bit of adjustment to backpacking again but Greece has been a great country so far and from here we go to Athens and then to a Greek Island of Chios.

Rome and arrivederci Italia (14th - 23rd Oct 07)

We arrived in Rome on a quiet sunday afternoon and rode through suprisingly quiet roads to our campsite about 15km from the centre. Camping Flaminio was our first 4 star campsite in Europe and it was more like a village - it took about 15 mins to walk from one side to the other. After three months of sleeping in a tent we decided to get a basic cabin which was only 2 euros more than camping. This turned out to be a godsend as the next day the temperature dropped to 4 degrees and didnt get above 12 for the whole week. Winter hit and it hit quick.

Rugged up at the Roman Forum


Besides sending our bikes home (which took up lots of time) we had plenty of sights to see. We did all the usual sights, the Vatican, Roman Forum, Spanish steps, Sistine Chapel, etc. Our favourite sight was probably the map room in the Vatican, with huge maps painted on the wall of a long barrel vaulted gallery. Besides the 1000 other tourists we were rubbing shoulders with it was an amazing room. The Sistine Chapel was of course, pretty impressive.

Sistine Chapel- A photo doesnt quite do it justice


Rome overall had a great feel to it. While there were lots of tourists with maps, the local people were very welcoming. It was nice just wandering the streets and people watching. Loved Rome and will definately be back.

The Roman Forum


As it was our last week in Italy we tried to stuff ourselves with all the Italian food we could. Definately very sad saying good bye to pizza, foccaccia, cheap fantastic coffee, and all the local produce.

After our bikes went home to NZ, we brought two small backpacks and set off to the east coast of Italy via overnight train to catch a ferry to Greece. It was a teary goodbye to one of our favourite countries, which we ended up staying for 2 months all up. But exciting destinations of Greece and Turkey await...

"No more packages to NZ!!" Sending the bikes home...

So we have made the bold decision to send our bicycles home. The coldness of winter is starting to grip us in Italy which means cycling was starting to not look as fun. We also are heading to Greece, Turkey then India so we dont have the time to cycle around anymore (as we only have two weeks each in Greece and Turkey). So we were toying with either selling the bikes here in Italy or sending them home.

After some heated debates and reflecting on our travels we could not bear to sell the bikes. So next we had to try and ship them home. This proved to be difficult, as companies do not ship small items (ie. bike boxes) to NZ. Well they do, but at a heafty price of 1000euros on a plane. So we started researching the Italian Post System. So far we have sent our packs home via post from Vietnam and numerous other packages around the world and it has worked out fine. Our problem here was that the size of the bikes was over the allowable limit (of 1m max dimension). So Nat utilised all her mathematical prowess and solved some complex trig functions to arrange the bikes in boxes that were under the limit. We ended up taking the forks, handlebars, seats, pedals and wheels of the bikes and putting these in seperate boxes. We also had to send all our gear home, like our panniers, racks and cycling clothes (which are worth more than the bikes!!). So after modifying countless boxes, we came up with 2 large boxes with the bikes and 2 smaller ones with the gear.

Because they were so bulky we had to take them to the post office from our campsite on the outskirts of Rome on the metro on different days. The guys at the post office were in hysterics the second day we arrived with a big box to NZ, but by the fourth day and box they were laughing saying "no more packages to NZ". But it turned out very cheap to send them and fingers crossed the kids arrive safe for we have many places we want to cycle back in NZ.

Pizza & Pompeii (8th - 14th Oct 07)

We based ourselves in the town of Sorrento which across the Bay of Naples. We had a great camp spot amidst olive trees and views across the water of Mt Vesuvius and Naples. From here we could explore the sites of Pompeii, and do day trips into Naples for Pizza.

The view from our campsite


In Naples we met up with Nats friend Zara for a few days. Naples is famous for chaos, crime, fantastic museums, but most importantly - the birthplace of Pizza. So we definately could not miss it. The classic Margherita (Mozzerela & Tomat) or the Marinara (Oregano & Tomato) were served on a thicker base than the Rome equivalents - delicious. In Naples there are strict guidelines to Pizza making, with the Mozzerela for example, being only of the Buffalo variety.

We spent a full day in Pompeii - the Roman town that was buried under metres of ash when Mt Vesuvis erupted in AD79. This preserved every element of the society which was fantastic to observed the dynamics of an ancient civilisation so similar to the modern day. Areas that we found particularly interested were the Bakeries (with ovens like the modern day pizza oven), the Mansions of the wealthy, and of course the casts of the bodies of the victims. The brothel was interesting with frescos on the wall of various sexual positions, as if the customer could choose from a menu his preference. The society did not have the current day prudish attitude towards sexual issues, with sexual mosaics in various homes of the wealthy.

One option at the Brothel


The Bakery

The Dramatic Coastline of Amalfi (5th - 8th Oct 07)

After cycling the fantastic Cinque Terra, we were in the mood for some more stunning Italian coastlines. And what was more famous than the twist and bends of the Amalfi coast. This part of Italy lies just south of Naples, in the central west coast. The villages here are more for the rich and famous, but this is when cycling is at is best, as we can cycle on through without paying exorberant prices.

The Fantastic Riding


We wanted to make the most of our time on the Amalfi, so despite it being only a 80km ride, we broke it up over two days. So we spent a night camping on the only camp ground on the Amalfi, which of course came with a price. As the owner said in a thick Italian accent, 'expensive yes, but you get what you pay for'. It was well worth it as we were on a whole terrace to ourselves within metres of the plunge down to the sea.

Camping on the edge


This was stunning until a massive thunder storm hit that evening. It felt like the lightening was striking metres from our tent. And then off course there was the very heavy rain, which flooded down the terraces onto our lower site. This was the one time our sturdy macpac tent wasnt quite so waterproof. But we survived the night with more fantastic riding the next day when the rain eased.

Nick riding the Amalfi

La Dolce Vita (29th Sept - 4th Oct 07)

We have been living 'la dolce vita' or the sweet life for the past week in Sicily. After leaving Pisa we managed to work our way down to Sicily by catching no less than 5 trains!! Nat used her extensive research and wrote some complicated mathematical equations to search the Italian Train Timetables to find us regional trains that are the only ones that take bicycles. But we managed to get to Sicily for much cheaper than the direct trains!

We had to catch a car ferry to Sicily, which cost all of €1, our cheapest transport to date. Arriving in Messina, the port town was more akin to arriving in an Asian city. It was complete chaos. We were dodging scooters and being passed by cars two abreast. We even rode past a few people on horse and carts. It is totally different to the north of Italy.

Leaving Messina, we rode south along the east coast to stop in a small village called San Alessi. We pitched our tent 5m from the sea and looked around amazed that we were sharing the campsite with only a few other people. Bliss..

We were even more impressed when the groundskeeper gave us a table and chairs to sit at...this is southern hospitality at its best. Table and chairs are like obtaining the holy grail when we have been hunching on our Malaysian mat for 3 months!

So we enjoyed meals overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, especially breakfast where we faced the sunrise. The little village became our second home, we shopped at the local produce shops with the old ladies. Nick rose at the crack of dawn to get fresh bread and biscotti to enjoy with fresh coffee at our.....table!!

Our campsite was sitting in the shadows of Mt Etna, Europes largest active volcano, so we took the opportunity to ride around her slopes. We took off expecting to climb the 1900m to the summit but unfortunately cloud came in and restricted our view so we couldnt make it to the top.

Sicilian Switchbacks


We ended up staying for a week before venturing back to the mainland. This time we did it in style with a passenger ferry direct to Salerno (near Naples). We were part of only about 20 passengers on this huge boat. The rest was made up of trucks and truck drivers. But suprisingly the boat was newly rennovated and was like having a cruise liner to ourselves!!

Now we are cycling to the Amalfi coast and onto Naples.

The Cinque Terre in Cinque Days (21-28 September 07)

After spending few days in Genova it was time to move on. The city is the home of pesto, and after having fresh pesto with gnocci, pesto on foccacia and pesto panini we have become pesto experts. Hmmm, this one has too much basil, not enough olive oil etc. But they take their pesto seriously, and you can even buy fresh stuff from vending on the street side, if you ever need a midnight pesto hit!!

We rode for 5 days from Genova to Pisa and we both agree it is 'the best' riding we have had for the whole trip!! The road hugged the coast providing spectacular views and then it would become narrow and wind through tiny villages. It was quite challenging with some big climbs and it was extremely popular with recreational road cyclists who would often yell 'vai vai vai' (go, go, go) when they past us on the big climbs.

We would often come across names of italian cyclists painted on the road, indicating we were riding on a stage of the Giro d'Italia or the tour of italy. So we thought we picked our roads pretty well.

Nick taking a breather on a coastal hill climb

Nat powering near the top of a 14km climb

The highlight of the ride was the day we rode through the Cinque Terre (lit means five earths) which is a group of five villages on the NW Italian Coast. They are all remarkably placed in small narrow valleys on the rugged coastline and are a huge tourist draw card. Most people ferry between them, but we of course we took on the road. Only residence cars and of course bicycles can get down to them as the main road stays high up on the cliffs. We choose to descend the 500m to one of the villages which was packed with american tourists, who would often point at our Trek bikes saying, 'look honey, they ride treks like lance armstrong..' which made us cringe.

On the way back up to the main road from the village we hit a road which was at the best laughable. It was a 3km climb, and we ascended 400m which is an average of 13% gradient. Some parts were well over 20% gradient, which is ridiculous to try and ride let alone with panniers and 40kg of gear. But we struggled our way up, resting every 100m. We were in our lowest gears, out of our seats and putting as much weight on the pedals just to get moving.

After riding the rugged coastline for 3 days, we had 2 days on the flat to rest the legs.

We had already been to Pisa so we stayed only overnight, then the following day jumped on trains to get us down to Sicily. Nat did some fantastic research to find us all the train connections that we could take our bikes on. But 2 days and 5 trains and one ferry later we were on Sicily.

Finding campgrounds in Italy is no problem, they are everywhere and we have a great map with their locations but we are now encountering the problem that they are all closing because it is out of summer. We are often the only people their, but the plus is they are getting a lot cheaper.

The French and Italian Riviera (9th Sep - 21st Sep 07)

We decided to catch a French train (which we know we can take our bikes on) from Biaritz to Nice. We rode from east to west, now we are training back to the east.

We decided to stay in a ......... hostel in nice (I can hear the gasps) for the first time this trip!!! Partly due to their being no campsite near Nice. But we were very happy with our choice. It was in an old monastary and was great. Free breakfast, free internet, but unfortunately full of NZ and aussie rugby heads here for the world cup. But we had 2 nights in beds for the first time in 6 weeks. We explored Nice for a day then headed to the east along the French then Italian Riviera (coastline). We were wowed by the ride, a busy road, but packed with recreational cyclists, that wound its way along the coast passing through bays with mega boats parked up. We rode the 5km length of Monaco and managed to navigate in between the 500 million tourist buses battling for parking spaces on the harbour edge.

Nick in Nice


The French Riviera



We stayed in San Remo in Italy for Nats birthday on the 17th (quick send her an email if you forgot!!) and had a great resort style campsite. Our site was right on the cliff front and strangely all the sites were paved with brick, so we had some trouble pitching the tent.

Scrambled Eggs and coffee on Nats Birthday


We then rode on to Genova, a city we visited with Nicks mum and dad but loved its dark and winding alleys full of great food shops we came back. Staying down the coast in a small village but commuting in for a few days.

We are now heading further along the Italian coast, through the Cinque Terra (five earths or villages) and then to Pisa.