I Still Call Australia Home: 12 Jan

Touched down on Australian soil night of Friday 12th Jan. Emotional homecoming, but great - all Australians on the plane chanted "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie; Oi! Oi! Oi!" & sung bits of Waltzing Matilda, as I am sure has been habit for generations of intrepid travelling Aussies.

We've started uni already, and found a place to live. Shall move in next weekend.

Bangkok: 8-12 January

Spent awesome 4 days in the hot & steamy metropolis of South East Asia - gorged ourselves on awesome & cheap Thai food, cheap drinks & cheap shopping.

Most striking feature of country's culture is highlighted in Bangkok: the degree to which Thais venerate their King. Every public building & most city corners & bridges are adorned with shrines to their beloved King. The dutiful citizens show their respect with heads bent & minds praying, plus leaving gifts of food & money whenever they pass an image of Him. Just fantastic. I bet Queen Liz II is jealous!

Soaked in the sight delights of the resplendent Wat Pho (Temple of Emerald Buddha - statue only 75cm & not make of emerald, but nontheless beautiful), the Royal Palace & Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn, covered in brilliant porcelain mosaic from busted porcelain used as ballast by Chinese trading ships.)

Avoided dozens of scams, but did buy a couple of lovely suits for dirt cheap though - I was not counting that as a scam, until the Commonwealth Bank cancelled my credit card upon return citing a security hazard! No damage done though.

Railay East & Krabi, Thailand: 4 - 8 Jan

A quick transit stop in expensive Bangkok airport took us to the beachside paradise of Krabi, on the south-western coast of Thailand's peninsula bit. Stayed a night on the touristy beach of Ao Nang (promised "good pice, if stay long time") before taking a charming longtail boat across the glorious Railay Bay to our magical hotel, the Diamond Private Resort.

Our days were fantastic! Mostly glorious white sun-kissed sand, swimming & snorkelling in crystal clear oceans with amazing tropical flora & fauna, below towering sheer rock faces lined with verdant jungle.

Masses of cheap & delicious Thai food spurned us to take a Thai cooking course. Can't wait to try out our new repertoire!

Calcutta to Kolkata

We traveled through the colonial times of Calcutta, a beautiful English city by the banks of Hooghly River, modelled on the London on Thames of it's day at the grand Victoria Memorial; and through the noisy crowded streets of Kolkata of today with many street hawkers, beggars and delicious Bengali sweet vendors!

We also visited many of Kolkata's monumental sites, the Indian Museum and their snazzy metro tube rail.

Our one short day didn't do the city justice, but we enjoyed our stay tremendously soaking ourselves in Tandoori Chicken Tikka and Gulab Jamun (Indian sweet balls).

Darjeeling Tea: 29 Dec - 2 Jan

Spent New Year's Eve & 5 divine days in the archetypal Indian hill station of Darjeeling, at around 2,100m. The derivation of the town's name has a cute story to it & highlights the seamless blending of Buddhist & Hindu faiths that characterizes the region - being inherently Indian, but so close to the Nepal, Tibetan& Bhutan borders. The town was named after Dorje (a Buddhist deity) and the linga (a representation of the Hindu god Shiva) becoming Darjeeling!
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We visited their cute little zoo - which boasts heaps of red pandas, several highly disgruntled big cats & the impressive claim to fame that it is the highest zoo in the world!

We visited a couple of famous tea gardens & sampled their brew, learnt a little about the different grades of tea & which leaves they come from (smallest, newest leaves = highest grade) & that they are manually separated by cheap labour. Buy fair trade tea!

Although New Years Eve itself was spent with a total lack of champagne & only cheap petrol passing for wine (India being a country devoted to hard liquor - their whiskey is their pride), our New Year began spectacularly watching a glorious sunrise over the majestic Himalayas at around 2,800m. Talk about feeling on top of the world!

A Passage to India (after Hemingway) 29 December

We thought it would be exciting to travel overland between Nepal & India - see the countryside as we went, the little villages etc etc. Very romantic ideal, but crap in practice. Overland travel in Asia is not recommended.

Bus would have taken 17 hours to India border from Kathmandu (and these are not Aussie Greyhound buses, but we'd be sardines in rust buckets). So we cut that & flew domestic. Costs USD$40 for Indian/Nepal nationals, but USD$100 (!) for foreigners - for a 45 minute flight. Ripped off. Kathmandu airport is essentially a do-it-yourself airport. Sit on own luggage while wait. Check yourself in as staff too useless to do it for you. Discover new taxes you must pay before you depart, as no one else will tell you until the boarding gate. Conduct own security check as the frisk as like being whipped with feather of small, timid duck.

Taxi from regional Bhardapur airport to border was huge drama. Leaving airport, met a very friendly & generous Mrs. Kumai who offered to share her booked taxi with us. The criminal taxi racket at the airport frowned on the whole affair & harassed us for almose 40 minutes! Shouting (in Nepali & Hindi, of course), barracading the taxi from leaving, rocking the vehicle, wriggling their hands through the window- we feared for our luggage on the roof! But after the fight, our taxi driver drove forcefully off. We're fine & our luggage is fine. Thank goodness.

We shared Mrs. Kumai's taxi (very generously) all the way to bustling Indian town of Siliguri & from there into a shared jeep (think Toyota Landcruiser from 1970, with 16 people inside. Fantastic. Cheap.) up, up, up into the northern Indian hills to the gorgeous little hillstation of Darjeeling. Slow, winding drive but breathtaking scenery.

Kathmandu: Most Polluted City in Asia (officially)

Ah, Kathmandu. Brent's first visit to an Asian city left him, as many before him, stunned by the dirt, smog, pollution & crowds! We stayed in the touristy area of Thamel & enjoyed the (generally) fine food in the surrounds. Nasty experience with local Nepali food though.

We had about 5 days in the capital & saw a huge number of sights (many, many temples), highlights including:

Pashupatinath: A major Hindu temple not just in Nepal, but for Hindus internationally. One of the largest Shiva temples on the subcontinent, on the banks of the holy Bagmati river. Non-Hindu folk are not allowed in, but Aditi reports a magnificent shrine with a 10x5m golden gilded statue of Nandi, Shiva's bull. On the day we visited a funeral was taking place for a political leader. The ceremony was amazing to watch - the body is wrapped in white & orange cloth, draped with thousands of marigolds, prayers are chanted, the women of the family sprinkle holy water from the river before the body is heaped upon an elaborate pyre & the eldest son ignites the timber. Very sad & moving, but very touching & beautiful also.

Dakshinkali: A temple dedicated to Kali (Shiva's consort in her destructive incarnation). Every Tuesday & Saturday numerous animals are sacrificed to satisfy Kali's bloodlust. We watched half dozen chickens meet their end, but left before the parade of goats & buffalo were brought to the alter. Amazing.

Boudnath: Village of Tibetan refugees & home to the enormous Boudnath Stupa, a huge Buddhist temple. Amazing to see the gleaming, whitewashed surface & golden spire against the cityscape.

Durbar Square: Ancient centre of Kathmandu religion & monarchy- home to numerous temples & statues dating from 16th century (some statues from 5th!!). Home of pagoda architecture, later exported to rest of orient.