Star Trekkin across... some hills...

Bonjour!

Since we last met several important events have occurred. Firstly; our voyage to Chiang Rai where we slept soundly in our very first 'homestay' minglin' about with the locals and generally sticking out. Secondly; we bought a new bag. Thirdly; Ashley got to play around with some trad. Thai instruments (he now wants one of each.... Santa?). Fourthly (is that a word?); We set off on a 3 day trek, a mere 25km journey which we approached bustling with confidence and mocking the seemingly insignificant distance...

Well....

The trek was fantastic, it was spread across three days and we were lucky enough to visit three remote hillside villages and stay in varying degrees of accomodation (from; a bit chilly and uncomfortable to; a bit more chilly and less comfortable). The hiking itself required us to lug our, thinned down, 10kg bags (again.... HA! no worries) through jungle, woodland, up and over a number of big 'ills past some luscious scenery (including coffee plantations, kay 'the eternal barista' was in her element). Turns out that 25km of hills is tough going for two unfit city dwellers... however we made it and seem a little more prepared for the trekking potential of the big NZ.

We're still awaiting a suitable place to upload some images on the cheap to show that we aren't actually just sitting in an internet cafe in Blackpool....

We've got to go and pack up now, we're back in Bangkok after another delightfully cockroach ridden nighttrain and we're heading for Singapore in the early hours...

If anyone knows of any 'must-sees' in Singapore then please give us a shout as there is too much to do in too little time.... Christmas soon eh!

We'll write again before then,

loads of love
x x x

Water time

Word Up!

We are in Chiang Mai at the moment... um... we set off from Bangkok on Monday on a 'long-tailed' boat passing the floating markets, big fish and huge scary monitor lizards. We caught a few more impressively large religious things (our enthusiasm now starting to wane somewhat... temples, temples, shrines, temples, big Buddhas and temples). We headed on to Kanchanaburi and grabber a samlor (single seater bike style rickshaw) to a neat little guesthouse on the River Kwai. On tuesday we visited the cemeteries and a museum for those who gave their lives during the construction and subsequent demolition of the 'Death Railway'. We also took a stroll across the infamous bridge over the river which has been reconstructed. Later that day we visited the Erawan national park for a dip in there seven waterfall pools. This is a must for everyone although it takes a while to get used to the gangs (youths) of fish that start attacking you and trying to rid you of your skin (apparently only dead skin but I'm not sure.... you give an inch...). We also went canoeing along the river for 6km, Kay and I hopped in a double canoe. This is now Ashley's favourite persuit as we both make a crackin' team and flew past other canoe-ists in style... sort of.

At night we hit the night markets and witnessed a sound and light shows where they re-enacted the story of the bridge over the river and it's demolition by bombers (for this they used remote controlled planes with fireworks attached and the wizards behind the show went a bit pyro seemingly setting fire to parts of the bridge to convey the attack.

The next day we set off on a barge cruise down the river stopping off at a few more temples and heading out to a more peaceful Thailand. We stayed on the boat over night, sleeping outside isn't really a worry though as the temperature stuck at 18 degrees celcius anyway.... it's a hard life.

The next day and a few bus rides later we reached Ayutthaya from where we caught an overnight train up to Chiang Mai for a day off bamboo rafting, elephant riding, walking and more night marketing. That's about it from the last few days, it has been pretty hectic. Now we are going to go for a stroll into town as rumour has it there is a pub that sells strongbow... cider?! I can't wait.

Catch you in a bit. Love to everyone,

xxx

Thailand

So wat dii!

"Hot, Humid, Busy, Loud and... um... Hot" are just a few words that describe Bangkok. We had a few issues getting here due to the international airport being closed, but we managed to wrangle a route through an airbase which left us with a 200km bus ride into the city centre.

Banglamphu (our initial area of residence in Bangkok) is a bustling, touristy, student-esque place full of very cheap rooms, foods and stalls selling all kinds of wares. It's a great little festival spot for a day or two with bars and live music venues dotted all over the show. However; sooner or later you'll end up getting fed up with the mardy British 18-30 boys on tour who seem to spend the days drinking in bars and then the nights shouting at Thai women or taxi drivers.

In the immortal words of Deffee 'Get the Northerners out of here'.

Day 2 and we realised we had fortuitously stumbled across a national festival to celebrate the King's birthday and being the generous King he is we were treated to seeing local cuisine (deep fried cockroaches, massive crickets, grub things...), to see the King's parade which was stunning, to hear a million Thai patriots sings the national anthem whilst lighting candles in the local park and to witness a Thai fireworks spectacle... and boy it WAS spectacular. The evening soon segued into a massive concert with several stages ranging from old Thai crooners through to trance raves, here we were able to witness Thai teenagers dance, someone needs to step in and teach them some moves I feel. We also watched the Thai kickboxing final where I'm fairly sure some hardnut Thai kid kicked the life out of a British guy... anyways...

Yesterday we hopped on the ferry to asia's biggest market which was clearly too big, we didn't even make it out of the pet section, then on to Silom road for some temples and religious dancing things. Silom is also renound for its Patpong Sois where all manner of strange Thai business goes down. We have yet to explore that end of Thailand.... We spent the rest of the day with a day pass for the pretty smart skytrain, and got to grips with public transport and the sights and smells of Thailand.

As per usual my time is up at this internet cafe so we'll write again with more exciting adventures soon.

Lots of love to you all and I hope you're all on top of your Christmas shopping. 18 days to go?!...

xxx

Due North

Namaste!

Here's what we did for the last 12 days or so....

Saturday we spent the day in Delhi exploring the city centre and trying to avoid shoe shiners and ear cleaning street merchants, needless to say we both have very polished flipflops now. We started to get to know our tight little gang of fellow travellers, they are a great bunch hailing from all over the world and we could not have dreamnt of a more fun bunch to travel with.

At 10pm we hopped on an overnight train to Kathosomethingsomething. Overnight trains are fun if not a little hard to sleep in, 6 single beds are crammed into little seperate compartments 3 beds high. As a group we spent the hours really getting to know one another, Roy, if you ever read this, it was a pleasure to learn of your interest in stockings.... Our guide at this point took it upon himself to reveal that on his previous tour train trip the carriage he was in derailed and many of the occupants were rushed to hospital.... fun fun fun. Anyways we made it and spent Sunday driving through the hills towards Almora. The roads were like something out of a Bond film with sheer drops and blind corners taken at pace by our jeep. When we reached Almora we spent the day in this tiny town being stared at and taking in the stunning views of the Himalayas. We were only the second bunch of westerners to stumble into this town so it was interesting as we were photographed, followed and also invited to a wedding. This was an invite we could not refuse (free food innit) and our part in the wedding was commenced when the girls from our little gang were asked to dance before dinner, Kay rocked the place up with some reserved English dancing... we blended in. During our stay we visited a bunch more temples, markets and a weaving house. It is important to point out that at this point it had gotten very cold, and we had further north to travel.
From Almora we visited Jageswar, this place is home to an 8th century complex of temples which were quite stunning to visit, certianly one of the highlights so far. From here we travelled to Ranikhet, now this really may be one of the most stunning places you could stay. We had our own little wooden hut with views of the mountain ranges, this hidden little gem is miles away from any major cities and we were treated to our first clear night of stars out of the city smog (along with bonfire and beer). It is also important to add that although it was very darn chilly up in the hills we could warm ourselves up with a serious table tennis tournament, of course.

Wednesday - Corbett National Park safari.... bit lame, didn't see any tigers, did see other animals, elephants and deer mostly.

Thursday - We headed to the Ganges and got dropped off on a little secluded beach for a night of camping, beach football and more bonfires. This was the calm before the storm with an early start on Friday seeing us clamber into a raft and hit some amazingly fun class 3 rapids. White water rafting is now one of my favourite things, although I wasn't sure that Ash should have been placed at the front. Kay bravely took her camera (in it's waterproof case) for some photographs and handed the camera to Ash so she could have a little dip in the river, photos on route to you!

Great fun!

We arrived downriver into Rishikesh, hippy capital of the world. The place the Beatles stayed during there India days. We loved it. Drinking chai, sitting on cushions, Kay did some intense yoga, Ash stared at sitars. Fun fun fun.

On the saturday we visited Haridwar, a very holy city. It was busy, smelly and seemed to be aimed at making people feel uncomfortable. But still the images of shiva and vishnu were stunning and the fast flowing ganges run straight through the centre of the town where people descend steps to wash away there sins... luckily we are sin free as the river looks cold.

Finally we zoomed back to Delhi on a day train which was again more comfortable than I imagined, certainly more comfrotable that a long plane journey...

Anyways we are still trying to sort out our flights to Thailand, no one wants to give us any updates on the situation so we will, no doubt, report back when we know what's gwarning.

Big love
x x x x

A-OK

Hello there,

We're alive! Kay and I have been on a 12 day tour of Northern India which has been jampacked with adventures and excitement. Unlike Delhi, Agra, Jaipur... the North is a colder, less stressful and vastly (vastly vastly) more beautiful region of India. However to go into detail will take sometime and once again Kay and I are on the move so this is just a quick note to say that we are both doing well, far away from the attacks and that we miss you all. We will be heading to Thailand this week (as soon as we can confirm some flights) so once that has been settled (hopefully tomorrow) we will update you with where we are...!

Thinking of you all, loads of love

Ash'n'Kay

Real Update Number 1

Hello there,
So here's what has been going on for this week:
We arrived on monday into hot Delhi airport and caught a taxi to our first hostel. Within an hour of arriving we were directed to the local tourist information centre where we found ourselves parting with many rupees through some slick talking. Then merely an hour on we found ourselves with a driver exploring the heart of Delhi from Old Delhi the famous market town through to the many vast temples, mosques and monuments such as India gate or the presidential buildings. We ate in our first (of many) Indian restraunts sampling many of the Southern Indian dishes. Finally we stumbled back to our hostel safe in the knowledge that we had an 8am start the next day and had not slept for 48 hours.

So day 2 and we were off to Rajastan's capital Jaipur for a 2 day exploration of all things Indian. The highlights included a desolate monkey temple built into a cliff face, Amber fort a fierce section of the incredible 17th century walls that run along the hillsides, also Sunset fort (aptly named) where we spent several hours taking in the stunning view across Jaipur. The most startling element of Sunset fort was the noise eminating from the city. India truly is vibrant!
Amongst other sights we visited the Pink City (also aptly named) which cannot be described well enough (we will get photos up soon I hope).

Now having gotten slightly more used to the insane driving, constant sightings of elephants or camels and never-ending pestering from hopeful stall owners or children we were ready to hit Agra.

Sight of the Taj Mahal, Agra is one of India's major tourist spots. This has encouraged a rise in crime in that area and so is often a catalyst to banks blocking debit cards used in that area. This was not something Kay and I were aware of and so when it came time to enter into the Taj Mahal we found ourselves without funds and rather nervous. Luckily we always have internet cafes and our trusty mobile phone for back up and after a quick (long) call to HSBC we were able to resolve the issue just in time to have missed the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal, bugger.
Not to worry though, Tara, our driver, to the rescue! We were instead treated to a fabulous meal (at local price!) and an intimate trip to the river view of the Taj Mahal, this was simply stunning (although like most days fairly misty). Again this is something that must be witnessed, hopefully our snaps will convey some of it's beauty.

So from Agra, after more temples and monuments, we return to Delhi and catch up with the small tour group we are travelling North with. They seem like a nice bunch and we will be, this evening, hopping on a overnight train ride with them, so I'm sure we'll all get to know one-another very well soon enough!

We will try to stay in touch as we head north although the cities will start to dwindle and I'm not sure we can rely on finding an internet connection.

Love to everyone,

Kayleigh & Ashley
x x x

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

With the wind in our favour we sailed (flew) into Delhi in 8 short hours, bright eyed and bushy tailed... After landing we fought with passport control ques and lack of sleep (a potent combination) and soon found ourselves in the pleasent company of our first taxi driver (who had a great moustache.. what a beginning)... The roads and driving etiquette in the India is something that must be witnessed with your own eyes to believe it, it really is a wild ride.

Now we are four days in and we've been to three major cities, seen countless temples, monuments and forts and are still both adjusting to this culture. Suprisingly we, a bright red headed white girl and a 6 foot scruffy (and handsome) looking white boy, are less able to blend in than we imagined... therefore we find ourselves the centre of attention quite often, from being hustle targets (thank you The Real Hustle) to being photographed constantly.

Anyway, we are unable to give you the details of our exploits so far as this computer I am using (a friendly hostel porters' laptop) is powered by yoga or some other energy and is liable to fizzle out at any minute.

Watch this space though for the real exciting adventures of Kay and Ash - In Incredible India!

Love to our loved ones

xxxxx

4 Days and Counting...

In the eternal words of Mr J Denver (bracketed comments by me):

All my bags are packed   (well, not quite)
Im ready to go (well, not quite)
Im standin here outside your door (well, not quite)
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye (who?)
But the dawn is breakin' (it's half past 3 in the afternoon)
Its early morn (see previous)
The taxis waitin' (not called a taxi, hope I'm not being charged)
Hes blowin his horn (easy)
Already Im so lonesome (I have friends)
I could die (not emo friends)

So kiss me and smile for me (why not)
Tell me that youll wait for me (I hope I'm not late)
Hold me like youll never let me go (but not in a sinister manner)
cause Im leavin on a jet plane (on sunday)
Dont know when Ill be back again (not entirely sure at present)
Oh babe, I hate to go (not applicable)

Traveling from 2008 to 2009

Main Entry:	time travel
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	the hypothetical process of moving between past and future; also written time-travel

So it is with great excitement that Ashley and Kay will be traveling from 2008 to 2009 exploring many timezones and destinations. Watch this page for news of their exploits and discoveries.