My ASU Adventures

And it was on to Mauritius... I figured that after the mountains I could cope with a month on a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

Jess and I decided to splash out slightly for this placement, and rented a villa for the month in Grande Baie right up in the north of the island – it has air con and our own pool! The pool is literally about 5 metres from the front door... which is rather nice in the 30 degree heat!

Arriving in Mauritius felt almost like returning to 'civilisation' after the subcontinent. Hardly anyone was beeping their horns, pedestrian crossings and traffic lights actually seem to mean something, and there's a supermarket! Like a proper supermarket with trolleys and everything. The supermarket itself – the Super U – has pretty much everything possible. It's like a cross between Coles, Big W, a bookshop/newsagent and a patisserie! And because so much is imported here, there's a lot of familiar brands on the shelves – it was very exciting to be able to buy barbeque shapes and Bega cheese – as well as a lot of stuff where all the writing is in French or Hindi.

The main pull of a tropical island is the beach though. To be honest, the beaches themselves aren't anything particularly amazing, but the scenery and the warmth of the water more than make up for it. It's awesome to be able to be at the beach at 5 in the afternoon and the water still seem like you're getting into a bath! There's some great beaches up and down the coast from where we are staying, but last weekend we went out to the Isle aux Cerfs by a speedboat – it's a whole island of beaches! The water was gorgeous and warm and so clear and perfectly turquoise, and we had a bbq lunch right on the beach. We also took the opportunity to go parasailing, which was soo much fun, and we could see all the way over the island and out over the ocean to the east – couldn't quite see Perth though.

The next day we headed in a different direction down to the south of the island to the Black River Gorges National Park. Our taxi driver from the airport had hooked us up with a guide – Gavin – and we spent the day hiking through the park. It was a very good thing that he didn't tell us exactly how far we were going to be walking that day before we started...

We started off at the Sept Cascades/Seven Waterfalls near Henrietta – a series of waterfalls surrounded by rainforest. To get down close to the water we walked/scrambled/climbed/fell down a very steep track, assisted by the conveniently strong and smooth trees on either side. The view from the bottom was astounding, looking up at the waterfalls coming down, and looking out toward the west coast throuh the forest-covered valley. Of course, having come down we needed to get back up to the top... It was extremely steep, but in short bursts between each waterfall, so we survived (mainly). There were a few precarious moments though! About halfway up Gavin took our backpacks, scrambled up a tree and deposited them on a rock, came back down and informed us that we would have to do the next part one by one... So I ended up halfway up a tree, looking across a gap to a rock face that I would have to grab onto and climb across to where the next pool was. Problem was, the gap seemed bigger than my legs are long! Gavin assured me that I could reach, but I think I could be forgiven for being a bit apprehensive when it comes to letting go of something secure to cling onto relatively little on the other side! But I did reach, and I did hang on, and I didn't plummet to the ground, and I got to the top and got the hugest adrenaline rush – even more than the parasailing the day before! From there we got up to the main waterfall, with a drop of 75 metres, and a pool that was deep enough to swim in. It was cold water – a bit of a shock to the system after the warm water that we've become used to – but still warmer than a Tassie beach I reckon! It was very cool to be swimming under a waterfall! After drying off, we climbed and scrambled and eventually got back up to the top of the valley, and headed on to Black River.

The track to Black River meandered along the crest of the hills around the next valley, passing through a surprising amount of different environs – lakes, farmland, pine forest, rain forest, red dirt and areas that looked just like home! The downhill stretch down to the Black River itself was responsible for most of the side-effects I think – clearly whoever built the track didn't believe in reducing the angles by cutting back and forth across the hill, but just went straight down instead, resulting in some steep steps and jumps from rock to rock. We definitely felt our feet and legs for the next couple days... which necessitated much lounging around by the pool! Life is tough in Mauritius...

Since I'd built an extra week off into my schedule for ASU, I had a nice little gap before my next placement. And I couldn't be next door to India without actually going to India!

My first impression of Delhi was of smog. Coming in on the plane it looked like a dense blanket laying over the whole city – quite a change from Nepal! It was also quite hot and humid, and very busy. On the way from the airport, we sat in multiple traffic jams – it's another step up from Kathmandu, but the horns, motorbikes and buses are still all there.

I arrived at the hotel to meet the rest of the group I would be doing the week-long tour with. Since I had arrived later in the day, they were just on the way back in from a walk around the spice market, which sounded very hot and busy. It was a nice sized group, with only 6 other people plus our leader. Our leader, Ranjeet (or just Jeet), was a young guy from Jodphur in Rajasthan. We also had an older couple from Bath in England, Patrick and Sue; James and Rachel, who were a father and daughter from Bristol; Pari, a rather eccentric lady who was originally from India but now lives in Armidale, and was my room-mate; and Dave, a young geophysicist from England. We headed out to dinner, and I got a crash course in how to interpret the Indian menus.

Next morning we left the hotel at 6am (!) to catch the train to Agra. It was quite nice, after 2 months of figuring out the way by myself, to have Jeet go, 'here's your ticket, stand here, get on this train...' and then, 'get off now'! The journey was a fair few hours, but seemed to go quite quickly – the seats were really comfortable (and apparently much better than English trains). The first destination in Agra was the Agra Fort, which is a pretty amazing place – and a very hard place to get into if you're not wanted. It's surrounded by a moat, which used to be filled with crocodiles, and there's a gap between the outer walls which used to house tigers! There's a huge gate as well, in order to fit the elephants that the kings liked to ride through. We got a bit of a crash-course in Indian history as well – all the dynasties and this dude who conquered this dude who didn't like this dude who imprisoned this dude and so on. I've become quite appreciative of having history lessons in a country without civil wars or multiple conquerors!

From there it was on to perhaps the most anticipated stop on our trip - the Taj Mahal. First of all we had to store all our stuff at a convenient hotel down the road, as you're not allowed to take bags or anything in. You also have to walk the last couple hundred metres down the road – all vehicles have to stop further back in an effort to reduce pollution levels around the monument. So we lined with just our cameras to receive our bottles of water and shoe covers, before the full security check and pat-down. Once we got in though, we headed straight through the complex to the Taj. You walk through another big gateway, and come face-to-face with one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. Seeing it in person just takes your breath away really, it's just awe-inspiring. Everyone kinda just stops still and all the cameras come out. It's impossible to really capture the atmosphere and the feeling of the place though. It's testament to the power of the place that it still seems so amazing even with the zillions of tourists everywhere. We wandered down towards the actual monument, and took some essential touristy shots (on the bench in front of the Taj, holding it up by the spire...), before going up on the actual monument.

Before going up you have to either put on your shoe covers (which are like the ones you have to wear in the operating theatre!) or have bare feet. Since I was wearing thongs, it seemed much more logical to just take them off! Plus it was nice to walk on the cool marble. It was quite late in the day, so we saw the sun set behind the Taj and got some pretty cool photos of the dome and the spires sillhouetted against the sun. The whole building is just amazing from up close – it's so detailed and beautiful, and perfectly symmetrical. There's a whole heap of inlays of semi-precious stones around the doorways, and inside around the tomb, that are so perfectly cut that it's quite amazing to contemplate how they were done in the days before precision machinery.

Sitting out on the front part of the building, quietly contemplating life, we found ourselves almost a tourist attraction ourselves. Earlier in the day, at the Agra fort, we had groups of Indian tourists asking if they could take photos of us with them! Like a whole family shot at the Agra fort, with some random English/Australian tourists mixed in! At the Taj, this went a bit further. I thought I was agreeing to take a photo of a family with a small child, but instead ended up with the kid on my lap having my own photo taken! And of course, she wouldn't stop looking at us instead of the camera, so it was a bit of a challenge getting her looking in the one direction long enough to get a decent photo!

The day was rounded off by a very fun night. It happened to be the day of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, and one of the most important festivals of the year. We went out for dinner, saw some traditional dancing and let off fireworks in the carpark! There's no such thing as OH&S here, and some of the fireworks seemed quite dangerous... it was all a bit of fun though.

Next morning, you would think we'd be enjoying a sleep after the early start the previous day. But no, most of us decided that we would like to go back to the Taj to see the sunrise! It was a bit misty (probably because of all of the fireworks from the night before!), but still beautiful, and there weren't as many people there that early, so it was slightly more relaxed and peaceful.

One of the 'fun' things about all the popular tourist sites in India are the opportunistic souvenir sellers who follow you about outside the gates trying to sell postcards, photo books, keyrings, models – basically anything you can put a photo on or make into the shape of the Taj. Saying 'no' becomes something of an artform!

After heading back to the hotel, and collecting those smart people who elected for a couple extra hours sleep, we headed to Fatephur Sikhri – the ghost city. It's a huge, well, city that took 12 years (I think) to build, and then the king only lived there for 4 years. Because the king had 3 wives, all of different religions, there were different areas of the city for each wife with the appropriate place of worship. You can also see another monument from the outer wall, where the city's elephants were buried. The king favoured trampling by elephant for corporal punishment, so they were highly thought of in the city!

By this stage, we were suffering some slight 'fort fatigue' and weren't that keen to see another red sandstone building for a while. So it was fortunate that after lunch we headed to Bharatpur, where our main destination was a bird sanctuary in the Keolado National Park. We were driven through the park on cycle rickshaws by drivers/ornithologists. These guys were amazing – they could spot a tiny bird from a mile off, and then stood there patiently while we peered in the general direction, struggling to see a thing! It was lovely to see so many different birds and animals, especially the huge group of painted storks and grey herons clustered around the wetlands, but the best thing about the sanctuary was the peace and quiet! You couldn't even hear any car horns! Our rickshaw driver was a bit of fun as well – he didn't speak much English (but it was more than we spoke Hindi!) but was very enthusiastic about pointing out the birds to us (and laughing at us when we couldn't see them) and got ery excited when we got a good photo. I don't think he knew quite what to make of Dave – he kept trying to convince him to let him ride the rickshaw! But it was a very fun ride, and a nice interlude in the trip.

We then continued on our way to Bharatpur, where we were staying in a heritage hotel in a traditional village for the night. The hotel was a gorgeous restored building that was mainly centred around a little courtyard and kind of seemed like a little palace! We had dinner, and were entertained by a traditional band and dancers. The dancers were two young boys, who were so cute, and tried to get us up to join them – we discovered that white people just don't have the in-built mechanism to successfully do that kind of dancing!

Next morning we went on a walk around the village, and were immediately surrounded by excited kids, painted cows and goats with painted horns. We even had a quick game of cricket on the side of the road! It was great to see a more traditional way of life; there's so much more to India than the big cities, and this was just a small glance into that enormous variety of people.

After the walk it was onward to Jaipur. This was a long trip in the minibus, but we had the chance to catch up on a little sleep! When we got to Jaipur we headed to the Amber fort. This fort was not made out of red sandstone, but a yellow-ish coloured stone and looked amazing in the sunlight against the surrounding hills. This area was more desert-like, and it was very hot as we walked up the hill to the entrance. The fort was another amazing structure, showing how advanced the Indians were in the 16th century. One of the interesting features of the fort was the sloped ramps running all around the complex, to make it accessible to the queen's wheelchair. We were thinking that this was amazing, catering for those with disabilities back in the 16th century... turns out she was wheelchair-bound because she wore so many heavy clothes and jewels that she couldn't walk on her own while she was dressed! While we were there we also saw a snake charmer, tucked around a little corner – Patrick was game enough to have the cobra draped around his neck, the rest of us thought that was a little close for comfort. As brilliant as the fort was, it was also abandoned relatively soon after it was completed because the king at the time was an astronomer and wanted to have his palace where he had enough open, flat space for an observatory – and thus Jaipur was born.

That evening we headed out for a taste of Bollywood at the Raj Mandir cinema – apparently the best movie theatre on the subcontinent. It was pretty amazing for a cinema! It was crazily busy, but we were lucky enough to get tickets (cos Jeet had a guy standing in line for us!). The interior is just gorgeous – there's a huge foyer with a high ceiling, covered in carvings and statues and is just beautiful. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take photos – so you'll have to take my word for it! We saw a new movie out, called Heroes, which we managed to mainly understand thanks to Jeet's whispered translations, passed down the line Chinese Whispers style. The whole cinema was packed, with all sorts of people, like it was a big night out. They're also a lot more 'active' than cinema crowds in Australia – there was cheering, booing, laughter, and the biggest cheers were reserved for when their favourite actors came on the screen!

The next day was going to have been a 'rest day' in Jaipur, for some leisurely sight-seeing and shopping, but we had the chance to drive out to a town called Pushka (I'm sure I haven't spelt that right), which is right on the edge of the desert, and go for a camel ride! It was, again, very hot, but we timed our visit so that we were out in the deserty area by sunset, so it wasn't too bad. The view as the sun fell was just amazing, and the surroundings just accentuated the whole experience. Pushka was a pretty cool place to see as well – it's very important in Hinduism, and the only Brahma temple in India is there. There's a whole story about Brahma and his wives and a pool of water as well, but it's a bit long and involved (and I can't quite remember all their names...)

So on Saturday we did our sight-seeing and shoppping in Jaipur. We went to the Wind Palace (Hawa Mahal), the City Palace and the observatory (the one built by the king who didn't want to live on the hill). It was all very interesting to see how they used to live, and how rich the culture was (and still is). The observatory was astounding. It now seems kind of like a theme park, with all the instruments nicely restored and displayed for you to see. We tried to figure out what they all did, but in the end concluded that it was something we could look up later! The precision and sheer size of many of the instruments was amazing, especially considering how long ago they were constructed. I couldn't help pondering how exciting it would have been back then when everything was being discovered and 'figured out' for the first time...

Saturday night, we got the train back to Delhi to finish up the trip. The train ride was about 6 or so hours, but it seemed to go quite quickly – probably because they kept feeding us! It was great – we got about 3 or 4 different courses, and it was a whole proper meal. We even got icecream for dessert! I was also very excited to discover that the train had power outlets by each seat – so I could use my laptop without running the battery down. Of course, this wasn't put to any practical purpose – Jeet, Dave and I played Tetris and Frozen Bubble all the way to Delhi! (For those who don't know, Frozen Bubble is a game that came on my baby laptop that involves a penguin shooting snowballs from an igloo at multiple coloured bubbles and making them pop – it is very addictive, even for 25-year-old guys...)

So we were back to Delhi, at about 11pm, and I managed to cram everything back in my pack for the next leg of the journey. I absolutely loved India, and it was fun to do it with a great group of people. It was a bit different to travelling by myself in Nepal, both in positive and negative ways, but a lot of fun. I think another trip is in order, cos I haven't seen any of the rest of the country... maybe for the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2012?

Apart from hanging out in Boudha, I had a lot of exploring to do around the Kathmandu valley.

The valley used to have 3 separate city-states, each independent of the others – Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. As such, each of these has its own 'old city' with a magnificent Durbar Square. The Kathmandu one is about a 10-15 minute stroll south of Thamel, and is an amazing place full of historic temples, the royal palace, locals going about their business and the ever-present rickshaw drivers and souvenir sellers. Walking into the area, I just got the feeling that I was walking into a place full of history and stories. Thanks to one try-hard guide I met a girl from Holland who was also sitting on the steps of one of the highest temples, trying to get her bearings and got accosted by this dude. So we had a good time trying to identify all the different temples from the map, and looking like total tourists with our Lonely Planet! I guess it may have been easier if we had a guide, but they all seemed dodgy – in particular the one who even showed us a recommendation in his notebook (it said – in Dutch – that he knew the LP back-to-front... we didn't think that was a good thing!).

I think the Patan Durbar Square was nicer though; it just seemed a bit calmer and the temples were very well presented. I did pick up a guide on this occasion, who took me all around the square and the back streets and told me lots of stories and legends about the various temples and statues. My favourite one was about the king, the bird and the elephants... Something like the king wouldn't die before this stone bird flew through this open window (which has been open for hundreds of years) and before these two stone elephants moved down the steps of their temple to drink from this holy spring! There's also a pretty decent museum, with some great displays of Hindu and Buddhist statues and art, and a lot of information about the various deities of these religions, so I managed to lose a couple hours in there!

I also went to Pashupatinath, the most important Hindu site in the country. It was a bit of fun getting there though, because most people walk from Pashupatinath to Boudha, and I thought, 'hey, why can't I just go the other way?' I managed to kinda go the wrong way round and miss the 'right' path, but got there anyway! It was a pretty amazing place – there were a couple of cremations going on while I was there, including one for a police officer complete with police band playing the Last Post on the bank of the river. There's also zillions of sadhus, or holy men, wandering around in their yellow and orange robes, long hair and painted faces. It's all very 'other-worldly', until you get close and they ask you if you would like to take their photo – for a price! Kinda loses its charm then... It's a bit of an illustration of the way that the tourist industry, while very valuable to the country, has corrupted the traditional culture somewhat.

Whilst you can see some of the Himalayan ranges from Kathmandu, to get a direct view of Everest it's apparently best to go to one of the towns around the valley rim. So I spent one night in Nagarkot, in order to get up nice and early to see the sun rise over the whole range. It was a gorgeous view, but a bit too cloudy to get a good view of Everest though. Nagarkot itself was a pretty cool place to stay as well – lots of smaller hotels, and little village shops. I stayed at the Hotel at the End of the Universe! Unfortunately I didn't run in Slartibartfast or Ford Prefect at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, nor did I discover the Ultimate Question to the Ultimate Answer (except that 6x7 does equal 42).

My last couple days I spent a bit more time in Thamel, finishing up odds and ends, and despairing at the traffic. I did discover a gorgeous little place, that an Australian guy I met while waiting in line all morning at the Indian Embassy told me about, called the Garden of Dreams. It was essentially a garden that some dude created years ago, became over-run, and has now been restored to a little oasis in the heart of the city – you can almost even tune out the traffic noise! And they have wi-fi...

So I was at the end of my two months in Nepal. It seemed like such a long time ahead of me when I arrived, and has flown by quite quickly really. I reckon you could spend a looong time here and never run out of new things to be amazed by. Getting away from the airport was a bit of a long, drawn-out process though. The check-in line didn't move for a very long time - I think mainly due to the group of Bhutanese refugees going to the US - and then went through a multitude of security checks (including one on the actual tarmac) before getting to board the plane. It was almost like they didn't want to let me leave – which I didn't really want to do! In all honesty though, I was very excited about the next destination – India!!

We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this message, directly from Flavor's Cafe in Boudha (the one with free wi-fi):

Alison forgot to post the link to her photos on Facebook, for those of you who don't have Facebook. She is terribly sorry for this oversight. Although a couple weeks later than she actually originally planned to post this, here it is:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55141&l=60812&id=818994605

Of course, these are not all, but she cannot be bothered sitting waiting for all of them to upload.

Back to regular (or semi-regular/very irregular) programming...

1. I'm not short here! Which is probably a very good thing. Especially on the buses, the ceilings and doorways are quite low, and I could comfortably stand upright when there were no seats left (which was usually the case). One day a couple of British guys got on the bus in Pokhara and were almost bent over double to fit in!

2. People spit. All the time. Anywhere. It seems almost like a national past-time to draw a gob of spit into your mouth with a lovely loud noise and then deposit in on the ground nearby. This occurs even if it necessitates leaning right over someone to reach the window...

3. Apart from the tourist areas, there's no variation in hair or skin colour amongst the people. Of course, they're from different backgrounds – Indian, Nepali, Tibetan, Chinese etc. - but everyone has black hair and light brown skin. It's such a difference from Australia where there's so many different cultures and ethnicities.

4. Of course, this has other side effects. All the shampoo is designed specifically for people with black hair! So I've been washing my short, brownish/blondish hair with shampoo for 'luscious long black hair'! It hasn't quite worked yet...

5. Browsing the toiletries aisle is very interesting. Apart from the shampoo, other products are distinctly different from their Australian equivalents, although the brands are the same. All the skin-care products, including sunscreen, don't include bronzing or tanning agents, but instead are designed to whiten the skin! That's really the last thing I want in a sunscreen, to make me whiter, but it is a perfect example of the grass-is-always-greener-syndrome... if you're young you want to look older, if you're older you want to look younger, if you're pale as anything you want to look tan, if you have gorgeous light brown skin you want to make it white. There's a lucrative business there!

6. This one is something that I didn't realise until suddenly one morning about 2 weeks into my stay in Pokhara on the way to the hospital – there's no traffic lights! I was completely shocked I hadn't noticed this before, and it suddenly made sense why the roads seemed so out of control to me, because you only stop when there's something in the way!

7. Everything closes early. Most restaurants and bars are closing down by at least 10, or 11 at the latest, and there's hardly anyone out on the street by 8, which puts a bit of a dampener on Friday and Saturday nights! There's ways around that though...

8. On a similar note, there's no smoking regulations anywhere (well, there are in Boudha, but not in Pokhara). People just light up in restaurants, buses... anywhere! I've discovered you can tell the Westerners apart by what they do while waiting for orders in restaurants or cafes - Europeans smoke, Americans talk really loudly, the Brits talk about 'football', and Aussies just watch them all with a grin.

9. Momos are awesome. The vegetable and meat ones are nice, but my personal favourite so far are the fried potato and cheese ones from this tiny little cafe in Lakeside. I could happily live on them for a long time!

10. Ten seems like a good number to finish on. On another food-related note, the menus in most of the restaurants are amazing – instead of picking one or two things and sticking to them, they all cover everything! A typical menu will have Nepali, Tibetan, Indian, Italian, Continental, Chinese (and sometimes even Mexican). It make it very difficult to choose... and I can't help but think that Gordon Ramsay would be tearing his hair out if they were to pop up on Kitchen Nightmares!