Bath

Keen for a weekend away we jumped a train to Bath. Joining us on our adventure were fellow New Zealanders, Jess and Leighton and our resident Bathonian travel buddy, Holly.

Bath is steeped with ancient history. It was first established as a spa resort by the Romans in AD 43 who took full advantage of the UK's only naturally occurring hot springs.

The must see attraction in Bath is the old Roman Baths. The complex is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing. What started off as a temple between 60-70 AD gradually built up over the next 300 years. When the Romans ruled the roost bathing was hugely social and with a hot bath, warm bath and cold bath (the frigidarium) on offer they knew what they were doing.

When the Romans left in the 5th century the things went down hill and the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually "lost" due to silting up.

Audio tours are the norm so we hired some phones and set off around the baths. Type the number on the wall into your phone and it tells you all about what you're looking at. Dan and Jess really liked the phones.

Brilliantly Bath is a World Heritage Site and the architecture is superb. All of the buildings are made out of bath stone which gives the city a unique honey colouring.

Bath has an impressive looking Abbey however there is just no pleasing some people.

By this time we were thinking Roman Baths, architecture, funky stone, arguably impressive Abby, what else can Bath conjour up? Then we discovered the canals and locks.

With the dream of owning a home in Bath beyond the reach of the average Joe, we think more people should take to the water. After the initial setup fee of buying the boat (a fraction of the price you'd pay for a house) all you have to do is pay for a mooring. The locks are easily navigated so if you don't like your neighbours you can up-anchor AND technically you're a Skipper!

No trip to Bath is complete without a staunch photo next to a canal.

Leighton is easily lost but luckily he isn't afraid to ask for directions.

Random Fact: There are large statues of pigs all over Bath. Curious, we decided to get to the bottom of Bathonians love for the swine. Legend has it that Bladud, king of the Britons contracted leprosy in Athens. When he returned home he was locked up as a result but being cunning he escaped and went into hiding. Working as a swineherd just outside of Bath he noticed his pigs would go into a moor in cold weather and return covered in black mud. Being a good swineherd he found that the mud was warm and that they did it to enjoy the heat. Bladud tried covering himself in the mud bath and found that it cured his leprosy. He was promptly restored to his position as heir-apparent to his father and founded Bath so that others might also benefit.

Highlights:

Lessons Learned:

St Albans

We decided to end our travelling hiatus with a day trip to St Albans. Located only a short distance from London, St Albans is a hot spot for well to do professionals who don't want to live in the city.

St Albans is very old and rich in history. It was inhabited by the Celts before the Romans came and was the secondest largest city during Roman times (behind Londinium). It is alse where Magna Carta was drafted.

In religious circles, St Albans is on the pilgrim trail for its very impressive Cathedral. Measuring roughly 170 metres long, there is a lot of different bits and pieces to see.

The Cathedral is built on the spot where tradition has it that St Alban, the first British Christian martyr was beheaded (apparently before AD 324).

England turned on a beautiful summers day for the occasion and we were "well" impressed by the weather. St Albans is a market town and Saturday is market day so we took full advantage and picked up some cherries and blue cheese, amongst other things.

Random Fact: Too many facts to pick just one

Highlights
- English summer
- Market produce
- The £1 a bowl guys

Lessons Learned
- St Albans is steeped in history and one day wasn't enough. There are Roman remains we didn't explore and one of the oldest pubs in the UK.

London

Arriving in London was like travelling to an alien landscape. The streets were wide, clean and empty. Not only had the locals forgotten to come and fleece us of our money, they ignored us!

It sounds like a small thing but six months of travelling has meant that we've been on guard a lot and because of the countries we've been to we've stood out along the way.

Making our way to the upmarket City of Westminster we made ourselves home at a friends apartment (thanks Luke and Sarah). We used this as our base as we found our feet and learnt to get around the city that we plan on calling home for a while.

The photo below is of us in front of the less well known clock tower Little Ben. It is across the road from Victoria Station.


We are now in temporary accommodation and the plan is to secure jobs. The jobs will pay for permanent lodgings and forays into Europe and around the UK.

Blogwise the plan is to write a post on each city or country that we visit.

We hope that you've enjoyed reading about our trip through South East Asia and India. If you plan on visiting a location we've been to you're welcome to ask us questions.

Random Fact: The park is the new beach - swim suits and general beachiness (without the water) are common place on a good day

Highlights:
- The tube. Weaned on horror stories we were expecting the worst. After India the system is amazing and people not spitting on the floor is cool as well.
- Being back where things make sense. Understanding what's going on and why is great.
- The greenness of London. The city has loads of parks and trails to explore and you can find a haven to relax in easily.

Lessons Learned:
- The weather isn't as bad as the locals make out. So far we've enjoyed plenty of beautiful sunny days and hope these continue!
- There is a big market for pre made meals here. Every supermarket has a large range of meals you can take home and heat up - watch out NZ this could be heading your way.
- Where in the world is Carmen Sandiago is still fun to play when you're an unemployed adult...

Mcleod Ganj

With a flight to London in 10 days time we decided to head to the hills – well the Himalaya’s... Hidden away in the north of India is a quaint little town called Mcleod Ganj (MG). Now as you may recall all towns in India have a claim to fame and MG is of course no different however its claim is truly impressive - it is home to his holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. The people of Tibet have made the town their headquarters as they fight for independence from big bad China. Photo below is of MG on a good day.



The demographics of MG are about 50% Indian and 50% Tibetan but there is a big difference, the Tibetans are so much friendlier and generally nicer than most of the Indians we have encountered! With no country you couldn’t really blame them if they were surly and cussed at you but instead they smile and give you a fair price on their wares.

The town’s at altitude and as a result is the coldest place we’ve visited. Not only did we have to wear shoes but we also had to invest in some rather snazzy looking blankets that we used as shawls. Headbands proclaiming ‘Free Tibet’ were of course mandatory for all fashion conscious travellers such as us.


MG has an abundance of training courses on offer. During your stay you can learn yoga, meditation, massage, jewellery making, wood carving and cooking. We decided to do a massage and acupressure course under the tutelage of our master Dr. Dolma. Photo below is of the young grasshopper Daniel San and Mr Miyagi - sorry, Dr. Dolma.

There are lots of walks and treks available and the scenery is really very beautiful. As we were out of season and ill equipped for anything too adventurous we stuck to self guided treks. We visited a popular waterfall as well as the sacred Dal Lake.


With our departure date quickly creeping up on us it was time to make our way back to every tourist’s favourite destination – Delhi. An over-priced overnight bus is practically the only option available for tourists so we booked seats and settled in for what would be a sleepless night. With zigzagging roads in need of repair and a driver auditioning for a spot as a race driver we did well to make it to Delhi in one piece where we set about making our final departure arrangements.

Before heading for the airport we decided to take the locals up on one of the shaves that we’d grown fond of. As if India could sense we were about to leave her she had one last attempt at extorting money from us. What was supposed to be a $0.80 NZD shave turned into a ridiculously expensive shave, facial and head massage combo. Near the end of our tethers terse words were spoken and later shouted as we settled the dispute and escaped to the international departure lounge.

Random Fact: The Dalai Lama has a big following. Richard Gere, Steven Segal and Sharon Stone are just some of the celebrities who are crazy about the Dalai Lama.

Highlights:
- Being in a cool climate
- Tibetan people and Tibetan cuisine – a welcome change
- Thunder and sheet lightning storms and power outages sending you back to the stone age
- Getting our strength back. Regular amounts of trekking and mutton started us on the road to recovery and gave us a lot more energy than we’d previously been having

Lessons Learned:
- Giving things away is ridiculously easy in India, we’d successfully done so before we’d left our hotel room!
- It’s going to take a truck load of ‘Free Tibet’ head bands to actually free Tibet...
- The Tibetans are more onto it than the Indians and won’t lower their prices (we suspect price fixing) and undercut each other - much to our chagrin
- A bit of baksheesh in the hand of the right walla gets results

Amritsar

During our travels we've been on some long hauls but everything paled in comparison to the 35 hour (1845 km's) trip from Mumbai to Amritsar. Two consecutive nights on a sleeper class train left us feeling pretty sorry for ourselves but in a cooler climate.

Amritsar is home to the Golden Temple, the spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh religion. If you're unsure what a Sikh looks like they normally sport turbans. The two most famous Sikhs we can think of are Harbhajan Singh and Monty Panesar - cricketers. We had heard you could stay with the Sikhs at the temple so off we went.

We found beds in the foreigners dorm and went to check out the temple. Normally we have to pay 30-40 times the locals rate to see anything in India so it was great that everyone can enter the temple for free. Note that all visitors must cover their hair and that the sun was blinding us!


Staying with the Sikhs blew us away. Each day thousands of people arrive stacked on the back of trucks like battery hens. Everyone is given shelter and access to washing facilities and the free canteen runs 24 hours a day. The entire system is funded by donations and manned by volunteers, talk about making things accessible to the people.

Keen to chow down with our fellow pilgrims we went and lined up at the canteen where we were given trays and mugs. Entering the dining hall the first thing that struck us was the lack of tables and chairs.


Everyone sits in rows and volunteers walk around with buckets of food which they dish up to the masses. Fascinated by the entire situation we wondered how they cleaned up spillages until we saw the man below.


The temple at night time is beautiful. It's not as hot and there are less people around making it the perfect time to go inside.


Amritsar is also very close to Wagah the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India. Sometimes called the Berlin wall of Asia every evening it plays host to the most ridiculous border closing ceremony you are likely to see. On one side hundreds of screaming Pakistani's chant "PAKISTAN" only to be met by a chorus of "HINDUSTAN" from the Indian contingent.

Described as chauvinism at its most camp and a display of carefully choreographed contempt words can't really describe it so its a good thing there is a video. The one below is well worth the four minutes it takes to watch it.



Random Fact: Every year the Golden Temple attracts more visitors than the better known Taj Mahal.

Highlights:
- Being off the train
- Sikh hospitality and organisation skills. If all of India was run with Sikh efficiency India would be a much easier place
- Watching how excited the other pilgrims are to be at the temple. For some it is a trip of a lifetime so everyone is in a good mood

Lessons Learned:
- If you are foreigner wanting to stay in the temple you absolutely must stay in the dedicated foreigner room. No if's, mights or maybes, this is a must.
- Showers are communal and some of the Indians (men) show an unsettling amount of interesting in you cleaning yourself...
- Arrive in Wagah well before dusk to ensure you get a good spot to view the closing

Mumbai

Sporting summer tans and sand in all the hard to reach places it was time to see what Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is all about. The city is heralded as the economic Powerhouse of India and rightly so as it is responsible for producing 40% of the country’s GDP (according to our guide book). If you understand how a city of only 16 million people in a country that is 1.2 billion strong is capable of doing this then you’ve passed India 101.

Colaba is the tourist area in Mumbai and that’s where we based ourselves. It also happens to be a very nice location, clean wide nicely sealed streets, green trees, no rickshaws (they are banned from central city areas) and no general disgusting-ness which too often typifies large collections of Indian dwellings.

With only a short time to look around we battled the intense heat for the umpteenth time and in the process ran the risk of being potential terror targets by spending the day taking in the main sights. The Gateway of India was particularly cool as you can see below.


The India Gate was built by the English and as their last platoon left India in 1948. They marched through the gate whilst possibly singing ‘God Save The Queen’ into their awaiting ship where they may have casually sipped tea and nibbled on club sandwiches and scones as they sailed off into the sunset eagerly anticipating a Sunday Roast back in the motherland.

In many ways Mumbai is leading the way for the other Indian cities to follow. One example of this is the recent horn honking ban that was imposed in the central city. During the ban 36,000 motorists were fined for unnecessary honking. An amazing statistic, but if you’ve spent some time in India you’ll know all about the locals love of the horn.


Down an alleyway we spied something almost as unnatural as cows living on beaches. We saw three cats feeding on only Rajjy knows what whilst two impossibly large rats hovered about like hyenas. Who would have thought that natural enemies such as Tom and Jerry could co-exist seemingly peacefully, only in India


Desperate for more tourist activities we decided to scrape the barrel by dining at Leopold’s. Leopold’s is a long standing icon in Mumbai but it’s been tarnished for us by reading the book Shantaram – as it should have also done for any others that have taken the time to read the book.

Random Fact: Bollywood is based in Mumbai. Any foreigner wondering the streets will likely be asked to be an extra in a movie - great idea if you've got a day to kill

Highlights:
- McDonalds at the train station. Running late to our train and starving from no dinner the golden arches were like an oasis in a greasy, spicy, curry filled desert.
- Possibly discovering where Indian television commercials are filmed. For months now we’ve wondered where the clean, wide, modern and well sealed streets are that they used in commercials. We now know that Mumbai is a possibility but our money is still on them being filmed abroad.
- Cut throat shaves for $0.80 NZD. These guys are all around India but before you expose your throat to a stranger you must evaluate his skill with the blade- Dan went first… Mumbai had the goods and left us as smooth as a hard training Teddybear

Lessons Learned:
- Every city has its unique junk that people try to sell to you. Mumbai has large balloons shaped like bowling pins. If you buy one, blow it up to make sure it is in fact a large one
- Following the terror attacks guards are now positioned in key strategic points. Every single one of these guys looked they were ready to lay their life on the line… for some more sleep…
- Don’t watch the movie ‘The Watchers’. It is absolutely terrible.