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