Archive
The train to and from hell
As with all things India, the best it has to offer is soon followed by the worst. After a pretty spectacular few days in Jaisalmer, it was time for the 19 hour train ride to Delhi – pretty horrendous at the best of times, but with the extremely busy trains, it is important to have beds close together. For security if nothing else. To our horror, the beds were not together, but mixed up, in roughly the same area. 3 young kids, Indian train, no compartments, not together, 19 hours – parent’s nightmare.
Mumbai – Full of puppies
The anticipation for Mumbai was intense – what would it be like, is it as noisy, and hardcore, as everyone seemed to suggest, how would we cope, how long before we got food poisoning??? All these things were racing through our minds as we landed in Mumbai Airport at the antisocial hour of 2am to the slightly sweet sour sulphurous smell that is big city India.
Bag Pa In +48 hours
Generally know for it’s palace, I will probably remember Bang Pa In for the pork and noodle soup that gave me a horrendous 48 hours worth of food poisoning.
Kanchanaburi & Hellfire Pass
For today we thought we would embark on something a bit more hardcore. Kanchanaburi is the home of the bridge over the river Kwai – first detail, it was not built on the Kwai at all. Luckily for Hollywood, the Thai’s did not want to spoil a good tourist opportunity, so they renamed the original river with the new bridge to “Kwae”, so now the film and reality can match.
Last Kiwi stop – Auckland
We planned in a day in Auckland, mainly to go up the sky tower and get a view from the highest point in the southern atmosphere. After a pretty miserable morning trying to wrestle with Indian Visa applications online, we catch a bus ride into town.
Arthur’s Pass
Arthurs Pass is the narrow pass that crosses over the Southern Alps. We decided it would make a great place to stop for the night – we did not anticipate what it would throw at us.
Shantytown – No patience for a gold panner.
Given the worsening weather, we dropped in on Shanty town, a fake but interesting village that shows the early life of loggers and gold panners. With the Cornish drizzle it gave a pretty good impression of the more unpleasant side of working the natural resources – no thanks.
