Winging it South

G’day all,

Well my past week has been great fun as I finally had some really cool guys to travel with and we have been having a ball. I only ended up spending a night in Bratislava as I’ve already been there before and was just using it as a base to head to Budapest in Hungary. I was feeling a bit sick and lonely and for the first time this trip and I went through a bit of a rough patch for a couple of days. Once I arrived in Budapest and settled into my hostel things started to turn around for me as I met these two great English guys Alex and Tom and we had a great laugh together. My crook stomach wasn’t letting me drink for the first few nights but Alex and Tom became my Doctor and Mother and fed me medication and cooked me dinner and I was back on track again in no time. We had a pretty eventful week together and although we felt slightly hung over most days we still managed to do and see loads. Our first outing was to the Turkish Baths which almost turned into a full day event. The baths were great fun although all it’s only really a bunch of heated swimming pools, spas, and saunas, surrounded by some really nice old buildings. We just relaxed all day watching the old men play chess in the hottest bath, testing out limits in the saunas and cold pools, and trying to fight the world pool by swimming against it. By the end of our bath experience we were so zonked we could hardly open our eyes so we went back to the hostel for a snooze and an easy night in. The following day we all went to the holocaust museum which again brought back all the Auschwitz memories then the guys convinced me to go caving. They did the caving trip the day before I arrived in Budapest but when they said it was extreme I wasn’t prepared for what was ahead of me. I caught a couple of buses out to the caves and got all dressed up in hardhat and overalls and was lucky to be grouped with a bunch of extremists like me who wanted to do the hardest caves. The start wasn’t too bad as tight as it was but then came the big squeeze where for the first time in my life I felt like a fatso. This was basically a crack under a rock where I had to try and get through and it was as tight as a fishes…ankle. I lay on my tummy with my arms out front and wiggled my way through until I was stuck and could not move forwards, backwards, left, right, up, or down. All I could do was feel my lungs be wrapped around by solid rock. I was only stuck for about 40 seconds before I sucked my guts in and was pushed through by the instructor but that was enough for me to start panicking. It was a bit embarrassing being stuck when everyone else made it but I also embarrassed myself about 20 minutes later when I couldn’t twist around and fell down out of this hole onto my hands (as in picture) Budapest seemed like a pretty nice place but after 3 nights I was ready to move on and see somewhere new. Alex and Tom were heading to Serbia next too so I decided to let the good times roll and tag along with them. We partied the night away on our last night in Budapest then amazingly got up for midday to catch our train to Belgrade in Serbia. Once we got on the train the adrenalin kicked in and we were on a natural high and were yelling stupid things out to any farmer, cow, or chicken for half the ride to Serbia. Serbia and Belgrade had a whole different feel to it compared to Hungary and arriving in on the first night was almost a bit eerie. As the train was pulling in to Belgrade we could see yards of slums and squatters sheds lining the train track and angry looking graffiti on every wall. Belgrade soon grew on us the next day as we walked around and went from war ravaged filthy buildings to a very nice cosmopolitan shopping and restaurant district. The city is very much alive and well and thriving with young people indulging in fancy outdoor restaurants and bars. The nightlife is great in Belgrade too with many cool club and pub ideas. In our two nights partying we went to a club in a 9 story building, various ones floating on barges in a river, one that was set out like a theatre, one that looked like a cave underground, and a pub that I swear is just someone’s house. There is not a great deal to do tourist wise in Belgrade apart from look at the fort and the military museum so we spent most of our time just indulging at the restaurants. Yesterday we went to a local football (soccer) match to fill in a bit of time and had a very interesting time watching the crowd light flares and chant their songs in Serbian. There was only a small crowd at the game but they were all crammed into the one section and boy was it loud. It was very well guarded by policemen with bats and shields galore but it did make you wonder how rough the crowd could potentially get. Today my fun times with Alex and Tom ended as they went to Montenegro and I’m off to Bulgaria. The weather has been great here the past few days and I can proudly say I’m walking around in shorts and a t-shirt finally. Today there was some kind of festival on in Belgrade and many people gathered in the parklands at the fort and were dancing to folk music which was a good laugh (please check the video it’s a classic and look at the short ladies enthusiasm compared to the lady on her left)

Update ya in a week,

Woodsy

India…..I love it, but I hate it……but I love it!!

G’day all,
Well again it has been just a massive few days in India. How can any day not be massive in this crazy old country? If I could put India in 3 words it would almost be impossible but I would have to choose crazy, spiritual, and colourful. I think in any one day in India just walking the streets you could see 1000 things that would just blow you away and things that could only happen in India…that’s why I love it here. I think life without India again is going to be so uneventful but I’m also kind of looking forward to normality again. Anyway enough of my daydreaming back to the past few days. My short 44 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Delhi ended up being pretty close to torture but finally arriving felt so good again. I met this cool Japanese/French bird named Naomi on the bus so we kept each other sane by just cracking jokes for the whole bus ride as nobody else spoke English on our so called “tourist bus”. The highlight of the bus ride was seeing a UFO out of the window and watching it for a good hour or more. I first spotted this strange cigar shaped bright light out of the window and thought it was moving but couldn’t be sure as the bus ride was pretty shaky. When the bus stopped for petrol I watched this light hover up and down and left and right for a good 10 minutes and I was so pumped when I realized this thing ain’t human. It bounced around the sky like nothing I’ve seen before and moved so fast and silent and smooth that I can honestly say I’ve seen a UFO now. We had to stay a night on the border of Nepal and India as the border didn’t open until 6am. The hotel we stayed at was so rank and ever since that night both my hands and my feet have thousands upon thousands of tiny bite marks all over them and it’s really annoying me. I stayed a day in Delhi before catching an overnight train to Jodhpur in the desert state of Rajasthan towards the Pakistan border. I was very close to missing my train as my cheapness almost got the better of me. I spent too long bargaining with the rickshaw drivers until it got to the point of ‘pay anything now and leave or miss the train’. The rickshaw driver went nuts to get me to the train station on time hitting two pedestrians and a straw cart on our 20 min thrill ride. I arrived at the train station at 8:45pm, the same time the train was due to leave. I then ran to Platform 16 assuming it was mine and launched myself into the moving train Tom Cruise style pushing everyone out of my way and pulling myself and my 30kg bag into the train. Luckily it was the right train however I was about 9 carriages away from where my bed was waiting for me and I was stuck in the standing refugee section for a few hours until the train finally stopped again. Anyway I’ve been in Jodhpur for two days now and it’s an incredible city to be in. It’s called the “Blue City” as many buildings are painted sky-blue to apparently keep the insects away and to keep it cool (as it’s so bloody hot here- many 50+ days) Towering above the sea of ancient blue buildings is a huge 125 meter old fort called Meherangarh. I found the fort almost as impressive as the Taj Mahal and it was a top surprise as I pretty much just came here to see the blue buildings. I spent a fair few hours exploring around the fort and they had a great audio tour included too. It took me ages to find my way back to the guest house as this town looks like something out of a “Where’s Wally” book with a million identical alleyways in a labyrinth of boxy blue buildings. If yesterday was hot then today was boiling. I think it would have been close to 50 degrees so I decided to spend the day in style…in the Great Thar Desert! I vibed my way to the bus station and caught a government bus to the desert town of Osiyan, 65km north of Jodhpur. I was the only tourist I saw all day and being on this crowded bus with a heap of Indians staring at me, I felt as uncomfortable as a fart in a spacesuit. One bloke started taking this piss out of me and saying stuff in Hindi to me in front of everyone then they all laughed at me. The only comeback I could come up with to make it even was to whip out some hard Aussie slag that they had no chance of understanding. I had a little chuckle and nose laugh to myself as I came back and said “settle petal, pull out the big guns shirley ya flam’n galah, think ya top brick don’t ya, ya dopey mongrel…so suffer in ya jocks…ya tool…now rack off ya clown”. I felt like I had the whole of Australia behind me at the time so I had nothing to lose however I think he must have thought I was from Antarctica or something with a language like that. It was one more crazy bus ride to add to the collection but I finally got there and boy was she stinking hot. The town was dusty and tourist free and full of Indians with turbans on their heads, white gowns and tweaked moustaches. After drinking about 3 litres of water I found a little kid that could take me on a 2 hour camel safari through the sand dunes so before I knew it I was smack bang right in the middle of the Indian desert sitting high on a camel. It was such a great feeling being the only tourist or person even to be seen riding a camel through this surreal sandy desert. It was like something out of a movie it was so picture perfect but I was guttered that my camera was broken. As we approached this tiny desert village I was amazed as this mini tornado whipped through the village out of nowhere and almost ripped the roofs off the huts. It hung around for almost 5 minutes and got within about 20 meters from us as it roared and zigzagged around violently ripping up shrubs, sticks, and dust, and spinning them at least 50 meters into the air. I’ve seen many whirly winds before but nothing like this. It made such a loud noise it sounded like a V8 and would have easily been strong enough to pick me up and perhaps the camel too. I was almost in a state of shock but this kid seemed to think nothing of it as it happens all the time here but he said they are very dangerous if you get caught in one. He also said he has been picked up and thrown from one before. I was surprised it didn’t rip the roof of this hut it passed right over but I guess they are designed to withstand mini tornados and they looked quiet strongly built. I had a cup of tea with the local village then rode back through the dunes into town again. After a looking at a couple of ancient temples I was buggered and caught the bus back to Jodhpur again. Tomorrow I head of to the Hippy town of Pushkar so I’m sure as eggs will have more crazy stories to add from there.

Oorooo Cockatoo…Woodsy

PS: Incase your wondering I scabbed another travellers photos for the blog :)