Arrival in Kathmandu & Durbar Square

After the ridiculous amounts of excitement induced by the Smith's arrival in Nepal had subsided enough for proper cognitive function to continue, one of the first places we visited was Durbar Square. Kathmandu Durbar Square is the plaza in front of what was once the royal Palace of the Kathmandu Kingdom which is reflected in the ornate and antiquated architecture that is around to feast your eyes on.

Once inside the square we headed to the Kumari Ghar, or house of the living Goddess. According to tradition, a young unmarried girl who fulfils certain requirements is chosen to live in the Kumari Ghar (there are two more of these residences in Nepal). They must stay at the house where they also receive an education, until they reach puberty when they are no longer deemed pure. You are not allowed to take pictures of the Kumari but many tourists go to try and catch a glimpse at one of her daily appearances as it is considered lucky. Despite being an interesting point of cultural difference, I found sighting the Kumari and visiting the house quite difficult - it was harrowing to see the perfectly made-up, yet emotionless face briefly rest at the court-yard window for the benefit of foreign and native onlookers, before disappearing once more from view.

We also just enjoyed spending some time just moseying around the town - it felt like stepping back in time, the motorbikes and cars almost becoming invisible in comparison to the grandeur of the old buildings and the hectic smaller shops and stalls weaved in between, with crowds of people effortlessly gracing the space between the two.

After a shave at the dodgiest looking barbers for my Dad (one of the more bizarre Smith family travelling traditions), we gratefully took some shade in a roof top café before slowly heading back, taking our time to appreciate the friendliness of the locals and the precarious and chaotic telephone wire arrangements.

India #2 [The Journey]

Namaste! Hello!

Today's post is (finally!!!) part two of my Indian adventure - if you didn't catch the first instalment catch up here. This section of the story is fairly brief as it covers just a journey from one location to another but I did not feel I could do the adventures we encountered a disservice by squeezing them into an introduction. So, without further a do, here is my recount of the journey up from port town Kochi, to lush and mountainous Munnar:

To progress further on this Indian pilgrimage we decided to begin travelling early to reach the Periya River in time for the elephants breakfast! We decided against visiting an elephant attraction park with elephant rides etc. as we disagreed with the money-making ethics and unfair treatment of the animals. As a more humane alternative we sought out an organisation that cared for orphaned elephants and trained them to be used in ceremonies and parades. This seems to western ears a cruel idea but the elephants are well looked after in this part of Indian culture steeped in history and tradition. Anyway enough rambling, I'll let the stars of the show do some talking with a few photos:

Keeping cool during a nice foot rub!

Me washing the elephant with a coconut shell.

It was definitely one of the best things I have ever done and I was humbled to be up close and personal with such  calm, majestic and powerful creatures.  Our next adventure was a culinary one: after all the driving and waking up early the family was ravenous. Luckily someone was on hand to help us and we stopped off at a beautiful home-stay not far from the Periya for a beautiful, light coconut curry and some jak-fruit. We devoured the feast hungrily and gratefully as you can see from our scraped-squeaky-clean plates in the picture! The picture below that just shows the front of the house. After thanking our hosts for their hospitality we were off again...

The next cause for a hurried photo shoot was a group of cheeky monkeys we spied sat atop the edge of the mountain road. They all posed willingly as they grabbed for scraps of food offered by outstretched local and foreign hands.

After taking far too many pictures we all scrambled back in the car to escape from the midday sun only to find another group of monkeys round the next few bends! Much to my disappointment we had to end stopping the car for photos as we'd never get to our destination on time. Unfortunately as we were just before the monsoon season all the  dramatic mountain waterfalls had run completely dry however we were kept well entertained by the wildlife for the final stretch of the journey. This last picture just shows a bit of en route shopping - much better than a tesco-express by the side of the motorway in my opinion!

 That's all for now then, let me know what you think in the comments and feel free to share your experiences below too - I love hearing from each and everyone of you!

Enjoy the sun and I shall be back soon with more in this Indian expedition series...



INDIA #1 [Kochi]



So here it is: I have finally got round to uploading some of my India photos! I shall try and keep it as concise as possible - but there is just so much I want to share with you all from this amazing trip I was lucky enough to go on!

The first place we visited was a colonial port town called Kochi (formerly Cochin), in the state of Kerala. It had been colonised by the Portuguese first, then the Dutch and the British and is the most densely populated city in the state. After leaving the UK in the snow the wall of heat that hit us as we disembarked from the plane was most welcome! Our first port of call was a lovely home stay just out of town right next to the back waters (as you can see from the photos below). All tired and slightly bewildered from jet lag we thought we had found paradise (we pretty much had) and all raced to be the first to try out the hammock overlooking the view in the back yard of the spacious, colonial style outhouse. I probably would not have been able to drag myself from said spot if it wasn't for our hosts delicious home cooked feast which us tired travellers devoured. After that meal even my brother was a chickpea convert!

1. Where we stayed! 2. The hammock. 3. Loving the no-roof shower - hear the birds and palm trees as you wash! 4. Colonial style interior. 5. Location making the A level Geography revision just a tad sweeter...

A perfect place to watch a perfect sunset.

On a trip round the main town we visited a women's cooperative - such a lovely place full of smiling and grateful ladies, all very helpful and eager to kit me and my brother out in traditional saris and turbans!

Last ice cream stop in the world?!

We wandered blissfully around the slightly calmer old town on the sea front and visited the Dutch Palace - a gift from the Portuguese to the Keralans, most likely to sweeten trade agreements and controversially named following its Dutch renovation.

One of my personal highlights of our brief stay in Kochi was our private sunset boat ride along the backwaters that were right on our doorstep! I am full of gratitude for our wonderful host Jos who organised this for us, saving us the terrors of a midday scramble to share a boat trip with hoards of other tourists - no thanks! I don't think I really need to attempt how magnificent the sights and sunset were, I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Traditional Chinese fishing nets are still a very popular method of fishing for the Keralans.

Our fisherman friend Nikson - everyone is just so friendly and happy to talk!

Cows, cows everywhere...

As we arrived on Easter Sunday in a primarily Christian settlement, the whole town was adorned in festive decorations and music, singing and partying could be heard at all hours! A chaotic and colourful celebration, yet somehow undoubtedly peaceful. It's amazing how so many religions live happily side by side in one area.

One of the favoured ways to get around!

We ended our stay at Kochi by seeing some traditional dancing and Kathakali. An intriguing performance with wonderfully intricate and ornate costumes!

So that's the first few days of the trip! Sorry that turned into quite a lengthy post, more to come shortly...

All comments welcome - would love to hear your thoughts!

Lights, camera, action! [Travel tips]

Right here goes my first attempt at sharing with all you lovely people some of my ultimate tips for travel and adventure!

To start with, I would like to advise you on the joys of taking a video-recorder with you on your travels. Now I don't just mean a multi-functional-digital-fantasmagorical-double-fast-snaptastic-what-za-majic, but a: Real. Actual. Camcorder.

Don't let new-fangled technology cull old traditions! In our family, it was always common practice to make a home-video tour of wherever we visited and some of our exciting excursions: a practice I would like to stick to through-out my exploring years. Below you can see me with our very old - possibly even vintage now!? - family camcorder. We went nowhere without that beloved contraption.

A few holiday snaps stored away on the computer or uploaded to facebook can never ever compete with the sheer bliss associated with rediscovering old holiday videos and reliving cherished memories.

Whats your opinion on camcorders? Any other top-tips for remembering holiday memories? Let me know!

Rainbows and hailstorms.

Alas, half term has already drawn to a close for us college students and its time for us to go back to work feeling rested and refreshed (supposedly...) Though what a lovely week half term has been - finally having an opportunity to do some travelling, even if it was only in country, to visit the lovely beaches of Devon and some brilliant friends who have settled down there. And oh boy can I see why! Leaving the beach to go back home and to work on Friday evening was a hard task, even with the atrocious weather! Better a rainy day at the beach than a rainy day at home I say.

I also got a chance to get in for a few much needed surfs - the first of the winter season! Little bit chilly to say the least, being November, but as an avid surfer I could not resist getting in. We surfed Putsborough beach which is one of my favourites with its long stretch of golden sand and rugged rocks to scramble over. Our second surf brought much excitement due to the sighting of a rainbow and a furious hail storm whilst we were in the water - we felt pretty hardcore it must be said, especially I, wearing only my summer thickness wetsuit. Many hot beverages were required after that experience in attempt to warm us up and restore our body temperature to somewhere vaguely around normal.

We also got exploring in some of Devon's stunning countryside with Jess the lovely Labrador, sighting some impressive wind turbines causing some heated arguments about green energy vs. nuclear power...just your standard conversation for a family walk.

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable and much needed break to relax and feed my insatiable desire to travel...well for a little while at least.