First night in India

We're staying three nights at Amar Inn in Delhi while we wait for the rest of the group to arrive. In total there will be nine of us, plus our two guides, Jane and Bhooi, on Best Exotic Tours' trip through Rajasthan. 

Dinner, Chindian style

After an hour's rest from our travels, we had a 'Chindian' dinner last night. It was very fulfilling, though apparently the flavours were more Chinese than Indian. Chinese restaurants elsewhere in India tend to be more of a fusion with Indian flavours.

Bhooi also told us about a local custom: some places in India often leave a little food on the plate to signal they're stuffed and couldn't possibly eat another bite (even if they could). It's the opposite of our Western habit of cleaning the plate to be polite and avoid waste.

4am and wide awake

My body clock is still adjusting. I was asleep before 9pm last night and now I'm wide awake at 4am, hence this blog update 🙂

An evening stroll

We went for a short walk after dinner and I spotted a shop called Archie's, so of course I had to snap a photo for my Archie. I also noted the amazing maze of electrical wiring overhead!!!

Traffic surfing

Bhooi describes driving in India as "traffic surfing", and after my trip from the airport I get it. I landed at a similar time to Richard and Vicki, which meant arriving in peak traffic and being met by a driver. The trip to the hotel took 45-60 minutes and was nerve-racking. There were no lane markings and no indicating, just 4-5 lanes of traffic that were all actually moving, unlike Auckland, where it grinds to a standstill.

Scooters, tuk-tuks, cycles, trucks, buses, taxis and cars all shared the same space, and everyone was beeping. That was the funniest part, because the beeps rarely seemed to achieve anything. I sincerely wish I had taken a video of our driver 'parting the waters' through a flow of traffic that had no gaps. It was insane and completely appealed to me and what Cedric calls my crazy driving.

Back on the Blog After 18 Years: Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

If you're reading this, you have been roped into my solo mad adventure after 18 years!

I've decided to revive the old blog for this trip. I'm heading off on a big three-week adventure, and this way everyone who's interested can follow along without me answering a dozen separate messages. Consider this the group chat with fewer typos.

Kuala Lumpur was just a stopover on the way to the main event, a tour through Rajasthan in India with Best Exotic Tours. I broke the journey for a few days to shake off the worst of the jet lag.

Foot massage and a good cause

On my wanders I noticed lots of blind massage businesses. They provide work for people with visual impairments, and after a wonderful foot massage my feet were ready for the next leg of the trip.

Eating like a local

I always seek out local places to eat. Lunch was served on a banana leaf, a delicious mix of Malaysian and Indian flavours, and everyone around me ate with their hands. Everyone except me! 😂

Dinner, for Frankie

I'm sending this one for Frankie, who loves fish  will appreciate that a whole fish arrived at the table looking right back at me. That small little citrus fruit on the fish had so much juice I had to google it. I really want to plant one in my 'to be planted'  citrus grove. It is a Calamansi (Citrus microcarpa) native to the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Meet the locals

It was a sweltering 27 felt like 30 so of course I went for a wander- there are no real routes here so wandering often meant a footpath  might just end at the edge of a busy road with no obvious way to cross. 

At the botanical gardens I saw some large monitor lizards swimming in the lake- It looked like an alligator at first! 

I also spotted a small animal that I think is a common treeshrew. They live across Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. It looked a little like a squirrel/stoat

Service with a smile

One thing that really struck me is how many people work in service roles here. Even the smallest hotel has a doorman! Perhaps lower wages make that possible, but it also means more families and communities are supported, which is quite different from NZ.

Next stop: Delhi. Stay tuned.

Ka kite,

Marea x

Special edition or special addition!!!

Here it is, our final entry - hopefully one you'll never forget!!


For those not in the know
Here is a poem of our trip, just so we can crow

Like all our other adventures we have done
Who knows how we came up with this one

An eventful weekend to London was the plan
Smashed up one vehicle but bought a big red van

You all voted for its name which we chose to ignore
We added our own touches throughout the winter core

Thus Pat was born, all set to run
Ready to be our home for the European sun

Skinny dipping in the Highlands is chilly
The fiords were alot more than just hilly

One day we ran out of fuel
Thanks to the bikers we continued without it being too cruel

How amazed we were to see a Puffin
It had us absolutely laughin'

We got pretty good at hiking
But some days we just went biking

Sometimes we made it up to snow
That had us going pretty slow

Medieval cities took us back in time
Communism made sure that people towed the line

Some of the roads were all full of dust
I hope that doesn't make us rust

In some big cities we chose camping grounds
Just to make sure we could see all around

Some of the cities had lots of heart
Especially after listening to some of Mozart

Walking in the Alps could be quite far
So instead we took a cable car

Seeing so much history has been an absolute treat
All the way, the nature could not be beat

A special thanks to all that gave us a bed and helped us recharge
When we see you in NZ, no favour will be too large

We have brought home a souvenir with us to keep
Don't worry there's no way this is tacky or cheap

Some might say it happened in Sweden
But the Baltic Storks may want to argue between them

Late March is the month it will be delivered in
By then, hopefully we'll have a job to keep it from being too thin

Marea already has big plans for when she's 60 and wrinkling
A return trip with her kids to make up for what little she's been drinking

Thanks for reading our blog, sorry if it got too long
But now we have a new subject in which to start another song.

01/10/08 - 14,554 miles later.

Wow!!! We're finished!!! Back to London in one piece. What a feeling
of satisfaction, sadness, joy, reality check, relief. You name the
emotion - its probably in there somewhere.

I think its a sure sign that we had seen enough of this great
continent and were ready to finish when we arrived at the ferry
terminal 3 hours early. That was alright though, we got put on an
earlier crossing meaning we didn't get round to spending our remaining
Euro's or stocking up on wine, gifts or chocolate:-(

A rather rocky crossing (didn't matter to me cause I was still feeling
dizzy and woozy before we got on the boat anyway), then a fantastic
view of the White Cliffs as we came into Dover and back to England!!

Marea adapted to driving on the left and got us home in record time
(poor Pat) where Marea's brother Liam has kindly put us up until the
23rd when its time to head back to New Zealand, and back to the real
world - a job!!

In that time hopefully we will be able to sell the van and see
everyone who is still over here. First job - to turn the van upside
down and give it a good clean!!

For those who have managed to follow this blog all the way through -
well done to you! Sorry if we've managed to put you to sleep with all
our tales of walks, mountains and driving. Don't worry, you won't be
getting any more day by day accounts.

But watch this space - there will be a special edition.... sooner
rather than later!!

30/09/08 - Just like a painting.

Two mysteries remain this morning - what is a Mairie? and what is
wrong with me? I felt fine in bed, but as soon as I stood up I got
all dizzy and almost fell over!!

As for the Mairie - we could see a desk through the window? And a
sign nearby did have the word 'chapel' on it, but surely chapels are
more interesting than this plain brick building??

Onwards then to Giverny - home town to the impressionist painter
Claude Monet. To give him inspiration for his paintings, Monet
developed a garden complete with lily pond, which we now have the
privilege of visiting. In Monet's time one gardener was employed full
time just to look after the waterlillies.

To stand on a Japanese bridge in Monet's garden and see what he saw
before transferring it to canvas was a peaceful (minus Japanese
tourists) and surreal experience. If you screwed your eyes up and
blurred your vision (or unfocused the camera) you could almost
replicate these impressionist paintings. But whilst all that was fun,
seeing the garden in all it's focused glory was a real highlight of
our trip and beat visiting endless art galleries any day!!

Time to head back to the coast towards Calais. En route we went past
a couple of large 3 or 4 story brick buildings with the words
'Mairie-Ecole' on them. Ecole means school - so does that mean Mairie
is another word for school in this area?? Thats what we decided at
the time. Although we have all since been enlightened by sister
Angela's expert research skills. A Mairie is a Town/City Hall. That
made our one desk Mairie a very very small place of official decision
making!!

Our final sleeping spot was on the very windy coastline at Berck. It
took three moves along our designated area of parking to find a
sheltered enough spot to ensure that the wind wasn't going to keep us
up all night and Pat didn't get blown over.

search for *.pdf

29/09/08 - What in the world is a Mairie??

I'm not sure whether it was the mussels last night, or just a bug -
but I felt like total shit all day today. Luckily Marea has not
fallen the same way (touch wood) - so the driving duties were totally
hers today.

A slow morning where the fog had taken over our view of the Mulberry
Harbour before we were off on the road to see if I could handle
travelling. We made it as far as Pegusus Bridge - just one last D-day
sight. Again portrayed on The Longest Day, three British gliders
landed here shortly after midnight on 6 June and took over the bridge
- ensuring German reinforcements couldn't cross to get to the beaches,
and also ensuring they didn't blow it up to slow the allies progress
inland.

It was quite amazing looking at the landing sights of the three
gliders. They only landed about 50 metres from the bridge, and 10
metres apart from each other - it seems unbelievable that they didn't
crash into each other on landing.

The majority of our afternoon was spent resting in the van besides the
Caen Canal and Pegasus Bridge - trying to figure if I can travel any
more today. Finally after a cup of herbal tea we took the plunge and
headed inland past Rouen, up the River Seinne - to the tiny (I'm not
sure if there is even a shop) village of St. Germain de-Pasquier.

According to our Camper Stop book here lies the smallest Mairie in
France. Apart from the fact that there is a designed free parking
spot here - curiousity got the better of us and we wanted to find out
what a Mairie is??

Upon arrival we have found a 3 by 2.7 metre brick building with the
words 'Mairie' on the front. The only thing we could translate from
the French information sign was its dimensions. It did have some
opening times on its door, but they could have translated to "open
Mondays and Wednesdays". As tomorrow is Tuesday, we may never be any
wiser!!