Ben and Deb's Year Off

Be seeing you

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:37:00 +0000

This is the end of this blog. It's over!

You don't have to live a ben and/or debs-free life though. Ben has started a new blog over here, and Debs also has her own little spot just round the corner. Oh, maybe she hasn't. She might have changed her mind. She's thinking about it, she says...

EDIT: She's done it! Deb's new blog is up and running - go check it out!

It remains for us to say thanks to everyone who hosted us, bought us drinks or otherwise brought sunshine and joy into our gruelling travelling life:

Sarah and Steve in Leeds
Pod and Nats in Leeds
Chris and Clare in Birmingham
Camilla and Nick in London
Ken in Reading
Jim and Diane in LA
Rob and Vanessa in Hamilton
Brenda and Sandy in Wellington
Pep and Kate in Wellington
Shelley and John in Batlow
Audrey, Peter and Alma in Wangi Wangi
Baz, Alice, Renee, and Diarmuid in Melbourne
Stu, Deb, Sam and Joe in Brisbane
Mel and Phil in Dunedin
Masahiro and Mariko in Tokyo
Steve and Zoe in Singapore
Jamie and Clare in Amsterdam
Monica in Amsterdam
...and the people we have forgotten, sorry, but I've got a hangover this morning and can't think straight.

And thanks to all of you for reading, commenting and enjoying this blog. Glad you liked it!

Our bookshelf is now fatter by about a dozen Lonely Planets, Deb's orange notebook and 5 of Ben's diaries. It's like a paper trail or something.

See you then, byeee!

Ben and Debs

Barbershops of the world, conclusion

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:36:00 +0000

It's all over: since we got home I have used my own clippers and shaved myself. It was kinda unremarkable.

So as a final treat for all you barbering fans out there, here is the summary of all the cuts I had over the past year.

Location	Type	Cost €	Quality	Fear
Havana	Full	4	7	2
Campeche	Beard	2.3	5	1
Guanajuato	Full	4	8	0
Sigatoka	Beard	0.5	2	0
Te Rapa	Full	8	6	5
Wellington	Beard	4.5	6	1
Greymouth	Full	6.5	8.5	0
Queenstown	Beard	2.75	6.5	1.5
Melbourne	Beard	4	7	0
Sydney	Full	12	8.5	2
Byron Bay	Beard	3	6	1
Seminyak	Full	1.1	9	0
Ko Lanta	Beard	1.3	5	3
Chiang Mai	Debs!	5	9	6
Luang Prabang	Full	2.2	8	3
Savannakhet	Beard	0.4	6	1
Phnom Penh	Beard	1.3	7	1.5
Tokyo	Full	17	9	0
Chennai	Beard	3.3	5	3
Varkala	Full	1.1	6	1
Munnar	Beard	0.3	8	0
Hospet	Beard	0.5	7	2
McLeod Ganj	Full	1.9	8	0
Mumbai	Beard	1	6	2
Patara	Full	11	10	2
Patara	Beard	4.5	10	0

Jesus, this is ridiculous! LOL! I was going to do graphs and stuff but I really can't be bothered. If anyone wants to do it for me, be my guest!

By my calculations that makes Mini Bharath Hair Dresses in Munnar the best value (highest quality relative to price). Feel free to dispute my assertion if you are better at wangling statistics than me. Let's face it, that wouldn't be difficult.

And that concludes the series. Feeling nostalgic already? You can revisit all your favourite hairy episodes nice and easy, via the power of hyperlinks.

Ben

Tops and tails

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:01:00 +0000

We've been home for just over a week now. Our stuff is out of storage and in our house again, we're cooking and eating delicious food - most of which is organic, drinking very few little bottles of exciting beer, sleeping in our amazingly comfortable bed, and watching Star Trek again - hooray! (Debs isn't so excited by that bit, but she's got reruns of ANTM instead, so...)

And over the past week we've met up with several hundred of our old friends and answered the same bloody questions each time: "What was your favourite place?", "did you get sick?", and of course, "was India really that bad?". (Answers: Laos/Japan/Fiji, not a lot, and yes).

Oh, and yes, haven't we lost weight and aren't we brown? Hearing this repeatedly isn't annoying at all, actually - keep saying!

So as a sanity-preserving measure for us, and a generally enlightening info-spang for everyone else, here is a round up of the highs and lows for the whole year:

Deb's bads:
Drowning when I was meant to be swimming with Manta Rays
The 18km trek in 35+ celsius conditions, Laos. 2L of water per person: "I'M TOO HOT!"
Puking in the sea, clinging onto our snorkelling boat's outrigger in Indonesia
India!

Deb's goods:
Seeing friends and family throughout the trip
Watching the fatties stuffing their faces in Dennys, LA
Pinatas in Mexico
The amazing pottery in the Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
The Gibbon Experience - pretty much everything about it
Chili tofu in Indonesia - mmh! This meal turned me on to hot and spicy food
Songkran in Thailand with Joey and Debs
Everything about Japan, but especially the Giants baseball game at Tokyo Dome and the Thunder Dolphin rollercoaster ride, oh, and the 100 Yen shop.
Yoga in McLeod Ganj

Ben's bads:
Severe foot pain in NZ
Jakarta
Food in Laos: totally gross
A severe "stomach upset" in Chiang Mai, followed by a gruelling trek - oof!
Deb's constant whining about India ;-)

Ben's goods:
Palenque - beautiful ruins in an incredible setting - my favourite "big, impressive old buildings" experience in the whole world!
Mexican wrestling, especially when Debs moved from "Is he OK?" to "Break his legs! Kill him!"
Snorkelling in Fiji - sen-sational
Killer nights out in Wellington, NZ with our friends
Shelley and John's wedding in Batlow. Apparently I set the dancefloor on fire
Bogans in Australia, and my favourite new swear-phrase: "Get fucked!" - sounds especially good in an Aussie accent
Deb's comedy sayings, from confused babbling ("Have you been bitten by a bee?") to razor sharp improvisations which wouldn't make any sense here even if I explained them. "I cannon believe it" is now a catchphrase!
Tai Chi in McLeod Ganj

And for both of us, it was just brilliant being able to spend 24 hours a day with each other. Being back at home it's easy to become distracted by all the other attention-grabbing stuff and drift off into our own little worlds... there's no substitute for time and space and having to get through stuff together. We feel much closer to each other than before. Nauseating, ain't it?

In summary: we recommend doing this, it's awesome. We had our ups, we had our downs, and now we can look back over the whole thing in disbelief that we pulled it off.

Oh yeah, if you do something similar - make sure you blog it and Flickr your photos as you go along. We've been inundated with comments from happy friends and family members about how great it is that they could keep up with us as we went around. Not only that, but now we have a thorough record of everything we did, which will hopefully last for ever! And we won't have to wade through boxes of photos going "What was that guy called again? Where was that?" etc.

That's it!

Anyone want to see a slideshow?!

Ben and Debs

Lifemod

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:34:00 +0000

We didn't find God. We didn't find ourselves. We didn't have any life-changing epiphanies. But we did see a lot of cool things and a lot of rubbish things, which made us think about how we used to live, and how we could change things for the better.

And now we're back home and starting everything with a more or less blank slate. It's a great chance to throw out old habits and get into new routines.

So here are our "how our lives will be different after all that travelling" resolutions:

Going organic: food, drink, toiletries, household cleaning products
Buying responsibly: no clothing or products from China or other horrendous regimes
Getting out more: see more of Amsterdam, geographically, culturally, etc. Also, the rest of the Netherlands probably has some interesting bits we should go see
Working differently: Ben's going freelance, Debs is... well, we'll see
Having the time of our lives: doing our best not to get sucked back into that stresslife rut we successfully levered ourselves out of this time last year; less rush rush rush, more relaxed enjoyment
Doing more sport: Debs likes yoga, Ben likes Tai Chi and swimming - we'd like to keep our healthy bods if we can.
Trying out lots more exotic recipes: Why did we never cooked with tofu before?!
Speaking more Dutch: We know it, but never use it. Must try harder (neither of us knows how to translate this phrase into Dutch - not a good start..!)
Making more cakes: Debs is now obsessed with cakes, and intends to make lots of them.

Ben and Debs

Compare and contrast

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:46:00 +0000

If you've been following our trip from the off, you might remember this "things I want to fix" post that I wrote just before we left.

Well, here's how things stand after a year:

Stress sickness: Gone
Time poverty: Gone
Arms/ hands/ RSI twinges: Gone
Drinking: Significantly reduced
Alarm clocks: Unexpectedly used them quite a lot! Plenty of early morning starts to do cool things at dawn - discovered that I like getting up early as long as there's a good reason
Mobile phones: We took one, but barely used it as a phone, mainly because the go-sim chip we used was pretty useless. Shame. Came in handy for clock, torch and games functions though
Computers: Plenty of blogging and Flickring; much less timewasting. Good.
Rut life: No rut no more! 24 hours a day with Debs doing stuff. Very fun indeed. Will miss this a lot.

In addition to all this we also have some "how our lives will be different after all that travelling" resolutions. See next post.

Ben

Back to the Dam

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:17:00 +0000

We are pretty much finished! Tomorrow we fly back to Amsterdam and get plugged back into life as we knew it... except different. It has been almost 13 months since we were in Amsterdam; almost exactly 365 days since we flew out of London to Havana.

The year has gone so fast it's amazing. Back here in London we've been chatting to friends and family, and the consensus seems to be that "not much has happened" while we've been gone. Maybe not for you guys :-)

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be wrapping up this blog, reviewing our year, comparing our thoughts before we left with what actually happened, doing lists of highs and lows and so on. I even have some Barbershop stats to crunch for y'all, I know you're waiting for that with barely controllable excitement.

So don't switch off just yet, there's a little bit more to come over the next fortnight or so.

Ben

Home! Sorta...

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:21:00 +0000

We're back! It's London! Not quite home yet, but as near as dammit cos we're spending a week with Camilla and my family are all going to be here and it's warm and we're wearing jeans! We are both apparently a damn sight skinnier than we were this time last year.

Here, you can drink water straight from the tap, flush bog roll down the toilet, and use a properly equipped kitchen to cook delicious food. Luxurious lifestyle revisited - we could both get used to this sort of thing you know?

So far, being back is very tiring and quite confusing. There are a million things that we both want to start working on, and it all rushes into us at once and leaves us dizzy and babbling. I had to keep going and lying down today because I just felt completely overloaded. Strange.

Anyway, one day at a time and all that. We have made one very good decision today - to have a big meet up for all our friends in London. So if you know us, and want to see us, please come to a lazy outdoor pub afternoon this Sunday, 27th July. Time Out tells us that the Windmill on the Common is a decent spot, so that's where we'll be, from about 1 o'clock. Here's where it is.

Ridiculous to think it has been a year since we left all this stuff behind.

Ben

9 to 5

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:34:00 +0000

This post is all about the rest of our holiday in Turkey. There isn't really very much to report :-) We spent the vast majority of our time "in the office" - on our regular sun loungers by the hotel pool. We became so attached to our particular loungers that we even did that German thing of reserving them with our towels when we went down for breakfast. Vorsprung durch Tücher!

That's pretty much it. We did manage to go to Fethiye and have a Hamam, which was lovely. Not so lovely was the glimpse Debs caught up the towel of a nude Dutch lady... cover yourself up, meisje!

Otherwise, we ate, we drank, we lazed around all day and chatted with new friends Sterling and Louise (who, it turned out, know our other new friends Mel and Phil from NZ), Idris and Matthew, and the Neal family (and it turns out that Jane was at school with both me and my sister). Hello you lot!

Oh yeah, we did manage to haul ourselves off to Kalkan again, in order to spend the day sitting on a boat and swimming in the sea, rather than lounging by the pool. That was pretty cool. We got covered in mud on a beach and Ben went and chatted to some little fish underwater. It was deeper than it looked.

By the end of our stay we were INCREDIBLY EXCITED about going home, and spent the whole journey buzzing, and shifting uncomfortably in our horribly cramped Thomas Cook cheap seats. Don't think we'll be flying with them again.

So, that's the end of all that travelling. Well nearly - next up is a week in London.

Ben

Barbershops of the world, part 25 and a half

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:00:00 +0000

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Last day in Turkey - so I went back to Nasif to get my face in shape for our triumphant return to civilisation. He did the business again: a cracking, precision job on my cheeks, same stuff as before, ear singeing and all.

No photos cos it's the same as last time, innit.

Cost YTL 8 (EUR 4.50), plus a YTL 2 tip

Cut quality 10/10

Fear factor 0/10

Oh, this time he used his special massage machine on me. it buzzed my backbone. Bit odd, but not entirely unpleasant.

Ben

Barbershops of the world, part 25

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:43:00 +0000

OMFG! We have a winner. İ have just awarded my first and only 10 out of 10 to Nasif's Unisex Barber Shop in Patara, Turkey. Why? Here's why:

First ever nose hair trim
First ever ear singe
Best cleanup action ever
Aftershave!

Basically, this was a tour de force of barbering. Stretching over a leisurely 45 minutes (yes, Debs did get a bit bored), and including a full head shave, crisp beard trim, plenty of cut-throat razor action with suds, and some mildly terrifying "singeing" where he soaked a little cotton bud in lighter fluid, lit it and then tapped it on my ears to burn off the little fluffy hairs - awesome stuff!

He also trimmed my nose hair, washed my face and head afterwards (and used cotton wool to clean out my ears), slapped a bit of aftershave on my cheeks and then gave me a head, neck and shoulder massage... total perfection, in other words.

To top it all off, there was a moment halfway through the cut where Nasif paused, gave a little sigh and wistfully said "İ like hair"... then just carried on as normal. Perfect!

Cost YTL 20 (EUR 11), plus a YTL 5 tip

Cut quality 10/10!!!

Fear factor 2/10 (my ears are on fire!)

No hesitation at all in awarding the full 10 points for this magnificent performance. Turkey, I salute you and your barbers!

Also, props to my Dad for recommending Turkish barbers! I would have gone anyway, but it boosted the anticipation excitement substantially.

Ben

Evacuate! Evacuate!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:31:00 +0000

Wow, Turkey's hot! It's so hot that the sun set the hills on fire! We'd just returned from a day trip to Kaş and were cooling down in the pool when a big cloud of smoke descended and, what started as a little fire in the distance quickly turned into an enormous fire that surrounded our hotel and threated to burn the whole village of Patara down. Yikes!

The fire was incredibly fast moving, and closing in on all sides, so we had to evacuate to the safety of the beach. There were lots of guests wıth kids, who were understandably worried, but we weren't really scared, just excited! It was exactly what we needed after a week of doing nothing. The beach resembled a scene from Armageddon - lines of people wandering up the sand, smoke billowıng towards us; helicopters and planes flyıng over, picking up water from a nearby pond to drop on the fire - but after about a 2 hours the fire was under control and we were free to go back to the hotel. Phew!

But the drama wasn't over yet. No sir-ree! We only managed half a glass of beer to celebrate our survival, when the flames flared up again, and we had to be evacuated, again. The owners of our hotel were great though, and this time we were taken to Kalkan to spend the night in a luxury villa - complete with its own private pool. Result! We didn't actually get a chance to swim in ıt- but it was nice knowing we had one :)

Anyway, all the fires are out now, and everything's fine.

Debs

Hoş Geldenız!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:07:00 +0000

You know that feeling of pure relief? Like a glass of wine at home after a rubbish day at work, or finally going to the loo after holding it in too long? Well, that's how Turkey feels after being in İndia.

As advertised in a previous post, we're in Patara on the Aegean coast, a good distance away from the chav-havens of Bodrum and Marmaris. We rubbed shoulders with a few chavs on the Thomas Cook flight over - amusing, but definitely best limited to short exposure.

Speaking of exposure, it's incredibly hot out here - like up to about 45 celsius or so. We're spending most days huddled in the shade on sun loungers by the pool, or down on the lovely beach. Despite barely entering the full sun ever, we're nut brown and glowing after just a couple of days. İt will be much better to return home looking and feeling rested and healthy, rather than all stressed and unhappy as we would have been if we had stayed in İndia.

We were really pretty pleased to get outta there, as regular readers might imagine. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable night (really!) at Gatwick's Premier İnn, marvelling at being back in England again, although we did wonder where all the English people had gone - everyone who served us was a Czech, Slovak, or Pole...

And now here we are. Really not doing much beyond snoozing, eating delicious breakfasts and mezze lunches, and taking the odd day trip to nearby towns. Absolutely no sight seeing though - we're sick of it.

İ reckon we might just about be able to fit in a visit to a Hamam before we come home...

Ben

Things of India

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:22:00 +0000

The standard questions
Where are you coming from?
What's your good name?
I take one photo?
You have one (school) pen? (Debs once misheard this as "disculpe?" and was whisked back to Mexico. Not really, just in her mind.)
What's your state? (To which I was always tempted to reply "I'm a solid", but I'm not really sure that's right - I'm actually mostly liquid. Troublesome stuff innit?)
Anything else? Coffee? Bill? (As you take the first mouthful of your meal - Debs hated this)

The place
Car horns, psycho drivers etc
Pervs and gropers
"Helpful" people who intervene when you're in a shop waiting to be served, taking it upon themselves to be your middleman for the impossible task of buying a bottle of water.
Staring. Always, always staring. At us.
Charmingly antiquated use of English: "She left me high and dry", "He caused a right rumpus" etc.
When anything is rubbish or goes wrong, "politics" is to blame.

Overused words
Dickhead
Colourful
Retards / retarded
Enthusiastic
Shit / shithole
Delicious
Incompetent
Liars
Nosy
Incredible (in an exasperated way, not admiringly)

Our sayings
"India has made us old"
"I don't recognize myself any more - I've turned into a horrible person"

See ya! Wouldn't wanna be ya!

Ben and Debs

Burgers, chocs and thalis. And BEER!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:01:00 +0000

Bombay is LUXURY compared to the last 2 months. Our hotel - Landmark Annexe, aka Prince Hotel, depending on who you speak to/what day it is - is incredibly plush. Free bottles of water, cups of tea, a proper, super comfy double bed, flat screen TV with loads of good movies, a real hot shower, and friendly staff. All this for Rs 3850 a night (EUR 55ish). It's the most we've spent on any hotel anywhere on this trip, but it's one of the nicest rooms we've ever stayed in. Ever! And we really weren't expecting much for our money in Mumbai, which is notorious for expensive crap rooms... or nice rooms for about double what we're paying. We are lucky people!

So we've had a good time here. Samrat served us a delicious thali, and beer, and then we bought some really good chocolates at their little deli downstairs. They didn't last very long. Last night we had a mini bar crawl down in Colaba, hitting Leopolds (of Shantaram fame) and Mondegar for beers and overpriced/substandard snacks.

But the best food fun was the Bombay burgers we picked up for Rs 6 each (EUR 0.1) by Churchgate station. Delicious little fried potato and fresh coriander bhaji things. All crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, squashed into a soft white bap with added chilli powder for extra excitement. Great breakfast. So good we had 2 each. Yum!

This morning wasn't so good - it took us 2 hours to post a parcel back home. Kinda unsurprising, really - it's totally emblematic of our disappointment with India, where even the simplest activity gets ludicrously overcomplicated, allowing literally dozens of bumbling incompetents to interfere, and hinder the successful conclusion of your business. "Dickheads!" says Debs. Quite so. First time I've seen sealing wax used in real life, too.

We'll be singing with happiness on the way out to the airport tomorrow. Fingers crossed the rain doesn't go mental and delay the flight too much.

Ben and Debs

Barbershops of the world, part 24

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:53:00 +0000

I never made it to a barber in Agra. There was a cool looking one in the Taj Ganj area, but it was too early in the morning and there were too many damn flies buzzing around. And you couldn't see the Taj Mahal from it, so - no point.

So I ended up with a quick and slightly pricey beard snip in Colaba, Mumbai. Asif, my barber, seemed like a friendly enough guy, but he quickly lost interest in being nice when I turned down his offer of a "good massage" for the third time. Meanwhile, his colleague was pestering Debs with facial massage offers - also refused, cos we can do all that business ourselves now.

So Asif continued to whisper creepily to me about massages, while squeezing my bicep and running the clippers over my face in a desultory manner. Hence the fear factor. I dunno why they're so secretive about it. Debs reckons it's cos they're secret gaylords who can't resist a hairy man in a vest :-)

[Pic to follow, the internet cafes here are really grotty and I don't want to stick my USB in their virus-ridden sockets]

Cost Rs 65 (EUR 1)
Cut quality 6/10
Fear factor 2/10

So, not a brilliant cut, but at least my face is tidy enough to avoid being catcalled "Ali Baba" on the flight back to London... which is tomorrow, w00t w00t! See ya later India, I'm off to get shaved in Turkey.

Ben

The last bits

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:26:00 +0000

This last part is like doing the best bits of India in a concentrated burst, and it's fun! We zipped through Agra to see the Taj Mahal: nice palace, shame about the town. Seriously, the palace/mausoleum is genuinely beautiful, especially at 6 in the morning when it's not thronged with noisy Indians. I'd throng it too, if I were them: while it costs foreigners Rs750 (EUR 12) each for entrance, they get to waltz in for Rs20 (EUR 0.30). So we wandered around, feeling quite peaceful and a bit dazed cos it was super early, played with some chipmunks, made some hooting noises inside the dome which had a major delay/echo/drone effect going on, giggled at some other tourists who had been unable to shake off the persistent guides and then headed off to see Agra Fort.

...which is another stunning building. Big, bold and full of good bits. Another them/us price gouge on entry but we really don't mind when the place is so good. The only thing we wonder is what's happening to all the money? It certainly isn't going anywhere near improving Agra town itself, which is stunningly ramshackle when you consider the cultural gems it houses. I've never seen so many flies! And the electricity was constantly off and on again, supposedly because of the monsoon, but it didn't seem to make any difference whether it was raining or not.

Pictures of both of the above to follow, BTW. Can't be bothered to upload them right now on this antediluvian computer.

After the Taj and the Fort, our favourite thing was Dasaprakash, a South Indian restaurant just down the way from our hotel. They had mind-blowingly good dosas and channa bathura. We tipped extravagantly and left fat and happy every time. Yum!

We're in Mumbai now, staying in a very plush hotel and enjoying the delights of civilisation once more, like, hot showers that are actually hot, TV with decent reception etc etc. Looking forward to doing some shopping, eating a Bombay Burger or two, and updating our flight ticket so we can get the hell outta here on Saturday.

Ben

India vs Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Just arrived in Mumbai, 5 hours late cos the train had to swim the last 150KM or so.

Logged in to iGoogle and saw the weather forecasts for here, and also (roughly) where we'll be in a week's time. SunLOLz!

Looking forward to Tai Chi on the beach, a glass or two of wine, olives, mezze and all the rest.

Gonna need some new shades and a new hat. The old one went all mouldy.

Ben

Only 9 days to go!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:52:00 +0000

Today we're leaving McLeod Ganj after more than 2 weeks of something approaching a routine - my favourite part being the coffee and cake, every afternoon :)

Thanks to the cooking class at The Taste of India, we now know how to make samosas. The secret is to put thyme seeds in the dough.

Just a night in Delhi, a trip to the Taj Mahal, and a few days in Bombay left until we can leave India! We're counting down the days - only 9 days to go!

Debs

We're going on holiday!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:04:00 +0000

We've squeezed as much fun as we know how to have out of India's, so we're moving on. In about 2 weeks we'll be in Turkey, on holiday! We're so excited! We originally planned to end our trip on the beach in Goa, but it's monsoon season, so we're bailing for sunnier shores.

Ben did a fantastic job of searching for a hotel, as always, and found the Viewpoint Hotel in Patara, so we're going there. It gets great reviews on Tripadvisor, and there's even a comment on how nice their Turkish breakfasts are (as recommended by Ben's dad). Cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast sounds like a winner to me too, Tony :)

We're staying here another week so Ben can finish Tai Chi, then taking the train - 1st class! - to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. After that we head to Bombay for a few days, then we're flying to London, dossing in Gatwick overnight then zooming straight off to Turkey. It's a plan!

Debs and Ben

Healing hands

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:56:00 +0000

We're learning Tibetan Massage, and it's a lot of fun. The class is a 5 day, hands-on course, so we take it in turns to try out each of the massage moves on each other, and each lesson focuses on a different area of the body.

As you can imagine, we've done a lot of giggling, especially when it came to the butt massage. Hoo! But it's been really useful, and hopefully we'll remember how to do it when we get home. Our fave by far (and the easiest) has been the face massage, which is heaven. Amusingly, Ben loves the nose massage.

It's really interesting how one pressure point on the body can say about another part. I really like it when he tell us where to press to cure illness or pain in another part of the body. he's told us how to increase flexibility, ease the affects of asthma, help to encourage pregnancy (one hour after sex, rub the hands over the stomach in a circular motion).

Last night I mentioned to Dondhup, our teacher that I've been constipated for about 2 months (yes, throughout India. Ridiculous), hoping he'd give me a cure, and he suggested drinking some of the local water. Right, thanks ;)

Today, Ben also rediscovered some funny little lumps on his left shoulder. They look like alien worm egg bumps or something, and they flare up for about 1 minute then subside. This happened the other day after a hot shower too. Hmmm...

Debs

Tight hips? No problem!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Yes, I have tight hips, and extreme inflexibility, but it hasn't stopped me grunting through a six-day course of Ashtanga (power) yoga at Universal Yoga in Mcleod Ganj, no sir-ree!

Ashtanga yoga is really hard. I bet it's the one Madonna does. It's really physical, and we were pushed hard for the full two and a half hours of each lesson.

It was a little intimidating at first. I was easily the least competent in a class full of about twenty yoga masters, who knew all the moves and how to breathe properly but I just went for it.

There was a beginners side, luckily (that contained lots of people who didn't look at all like beginners), and the teacher, a Gandi-like Indian man called Vijay, was firm but fair, and gave lots of instructions ("If you have tight-hips, sit on the block"; "If you're inflexible, use the rope"). I had a few mishaps (whacking my arms on the mat, really hard, whilst trying to put my legs behind my head; almost dislocating my hip trying to get my foot over my head; pulling a muscle or something, which resulted in pain shooting through my ankle each time I stretched my legs out in front of me, etc). However, after a low point on the third lesson, where I was really annoyed at my level of inflexibility, and didn't see how it was possible to move in the way we were being instructed to, I think I did gain some flexibility, and some understanding of how to adapt the moves to suit my body, and I actually started to enjoy myself. By the end of the course, I'd mastered most of the moves, and Vijay even told a fellow tight-hipped man to "follow her". Wooh!

So I feel really pleased that I completed the course, because it was really tough, and it hurt!

I've had a great week here, and we're here for another week. Ben spent last week doing 13 form Tai Chi, and is doing 24 form this week, and we're both taking a Tibetan Massage course, which is hilarious, and we love.

So everything's good, and incase you can't tell, I'm back! I've been miserable for the last two months. India broke my spirit for a while there, so badly that I literally didn't recognise myself in the mirror (boo hoo!), but thanks to a busy schedule, I'm actually happy again for the first time in ages and have started smiling again. Horray!

Debs

Elbow attack to the heart!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Best fun in India so far! For the past week I've been spending 2 hours a day having private Tai Chi lessons with Jamyang, my super solidly built, incredibly flexible teacher.

Already he's taught me the 13 form (Yang style) and we're halfway through the 24 form now. It's totally bostin! Last year I took 6 months of lessons back in Amsterdam. Fun, but at 1 hour per week in a group class, progress was slow. This is a different animal altogether. I glide and stretch and flow up on Jamyang's roof (weather permitting) with views over the hills and valleys of McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala, while eagles wheel and soar over our heads. A crow even tried to shit on my head this morning, but I was too damn quick for him.

The best bit - apart from 2 hours of slow motion exercise to lively up my body first thing in the morning - is the names of the positions that make up the forms. Try Fair Lady Works with Shuttles on for size, or how about Part the Wild Horse's Mane? My all time favourite is Elbow Attack to the Heart - great name, fantastic position (pic below)! But that might be cos I haven't got to Snake Creeps Down yet.

Anyway, by the time I finish this course off, I'll be totally equipped to repel any physical attack to my person... as long as it happens in slow motion. Ward off!

Ben

Barbershops of the world, part 23

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:10:00 +0000

McLeod Ganj is a small place with lots of barber shops. Debs selected the busiest one for me - no name - but then wasn't impressed with the price. Popularity breeds ripoffs. Ain't it always the way?

This time I needed the works: head and face; grades 2 and 1 respectively. Slightly cramped seating in here, but it didn't seem to hamper my barber who did a nice crisp job all round. No stray bits, nicely tripped upper lip, fresh blade in the razor for fluff removal, talc and brush then atomiser water spray and face wipe to remove bits at the end.

He even did a firm head massage for 5 minutes to round it all off. Nice and all that, but I'm not sure if that vigorous rubbing either side of my widow's peak is going to encourage hair growth or just pull out what little hair remains there.

Cost Rs 120 (EUR 1.90)
Cut quality 8/10
Fear factor 0/10

Next one should be in Agra, hopefully in the shadow of the Taj. "Fat chance", says Debs.

Ben

Life in the clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:37:00 +0000

This is more like it. We made it up to McLeod Ganj on Thursday and have spent the last 2 days drifting around in the mist, enjoying the cool temperatures and being teased by the cheeky waiters in the restaurants.

Apparently the views up here are pretty spectacular. Shame we can't really see them properly at the moment - we just catch glimpses through gaps in the cloud. And then there's the rain. Seems the monsoon has rocketed up to the north of India about a month early. Last night it bucketed down for about 6 or 7 hours straight. Super crazy thunderstorm action that kept knocking out our hotel's electricity like an EMP - pretty impressive! Fortunately it had stopped by midnight so I could watch the Netherlands whip France 4-1 at football.

It's a lot less mental up here, and we're really enjoying the place and the atmosphere. We're definitely going to stay for at least a week, maybe 2, and just did a bit of research into the various courses you can do up here. So far we have rejected a 10-day introduction to Buddhism cos we would have had to sleep apart and remain silent for the entire duration of the course. The thought of Debs not saying a word for even 10 minutes is pretty funny, but 10 days? LOLz!

So I'm going to check out some T'ai-Chi stuff and Debs is looking at Yoga classes. Maybe also Tibetan massage. Definitely some cooking classes too; hope we can find ones that are more hands-on than the last one we tried, where we just sat there making notes while Mrs Roy did all the prep and cooking.

6 weeks of our year off remain, and it's natural that we're starting to look forward to going home and getting plugged back into our working lives and networks again. What both of us are most looking forward to though, is a cold glass of crisp Heineken, getting back into our kitchen, and sleeping together in our own double bed (instead of two singles pushed together).

So I've got about 42 days to come up with a decent name for my new company that somebody hasn't already thought of and nabbed the URL for. Oh! I just had a new idea... watch this space!

Ben

Dire Straits Debs

noreply@blogger.com (Ben and Debs) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:12:00 +0000

India is impossible to work out, and unfortunately, it's also full of creeps.

I'm in dire straits! I really, really want to like it here, but I just don't. Poor Ben (who's also fed up, but not as fed up as me) is getting increasingly frustrated by my "I hate it here" tears and tantrums. Damn it.

I do have a few 'Indian' advisors in Steve and Zoe (lived in Mumbai for two years, also hated it), and Peter Landa (who's travelled here loads with his lovely, talented, Indian singer and wife Sandhya) but even they can't help.

In one of our long correspondences, Peter mentioned the 'unspoken rules' of India (e.g. It's OK to slap beggars or untouchables if they grab you), and I think he's hit on the crux of the problem - I don't get them. In most countries it's easy to learn from experience, but in India, no two experiences are ever the same, and after each bus, train, or plane journey it's like being in a different country, where you have to learn all over again.

We're constantly misreading people and situations, and often feel confused and bad, rather than amused by cultural differences. It seems that everyone wants our attention i.e. money, but whether we give it or not, it always causes problems.

We feel really sad for the people here who are so poor that they can't afford to eat, but everyone asks us for money, and we find it really hard to tell whether we should give or not. We're always approached by mothers who are pimping their children as sympathy whores, who we refuse to give money to for that very reason, but then the other Indians seem to look at us like shit for not giving them any money.

One part of me thinks screw them all, it isn't our problem, it's their society and their responsibility to sort it out, and another part of me feels really sad that we're turning away a mother and child who are potentially starving. Or maybe they're not, because something will inevitably happen (like someone refusing a 10 Rs 'tip' saying 50 is more appropriate) and we'll realise that they were just trying to extort huge amounts of money from us, and probably weren't genuinely needy at all. Or are we being too sensitive? Ggrrr.

If we tip anyone in a hotel, we end up getting too much attention from other members of staff looking for a tip. In the restaurant of the last hotel we stayed in, where we tipped at every meal, each meal turned into a circus, with up with 9 members of staff hovering over our table and watching our every move, for the entire meal. I know it's sweet, and comes from a nice place, but they're all so laughably incompetent, that their help is more of a hindrance, and it all just turns into a big 'look at the funny Westerners' show, which I find infuriating and Ben manages to ignore.

The men are also creepy, and I really feel harassed at times. We just had another incident in Hyderabad like the one on the bus, but a bit creepier. When we first arrived at the hotel, the sheets on the bed were dirty (What, in India? No?!), so someone came up to the room to change them, and we gave him a 10 Rs tip. No big deal, right? Well, as we've experienced before, this just leads to unwanted attention, which we got.

From then on, people would ring our doorbell at all times of the day, including midnight, to see if we wanted tea, coffee, laundry etc, and sometimes wait there for 5 minutes, then try again for long periods of time. We just ignored them, assuming it was the staff at the hotel, then reception put a very strange call through to our room from someone who said he was staying in the room opposite (which sounded OK because we had briefly chatted with a young guy staying in the opposite room a few days earlier) asking if I had a box of matches he could borrow. When I said no, and then he asked me if I was alone, so I put Ben on, who asked who was calling, and the guy asked for 'Mr Connors', then hung up.

I was really freaked out by the call, and felt like he knew who we were, so we went down to reception to ask about the call, and they said someone had called in from an external line asking to be connected to room 411 - our room. We also asked about the knocks on the door at midnight, and when they claimed to know nothing about them, my mind really started to race, and I was scared. Anyway, we were fine. Nothing else happened, and we think the door knocks were members of staff looking for tips, who were then scared off, but it's just another incident that makes me feel unsafe here.

Seems like nothing we try helps, and the positive experiences we do have are few and far between. Each time we think something's going to be really cool it turns out to be total shit. Then we can find something completely unremarkable to be really charming - like a 26h train ride spent with a really nice Indian family with 2 cute little kids who copied everything I did and said. Made me miss my own family at home even more.

India, I'm giving you one last chance, all right? If McLeod Ganj turns out to be rubbish, we're going to Turkey. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Debs