Heavy Breathing

Julay everyone!!!

We have made it Leh after the weather here canceled our first flight, keeping us in muddy Delhi for an extra night and what an amazing place Leh is.

The flight here was spectacular as you can see:

The views from the city (Leh is more like a town really) are breathtaking and we are taking pics from every small hill, rooftop, terrace we can find. Our lovely room also has a big window facing the mountains, so you cant really escape the scenery. The guest house also has a colorful garden where we spent the morning soaking up the sun

Sadly (is it really ?) we don't have cell phone reception here so our only mode of communication is the net. I hope we wont be lazy and will write, though judging from the emails we sent it wont be a problem.

Our dealing with the altitude is also better than we expected and turning over in the bed is easier then we thought :) even walking about is OK, so today we climbed up a small hilltop near the entrance to the city to bring you these:

That's it for now... we will be spending the next few days lazily arranging our trek and soaking up more sun. Wishing you all happy holidays !!

Hila & Morphhh Sleazy.

Thats all Folks

Namaste all,

How is everyone doing?

As im sure you know we have already returned home, a week ago actually.

and with all the hectics of returning to work and university i have finally found a few moments to update the blog. Especially with the main attraction - pics.

We finished our trip in Delhi - with some shopping... nothing interesting really... (if you don't count the rings ;)

We spent a wonderful time in the state of Sikkim. Before that we did a 8 day trek on the Singlila ridge near Darjeeling. Against our hopes the cloud god was not on our side... Though we did get some nice views on the morning of the second day of the walk, most of the other days were sunny but with only views of large clouds clustered around and over Mt. K.
On several days it started raining by noon and a large Ozzy group booked the whole accommodations ahead of us so we were forced to stay 2 nights at Sandakphu - which has a lovely guest house and lots of clouds... but on the next few days we had great weather and even on the morning from Phalut (the highest point in the trek) we were awarded at the sunrise by an amazing view of Mt. K. and the whole "5 Sisters" (i think they are all above 8000m) all the way and including Mt. Everest which was a lovely treat :)
The first days were mostly climbing up to above 3000m... then the rest were a more gradual climb at the crest of the ridge up to phalut (3700m). The surrounding silver fir, pine and rhododendron forests were moist and green. The trek follows the Indian-Nepal border so were constantly criss-crossing in and out of India. The facilities are a bit more simple then the ones catering trekkers in Nepal but still sufficient and we always had a place to sleep (not always a shower...) and the food was... well... its Dal Bat so... nothing you would go crazy over... Its Rice... with Dal (aka lentils) well... more like some colored water with some lentils at the bottom... and Subji... which is generally vegetables.. we got potatoes (if I was lucky) with cabbage... yummmmm...but the mornings were warmed up with oatmeal porridge and tea...

To sum it up it was a wonderful trek :) recommended to all especially in spring when all the forests will be flowering.

After returning from the trek we drove into Sikkim and spent the time in 2 lovely places: Yuksom and Pelling. We had a nice place to stay in Pelling with a lovely view of Mt. Kanchenjunga and they have very good masala chai :). We spent 2 nights in Yuksom which was a smaller town but set in a lovely countryside. Everything there is lovely... green and flowering... (and lots of types of Orchids). The time was passed just looking at the mountains drinking tea... walking to see a waterfall here and there... and well.. nothing else really... :)

So thats it.. out trip came to an end... We really enjoyed it and it felt like an extension to our previous trip in Asia. The year in Israel was like a vacation from traveling. We probably wont be returning to this area of the globe soon... but well... you never know ;)

Another note - we had a great time meeting Yogev, after not seeing for such a long time it was great to meet up. He is in Thailand now and from what i understand should be back in israel preatty soon - which is way cool since we miss him so much.

OK, so that sums up our trip and now for those of you who have not seen them yet, you can see a selection of our photos at the following link:

Pics from India

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Darjeeling - Tea Anyone?

Namaste all,

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays, though im not sure i remember which one it is now (Sukot perhaps?). We are currently in Darjeeling - land of Tea Plantations and tea stalls selling local tea everywhere. It's mostly an Indian tourist spot but they have started to catch on to the foreign tourist trade as well. We are staying in a lovely family run guest house that has an amaizing view to the valley below. There is only one problem though. Cant see much of the view. Why you ask ??? well... damn clouds everywhere... but still the countryside is green with tea plantations and lush wet greener than green jungle like forest. On the day we arrived in the early morning we managed to catch a short glance at the Kunchengunga mountain (above 8km) which is the 2nd or 3rd highest mountain and the highest in India. But since then we didnt get any chance of seeing any snow capped mountains.

Tomorow we are heading out for a 8-9 day trek which if the local cloud god is on our side should allow us good views of the Kunchengunga peaks. The trek is actually only 7 days long but we will spend perhaps a few more nights on the trail to relax and enjoy (if we get any) views and of course aclimitize to the alltitude. Darjeeling is around 2300m and the trek will bring us to just under 3700m. But it should be an easy one. After the trek we will be heading towards Sikkim (probably the day after our return to Darjeeling) for the remainder of our short time in India :(

Now you must have noticed i did not complain about the ride here from Khajuraho... well i cant really help it (Yoav/Nira) and ill just give out some details. We left our guest house in Khajuraho on the morning of the 3/10. We arrived in Darjeeling at 8am on the 5/10. Thats 2 days. and about 85% of it was actually on the road. But im not complaining :) the train rides were more than good and we even managed to take a shower at Mughal Serai train station (yes we only now found out that they have retiring halls with common showers) So all went well and rather smoothly.

So firstly dont expect to hear from us till the 18th. So no complaining about me not writing and being lazy etc. etc. ;)

Second we are very happy to see you all (well some) participating in the commenting on the blog - please write more and of course questions are welcome. At least i wont need to devise any stupid animal naming contests to keep you all interested (I'm sure you were all glued to your seats the last time). Though we did catch a few photos of a lovely large black himalayan bear in the local zoo which im sure will be needing a name (suggestions anyone??? ;). We are still in negoteations with the zoo regarding aquiering the furry animal, and thats after understanding that the siberean tiger is out of the questions (something to do with its sensitive wiskers).

That brings me to the last topic - Pics. Connection here is slower than slow so i wont be uploading any pics this time (try not to throw any bad tomatos at the screen please) but once we find faster one we will upload more pics. I wish i could have uploaded more pics the last time and I will try to squeeze in more the next time.

So that wraps it up for this post - I hope you all are having a lovely holiday which ever one it is :)

We are having a great time here and hope to have even more fun :)))))

Namaste all,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

p.s. i know - i didnt spell check.

India 2.0

Well... If you read our posts from the last time we were in India you would never think we would want to come back... Well.. Guess what... (well ya you already know but...) We are back in India ;)

NAMASTE everyone!!!

we are currently in Khajurahu (the place with all the kama sutra temples) and its great. Very impressive and hot as an Indian babu's armpit in hell (you can imagine the smells yourself).

so... What have we been doing in the past few days?... Well.. It all started with our flight over here....

we arrived at ben gurion at 2:30 am... With the help of our good friend Roy and is car.. And as we were going to check in we were told that the flight has been delayed from 6am to 10 am... We were extremely concerned about the fact that we might miss our connection flight from Kiev but we had nobody to talk to about it since all the offices were closed... So we spent the whole night looking at closed shops in the airport... Finally when we did check in we were told that it would be no problem since we have an hour for the connection... Ok... What could we do... Well after a horrible but short flight we arrived in Kiev .. Only to find out that our flight was again delayed by another 5 hours... And to our delight we found that the very small airport in Kiev was swarming (I'm deliberately using that verb) with braslevs who just came back from umman.. Lots and lots and lots of them... The local Ukrainians seemed a bit scared by the Yiddish shouting invasion but we managed to waste our time drinking beers at the Irish pub in the airport. So instead of landing at 23:00 on the 25th we landed at 5am on the 26th at Delhi... Good thing we arranged a pick up from the airport and a room in Delhi... So our time in Delhi was spent mostly for sleeping and buying our train tickets all the way to darjeeling.

From Delhi we took a nice Shatadbi train (short ride with AC) to Jhansi where we met Yogev and headed for Orchha... Orchha is a small local town that sits between a huge palace and a few large temples.. All from around the 15-16th cent. Very impressive. pics below:

The town itself is a bit uninviting as in shabby... But we spent two nice day there and then took a wonderfully over crowded hot humid dusty smelly local bus ride to Khajurahu.

Since we got here we spent most of the first day recuperating from the ride and relaxing... We saw some of the minor temples yesterday and today toured the main complex here... I must say it was very beautiful, both the temples and the sculptures that surround them...
looks like huge breasted females doing crazy yoga postures while having sex with over equipped agile guys... pics below:

So that's about it for now - we are heading for the night lights and sound show at the temples... Hope everyone had a happy new year and a easy yom kipur tsom...

will post more soon,

see ya,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Signing Off from Beijing

Nee How (for the last time)

How is everyone???

We are fine in Beijing - our last stop for this long (though it seems very short) and amazing, wonderfull, interesting, beutiful, mind bogeling, tasty, strenious, diversified, and waaaaaayyyyy cooool trip ;)

We last wrote from Yangshou which had really amazing scenery and i was a bit sick... From there we moved on on a 30 hours train ride (which was surprisingly ok) to the super cool and high-tech city of Shanghai. We spent 5 days walking around its endless shopping streets malls arcades and department stores. If China used to be communist, well... it ain't anymore. The new ideology is shoping, shoping and a bit more shoping. The locals shop it seams for all day long. The city is gleeming new with sleek high rises and the people walk around dressed in the newest fashion. and they are building more andmore shopping malls.. like they don't have enough and they need to shop for all the years the comunist reigeme didn't let them. Well... we did a bit of shopping... :) we arived dead tired each day to our guest house - which was the The Shanghai Music Conservatorium - so we heard alot of classical chinese music being played (more like them trying to play on them) from our neighbours. Besides all the shoping we also spared time for the museum and the Yu Yuan garden, and catched the amaizing Shanghai acrobatics troup. They had everything you can imagine from guys jumping through hoops, balancing huge vases on their heads, magics show and of course the all flexable chinese rubber girl - which did stuff you wouldnt even want your wife to do in bed ;) (unless your really into the bizare). The show was really great and entertaining.We couldn't visit Shanghai without sampling the club scene. We went to a really cool night club - Madam Zhung's - for some breakbeat dancing and booty shaking.

Then - Beijing where we could really feel the end of our stay in Asia. Even though its the capitol beijing isn't as modern as Shanghai or even Chengdu. But she has her charm and doesn't lack on the shopping opertunaties, although we didn't plan to we found ourselves doing some last minute shopping - mainly because, to our dismay, all the attractions in the city were under construction. Yes thats right the forbiden city (which this time around was actually forbidden), the summer palace and the heavanly temple park - all of them were under restoration - our guess was because of the olympic games in 2008 - Yes the chinese are building and renovating their capitol city - in some parts it seams like their building it from scratch. But we had lots of luck when we visited the Great Wall at Simatai - the weather was great and the walk was amazing (a lot easier then i remembered it - sorry dad it isn't really that hard ;)

A visit to Beijing must include a Beijing Duck (or Peking Duck) - which Hila claims as the best meal (or two meals - we went twice ;) in the whole trip. Indeed yummmy yummmy (we will explain when we get home about the way its prepaired and eaten - sorry we have a plain to catch)

Well we guess thats it.

We have finished walking about Asia.

We had an amaizing time.

We havn't been bored for one minute.

We both wish it was longer.

Tomorow we will land in Israel.... and catch up with you all...

This is the last post (except for the pics which we will upload from home- yes its the last ones ) so you can all be releived.

Lots of love,

Signing off,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy

p.s. thanks to tommy for the cool nick. ;)

no time for spell check - we need to catch our flight.

Tai Chi Fever and some Pics

Nee How,

I know it hasn't been long but we just returned from the Wu Wei Martial Arts Centre...

Why so short you ask ? Well... A few reasons actually...

First I got sick... Yes I seem to have the perfect timing with my body and I got some kind of flu... Pock Pock Pockkkaaa (I hope its not the bird one)
I catched a nasty one complete with fever, runny nose and an all over "chalooshes"... So I was bed ridden for the past 4 days... While Hila was doing Tai Chi, Yoga and a bit of spear fighting technique...

Second the place apparently was brand new - its been open only a month. So although it was fairly well organized it was lacking atmosphere - we were expecting something more like the place "Black Mamba" was practicing at in "Kill Bill 2"...

Third it was full (99%) of Israelis - most of which were kibutznikim... That gave the place the atmosphere of a kibutz. We didn't come to China to spend a week on a kibutz.

And last but not least - the food was strictly vegetarian - all potatoes, tofu and all kinds of greens we never heard of or saw before. That was really more than we could take.

Now the instructors were good, very good. There was one Israeli (Kung Fu and Karate), 2 Chinese (Tai Chi and Kung Fu) - the female one was amazing - she looked straight out of "Crouching Tiger Leaping Dragon", with a 2 meter long, double braid of black hair and an American yoga teacher that could put you in positions you never thought a human body could be in. So we are sure that with time that place can become a really cool place to come to for that sort of stuff. Maybe the next time around...

So we are back in town (Yangshou) and will stay here till Sunday to organize our train to Shanghai and give me time to reset my body temperature on 36.7 and maybe catch a few pirated DVD's (we have a player in our room and the town is packed with DVD sellers).

So in the mean time so you guys don't get bored (I'm sure you were worried) you can have a look at some pics from China:

Here you will find pics from Emei Shan, Lijiang, and the Panda breading centre in Chengdu

These are from Jiuzaigua national park.

and finally these are from our trek in Tiger Leaping Gorge

Ok that's it for now,

From here we will head on Sunday to Shanghai by train... So I guess our next post will be from there,

Ill go stick my head in a bucket of ice (maybe that will lower my temp under 43c ;)
(Just kidding - No need to worry - my temperature is down to normal and I feel much better as I have been taking anti-biotics)

byebye

Hila May & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

That's traveling in China

Imagine yourself on a bus. Just crossing a lovely green flowering mountain range. You have a wonderful view of the valley below. Green with paddy fields, wheat and corn crops. Small villages are dotted between the terrace fields on the green slopes of the mountains and hills. Then suddenly you hear the lady in the seat in front of you start to make loud throat sounds.... She opens her window and lets a huge loogy fly straight into your glass window. You spend the rest of the descent into the valley staring in horror and disgust at the huge green, brown gob of spit stuck to your window in the centre of the view. That's part of traveling in China.


sniff... sniff sniff... Can you smell it? Its the end....

Nee how yall...

its either the strong smell of soy sauce and dried squid or we can smell the end of our trip coming.... and we are saddddd.... :(

We are in Yangshou (northern Gaungxi Province) at the moment taking some time off from our vacation for a bit of a vacation (does that make any sense?)...

We had a lovely time in Lijiang & trekking the Tiger Leaping gorge which was a breeze compared to Nepal but the scenery was great and we had lots of fun. Lijiang was just a beautiful picturesque city with little canals and red lanterns at night. We even moved our lazy asses and rented bicycles for a day ride around town. From there we moved on to Dali which was a bit under our expectations but we had a relaxing time (though we did climb the local mountain by cablecar ;) and walked all the loooong 2km's to the lake ;). From there we moved on to Kunming (another big city - but not as cool as Chengdu) where we took a day trip to Shilin.
Shilin is also called "Stone Forest" and indeed it feels like a forest of tall rocky limestone formations that you walk among and sometimes even crawl between, very beautiful.

From Kunming we took a wonderfully fun train ride to Guilin (the big town next to here). It was such a wonderful 20 hour ride - it was around 40c even at 2:30 am so it was so easy to sleep and relax and the chain smoking Chinese didn't even bother us at all with all our sticky sweaty selves... God it was horrible.... But we survived and are alive to tell the tale.

You have been asking about food in China. Well we can't really complain... The food is good and we are eating mostly Chinese. There isn't much similarity between the food here and what we usually consider to be Chinese food in Israel. We eat a lot of pork and here have started to also see a lot of duck... mmm yummmy (we had a gorgeous orange duck yesterday). Most of the time you can even order the same dish (usually sweet and sour pork for us) because it comes totally different at each restaurant you try it. Sometimes you can tell its straight out of a jar of instant sauce (which is usually good too) and other times you get it with tomatoes and chili (more like sour and hot pork - but delicious) we even got it with apples once... mmm yummm... There is a lot of street food especially in the cities and of course lots and lots of dumpling shops. The fat doughy ones and the wonton like thin ones all very yummmy... And so cheap you find yourself insisting to the waitress that she has forgotten to add something to the bill :)

So what we will be doing in Yangshou... Well after contacting Roy's sisters here in china we found out that they are based in Yangshou and are taking their courses here. So we decided to join them for 4-5 days and do a course. A course in what you ask ? Well.. Tai Chi and meditation !!
Yes that's true after skipping all the vipasana ashrams and yoga retreats in India we decided to get some eastern style martial arts and spirituality and will take a course here in Yangshou.

Have a look at their web site here

Besides that we will be taking in the fresh (hot humid and sticky) air here and will streach our legs some more - The scenery here is lovely:

Have a look here (though we will be uploading pics of our own soon)

that's all for now...

We will catch ya all later with maybe 1 or 2 more posts before we come back home... :(...

and of course some pics :)

bye for now,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy

The Chinese Are Coming!!

Nee How !!

How was pesach ?

We hope you had a kosher one... (ya like we care if it was kosher - we ate pork :)

Happy 1st of May everyone - its a big thing here with a week long holiday and the Chinese are taking advantage of the holiday - they are traveling everywhere.

We landed in China almost two weeks ago and man how time flies. Since we were on a connection flight to Chengdu (from Katmandu) through Lhasa (in Tibet) we had a special treatment. There were only four of us on the flight that continued to Chengdu (2 Chinese and us). When we arrived in Lhasa all 4 of us were escorted by 6 airport officials to pass through the immigration - so we wouldn't accidentally pass into Tibet (you need a special permit). At the X-ray machine we were stopped and Hila's bag was thuroughlly checked - they opened each and every of the books she was carrying to check for subversive material - that's when we realized we landed in communist china.

Landing in Chengdu gave us the opposite impression. The downtown part of the city is filled with huge skyrise shopping malls selling all the big designer brands and the Chinese are buying everything. You would never believe its a communist country. The streets are 4-6 lanes, and the sidewalks are wide and clean. Lots of trees and the city is filled with huge green parks with tea shops where all ages spend the afternoons sipping green tea and playing majong. Old locals congregate under the pavilions singing, dancing and doing tai-chi.

If Chengdu is a face for China then the western world doesn't stand a chance - Watch out The Chinese are Coming!!!

In Sichuan we visited Jiuzaigu national park which has beautiful crystal clear turquoise and green lakes surrounded by snowcapped mountains... We will have the pics from there soon. After that we spent 3 days around Emei Shan (Mt. Emei) which is a sacred mountain with lots of temples and monasteries. The mountain is constantly covered with clouds and mist but the walk (we walked down as the trail is 2500 meters climb on very steeeeeep steps - so we took the bus and chairlift up and slowly walked down griting our teeth against the pain in our knees and calves) in the jungle was beautiful - lots of green, the flowers were all blooming, birds chirping, lots of butterflies, insects and frogs and of course you can't have a sacred mountain without a few packs of wild cheeky monkeys that ambush you on the trail looking for food. There were actually signs that warned about the monkeys and how to behave. Luckily we didn't have too much trouble but saw a pack attack a Chinese tourist group and steal their bags of munchies - the Chinese always have something to munch on. The only run in with them we had was when a huge one blocked our path - we had a local guy help us through with a big stick while the big monkey sat on the side and hissed at us... sssssssss...

The monkeys reminded us of Divluly which we just got word from - apparently he was mixed up in an guns and drugs deal with the maoists in Nepal. He was caught with a truckload of Ak-47's and opium near the Burmese border, heading for Nepal. He had some weird sympathy for the Maoists and decided to help. But alas he was caught when he also tried to steal some bananas at a small town market. So he is in the Thai jail now and his solicitor (a well know monkey enthusiast) told us he is urgent need for money.. What else... So if you have the heart to donate just place the large sums of US $'s in one of our bank accounts :) Im sure Divluli would very much appreciate it (Tommy especially you, since you named him - he is counting on you!! - he feels you are his Godfather ;)

The Chinese like to be tourists. They travel everywhere in huge tourists busses. They arrive in the tourists hotspots which are filled with tourist hotels. The national parks are all covered with microbusses shuttling between the viewpoints and have female guides dressed in traditional costumes explaining the history and what we are looking at (though its in Chinese so we don't understand a word). During the boring parts of the ride the TV's in the busses show videoclips of favorite Chinese sticky sweet pop songs with the words at the bottom so the tourists can sing along - and of course they do they are just suckers for kareoke.

We arrived last night in our first town in Yunnan province - Lijiang. We came in from Sichuan province after a long ride - 13 hours by train then another 9 by bus. Its a small town with a gorgeous old part - no cars just walkways between old wooden houses with lots of souvenir shops... We will spend a few days here before heading north to Tiger Leap Gorge on the yangtze river for a 3-4 day trek which should be great.

Ok now for pics - we finally Ul'd all the pics from our treks in Nepal and here they are

From The Anapurna Circuit Trek:

Pics from the way Up to Pisang

Pics from Manang and the Pass

Pics from after passing the Throng-La Pass

And also pics from the Poon Hill Trek (the one we did with Hila's Parents)

If your still interested in seeing pics we uploaded from India:

You can find some pics from Agra here

You can also see pics from Delhi here

Ok I guess that's it for now.. We will write again probably after the trek or in Dali (we will get there in a around 1-1.5 weeks). We are going to try and catch a 1st of may parade and hope we will not be swept into the communist frenzy ;)

Please leave your comments on the pics and post (we are using shutterfly instead of yahoo for the pics this time - tell us what you think)

Nee how,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Round the Anapurna we go

Hey there everybody...

We now have lots more readers (the counter is on 0) so I expect lots of replies like in the previous post (also the counter is on 0).

We are back from our massive trek - The Anapurna Circuit.

Before that we spent 10 lovely days with Hila's parents in Katmandu and Pokara and I'm sure the most memorable thing for them was the "Poon Hill" trek we did together.

We spent 5 days of walking on the southwest side of the Anapurna range and the highlight was the climb to Poon Hill for a sunrise view of Anapurna South, Himuchuili and the Machupichre (Fish Tail). Indeed it was spectacular.

The first day of the trek was a hard climb up to a small village called Ulleri. After climbing all day on thousands and thousands of steep steps it started to get dark and to rain. We actually didn't think we would make it before dark especially as Hila's parents were around an hour behind Hila me and our porter Purna. We were met at the lodge by our host and I'm sure for Hila's parents it was a bit of a shock to see him standing in the doorway to the lodge in the dark, while the rain was coming down, holding an old fashioned lantern (there was no electricity that night) and grinning. He was a hunchback. The "Ulleri Hunchback"!! He was a real nice guy and gave us a very warm welcome. The days after the first were easier though not a piece of cake, even with the porters. I had an especially hard time as my left knee was giving me trouble - The "old army wound" (I was never wounded :). The forest was flowering red purple and pink with Rhododendron trees and that was a beautiful addition to the great views we enjoyed most of the trek. I think we managed to give Hila's parents an experience they wouldn't have done by themselves and frankly speaking if we knew the first day would be that hard I think we wouldn't have taken them. But they were great sports and kept up pace (they eventually passed me with my bummed knee) and finished the trek with honors. I on the other hand finished it with a harsh limp.

I would like Hila's parent to please comment on this post with their part of the story, the trek we did afterwards is more vivid in our mind and we would like to read their impression, I'm sure it is much more intense and interesting. Please write it in English as not all of our 0 readers understand Castellano and I'm sure Tommy would love to spend some time proofing it ;).

After a few days of relaxation in Pokara (with a lot of Voltaren tablets for my knee) we embarked on our trek around the Anapurna. The trek goes up one large river valley on the east side of the mountain range and reaches the Throng-La mountain pass at 5416 meters. After passing it you walk down another river valley on the west side to complete an almost circle around the mountain range. It is basically 15 days of walking which we added another 4 for acclimatization to the altitude and general resting before and after the pass. I was a bit skeptical that my knee would make it but after 3-4 days of walking it got much better and after the acclimatization days I totally forgot it gave me problems.
I think the first 3 days of the trek were the most difficult besides the day crossing the pass itself. We were carrying to much weight in our bags (I think mine reached nearly 15 kgs) but as a lot of it was cookies and chocolates ;) we managed to eat most of it by the end of the first 5-6 days. Also we got used to our bags and to the idea that we will spend the next 3 weeks walking about...

The great thing about this trek is that the scenery constantly changes. We started in a lush green valley (around 800 meters) that gradually changed, as the altitude got higher. Anywhere under 2000 meters the trail is full of cannabis. It grows between the rocks on the trail like a weed and covers the side of the path like grass. By the time we spent our first rest day in Pisang (3200 meters) it became a dry landscape inhabited by Tibetan people that raised yaks instead of planting rice (it is in the rain shadow of the mountain range so there is relatively little rainfall). Walking in these altitudes gets slower because of the difficulty breathing but also the distances spent walking each day are shorter because you don't want to have more than 500 meters altitude difference between the places you sleep in. I think all in all we didn't have too much difficulty in the altitude because we spent enough time acclimatizing. We met several cases of people having to turn back because they got really sick on the way up (and to our surprise there is a lot of awareness about altitude sickness, including free lectured in Manang). Pisang was a very beautiful place surrounded by huge snow covered mountains - Anapurna 2 and Heavens Door provided amazing scenery all the way up to Manang where they were replaced by Anapurna 4 & Gangapurna peaks. We also spent 2 days in Manang for acclimatization (3500 meters). The next 2 days we made our way up to Throng-Phedi (4400 meters), which was the last stop before the pass. The night there was a bit rough and we had a bit of trouble sleeping, Hila had headaches and I had a claustrophobia attack in the middle of the night - I felt out of air and it took me an hour to relax (after also taking half a Diomox pill) and go back to sleep.

The day of the pass was definitely the hardest. We needed to climb 1000 meters and descend another 1700 meters in one day. It took us 12 hours (maybe 11 of actual walking). The walk up the pass was covered in snow, sometimes knee deep. There were fierce winds and it was fucking cold! But we had luck, it was sunny and the views were absolutely amazing!!! By the time we made it up to the pass it was around 13:00, while we started walking around 6:30. Our friends waited for us on the pass to take a photo with us and then quickly went down. We needed to stop for a rest and luckily there was a tea shop on the pass (they never miss a chance to make an extra buck from a tourist). We had some garlic noodle soup (supposedly garlic is good for the altitude?!?!?) and started the descent and it was a long one. Most of the way was also through snow, that was starting to melt and get soft. We managed to slip and slide down a few meters on the snow which added a little moisture to our already cold and tired bodies. The way down was also hard on the knees as we had 10 kgs on our backs. Finally we could see our destination - Muktinath and we reached it at around 17:30. We rested there for 2 nights and then started our way down the valley. On this side of the pass we had some bad luck with the weather as it was very windy and most of the peaks were under cloud cover. But we were lucky as the day after we passed there was lots of snow on the pass and 2 days after they closed it to passage. We had another clear day on our rest day in Marpha which is claimed as the apple capitol of Nepal, so naturally we had lots of apple pie ;) It also has a few nice views of the Nilgiri Peaks. We made our way down the valley to Kalopani which also had great views of the Daulgiri and Anapurna 1 peaks (and we could finally get Yak steaks for dinner ;). But by the last days of the trek there was a lot of dust in the air and haze so we didn't get good views. We spent our last night on the trail in Tatopani, which has hot springs (which we skipped as they were full of israelis), and then catched a jeep and then a bus back to Pokhara.

This trek was the longest time we have spent so intensively in nature. Although you sleep each night in a local village, and pass another 3-4 on the trail, you are still outside most of the day. Nepal is a beautiful country and we managed to see a diversity in its scenery and people which makes this trek such a good one. The people are very friendly and you meet both Hindus and Buddhists populations. There is lots of green and the snow capped mountains are so close you can almost touch them. We don't have one bad thing to say about Nepal and we hope for their sake they would settle their political problems - its the only thing that is hurting them economically (which was good for us as the trail was relativly empty of tourists).

Nepal is definitely a destination to return to. The trek possibilities are endless if you have time and the legs to carry you, for both long treks and short ones. The people are so friendly and know how to cater to the western tourist but you can also get away from it all in small villages up in the mountains with the most amazing scenery you can imagine. We really hope we will get the chance to return!!

Now I'm sure all 0 of you readers are asking about pics. Well we have them and they are great. I'm writing these lines from Chengdu (China) and the internet place here doesn't have cd drives, so I guess we will try to UL them next time (there are still a few pics from India on our CD's). So don't worry, soon....

Thats all for now I'm sure this long post will keep you occupied for a bit and we will write soon with our impressions from China (which is amaizing so far :).

For the last time Namaste Namaste,

Hila May & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Finalizing in Varanasi, Landing in Kathmandu

Hi Yall...

We just landed in Kathmandu nepal, part of this was written in Varanasi, and the rest in Kathmandu, enjoy.

We are in Varanasi... And this is where our trip in India ends...

I must say that we are not sad and are looking forward for a change.

We are not sick of India and both of us think that we will return in the future, India has a lot to offer and is a very interesting and beutifull country, but it is hard on the western traveller and we want to see something different and want to change the atmosphere a bit.

You have asked us a lot about why a lot of travellers, and Israelis in particular, come to India..
Well.. i guess its, as allways, a combination of things... But the major factors are: There is a lot to see here in terms of Culture, History and though we havnt seen a lot of it, landscape and scenery (it was too cold to travel to the north of India). It is dirt cheap. This factor cannot be ignored... it is mind boggeling how some things here are sooooo cheap... from food to travell to accomidations to drugs... which brings in the next factor, the drugs here are the best in the world and are cheap cheap and relativly a no hassle deal. You don't have to use drugs to enjoy India, that is not my point, but and this is a big but, it is accessable enough here that a 20 something year old person from a western country will in most chances use a few times while he/she is in India. When Israelis finish their army they are in some way searching to get back the few lost years from the end of their childhood and come to the far east to let their hair down and have a good time. They are young and have been in the army so the conditions here are easy to get along with. They tend to spend a long time in one place, because moving about here is hard and there are pockets of serene quiet in certain places in India (Goa, Hampi, Jaisalmer...). Places that we also enjoyed imensly.

So i guess those are the main reasons...

Varanasi itself is hardly a beutiful place. It in many aspects is an extract of India... both the ugly and the culteral... The Ganges river, also called "mother", is the largest open sewage line on the planet. Yet all life in the city revolves around it and is fed by it. The river side is used for bathing, laundry, cooking water for the stalls lined up on its banks. At the same time there is an enourmous amount of industrial and HUMAN sewage pored into the river before it reaches Varanasi and while it runs through Varanasi. To top that off, the cattle is washed in the river. All this is done a few meters apart. Additionaly the banks of the river are used as public toilets where the locals urinate and deficate.

The real treat are the burning ghats where funurals take place. Day and night people are brought down to be cremated. The family pays what it can to buy wood for the burning. Families that don't have a lot of money cannot buy enough wood and the bodies (or what remains - half burnt bodies) are thrown into the river. Young children and pregnant women are not cremated and are weighed down into the river with stones. As we all can imagine the amount of Indian capability, some of them float back up.

So you have a body of water polluted with sewage and dead bodies and its considered sacred and the locals drink and bath and wash their clothes in its water. This whole concept is the biggest example of how India is CRAZY.

That is our summery of India - Crazy. MESHUGAIM.

But that is the charm in India. India is totally ununderstandable to western minds. It is a total different cultural evolvment from what we went through in the west and that is it's seduction. The experinces in India are mind and body rattling and there is never a boring moment. That is why India has such a powerfull effect on people. Its Crazy.

Again i must stress that we have not suffered in India!!! We enjoyed it imensly.

Our time in Agra with Yoav was great. We were spoiled and happy and there is a lot to see in the city and around it. We stayed in posh hotels and had fancy Indian cuisine (yumm yumm). Thanks again Dad :)

THE TAJ MAHAL.

There is no way we can describe it in words. The pics you will see here soon (we will develop in the next few days) will not be able to fully convey the enormousness and beuty of The Taj. It is defenatly one of the most impressive human built monuments in the world. It ranks with any other name you can try and conjure. It is TAJ MAHAL...

The last week was a great way to end India and the first half of our trip (3 months to go). We saw the most impressive monuments it has given mankind and have witnessed its most utter craziness. We have the feeling that we have richly tasted India in the amount of time we had.

We just landed in Kathmandu and are walking about with a smile. You can feel its a different country, though influenced by India it is still seperate. We will use the next few days to organise ourselves for the travel here.

Thats all for now,
we hope to read your comments so please don't hesitate to write...

and will post the finall pics from India soon...

Sorry for all the typos.
(we couldn't spell check this on this old computer)

Lots of warm kisses,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Delhi - Pics! and some more pics

Hello all,

how are things?

We are fine. In Delhi at the moment... We spent a few days in Jaipur - Rajastan's Capital, mainly for SIDURIM (Neely we didn’t buy anything... :) Mainly developing our 15 rolls of film...

YES that’s right, we have finally developed our photos and you can all see them... there are lots! So don't be lazy and try and see them... (We of course only uploaded a small selection of what we actually have...)

Jaipur itself was a bit of a disappointment to us. We expected the capital of Rajastan to be the most impressive. But it wasn't. Its Historic attractions were pretty run down and although its called the pink city, it's more brown then pink. The Lonely Planet calls it a seductive city, well... It ain't seductive, it's more... repulsive actually... It’s a large Indian City with too many people and too much pollution.

You walk out the door of your guesthouse and are immediately attacked (yes literally attacked) by people trying to sell you something or asking you for money... I think it was the worst example we had witnessed in all of the Indian cities we have been too so far.

We actually traveled the city streets in a parade - Me and Hila, 4 cycle-rickshaw drivers asking us to hop on their cycles, 3 autorickshaws promising to take us anywhere for only just 10 rupees, 3 beggars (at least 2 under the age of 10, with the occasional leper) and sometimes a puppet seller or two.

The only nice attraction in Jaipur was Amber - which was the old capitol before Jaipur. It was a nice half-day trip from the city and is a nice fort/palace. But still the fort in Jodhpur is much more impressive. We did have the usual big city treats, like Pizza Hut, Barista (a coffee shop chain) and Baskin Robbins ice cream.

We catched a local film (Bewaffa is the name), which was an interesting, experience though we didn't last the whole length of the film (we left after 1.5 hours, which was the middle break). Every time one of the big actors appeared on the screen there were 2-3 minutes of shouting and whistling from the crowd. It was the usual family drama about a young girl being forced to marry her sisters’ husband (her sister dies at childbirth - twins) causing her to abandon her true love (an Indian-Canadian rock singer).
It was of course filled with sticky sweet Indian song and dance throughout the film in a very loud volume... just what an average Indian considers as entertainment (try standing in a local bus next to the speakers). It was fun, very well produced and colorful, but an hour and a half was more than enough. We asked one of the staff at the cinema and to our great relief it has a happy ending :) (I'm sure you were all worried ;)

From Jaipur we catched a train to Delhi, leaving our beggars and rickshaw drivers behind... We haven’t seen any of Delhi's attractions yet (we are waiting for my dad), just did a bit of window shopping, applied for a Chinese visa and had a hair-cut.

OK now for the pics: Below is a bit of a description of what you are seeing, they are a bit mixed so each section might bounce around places.

And the pics are here.

Banglore, Mysore & Trichy:
Here you will find the park and the market in Banglore, the market and maharaja palace in Mysore, a few photos from the Somnathpur temple near Mysore (its the old looking one) and the big temple complex in Trichy (its the multi-colored ones in the end of this section)

Ooty, Hampi and Goa:
This section begins with Hampi (the first 7 pics) green paddy fields, the lake view amongst the boulder hills landscape and the tall temple.
Then we have a few from old Goa (The Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is the white one with the bell on top and the stairs).
Pics 15-17 & 45-50 are from Pallolem beach in Goa.
Pics 18-39 are from the lake and the rolling green tea plantation hills surrounding Ooty - lovely green aren't they...
Pics 40-44 & 51-67 are again from the temples and beautiful boulder landscape of Hampi.

Udaipur and Ranakpur:
This section starts with the Maharaja's palace in Udaipur (the white lake city with a dry lake - pic 14 has Hila standing in the middle of the lake)
A few photos of a parade for tourists organized by one of the big hotels that we happened to stumble upon. And finishes with the amazing Jain temples at Ranakpur (3 hrs drive from Udaipur).

Jodhpur:
This section is devoted entirely to the city of Jodhpur in Rajastan. Indeed it has the most impressive fort/palace (with a very good audio tour) and all together was a very pleasant city.
Amongst the photos you can see views of the blue city, and of the tomb of one of the maharaja's (its the white marble building surrounded by gardens).

Jaisalmer & The Festival:
In this section you see the photos taken on our camel safari - lovely smelly beasts aren’t they... some views of the castle fort we slept in and of colorful photos from the desert festival (we particularly like number 60 - F1110030a)

That is a roundup of our travel in India so far; we still have the sights of Delhi to see, the great Taj Mahal, and Varanasi. We hope you have enjoyed the pics and are welcome to donate lots of money to our Divluly, the merry gibbon, and rehabilitation center. Joe Camel has already donated 2 kgs of dry straw, what have you donated so far ???
Donations are welcome at:

Divluli Sleazy May,
The 3rd tree on the right after the big boulder just after the second left turn
as you enter the Kao Sok National park,
47633,Thailand.

We have not received any donation here or to our bank account yet...
Neely? do you want a nice Sari?? I'm sure you don’t want a yellow one right?? ;)
btw Sis alu-gobi sucks... (alu is potatoes and gobi is the cauliflower) ;)

That’s it for now, we would very much appreciate your comments on the pics, and it’s very easy to comment you don't even need to sign up!!! (I checked it myself). Its nice to see that some people have addressed our disappointment - we won't be mentioning any names Ruti & Orly ;)

Catch ya l8r after our parents chase us around Asia for a bit (just kidding folks ;)

Lots of love and kisses,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

P.S. We hope no one has been offended - just being a bit cynical ;) it's all from LOVE

Joe Camel, and the food Bonanaza.

Hello Hello Hello....

We just got back from 3 days Camel Desert Safari that was just great! We spent a night before and a night after in a small village called Khori which in the words of a local "Is very nice but only desert". Indeed only desert (it hasn't rained at all for 2 years) and what a beautiful one... lots of Sahara like sand dunes.
Riding the camels was a bit hard on the butt, especially on the third day (you can tell the little Yoav that we too have dipper rash), but we went slowly and had lots of chai stops. If we were lucky there were goats around and the camel drivers would milk them and we would have milk tea, like its supposed to be.
We ate vegetables and dhal (lentils) and had chapatis and rice with each meal - very unexciting. The scenery was great and most of all it was soooooo peaceful and quiet and the weather was great - not too hot in the day and not too cold at night.

The 2 nights in Khori we spent with a local family (Badal's Homestay), which we found by accident. They are a lovely family, simple, warm, and Badal has good English, so he explained about the local village life and the Rajput caste, which he is a member of. The Village was founded by a Rajput (worrier, noble cast) seven generations ago, so all the Rajputs in the village are descendants of that guy. The males of each family stay in the village and only marry Rajput girls from other villages (so they are another branch of Rajput) and the females marry Rajput boys from other villages and move to live with their husband’s family. Marriage is only inside the cast - it’s like that all over India, also Muslims marry only Muslims and Hindus only Hindus.

We even found a new mascot - a baby camel that we found in the desert. The female camels roam freely in the desert with their baby camels, and the males are used as riding camels. They are trained once they reach around 2.5 years and the training takes a whole year. We named him Joe (sorry Tommy, but the name fit so well). He wasn't too big and he wasn't too smelly either (unlike the ones we rode on - they were a stinky bunch). But sadly he didn’t want to go on the local bus back to Jaisalmer. We could understand why - it was packed full and smelly (Hila wants to buy a deodorant spray for every local bus - the locals should queue up and each receive a spray... not very likely - they will probably just try to sell it back to us for double the price ;) and Joe couldn't fit on the roof, so we left him with Badal, and we think it was better - he is more suited for the desert life, but we promised to send him pictures of Nepal and any nice young female elephants we meet there....
(dunno, he has an elephant fetish I guess...)

Now we are back in Jaisalmer and will finally have the opportunity to see the sights in the city. We are again staying inside the lovely fort and there is a palace to see and several havelis (villas). Also on the 21st there is a desert festival and we will stay here to see it - it’s supposed to be a nice one.

Before we spent a few days in Jodhpur (we hope we are not confusing you guys with all these names...) which is the blue city - lots of the houses are painted blue (its a Brahmin tradition to paint the houses blue) and the view from the fort (which sits on a huge rocky hill in the middle of the city) is amazing (we know pictures pictures...). Walking through the small blue alleyways is magical and all the restaurants are on the rooftops so you see the fort rising from the city all around all the time (it’s of course illuminated at night, which is even lovelier). Of course every Indian city has its share of weddings all the time, which means lots of parades in the alleys with drums and trumpets, lots of colorful saris and men in colorful head turbans and generally a huge racket in all times of the day and night (especially at night). But the highlight is the fireworks at night - each wedding tries to outdo the former one, with the fort in the background the fireworks are even more spectacular.
The fort is indeed a highlight, it has a really professional audio tour as you walk through the various rooms and displays inside and all the juicy Maharaja gossip details and battles. What can we say, a really lovely, magical city.

Now we promised some food bites from India, so we have made a little collection of the things we like to eat here and some of the things that we don’t really like but should be in the list anyway (just because we think so):

Malai Kofta - Potato and paneer (their version of cottage cheese) balls stuffed with cashew nuts and raisins fried and served with an onion/sweet potato cream sauce an all time favorite - can be found at most restaurants and is usually a good bet for something filling to eat.

Chicken Wajed Ali - Chicken breasts stuffed with paneer, cashew nuts and raisins dipped in batter and deep-fried. Served with a honey cream sauce. Mmmmm yummy... We had this only once, but it was a real treat, in a restaurant in Udaipur - Savage Garden - we literally licked our fingers and the other food there was also excellent.

Stuffed Tomato - stuffed with mashed potatoes, onions and cheese. Hila likes this one :)

Chana Masala - Chickpeas (Humusim) sauteed with chopped onions and tomatoes Goes well with rice and a good nan.

Jerra Aloo - Diced potatoes sauteed with cumin seed and Indian spices and herbs. Not a bad way to eat some potatoes.

Paneer Tikka Masala/Butter Masala - Paneer cheese cooked in tomato gravy and cream. Also always a good bet for a nice Indian meal - of course with rice and a good nan or chapati. Hila doesn't like it... dunno why...

Gatta Curry - Gram flour dumplings cooked in a yogurt based curry with Indian spices. A Rajstani specialty - was also a nice one.

Pakora/Pakoda - Chicken/Paneer dipped in a humus batter and deep-fried (similar to Japanese Tampura). Good for a light lunch or dinner - goes extremely well with cold beer and a game of cards.

As you can see no meat.... sadly that is true there is little meat in the dishes and the ones that have meat usually don’t satisfy our carnivorous needs - so no need to worry Yossi - your stakes are in our hearts for ever. Even a good schnitzel does the trick.

Now every good Indian meal comes with some sort of bread:

Nan - Similar to a Lafa in Israel but a little more crispy is best with garlic/cheese/butter or paneer - or all of them together :) the best of them all - they make it better in the south but here too you can fall on a good one.

Parantha/Paratha - Fried unleavened bread in butter with garlic/cheese/butter/paneer or stuffed with masala vegetable mix. Reminds us of mallauach because it’s fried in butter but it’s not exactly a mallauach. Hila's favorite :)

Chapati - Baked unleavened bread - similar to a flat dry pita. The usual addition to every dish (besides rice)

Papadam - Fried crispy thin potato bread - usually comes with the Indian Thali (meal) We didn’t have this lot because we prefer the Nan ;) but also good with cold beer - like crispy chips - it usually has all kinds of spices in it too.

Dosa - Fried paper thin batter - like a crepe but even thinner (like a very very thin Lachuch) - a southern specialty comes with a vegetable Sambar (soupy dip) and coconut Chutny (creamy dip) - can also be filled with vegetables (Masala Dosa). I like this one for a light meal.

Idly - Steamed fermented rice puffs - another southern specialty that we didn't like (it has a sour taste) but the locals love it for breakfast (we stick to the butter toast or cornflakes with yogurt honey and banana) also comes with Sambar and a Chutney.

Utappam/Appam - Fried (only on one side - like a Lachuch) coconut pancakes served with coconut milk, sugar, sambar and chutney. Can't always be found but when we can its a good snack.

Most of this stuff is spicy, verrrrrrry spicy, but if the place is tourist its not so bad, and yes Hila has gotten used to the spicy food and if its not too bad has a big smile when she cleans her plate ;)
Well this is more or less the main list of local food we eat but of course there is a lot more. I hope you read the descriptions because I am getting hungry just describing them... ;)

Now about the photos - We know we have been using the same excuse, but there just isn't an option to put the photos on CD here, so even if we did develop them we couldn't show you them anyway. So we will develop them either in Jaipur (the capital of Rajastan) which will be our next stop after the festival or in Delhi. We have 11 rolls already... and are dying to see how they came out.

We were disappointed with you all on not commenting on our last post - 2 comments is very poor (thanks Yogi and Neely&Shlomy&Sooky&Clara) especially since you had enough time to write...
We hope that you will comment more in the future as we love to see your replies. Also for those of you that have been in these part we would love to see your additions and impressions on these places and if you also remember some food favorites please write them too!!

See you all after the Desert Festival - we hope we won't be run over by a stampede of crazy camels :)

Lots of love and kisses,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

The Rajaputs Say Hello

Namaste Everyone...

How are you all doing?

We are now in Jodhpur, our second stop in Rajastan Land of the Rajaput warriors and Maharajas.

We are both waiting to see the pics as I'm sure you are too... The thing is we are a bit afraid to hand over the 7 rolls of film to a local in a hole in the wall shop, so I think we will try and see if we find a good reliable shop in our next stop - Jaislamer... (not promising) Also most of the internet computers here don't have CD drives so its kind of hard to see the pics on the CD without a computer (I never understood how these computers could write so small... Amazing thing technology...:)

Ok enough babbling... We last wrote from Goa.

Goa was lovely, sunny long beaches, lovely ocean, and all together a nice atmosphere, and yes the Garas was the best we have ever smoked (you asked so I reply)

We took a motorbike and drove from our beach (Palolem) to Old Goa, which was the former capital and to Panaji, the current capital. Both cities had a strong Portuguese influence - lots of churches, the pastel colored alleyways with flowers flowing balconies. A strong European feel. Most of the locals are catholic but still a lot ware the always colorful Saris. They have, what they call, Goan food, but it wasn't much different from the rest of the Indian stuff, maybe just a variation.

From there we moved on to Rajastan in a 33 hrs train ride which surprisingly was ok... We made a stop in a city called Ahmedabad in Gujarat state for around 12 hrs, took a room, had some rest saw a nice mosque and boarded the train to Udaipur.

Udaipur is considered the white city as most of the houses are whitewashed. There is usually a lake in the center which adds to the atmosphere but as there have been 5-6 bad monsoons (not enough rain) its dry in the dry season. So we saw it only in the postcards. But still the Lakeview guest house has a nice view of the palace.
Only in India can you have a Lakeview guesthouse with no lake...
Yes Rajastan is the land of the maharajas - every city has a palace or 2 or at least one fort. These maharajas lived good, very good. Enormous palaces with great views of the city around, richly decorated - you can feel the richness here. Up until the 18 century they had a lot of trade passing through towards the Mediterranean and the Rajaput states maintained their independence till the Indian independence... Some of them still live in the palaces or around though they have ordinary citizenship - but they are still wealthy. The popular thing here is rooftop restaurants with stunning views - they are indeed stunning...

We made a 3 hrs jump to Ranakpur - it has a Jain temple - all white marble intricately sculptured and carved - with hundreds of pillars - none are identically decorated. The jain religion BTW is quite weird - their holy guys walk around almost naked with a broom - to sweep the floor in front of them so as not to accidentally step on a living animal (flies etc.). Also they cover their mouth with cloth so they don't accidentally inhale any insects... They don't eat after sunset so to avoid any insects, that were attracted to the light, from falling into their food... ya a funky religion... but the temple was amazing... one of the best we have seen.
You can find out more about Jainism here
And see photos of Ranakpur here

From there we moved on to Jodhpur which we think is even nicer... all in the next post.

We have heard that the bells of peace are ringing in the distance - may they ring only louder!!!

that's all for now, Divluly sends his warm furry hugs (BTW Dad he has no tail because gibbons have no tail - you should follow the links we put in here - its not for me you know.. ;). He reports that he has managed to buy some water purifiers for a colony of Thai monkeys that are still stuck in a tree in the ocean after the tsunami and is asking for any donations, he can be contacted at:

Divluli Sleazy May,
The 3rd tree on the right after the big boulder just after the second left turn
as you enter the Kao Sok National park,
47633,
Thailand.

We of course can transfer money to him - just put it in our bank account ;)

Lots more next time - including the amazing Indian heavy food bonanza - if the sauce is sludgy and spicy as hell - its in the list ;)

We will write from Jaislamer,

Lots of love and kisses,

Hila & Mr. Morphhh Sleazy.

Hello From Goa

Yes we are in Goa, finally...

how is every one ?

i still don't see as much comment as i would like to see so please comment, even if you don't have anything interesting to say, it is just nice to know that someone is reading this rubbish :)

I'll start with the technicalities and announce the winner of the great
"NAME THE GIBBON" contest. First a recap of the names that were suggested:

Tsumi - by Ruti with a good head start for being the first!!
urila - by Nira
Urila tzumi - by Julio with a bit of a twist
Divluli - by Tommy
Shush - by Julio with another try at the contest
Bobi or Tsu - by Yogi (indeed lo Mashehu ;)
Bubu - by Tommy and Yogi in a joint operation (I won't be bringing any Yogi ;)
Namitsu or Cookie or Motzart - By Neely & Shlomi, Clara & Suki.
Uzi or Bonney - with another try by Yogi
Mushu - an a last one By Neely & Shlomi, Clara & Suki.

and the winner is...... Tommy with Divluly!!!!!!
many thanks Tommy, Divluly is very happy with the new name, but alas things have changed... more info in the body of this post.

again thanks to everyone that has participated in the contest and we will think of condolance prizes and perhaps you will indeed receive one ;)

ok where were we?... well last we wrote we were in Trichy... we then moved on to Ooty.

Ooty is a hill station (it was the summer seating of the British government of Tamil Nadu durring the mandate) and is surrounded by lovely green Tea plantations. Originally the area is semi jungle like forests mixed with pine forests - its at 2400 meters, so you can still see the original greenery between the Tea plantations.
Verrrrry scenic and the weather is so non-india it was sunny warm during the day and freezing cold during the night. We took a walking tour of the area through the tea plantations and the dam. You will see the pics once we develop them, hopefully in Rajastan, becuase the facilities here arn't that swell... the internet here is also slow and shitty - and thats my excuse for not writing so much :)
We spent 5 days in Ooty mostly walking about and resting in the botanical gardens... We found a nice bakery (which is very rare in India, at least in the south) and had pickniks with bannana-walnut cakes at the lake. Sounds nice right, well it is if you take into account lots of Indian tourists around. We were looking to do some elephant treks in the jungle and we couldn't find any options in the standard activities provided by the guest house (we were staying at the YWCA which was a nice change from the normal Indian guest houses - they are christian), so the not so lonely planet suggested "Camtrek". We found an ad saying that the contact info in the guide book was wrong so we followed the address in the advert and arrived in a small house on a hill called "The Ooty Womens Club", probably some remanents from the British occupation... after knocking on the door an old English lady answered and requested that we return at 15:00 as her son (which runs "Camtrek") is not in.
So we returned at 3 and waited outside - we didn't want to bother the old lady.
After a few minutes an Indian guy dressed as "Crockadile Dundey" arrives on a heavy "Royal Enfield" moterbike (looks like a Harley).
You can get an impression of Royal Enfields here.
With a heavy English accent he asks us what are we doing... after a short explination he says "oh.. im sorry Mum isn't well" and invites us inside his house... which is messssssssy.. and that is an understatment. He sits us down while his mother asks in a squeeky high pitched royal british voice "Have you had your lunch yet?". He started talking about the posibilities of treking in the area and it boilded down to 2 options.. one was a jungle trek near ooty in what he described as "Wild Elephant territory". So if we were prepared to "get killed by a charging wild elephant" as he put it it was a nice walk. Hila immideatly shaked her head :)
So we were down to the other option. It was a private owned jungle that required a moter bike ride (again Hila shaked her head) or that we organise more people and rent a jeep which will be more cheaper. Now this guy was a bit weird.. he kept complaining that because the lonely planet wrote a mistaken address in the book that he gets no buisness.. and that he is "mesuchsach" with every guesthouse/tour operator/police in the area. We were starting to get our doubts... Again his mom says with her colonial accent "Would you like some Tea?". So trying to shake him off we said we would think about it and contact him in the evening (thinking we would just say on the telephone that we didn't find anyone to join the trek). So he walked us out again saying "mum isn't well" - while we were thinking that maybe he is slowly poisining her. The whole thing seemed a bit dodgy... Later that evening we called and only managed to speak to his "not well Mum". When we went out for dinner we found out that he came up to our guest house looking for us and was trying to organise more people for the trek we were trying to cancel... He just wouldn't let go. Then he came up with a weird story - He totaly forgot about an Indian army Major that was supposed to arrive the next day and he was to show him around the area, he offered us to join them for free... now i started to imagine him chasing us through the jungle with a machete screaming "MY MUM ISN'T WELL!!!" so we just politly said we wern't feeling well and that we will just have a relaxed day in town. Now guess what, the next day he catches us in the street saying the Major came but went to see the jungle on his own... we just knoded... and he insisted that he come to say fairwell that evening... (we were leaving the next day)... and indeed that evening he came over and harased some more tourists into joining him in jungle treks shook our hands with tears in his eyes saying "I won't forget your smiling faces when i drove to my house" and "God bless", we promissed to spread the word about his treking buisness and hastly left for dinner hopping that he won't find our room in the night...

The next day we started our journy towards Hampi. We took a 5 hour LOCAL bus ride back to Mysore where we had lunch and continued our journy on a 11 hour night LOCAL bus. Which was HELL. Imagine an old (very old) 50's bus crammed with locals slowly driving on bumpy durt roads. Slowly means 30kms, all the way. This bus was an "Express" which means that it stops all the fucking time, in such small hell hole towns that you couldn't even imagine. We made a vow never to take busses in India unless we really didn't have a choice.

Hampi - is a small town in central Karnataka that used to be capital of an ancient Hindu empire. The whole area is dry boulder covered hills with a few streams that support greeeeeeen rice paddy fields. Very nice, green and beutifull, and the town itself is in the middle of all the ancient buildings. Our guest house was in the middle of the fields, so it was just 10 paces from our door to the rice field. We spent 5 days walking around the ruins and relaxing in the scenery. Its kind of a mixture of Vang Vieng in Laos with Pagan in Burma (for those who have been there). very relaxed. the only problem was that we apperantly met up with the israeli "Gal" through India so it was packed with israelis everywhere. Restuarants had hebrew signes and food ("Anashim, yesh po glida LAPANIM!!" which took us a few days to understand...) after getting used to the lingo i think it wasnt too bad but Hila was getting tired of hearing Ehud Banai all day in the guest house (i agree there is indeed a limit to the number of times i can listen to "Eer Miklat").

One of the temples was also called "Monkey Temple" and this is where tragedy struck us and Divluli... Indian monkeys are "arsim". They walk around in packs harassing tourists and locals stealing food and anything else that seems attractive (water bottles, cameras etc.) from peoples hands. We were climbing the temple hill when we momentraraly got seperated from Divluli. Only when we heard him shouting did we realize what happened. The local monkeys tied him to a rock and spilled honey all over him to attract the flys, then they circled him, calling him names and laughing at him - because he didnt have a tail (Gibbons don't have tails). This is what finally broke him - the tail buisness... and even though we tried to pursuade him he insisted on returning to his home in Thailand. there was not much we could do and we intrusted him in the hands of a couple that was flying off to Thailand. So we are now left without a maskot and hopefully will find another furry friend on our future travells.

After this ordeal we decided to move on and catched a train to Goa. We were not able to book a train in advance (its a 10 hour day ride and we wanted the 3-tier A/C) so we just bought general tickets and planned on upgrading them on the train itself - its very common in India. So we found ourselves seats on the 3AC and waited for the conducter. When he arrived he said that it was not possible to upgrade because of a new rule that came out. We asked some locals on the train and they never heard of anything like this. He then said we need to buy a AC ticket at the next major stop and then upgrade it. Ok, we said. At the next stop (Hubly) we went to the ticket office and said we want to buy the AC ticket so we would be able to upgrade. They didn't know what we were talking about and said to upgrade on the train through the conductor. Luckily the conducter changed at the stop and the new one smiled and said "no problem, ill find you on the train and you can pay me then." 2-3 hours later he came by and asked us to pay the difference between the tickets we had and the ones we wanted - the standard procedure, but he didnt have change for the 500 rps notes we had so he said he would come back later. He came back later while i was sleeping and again told Hila "I'll come back later". 30 minutes before the end of the ride i met him again and payed him the money, again he didnt have change so he just took the 500 rps note (we needed to pay 750 rps) nodded his head and said "It's Ok" and left. So without knowing it we bribed a train conducter with a 500 rps note - which is a lot of money here, and endded up paying less than we needed to for the train ride :) India is indeed a wierd experience....

So it was a looong 10 days, we moved from mountain scenery to paddy fields and historical ruins to the lovely beach in Palolem Goa. We lost our monkey and bribed a conducter and are now going to catch a tan :)

On tuesday we will be boarding a 30 hours train ride up to Rajastan - and will post further from there. Destination Udaipur - see you there :)

Thanks again for all the participation in the contest, we heard from Divluly back in Thailand and he is very satisfied at the top of the trees back in Kao Sok and is helping in the rehabilitation of beach monkeys after the Tsunami.

I appoligize for the long post and the typos (spell shecking this is a bitch), hopefully internet will improve along this trip so we will be able to post more often, and post pics as well. Please post your comments, and for all those that are affraid to register here its just a minute of your time.

To Tommy we are gift wrapping your original Indian Cow (smell and all) and she will arrive at your doorstep in a few weeks - again MAZAL TOV on the new family memeber - i'm sure Yuka will be happy as well as Yoav - with the opertunity of riding on her back.

catch ya later,
the one the only Hila (at my side as allways giving her suggestions)
& Morphhh Sleazy

Greetings From India ('s train system)

Hello everybody.

We are in India :)

I hope everyone has recovered from the mass hysteria (i'm just being a bit cruel - don't get angry) and that your tickers are ok.

I understand (at least partially) what it must have felt like when you first got the news about the tsunami - and indeed it is a terrible disaster and it will take a while before the final outcome will be seen for the people of Asia and the western tourists that were affected.

We arrived this morning in a town called Trichy (its short for some long Indian name - I'm not sure I can type it with less then 5 mistakes so Trichy is all you will get). Its located more or less in the centre of Tamil Nadu in southern India. We are NOT near the coast nor do we have any intention to be, though we have been assured that even Chennai is safe (by several locals, including a woman that lives there) but will be using the change of plans to free more time for us in Goa and later on in northern India.

Now I'm sure you are asking - "Well... How is India???"

Well... damn... India is INTENSE...

Imagine a sledgehammer hitting you in all your senses at once (really hard) - your sight, your hearing, your nose, and damn that's hot - your taste buds. Now sustain that sledge hammer feeling for 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. That's how India is like. Hila had the feeling that Thailand was occasionally too much - too many people, too much noise, too much "lichluch". Thailand, in Hila's own words - "Is Switzerland compared to India" and I pretty much agree with that.

What have we been doing so far? well.. we landed in Banglore - which is a pretty boring city - and took a train to Mysore (3 hrs). Mysore "is a charming town", in the words of the lonely bible - we found nothing "charming" about it. I guess compared with what we still have in store for us in India, it might be a charming city - but being objective - It ain't very "charming". It does have a very nice Maharaja Palace, and we catched 2 temples (one of them very old - at Simanathpur -which was a real nice one). We then took a night train to Trichy (around 13 hrs).

Now India has, I guess, a heritage of Red Tape. Inorder to buy a train ticket in advance (you need to, or else you won't have a seat) you need to fill out a form, then stand in a very loooong Indian line. By 'Indian line' I mean a mosh pit. You need to push and shove, and some Indian guy always but always cuts in front of you just when your the next guy at the window. In some stations foreigners have a separate line - together with senior citizens and "Freedom Fighter" (which I cant understand what exactly these guys are supposed to be besides old geezers). Now having to kick old Indian guys in the shins inorder to buy a train ticket is a bit awkward - but that's how it is. Once you have booked a ticket and wish to change it - again that's another form and another line. Our first ticket was a standby one - we were worried we wouldn't get on so we tried to insist that they change the ticket for us - we were told to go the divisional train station building to some office or other and ask for "an emergency tourist quota" - yes there is such a thing - but there we were told that for this specific train there is no quota (its just a 3 hrs ride). The next day we needed to check, at the computer terminal, if we had our seats - and indeed we were in luck. Finally when we got on the train - it was half empty!!!??!
At our last visit to the train station we learned that we can do the booking over the internet - so we will try that next time - I'm just not a match for some of these freedom fighters. Its really not that complicated - you just need to get used to the rules - and I guess India's railway system is a bit complex - it has 1.6 million employees (its the worlds largest employer) - and getting a billion Indians from one place to another can be a bit tricky.

Click here for some exciting info on Indian Railways

Now you ask how was the train ride itself ??? well... the 3 hrs one to Mysore was fine (we accidentally took the most expensive one, so we had a/c and a meal). The one here, well... we both have had some bad rides in our travels, and I cant say this one was the worst of them, but its was long, and it was a strain on the nerves. We took a sleeper, and we didn't take the a/c one (its was very expensive). Sleeper class - is just what it says - sleep. But I didn't catch must sleep between the feet of so many Indians and the constant crying of children, people on cell phones, and since it wasn't exactly an "express" - we had a lot of stops, and waits, and slow downs...
No really it isn't that bad - we just need to learn to organize ourselves better on a train and try to get better seats when we do the booking. Because once your at the window in the mosh pit - you don't have a lot of time for decisions - oh and I forgot to say that getting used to the Indian accent is a problem by itself. But we survived and are taking the rest of the day to recuperate.

We plan to stay here at Trichy for 2-3 there are supposed to be some nice temples here, and then days head on to Ooty (another short name for a really long Indian one) for some mountain relaxation. Then on to northern Karnataka and Goa.

Ok, now lets recap the gibbon contest and see what we have so far:

Tsumi - by Ruti with a good head start for being the first!!
urila - by Nira
Urila tzumi - by Julio with a bit of a twist
Divluli - by Tommy
Shush - by Julio with another try at the contest
Bobi or Tsu - by Yogi (indeed lo Mashehu ;)
Bubu - by Tommy and Yogi in a joint operation (I won't be bringing any Yogi ;)
Namitsu or Cookie or Motzart - By Neely & Shlomi, Clara & Suki.

thank you all for participating - we will be waiting for some more options though these are all good ones thanks!!!

Now about the new prize!! - as we are in India - what better way to celebrate the holiness of life on earth, peace love and understanding than with an original Indian Cow. Yes that's right the lucky winner of this wonderful competition will receive a local Indian cow complete with the original street shit smell and even gift wrapped with several dozen local flies!! (we do not guarantee the Hindu dialect the cow or the flies speak, batteries not included and not needed - they are Indian ones and stop working several minutes after purchase anyway) Now doesn't that sound great!!!!!! So keep up the good work and send in those name suggestions.
(I'm sorry you have to signup inorder to comment but its a very simple process, so don't be LAZY!!!!)

Ok that's all there is to tell now, we will write more in the near future and once we get some films developed will post them on the net - hopefully with more pics with us in them (maybe).

the one the only Hila (she is back to not helping me at all - so all this is my gibberish alone)
& Morphhh Sleazy.

Koh Lipe and the Tsunami Tale

Hello again, i know your tired of hearing from us and that it seems we have nothing better to do than hang around on the internet.. but well... i guess that at the moment its true.. bangkok is bangkok and after a long day of walking about in the sun... the only thing that will keep you from falling asleep is sitting in the air conditioned internet place before going out for the last beer of the day...

I hope you liked our photos and enjoyed the last food post, this will be the last post before India as we are flying there tomorrow afternoon.

You can see the photos here

I wont nag too much about the "NAME THE GIBBON CONTEST" and although some people have participated very nicely and our gibbon has been enjoying the attention we still think that there could be some more suggestions. So we have decided to lengthen the contest period and as we will not be in thailand when the prize will be given, the prize will no longer be a Thai dog but will be something from India (we don't know what yet as we aren't there). Please post your comments everybody.

Ok... Now where were we?... we just left kao sok and after a much deliberations we decided to head down to Koh Lipe... At first we were a bit afraid about the situation in the south of thailand as a few months ago there were riots and a couple of bombings (the population there is mostly Muslim)... we spoke with a few tourists which passed through the south and some also were on the island and they all said they didn't feel anything out of the ordinary.. we also spoke with a lot of Thai people (both in and out of the tourist industry) and were assured that its completely safe and that the problems were in 2-3 provinces that were not in our plan anyway (we went to Satun province and the riots were in other ones). Anyway it turned out to be the best decision we made so far... ;)

Koh Lipe... Well if we thought Koh Payam was nice... Koh Lipe is really beautiful..
At first the island felt very touristy. It was just before christmas (we arrived on the 23rd) and the island was packed with tourists - over 50% of them swedish families which was a real bummer - we called it Koh Shweepe. But after the tsunami (and i know it sounds terrible to say) the island turned into a real paradise...

(the following recording was taken by our government satellites on the island of Koh Lipe - southern thailand - in a small bungalow near the beach and has been left in its original state)

26th approximately 07:30 am
Hila: "Uri... Something is burrowing underneath the bed!!".. "Don't you feel it ?".. "Uri!!!"
Uri: (in a sleepy slow mumbled voice) "..What..?... Oh its probably just an earthquake.."
Hila: "Its still going on.. It can't be an earthquake.. It has to be something under the bed!!"
Uri: (still trying to open his eyes) ".. There probably will be a tsunami too... " chrhrhrchrh (snoring sounds)
Hila: "Why should there be a tsunami??!?!"
Uri: (waking up again) ".. There is always one after an earthquake in the sea..." chrhrhrchrh (snoring sounds)
Hila indifferently also returns to sleep.

approximately 10:30 am (still sleeping)
Old fat crazy Thai lady on the beach (wearing a funny hat) screaming: "BIG WAVE!!" ..."[screaming a lot of shit in the thai language]"... "BIG WAVE!!!!"
we heard the screaming and saw a lot of locals running to the beach... So we put on some clothes and went to the beach to see what was all the commotion about (we thought it was a beached whale or something - we forgot about the earthquake altogether)
All we saw on the beach is what looked like a very high tide.. And that the sea level was fluctuating very rapidly and that the water was murky... So after asking around we got the notion that there was a small tsunami like wave (when i asked an Italian couple i used the word "tsunami", he answered laughing "ya, but a very small one")... So... we went out for some breakfast.. During breakfast we saw that the tide was going up and down like crazy and that all the locals were very excited, they opened the Thai news on TV and we caught the words "Sumatra" "phuket" but there weren't any pics yet and we didn't really understand what happened... So... we went asking at the dive shop we intended to dive with, if they knew what happened... They just returned from a dive (a very short one). The divemaster there said the big wave (around 2 meters) hit them in the water and that it was a bit terrifying and that there wont be any diving in the next day or two... Back at our bungalows we saw a Swedish guy talking on his cellular excitedly with home so we decided to open ours too... And thats when we understood that you guys were more informed than us, and already anxious (an understatement, i know)... So.. What else could we do? we went up to higher ground as there was talk of a "Second Wave" (its in quotes because it has already become a notorious statement)
Slowly the whole island was walking up to the only mountain (its actually a small hill at the most). On top of which was most of the Thai population of the island sitting with their life jackets on... (some of whom stayed on the hill for at least a week - with their life jackets on). Of course the tourists were sitting in the nearest restaurant ordering more chang beer and food and more beer... Thats where we met a german threesome that we hanged out with in the days to come...
After a few more hours we went back down - as we got the idea that there was no more danger... "Second Wave" was not on its way... At least not to Koh Lipe...

morning of the 27th
Hila and Uri are sitting in their hammock as they see a long line of Thai tourists and island locals (we spotted the lady working in the local "lotti" stand and our hearts missed a beat) still wearing their life jackets! leaving the island towards a Thai navy ship that was sent to evacuate the island
Hila (lazily lifting her head in the hammock): "don't we also need to go with them?"
Uri: " LOOK!! its the lotti lady!! she's Leaving!!! What will we do!!?!?!"
Hila sighs... : "yes your right... OMG (oh my god).. you want to go sunbathing?"
Uri: "ya why not... i think today ill try some snorkeling"

28th - 21:30 approximately
Hila and Uri are sitting with the german threesome and a dutch lady drinking a fruit daquiri and a tequila sunrise.
Old fat crazy Thai lady running down the beach (wearing a funny hat - yes the same damn woman) screaming: "BIG WAVE!!" ..."[screaming a lot of shit in the thai language]"... "BIG WAVE!!!!"
followed by a hoard of thai's on foot and on motor bikes running to the nearest high point... (its a smaller hill than the one we were on the first time but closer to the cocktail bar)
well... What can i say... Hila panicked and 10 minutes later i found myself trekking up the "mountain" (i remind you i was after a beer and a cocktail) with our valuables and documents... again the "Second Wave" was coming... ok.. we sat again in the "mountain View" restaurant and had another beer... We saw some cnn which gave us the "after a pigua" feeling - which was exactly what we were missing in thailand... after understanding that nothing really happened and that there was no "Second Wave" on the way (we were there for about 2 hours) we slowly made the "trek" back down the mountain...

after this incident the "Second Wave" became a coined expression and things slowly calmed down on the island (and on the telephones from home ;) )

in the few days after the tsunami the island slowly relaxed its touristy feel as most of the Swedish families left and only the "mochileros" stayed on.. And it became a real paradise!! (even our gibbon says its was much better - especially after he found some friends among the indigenous monkeys - there were really monkeys on the island!)

After that not much happened - we had a very toned down new years party and we spent the days sun bathing and eating... on the 2nd we took a speed boat back to the mainland (Hila left some of her leftovers from breakfast with the local fish - it was a rough sea) and made our way towards Trang. There we found we had missed the last bus to bangkok and went looking for a guesthouse. We ate some delicious local market food and in the morning went to the bus station. We found that all the buses to bangkok were full!! So we went to the train station... FULL!! Fuck!! for some reason the thai's also have a holiday on the new years and the whole country was traveling like crazy... So... we went to the airport... we found out that the plane was full too... And after 3 hours on the waiting list they managed to find room for us on the flight to bangkok. We shortened the trip to bangkok from 13 hours to 1, but we felt it heavily in our pockets...

Wow this came out to be a long post - but we have finally filled in the gaps to the present time.

tomorrow afternoon we will be on our way to India - and we will try and keep you posted on our experiences there.

I hope you like the photos and will post your comments.

see you all in Bangalore,

the one the only Hila (she is finally actively participating - she says only because it was finally interesting) & Morphhh Sleazy.

(the tsunami story has been slightly - only slightly - exaggerated for artistic reasons)