sorry about the incidents at Bengal I applogise the way Bengal has treated you but yes the roads and journey to North East is very picturesque!!
I only journey on Bike till Southern Tip of India...U are on bike from such a long distance! hats off two you guys!!
Enjoying every minute in oz This is the second blog entry I have read (the other one was the Sikkim entry) and I'm really enjoying every minute of it. So far I have been looking at entries on cities I also visited on my Indian trip, so perhaps it is also partly nostalgia (I loved Varanasi - a truely unbelievable city), but I'm also eager to read about others. Erica and Robin, your travels, and more importantly the way you travel is inspiring, I recently bought myself a bike. So far I have only made it 10 km to the St Kilda beach and back (in Melbourne, Australia) but it's a start! Keep on riding and keep on writing - you both write very well and give a refreshing perspective on the places you visit. As I'm sure you know by now, getting an unguarded honest opinion in India is a hard task!
Noshki hey... i read ur trip to noshki an dbalochistan...which was quite intresting .... i actually belong to noshki.... it feel good to read what u wrote abt it...but alas.. its the truth and we cant ignore that....
:) next time you visit noshki ...contact some tribesman or some political leader of the place be their guest thats how it works... here....
it is always very sad when i think about lack of tourism...or even small oppurtuinites for tourists in our area... but we live in stone age....
i have tarvelled a lot and i really feel bad when i think about how good the tourism industries and the behaviour of people towards tourists is in lot of countries which we lack...
but if u ever have to visit again be my guest... and i m not a smuggler,not a taliban... no charas and opium....just someone who lives on sand :)
What a treat Though I've been in the US now for 30 years, I lived in the Sahiwal area for 8 years. Reading your blog refreshed my visits to Lahore. You write well. It kept me hooked to read on till the end. I'm glad Erika recovered.
Kelli - Florina ....[The f1rst v1llage 1n Greece we are greeted by a father and h1s two small sons who are play1ng football 1n the1r garden, hello they shout and then "Greece Forever" as one of the boys shoots and squeezes a great goal 1n past h1s father]....
I remember this day!
My Grandfather told me about you.
There were 2 people here who wanted to go to asia by bike, Crazy!
I was looking at google for some information about where I am.
I live in Germany now since 20 years, I was born in Brüssel.
It´s amazing to find a report of you in the web, that my Grandfather told me!
I hope u liked greece and if you are in Germany, visit us!
We will be proud to see you! www.odysseus-krefeld.de
Manuel
Many thanks! Robin and Erika, Thanks so much for taking the time and effort to write more of your eloquent journals! I am always so pleased when I receive the email that tells me there are more of your adventures to read.
I must agree with you on the subject of how annoying India is especially in the touristy areas.
I am very happy to hear of your most recent experiences in Sikkim. You certainly "earned" your good times there.
I await your next entries about Nepal. Cheers.
Dzongri Great pictures. Just a note on the guides: I used a local agency for the trek, a local sherpa (born in nepal, grew up in sikkim) that owns a small hostel in Yuksom. He keeps everything local and while it is still the same price as the big cities I know my money stays in Yuksom. Although the guides are not paid much, remember that the average wage in India is around 40 rupees a day and a tea picker on a TATA plantation earns about 80 ruppees for picking 14 kilos of tea. With that in mind its not such a terrible job, although many young kids drop out of school to become porters.
Slaves indeed! Not a single Sikkism has ever been asked to pay or ever paid any tax to any govt (state or center). The rest of India foots the bill for sikkim and its development.
A wonderful read A nice co-incidence that the writer is from Scotland. I enjoyed going through your meandering article and seeing things through the visitors eyes. A lot of surprises too, things I never knew. Great!
salut les amis!!! Just a word to tell you that i m happy each time i can read something about u. I want to send to you few good thoughts.
see u and besos
maider
Christianity in India..... "There have been Christians in India for nearly 2,000 years. They long pre-date the arrival of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. Far from being the Hindu homeland, "Mother India" has also been at different times a Buddhist region and an Islamic one. The notion that Christians are doing something wrong in India is just RSS propaganda. India is a free country--a secular republic that enshrines the freedom for people to worship as they please. Some 30 million Indians are Christians of one sort or another. Christianity is as much a part of India as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, and Jainism. There are even Indian Jews."
Just something I read somewhere....
Wow, lucky... or not ^^;; I really think it's cool that you two get to cycle across Europe. But it must have sucked to get your stuff stolen 3 times in one week!
Transylvania seems as if it's a beautiful place, and Brasov seems really awesome! Your pictures really give a sense of how it looks there!
I haven't read any of your other journals, but did you guys happen to go through the Borgo Pass on your way through the Carpathians? And if you did, how did it feel to be on the pass that led to Dracula's Castle?
Water levels From what I can make out 2006 Monsoon was pretty normal http://www.imd.ernet.in/section/nhac/dynamic/endofmonsoon.htm
There does seem to be a trend towards very heavy showers during recent monsoons , as opposed to periods of prolonged light rain that is better suited to replenishing the land.
If it's any consolation , Bharatpur is man-made ,created for the idle rich to hunt.
respect! hi guys, what a great travel stories. THX for the inspiration.
We've past you somewhere in Greece without meeting. We drive a motorbike and are now in Malaysia.
Visit our website for some 'new ideas' for your onward travel......
www.onsplekkie.com (press english flag)
greetings from Ilse and Maarten
the Netherlands
Catching Up Hi Robin and Erika, Thanks to Kate W I've now found your blog again and I'm pleased to see you are still making progress - albeit with some difficulties. Hope you can find time to get back to full health and can enjoy so more great cycling. Keep writing your journals but don't leave such long gaps between them! All the best Simon (and Family)
It is good to hear from you! Hi Erika and Robin, I was thrilled to receive the notice today of your current journal posting until I saw that it was from 2 months ago and then read that you were so demoralized. I know India, particularly the tourist areas, is gruelling! And then add to that the terrible traffic that must be endured whilst on cycles!! I sincerely hope that you are now somewhere more enjoyable. Thank you for the post. I am always looking forward to the next one particularly now that I do not know where you went from India. Cheers, Mimi
Pakistan is the best!!! I spent three months in Pakistan. My friend Zahra lives in Altit. Her family own property very close to the Eagle's Nest Hotel. I sat with her family and friends on the floor of a mud hut sharing a meal of potatoes and greens. Afterwards a cake bread and chai. I didn't understand what was being said but we laughed and connected. I stay in touch with my new found friends and new family.
I crossed the Passu glacier while in Pak. I also got invited to three polo matches in Gilgit. One of which I was guest and got to throw the game ball! I met the chief of Police and was given a police cap.
I also started a small fast food resturant on main street in Gilgit with a man named Haij Baig. I made many friends and am looking forward to returning. I saw many of the places you have photographed and it makes me very homesick to return to this wonderful country. I could go on for hours of all the wonderful experiences. I too went to the China border and videoed the Yak. People should not be afraid of going to Pakistan. The people are very friendly. Thank you for your pics. It has made my heart feel warm.
sad how history is never learnt hi response to a stupid un educated person who only like any other jew highlights the here and now ehat this person neglected to say was that the land israelis are on is not theirs, they were given it by the Uk after the holicost many people from other countries such as germany, poland, chez came and claimed the land as theres and actually the arab jews at the time were co habiting with the arabs at the time as this is how it hadbeen for many years. up until the jews that had come to the land as stated started terrorizing the peoiple of the land by using bombs and kicking people out of their homes and claiming it as theres this stems back right back to the end of the world war one, these jewish so called israelis have no right to the land no historical name sake to the land as they orriginate from europe!!
so to learn why the palestinians are the way they are live in their shoes for a day or even 50 years lose all rights to return to your country , lose your home family and friends, your heritage and then come back and tell me you wouldjust give up and give the land away! i very much doubt you would. i give a GREAT applaude to palestinians for giving a shit about their land and the courage and determination and struggle they have had to endure at the hands of the jews. sanctions, wall blocks, milatary presence, un-nessacerry force, kurfews, check points, and many more things and they still refuse to bend good for them! its ignorance from countries like the jewish dominated USA and followers of US the UK to whom has had a large role to play in this disater in the first place.
these pepple muslim arabs and jewish arabs were living side by side for many years before this happened people need to read history
Ahh, I remember the feeling when I arrived in Mcload. For me it had to be the highest concentration of foreigners I had seen since Yangshuo. Quite scary after Pakistan. Good momos though. Happy New Year to you guys.
Depressing :( How depressing, most especially the attitude of the park staff.
I totoally agree with your assessment of all the people visiting who have flown to India for their holiday and don't seem to connect the change in monsoon pattern with global warming.
I'm doing my bit here and still trying to make people feel as guilty as possible for flying off as and when they feel like it. I'm getting a bit of a reputation as a mad flying-hating environmentalist - and depressingly this is amongst people who work in the environmental sector. There is such a huge disconnect between what people say they believe and what they actually do.
Right, I will stop ranting now! Happy New Year to both of you, love Kate
Happy New Year Hi, or should I say, "Kia ora," Erika and Robin. For me it really was a happy New Year, thanks in large part to being able to share some of it with you.
I'm looking forward to the time to be able to sit and read your blog at leisure; having skimmed this entry, and knowing what I do of your travels, it'll be a great read. Excellent photos too.
Cheers, safe travels, and I hope we can catch up somewhere before too long.
Pete :^D
another thing I should note is that the reason the girls are more open in Iran compared to other middle eastern countries is partially and ironically because of the hijab. As you know many families in Iran are still conservative even if not religious, and the hidjab dress core after the revolution helped the families to trust and let their girls participate more openly in the society and right now, as you might have known, more than 60% of the students in the universities are girls.
We are Erika and Robin from Scotland and in April 2005 we quit our jobs and set off to cycle from Scotland to İstanbul.
We reached İstanbul in October 2005 having discovered that cycling truly is the best way to travel and so decided to keep going beyond the Bosphorous......
We had never cycled any long distance before but had been wanting to travel for a long time and had finally saved enough and realised ıf we didn't set off now we never would. We decided cycling would be the best form of transport as we wanted to learn more about the countries and people we passed through at a s... full info
Arnab
Armand
sorry about the incidents at Bengal
I applogise the way Bengal has treated you but yes the roads and journey to North East is very picturesque!! I only journey on Bike till Southern Tip of India...U are on bike from such a long distance! hats off two you guys!!