HYDERABAD It's been a while since I've been in a big city - and usually I don't really like them - but I really like Hyderabad. It's a great mixture of "Indian culture" and "all things western". A large percentage of the population is Muslim which is very different to where we have been ... just another face of India. At first it was quite strange to see so many women dressed in Burkas ... head to toe in black with only their eyes uncovered. Day one we took a 3 wheeler to Charminar, the cities most famous landmark that commemorates [View Full Entry]

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There's some really nice Muslim architecture to see in Bijapur ... but I was glad that we were only there for the day. It's a very dusty, chaotic city that's spread out so difficult to wander around and check out the sites. We were on an overnight bus to Hyderabad at 9pm so we hired a 3 wheeler for a few hours and toured around the major attractions. Golgumbaz Bijapur's largest monument is basically a huge tomb for Mohammed Adil Shah and his family. The dome is the 2nd largest after Romes St Peters. The acoustics around the base create a [View Full Entry]

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BADAMI - Sunday May 7 6 hours and two buses later we arrived in Badami ... and what a great village! The actual township is nestled below beautiful red sandstone ridges where there are caves, temples and forts and the Agatyatirtha Tank where people swim, wash, do their laundry and the dishes from that day's cooking. After finding somewhere to stay we set out to explore the rock-cut caves. As always this involves climbing a shit load of stairs in the heat of the day... but it was well worth it.. as the views over the village were so beautiful. As [View Full Entry]

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Travelling can really be a case of "survival of the fittest" with a bit of luck thrown in. It took us 17 hours and 3 buses, but finally we made it to Hampi. We were lucky that the overnight bus from Bangalore to Hampi wasn't full so we could each have two seats, but the road was so bad that I woke up several times on the floor. You can imagine the expletives coming from my mouth with such a rude awakening. How to describe Hampi? It's really something that has to be seen to be believed. It's so beautiful ... [View Full Entry]

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Sounds strange I'm sure ... but it felt a bit like coming home flying back into India. It was a 4am flight and I had to be at the airport 3 hours before so by the time I checked into my guest house at 6.30am I was pretty delirious. It was so hot I could barely breathe, but I managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before An arrived. That night we went to the movies (my first time in 6 months) and then had beers and dinner at a rooftop restaurant. Since being away I've met so many Belgians [View Full Entry]

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From Sun April 23 until Fri April 28 we pretty much hung out at the beach. First stop was Mirrissa. We stayed at a fantastic guesthouse (Long Wave) run by the most beautiful family. The mothers cooking was outstanding!!!! April is out of season so not the best time of year to be swimming (quite rough) but still a great place to recharge the batteries after a really hectic 2-3 weeks. In Hikkaduwa we caught up with a really nice German couple (Oli and Manu) we met at Adams Peak. It was really nice to have dinner and a few drinks [View Full Entry]

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Some things just aren't meant to be. We really diliberated over "should we or shouldn't we" do a safari in the hope we'll see elephants in the wild. It's a very expensive exercise ... an entire weeks budget for An and I, but we decided to take a chance. We should have realised that luck wasn't on our side when half an hour into the safari we got seriously bggged, and it took us a good 45 minutes to push the jeep out. Covered in mud, we continued on, but all we saw was monkey's, deer, wild pigs, mongoose and some [View Full Entry]

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There are some accomplishments in life that you can be truely proud of, for me, one of them was making it to the top of Adams Peak. 7,360 feet (2,243 meters) high... when at the top you are looking down on surrounding mountain ranges. The mountain is actually known by 3 different names; Adams Peak - the place where Adam first set a foot on earth after being cast out of heaven Sri Pada - sacred footprint, left by Buddha as he headed towards paradise and Samanalakande - butterfly mountain where butterflies go to die Anyway it's been a pilgramage centre [View Full Entry]

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Sigiriya is a tiny little town with not much to see accept "the rock" so we got an early night so we could get up at 5am to commence our climb before it got too hot. As daylight approached, we walked through beautifully landscapes gardens. 200m above, the fortress awaited. Built in the 5 century, it was originally designed as a rock fortress but later became a monastic refuge. It has the oldest surviving murals of maidens, believed to represent apsaras (celestial nymphs). Once there would have been about 500 frescoes but only 22 remain today. The final ascent would have [View Full Entry]

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Sri Lanka has many... many... many public holidays and whilst on our tour of the ancient cities they were celebrating New Year which means more chaos to an already chaotic public transport system. But An and I can be stubborn little buggers and every time some one told us something was "not possible madam" it just make us dig our heals in and find a way to make it possible. So even though many people told us we couldn't travel to Polonnaruwa on New Years Day... after only two buses and 3 hours travel we were there! Polonnaruwa is the second [View Full Entry]

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