Mitchell and Danielle

The Grog Bloggers

After completing study and enough hours on the 9-5 slave train it's time for a massive change.



Travel Blog Posts


Rock n Boul(ders)

Published: May 6th 2009Asia
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The Grog Bloggers
March 23rd 2009

As I jumped off the train at Hospet, weary headed from a decent nights sleep on a noisy old rattling train I notice that Danielle is looking worse than ever. Her eyes are bloodshot, shes looking frail, and a little grey. “How sick are you feeling? Is it better or worse than before? How bad is your stomach hurting?” I ask hurriedly focusing on avoiding the oncoming assault of a money hungry rickshaw driver. “That was the worst night of my life, I feel like shit” replied Danielle in an exhausted tone. “You want to go to Hampi, I'll take you, you come with me” says a short and well moustached man as he steps in between myself and my ever fading girlfriend. “No we aren't going to Hampi” I say temporarily directing my attention to ... read more



A complete change of scenery

Published: April 7th 2009Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Ooty
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March 10th 2009

With an additional three weeks up our sleeves we decided that we would check out the Nilgiri hills district and in particular a place called Ooty. We have made an effort on this trip to eat a wide range of local cuisines where available and situated right next door to my old work in Sydney was an award winning restaurant named Nilgiri's, so I thought that it must be a great place to sample some fresh and inspiring food. Travelling anywhere in India takes time and after doing a little bit of reading we decided on our route to the hill station of Ooty knowing that it would take 2 days to get there if we didn't want to rush. We checked out of our Ernakalum guest house at around 6.30am to make a 7:15 train ... read more



Floating palaces and destroyed forts

Published: March 18th 2009Asia » India » Kerala » Kochi
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March 3rd 2009

Besides our flight in and flight out, our little Indian holiday has been a bit like a choose your own adventure story. If we hear of somewhere that is interesting, read about somewhere beautiful, the only thing stopping us from going there is an ever shrinking bank account. There was one big budget item that we had planned on forking out for and by luck we saved a bunch of cash and had a couple of our most enjoyable days since leaving home doing so. A couple of months prior to leaving we were at the farewell party of a friend from Sydney, Cyra, who was heading back to London for what felt like the 25th time since we have known her. At some point over the course of a very loose evening we got talking ... read more



Spending big

Published: March 7th 2009Asia » India » Kerala » Varkala
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February 25th 2009

Over the past two weeks we have transformed from being filthy backpackers to filthy package holiday makers. We don't have any more than Tamil Nadu to compare this part of India with but the contrast between Kerala and our home state of the previous month is like comparing a Ferari with an auto-rickshaw. After travelling only seventy kilometres or one and a half hours north west from Kanyakamari and suddenly we were back in the tourist territory that we hadn't really seen since leaving Bangkok over a month ago. The drive in to Triviandrum on yet another crappy bus was a pleasant introduction of what was to come in Kerala, passing by multitudes of rice paddies, swaying palms and never ending waterways. We jumped off the bus, determined to make our way back to the ocean ... read more



The great Southern Pilgrimage

Published: February 20th 2009Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Kanyakumari
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February 11th 2009

South Tamil Nadu's tourism industry is thriving and surprisingly it is not on the back of the Euro, the Pound, the Yen or any other foreign currency. I expect that once we step foot over the border from Tamil Nadu into Kerala that things might just be a little different but in this part of the world Indian holidaymakers seem to outnumber foreigners by over 1000 to 1. With not much more than an ambition to swim at the very tip of south India we headed off from Salem extremely happy that we made the effort to see the orphanage and the thousands of faces which make it. I like to think that we learn from our mistakes and given that the previous bus ride was the most uncomfortable 7 or so hours of my ... read more



Salem and the Promised Land

Published: February 6th 2009Asia » India » Tamil Nadu
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February 2nd 2009

I am a long way from being a religious man but when 1300 orphaned children first sang a song to Danielle and I and then followed it up by saying a prayer for us I, for the first time in a very long time was not completely critical of Christianity or any other religion for that matter. I mentioned in my update from Mamallapuram that we struggled to find a conversation that did not revolve around yoga or meditation for the first few days of being in the town. The first people that we were able to talk to properly without holding in laughter were a bunch of lads from England who were completing a portion of their Gap year working in an orphanage in central Tamil Nadu. At 18 I was running a muck as ... read more



Masala and Baguettes

Published: February 6th 2009Asia » India » Pondicherry
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January 27th 2009

Sitting a couple hours further south of Mallamaparum is a place which is in complete contrast to both the India we had seen on TV and the small dose of this country we have had since arriving nearly 2 weeks ago. Pondicherry or Punducherry as it is now known has a bus station just like every other bus station, the auto-rickshaw from the bus station was ridiculously overpriced just like every auto-rickshaw leaving from a bus station, the first few guest houses we tried to get a room in had the full sign on the front gate just like everywhere else when we have traveled in high season but that is pretty much where the familiarities ended. Having not yet traveled to Europe or experienced much French culture I can safely say that this town ... read more



An easy introduction

Published: January 27th 2009Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Mamallapuram
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January 24th 2009

Admittedly since decided that we would spend some time in India before heading onto Europe, Danielle and I have had moments of anxiety and nervousness about travelling to a country that we really did not know that much about. Our preconceived notions of India was that the whole country would be littered with pollution, smell like shit, be uncomfortably hot all of the time, we would be hassled by beggars 24 hours a day and that we would have diharea within minutes of setting foot off the plane. It is now a week in and we are still yet to encounter any real culture shock. When the flight attendant on our Tiger Airlines flight TR 638 begun to spray the aeroplane with a deodorisor upon decent into our first port of call Chennai, the two of ... read more



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January 17th 2009

This whole travelling on the cheap thing has its ups and its downs and this was particularly highlighted by our 200 Baht or AU$8 per night accommodation in Chiang Mai. On all but one of our nights we were awoken through our paper thin walls to the sounds of debauchery and seemingly hardcore sex but while it was annoying at the time in hindsight it is pretty damn funny and gave me an decent intro to this blog. Chiang Mai was a fantastic return to city life after truly being away from any hustle and bustle for a couple of weeks. The old city, surrounded by moats and crumbling walls could easily make you think that you were there 200 ago, but then cross the moat and immediately you are thrown into chaos, traffic and fast ... read more



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January 8th 2009

Since the last update where I was in transit from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang we have done quite a bit more moving. Luang Prabang was exactly as I remembered it from the last time we were here, nothing like the party town that is Vang Vieng (thank fuck). It was quiet, picturesque, full of older travellers and incredibly overpriced. Arriving late we settled in at a guest house for 130000 kip, dropped our bags and went exploring the town once more, fortunately this time around the rain held off while we were there and we saw more than the restaurants on Th Sisavangvong road. Luang Prabang itself is jam packed full of history and is a clash of cultures with obvious French architecture and the sound of 15 or so fluorescent orange monks smashing drums ... read more






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