The trip to Hong Kong was not as smooth as I would have liked!! I had to catch a flight from Cochin to Mumbai, which was alright apart from the fact that I had caught a cold the day before and my sinuses were very blocked. This meant that I was in absolute agony when we started to prepare for landing until we actually landed - not nice. It felt like my head was going to explode! But I made it and caught the bus to the international airport. It was 1.30am and the flight that I was confirmed on wasn't leaving until 4.55am. There was an earlier flight leaving at 2.55 which was direct (my flight was going through Bangkok). So I went up to the desk to see if I was able to get on the earlier flight. When I had last spoken to Cathay Pacific and Qantas I was actually waitlisted for the earlier flight, but on speaking to them now I found out that they had cancelled my waitlist! I got them to put me back on the waitlist and explained to them that I would much rather go direct and as I didn't think my head could cope with 2 more landings. At 2am as the desks were closing for the earlier flight, they took pity on me and gave me the last available seat - yeah!! So I had to rush through immigration and customs and jump on the plane. Unfortunately there was no window seat for me this time and I was in fact squashed between 2 men in the middle seats, but I was just glad to be on the flight. I think the men were not that happy as when we began to prepare for landing and the plane started to head towards land - again my sinuses played up and this time I had tears rolling down my checks because of the pain and they looked very worried - what to do with a woman in tears!!! Anyway, I recovered on landing and was now in Hong Kong. I made my way to my hostel in the Kowloon area. I was absolutely exhausted but made myself stay awake and went for a wander around the area until it was time for bed.
The next morning I though I would check my emails and while I was at it, check the status of my next flights. Guess what I found this time....They had cancelled them all - again!!! I was amazed, especially after I had specifically told the lady in Mumbai that I would never ever ever want my flights to be cancelled again. So I called up Qantas who said they couldn't do anything. Then it was onto Cathay Pacific who told me that my flights had been cancelled because I hadn't turned up for my flight to Hong Kong. I informed them that I was in fact calling from Hong Kong, and unless I had grown wings then I had more then likely taken their flight there! This obviously stumped them for a moment, but then they found out that the people in Mumbai hadn't registered me on the earlier flight (even though I had gone through my problems with them and they appeared to understand - once again I seemed to have misinterpreted that whole nodding thing they do!!) and therefore I was now recorded as a no-show and my flights were now cancelled - permanently!! But they could create a new booking for me for the sum of $300. Hmmmmm. I pointed out that on all the occasions that they had cancelled my flights it had been their fault and not mine and I should not have to pay. Plus don't they feel at all responsible for leaving a female, travelling by herself in foreign countries, where she doesn't speak the language with no way of leaving! This did the trick and they created the new booking (no fee charged - yet!) and they even got me a seat on the flight to Japan which they had been saying for the last 2 weeks was in fact full and I would not be able to get a seat! Anyway, I didn't trust the lady on the phone, so I made my way to the Cathay Pacific offices and got the lady there to check on her screen and print off the booking, just to doubly confirm it all, and I made her promise that they would never cancel the flights either!
So after all that was sorted out I felt it was now time to see some of Hong Kong. I have to say that it was so different to India and it was nice to be back in the modern world again where everything worked, on time - even to the second!! The transport system is amazing and cheap (maybe something London transport should learn from!!). The place is spotless, perhaps due to the massive fines if you drop any litter or spit, you can't even eat or drink on the metro or in any of the paved areas around it!! I spent the week seeing various sights and visiting the many markets and shopping centres. This place is basically built on shops, its nearly the only thing you can do here!! Unfortunately the whole week I was here, it was very cloudy and therefore I didn't get to do some of the highly recommend sights like going up to the Peak which apparently gives the best view of Hong Kong. Maybe next time! I did visit a little place called Stanley which is on the south of Hong Kong Island. There they have a nice market and beach - all in all very pleasant. They also have this fantastic light show every night. If you go to Kowloon and get a nice spot on the avenue of stars (which is by the harbour) at 8pm, you can watch the sky-scrapers on Hong Kong Island all light up to the music being played. I think all cities should do this!! It was absolutely brilliant!
I have enjoyed my week in Hong Kong, taking life easy and not worrying about whether I will actually get to places - because I will - on time too!! They also have a ridiculous amount of European/American shops here so it is just like being at home, but with the Asian influence as well. Definitely a place I would like to come back to.
But onwards and upwards, and therefore Taiwan tomorrow...hopefully!
Where I have been...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
India
Well I am still travelling, although now I am on my last leg :-( I had just spent a month at home in the UK, recuperating and celebrating my birthday and my Mum's. Then it was time to leave again - this time to India.
I was spending my first two weeks in India on a tour with Imaginative Travel. To be honest, I was exhausted from the last 2 years of travel and trying to organise everything myself and just felt for once to have someone do it for me!! And, I had heard of lots of stories of how it was hard to move around India as the transport system isn't the most reliable!! This also had the advantage of the fact that I would be staying in hotels and not hostels which I was really looking forward to!
So I arrived in Delhi at around 8am. I made my way to the hotel using a pre-paid taxi from the airport. You would think that by showing the guys the exact address and them nodding profusely would mean they know where it was... Well I soon learned that this is not the case - at all!! And has since become apart of my travels around the country. Nine times out of 10 the taxi/tuk-tuk/rickshaw drivers do not know where they are going, despite them saying they do. Basically they just want to get your money - nice!! So we eventually arrived in the area of where the hotel was supposed to be and then spent the next half hour driving up every single road to find the place. The driver stopped several times and got out of the taxi, leaving me there with loads of locals starring at the blond girl!! (Again something else I was going to have to get used to!). You would think that I should be used to this starring by now after going through it in South America, but there, the people were just curious. Here they are just purvey men!!! In India many men believe that European women are easy, and its not hard to find out why. Just turn on the TV and you will see the Indian women dressed head to toe, but the 'white women' are barely dressed at all.
Eventually the driver found my hotel, something I was beginning to think we would never
achieve!! I dragged myself to the front desk to check-in, only to be met with - 'your friend is already here'. I tried to explain that I was travelling alone and that I had 'no friends' in India (yet!). I obviously was not understood and to be honest I really couldn't understand the guy either!! He kept pointing to a sheet where my name appeared as well as another ladies. I tried to explain that being part of a tour meant that I would be sharing a room with another individual, but that person was not yet known to me! But he was adamant that she was my long lost friend and that we should be immediately reunited!! So I was dragged upstairs with one of the porters who repeatedly knocked on one of the bedroom doors. It being only 9am (and as it turned out the occupant had only arrived at 3am), the response was not positive. We had woken up the poor soul who was trying to sleep. I tried to explain that this could be done later if I was staying in this room then I could wait. But actually we were not staying in that room at all, we were sharing the room opposite, they just wanted the 'friends' to be together! Anyway, I eventually settled in the other room and tried to catch a few zzzzz myself, but with no luck- as I was now assigned the tour contact by the hotel!!! The tour leader had yet to show up, therefore the hotel decided that if anyone else on the tour had any questions then they would send them up to me - joy!! So within an hour I was disturbed 3 times by people asking me questions which to be honest, I really didn't know the answer to!! In the end I gave up on the idea of ever going to sleep and decided to find some food and water!!
Later on I met my 'friend' who turned out to be Monika, a Mexican living in Canada. I apologised for waking her this morning, luckily that didn't damper our friendship as we were going to be sharing a room for the next 2 weeks. We then decided that we couldn't hang around in the hotel all day, and since it was our only time in Delhi we would grab a taxi and do a tour. 3 of us, (Myself, Monika and Laura from Belgium) jumped into a taxi. Obviously first making sure he understood where we wanted to go and what time we had to be back - he nodded!!! We then spent the next 4 hours pretty much in traffic!! We had told the taxi driver that we needed to be back at the hotel by 3pm, but it was clear that that was never going to happen, especially when he said 'return at 5pm'. So after a little arguing, we headed back only to arrive an hour later for the meeting and only seeing 2 sights out of 6 - not a good start!! Luckily we had a nice tour leader - Nari, who had another meeting with the three of us after everyone else's!
The next day we were to head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. This is a 3 hour train journey, which should be relatively painless - not for us though!!! The journey started on time, but we soon discovered that it was going to take a bit longer than 3 hours. In fact it took us 9 hours!! We ended up sitting in one place for the best part of 6 hours because of engineering works (I now have no sympathy for anyone in the UK who's train is delayed by a few minutes). It was 35 degrees Celsius outside and we had no air con, fans - nothing! Luckily we had snacks and water as Nari had told us to take extra just in case - sensible man! We did eventually arrive in Agra and were immediately whisked to the Taj Mahal where we got to spend an hour wandering around (a lot less time that what we were supposed to). At least we got to see it, as at one point it didn't look possible. We then went to the hotel, had dinner and then went to bed. Unfortunately we didn't see anything else in Agra :-(
The next day we were introduced to our bus. Oh happy times!! Luckily for the next 11 days we were no longer relying on public transport, instead we had a nice air-con bus to drive us around on the rest of our tour - yeah!!
We were driven around the state of Rajastan to various locations to see Temples, Forts, Palaces which were all very impressive, but I won't bore you with the details. Although I do have to say that I am now completely Templed out!! On some parts of the tour we stayed at Heritage Homes, which were old Forts made into hotels - and oh they were beautiful. It was so cool staying in a fort on top of a hill. Although I do have to mention that in India, they have not looked after their heritage very well. Most of the buildings we saw were in ruins, or crumbling. It was such a shame that they hadn't bothered to look after their history :-( I also have to mention the cows. They are everywhere. They walk in front of traffic, they even try and attack you if you are not careful. One of the girls on the tour got head-butted in the stomach by one!! Luckily it wasn't that hard, but I found it hilarious!!! The problem with these cows is that they are left to defend for themselves once flung out onto the streets. This also means feeding themselves. Unfortunately you see a lot of them eating the plastic bags and cardboard which they inevitable die from :-(
We also went on a camel safari which was amusing. I am not fond of camels and to be honest after riding one in Broome, Australia, I wasn't too keen to get on another one. This time I was prepared. I managed to get on the camel and for it to get up without headbutting anyone!! We were all riding male camels. The reason for this is obvious. You can't mix male and female camels as the males will just try to mate with them. I had already told everyone about this (information I had obtained from my last camel ride), and so we were all prepared. So half way through the ride (luckily it was only for 2 hours, 15 mins was enough for me though), we passed another camel....guess what, it was a female. Well the next 5 minutes proved to be the most exiting on the ride!! My camel got very excited and tried to run after it. Luckily my camels owner was in control and we managed to continue, but Richard's camel was not so well trained and his just went for the female. The owner had very little control, Richard looked terrified, and we all continued walking away from them!!! Eventually the owner manged to drag the camels apart and continue on with the trip!! That evening we were to be camping in tents, but to be honest it was all rather luxurious as we had proper beds, toilets and washing facilities.
A couple of days later four of us decided that we wanted to ride a proper horse. There is a local horse to this region who's ears point inwards called the Marwaris. It looks rather odd, but I have to say the horses were brilliant to ride and it was far more enjoyable than riding the camels! Unfortunately for our last two destinations we had to give up the air-con bus and take up local transport. Our first was on a local bus. These are interesting as they have the normal seats as you would expect but they have transformed the overhead storage area into cubicles which only one person can lie-down in (no sitting permitted as the space is too small). So while most of the bus is sitting for the journey, these guys got to spend the entire journey lying down - not bad! At one point while I was listening to music I suddenly noticed liquid was dripping down on me and my neighbour. She jumped up and I squished myself as close to the window as possible. We managed to get Nari to ask the guy above us whether his water had toppled over, apparently not. I personally thought that he had wet himself, but there wasn't anything we could do about it, so I got my duck tape out and taped up all the cracks!! The joys of public transport in India!!
Our tour was to end in Mumbai (Bombay), but on the day we arrived it was Holi Day. This is a festival in India (something about celebrating the beginning of spring??) where for one day only it is legal to do drugs and drink (At least that is what Nari told us). Anyway, this resulted in him telling us that we would have to spend our last day of the tour locked up in the hotel as it would be far too dangerous for women to go out, even in groups as the men were off their heads and would harm foreign women - great!! Well we lasted literally an hour before we got bored and decided that we would hire out the hotel car and drive round the city for a tour. Well we saw no 'crazy' men and everything appeared to be fine and we had a nice day driving around the city seeing the sights (secretly we were actually disappointed! We wanted to see these 'crazy' men, we had sort of envisaged them as the zombies out of 28 days!). The next day our tour finished and I was now on my own. I decided to go to Goa, Anjuna Beach to be exact (the place where the British girl got murdered for those of you who it rings a bell!). I flew down there, and I have to mention in case anyone from Bombay airport might be reading this - could you please resurface the runway! We bumped our way down it and I thought that instead of taking-off we would hit a pothole and crash before we had even taken off!!
Anyway, I had an enjoyable week there, doing nothing much apart from taking it easy and enjoying the fact that I didn't have to pack my backpack everyday! Although the Monsoons have decided to come 3 months early just for me!! My room ended up have a few holes in the roof -11 to be precise. 2 of these were over my bed which is why one night I woke up as I had wet feet!! I managed to move the bed so that no water was going on it and then had an arrangement of buckets and cut up plastic bottles to catch all the water!! As a result of all this water there were a number of power cuts each day. One such power cut happened in the middle of the night when the rain was coming down in buckets. I got out of bed to rearrange my water collection devises. To do this I put my new head torch on my head. I have to say I am very proud of this purchase as it only took me 2 years of travel to finally buy one and it would come in very useful, particularly for situations like this when I needed both my hands. Well that was until a sodding great big moth decided it wanted to 'come to the light'!!! I then spent the next 10 minutes waving my arms frantically around trying to stop the moth from head-butting me and flying into my mouth, while avoiding tripping up over the buckets and bottles of water!! I ended up having to rip the light off my head and strategically placing it so that I could whack the moth with my flip-flop! I succeeded!
I do have to mention as well that apparently loads of people come to Goa from all over the world for their beach holidays - I just have to ask Why? Seriously there are a million better beaches in other parts of the world - certainly in Europe. The beaches are so polluted, it is disgusting. Usually I love swimming, but I would never ever ever go swimming in the sea in India. The amount of pollution floating in the water was disgusting. Also the beach was covered in black stuff - I presume oil. There was rubbish everywhere. Plus to top it off, the Indian men come here especially to leer over the scantly clad western women and take pictures of them with their mobiles!!
I then flew down to Kochi in South India. This flight I found rather amusing, because unlike most airlines, Indigo airline hadn't bothered to provide life jackets in the event of a crash!! Instead you were instructed to rip your seat out and use that instead. To be honest they were just being realists, as I have been told many a time that if you do, in the unlikely event crash into water, then the plane is not likely to survive anyway! So really what is the point of providing life jackets seemed to be their philosophy!
In Kochi I went on a tour of the backwaters which are absolutely lovely and thankfully not as polluted as the rest of India, although there are still plastic bags and bottles floating around :-( I enjoyed the South far more than the North. One of the reasons for this is that I wasn't hassled as much and it was far more chilled out there.
Well I will now be moving on to Hong Kong, thats if I have a seat on my flight!! I called up the airline a week before I was supposed to leave India to find out that in fact Cathay Pacific had cancelled all my flights with them. They, for some reason, expected me to make it to Japan by myself, despite me booking and paying for my flights some 10 months ago!!! Well I then spent the next 4 days calling Cathay and Qantas (who I had booked the RTW ticket with) to try and sort out the problem. They refused to talk to each other so I had to act as the middle man and spoke to each of them about 4 times each day! Neither would take responsibility or apologise for the inconvenience so I am a little annoyed!! I have managed to get on a flight to Hong Kong (or as far as I know, I will find out later!), but I still don't have a flight to Japan, hopefully that will come through sometime this week! Wish me luck....
I was spending my first two weeks in India on a tour with Imaginative Travel. To be honest, I was exhausted from the last 2 years of travel and trying to organise everything myself and just felt for once to have someone do it for me!! And, I had heard of lots of stories of how it was hard to move around India as the transport system isn't the most reliable!! This also had the advantage of the fact that I would be staying in hotels and not hostels which I was really looking forward to!
So I arrived in Delhi at around 8am. I made my way to the hotel using a pre-paid taxi from the airport. You would think that by showing the guys the exact address and them nodding profusely would mean they know where it was... Well I soon learned that this is not the case - at all!! And has since become apart of my travels around the country. Nine times out of 10 the taxi/tuk-tuk/rickshaw drivers do not know where they are going, despite them saying they do. Basically they just want to get your money - nice!! So we eventually arrived in the area of where the hotel was supposed to be and then spent the next half hour driving up every single road to find the place. The driver stopped several times and got out of the taxi, leaving me there with loads of locals starring at the blond girl!! (Again something else I was going to have to get used to!). You would think that I should be used to this starring by now after going through it in South America, but there, the people were just curious. Here they are just purvey men!!! In India many men believe that European women are easy, and its not hard to find out why. Just turn on the TV and you will see the Indian women dressed head to toe, but the 'white women' are barely dressed at all.
Eventually the driver found my hotel, something I was beginning to think we would never
achieve!! I dragged myself to the front desk to check-in, only to be met with - 'your friend is already here'. I tried to explain that I was travelling alone and that I had 'no friends' in India (yet!). I obviously was not understood and to be honest I really couldn't understand the guy either!! He kept pointing to a sheet where my name appeared as well as another ladies. I tried to explain that being part of a tour meant that I would be sharing a room with another individual, but that person was not yet known to me! But he was adamant that she was my long lost friend and that we should be immediately reunited!! So I was dragged upstairs with one of the porters who repeatedly knocked on one of the bedroom doors. It being only 9am (and as it turned out the occupant had only arrived at 3am), the response was not positive. We had woken up the poor soul who was trying to sleep. I tried to explain that this could be done later if I was staying in this room then I could wait. But actually we were not staying in that room at all, we were sharing the room opposite, they just wanted the 'friends' to be together! Anyway, I eventually settled in the other room and tried to catch a few zzzzz myself, but with no luck- as I was now assigned the tour contact by the hotel!!! The tour leader had yet to show up, therefore the hotel decided that if anyone else on the tour had any questions then they would send them up to me - joy!! So within an hour I was disturbed 3 times by people asking me questions which to be honest, I really didn't know the answer to!! In the end I gave up on the idea of ever going to sleep and decided to find some food and water!!
Later on I met my 'friend' who turned out to be Monika, a Mexican living in Canada. I apologised for waking her this morning, luckily that didn't damper our friendship as we were going to be sharing a room for the next 2 weeks. We then decided that we couldn't hang around in the hotel all day, and since it was our only time in Delhi we would grab a taxi and do a tour. 3 of us, (Myself, Monika and Laura from Belgium) jumped into a taxi. Obviously first making sure he understood where we wanted to go and what time we had to be back - he nodded!!! We then spent the next 4 hours pretty much in traffic!! We had told the taxi driver that we needed to be back at the hotel by 3pm, but it was clear that that was never going to happen, especially when he said 'return at 5pm'. So after a little arguing, we headed back only to arrive an hour later for the meeting and only seeing 2 sights out of 6 - not a good start!! Luckily we had a nice tour leader - Nari, who had another meeting with the three of us after everyone else's!
The next day we were to head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. This is a 3 hour train journey, which should be relatively painless - not for us though!!! The journey started on time, but we soon discovered that it was going to take a bit longer than 3 hours. In fact it took us 9 hours!! We ended up sitting in one place for the best part of 6 hours because of engineering works (I now have no sympathy for anyone in the UK who's train is delayed by a few minutes). It was 35 degrees Celsius outside and we had no air con, fans - nothing! Luckily we had snacks and water as Nari had told us to take extra just in case - sensible man! We did eventually arrive in Agra and were immediately whisked to the Taj Mahal where we got to spend an hour wandering around (a lot less time that what we were supposed to). At least we got to see it, as at one point it didn't look possible. We then went to the hotel, had dinner and then went to bed. Unfortunately we didn't see anything else in Agra :-(
The next day we were introduced to our bus. Oh happy times!! Luckily for the next 11 days we were no longer relying on public transport, instead we had a nice air-con bus to drive us around on the rest of our tour - yeah!!
We were driven around the state of Rajastan to various locations to see Temples, Forts, Palaces which were all very impressive, but I won't bore you with the details. Although I do have to say that I am now completely Templed out!! On some parts of the tour we stayed at Heritage Homes, which were old Forts made into hotels - and oh they were beautiful. It was so cool staying in a fort on top of a hill. Although I do have to mention that in India, they have not looked after their heritage very well. Most of the buildings we saw were in ruins, or crumbling. It was such a shame that they hadn't bothered to look after their history :-( I also have to mention the cows. They are everywhere. They walk in front of traffic, they even try and attack you if you are not careful. One of the girls on the tour got head-butted in the stomach by one!! Luckily it wasn't that hard, but I found it hilarious!!! The problem with these cows is that they are left to defend for themselves once flung out onto the streets. This also means feeding themselves. Unfortunately you see a lot of them eating the plastic bags and cardboard which they inevitable die from :-(
We also went on a camel safari which was amusing. I am not fond of camels and to be honest after riding one in Broome, Australia, I wasn't too keen to get on another one. This time I was prepared. I managed to get on the camel and for it to get up without headbutting anyone!! We were all riding male camels. The reason for this is obvious. You can't mix male and female camels as the males will just try to mate with them. I had already told everyone about this (information I had obtained from my last camel ride), and so we were all prepared. So half way through the ride (luckily it was only for 2 hours, 15 mins was enough for me though), we passed another camel....guess what, it was a female. Well the next 5 minutes proved to be the most exiting on the ride!! My camel got very excited and tried to run after it. Luckily my camels owner was in control and we managed to continue, but Richard's camel was not so well trained and his just went for the female. The owner had very little control, Richard looked terrified, and we all continued walking away from them!!! Eventually the owner manged to drag the camels apart and continue on with the trip!! That evening we were to be camping in tents, but to be honest it was all rather luxurious as we had proper beds, toilets and washing facilities.
A couple of days later four of us decided that we wanted to ride a proper horse. There is a local horse to this region who's ears point inwards called the Marwaris. It looks rather odd, but I have to say the horses were brilliant to ride and it was far more enjoyable than riding the camels! Unfortunately for our last two destinations we had to give up the air-con bus and take up local transport. Our first was on a local bus. These are interesting as they have the normal seats as you would expect but they have transformed the overhead storage area into cubicles which only one person can lie-down in (no sitting permitted as the space is too small). So while most of the bus is sitting for the journey, these guys got to spend the entire journey lying down - not bad! At one point while I was listening to music I suddenly noticed liquid was dripping down on me and my neighbour. She jumped up and I squished myself as close to the window as possible. We managed to get Nari to ask the guy above us whether his water had toppled over, apparently not. I personally thought that he had wet himself, but there wasn't anything we could do about it, so I got my duck tape out and taped up all the cracks!! The joys of public transport in India!!
Our tour was to end in Mumbai (Bombay), but on the day we arrived it was Holi Day. This is a festival in India (something about celebrating the beginning of spring??) where for one day only it is legal to do drugs and drink (At least that is what Nari told us). Anyway, this resulted in him telling us that we would have to spend our last day of the tour locked up in the hotel as it would be far too dangerous for women to go out, even in groups as the men were off their heads and would harm foreign women - great!! Well we lasted literally an hour before we got bored and decided that we would hire out the hotel car and drive round the city for a tour. Well we saw no 'crazy' men and everything appeared to be fine and we had a nice day driving around the city seeing the sights (secretly we were actually disappointed! We wanted to see these 'crazy' men, we had sort of envisaged them as the zombies out of 28 days!). The next day our tour finished and I was now on my own. I decided to go to Goa, Anjuna Beach to be exact (the place where the British girl got murdered for those of you who it rings a bell!). I flew down there, and I have to mention in case anyone from Bombay airport might be reading this - could you please resurface the runway! We bumped our way down it and I thought that instead of taking-off we would hit a pothole and crash before we had even taken off!!
Anyway, I had an enjoyable week there, doing nothing much apart from taking it easy and enjoying the fact that I didn't have to pack my backpack everyday! Although the Monsoons have decided to come 3 months early just for me!! My room ended up have a few holes in the roof -11 to be precise. 2 of these were over my bed which is why one night I woke up as I had wet feet!! I managed to move the bed so that no water was going on it and then had an arrangement of buckets and cut up plastic bottles to catch all the water!! As a result of all this water there were a number of power cuts each day. One such power cut happened in the middle of the night when the rain was coming down in buckets. I got out of bed to rearrange my water collection devises. To do this I put my new head torch on my head. I have to say I am very proud of this purchase as it only took me 2 years of travel to finally buy one and it would come in very useful, particularly for situations like this when I needed both my hands. Well that was until a sodding great big moth decided it wanted to 'come to the light'!!! I then spent the next 10 minutes waving my arms frantically around trying to stop the moth from head-butting me and flying into my mouth, while avoiding tripping up over the buckets and bottles of water!! I ended up having to rip the light off my head and strategically placing it so that I could whack the moth with my flip-flop! I succeeded!
I do have to mention as well that apparently loads of people come to Goa from all over the world for their beach holidays - I just have to ask Why? Seriously there are a million better beaches in other parts of the world - certainly in Europe. The beaches are so polluted, it is disgusting. Usually I love swimming, but I would never ever ever go swimming in the sea in India. The amount of pollution floating in the water was disgusting. Also the beach was covered in black stuff - I presume oil. There was rubbish everywhere. Plus to top it off, the Indian men come here especially to leer over the scantly clad western women and take pictures of them with their mobiles!!
I then flew down to Kochi in South India. This flight I found rather amusing, because unlike most airlines, Indigo airline hadn't bothered to provide life jackets in the event of a crash!! Instead you were instructed to rip your seat out and use that instead. To be honest they were just being realists, as I have been told many a time that if you do, in the unlikely event crash into water, then the plane is not likely to survive anyway! So really what is the point of providing life jackets seemed to be their philosophy!
In Kochi I went on a tour of the backwaters which are absolutely lovely and thankfully not as polluted as the rest of India, although there are still plastic bags and bottles floating around :-( I enjoyed the South far more than the North. One of the reasons for this is that I wasn't hassled as much and it was far more chilled out there.
Well I will now be moving on to Hong Kong, thats if I have a seat on my flight!! I called up the airline a week before I was supposed to leave India to find out that in fact Cathay Pacific had cancelled all my flights with them. They, for some reason, expected me to make it to Japan by myself, despite me booking and paying for my flights some 10 months ago!!! Well I then spent the next 4 days calling Cathay and Qantas (who I had booked the RTW ticket with) to try and sort out the problem. They refused to talk to each other so I had to act as the middle man and spoke to each of them about 4 times each day! Neither would take responsibility or apologise for the inconvenience so I am a little annoyed!! I have managed to get on a flight to Hong Kong (or as far as I know, I will find out later!), but I still don't have a flight to Japan, hopefully that will come through sometime this week! Wish me luck....
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