Toronto airport again

We are now in the Toronto airport for the 3rd time this year. This time we are heading home; we will be there soon. yeah!!



Mhari says BYE!!

Ukraine and an Istanbul flashback

The boat trip was interesting. Our cabin was nice; it was in the front corner of the cabin area, had two windows and was far away from the siting area where everybody smoked. There were five of us in a four person cabin and I slept on the couch. The food was OK, but the bread was really bad. If you wanted to eat it you had to smother it with butter or dip it in your tea to moisten it a bit or do both. We thought that the boat trip was 3 days 2 nights, but it was 4 days 3 nights. (more food for our buck) but not every one was so happy because they had places to be, unlike us. When we arrived in Odessa it was about 6:30-7:00am we disembarked around 11:00am and made it through customs at 12:30 my parents arrived 15 minute later. It was kind of fun going though customs without my parents, the guy checking our bags asked Sam why we had come to Ukraine and Sam said: “travel”. The guy then responded with a curious: Alone? But the first guy ( the custom's guy) never questioned us and we could have told the bag guy: Yes, we are alone, and I think he would have been fine with that.

The hotel we had in Odessa had really good wifi and a little to good air conditioning. The room was tight, but the weather was good so we didn't do much hanging around in the room.

The train to Kyiv was very nice. About on par with the Turkish trains but maybe better. We arrived in Kyiv at about 8am and found our way easily to our hostel. Kyiv would have been really nice if it had been sunny but it rained most of the time. I still liked Kyiv but it could have been better. We stayed 3 nights 4 days and I think it was the perfect amount of time.

The train we took to Kamyanets-Podilsky wasn't as nice as the train to Kyiv but it wasn't bad and it was half the price of the first train. The hostel in Kamyanets-Podilsky doesn't have as good internet because it is a bigger building but the hostel is good.

We went and saw the K.P. Fortress one day and on Canada day we went and saw another fortress out of town they were both very fun.

In the market here in K.P. They have kittens, puppies, bunnies, chicks, ducklings, chickens and rabbits for sale. I don't think any of them except the chicks, ducklings and chickens were for eating. I tried to convince my parents to buy me a kitty or a puppy, but they wouldn't. What's more, they wouldn't even let me collect a sample of radioactive silt from the river bank/ beach in Kyiv. My parents are no fun!

Istanbul

We did all the normal things in Istanbul Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque, Bosphurus Cruise...

My least favourite thing was the Basilica Cistern which was kinda boring, damp, wet, (yes they are different) and full of people.

My favourite thing was going into some random mosque I forget the name of. It was just Dad, Sam and I. We were just wandering around Istanbul looking at all the big mosques we saw while Mom went to the Grand Bazaar. Just Sam and I went in to this one at first because Dad had to go the the bathroom. (handy tip for when in Turkey you can almost always find a washroom by or in a mosque complex.)

This mosque was really pretty. It had a different colour scheme to all the other ones. It was really quiet and there were 2 guys praying. Sam and I were too scared to make any noise so we barely talked. But loosened up a bit when a little girl came running in yelling quietly the way little kids do. And the guy at the shoe shelf didn't ask Sam and I for money. He only asked Dad later.  

You happy now Rey!

Georgia

Georgia

We arrived in Batumi and were surprised at how different it was from Turkey. It was a lot less modern than Turkey and would have been a good place to go after India because back then it would have felt modern. Our guest house in Batumi was nice because we got the the “suite” on the top floor, all the walls were wood and we had a fridge. We often get nice rooms because the fancier double rooms often have fold out couches.

After one night in Batumi we got on a bus for six hours. We arrived in Tbilisi across the street from a metro stop but didn't know and successfully got ripped of by a taxi! After a few days in Tbilisi we took a 3 hour bus ride to Kazbegi, a town in the mountains by the Russian border. Kazbegi was really nice; we hiked a lot. The area around Kazbegi is really nice and we stayed four nights which is longer than most people. After Kazbegi we went to Borgomi with a one night stop in Tbilisi.

Borgomi was very nice. We did a seven hour hike in Borgomi national park the first day and went to the Borgomi water park the second. Both were very nice and Sam and I went on the roller coaster twice. It was even scarier than a normal roller coaster because we didn't see any body go on before us and we didn't even know if it was safe. We could not say to ourselves 'don't worry it's North American / European standards'. Because it wasn't. We went back to Batumi for a few days after Borgomi before getting on the boat to go to the Ukraine.

The boat was a very interesting experience. I will right about that later

Yusufeli

I am going to skip Pamukale, Istanbul, Orhaniye, Fethiye, Olympos, Antalya, Goreme, Kyseri and the train for now so that I can catch up.

We arrived in Yusufeli at 5 pm. We went for a walk and found lots of pide restaurants. We were not hungry because for lunch when Sam ordered 3 tavuk (chicken) doners (white fluffy bread filled with chicken and some veggies) instead of giving him three half loaves they gave him three full loaves!!

Later, Sam Dad and I went to go have supper but all the places were closed except two: one was a suckish lokanta with food from this morning and one was a tea shop full of Turkish men that served doner kebabs. We finally found a pide shop across the river.

When we asked the man in the pide shop what the had, he told us that he had a meat pide, a cheese pide and a meat and cheese pide. We got one of each and they were delicious!

We crossed the foot bridge on the way back home. The foot bridge over the river is a wooden bridge with metal rails and every time we cross it I purposely walk beside my dad matching his stride, emphasizing my landing so as to maximize the rocking because I know he hates it. But the last time we crossed he purposely waited until I had crossed the bridge to cross it himself. Humph!!

The next morning we had çorba (lentil soup) for breakfast then, at noon, set out for a 3km walk to see a Georgian church. We walked along the river on the road for awhile and then tuned off at a path which lead along a stream to a small water fall. A 100 meters above the water fall we made dams which diverted the water. We spent about 45 minutes doing this and it was fun! Then we continued on for a bit untill we had a good view of the church. We couldn't climb up to the church because it was on top of a small peak so we didn't bother going as close as we could. We got close enough for a good view and some pictures. We walked back to Yusufeli and then ate at the pide shop for the second time in two days.

Rounding off greece starting turkey and some pictures

The Greek islands were nice. I will just give you a brief update because I am way behind in my blog. Naxos was cold and rainy but had a good vibe and our pension was good and cheap. Santorini was well Santorini and the weather warmed up a bit. Rhodes had a nice old town and we met up with my aunt and uncle for a day which was fun. Rhodes also had more cats than the rest of Greece which was very much to my fancy.

Turkey

We arrived in Marmaris, found a hotel and left the next morning for Selçuk (in Turkish ç is pronounced ch; s with the same accent under it, is pronounced sh). Selçuk is the town beside Ephesus, an ancient Roman city. I think by the time we leave Turkey I will be tired of ancient Roman cities, if I am not already now. Ephesus was nice and had a field of pretty wild flowers. It had two roman theatres . Along the highway to Ephesus there is a running path with play ground style exercise machines (like the ones they have in Kiderminster, England, only older). The path was lined with trees so it was always shady. There were two paths actually: one was a path of lose stones and the other of pavement. There was also a sidewalk on either side where the exercise machines were. I found it very considerate to have put this running path on the way to Ephesus (the locals spell it Efes “like the Turkish beer” they also spell it Efeses when trying to spell it for foreigners). The path didn't go all the way to Ephesus but it stopped just short of the turnoff, and it wasn't far from there. 

Pretty poppy in Rhodes

Silly cat at our pension in Marmaris

The gate of our Pension in Selcuk

Kitty at Ephesus

Me at Heiropolis

Still playing

This is a cat in Istanbul. Biggest Turkish cat yet.

Comments don't hurt you know? It would be kinda nice to know if people actually bother to read my blog.

Pic of me

My new bag.  Hee hee.

(It is my mom's)

Cairo and Athens

We went to Cairo on the night train from Aswan. Cairo was a nice break from Luxor, Dahab and Aswan because the citizens didn't all make their money off tourists in Cairo. The hostel we stayed at had lots of cats (see the pictures on my last blog). The guy at the desk said that there were 20 cats . The cats kind of lived throughout the big 6 story building the hostel was on. The cats left the building to scavenge for food in down town Cairo. When I said on the building, I mean it. The hostel was on the 7^th story -the roof-.

The guy at the desk said that there were six kittens but since the rain a few days before they could only find 3. The three kittens were soo cute and really fun to play with. The male kitten was a little rascal, he meowed a lot and was the braver of the three. He liked tugging at my scarf and at times would start biting my feet. The little brown coloured female was not as brave, but was more outgoing than the other female most of the time. She was the smallest or lest fluffy anyways. The other girl wasn't bothered by us and mostly just did her own thing. She was really cute when you held her cupped in your hands up side down and she would just lie there for a few second looking at you and then she would start to squirm. It was really fun watching the kitties and even in just three days I saw changes in their behaviour.

1. the fluffy girl had trouble getting on to her feet from her back the first day, later that day she could do it.
2. all three kitties were licking themselves a lot more the last day compared to the first.
3. they were more sure of their footing and were a bit more rowdy.

Bye bye kitties, hello dogs... Athens!

Athens was a huge culture shock! It took me two days to get used to it. It was so modern compared to Egypt and even more so compared to India.

There was hardly any place in down town Athens where you could not see 5 or more dogs. It was funny because every other tourist was so amazed and kept pointing and saying to there friends “look at all the dogs!” and “ oh look there's another one!” Us, after being in India where there are stray dogs everywhere and Egypt had a few too, were almost unfazed

Till next time Mhari

Abu Simbel

After a lot of talking, we decided that we should go to Abu Simbel on the local bus, stay there one night and go back the next afternoon, rather than taking the convoy. The convoy leaves at 3 in the morning and if we took it we would arrive at the temple with 5 hundred other tourists.

We took a taxi to the bus station in the morning and successfully bought our tickets. The 4 hour bus ride there was uneventful but we had lovely views out the window of the desert and the Nile valley.

The village of Abu Simbel was nice and well... very small. We checked in at the cheapest hotel in town which was A) Full of cockroaches B) Full of mosquitoes and C) Not that cheap; quite expensive in fact.

In the morning at 6 am we went to the Abu Simbel Temples. They were HUGE and the insides were slightly spooky. There were two temples the big one -the Great Temple of Ramses II- which is on all the posters and most of the post cards and a little temple -Nefertari- which is just as nice but a little smaller. We hung around the temples till the convoy came at 8am. It was fascinating to watch the space around the temples fill up. It was like being in an empty sheep pen and then all the sheep were being herded inside around you. We left the temples at about 8:30 and went back to our hotel. The bus ride back was just as nice as the ride there except dad and I lost our hats. Humff! I had just bought my in Luxor, it was pretty and blue.

Tourist Convoy arriving at Abu Simbel

Kitties in Cairo

The Kitten lying in the sun is a girl the dark kitty playing is also a girl and the light kitty playing is a boy. 

Aswan Faluka

We finally escaped Luxor for Aswan which seemed better at first, but the Faluka Captains were unstoppable. Falukas are smallish sail boats with very big sails. They can fit ten easily and the bigger boats can squeeze twenty on board.

We finally booked a Faluka ride, 50le for 2 hours. Only minutes later a Faluka Captain asked if we wanted a Faluka ride. When we said no, he did the usual ' Why not?! I have very good boat. Beautiful sunset. Please! Good price, good price!'. We told we already booked a Faluka ride, and he asked us the name of our captain. We told him it was none of his business. He kept pestering us and we finally told him that his name was Abdula. Then we escaped and had a McDonald's ice cream. When we left the McDonald's he was at it again. He told us to 'forget Abdula!'  

Egypt

When we were done with Dahab we took a 20 hour night bus to Luxor. This time it wasn't a sleeper bus and we stayed on the same bus the whole time (not like in India). The bus journey was relatively uneventful but they did make us get up at midnight at the African border. This was entertaining because they spent a longtime searching through all the Egyptians bags so we had our bags all ready and they just came along with a detecter of some sort and kept walking by ours. But they spent a very long time pouring over our passports.

Luxor was very fun but you couldn't go for a nice walk because the calesh drivers woudn't leave you alone and you know they thought that meant you still wanted to go for a ride, but for a cheaper price. I DON'T WANT A CALESH. I WANT TO WALK!!! Valley of the Kings was amazing. I don't think I realised it then because it took a little time for my dad and brother to covince me that they didn't just repaint the hieroglyphics (I think I have been in India too long).  

Delhi to Dahab (India to Egypt via Jordan)

We went to Delhi after two nights in Amritsar and frequent walks around the golden Temple. We flew from Delhi to Amman with one quick stop in Kuwait. When we arrived in Amman we were so tired we took a taxi to our hotel and then we went to bed. - the plane left Delhi at 5:00 am and we arrived at 11:30 am after eight hours on flights or at the Kuwait Airport.

Jordan was nice: Amman had good baklava; Aqaba had good snorkeling; Wadi Rum was pretty and Petra... Well, Petra was amazing! It had really nice hikes and really cute kitties!

We are now in Egypt, in Dahab (the kitties here are cute, but not as clean as in Petra.) Dahab is supposed to be a backpacker hang out but it's more of a scuba diver's place, where they are starting to build some resorts. Nooooo!

The hotel we stayed at had a restaurant where there was mother cat and her kitten who practically lived there. The kitten was growing up, sometimes she would not leave her mother's side and sometimes she would be far away but still within meowing distance.  We ate at 1 restaurant where we had 7 cats under our table fighting for the prime spot to catch any food that dropped.

Petra

I like the cats here.

good pic of cat bad of me.

lap cat

Two!!!

oh yes you're cute!

I like Jordan.

Varanasi to Amritsar

After Varanasi we went to Rishikesh via Hardirwar. Rishekesh was nice but we were all a bit under the weather so it could have been nicer.

Next we went to Amritsar

When we arrived in Amritsar we put our bags in left luggage and when to the golden temple. It was very nice but sooo bright and my sun glasses were in my bag. Oops!

We spoke to a guy at the tourist info and he said we could stay in the dorm or at one of the hotels the golden temple provides for families. We tried to get a room at the dorm but the four of us were expected to share three beds with two other people. We tried the hotel next but they all pointed us back to the dorm no matter what we said.

We found a proper hotel which was offering us a room for 700 rs that wasn't bad. Our bags were still in left luggage and the tourist info guy was right beside it so we spoke to him. He pulled some strings and we ended up staying at the N.R.I. ( non resident Indians) hotel which was slightly better than the one for 700rs and it was only 300rs a night.

Inside the small vehicle free area around the Golden temple there was a coke refreshment kiosk and they were selling one 300ml bottle of pop for 5 rupees or 12.5 cents. They also had a Nestle kiosk which had a glass of powdered ice tea for 10 rupees and masala chai (spicy indian tea) for 5 rupees each, not so spicy indian tea was 3 rupees, not so spicy tea bag tea for 4 rupees and coffee was 6 rupees. These drink stalls were in two places, one of which was right by our hotel the other one was in front of the dorms. These drinks were super cheap and it was sometimes hard to get to the front because everybody, even us was drinking it like water. (We had a lot of pop in Amritsar and I had a LOT of ice tea.)

Bundi to Varanasi

We stayed a few nights in Bundi, which was great, though our supper across the street the first night was awful. The restaurant at the guest house on the other hand was really good. Their lemon pancake was one of the best in India though they didn't drain the grease off the finger chips( french fry/chips/frites).

The fort and palace were nice if you could handle monkeys.

We found a roof top restaurant that had Wi-fi and had good enough food.

Now to go almost completely off topic- I would like to inform every one who is not French that you say wifi wrong we pronounce it Why-fy when we should be pronouncing it like the French who say wee-fee.

When we were done in Bundi, we had a horrible train ride to Agra. The train was packed and we had wait list tickets so we couldn't just say “I have reserved seats, get out of my spot”. Because we didn't.

In Agra, we stayed at the first hotel we looked at and it was nice enough. The Taj was lovely. Sam even went to see it twice because children under 15 were free. Which saved us 1500 rs. Divide that by 70 or 75 for pounds, 40 or 42 for dollars and 60 or 65 for euros to calculate the cost in your currency. That savings was the cost of three nights in our hotel in Agra. The hawkers in Agra were not as bad a people made them out to be or maybe I'm just toughening up.

The night train to Varanasi was a good one,and, for the first time we didn't have wait list tickets!

We arrived in Varanasi and eventually found a hotel room by Ganga -the Ganges-. The room wasn't great but it was only 450rs about 10-12 dollars. We were warned that the hawkers in Varanasi were worse than in Agra. I guess the cycle rickshaw driver were annoying; there were beggars everywhere; you couldn't go near the ghats without being asked if you want a boat ride; and almost every second shop or person selling something told you that you wanted to buy it. But it wasn't that bad, was it?

Fatephur Sikri near Agra

More from Fatephur Sikri

My new shoes

Sam's yummy thali

Sam and Dad in Turbans

Sleeping Monkey Guard Dog

Muesli that reminded me of breakfast at Matlock

Our bad driver and a forgotten blog

We normally have good rickshaw drivers. A few have gone a bit fast and or have been a bit aggressive but most are good. Today, we had the worst driver yet. First he bumped a parked rickshaw that he could have avoided. Then we came to some cows blocking the road. Instead of honking and inching forward, he inched forward silently. The cows started to fight. We passed one but the other one (with smaller horns) was too focused on fighting to move. Our rickshaw driver ran over his hoof which made the cow fall down. After we passed, the cow quickly limped away from the other cow. I guess our driver is not a Hindu; as cows are holy for the Hindus.

(An older blog entry that I forgot about: We had an interesting train ride from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur as we tried to explain ice hockey to three Indian men. We ended up using a notebook to draw them pictures. The train ride would have been good if I hadn't decided to go sit on the top bunk. The light was right above my eyes for six hours and I got a really bad headache. After a good nights sleep I felt better again.)

Jaipur-Pushkar

The next day in Jaipur was good. We walked around in the tourist area and Sam and I had to buy full price tickets for some outdoor giant sun dial park because we didn't have student cards. - I don't even have a student card. Anyway, it's illegal for us Canadian kids to not to be in school but the ticket seller said we needed our student cards.

I bought some more shoes. I now have two pairs of Rajasthani shoes. They are both camel leather shoes/slippers/flats. One plain and one fancy. The plain pair are pointy and the other pair are rounded. They were both around 6 canadian dollars 250 rs and 300rs.

We all had supper at the Tali house again but there were more people and not as many staff so they didn't try to force us to eat the food as much.

The next morning, we got on a bus to Ajmer. There we went to the lake and the park around the lake where Sam bought something like a giant popadom only greasier and stale and disgusting. A boy came up to us asking for money, Sam gave him the giant popadom. He took it but he wasn't impressed. We went back to the bus station where we had lunch then got on a bus to Pushkar.

Pushkar had lots of tourist shops and reasonable accommodations. We bought more shoes! Now Mom and I have two pairs each. Dad doesn't have any. Sam has one pair and his foot was used to size a pair for his grandpa in Canada. We ate at one restaurant and had a really good meal. We watched the kids make it till the dad came in, then he helped. The pizza was made by a ten year old boy and was great. It was funny to watch them start before their dad came because they were squabbling about who got what job and I don't really know what else because the were talking Hindi.

The next day we left Pushkar and went to Bundi via Ajmer again. We ate at the same restaurant at the bus station.

Jaisalmer-Jodhpur

Sorry I have't blogged for a while. I guess India took over. I am writing this from a sleeper train. The train started out fairly empty and picked up lots of people, from smaller stations in and around Delhi, who then got off along the way. This crazy period lasted about 3 hours. Then for an hour, later, it was busy but not crammed. Slowly it quieted and there were a few open berths. We were doubling up because we had wait list tickets so we spread out.

I saw a toddler on the train running up and down the carriage while the train was moving. That has got to be good way to gain balance.

We are in Jodhpur now. It's pretty nice, but I can't tell much of a difference from town to town. There are different things to see, more or less hotels, more or less shops, more or... But the rickshaw drivers are just as annoying, the children still want pens, the beggars are just as persistant and the smells still differ street to street ( or should I say alleyway to alleyway).

The Fort here was good but took a long time to go through. The audio guide here was a lot better than the French ones which dragged on for hours about boring stuff. I don't really want to write about the fort right now but I am sure that Sam and my parents wrote more than enough about that.

The hotels in India are interesting. The hotel we are in now has two small pretty chandelier light type things but they both have no light bulb. Instead they put a boring flourescent tube light in. ( I think that the chandeliers might not be wired in.

Sam, my dad and I went out to find supper. We wandered around for a bit then Sam led us in the opposite direction we were supposed to go. We found the place we were looking for eventually. It was the famous omlette place. I had boiled eggs which were covered with salt and pepper. Then we wandered a bit more and found a cart selling stuff that looked tasty. It had lots of different thing so we asked if we could have something spicy for twenty rupees. When shaking the chilli pepper on, the man at the stall turned around grinned at the man behind him then shook some more on. He also made us pay before we ate in case we didn't like it. We did like it and ordered another one after.

We are now in Jaipur. Sam and Mom went out for a few hours while dad and I stayed home and slept. Earlier, for lunch we went to the Thali House a restaurant down the street. Sam and I ordered Rajasthani thali's and they literally lined up to ask us if we wanted more rice, more dahl etc... They would not stop. In the end it was a joke and one guy kept coming up and almost insisting we had more food. Right before we left as a joke Sam said "more rice" to the guy who was asking us the most often. I was worried he might have actually came back with more rice, but he didn't.

Ooty and Mysore

29^th of Jan 2011

We are now in Mysore which is a welcome break, far from Ooty's dust and dirt. Mysore is still a city, but the main streets are kept “clean”. All the garbage is put in neat piles in the back streets, then the cows come along and eat half of it the city gets round to burning all the rest. That's how all the posh cities do it.

Ooty was good. Especially the trek we did. Which at times had a very similar terrain to the rocky portages we do in Ontario. Except there were no trees, no sounds of rapids and even though we could see for tens of miles there were no lakes. Which is funny because we were ten km away from Ooty which has a(n) (artificial) lake.

The only problem with Ooty is that it is very dusty and dirty and a bit smelly.

India

My new outfit.

Breakfast, well tea to start.

We are in India now! So far it has been great. A little too hot for my likings but other than that, fine. The streets are insane to walk on and to cross. You think that you are on the right side of the street, and that cars won't come right behind you, but, one happens to pass, then a car and zooms by behind your ear, and even when they are coming in front of you, the cars still seem to take you by surprise. When walking on the side of the road were no cars should be, you are still confused and almost get hit by motorbikes backing out. O.K., I am exaggerating a bit, its only during rush hour in biggish towns, on the main drags. In cities, they sometimes have sidewalks so only crossing the street is a big problem. Sometimes however motorbikes are parked on the sidewalks.

Okay, enough complaining, India is great. We are in Alapuzha and when you talk to the tourist information people instead of saying “Elephant ride?” they say “ boat trip?” Everywhere you look, they want to talk you into a boat trip in the backwaters.

But it is fun and the hustle and bustle is exciting. One time, we arrived at the restaurant in which we were to have lunch during Friday prayers (1:00-1:30). The restaurant was close to where they were going to pray (mosque or temple, I don't know). At 1:30 we were caught in the middle of a small crowd of people leaving after prayer, which was fun. Only problem was then the restaurant was full and we had to wait a bit for lunch.

We are now in north of Alleppy and here there are ice cream sellers everywhere selling mango double and what not. Mmmm!

Bye bye,

Mhari