i survived the 12 hour train journey to jaisalmer! i took the bottom bunk in case of vomit emergency, although i realised that i was putting myself at risk for some groping and disturbance throughout the night! thank you julia for telling the story of how she was woken by a finger nail scraping the back of her leg as she slet on the train it really helped mnake me feel entirely uncomfortable! we got on the train at midnight and found our bunks easy enough, they were much smaller than they looked in the other train and we on the side which we though was the best option (the jury is still out on that front!) so wally took the top and i the bottom and we promptly passed out !! thank god for small mercies, i didnt puke throughout the journey and slept quite well considering! although some dude dide poke his head into my bunk at some godforsaken hour to just check me out (although if i had reacted he prob would have gone with the escuse that he was lost ..yeah right!@) so we arrived in jaisalmer, were promptly attacked by a tout and for 10 rupees let him take us to his hotle which was grotty and then to our own hotel.. hotel swastika! the guy in our hotel was laid back to the point of indifference, i think the write up in the lonely planet has done him a booming business so he no longer tries! although he didnt take it too badly when we didnt take his camel safari option. on recommendation of stef and steve from the tiger safari we headed to thar safari, the poor guy ther was up to his eye balls in wedding prep (he was to be married in 2 days!) so i think that was the start of our interesting camel safari experience. we were due to head out the next morning at 8.30am so we had the afternoon to wander jaisalmer etc. i loved that place! sure everyone tried to sell you something but it was a welcome relief from the stress of the capital city.it is small cosy, and the locals do try to engage you and are very friendly.. but ... what they dont do is service! getting food in jaisalmer was an extremly tough thing to do, mainly we waited 40 minutes for simple meals to appear and when they did come they were ice cold! its no wonder people here are forever eating of the street stalls.. atleast the food arrives hot (if toxic and tummy destroying) but i think all round wally and i loved jaisalmer especially since its wedding season in india right now and the small town went mental for one weding we witnessed just as we were leaving, fireworks, thje groom terrified on an adorned horse, loud pumping music,dancing.. and this was jut the procession to the wedding area!.... but wait..what about the camel safari???
so the next morning we headed off with our driver (who spoke really little or no english) to a few sights before meeting up with our faithful steeds. we went through the cenotaphs (given me some idea sfor how i would like to be remembered..) and then on to the jain temple (ladies who are menstrating are not allowed in... but how can they tell...) then it was off to meet rocket and simon the 2 camels who took us across the scrub desert.. poor rocket was my man and true to form was shooting poop rockets at simon and wally for most of the journey! so we headed out and immediatley i realised that the little minutes i spent on a camel in dubai had NOT prepared me for this! it was the wierdest gait ever but just as i was getting into it we stopped to wate rthe camels and then headede into the shade of a nearby tree for lunch.. all prepared infront of us by our guie, chapati and curry (what i was to live on for the next few days!) and then about 3 hours later (they dont do things fast in the desert!) we headed off to the desert. at this point my arse was SORE and i was happy for the trotting to start and then we were at our destination an hour later... but where was this destination??? well our guide dumped us at his brothers wife's place... shack.. in the middle of the scrub desert whlst he headed to town for some "camel food" yeah right.. he left us there with his family who hadnt great english for 4 hours! well after sundown! there were 2 girls and this other woman with a baby adn all hese boys, not to mention the goats and the baby goats and the cows and other camels,... it was like the desert version of animal farm! we headed into the dunes for the sunset which was rosemantic (but with me and cuz not so much) we battle dung beatles and fell about thge place trying to take artistic shots.. mainly trying to whittle away the hours until we could head to bed! so we headed back in the hear dark to the family shack place where we were plyed with more chai (i hate the stuff now) and amusaed by the baby goats (the kids) and generally sat silently staring at the star studded sky getting morte and more annoyed that we were stranded. when he finally returned he ignored us for a while and then about 8.30 fed us (more of the same from lunch) and finally set about heading into another dune to prepare our beds for the night. we opted for 2 campbed things (the dung beatles are HIUGE so i didnt want to be on the sand) and he left us be. i would love to say we stayed up all night chatting and seeing shooting stars, i saw one and then passed out, was wonken a couple of times what with the freezen temperatures and everything! but then we awoke to the dawn breaking over the sand dune and soon we were off to the desert again and then for another drawn out lunch and finally home that afternoon... dont know if my ass will ever be the same! i did love rocket and poor wally got landed with the slowest of the bunch simon. i just feel that if the guy frm thar had warned us about the amount of time we were to spend with the family i dont know if we would have gone./.. that and it was just us, no one else, i wanted to meet some other travellers but it ws not to be.
that night we returned we made it to our train for jodhpur (where this blog is coming frm) that trin arrived in on time!! remarkable! and as for the story of jodhpur.. at the moment im heading for the bus to udaipur so i'll have to share another time..but let me say this.. im happy to be out of here!
xx
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
internet difficulties
hey everyone! had a huge blgo written about my time looknig for tigers in Ranthambore park at 4.30 in the am but then Indian internet decided to go on the blink and it was all lost :( basically we set off 2 hours late from Agra to Sawai Madhpur and made it to the tiger reserve hotel, we somehow made it through the 4 hour train ride in second class with all the indian men staring at us and some street kids trying to kiss my feet at the station. then ofcourse there was the usual delay when some cows found their way onto the tracks and since that beast is sacred here they had to shoo him off gently, and this was time comsuming! but we made it to our hotel and the manger told us that the only way to get a jeep safari seat this late (there also are buses but they are crowded and nosier) was to head for the forestry office at 4.30am still dark and queue for the place to open at 5.30.... so we did and bumped into some other english speakers who had been queueing from about 3am! after some pointy elbowed indians trying to shove us out of the way our hotel manager came to the rescue and got us to the top of the queue and after some shouting we got our seats on the jeep! one of the only ones going apparently. so we had about half and hour to shovel in some food and away we went with stef and steve and another couple kelly and adam. we didnt see any tigers though :( but alot of deer and some owls and cute monkeys (anyone who has monkeys prob saw the photos already) so after the safari we were well knackerd, didnt get back until 10.30! and we had until 1pm to wait for the next train. so we headed to the station and tried to avoid the touts and made it (again late train) this time we headed for Kota.. and then from there on a Bus to Bundi... the bus toko only 45 minutes but after the uncomfortable train ride it felt like hours.. and even in the bus station they tried to get us on the wrong bus! what is it with indians and their lying?! we even had to pay for an extra seat on the bus becuse of our rucksacks that were taking up loads of room... this i didnt mind because the alternative option was to sling the bags on the roof and smoehow secure them!! for an extra 20cents it wasnt worth the hassle! so we made it to Bundi this idilyic little mountain town with a castle in the side of the mountain and plenty of havelis and friendly kids who just want you to take their pic and dont want any money for it! got all my laundary done for about a euro adn walked the town enjoying counting the amount of times we were greeted.. think hello is the most over used word in teh town! we spent out 2 days in Bundi quite restfully, we werent interested in partying (thankfully as Bundi is a dry town) and even though there was a festival on wally and i found ourselves passed out by 9pm! clearly we needed the rest!
after Bundi we had intended to head to Pushkar for a camel fair but to our annoyance it had ended already so we passed by pushkar and headed straight to the capital of rajasthan.. Jaipur! this is where this blog is coming from. wally and i got a place at the pearl palace hotel and the room was so so so small that i can almost touch both walls! but we didnt care! we headed across all the sights yesterday and even let our driver take us into some high priced shops so he makes commission! wally bought somethings but i wasnt in teh mood. the sales guys pretend to be your best mate and they are awfully good at putting out the bait but when it comes to the reeling in they fail and loose me everytime!they get defensive when you want to bargain and make the situation really awkward.. to offset this feeling we headed into the bazaar.. this is where everthing is negoitable! i prefer the upfront swindling!picked up a few things.. including a pair of ali ba ba pants that ended up dying me blue from the hips to the ankles.. sigh . TII (this is india!)
the only down point so far was that down points seem to come in waves.. like waking up last night at 3am needed to vomit, think delhi belly is trying to take me over, but i resisted, with wally's help (thank you dear for your cool towling adn calm words as i shivered against the outdoor step and babbled nonsense!) the rest of the down points was tryng to send some packages home (that took 2 hours!!!how is that possible) and then trying to steer our new rickshaw-wallah away from anyother commission laden shops, add that to the constant battle not to throw up and it hasnt been the best day...
oh and tonight?? well we head for Jaisalemer.. on a 12 hour train
may god have mercy
after Bundi we had intended to head to Pushkar for a camel fair but to our annoyance it had ended already so we passed by pushkar and headed straight to the capital of rajasthan.. Jaipur! this is where this blog is coming from. wally and i got a place at the pearl palace hotel and the room was so so so small that i can almost touch both walls! but we didnt care! we headed across all the sights yesterday and even let our driver take us into some high priced shops so he makes commission! wally bought somethings but i wasnt in teh mood. the sales guys pretend to be your best mate and they are awfully good at putting out the bait but when it comes to the reeling in they fail and loose me everytime!they get defensive when you want to bargain and make the situation really awkward.. to offset this feeling we headed into the bazaar.. this is where everthing is negoitable! i prefer the upfront swindling!picked up a few things.. including a pair of ali ba ba pants that ended up dying me blue from the hips to the ankles.. sigh . TII (this is india!)
the only down point so far was that down points seem to come in waves.. like waking up last night at 3am needed to vomit, think delhi belly is trying to take me over, but i resisted, with wally's help (thank you dear for your cool towling adn calm words as i shivered against the outdoor step and babbled nonsense!) the rest of the down points was tryng to send some packages home (that took 2 hours!!!how is that possible) and then trying to steer our new rickshaw-wallah away from anyother commission laden shops, add that to the constant battle not to throw up and it hasnt been the best day...
oh and tonight?? well we head for Jaisalemer.. on a 12 hour train
may god have mercy
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Stressed in Agra
i suppose nobody thought that i would be writing again on this thing so quickly but ... have arrived in agra and spent the day here. it has not been the best experience so far. wally and i arrived bright and early to the train station this morning in New Delhi at 5.30. our train was leavin at 6.15am so we had time to chill out and try to wake up properly. the train arrived early and as we were making our way to it some guy asked me for my ticket. ..which i stupidly gave to him thinking him an official.. well this is where the drama started. for one thing he said that we didnt have a seat on the train! we apparently were waitlisted, so we were ushered off to the waitlist board to check our status, i couldnt fathom the board what with the stress abnd everything so he "read" it for me and wally and stated that we were not on the train... so he told us to head upstairs to the tourist office to fix it and to do it fast cos the train wouldnt wait. i dropped my bag and was about to legg it when he told us that the both of us had to go together.. curiuos, espcially as the office didnt open til 8am, luckily for us (suspiciously) a guy stepped out of the office across from the hall and took charge, we were totally freaked out by this point. so he checked the ticket made soime calls and then said for 1500 rupees we could get on the train but we had to head across the street to the other office (it isnt there by the way) at this point wally lost her temper, yelled him and we both legged it to the train and thought to hell with it... the worst they can do is kick us off!so we made our way to coach 6 and there were people in our seats or so we thought, so we quickly sat in near seats and started to pray, these germans arrived and almost confirmed our worst fears. we told them what had happened and the nice lady told us that we were in the wrng carriage! so i crept along to the other carriage and there were our seats waiting for us and looking lonely ;) the dudes in the station were total scam artists! couldnt believe we almost missed our train. the letters on our ticket meant window seat and not waitlist! felt like a right retard.. but a smug retard cos i beat the tout!
so we got to agra and thought that the day could only get better and it did. we managed to get this amazing taxi guy to bring us to the first hotel mentioned in my book. they
didnt have rooms but we had brekkie there with views of the taj and crossed our fingers that something would turn up. it did and he offered us a room for 900 rupees which in real money is like 15 yo yos for the room (7.50 each) but i felt this was a bit steep so i pegged it down the road to the shanti lodge and he had a room for 400 (6.60 for the rooom!) and took it. so we settled in and i called the helpful taxi dude and organised for him to take us to the ghost town nearby, it is the ruined capital city of india when the mougals were in charge. we met 2 lovely travellers when i was organising it and they came with, Gudu was the taxi and the entire trip (hour and a half out to the site and then he waited and then took us back, to the red fort and the taj) cost us onlu 250 rupees each! nothing! he even organised us a guide who was very helpful (if facebook ever fixes the photo thing thenyou will see what im talking about) after that wal and i decided to head straight for the taj, good thing too cos the queues were awful, the place closed earlier than the book said and ayou couldnt take in your bag! but at least i saw one of the wonders of the world!!
heading out tonight to the poshest place here and will dress up, have a rare glass of wine and try to enjoy it!
xx
so we got to agra and thought that the day could only get better and it did. we managed to get this amazing taxi guy to bring us to the first hotel mentioned in my book. they
didnt have rooms but we had brekkie there with views of the taj and crossed our fingers that something would turn up. it did and he offered us a room for 900 rupees which in real money is like 15 yo yos for the room (7.50 each) but i felt this was a bit steep so i pegged it down the road to the shanti lodge and he had a room for 400 (6.60 for the rooom!) and took it. so we settled in and i called the helpful taxi dude and organised for him to take us to the ghost town nearby, it is the ruined capital city of india when the mougals were in charge. we met 2 lovely travellers when i was organising it and they came with, Gudu was the taxi and the entire trip (hour and a half out to the site and then he waited and then took us back, to the red fort and the taj) cost us onlu 250 rupees each! nothing! he even organised us a guide who was very helpful (if facebook ever fixes the photo thing thenyou will see what im talking about) after that wal and i decided to head straight for the taj, good thing too cos the queues were awful, the place closed earlier than the book said and ayou couldnt take in your bag! but at least i saw one of the wonders of the world!!heading out tonight to the poshest place here and will dress up, have a rare glass of wine and try to enjoy it!
xx
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Visa shenanigans & delhi belly in the middle east
so folks a lot has happened since the last time that i blogged. my god... where to begin, right so the last time i blogged i was safe in my mutrah hotel in oman, getting really excited about heading to india and after surviving staying at am omani's house.. well.... so i got a call from wallis late on the tuesday night, her in tears, saying that she was not going to india!! WTF!! well it turns out that sasha had not informed us correctly of our visa requirements, Irish travellers DO need a visa before entry is granted into the country. i had checked this out before and read somewhere that you could get a visa on entry (havent been able to locate the site again funnily enough) so the stress began, i talkd to the kind people at my hotel and they contacted the embassy but it was shut or the day. so i printed the form filled it and waited for morning. headed to the picture place the next morning and then made my way out to the embassy and crossed my fingers... i made a beeline for the only other white person in the place when i had my ticket and he told me he could get his papers for india in a day!! result?? but.. talked to the guy in an office and turns out cos im not a resident of oman i would have to wait a week for the papers to come through! i cried when i heard this and the man with the heart of steel didnt even react! so i stumbled out of the embassy and ran into the white man again who gave me a lift back to my hotel cos he felt so bad for me. so i had a choice.... stay in oman for 3 more days (someone at the hotel could pull some strings to make it happen faster) and spend 200 more on a hotel or head back to bahrain like i was going to adn stay with someone whilst i worked out the visa issues. i went with the cheaper option and ended up back in bahrain where the lovely shane stapleton and family took me in for the week. i am forever in their debt and something pretty from india is headed their way as a thank you.
shane was quite the host whilst i was in the kingdom for the week. but something about their house and he comfort of the compound meant that i was quite the hermit for most of my time! although my second night did happen to coincide with halloween... (cue hilarious drunken holiday
story) wll i hadnt bargained for a halloween party now had i, i was supposed to be in mumbai with wally. but i rolled with it and dressed up as something suitably tasteless.. a prenant chav - with a bloody knife in my belly!! the pics will be up in a while when i remember to bring my cable to the internet cafe!i certainly got a few wierd looks and it was a great chance to meet up with people who thought they had seen the last of me earlier in the month. a cute boy even took my number (but with the belly that seemed suspect!) revisted traders during the week for yummy coctails and headed to a club opening just befoire i left! so on the wednesday under the influence of shane's biast few of indian processes i headed into the embassy to hadn in my passport to speed up the process and make sure they hadnt forgotten me.. they took it and told me to be back the next day in the after noon. so on the thursday with some trepidation i headed in a cab to the embassy area, i needed some cash so the taxi driver took me to a drive thru atm.. and it promptly swallowed my card! my one and only card in the middle east!!! luckily this atm was on he side of a HSBC bank so i ran inside and left my cabbi waiting adn told them my sorry story. well they werent going to give me my card but i through a bitch fit about it not being my fault and i was leaving the country onward and needed my money and the send a technition to check it out and got my card for me... but then they wouldnt give me the blasted thing and had to take my details and check if it was a "red card" fraud or something stupid like that, and then she asked me for my id, which i didnt have cos i was picking it up from the india embassy .. and since the robbery of vegas i dont have a drivers licence... uh oh.. but some pleasding and she gave it to me telling me all the time how many laws and rules she was breaking. then to my surprise 4 other people arrived who had their cards swallowed by the same machine... i quietly backed away when she said that they would have to wait 3 days to get their cards back!!! so onward to the embassy with my fingers crossed that karma wasnt going to do anything further to me.. and to my delight i picked up the passport with visa intact, no problem!!!
the next morning i took a cab to the airport simply enough and made it through all the security without a problem, i was tying to take out money when the problems started agin. the card wouldnt work. i was really scared that the other machine had damaged it or i was over limit. so i spent a long time on the phone to AIB (not the best when you are travelling) and it turned out that a security block had been placed on my card (just for the craic) took that off, got some cash, changed it to rupees and headed for india.. phew!
arrived in mumbai and took an air conditioned taxi into colaba. none of my phones were working (all barred?!) so i couldnt tell wally i had arrived.. uh oh.. so i headed for the place i thyough we had agreed to stay at only o change direction when she finally got through to me. the ride took abouit 2 hours the traffic is awful and it was so hot! mumbai is full of poverty, its difficult to see. the kids on the street, filthy, naked adn hungry lookng. but unfortunatley very quickly ou become accustomed to it.i got my annoyingly lost cabbie to take me to the taj mahal hoteladn i met wallynearby! i have never been so happy to see a family member. this past 5 weeks solo have been a little tough, not gong to lie. we spent our first night at bentlys (cheap and cheerful) adn headed out for some overpriced (and under alcoholic) drinks and dinner. we met simon there (wally in the country for one day finds a fellow traveller!) he had a seriously gay vibe but at the same time was coming on to the walster. he bored me! so i faked being tired and we headed to bed! the next day we headed out to elephanta island to see the caves, the monkies and travel the 120 steps. an hour ferry took us there adn people didnt really stare at us too much. we met a couple of belgium travellers at the caves and had lunch with them. in the evening we headed around a walking tour of mumbai and went to a bollywood type movie in hindi called Fashion! it was a 4 hour EPIC thing, now i feel i speak hindi! after the movie we had a late night meal in cafe leopolds of chicken byriani and butter chicken adn sloped off to bed early. we were up at the craic of night (5am) to get to the airport for our flight to delhi. the cabbie tried (and failed to rip us off) adn instead tried his luck with the pair of us. funnily enough we were married!! i created quite the back stories for us, i was a teacher and maried to paul with 2 kids and wally a photographer with a husband she didnt name, and no kids i dont think! so we got to the airport and got checked in. there was a slight problem at security when they thopught my change purse might be a bomb but we got on the plane and got safely to delhi.... so in delhi now and managed to get this kick ass accomodation with this guesthouse. this family put you up adn take care of your everywhim, including onward train details and a hidden delhi tour. we took the tour this morning at 6am, saw old delhi had curry for brekkie, were talked through hinduism, went to the laundary,saw some traditional homes adn drank from a coconut! that was only today.. tomo we head to the markets and on friday to agra to see the taj... from there its through rajasthan...
stay tuned xxx
shane was quite the host whilst i was in the kingdom for the week. but something about their house and he comfort of the compound meant that i was quite the hermit for most of my time! although my second night did happen to coincide with halloween... (cue hilarious drunken holiday
story) wll i hadnt bargained for a halloween party now had i, i was supposed to be in mumbai with wally. but i rolled with it and dressed up as something suitably tasteless.. a prenant chav - with a bloody knife in my belly!! the pics will be up in a while when i remember to bring my cable to the internet cafe!i certainly got a few wierd looks and it was a great chance to meet up with people who thought they had seen the last of me earlier in the month. a cute boy even took my number (but with the belly that seemed suspect!) revisted traders during the week for yummy coctails and headed to a club opening just befoire i left! so on the wednesday under the influence of shane's biast few of indian processes i headed into the embassy to hadn in my passport to speed up the process and make sure they hadnt forgotten me.. they took it and told me to be back the next day in the after noon. so on the thursday with some trepidation i headed in a cab to the embassy area, i needed some cash so the taxi driver took me to a drive thru atm.. and it promptly swallowed my card! my one and only card in the middle east!!! luckily this atm was on he side of a HSBC bank so i ran inside and left my cabbi waiting adn told them my sorry story. well they werent going to give me my card but i through a bitch fit about it not being my fault and i was leaving the country onward and needed my money and the send a technition to check it out and got my card for me... but then they wouldnt give me the blasted thing and had to take my details and check if it was a "red card" fraud or something stupid like that, and then she asked me for my id, which i didnt have cos i was picking it up from the india embassy .. and since the robbery of vegas i dont have a drivers licence... uh oh.. but some pleasding and she gave it to me telling me all the time how many laws and rules she was breaking. then to my surprise 4 other people arrived who had their cards swallowed by the same machine... i quietly backed away when she said that they would have to wait 3 days to get their cards back!!! so onward to the embassy with my fingers crossed that karma wasnt going to do anything further to me.. and to my delight i picked up the passport with visa intact, no problem!!!
the next morning i took a cab to the airport simply enough and made it through all the security without a problem, i was tying to take out money when the problems started agin. the card wouldnt work. i was really scared that the other machine had damaged it or i was over limit. so i spent a long time on the phone to AIB (not the best when you are travelling) and it turned out that a security block had been placed on my card (just for the craic) took that off, got some cash, changed it to rupees and headed for india.. phew!
arrived in mumbai and took an air conditioned taxi into colaba. none of my phones were working (all barred?!) so i couldnt tell wally i had arrived.. uh oh.. so i headed for the place i thyough we had agreed to stay at only o change direction when she finally got through to me. the ride took abouit 2 hours the traffic is awful and it was so hot! mumbai is full of poverty, its difficult to see. the kids on the street, filthy, naked adn hungry lookng. but unfortunatley very quickly ou become accustomed to it.i got my annoyingly lost cabbie to take me to the taj mahal hoteladn i met wallynearby! i have never been so happy to see a family member. this past 5 weeks solo have been a little tough, not gong to lie. we spent our first night at bentlys (cheap and cheerful) adn headed out for some overpriced (and under alcoholic) drinks and dinner. we met simon there (wally in the country for one day finds a fellow traveller!) he had a seriously gay vibe but at the same time was coming on to the walster. he bored me! so i faked being tired and we headed to bed! the next day we headed out to elephanta island to see the caves, the monkies and travel the 120 steps. an hour ferry took us there adn people didnt really stare at us too much. we met a couple of belgium travellers at the caves and had lunch with them. in the evening we headed around a walking tour of mumbai and went to a bollywood type movie in hindi called Fashion! it was a 4 hour EPIC thing, now i feel i speak hindi! after the movie we had a late night meal in cafe leopolds of chicken byriani and butter chicken adn sloped off to bed early. we were up at the craic of night (5am) to get to the airport for our flight to delhi. the cabbie tried (and failed to rip us off) adn instead tried his luck with the pair of us. funnily enough we were married!! i created quite the back stories for us, i was a teacher and maried to paul with 2 kids and wally a photographer with a husband she didnt name, and no kids i dont think! so we got to the airport and got checked in. there was a slight problem at security when they thopught my change purse might be a bomb but we got on the plane and got safely to delhi.... so in delhi now and managed to get this kick ass accomodation with this guesthouse. this family put you up adn take care of your everywhim, including onward train details and a hidden delhi tour. we took the tour this morning at 6am, saw old delhi had curry for brekkie, were talked through hinduism, went to the laundary,saw some traditional homes adn drank from a coconut! that was only today.. tomo we head to the markets and on friday to agra to see the taj... from there its through rajasthan...
stay tuned xxx
Sunday, 26 October 2008
UAE adventures
hey peeps, coming to you all the way from muscat in oman right now on a very snazzy computer in my hotel lobby! the ambiance music in the lobby here is enough to make you vomit but there you go, this is oman!
but wait... what have i been up to in the meantime in the UAE? well now children its quite simple. I arrived in the morning of the 11th and got through dubai passport stuff pretty easily, i mean this irish passport thing is gold! so then the taxi fiasco started.... the guy was a dubai taxi so he didnt know sharjah that well (where i was headed to stay with kerryanne) but finally after a number of phone calls and confused directions we made our way to the cricket stadium in sharjah to meet kerryanne in her school! yes kerryanne is ateacher out there in sharjah! now this is not some underprivildged thing, these kids pay big bucks to be taught by unqualified irish teachers ! she lives on campus so it was like being in a summer camp with the weather and the lovely little houses that they live in (for free!). so since kerryanne was working from sunday to thursday i took myself off to the UAE captial for a few days staying with a friend of kerryanne's for the duration. this is where paddy enters the story! he too is a teacher, but his kids run wild! i spent my days in abu dhabi checking out the very few sights and tanning on the beach! paddy took meout one night with all the school teachers (mid week i ask you!) we ended up in some place called rock bottoms (apparently its a chain) but i had such a laugh i couldnt care where i was! and par for the course paddy tried his luck... uh oh...but luckily i was on to his game early on and faked extreme drunkeness and feel asleep (solo) on the couch, we never talked of the incidednt so i thought he had forgotten it but no he texted Kerryanne about it! ah well! i bussed itback to sharjah, that was an experience, being the only white person on a bus.... but ihad no major incident until the bus nearly crashed into some crappy driver! but arrived safe and sound at the school... then it was the weekend, this was all about and all you can eat dinner, oh and the dinrks wer included (think back to the discription of the brunch and be very afriad) so wee annoyed the waitors for ages about drinks and suddenly we were all pissed as farts and full from random food and heading to the nighclub, which we had to pay into cos we werwe too late :( god i felt so ill! so much so that i headed into the loo and forced my fingers down my throat! but to no avail... so i tried the next best thing.. danvcing! i headed into the mass of puksing bodies near the dj adn started giving it socks!~ i soon gathered a crowd of men, and not in the sleasy way. it was awesome.. cos we were having a dance off! for about 3 hours! i sweated all the bad alcohol out of me and the best bit was that at the end of the night they all left me standing in the club without so much of sleasy word between them! the next week was a whirlwind of desert safari, waterparking and skiing! oh yeah you ski in the desert!
xx
but wait... what have i been up to in the meantime in the UAE? well now children its quite simple. I arrived in the morning of the 11th and got through dubai passport stuff pretty easily, i mean this irish passport thing is gold! so then the taxi fiasco started.... the guy was a dubai taxi so he didnt know sharjah that well (where i was headed to stay with kerryanne) but finally after a number of phone calls and confused directions we made our way to the cricket stadium in sharjah to meet kerryanne in her school! yes kerryanne is ateacher out there in sharjah! now this is not some underprivildged thing, these kids pay big bucks to be taught by unqualified irish teachers ! she lives on campus so it was like being in a summer camp with the weather and the lovely little houses that they live in (for free!). so since kerryanne was working from sunday to thursday i took myself off to the UAE captial for a few days staying with a friend of kerryanne's for the duration. this is where paddy enters the story! he too is a teacher, but his kids run wild! i spent my days in abu dhabi checking out the very few sights and tanning on the beach! paddy took meout one night with all the school teachers (mid week i ask you!) we ended up in some place called rock bottoms (apparently its a chain) but i had such a laugh i couldnt care where i was! and par for the course paddy tried his luck... uh oh...but luckily i was on to his game early on and faked extreme drunkeness and feel asleep (solo) on the couch, we never talked of the incidednt so i thought he had forgotten it but no he texted Kerryanne about it! ah well! i bussed itback to sharjah, that was an experience, being the only white person on a bus.... but ihad no major incident until the bus nearly crashed into some crappy driver! but arrived safe and sound at the school... then it was the weekend, this was all about and all you can eat dinner, oh and the dinrks wer included (think back to the discription of the brunch and be very afriad) so wee annoyed the waitors for ages about drinks and suddenly we were all pissed as farts and full from random food and heading to the nighclub, which we had to pay into cos we werwe too late :( god i felt so ill! so much so that i headed into the loo and forced my fingers down my throat! but to no avail... so i tried the next best thing.. danvcing! i headed into the mass of puksing bodies near the dj adn started giving it socks!~ i soon gathered a crowd of men, and not in the sleasy way. it was awesome.. cos we were having a dance off! for about 3 hours! i sweated all the bad alcohol out of me and the best bit was that at the end of the night they all left me standing in the club without so much of sleasy word between them! the next week was a whirlwind of desert safari, waterparking and skiing! oh yeah you ski in the desert!
xx
Sunday, 12 October 2008
Bahrain!!
so peeps i have arrived, marvelled at, and left the kingdom of bahrain. yes it was sweet, hot and humid but also a teeny bit boring (sorry locals!) so what went down??? arrived at 5.30 in the morning and was collected by the delicious rory skinner who really has only gotten better with age ;) a former model and trinity student (although he only managed to attempt trinity for 2 years) i met rory through tom murphy and he has been always asking me over. so he brought me for a trip around the island with the sun rising and the mist clearing, all the while trying to avoid damage to his wonderful bmw from crazy saudi drivers.for those of you who are not aware saudi is joined to bahrain by a giant bridge thing so over Eid (the holiday after ramadam) the place was over run by saudis hanging out, men and women together!!! this is not allowed in any shape way or form in saudi, we're talking no cinema together, no beaches,restaurants,queues..etc the list just goes on an on, but the result being that in bahrain they can be together so the place was jammed with them when i arrived and the bahraini's no like them! adn i can concur that they are just crazy on the roads but to be fair, the ex pat brats werent much beter with their driving under the influence etc! but thats another story. so i arrived and promptly fell asleep on the couch, it was a long trip! when i finally joined the world the rest of the house was up, rory lives with caroline and george, all english and lovely and kate, george's girlfriend is pretty much a constant guest as well. they have a pool and had set up a pullout bed in rory's room for me, but he mentioned that if i wasnt comfortable staying there that his parents were down the road, no such worries for me!!! although i was slightly grossed out by the amount of black ants about the place, i was told that they dont bite (a lie!!) so be warned! so my first night there was a bar bq at one of the guy's houses, and we all went and gorged ourselves and i met loads of people and managed to hold my own in a drinking game! the next day rory brought me around the new large mall that just opened... arabs do love to shop! it was just awesome, but shock shock horror horror im just notinterested in shopping right now!then the next night we all went out to this top class cocktail place called trader vics.. its a chain i think, well i was welcomed to bahrain with a rainbow shot.. i was quite scared as it involved many layers of alcolhol and a lighter... bu i finished it in one with a straw as required and didnt puke.. bonus! that was the beginning of the end for me there.. the night progresed with me meeting some reallynice people, mainly guys (the ratio is so in our favour ladies...) doing some midnight swimming in a pool with some of them, getting a lift (along witht the rest of the party) with 2 local bahrainis to a house party and then waking up at 11am!!! wasnt even that hungover till i got to the rugby club (an ex pat hangou that serves booze) spent the day there but had to head to bed early that night to pass out!!!
this was all well and good until on monday morning rory had to leave for dubai for work until thursday, now this was not as bad as it sounds because in the time that he was gone the others were working anyway so i hung out with Dave, his parents live in bahrain but he was just visiting, handy cos he drove me places during the day, like the portugese fort, the malls and passed the tree of life buti didnt see it.then it transpired rory intended to stay in dubai until sat night!! but didnt tell anyone!! just put it on facebook... so everyone was shocked and appaled for me and ralley around me even more. there was this rugby tournement on and i was taken to it and then to dinner another night and even to brunch.. so in the end he did me a favour! brunch was on my last day and it consisted of getting really dressed up and heading to the diplomat for an all you can eat 12-4 experience, with unlimited champers!!! Stef brought me there, lovely girl. then there was a bit of drama cos the guy she had been seeing for 2 months, who hadnt returned her calls for about 4/5 days turned up with a barbi look-a-like and didnt really talk to her! it was like being in the hills! after the brunch we all drunkenly meanderd down to the irish bar where i got to talking to this navy man, delicious but way to conservative for my tastes, so i just enjoyed myself shocking him! then there was more drinking adn about 8pm i headed back to traders for a birthday party! i managed to stay until about 11.30 before the tiredness took me and i got a cab home! quite impressed with myself to be honest, was even sober when i got into bed at midnight... got a cab at 5am to the airport for my 7am flight to dubai... gross... although bahrain air really dont understand the concept of low cost = no frills, it was very comfy. got out to Sharjah to kerryanne's ok where i spent the day hanging out by the pool at the english club, learning about what she does in her teaching role, its really fascinating....i might try it (although me.. teach??) then cos she works from sunday to thursday i have headed and arrive in abu dhabi to stay with a friend of hers! its exhausting but fun!
will be here til thursday being a tourist, then back to dubai.... then oman, then india with wally, phew am tired thinking about it! but will endevour to update this more...
xx
this was all well and good until on monday morning rory had to leave for dubai for work until thursday, now this was not as bad as it sounds because in the time that he was gone the others were working anyway so i hung out with Dave, his parents live in bahrain but he was just visiting, handy cos he drove me places during the day, like the portugese fort, the malls and passed the tree of life buti didnt see it.then it transpired rory intended to stay in dubai until sat night!! but didnt tell anyone!! just put it on facebook... so everyone was shocked and appaled for me and ralley around me even more. there was this rugby tournement on and i was taken to it and then to dinner another night and even to brunch.. so in the end he did me a favour! brunch was on my last day and it consisted of getting really dressed up and heading to the diplomat for an all you can eat 12-4 experience, with unlimited champers!!! Stef brought me there, lovely girl. then there was a bit of drama cos the guy she had been seeing for 2 months, who hadnt returned her calls for about 4/5 days turned up with a barbi look-a-like and didnt really talk to her! it was like being in the hills! after the brunch we all drunkenly meanderd down to the irish bar where i got to talking to this navy man, delicious but way to conservative for my tastes, so i just enjoyed myself shocking him! then there was more drinking adn about 8pm i headed back to traders for a birthday party! i managed to stay until about 11.30 before the tiredness took me and i got a cab home! quite impressed with myself to be honest, was even sober when i got into bed at midnight... got a cab at 5am to the airport for my 7am flight to dubai... gross... although bahrain air really dont understand the concept of low cost = no frills, it was very comfy. got out to Sharjah to kerryanne's ok where i spent the day hanging out by the pool at the english club, learning about what she does in her teaching role, its really fascinating....i might try it (although me.. teach??) then cos she works from sunday to thursday i have headed and arrive in abu dhabi to stay with a friend of hers! its exhausting but fun!
will be here til thursday being a tourist, then back to dubai.... then oman, then india with wally, phew am tired thinking about it! but will endevour to update this more...
xx
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Getting robbed,returning home and jetting off once more
the title says alot i know but alot has happened since the last time i posted... i mean right after i last posted i was unfortunatley the victim of a robbery. oh yeah i had my wallet nicked right after i left the internet cafe that housed my last post! i needed to get something whilst in New York New York but found out that it wasnt there!!! Uh Oh!!! so i legged it back to the cafe only to find out that the counter lady didnt really speak much english, great... so i freaked out understandably. calls were placed to the parents who were all worried all the way over in ireland. the credit cards were cancelled and the money lost for good...then there were telling me to talk to the police. and wierdly enough in vegas during the day there is not really a heavy police influence.. so i had only the 36 dollars that i had one in the hard rock the night over the weekend. so i had to walk all the way back there in the 100 degree heat. probably wouldnt be as bad if i headed the right way but i walked the wrong way for about an hour! and then finally i saw it in the distance and was about to head hrough a contruction site when a kindly worker told me that there was no through road.. so he gave me a lift to the hard rock whilst i told him my sorry story. then he offered to take me to the airport for free... onloy after he asked me out for a drink! but given my luck that day i thought better to wait it out in the airport! so he took me there and then showed me his gun so i was happy that i turned him down! then i spent the entire day at the airport reading some books that i had luckily bought before i was victimised. then when i got home to la guardia there was a driver organised who took me home to brooklyn where i could lick my wounds in peace. then kevin came to my rescue the next day with cash (that i have yet to pay him back....)
i went out the day i got back with katie hogan and the lax crew. headed into marquee where missy elliot had her birthday the last time she was down! we went VIP free entry free drinks and free table.. the whole bash! met some fantastic people but basically headed about getting drunk for free and then heading hom on the subway and all in all i went out for about 4 dollars!!! i love NY sometimes!
but all good things ahve got to come to an end so on the evening of the 25th i headed to JFK (nice and early) and set about getting checked in. it all seemed too easy and then reality struck and we were left on the runway for about 1.5 hours! that was not fun. especially as i was stuck with this fat guy beside me and he smelt bad and felt the need to talk to me all the time! finally i got home about 8am on the 26th of sept.
so that ends the story of NY but right when i got home there was a bbq (not int my honour) and another night in Tripod.. nothing like the familiar to get your feet back on home soil. so now to the next adventure Bahrain tomorrow at 3.30 in the afternoon. I arrive at crazy o clock in the morning and head over to skinner's house for a 10 day fun times on the island followed by 2 weeks or so in Dubai.
stay turned to see how i get on ..... im scared already~!
xx
i went out the day i got back with katie hogan and the lax crew. headed into marquee where missy elliot had her birthday the last time she was down! we went VIP free entry free drinks and free table.. the whole bash! met some fantastic people but basically headed about getting drunk for free and then heading hom on the subway and all in all i went out for about 4 dollars!!! i love NY sometimes!
but all good things ahve got to come to an end so on the evening of the 25th i headed to JFK (nice and early) and set about getting checked in. it all seemed too easy and then reality struck and we were left on the runway for about 1.5 hours! that was not fun. especially as i was stuck with this fat guy beside me and he smelt bad and felt the need to talk to me all the time! finally i got home about 8am on the 26th of sept.
so that ends the story of NY but right when i got home there was a bbq (not int my honour) and another night in Tripod.. nothing like the familiar to get your feet back on home soil. so now to the next adventure Bahrain tomorrow at 3.30 in the afternoon. I arrive at crazy o clock in the morning and head over to skinner's house for a 10 day fun times on the island followed by 2 weeks or so in Dubai.
stay turned to see how i get on ..... im scared already~!
xx
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