New blog & website

Hi

I just created a new blog where you can see my latest photo session best's...

www.poemaduprelphotography.blogspot.com

Take care

Poema

Home sweet home

We arrived safe in Moorea, a paradise to my eyes. I would like to thank you for following us around the world and sharing our experience. Thanks to all of my friends and family for helping us living our dreams, to all of my subscribers (17 !!!! YEAH!!!!!!!).

If you ever come by the island of Moorea, here is our contact poemaintahiti@gmail.com

Noah teaching surf in Cocoa Beach

A picture of Noah, his dad Ran (in red) and Tim Timmy and Ellie from Wisconsin. They came to visit us for the day and Noah got to teach the kids surfing.... it was literally one of the coldest day here and I was happy to not be in the water.... The kids had a blast and will come back in summer time for more surfing !!!!!!!

Top 20 on Surfline

Noah's picture from South Africa is in the top 20 of the best picture of february in Surfline. Check it out and vote for us, photo number 4....

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surfline-photo-challenge-vote-on-the-top-20-user-submitted-photos-of-the-month_41598/

Manatee waiting for warmer weather... like me !

Manatee waiting for warmer weather... like me ! They live up to 60 years and are herbivorous. They are gentle and slow-moving animals, spending most of their time eating, resting, and traveling. I told you ! they are just like me, I must have been a Manatee in another life... They migrate to Florida in winter time. This year have been one of the coldest year and a lot of them died of cold stress. They are related to the dugong, what people call mermaid in Australia and Indonesia.

For more information, check this cool website www.savethemanatee.org, you can even adopt a manatee and have a mermaid friend for life !!!!! ;-)

Take care,

Poema

Surf in Melbourne Beach, Florida

Wall painting in Melbourne Beach

Hello from Florida... Bisou

Merry Christmas.... from Germany

We spent three weeks in Morocco and Noah really enjoyed his time there. It was a little hard for me as a very smiling girl, guys tend to think that I was trying to hit on them all the time. Beside the fact that you feel like a money machine to them, it is a very nice country to visit. It really made me realize how rare free generosity is. I tend to trust people very easy and I was many time disappointed there. I made friends thought, Mohammed, a small grocery shop owner. He could barely speak french but I tried to learn arabic and berber with him, and a parking guy who bought me some mandarine when I didn't have any money, the mandarine seller was really nice too. Beside that, invitation to have a tea is the introduction to any kind of relation, tomato are cheaper that anywhere else in the world (I haven't tried Indian ones), bread is delicious with some amlou (crushed almond with honey and  oil) spread on it while still hot, tagine, couscous, delicious oranges, mandarines, cute and hugable camels, beautiful people, old mans sitting on the ground, riding donkeys, hitch hikers, woman with veil and henna tattoo on their hands and feet, people staring at you, begging for money, pottery, sardine smell, hashish, crazy taxi drivers, mercedes taxi, camping car, the king and his beautiful wife.....

We left Morocco the 19th and drove to Tanger, took the ferry there, drove along Spain mediterranean cost, thru France and arrived in Germany yesterday to make a surprise to my uncle for Christmas Eve.  

On the road, I met some of my best friend, Claudia in Barcelona, who I met in Australia and taught me yoga, Chloé, Sarah and Aude in Guebwiller, who I know from Moorea since more than 10 years. 

I saw the snow all around me for the first time on the road. It feels and looks like we are in a giant freezer. I'm wishing everyday to see it falling now...

We wish you all late Merry Christmas, 

Take care

Poema

News from Portugal

Hi

Just to let you know that we are still alive, I haven't been a very good blogger lately.... We are in Portugal, back on the road and on the beaches waiting for the waves... We are in Ericeira, trying some local food (more than trying actually), delicious cheese and 7 euros gargantuous buffet.... I posted the pictures of our trip from Pisa to France, it's on Picasaweb and will be on the blog very soon. Take care,

Poema

Hi no news since a long time, sorry I'm not very good at updating our blog frequently. I'm in Marseille since two days now. I stopped my surf trip for now to work on a luxury yacht named Ilona. I'm doing house keeping work for two weeks, basic cleaning job, got to be on repeat Mode for 2 weeks but good pay. It's a bit funny to work after such long holiday. The crew is really nice and the boat is really spacious. Noah left to go surf on the Atlantic, he is in Spain, Mundaka tonight hoping to have waves tomorrow. I stay in Marseille with Amandine and Manatahi, her son. I know them from Tahiti. 

Hope you are all well, take care, 

Bisous nana

Poema

We left Croatia 3 days ago and drove thru Montenegro and Albania to reach Greece. We are loving the drive and enjoying the warm water, very nice people, great food and beautiful scenery... Check the new photos on the right column,

Take care, 

Poema

News from Croatia

We started our Europeen road trip and we are in Croatia now waiting for an insurance paper to cross Montenegro's border. We also encountered some car problems, alternator to fix, the gas pump, the water pump, and yesterday the clutch... hoo!  We've been lucky as we found everything we needed for the car here in the area. We also made friends, Dario and his family. He is our gas pump mechanic and they have been very nice to us, inviting us for lunch and helping us everyday. 

Saturday, sept 19th we left Bad Kissingen, Germany and drove to Munich to see the Octoberfest. Pretty impressive, huge party for everybody. We surfed the standing river wave in the middle of the city and had lots of fun and big bruise for me...

We left Munich on the 22nd and drove thru Austria to sleep at the Italian Alps border. The drive is beautiful, lakes and mountains, empty forests, roads. 

We arrived in wednesday afternoon in Venice and spent the rest of the day there. Amazing and surprising water city, it was like a maze for us as we walked around without a map. 

The fog stopped us from driving that night and we crossed the Slovenia border the next day . We drove thru small towns and big forest to get to Croatia. 

The Croatian coast is magnificent, one of the best coast drive we've done. The sea is calm all day long, clear water and beautiful bays, old towns, little wooden boat, figs everywhere....

Today is a rainy day, we hope we won't have anymore car troubles.... that's a BIG wish for a Volkswagen !!!!! When you buy an old volkswagen, you buy an adventure with it !!!!

Check out our new pictures from Europe,

Poema

Forest castle and family in Germany

Great news !!!! We have found and bought our van for the Europe tour. It's a white Volkswagen, with a bed and really nice interior design, white flowers over red walls and green carpet. I don't know about having that kind of desing in my house in Moorea but in our Europeen camping-car it's pretty cool. We named her Matira and open a bottle of champagne to wish her a long life.

Since we arrived, we stayed at my uncle's house in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria. It feels good to be with my family. The house is situated between a forest and a park and there's nobody else around, it's a big house, a castle for me... we are also enjoying the good Europee food, basicaly bread, cheese, sausages (for Noah) and wine with salad.... and not forgetting the beer ! 

All around, the forests and empty fields are followed by little towns with red-brown houses, colored by flowers hanging out of the windows. Castles are siting proudly on the mountains and are kept alive at night time, spotted by warm yellow lights. Autumn is coming and cloudy sky are taking over the sunny warm days. Threes are also changing colors, slowly giving up their green color for a golden coat.

My uncle loves history, castles, old churches and shares his passion whenever he can, driving us around, visiting this time travelers buildings, beauties of art...

Now we have to get Matira completely ready for the long trip... and decide where to go...

Make a wish...

Poema

Abu Dhabi

Escale de 24h a Abu Dhabi, capitale des Emirats Arabes Unis, avec un peu plus de 700 000 habitant, est une ville en pleine expansion. Partout des grues montent des tours de verres, aux formes les plus excentriques, transformant des dunes en immeubles et palaces hi-tech. La ville entiere est en pleine transformation, les sites de construction se suivent, les plages artificielles aménagées sur fond bleu turquoise. 

La chaleur est épuisante et les trottoirs desertiques sont arpentés par deux touristes en quete d'aventures, beaucoup trop extreme pour nous....

La ville est de petite taille et nous la traverson en quelques minutes. Nous sommes en plein Ramadan, un vendredi, la ville semble morte. Tout les restaurants sont fermés durant la journée. Nous nous procurons a boire et a manger chez Carrefour et degustons notre dejeuné caché dans notre voiture. Durant le Ramadan, il est irrespectueux de manger ou boire en public aux Emirat Arabes Unis. C'est le mois sacré de l'année ou tout musulman doit s'abstenir de manger entre le lever du soleil et le coucher du soleil. 

Notre nuit courte a l'aéroport ne nous a pas aidé a tenir le coup face a la chaleur, nous avons retourné notre voiture vers 16 heures. 

La visite de Dubai sera pour une prochaine fois...

A bientot

Poema

Jbay life

J-bay, Dreamland....

A month has gone by for us in J-bay...

We met Kim and Todd, the newly world tourer from Oahu : our closest friends and neighbors since Indonesia for three weeks. 

Everyday, Kim and I were motivating ourself to surf cold water, we bought sheep boots to keep our island girl feet warm. Noah found a meal/desert-mate in Todd and they shared many late night apple crumbles and ice-creams...

We met Kahi and Louise, also from Oahu and also world tourer. Kahi have been riding Alaia in J-Bay, a wooden old style surfboard (check out their website eatdrinksurf.com). 

I met him in the water, as nosy as I can be sometimes (I said sometimes), asking him a bunch of questions about his board. Seriously I would sink on that piece of wood, but he rides it very well and even do 360 on set waves !!! 

We also met DR from Maui and Jan from Florida. They came in JBay for a week for DR birthday, a place he's been dreaming of for 30 years.  He was in French Polynesia years ago and lived/traveled/surf in the islands. We had our first bray (BBQ in South Africa) together at their rental house/villa.

Jeffreys bay is a pretty small town and everything is concentrate around the Da Gama Street. We are 5 minutes away from the food stores and 20 minutes away from the city "center".

Noah enter the J-Bay underground where he trains and teach what he knows about Jui Jitsu. 

Everyday life for us have been pretty simple : wake up around 6-7 am, check the waves, go surf when it's warm enough, check the surf forecast, hang out at the beach, look at the waves, walk on the beach, pick shells, watch TV... Since we arrive, the food store have been armed robbed, a young surfer died (couple towns away) after a shark attack, a guy disappeared... It's probably like in all the other country we visited, Jeffreys Bay is so small that everybody knows everything...

We visited the lion breading park with Todd, Kahi, Kim, Louise, Ken and Roy (from Belgium). They are so beautiful, strong, impressive, fierce. Sadly their living area are very smalls and humans are taking over wild spaces which makes it hard for them to be released. 

This weekend we drove to Cape Town and I felt in love with South Africa after that road trip. The landscape is beautiful, empty lands, roads on the cliff, blue mountains, inland desert roads...

We went to the most southern tip of Africa, ate fish and chips in Hout Bay, saw the penguins trying to escape, hang out with "dangerous" baboons, (tried to) sleep at the noisiest backpacker ever, ate kilos of oranges and tangerines, went to the Elephant Addo park, saw elephant herd...

Yesterday we left thinking of coming back one day... 

Poema

 

Where we've been... 6 months later

India-South Africa via Abu Dhabi

We flew out of India more happy than ever. We were very ready to leave the chaotic country. The flight was pleasant and  3 hours later we landed in Abu Dhabi. A transit of 15 hours... spent in the airport. We used free internet, slept on the nice clean carpet, ate sandwiches and enjoyed the clean atmosphere.... 

Women in black outfit were coming and going while men were usually wearing white outfit or western type clothing. Some women looked like ghost but some other had it all fancy with feather on their sleeve or cristals... 

We went to look outside and it is the desert, like the real one in the Sahara... soooo hot!!! We decided to stay at the airport for this time. We had too many hand luggage to walk around town in the heat.

The 15 hours went fast... we took the plane to Johannesburg, 8 hours, I literally passed out... Noah was by an Indian man who didn't look too friendly.

We waited 4 hours in Jo-burg (where I slept) and then last plane ride for one or two hours. Arrive at Port Elisabeth, we rode the car for 45 minutes to get to our beach house studio.... right in front of J-Bay supertube wave, the so called "best right in the world"....

What a trip to get all the way here. It's so weird to make so many transition, from India to here... it is so clean, peacefull, no cars, no honking no bad smells, no hassle, just relax and enjoy the sound of the waves breaking on the shore.... aaaaaaahhhhhhhh..... what a pleasure....

Today we surfed for the first time in J-Bay. I caught two nice long waves. It is so much fun, not too many people, very mellow waves.... Even though my feet ad hand were freezing I stayed out for 4 hours then hot shower... sooo good !!!!!

Enjoy life, live your dreams... take care

Poema

Jaisalmer-Shimla by train

After spending such a good time with our Jaipur guest house family, we found it hard to leave. 

We arrived on Jaisalmer without any reservation. The touts there were pretty hungry with the low season, any tourist is assaulted at the train station. I never got so surrounded, at a point that Noah started to yell at them. We walk out of the train area to escape from the touts and went on the road. It is the desert, so hot and bright. Few hundred kilometers away is Pakistan. 

Jaisalmer is famous for its kamel rides in the desert. 

A beautiful fort sits in the middle of the town and you can have your beauty sleep inside it.

We checked the first hotel I read about on internet and thankfully it wasn't full. We had the best room in India there, all built into red stone, very clean, big bathroom with a tub, good TV and AC. It felt like I was in a castle. We didn't really left the room as we felt so good...The heat outside and the hassle you get every time the local see you is discouraging... we totally forgot about the kamel ride... too short stay anyway... instead we spent two nice days relaxing in our hotel with the nice view on the fort from the top roof restaurant. 

Late at night, we hit the railway again to go to Bikaner and visit the unique rat temple in the world.

At the train station we met Judy, an Indian girl who is living in UK since she was little. We shared a room in Bikaner with her and spent the day together, she was such a lovely person, I really enjoy her company. Luckily we found a clean hotel right at the train station with a very good restaurant. We hired a rickshaw to go to the Rat Temple and rode for an hour as we had the slowest rickshaw in India. It was fun though and we didn't broke down like all the ones we saw on the way. We had plenty of time to look at the scenery. 

The rat temple is small and you have to take off your shoes to go in (like in every temples). From outside it looked good but inside..... the smell was really strong, rats were hanging out everywhere. They didn't look healthy and I didn't want to get too close from them. Most of them were just sleeping or trying to get cooler since it was such a hot day. Death animals were all around and I didn't feel good at all. I visited it on the tip of my toes and went out very fast. 

Back on the rickshaw for an hour direction the Fort, one of the best I visited, arranged a bit like a museum. It was really interesting to see it.

The long day and rides got us hugry and we decided to have brunch-dinner at a nice restaurant by the hotel. We had the best indian meals and service there. Then I walked down the street with Judy. A street "marchande" tried to sell me some plastic bracelet... I ended up buying some rope to dry my clothes...

We caught the night train back to Delhi. We had an AC sleeper coach, very nice and clean but an old woman sleeping under Noah's bed snore so bad that she kept Noah awake the whole night...

Delhi... We took a room for the day before our night ride to Shimla, north of India. 

In the train to Kalka we shared our room with two mans from Delhi. They are railway worker and they were going to the north to have some security classes. They were traveling with two other co-workers, very funny people as they all sit with us in the same room, squeezed in so we could be all together...

We had to stop in Kalka to change train. We rode the toy train to get to Shimla. It is a very pleasant little train and the ride up to the mountain is surely a change from what we've seen so far. The nature and the temperature is really nice, but the buildings spoil the view. We rode the mountains like a snake and I felt asleep. 

Shimla is an Himachal town, situated 2000m above see level, in the northen part of India. The weather is totaly different from the Rajastan and the lifestyle as well. More westernised, more cleaned with rules and clean roads. 

It felt good to be in the forest and cool weather. The clouds were coming and going as the day went by. It feels so weird to have so much difference in one country, I'm not used to that at all, in my island nothing really different from one side to the other. 

Here in the mountains people are not as excited as they are in hot places.... Noah always says that the cold keep people calm, like in the airport or in the airplane when they try to freeze us.

The hotel we stayed at made me feel like I was in Europe, the smell of the pine wood, the flowers...

A catholic church sits in the middle of the town and the market is built around. 

In the crowd sherpas are walking slowly up the hill with big bags of vegetables... most of them are old man.... it is a hard work but no car are aloud in the market area.

Before I came to India, people told me, either you hate it or love it.... Noah definitively don't like it... I don't hate it, I just think that I need time more time for India... I saw the tip of her beauty in some people faces, eyes, an extreme beauty.... India needs time to share her secret with us... 

Take care

Poema

Delhi-Jaipur by train

17^th of july

After hanging out in Delhi(16 millions people) for the day and walking around the bazar area, we left 2/3 of our luggage at a guest house situated in front of our first hostel the Smyle Inn.

We crossed the bazar crowd, a mix of people, animal and dust to get to the New Delhi railway station. More than a hundred of people were sitting on the floor waiting for their ride. It seems like the crowd never move as it’s always pack everytime we come.

For the first time of our life we saw a man so skinny that we thought he was going to die, he was laying on the floor, asking for money.

We crossed bridges to get to platform 12. People are everywhere, sitting on the side of the shaded bridge… We got there on time. We had a sleeper room witout AC and shared it with 4 other persons. At the train reservation office they manage to put all tourists together, which I wasn’t wishing for my trip to India… anyway they were very nice. Three Japannese and one American. It’s interesting to see how much more Asian are traveling as backpackers.

The night was noisy, food and drink sellers were welling every 2 minutes “chai” “coffee” during the whole ride, even when everybody were sleeping.

One of the other unique experience we have riding the train from Delhi to Varanasi is the sight… seeing Indians pooping in the nature, not hidden at all and at every passengers view, we can see all the details… of course we are not perverting on them but we can’t avoid seeing them. Imagine you are in the train waking up and excited about seeing as much as you can of India and looking at every piece of India landscape, trees, green vegetation and right there in front of your face, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 man pooping, one of them very comfortably as he is reading a magazine... Then the city comes and even closer, right by the train rails, some more “poopy man”… In the evening and in the morning you can see at least 100 of them in an hour… Amazing India !!!! We are still laughing about it.

18^th of july

We got into Varanasi (1.5 million people) in the morning. We didn’t know where we were going and we decided to look for a guesthouse to have a shower and leave our bags there for the day after a long and sweaty trip from Delhi.

The arrival at Varanasi train station was a real eye opener, as shocking as India can be I guess. A group of touts (con artist), 6 or 8 of them spotted us and were looking at us like we were pieces of meat as our cabin was full of tourists. It really annoyed me and we close the window on their face.

While people were disembarquing, poor kids were running thru the whole train looking for leftovers or forgotten items.

We got out of the train and the touts were right on us like sharks. We runned away, and got out facing another dirty and messy town, making me loose all hope for a clean and peacefull Indian city experience….

We were shadowed by more touts and rickshaw drivers. We crossed the traffic jam to try to loose them. We got to the other side of the street and some more touts surrounded us. I waited for Noah in one of the hotel lobby while he looked for a place for the day. A big group of Indian were waiting to check out in the lobby and some women dressed in beautiful saris asked me to take picture with them. It was propably my first enjoyable experience with Indian excluding any money exchange. It gaves me hope about having Indian friends and erase all the bad feeling I had since Delhi.

Noah got a room close to the train station and it made everything easier and mellow for us.

A rickshaw took us to the Gange, THE holly river.

Everyday, thousand of people travel from all over India to come here to have a bath, cremate their family bodies and spread the ashes into the Gange, the door to a world where everybody is equal.

Along the river on the temple side, a holly city have been built, where pilgrims, students, tourist, marchands, goat, dog and cows live in harmony. Coming from the main noisy street, I felt better and more relax in here, it is another world…

The view of the Gange wasn’t spectacular at first. In front of us was a giant sand bank with some people on boats.

Then we walked down the straits and on each sides, all along the river, peoples were swimming, boats loaded with Indians dressed in their best outfit were cruising … on our right a cremation ceremony was held. The best cremation is made with wood fire. It cost around Rs4000 (80 USD) and takes 3 hours. The other option is the electric burner and it cost around Rs700 (13 USD) and it takes only 5 minutes to have your ashes. It is sure very cheap and could be a good industry for the country.

We hired a boat. I didn’t want to touch the water, as for me it was more polluted than holly. What realy impress me at the Gange is how people strongly believe in the power of the river, turning the brown and polluted water into something drinkable. The swimmer face were as relaxed and happy as the faces of a tourist swimming in a clear blue lagoon. Some mans were fishing, other washing their clothes, brushing their teeth, washing their mouth, cows were having a bath… It’s just amazing how beleiving in something changes everything… At one point, those who believe in the power of the river, who don’t think about the filthfiness of the place, are somehow more free as they don’t bother as we do…

19^th of July

Agra (Pop: 2 millions)… the Taj Mahal city. We arrived there more organized than in Varanasi, we learn the lesson. The guest house pick us up at the train station. We stayed at Rose Guest house, situated in a residential area, the rooms are a bit dirty and old but we can’t be too picky in India… The owner were very nice, probably the first ones who didn’t try to sell us something. We found out that day that the Taj Mahal entrace was free from 2pm and for three days for Shah Jahan's birthday, the Mughal emperor who built this mausoleum in memory of his favorite wife, we could enjoyed it as many times as we wanted. The Taj construction start in 1653 and it took 21 years to finish it.

We walked out to visit the area. Mecanic shops, dump with cows on the other side, fruit stall, food cart… people were looking at us like we were from Mars, I guess there’s not a lot of tourist walking on the area, we were the only one. We kept walking and the street got narrower and busier, the air was dusty and hot. We saw Agra Fort from far and walked towards it. Car part shops were sharing the block with flour maker, bag shops. Before we got to the fort, we crossed the dusty fruit market and the very busy bus station. I saw for the first time a real slum situated on the other side of the fort. All the river had no water but instead black mud full of plastic bags and trashes. Kids were following us to beg for some money. It was really hard to see so much poverty, and think about the beautiful fort and Palace. It doesn’t make any sense, how can a country have such gap ?

We arrived at the Fort entrance. The locals pay Rs25 for the entrance and the tourist Rs500. The Fort is gigantic, red and have some very beautiful stone carved walls and pillars. From there we saw the Taj Mahal for the first time… The locals are the main visitors and it is really nice to see that they are take interest into their heritage.

We got out after an hour visiting and enoying a quiet place then took a rickshaw for the Taj Mahal.

We ate at a restaurant there and had some Indian food. It was really good, I love the garlic nan (local tasteless crepe), dipped into a curry sauce miam !!!!

We waited for 30 for the free entrance… many people were waiting also, womans in colorfull sari were sitting under a three, young indians, some tourists…. Some kids probably living in the slum, were selling their souvenirs thru the crowd and were mainly dealing with locals as they represent 95 % of the visitors. Some of them became our friend and Raj offered me the Taj Mahal souvenir key chain, after trying to sell it to me.

The locals usually like to talk to us and once a person start, the group get bigger and bigger. They are really nice and usually want to be friend with you. We got along with a group of young people who came to see the Taj for the day and we went inside with them. The sight of the Taj Mahal was breathtaking, it is one of the most beautiful building I ever seen, perfectly constructed, strong and ageless, in perfect shape after 350 years, all built into marble. The park was crowded and colorful, full of life, indian woman walking gracefully in their sari. Wearing it is like an art…

The queue to get in was long and it was really hot, our eyes were hurt from the reflection of the white marble floor.

Beside the sculpted marble piece around the tumb, the interior part we were aloud to see wasn’t as spectacular as the outside. We got out very fast and sit in the garden. It was so peaceful and fresh, hassell free, pollution free and green.

Too thirsty after the wait under the bright sun and the heat, we had to get back out into the busy street to get water…

We went to eat at Mc Donald. For us it is a safe way to eat and they have good vegetarian burger… no cow meat in India, yeah !!!! They should hav vegetarian burger at every Mac Donald I think…

20^th of July

We overslept, feeling comfortable on our bed in the AC room. I did some laundry as I was running out of clean clothes. We then had lunch at Pizza hut, they have delicious pizza with garlic and parsley ring. We don’t really want to eat in the street after what we’ve seen and it is hard to find clean Indian restaurant.

We felt better after the good lunch and walked around the area. We sat on the side of the road and watch the traffic and the cows. They hang out in the middle of the road and no body touch them, they are holly and they do what they want… almost (they are not aloud to steal food from the vegetable stands).

It was amusing to watch the traffic. There are probably more rickshaw than car in India, as small as they can be, they are usually packed and you can see 6-8 people in it. Tourist get to ride them alone... too bad.

We went back to the Taj Mahal for the last time that afternoon. It was very crowded, more than the day before. May be a hundred thousand visitor were there, and may be a milion for the day, if not more… we stayed in the park and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Taj Mahal filled with life and energy. After a little while, some rain drp got us out, and we hang out with our little friends. They escort us all the way to the main gate to say goodbye.

21^st of july

We got up early to go to the train station. Supposely departing at 6.15 am, we left 4 hours later. I finished my night on our bag at the train station. I didn’t know I could sleep so good on a such little area…

We rode in the non-AC sleeper coach, surrounded this time by Indians. They are very curious and very nice. I ended up spendind the whole trip with my neighbour from the next compartment, Rekka. She was so nice and willing to share some time with me. We talk about everything, her sons, her life. She will go to Canada in August to visit her older son for two month and that’s why she was very happy to be able to have someone to speak to so she could improve her english before Canada. I walk her out of the train, she wanted me to meet her husband. Then I jump back on the train to arrive in Jaipur at 3pm.

The guest house manager was waiting for us at the train station. We drove thru Jaipur to get to our Guest House. The family welcome us as never in India, gave us flower lei and red point with rice on our forhead. We were their first foreigner guests and they treat us like kings. They are really really nice and were very helpful, making sure we had everything we needed, and giving us tips about the rides. It feels so good to be with people like them, I felt like they were family to us. The room was clean and big with a nice big garden. It is situated in a residential area of Jaipur, a good place to relax and get away from the dusty busy city area. They own a naturotherapy center where they teach yoga, like a retreat center.

We went for diner at a shopping center nearby. A lot of shopping centers are being built all around India, like in Thailand and Malaysia. The type of shopping center where you will find the same product as you will find in the street but in a clean and covered place, and of course, more expensive. It’s less interesting than the street market as they mostly have the same product everywhere, mainly clothes but it feels good to be in a clean place.

We treat ourself with some ice cream and it was really really delicious…

After a good night sleep we woke up to check if we could see the partial solar eclipse but it was too cloudy to see anything. Vishwa, the owner of the guest House, brought us our breakfast a curried rice with vegetable and nuts.

We hired a taxi to visit some of Jaipur monuments. The most important one for my guest house family is the Amber Fort, a huge fort with wall going on the hills like a snake, linking it to another fort sitting above Amber fort. Mirror walls and marble lace, jasmin garden and maze alleys, cobra dancing and art marchand...

Jaipur (pop 2,5 million), known as the pink city, is an interesting city to visit, has many gardens where you can relax and beautiful architecture... The city still have many red old building. Slums are like recycling center, every trash go thru but most of it stay in...

The heat exhausts us very easely ad we had a big nap to end the day before a late train ride to Jaisalmer...

Poema

India !

Wednesday, 15th of july 2009

We got on the plane in Bangkok at 9 am and landed in Singapore after a 2 hours spent in a very comfortable plane... Singapore is probably the cleanest city in the . The airport is at the image of the town, a huge shopping center where you can enjoy yourself, free cinema and wireless internet (in the whole town too), showers, massage hair dresser and bed for those who wants to spend some money to relax before their flight.

Thursday, 16th of july

We flew of Singapore at 11pm and landed in Delhi at 2am. The airport looked good but to get a real idea of the cleaness of a town I check the bath room... and it usually gives me the right idea... it edlike piss, even in the women bathroom...

We ended up in the bazzar street where our budget hotel is situated, cows, dogs and man were sleeping in the street... plastic papers everywhere but it was 2 am... What would it at day time????



I followed the taxi driver in a dark narrow dirt road to go to our hotel... the manager was sleeping behind his counter... Our room was pityful for the price we paid but at least no flea, no rats and no sticky floor.
I'm always traveling with a sheet and a sleeping bag (and a little pillow I got on a plane). It's really useful when you are traveling as you can make yourself comfortable everywhere.

After a short sleep, we took our breakfast at the top floor. It's really hot here, almost too hot to breath... 40 degrees
We saw the laundry service and changed our mind about cleaning our clothes here... they will be cleaner if we don't.

We stepped outside, smelling piss as the open public piss room is right at the end of the street.
The main dusty street is full of little shoppes, bike-trickshaw are finding their way thru the crowd, some guys are picking up the trash in the street but the smell of the piss is stronger than anything else... We are like targets here, and some guys started to talk to Noah, asking him where he was from and this and that... telling him that they were just talking to be nice, they didn't want any money, getting us confident about his friendship by giving us a tip, "go to the governement tourist office", showing us the place on the map.... then he left telling us to go straight.... a minute later a second one arrived and started the same conversation... leading us to another point of the street and telling us to go straight if we were going to the tourist information center... after 5 minutes, a guy we notice earlier engage the conversation and led us all the way to their tourist office scam. At that point I looked at my map and it did seemed to be the same office as the one we should have gone to but they got us into it... as we were inconsciently looking for a cool place to relax and get away from Delhi's heat and smelland what is more attracting than a AC room and some comfortable seats...
A seller took us in his office, the room was air-conditioned... it was soooo good...
Then he start to ask us about what we wanted to figure out what speach he was going to use on us.. we were pretty easy target as we didn't have any plan and we didn't read anything about India... no guide books...
His speech was good, he was really nice, and told his idea about the best place to go, the way to do it... but where he really failed was when he gave us the prices without looking at anybooks and just by playing with his calculator.. then calling someone by clicking a switch... their office looked pretty good for governemental office also... he gave us photo books, which really got me out of their deal. We told him that we were going to think about his plan but he didn't want to let us go so easy so he gave us some other trip idea, "you will do as you want".. they offered us some water... It was over and all we wanted was to get out of there... he change his voice tone and his face as we were standing up to leave... As we stepped out Noah saw the first guy who talked to him and that made everything clear to us. Looking at the map, we knew we were far out.
We started to walk back and ask a policemen how to get to the real tourist information center... Beggars are sleeping on the street, woman with colorful sari, family eating in the dirt, piss and poo along the walls... dust air and rickshaw everywhere...
Touts were following us, talking to us and trying to get us away, far away from our destination point. They will try to get you out of your way even in front of the tourist information center gates, it's just crazy. We got in the office after a mission walk and we were reassure as we saw the not so luxurious office with the not "overnice" people. They were helpfull and nice but not too much like in the fake office. They gave us the informations for the train rides.
Touts are everywhere here, looking at you and listening to you, studying you... some tried to get us out of our way to the train station office but everytime they told us something we did the opposite. The train station was full, people sitting on the floor... the line for the second class seater has no end. In the stairs to the international train station office, a sign warn the tourist about the touts... They have a special office where foreigners can buy their ticket in a cool and organise space... After all that, sitting in the safe room and thinking about what happened, we felt better, being aware of what's going on out there and we laugh about it.
We got our ticket, planned our whole trip for two weeks in India.

We will leave tonight to go to Varanasi to see the Gange, then to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and the other temples and forts around, then Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Bukaner and the rat temple, then a northen town called Simla... And back to Delhi for the last day... if everything goes at it's planned..

Take care

Poema