The Relaxing Continues

10th to 14th August - Arugam Bay

For several days now we've had a simple mixture of relaxing on bean bags, swimming in clear blue open sea, eating amazing food and socialising with the huge amount of people in our dorm. There's always a party every night here which keeps Ben and Dan happy, i've been attending the odd one but i'm normally happy to head out photographing or grab an early night. We rented mopeds again the other day and heading much further inland than we had done previously, four bikes with five people, it was actually incredibly fun! We got to see some views we'd never actually see, a beautiful backdrop of hills and mountains whilst every local we drive past waves and smiles, its a great feeling to speak and sit around with locals and nobody is after anything from you, people actually just want to chat. I felt like we rarely got that in India so i'm so happy to have decided that Sri Lanka would be a good destination to travel across. Once again, somehow, Dan got a puncture on the moped and we came to a stop in the middle of nowhere just before sunset, after a good 15 minutes we were in luck as a armed guard pulled over to check what was going on, one call and he had organised someone to come and collect the bike. With a quick warning that elephants kill people in the area we had broken down, he jumped back on his bike and left us to it.. Great to know, thanks. Not long after a jeep with several people arrived and picked the moped up and straight into the back, we followed to a small shack at the side of the road where a guy was attempting to fix the puncture, after a long wait and genuine effort put in by this guy he had bodge jobbed the inner tube enough that it worked! For over an hours work including pick up he charged a total of 200 Sri Lankan Rupees, exactly £1! Can't complain at competitive prices over here. Driving in the dark was interested, with me leading it was a further 30km back home and only my main beam lights worked, so every time i went past another car i was driving blind! I'm simply glad there was no elephants on the road this time.
     Swimming has been great here, we've been hit by some huge waves over the last few days so its been fun to tackle the sea. I'm slowly but surely getting over my fear of deep water, then again, its not necessarily the water i'm bothered about, more whats in the deep water.. Sharks etc. Our friend here Nik has shown us some burns on his forearm was jelly fish stings, thats another thing i'm eagerly trying to dodge! Last night was one of the best for getting out and photographing the stars, i took along Lenard who is keen to learn photography so sharing a single tripod we walked across the beach towards the end of town where there was very little light. When looking up it was absolutely amazing, no amount of photographs can show what we could see, the milky way arched across the sky from left to right and filled the sky, i'm sure it was one of the best views i've had. Set up and we start photographing anything and everything when some time in, one of the new arrivals Steve walked over, god knows how he found us, apparently he'd been walking for ages just taking in the stars. With it being the meteor shower the sky was lit up with them. He showed us that when walking on the wet sand it lit up blue! It was the phosphorus! I've honestly always wanted to see that with my own eyes, it looks as it we were surrounded by stars above and below us. With Lenard all taught up about astrophotography that was our line into learning surfing, hopefully we will finally get out there on a board in the next few days. Today, once more i've planned to do absolutely nothing but relax and swim but i'm going to get organising a trip to Yala national park to see both leopards and elephants naturally, in a few more days we will be heading into the mountain ranges of Sri Lanka, i'm really excited to get hiking and shooting some landscape photography!
     As an added note, i've come back to the laptop to get this posted and just a few hours ago when me, Steve and Dan were swimming we heard some guy from behind us start screaming help and splashing around in the water. Turns out this poor guy went under water and got caught by seaweed, when he finally got back up he panicked and started basically drowning! I swam over and grabbed this Sri Lankan guy, double the size of me and started dragging him back to shore, nobody seemed to help, i think most thought he was joking or something similar. As he's almost back to shore Steve comes and gives a hand as i'm struggling keeping this guy over the water line. The guy was glad to be back on land and really thankful but jesus christ, i don't even like open water as mentioned above, least i'm further over my fear now!

Going for a quick swim in the warmest water ever 

 This is how happy i'm actually in a photograph for once ^

 Ben looking smug on his moped

 The gang having a five minute breather, did a total of 220km that day!

 I never look impressed in photographs...

 One of the mountains on our travels

 On the road

 Little houses scattered across the country side

 My off road, speed machine

 Dans second flat tyre

 The cheapest mechanic i've ever known

 Drinking games at the YMCA hostel

 Milky way tail over the sand dunes

Silhouetted tree with the milky way

Arugam Bay - An Unexpected Paradise

5th to 9th August - Arugam Bay

With a bus booked from West coast to East we arrived at the station for 6:30PM and jumped on our 10hr, none air conditioned, horribly uncomfortable bus to Aragum Bay. I tried to sleep through most of the journey as our driver rocketed around mountainous corners in the middle of Sri Lanka, people fell off chairs it was that hectic. Dan and Ben happily sat in the row in front drinking and generally getting merry, i was in no fit state for that, my stomach was still killing and all i wanted to do was rest! We've had Lukeyta join us for our stay at the bay, we met her at the previous hostel and she was up for an adventure so why not. She seems fairly cool and knows her stuff about travelling so it's always nice to have a second opinion on things. After the hours flew by we were awoken by someone shouting Aragam Bay and we grabbed our things and stumbled off this bus, its was 3:30AM in the pitch black and no room booked, things were about to get interesting. We headed down the strip looking for some sort of 'open all hours' bar where we could secretly sleep but with no prevail. 10 minutes walking though and we heard some faint music above us at a place called YMCA, we decided to check it out and whilst walking in we bumped into this guy, long hair and very hippyish. He instantly goes "oh shit, if you're looking for the YMCA, you're looking for me" and then cracks this big smile, we explain our situation and he invites us in to meet a group of others staying at this hostel. Instantly we felt welcomed and we sat around with this drunk group for an hour until we were allowed to just put our heads down on some cushions and sleep until morning.
    As we left to our one night hostel back at the other side of the strip we all agreed that the YMCA was a damn good place and thats where we were going to spend the duration of our time here. Our new place was seriously not great, ants all over the walls and our room was literally just a bed and a shared toilet outside. The best thing that came out of this place was we met Kale, a 20 year old Australian guy who tagged along with us after we invited him for food somewhere, the great thing about moving around so much is dragging people with you, we keep saying we're travelling as three but in reality its rare its just us guys. After checking into the YMCA we realised its just so damn cheap and its got air conditioning, two things i've desperately been wanting! New people have arrived here and everyone is great, mostly Europeans and Canadians. So far we've mainly been relaxing and swimming in the sea, this place is an absolute paradise, palm trees and colourful blue water. One day we've hired mopeds and travelled over 120km across the coast finding little secluded beach spots and stopping in little villages, the locals everywhere are so friendly and just run over to say hello and can't help enough. On my way back with the moped after Dan's got a puncture so i had to leave him behind i stumbled across a large herd of wild elephants, possible 10 to 12 of these majestic animals walking nearby the town i'm staying in. I felt so privilege to see them in their natural environment but also it was such a shame it was so dark and that the others didn't get to see it!
     Over the last few days we've also got chatting a lot to Lenard, a damn cool German guy, we started with a huge chat about Sebastian Salgado who's one of my favourite photographers and then we decided on a great deal, he teaches us guys how to surf and i'll teach him some photography. Can't wait to conquer one of my fears of open water and get out there surfing, hopefully it'll go as smoothly as i'm imagining. With my stomach finally feeling up to it we starting bringing the draft beers in and headed to a beach party five minutes away from us, a full night on progressive house music and dancing in the sand, i don't think i've ever done anything quite like it, especially bare foot. Felt odd, but none the less great. The party was a good vibe with loads of people there and we finished with a tight rope that was hidden around the back, loads of people trying the balancing act with no prevail, i tried several times and it went the same way, straight back down to the sand. A final note - The stars here are beautiful, with there being very little light pollution the milky way is visible most nights whilst just looking out into the sea.

Aragum Bay main strip

 Water buffalo we saw whilst out on the mopeds

 Ben taking moody photographs of me...

 Fisherman nearing sunset

 Dan & Lukeyta at Whisky Point, a good surfing area

 One of many unspoilt beaches

Recovering after the beach party

Aragum Bay at night

Hello Sri Lanka

1st to 4th August - Delhi / Colombo

Things i've learnt so far:

- Not wearing shoes is actually great
- Travelling is fun even when its a struggle, you appreciate the good times more
- Monsoon rain never gets boring to watch
- You can save money at every corner
- People are genuinely friendly when travelling

After yet another goodbye to all the staff at Safina boathouses and Henry who we got on with brilliantly we headed off to the airport, back to what we dreaded, Delhi. After making friends with everyone at Dal Lake it was almost torture to know we were leaving however our hopes were high with meeting Abhishekh we knew that we would experience the capital in a much better way. The flight itself was fairly horrible due to suffering with 'Delhi Belly' which had got me in Kashmir, surely its all the same. Both me and Ben had eaten nothing but dry toast for over 24hrs whilst Dan happily ate and we sat there envious. We got a taxi straight to Abhishekhs amazing house and met his lovely parents who couldn't do enough for us, made some great non-spicy food which was perfect for us along with filling us with electrolytes, natural mint water and some sort of tablet that stops stomach infections. I'm not complaining, the dizziness finally started to lift. That first night back in Delhi we headed out to surprise Joanne, one of our friends back from Lancashire who was visiting Jess who we met previously. The pure excitement from seeing us, especially Dan was great, it absolutely made re-visiting Delhi worth it! After a couple of drinks and my dizziness returning i got dropped off at home whilst the others carried on, i still wasn't on a full hundred percent.
     The next day i awoke to realise i'd slept for over twelve hours and was still not feeling great but managed to pull myself together eat a quarter of an apple with some yogurt and Abhishekh took us to Cyberhub, a fairly cool area of Delhi with good food, entertainment etc. It was nice to see this side even if it was contrasting to what we had originally taken in. We headed into this kind of arcade with high-tec games, it seriously looked like Blackpool on steroids, not complaining though as it was great, we built a virtual roller-coaster and rode it, walked a fake plank whilst fighting a monster and a traditional game of air hockey, that just can't be missed out. Into the evening and we tried a very small amount of street food which was brilliant even though i couldn't eat much at all, chicken cooked in curd and pepper was the best. Wish i could of stomached it. We managed to catch up with Jess and Joanna before heading back to bed and waking up early for our flight to Sri Lanka. I surprisingly feel like India had been successful, we've made some friends, seen old friends and generally experienced several sides that the country has to offer.
     Straight out of the Airport in Colombo and instantly its so different, people are smiling and its relaxed. We jumped straight into a taxi and headed to our hostel 40 minutes down town. The first thing i noticed was how damn green the area was, it was like a road cutting straight through a rain forest, absolutely perfect! Being from Lancashire i think i get to a point of missing green landscapes. We arrived outside our hostel for two nights at first terrified as it all looked closed and we thought the worst! New country and nowhere to sleep.. Sounds too familiar to India! Luckily the Australian owner comes out with a huge smile and welcomes us in, everyone here again is great. We've people from England, Finland, and Australia, not a bad mix. This hostel even has a kitchen so we've been able to cook our own food from home which has helped my stomach out so much! Beans on toast never tasted so good. Our first night started as a simple few drinks and card games which then escalated to heading towards town where apparently there was a good bar. Within 10 minutes of being there we had a big game of beer pong set up and a lot of the locals came along to watch the two tense matches! The only problem was we got through 1.5L of gin in just those two games. Safe to say i wasn't walking out of there in a straight line. Such a good night with everyone having a laugh and just chatting about travel plans and what the best things in Sri Lanka to do are, its the best knowledge you can have when tackling a new country. I don't even know how but i was invited to a big party on Friday by a local, seems legitimate but none the less i'll be out of colombo for now in just a day or so. Today all we've done is sat around and relaxed, good company and incredibly cheap luxuries such as Sprite and noodles, trust me, its not bad.

 Henry painting one of the house boats

"No thanks, i'm ok for saffron"

 Mama, our chef for five days, looking into the sunset

The taste of my past Accrington life

The Kashmir Life

28th to 31st July - Kashmir

All i can say is i'm truly relaxed at Dal Lake, the staff are nothing but great giving us free boat rides, showing us the local cuisine and joining us for a drink in the evenings and having a laugh. The other travellers here roaming from all over the world are also brilliant, this is exactly what i wanted from this adventure, to meet people and learn about others experiences. Our second day here started with just relaxing out front with some Kashmir tea, quite literally the best damn tea around, possibly better than green tea. This was followed by a two hour long boat ride out into Dal Lake, between six of us we had two boats, we jumped in around the middle for a swim, the water is beautiful here, full of reeds and they'll sure as hell drag you down but your usually fine! We've spent most of our time with Henry and the two girls Fran and Amy, they're the first people we've spent several days with and i'm glad we met them. 
     We headed out into the Himalayas for two days and one night, i've never been struck by such beauty and i've travelled around places like Norway and Iceland. Turquoise rivers filled with drift wood and a mountain range covered in 200ft trees. If i wasn't blatantly aware i was in India, i'd of considered it to be Canada's national parks. The staff on the trekking couldn't of been better, we had a huge fire going and within hours we're all sat around having a BBQ with some beers. With a hangover and only four hours sleep i managed to pick myself up from the crammed tent and capture sunrise within the valley, to be stood in such an area with only the sound of a gushing river and wildlife was brilliant. I've already let Naz, the manager of Safina Houseboats know that in a few years i'm returning for a month and i'm planning of hiking the Himalayas properly. I've been shown photographs of a location thats a four day hike, two huge lakes surrounded by mountains. It's got similarities to Snowdonia but on a much bigger scale!
     On the evening of the 30th we arrived back at the boathouse to meet two new guests that are travelling India for several months, Robin and Mitch, they've both come from Devon. The next morning both Fran and Amy were catching their flight to the Philippines so we planned a little 'leaving do' and most people staying at the boathouse came and joined, two bottles of rum later between us three and there was a group decision to head out on a boat again. I knew straight away i was not up for swimming at 3:00AM so we paddled around the area for a short time before making our way back, however... After the boat kept rocking from people shuffling about we started to take on water, quite a lot of water intact. Literally 5 meters from land in started going down rapidly, most people jumped onto land safely leaving just me and Henry at the back as the boat completely submerged. There goes my tobacco, money and our flight back to Delhi paper work. My own fault i know. It was actually hilarious though, after making sure we're all on land we tried to resolve the situation, getting the boat tied to the dock and trying to pour the water out, bare in mind this boats not small and its filled to the brim with water. After that i jumped in for a second time trying to gather up all the loose wood flooring that had began floating off into the lake. I need to learn that drink boating never pays off.
     Today we were invited to Naz' house for dinner, what an amazing offer. We've only known him for a few days and he already treats us like permanent residents! We all sat around on pillows and were given this huge buffet of curries, naan and rice. The food was amazing. These are the kind of things you can only hope that happens on a trip like this, to meet people and see their way of life, not just be caught in a tourist trap. Wez in some respects allowed us to see a side of indian tradition we normally would never get the chance to. With Fran and Amy up to leave for their flight it was quite an emotional goodbye, we'd spent only days with these two but we all got on so well. They're the first group we've had the pleasure of joining with so we've been told not to forget it! I'm hoping they have a great time in the Philippines, i might be there myself in December! Hopefully a night out in Manchester early 2016 could be on the cards.

Amy, Fran & Henry

Me & Ben relaxing

More relaxing...

Green water

Just before diving in

Passing from boat to boat

Me, Dan & Ben

Henry & Amy

Himalayan Family

Kashmir tea before setting off

The walk into the mountains begin!

Ben at the camp fire

Himalayan Valley sunrise

Group shot 1

Group Shot 2

The Beautiful Place That is Dal Lake

27th July - Delhi & Kashmir

Yesterday started with a very crazy morning, exactly what we've learnt to expect, we woke up at 8:00AM ready for our flight to Srinigar in Kashmir, turns out our taxi driver waited downstairs for 1hr 30min! Didn’t even let us know that he was there and thus we sat in the hotel room worried we were going to miss our flight until we finally went downstairs to see what was! A rushed journey through the hectic New Delhi streets took us firstly to the wrong terminal and we now only had 45min before our flight left the ground. I’ve no idea how but we got straight through check-in and security and were sat on a plane in no time. Finally leaving Delhi.

The flight across to Srinigar gave us amazing views of the snow topped Himalayas! Snow in India, its very confusing at first! We were met at the airport by Ash a funny guy that took us to the docks of Dal Lake where we were staying, even driving through the town we all agreed how much more relaxed it was than Delhi. We jumped onto our first long boat with some nerves, especially with all my camera equipment! We cruised nice and slowly to our new home for 5 nights, a boat house, the inside looks like an old victorian manor which is so different to what we’ve been staying in. We had finally landed in a relaxed, friendly place! The people here’s are brilliant, Pier is an Australian who’s a retired artist that has been travelling for years simply living off his pension. He instantly invited us down to the boats seating area for both Kashmir tea and hash. Then there is Henry and Andrew, great guys that have been in and out of travelling for some time, again they made us feel at home straight away. Our arrival was shortly followed by both Fran and Amy who had been only a few hours behind us through Delhi after John at the tourism office set them on our path up North. Two great girls from Manchester that luckily are interested in doing the same activities here, two days with a single night of camping in the Mountains along with a boat ride across Dal Lake, its around 18km! It’s great to be in a bigger group, meeting same minded people and generally having a laugh.

We sat up way into the night, all of us just drinking and relaxing by the water. After several hours Asher who works at the boat house took us into the lake, its pitch black water with an array of lights from all the boats on the sides, such a great scene. These boats are not big by any means, probably 8 of us crammed onto it! When the water got deeper we decide to jump in, midnight swimming is not something i expected to be doing in India, but i’m not complaining, it was such an experience. 

Snowy mountains from the plane

 Chilling on our first days arrival

 Going for a boat ride

                                                                Surrounded by mountains

Fishing

More fishing..

 Taken from my houseboats porch at sunset

Our First Experience of The Capital

22nd to 24th July - New Delhi

It finally hit me waking up after the 12 hour flight from Brussels to New Delhi, we were almost landing and i looked out the window seeing a bustling city at night, only an orange haze could be seen across the horizon whilst listening to the weirdly calming classical music the airline played.

     Straight out from the airport we were hit by the boiling night time heat of 30c and instantly asked by several people to get into a taxi, luckily we got straight into what we believed to be the more ‘formal’ taxis and we were dragged around New Delhi for over 40 minutes with no luck, just being told that its EID and its a bad time to visit, the taxi drivers pointed out bike gangs left, right and centre that just drank and would not consider twice robbing you for what you possessed. Finally we arrived at a tourism office where we met the nicest guy so far! He helped ringing our hotel, which was originally booked online, only to find that they hadn’t kept our reservation and within 2 hours of being in New Delhi we had nowhere to stay and it was pushing on 1AM.. Thankfully our new friend took us to a local hotel, reasonably good price, just to put our head down for the night! We’re planning on heading back there tomorrow and asking for some more pointers of how we should exit New Delhi. So far.. It’s been a crazy few hours and its a far cry from safe out of the hotel at night time!
     After revisiting the tourism office we were still down on our luck, they offered us package holidays travelling the route we intended but for crazy prices which are well out of our budget. We’re finally settled into a different hotel for a single night, still a very worrying looking area filled with the expected city hustle and bustle. On the bright side we finally plucked up the courage to begin an exhibition to an ATM and i’ve finally got Indian Rupees! 

Ordered our first proper meal whilst in New Delhi, chicken chow mien.. Surprisingly great! Not quite the traditional indian cuisine but i’m still putting off the whole ‘too spicy’ situation. Been sat around in the hotel for most of the day, still trying to pull ourselves together and work out how to tackle the challenge that is this city. I’m opting that we visit the Lodi Gardens, a beautiful botanical garden which would give us some optimism for the week to follow. After this i believe we’re meeting Jess, Dan’s friend that has a house over here. Its a 40min drive out from our area of Karol Bagh which is fine, its just the fear of getting home safely when the night kicks in and the possibility of ‘bike gangs’ reappears.
     Just arrived back at our hotel in Karol Bagh after a night out 30 minutes away in the ‘real’ New Delhi, the place we originally planned to experience! The people, the streets, everything was exactly how i imagined. After meeting Jess and her dad, Nigel, we realised, up to now, we have been missing out and have decided to give Delhi another try after visiting Agra tomorrow. We visited an incredibly posh looking bar on the backstreets of a small village, it looked so out of place from what you would expect but yet for the first time since we stepped foot off the plane, we felt welcomed. Free pour cocktails are typically something you only wish for when drinking but this place was handing them out, concoctions were arriving in barrels, horns and with ice lollies. Three/four drinks later and the taxi drive home was much more interesting.. When we woke the driver up that waited outside for over three hours! We have also been invited by both Jess and Nigel to visit their farm house just out of the city centre and I’m genuinely excited, this emotion has been lost for the last few days and i’ve simply wanted to leave to our next country. We’ve been told about huge outdoor BBQ’s, swimming pools and the promise of a real shower! Sounds a little ‘typical’ holiday i know, however with this we’ve the correct platform to head out and really experience New Delhi, the culture that i’ve been craving since our arrival.

     We started our day with a mixture of confidence, ambition and all those other ‘feel good’ things.. After a slightly better breakfast at the terrace of our hotel we got ourselves packed and started our venture to see the real New Delhi! I’d like to think of myself as reasonably well travelled, i can typically spot a scam from a mile away, we jumped into our first ever tuk tuk and set sail for the Indian Gate, en route our driving persisted it was either closed, we had to pay to enter etc, obviously all fake! Just laugh it off and carry on moving i always think. Things began to take a turn for the worse when without even realising our tuk tuk driving arrived at the tourism office, which we later found out to be completely fraudulent and we have actually been on a two day binge of being rinsed for what ever they could! I headed inside the office to find the same guy from yesterday who offered us loads of information but inevitably tried to force us into booking a £500+ tour across North India, thank god we didn’t take it! He, out of nowhere decided that because our plan had changed over night that i was a lier, he accused me whilst walking me out telling me to leave. He then to my horror placed his hand on my shoulder and said.. “If you lie in Delhi, somebody will fuck you”, defending myself was useless as he shook his head angrily and walked off. First threat of the trip. The tuk tuk driving finally, after further persuasion took us to the Indian Gate, such an amazing piece of architecture and a for the remembrance of those lost in previous wars. A combined British and Indian flag fluttered in the mild wind whilst with our bags we walked around for a good 30 minutes in around 35c heat. This, combined with being asked by almost every person there if i want to buy random ‘tat’ led me to beginning to feel slightly sick and hazy, it was difficult and after our morning experiences we didn’t want to get any kind of transport anywhere. Another thing to add at this point was how popular we were with the Indian public when visiting the Gate, everybody wanted photographs with us, we felt like small time celebrities. This, even though feeling awful was possibly one of the first genuine smiles and laughs from today.

     Be it by a stroke of luck, right place right time, i don’t know, but we happened to start speaking to a genuinely friendly guy that informed us of a real tourism office that was ran by the government, my first thoughts were its obviously the same place and i didn’t want to show my face there ever again! We reluctantly agreed to be taken down the road to an ATM, we all needed cash at this point and our options were slim, as we set off our drivers brother jumped in, within minutes we realised these two were actually god sends, couldn’t of asked for more from them! They genuinely felt for us after explaining our few days visiting their city and they took us to the real, government ran tourism office. Here, we walked in and were greeted by a guy called John, given a sugary brew and placed in an air conditioned room, this helped me come back around and i finally started to feel better! After explaining our situation and the fairly bad days we have had so far we we’re told that John is literally here to help tourists, in its most simplistic form, its his job. We debated our options for India and what we could do within budget, the weather in south India, Goa was looking awful and after over an hour of discussion we opted to head North into the Himalayas on Monday, a few days from now and firstly heading towards Agra to see the Taj Mahal which so far this day we thought it would be impossible because of the lies almost everybody fed us. John got us some food, water and gave us wifi, all for completely free! After this we took his phone number and set off in a private car to Agra. I’m writing this whilst sat in that said car, our driver is brilliant, he’s funny, relaxed and even bought an AUX cable at a set of traffic lights so we could throw some music on for the four hour drive. We’re quite literally all, including our driving, raving to live sets of Daft Punk whilst driving down Indian motorways. Within a matter of hours our Indian experience has gone from in tatters to a hugely exciting visit North for mountain hiking, lake swimming and white water rafting! We’ve had a lot a bad luck so far, i’m really hoping this pulls through and happens. Our humble abode of choice is a boat house literally in a mountainous valley, as a photographer i crumbled at this option. I’m hoping for a nice hotel where we actually have three beds, not one (yes its literally been three in a bed since we arrived) and if i’m really lucky, a friendly bar selling cheap beer!

 First morning in Delhi - View from outside our window

Same thing, different window!

 India Gate - Looks much bigger in person

En route to Agra