Another week in Belize

Another working week has passed with no major happenings. I am starting to settle in well to this laid back pace. My day starts early here, any time from 6 - 6.45am (depending on how lazy i feel and if I go for a run) and I so an honest working day of 8am-4pm. No cure/breakthroughs or Noble prizes yet but I'm sure that is just a matter of time!! Yea right...

Last week I met a great canadian couple in their mid fifties - some of the coolest people I have ever met travelling. After a few late (work nights I must add) evenings drinking the local brew with these guys I decided to follow them up the coast to a small fishing village and stay in the highly regarded (Lonely Planet Belize) Backpackers Paradise. When I think of Backpacker joints I think of late nights, beer and Bob Marley music but none of this was to be found here (the odd trace of a reggae beat occasionally though). The place is run by a young French-Swiss couple and basically they're trying to develop a sustainable, organic lodge with cheap prices and they're doing pretty well with it. On a down side (many would think it a plus) it was very quiet, just myself and my new canadian friends. However, it was a very welcoming place and excellent food and my own private Cabana for BZE$22, about €8.

For the Saturday daytime we organised a full day trip to Shipstern Nature Reserve. I think this was one of the first nature reserves set up in Belize and it is basically set around a huge lagoon. It was mainly a bird-watching day, something which I am slowly getting into (interest started in Tanzania this year). The highlight of the day was my first sighting of a toucan (made famous by Guinness many years ago). Myself and Emma spent a summer in this part of the world and never got to see one, so obviously I was very pleased with myself. Below are a few pics from the trip.

So coming to the end of another week, it means planning my weekend trip. This weekend I am going to go to Caye Caulker, a small island off the coast (I am nearly sure I have a posting from the last time I was there 3 years ago). It's a holiday weekend here so that;s perfect for me, an extra day on the beach. I'm sure I will have a few pics from this trip for next week...

Welcome to Belize.

Finally I have arrived in Belize after the 5week build-up of waiting to leave. Flights were fine and a fantastic stop-over in New York was enjoyed. I limited myself to one area in New York to see which was the 7th Avenue/Times Square/Empire State Building area. I thought London was multi-cultural but NYC is in a league of it's won - fantastic! The weather was pretty similar to dublin when I left but (perhaps stupidly) decided to go to the top of the Empire State Building for sunset. The view was amazing but it was SOOO cold! I sucked it up and stayed for about an hour and a half (had to get my $20 worth!) and got some amazing photos (see below). However, it was very windy and having the shutter opened for a long time to get some of the night shots made most of the shots blurry (leaning the camera on the wall with a 86 floor drop!) but I think I managed to get a few nice ones.

After an uneventful evening in the Holiday Inn in Newark, New Jersey it was off to the airport for a 6am flight to Belize via Charlotte. Everything went smooth and arrived in Belize last night. First impressions - different to what I remembered it to be like, I cannot understand Creole (Belize's version of English), People are not overly friendly but that may get better, but importantly the weather is amazing! Start work on Monday so god knows what that will be bring but I think I will start planning my first trip to the beach for next weekend.. I said it before and I'll say it again, Life is hard in the tropics! A few pics below of NYC and my new (acquired) dog (watchman).

Darjeeling & Sikkim

After the heat of Calcutta we were surprised to see that Dublin would probably have had better weather than in Darjeeling - we were greeted with 14 degrees and rain! Darjeeling is at the northern tip of West Bengal in the foothills of the Himalayas (altitude - 2100 meters). It was a fine escape from the 40+ degrees in Calcutta. We got a great place to stay for around 2euro a night overlooking the mountains. The biggest difference about Darjeeling (apart from the weather) to the rest of India is the people... The people up here are a mix of Nepalese, Burmese and Tibetan. This made for a more relaxed atmosphere compared to the rest of India, I'm guessing because they're all Buddhists and chilled out (unlike the Indians/Hindus).

Our days were mostly spend eating Tibetan soup, running from the rain or when it was clear, gazing at the snow peaked Himalayas with the 3rd highest mountain in the world in front of us! It was nice to see the Tibetan community who have fled from China over the last half century. They have a refugee center where the refugees work producing crafts and clothes to sell in the market. It was nice to see a small sustainable community like this. It also introduced us to the hardship the Tibetans face in Tibet and got to see many pictures of the bloodshed that took place there in March. It was incredible how gentle the Tibetans were (especially compared to the Indian population who are, on the most part, unwelcoming and very aggressive!). It has really encouraged me to think about a trip to Nepal and Tibet in the near future, which, I think would be amazing!

After a week of lazing in Darjeeling, we got an extra permit and went further north to Sikkim. This region is disputed between China and India, however, India has pumped a considerable amount of money into the area to try build up confidence in the locals about the Indian government. The scenery was amazing. We were in the middle of all the mountains that we could see from Darjeeling. However, the weather was crappy and it ending up raining most of the time we spent there. A real pity because all the activities up there are outdoor orientated and we didn't have the gear to even attempt do anything. Again, it was a brief introduction and would love to come back to this area to do some proper trekking etc in the mountains.

We had booked a 31 hour train journey from Sikkim back to Delhi (which I was in no means looking forward to - it's all about the experience blah blah...yea right!). Unfortunately, the morning of the train Emma was feeling poorly (blaming the chocolate cake she had) so we, disappointedly, canceled the train and booked a 2 hour flight the following day! Strangely, Emma was feeling grand just after I booked the flight... so suspect cake??? Suspect Emma's endurance!!

It was great to be back in Delhi (never thought I would ever say that) but it was familiar and we knew how much things cost and where we were going. One of the most annoying things traveling is reaching a new town, not knowing where to go and not knowing how much things cost - having been to Delhi a number of times by this stage, we were sorted!

Accommodation prices had gone up (how - I dunno, it is low season now) but we ended up finding a brand new place which was amazing. One of the best finds the whole trip! We ended up spending a week in Delhi, shopping, sight-seeing, eating (even a sneaky veggie burger from a well known fast food chain) and generally chilling out. A good time had by all!

As time is pressing on, we decided to make a dash to the Taj Mahal.... To be continued....

Calcutta -Volunteering

We're finished our 10days working for the Missionaries of Charity - Mother Theresa's order. Overall thoughts on the expereince is that they do good work for the poor - provide food and shelter (and medical threatment - I will get back to this point), but in my opinion their best work is with the kids. They have two kids homes, one for orphans (which the sisters arrange adoption for around the world) and one for mentally/physically challenged kids. It was this one that Emma volunteered at and they do some very good work and raising kids that would otherwise be on the street fending for themselves.

I volunteered at their hospital, basically two large wards which bed 80 men (they have a similar one for women but only women can volunteer there). They are provided shelter, food and medical attention. The hospital is made of up some mentally and physically disabled men and lots of amputees and other people who have severely damaged limbs by getting knocked down crossing the hectic Indian roads. 99% of the men are otherwise homeless. With a little persistance on my part, I got to work in the dispensary, bandaging and cleaning the wounds. I found this all very interesting and good expereince for an aspiring doctor like myself.

However, there was some issues about the place I did not like. In a country that has the second largest HIV/AIDS problem in the world, they do not test each patient for HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis. Yet, they share razor blades and medical equipment such as scalpols. Not confirmed, but I am pretty sure there are cases of TB in the hospital, but, all the men sleep in the same ward (TB infected individuals with non infected individuals). Doesn't take a genius to realize the problems with this!! Their approach to HIV/AIDS is non-existant (not suprising since it is the catholic church we're talking about) which also annoys me.

Some of the long-term medical staff I worked with (when I say medical staff, they're more paramedics/nurses than anything, yet they are performing procedures that they are in no position to perform) I found very irritating. They were always disrespectful to patients, be it hiting them or verbally abusing them and patients were scared of them. It was no way to threat vulnerable people who, on the most part, have been abused most of their lives. All very irritating!!

I honestly feel, if they had a long-term plan, and what I mean by that, not relying on short -term volunteers like myself to run the place, but strive towards something a bit more sustainable, they could provide much superior threatment. A qualified doctor, physio and nurse could perform so much good work in this hospital. From my experience, recent graduates from these professions all want to volunteer overseas for a period (mostly for a year). I really feel that the order should tap into this, advertise and try attract more long-term medical volunteers. I truely think there are people out there who would come for a year. Secondly, I really believe that they should have adult health education classes at the hospital - ie on Hygene, Sexual transmitted diseases etc etc.

Thats enough of a waffle on my experience. Emma had a totally different experience from me, as i said, she worked in one of the childrens homes and I couldn't critisize it at all, the sisters are doing some great work there (I spent an afternoon there helping out). I will get Emma to post something on her experience...

Calcutta is a great city, one of my favourite places I have been to. It is more relaxed than most Indian cities and has a totally different vibe to it than say Delhi. I honestly feel if I had a proper job (ie doctor or something in health) and a proper place to live I could really live here. If you want it, you can get all your western comforts and yet live somewhere as mad and hectic as Calcutta. We've spent two weeks here now and we're booked to leave for the himilayas tomorrow. Neither of us really want to leave, we've settled into a routine which is nice as when your travelling from place to place, there is no real routine in your day. With only 5weeks left of this trip, we need to press on....

Some pics of Calcutta soon.

Goa - Calcutta

Well we arrived in Calcutta yesterday afternoon and woke up today with a full day of activities planned to discover that the whole city is on strike, all monuments,public transport,taxis, restaurants ....everything. Finally found an internet open so the blog will get an update at last!

So after skiing we decided to treat ourselves to a flight down south instead of few days train. Goa seemed so amazing when we first got there, beaches were lovely, we met a really big gang of people and weather amazing. We basically lazed on the beach for a week so not much to say. Wasn't really like being in India to be honest, just like any beach holiday. Nice break! Capital of Goa is Panaji which is gorgeous, all Portuguese colonial buildings and very relaxed vibe which is unusaul in India but think perhaps all of Goa and kerala has that vibe. Saw few nice churches and Vasco de Gamas tomb and the patron saints of Goas also. In Goa we started getting alot of local buses which are great fun and so cheap and they let us keep our bags inside the bus so much better than any other we've got!We went to the big wednesday market in Anjuna which was huge and full of hippies and strangely enough loads of Russians on holidays all sporting very weird styles! After this we went to Palolem but this wasnt exactly the party scene we had imagined. Since the girls murder in Anjuna and a few more reported cases of foreign women being attacked the police decided to shut down the season early, so curfews and no noise on the beach and nearly everything shut by 10pm...so I definitely wouldn't tell anyone to come to India for the parties seeing as most other states are dry also! Friend took this photo of mark and I, and sunset really was like this, we're not photo shopped in i promise!





Next we headed to Kerala which was so amazing and if we'd known it was gonna be so nice we might have skipped Goa all together for it!Its got everything, the colonial towns, the mountain stations, tea plantations, nature reserves, backwater boating and amazing beaches!Everything we did here (all of the above) was brilliant, although the only tiger we saw was in the zoo :(. On our trek in the nature reserve we did see fresh tiger foot prints though which was quite exciting and smelt rotting meat so our guide said that the tiger must have hidden a kill nearby. At that stage I was actually glad we didn't see anything as our guide was only armed with an umbrella!! This is photo of the leach socks we had to wear because there were so many in the jungle, tonnes! Other photo was taken near where we saw the tiger prints.






The tea plantations, beaches and backwaters can all be explained better with some photos which will be put up soon. I've borrowed a few from a friends camera that will give you an idea for now! These are of backwaters and one of mark having typical banana leaf south indian thali!







From Kerala we got an overnight train to Chennai and mark was planning on volunteering in a HIV clinic. We had rang before and they said just come along. So when we got off train we just rang for directions and then the guy said we couldn't come that he needed us to post a letter of our intent first. He wouldn't even let us come speak to him. Typical. So we headed down to Pondicherry, French colonial town on the east coast. This is where we got the best food we've had in ages. Never have we been so excited for croissants and salad!!Most exciting thing we did here was visit Auroville. Known as an experiment in Human Unity...or something like that. Was basically a big cult. We had to be shown a video first on the concept and community and then got to see the centre of the village which was a huge big gold golf ball with a meditatio room inside. Inside also had a hue crystal that connected peoples souls with 'the truth' or something. The information centre was as equally vague as the film. All a bunch of hippies but really funny!



From there we went to Mamalapuram, famous for it rock carvings and temples which I thought were brilliant (think mark may have been bit bored!) and mark got to shadow a doctor in the local clinic. So everyone was happy. He got to see a lot of typhoid, dengue,HIV, lots of dehydradtion and motor accidents! He was as excited as a child on christmas day! No photos of this yet. And now we are in Calcutta, going to Mother Teresas this afternoon to register and see about volunteering here for a while. Just hope we can find our way there without any public transport!

Slow Slow Slow updates....

Sorry, It has been a while, not a great deal has happened over the last month, we sat on a beach for a good chunk of it, but a proper update is in the pipeline!

Rajasthan & Kashmir

Leaving Jodphur (where I got a tailored black suit made for 80euro - polyster/wool) we went to Jaisalmer, a desert town not far from the Pakistani border. When atracted us to here was the annual Desert man festival that was taking place over the three days we were there. As with most (actually all..) town in Rajasthan, the main feature of the town was it's central fort, but what made Jasilalmer different was that 4,000 people still live inside the fort, which again is perched high atop a rocky outpost.

Inside lay a maze of winding streets, all made of sandstone (obviously...we're in the desert!). Interestingly however, the fort is lited in the top 100 most endangered forts in the world as it is sinking. They say it is unethical to stay in the hotels there as the place is sinking, so we didn't. I kind of wish we had of stayed in the fort - much cooler! The fort did remind me of Stonetown, Zanzibar and I must admit, I think this fort had nicer winding streets. I actually just realised I did not take any pics of the fort from the outside... but here is one of a cow (as per usual) sticking it's nose inside someones shop withing the fort.



The desert festival istelf was a bit of a let down, we missed the mustache competition and the Mr Desert finale as that was held the night we arrived. We did get to see some camel racing and camel polo and a tug-o-war competition. I have some photos on a dvd from the event, but since this computer does not have a dvd driver, I cannot upload them...grr!

Jaiselmer is also famous for its desert camel safaris - so when in Rome!! We decided to do a 2 day 1 night safari in the desert and sleep on the sand dunes. People normally do 3-4 days in the desert, but who really wants to spent that long trudging through the heat of the desert, bent over a camel with a sore groin... not me! The desert itself was alot of fun, actually once you got over the smell of the camel (bad smell is a common feature of India!). Camel riding is much like a horse, but more comfortable and slower. We each had a camel each (there was a group of 6 of us). The first day passed pretty peacefully and we stopped under a tree where our guide cooked up a curry and chapatis. Not bad for the middle of no-where!! We eventually reached the sand-dunes which was stunning! As far as the eye could see was dunes, it was very hard to appreciate how grand it all really was. Below is a pic og Emma thinking she's cool...



One night was enough, I don't think we would have got to do anything new (but bruise my ass) if we had have stayed more nights. So overall a very enjoyable excursion.

From here we pressed on back to Delhi, via Bikaner - home of the famous "Rat Temple". Supposedly, Krishna granted all these "holy rats" to this site (there is a long story to it, not going to get into it) and the temple is over ridden with rats. Bikaner itself is the biggest kip known to mankind and the rat temple was not much better. I was expecting the place to be swarmed with rats but realistically, we slept beside more in Delhi railway station a few weeks before! Bowls of milk is left out for the rats and people feed the, corn balls. We spent 10 minutes there and left. Below, a pic from the temple...



It actually felt good to be back in Delhi, and the hatred I once felt towards it had faded. The weather had picked up and we found a nice part of town to hang out in. From here, we finally organised our skiing trip to Gulmarg, Kashmir. We decided to fly up with Spicejet, Indias best budget airline. Arriving in Srinigar (the capital of Kashmir) airport was an experience. The airport is an amry base and there is soldiers and fighter jets everywhere. As you know, Kashmir is a disputed region between India and Pakistan, the conflict dating back to partition in 1947. In 2000, Bill Clinton described Kashmir as the most dangerous place on earth - George Bush has changed that. Cheers George, now I can go skiing!

Gulmarg is situated around 70km from Srinigar into the Himilayas. We got a taxi there and on the way your made very aware of the huge military presence in the region. There was lots of soldiers, AK 47's, armered vehicles everwhere. Every 50 meters on the road was a soldier, crazy. Reminded me somewhat of Northern Ireland when I was young but with more guns in your face. We eventually arrived in Gulmarg to 6/7 feet of snow. The Guardian newspaper has written a few articles on Gulmarg and .

Gulmarg is one of the highest ski resorts in the world and has the highest gondola in the world. The ski lift can bring you up to 4000meters and from here you can ski down. It is essentially the same as jumping from a helicopter and skiing down but without the helicopter. Therefore, Gulmarg attracts some hardcore skiiers and boarders from all over the world. People were suprised that we had come to learn how to ski there, little hardcore. However, Gulmarg has some good learner slopes and cheap ski gear to hire. The first day we hired an instructor who was overpaid but at the end of the day he did teach us how to ski. Unfortunately on the second day I fell sick (first time in India - bloody vomitting and diarrhoea) so that counted me out. But, Emma and Trevor went to the slopes and practised hard. On the third day, feeling mucg better, I was back in the action. Unfortunately, Trevor suffered some severe beer poisoning and that cut his day short. By the fourth day we were all out again and flying down the advanced slopes. Next stop... the mountain! There are two phases to the mountain, 0ne and two. One is a stretch of around 2 km through the woods, starting at 3050meters abhove sea level and goes back into the town of Gulmarg. The second phase, as mentioned starts from 4000m and goes back to the town of Gulmarg. Emma did not join us the first day we went to the mountain, she stayed on the advanced slope and honed her skills. Maybe she was right, myself and trevor are too reckles!

Phase one was amazing, it was nice to be able to do a long run (baby slopes are only 200m long). The path was very narrow at parts and there were some very technical parts (which I fell on my ass). After the first run we were hooked and ended up doing it twice more that day. On the final day, Emma joined us and she did really weel. I am more gutsy than her but she was technically a much better skiier than me, I didn't really care at all if I fell. The pics are on picasa but here is one or two to tease you...





For the third time, we're back in Delhi. Trevor is leaving us tomorrow for China and we are flying to Goa. We are skipping Mumbai as myself and Emma are not in the mood for another city. I know it will be a big miss for Bollywood but fame is not worth the price. So check out the pics on Picasa and hopefully I will have another update soon...from the beach!