Vacation From My Vacation

I decided I needed a break from India. A vacation from my vacation. The Stephanie girls had started their 6 week yoga teacher training course in Rishikesh and I figured this would be a great time for it. India can be kind of hectic so I was looking forward to a change for a little bit. I called up my friends Miranda and Chip who are living in Thailand teaching English, and they invited me to their home. They live in Krabi province near a touristy beach town called Ao Nang on the Andaman Sea. Krabi is known for its beautiful krast cliff formations and excellent rock climbing. Let me tell you that the beauty there doesn't disappoint.

Chip and Miranda enjoying the sunset on their local beach, Noppharat Thara

These islands pop out of the ocean every way you look

Enjoying some local beers on the island of Ko Lanta

Open water speedboat excursion

We took a minibus to Ko Lanta and then booked a day-trip snorkeling adventure to the small isolated island of Ko Rok. We heard you could join a day trip to get there and then camp as many days as you would like in the National Park and then join the day trip boats back to Ko Lanta when you were ready.

Ko Rok in the distance

Dropping anchor

Monitor lizards inhabited the island and the guides encouraged them by throwing chicken bones to get them to come closer for a tourist photo shoot

Exploring some of the trails on the island

Snorkel time

The snorkeling right off the island was the most amazing I've ever experienced. The water was crystal clear and the coral was teeming with sea life. We spent many hours each day exploring different snorkeling locations around the island.

Tent spots right by the beach

You could rent a tent from the rangers for 300 Bhat or bring your own and camp for 80 a night.

Beautiful sunsets every night

Hermit crabs were everywhere on the island

Sunrises weren't to bad either

Islands are fun, because the sunrise and sunset are both over the open ocean

Look out from the viewpoint. Ko Rok was actually two small islands seperated by a small chanell, Ko Rok Noi and Ko Rok Yai

Chips sand sculpture

We ended up staying 3 nights and 4 days on Ko Rok. It was paradise. Practically deserted except for 2 or 3 hours midday when the snorkeling day trips arrived. I highly recommend it.

Back in Ao Nang, we were treated to a night rainbow. Never seen anything like it

Miranda and I took a day trip to Railay Beach which has a ton of famous limestone climbing routes. Unfortunately I don't have any of my climbing gear with me and didn't want to shell out the money to rent, but it was a beautiful spot none the less. Although a bit crowded for my liking.

Railay beach

I tried some Muay Thai (thai boxing) at a local gym and had some nice wounds afterwords

I want to give a big thanks to Chip and Miranda for being my guides in southern Thailand. They were such wonderful hosts and I loved being able to see some good friends while on my travels.

Golden Temple

The latest trip took us to the town of Amritsar in northwest India, close to the Pakistan border. The reason for the visit was the famous Golden Temple. The Muslims trek to their holy land of Mecca, while Sikhs make the trip to Amritsar to visit this temple. The unique thing about the Golden Temple is that everyone is welcome no matter your race, religion, or sex. To top it all off, everything there is free. You can check shoes, luggage, enter the temple, eat and find a bed to sleep in all for free. It was one of the most incredible well oiled machines i've ever seen.

Ganges River at sunset as we leave Rishikesh for the train to Amritsar

We met a nice Irish lad, Mossy, who gave us the idea for the trip

Golden Temple

After you check your shoes and bag outside of the outer walls you walk in and see the temple surrounded by an small lake. The Sikh's come here to bath in the holy water. Also inside the temple grounds is a large kitchen and cafeteria, where it is said they feed anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 people a day their free meal. This setup really blew me away. You walk through the line and are handed a plate and head up stairs into a large hall. Everyone sits on the floor in rows of about 100 people. Then men come speeding by and ladle dal, rice and curry onto your plate. This takes them about 2 minutes to serve the entire row. You can also ask for second helpings if you are still hungry. The whole process takes about 10 minutes before men come through and clean up any mess left in a similar rapid fashion. After you eat your food, you go out a door on the opposite end and hand over your dirty dishes and go on your way. All the staff are volunteers taking turns preparing vegetables, washing dishes, and serving food.

The accommodations were also free. There was a separate tourist room, which was basic dorm style. Then there were fancier rooms for rent. All the Indian's who were staying for free were given mats, blankets and slept shoulder to shoulder covering the entire courtyard. Pretty amazing.

The other attraction of Amritsar is the border "celebration". Pakistan and India have there differences and this "ceremony" is a good hint that there is competition between the two nations.

If you walk more than 10 ft outside of the Golden Temple you are asked repeatedly by 50 different touts if you want to go to the border celebration. So no problem in finding a ride there. You are packed like cattle into a shared mini-van taxi and driven about an hour and a half to the Pakistan border. After exiting the van you go through multiple pat down security checkpoints which reminded me of going through airport security. You can't even bring in your water bottle in. You are then directed into large concrete bleachers, with divisions for foreigners, women and Indian men.

In my opinion the ceremony was hilarious. There were dance parties, silly border guards with crazy marching, a cheerleading coach type person, and a raucous crowd. This ceremony happens everyday at sunset, lasts about an hour and a half, and seems to exacerbate the two countries animosity for each other. Here is a YouTube video that is pretty good at capturing the atmosphere. See below for some pics

Silly border guard costume

These men were responsible for the marching and taking down of the flags. They also seemed to have a shouting contest with the Pakistani border guards.

Dance party before the gates were closed

The crowd would go crazy

A man that reminded me of a PE coach, in his full white jumpsuit, would lead the crowd in cheers. Which was timed to drown out the cheers of the Pakistan side.

Loyal Hindustani woman

To say the least the ceremony was a unique experience and I would recommend anyone going to Northwest India to take a trip to Amritsar to at least stay at the Golden Temple, and if you're in the mood for an over the top cultural experience, check out the border ceremony as well.

Flea's Great Adventure

You may or may not have seen in a previous post a picture of a little puppy named Flea, but this is his story.....

Once upon a time in the far off land of India in the far off state of Goa on a far off beach town (I don't know the name because I wasn't there) a tiny little puppy was born. He was quite smaller than his brothers and sisters and life was hard right away for this lovely little puppy. Perhaps his mom abandoned him because he was so small, or maybe it was the fleas that had started to cover his entire body. But then a magical prince and princess from New Zealand named Jaycee and Sunny stumbled upon this little puppy. At first they passed by him as just another stray dog on the beach. He look destined to succumb to the fleas that swarmed him and was on the verge of death. But something about this tiny little puppy touched their hearts. The next day as they walked by the lonely puppy again they decided they would nurse him back to health and find a good home for him.

They bought flea powder and worm pills to rid him of the pests. The fleas had become so bad that many had started to burrow under his skin to lay their eggs. As the thousands of fleas started to fall off from the powder they noticed he had scabs running down the length of his spine. They started feeding him daily and taking care of his wounds as he joined them on their travels. As the fleas disappeared and his wounds slowly started scabbing over the puppy seemed to regain strength and his will to play.

A short time later, Jaycee and Sunny brought the puppy down to Gokarna, a beach in the state south of Goa. Here the Stephanie's and I were introduced to the puppy. By this point they had decided to call him Flea and he regained enough strength that he was more playful. But the wounds on his back still were filled with puss and looked infected.

Little Flea in Gokarna

The five of us and the puppy became a family over the next week as we took turns cleaning his wounds, bathing him, and looking after him as we explored the beaches around Gokarna.

On the garden paths

Eventually Jaycee and Sunny were scheduled to head home to New Zealand and we volunteered to care for Flea until we could find a good home for him. We had been staying at a small cafe in Kudle beach where another puppy lived and we hoped they could adopt Flea when we left. But it turns out most of the employees go back to their homes in the March or April for the off season and the beach dogs have to fend for themselves.

Oh boy, new friends!

Waiting patiently on the booth in a restaurant

Flea and been such a good puppy, following us down the beach on walks, sitting quietly in restaurants while we ate, and being so incredibly cute. We decided he would continue on our adventure and we would try and find a better home for him.

Waiting for the train to Mumbai

Nap time in Mumbai guest house

He was so easy to travel with and slept quietly on the train. Once in the big city though we were finding we had to sneak him around a lot more. Restaurants turned us away and we had to sneak him into our guest house. We looked forward to leaving the city in a few days to the countryside where he would have more room to roam around.

Playing with local kids in a Mumbai "park"

Because he was so cute and black (I guess black is a good luck color for dogs in India) we got countless offers from people in Mumbai to adopt him. Men would come up to us on the street and carefully count the number of claws he had.

"One, two, three....Nineteen!!!" "Oh my this is a very good dog. Very lucky. Black and 19 claws!"

But we didn't feel comfortable giving him to random people on the street who lived in the big city, so we decided to wait.

Puppy takes a trip to the mall

One day we headed to a mall where we were supposed to meet a couchsurfer who had offered to show us around the city. We had two days before our next train arrived so we took him up on it. When we arrived at the meeting place there were security guards patting us down and checking bags in order to enter. We figured we would put Flea in his little carrying bag that he sat in when we walked around, and sneak him right past the guards. When it was Steph's turn to go through the line with Flea, a woman searched her bag and screamed when she opened it and Flea was inside. Whoops, guess we will have to wait outside.

Nitin, our couchsurfing friend showing us around Bandara

A little ice cream treat for Flea

Tired out after a long day exploring Mumbai

When we met Nitin and he found out we had a puppy, he was instantly intrigued. It turns out he has two dogs of his own and also cares for a number of strays in his neighborhood. When we told him we were looking for a home for Flea, he told us to get back to him the next day and he would look into it for us.

Later that night he told us he knew a English lady, Sheila, who worked as a Vet in a small community in the mountains outside of Mumbai. She cares for horses at a stable in a ritzy gated neighborhood but has also turned the stable into a huge care center for all types of stray animals. Nitin offered to drive us up there with Flea to find him a new home.

Upon arriving we were greeted by about 15-20 dogs running up to our car. It turns out she has over 40 dogs, many horses, cats, camels, goats, a pig, ducks and other animals living on the "farm". Her and the helpers care for many stray dogs until they can find a good home. They interview candidates and go to their homes to check them out before finding the right home for a dog. After the dog has found a home they make multiple visits to make sure the animal is being cared for. Also, Sheila often falls in love with the dogs and many of them end up living on the farm with her. By now, Flea's back was mostly healed but he was bald where the scabs had been. Sheila knew he had "flea dermititis" and said he was doing very well by now, and said he would get his vaccinations right away.

Meeting new friends

Is this place for real??

We couldn't believe how syncronistic it was to meet Nitin the day before we left Mumbai and that he happened to know a Vet who ran an animal shelter. In all of India and all of the couchsurfers in Mumbai, he is the one we met with. It worked out perfectly and we were promised a good home for Flea would be found or he would live on the farm. He was already excited and exploring with his new friends when we started to say our goodbyes. He was a great puppy and travel companion. We were sad to say goodbye but also very happy that he would have a permanent home. No more hiding out on trains and in restaurants. Plus Sheila told us we can always e-mail her to check up on how he is doing.

Miss you Flea!

Saying our goodbyes

Already found a new best friend