Incredible India (05/05/08 - 05/06/08)

My first stop in India was Karol Bagh, New Delhi. Even though it was a whopping 35 degrees at 1 o'clock in the morning, I was never more happy to have 20 kg on my back with my feet firmly on the ground. My flight from Dubai to Delhi was a little traumatic to say the least. Due to stormy weather we circled the airport for over 1 hour, making 3 turbulent attempts to land. After listening to 60 minutes (it felt like a lifetime!) of most of the cabin screaming for their lives, the captain calmly informed us to brace ourselves as we were about to attempt yet another "safe" landing. Only after we finally touched ground did I truly know the meaning of the all too familiar phrase "I wanted to kiss the ground!!!"

Once that feeling and the terrible fear of flying had worn off, I caught a Kingfisher flight north to Srinagar in Kashmir. Kashmir's scenery and landscapes just took my breath away, it's heaven on Earth. My accommodation for the first few days was a houseboat on the Dal lake, where I befriended a charming Kashmir family, owners of many houseboats and other touristic establishments around India. The days were spent chilling on the roof with fellow backpackers and watching locals and tourists pass by in what they call Shikaras. It was amazing how many species of birds we spotted, especially birds of prey (Scott, you would have loved it!!), circling over head in search of dinner. I loved Dal lake with it's lotus flowers, water lillies, it's floating vegetable garden and many little islands where you can stop off for a picnic. I took a trip or 2 in and around Srinagar to see the 14th century Shah Hamadan Mosque (made entirely of wood) and the many surrounding colourful Mughal gardens.

After lounging around doing hardly anything for a few days I felt impelled to do something active so I signed up for a week's trekking in the Himalayas. The first night at base camp was with most of the backpackers from the houseboat, sitting around the fire playing cards and watching shooting stars. On the 2nd day I set off by myself with 2 young guides, 2 horses carrying all our gear and Abdul my chef for the week. This incredible man really made an impression on me. An elderly gentleman full of energy, able to function on 2 hours sleep a night, stamina of a young mountain goat skipping his way up the side of steep mountain faces (whilst chain smoking the entire time), and being able to cook a mean Kashmiri curry on just a tiny hob fueled by kerosene. Whilst trekking I froze when out of the blue, from no where a black bear appeared and walked straight across my path! Another incredible sight to see, I think my heart and lungs stopped functioning until it had scrambled out of our view. Some people do these treks for months on end, a week out in the wilderness and being cut off from the world was more than enough for me. This is something I would recommend anyone to do, the beauty and experience itself is mind blowing! Not only does it challenge your physical fitness, your mental strength is also put to the test.

I returned to Karol Bagh, New Delhi to see some of the sights but more to savour being back in civilization again. During those few days I found a good drinking buddy (coffee as well as beer) named Hannah and I also met another fellow traveler named Guillaume. Most evenings were spent in the QBA on Connught Place where we made good use of their Happy hour. One evening we had the opportunity to gatecrash a promotional party in a 5 star Hotel! What can I say but I could not pass on an opportunity to drink free vodka and orange by a pool and talk to drunk rich people for a whole night.

Once the recuperation process was once again complete I set off to Rajasthan (Including Agra) for 10 days with my own personal driver called Sunil. Sunil became another good friend along my journey. 2 nights were spent in Jaipur with a lovely Chilian lady called Sol, we done the City Palace and Amber Fort and we also had the opportunity to experience a true Indian Wedding and watch our 1st Bollywood movie (Taskan, recommend watching it, if only for the random burst of song in between some great action shots) in the local cinema. Next was Udaipur, a fairytale city full of marble palaces and lakes surrounded by hills. It has the largest City Palace in Rajasthan, built and added on by 22 different Maharanas. I also took a stroll through the Saheliyan Ki Bari, an 18th century queen's garden full of roses and lotus pools.
Then it was on to Pushkar, a pilgrim town of lakes and 400 temples where I got some henna done on my hand and then my final Rajasthan stop was Ranthambhore National Park where I done 2 safari's and saw a Tiger in the flesh from about 300m, give or take a few metres!

Because of the Gujjar situation going on in Rajasthan, Sunil and I had to turn back (while making our way to Agra) and stay an extra night in Ranthambhore. Our first attempt to escape was unsuccessful due to a burning truck in the middle of the road. Whilst hanging back (from a fair distance) to see if it would clear we befriended yet more local people looking for a free cigarette. Sunil & I made the most of the situation and took a spin back to the nearest town to grab a beer and past the time until the road cleared...we were out of luck that day...it didn't! Our second attempt the following day was a 200km detour on mostly dirt roads. Sunil was on a mission, he would not let me leave India without seeing the Taj Mahal..bless him! With Sunil's expertise is blind corner overtaking and playing chicken with on coming traffic, I think I had my fingernails in the car dashboard for most of the 10 days. The amount of funny stuff I seen on the roads...Indian buses with bodies hanging off everywhere, one hand hanging on for dear life and the other used to talk on a mobile phone, The Indian Spidermen as Sunil called them. Traffic going the wrong direction on motorways, cyclists catching a free ride off the back of speeding trucks and I even saw a guy on the back of a motorbike sitting on a huge milk drum...just comical! The detour was well worth the adventure and stress as I got to see India's most admired masterpiece, another thing struck off my list!

On my return to Delhi Sunil invited me back to meet his family and have some homemade food...again I could not resist! I found his family (To be honest my experience with all Indian people) to be so welcoming and warm, the wedding album was even taken out at one stage and I was given a full rundown of the Happy couple's special day.

Last stop was a trip to Bangalore to see my good friend Jose and his wife Carrie. I was pampered a little and even got my laundry done. It was so great to see them again and to see them happy with their move to India. No sight seeing was done apart from going to the Leela Hotel for their cheap (massive) buffet and of course I took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep. I was sad to leave India after a month of madness, I was very tempted to extend my stay but my schedule is tight as it is..best to leave on a good note and on to discover new people and cultures.

To see just a few of the thousands of pictures I took you can click on the link below:

Incredible India Album

Hope you enjoy...I certainly did! :-)

Jordan and Dubai (28/04/08 - 05/05/08)

A brief post for 2 brief visits to Jordan and Dubai.
My main reason for stopping off in Jordan was to visit Petra, one of the new wonders of the world known as a rose-red city half as old as time. I took a 3 hour mini bus ride from Amman where I met 3 American students studying in Cairo who were traveling the Middle East on their mid-term break. An entire day was spent exploring the archaeological site, admiring each rock-cut structure and trying to figure out how each temple and cave came to be.






While in Amman I visited the Roman amphitheatre, a huge theatre which once could seat 6000 people. On the amphitheatre's grounds are 2 interesting museums: the Museum of Popular Tradition and the Folklore Museum. I found it an oasis of peace with not many tourists but plenty of people sitting down and reading a good book.

Dubai I experienced thanks to a very hospitable friend named Sara, who drove me around this crazily rich place which could also be described as an entire construction site. Imagine my horror when I was told that you had to have a license to buy alcohol, I soon calmed down after my friend informed me that she lived right next door to The Irish Village where alcohol was easily purchasable and plentiful. We drove out on one of the 3 man-made Palm Islands, a huge project to be finish within the next 10-15 years. A spin was taken down Sheikh Zayed Road and several strolls along Jumeirah beach admiring the many huge and expensive properties, only in my wildest dreams could I imagine myself living here!


I got a great glimpse of the Burj Dubai, tallest man-made structure on earth. The building is expected to be at least 162 floors high and at a height of 2,684 ft.
A few things I found amusing about Dubai were the lower your car license plate number and the stronger your window tint are the richer you must be! Oh and even the bus stops are air-conditioned!
The only thing that disappointed me about my visit to Dubai was my failure to meet any of the rich Sheikhs! ;-)

A quick update from India!

Hi All!

Just a quick message to let you all know that I'm alive, well and still very much kicking :-)

I'm in Pushkar, Rajasthan melting from the heat for the moment! I'm doing a typical tourist route of Jaipur, Udaipur, Pushkar and Ranthambhore National Park where I very much hope to finally catch just a glimpse of a feline predator, the tiger.

Incredible India has so far lived up to it's name, trekking in the Himalayas, lounging around on a boathouse in Kashmir, seeing Delhi by day and night and experiencing the magnificent cultures. You'll also be glad to hear that I'm working very hard at keeping my social tolerance at bay by drinking plenty of Kingfisher beers, indulging myself in spicy curries and meeting a lot of interesting characters along the way.

I hope to post a full update with tons of pictures very soon.

Áine xox

Back where we belong : FIRST DIVISION !

Hey Dudie,

At last, we're back in the Belgian football Walhalla :-)
After drinking rivers of beer and celebrating for more than one week, I kinda start to live normal (what's in the name) again.

Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Standard, ... have already 'shit' in their pants by the very thought that they have to face us next season, LOL ;-)

Anyways, hopefully you're back before these top games, so you can enjoy our victories and after-parties ... oh well, win or lose, we always party !


KVK CHAMPIONS ALWAYS !!!

Mucho Matza in Israel (18/04/08 - 28/04/08)

I arrived in Israel at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover, celebrating the Israelites escaping the clutches and enslavement of the Pharaohs and crossing over into Israel. Ironically enough I had just done the same trek, no doubt my crossing into Israel was much easier for those in the biblical times. My troubles only begin when I entered Eilat airport to catch a cheap flight to Tel Aviv. I had plenty of time to waste...well so I thought! Little did I know I would make my flight by the skin of my teeth. OK hands up I was ignorant of a few things. Firstly the airport was chocablock with people going home or traveling for the holiday period, something I hadn't taken into account. Secondly I was ignorant of the fact that Egypt had yet to put their clocks forward for day light saving time and Israel already had, for sure a topic one should think about brushing up on whilst traveling around the World. And thirdly and more importantly being a lone Irish female traveler has the tendency to raise The National Threat condition from a low green to a high orange, what can I say in my defense here?!

From the moment I had my backpack off my back at security until the moment I was escorted by security to my flight gate I felt like an outcast and for some unknown reason guilty of something or other. During the 2 hour interogation I'd given my life story a million times and amused them with my future travel plans, my itinerary they failed to fathom. I was told eventually I could go but that my belongings, which were entirely stripped of me in the beginning, were to be sent on the next flight out BUT to a different airport in Tel Aviv. Eventually onboard I befriended an Egyptian who was also interogated in the adjacent cubicle, he told me it was standard procedure here in Israel and that he was well used to being dragged through the mill.

My first experience of Israel aside, I found the country stunning and the people friendly and welcoming. I stayed with some good friends in Tel Aviv where I paid my board by walking their dog daily. I was pampered and fed kosher food, all meals accompanied by Matza a dry cracker traditonally only eaten during Passover. I could not get enough of their Houmous, at any given chance I was stuffing my face with the stuff. My visits and sightseeing were at a slower pace than the rest of my trip so far. It was good to have my backpack off my back for more than a day, so I embellished by becoming a little lazy. I took a trip to Caesarea, an ancient port, a Crusader and Roman city with a fantastic Roman theater facing the Mediterranean sea.

I visited Acre or Akko one of the oldest continously inhabited cities in the world with small alleys and streets full of remnants of the Crusader, Muslim and Ottoman conquerors. I walked through the Rosh Hanikra caves right on the Israel and Lebanon border, the Mediterranean coast here is the most beautiful I have seen yet. I paid a short visit to the city of Haifa to see the Bahai gardens and its fantastic panoramic view of the city and its port.

I also took a day's outing to the oasis of Ein Gedi on The Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, 400m below sea level. I relaxed, floated and took in the scenery of the surrounding Judean Desert. Closeby is the Judean fortress of Mesada, famous for the 1st Jewish-Roman war where the Jewish solders committed mass suicide when defeat was imminent. In Jerusleum I visited David's Tower and walked along the western wall and through the massive Muslim market.
A few leisurely strolls were done in Tel Aviv, along the Bat-Yam and Jaffa beaches where we stopped for lunch and tried some Lebanese food. After 10 days of lazing about I eventually packed my backpack and took off to the Jordanian border. It was a confusing and again somewhat troublesome crossing, 3 different buses and again questioning followed by the Jordanian police taking my thumb print..I might just consider changing my passport and its suspicious picture!

Because it was a leisurely stop on my travels I think a revisit to Israel is required to see Nazareth, the south and spend more time floating and covering myself with mud in The Dead Sea. I can just hear my Israeli friends screaming...NO NOT AGAIN!!! ;-)

Experiencing an ancient civilization (04/04/08 - 18/04/08)

Arriving in Cairo with no accommodation booked nor knowing how to get to the city centre, I need not have stressed much for it didn't take 2 seconds after exiting the airport's main entrance before the locals gave me the correct bus number, guided me to the correct bus stop, gave me a hostel name and address in downtown Cairo and even taught me some useful Arabic phrases!

Cairo, a crazy city on the banks of the Nile where you have close to 8 million people shoulder to shoulder and streets somehow accommodating 6 lanes of traffic, with each vehicle coming within a millimetre of one another whilst performing frantic manoeuvres with drivers apparently unaware of how to use lights by night..Belgian drivers are quite mild in comparison!!

If you are visiting Egypt on a backpackers budget, the place to stay in downtown Cairo is at The Canadian Hostel. The staff were a great laugh and brilliant with helping me plan and book all my excursions in Egypt.

On my excursion with a personal driver in and around Cairo, we began with the Saqqara pyramid where after taking my 1st picture of the stepped pyramid my LCD screen displayed the dreaded Lens Error, it was early morning and there was a hint of a sand storm in the air..thus sand had made it's way into my lens..it had seen it's day! Sh!t happens, what could I do but move on and try not to let it ruin my day. So with my chin up I headed to Memphis and then to the Giza pyramids where I took a 3 hour tour by camel back and was accompanied by the craziest guide on this planet..I really don't know how I keep attracting these kind of people ;-) It was just a magical experience to be on camel back and see the 3 pyramids all lined up, the sky engulfed in a sand storm and the voice of the Muslims praying in the distance.

Thanks to a local I met whilst visiting the Saqqara pyramid, I had a true experience of Cairo by night. I got to see a panoramic view of the whole city and had my first Egyptian beer called Meister (8%) in The Cairo Jazz Club and danced away the night in The Hard Rock Cafe. I was also introduced to the residential suburb of Maadi, with modern houses and villas set in gardens (many the residences of foreigners), where I was shown some Egyptian hospitality and fed some real homemade Arabian food.

I cruised the Nile by means of a quieter and calmer (also cheaper) mode of transport, in a Felucca sail boat...all these cruise ships are overrated if you ask me! I spent 2 nights abroad the small wooden vessel, shared with a fantastic group consisting of 2 French, 1 English, 1 German, 1 Dutch, 1 Italian, an Australian couple and 3 crew members called Captain Cool (also the Entertainer), the cook (managing to fed 12 people 3 meals a day with just 1 little gas stove on board) and a Go-For (mostly sent out for orders of beer, chocolate & cheap cigarettes).
Although the whole experience was just magical and I will definitely do it again, I was never more happier to check-in to a hotel afterwards and finally have a long warm shower, amazing the things you take for granted when you live an everyday life.

1 night was spent in Aswan where I visited the Philae temple and took a 1/2 day trip to the sun temple of Abu Simbel (See Egypt pix). Another night was spent in Luxor where I visited Karnak temple and the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens on the West Bank. While appreciating each temple, it's structure and monuments and it's worship to the gods, I have to be honest in saying that I'm all templed out now :-)

My last adventure excursion of Egypt was camping out in the Western desert (The Black and The White Deserts) for 2 nights only to awoken by a full on sand storm. This time I was with a small group of 4 and was taken care of by a 1 man crew, a guide doubling as a great scout camper and even better 4x4 desert rally driver. We watched the sunset in the White desert and toasted marshmellows while admiring the clear crisp night sky. Again a great experience followed by a much appreciated and well overdue warm shower.

To break my trek of getting to the Taba border to cross into Israel, I had a brief 1 night stopover in Dahab, Sinai where I had some chill out and winding down time by the beach on the Red Sea, drinking fruit smoothies and admiring the views.

I never expected to find Egypt so warm, friendly and welcoming..I'm convinced I shall revisit the land of the Pharaohs and its ancient civilization!

Egypt