Doing it the right way

Hong Kong Slushy

I proposed to Eleanor on top of the peak (photo on website), highest point in Hong Kong but the weather was a bit rubbish so Eleanor said we should do it properly and let her plan it.

So we went to a theme park called Ocean park on Tuesday and did rides and stuff, I managed to get her on a very scary roller coaster and then went for a wonderful Japanese meal and proposed to each other over raw tuna and sushi rolls and smoking cocktails. We had already bought rings, earlier that week (we've bought diamond wedding rings for each other cos having engagement and wedding ring seems a bit silly to El), we hunted around most of India for it, but the Indian women like massive bling bling rings and El wanted a more elegant ring. We found one in Mong Kok in Hong Kong that was perfect and looked very beautiful, but I did surprise Eleanor with a pair of diamond earrings, that she did not know about and which look fantastic on her as well, so she is now the diamond girl.


Amazing what you can achieve by sowing the seeds for 3 years (Eleanor: So baby when are you going to get me a massive diamond ring and Don't buy that baby, how will you afford my massive diamond ring etc)




So I suppose you could say we're engaged although we don't really like the idea of being engaged as people are engaged for years so perhaps betrothed is a better word, yes that fits better, as I liked to say that we were courting before!, so there you go folks we are now officially betrothed :-).

Hong Kong - New year

Still loving this place even if the weather is a bit dull, we were really looking forward to Chinese New Year as the Lonely Planet list Hong Kong New Year in the top ten festivals in the world. The trouble with street parades is the fact that a million other people all want to see the same thing, every thing is on the ground level and some people are prepared to camp out all day to secure a top spot, while we camped out in starbucks and drank coffee! So by the time we got the the streets the line was 7 people deep! We did manage to catch the last 5 floats at the front of the road, after walking around for an hour trying to find a good spot, but only I suspect because everyone with children had already gone home to bed. Still it was a cool night and here are some video.



The next night was the fireworks night and we got a bit more organized and camped out on the the other side of Kowloon, which was fantastic.

Hong Kong - from Dim Sum to Disneyland

We've been in Hong Kong for a week now and have really washed India out of our hair. It is a fabulous city: incredibly high skyscrapers that defy belief rise up on tiny mountainous islands, with tree-covered peaks giving views of the cityscape. Every block is filled with restaurants and shops: the shops, oh my God it is a shopper's paradise here!! There are about 1000 malls with shops from Gucci and Prada to Hello Kitty, to Marks and Spencer's, to cheap tat market stalls: there's shops here for everyone!!

We started by doing the most decadent, silly, western thing we could think of as an antithesis to India and went to Disneyland on Valentine's day which was good fun. Since then we've walked in the hills, taken a tram up the nearest mountain, done some shopping, been to the cinema, drunk way too much coffee in Starbucks, enjoyed the Chinese New Year parade, drunk more coffee in Starbucks where we met a NASA scientist, eaten fab noodles and lots of sushi too: basically we love this place!

It is CLEAN - spotlessly clean, the metro runs like a dream, people are helpful and polite and the only people hawking are Indians interestingly enough! OK our hotel room is rather...bijou (about 6 foot square, no window), but we kinda like it and it is located bang in the middle of town and we have free wi-fi (Internet access) to boot. We're spending money hand over fist but we don't care as it feels like a wonderful holiday!!!

OK it is not really representative of China and we'll have to go there another time to witness the communist regime, but for the moment we're enjoying the city that London should be with all the best of both East and West.

We've still got a visit to Ocean Park - another theme park with roller coasters etc., a trip to the world's largest golden Buddha statue, a day of museums, plus another cinema visit (this time a cantonese action flick) to do before we leave. Frankly by the time we get to Bali on 23rd February we'll be ready for a beach holiday!

to hong kong and beyond

to hong kong and beyond
Originally uploaded by Mr Zang.

our first day in hong kong and valentines days to boot and so what do

we do! ...we go to disney ;-}

buzz and the zangs

buzz and the zangs
Originally uploaded by Mr Zang.

us at disney

Delhi - the city with no Soul (but it did have a McDonalds)

Probably the most interesting thing in Delhi

William Dalrymple wrote a wonderful book entitled City of Djinns [ghosts or spirits] but I'm afraid all we found in Delhi was rain and dirt and we can't wait to leave. Sorry Wills but we couldn't find your Delhi and frankly can't be bothered to try.

It's not so much that we hate Dehli - much of the town has the feel of a modern, European city, with well-thought out road plans, wide tree-lined boulevards, vast tower blocks with unusual architecture - more that (once you get through the dirt and traffic) it is rather bland. Everything is so far apart that you don't really get a sense of identity. Dalrymple wrote of amazing old houses and palaces now being inhabited by squatters and the majesty of Delhi's impressive history being eaten up by modern society, but all we could see in old Delhi, were crumbly concrete buildings, much the same as any Indian city, with a few sights dotted around.

The Red Fort in Delhi

Delhi's Red Fort was interesting but nothing like the forts of Jodhpur and Udaipur. The "most impressive Mosque in India" according to the Good Book (Lonely planet) was marred by Kieran almost being attacked by a man who tried to get us to pay to get in or something when we knew full well it was free and (Indian) people were walking in unhindered all around us (suffice it to say we put our shoes back on and gave it a miss). Sadly, it reinforced our view that there are different rules for tourists in India and although we have had some great times, seen some incredible sights, and eaten some fantastic food, our work here in India is done and we both feel it is high time to move on.

We fly to Hong Kong tonight and have amazingly managed to inadvertantly time it so we will be in China for Chinese New Year and this coming year: the year of the Golden pig, is apparently a very auspicious year to have a baby! (Take note those of you who are pregnant!).

p.s. I'm afraid we did succumb to our first McDonald's and it was REALLY GREAT!!!! Sorry.

Jodpur - Feeling Blue

So we did the pink city and the lake city, but will not have enough time to do the golden city (quite sad about that, but you can't do it all) so why not finish off the India tour with the blue city?

We were a bit tired after a 6-hour bus journey from Udaipur and so arrived in a less than fair mood. Luckily we were warned about a commission scam, and were advised to get a rickshaw to the train station and tell them we were leaving on the train: this work surprisingly well. We got to our hotel room and got upgraded to a better room - bonus - but I had to kill three giant cockroaches - bummer. El was freaked out but promising that we would put the mosquito net up that night, seemed to calm her down :-)

We walked into the city and dived into a luxury guest house that was in the bible (loney planet) and which had a very nice rooftop lounge with sofas: nothing like escaping the madness of India by climbing five floors of stairs. We had some more masala tea (I am really going to miss the chai here), tea and milk heated together with some spices, and admired the blue city... to be honest, the one in five blue houses, so mostly blue city. The fort on top of a massive hill in the middle of the old city was quite impressive and a nice looking palace in the distance that is a looky likey for the Taj. We passed the afternoon in lazy mood by reading the Indian Times and books, and I tried to draw the fort in my new sketch book that I bought in Udaipur. I do not have one ounce of talent but I am really enjoying it, I got the inspiration from a book I read called The Art of Travel, which suggested sketching a place instead of taking pictures, as it forces you to pay more attention to what you are seeing, so far my skills have not increased but I am paying attention more to buildings and tea pots and chair (just some of my subjects).

We had a great dinner at the guest house, Chickpea curry, and Garlic fry (thats right massala sauce with nothing but garlic). El was over the moon at finding garlic fry on the menu, I sometimes wonder if you can be addicted to garlic!!

The next day we went to the fort and used the audio tour equipment, which was surprisingly good and gave you a sense of history. One of the main gates has cannon ball marks in the walls, and the audio tour gives you the sound affects :-). The most surprising thing about this Indian state, Rajasthan is the sense of history within the forts and the fact that some of the major battles / events were only a hundred years ago, not 500 hundred as with most of English castles. On the audio tour you had the Raj speaking and telling you that his title had been stripped of all powers after Independence just after he got back from University and the Queen telling you about her wedding day and arriving by train to the fort and being lead to the ladies quarters, imagine going to a castle in England and hearing Henry the eighth account of a beheading, madness.

The view from the fort was also a lot more impressive as more residents seem to paint their house blue on the fort side, thus the view from the fort is of a very blue city and very beautiful...fantastic that's India for you.

We have our last Indian night train tonight, in a few hours, and tomorrow we have to go to a town just south of Delhi to reprint our flight tickets (long story). Fingers crossed this will not take all day, but as Sophie (El sister) said in her sage advice. "In India (posting a letter) can take 5 mins, or all day", so we will see, if this apply's to BA's travel shop as well as the post office.

Udaipur - horse riding

Just a quick post to show you some cool horse-riding pictures. We both walked with a swagger after 4 hours of walking and trotting, and Kieran's feisty horse even got up to a canter at one point!

Our horses were traditional Rajasthani ones, recognisable by their ears that point inwards (see flickr photos).

We spent a wonderful day seeing the countryside of Rajasthan outside of Udaipur and it was a lovely trip.


Get on your horse and drink your milk!!

Udaipur - 007 licence to chill

We caught the overnight train from Jaipur and Kieran learned what it is really like to have Delhi belly in a nasty toilet. It was a bad start to him for our 10-day stay in Udaipur but it certainly wasn't representative of this beautiful place.

For those of you uninitiated in James Bond, Octopussy was extensively filmed in Udaipur's palaces and forts and every single hotel plays the film every night. We took it as a sign to stick around. Udaipur is situated on a large, serene lake, with a beautiful white lake palace, a lakeside city palace and it's small, windy streets are surrounded by picturesque mountains. The local folk are very proud of their town and a huge effort is made to sweep the streets daily, discourage beggars and generally keep the place clean and relatively hassle free.

Once the illness wore off we both decided that Udaipur is by far the nicest place we've been in India. Full stop. We've dabbled in sight-seeing: boat trip on lake, city palace and museum, and a trip to the Monsoon Palace on a nearby hillside. In between we've been getting measured up for some tailor-made suits, chilling out on the roof-top cafes and generally having a really lovely time.

We've managed to re-arrange our flights out of India so this first leg of our journey is drawing to a close. It has been a relief though to come somewhere that is a pleasure to stay. We haven't travelled very far away from our hotel but we have made friends with many locals and it is really nice to say hello to people as you walk down the road!


The Royal throne at the City Palace

Kieran has been shopping like mad and has bought, among other things, a wally hat (you'll have to see our flickr photo website to understand this unless you're a Hayes) which he promises to wear tomorrow as we're going horse riding in the local countryside.

I'm sure that the similarities to Geneva have got nothing to do with how much we like it (lake, mountains, clean, friendly, lots of German bakeries(?)) but it certainly is a little taste of my second home from home.