Greetings from Middle-earth!

Kia Ora from the other side of the globe!

Almost three incredible weeks have whizzed by in New Zealand, ad it's also hard to believe that I left homealmost 7 months ago. NewZealand has not disappointed Emma and I in the slightest; we've had quite an adventure so far!

We started our journey in Auckland in the North Island, where we stayed with Fiona's Aunt Michelle and her man Graham. Auckland is a great city, we celebrated St. Patrick's day there in an Irish Pub and followed that with a performance of Mamma Mia at the Civic Theatre. What larks! We went up Sky Tower which provides 360 degree views over Auckland and it took me 5 minutes to get the guts to walk over the glass floor bit of the observation deck because I was actually convinced I would plunge through and go splat on the pavement below. We also took a trip to Waiheke Island where we had a glorious picnic on the beach as well as did a wee bit of wine tasting at a vineyard. Good wines, apart from one of the reds was kind of icky. We then enjoyed a glass each with spectacular view over the bay and of Auckland City. Not bad, I tell you folks.

After bidding Auckland goodbye we hopped on a Naked bus (or as we like to call it Completely BillyBollocks bus) to Hamilton, where we based ourselves for a few nights whilst exploring Hobbiton and the Waitomo glow worm caves. Hobbiton was a scream. We took the bus there and changed to a Hobbiton bus in Matamata, and I swear my tummy was doing somersaults. I was that excited about visiting The Shire. The tour started off with a walk through the Hobbiton village, where there are 44 hobbit holes. All of them are exterioriors, the inside of Bag End etc was shot in Peter Jackson's Stone Street Studios in Wellington. Hobbiton employs plenty of full tim gardeners who tend to the area; it has full vegetable patches with giant pumpkins! Bag End sat majestically on top of the hill with a fake tree sitting on top of it. We had plenty of time to able around and take photos before heading to the Green Dragon for a pint of brew. The pub was a merry old place, and the stout I had was very tasty indeed!

Waitomo glow worm caves were adorned with magic. The little boat ride through the pitch black cave with a ceiling dotted with little blue lights being emitted from the worms tails and everyone being silent on the boat was stunning. We rented a car for the day and Imanaged to keep us alive driving for the first time in 2 years! From now on when I listen to Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart I'm going to be thinking of my drive through New Zealand with Emma.

Our next stop was Rotorua, a smelly, smelly town in the heart of volcanic activity.A walk on the street would be accompanied by some delightful scents of sulphuric acid spewing from what evere nooks and crannies it could escape from.  We did a great little hike in the Redwoods forest and we also went zorbing! Zorbing is when you get inside a plasticc ball with a bit of water in it and then you proceed to roll down a hill in itscreaming with pure, unadulterated joy. This was followed by a soak in a hot tub.

Rotorua and its scents were traded for Taupo, a town by a massive lake with views of the mountains of Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's oldest Nation Park. Tongariro National Park is also home to Mt Ngauruhoe which is more commonly known as Mt Doom fro The Lord of the Rings. Tongariro is also where you can do the Tongariro Alpince Crossing which is regarded as one of the best one day walks in the world. So off we set at 5.30am and headed for the park to do 19,4km of hiking. We set off at 7.30am and the first hour of the walk was easy going, but then you reach the Devil's Staircase, a long uphill battle on a clear path and steps. When you get to the top it'spossible to go and summit Doom, but we both gave up on the idea when we gotthe top pretty tired. After a easy 10 minute walk it was time to ascend again. THough the ascent wasn't as long as the earlier one, it was much harder because the path was made of volcanic rocks and ash and I spent most of my time trying to find footing and not slip right back down again. At the top you are rewarded with great sights and wind like I've never experienced before. Now I'm a big girl with weight on me, and I was swaying about struggling to stay in one place, and all I could think of was how the hell are the little, lithe people not being flung off the mountain into the distance. Alas, all were ok, even after the hellish descent from Red Crater. I basically slid down the ashen slope and emptied roughly a beachs' worth of volcanic ash from each shoe at the bottom of it. From there it was easygoing until the end,which was roughly 10km. I managed complete the hike in 6 hours, a feat I am rather proud of! And my legs weren't even that sore the next day, just the top of my butt.

Fom Taupo we travelled back in time upon visiting the town Napier. It was hit by a earthquke in 1931, and most of the town was destroyed. Napier was then rebuilt in the art deco style of the decade, and is now the art deco capital of the world. I felt like I was in the middle of a Hercule Poirot mystery, and was half expecting to see Gatsby ride by me in an old car. We had fish and chips on the beach before heading to Wellington for a few days.

After spending time in smaller towns Wellington was an ambush of sorts on the senses. It was clearly a city; plenty of people and cars ad buses, and it was windy too. We spent a few days exploring the city, Emma explored the museums too. We also ventured on an another Lord of the Rings tour. This one took us to Mt. Victoria, a hill in the city where they shot the Hobbiton forest scenes for the Fellowship of the Ring. The tour was great and we also got re-enact some of the scenes! I got be Pippin in the 'Shortcut to mushrooms' scene lying on the ground with another traveller and Emma on top of me, and a fake pile of poo infront of my face. We then drove past Peter Jackson's studios on Stone Street, and then went to Weta Caves, the home of the special effects company that worked tirelessly on creating th magical world of Tolkien's Middle-earth as wellas many other films and tv programmes (like Xena!). That was cool too.Our little nerdy brains were having the time of their lives.

We then bid the North Island goodye, and headed over Cook's Straight the South Island and then to Nelson, where we proceeded to drink wine and little else. Our plan of going to stuff in Abel Tasman National Park was foiled by the prices of all the offered ativities. Instead we headed to Punakaiki, a place that Graham had told us not to miss. We stayed at a hostel right by the beach, went to see the pancake rocks that were there and had a nice fire on the beach with some of the other hostel guests who were all primarily german. Even the owners were German, and when we chcked in, the woman spoke german to me and I had to tell her that nay, even with 11 years of german lessons at school I have failed to grasp anything from that language. We also went kayaking, which resulted in me getting wet as I fell in the river twice. Why do these things always happen to me?

We next went to Fox Glacier, which wasn't anything special to me. A cool glacier, a dull town. We then took a bus to Wanaka(we got free pies on the ride there!) where I got locked out of the dorm room for the night thanks to the person who locked the door when I'd specifically left it open whilst I went to pee. Too cold to sleep, I stayed up all night and read a really bad book I picked from the book shelf.

Now we're in Queenstown, and have great plans! Pub crawl, horseback riding and a day trip to Milford Sound. It's all super groovy, but it's all gone by so fast. Emma goes home in a few weeks, and I stay on until May 14th, when I make my way to Australia where I'll be until 2.2.2015 before heading to Japan. I touch base in London on Feb 16th at 3.30pm. A concession would be greatly appreciated.

All I seem to do in India is relax and eat.

A hearty welcome to you!

Time passes so fast and I'm doing so much that updating my blog always seems to be the least of my priorities... I guess that's how it should be though. I do love writing it and letting you all know what I've been up to!

Since the last update I've visited many a place.. With much joy and gleefullness I bade New Delhi goodbye and headed up to Himachal Pradesh, to Manali. Manali happens to be the drug capital of India, and it's not uncommon to see marijuana bushes scattered around and locals rolling hash from it. Drugs (and the hippie tourists that follow them) aside, Manali itself is a little bustling hub. There is New Manali, where all the buses drop you off, and there is a small market and a wee Tibetan colony and a couple of monasteries. I stayed in Old Manali, a 2,5km walk up from New Manali, which at this time of year is prettyclose to being dead. A small collection of guesthouses and cafes dot the hills, serving steaming cups of chai and selliing woollen products to keep the freezing tourists warm. I spent most of my time in Manali doing small hikes around the area, drinking plenty of beer and just rejoicing in the fact that there were no people around me at all. And that was absolutely glorious.

After some down time in Manali, I moved on to Dharamsala on a 10 hour bus ride on a bus that I was sure would fall apart at any moment and that tethered my bottom into a state of utter numbness. On this bus I met Khalil from Greece, Stani from Bulgaria and then a Mexican couple (I don't know if I ever even knew their names...) and together we endured this experience. After a swift bus change in Dharamsala, we climbed up to McLeod Ganj, our final destination of the day. As per usual, as we got off the bus, we were swarmed by touts who claimed they had the best and cheapeast room in town. And for once, I took advantage of one. Khalil and I teamed up, and followed this little Nepalese dude through McLeod to the guesthouse where he lived with I'm assuming his Dad. We made a deal, and for mere pennies Khalil and I secured a room for the next few nights. We then detoxedfromour bus ride by devouring a tandoori chicken with butter naan and beer.

McLeod is the home to the Tibetan Government in exile and the Dalai Lama when he is in India. Lucky for us, His Holiness was in town for the wee we were there, and was holding a conference. I'm sure we cold have registered and attended the coference, but we settled for heading to the Temple every once in a while to see the talks via live video feed. Even though the Dalai Lama wasn't there in the same room, just the fact that he was 150 metres away on the other side of the temple complex was pretty powerful. I spotted Demi Moore leaving the conference one afternoon. And yes, she is just as hot in real life as she is in the movies and pics.

McLeod has accumulated a huge Tibetan community, and is where the refugee centre for Tibetans who have left Tibet is. I spent a lot of time talking to Tibetans who lived there, and heard some really incredible stories on how they managed to cross over without being spotted by the Chinese guards patrolling the border. I spent time watching documentaries on Tibet and joined conversation classes to chat about the situation there, and enjoyed plenty of good Tibetan food. That week was a true eye opener for me, and I realized how blind I'd been to the situation in Tibet whilst I was there. But in hindsight, what could I have done whilst I'd been there? Nothing really. A local in Tibet caught talking to me about almost anything could be grounds for arrest, and Tibetans are terrified to talk to foreigners. Monks have no religious freedom, and Tibetans have been made a minority in their own land. It's an awful situation, but I'm glad I've been there, and I'm glad I went to McLeod to learn about it some more. I watched Kundun in McLeod after many years, and it got a whole new perspective now that I'd been to Tibet. I recommend it, it's a very good film about the life of the current Dalai Lama u until he had to flee Tibet in 1959.

I had originally planned to spend a couple of nights in McLeod before returning to the heat of Rajasthan, but as many a tourist before me, found myself staying there for a lot longer than originally planned. In addition to spending my time hanging with Tibetans, I sampled cakes from this amazing little Tibetan bakery, ate delicious japanese food for lunch every day at Lung Ta, drank an abudance of beer and lemon, honey and ginger tea and gorged on momos.

Finally getting sick of the cold weather, I headed back down to Jaipur for Diwali! I now regret not going to Rishikesh from McLeod, as that's where The Beatles spent time in (apart from Ringo. He and his wife got bored of the vegetarian food after a month and left. Tee hee.), and am now too far to go back. I have ambitious plans of making it to Pondicherry and Kerala before I leave.

Anyhoo, back to Diwali in Jaipur! I joined forces with Ajeet again, and then met Nathan from Canada through him. Together we spent Diwali at Rakesh's (he is the manager of Chitra Katha hotel where both Nathan and I were staying) roof top, having gorgeous food served to us, along with plenty of rum. At one point a bottle of Absolut joined the festivities. The soundtrack of the evening was fireworks and loud bangs as every one in Jaipur let loose and had a blast lighting everything up well in to the night. Even we finished the night with little sparkler fireworks and bombs. Nathan almost blew himself up and then proceeded to disappear into the Jaipur night only to reappear at 4 am. The next day Anna from Sweden joined us and we visited Ajeet's fort and his wee, wee baby. I have never seen anything as small as that baby. Size of an sheet of A4. Whisky was consumed, as was food that gave me a stomach bug and delhi belly!

With Ajeet working, Nathan, Anna and I found a way of entertaining ourselves; America Day! Armed with our Chucks, we headed to KFC for lunch, which was followed by watching Bridesmaids and collapsing. This was followed by ice cream at Baskin Robbins (oh mint choc chip...) and then we headed to the World Trade Park, a gigantic mall, and far more western than any I've seen before. There we dined in the food court, and then went to the movies and saw Gravity. Good film, but it completelyquenched all of my desire to ever go into space. And seeing Sandra Bullock wearing very littleclothing floating around a space ship is always most pleasant.

After a bit of a hassle, Nathan and I found ourselves saying goodbye to Anna an heading to Jaisalmer to go on a camel safari in the desert. A night spent on a sleeper carriage, and found ourselves in the sandstone city of Jaisalmer. We found our cheap guesthouse that smelt like a barn, and then went to explore the fort. And in the fort we found our safari! A couple of hours on camels to get to the dunes, then camp out under the stars, and then the next morning a camelride back to our jeep. Nathan and I were joined by Paluica, a Jamaican living in Manchester who was incredibly good company an would eep us entertained by singing Florence + The Machine songs. That safari was an amazing experience! The ride is hard work on the thighs, but worth it. After snapping plenty of photos in the dunes whilst the sun set, our camel drivers started cooking, and madeus a delicious, yet spicy veg curry with rice and chapati. I tried my hand at making chapati, and it wasn'ta huge success... Oh well. And after listening to camfire songs and talking, we headed to bed. One of the camel drivers tucked Paluica and I in and made sure we were comfy. It wasn't so cold, and waking up around 3 am and seeing the stars after the moon had set was truly amazing. It seemed as if the stars were raining on you.

The next morning waking up with half of the desert in my sleeping bag was less amazing, but the cup of fresh chai by my blanket was. After showring and hauling most of the desert back with me in my rucksack, I bade my desert companions goodbye and jumped on a bus to Udaipur, where I am now. Udaipur has been given me much excitement for two reasons: I shall do a cooking course here tomorrow, and they filmed most of Octopussy here.

From Jaipur, with love

India. 10 days after arriving I'm still taken aback by all the sounds, smells and sheer amount of people. The endless traffic, paired with the blaring of all the horns and people pushing their way through and trying not to get mauled.The smell of chai, pan masala, rubbish and urine. The sheer level of poverty on the streets. It's overwhelming to all of the senses.

I began my Indian adventure in Varanasi, one of the holiest Hindu city. And it was miserable. It's a very dirty city (I've heard an Indian call it dirty!), and it rained the entire time I was there. I spent two days walking around the narrow streets that were covered in a layerof mud and poo, avoiding people selling me there junk, trying not to get in the way of an ox or a cow or it's shit. The ghats of Varanasi were brilliant though; I spent 90 minutes at the burning ghat watching people bring the bodies to the river and then burning them. And the Blue Lassi Shop and the banana and chocolate lassi *u*

After Varanasi I hopped on my first Indian train to Agra. An overnight train in a sleeper carriage (top bunk is a must!) for a 12 hour journey that cost less than 4€. Once I got to Agra and my guesthouse,  rushed to the Taj Mahal in order to make it to the gates before 8.15am to get in for free and save 750 rupees. And I made it! Massive savings were made. The Taj Mahal was amazing. Big, bold, with nothing but the sky in the backround kind of takes your breath away.

From Agra I headed to Jaipur in a second class carriage at 5am. And boy that carriage gets full! 4½ hourslater I arrived in the Pink City, with a numb bottom from the train journey. In Jaipur I stayed in two different guesthouse due to one being full for one night, and it was a cheaper option two stay at one for 3 nights and 1 at the other. I arrived at my first guesthouse, and met my dorm mates: Kiran from Malaysia and Andreia from Portugal. In the afternoon, together we got a tuk-tuk and went to Monkey Temple for sunset views of the city, and so any monkeys it was insane. Met quitea few monkey mummies who were extremely protective of their young ones. Tried to avoid them and their rabies.

The next day I changed guesthouses and spent the better part of the day walking around the Pink City, taking in its sights and sounds. 6 hours later I returned to the hotel, starving and dirty. A rest and a walk later I collapsed in the hotel thinking I'd pass out and that my dormmate would turn up to one dead to the world Stella. Instead I was still awake when Evan from Minnesota turned up, and he'd met Sam from Texas and a couple of rickshaw drivers, Ajeet and Raj, and they were going for beers and invited me along. So off I went to the rooftops of the New India Guesthouse with the guys and had beer. The ride back to the hotel was rather surreal, Evan and I were in Ajeet's super pimped up tuk-tuk (he has installed a massive subwoofer in the back of it) listening to country music with his tuk-tuk's disco lights on. Trippy.

Evan and I got Ajeet to be our driver for the next day, and in the morning we set off in his pimped out tuk-tuk with tunes baring from behind us towards Amber Fort, a huge palace like fort 11km from Jaipur. It was pretty impressive, and it was astounding how big it really was. FromAmber Fort we stopped for lunch at a small local restaurant, with a huge tandoori oven by the street where they made the chapati and naans. It was pretty cool to see the guys work around it; and one of the guys was sporting a pretty impressive moustache.

The afternoon was spent seeing the sights in the city centre, and then nap time, before setting of the Nagargarh Fort for the sunset. After a lengthy ride, we made it in time for sunset and gorgeous views of the entire city. After a Pepsi and a smoke later we made the descent down to Jaipur down this extremely windy road down the hill, with Britney Spears blaring from the speakers and the disco lights on in full force. That was an amaingly surreal moment.

Ajeet took us for the best dinner of the trip so far. We went to a local favourite, Thali House, which serves all you can eat thalis for amazinglygood value. For 105 rupees (1,3€) you got a sweet lassi and a thali consisting of dhal, veg, some warm youghurt sauce, pickels, chapati and rice and these doughballs. And it all kept on coming. The food was delicious, and I lost count of how many chapatis I ate. After a few rooftop beers with Evan I slept very well that night.

The next day was spent mostly browsing the shops and returning for lunch at the same place as the day before with the tandoori oven. For the evening Ajeet managed to get us all tickets to go and see A.R. Rahman in concert. He is huge superstar in India, and thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, is known in worldwide for the song Jai Ho (The good version doesn't have Nicole Sherzinger in it). So after some gin and whisky at the New India Guesthouse, Evan, Ajeet and Ajeet's brother, Ranjit and I set off to the concert. And it was amazing! The lights and the music and the whole show of it was brilliant and vibrant. It didn't even matter that I didn't understand Hindi. And then Jai Ho came at the end, and a firewors galore erupted from the stage and everyone was dancing and singing along... In the end we were all standing on our chairs.

The next mornign I sadly had to take a train to Delhi and bid Jaipur goodbye. But I'll be returning once I come back to Rajasthan because I promised Ajeet. So it's all good. And tomorrow I'll be bidding Delhi goodbye (thank god) and making my way up to Manali on a bus. Only a mere 16 hour ride.

I've made up a game to play with all the people who ask me where I'm from and what my name is. I make up random countries and then give them a very Finnish name that confuses the living daylights out of them. And I still eat curry every day.

Pokhara paradise

Second attempt at writing Pokhara blog entry a go go. Yesterday's attempt at an entry deleted itself after more than half an hour of arduous writing. One was not pleased. Anyhoo, on with the show!

After Kathmandu, Pokhara truly is a paradise on earth. The gorgeous Phewa Tal lake that sits nestled among the green, lush hills, the little boats that sit Lakeside and the utter quiet compared to Kathmadu. Of course there are cars and bikes and vans that pollute the streets with their black gunk coming out of their exhaust pipes, but  it's not to the same scale as Kathmandu, and I actually feel I can breathe. On the bus ride to Pokhara (the travel agents I booked the tickets from said the journey should take around 6 hours, and I felt that for a trip of 200km that was very optimistic. The bus ride took almost 9 hours) I got to sit by the window, and with stifling heat outside and inside the bus, I had the window open for a bit. And then noticed my seat was by the exhaust pipe, and black stuff was being expelled from this tourist bus I was on. Once I got to my hotel I scrubbed my face for quite a while and blew my nose at least 10 times. Oh to be in a country with unleaded petrol....

I have to tell you I won't be doing any trekking, mostly due to high prices on the most popular treks (4 days and 3 nights on the Poon Hill trek will set you back roughly $300). So instead I've spent my time relaxing and seeing the local sights. I hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, an incredibly sweaty 90 minute hike through the forest. The forest was swarming with monkeys, butterflies, buffalo taking a cool bath, and leeches that could potentially fall out of a tree and attach itself to you. Luckily I survived without meeting a single leech (leeches always remind me of that one episode of Black Adder where the doctor prescribes him leeches to cure all his medical problems).

From the top there are breathtaking views of the lake and valleys. The stupa itself is nothing spectacular, but worth the hike up. To get down from the stupa I opted to go down the "direct route", rather than enduring the leech forest again. The direct route is a steep path made of uneven stone steps that take you down to the lake, and from there you take a boat back to Lakeside. Now I shall impart a little bit of wisdom on you: going uphill is always better than going down. I barely had functioning knees when I got down to the lake level, those steps were awful. And I mean awful. My legs just shook when I stood still. That boat ride back across the lake was glorious. Followed by an even more glorious cold shower.

I also visited Davis's Falls, a small waterfall a few kilometers from Lakeside. Apprently the falls got their name after a Swiss woman named Mrs. Davies was taking a bath nearby in the river, fell and then died once she hit the waterfall... I don't really know what to say...

It's easy to spend a day doing nothing but reading, eating so much curry (dal bhat, paneer butter masala, palak paneer, malai kofta..) and drinking beer or mint lemonade in Pokhara (I should know, I've had plenty of those days). Especially if you walk on a bit from the tourist hub of Lakeside, there is beautiful little place by the lake where the locals come and do their washing or bathe, and where there is shade in which you can sit with a book and find that hours have gone by and you're resembling a boiled lobster. And I've gotten teeny weeny tiny freckles on my arms from being exposed to the sun so much. Thanks for that, Dad.

I've basically turned vegetarian since I came to Nepal, simply because seeing all of that meat sitting outside for who knows how many hours just puts you off it. And let's face it, vegetarian curries are the best I've eaten a lot of curries whilst I've been here. A lot. Anything with paneer in it... *drools*

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Chitwan National Park where I'm going to see some elephants! And hopefully rhino too. And maybe a tiger. From there the plan is to cross the border into India after the weekend, hop on a train and go to New Delhi where it's even hotter than it is in Pokhara. I may melt at some point. And I think I've finally sent a postcard to everyone who provided me with their addresses, so if you have given me your address you should hopefully be getting one soonish!