The End

Well, this is it. We're now back at home in London. I'd certainly recommend travelling to anyone, its a completely different feel when you up sticks and actually pretend to be living somewhere abroad rather than on a two week holiday. Its cost about £6000 each, which is a lot, except when compared to rent in England for the same time or a new car.

The things I remember most right now are the unexpected connections. After a while, your eyes glaze over temples, mountains, cities etc. Its striking how similar every city was, we went from Seattle to Kyoto to Hannoi and they all had exactly the same grey concrete buildings. Yes, there were different monuments, but 99% of the people lived in very similar places. The shops had the main differences, from the huge supermarkets of America to the identical pristine air conditioned Japanese 7-11's.
Bolivia had millions of individual stalls, e.g. one for shampoo, one for conditioner that made it hopeless to try and find something but did employ lots of people.

No one, apart from the British (ok, Americans as well), seem to have any sense of personal space or queues.

South America was different in that we could almost talk to the locals as locals - bit more suntan and spanish lessons would have helped. Watching a pirated copy of Star Wars 3 and hearing the Emperor say "Goooooood" in English and seeing the translated "Bieeeeen" was quite funny. Watching a BBC program on Che Guevara's influence in Burma while in Bolivia right next to where he was caught and executed was spooky- is the world really that interconnected? The BBC's Top Gear was shown on every continent. The clear mountain air in the Andes and Himalayas was great, there's a serenity there that is hard to find in super concentrated accelerated condensed London.

Geckos and elephants are cool.

The knack is definitely to see yourself as a local, well, as far as that is possible. So you too think that displaying anger is a hilarious loss of face, or that shrugging your shoulders and saying "what to do?" is a course of action, or siesta-ing every afternoon is how it should be. Air con is evil, it makes you believe the midday sun is ludricously hot when everyone else just thinks its normal; for a 2 week holiday, OK, but for longer periods people will just laugh (maybe silently) at that sweaty westerner.

We thought we'd have lots of time, but it all seemed to disappear. Half the time was spent trying to comprehend and place the things we'd seen in the first half. We attempted to read various classics, the kind of book you like to claim is worth reading but you're far too busy to actually read it, but we got so fed up with the super heavyweight elephant stopping sentances that we gave up. Although after starting Don Quixote, we have noticed every other book in the world seems to quote it.

We had some massive journeys like 24 solid hours from Seattle to Kyoto and 30 hours Goa to Delhi on the train. It wasn't too bad, as the entire point of being out here was to travel.

Anyway, that's it for now. Where next? We'd like to go to China, but for now its time to get money, jobs and a house.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~T.S. Eliot

Nope, same old Britain. ~Me.

The world

These are the last 100 visitors of our site. It feels weird being in India, with lots of package tourists, and thinking, actually we went the long way round. Anyway, the long awaited "Best-of" the world lists:

• Best Food: Vietnam. Every meal was excellent. Best Indian thali so far, best Chinese, best everything except steak. Runners up to Argentina for humongous steaks and India for curries. (Note to American friends - this is for eating out, eating in is purely on the skill of the cook not the nation!)
• Worst Food: Bolivia. Ugh. Closely followed by Peru. Nepal came close, but what do you expect halfway up Everest, and besides, it had good western imitations and tibetan dishes.
  
• Best Transport: Argentina. Buses on time, cheap, lots of legroom, even wine, food and movies on some of them.
  
• Worst Transport: Canada. Come on guys, I hear there are some Bolivian travel agents available for hire.
  
• Most Friendly: We don't know. Argentina, Sherpas, Thailand all about equal.
  
• Least Friendly: Bolivia. They really didn't want you there.
  
• Most Messed up: Nepal. Wins over Bolivia by one actual civil war, several messy coups and complete intimidation of the press. Credit going to India for a state government declaring their solution to a drought was "we have complete faith in the rain god".
  
• Favourite country: Thailand and Argentina - completely different, equally nice.

Goa beach

Goa beach, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Yup, we found the deserted beach in Goa. Today is quite busy, there are 6 people on the beach.

Gateway of India

Gateway of India, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Not that impressive really.

Thing

What is that, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Now, normally when you're approached by a tout you have some idea of what they're selling - a drum, a necklace, shawl etc. But what on earth is this for? Its a 1.5m orange inflatable speckled bouncy thing.

Mumbai sunset

Mumbai sunset, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

This is Chowpatti beach, in Mumbai. Don't swim. The entire city is hot and muggy, even in winter. Its cheap compared to London, which is code for arrgh its expensive. Thirteen million people try to cram into one peninsula. People sleep on the streets in their hundreds. There's no real tourist attractions, there's the Gateway of India (a 3-storey arch) and a few caves, so there aren't really any touts.

Mumbai university

Tropical hogwarts, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Mumbai (Bombay- the name Bombay was judged too colonial and the local Maharastians decided to name it more in their style) has lots of colonial buildings that look a bit strange in tropical settings. Mumbai really isn't like this, its a big, sweltering, expensive city.

India

Well, the end of the trip is in sight. Next tuesday, we have a mammoth 30 hour train journey to Delhi (we aim to sleep for 20 hours), that arrives wednesday night, then we have thursday to sight see, possibly the Taj Mahal, then we fly out very early friday morning.

I don't think we can really comment on India, its a huge place and we've only got 2 weeks here. Goa/the south seems to be the really chilled out half, at least compared to Rajasthan. We went to the flea (flee?) market at Anjuna, argh, that was nasty. A long hot bus ride to get there, then, if you show any interest in anything you get hounded for the next hour. And the prices seem to be cheaper in the local shops, or at least, the shop keepers are far more willing to come down. A classic line from one of the sellers who chased me for 30 mins - "But I have come down from 1200 to 350 and you haven't moved at all!" in tones of outrage, for something that I reckon was worth 50 and cost him 20.

We followed our usual plan, turn up in a place, wander round, get lost, and we've ended up with a really nice place. A deserted beach in Goa - and we've seen enough package tour crammed beaches to appreciate it.

Mumbai

Well, we made it. There have been other times with tight connections, but the Nepali Royal Bureaucracy and Indian Embassy together... oh well, the rant about Nepal is over. We just had to get out of Kathmandu, it was getting depressing.

Its great being on the internet, anyone can set up shop as if they are the best informed person in the world. Can't think what this trip would have been like if we'd been restricted to postcards.

India or not

Still in Nepal. The Indian visa may turn up anytime from 4.30pm, the airline offices won't sell us a ticket without the visa, and they shut at 5.00pm with a 10 minute taxi ride, then a 20 minute taxi ride to the airport to get the 5.10pm check in for the flight to Mumbai. Will we make it? Any bets?

Another one rides the bus

Well, we're nearly out of Nepal, back in Kathmandu after a nasty 9 hour bus from Pokhara (the checkpoints were out in force). Tomorrow we should be able to get an Indian visa, then fly to Mumbai - I'll believe it when we're there.

I mentioned earlier about the $250 average annual wage, it definitely results in a very cheap country. Its a sign that you've really acclimatised when you view 100 rupee notes as big money. Can it really cost that much back at home?

The food has been really good so far, except for the Nepali food (that's Dhal Bhat- rice, potatos in curry-powdered water, and lentils) which is dire. Tibetan momos are great. I'm not entirely sure what "massed potatos" are but they sound interesting. A few of the restaurants have picked up on the organic craze ("...and our chickens are vegetarian"), I can't blame them although I suspect there isn't a chemical fertiliser in the entire country, and the farmers would use them if they could get their hands on them. All those dietary fads saying avoid processed food - well, try anywhere in Asia.

English is the only language to travel on. Its got that critical density, where Thai's and Vietnamese learn it because that's what all Europeans can speak, and no one can speak Chinese so between them and the Americans, its spoken everywhere. Badly. Most countries have newspapers in English, e.g. the Himalayan, the Times of India, the Cambodia Post, Buenos Aires Herald etc. Most of the internal gossipy political stuff on this blog has come straight from those papers.

Stories about the West take a very different angle to back at home. At home, there are certain concepts that are taken as given, like nuclear proliferation is bad, something must be done about terrorism preferably with a huge army because only the good guys can afford trillion-dollar armies, free trade is good but globilisation is bad etc. Out here its very much a "this country can do this, and does" - Iran getting nukes? Well, its obviously developed enough for the technology, maybe it deserves it - it'll act as a counterweight to Israel. Not one country has cared about globilisation; they all want to buy new stuff, and how can you yourself lose your culture? You'll still think the way you always did on the important stuff.

George "God Told Me To Do It" W is plastered everywhere, as is the plot to bomb Al-Jazeera HQ by a terrorist organisation (well, they inspire fear and terror, is that not the hallmark of terrorists?). I think Dave Barry's got the idea, we need a dinosaur breeding program immediately to alleviate the oil shortage. Editorials from American newspapers - Washington Post and NY Times- are often repeated, I liked the one about America "picking up the defense tab for the rest of the world". Its not clear exactly who feels safer with America having more guns than any civilised nation - certainly every country I've travelled to has been decidedly edgy that a fundamentalist Christian state might take it upon itself to, say, re-colonise a continent or invade under some dubious pretense. They feel they've tried the West's advise- open up the markets, let us sell you beads for gold, etc- and have ended up decidely second place.

I'm not saying any of this is right, nor that I agree with it. Its been debated endlessly, the only thing I have to add are the opinions from other countries - whatever you may say about the perfect reporting of CNN ("...and we have a fact. Yes, just in, a Fact. We now go live to the scene, where a reporter will repeat said fact until the next advert break"), Fox news and BBC they are the American/British view. The sheer number of opposed views you encounter really makes you think.

But that's not to say anyone else is any better. The RNA here has casually gunned down suspected Maoists in broad daylight, in a deliberate attempt to strike terror into the hearts and minds of terrorists. The comission kickback culture here is awful. If anyone befriends you, or suggests a hotel or restaurant, or pretty much says anything you can't take it as the price will double and 50% goes to the tout. It destroys any trust between you and the next person. Everyone lies about prices, and trying to extract the actual price out of a seller takes extreme patience. They know the price of ignorance, and they'd rather not give it away for free. This is all peanuts compared to the big stuff: governments and charities. The Nepalese dream is to get a job with so much authority that you can complicate the regulations to a point where people will pay comissions to speed things up (a No Politician Left Behind program). Everything is deferred upwards, and if it's not the King's fault, maybe it was the will of god. Charities aren't much better, most of the international ones end up paying huge amounts to international companies to build huge projects that fail once the initial investment is gone. Or medium amounts to Nepali projects that get siphoned off into the pockets of anyone running it. It seems that, under Hinduism, if you're poor or female the best you can do is obey your superiors, die, and be reborn into a higher caste. Bored fatalism is evident on the roads, where people appear to walk down the middle with their eyes shut, on the principle that if others see them, its their responsibility to avoid them and vice versa. The roads are ludricously polluted due to the petrol being watered down with kerosene - there are inspectors to prevent this, they all get bribed. The rice fields all have apartment blocks in them, the water supply has given out in entire city blocks, and the population is set to double in the next 30 years. The trade situation is nasty, with India being so huge they can dictate their terms - its called asymetrical negotiation out here, and everyone aspires to be the America of it. For example, days after Kodak anounced plans for a huge plant in Nepal, India slaps a 100% tax on film imports. Kodak cancels the plant and it ends up in India. Its not all bad though; the 100,000 Sherpas are really cheerful and friendly.

Nepali adverts are also hilarious. They really give the lie of all advertising - hey, if you had fairer lighter skin you'd be going out with beautiful girls! I want my colgate back at home to have Super Shakti formulisation, I've got no idea what it does but it sounds good. "Its your ambition - make it big" next to a whiskey bottle. Union Jack flags are everywhere - its either from the football (English league is everywhere) or the royalty. The body language here is great. I like the taxi drivers - you ask how much to the airport, they mumble a ludricous price. You say "how much?" - they scoff, wave their hand downwards, break eye contact and say "come with me". You stay where you are and repeat the question. They mimic a Shakespearean actor doing a "who is this fool who dares to question me when I'm doing him a huge favour?" and then you walk off and the price halves. Next second - they're fine, no trace of disaproval, no hint of annoyance. Prices also vary widely between the start and end of a service, e.g. they'll say a phone call to England is 30 a minute, you see a figure on the phone skyrocket and ask- is that the price? They reply, no, no, no, don't worry. You get suspicious, end the call and what do they charge you? 120 a minute, 400% of what they said. Its not a lie, its a different definition of the truth to one that benefits the teller.

Its not all that bad, these are the worst examples I could come up with. Most of the time the service is ok to excellent, and the price really is cheap. And that's cheap by Asian standards. Nearly all of the rip-offs are for a dollar or less, and considering e.g. BR, BT, landlords and eating out back home, they've probably added up to less than a round in a pub. And the mountains are astonishing. And besides all this stuff going on, due to all the face-saving by the microsecond activity, you feel safe.

Next country!

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. ~G.K. Chesterton