A Messy New Year!
What with our land-based travels poor old Esper has been neglected somewhat, so now it’s time to attend to her needs and get cracking with those all important boat maintenance jobs.
Photographing The Limboo People
Our last blog post on our trip to Sikkim ends with a photo-montage of the Limboo people. As you read in our last post we spent some time with out guide, Perna, and his family. They reside in the village of Darap in an old house passed down through the generations. Perna lives in relative luxury with a TV in his room, but the main house is like something out the dark ages. We were privileged to be allowed to spend a morning with these gentle people, even more so that they patiently allowed us to snoop around their house and photograph them going about their daily chores, which was mainly drinking salted tea and cooking pop-corn.
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Kechopari Lake Almost Gave Me A Heart Attack
Liz has very kindly omitted the tale of our 17km trek to Kechopari Lake. In a nutshell it is the story of a 40 year old man realising his limitations. Realising them in a way that involves clutching the left arm, breathing like a 100 year old, having to walk backwards up hairpin tracks to avoid the constantly seizing leg muscles, all the while watching his girlfriend skip gaily by, light as a feather, hopping from leaf to cobweb like a woodland fairy.
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Please Stop Watching Me Wee
There’s a difference between a toilet cleaner and a toilet attendant. A toilet cleaner is someone whose job it is to clean toilets. A toilet attendant, however, is different. Their job is to lurk by the entrance to the convenience and guide you through, as if the ‘Toilet This Way’ sign was not obvious enough, and then point you to a cubical or urinal they believe is most suitable for your requirements. They’ll then mill around close by, putting you off going for a wee.
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Pic of the Day: Kanchenjonga From Gangtok
Our Pic of the Day today is an image taken from Gangtok (the capital town of Sikkim) of Kanchenjonga, the world’s third highest mountain. If you look very closely you’ll see that Kanchenjonga itself is on the far right, sitting way above the massif in front, which is in turn beautifully lit by the setting sun.
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Danish Released, Chandlers Talk & Piracy Poll
Only four days in and already the week has been a busy one on the piracy front. We have three important news items for your perusal: the release of the Danish sailors from Somalia, the Chandlers talking on BBC and the Piracy Update Facebook page and poll.
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Waiting In Darjeeling
Our Pic-of-the-Day today is a candid shot of some locals from Darjeeling waiting for something to happen. What, we don’t know, but the woman above seems to know what’s going on. Click the link or image to see the large version and let us know what you think!
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Bad Boy Indian
As our blog moves into the Blue City of Jodhpur, we thought we’d post up our Pic Of The Day: a little bad boy, his home-girl and his wheels, taken in one of the back-streets of this amazing city. Kids, eh? Same the world over. [Click to see the full image]
Jodhpur Crowded And Dirty?
Our copy of the Lonely Planet describes Jodhpur as “crowded and dirty”. What utter tosh. Being in India ‘crowded’ is a given but The Blue City is by far the cleanest place we have visited so far (and certainly cleaner than London right now). Its smart clock tower in the centre gives it a friendly market-town ambiance and the streets between our niwas (home-stay) and the centre were wide, airy and populated by some rather grand houses. The wonderful tight back-streets are in stark contrast, but all daubed in a bright blue paint and bustling with locals at work and play. We have three (yes, three!) slide shows to illustrate the grandeur of The Blue City to take your mind off the horror of the London riots.
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Class Five’s Letters – Part Two
The second part of our Newport Primary School feature, where we answer the questions put to us by Mrs Savill’s class. Also in this post is the video clip we showed the children of Newport Primary, to help give them an idea of life in the Himalayan foothills.
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Class Five’s Letters – Part One
We take a break from our travelling and return to Newport Primary School, more specifically Class 5 who we visited last week. We showed video clips of our time in the Himalayas and we talked about life on the sea. We were there to start a cultural exchange programme between the students of Newport and the students at Magno Vale Academy, a school set up by the MondoChallenge Foundation. The project is being coordinated by Class 5’s teacher Jude Savill, MondoChallenge representative Amy Pettipher, and ourselves. More on MondoChallenge later, in the meantime we just had to print and reply to these wonderful letters. Here are the first three:
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Agra’s Not Just The Taj Mahal, You Know
The Taj Mahal is the main reason for visiting Agra, but it’s not the only one. Indeed anyone in the area who doesn’t take in the ‘Baby Taj’ (Itimad-ud-Daulah) is missing a treat as its beauty is almost on a par with her big sister. Sadly this is in stark contrast to the acid-burned arm of the beggar boy we saw at the trainstation. That’s India for you. This week’s post is packed full of photographs, for those who just want to skim through the last of our Agra blog entries.
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Baywatch of Goa
Pic of the Day today is the last spread from our Sailing Today series. This was taken on Anjuna Beach in Goa and features four Indian life-guards with little to do except look cool. Baywatch eat your heart out!
The Taj Mahal In Agra: Beauty And The Beast
Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, is a huge contradiction. Boasting possibly the most beautiful building in the world the town itself is a filthy disgrace. Still, we enjoyed it from both cultural and photographic perspectives, and so in this little post we take you to Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, grabbing some stunning shots of a legendary landmark.
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World’s Most Clichéd Shot, In HDR
My Pic of the Day is a shot everyone is familiar with. Next week our blog takes you to the Taj Mahal so in anticipation I thought I’d post up this classic image given some HDR treatment (a photography technique where three different exposures of the same shot are overlaid to pull out the detail in the shadow and hightlights).
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