I’m really pleased to announce that Liz has won a travel writing piece, which will feature in tomorrow’s Daily Telegraph in the UK. If you happen to be near a news agent then please do buy a copy. If you can’t get to one, don’t worry, we’ll be publishing it on followtheboat in due course, but not before her well-deserved moment of glory. Well done, Liz. Here’s an excerpt…
Telegraph Publishes Liz’s Winning Piece Tomorrow Read Post »
The last instalment of our six-part story of our trip from Turkey to India has been published in Sailing Today. Over the last year our story of the Vasco Da Gama rally, including our passage through Pirate Alley and across the Arabian Sea to India, has been serialised in British sailing magazine, Sailing Today. In this story we make our way down from Goa to Kochi with friends Emma and Katie straight through some nasty storms, signalling the beginning of monsoon. Sailing Today Issue 171 is out now and is also available online.
Final Sailing Today Six-Parter Published Read Post »
We begin our Golden Triangle trip of Rajasthan in Jaipur, a city rich with energy, commerce and culture. It quickly goes down as one of our favourite places visited to date. Known as the Pink City, it is a place where monkeys thrive on the props of the human dwellers in the back streets. In this post we invite you for an early morning walk through the back streets, ending with a little photo slide show of this rather interesting place.
Dusty Backstreets of Jaipur Read Post »
As a precursor to our Jaipur blog posts I thought I’d post this portrait up of a young man washing outside his home, illustrating the lack of running water in the backstreets of Jaipur. This sight is not uncommon in India, despite its fast-growing economy.
This is Phiprani, 61, a member of the Limboo tribe, who are a sub-clan of the Nepali people. Although of Nepali ancestry she lives with her family in her ancient family home in Sikkim, now part of India. Her piercings are typical of this tribe.
Portrait Of A Limboo Lady Read Post »
With Liz being short-listed for another writing competition this week we thought we’d start off our Rajasthan series with one of her latest entries, which we’ve also made available for the iPad and Kindle. Beautifully written, this pulls together a number of themes set in Jaipur, Jodpur and Agra (Taj Mahal), the classic traveller trail called The Golden Triangle. The central story, however, concentrates on a remarkable man we met whilst in Jaipur whose quest to empower women from the lowest castes affected us deeply. Setting the scene for the next few blog posts this is moving, brutal yet ultimately uplifting. It is, in my opinion, Liz’s best non-fiction writing to date.
A Rajput Gentleman – Introduction To The Golden Triangle Read Post »
For those fortunate not to have experienced a squatter toilet, you’re lucky: it’s a combination of yoga, swimming and ****ing through the eye of a needle. But what I don’t understand is how I am supposed to maintain a squatting position without getting cramp. And what is that bucket and jug combo for? I’m unsure. I do have a couple of theories though. Read on…
Stand, Sit Or Squat? A Bottomological Dilemma Read Post »
Husband and wife Santa and Kabita preparing us dinner. We spent a night at their home in the remote Himalayan village of Baranumber, where all cooking is done old-school style in a smoky wattle-and daub annexe that serves as their kitchen. Food was amazing; so too was the maize wine they distilled on this same stove before our very eyes!
Preparing Dinner The Old School Way Read Post »
Liz and I have just spent a truly inspiring day darting between three schools in the Himalayan mountains. We met some wonderful children from very poor backgrounds who are all learning English (we’re trying to ‘twin’ one class with a school in Newport via our friend, Jude, but more on that in another blog post). Just take a look at this cheeky little chappie from Class Six at Magna Vale School, Sukhia Pokri, Darjeeling. Just adorable!
The Cute Kid From Class 6 Read Post »
Dyed chicken, anyone? This photo was taken one Saturday afternoon on our way to the Arattupuzha Pooram elephant festival at a temple in Kerala. Elephant photos are so cliché so how about one of imbued infant avians instead? You’ve gotta love that one lonesome red chick!
Our free Piracy Updates service was launched yesterday. It aims to offer a number of ways for anyone to gain up-to-the-minute news, information and piracy attack alerts. The service provides filtered news searches sourced from news agencies around the world. It is delivered via hourly news reports from Twitter, daily updates via RSS or email, and a weekly email too, with consideration given to mariners on low-bandwidth email connection. We encourage you to forward on the www.followtheboat.com/piracy/ link to anyone you think may benefit from the service.
Followtheboat’s Piracy News Updates & Alerts Now Launched Read Post »
If you had told me a year ago that I would be in India drinking curried tea, I’d have laughed you off the boat. I’d heard of curry for breakfast and I’d even heard rumours of curried ice cream, but curried tea? As a tea-drinking Brit I spluttered and guffawed at this ridiculous notion.
A Dash Of Curry In Your Tea, Sir? Read Post »
My Mum and Dad have been on at me for not writing anything since we left Turkey, but I’ve been busy, and they write so much there’s nothing left for me to write about. They even stole my favourite topic, FISH, and wrote about all their fishing successes. What they failed to mention, of course, is how I actually lure the fish to Esper with my witchy, feline, telepathic senses, so all their successes are really mine. Anyway, here are my initial impressions of India. Damn snakes.
Today I had an encounter I will never forget. Meet Chella Duri, a goatherder from Tamil Nadu, working in the neighbouring state of Kerala. He earns as much in a month as we spend on an evening out, but I’m not asking for your pity, just a few moments to listen to what he had to say when he heard that I was a rich westerner living on a boat in Cochin…
The Day I Almost Bought A Goatherd’s Son – Tamil Nadu Read Post »
