hello!

hampi. an impressive vista

some sort of bizzare festival going on whilst we were in hampi. it involved a lot of people with knives dancing and chanting around a semi-comatosed guru with a shrine on his head. he staggered about the main street in a daze, supported by his acoylites who followed him where ever he went like hands on a uija board glass. this chap with the lime on his sword was one of his guards.

lucy in a tuk tuk

a lush pomigranite.

me and an elephant at the maharaja’s palace in mysore

some holy cows

all cars and lorries had this message on the back. the horn is used primarily instead of signel lights.

the finest beverage known to man! this kept me alive during my illness in singapore. luch peach flavoured aloe vera juice with lumps of succulent aloe plant in it. mmm-mm

feel free to send me the tesco sim! its better than nothing that i have at the moment. looks like i would have to get a new sim in every country i go to so that would be a bit of a bind.

julio

According to the book I looked at when we briefly thought of going to Malaysia, it’s always ‘monsoon’ season there, but they’re different monsoons, and what this means is that for one half of the year the West coast is better than the East coast and vice versa. Get on the right – or left – coast and the weather should be fine and dandy.

I don’t know which coast this place is on but it sounds like the right one. The references to Bali ring a bell!

“After many holidays in Bali fighting off street vendors I found the fact that there were no hawkers on the beaches or streets in Langkawi a huge relief and very relaxing. I felt safe. There were also enough restaurants and things to do to keep me interested – without the noise and crowds. I was in Langkawi last Feb and it was very hot and dry. It didn’t rain once – I understand this is typical for Feb.”

Do you want me to mail you a Tesco sim? It works everywhere. 40p a text!

cheers for the info tom! we are in melaka at the mo’ and although nice it holds no real interest. we are going to head up to the camaron highlands and then onwards to tailand. we had planned to go to the islands but as its monsoon at the moment in malaysia it not that great or so we have heard.

i tried to put some pics up but for some reason this computer has only ms paint on it and thus i cannot resize them. will try later.

julio

Jul, we spent about 6 weeks in Malaysia during last year. I wasn’t entirely excited by it.

However the Perenthian Islands are noteworthy for the snorkelling and diving on offer – there’s nothing else though. Just going up to 1 meter depth is enough to see about 30 fish of about 5 varieties from the main beach. There are sharks and turtles too. It may be monsoon there though.

Also although I haven’t been the national park rain forrest is supposed to be good because I guy I met yesterday said that there was huge snakes and very impressive wildlife in abundance.

If you go to Thailand, my favourite place is Kachanapuri due to the tiger temple and eravan waterfalls – 7 different waterfalls going up a mountain within walking distance.

hail all!

thanks for the letter ma! it sounds rather pleasent and cool at home.  its monsoon season in singapore and malaysia at the moment and the air is wet, thick and sweaty. been having some nice food, there is so much variety here that its hard to choose.

 so far south east asia has been a breath of fresh air. people are so friendly here! i’ve been so unused to it, i am wondering around in a sort of daze thanking people prefusely for what to me is an unexpected kindness, but what is actually fairly normal behavior. its so nice to be smiled at in the street! our stay in singapore was really pleasant. out hostel was run by a young chinese couple who where so friendly and helpfull it practically brought a tear to the eye. singapore itself is crazy expensive so we only stayed for 4 nights or so and now we are in malaysia, whose people are so far is exhibiting a similer amount of cheery goodwill. for lucy’s birthday we went out in singapore with an vietnam war veteren, his two sons and five fabulous brazilian girls, who we met at our hostel. a goood time was had buy all. we had a bit of trouble getting into a club becouse one of the sons was wearing flip flops. we eventually got into a different club, though he had to hire a shoes for the evening. thus he strutted the measure on the dance foor in patent leather shoes with the socks pulled up and shorts a t-shirt. a striking figure!

 love julio

Dear Julio,

We woke up on wednesday to a glorious white day. The snow was at least 10 cm deep. I rushed outside. It was peacefully quiet with only a few birds chirping about. Every leaf was supporting a big bonnet of powdery snow. I threw a few snowballs around and then went down Church Lane to see further afield. It was so beautiful. The snow was balanced on every little twig, blade of grass, bushes, trees, roofs. I could not see the Downs as everything was enveloped in a powdery mist.

I met a few people going to work or walking their dogs. They gave me a beaming smile, a ‘good morning’ that had a definite gleeful tonality, and a friendly wave. But I could feel on the way that this happiness was beginning to melt with the snow. I hurried back to rescue the magical moment and met an oldish man juggling a big snowball and looking, with a glint of malice perhaps, for an easy target.

I wish you were here. We could have built a snowman.

Love Mama