PNG = PURE BLISS

Papua New Guinea was pure bliss. The colour of the water was a fresh turquoise, the coral colourful, the local people happy, the weather sunny & the best sunrises I've ever seen!

Ian, Tim (2 friends from Cairns) & I flew into Port Moresby & stayed with Ian's brother for a couple of nights when we first arrived. The city was not as bad as what I had been told, however we did have someone to drive us around as Ian's brother worked for a company there. Perhaps this allowed us to avoid the worst. We flew out 2 days later to Tufi - northeast of Port Moresby. This is where the beauty began. We kayaked from Tufi to Siu then spent 6 days kayaking back, weaving our way with kayaks and a dug out canoe through all of the rias (same as fiords but formed by lava instead of a glacier) along the way, snorkelling, exploring waterfalls, drumming with kids in the villages and getting to know the locals.

We swam everyday - sometimes before breakfast, midway between our take off & landing point if we kayaked over an interesting piece of reef & before dinner. We discovered the culture by sharing our adventure with a local guy Rodney & his family. Each night we stayed at a village & ate food straight from their garden - mostly consisting of fish, taro, greens, banana, the biggest pineapples I've ever seen & of course plenty of coconuts! Most of the huts we stayed in were right on the water. This allowed us to observe life on the water as people commuted at every hour of the day in dug-out canoes - singing, laughing & talking while carrying their goods to the market or moving between villages. We could hear them singing across the water, sometimes before the sun rose - it was a beautiful sound.

Most villages housed just one extended family, ranging from 4 huts to 10huts. At our favouite village I was lucky enough to go night fishing with Fabian, the owner of the hut we stayed in. The type of fishing we did was called 'Coleman fishing' because we used a Coleman kerosene lamp at the front of the dug out canoe to see & spear the fish below. The moon was bright that night with lightning in the far distance. It was great to observe people living such a subsistent lifestyle, fishing for their next meal.

We weren't lucky enough to see any Birds of Paradise. We heard them on our bushwalk we went on one morning, but as they weren't nesting they were moving between trees & it was hard to spot them.

A large majority of the local women in the villages had tattoos over their faces. This is something they get done when they get married. It is a very painful process and they are required to go into hiding for one month to allow it to heal. The tattoos on their faces often symbolise which province or island they come from.

At the end of the 7 days none of us wanted to leave. We spent so many hours laughing together, snorkelling, kayaking & working as a team it was sad to go our separate ways. I've been having withdrawals since being home...missing the simple life back on the water. But it has also been nice getting into the Christmas festivities with my brother here in Perth.

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Nellie xo

P.S. Ian & Tim both had waterproof cameras so some of the great pics from the water are yet to come....

Colour, life & rally cars in Mumbai

Mumbai is alive! After having time to soak in the surrounds for a second time I really began to like Mumbai. The colours are amazing, there is so much life & buzz about the city - from street vendors selling interesting food, taxi drivers in old black & yellow cabs, the higher end going about their business at the Taj (fancy accommodation where I sat & watched the world go by for a few hours), the trees creating a canopy over many streets & of course the beggars lining the streets as they sleep at night or beg for money or food during the day.

Andrea & I went out to dinner with her partner in the ritzy end of town last night for some fabulous Indian food. Wow! What a way to finish. It's always great going to an Indian restaurant with a local.

I was driven to the airport this morning by a rickshaw driver who I think thought he was part of a nintendo game...we cruised through the traffic, weaving in & out at crazy speeds. It's interesting how safe I feel on the roads in India though...they all have amazing spacial awareness!

"It's the Indian Railway"

Yesterday my day started at 4am after a very festive shin dig the previous night with a great bunch of friends that I had made in Hampi. I walked to the river where a very kind Indian had to secretly transport me across the river from Hampi Island to Hampi itself in a large wooden basket known as a coracle (in the pitch dark because the boat doesn't normally start running until 7am :). I then got a rickshaw from Hampi to Hospet arriving in time for my first train. However, sadly it arrived 3hours late. With hold ups on the track throughout the day we got to Goa 5 hours late, which sadly took the beach out of the equation :(. It was a long train journey but with company from another guy from Holland it was managable. I was hoping to have a 7 hour stop over where i would enjoy some sand & good food at Ajuna beach in Goa, but plans soon changed & I had to high tail it onto a local connecting train allowing me to catch my later train from Thivim to Mumbai. 26hours later I arrived in Mumbai & was ready for a shower! On a happier note a met some beautiful people including a group of 46 Myanmar/Indian children and adults (from the northeast of India) who were travelling back from Goa after a yoga competition. I amused myself by teaching them some hand clapping games and trying to converse in incredibly broken English. My 26 hours was absolutely nothing compared to their epic journey of 5 days and many transfers between trains and buses. I think that's why I met them so I would realise I had it incredibly easy compared to some.

Hampi (the last stop on my journey in India) was a piece of paradise. The scenery was filled with palm trees, banana plantations & oodles & oodles of boulders, stretching as far as the eye could see. I filled in my days bouldering with friends, doing yoga on the plateau of a morning (flat section of rock amongst the boulders) and enjoying good food and conversation in the octagonal eating space of our accommodation. My bed was located on the rooftop of the building under a mozzie net with plenty of stars in view. Who could argue with this for just 50 rupees a night (just over $1)?! I enjoyed being able to pick up my day pack & go exploring amongst the boulders of a day knowing I wasn't going to be hassled by a rickshaw driver or walk past a pile of trash in the street.

Gokulam (just out of Mysore) where I completed my month of yoga was fantastic. I became good friends with 2 other Aussies, an American & a Finish girl in the Indian family home I was staying in. We were all doing some form of yoga while there. I also found it fascinating to get back into music. I have so much respect for musicians after taking lessons recently. I could feel the left & right hemispheres of my brain working overtime as I thought about where to place my hand on the drum, what note to say, how hard to hit the drum, etc. I improved enough to be able to play some cool combo tunes on the drums. I was loving it! My teacher played in a concert one night at the palace which a friend & I went to watch. It was phenomenal to see how fast the drums can be played & how interesting they sound when played with a violin & clay pot.

I am now in Mumbai doing a few last things before flying out to PNG, via Australia tomorrow. I have made contact with a friend of a friend from Brisbane who has been working & living in Mumbai for the last 3 years. She kindly offered me her couch for the night & met me at the train station this morning (a very settling feeling in a city that has a similar population to the entire country of Australia!) Together we shared breakfast before she ducked off to work for the day. The food is fantastic down south...I'm going to miss the dosa's, idli's and uttapum's!! I'll just have to cook them won't I!

I hope the preparations for Christmas are going well.

Nellie xo

A month of yoga, tabla lessons & other stuff in Gokulum

Ayurveda & Yoga...2 goodies in life

Hi everyone!
Well I've well & truely left the country of mountains, turquoise jewellery, eastern toilets (which I now prefer) & the best middle eastern restaurant ever (fantastic food, fantastic atmosphere & floor seating!)

I've landed myself in Gokulam (just outside of Mysore), in southern India for a month of yoga. I've completed my first week & love it. I'm living in a share house with 8 other yogis & an Indian family. This house, although it may seem packed, is completely liveable & there is a fantastic rooftop upstairs which I've spent many hours of the last 2 days sunbathing & reading my book.

Before arriving in Mysore I spent a week at an Ayurvedic health retreat in Ahmedebad, north of Mumbai. I had a contact there from an Indian friend in my Naturopath course & he turned out to be well worth the 10 hour train trip! He is an Ayurvedic doctor, a Naturopath & very knowlegeable about yoga & its many benefits, as it was combined in his Naturopath degree. I spent the week along with the other guests getting up at 4:45am to cleanse our nasal passages, wash our eyes with Neem & gargle warm salty water. This was followed by a warm lemon & honey drink, a possible enema then 45mins of walking or any form of exercise we felt like doing. At 6:30am we would all gather for an hour of yoga - where we focused not only on the physical movements but also pranayama (breathing techniques) & mudras (ancient knowledge relating to finger positions that aid in energy flow to specific parts of the body). After yoga we would enjoy 20mins of water therapy which involved walking in ankle deep water around a pond enjoying the acupressure on our feet from the pebbled bottom. This also gave us a chance to chat & soak up the morning sun. Herbal tea would be waiting for us in the garden where giant snails crawled over the dew covered grass & squirrels ran around in the trees. At 8:30am we would each be given a mud pack for our eyes & stomachs. Mud is believed to have endless benefits, however we were given these of a morning to take the fire out of bodies & calm our systems. My knowledge of the 5 elements (fire, earth, space, air, water) increased throughout my week. By 9am I was starving & we all sat down to a delicious breakfast that was prepared individually to our needs. Each morning I was given the same thing - a delicious selection of soaked nuts, figs, raisins, pomegranate juice or coconut water, curd (yogurt) & an oven dried roti. I'm not a big fan of dairy for my system so I was interested in exploring a new way of eating for a week. Twice a day between 9:30-11:30 & 1-3pm we would have treatments specific to our needs. This may involve many different types of massage, mud baths, aloe vera & neem packs (which involved being covered in green slime & standing in the sun till in dried then having it hosed off before being coated in oil - quite fun!), rose water facials, steam baths, sitz baths & punchakarma treatments (which are a little involved to explain). The therapists at the health retreat were all really gorgeous Indian women who were fun to hang out with, which was great as we did this for many hours each day. Lunch was my favourite meal - it was a variety of soup, salad, rotis (my favourite!) & always plenty of vegetables cooked in warm & interesting ways using various spices. I was lucky to have 2 hours every afternoon with Dr Chirag (the Ayurvedic doctor) discussing & learning many fascinating topics from him such as the importance of the 5 elements in everything around us, food, yoga, pranayama, mudras, Ayurvedic herbal mixtures & so much more. I'm still digesting it now as I tidy up my notes from my visits with him.

I'm surrounded by lots of great people in Gokulam & my yoga teacher is fantastic! I'm enjoying being grounded for a while & in the rhythm of doing yoga twice a day. There are some great little restaurants tucked away in people's backyards that are run by Indians, French & Swiss people. Smoothies are a big thing here - most containing nuts & Spiralina. One that I sampled the other day had frozen bananas, curd, almonds, figs & a small amount of water. It was so thick it was served in a bowl with a spoon! I think you should try making one at home - other ad ins are chocolate, dates, cashews...they're good!

Most of the yogis in Gokulam are staying in Indian family homes or shared apartments. There's a slow pace here with everyone being here for the same reason. Most people stay a minimum of a month with others here for six months or annual visits of 2 months. There are 3 main yoga shalas in the area.
I'm looking forward to improving my practice, lying on rooftops & enjoying others company.
I hope you're all happy back home.
Love Nellie xoxoxo

Dreaming while lying on rooftops

It's festival time over here so the buses are full & there's lots of activity! Large swings made out of huge bamboo trunks have been erected all over the place for the local kids to enjoy - we began seeing these pop up towards the end of our trek in each of the villages. These are only erected at festival time. The local kids kindly let me have a swing which was fun ;) It's the biggest festival of the year for Nepal - similar to our xmas back home (as the majority of the population are Buddhist or Hindu so don't celebrate xmas).
Kylie, Rita (our Estonian friend) & I were travelling back to Kathmandu yesterday & due to the buses being so full we spent the second leg of our journey on the roof. We weren't the only ones up there though...there were plenty of sheep travelling on the top of the bus which was hilarious. The first 3 hours were spent either chatting away to each other or lying down starring up at the clouds contemplating life. However, as the sun began to set & the night became cool we started to want the warmth of the inside. As we got within an hour of Kathmandu the traffic slowed right down & at the next stand still we hopped off the roof & squeezed in between all the locals inside. It took 8 hours to travel 185km!!!!! Luckily we got creative & decided to break the 8 hours of road travel with a 3 hour rafting trip in the middle of the day. Such fun! We were so glad to have a shower last night at the end of our 12 hour day, as we had eaten our fare share of dust.

There's so much colour in Nepal. It is so common to see ladies working hard in the field or carrying large baskets of potatoes & the like wearing gorgeous colourful outfits that we would only consider wearing if we were heading into the city for the day or somewhere special. It adds so much colour to the environment. The turquoise & red colour combination is my favourite - it looks gorgeous against their mocha coloured skin.

While we were staying in Pokhara a group of us from the Buddhist meditation course climbed up to Sarangkot which is situated just near Pokhara at an altitude of 1592m. A 'cruisey' 2hour walk straight up allowed us to enjoy views of Macchaputre (fish tail) & many other mountains at sunset. We also saw a beautiful beaming ray of sunshine peaking out from behind a cloud as it set behind the mountain & the horizon moved through the pastel colours. Pokhara is positioned on a large lake so this also added to the panorama. My calves are really noticing all of these mountains that just go straight up!

The Buddhist meditation course was fantastic over the weekend. Some new thoughts to contemplate surrounded by lovely people & a peaceful setting. The monk who taught the course was very well travelled & incredibly wise. We all thought it was too short though. We were required to keep silence from 8pm, after our last meditation till 7am each morning. Hard for some of the chatty characters!

I learnt the other day that if you're unlucky enough to be involved in a road accident here in Nepal & go to jail for killing someone it's quite easy to bribe your way out with cash. However, if you kill a cow that's a different story! You're often in jail for up to 12years. Who makes these rules?! I guess that's why the cows roam freely over the roads as if they own the joint.

Hugs from me xoxo

Sunshine, snow & sensational applie pie

Hi everyone!
Kylie & I are back from our 17day trek through the Annapurna Range. It was fantastic!
We actually had a mishap on our first attempt as I got really sick & had to be airlifted out by helicopter back to Kathmandu. It sounds a bit dramatic but walking with diarrhea & a big pack isn't fun. I still don't know what it was from but my infection levels were 3 times as high as they were supposed to be. Although I didn't want to go to hospital & be pumped full of antibiotics I had to follow the travel insurance procedure. On the flip side the flight Kylie & I had through the gorge & over the manicured rice paddies back to Kathmandu was so amazing! Absolutely breathtaking. I now have a new love of helicopters.
I took some time to recover in Kathmandu & then decided that we came to Nepal to get into the mountains so we headed off again for take 2.

The scenery was so contrasting throughout the 17days...we started off with green lush bush and cascading waterfalls then as we moved up in altitude it started to get cooler, the environment harsher & the goats began to appear. The goats over here are so gorgeous. Each of them are so unique - some have spotty ears, others one brown leg or their backside dipped in chocolate. I loved looking at the differences between them.
Before we started the trek we thought we'd be without a shower for the whole time just using fresh water streams where we could, but on our first night we were greeted by a warm shower. This wasn't always the case & at the higher altitudes with freezing cold nights sometimes we weren't so lucky but we at least had the option. The teahouses provided some good food which varied greatly in quality but on the whole was good. We ate plenty of Dal Bhat (the national dish consisting of rice, dahl, pickle, steamed spinach with chilli & potato curry) & also weren't deprived of any goodies such as apple pie. I had some of the best apple pie I have ever had, while on the trek. Marpha, a small town known for its apples produced some damn fine apple pie. My mission is to recreate one when back to Oz.
The night before we climbed the pass (5416m)...we got snow!!!!!! We woke to a winter wonderland. It felt like I was somewhere in Europe. We trekked up to the top of the pass in what felt like every piece of clothing I owned. I didn't suffer from an altitude sickness but was quite breathless towards the top while climbing. We had perfect blue skies & celebrated with warm ginger tea to try & get feeling back in my fingers. 'The band' (a group of us that became good friends during the trek) intended to write 5416m with our bodies in the snow but we were all so cold we wrote it in the snow with a stone instead & snapped a few pics.
The scenery changed dramatically after the pass...it went from white fluffy snow to brown sharp arid looking mountains, known as the Muktinah Valley which leads into another large walking area known as the Mustang Valley. I thought this scenery was stunning. The winds blew through the valley from 11am till 4pm everyday so we would try to do most of our walking in the morning to avoid the dust.
We met some fantastic people, had perfect blue skies for 15days of the trek, covered 220km, learnt OODLES of new card games & drank LOTS of ginger tea.
This feels like such a minute summary but it's a start. I would love to post some pics but will probably do that around xmas time.
Hugs & happiness
Nellieoxo