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