23/01/2004

hi mum & dad, hope you had a relaxing weekend away. Cheers for the shots -

noticed there's only a couple of the house - are you giving me a little

sneak-peak and keeping the rest under wraps?

all good here in calcutta, sorry kolkata now isn't it? anyway we arrived

yesterday from dhaka expecting to be mobbed at the airport, then ripped off

on the way into town and then surrounded by beggars as soon as we stepped

foot onto the pavement. But it wasn't like that at all! we had expected the

worse after hearing a zillion idian horror stories but it's actually quiet

and peaceful here - brtish colonial buildings, green parks, wide leafy

street, good curries - we could almost be in london. i'm not sure where the

billion of indians are but they're not here - perhaps they're in dehli?

anyway, dhaka was probably more of a culture shock  - we weren't there long

but managed to fit in a wander around the city before our flight - we were

huge celebrities! everyone wanted to be our friend. In one case we went for

a look at the central mosque and were swamped by bunch of bangladeshis who

just wanted to stand and stare at us. then one of says: "salamon alleakum",

which means "allah be with you", or something along those lines. then greg

gives the appropriate response which we had learnt in turkey "alleakum

salmon" which basically means 'and may he be with you too' -and didn't hey

love us after that! - big smiles, back pats and thumbs up signals from

everyone! we had bangladeshi shadows following us around the streets after

that. it was great.

soonish, we will be taking the train 35hrs across india to Jaisalmer,

Rajasthan  - to catch the colourful desert festival which supposedly has

turban tying competions, snake charmers and moustache twirlers! can't wait!

alright then, better go find myself a bengali curry. yumyum. the Iqbals were

from west bengal weren't they?

lots of love CaraXXX

30/01/2004

hi mums, have spent the morning sightseeing but have retired to the internet

cafe for some relaxing - feeling a bit sick in the stomach (thought my

tolerance to jerms would have built up by now.) also on antibiotics for

cystitis...so not doing much this arvo. glad to hear everything is okay with

you - disc damage though! when are you going to start taking it easy?? get

dad to do all the moving and digging - you know how he likes to build up a

sweat! Greg may be interested in paving job if he has time. will put it to

him. Actually greg's keen to move back to canberra next year- to be closer

to his mates and family - he has a vision of a house with a yard and vege

patch- i think he's going through an early 30's crisis! may have to oblige

him as he moved to melbourne for me...I'll miss my pubs though. am plaaning

on doing my small business course when i get home. am thinking will need

approx $60,000 to start up the shop (according to greg i have to factor in

not making any profit in the first year - i guess i'll learn all this stuff

in the course) -but will have to sit down and work it out properly.

I read about the cricketers hanging out with the canberra bush-fire kibs in

the indian news here. though there was a slight error with the info. they

reported 500 kids dying in the bush-fires last year! i guess they thought

that horrendous tragedies happen in india all the time and losing 500 houses

and a couple of people was not worthy of their tandulkur (i know who he

is!!). very amusing though. so was jamie as excited as you about it all??

have i told you about jodpur? it's an amazing blue city in the middle of the

desert. the houses are all painted different shades of blue. in the middle

of the city a gorgeous fort rises out of the ground and towers over the

windy streets. cows, gaots, camels and sadhus (holy men) roam the alleyways.

it stinks of excretions, insence and spices. it's very exotic. yesterday we

hit the palace - 10kms out of town. the maharaja still lives in half of it -

while the other half has been turned into a very fancy hotel. we treated

ourselves to a fancy lunch there over looking the manicured grounds with

views over the dessert and jodpur city. nice to pretended that we weren't

smelly backpackers for the arvo. the food was top-notch - i had a tandooried

fish and a bloody mary. cost a fotune by indian standards but it was the

same cost as a take away back home.

anyway better go. enjoy your month off! very exciting - not everyday you

move into a customed designed house!!

lots of love to you and the gang. love caraXXXXXXX

10/02/2004

namaste all!

i have been a bit slack with my correspondence so apologies go out to those

i have failed to get back to. the slow indian internet is driving me

bonkers. on top of that there is the inevitable power failure that occurs

just as you go to hit the send button..."ahh indian power madam, that will

be 50 rupees madam, please come again".

okay an up-date. hmmm where to start? we had a great christmas eve in saigon

with a bunch of funky young vietnamese - they took us out on the town, which

was heaving, showed us a very good time and got us into the christmas

spirits - apologies go out to my family for calling them up on christmas day

and trying to hold a (incomprehensible) conversation.

From saigon we took a nice three day trip up the mekong river to phnom penh,

cambodia. we hit the capital on new years eve and with all vows "to never

drink again" forgotten we took to the town with a great group of people from

our boat to bring in 2004. It was more low-key then christmas eve but a good

night nonetheless. Annabelle and Suzie a couple of mad brits were still

rejoicing from their rugby world cup win 6 weeks later.... You'd have

thought england had never won anything before..? oh hang-on, it hasn't. (hi

girls!). New years day we hit the Cambodian coast line with our new friends

and lazed on the beach for a week recovering by stuffing ourselves with

cheap octopus and king prawns. yum. Back to phnom penh for a proper look

around, then onto siem reap for a gawk at the famous Angkor Wat which did

not disappoint. We got up early to watch the sunrise over it along with

hundreds of other keen tourists - surprisingly they did not detract from the

moment. it was a beautiful sight. All in all Cambodia is a fascinating

country to be  - an amazingly cheerful and resilient people given their

recent sad history.

Limbs still intact we left cambodia and went back to bangkok to wait for our

indian visa to be processed. we hit the islands in the interim for one last

relaxo and soaked up all the civilisation we could. Flew into Dhaka,

Bangladesh a couple of days later and spent the day there shell shocked. We

were huge celebrities in dhaka, everywhere we went we were followed by a

gaggle of gawking bangladeshis who couldn't get enough of us. At one point

we stopped at the central mosque for a peak. within seconds we had a crowd

of people surrounding us, staring intently. we started feeling a bit unsure

whether our presence was welcome or not, then after a while one bloke gets

up the courage to say " a salaam alleahkum" (peace be with you or something

similar..) so we say the appropriate response "alleahkum salaam" - well that

broke the ice. huge smiles and back-pats, thumbs up signals. we had an even

bigger crowd following us around Dhaka after that...they loved us.

The day after we arrived in Calcutta - it was a public holiday there so it

was easy transition into india. the hoards where at home watching the Oz v's

India test match. which left only the homeless, destitute and dieing on the

streets. A distressing sight, which i doubt we'll get used to..

Spent a couple of days exploring calcutta then caught a sleeper train across

the country to rajasthan. A very entertaining 35hrs it was. Again we were

big hits, with indians coming from carriages around to have a look and a

chat. what is your country? ahh australia, very good cricket team. captain,

ricky ponting. thankyou, thankyou, i'll pass that on to them. you are very

lucky to have good cricket team. yes, i guess we are... thankyou. Greg

really carried the team there...It seemed he had a wealth of cricket

information stored away for just the right occasion( I knew I let him tag

along for a reason!). once the topic of cricket had been exhausted, which

takes a lot longer than you'd imagine, politics was on the agenda, iraq,

america, israel, pakistan, new zealand...huh? who have they upset now? oh

right. back to cricket again....In between assessments of Tandulkar's form

we were gorging ourselves on marsala chai, samosas, curries and sweets.

Vendors would board the train at each platform with their yummy wares and

flog them off for a couple of rupees. It was like a moving indian

restaurant. great stuff.

Have spent the last few weeks exploring Rajasthan in north of the country.

Jodhpur was our first stop. Called the Blue City because well, it's blue...A

huge fort dominated the cityscape, rising up above the blue houses. it was a

lovely spot to hang around for a few days and get lost in the maze of

alleyways and streets that wrap around the fort below.  We were constantly

followed by little kids who would tell us that we have a very good cricket

team...and we should count ourselves lucky. we stayed in a lovely ancient

house and were treated like a maharajahs by the obliging guesthouse owners.

onwards, we trooped to Jaisalmer for the annual desert festival. Jaisalmer

is top spot also. A sand coloured town which camouflages with it's desert

surroundings. A huge sand coloured fort rises up in the centre of the town

and looks out over the desert planes. we stayed in a old house inside the

fort walls. the streets were a labyrinth of alleyways chock full of holy

cows, camels, goats and touts. there are a stack of beautiful old jain

temples and a gorgeous palace. The festival was a colourful look at life in

the indian desert (as per the brochures)- we got treated to the maharajas

army of men and camels parading through the streets all spruced up in

ceremonial outfits. then there was the folk dancing performed by the desert

girls..more excitement to come there was the turban tying and moustache

twirling competition followed by the announcement of "mr desert 2004". who

is sure to go on to great things. mr desert 2003 is now the face of various

jaisalmer cigarettes brands...On the last night of the festival we caught a

jeep out to the sand dunes for a finale of music, dancing and camel races

all set under the full moon. not a bad evening.

Now in Udipur which is great too. Set on a lake, surrounded by hill and

mountains. there are several palaces here, one in the middle of the lake.

the streets are full of the usual indian stuff.. temples, gurus, sadhus,

holy cows, camels...one elephant, monkeys, filth, excretments, rats, touts,

over-zealous shop owners, kids playing cricket, beggars.... it's great and

exhausting.

better go and find greg  - he went to pick-up tickets for a bollywood flick

at the cinemas tonight. But he's probably been trampled by a billion pushy

indians who have no concept of queuing 'nicely'. (i don't think the brits were

here at all...)

hope everyone is well. love caraXX

_________________________________________________________________

03/03/2004

hi ma, have had a horrible couple of days here in varanasi (the biggest hole

on the planet) - tried to leave days ago but still stuck here..spent nearly

all night waiting for our train to turn up yesterday...it didn't. have to

wait two more days now. will give all the details when i feel like reliving

it! Really looking forwarded to getting out of india at the moment!

how did the pergola and courtyard turn out!? are you happy with it?

sorry about the run-around with the web sight. i thought they'd send you two

dresses i like. but you need my password and email address to get in. if you

can be bothered..it is, caramcgloin@hotmail.com..password: brendan....then

click on the link: My Knot...then on the right hand of the screen there is a

link: gowns i've saved. click on it, there are two there. Otherwise i'll

show you when i get home. might be easier. Not sure when wedding will be - i

might look at venues while i'm in canberra...any suggestions?

i have a horrible feeling i've just accidently blocked you sending emails to

me (while blocking some spam)! don't take it personally! will try and amend.

lots of love CaraXXXXXXXX

06/03/2004

bren mmaate, yeh struth just trying to figure out who to off-load the

weapons grade plutonium to? that's the problem. apparently the indians don't

need it - was chatting to our hotelier in varanasi who reckoned himself a

descendant from indian royalty - his grandfather, a maharaja who sided with

the brits, was given a medal by king george and his family is therefore,

more british then the british. Anyway he pointed out that india was just as

good as the west - and it had nuclear might beyond greg's and my wildest

imagination - enough nucs to blow pakistan and why not Bangladesh? to

smithereens. so that put us in our place as we couldn't even nudge tassie

out of the bass straight if we wanted to. he also added that he had traveled

the world and he was as cultured and civilised as any westerner -possibly

even the brits who are THE most cultured and civilised of all cultured and

civilised persons. I had to scoff at this and ask him if he'd ever visited a

pub in london while arsenal were playing tottenham? madam, i can assure you

the british are THE most cultured and civilised people, for example, in

Britain they have carpet in their bathrooms and when you urinate you must

wipe the drips from the toilet-seat or they get very upset. well enough said

sir  -you mean drippage in the UK is a no-no? goodgolly, no wonder they

can't win a cricket match, no-time for practicing if they spend the better

half of their days wiping away their residue. what a bizarre practice?

well, greg and I have just had a horrendous few days - not sure if mum

passed on my last email to you about the week i spent attaining some

serenity in Rishekesh 'the yoga capital of the world'  - got myself a guru

and yogaed away the week-  it was well-needed as i was wound up as tightly

as a somosa in a deep fryer after our trip to Delhi, where i was constantly

harassed by sleazy punjabis. Anyway left Riskiskeh all nice and tranquil and

caught an overnight train to Varanasi - arrived the standard six hours late

at 1am, got ourselves 'a boy' to guide us through the labyrinth streets in

pitch darkness (the standard indian black-out) stepping on beggars and

lepers, begging. trudging through cow dung and human excrement - walking

through pitch dark alleys being groped and grabbed. Finally made it to our

hotel only to realise our 'reservation' meant nothing and we were turfed

out. An hour later we eventually found a place to kip - the hotelier found

us some illegal beer which we happily paid the exorbitant fee for. fell

asleep, woke up, look around varanasi, greg eloquently proclaimed it 'the

crusty sphincter of planet earth' and we tried to book a train out that

evening. only to be told we couldn't get on a train for two days. no-way!

spent the next two days getting harassed and wading through dung.

Left for the train station got caught in a hindu festival involving swords

and machetes on the way there ( incidentally 5 people were killed in the

festivities but it didn't even make the news here) - waited around on the

platform being stared at and getting asked the usual questions, country?

favourite cricketer? how much do you earn? are you an arranged marriage or a

love marriage? who is your favourite god? ahh shiva, god of destruction,

very good god - this would earn you a handshake from someone who shares the

same favourite god as you. There are about 20,000 gods here and they are

idolised like pop stars. Anyway after a few hours of interrogation we are

starting to worry about our late train - it is announced that the train has

advanced from 4 hours late to 5 hours late - this concerns us when we start

up a conversation with an israeli who told us he had waited for 18 hours for

the same train as us, 3 days earlier. no-way! we decide to wait it out a bit

and try to sneak into the 'upper class woman's waiting room' the indian lady

on the door looks at greg in contempt "no gents- go away!" " bull-shit!

bull-shit!" he yells and points at the other indian men waiting in there.

"bullshie! bullshie!" she yells back. greg storms off and decides he's had

enough of india and people staring at us (which is constant in india) -

"what the fuck are you staring at!?" he yells at a crowd. they continue to

stare for the next few hours. A bit later, the hindi goddess of 'foreign

male contempt' has left her post at the door of the upper class woman's

waiting room, so we take a seat in luxurious comfort. Spend the next few

hours watching rats the size of small tigers, scuttle out from the

squat-toilet in the adjoining room, which is soaked in human waste, to

around the legs of our chairs. when this gets boring we contemplate how the

holy cows manage to get up on the train platforms? when we aren't watching

rodents, cows and mangy dogs we are harrassing the station superintendent

every hour. when is the train going to turn up? Madam, 100% guarantee your

train will be here in 1 hour. But you've said that every hour for the past 6

hours! the train isn't going to turn up is it?! madam, 100% guarantee your

train will be here in 1 hour....it goes on and on like this. eventually at

2am the superintendent concedes that the train may be here at about 3am or

possible 4am. 100% guarantee he says. we decide to  leave and head back to

the crusty sphincter - saying goodbye to our new rodent friends and stepping

over the thousands of homeless people who live in the station, on the way

back out. Back to varanasi we book another train, which leaves in two days

time.....we go through the whole thing again, thankfully it was only 4 hours

late though...it also turns out that the rats in the upper class woman's

waiting room have reproduced - lot's of baby rats. we gave them our

congratulations. The train to Darjeeling (which is up on the nepal border)

was the usual india journey at first, greg got woken up by an indian man

hitting and yelling at him, we got stared at...etc. But towards the end of

the journey all the indians had alighted and it left only the nepalese and

tibetans on board. At one point a tibetan bumped into me accidentally and

she said sorry.."greg, did you hear that?! she just said sorry!" we we're

most excited, this was our first pleasantry in 6 weeks of travel in

india...ahh we're going to love darjeeling.

So we are here now, it's absolutely freezing, we can't see the himalayas

through the clouds but the people are really friendly and lovely and there

are pubs, meat and it's clean!! civilisation.

better run - this is a saga, lots of love to you and Sharaine. see you in

April! love CaraXXXX

13/03/2004

hiya, ahh.. have arrived back in thailand and it's great. have stocked up on

thai massages and cosmetics/ cleansers etc at boots - going for a facial

soon - will attempt to get india out of my pores. had  cocktails to

celebrate on koansan rd last night - met a kiwi who had just arrived back

from delhi yesterday - so we had a few toasts to being out of india! We went

to a bar for a game of pool - and this guy came up to me and says "cara!

it's me, ned kelly"  - it was this turkish guy we hung out with in istanbul

and became really good friends with....we'd nick-named him ned because he

was the spitting image with his beard...but he'd chopped it off and grown

his hair so i didn't recognise hime at first. what a small world huh?

anyhoos, we're off to the islands tomorrow - it's boiling here  - looking

forward to a dip. talk to you soon. love caraXXXXXXXXXXX

p.s dad, have you read catch 22?