See the Taj Mahal

After six days in the country I only have a minuscule insight of the giant wonder that is India but I can tell you that Delhi does have it's shocking parts of beggars, smog and raw sewerage with the usual tourist traps alive and well but nothing you won't find in other south East Asian countries. 

A cross between the hustle and bustle of Bangkok with the cruel poverty of Cambodia and a red dust all of its own that settles in your nostrils with the afternoon winds. There is also the crushing heat if you time it right and of course it's own particular smell. 

There are some genuinely wonderful people to be found. In particular the ones who overcome their shyness and approach just to interact with a foreigner, practice their English with native speakers or as has happened more than once, get a photo taken with the white person. 

The food is fantastic once you overcome the stigma attached to the infamous Delhi belly and relax enough to enjoy it. 

Seven out of eleven people - our tour group size - will get sick at some point and I'm grateful I was in a hotel room with a bed and a toilet to endure mine unlike some of my unfortunate fellow travelers who fell a day after me and had to go through it on a ten hour train ride. 

The trains are not as horrifying as one is led to believe though I wouldn't want to be a female needing the toilet.....or a sick traveler.

And so I arrive here. The jewel in the crown of India. A post card of itself, the Taj Mahal, sunrise and sunset. 

Visit The Beatles Ashram in India

I was aware the dilapidated Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram still stood somewhere in Rishakesh but hadn't figured on finding it so it was an unexpected surprise when our tour guide stopped at the front gate especially for me and announced we were at The Beatles Ashram. 

The complex itself is massive with many buildings, meditation domes and ornaments along roads being slowly over run by the surrounding hillside forest. 

The real thrill came for me though when I stumbled upon this special "cathedral" building decorated in homage to The Beatles by some very talented artistic fans over the years. 

A wonderful unexpected surprise on my first day in Rishakesh, the same day I cleanse myself in the Ganges  and so now added to the Life List. 

Bathe in the Ganges.

The Ganges flows from the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas for 2,500km into the Bay of Bengal at Kolkata with the sacred city of Varanasi, known for its human cremation ceremonies, about halfway. 

Why the Ganges? It has long been considered both pure and purifying in Hindu culture and at this juncture in my life, it couldn’t hurt to wash away a few sins....

However, I highly doubt the people who originally considered the river pure had to take the following into account:

According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliforms per 100ml. 

Upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water already contains 60,000 faecal coliforms per 100 ml. 

After passing through Varanasi and receiving 32 streams of raw sewage from the city, the concentration of fecal coliforms in the river rises to1.5 million!!

So here I am as close as possible to the beginning of this majestic river in the desperate hope of avoiding as many fecal coliforms as possible at Rishakesh, less than 200km from the source and famous for the ashram the Beatles came to in the sixties. 

The "bathing" ritual of cleansing from the Ganges simply involves cupping the water in your hands and pouring it over your head. On the ghats of Rishakesh during a large Hindu prayer ceremony at sunset amongst the chanting and prayer this was a special experience. 

For those who may think I did not really complete this goal thoroughly enough rest assured, the following day I went white water rafting and became fully immersed in the Ganges, even swallowing some down the rapids. 

 

 

#shamelessselfpromotion

If you could click on this that would be really cool. As a reward, once you’ve clicked and helped me along the way to my dream of being an alcoholic writer sending assignments via laptop from my own bar and hotel on a beach in Cambodia – I will offer you free accommodation, a complimentary Mojito and half price bike hire at said Cambodian beach bar anytime you are over that way. Thanks for voting!

Get Arrested

So I had a beer and a couple of scotches last night. Got up had breakfast this morning, brushed my teeth and gargled with Listerine as usual then got in the car at 11:30 to drive to work. One minute around the corner and a copper pulled me over for a breath test, I had that kind of relaxed feeling as I pulled over knowing I had done nothing wrong. Imagine my surprise when I blew in the breathalyser and he said “I am placing you under arrest, turn your car off and come with me”

It occurred to me in the police car on the way to the station that I had gargled the Listerine not two minutes before he pulled me over and that must have been the cause of me blowing .07 but I was fairly stunned anyway having never been in a cop car before let alone being taken in for something.

 I blew 0.00 on the “calibrated” breathalyser machine at the station and was dropped back to my car to continue on to work within an hour.

Certainly not a notorious or entertaining story but technically I was arrested and in custody for forty five minutes, something I never expected and so here it is on the Life List.

Donate To Kiva

I haven't crossed anything off it for a while so I had a look through The List to find something simple to achieve.

This is so easy and worthwhile I'm a bit disappointed I haven't done it before now but better late than never, right?

Somewhere in Cambodia a family is about to purchase a cow.

http://www.kiva.org/

Make A Movie

I have had a passion for music ever since I can remember. Writing, recording and performing songs always challenged and fed my need to create and be expressive.

Now that passion has been redirected towards film, in particular writing scripts, a much steeper curve has presented itself in being able to foresee a movie project go from a seed of thought to a finished product on the screen beginning as I am, relatively from scratch.

This is a short film but having written and directed “It Is Beyond Everything” my newest creative goal of making, or at least writing, a feature film has become an achievable possibility. I am elated to release this ten minutes fifty one seconds of my vision into the world, buoyed by the prospects and possibilities it poses, another tick on The Life List.

With a huge special thanks to:

Tim Gooding, Film Making and Fun, Bob Starkenburg, Vincent Lee, Jasyl Zonoobi, Dana Kenworthy, Daniel Punton, Marcus Cloherty, Steven Laurent, Matthew Grego, Matt Butcher, Corrine Parker, Eliot Reynolds, Malcolm Larri, Alex Marinkovic, St Canice  - Elizabeth Bay.

Get a photo crossing Abbey Rd

What can I say? This photo/album is my earliest memory and influenced the course of my life in so many ways from dancing around the lounge room with Dad to "Octopus's Garden" and "Come Together" as a child, up to today.

I walked the 3Km from my hotel listening to the Beatles on the MP3, even I was surprised at the rush of rising excitement as I got closer.

The first thing I saw was about thirty people running onto and across the road with cameras and mostly patient drivers rolling their eyes as they had to stop for these crazy tourists doing their reenactments.

At one point I was poised to grab a 2yo girl who wobbled off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic as the young mother was busy standing on the road taking photos of friends oblivious to her child's impending doom. Luckily the traffic stopped as someone beat me to it. The local council is talking about removing the crossing because of the danger and inconvenience to traffic. There was 18 accidents in the eighties, 18 in the nineties and 22 since 2000 but no deaths.

I stood smiling and watching for about half an hour just soaking it up and taking in all the changes and unseen details surrounding the original album cover and sussing out the various tourists for a potential photographer prepared to indulge me ten minutes of their time.

Their names were Dan and Shannon, a couple of cool local musos. Dan used my iPhone and Shannon very generously also took photos on her iPad and emailed them to me.

I did two crossings as Lennon with hands in pockets then two crossings as Paul barefoot with a cigarette. It was tricky to cross with no cars obscuring me, when no one else was getting in my shot and avoiding the traffic at the same time. At one point a car came screaming at me beeping its horn but I held my composure, if I was going to get hit by a car then this would be a great place for it to happen.

A great feeling just to see the famous crossing at last and a humbling experience to get a photo and cross it off the LIFE LIST.

I checked out the studio as well of course from the outside, smaller than I imagined.

Ride the London Eye

I got to the Eye about 1pm and happily paid an extra £10 (£30) for a fast track ticket and was aboard in fifteen minutes, jumping the hour plus queue.

I had this on the LIFE LIST for a number of reasons:

To challenge my increasing high anxiety.

To get a visual sense of the layout of London, this city I have seen bits and pieces of in movies and TV for years.

Also because its 135 metres tall, second highest Ferris wheel in the world (dam you Singapore!) but the highest cantilever wheel in the world.

It moved slow enough to ease my vertigo cautiously to the heights until almost at the top it stopped......."we apologise for the delay in service we are attending to an incident on the ground, we appreciate your patience". When this came over the intercom the fifteen or so of us on board flashed glances at each other and nervously smiled, I had to laugh out loud.

As someone pointed out at least we were stuck with a view.

After about twenty minutes we started moving again.......backwards! The kid standing next to me and I stared at each other with a look of "oh that's not right?" Then it paused and resumed our normal journey as if nothing had happened.

That all said it was exhilarating and I now have a real sense of how London is laid out and where all the major landmarks are in relation to each other. "Highly" recommended for a brief visit to London.

Travel the English tunnel

The tunnel was simple enough, just catch a train from Paris to London.

This was such an engineering feat I just thought it would be cool to go through.

The intercom announced we would be entering the tunnel shortly then with a whoosh at 160Kmh, total darkness surrounded the carriage, goodbye mainland Europe.

After about twenty minutes with another whoosh we came screaming into daylight and everyone gasped, hello England.