Email exchange with Emma

Hi Emmy

We spent today exploring Delhi a bit... read the blog for a brief summary from me. No photos yet! Can you send me your postal address again? I have it somewhere but am not sure where. We have a postcard from Viet Nam that we want to send to you.

Everything is good. We all enjoyed getting out and exploring today, and relaxing and just being tourists for one of the few times so far. Much love Papa
Papa, Mama, Lena and Ali

hey dad

ok i asked Iva .. and she said she would love to have you all to stay and even me if I wanted :) her husband is called Paolo and their son is Giovanni he is 13 .. they are the family that Camille and I stayed with to help Giovanni with his project on nz... they are all very nice.. oh but i think they are going away in two weeks or so and they just said to let them know the dates so that they will be home!! so thats all good but if Ali and Lena want to spend a night here I would love that and I could show them round Lugano ... and we could just hang out us three .. but talk about it and get back to me as soon as you can with the dates and all.

Hi Emmy

We're just arrived in Varanasi, by the Ganges river, this morning after an 18 hour train journey. Right now we're all sitting together in the small lobby of the guest house here, as we can't get our rooms until midday. I've managed to get a wireless connection for the laptop. I've just read out your message to everyone... and we're all so proud of you. You're awesome for being there on your own, while we're here together... and we all know that you are doing extremely well with your Italiano. It sounds that you have some very good supportive people there. Just keep on believing in yourself and in your own abilities. Here's something from Lena, a Maori proverb:

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you

Anyway, what are we up to? We had a rest day in New Delhi on Monday, just adjusting to being in a different place. On Tuesday we got an auto-rickshaw and went to see Rajghat (where Gandhi was cremated) ... then to a place called the Red Fort... then through the streets of old Delhi. Mum was freaking out at one stage as she thought I was leading us all into these dark and dingy alleys ... but I was just following my nose and exploring. It was actually fun and very interesting.

After a while I stopped and asked someone for directions to a large mosque (Muslim temple) that we wanted to see. It turned out that I was going in more-or-less the right direction. So it was all good and Mum didn't need to worry after all!! After we'd seen the mosque we headed back to our hotel on another auto rickshaw. You have to bargain with the driver everytime before you get inside. I made sure before I left the hotel to ask for the right price, so I knew what price to ask ... which was always about half what the driver would initially ask for.

On Wednesday we booked a car and went to see the Taj Mahal ... a temple built by a Moghul leader after his second wife died. Lena and Ali had no idea what they were going to see, but it is truly one of the wonders of the world and is just an awesome sight. We'll try to organise some photos to send soon. It was a long day, about 4 hours each way, and only time for lunch and to see the Taj Mahal. On the way there we had some confusion with the driver, who didn't speak much English, and didn't have the air conditioning on in the car.... because we thought there was no air con, and he had thought we had said "no air con" to mean we didn't want it!! So we were all so hot on the way there. Fortunately we worked it out on the way back!! Yesterday (Thursday) morning we took another auto-rickshaw to a market .. as everyone wanted some Indian clothes. We've got a surprise for you... which we hope you like ... but you'll just have to wait and see.

Today .... we'll be checking into our room sometime around midday, having a quick lunch, and then going on a 5 hour tour of Varanasi to see some of the famous temples here. Varanasi is one of the main spiritual centres in India. Tomorrow morning we'll all be getting up for a boat ride on the Ganges river which starts at 5.30am and goes for 2 hours ... to watch the sunrise and see activity on the ghats (places by the river where people are cremated). We then have to leave here about 9am .... getting to and from the guest house here is amazing, through a maze of narrow alleyways that you'd never find your way through without someone to guide you to .... so we have to leave about 9am to get to a place where we can get a taxi, then out to the airport.

We depart for Kathmandu at 12.10 pm, and will be there by about 1.30pm. Our trekking guide, Karma Lama, is meeting us at the airport in Kathmandu. Ali and Lena want to tell you about the enormous spider that waits to welcome people on the steps as you come to the guest house here!!

OK.... all the stuff about Milano sounds good. I can't give you exact dates right now, but will do so once we are in Kathmandu once we have time to stop and rest a bit.... but we'll be aiming to be in Milano by 14 or 15 May ... one of those 2 dates... and then down to Rome by 17 May. Could you tell me the cost of the train from Milano to Lugano? And can you also find out the cost of the train from Milano to Rome? We have to decide whether to take the train to Rome, or fly... [..]. Lena & Ali are keen to come and stay with you in Lugano for a night, but we do need to look at the budget. It should be OK though I think.

I think this about the longest message we've sent you. I'm also copying it to a few people so everyone can read about what we've been up to this week!! Email access hasn't been very good...

Much, MUCH, love from all of us and BIG hugs.

Varanasi (11:24AM local time ...I think)

Hi Michael

We arrived in Varanasi at about 6.30am this morning. Now sitting in the small lobby of our guest house by the Ganges River. Everyone is tired from the 18 hour train ride. Can't check into our rooms until midday. Power has just gone off and won't be back until about 3.30pm. We're making the most of our short time here. We've booked an auto-rickshaw tour for this afternoon (about 5 hours worth), and will be up for a boat ride on the Ganges at 5.30am, for the sunrise and scenes of the ghats. We'll be leaving here at about 9am tomorrow.... have to walk through a maze of alleys to get from where the guest house is, by the Ganges, up to a road where we can get a taxi to the airport. Scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu by about 1.30pm tomorrow.

I've got wireless access until 11pm tonight, at a cost of 350 rupees (about NZ$10). Will do our best to make the most of it, but we'll be fairly busy!

Love from us all
Gavin, Karen, Lena, Alice
(email to Michael)

Taj Mahal

A long day driving to Agra and back (about 4 hours drive each way) to see the Taj Mahal, but well worth it.

We are on the train to Varanasi tomorrow and then flying to Kathmandu on Saturday.. all confirmed. Doubtful that we'll have time to send stuff from here. Maybe from Varanasi.... Will be in touch again soon.

(email to Michael)

In New Delhi

I'll be posting some reflections on Viet Nam, and our first 6 weeks, soon. Meanwhile, we're in New Delhi now relaxing a bit and being tourists for one of the few times on our journey so far. Today we went into Delhi. First to the Gandhi memorial, created at the site where he was cremated. I found this deeply moving, unexpectedly so, but not surprising for me. Gandhi's life was dedicated to non-violent action and leading by example, by doing. He is one of the few people from recent history who I truly admire.

From there we walked to the Red Fort, then followed directions given by our very friendly hotel owner and plunged into the narrow alleys of the old city where we found a small place for lunch. We then walked through the maze of alleys for a while before coming to the very large mosque that is located here. Karen may send something with the names of these places. Details are back in the hotel room.

I'm sitting in a tiny, almost cavernous, room off the street in a tiny little alcove in front of what seems like a dilapidated computer! But it works!

We're presently working to finalise travel arrangements to get to Kathmandu. We've booked a car for tomorrow, to go to Agra for the day. All going well we'll be on a train to Varanasi on Thursday and flying from there to Kathmandu on Saturday. The next leg of our journey truly starts when we reach Kathmandu. Meanwhile well try to post a few photos from India before we leave.

New Delhi

We're safely in New Delhi. No internet access at all from our hotel. Not much chance of getting a lot of stuff to you this week, but we'll do our best with at least some sort of text update. (email to Michael)

At Singapore Airport

We're at Singapore airport now after a couple of days here in Singapore, resting a bit and getting a few things done before we launch into the next leg of our journey. Viet Nam was pretty tough, but we did some good things and met some very good people along the way. I'll write more once we reach New Delhi, to give some reflections on what we experienced and learnt in Viet Nam, and perhaps some reflections on our journey so far.

We're in India only briefly, no more than a week, before heading to Nepal. We'll be in Nepal for about a month. Lena, Alice and I will be going trekking for 3 weeks with the aim of filming people and environments along the way. More on our plans once we reach Kathmandu in about a weeks time.