Sydney & Wagga Wagga

Wow. What an amazing trip. Of all the places I’ve been so far, this has gone straight to number one on the list of where I’d love to bring Anna and the boys. This trip wasn’t as much of a cultural shock as Nicaragua or India (although putting beetroot on a burger was certainly different), but it was a rich experience all the same. Sydney pretty much ticks all the boxes in terms of a great city – architecture, bars and restaurants, beaches, shopping. I’m going to stop there as I’m starting to sound like a travel agent.

We arrived in Sydney two weeks ago at around 7am Saturday morning and feeling like 4pm the day before! So, the best way to fight jet-lag is to go for a long walk. Here’s what we saw…

The William Bligh (of Bounty fame) monument.

I love a good people photograph and this guy sitting outside the Irish pub was irresistible.

We jumped on a ferry to Manly (great name for a town) and got this shot of the Opera House. It truly is an amazing building.

Manly is a pleasant beach town about 30 mins across the harbour from Sydney. I foolishly started the day in jeans and boots thinking that it’s autumn so it’ll be cold outside. A quick visit to a surfer dude shop in Manly and I was all set for the beach.

The following weekend we had pretty much a full day at Bondi Beach, which is more of a bohemian surf community than just a beach. The beach itself is gorgeous – a long crescent with cliffs at both ends and fine, golden sand. The highlight for me was the waves – they were between 6 and 8 feet high and I learned how to body surf by watching the locals: swim as fast as possible when a big one approaches and it just picks you up for a ride if you time it right. What a blast. It did flip me over a couple of times, but it’s a fairly soft landing!

Here’s a picture of Flat Stanley hanging out with the very friendly ladies from Bondi Surf Rescue.

Last Sunday morning I walked alone through ‘The Rocks’, an area of rugged cliffs now turned into a marketplace which leads to the Harbour Bridge. After some boomerang hunting (looking for boomerangs for the boys, not hunting kangaroos or anything), I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art and was unexpectedly blown away, especially by the aboriginal art. At first it looks like thousands of randomly placed dots, but a friendly art gallery assistant later explained that each painting has a story behind it, normally related to the Dreaming – the indigenous Australians belief system. Fascinating stuff.

Other memorable moments of this trip…

• Going to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last weekend – I couldn’t quite believe that I was sitting inside the Sydney Opera House. What a treat.
• Bumping into a Rubik’s cube pub crawl in Wagga – some newly-graduated local students were out on the town in various items of clothing in primary colours and the idea is that they swapped clothes throughout the evening and had to end the night all in one colour. Sounds like a fun night out to me!
• Wandering around Paddington – an eclectic area of Victorian terraces and offbeat shops.
• Playing rhythm sticks along with the didgeridoo guy on Darling Harbour.

As beautiful as Australia is, it wouldn’t be the same with the Aussies – laid-back, warm, and fun-loving people. They like a beer, they like their sport, and they can give and take the stick as well as anyone I’ve met. A fun couple of weeks – I hope I’ll be back.

I’ll finish with my favourite photograph of Wagga (taken about five minutes after chasing Kangaroos in a 4x4)…

Stanley and the security guard

So, word on the street is that I write a better blog than Mr. Barry – haha! I’ve left him crying in the corner and I have the laptop again. :-)

We drove five hours on Friday night from Delhi to Agra and stayed at the best hotel of my life, the Jaypee Palace (picture of me below in the comfy bed). The drive there was interesting to say the least. Long stretches of the road are two lanes (often with four lanes of traffic!) and you have to pull out into oncoming traffic to pass the tractors and slow-moving trucks – my nerves were shot!

On Saturday morning, we drove out to the Taj Mahal, only a mile or two from the hotel. We had a short walk to reach the entrance to the grounds, with monkeys roaming freely on the path beside us. We bought the tickets and the little white shoe covers that you have to wear inside the mausoleum, and headed for the entrance. As we went through the security scanner, the guard stopped Mr. Barry and said that he couldn’t take me in, as I was a toy.

A TOY?! A TOY?! I have feelings you know! And, more than that, I have a blog following bigger than Mr. Barry’s!

He argued a little to get me in, but the guard had a gun and he didn’t want to push it too far. So, I hung out in a nearby craft shop while the rest of the group went inside. I’ve never seen Mr. Barry so angry.

He told me later that the Taj Mahal was spectacular. It was built by the Mughal Emporer Shah Jahan, as a symbol of love for his wife, Mumtaj, after she died. It's constructed entirely from Marble, which was brought to the site by elephants from the North West of India. It took 22 years and 20,000 workers to build the Taj and the surrounding buildings. The highlight for him was the intricate pattern of gemstones that were set into the marble on the inside of the tomb. The stones (turqoise, jade, sapphire etc.) were brought from all corners of Asia to complete the design. One of them, Carnelian, is translucent and glows like it's on fire when light hits it a certain way.

Mr. Barry, pretending to be happy, but missing me really.

Next was a short rickshaw ride and then on to Agra Fort, which looks across to the Taj...

Here you can see me with the Taj Mahal in the background. Actually, this is an amazing way to see it from a different perspective, as the land around is fairly flat and the majesty of the building stands out on the horizon. (Also, it’s also the only way to see the Taj if you’re a little on the…erm…flat and colourful side!)


Here are some other pictures of people and places in India…

India Gate, Delhi

Buying peanuts on the road to Agra

The doorman of the Jaypee Palace Hotel

 
 











Gemstones inside the Taj Mahal

Until next time
Stanley

Flat Stanley's Indian Adventure

We have a guest blogger this week...Flat Stanley...a happy little character created and coloured in by Patrick at school. The idea is that he is sent to friends/family in different places and returned to Patrick with a photograph of where he's been. Take it away Stan...

Here's me outside Qutb Minar, the oldest monument in Delhi. What you can see is just the minaret, but it was surrounded by Hindu temples and ruins, all built in the 12th and 13th centuries. Very impressive.

Mr. Barry (that's what they call him in the hotel - he thinks he's a big shot now!), his friends and me had a driver for the whole day on Sunday and he took us on a whirlwind tour of Delhi. After Qutb Minar, we made a brief stop at a craft shop, where the guy explained how they make Kashmir rugs (fascinating - it can take up to nine months to make a single rug) and then failed miserably trying to sell them to us (have you ever tried selling stuff to a 10", orange, laminated guy?).

Next stop...Humayun's Tomb, a beautiful, red sandstone building which houses the tomb of, you guessed it, Humayun. He was a Mughal Emperor who ruled India, and what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the 16th century. The building and gardens are said to have inspired some elements of the Taj Mahal. (Ooh, get me - I can read wikipedia, just like Mr. Barry!)

Here's me on top of the ruins nearby the tomb. Mr. Barry was trying to look cool, like me, but actually he was a bit scared.

Part of the fun of the drive around Delhi was just watching life on the streets...the rickhaws and auto-rickshaws (which can carry more people than you'd think possible), motorbikes carrying the whole family, cows ambling among the crazy traffic, and my favourite...elephants...

Funniest moment of the trip so far...tonight we went for dinner in a nearby hotel...Mr. Barry asked where the restaurant was and they didn't understand his poor English...they sent him to the restroom. (I laughed my little, purple ass off!)
Namaste
Stan

New Orleans

(or N'awlins as the locals call it. I love that.)

Just had a couple of days in Louisiana, visiting a salt mine, which was very cool. Before my flight home I had a few hours in New Orleans, which has a vibe unlike any other city I've been to. A friend told me that, if I only had a couple of hours, I should head straight for the French Quarter. I did and wasn't disappointed. First stop was Cafe du Monde which is famous for its coffee and beignets, a French doughnut with a liberal covering of powdered sugar. Delicious!

(This is not Cafe du Monde, just a guy enjoying a beer with his dog!)

The first thing I noticed about walking around the French Quarter was the music...it seems to come out of every pore of the city. You can't help but walk along with a spring in your step!
What else makes it great?...the street artists, psychics, funky restaurants, great bookshops and at least one house of voodoo. This is a definite candidate for the 'places to return to with Anna' -list (not because I think she's into voodoo, of course!).

Bourbon Street is a little tacky, but it was still good interesting to walk down it. It was there that I discovered zydeco - a Louisiana music style based on an accordion and washboard. A friend told me I should try and listen to it live and I confess that I wasn't too excited about that combination of instruments. However, I stumbled across a bar with a live band on and the modern, rock/funk take on zydeco was terrific. (It was very amusing watching the guy with the washboard, looking ridiculous, freak out like a lead guitarist.)

I didn't see any evidence of Hurricane Katrina. I guess they made sure that the tourist spots were cleaned up pretty quickly, rightly or wrongly. I would love go back for a weekend though and explore a little further afield.