Síle & Bruce’s Travel Blog

We arrived in Goa a week ago now and managed to get a cheap-o room at Jerry’s Place, it costs just 300rp a night. The beach here isn’t really up to much which has been a little disappointing and I was sick the first night we got here. In the morning Bruce ended up chatting to an English guy, Dale, who took him to the chemist for me. We ended up spending the next few days with Dale, he took us out, shows us around the place and took us out to some lovely places to eat.

It was really nice to have someone just to ’show us the ropes’ and made us feel so comfortable in Goa. We went for a tour of the market in Mapusa, went to a really nice restaurant in Panjim and then he took us to this outta the way restaurant with beautiful views!

He has also let us use his motorbike whenever we want to which is AWESOME! And, he ‘made’ Bruce get a clean shave (!) the first in 7 yrs and It looks really great, I think it even surprised Bruce!

Thanks a million Dale!

We are in Goa at the moment, its very laid back here. We are staying at jerrys place, yes the owners name is jerry and his sons have funny names, well one anyway john all good, the other Genesis (Sing it Phil). Anyway on with the story. We met this english chap Dale from oxford, he has been coming to india for 15 years and knows jerry very well. Jerrys sister and husband owns a guest house across the road, when dale overheard how much we were paying a night, he told us its cheap as chips, ” I think jerry undercuts his sister sometimes, just to piss her off” all good for us I said. When jerrys sister first met her now husband alex he was a professional football who played for India. His then and now hero is Kevin Keegan, the geordies favourite. Jerrys sister and alex had two boys, the first one they call Kevin and yeap you guessed it the second they called Keegan. Dale was invited to kevins wedding a couple of years ago. Dale wrote to Mr keegan and told him the story of his indian friends, unfortunately mr keegan couldn’t be arsed to reply. So dale got some to write a letter pretending to be Kevin keegan. He presented at their wedding an made a quick speech. Apparently the picture is framed and on the wall in the house. Quality.

Today has been total and utter MADNESS!! We got up early and headed to the train station to get our train ticketd to Goa (we’re leaving this evening - 13hrs on an Indian train should be interesting!) which proved to be much easier than we thought. With this false confindence we headed to Crawford Market … error! It was sseriously stressful, we were told that we had to have a ”tour guide” to have a peek around, so not really knowing if we were being onned or not we decided to shoot off. We took a walk around and discovered some awesome little markets, and onced we’d relaxed, realle enjoyed the city. Once we got back to our neck of the woods we decided just to sit and ‘people watch’ arounf the Gateway to India, having sat down on a step (about a foot away from human poo!) some India people came up and asked if we’d have our photo taken with them; this had happened a bit in Indonesia so we didn’t think much of it. Once we had done it for one person however, lots more people asked and it ended up with around 10-15 people with their cameras out shouting for us to have a snap with them! Bruce got the sweats pretty quickly so we made a speedy exit - phew!

On our way to get a Coke we again heard someone shoutting “sir, sir!” we turned around and started to chat. It turns out that this guy was from a Bollywood Studio and looking for extras in a film being shot tomorrow! We’d heard that westeners sometimes get asked. BUT we can’t do it! We’ve booked our train tickets to leave this evening, it’s a shame as that would’ve been one to tell the grandkids!

Anyway, we’re just killing time before our train leaves, maybe we’ll catch another curry (this one’s for you Sarah)

We love you all
x

Hi all, Just a really quick one to let ya all know how we’re getting on.

We both arrived in one piece on the 17th Sept … its a shame we couldn’t say the same for our bags, they were still in Sydney! But we got them back a few hours ago, and nothing was missing - we also got 60quid from Qantas so, as of yet we haven’t spent a penny of our own money here.

India is a complete assault on the senses!  Everything in extreme, smells, sights, tastes the lot! Having said that its not in a bad way, I think coming here straight from home would have been a mistake so it’s great that things have worked out the way they have. The food is incredible, eating tasty curry twice a day really isn’t a problem!

We are gonna try to get down to Goa tomorrow, trying to figure out the train system should be interesting.

Anyway, like I said just a quick one. We’ll update again when there is more to tell.

We love and miss you all, keep in touch!

xxx

Well, we are of to sunny or rainy india tomorrow . After 3 months in aus we decided instead of working lets get back on the travelling trail. Its going to be a big slap around the face with the culture bat but thats what we are after. Flying in to mumbai 6pm wednesday. We haven’t got a clue what or where to go but I guess that will sort its self out when we get there. It kind of feels like we are leaving again for the first time and heading out to craziness. Looking forward to a lamb samosa and kingfisher beer chaser! If it all gets abit much we are going to head straight to goa for a 2month beach chill down and kingfisher chaser.

Australia has been good, not what we expected, but then not sure what we expected. The best experience was buy the van and living like tinkers for the last 2 half months. Most of the people we met with coffin dodgers in caravans but you know they have interesting stories to tell. Fraser Island was cool, alot of people had told us to head there and it was well worth it. 

Its been quality staying with some old friends I haven’t seen for a long time. We have eaten some strange stuff on our travels but I think aus so far has it, maybe the old minds got back into the western way but vegiemite and cheese sausage? They are an aquired taste, I personally found them better cold. Best beer in aus, I would say Tooheys new or tooheys extra dry, good beers. Best slang words would be ” No dramas” its cool don’t worry about it or Bogan, which translates to a good old british pikey chav.

Well thats about it, bit gutted we are missing japan but where we are heading to is going to be just as mad

Regards to everyone

Shee and Bruce

Yes its true people, in this crazy country the locals and alike have come up with a novel and sometimes ear bleeding sound track for those already horn fuel streets. Vehicle reversal music. Heres the top 3

1. Jingel Bells

2. Happy Birthday to you

3. We wish you a merry christmas

Im not sure this will be beaten!

What a great place Hoi An was, it was still 46 in the shade, but a slick 5km bike ride out of town and you land on a storming beach with an array of quality seafood restaurants. Hoi An was a chilled out affair, we met some decent people there which we got slighty pissed with on more than one occasion, ask sile about the big bamboo, Its a drink!!

We managed to blag a hotel with sky, bathtub and swimming pool for 5 pounds a night. Hoi An was also good for some local tradtional munch out affairs, including White Rose, bit like Wonton stuffed with pork and topped with fried onions and also Cau Lao which is a soup with chunky noodles, croutons and sliced pork, top stuff.

But a trip to Hoi An was not complete until we bought some hand made clothes. I spent a few quid on a 3 piece (Pimp) suit which looks the nuts, chacoal grey with a dark green lining. Its on the ship for 3 months. Sile bought a stunning greeny blue dress which I will look forward to seeing her in when we get back and also a spot on green winter jacket all made to measure, so we’re gonna look storming on all those formal nights out. We spent 8 days in Hoi An and have just arrived in Hanio the capital after a 16 hour bus jounrney from the deapths of a ditch.

Well since we haven’t written in a while, I think it’s about time for a little catch up.

First of all, Welcome to the World Aidan Mallon!

We left Ho Chi Minh City after Bruce played football and had a reasonably O.K 12hr over night bus journey to Nha Trang. It’s a beautiful little seaside town, with a lovely beach and it was very cheap! our room was $7 a night, big fan, TV, fridge AND the toilet was inside! It was also only a 3/4 min walk to the beach where we hired out sun loungers for 30 000 Dong a day (about 30p!). We did watch a few fights between the locals who’d been drinking in the sun all day which is always fun, and evenings were spent making friends with travellers and locals alike at the “fresh beer” bars for 3000 dong.

One day while looking around a shop we found some dried fish with the label “Instant Leather Jacket Fish” I almost bought it for that but we wouldn’t eat it and it would really stink! 

We left Nha Trang after just 5 days and while waiting for the bus we were asking ourselves why we were leaving, we liked it so much; but by that stage we had bought our ticket to Hoi An and had checked out of the hotel, so on we went.

It turned out to be the best decision as Hoi An was amazing. Bruce is writing something on Hoi An now I’ll let him post that before I add anything else!

xx

We saw pigs on the beach yesterday - ha!

On our honda stepthrough tour of the captial Vientiene we decide to head out of the city to a budda park 30kms south east of the city. The roads are another story (could of done with a motocross bike). we had been told by an english lady that the beer lao factory was on the way to the budda park, quite an ideal situation im sure you can imagine, but also that they give you beer and a tour of the factory, and guess how much it cost. Not a penny. So we pull up at the factory, through a door, where we are greeted by a lady who ushers out into a garden where she promptly asks us to sit down. Im not going to argue with this lady as I think she might have a few treats in store, and sure enougth 2 minutes later she reappears with two bottles of beer lao, a questionaire and beer lao stickers. Brillant. We slurp down the beer and then are taken into the factory for a quick tour. Interesting fact: They actually brew and can Calesburg beer there. Anyway I asked her if i could take a few snaps for the collection but was denied, had to take it on the chin as she had layed on a good spread.