India!

In about an hour we (myself and my beloved) begin a somewhat arduous four - 'plane journey from Sulawesi to India. Three weeks, three destinations. I've been to Sri Lanka and dived the Maldives, but this is my first time in India. I'm expecting elephants and hoping for Tigers, and some cultural and religious insights....

@Indonesia-Phil
Wish you both a great vacation! What a lovely word - beloved.

@Indonesia-Phil

Have a great time sir!

@indonesia-phil said
In about an hour we (myself and my beloved) begin a somewhat arduous four - 'plane journey from Sulawesi to India. Three weeks, three destinations. I've been to Sri Lanka and dived the Maldives, but this is my first time in India. I'm expecting elephants and hoping for Tigers, and some cultural and religious insights....

Safe travels Phil!!!

-VR

@Indonesia-Phil

My daughter studied Indian vocal music for three months in Mumbai. She had the time of her life. Have fun!
I lived three years in Thailand and that was a great time for me. Met elephants up close and personal, saw a cremation ceremony not to be missed, was invited to be in a giant candle parade with very beautiful Thai ladies. Great time for sure.

@indonesia-phil said
In about an hour we (myself and my beloved) begin a somewhat arduous four - 'plane journey from Sulawesi to India. Three weeks, three destinations. I've been to Sri Lanka and dived the Maldives, but this is my first time in India. I'm expecting elephants and hoping for Tigers, and some cultural and religious insights....

Interesting. Please keep us posted!

@indonesia-phil said
In about an hour we (myself and my beloved) begin a somewhat arduous four - 'plane journey from Sulawesi to India. Three weeks, three destinations. I've been to Sri Lanka and dived the Maldives, but this is my first time in India. I'm expecting elephants and hoping for Tigers, and some cultural and religious insights....

its a $hithole

@indonesia-phil said
In about an hour we (myself and my beloved) begin a somewhat arduous four - 'plane journey from Sulawesi to India. Three weeks, three destinations. I've been to Sri Lanka and dived the Maldives, but this is my first time in India. I'm expecting elephants and hoping for Tigers, and some cultural and religious insights....

Have you watched ‘Sue Perkins in the Ganges’?
Well worth a look and she has a lovely way with people.

YouTube

Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement. Anyway, we have arrived! The journey could indeed best be described as arduous; as good as 24 hours on various budget - airlines, the beloved one having worked out (she's clever like that) that if we travel three times around the globe we could save money, and who is one to argue? One is considering adding a couple of knee - transplants to the holiday agenda, leg - room being at something of a premium on such flights.
The last two hours of said journey were by taxi. We ran out of petrol on the way, and the driver stopped to fill up, only having done so telling us that he had no money to pay for said petrol, and would we please....We of course said that we would not under any circumstances entertain such a ridiculous notion, the transfer would be added to our hotel bill. So there we were in the middle of nowhere in this strange and mystical country, and in the end pragmatism got the better of us, and having paid for the petrol we continued our journey to its' eventual end.
We are staying in a sticky - beak hotel with several stars after its' name, my suggestion that we revisit our youth and stay in accommodation better suited to the back - packing fraternity having been roundly dismissed by the beloved one, before one had so much as finished the sentence. Certain economies are it seems acceptable, and indeed are to be encouraged, whilst others apparently are not.
Anyway, here we are, in a hotel which boasts panoramic and wide - ranging views over a huge freshwater lake, which we haven't seen yet, it being dark and all, but we see no reason to doubt the word of the hotel receptionist. After a few hours of sleep one is sure that this new and exciting country will look like a brighter and better place.
Postscript; She who is much beloved and has something of a 'thing' about elephants has expressed her disappointment at not yet having seen one. One has pointed out that we have only been in the country for about five minutes, and that such animals are likely a rarity in airport concourses and along major trunk roads, no pun intended, which seems to have been accepted, for now at least.

@indonesia-phil said
Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement. Anyway, we have arrived! The journey could indeed best be described as arduous; as good as 24 hours on various budget - airlines, the beloved one having worked out (she's clever like that) that if we travel three times around the globe we could save money, and who is one to argue? One is considering adding a couple ...[text shortened]... s and along major trunk roads, no pun intended, which seems to have been accepted, for now at least.

Lovely story so far, charming wife too. 😍

@indonesia-phil said
Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement. Anyway, we have arrived! The journey could indeed best be described as arduous; as good as 24 hours on various budget - airlines, the beloved one having worked out (she's clever like that) that if we travel three times around the globe we could save money, and who is one to argue? One is considering adding a couple ...[text shortened]... s and along major trunk roads, no pun intended, which seems to have been accepted, for now at least.

Tell your wife I met up with a couple of elephants in Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai area, in the Karen district. It seems elephants have jobs in the teak logging work but at 3 PM they check in their time cards and call it quits. And of course if an elephant says it's time to quit, you don't do much about it😉 So here I was, camera in hand, in one of the Karen villages and looking down on the road and then looked up and I was maybe 5 feet in front of the most gigantic elephant I ever saw. It turned out to be just as startled as me and we BOTH jumped back about 4 feet😉 That turned out ok though. The next one I saw was up the side of a sloping hill must have been 30 degrees slope or so. So there was this huge elephant, also clocked out of work, and halfway up the slope scratching its side on a tree. Did I say TREE? I mean more like a long twig😉 this tree was MAYBE 6 inches in diameter or so and here was this 4000 pound beast contentedly scratching his side in obvious scratch heaven. I was thinking at any time that poor tree was going to snap in half and two tons of elephant was going to come crashing down the side of that hill, right on top of me in the bargain😉 but all's well that ended well and all of us survived the encounter, a good time was had by all. Got some great pics of a Karen child about 8yo, smoking a huge pipe, carrying a tiny baby in a pouch. Won't forget THAT image.

@sonhouse said
Tell your wife I met up with a couple of elephants in Northern Thailand,

They will probably remember Sonhouse.
(But don't post his address if they tell you!)

@indonesia-phil said
Thank you all for your best wishes and encouragement. Anyway, we have arrived! The journey could indeed best be described as arduous; as good as 24 hours on various budget - airlines, the beloved one having worked out (she's clever like that) that if we travel three times around the globe we could save money, and who is one to argue? One is considering adding a couple ...[text shortened]... s and along major trunk roads, no pun intended, which seems to have been accepted, for now at least.

Taxi thing is a tourist scam (of course).

Have a wonderful holiday Phil.

PS I also refer to my wife as “beloved” in Facebook updates 😆

Day 1. Today we did nothing. We are, according to the beloved one, staying in a 'retreat', wherein doing nothing is quite acceptable, indeed too much activity may be frowned upon. That said, doing nothing takes some effort for someone who is used to being fairly busy, so it could be said that one must do something in order to do nothing, or that doing nothing requires that one do something. Oh dear, I seem to have gone philosophical, perhaps I've been in India too long.
So anyway we swam, ate the best Indian food ever, arranged some excursions for later in the week, and slept quite a lot.
And by the way there is a lake, and it's huge, one can only just see the other side of it. We are staying in room number 101, but we are avoiding any literary connections or associations....

@indonesia-phil said
Day 1. Today we did nothing. We are, according to the beloved one, staying in a 'retreat', wherein doing nothing is quite acceptable, indeed too much activity may be frowned upon. That said, doing nothing takes some effort for someone who is used to being fairly busy, so it could be said that one must do something in order to do nothing, or that doing nothing requires ...[text shortened]... We are staying in room number 101, but we are avoiding any literary connections or associations....

You seem quite busy for doing nothing... and you have time for leisure and philosophy, not bad. 😍