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(1) Hindi Temle we couldnt enter (2) Driving a tuktuk (3)English speaking friend that helped us to the correct temple (4) Muktersuk Temple (5) tuktuk driver who spoke no english (6) getting a message

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India

Hey Family, This time when coming to India I knew what to expect so I was actually looking forward to the trip , reuniting with my foreign counterparts for a month of travel and hockey. As thought the first week would be quiet laborious doing double training most days. This seems unnecessary but when the tournament starts you don’t really get a chance to train at all so we need all players up to speed and ready for the tournaments start. If you have ever been to India you will know that for anything to happen it must pass through a hierarchy system it takes ages for anything to get done. And even `players in the other franchises experienced this, all of which had overnight delays in either India or Singapore. Unlike them our trip to India was pretty seamless, long but seamless. No delays and 24h hours total travel we arrived to Bhubaneswar. We anxiously asked the driver what hotel he was taking us , when he responded “Mayfair” we sighed with relief, because this is by far the superior of any accommodation in town . But not until we had unpacked our bags and started to relax we where informed we had to move to a far less comfortable hotel . Lucky enough this was just a temporary shift for 2 days and we moved back to the resort that is the Mayfair . The daily ritual involves eating , training , eating , coffee , pool , training , eating in that exact order. Repeat this for the last 5 days and that is exactly what we have been doing . So when you have asked me what we have been up to, I didn’t exactly have anything exciting to tell you . Sunday was our day off , and I wanted to get out of the hotel so I bugged a few of the other boys to come to see a few temples for a few hours . Unlike last year these temples where extremely unsatisfying and small. Needless to say our tuktuk driver in true Indian style “tuk” us to the wrong temple twice. The first temple he drove us to was a Hindu temple so we couldn’t even get in (why the fuck would we want to go there ) . A few locals could speak some small English , mainly through watching cricket so he helped us get to our desired location . Missing home and the beach but enjoying my time here so far , plenty of dhal, rice & rotti for lunch and dinner a fair change from the large portion of vegetables and meat I eat at home . Excited for the tournament to start tomorrow and the travelling certainly will be interesting. Over & Out Aran

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Day 30 The Tipping Point

I join you know from Ranchi. The last few days have seen a big improvement in the Kalinga Lancers on field performance. The team was good enough to register our first win over Mumbai Magicians 2-1 on home soil. I was lucky enough to jag the second goal and was awarded with Goal of the Match, you can see me stoked with my cheque here. The next day we played Delhi, in which we saw a massive improvement from our first matchup against them. Narrowly going down 4-3 , I believe the team was unlucky not get at least a draw. Although the result in the second game did not go as we would have liked, our team is definitely on the improve. After the game we grabbed some pizza and shared a few beers with the international fellas, a more than overdue luxury to wind down before a few days off. Half a day off after the weekends matches saw an opportunity for a couple of us to get out and see some sights. We trekked 60km to the Sun Temple, which took an hour and half by car. We witnessed a motorbike crash on the way, surprising there is not more in India as the traffic can be mayhem. The Sun Temple was over a thousand years old and had extremely intimate carvings surrounding it. Clemo & I found it fascinating that they let you walk, touch & climb all over the thousand year old piece of history, this would never be allowed in other countries. The most interesting fact for the day was most definitely the carvings. Around the temple carvings of people having sex and performing sexual acts covered the building. We were then informed that the term Karma sutra is a Hindi belief, and this was represented in the carvings. This leads me into day 30. Relative to my previous blog my experience of India has been relatively pleasant. The food, people, travel, hospitality has all been confronting but no more than expected. At least that was the case until Day 30, a day that will stay etched in my mind for all the wrong reasons. These experiences always generate much humour in hindsight but little during. It began as any normal day in India would, stumble down to breakfast hair untouched and body weary. “Namaskar” which in English, translates to good day was exchanged with the staff as we enter for breakfast. Unaware of how the day would unfold I chewed through my omelette washed down with bitter coffee. A minor setback our plane to Calcutta had been delayed by half an hour, a few jokes are had before I head back to my room and assemble my things. We have already played 4 of our 10 matches and this road trip looks to be the most challenging part of our HIL journey. We are away for a week while we play 3 games in Ranchi, Lucknow in Mohali respectively. Travelling in India is nowhere near as easy as it is in Australia. To get from Bhubaneswar to Ranchi we have to catch two one-hour flights with a six-hour stopover. Six hours in an airport was never going to be fun but we had been promised a lounge with food and the likes, which eased our minds from the torturous wait. Our departure out of Bhubaneswar goes pretty smoothly and before we know it we are descending into Calcutta. We arrive grab our bags and with a little confusion wait for direction from the staff. The group proceeds to walk down to the end of the terminal curiously following Bansal one of our Assistant coaches. The terminal is completely empty as we reach a dead end, OUR LOUNGE. In disbelief I drop my bags and pull out my yoga mat as we have been instructed we will be having a session here, on the airport floor. I’m pretty agitated now as my patience with the yoga instructed was already running thin, we have no lounge and haven’t eaten for 5 hours. I thought doing a yoga session immediately after a game in a pitch-black change room was bad, it just got worse. I thought yoga was supposed to be relaxing, but I was far from relaxed by the time we finished. It was now two o’clock, hungry and angry we are informed lunch has been arranged for us. Lunch was be prepared by the toilet, I have never eaten feed prepared next to the toilet, and I wasn’t about then . A few boys and I steam off upstairs to try and find something slightly resembling western food. We find a subway and some faith is restored as we joke about how ridiculous this situation is becoming. We have a few hours to ourselves in the airport; I choose to spend this time watching Game of Thrones, and American TV show. By now I feel much better and most of my frustrations with the yoga & food have been forgotten. A vintage bus takes us to our plane. A propeller equipped 50 seater, by far the smallest plane I have travelled in. My hand luggage doesn’t even fit in the overhead lockers for crying out loud. To make things worse I kid you not, the plane was filled with mosquitoes. An hour flight in a mosquito-ridden plane, you wont catch Malaria, I don’t even know what I am worried about. At least the plane was comfy enough for me to get some sleep . The final piece of misfortune for the day was received upon my arrival to the new hotel. I just checked my email to find out payment from the franchise has been blocked by my bank. So iv been slaving away on the hockey field, doing countless yoga sessions, enduring gruelling travel, eating curry as if it bestowed you superpowers and I still haven’t been paid. That was the tipping point. It pushed all peoples tolerance and certainly stretched mine more than I was prepared for. Until Next time

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The Indian Experience

Hi There, I join you now form Bhubaneswar a small town in the Central East of India. This is the home base for the Kalinga Lancers a franchise based team in the newly formed Hockey India League (HIL ). This has been a great iniatitive for hockey world wide with the opportunity of lucrative money based contracts. I was lucky enough to be picked up by the Kalinga Lancers coached by Terry Walsh & playing alongside fellow Australians Kiel “browny “Brown, Glenn “Simmo” Simpson, Russel “Rusty” Ford & Tristan “clemo” Clemons. Having just returned from New Delhi following our first road trip , I sit in my hotel room a little bit frusturated but also anxious for what the future holds . It has been a tough start to the HIL for the Kalinga Lancers boys, suffering defeats to JP Warriors & Delhi Waveriders 3-7 & 0 -5 respectively. I had a feeling the competition was going to be tough due to the tight scheduling and loads of travel but now including the we may struggle in the competition has added pressures. Before I bore you with hockey talk, let me tell you about how the experience has been going so far. We arrived in Bhubaneshwar for the first time with a barrage of cameras & media, it was quiet an experience and now I understand what cricket & football players go through almost daily. Lucky enough I don’t have cameras taking photos of me every often so I thought the experience was pretty surreal & comical. The 7 of us I was travelling with had our bags carried to the coach were we where transferred to our hotel. When we arrived here more cameras and an Indian greeting of face clay & a flower lay. I was so to learn this would be custom for every new hotel we would enter. Getting to know the guys has been a heap of fun. The dynamics off the field between the group is good and is only going to grow over the next 3 weeks as we spend more time together. In our team we have 5 Aussies, 1 Kiwi, 2 Argentineans, 2 Spanish and approx 14 Indians. A huge mix of culture and personalities, which is certainly challenging but at the same time worthwhile. There is a big language barrier between nearly everyone in the group but most of the time this makes conversation more interesting. We have been learning 2 Hindi words in an attempt to have a better understanding between each other. One of the biggest characters in the group is David Minz , not a very Indian name is it . He has really limited English but he never stops smiling with his pearly white teeth. Every time you see him he slowly says your name and then laughs, hard not to like a someone that is always happy. It has been an even crazier experience for the 19 year old had his first plane flight on our trip to Delhi. We have been on a few excursions since our arrival one to the Bhubaneswar Zoo & another to a Temple. The zoo was awfully bad but this made the experience all the funnier. We had a guide that was speaking completely broken English. He convinced us to skip most of the enclosures and head straight to the White Tiger’s. When we got to the tiger enclosure after looking at half dead Emus & Peacocks, we were less than impressed. We could barely see the Lion for starters and it wasn’t moving so I was pretty sure it was dead or fake. We just laughed and moved on through the zoo. At this point we were handed over to another guide who spoke “fluent English”. He then introduced himself and spoke about 50 words in 10 seconds, we didn’t understand anything so proceeded to just nod and smile. After the tigers we decided to go on the Safari, the guide somehow managed to get us to also buy him a ticket on the safari (a story in itself), but it was only 50 Rupees that is approximately $1 AU. We boarded what looked like an old school bus and went through 3 different zones Lion, Bear & Dear. Our guide would point before we entered each zone and describe what safari we were entering. It would go something like this “Bear Safari” and point at the gate; he sure did earn his money that day. All in all great day, going out in India is always fun because you experience & see things that I can guarantee you have never seen before. Hopefully there are plenty more of these experiences to come. Another one of the enjoyments & challenges of India is the food. I enjoy Curry or at least I thought I did, until you eat it everyday for 45 days. It is in India you enjoy something as simple as a piece of fresh fruit. The selection of foods is quiet limited, so at first you enjoy them but after a while everything you eat starts to taste the same, mainly due to the fact you eat 5 pieces of butter Naan with every meal. We have a lots of staff with us but special mention to our massage man (photo below) & Yoga instructor that make our days challenging & funny. Only in India would a man lather you in olive oil and fully straddle you for a massage, leaving your bed stained yellow and an oil scented room. It was very hard to restrain my laughter when Scratch was getting his massage. The yoga man. At the start it was good, but when we started doing yoga daily with a thousand sun salutations to begin , it gets old fast . Needless to say it has actual helped keep us pretty fresh and I think a couple of the boys can actually touch there toes now. Also pictured above is Clemo & I covered in cake. An Indian Tradition it seems rather than to eat the cake first you smash it in the face of the birthday boy. Much to everyone’s amusement this is much better then eating it . Clemo & I got caught up in the action and the birthday boy himself covered us in his cake. That is all for now but plenty more fun & interesting things to fill you in on in further posts . I hope to have these done a little more regularly over the next 3 weeks.

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Orch attempting a headstand at H umayuns tomb

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Hello from New Delhi, India Im about 2 weeks into my 2 month journey playing hockey across India. The first 3 weeks of my adventure will be spent in New Delhi for the World League Finals , and International tournament with the 8 best teams in the world . All is well on my end. The majority of our time has been spent doing hockey based activities, with plenty of meetings, trainings and recovery . The Hotel we are staying at is pretty top notch, with really good spread of food both Western and Indian. Im rooming with my mentor Eddie Ock , and the rooms and spacious and we get a King single to spread our tired and sore body on. I haven't been sick yet , and not many of the lads have either. We have been pretty diligent on keeping up our hygiene with lots of hand wash, multi vitamins and only drinking bottles water . The Hockey s going well and im sure you have been watching on Youtube. It has been a good experience playing against the best team in teams in the world . I have felt comfortable in this environment and looking forward to more challenging games with the semi final and potentially final coming up in the next couple of days . We have had a few spare days off and have got out and seen some of the sites. First rest day we went out to see the Red Fort . We went on a Tuktuk ride and it was pretty mental , there are no defined road rules in india, but everyone is pretty good drivers. Red Fort was packed cause it was a Sunday but to be honest it was pretty boring and there was not to much going on. Second day we went out to humayuns tomb which was awesome. Alot less people and alot cleaner. We got a few photos doing handstands and running amuk . I got a video i made with my GoPro but i will save this till i get home , cause the file size is quite big and will take to long to upload. There was few interesting things we bumped into this day . We saw a snake charmer with 2 cobras . Orch got close but he did not want to touch them , he is a bit of a pussy . We also tried to join in a local cricket match , but they where playing for money so they wouldnt let us do to much . Besides this not to much has been happening . I will keep you posted across the course of my Journey . Over & Out Aran

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National History museum

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So Berlin has been really nice , first day we got here we had a walk around and went into the History museum , i can actually remember going their when we came as a family . Do you remember all the other things we did when we were here ? photos of the bears, heads out of the Jewish Holocaust memorial haha i thought that was pretty funny that i am back here doing it again . Second day was massive for us , we went out on a walking tour . 3 and half hours walking around berlin with a guide explaining the history to us and we got to see alot . Brandenburg Gate , Holocaust Memorial , Hitler bunker & Death Site, Berlin Wall, Burning of the books site , Checkpoint Charlie & the Berliner Dome. Heading back to Rotterdam tomorrow and going to watch the final before i am home . time has gone so quickly but we have had plenty of good times , with laughter a plenty usually at angus's expense haha !! Catch ya soon Family After this we went and had lunch at an authentic german restaurant and got 1L steins and a pork knuckle Delicious !!!! After this we ventured back to the berliner dome and went inside and up the dome to have a look at the city from high up. we were so knackered after all this we went up and had a for 2 hours before having a few foamies .

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Went to the hockey , the aussies were playing india . Played pretty well and won 5-1 . This win gained us qualification for the world cup so it was a good win !

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We were to check out one museum , called the rijksmuseum . It was pretty cool with alot of scale models like this one of the boat. There was also this cool library which looked like something out of a movie or a harry potter book . Thought it was a good photo until i realised Gus got his ugly head in it . We are down in Rotterdam now and heading to the hockey tonight before taking off on the train to berlin tomorrow morning at 6:30 am !! Ciao

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Some interesting Rotterdam Architecture , the Cube houses. I don't even know how they work . And the park just down the street where we have been eating lunches in Rotterdam

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So Amsterdam was a really cool city . The canal system is really unique and very interesting as it was explained to us by an AMERICAN on our canal tour. we visited the I AM AMSTERDAM letters which were packed most of the day with tourist getting photos . We also toured the Anne Frank house and the explained the story of which Anne Frank and 7 others hide in a secret annex. The line was quite large and Gus wasn't to impressed of my persistence considering his hangover state. But once we got inside he was alright and enjoyed it . The house in which the Jews hid is in the middle of the three buildings. The reason the buildings are so narrow in Holland is because you actually get taxed on the width of your house which is an unusual concept . Also a lot of buildings in Amsterdam have a forward lean which is a design idea that allows the residents to host there furniture up the side of the building with a basic pulley system . The dam square was always busy with people as it is right next to the red light district which is always packed. Very interesting walk through the red light district and made your realise how big the sex industry is . All the girls tap on the window as you walk past trying to get your attention , which was returned with a big smile and a giggle to myself. But being in the red light district we thought we better check out a live sex show. Needless to say that was an experience. Our Hostel in Amsterdam was pretty average so we didn't spend much time there and tended to spend all our time walking around or relaxing on park benches and boardwalks so we were able to see a fair bit of the city. Trams run right the city and are pretty dangerous , the literally brush your shoulder as your walking so if your not careful you might get hit . The food is really good in Holland and i dont think we have been disappointed with anything we have bought or ordered yet , expect for the dutch tradition , raw HERRING . It was foul full stop .

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We have been checking out a fair bit of street art which we think is pretty cool take a look at a couple of photos we have taken

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So i left the team now and although it was an enjoyable experience i have moved on the amsterdam . i met up with angus here and we are staying in a little hostel about 5 minutes walk to town and 5 minutes walk to Red Light District. The day i arrived we went out to the city centre had some food to eat and jumped on a river cruise which was pretty cool . After this we went into town and started with a few foam tops, when then ventured onto a few places recommended by the hockey lads . Hit up a place Chupitos which essentially was just a shot bar , so we nailed a few shots. It was pretty cool and there was alot of flammable shots which you cant do in Australia i have a photo of a couple we had . Today we are off to see a few museums , the markets , I am AMSTERDAM letters and maybe the Heineken factory. So for the now Goodbye

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Hi there , Just checking in and letting you know i am still alive and kicking . I have been in Rotterdam a week today , as we play our second warm up match against the dutch . It has been a really good experience and i am really enjoying my time here with the team . I am rooming with Dwyer , which has been good The first couple of days after we arrived were really busy , training twice a day with team meetings and other duties so the body got sore pretty quickly . Since then the training load has been reduced and we have had plenty of down time and even a day off yesterday. This gave the chance for a few off us to check out the city, go and have a coffee and a walk around . Rotterdam is a pretty cool city with lots of greenery and plenty of things to keep you occupied. The first game we won 3-1 after being down 0-1 . It was a well contested match both teams having opportunities, but personally i feel we had the better of them and converted our goal chances . I am playing centre half at the moment , but didn't have the best game first hit out. Got tackled a few times when i probably wasn't expecting it . Second game against the dutch today and another good chance before we head of the Belgium tomorrow for our third warm up match ! For now goodbye and will be in touch again shortly