balapann-blog

[balapann-blog]

Day 169 - 19 February- Bacalar

We woke up and get a taxi to this place called Los Rapidos, that it’s a kind of natural lazy river thing that people swim down and people kayak on. It is however has formations of Stromolites that are quite fragile. We were the first people on the water but by the second go down it was fairly clear that if these formations are significant then this place should not be a tourist attraction. Even with the best will and effort in the world from people who were told not to touch them, they are on the side of water and in many cases the bed of the river!

We went down three times (very carefully) but at one point saw a guy who I think worked there stand on a big bit when getting off a kayak. We left after that and headed back to the hotel and then off to a ‘beach club’ on the lake. It was free into it but the food we bought was quite expensive and evidently frozen.

Day 170 - 20 February- Bacalar > Merida

We continued to get up really early, before sunrise. We then walked to where our paddle boarding tour started. It was walking along dark roads with lots of dogs everywhere but thankfully it seems like the Bacalar street doges are as laid back as the place. Nin unfortunately dropped her hat on the way.

We started doing the paddle boarding on our knees, getting the hang of it as we were doing it for the first time. I managed to stand up after about 5 mins and was fine after that as they are much more stable than I imagined.

We were on the tour with an English couple and Italian guy who were in kayaks and a guide on a paddle board. After about 10 mins we stopped in a little beach and had some breakfast with the sunrise.

We then boarded across the lake which gets quite deep in places. We were against the wind so had to board vociferously. We were starting to get the hang of it.

We then went for a swim in a shallow cove and then paddled across the lake back to the start point. We were going with the waves and so started to surf on them a bit which took a bit of getting used to.

We then walked back and went for breakfast in town, then checked out and our hotel owner very kindly gave us a lift to the bus. The ADO buses in Mexico are very nice so we had a very pleasant trip to Mérida.

When we arrived at our airbnb but had no code to get the key because the hosts hadn’t sent it, we tried calling the number on the website but a random woman picked up who was not the owner. Randomly the lady came past after walking her dog, and was like ‘oh did you not get the message with the code’. It was all very disorganised.

I walked to a supermarket to get some milk and got some tomales on the way back. We then went to sleep quite early.

Day 171 - 21 February- Merida

The weather in Merida was strangely very bad and drizzly. We got up and went to the gym a few hundred meters from our house. I did some running and then stretching. It was nice to do a bit of exercise again.

We then came back and went for some brunch in this nice cafe on the other side of the center. After this we walked into town and Nin went to get her hair cut. I did a tiny bit of admin and went around the town. I then picked Nin up and we went home for a bit.

We then took an Uber to this typical Yucatan food restaurant and had a ‘essentials of Yucatan food’ meal which had pulled pork and turkey in various guises. We then had a very expensive gelato and headed home to bed.

Day 172 - 22 February- Merida (Celestún day trip)

We went straight to tour operators when we got up as apparently if you were the last people you ended up on the back of the bus which reviews said was very uncomfortable. We were second so that was good! We stopped at a services to get a coffee and our guide gave us a talk about flamingos. On the way there we past a Corona brewery. We got to Celestun about an hour and a half in.

People come to the town in fishing season from Veracruz and Chiapas among other places. They might do other things in other times, like farming.

We got on the boat and went into the estuary. On the way we saw loads of pelicans, a good few ospreys and other birds like cormorants.

When we did get to the bit where the flamingos were chilling, there was a family of them feeding in the water. Unfortunately because of the rain over the last few days, the water was high and the flamingos who can’t swim couldn’t flock in their thousands like they normally do. So we had to content ourselves with this family of the majestic birds. The zoom on my camera isn’t good enough to get a good close up pic of them, it felt very like the Mitchell and Webb sketch flamingo world.

We then went through some mangrove looking for wildlife but didn’t see that much, except for a spider crab. We then went to a ‘Mayan bath’ which turned out to be shallow water in the sea where there was silt in the bottom which we put on our bodies as an exfoliation. With my peeling back, I felt like I could have used it, however it made my back a little itchy on the way back to the port. It got very choppy on the way back and it was raining big raindrops that kinda hurt.

When we got back we went for lunch which was part of the tour, which was very small portion sizes.

We sat beside this couple from Leicestershire who were recently retired and who had been away for 6 weeks doing the Guatemala volcanoes and some other places in Central America. They looked very active (the guy looked like he had about 2% body fat when he jumped in for the Mayan bath!). We chatted for a while and then went for a walk on the beach for a bit. I then went for a quick swim before we got the bus back to Merida.

We got ourselves home and showered and then went to dinner, where we were meeting Emma’s cousin (who lives in Merida) and auntie Louise who is visiting. It was very nice to see people we knew and we were chatting so much it took about 45 minutes (and one cocktail) before we actually ordered food!

The food was very good and the restaurant was on a rooftop overlooking the Zocalo which was a very nice view. I had some nice ravioli and what they called cassava risotto but ended up quite like a carbonara without the pasta. We ended up leaving at about 11 (very late for us!) and we pretty much went straight to bed!

Day 174 - 23 February- Merida > Valladolid

We got up and took an Uber to a gym in the center. It was mainly a weights gym but had a couple of quite good running machines. I did a run and then waited under a fan till Nin was ready. We then went for a quick coffee and then headed back to pack.

We then took an Uber to a clinic to allow Nin to get an X-ray on her heel that is very swollen. It didn’t look like there was a break which is obviously good! We then went to a restaurant in a hacienda outside the town, near the station. It was very tasty. We had a sopa limon and some pulled pork and some sausages from Valladolid (where we are go in to later). We then got a taxi the kilometre or so to the station.

The Tren Maya is brand new (opened in December I think) and is really swish. There are different prices for locals and tourists so it is mainly Mexican people on them which is really nice. We had one stop at Chichen Itza and then pulled into Valladolid.

Our guest house is a little out of town, but they have bikes that we can use to get into town. We biked in to a local restaurant and had some Oaxacan food. I had a Tyudia and Nin had a salad. On the way to get our bikes I ran into a spider web and quickly got out of it. When looking where the web was we saw a GIANT spider chilling in it, so I was very happy to have got out!

We went to sleep pretty early

Day 175 - 24 February- Valladolid

We got up and cycled up to this cafe and got a couple of coffees and breakfast sandwiches from this nice cafe. We then cycled to a medical supply shop to buy some crutches for Nin who was finding walking difficult. Unfortunately it was the old school crutches that got under the armpit which was quite difficult to use.

We then walked around looking for things to do but it was very hot and quite difficult on crutches so we stopped for a couple of drinks in local places.

We then came back to the airbnb and chilled out for a bit before cycling up to the cenote that is in the middle of town and had a very nice swim! We then went to the gym and I did a treadmill sesh. Annoyingly all the treadmills are set to miles (I thought it was just America clinging to imperial measurements) so I had to just run for a time and assume I had reached 5k! I’ve got more into treadmills on this trip as they really make you stay on a pace which I am very bad at!

While we were in the gym, there was biblical rain. When we cycled home there were massive puddles everywhere. We took a bit of a wrong turn and ended up getting a mad snack with corn, mayo and spicy Cheetos which was actually very tasty. We went home luckily avoiding any downpours.

We started walking into town but got a taxi mercifully early and went to a small taco place that was actually really tasty. We then got a taxi home.

Day 176 - 25 February- Valladolid

We got up early again! And got ourselves to the colectivo to go to Cichen Itza for about 7. We then got to the entrance at about 7.40. We got a guide with a German couple who were travelling with their 6 month old daughter!

When the site opened at 8 we went in and went first to the main pyramid. There was lots of confusing information about the Mayan calendar which I had mainly forgotten from Tikal. Apparently there is no shadow on the pyramid or any other in the site on May 20th at midday, as all the pyramids act as giant sun dials.

If you clap in front of the steps the echo apparently sounds like a Quetzal bird. Like Tikal the acoustics are amazing, and that clapping was used as a bell to call people to worship. They also used the pyramid as a kind of farm calendar as it looks like a snake going down the side of the pyramid on the equinox at midday. Which symbolised a snake going into the ground and fertility of soil (plant and harvest).

The pyramid was restored by people in the Carnegie institute. Also apparently America or a US university bought the site for 500 pesos before it was renationalised. They also recently found out the temple was built over a cenote as the Maya saw them as then entrance to the underworld and they were very sacred. They also built over a smaller pyramid that had been built earlier (like in Tikal).

The site was abandoned in 1300 and people think this was due to overpopulation and potentially some sort of rebellion against the ruling classes by the much more numerous peasant classes.

We then went to a building beside the main pyramid which was called the Temple of Warriors which has alignment for solstices. It was apparently the site of some human sacrifices, which came into Maya culture when there was a merger with Toltec culture from the area near Mexico City.

In the Maya calendar, every 52 years is the end of a cycle. This would lead to changes in their worship like the building of a new Chacmool which was the statue where sacrificed items would be left. I must say the Chamool is a pretty menacing figure just sitting there waiting for its offerings.

On a platform there was a relief of and eagle and jaguar with their mouths open showing the Toltecs and Maya cultures speaking to each other.

We then went to where they play the mental Mayan ball game. It is in a 170m long court (I don’t think they used all of it)

The hoop was 7 m high and it had 7 players with one one on a platform under the hoop. You could only use your elbow, hip, knees to hit the ball, although the captain under the hoop might have used a stick. The captain of the winner of the game was often executed, as they wanted their best people to be offered to the gods, and the people sacrificed could potentially skip time in the afterlife.

We then went to the observatory which was strange as it is circular where nothing else is. The area around it is cool and less busy with some interesting buildings. We saw a few iguanas sitting in the sun looking imperious. We then quickly went to the sacred cenote and then got on the bus back to Valladolid. It was over full for a bit so I sat on the floor for about 15 mins.

Seeing a Cichen Itza was voted as a new wonder if the world it made us think about our 7 wonders that we had seen. I think mine are:

Petra

Registan in Samarkand

Hagia Sofia

Ankor Wat

The monasteries of Armenia

Duomo of Florence

The Taj (although I barely saw it when I went due to the smog)

We went for a very nice lunch in this food court near the zocalo, which was slightly ruined by the smell from a bathroom wafting through the dining area. I had a sopa lima and we both had this nice fried taco with breaded pork.

After this we walked to a really nice ice cream place. I had the inspired choice of goats cheese and pomelo as a flavour combo. We then went home for a bit and had a siesta and went for a very early dinner.

Dinner was in this restaurant that specialised in tomales. We had one to share and then I had some more of the local sausage. We had a delicious hot chocolate and then went home to bed as we had got up super early again!

[balapann-blog]

Day 164 - 14 February- Flores > Belize City

Another early start as we had to be at the bus at ten to six which considering our last week was really taking the piss.

We sat in the bus for a couple of hours as we sped (for Guatemala) to the border. There was a Dutch couple in massive argument and they were actively trying not to speak to each other or even acknowledge each other.

We arrived at the border and waited a while for the other bus in our convoy to get here. The Dutch guy wasn’t looking impressed and got out of the bus for a few minutes (which we probably should have done tbh). We took our stuff and went through the border, which was pretty straightforward if a little long, but at this point I think I’m prepared for them to be long and annoying, at least we didn’t have to wait for an hour in snow!

We then got on the next bus which didn’t go for a while since it was over filled and they were waiting to get another bus that would take a few people to the town about 20 mins away where they were staying. I think they gave up waiting for it and just took us there and they got out. After a while we set off again. The bus was a long slog and we hadn’t had one loo break!

We arrived in Belize City where we were staying a night because we thought we would arrive after the last boat to Caye Caulker (this was not the case but hay ho). We walked to this restaurant called Celebrity restaurant that was close. Belize City is quite dangerous and we had heard that there are quite a few muggings so we wanted to avoid walking if possible.

The restaurant was all set up for Valentines. It was a strange mix of quite basic and very flash. The only menu we were given was for this Valentines set menu that was £30 a head which we got. It was fairly basic hummus and tortillas, fish and chips and then a Baileys cheese cake. We then had a coffee that was very expensive! It was our most expensive lunch in ages and cost us about £85 all in all but was very average. We then ordered a taxi though the place that was a random oldish guy in a car. As we were waiting the people in the restaurant were packing valentines gift boxes that included bottles of Moët.

Our taxi driver was very friendly and chatty, he had lived in America for a while. We chatted about the British Empire, and Ireland and Belize’s relative position in the commonwealth (Belize in Ireland our). A lot to get through in 10 minutes. We got to our place and checked in, our host gave us some recommended places to eat. We sat inside watching the football for a bit.

We went for walk on the road behind the house where lots of the recommendations were. We got some cash out and went to the supermarket but then couldn’t find anywhere where we thought would be good to eat so went back out for dinner stuff from the supermarket. We then watched death in paradise and had our refried bean wraps.

Day 165 - 15 February- Belize City > Caye Calker

We woke up and had some coffee as we got up. We got a car to the boat that we booked through our host. He was another quite sweet man who had his young (granddaughter?) in the front with him. His car had a very bad back wheel, it sounded like the suspension had gone. We got the water taxi to Caye Caulker which was straightforward and took about an hour.

We went to our guest house and left our bags and walked around the island which is very small! We reserved a snorkelling tour for the afternoon and then went to get some food. I had a breakfast burrito which was tasty!

We then went on our tour which was with this family from Indianapolis. We first went to this area near the island and saw a Manatee which was fun. We then fed some Tarpons and Frigate birds. We also saw a couple of Iguana just chilling in some mangrove.

Our first stop was a coral garden. The coral was very bleached which was sad. However there were a good amount of fish chilling around. We swam around for about forty minutes, and then got back in the boat.

The second stop was on the same reef but it was quite shallow as the tide was out. We were shown lots of fish which I can’t remember, but I downloaded a pic of Belize fish species and some I can remember are:

- Yellow tail snapper

- Queen Parrotfish

- Sergeant Major

- Yellowhead Wrasse

- Blue Chromis

I got a bit stressed out by how shallow it was so tried to stay in the deeper water where possible.

Our final stop was ‘shark and ray alley’ where nurse sharks sleep and chill and where people come and stand in the shallow water near them. There were a good few sting rays too. The nurse sharks look quite like dog fish, but do also look quite evil in a sneaky way. I thought I saw a barracuda but it turned out a trumpet fish. It was a strange experience getting out of the boat with the nurse sharks all around. Apparently fishermen used to clean their catch there which is how the ‘alley’ came into being. We then went back, checked in and had a shower.

We went to this very fun restaurant where the guy asked you ‘chicken, pork, fish, or lobster?’ and you got that with vegis and rice and beans. You take drinks out of a cooler, and he was the only guy working there. It was very tasty. We then had an ice cream and went to bed.

Day 166 - 16 February- Caye Calker

We woke up and got ready for our snorkelling tour. We got our stuff and then on the boat. Everyone else in our tour was American, including a nice couple from Connecticut and a retired couple from Seattle.

Our first stop was a coral garden different from the one we had been to the day before. As we stopped our tour guide got really exited and shouted ‘Manatee!’ And jumped into the water! We followed him in and swam towards it. We kept a respectful distance from it and watched this mad creature. It looked like a Pokémon and really not like something that should exist in our world. It was very sweet and then just swam away leaving us to to our first swim.

We then went to the Hol Chan nature reserve which was a bit further along the reef. This was around a channel in the coral which was significantly deeper than the rest of the reef. We saw loads of fish in shoals and just chilling. We saw a menacing Barracuda patrolling the reef with its underbite and silvery stare. We saw a spotted eagle ray swim past the reef. And a bit further on away from the channel in the shallow water, a green turtle minding its own business while loads of people surrounded being amazed. I think I would get quite stressed with that much attention. Although they did tell people to keep their distance.

Our next place was the conch graveyard where a fisherman had left thousands of conch shells over the years creating this quite strange reef like habitat. We saw some sting rays which the lady from Seattle kept calling manta rays saying ‘I saw a small manta out there’ which was met with doubting looks from the guides. We also saw other fun looking flat fish with interesting black and white markings (some spurt of flounder?)

We then went to a different shark and ray alley which was a bit deeper. There were lots of nurse sharks and snappers around the boat. The snappers were quite menacing as they were quite big and swam quite close to you. We went for a bit of a swim and looked at some more coral and then swam back to the boat where I saw a weird slightly shark like fish under the boat. A couple of other people saw it too and when we got in the guide said it was a ramona! Which it turns out are the guys who hang off sharks and semi clean, semi feed on them. There were a few rays dotted around too.

Our final stop was this wreaked boat that had been sunk to create an artificial reef. There was a big shoal of sergeant major fish which I had normally seen in ones or twos. On our way back to the place we saw a dolphin! Unfortunately I got a bit sun burned on my back which was quite uncomfortable when I discovered it when I got back, luckily it wasn’t very bad.

We were having dinner in this local place when the couple from Seattle showed up and asked to sit with us. We agreed and they proceeded in quite a one sided conversation to tell us about lots of things, but mainly what a disaster their wedding day had been. It seemed very bad, their families hated each other and one of the grand parents had a heart attack 20 mins before the ceremony. Thankfully he we have never been to a wedding like that!

Day 167 - 17 February- Caye Calker > Bacalar

We woke up and packed up most of our stuff, leaving a bit to dry. We went to get cash and this local dish called a fried Jack which was very tasty, a bit like a fried pitta bread with bacon, refried beans and cheese. We then went to this dock where you can see seahorses. We didn’t see any but we did see this strange sea slug thing, and lots of interesting little fish, including one with amazing marbling colour. Just as we were about to leave, this Dutch family found one and we rushed back to see it. It was so camouflaged that we would have found it very tricky to find.

We then went and checked out and left our bags by the ferry and went for a walk down the island. It had evidently rained in the night and most of the roads were very flooded. We managed to get quite far but in the end had to turn back. It felt like the island is in a pretty precarious position, not just from rain but also any rising sea levels. There is quite a lot of building going on and I think if you are investing in building on this island you need your head examined as the highest point seemed about a meter above sea level.

We then had some breakfast and went to to the ferry. It was a bit late leaving but that is to be expected. It was a pretty small boat but managed to fit people in pretty nicely. We stopped off at San Pedro where we did our border security and passport stamping and then got back on the boat and went on to Chetumal.

The journey went into a large bay which had numerous islands in it. We also stayed close to the mainland. It was very calm in the bay but with it being the smallest boat I have ever been on an international journey before I made sure that I could see land at all times.

We got to Chetumal and did our border checks on the dock. We had to pay quite a big fee to enter Quintana Roo state, which given it has Cancun and Talum in it is probably fair enough! We then got a taxi to Bacalar and checked into our hotel.

We walked into town and had some tacos, we had some vegi based ones that IMHO were a bit wet and kinda tasted the same but were tasty enough. We did a bit of planning for then next week or so and then went back to bed. It was still quite had to sleep with the sun burn but was okay. It gets very hot in the morning when I turned off the AC.

Day 168 - 18 February- Bacalar

We got up and had breakfast in the hotel that was pretty nice and had some very nicely brewed coffee. We then walked into the town and booked a lake boat ride for the afternoon. We then went for a coffee in this garden near the Zocalo.

We then walked around the town looking vaguely for a rash vest because you can’t have sun cream in the lake. There were lots of fake and not very nice ones, but we did eventually find one that was pretty nice.

We then went to get a drink on the zocalo and then went on our sailing tour. We had a little sailing boat and Davide a slightly surly captain who was probably younger than us. I then proceeded to prove the Dunning-Kruger effect by saying some things about sailing based on my very limited experience which Davide promptly corrected.

The first place we stopped was this channel built by the Maya which connected the lagoon to the sea through a long channel. The channel was very shallow (like lots of the lake) and when we got into swim, we were able to stand.

After our initial stop we then went past an island that was full of storks. We then went to a couple of cenotes that had bust their banks and now fed the lake. There was a moderate wind and then we got the right wind we did move quite quickly, however we generally moved at quite a leisurely pace.

We then stopped for a swim near the bird island which was a bit deeper and still very nice, after a bit of swimming we could touch the ground fairly well.

We then went to a very deep cenote that was right on the shore, Davide tried to tack but did it too late and ended up head to wind, he then had to jibe and go again. After that we went in and we walked back into town.

For dinner we went to a fairly standard restaurant in town that served pretty nice but inauthentic food. We then went back and slept soundly.

[balapann-blog]

Day 155 - 7 February- San Marcos

We woke up quite early as we were still in trek mode but we got up a bit more slowly and in the end left about 9am. We dropped our laundry off at a launderette and went to a cafe to get some breakfast. We had a coffee at this cafe and bakery that could be literally anywhere in the world. There were lots of digital nomad and hipppie like people sitting in the garden. I had an actually very nice sandwich and coffee. Their bread is actually delicious which in a generic ‘boogie cafe’ is not always the case.

There were a couple of people sitting next to us who had a bit of a strange relationship dynamic. There was a woman in a long flowey dress with long blond hair and tattoos on her arms. She was sitting with a couple who were two women, one with cropped bleached hair and the other with the sides of her head shaved and a pony tail that went from the front to the back of her hair. They had a child with them.

It seemed that the blond lady and the couple did not know each other very well and were engaging in small talk. The woman with the shaved sides was discussing ways of making money, since ‘inflation is at 7% so if you are not making 7% return on your investments then you are losing money’ and then claimed to know an investment that guaranteed up to twice that. The blond lady then spoke about wanting to buy around 10 acres and saying that she ‘has always had to hustle for herself and pay her own rent’ as if that was an achievement. She then went on to speak about her recent visit to a fortune teller who saw a financial transaction in her near future and how she was looking to manifest this transaction into being. At this point the child’s father came in who had a shaved back of his head with dreadlocks coming over the front of his head. He was making small talk with the lady with short hair but they did not look very close, which confused me. Although it might have been that they were looking after the child for the guy.

The hippie vibe here seems very late capitalism and less about community and counter culture and more about individualism, hedonism and a desire to live to a specific social media friendly aesthetic. The town is quite expensive and all the buildings and shops seem to be foreign owned with indigenous workers. I saw a woman wearing a white vail and dress like the Virgin Mary and people walk round the town barefoot, even though it is covered in dog shit. It really is a hell hole.

After we had breakfast we came back and sat in the apartment for a long time pretty tired just kind of resting. At 1pm we went to do some shopping and collect our laundry, buying some fresh tortillas, some cheese and other things for dinner. We then went for a walk, looking for a nice path along the river but because access to the shore is mostly private due to people buying lakeside properties and because it was sheer cliffs to the beach we didn’t get very far. We had a dog who followed us round for a bit but we managed to ditch him when we did find the only bit of public shore we could walk along, which was only a couple of hundred meters.

We then went for a drink in this pretty mid garden restaurant. I had a salty lime drink which was okay but the nachos I ordered took ages. All card payments seem to have at least a 6% surcharge on them, and all bank withdrawals the same which is very annoying. I then went and looked for a transfer to Antigua we could book and to get a couple of beers.

We then made our food and watched the 6 nations highlights and went to bed early still tired! But before we went to sleep we got a text from the Cleveland 4 seeing if we wanted to go for a walk in another town the next day, which we arranged to do!

Day 156 - 8 February- San Marcos

We got up and had some coffee we had bought the day before, which was grown and roasted around the town which has to be the most local cup of coffee I have ever drunk. We went for breakfast in the same place as the day before, they had a slightly different sandwich menu today and we both got this one which was in a roll that seemed half bread, half pretzel, half croissant which was tasty. I really can’t get over how good the bread is there for such a vacuous town!

We got the boat to Pannachel which was about half an hour as it stopped at little villages along the way. It was quite choppy on the water and the driver went pretty quick in the fiberglass boat so there was lots of thuds after every wave. We moved from the front to the back and I protected my shoulder (which was feeling much better) as best as I could. We had a little drink as we were a bit early and met up with Audrey (a girl from the trek) and the Cleveland Four!

We went for a walk along the road to the next town, which was supposed to be a hike but there was evidently the same issue as in San Marcos, where the lake shore was owned. We made pretty quick time and got to the next town called Santa Caterina Palopo. We went to museum that was run by a small family which showed some of the traditional items like their textiles but they also had a replica of what a sitting room would have looked like in the 20th century. Audrey played a traditional Mayan dice game with the child from the family, but the dice were 6 beans which had a single white spot, which collectively gave the number based on the number of white side up beans were rolled.

We walked round the town a bit but then took a tuk tuk back to Pana and went to get some food along the shore in this small trailer. We had some delicious drinks, I had a sin alcohol granadilla - (some mix of passion fruit and orange which I had never seen before) drink which was delicious. We also had this beautiful aguachilie type thing with different veg in it.

We walked around for a bit after and then said goodbye to the Cleveland Four who were going back to the states and got the the boat back with Audrey. It was a really nice day, everyone is super nice and we just had a great day chatting.

When we got back to purgatory we went back to the same place we had been on the first day and got a lasagna again. The owner has a Rottweiler who walks around the restaurant, and about halfway through our meal, a lady and her Chihuahua came in. The interactions between the two dogs was insane due to the sheer size difference. I kept thinking the big boy was going to eat the little guy in one bite, but the big boy was pretty chill and just minded his own business.

We went home and watched fa cup highlights with our other beer. We went to sleep early again.

Day 157 - 9 February- San Marcos

We woke up and packed and left the airbnb after having a couple of cups of coffee. We went to the bakery for breakfast again. This time I had a focaccia which was really nice. The lady with the shaved sides of her head was there again with her partner, they were reading a book called, The Bitcoin Manual which struck me as quite funny, that a ‘currency’ that is completely virtual and online has a physical book. I cant imagine it really needs to be a book and thinking you can read a book some random guy has written as a get rich quick scheme about how to invest in a get rich quick scheme seemed quite illustrative of the place.

We got on our transfer and which twisted and turned round he steep roads around the lake. We got to our Airbnb and checked in.

I went to get food from the supermarket while Nina dozed. On the way I bumped into an acquaintance from college who was randomly travelling here. When I got back, nin was incredulous that the meal I had brought back was bland and too small so I was sent back to jazz up the meal. Back at the shop I saw the gap year boys from the bus to Xela.

We then had the dinner (which then passed the Nin test) and we watched the Super Bowl. I still think that it’s not a good game although it’s good the Chiefs didn’t win.

Day 160 - 10 February- Antigua de Guatemala

We got up and went to our walking tour. We learned a few factoids, like Antigua is actually third place of capital, which was subsequently moved to Guatemala City, Antigua Guatemala means old Guatemala!

There are 22 Mayan languages spoken in the country (we also learnt this on the trek). There was chat about syncretism of local religions and Catholicism. There was a really annoying Dutch woman who kept taking pictures of local women without asking, which we really should have said something to her, but we overheard her friend saying they were doing our trek where they will definitely be told not to do it!

Apparently 12 rich Guatemala families control most of the food industry with that obviously have a lot of political influence. This is particularly true with the sugar industry.

Guatemala also has three independence days:

- 1821 - Independence from Spain

- 1823 - Independence from Mexico

- 1843 - Independence from United provinces of Central America

If you want to paint your house, you need to choose from a colour palette from unesco. Coke Cola put cables underground in the ritzy part of town so they don’t fall over in earthquakes and in exchange they got their logo on lamp posts and a massive tax break (which is quite concerning). The other mad thing they did was get rid of their post service so you can only use companies like UPS or DHL and they don’t sell stamps in the whole country!

We came back to the hotel and regrouped and Nina then went to the gym and I went to the barber for a haircut and beard trim.

The place was really classic and the guy was an old fella who was very friendly and who took my very basic directions and freestyled it. I was the same height as him in the chair so he was reaching to get the top of my head. I was very happy with the outcome!

I walked round the town looking at different shops. We then met back at the hotel before going to this restaurant I had seen online. It looked like it was in an old house and we sat beside this swimming pool that had been filled with flower petals. It feels like quite a fancy place but where people from Antigua come.

Day 161 - 11 February- Antigua de Guatemala

We got picked up at 6 for our tour to Volcan Pacaya. We stopped in a few different places before leaving the town and driving to the volcano.

Went through a big town called San Maria de Jesus that seems like the town the local people live in near Antigua. We eventually got to the trail head and picked up our guides and started walking.

We stopped a bit up the trail and were shown a geothermal energy station that had been built in partnership with Isreal. Although the walk is advertised as being very easy and child friendly it was quite steep. There was a friendly Canadian man with his child in a sling on his back who had to let her down at each stop ‘to stretch her legs’.

We got to the top of the trail which comes up at the top of an old crater and just above the last lava flows from 2021. We took a few pics and then went down to the lava fields where there are a few vents that emit hot air. The tour guides then gave us some marshmallows that are stuck in the vents and melted! They were actually really melted although the heat wasn’t very intense from them. We then walked back to the bus and went back to Antigua.

In the afternoon we walked around looking at the odd shop and then went to this really nice bar / restaurant in what must have been an old rich persons house with a courtyard where we sat. We had a couple of drinks and a delicious falafel wrap and some very tasty crocette. We then went home and packed and went to bed early before our 3am wake up!

Day 162 - 12 February- Antigua de Guatemala > Flores

We got up brutally early, and did the final bit of packing and getting ready. Our bus arrived at ten to three and we got on and were on our way quite quickly as thankfully our quite big bus had only 6 passengers.

Getting close to Guatemala City, there was still quite a lot of traffic at 4.30 I imagine this is because the traffic is so bad people get up to avoid it and that some people commute quite far to go to work in the city.

At about 12, crossing the Rio Dulce, the bus stopped and we got in a new bus with a slightly different cast of characters.

As we got out of the highlands and into the lower land countryside, the land looked like Jungle that has been turned to pasture but with fits and spurts of very thick jungle. There was the odd mono culture forest in certain places. You could see in places it was like a karst landscape with hills and then some fields, it looked like a more lush west of Ireland.

You could see some palm plantations which I assume is for palm oil but not completely monoculture which was nice to see. With the different pasture fields and copses, I found myself thinking of the landscape in Wales in the valleys near Hergest plus palm and banana trees scattered around.

We arrived in Flores which is on an island in a lake quite near the Belize border. It is incredibly picturesque and has lots of old timey houses painted in pastel colours. We went to our hotel, checked in and then went for a walk around the island (which took 29 minutes at most). After that I went for a run around the island 3 times which was my first run since popping the shoulder. It was generally fine and I think will get better as it gets back to normal, although I think I definitely want to get it sorted when I get home.

We then went to a restaurant on the lake edge and had delicious aguachillie and then I had these strange but tasty dumpling things. The lake seems very high and has started to take gardens and a few streets into its murky fingers. It occasionally splashed up near where we were sitting. We then went to bed early again because of another early start!

Day 163 - 13 February- Flores (Tikal)

Guatemala needs to chill out with its start times, luckily our sleep patterns have changed and we managed to get a bit of sleep! We woke up at 6 for a 7 start to go to the Mayan ruins of Tikal. We picked this random guy up on the way who had flown in for the day to see them. He seemed very unprepared and hadn’t eaten and had half a bottle of water. Our driver was talking to us in Spanish and we were worried that our tour would just be him speaking. Luckily we got to the hotel that was the sister of our hotel where our guide was.

Tikal is amazing, it is these Mayan ruins in the middle of thick jungle that seems relatively unspoiled. Tikal means the place of voices, due to the acoustics in the plazas.

We saw a Toucan right by the hotel which was beautiful and as an Irish man very culturally significant for me! We then saw a family of howler moneys howling at another male. The howl was terrifying, like a jaguar or other big cat (or Chibacca?!) growling at the top of its lungs.

We then came to the first pyramids, one was half excavated and the other was un excavated and looked like a small very steep hill. These pyramids were used to calculate time. Apparently the Mayans counted in 20 the way metric people use 10 as it was the number of their fingers and toes, they also were the first people to know about the concept of zero, before even the Greeks (a fact I remember from an xmen episode years ago).

Most pyramids are still un excavated and will likely stay that way due to the cost of excavation and also due to these pyramids now being ecosystems with large trees on them.

Nearly everything known about the Maya is know from excavation and interpretation from what is found since all the Maya codexes were destroyed by the conquistadors. They have found paintings and ceramics which detailed practices like processions.

There were strangler fig trees everywhere which I think are the same as banyan trees (definitely the same subgenus). We then went to this absolutely huge pyramid that is basically not excavated except for its top sticking out of the tree canopy. There was a wooden staircase up the side which we climbed. This temple is so big it apparently ruined the economy of Tikal and sent it into permanent decline. It was so big and there were so many trees on it, that I had trouble comprehending how big it was.

We went to a couple of other pyramids, which were the oldest in the complex before we went to the main structure and square which was basically fully excavated.

The acoustics made it easy to hear each other, I called down at Nin from one structure and she heard me fine. The section consisted of:

- An acropolis

- Necropolis

- 2 temples

One of the temples, funeral buildings no. 1 had 9 platforms, the number related to god of underworld and had a ball court next to it where they played the Mayan ball game. 6 1/2 pounds of jade were found in a burial chamber when it was excavated. Some buildings are built on top of each other.

The whole area in the forum has soil pounded so hard that roots not able to break soil and grow on the surface. We saw a troop of Quatimundi, who are these fun lemur/raccoon things.

Our guide told us about the Maya creation myth where there was just water and 3 gods come together and lay stones in a triangle shape (somehow related to Arian’s belt) which created the corn and humans subsequently from the corn.

We also went past these ruined temezcal that were used for purification before rituals. After that we walked back.

We had lunch at the hotel in Tikal and then got the transfer back to Flores. On the bus we talked to this very chatty couple, the lady Brazilian and the guy Argentine, but who lived in the states.

When we got back to the hotel we chilled out a bit and then went for a drink in this hostel garden. The end of the garden had been taken by the lake, which I guess shows how high the lake has gotten. After that we went and looked for a place to eat but ended up going to the same place as the night before (but ordering slightly less!). We then packed and went to bed.

[balapann-blog]

Day 152 - 4 February - Xela Trek

We got up at 5.15 again, left our hotel and walked to the other hostel. We had a bit of breakfast and gathered up our stuff and left the stuff that was going to be transported to the end.

We left the hostel and walked about 15 minutes to a bus that took us to the trailhead. On the walk we talked to these two really nice American girls Megan and Mandy who were friends from college and who were meeting here because they lived on opposite sides of the country (Vermont and Alaska!)

We got to the trailhead, got our stuff ready and then did a quick name game as there were 20 of us. The first bit of the walk was a tough climb initially before getting to the highest point of the trek. We came out in a Mayan village with corn fields around and houses dotted around. We then went down hill for a bit before going up another steep climb (very much starting a theme for the trek).

Finally had lunch at around half 1 which was really nice and simple with guacamole and other simple veg with tostadas and refried beans. In the afternoon we walked through some lovely woodland and passes with stunning views down into the valleys.

We made it to our home stay and put our stuff down and set up our sleeping bags and mats in the rooms. We were sharing with Mandy and Megan and this couple from Dublin Matt and Lucy who were a few years younger than us.

The town we were staying in is on quite unstable ground due to it previously being a lake bed, and the government want to move the town, however the residents want to stay as they would not be given compensation for moving and if any of the buildings are damaged, they work as a community to rebuild them. The town is also a dry town as the women of the town about 15 years ago came together and agreed that alcohol was a problem in the town and that it should be banned. They also came together to change the inheritance laws, so that if a man dies his wife will get the husband’s land to farm rather than it being redistributed.

We had this Mayan sauna called a temescal, which is fire in a little hut with a boiling water and cold water tub. You then mix the waters to get the right temperature which you then wash yourself with. It was nice and was good to get clean after what had been a very hot and dusty day.

We then had dinner which was a very tasty vegetarian pasta with soy protein used as Parmesan which I hadnt had before but was very delicious. We then did rose bud thorn about the day, which could have been really cringe but everyone was very ernest and funny about the day which made it actually a really nice reflection. There were four middle aged guys from Cleveland (dubbed the Cleveland four) who were were on a trip for a week.

After dinner most people went to bed almost immediately. I slept for a bit and then work up having fallen asleep with my AirPods in and took them off. A couple of minutes after this, the dogs outside started barking very intensely and the room started shaking like we were on a DART or tube carriage. It lasted about 5 - 7 seconds and then stopped. Most people immediately woke up and started speaking, it was obviously and earthquake but no one in our room had really been in one before. Was it a big one, or a small one and what should be do? The house seemed fine and everything quietened down so we gingerly went back to our sleeping bags. At this point Nina woke up saying ‘what’s up why is everyone speaking?’ She had slept through the whole thing!

About 15 minutes later there was a slightly smaller tremor which was obviously an after shock. I managed to get to sleep after a bit but not until catastrophising every eventuality. Local people didn’t seem to be panicking so I figured that mean we were probably okay.

Day 153 - 5 February- Xela Trek

We got up at about 6 and got ready to leave. We all obviously chatted about the earthquake which had apparently been off in the pacific and had been 5.6 on the Richter scale! Which I think is big but not catastrophic. The guides (including Santi our local guide) said they couldn’t believe how big the earthquake was which was in some way comforting and in other ways not! There didn’t seem to be much damage which was good.

We had really nice breakfast in a local cafe and set off. We walked along a road for a bit before getting onto the trail. It was much hotter than the day before and I was thankful for the big hat I had got in San Cristobal and for the very high sun cream I had on. We went down and up quite a bit (the guides called this Guatemala flat). We got to this quite steep bit where they suggested a little game to see how quickly we could climb the first half of this hill that they call Ice Cream Mountain. You got a prize if you did it in under 10 mins. I managed 12.04 which I think is about 5th place but a Matthias (one of the Cleveland four) did it in 9.37! Apparently an Irish guy a few weeks ago did it in 7.35 which considering the gradient is completely insane. I had to stop quite a few times, particularly as I went out quite quick and then had to slow down massively.

We then got to a town at the top of the hill where we got an ice cream (Ice Cream Mountain) and carried on. We had lunch which was a similar tortilla based lunch which was very tasty. I looked down at my bag that was on the ground and saw a black spider walking into one of the pockets. One of the guides got it out quite easily but it was good that I saw it happen!

We then finished our walk by crossing this river 7 times as it meandered around and by doing a final big climb of the 2.5 days.

We arrived at our home stay and got a greeting from Don Pablo our host who has been hoisting people on the trek for 25 years. The trekking company is a non-profit which funds a school and all the guides are volunteers. Santi our guide actually went to the school and from the education provided through had received a scholarship to study to become a teacher. Over the course of the trek we got lots of information about foreign ownership of Guatemalan land. The people that the company works with are all Guatemalan and although most of the guides are foreign volunteers it seems like all the money goes into the Guatemalan economy which for a trekking company seems amazing. It was also great to be informed about the villages and communities that we were walking through.

We had a couple of beers in the home stay and then went to bed erly before our 3am wake up!

Day 154 - 5 February- Xela Trek > San Marcos

We got up at 3 and packed and left the home stay. We walked in the dark for about 45 mins and then got to the place that we were going to watch the sun rise over Lake Atitlan. We had to wait about and hour and a half (which made me wonder why we had to get up so early! We also had a nice slice of banana bread and peanut butter and some coffee. The sunrise was very nice, after which we got ready to walk down to the lake.

We descended down this steep path that snaked around this cliff, and came down to San Juan La Laguna. We had a little breakfast in this cafe before getting a transfer to a town beside it called San Pedro La Laguna and ordered lunch. As we were waiting for lunch we went for a swim as there was a place you could jump in from the restaurant.

I jumped in an immediately realised I had dislocated my shoulder but unlike the other times it didn’t just go straight back in. I got out and told my guide who kind of freaked out and looked around for someone to help. Luckily Megan and Mandy and Mary another lady on the tour were emergency first responders which they needed for their guiding licenses which they had. They helped me start to relax my arm and figure out what to do next.

A random Guatemalan guy said he was a ‘medical professional’ and that he put shoulders back in the whole time. I gingerly let him start to help but he tried to jolt it in with these really horrible circular motions, I let out a couple of jolts of pain which Nin said she had never heard me make (recording here).

Mary very sensibly said I needed to relax and tire the muscles in my arm which had seized up. So I lay on an edge and held a bottle, however the edge was too short for my arms and I very gingerly to up and lay over the dock holding first the bottle and then a small breeze block in a sports bra. I think at first I was trying to stop the pain as I thought I was relaxing before another attempt at relocation. However when the said that in that motion my arm should just relocate, I started to hold the block down more and in a couple of minutes it relocated. I was so thankful for the 4-5 people who helped me and that it was able to relocate so easily, saving me a trip to a Guatemalan clinic. Apparently there was a fire brigade coming and some other people but thankfully they were able to be sent back and i got my arm in a sling and had lunch!

We then packed our bags and on handedly said goodbye to everyone and got a boat to San Marcos La Laguna where we were staying. We checked in and showered and chilled out for a bit before going and getting some very early dinner in the town. The town seems a bit random and full on fake hippies who talk about their crypto assets and digital nomads. We had a lasagna and a beer and went back and slept.

[balapann-blog]

Day 149 - 31 January - San Cristóbal de las Casas

Woke up and got a coffee. The woman turned out to be from London and had been here 11 years, and had a little child who had obviously been born here.

I sat in our hotel courtyard for a bit just getting myself sorted and looking up things to do in the town.

We managed to mobilise and went for breakfast in a random cafe. I had some fajitas which was a bit random and I don’t think they are really a food from round here but they were tasty enough.

After brekkie-lunch we walked up to this church which housed the Maya Textile Musuem which was small but really good. The textiles they make are very varied and are a link to their history that in many other ways has been extinguished. The textiles are almost always done by women and they have evolved over time and brought on new fibres (like wool that came with the Spanish) but it is still very clearly theirs.

We then went back to the hotel and tried to watch the 6 nations match on the vpn but it didn’t work so we went on a run. We took a bit of a round about way but ended up in this sports center that had a (very nearly) 1k track so we did a few laps fore walking home.

When we got back we had (in my case anyway) cold showers and went to dinner in this very sweet Italian trattoria that was run by a husband and wife Italian family. It was nice to speak a bit of Italian and for it to make sense rather than speaking it when I should be saying Spanish. After this we went back and read for a bit. I have started reading Vertigo by W.G Seabald which is quite strange but with its depictions of a man travelling and feeling disconnected and almost at sea in unfamiliar surroundings is an apt book to read when you have been travelling for 5 months, although I would say that don’t feel like that, there are some definite moments of vertigo (normally after a night bus).

San Cristobal has a real problem with water, due to a Mexican Coke Cola bottling company taking water from aquifers, leaving the town with little to no clean water, even though Chiapas the state s not one of the many states in Mexico that has massive shortages of water. It is a really clear example of where water is live political issue. So many places we have been on this trip have acute water issues or will do in the future (Uzbekistan, India, Turkey, etc.) and you wonder how long companies will be able to get their own way on it (no matter how corrupt the Mexican state is in its relationship with business, and Vicente Fox was head of Coca-Cola Femsa before being elected Mexican president in 2000.

About 25 years ago there was an indigenous insurgent uprising in Chiapas (the state we are in) called the Zapistas, and although they are not really around much n terms of fighting, their cultural legacy lives on in San Cristobal, with murals shops selling art or t-shirts with balaclava clad people on it.

Chiapas also has quite significant cartel activity too which is very bleak and from my reading accounts impacts the indigenous community hardest.

Day 150 - 1 February - San Cristóbal de las Casas

We got up and had a coffee quite early and tried again to watch the 6 nations, but instead put it on the radio. We went for some breakfast in this cafe that is a collective for the survivors of a massacre of Zapistas 20 or so years ago. The food was okay I had huevos rancheros for the first time since I have been here. We went back and moved our stuff from our hotel to our new place Casa Na Bolom which is this really interesting place which is part musuem, restaurant and hotel. It was the house of an anthropologist and his photographer wife, who spent lots of time with this very small maya group called the Lacandon. When they died, the house became a foundation that helps with reforestation in their lands, there are always 2 rooms available for members of the community to come and stay if they need to see a doctor or something else that requires them to be in town. Our room was quite big and had a fireplace! Which is useful as it is actually quite cold at night here in the mountains. The room also really reminds me of the house in Wales, or some of the bedrooms in grandpa’s house in Spain (from what I can remember).

After checking in, we walked round the town a bit and then went to this chocolate musuem which was quite interesting. We were there with 2 danish girls who looked to be on their gap year and had obviously not been on as many walking tours as us (they didn’t realise pozole had previously been human meat etc.). The tour was interesting but they then gave us a few tasters of the different chocolates and a taste of hot chocolate. They also had this spirit from the area called posh (pox) which is made from corn (I think).

We then went round the town a bit more. I bought a wide brimmed hat with a neck covering for when I go to some hotter places and for our hike in a few days. We then went to the room and went for a quick run up to this church which had some steps that you d to climb to get it. We ran up and down the steps 3 times and then came back and got ready to go out for dinner.

We went to this place we had walked past earlier. We had a soup and 3 tacos each which were pretty tasty. I had 2 al pastor and one arabes which I hadn’t had yet. We then went to this quite vibey street that is pedestrianised ne went to this very sweet little bar and had a drink. I had a local craft beer and Nin a glass of wine. We then got a hot chocolate and went home, lit the fire and relaxed before bed.

Day 150 -2 February - San Cristóbal de las Casas

We woke up and went for a run, we walked down to the track. We did a 5k on the track which was quite heavy and hot and was slightly difficult and was a bit disappointed with the time, but I guess we were still quite high in the altitude.

We came back to the town and had brunch. I had a club sandwich which was okay but not amazing. We went back to the hotel ne showered. After that we went round the musuem which was very interesting.

We then went and did some laundry and while we were waiting we went to buy some snacks for the trip and the trek we were gonna do in Guatemala. Whille we were waiting for the laundry to dry, we went to to the amber musuem which was actually really interesting if quite small.

We came back, picked up our stuff and brought it back to the hotel. After that we went for a drink and a burger. We then packed up for our as we had a 5 am start. Just before I went to bed I started to feel sick and then ended up going to the loo and getting sick each hour till we had to get up.

Day 151 - 3 February - San Cristóbal de las Casas > Xela Trek

Woke up at 5.15 and managed to get my stuff ready and keep down a nut bar. We went got on the mini bus and I took an Imodium and a Dramamine. Our bus had a very nice Italian couple, an English ad who had been travelling for a while, a quite unfriendly Israeli couple, and 3 very fresh public school boys on their gap year, one who was in chinos and a Gant quarter zip looking quite out of place, and another with his Sherborne Rugby backpack.

I sat in a seat near the door, put on a podcast and tried to sleep and not think about how I was feeling. We stopped for breakfast for about an hour (I stayed in the bus trying to sleep), and then for about an hour near the border as we got our passports stamped by Mexican border guards. Lots of people didn’t have the right leaving form filled in and one of the gap year boys had over stayed his visa. Our bus driver didn’t really seem to mind which considering we needed to be in Xela for 6 was quite frustrating. We had also come down from altitude and it was now getting quite hot which wasn’t making me feel much better.

We eventually got the the border, and hauled our bags up a small hill, getting our passports stamped on the Guatemala side. There was another bus of people including about 10 of the Israeli couple’s friends. When we went to the next set of busses that we needed to take to our destination, the couple from our bus demanded that they get put on the other bus, as our bus was going to a different place to the on their friends were on. When the bus driver said there wasn’t space and that they had booked a different journey the kept complaining to the extent that two other people from the other bus, an English and Australian girl eventually came onto our bus and would be dropped to their destination later.

We then drove for about 3 hours and were dropped off on the side of the road where two quite small cars were waiting to take the few of us going to Xela to. We were quite squeezed and I was in the front with my rucksack on me. We got dropped off at the hostel that our trek was going from as we needed to get our stuff that we were borrowing. We had missed the briefing by about an hour but they were very chilled and told us about the trek and what we needed to bring. We then went to our hotel, went for some very mid dinner and went to bed.

[balapann-blog]

Day 143 - 25 January - Puebla

We got up and walked to the local bus stop going to Cholula which is about half an hour away. I listened to the last episode of stakeknife as I was getting up, which was really good.

We then climbed the great pyramid of Cholula which is the largest pyramid in mesomerica, although it is completely covered over and has a church on top. Apparently it was an important mesoamerican center which Cortez was particularly brutal with. The pyramid top has a great view of Popocatépetl which was covered in cloud that under closer inspection was smoke!

We walked around the town and got a coffee before coming back to Puebla. I went for a run round the town which was good although I would keep turning down a road and it would be packed which slowed me down a bit. We then went for to this fish restaurant and had some delicious fish tacos and some aguachillie which was really nice.

We then walked round the town and had and ice cream and Nin got a hot chocolate and then we went back to the hotel and watched match of the day.

Day 144 - 26 January - Puebla

Work up and watched the Palace match on the vpn.

Went on walking tour, most of people on the tour lived in London, in fact there were two couples with an Irish boyfriends with English girlfriends (s included). There was another English couple, an English girl travelling on her own, and a Canadian guy who obviously didn’t get the memo.

The Spanish established the city as a halfway point between Mexico City and the port of Veracruz. There was no settlement where it was established so the old city is planned along a grid system and is very pretty. Our guide said they like to say they look like a little Barcelona but that she couldn’t say as she hasn’t been.

In Nahuatl Puebla is Cuetlaxcoapan which means where the snakes change their skin which is an interesting name!

Our first stop was the Cathedral which took 300 years to complete. It is bigger than the cathedral of Mexico City so our guide said the plans were mixed up between the two cathedrals which seems a bit far fetched. There are 6 small chapels and quite a lot of gold. The cathedral has this massive organ which requires 10 hands to play and for that reason has only been played a couple of times. This does seem a bit of a waste and maybe they should crank it up again.

We then went to an old library in a public arts and culture building which I think is the first public library in Latin America. Apparently it was modelled on the library of the university of Salamanca. The building has free concerts on every Sunday and we were there when it started so listened to the first movement of what the chamber orchestra were playing.

The tour started to drag a bit after 2 hours 45 but all the people were nice and we ended up going to parts of Puebla we hadn’t been to yet. It did finish and we went to look a bit more at the pottery that we had seen briefly in the tour. We decided that anything we might want would not survive the next 5 weeks.

After that we went to a sandwich place that the tour guide had recommended and saw one of the couples who had obviously had the same idea. We chatted for a bit before they left and we finished our food.

We then looked round this antiques market in the old town we looked at a Lucho Libre poster that we would have bought had it been the 40 pesos (£1.60) we thought it was, not 400 (nearly £20). We then got an ice cream at the same place as the day before. The guy was really chatty and obviously loved the ice cream he sold. They had changed flavours so I had popcorn and Nin had plumb and blackberry.

We then went back to the hotel and watched some of the NFL that is on at a very good time for us to watch. We did some exercise Nin did some skipping and a circuit session and I went for a run (but not since I had got Nin a new Apple Watch strap which I had accidentally broken). We then watched another bit of the next NFL match before going to dinner.

The place we ate was also recommended by our guide. We got a pazole, a quesadilla and some single tortilla things that were really nice. Normally this would have been fine for us, but the food was so big! I just about managed to finish everything.

We then watched the last 5 mins of this NFL game which convinced me that American football isn’t a good sport and the lack of any fluidity in the gameplay and how teams can just run the clock down makes it ultimately quite unsatisfying. We then watched some proper football (match of the day 2) and went to sleep.

Day 145 - 27 January - Puebla > Oaxaca

We got up and packed. I had a coffee when Nin was doing some skipping. We took an Uber to the bus station and after a bit of confusion managed to find where we needed to go. The bus was very comfortable and other than being quite long was very pleasant.

We got to our hotel and went for a quick run round the town. After that we went to a launderette to wash our clothes, going to a wine bar while our stuff was washing. We had 2 Mexican roses. I’d never had Mexican wine before and it was very good! We also had a little pincho of artichoke and anchovy.

We then went to this vegan taco place that had room for about 8 people to sit and it was quite chaotic because there were 2 people working there. The tacos were amazing but the service wasn’t great and they forgot our drinks and then charged us for them. There were 2 girls sat beside us speaking Irish!

Day 146 - 28 January - Oaxaca

The first thing that we did was go to the post office to post some cards we had. We then went to the place our walking tour would start. Our guide was a very nice and clear speaker who had great English and knew lots about the things he was talking about.

Oaxaca is built lots with this green stone. The Aztecs had conquered Miztecas and started the building of the city which they had called Huaxyacac which means ‘among the huaje trees’. Oaxaca state has 16 indigenous languages 170 dialects. Some of those dialects are endangered though some are actually spoken quite a bit.

They have lots of festivals the most prominent being Guelaguetza which is a cultural festival that takes place in the summer and different towns from around the state bring cultural practices like dance to the city and they are performed in a big auditorium which is on a hill above the town.

Benito Juarez the only indigenous president in Mexican history was born in Oaxaca (the city is called Oaxaca de Juarez). His main achievement was the separation of church and state and the foundation of a secular state in Mexico, as well as numerous rights for indigenous groups.

Oaxaca is still very Catholic and it is not uncommon for young people to still go to catholic mass. This could be because of the syncretism with indigenous religion that has taken place in Oaxaca, such as celebrating lots of saints days that takes place, mirroring indigenous festivals (Day of the Dead being the most prominent example). I think this flexibility is what has made Christianity so successful (take Christmas, Easter etc. which are pagan festivals merged with Christian ones). Lots of local parties start with processions or calendas, of which any person can join and which take you to the house or bar where the celebration is taking place. Hospitality is given to all. I think we saw one on the first night we were here.

We passed a cocktail bar called Sabina Sabe which was named after a witch doctor, used mushrooms in her potions. Lots of celebrities apparently came to find her to make use of her skills.

The president Porfirio Diaz as also from Oaxaca but because he was a bit of a tyrant and because his 30 year reign did little for the poorest in the country they do not really talk about him as much.

We then went to the Zocalo and spoke about some of the most important festivals in the town such as Independence Day (not really cinco de Mayo) and some of the more off beat ones like noche di ramanos where people present the most big sculpture with radishes or a quite large cash prize! There were tents in the zocalo for a protest by the teacher union. Once there was a year and a half teacher strike. Most of the teachers are in country and are badly paid with poor educational infrastructure. Oaxaca has one of the highest illiteracy in Mexico.

We were shown a couple of markets like the Marceto 20th November. We then went to the Cathedral which they started building in 1535. There are 12 chapels including one for la virgin de Guadalupe the main church of which is in Mexico City and has pilgrimages yearly of up to 12.5m Mexicans! There is another for Senor de Rayo (thunder) who is a statue of Jesus who was the subject of a miracle when the cathedral was struck by lightning and was seen by many indigenous people as a sign that one of their gods were still looking after them and is an example of syncretism. Churches are often built on temples and the stones have flower and vegetation depiction that comes from when the stones were used in building of temples.

The Zapotec (main ethnic group in Oaxaca) have a calendar that gives you spirit animal based on the month you were born and a n afterlife guide based on the year. We went to this shop which had a book that was able to align it to our calendar. I was a chameleon & armadillo and Nina was a frog & deer.

After the tour we went for lunch in the 20 November Market and had a Tlyuda which is like a pizza with a tortilla base. It was very tasty. We got one pork and one with grasshoppers which were nice and zingy. After that we walked round the town although it was very hot and we quickly abandoned that and headed back to the hotel and escaped the rays.

We went to this restaurant that had a tasting course of the different moles which ended in the feared black mole! It was in much smaller doses but and some of the other moles were different but i still think we haven’t quite got on board.

Day 147 - 29 January - Oaxaca

We got up. It was Nins birthday so she called her parents and I got some coffees from one of the many coffee shops round the place. We then went to the check into our new bougier hotel and then got to the place we were getting our tour from.

We had a small group which included a nice German / French couple, a Belgian mother and daughter, a quite elderly lady from Portland, a couple who lived in Iceland although the girl was Swedish and a nurse from Layton.

Our first stop was this bakery where Nin got a tomale and I got a sandwich. We got to the main place we were going, Hierve de Agua. Where there are petrified waterfalls and some nice mineral pools. We went for a walk around this circuit that you can see the water. On the walk we chatted to the girl from Layton who was a nurse at Great Ormand Street. She was very nice and chatty.

We then went to the pools which were really nice. There were two which were obviously man made but which were fed by this real waterfall. We got there just in time before lots of other people got there. They were quite cool so very refreshing after our hot but quite short walk.

We had some food at a stall back near the entrance. We had some rolled tacos just vegetarian and then some flat tortillas with Mexican chorizo which and beans that were really good.

We then went mezcal tasting in this local producer about half an hour from Oaxaca. We were first shown the process of making it and then went off on the tasting. It was interesting to me that you have to use the whole agave to make the mezcal, as the leaves have no real sugars in them and it is all in the spine of the plant. You need a mature agave to make mezcal, so it is quite a lot of time going into growing the domesticated agave. Our guide had earlier said that lots of land has now gone into agave farming which is not good for biodiversity or soil quality. Apparently Tequila the state has suffered bad consequences from over farming of agave and our guide said Oaxaca needs to watch out as it has real climatic impacts. Apparently Taquila is hotter because of this change in land use. IT just goes to show that booms of certain products like this, quinoa, almonds, avocados etc. in the west often have real impact on growing and producing countries.

We had 6 different mezcals. 3 aged ones on a barrel (the youngest of which had a worm in the bottle for taste) made from the domesticated agave and then 3 wild agave mezcals. I would love to say I’m now a connoisseur but I would be lying. We did like the wild ones a bit more as they had more depth of flavour and had different notes like herbs or earth, compared to the bog standard stuff that was pretty much like lots of spirits. We bought a couple of very small bottles of wild stuff.

We went back on the bus a bit sleepy. We said goodbye to our new best friends and then checked into our hotel. It was really nice (the kind of room we could get used to but would be dangerous to do so). We went for a quick run up these very steep steps and then showered and changed getting ready to go out.

We went for a cocktail first at that place Sabina Sabe. We had a couple of cocktails which were delicious. I definitely prefer mezcal as a cocktail ingredient rather than straight up!

We then went to the restaurant down the street. There are so many English voices on the street and it’s so bougie and becoming gentrified that it’s more like Oaxackney rather than Oaxaca. Although I do think that is retaining lots of its charm for now!

The food at the restaurant was delicious. We started off on the ground floor, with a tortilla with 4 types of hot sauce. We then went up to the restaurant, our waiter was very nice and friendly. We ordered cactus in romesco sauce, a kind of beef pie with a tortilla / corn crust. We then had pork in a delicious sauce that really was out of this world, and a very comforting bean dish with corn dumplings in it. I had a glass of Mexican red from Baha California. For desert I had a chocolate taco which was really delicious and we both had hot chocolate.

We waddled back to bed.

Day 147 - 29 January - Oaxaca > San Cristóbal de las Casas

We got up early for sunrise yoga on the roof. It was not as challenging as the yoga in Vagra and was a very nice way to start the day. After that I did a 4 minute plank!! We then went to breakfast which was nice. We had avocado toast and eggs with delicious hot sauce (Oaxackney!).

We then packed up slowly and had a drink in the courtyard. We then went to the main museum of Oaxacan culture, which had some amazing things that had been found in the tombs of Monte Alban, including some carved animal bones and this quite creepy gold laughing figure.

After this we were hungry so went to a restaurant recommended by our walking tour guy. Nin got a pazole and I got a bean soup and a sandwich.

We then walked round a bit more and did a load of washing (trying to stay at washing zero is a real challenge and you never know when you will be able to easily do washing again). It was very hot in the sun so we went to this famous church in the middle of the town with a beautiful gold alter which is lit up by sunlight at sunset (we were slightly early but you could see some of it). We then went for an early dinner (neither of us were very hungry), got our bags and went to the bus.

The bus had been mainly booked by this student group that had a strange mix of Americans, Australians, and Brits (now I say it it doesn’t sound that strange). There were a couple of other travellers on it. The bus was very comfortable with seats that reclined a lot and I think I got a good bit of sleep, but a night bus is a night bus and we arrived classically 2 hours early and pretty sleep deprived.

We got a taxi the short trip to our hotel but the guy couldn’t find our reservation and kept saying we needed to pay for an early checkin. I don’t think he knew how to use the booking system because although we showed him the booking on the phone he was reluctant to give us our room, and was asking us to wait till his manager arrived at 7. He then appeared to find the sheet of paper which had our booking in it and just brought us straight to our room. We slept till about midday.

[balapann-blog]

Day 133 - 16 January - Mexico City

We got through security and passport control fine. We then went to this sleep pod place in the airport and got a couple of sleep pods for four hours. They were actually great I really enjoyed my sleep and was rudely awoken after my four hours feeling like I could have used few more!

We got an Uber to our hotel and dropped our bags and sleepily walked off in search of food and a place to sit for a few hours till we could check in. We went to a restaurant that had good reviews and looked nice. We were not very good at ordering as in our almost non-existent Spanish we proceeded to order the same thing, which included the ‘black mole’ which when it came we both found we didn’t like. It is an incredibly intense flavour, made from dried chilli, prunes, nuts and a few other things. We paid and went to a coffee shop and strung it out for about an hour and a half before trudging to our hotel and checking in.

We then proceeded to go straight to bed and sleep till about 7. We knew that this wouldn’t help us adjust to the time here, but it felt so good! At about 7 we got up and went to the supermarket about a 20 min walk from us and got some supplies for our apartment that had a kitchen. We got some mini tortilla, some cheese and some black beans as well as some fruit for breakfast.

We came back. And had our actually quite delicious mini tortillas. Nin had got this fermented curd thing that added a delicious sourness that cut through the cheese and beans. I then went to bed and read for a bit before trying to go to sleep at a reasonable time.

Day 134 - 17 January - Mexico City

Woke up at about 7 and read my book for a bit, before getting up and having some coffee and fruit.

There was a market that had set up on our street so we had a little taco there as it would be rude not to.

We walked the couple of kilometres into Roma Norte which is the really nice tree lined area which most tourists stay and hang out in. We were going to be moving to this area in a couple of days so wanted to check it out and see the best area to book. There is this very nice park with some tree lined roads around it and a road with a footpath in the middle of it. We really liked this area so decided to move near there. We got some churros and as we were walking around we got a couple of tacos in a place on a corner. We weren’t quite sure about the different types so we got a pork one which was nice.

We then went back to our apartment and walked down to the gym nearby. As my hip very sore, I just did a bit of stretching. We went back and had the same dinner as before as we had loads left over from the day before. We listened to the Australian Open tennis.

Day 136 - 18 January - Mexico City

We woke up and rushed out for our free walking tour of the historic center. We met by the cathedral. We went inside as we had a bit of time to spare. Just as we were going in a national guard officer ran past us suddenly looking urgent, but then just stopped which seemed a bit alarmist.

There were lots of people in tour so they divided us. Our guides name translates to hungry cayote in mexica. He was quite carismatic but had a bit of a sore throat.

He gave us a potted history of Tenocitlan and Mexico City both pre and post Cortez arriving. Apparently the city is sinking almost all over (guess building on a lake will do that) in some places, 40cm a year at biggest rate. There are tilted buildings including the cathedral which has required some extensive repairs. Some of the streets are uneven and you can see how balconies sink. Apparently they tried to move the city 100 years ago but didn’t work as the new area they built just became swallowed up in into the main city.

Most of the old city is made from volcanic tuft rock which looks very similar to the rock that Yerevan is made of. That is because it is light rock, which the Aztecs new and it is what they built Tenochitlan of, and when Cortez created Mexico City, he dismantled Tenocitlan and built the city from the same rock in many instances.

We went to the Mayor Temple which is the old main temple from Tenochitlan, which was discovered about 50 years ago. It is not sinking as much so even though it was underground previously it is now above ground. Out guide said that people call it the revenge of the Aztecs as the rest of Mexico City sinks. Our guide spoke about the human sacrifice that the Aztecs did, and about trying to know what it means rather than just saying it is horrible. Apparently in their creation myth, the Gods sacrificed themselves to put force in the world. Human, plant and animal sacrifices were provided to nourish the gods and that human sacrifice was the least common. Often the best warriors and other important people were sacrificed.

Our guide told us about pulque which is an alcoholic drink made from Agave which had been the Aztec drink of the gods and told us some good places to have it. He also told us about some CDMX gossip that 45% of the properties in historic center is Chinese operated which led to a confrontation with Mexican residents because the Chinese have been undercutting them. After this it turns out most of them were using fake documents. Most of these fake documents come from this square which we walked through called San Domingo which the locals apparently call The College of San Domingo as you can apparently purchase a university diploma from there! We didn’t stop in the square as apparently the people there are a bit tetchy as the police are looking into their counter fitting post altercation.

Apparently the streets are clean because rather than have bins that overflow, the focus is to hire street sweepers. He also said that as more police have been put on the streets, crime rates gone down, but abuse of power gone up (one guy on the tour then said he had been shaken down by a cop for a very minor issue). The government has also said that drug cartels military matter which has led to some neighbourhoods and towns militarised which this guy was really against.

Our guy gave us some tips for how to eat on the street food in tourist areas

- Look for lots of Mexican people as that means that people are selling their food and it will be fresh

- How does it look? Are they making an effort into keeping it clean

- How they handle the money

- Price - 15 pesos minimum

He also gave us some tips of the food and some places to go.

- Fresh drinks - horchata, hibiscus, tamarind

- La casa di tono (very popular fast food restaurant) - have the floutas, pozole

- Coyoacán - Marcado de Coyoacan

- Mamey smoothie

- Chiandoini ice cream place

Day 137 - 19 January - Mexico City

Woke up earlyish and I read my book for a bit. We then checked out of our place and got an Uber to our new place. We then started walking to the Museo Nacionale de Anthropologia and stopped for a coffee and a sandwich on the way.

We walked up to the Museo but it was very full as it is free to Mexicans on Sunday so we left and decided to come back another day. Some of the big roads are closed to cars it seems on Sunday to allow people to roller blade and cycle along them, which is a really nice idea. There were some guys doing this crazy thing where they climbed a big pole and then rotated the pole and spun down to the ground on ropes. It was mad.

After that we walked to the street where my dad lived as a child in the 1960s. The street has changed a lot since that time but interestingly the house that dad lived in was still there! So we video called him to show it. We then walked down to a local cafe (that looked like it could have been here in dads time) close by and had a hibiscus drink.

We checked into our new quite luxurious apartment in a very nice part of town. We went to do laundry. When we taking our stuff out of the washing machine and going to the dryer there was a set of laundry in every dryer but some were dry. So I took the dry stuff out of the dryer. This strange couple came in and were like ‘oh we are waiting for a dryer but didn’t want to touch the other peoples washing’ me with other peoples washing in hand ‘oh I don’t mind touching other peoples washing’ she retorted in such a condescending way ‘oh it’s not for me it’s for the other people, I’ve texted reception to see if they can contact the people.’ I was thinking, if someone leaves their laundry in a communal dryer and doesn’t come back for it it’s kinda fair game if they are dry. We decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and put our washing line up on our balcony which worked fine! They are probably still waiting for a text back from reception.

We then went to a Lucho Libre wrestling match (the one with the Masks) which was a great experience. We learned lots of things like heels (who are the bad guys), Faces (who are the good guys) and watched about 5/6 fights. The fighting very obviously staged but no less physical as the wrestlers keep jumping off the ropes onto people, and people keep getting flipped onto their backs. There was one wrestler called Blue Panther who was 64 years old, 64! There was another match where 3 of his kids were fighting. The main fight had this guy called Mystico who apparently dominated in the 2000s (we are still unclear how you dominate when it is all predefined but anyway). He was also briefly in WWE. We had michaladas with clamato juice and a bag of spicy chips as we were watching. The chips weren’t great but the michaladas were very tasty.

We then on the walk back went to a pretty overpriced restaurant and had a few dishes. One was a roast bone marrow and then some tostadas and a salad.

Day 138 - 20 January - Mexico City

Got up and went to an English language book shop to try and find a guide book. The first one was a second hand shop and all the guide books were from 20 years ago so wouldn’t be very relevant. We went to a more normal book shop which had an English section. We found one which we bought. My favourite thing in the shop was seeing the book The Girl on the Train in its Spanish title La Chica Del Train, which sounds like a much funner book!

Took taxi to Coyoacan market where we had delicious bean quesadilla and siopa. The vegitarianness of it was really welcomed after the amount of meat we seem to be eating.

We went outside the Freda Kahlo museum that was closed (and sold out 2 weeks in advance). I find the Freda Kahlo industrial complex really strange. If you go to a market stall anywhere in the world (like Turkey or Serbia or India) amongst the souvenirs from that place will often be Freda Kahlo keyrings or self portraits. I find it strange that she has this odd afterlife in generic tat shops along with people like Bob Marley and Che Guevara.

We then went to the main church in the main square which was very big and imposing. It had lots of frescos everywhere that seemed to show the adventures of the Dominicans including a load of monks having a great time with the lads in a forest, and in a serious vibe shift what looked like the subjugation of Moctezuma.

Walked down this very long road which is one of the oldest in Latin America. We stopped for a beer about halfway and then continued down to the end. We were pretty hungry by this time so stopped at a small restaurant and had a small plate of food and a drink, I had hibiscus water (called agua Jamaica in Mexico) and Nin had Horchata. We then got our first taste of public transport when we got the metro bus home.

We then went to a local gym for an hour or so (I did 3 pull ups!). After that we got some more tacos and bits in the supermarket for our home dinner. We got home and made it, it was every bit as delish as the last time!

I finished my book, the new Murakami and started the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan which I am liking so far!

Day 139 - 21 January - Mexico City

Got up and took the metro to the north bus station. The metro was an interesting experience, we had to change a couple of times and it kept stopping but we did eventually get there. The metro has amazing icons, each line has its own (admittedly quite confusing) icon and each station has its own one.

We then got on the bus to Teotihuacan (which I have no idea how to pronounce) which was an hour long journey. We got out and walked into the park. The site mainly sits on the Avenue de los Muertos, which is a very long road that people in the 16th century thought was a road for burials but apparently it wasn’t. The site is really interesting because it predates the Aztecs and is around 2000 years old in places. The centrepieces being two massive pyramids.

We went to the absolutely massive pyramid of the sun. Every time I looked away from it and then looked at it again I was like ‘fuck that this is huge, imagine being someone coming here for the first time in 500 ad you would be so scared!’ We then went to the pyramid of the moon a bit further on as well as this sort of courtyard thing with these really interesting carved pillars. It was unclear quite how much it had been restored because there was a good bit of concrete around but there were also plastered walls with ancient painting on it which could have been recent.

It was very hot and the park was very big, so we ummed and ahhed about going to the museum which we eventually did go to. It was a very good little museum that had lots of really interesting artefacts from the site. We then went down to the citadel that was actually quite a long walk down the Avenue de los Muertos! The site was so big and there were loads of plinth like structures everywhere.

After the citadel, we went back to the bus stop and caught a bus just before it pulled away and went back to the bus station.

After that we took a metro bus down to this market looking for this fish shack that Nina’s friend recommended. When we did eventually find it they were out of fish. So we went to this fish place further down the market. We had 3 delicious dishes. Two types of ceviche tostadas and a prawn ceviche called Aguachilli. They were really tasty and not too heavy.

We then got an Uber back to the apartment. I went for a run around the park near the building. There was this nice footpath in the middle of the road with trees either side. I could definitely feel the altitude and was not moving as easily as usual. Although this is good training! I then got a couple of things for dinner in a nearby supermarket but tragically my contactless didn’t work so I had to come back and get the physical card.

We had our delicious tacos at home and watched the Australian Open on my iPad.

Day 140 - 22 January - Mexico City

We got up and went to the Anthropology Musuem. It is in a really cool modernist it’s building and is very big. It has different areas dedicated to different areas and people, including Aztec, Mayans and Oaxacans. There was amazing stone carving and gold and other metal working. I was really interested to think about metal working in the Americas, as they must have come up with it independently to people in the old word. It turns out that they lay started doing it in about 600 ce.

We then got a taxi down to Xoxchiilco and got a boat along the canals along with the other punting boats. There was a constant sound of mariachi music as bands travelled along on boats and then jumped onto a boat to serenade. There was occasional reggaeton and R&B interludes including a hen do of Americans playing jlo. There was one boat which was a party to congratulate Vero which was two barges together.

We then went to a Pulqueria and had a couple of glasses. It is apparently not very nice on its own, so we had it with fruits Nin got Pineapple and then a peanut one, and I got a mamey and a mango one. It was really tasty and had an interesting consistency, a bit like a smoothie with a lot of aloe vera in it.

We then took a taxi back and ate in this Argentine restaurant near our apartment. We both had lasagna and a glass of red wine. There are loads of mobile buskers around, as we were sitting a crooner came and sang a couple of songs. He was actually pretty good so gave him a couple of coins. People are much more amenable to giving money to buskers here than other places, and restaurants are pretty happy to let performers sing a song or two which is also nice.

Day 141 - 23 January - Mexico City

We had a slightly slow morning walking into the center of Roma Norte and going to a crafts market but not buying anything. We then got a little breakfast in this tomale place where we accidentally got some more black mole that we really can’t get on board with.

We went to the meeting point for our taco tour. There was a group of Spanish friends and a Dutch family also with us.

The first taco we had was: Alhambre which originates from central Mexico and is pork cooked with peppers with oaxaca cheese (pulled cheese). I had it with camaralised onion and lime and red hot sauce it was tasty

Our guide told us about chinampas which were floating fields that the aztecs used to grow food on since Tenochitlan was built on a massive lake.

Our second taco was: Cochinita, from the Yucatàn, which was previously deer now pork. It is marinated with orange and was previously cooked in underground oven and is normally served with habanero salsa. Our tortilla was Panuchos which has a tortilla stuffed with beans which we really liked.

Yellow chilli the spiciest, compared to green and red apparently. Being able to handle spicy food is seen as part of Mexican identity. When families eat together (several times a month) two foods are prepared one spicy for adults and one for kids as they are getting used to it. Mexicas used to punish kids by using chilli smoke like pepper spray.

One of the stories about how tacos were created was that Cortez would have tacisas (taco parties) in Coyoacán and invited European and indigenous people and that potentially tacos created there with the meeting of the two cultures.

Apparently 40-60% of the economy is informal and lots of people work on the streets (in stalls etc) and so clean their piece of the streets which along with the rubbish collectors helps keep the streets clean.

There are not really burritos in Mexico City it’s more Texmex with flour tortillas which are minority here too.

For our third and last taco stop we had two types:

1. Pastor - which is pork always served with pineapple as it is marinated in a sour orange. Pastor comes from Arabes high is basically a Lebanese lamb kabab in a taco. Pastor also use the doner like a kabab which is interesting

2. Campechanos - which was a mix of pork and beef which was nice actually with some interesting spicing

We finished the tour, went for a walk to walk the food off and had some cheese and biscuit watching the tennis before bed.

Day 142 - 24 January - Mexico City > Puebla

We both went for independent runs in the morning before packing up and checking out. There was a market on our road so we got some qusidillas at a stall and then went to a nice cafe for another bite to eat. We then got our bags and went to the bus station.

The bus was quite non eventful, I watched the Guy Ritchie film the gentleman with Spanish dubbing on the big screen on the bus. I sort of got the gist, although when googling the plot later I realised I had missed some big points.

We got to Puebla and checked into our hotel and then went for a walk round the town which is very pretty and then some food. We then went to a mezcal bar and had some neat mezcal that was actually quite expensive! I don’t think we quite have the palette yet to enjoy it. We then went to a churros place and had some hot chocolate and churros before heading to bed.

[balapann-blog]

Day 129 - 12 January - Honolulu

We got picked up at the airport by dads friend Fuat who we are staying with which was really nice. We went to his apartment which is right on the sea in a really nice building. We were quite tired after the flight so went for a swim and a little sleep under a parasol, you could go straight down into the sea from the buildings.

We then walked into Kalakua which is a very famous part of Honolulu. There are a few statues of famous Hawaiians including one of a famous swimmer and surfer who was called ‘The Duke’ who I think created front crawl! We looked round a couple of shops (there is this shop chain called ABC stores that bought up tens of places ages ago so there are loads of them everywhere. They sell a strange mix of convenience store stuff and tourist tat.) There is also a famous bar called Dukes which we were going to go to but was very full and there was quite a loud band playing so we went on.

Went for drink and dinner in a place beside Fuat’s apartment right on the sea. We were really tired by end of it so went to sleep really early.

Day 129 - 13 January - Honolulu

Got up a bit late after long sleep. We went to the north shore of the island We went to this beach which when the waves are big, there are surf competitions on the beach. The waves were quite big and the water was quite shallow for a bit which meant that the waves crashed a bit out. There were lots of people body boarding and body surfing. I went for a swim which meant getting out beyond the breakers. I did a bit of body surfing or a bit but was conscious of the sun so got out. We stayed in the shade and watched the people in the water. I went for another swim and when I came back there was a bit of commotion as a life guard had to rescue this girl who had got into a bit of difficulty, the lifeguard was really swimming to get them both back to shore although the girl got a bit wiped out but the surf as they got in.

We then went for shrimp and tacos in the local town bit which had lots of restaurants and food places. The tacos were really tasty. We then got a shaved ice that is a kind of slushy that is typical of Hawaii. We then stopped at the old Dole plantation which now is a kind of pineapple based theme park and a shop with pineapple based tat. We had a Dole soft serve ice cream which was famous apparently , it was also nice. We drove back listening to the this easy listening radio station called The Wave which was playing all the 80s hits.

Went we got home we went for a run round the park near Fuat’s house and and then a swim watching the sun set which was very picturesque. We then went for noodles and then Ice cream before coming back and chilling before bed.

Day 131 - 14 January - Honolulu

We woke up again a bit late, still not quite over all the late night flights we had been taking. We went and climbed Diamond Peak crater which is a dormant/extinct crater that goes out into the sea behind Fuat’s house. He very kindly drove us up to see if he could use his Hawaii driver license to get us in for free (there is probably a McLovin joke in there but I can’t be bothered to go there). The view gave really great views of the surrounding area (we could see Fuat’s building) and the sea. There was a cool sign that showed the directions and what was the next land in that direction. Lots of people weren’t following then directions at the top which brought you in a loop round the top. This led to congestion in the narrow paths. We went up and down pretty quickly and because the crater is right beside Fuat’s house, we were able to just walk down and got a coffee on the way.

We then met Fuat for lunch in this place near his house. We had fish sandwiches which were really nice. We then went to the beach a bit further on which was a bit calmer than just behind Fuat’s house and went for a swim. When one of us was in the water the other stayed with our stuff. The sun was very hot so I completely covered up when I was sitting down (probably the only person on the beach to be doing so). After this we strolled into town and got some very expensive and very large ice cream (a small isn’t very small here) and then went back to Fuat’s.

I went for a run and went about 90% for 5k which was really nice to do since we have not really had the place to do that recently. I then met Nin who had been skipping and we went to the sea for sunset. I went for a little swim and then we got ready for dinner.

We wanted to sample poke, so we went out. When we were in the car Fuat said the best place to do so was actually this really nice supermarket so we went there. It was a kind of whole foods strip mall sort of experience and we went to the Poke counter which had loads of different flavours. Nin and I picked a couple and got ourselves a drink and some for Fuat although he only wanted a small one.

Fuat had spoken about Costco before and we agreed since we were in the shopping mode that we should go there and see what it was like and for Fuat to get what he needed. When we got there there was also a hotdog shack outside it which did a quarter pounder hot dog and unlimited refill drinks for $1.50 so we naturally got one (they were delicious).

We then ventured into the Costco which was absolutely huge. It was very like Musgraves the cash and carry I had used to go to as a child, it just was much bigger and had lots of extra stuff like dishwashers, sports equipment , Levi’s for $40, etc. I looked at a bag and wondered what the extra compartments in the bag were, when I looked inside I realised they were for a gun so I put them back quickly like it was radioactive. Hawaii doesn’t have lots of the MAGA/Trump stuff other than a few people walking round in Trump gear, but this was a little reminder. They also had stamps that never ran out of date which then called Freedom stamps which made me chuckle.

We then it back in the car and went back to Fuat’s house. We were actually pretty full from the hot dog so we only had a bit of our Poke bowls and put them in the fridge for the morning. We then did a bit of packing and went to bed.

Day 132 - 15 January - Honolulu > Mexico City

We were up early and went to watch the sun rise at a point just below Diamond Head where you could see the sun rise over the sea. Fuat had been keen for us to go but we hadn’t been able to wake ourselves before. We set off in the dark although it was only about 6.30 and there were runners and cyclists going past us as we walked. We got to the point and sat on the wall looking out to the daybreak. There were surfers down in the water catching some sick waves on the reef and generally just hanging out in the water. Eventually the wispy pinkness gave way to a burst of light as the sun came up over the horizon. We left pretty sharpish after as there is no point staring at a massive orb that hurts your eyes.

We walked back and got the most expensive coffee of our lives (thanks for paying Nin) in the coffee shop of this hotel near Fuat’s house on the water. We then came back and went for brief swim before we had a final inal walk into town. We went to the post some post cards that we had written which we could only pay in cash for, prompting us to get our first dollars out on our last day in the US.

We then came back, finished packing and set off for the airport. When we got there we thanked Fuat profusly and got ourselves through security on on the plane. I spent the first part of the flight on a spreadsheet, tracking my spending over the trip on various cards. I had lost my main spending card in Sri Lanka and had got one sent to Fuat’s so it seemed like a good time to reset on the and track what I had spent up to that point. It was cool to be able to export all my spending onto a sheet and then amalgamate them and filter some stuff out and then one to a total. I need Nin and her book keeping to tell me if I am on track! I then fell asleep for a bit which I was here for. I coined a phrase when the sleep calls you, you have to go as the two flight to Mexico mean we will again be on the plane in the night and any sleep is welcome (another Fred sleep maxim).

We got to San Fran and walked to our gate. We had a bit of time so we got a big and quite expensive Burger King meal each before going and waiting for our flight to board. We were flying serious economy so were the last to board. The flight was fine although my sleep pattern was so messed up I didn’t manage to sleep at all and listened to a podcast about ABBA and then listened to some ABBA and then to some Bjork and Radiohead before touching down in CDMXTown.

[balapann-blog]

Day 125 - 9 January - Tokyo

We started off by going to Shibuya Scramble Crossing which must have not been very busy compared to some times but it was interesting to see. We then walked back to our area and had a matcha which wasn’t like these lates you get and was just pure matcha. I didn’t mind it but it wasn’t Nins thing.

We then went and got some sushi rolls in a place nearby which you hand roll yourself. We had a big selection, including tuna, taro (also tuna), cod roe, a sort of bean, and others. I had a cold oolong tea which I really liked.

We then did a bit of vintage shopping as there are loads of shops round the area. Lots of stuff was frustratingly too big or small but I did find a pair of trousers I liked so bought them.

We then walked to a famous Shinto shrine built by the Meiji which was so interesting partly because it was a big forest in the middle of Tokyo. We then went to the Metropolitan Govt Building Observation Deck on 45th floor just after sunset and watched the lights take over from the day. You could clearly see Fuji in the distance.

We then walked into Shinjuku which is the kind of soho area and had a drink and some food. We went to a yakitori joint, continuing our love for things on sticks and had a beer and bbq snacks we had; chicken skin, chicken, leek, pickled daikon, cabbage with miso and mayo, pork liver, pork heart. They were all really nice, I think my favourite was the pork heart. I then had an oolong and Shochu which I think was mainly oolong.

We then walked to this mad shop aptly called Don Quijote which was a cross between Poundland, Curries, Mr. Calculator (the shop I got my Pokémon cards and game boy games in), and that sports shop on Leicester Square that is now a sports direct. It had four floors and by the end my brain had melted so I went and took some pictures of the street.

We saw a large (life size?) statue of Godzilla leering above a building, a quick bit of googling said that on the hour he would breath fire, we waited the 5 mins and saw some lights come on in his mouth and some tinny sounds emanating from somewhere nearby.

We went to a tempura place in the red light district, passing hotels that advertised ‘rest’ and ‘stay’ as different prices. We first went into one restaurant and then were ushered out and shown to the restaurant that did tempura.

The tempura place had a single bar with a chef cooking in front of us which I think is the classic tempura restaurant way of doing it. We got a Kirin and ordered a selection. The chef cooked it with long chopsticks and took it over to us, they also give you three types of salt to eat it with, pink salt, curry salt and matcha salt. My favourite was the scallops, but the mushroom was very nice too. It felt a very classic experience.

We came out and walked to the train, and passed some baseball batting cages but unfortunately we didn’t have any cash. The lack of cash was a real issue when we tried to buy a train ticket as the machines only take cash or make it very difficult to pay with card. We got back and chilled and went to sleep.

Day 126 - 10 January - Tokyo

We took the train out to Ginza to go for food in the old fish market. We started off by going to a sushi restaurant which had seats for about 10 people with two chefs preparing the sushi behind the counter. There were two French men sat beside us tucking into a lots of sushi. We had a tuna selection and then salmon selection too. The most delicious one was a it of tuna fired a bit with a blow torch. After our delicious sushi meal we went around the market and got some food from the stalls. We had some eel yakitori, a Japanese egg sando (delicious with this nice mayo and sweetness from somewhere), an oyster and some mochi (I had a custard cream one that was reallly good, like my favourite desert).

We then went to a Kabuki theatre production. They go on for about four hours, but you can go for one act which is what we did. The first production we saw was about a brave warrior who defeats a giant centipede and is rewarded with a bag of rice that never goes empty. The second play was about a woman who is heartbroken and is offered the chance to become a deamoness to get back at her lover, and a sorcerer and his friend have to save her (and their friend the love rat who she has cursed). It was very interesting and very stylised. The theatre had lots of rules, one of them was not to sit too far forward to block other people’s view. Japan seems to have lots of rules, but they are generally in order to support the people on the whole, which I think for a visitor makes it look and feel really nice, ordered and peaceful. I wonder if this level of rules and stipulations might get a bit oppressive living over time, but it does feel very calm as a visitor.

We then went to these gardens which I’m sure are beautiful but were not very interesting in the winter. We then took the driverless train to the dock lands area but left quite quickly after because there wasn’t that much to do. I think this was a slightly odd part of the itinerary that Nina’s friend’s mum had suggested.

We then went to the baths in Shinjuku which were huge and really great. We were there for about 2.5 hours, it was separate men’s and women’s baths but we met for some food in the restaurant about halfway through. I went back to the main baths after that, the sauna had TVs in it and we were watching a cooking show, when a guy who worked there came in and added water to the sauna. He then turned off the TV and started playing this very chipmunky song with the lines ‘this is my happy song, want you to sing along, I’ll teach you the words and you can sing along’. While this song was playing he started using a towel to fan hot air to people. When he finished everyone clapped, it was a strange moment.

We were very close to the batting cages, so now that we had change we went. I did 3 rounds of hitting. It took a bit of time to get into the zone, I think I tried to hit it too hard a bit. I did manage to stroke a coupe straight back over the pitchers head but I ended up snicking quite a few off.

We went back to our apartment and had a couple of drinks and played a couple of very light drinking games between us. We then walked up to a bar about 20 mins away where the son of my dad’s friend (who we are staying with in Hawaii) who lives in Tokyo was having a leaving bash. The place was very cool and there was a DJ playing nice discoy tunes, he then finished and another dj really took the tempo down which was a bit of a letdown but he was playing some nice jazzy stuff. We met Ty, the guy whose party was, he was very busy making dumplings for everyone so we let him get away. Ty’s brother was there so we spoke to him for a bit before heading back to the apartment, after having couple of dumplings which were delicious.

Day 127 - 11 January - Tokyo

Checked out and put our bags in a bag storage on a very busy street in Shinjuku, after which we went to these photo booths in a basement beside the lockers and took some very deranged photos, which were digitally altered by the Photo Booth. I sent the photos from one of the booths to my email but rather than sending them to my Trinity email which I used for more trivial things, I sent it to the same username but at gmail.com! So some person has probably got a very strange Japanese email with a link to some pictures which I hope they will put in their junk!

After the excitement of the Photo Booth, we went to this area a bit out from where we were where there were lots of nice coffee and vintage shops which we looked at for a bit. They had lots of classic stuff which would have looked great on me had I been bigger or smaller. It was also quite expensive so we didn’t get anything but it was nice to see.

We then went back and got our bags and took our stuff to our new hotel in Akhihabara Electric City which was a classic Tokyo neon set of streets with lots of shops. It is also famous for these cafes with very attentive waitresses in maid costumes, which we did not go to, however this is meant that there were lots of women dressed in not enough clothes for the weather standing outside with flyers. Our hotel was a very classic Japanese tiny hotel room which although it was tiny was very nicely set up.

We then went to an area nearby called Asakusa which had lots of pre-war low rise buildings which was now shops and restaurants and a massive Shinto shrine. We walked round looking at the shops and the shrine which was very nice and then went to dinner at this bar/restaurant which was quite rough and ready and very delicious. We had some grilled tofu with soy and ginger, grilled mackerel, baked potato with butter, Japanese omelette and some kimchi. We had a nice beer with it as well.

After that we then went across a bridge and went to the Asahi sky bar which is in the top of their big head office. It was a great view of a part of Tokyo that we haven’t seen yet, Tokyo is so big and seeing it at night really excentuates it. After that we went back to the hotel.

Day 128 - 12 January - Tokyo > Honolulu

We got up, checked out and made our way to the National Museum. We spent most of the time in the Japanese history section. It had beautiful Japanese art and a few incredible samurai swords and armour. I loved the paintings of Fuji and of snow. They also had prints that were really amazing, although the Hokusai weren’t on display which was a bit disappointing, although we have seen them in loads of different ways so I guess I will need to see them when they come to london.

We then went to the Asian art wing I wanted to see the Indian miniatures that they had. They had a bit on Kyhmer sculpture, which they said they had acquired in 1944 in an exchange with the French Ecole de L’orient which was during WW2 and would have been an exchange with Vichy France and Imperial Japan which was a bit spicy. Leaving the museum we found out our flight was cancelled and had to wait an hour to speak to a person on the app. When we did speak to Mary Bernadette she got us on the next available flight which was with a different carrier but about an hour later which suited us perfectly.

We then walked to Yanesen which is a charming low rise neighbourhood to walk around. We had a lovely Tonkotsu in a restaurant, and then strolled round looking at places. A strange thing I noticed was that on streets they pipe music into streets and that different areas have different genres I guess based on the vibe they want to give off. We then walked to a bathhouse nearby and went for an hour. I was the only non-Japanese person there which was interesting. One of the baths was full but had this small section which had a little wall around it, making a little alcove and no one was in it, so I sat down in it. As I sat down, my whole legs started to cramp weirdly and I stood up quickly and looked down a bit flustered. An old Japanese man burst out laughing and made a shocking gesture. It turns out that this alcove was a place to be shocked locally which I didn’t do again as i felt a bit sheepish.

We went back and got our stuff via a muji and got to the airport on the monorail. We got through pretty easily and had some sushi near the gate. There was an Australian family near us who were playing cards and chatting. I was quite tired and in my head I was saying ‘straila’, but accidentally verbalised it twice till Nina shushed me! I was mortified. We then got on the plane and took off.

[balapann-blog]

Day 122 - 6 January - Taipei

Woke up late and went to the gym to do stretching and for Nin to do a workout. We then took the metro to the center and went to a famous breakfast place. I had a turnip cake, spring onion omelette and warm soy milk with delish chilli sauce. A great way to start the food day!

We then went on a walking tour around the old town, which is all pretty modern. The guide made everyone introduce themselves, say where they were from, what brought them to Taiwan and what they were looking forward to. There were a couple of families, one English family who were over for their son’s wedding. There were also a couple of families with an American dad and a Chinese mother, one New York family, and one Bay Area family.

Our guide gave us a potted history of the island outside the Japanese built museum of Taiwan. A rule of thumb is any European style building was built by the Japanese. She told us about the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Ming, Qing and Japanese colonisation and the passing of the island to Republic of China control. She also told us about how the ROC and Taiwanese had tensions following the handover, particularly due to cultural differences following Japanese control, leading to the 228 incident.

She then spoke about the period Martial law (the longest of any place in history apparently) and the subsequent roll back following the death of Chiang Kai-shek. She said that different ages of Taiwanese people will give different opinion of what Taiwan is. The older people say it is China waiting to be unified as the ROC, middle people will speak about keeping the status quo and youngest will want independence.

We also walked on this path with upturned stones to give you a foot massage based on acupuncture. I managed to go all the way down and back but it was actually quite sore.

We had more of a discussion on the politics of the island and the different parties the Green and Blue, the blue coming out of the old ROC order. Confusingly the old ROC Blue Party are seen as more pro China and therefore have not been in power for 12 years. I tried to ask the question that they might be more pro China now that it is more capitalist but still authoritarian which actually makes it quite like the old ROC one party state. The tour ended and we all dissipated into the Taipei afternoon never to see each other again except maybe to walk past in a night market.

We then walked a bit and saw a place with a big but moving queue selling noodles in a hot and spice sauce so we went for a quick snack. It was really tasty especially with the vinegar and chilli you could add but it did hit the back of my throat a couple of times leading to mini coughing fits. We then walked on a couple of streets and bought a scallion cake which was very crispy and a lot thinker than othe cakes like that I have had, it was also cooked in egg which added to the richness.

We then went to Ningxia Night Market where there is a very famous oyster omelette which was unfortunately closed that day. We then walked up and down and got a truly excellent lamb bun and then some crispy pork and a beer. The food in Taiwan is definitely the best we have had anywhere on this trip.

We went to Yansan night market but we were very full and didn’t see anything that jumped out at us. We got a take away strawberry soufflé and went back to the hotel on the metro.

Day 123 - 7 January - Taipei

We got up bright and early and climbed Elephant Hill in the west of the city that gave great views of the city. We then walked down and the did the short walk to Taipei 101 formerly the tallest building in the world. We paid and went up the view was great and the lift went up so quickly. Taipei 101 has the worlds only mass damper that is open to the public which is this massive heavy ball suspended from massive metal rope and sat on hydraulics that when a typhoon or an earthquake hits, it moves and dissipates the shock and stopping the building from shaking. It was really cool and it had videos of it shaking after earthquakes and it is really moving a lot!

We then walked to this famous beef noodle soup place quite near. We had the dark beef noodle soup and beef hoisin roll it was so good, both things were really out of this world the most delicious food on this trip so far! The roll was crispy and there was a great sweetness from the hoisin. The broth was so deep and rich and you could get the star anise come through this deep beefiness and the beef itself was melt in the mouth. It was a real highlight of the trip!

We then walked to a cultural center thing in an old tabacco factory that was okay but didn’t really have much there, we then took an Uber to the Palace Museum.

The Palace Musuem has lots of thing that were taken by the ROC government when it became clear they were going to lose the civil war and has a massive amount of the Chinese treasures that in a different timeline would have been shown in Beijing.

There were 3 floors that we went to; the ground had Buddhist statues, maps and books from both Taiwan and China (mainly Qing), the second had paintings and pottery/porcelain and the third jade and bronze.

The first floor also had jewellery from the imperial court that was very fine and impressive, I caught a woman saying to her friend ‘they really got all the good stuff, I’ve seen things like this in Beijing but none of it is as nice as this’ as she looked at a gold and turquoise broach.

For me the real highlights were the paintings and the pottery. There were some amazing massive paintings that were long and often on silk. Often these showed mountains and snow at different heights and then often had village or house scenes at the bottom. There were also some amazing paintings that were on long rolls and which showed a journey along a long mountain road. Sometimes these were maps of a frontier and used for managing patrols. There were also some really fun animal paintings including a great one of a cat.

We then went to the pottery rooms which had nearly thousand year old pottery that was so stylishly glazed in these simple glazes. They are the kind of thing you would find in a shop on Stoke Newington Church Street, but just completely flawless. We then came to the Ming Vases! I knew that Ming Vases were amazing (otherwise the Labour Party wouldn’t base their whole policy position on them) but I really wasn’t prepared for just how amazing they were. I never thought I would feel something when looking at a vase (other than thinking that’s a nice vase) but they were so beautifully made and their decoration was so delicate and expressive that I was completely blown away.

We then went to the top floor where Bin was very exited to see the famous jade renderings of a lettuce and of pork. But alas they were not there! And they were in the south version of the museum. The rest of the jade was very beautiful though and the bronze was also very interesting even if it elicited a less intense reaction. There was a whole room on ink stones that was labelled ‘for aficionados’ but had some great stuff in it. In the gift shop I saw the famous picture of Ghengis Khan and was afraid I had missed it but when I asked the lady said it was not on display which made me disappointed but also released I hadn’t missed it as I had left at this point.

We then got an Uber to Shilin Night Market

Where we had a famous bao bun, one cabbage and a pork one. They were very good but quite similar to what we had in Manila and made us think about how things become so famous and when there is so many amazing things out there, how does one rise to the top. The answer is probably because it is in the Michelin guide and we had been guided by a Michelin article on Taipei’s night markets. Which in our experience was hit and miss partly because lots of them didn’t seem to be open on Monday and Tuesday.

Following our nose and eyes we had bbq oyster mushroom with mustard and spicy seasoning which was firery and caused a couple of mini coughs. We also had a sausage in a rice sausage bun (hard to describe but like a small hot dog bun made of rice) and honey which was interesting and really nice but I would say life changing. We then walked round for a bit longer and hopped on the MRT to Raohe Night Market.

The first thing we had was the pepper pie which was very like the somsa we had in Tashkent with the crispy pastry and the meat center. I loved it but I think Nin found it grand but not like I did. We looked for some stinky tofu and some Mochi that we had seen on a blog for there but didn’t find either. It turns out the Mochi guy wasn’t there on Tuesdays which was disappointing.

We went back to Ningxia in the hope of bagging one of those oyster omelettes but the queue was very big. I queued and Nin procured some stinky tofu for the queue. After waiting for a while we were told that for take away we could order at a place where there was no queue. ‘Amazing’ we thought ‘I can’t believe these suckers are waiting for this thing when they can get it and take away with no queue’! When we got there they lady said ‘wait time one hour’ alas but we had come this far and paid our money and went off with the knowledge our omelette was secure for 9.20. We then went and got some Mochi which had peanut on top and was served on ice. I must say it was a highlight of the trip as the ice took in the milk the Mochi had been cooked in making it creamy and delicious. We then went for a bubble tea and Nin got a sweet soup. Not the right preparation for a rich savoury dish.

By the time it came around we psyched ourselves up and collected it and it was very good! But the rigmarole of getting it had left it not at the best time to be enjoyed, it feels like there is a lesson there about not trying to do everything or not to focus on the thing everyone else goes for (particularly as we had seen a different place do the same omelette in another market the evening before).

We staggered some spent and a little rotund.

Day 124 - 8 January - Taipei > Tokyo

Rather than try and pack any more into our intense 50 or so hours in Taipei we woke up and went to the gym. I had a nice swim till I discovered I had snapped my goggles (and had got tired). We packed, went for breakfast and got a taxi to the airport. We then sailed through departures and got the plane.

On trains you feel like you are eavesdropping on people’s lives. Their commutes, their meeting friends. People living complete lives which you intersect with so briefly and never see again, it’s not like our random taxi driver in Tashkent exists solely for our one fare like a video game.

We got to our tiny studio apartment dropped our stuff and went to a famous 24 hour ramen place where we waited in line with some very drunk Australian men who were having an argument about whether sleeping in boxers when you share a bed made you gay. We got to the restaurant and ordered on a screen and were taken to individual booths beside each other and we gave the slips of paper for our order and were given our food and beer. The food was very tasty with a really delicious broth and a very nicely boiled soft boiled egg which I normally don’t like! After this very late night snack we came home and went to sleep.

[balapann-blog]

Day 115 - 30 December - Bangkok

We got in very early in the morning to Bangkok airport and got ourselves through and got a taxi to Josh’s, who very kindly got up and showed us to our room. We slept in for a good bit and then had some breakfast and went for a walk round Josh’s neighbourhood which was not the one I had visited before. We then went to a shopping center briefly that is where all the counterfeit stuff is sold. We looked around as I needed a new bag but nothing looked quite sturdy enough. We then went to get some food nearby. I got some crispy pork and rice which was really tasty and was a great way to get back into Asian food. We then went for a drink on the river at a place called Jack’s Bar which I had been to before and then went on a river cruise for an hour or so.

We then went home and went for a swim in Josh’s buildings pool which was really nice and had a great view. We then went to a night market a bit further out. This market was very popular with tourists, particularly Chinese groups. There was lots of delicious food everywhere and it was slightly overwhelming so we honed in on lots of delicious bbq meat and veg on a stick and a few drinks before going home very full and tired.

Day 116 - 31 December - Bangkok

We got up and went for breakfast in an American style diner which had a delicious omelette. I had an orange coffee which is something that we have seen advertised in a number of places but we hadn’t had yet. It was actually really nice but I don’t think I will be having it all the time in the future.

Nin and I then went to the Jim Thompson House which was much more packed than the last time I went. We came back and chilled out and went to the gym and the pool, very GTL from Jersey Shore before our night out!

We went out for some Japanese food before taking a grab to the bar that we were going to for the evening. It was quite packed so we went down to the river and had a drink and waited for the fireworks with lots of other people in a strange ruined house that was full of people. The fireworks were amazing at midnight.

After that we went back to the bar and chatted in some nice chairs for a while before taking a tuk tuk back to the apartment and going to bed.

Day 117 - 1 January - Bangkok

We woke up quite late after the late finish the night before. We slowly went for some brunch at a thai place round the corner from Josh’s. I had some rice and minced beef and sone stir fried morning glory.

We then went to watch Gladiator II in the cinema which was very luxurious. It was so air conditioned that they gave out blankets and I was genuinely cold for the first time in ages. Gladiator was very entertaining even though the plot made no sense.

Nin went for a face massage and Josh and I went for a drink, and Nin joined us after. We then had dinner in the same place and we went back and watched the return of the king before going to sleep.

Day 118 - 2 January - Bangkok

We got up and had breakfast before driving to Ayutthaya. We went to a couple of sites and then went to get some lunch in a thai restaurant near the river. It was really delicious and we had a thom yum soup, some deep fried pork, morning glory and fried rice. One of the best meals we had in Thailand. We went to one more sight and then drove home. Nin and I got ice cream, Nin durian and me ube.

We drove back and went for a gym and a swim before going to another Japanese in a mall near Josh’s apartment. Thailand vs Vietnam was on a big screen so we watched some of that. I had a pork katsu, and we had some tempura and some sushi. It was really nice and a great way to end the food odyssey of Bangkok.

We went back and watched The Bourne Ultimatum, thus completing all the Bornes on this trip. At about half midnight we got a taxi to the airport for Manila. The baggage drop was very busy, once we got through security we chilled in a lounge for an hour of so and then boarded the flight.

I slept a bit on the flight but woke up during the decent feeling a little hallucinogenic.

Day 119 - 3 January - Manila

Getting off the plane, my internet weirdly seemed to have stopped working and I was very tired so hadn’t gone through all the rigmarole before immigration, when my online passenger boarding card had not come through against my passport details. Borrowing Nina’s phone to hotspot I did it again but it still didn’t work. On the third time the lady in the passport booth said it might have been because my details were wrong. I then realised that although my passport number was correct, my date of birth was wrong because I had put it in using European date syntax and not American, so I had to edit that and then resubmit.

I finally got through and then we got our bags and headed to our hotel in a taxi. We went to a quite overpriced place for breakfast and stayed there for a while, before going and getting a shoulder and foot massage in a place near our hotel which was much nicer than I anticipated.

We then checked in, showered and went for a snooze. Wehn we woke up we went to see Wicked in the cinema and then came back and went to sleep.

Day 120- 4 January - Manila

We had breakfast in the hotel and then went to the starting point of our walking tour. We had a very friendly guide who was very knowledgeable. We kicked off in a hostel and walked to a four hundred year old church before taking a ferry to the old town. We had another couple with us and a sweet student who was doing tourism in university and this tour was her internship!

Our first stop was the Black Nazarene Church, which apparently has almost cult like devotion from its followers. It is almost always full and services throughout the day particularly on Friday. The Black Nazarene is a relic of a black statue and supposedly burned cross. It apparently has massive crowds once a year where it is brought out and circles the church. Our guide said his parents went every Friday but he gave off the impression that his faith was not quite as fanatical.

In an unsurprising turn of events the British had occupied Manila in the 18th century for 18 months which reminded me of the map of 19 or so countries that supposedly the British had not invaded. We went to the old main street Escolta street which had lots of run down art deco buildings but which were in dire need of repair.

Divorce is illegal in the Philippines with only Vatican as the other country in the world where it is illegal. Interesting considering it was illegal in Ireland in my lifetime! Manila also has the worlds oldest organised China town, which was started by the Spanish in 1594! In return for them converting to Christianity, meaning that Chinese in Manila a nominally Christian, although there are private hidden temples, one of which we went to. It was a temple halfway up a modern building. The temple said that it was Buddhist but none of the shrines were to Buddha and were more Taoist, with the main shrine being to Kuang Kong.

We had our first snack which was a siopao which was a delicious dumpling that was fried at the bottom. One of the people in the tour asked about the fact that Bong Bong Marcos and Duarte seem to be at war with each other and he said that it was two dictators trying to kill each other and hopefully they neutralise each other. We then went past a place doing vegan snacks that were popular on tik tok and it is the only vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown.

We walked over a waterway that was so polluted it was pretty intense, we then walked past a mixed religion shrine as it was effectively a Buddhist shrine with a cross rather than a Buddha, our guide said this was typical of Manilian Chinese Christianity as it was a fusion of Christian and Buddhist practices.

Our second food snack was an hopia which was pastry with an ube center which was sweet and crumbly. Our guide said that they was a real mall culture in Manila and that 3 of the biggest malls in the world were here, which isn’t really my vibe but still. China town has privately financed fire brigades, including one but a guy called Mr. Ube who made his money in ube and all his trucks are purple!

We then went to the old town that was Spanish and enclosed by walls. Lots of it had been destroyed but you could definitely see the Spanish influence. We got some bikes and cycled around different places to to look at like the old dungeons. The other couple were itching to cycle so left us saying they had only booked the tour for the bike ride, which begs the question why they didn’t just hire bikes but anyway. We also managed to cycle round a bit before finishing up and getting a taxi back to our hotel.

We went for dinner at a popular Filipino restaurant (in a local mall obviously) which was nice but very meaty and quite heavy so we finished up very full.

Day 121- 5 January - Manila > Taipei

We got up and I went for a swim and a stretch. After packing and checking out we got a grab to central Manila again. There was a Sunday service taking place at the Church of the Black Nazarene which was packed with a crowd outside of the church. It was mad that there were so many people and it really felt like the most densely populated part of the most populated city in the world! We had a deep fried quail egg with a lovely vinegar and sweet and sour dressing, and headed to china town.

There we had one of the siopao that we had before which were very nice. We then went to a dumpling place we hadn’t been the day before. We had pork and chive kutchay dumplings which were really nice with the Chinese vinegar. We then bought some hopias from the place we had had them the day before (right next door to the dumpling place) and then went to the big shop of Mr. Ube and got a couple more hopias. We then braved the crowds to go back to the Black Nazarene to get some candles before hopping in a grab and going to that most Filipino of places the mall.

We walked around the mall closest to our hotel for a bit. I had lost my water bottle so I got a fun personalised one and we went to a cafe and had their signature hot chocolate and sweet cheese roll which tasted a lot better than it sounds. I think that Filippino food is probably too sweet for me but this was nice. We were getting unite tired from all the walking so we then went and had a drink in an Italian restaurant and due to time and ease had a plate of very nice pasta there before getting our bags and heading to the airport. The flight went without a problem and we arrived in Taipei at around 1, getting to our hotel around 2.

[balapann-blog]

Day 109 - 24 December - Habarana > Dambulla

We got up a bit later and had breakfast, packed and checked out and got the same jeep guy to take us to Dambulla cave monastery which had another similarly long climb before getting to them. The caves were pretty amazing iots of them had large carved reclining Buddhas and other carved Buddha and other deities, as well as incredible painted cave walls and ceilings from the 17th century.

After that we got back into the jeep and went to our new hotel that is quite lux. We have been in a bit of a standoff with them as they have been insisting that we get their gala dinner but we didn’t want to go to it so had decided to go to town for dinner.

We had a snack of sandwiches and the famous king coconuts which we had been told about as something that is indigenous to Sri Lanka. The sandwiches were fine but very overpriced. We then went for a walk around the grounds, including finding another swimming pool, and numerous tree houses amongst the villas. We then had a swim before getting a drink at the bar before going out. There was a little choir singing slightly out of tune carols but were very sweet. We went to order a taxi to the town and had another stand off with the manager who said ‘but we have a gala dinner here’. When we said it was too expensive she said she would offer a special price ($40 per head) she then asked our room number, saw she had obviously offered the price over email and then said in a very passive aggressive way ‘when would you like your rickshaw?’

We got our rickshaws to take us to a restaurant, but realised halfway through that they thought it was in the town, which we then only realised wasn’t. So we ended up just going to town to a restaurant that was well reviewed. When we got there it was empty and was playing music very loud, so we went next door to Pizza Hut! It was actually really nice (I got a butter chicken pizza!) and quite funny. After that we got our rickshaws back via a supermarket getting things for the journey the next morning.

Back at the hotel the gala was in, I would say half swing. There was lots of music and people on tables but I wouldn’t say it was full. We got a drink on the edge of the action (including a single arak to share which was strong! Quite like rum) and chatted a bit before going to bed, looking forward to santa and his reindeer coming over the tropics. The music continued till about 12.30 and Nin is convinced they put us so close to the action out of spite for the dinner but it was fine in the end., a much better nights sleep than my ill fated stay in a Vietnam Backpacker Hostel on Christmas Eve 2018.

Day 110 - 25 December - Dambulla > Kandy

We got up and went for a Christmas swim, which was very nice and then after we went to breakfast. It was a bit of a random breakfast but was nice enough. After breakfast we all gave each other our presents which was very nice! We then had to pack up and check out and were then picked up by Kalpa, our usual jeep guys friend as his jeep was in the garage. The drive was about 3 hours and with Nin and I in the back of the jeep, it was a bit bumpy but we made it to our Airbnb which is on a gold course about 40 mins outside Kandy.

The place is really nice and has lots of poured concrete everywhere and a really nice pool. I read my book for a lot of the day, as I had started The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri which I had bought in Kochi. We then had a nice swim in the pool and had dinner cooked by the caretaker of the house. After dinner we played a very complicated game that Nna’s sister Sophie had given her for Christmas and en went to bed (Nin and I both read some more before sleeping).

Day 111 - 26 December - Kandy

We got up and had some delicious fruit for breakfast. After that we got in a taxi and went to Kandy itself. We went to a clothes department store very quickly and then o the botanic gardens. I forgot my phone and so had to rawdog the whole experience. It was very hot so we chilled out in the shade of the massive trees. We then got our very hot, ACless taxi back to the house, saying we would stay in our villa all day the next day!

When we got back I read some more and then went for a swim, after which I finished my book! We then had dinner and payed the Chameleon which is another game that Sophie had bought. This was slightly more successful. After which we went to bed.

Day 112 - 27 December - Kandy

We really didn’t do much in the day. We had all dedicated this day our chill out in the beautiful airbnb day and were determined to enjoy it.

We woke up and had breakfast in the terrace and then I read and played some chess. The main excitement came when Nin said ‘are you ready to defend he house from the intruders?’he intruders was a family of monkeys who were having a nice time by the pool and wrestling and swinging in the trees. We then had lunch and they then started climbing up the house and looking round the corner of the balcony. We shooed them away and Pushpa, our very nice cook threw some rocks at them and went to see if the pool was okay.

After relaxing a little more, we decided to try and do our exercise which we had anted to do before a swim. I did some stretching and Nin did some skipping, we went down to the pool and the monkeys promptly came back, all moving moving independently but as if they were in unison out to make mischief. Nin and Sophie had a swim with the monkeys coming in and out of shot. I then came down and had a bit of a swim in a lul, but got out when what looked like the biggest of the group started walking around the edge slightly menacingly and some of the other males joined.

After a while a neighbour must have got annoyed with the because we heard multiple loud bangs like gun shots but probably fire crackers that scared them off properly because my feeble attempts to clap at them did nothing.

We had a very nice final dinner in the house and went to bed quite early.

Day 113 - 28 December - Kandy > Colombo

We got up and had another breakfast of fruit and omelettes,soaking up the view. We packed up and gave Sophie some of the things we d but didn’t want to carry for the rest of the trip (my suit for me). We relaxed before out taxi arrived and we all piled in.

The journey was generally uneventful. The most notable thing was the steep decent from Kandy that took about 30 mins all in all but was a taken very slowly but most cars. The view on both sides was running and you didn’t really see what the decent had been like till we got to the bottom of it and looked back at the hills. We also stopped for a king coconut juice, although i was still listening to my podcast and in the pictures I ended up looking like a teenager being very antisocial.

We got to our hotel and checked in. Following that we went to a shop nearby that Sophie had been recommended which was effectively a Sri Lanka reduce shop We then to a couple of tuk tuks to the restraurant we had booked that was very nice in a courtyard on a lane. We had lots of small plates and a couple of large ones. Highlights include a lobster with a kind of seafood ravioli, a chicken kabab, some mackerel with a horseradish cream and a sort of ceviche like fish dish. It had lots of Sri Lankan spins to it and the cocktails were really nice. My fav was rum, tamarind and chilli.

We were very full and went back to the hotel and had a drink in Sophie’s room before going to bed very stuffed.

Day 114 - 29 December - Colombo > Bangkok

We woke up very early to go and say goodbye to Sophie who was getting an early flight. We then had a coffee and went to the gym which was really nice. I did a bit of a run then a stretch. We then packed, said goodbye to Taru and Ian Nina’s parents and checked out ourselves. It was very hot and we needed a drink so we went to the roof bar for a lime soda before leaving our bags and heading out.

We looked through a couple of shops and then went for a drink in a restaurant near the place we had been the night before. We had a tamarind frozen Margherita which was very delicious. We then walked back to the hotel and and got our bags and a taxi to the airport. We were very early but were going to sit in a lounge and chill out but the the bag check did not open or an hour and a half, so we had to in departures. It was actually fine and I managed to get through most of The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien. We did then drop our bags and went to the lounge where we had a beer and a cold buffet and sat in a comfy chair.

[balapann-blog]

Day 105 - 20 December - Colombo > Wilpattu National Park

Got up and went for a gym and a swim. My calf muscle has been a bit sore so i just did stretching and then did a 3 minute plank! The pool was about 20/25 meters so I was able to do some lengths for the first time in ages. My swimming fitness was bad but it was nice to get involved again.

We missed breakfast in the hotel so went to a boogie coffee shop called Grind (not the London one). I had a Sri Lankan coffee, which was like a cold Vietnamese coffee with espresso and a weird but nice omelette with sourdough prawn toast.

We then got a transfer for about four hours to Wilpattu National Park where we are going for a safari tomorrow. We got there and checked into the rooms, there was a massive hornet thing in Ian and Taru’s room but it was swiftly removed with a broom.

We then went for a nice evening walk along the road with a member of staff who showed us the birds from the road. We saw 3 kingfishers, loads of pelicans, a couple of types of heron. We then walked back and had some tea before dinner. Nin and I got upgraded to a bigger room further into the jungle.

The dinner was really nice we had a chicken curry, a dal and some rice noodles. We then went to our room and chilled and got ready for the safari the next day.

Day 106 - 21 December - Wilpattu National Park

Woke up at 5.30 and got to the reception for 10 to 6. We then got a car to the park and got into our 4x4. We drove for quite a while seeing a number of different things, mainly beautiful birds! We stopped for breakfast in this place near a lake and I could have sworn I saw a leopard walk behind a tree, although it might have been a deer but who could tell. I kept trying to tell the driver but he was talking quite loudly and I think spooked the leopard (I am maintaining it is a leopard despite no hard evidence). After that we drove round again seeing lots of nice things, very like the Safari Zone in Pokémon Blue - ‘Wild Taurus (water buffalo) appeared, wild Taurus fled’ ‘Wild Spero (Egret) appeared’ for the 55th time. Although the egrets are much less annoying than always stopping for wild Speros.

After a while we came to a bit where there was a gaggle of 4x4s all looking at a tree, in hushed tones it was spoken that the tree contained a sleeping leopard. There was much moving slightly to get the best angle although you couldn’t see much more than the camouflage on a branch, so after some looking in the binoculars we carried on. We came back a bit later coming the other way and the leopard had woken up. You could see it very clearly for a bit, then it few bored of the gaggle of people and slipped off the tree and slinked off into the forest.

It was getting quite hot and the constant moving from water hole to water hole want that we were dozing in our seats. We came to a place where a lot of jeeps were camped out as there was supposed to be a small bit of sleeping leopard fur, and people were waiting for ages to see if it was going to wake up. Apparently it was a cub that was slightly nervous so stays behind when the mother and the other cub go hunting. Our guide then became convinced that this was the animal I had seen before and went back to where I had seen it to wait for the mother and cubs to reunite. It was to no avail and after a while we moved on. Although the flock of 4x4s as evidently not helping any potential reunion.

We went off on another little drive and came across a jeep waiting expectantly and hand signals between the cars confirmed it was for a leopard sighting. And after a bit of manouvering it came onto the road gave us a little flourish and then slinked off into and vanished in the forest, its camouflage was very effective. We were very lucky as as we then moved off on the other side of the road there was a queue of 4x4s which could have easily been us and who probably wouldn’t have been able to see it.

We then went back to our side of the park to go back home. We passed people still trying to see the cub and we were all a bit annoyed with this as we thought that we shouldn’t be stopping the mother and cubs from seeing each other. Then on the way back we say some elephants! A mother and calf eating grass and looking flam in the lush green. It was very nice and a great way to end, and further on we had a great view of a herd of elephants eating on the grass.

We got back and had a nice dinner of fish curry, dal, a delish mango curry and a sambal. We went to bed and were asleep very quickly after being awake so early.

Day 107 - 22 December - Wilpattu National Park > Anuradhapura > Habarana

We woke up and packed up and went to breakfast. I had a very nice omelette and some other accoutrements and some delicious tea and coffee. We then got a transfer and drove about an hour and a half to Anuradhapura which was the ancient capital of the Sinhalese Kingdom before it was sacked by Rajaraja (King of Kings) Chola in the 10 century.

We were parking and a guy in an official looking get up told us to get visitor tickets (it was evidently free for Sri Lankans) and suggested we get a guide. We decided to get one and got given Suranga who was interesting but was more around the spiritual angle of the temples (it was mainly stupas or temples) but less about the nuts and bolts of the history and his narrative was very inconsistent.

The site has the oldest human planted tree that was planted in 300bc and is supposedly a cutting of the Bhodi tree where the Buddha achieved enlightenment in Bihar. It actually has a lot of other trees taken from cuttings from the tree planted around the courtyard. Many trees are actually lots bigger than the main tree itself that is actually not very big. The courtyard has sand on the ground to ground you more. The sand comes from people who collect it from when they are washing their rice.

We then went to the first stupa which was a big and globelike and solid, which we walked around. We then went to a couple of other ones, one that has so many bricks that you could apparently build a three meter wall to Edinburgh and back from London. Each time we walked around the stupa with our shoes off.

We were there for a couple of hours and then we got back in our taxi and drove the rest of our transfer to Habarana which took another hour and a half. We then got to the hotel and had some nice salty lime drink. Once we had checked in we had some tea outside but we had to go back because the mosquitos were monstrous, biting through our clothes so we went inside.

Day 108 - 23 December - Habarana

Woke up and had breakfast at about 8 before we got our driver to bring us to Sigaria. He had a safari jeep and we all bundled into the back of it and he took us to the entrance to Sigaria which is an old fort and palace from c. the 4th century and is on and around a massive rock. He tickets for foreigners was $35pp which was almost as steep as the climb!

We started the climb through the water gardens (Sigaria is famous for its innovative water management tech). We then went up the first of a lot of steps. There were lots of people so t was quite slow going as it was basically single file. There were different terraces where you could stop for a bit and these basically became massive queue fields. There were numerous signs that spoke about nesting hornets or wasps, with these intese warnings like ‘be silence wasps!’ We eventually got to the top which had lots of interesting terracing and an amazing view over the forested and below. We went down the one way system and got taken to a cave with very beautiful paintings of women that had apparently covered the whole rock face with 500 paintings.

We then went for lunch in a place and had some curry and paratha and all ate too much. We then went to Ritigala which was an old temple complex which was much quieter, it was all in forest. Our jeep driver who was very sweet and who was from near Ritagala gave us an impromptu tour. He walked very fast and in the humidity we were all struggling to keep up. We ended at this 1000 year old banyan tree, and releavidly walked back to the jeep and went home.

We played a game called sounds fishy which Nina’s sister Sophie had given Nina, and had basically the same dinner as we had had the night before but because of our big lunch we were very full and went to bed quite sharpish after.

[balapann-blog]

Day 101 - 16 December - Alleppey > Kochi (Cochin)

We went for a run up and down the road for 3k. My calf/Achilles was a bit stiff initially but was fine when I warmed up. We went for a dip after which was split second due to the waves and current! We packed and checked out and got a rickshaw to Enkies and had breakfast in the main restaurant. I had a dosa and we split a puri. We got an Uber intercity which I had never heard about before. We had to wait for about 30 mins for it but it was very cheap even with a 50% tip! There was lots more CPI(M) flags everywhere.

We got to our apartment building that was really nice and close to the main Fort Cochin sights. Nin went to an opticians to get more glasses! We then went to a Kathakali show. We went early to see the actors be made up in their amazing make up. The show itself was just a demonstration of it and the singer either had a very bad sore throat or just couldn’t sing any more because he found both the high and low notes difficult, but all in all it was very interesting to see and you could see how skilled the players were.

After that we took tuk tuk to a laundry that was much cheaper than the apartment’s suggested one. I don’t think they were used to people coming there and were more used to picking it up as it didn’t have a shop front. We then went back and chilled and went to sleep.

Day 102 - 17 December - Kochi (Cochin)

We got up and went to the pool, our main exercise was that we did very intense front crawl kicking against the wall which was genuinely exhausting. We went for breakfast in a fairly rogue place that was a tea house. I had an actually really nice samosa but then Bombay toast which was like sweet French toast that I was not really expecting. Nins food wasn’t any better.

We then got a tuk tuk round the main places in Fort Kochi. First the Basilica, which was a really interesting church. The Chinese nets which are the symbol of Kochi and are these massive nets that are lowered into the water and back again. Hanging round the nets was a pod of dolphins! Which was really amazing to see as you could see how they were hunting the fish! Next we went to this beach which wasn’t very nice and had quite a lot of earthworks happening beside it. We went to a Syrian Orthadox church which looked quite modern but the guy said it was very old. I don’t know whether it was lost in translation and that the SOC is very old in Kerela and that the actual church is new (I suspect it is that) or there was a modernist architecture movement here hundreds of years ago. The driver dropped us off at Mattancherry Palace which was the best value museum ever at 10 rupees (less than 10p) and had amazing murals of Hindu epics. Behind the palace is Kochi ‘Jew Town’ which had lots of antique shops and lovely buildings. It has a very pretty synagogue which has lots of lights and a Chinese porcelain floor.

We then had a drink in this shop which had a book shop, I got got a couple of books, a collection of writing on Kerela and a Jhumpa Lahiri novel.

We then got a tuk tuk to the water metro (yes Kochi has a water metro service, which I guess is just a regular fast ferry). We went to sari shop that Nin had been recommended, it was huge and Nin got a very nice sari. I was thinking of buying something but I felt a bit out of place , went back and waited for laundry which took ages. I read the book about Kerala.

Went for dinner at a place called Malabar Junction which was nice but quite expensive. I had a glass of Indian white wine which was very nice and for food, we had a selection of veg curries and a Keralan chicken curry which which was also very nice.

Day 103 - 18 December - Cochin

Went to a gym that was quite a lads pumping iron sort of place. I did a short run and then some stretching. My calf/Achilles is a bit stiff so I took it a bit easy. After that we went to the pool again and frolicked. I had my goggles so we were able to do some under water stuff that was nice.

We went for breakfast/lunch in this nice space above a corner. It took ages for our food to come, we have noticed that they really don’t bring thing out at the same time here! So I had finished some chips by the time the rest of the food came which is a bit annoying.

We looked round some shops near our cafe then went to the Jewish town and looked through some of the antiques shops. They had lots of wooden and pottery statues of Hindu deities and horse and other animal statues, some antique doors and a few paintings which were all very hard to carry so didn’t buy anything.

We then went to the Indo-Portuguese museum which was effectively one room of religious icons and this strange subterranean bit which it was alluded to was an old secret passage but it also didn’t seem to be connected to anything or near the buildings that they were supposed to connect. We then went back to the main area near our apartment and went to dinner in this nice restaurant called Rasol that was North Indian and had a paneer butter masala and chole as a nice send off to our Indian dinners.

We then went to collect some sunglasses Nin had bought and then chilled out in the room. I called mum and then read some more of the book on Kerela I had bought.

Day 104 - 19 December - Kochi (Cochin) > Colombo

We woke up and went for a run along the road in Fort Cochin, I would say an okay road run for India but still lots of ducking and diving against tuk tuks. We got back and went for a very quick swim and then packed and went for breakfast. I had a a strange full English type thing with very strange sausages and bacon and unbuttered toast. Not one of our best ones!

We then got our taxi that first drove to the airport then kept going to Vajra for Nin to pick up some glasses that had been delivered late from Mumbai, with much stress and admin in trying to locate them! We checked in at the airport and then went to the food court. I went to Burger King and had a paneer Royale. We then went to the gate, it was so hard to find a newspaper that I went up to the lounges and asked for one which they happily gave me!

We had picked our seats earlier and had tried to go to the front, it was only at the time we got on the plane that it was in business class! So our seats were very comfortable! Unfortunately although it was one of the more comfortable flights I’ve been on, it was also the shortest, so we got to Colombo very quickly!

Got through customs much quicker than India! And then got an Uber the 50 or so minutes to our hotel. When we got there, Nina’s family were waiting for us in the lobby! We had a nice chat and went to the room and then went off to dinner!

We went to a Japanese restaurant a short walk from the hotel, and got an assortment of sushi and bento stuff. We walked back to the hotel and went pretty much straight to bed.

[balapann-blog]

Day 95 - 10 December - Mumbai > Cochin

Got up and packed and then went to breakfast at a place called boojie cofe which lived up to its name (it was nearly London prices!). I had a smoked turkey sandwich which seems a bit random but hay! And a nice smoothie and iced coffee. It all felt very Islington or Fulham!

I then went to look for a hair dresser while Nin went to the dentist. I went to a place I found on google, which was billed as a salon for men. It had lots of chairs in plastic and no one in there, which gave me slight bad vibes. The final straw was when the lady asked me to sign a waver form for the haircut! Which, even if it is just a process for all treatment I thought was a bit sketch so I left. I then went to a couple of other places before finding the one I eventually used. My haircut was quite good I think! I then went to the dentist too and got my teeth cleaned which was good after all the black tea we had in Central Asia!

We then finished packing and left the apartment and went to a taproom that Harini had suggested near our place and had a quick drink before getting an Uber to the airport. This kicked off a weirdly stressful turn of events as Air India closed their bag check in quite early and board early too so the 90mins were were there before turned out to be not that much time. Also it didn’t help that air india had reduced their bag check allowance to 15kg (both our bags were 20kg!) so we had to take stuff out and put it n out hand bags. Strangely we could also check a small bag so Nin checked in her day bag. It all seemed quite arbitrary.

As we were getting through security Nin realised that she had over several pairs of scissors and a pen knife from her checked bag to hand bag in her haste and it got flagged up by security. Luckily I had taken my other back pack which was empty out of my checked bag, so Nin was able to go back and check that it with the weapons and then run to the gate where I was waiting. We then boarded the flight which was an hour late taking off. When we landed in Cochin, all our bags were accounted for and we got a transfer to our hotel/yoga and Ayurvedic retreat. We checked in had some very nice coconutty curry and went to bed.

Day 96 - 11 December - Vajra Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat

We work up and went to breakfast. It turns out we had got up too late for the first yoga class. Nin went back to sleep and I went and asked about the packages. I was given an appointment with an Ayurvedic doctor, who we went to see an hour later. We didn’t have any real ailments so our consultations were bit awkward, but I said my back was sore, which it often is and was prescribed accordingly. We went back to the room to relax before getting called for our first treatment, which was a full body massage with special oils, followed by a steam in this strange box which you sat it with your head out the top while steam was pipped in. The message was very relaxing and got to lots of the tension in my back The steam was interesting, it was like a personal body steam room but I was slightly too tall for the box and was just sitting in it while the two guys just looked at me, which was slightly strange.

After this we went to the room and then to lunch which was tasty but also you could tell very healthy. I had some other curry and a couple of sabzi things. We then went back to the room and slept for a bit as we were both pretty tired, maybe all the travelling is catching up with us! We were woken by a knock on the door which was our call for our next treatment. This one for me was a back massage with oils but also delivered using this sort of cloth baton (I’m sure there is a proper term) which was soaked in the oil before being slapped on the back. Having been woken up for something that was itself relaxing meant that by the end I was incredibly relaxed (is it possible to be too relaxed? Keep reading to find out).

We then had some tea and chilled out till I went to the yoga class which I was then only attendant of. It was mainly breathing and meditation, with a few poses I couldn’t do thrown in for good measure. In the final 15 mins we did a meditation session where I had to sit in a comfortable position. I had exhausted all cross legged sitting comfort so I went for a pose kneeling and sitting on the feet, which was fine, until it wasn’t and the last five mins of meditation were not about bringing my attention to the breath but about bringing my attention away from the burning in my feet. I had to do some exercises at the end to bring the feeling back but left feeling zen and with the overall feeling that today has been good for me. We didn’t venture out much further than the treatment room but i think today was a bit of decompression father all the busyness of the cities we have been in.

Day 97 - 12 December - Vajra Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat

I awoke a midnight needing the loo and then realised that something was off. Before long was up every hour or so, I felt really bad and was going through being too hot then being too cold. Luckily most Indian bathrooms seem to have big buckets in them which are used for washing so that made an ample sick bucket.

The Ayurvedic doctor came and had a look at me and suggested more medicine which I accepted. However since I think it might have been a strange concoction that they gave me to drink the day before that set me off, I didn’t take it. I spent most of the day in bed feeling a bit weak. I ate a tiny bit of this kind of rice porridge which allowed me to take an activated charcoal and overall I am felt much better than I did before. Nin was very good to me and has got me things like rehydration sachets and did a lot of speaking for me with different people like a felling my treatments.

I exhausted all my store of podcasts in a daze as I fell asleep.

Day 98 - 13 December - Vajra Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat

Work up feeling much better, thankfully and managed to have a bit of breakfast although it was still very plain.

I had my first therapy which was a full body massage followed by tapping of powder pottali-choornapindasweda. This was administered using the same heated cloth baton and was very relaxing.

I managed to keep down some very plain lunch, but the coconut curry was losing it shine of the first day. It didn’t help that they were very healthy and not very seasoned!

I had my second therapy which was a neck and shoulder massage with a ‘local steam’ which consisted of there being a pipe hooked up to a pressure cooker which was then used to apply steam locally to my neck and shoulders. The pipe was obviously very hot so the guy wrapped the end in towels so he could hold it. It was nice but wasn’t quite sure of the benefits and they weren’t really explained.

We then had our tea and a really nice cardamomy rice snack in a banana leaf. while we were sitting there, just outside a troop of monkeys was galavanting around in the trees which was cool!

We then went to the evening yoga class which was really simple but very hard. Lots of sitting up straight (which is hard) and sitting cross legged for 20 mins (very hard). Out teacher was very sweet and had a chant which went ‘I’m relaxing my body, I’m relaxing my mind…reeeeelaxxxx, reeeeeeellllaaaaaxxxxxx’

I had a small dinner went to be and finished my book which was a book of Alice Munro short stories.

Day 99 - 14 December - Vajra Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat > Alleppey

We finally managed to get up for early morning yoga which was similarly gentle and similarly brutal on my tight hips and weak back.

We checked out and the same guy who picked us up drove us to our next place in Alleppey. There were lots of communist flags everywhere because I think there had been the CPI(M) congress recently.

There is an interesting Christian influence everywhere and it definitely has the most Christian churches since Armenia since roughly 20% of the population is Christian in Kerala. The thing that was most overtly Christian was that lots of hospitals are named after saints.

We got to our place which was right on the beach and we had a sheltered area what was kind of ours on the beach. I asked if we could swim but the guy was like ‘it’s very rough so don’t swim too much!’

We went into the water a bit but the current did seem quite strong so did not get to do lots of swimming unfortunately. We walked down to a bar had a kingfisher We then went to the restaurant below the bar but they insisted that we go to the roof terrace which I think they were quite proud of.

The restaurant was having a sea food festival so we had a fish curry and one fried fish. It was quite spicy but still really nice. After dinner we got tuk tuk to the place we were staying. I listened to the football and then went to sleep.

Day 100 - 15 December - Alleppey

We woke up and went for a run and brief dip in the water although the waves are so strong and the rip is so powerful it was literally a dip while standing in between waves. We got a Tuk tuk to the place where our tour would start, but the lady gave me the wrong location so it took a bit longer. When we got to the boat there as a small pick up that was stuck in the mud that I helped push to safety. I think my heft really swung the balance.

We were 30 mins late starting off, not a very auspicious start. We were going very slowly and had to stop twice, once for petrol then to put the petrol in. Still we went slowly, going into a lake near Alleppey which is where all the other boats was going.

Went around in circle before docking in a strange place at the entrance to a small river for lunch. There was a tree full of Black Sea birds which I don’t think were cormorants but they looked quite like them.

Lunch was massive. We had this masala prawn fry with a massive prawn about half the size of a lobster

Then went across the lake very slowly. We had to tell the guy to go faster multiple times to very limited success.

We watched the beautiful birds fishing including an all new kite that we hadn’t seen before the brahminy kite and the white tern.

We went into a backwater which was very nice with rice paddies on both sides and villages along the shore. It is really notable that most villages and houses in Kerala seem to be pretty solid houses rather than slums and I found an article stating that Kerala has the lowest number of people living in slum conditions. I guess you would need to take kerelas smaller population into consideration but I think that along with kerelas high literacy rate (94%) among other things shows the benefit of democratic communist government!

Annoyingly they turned around and went in another way that brought us into the river we had come from and we told them that we didn’t think we were getting value for money. I think since we were only doing a day and it was high season it is kind of what you expect but the boat was going really slowly. Incidentally I read in an article that peak time is serious tourist trap time for houseboats so I guess it’s just what happens.

The river that we ended up going down was really nice with paddy fields on both sidesand the boat was nice and was nice to relax on but we just spent too much time faffing on the lake rather than in the nice backwaters. We had banana fritters and sweet coffee and then got dropped off near where we started. We got a tuk tuk into town and then went to a very strange bar that looked a bit like a modern west of Ireland saloon bar, except there were no windows and the lighting was mainly blue neon. Nin was also the only woman there.

We got a Tuk tuk back to the room and then watched Fabulous Lives vs Bombay Brides which is a real housewives type show for Bombay, which this season had added in 4 Delhi brides and it has shaken up Indian pop culture. The copy of outlook I bought had dedicated the whole edition to the Delhi / Bombay rivalry. I then watched Palace beat Brighton on the vpn which was a great way to finish the day!

[balapann-blog]

Day 93 - 8 December - Mumbai

Went for a run on the beach in the morning and there were loads of people playing cricket and football on the beach on the wet sand. There were lots of games happening simultaneously which felt a very Mumbai experience! On the way back I turned off the beach too early and had to run for 200m on the soft sand which was definitely took quite a lot off the time! We went for a swim on the roof and then went for breakfast, which was without the best breakfast we have had on this trip. I had a masala omelette and hash browns, puri and a potato masala, some rice, and a couple of other masalas, a chia seed pudding in coconut milk, coffee and masala chai. The people knew we were leaving and gave us a cupcake saying thanks for staying which I think was maybe a bit much but he stay was really nice!

We checkedout and got an Uber to the gateway of India which was about an hour away. The gateway was fine but crowded. We didn’t go inside but looked from afar. We then went to the Oval Maidan which was cool as there were hundreds of people playing cricket. It was insane there were multiple wickets side by side with games going on on each of them and then in the field there were multiple teams all concentrating on the game that was going on on their wicket but sharing the same space. We briefly spoke with some people who were playing and in the field. It seemed crazy but great fun. There was a more traditional game going on at one end. We watched for a bit it then walked to marine drive by the sea.

We walked down Marine Drive for a bit then decided to go to this Irani cafe a bit in from the coast. It was a really cool ambience, you can understand why Dishoom want to bottle that vibe. We had some chai, a delicious salty lime soda and a paneer tikka bun. Revitalised we walked down to Chowpatty Beach and then got an Uber to the hotel and picked up our bags and went to the airbnb in Bandra. We then walked into Bandra proper and had a nice drink in this bar called Bonobo (thanks Dalo/Alice) and then went to this pretty glam fish / Asian restaurant called Bastian (thanks Daly/Alice) which was good but quite expensive so we kept it pretty simple and then headed home. I watched the Spurs / Chelsea game and then we went to sleep.

Day 94 - 9 December - Mumbai

Woke up quite slowly as we didn’t sleep amazingly. We did some washing and got ourselves ready to go. Nin was going to the dentist so I decided to go and get my beard cut off as it was annoying me being so long. The guy egged me on to get it cut short which I was very willing to do. I picked Nin up and actually booked in for Tuesday morning for a teeth clean! We were both feeling a bit tired and the thought of going all the way into town before our food tour was a bit much, so we went to a cafe and got a drink and wrote our diaries (does this constitute breaking the fourth wall?) and then went back to the flat before we got picked up. I had a video call with Ben which was lovely as it was the first time we had spoken since we left.

We were picked up by Harini our guide who was a very lovely and chatty lady who I think had started doing the tours over the last 6 or so months (I imagine it was for something to do now her last child had gone to university). We drove the same way we had driven before into downtown Mumbai. Harini showed us a few famous buildings on the way, such as the absolutely ludicrous sky scraper house of Mukesh Ambani of Reliance industries which I had read about in university in the excellent essay Capitalism a ghost story by Arundhati Roy. It is the most expensive residence ever built and is only for 8 family members!

We got to the place where we were going to have our first food, near the famous Shivaji terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) The first food we had was:

Puri - in a place that had been around since the 1840s and was set up by a guy who saw a market for people who would get food after public hangings that happened nearby! The puri was very tasty - we had 5 flavours; plain, paneer, masala, spinach, potato. They came with a pumpkin and potato subzi. It was a great start!

Veda pau - We then walked about 200m to the place where we got our Veda Pav which was right opposite the terminus this was also really tasty and much more spiced than the veda pavI had had before.

Irani cafe - We then hopped back in the car and drove a bit to an Irani cafe that it turned out we had gone to the day before, so I guess we have good taste. We had a delicious chicken cutlet and a chicken puff all with some Irani tea (which we had also had the day before). Both the dishes were delicious the cutlet had lots of interesting spicing and the puff was like a spiced vol-au-vent. We also had a delicious semolina cake which was in a little tin wrapper and was very comforting. We also spoke with Harouni about the Parsi community that runs most of the Irani cafes which I think is such an interesting part of the story of Mumbai.

Bombay sandwich - We then walked around the corner and got our Bombay sandwich, which again was very delicious. Harini said that the sandwich was created for industrial workers to have a snack or meal that had all the food groups in it with the energy from the bread.

Pani puri and bhel puri - we then drove to a sweet and chaat shop near the opera house where we had pani puri with a sweet and sour sauce made from tamarind and a green chutney. We then had bhel puri which I can’t remember if I have had before which is kind of a mix of different snacks all mixed up with sauces. I wasn’t crazy about it at first but I did get more into it as it went on.

Dosa - Getting into the final stretch we were getting very full and were coming up to the dosa which is a South Indian food which we have had quite a lot of so far. We decided to go for a more plain dosa itch some masala and onion rather than a full potato masala or paneer as it was a bit lighter. Still very good

Pav badji - the last savoury thing we at was a pav badji which if pav/pau (a delicious Mumbai bread roll made by Parsi and Muslim bakeries) and a mix of lots of different vegetables in a kind of ragout with spices. Again this is an industrial snack as it has carbs and all the food groups. We were very full but kept at it and did manage to finish it feeling quite relieved there were no more tasty snacks to have.

We walked round the road and got a kulfi which is an ice cream hat is usually on a stick. This time it was in a disk in a mix of milk solid, mango, pistachio and orange. It turns out we had room for this and we had it willingly, so much so that I got another full disk of mango which I think was the most delicious one.

After this we rolled back into the car and drove home feeling very full and very happy with our day.

[balapann-blog]

Day 90 - 4 December - Udaipur

Got up and left our guest house and looked for somewhere for breakfast. We actually walked past the hostel I stayed in last time I was here, which is something that happened in Jaipur too. We had breakfast in another hostel that had a roof cafe, which I think all of them seem to have. I had an actually really nice chola batura and some chai.

We then walked to a fabric shop that Nin had looked up. They had good stuff but their prices were quite high and Nin couldn’t find what she wanted so we left and got a tuk tuk to the city palace, and had a walk round. It was nice and there were some interesting things in there like some fun miniatures and maps but it was also a bit random.

I also wasn’t quite sure what vibe the Maharaja of Mewar wanted to give off in the museum. In some instances they were talking about how they had heroically fought against multiple Mughal emperors and they definitely did fight against them. There were also allusions to the Maharaja not co-operating with the Raj when the raj existed through the collaboration of princely states like the Maharaja of Mewar who did very well from the Raj. In other parts they speak about Jahingir hiding on the island palaces when he was facing revolt and British families doing the same during the First War of Independence (called the 1848 mutiny in Britain and called the sepoy mutiny by the museum). I guess these contradictions are what have allowed the family to be one if not the longest running noble families in the world (which they make a big deal of). However I think it would be a much more interesting museum if they addressed these contradictions head on and explored the changes india has faced told through their history or just explained their history in more detail rather than just through snippets in time.

There was also the creation of a female palace in the 16th century which it said was built due to changes in society that required women to be separate ‘for their own safety’ or something along those lines. It would be interesting to understand what that was but I guess these explanations and the contradictions mentioned above might show the family in a bad light and so they have no incentive to explore these things and people still go in large numbers to see the pretty buildings. Similarly I remember in Jodhpur there are some red handprints by the gate to the main palace, labelled ‘Sati Handprints’ and the audio guide said something along the lines of ‘and the hand prints were made by the women on the court after the Maharaja died ‘as they leave the palace for the last time. They didn’t explain what sati was because that would obviously show the family in a negative light.

On the way out of the palace we saw a cafeteria that was serving thali for 150 rupees (about £1.40) which we thought was too good to pass over. The thalis were very delicious and we had a nice chai and biscuits after. After we went to a tailor that had good reviews on Google in Nina’s search for a shirt to be tailored. When we arrived we realised the owner had actually driven past us earlier on a motorbike commented on the fact him and I had the same colour shirt on. Nin got a shirt made, and while looking at the stuff in the shop i came across some nice grey wool which the guy offered to make me a suit for £140, I said i would think about it.

We then walked to the bus stop as it was looking likely that we would not be getting on our overnight train to Mumbai and we needed an alternative, however when we got to the station it seemed to be for local busses so wasn’t much use, except for using the walk to convince me to get the suit, as I had never got one tailor made, the wool was nice and it was petty affordable. So we went back to the tailor to get measured up. In all the excitement, Nin said she also wanted a kind of suit made but that she didn’t want it in any of the materials in the shop, so the tailor took us to his warehouse on the back of his motorbike! There I also selected some material for some chinos to get made with my measurements!

After that we went back to the tailors and set off for dinner at Ambrai restaurant which I had been to and loved the last time I was in Udaipur. They didn’t have space in the main restaurant so we booked for the next night and then got a table on the rooftop that still had amazing views (the restaurant is right on the lake). We had an amazing paneer butter masala, and an aubergine sabzi thing which was very tasty too. It got quite cold on the roof so we went back sharpish after our meal and went to bed.

Day 91 - 5 December - Udaipur

I went for a morning run through the town and into these gardens which had a mini train track in them. The run included a climb back up to the town which was quite gruelling so I stopped at exactly 5k. We then chilled in the guest house and did some booking of things for the next few weeks.

We then went to get a boat to the Nehru Gardens which are on an island on another nearby lake but they were closed for renovation so instead we got a very short speed boat trip that took about 3 minutes but was quite jokes.

After that we went to an acquarium nearby that was underground and therefore out of the sun! It was fine but not really anything to write home about (I realise in some ways I am writing home about it.)

We then took a tuk tuk to town with a very sweet driver who’s accelerator was obviously broken so we moved at glacial pace and who gave us nice tourist explainations of things we passed.

We went to a very annoying roof terrace that gave us an expensive and sub par fresh lime soda, but it did give us somewhere to book more things. We then walked round the town and got a delicious hot milk from a street vendor which was like rice pudding minus the rice.

We went back to hotel and chilled on the roof terrace. There was really amazing chanting coming from another house that was very repetitive and quite mesmeric.

I feel a bit like it took us a day to realise that we don’t really have to do anything here and we can just chill out which is nice since we have been on the move for quite a while!

We then went to Ambrai again, this time in the main restaurant. The view was so nice and our table was right on the water. We probably ordered slightly better the day before, but we did have these delish pani puri which came in shot glasses which added a bit of theatre to the whole thing. We had a nice urad dal and some paneer tikka and a Jain potato curry which was nice.

We went back to the tailors for an additional fitting and then took the short walk back home and went to bed after.

Day 91 - 5 December - Udaipur > Mumbai

Went on a run again, this time Nina came with me. Halfway through, she led us in some squats and lunges to add a bit of an extra workout!

We had breakfast in our guest house. We spoke with our host about train likelihood on the waiting list. It didn’t look good so we booked a sleeper bus but held out home that we might get the train.

We chilled out and then went to get another look at the stuff we had got tailored, which was looking good!

We then went to a tailor for my bag which had ripped. I was very impressed with how efficient it was and realised that I hadn’t really ever seen something like a bag sown. The bag looks good as new, although I am slightly regretting how much it was in Bishkek no matter how useful it is!

We went to a rooftop restaurant near the main town and had a paneer tikka, matar paneer (Nina wanted to get aloo matar but misspoke so we doubled up on paneer) and a chana masala. It was good food and was cool view down on the street!

We got our stuff from the tailor and went back to the guest house and waited around till we needed to go to our bus. Our host told us the best place to go (not where we had said to get on when booking) and ordered us to tuk tuk to the place.

The bus was about an hour late. We had thought it was starting in Udaipur but had actually started in Jaipur probably before we had bought the tickets. When we got on we went to our bed cabin (it was a sleeper bus) and there was a lady lying in it who got out and lay on a mattress on the isle. The bed was wet (we weren’t sure exactly the liquid but it didn’t smell) and they gave us a blanket to put over it and we got in and settled down for our trip.

The ticket said there was a rest stop at KFC, which turned out to be Krishna Food Court about 100km north of Ahmedabad. At about 2am there was a random stop and guy in a vaguely official coat knocked on the door of our cabin and started looking through my bag (I have no idea why and who he was but he didn’t find what he sought).

The road was bumpy and had many times where the bus had to stop and go off-road before getting back into the road. A couple of times we were both flung into midair when it went over a bump at about 70kph, which when lying flat on a bed was exhilarating, worrying and hilarious at the same time. One time this happened when I was sitting up and I just banged my head.

We woke up and had a rest stop at about 6am and I felt like we had got through it. We were not through it. The last 200km took ages as the road was really bad.

Having mentally got myself ready for 16 hours, I started flagging at about 16 and a half and started to feel a bit ill due to the constant stop start and sideways movement during the off-road parts. It also started getting quite warm.

Day 92 - 7 December - Mumbai

It was sweet relief when we got off at about 2pm, 18 hours after getting on and got a rickshaw to our hotel. Our bags had been kept on a random compartment and were oily and sooty, which I didn’t realise until it was all over my clothes.

We got into our hotel, a nice Hyatt by the beach with me looking like I’d gone 12 rounds with a steam train. We put our clothes into a bag and had showers and went for a walk on the beach. The hotel gave us a free ‘high tea’ of samosas and chai which we graciously accepted and then we both went to the gym for a bit. I then had a swim on the rooftop pool which was nice! It felt a world away from our earlier ordeal.

We had a drink on the roof and then went to the restaurant which was an Asian restaurant (we didn’t have the strength to venture out). It was very tasty I had a katsu curry which was very comforting. I listened to the Palace / City match and then slept the sleeps of 1000 sleeps.