We decided to drive along the river valley following the Pai River. We’d had a couple of days of rain and the mountain roads can be quite slippy with mud, leaves and moss so we decided to let it dry out and just amble along the valley towards the border with Myanmar. It was good to be out on the bike again.

About an hour into the journey and almost at the border we came across a Karen ( Kayan) village.

It cost 200 baht each (£5) to enter and 20 baht for the river crossing in a long narrow canoe style boat with what looked like a big garden strimmer with a propeller on the end. It was a bit wobbly to say the least!

After talking to a young Dutch girl who was with a small group of people staying there, we found out a little more about the village. All the Karen people were refugees from Burma where they had been persecuted and had escaped over the border. The Thai government would not grant them any status or rights whatsoever, no one had any documents or birth certificates. They were more or less dependent on tourists visiting, what they could grow themselves and the scarves, textiles and wood carvings they made and sold. They also ran weaving and wood carving classes.

We had long conversations with a couple of villagers who spoke good English who said they were not really allowed out of the local area.

It’s a sad situation but I’m sure they have a better life in Thailand and they seemed to be managing. We enjoyed our visit, took a few photos especially of the women with the brass rings ( the long neck Karen) had a drink and took the wobbly boat back over the river.

The next day it was much drier and we decided to take the very scenic road out towards Pai. We had been there six years ago and its changed. It’s now the backpacker new age hippie traveller hangout where you can get matcha tea enema detox treatments, circus schools and all sorts of ‘om’ stuff going on. Not going, too busy, too weird even for us…

The road towards Pai is fantastic, classic twisty bendy roads. About 45 minutes in I saw a turn off for one of the roads mentioned in one of the biker blogs saying it was one of the most scenic of all the roads and it went right up to the Myanmar border – a different one to the day before. We followed it up a very scenic valley through a couple of small villages on a really good road. There are many different scents as you drive around; roasting garlic, frying chilli paste, buffalo dung your nostrils are assailed at every turn.

A bit further on the road changed to a wet, muddy dirt road full of potholes in the most stunning jungley surroundings. The aromatic green aromas of flowers and plants surrounded you and the hot humid air was alive with the sounds of birds and insects.

We were finally defeated 2km from the border by a huge ford of water covering the road which must have been 3 foot deep.

Chris said ‘ I can get round that’, not with me on the back, no way Jose, we turned around defeated but lived to fight another day.

I had seen in a magazine an article about a noodle shop in the most spectacular position, high in the mountains. When we eventually got there, after the detour, there were many Thai tourists eating there. We ate noodle soup and admired the scenery with our legs dangling over the edge.

The mountain views are impressive, cloaked in endless green forests which continue for ridge after ridge as far as the eye can see. Wonderful.

We were excited with the prospect of going to Mae Hong Son, the provincial capital of an area in the remotest NW of Thailand. The city was founded as an elephant training outpost in the early 19th century and remained as that until 1856 when fighting caused thousands of Shan people to pour in from Burma. It prospered as a centre for logging, and was independent until 1900 when it was incorporated into the Thai kingdom.

It’s rugged, remote mountains contain a diversity of ethnic people from the Shan, Black Lahu, Lasu, Karen and Hmong hill tribes. The road was originally hacked through the dense jungle and mountains by the Japanese Army in WW2 as a route into Burma.

It is now part of a very famous motorcycle loop which starts and ends in Chiang Mai and is 650km long. There are 1872 curves on the road and some amazing switchbacks and hairpin bends.

Motor bikers come from all over the world to ride it. Only 50 years ago these roads were inaccessible, a wild border region—until then largely under the domination of Shan and Kuomintang opium-funded armies, it was finally brought under government control in the 1980’s when the road was finished and a small airport built. This is one of the most authentic and beautiful regions of Thailand. Chris wanted to ride the bike all the way but I talked him into flying and hiring a bike when we arrived. My bottom definitely appreciated that, it goes really numb after about 3 hours!! One day we will hire a bigger more comfortable bike and drive the loop all the way, if you take your time it takes about a week.

When we got to the plane it was a small prop plane and there were only perhaps 15 people aboard, it was very dinky. It’s a short, turbulent flight to a very mountainous area and we realised as we landed, between a ring of green densely forested mountains that it had a very, very short runway. I found myself pressing an imaginary brake pedal with my feet. It landed safely and then we got even more excited when we got off, it looked fantastic. A far cry from a busy city.

Booking into our hotel, we had splashed out a bit, it was lovely. The views of the mountains from the big balcony are exquisite.

It’s tranquil charm was everything we wanted, sheer bliss. A good nights sleep was on the cards, no noisy tourists passing under your window late at night and no motorbikes racing up and down the street.

It’s a small city, more like a small town, with a lake in the centre and a very pretty Burmese style Wat to one side.

This Wat like one in CM has an unusual museum at one side full of artefacts, figures and photographs from the late 1800’s. Most of the figures are Burmese and some are a little strange….

There is a big daytime food market with a much different rural feel to it.

At night, near the lake, there is a small walking market which is very laid back with no pressure from the sellers and just a few Thai people and the odd ‘farang’ ambling around. The Wat looks very pretty when it’s dark.

There is more ethnic clothing and textiles on sale here and different things on sale to the norm at a more reasonable price than in Chiang Mai. I am looking forward to buying a couple of items to bring home.

There are food vendors which surround the lake in the evening. Meat and veg bbq on sticks, pad Thai, noodley rice things and the most delicious sesame balls filled with coconut, not seen those before, yum.

We just graze with a spring roll here, chicken goujons, papaya salad. It’s great, cheap fresh and reasonably healthy.

It rained the first couple of days, a bit of a backlash of the storms from the South, so we waited to hire a bike. When we eventually had transport we went up to the main Wat which sits overlooking the town below.

What great views from the top….looking forward to getting up in the mountains.

Happy New Year

The weather was cooling so we decided it was a good time to walk the ‘monks trail’ up the local mountain to Wat Doi Suthep the most iconic temple of a city with more Wats than any other city in Thailand. This temple attracts more than a million visitors a year and is one of the main tourist attractions. It’s gold, gold and more gold….

We walked the trail towards the end of our stay last year in February and decided then we should do it more often. We arrived at the start of the trail by 9.15, it begins at the back of Chiang Mai zoo near a big television mast and is a 4.5km walk. As we arrived at the start of the trail there were a few people around, it was a lovely morning, not too hot. All you need is water, a stout pair of boots, plenty of sun cream on and lots of bug spray!!

The first part of the trail is along dusty paths, gently winding up the mountain, there are faded orange cloths tied around the trees so you don’t lose the trail.

The birdsong, hum of insects and the sound of water in the lush forest surround you, it’s enchanting. The deciduous forest itself has over 90 species of trees per hectare and over 2000 different plants and ferns, more than anywhere else in Thailand. The whole mountain is a National Park. A few people passed us on the trail but we were mostly alone, just walking and listening. It takes about an hour to get to our favourite temple Wat Palad which you approach over a small bridge. This temple nestles under a canopy of trees and next to a waterfall which runs over huge slabs of granite and has a beautiful view of the city below.

There were lots of people at the Temple and we come at least once a week so we used the facilities and decided to crack on.

You leave the temple at the back of the waterfall. The second part of the walk is much steeper and more vertical, clambering over boulders and tree roots, I really need longer legs, there are lots of trees and things to grab hold of but mostly covered in big ants, red ones, so I try not to, they bite. It’s really hard work for 15 minutes until you reach the road which you have to cross.

It’s this next part of the walk which gets much harder. You really have to watch your footing on the makeshift forest staircase. The forest changes as you climb above 1,000m, from lush more open forest to dense evergreen undergrowth. There is more bird life, there are 300 different species of birds, an ornithologists heaven.

All along this part of the trail are power lines which stretch from the road and border the paths all the way to the temple at the top. There is a constant stream of ants on the cables, it’s like an ant super highway. If you tap the wires every ant freezes it’s really surreal, then after a few seconds they start again. Good game!! We seemed to finish this walk much quicker and less breathlessly than last year, maybe all this gym stuff is paying off. We arrived on the road just below Wat Doi Suthep to a traffic jam, it was obviously very busy so we hopped into a songthau and went and found a well deserved breakfast.

I love Satva yoga here in CM, run by Freddy and Nit. We have been many times before and there are lots of things to play with. These pictures were last year.

There’s aerial ropes, yoga wheels, gym balls, bamboo with padded hanging ropes all along the walls, lots of blocks and bolsters, it’s very well equipped. We talked a young couple Lauren and Carl from our hotel into coming to the class as they had never tried yoga before and really wanted to. When we got there we were surprised to see a full S. Korean TV crew who wanted to film the session. Nit asked me if I’d stand in a certain place, with Lauren and one of the Korean crew who was joining in. When I looked up all the cameras, some on the ceiling, some on tripods and some hand held were aiming straight at us.

As soon as we started the session I realised I could have worn a better top as the one I had on was a bit low. Some of the postures, dog down to dog up to chataranga just made me flash the cameras with a cleavage I never realised I had…..Chris who was opposite me was in stitches as I fumbled around with my top endlessly. Breasticles out on Korean TV, I could blush just thinking about it. It’s due out in February, ooh er madam!!! It was a very good workout as always.

We went on one of our favourite bike rides into the mountains, it’s one of our favourite pastimes here and this one is only 20 minutes to the start of this area out of the city. Once you turn off the main road you are then into country roads and turning off these road into even smaller lanes and dirt tracks, all weaving in and out of valleys and foothills.

In the projects, the villagers are often from the Hill tribes called the Hmong and they grow a lot of the fruit and vegetables for the city and surrounding areas. You can smell oranges from the masses of orchards and that unmissable green smell of tomatoes, limes, papaya and mangos abound. There are lots of small villages off the beaten track, high in the mountains, its just beautiful.

We were lucky enough to see a few Elephants on the road with their mahouts and a very young elephant next to its mum. Aww, that’s what we like.

On this particular route is a huge white temple on a hill which we visit every year to check on its progress, they have been building it for at least 4 years.

It’s almost finished, maybe next year it will be done. It’s in a spectacular position up a very steep windy road. The workers live on site and are incredibly skilled. All the elephants and other statuary are built up piece by tiny piece, a very long drawn out job.

Next week we are flying to Mae Hong Son, which people compare to the Alps and it is right in the top left hand corner of Thailand next to the border of Myanmar. We are both looking forward to the trip. A new place to visit.

Well Christmas came and went with barely a ripple. That’s Thailand for you. You only started to see Christmas Trees and decorations a few days before and none of the headless chicken rushing around like in the Western world.

It’s very refreshing. In the U.K. it appears to be overspending, overeating, overdrinking and just a huge consumer moment. What happened to the ‘peace and goodwill to all men’, it has seemingly got lost in the retail frenzy. On Christmas day, we were wished Merry Christmas by lots of Thais, well Melly Clistmas because they have a real problem pronouncing their ‘R’s’, they are very sweet, lovely people. There were Christmas outfits available too, but Chris didn’t fancy his…….

We went to the gym and I went to another Christmas Zumba party. We all wore Santa hats, it got a bit hot, red face to match the red hat, but again it was great fun. They want you to join in, you can’t hide in the corner, they come and get you!

For the first time when we have been away for the holidays we decided to have Christmas dinner out at a restaurant in the city. We were both looking forward to it and it was as good as we hoped it would be. Full Christmas fare with pudding and brandy sauce. It was an all you could eat buffet with 3 different meats, roast potatoes, sprouts, stuffing lots of veggies, it was very good. I don’t think they realised that 2 dinners Chris was coming, he made up for all the people with small appetites.

On Boxing Day we again went to the gym to remove some of the excesses of the xmas dinner. After we’d finished doing gym stuff we had a game of table tennis. We have been doing this every time we go in and have really enjoyed it, it’s fun. The bats were pretty ropey so after a couple of weeks we spent £5 in the local sports shop and bought our own. I’d forgotten how much fun it can be, and how rubbish we are, but I must say we are slightly improving. We are thinking we will buy ourselves a second hand table when we’re home and keep playing.

We went on a longer bike ride out of the city a few days ago to an area that has lots of lakes and reservoirs. On the way there, in the middle of nowhere, we saw a plane with no wings just on the side of the road. We pulled over and noticed there were a lot more just in a field along a dirt track. Bits of wings and fuselage, a whole plane and many other bits and pieces. This place is 30 miles from the nearest airport and there are no roads big enough, or straight enough, or long enough to land them on. How on earth did they get there?

The lakes and reservoirs are very pretty. It is on a big estate which also has an Agricultural Centre which had been started by the old King and is used primarily for educational purposes. There was a fish farm, weather station, lots of fields with different crops growing and a very sad little zoo.

We didn’t stay long in the zoo it seemed dreary, unkempt and desolate. There was the most beautiful large owl who when we approached seemed to chatter to us and came closer, I talked softly and the owl seemed to talk back, it seemed very sad and lonely. It was very depressing. Animal welfare is still a problem here but mostly it’s got a lot better.

On a brighter note I went today to the cinema with Chris and saw the new Mary Poppins film. I can’t tell you how giddy I was, time was going backwards, there was a palpable excitement, I could barely wait. Got there early….too early maybe

With Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emily Blunt, new songs, dancing and singing animals, animation and the normal Disney brilliance. Hallelujah!!

The original came out when I was 9, I know every song backwards, I have seen it many times. It really must be Christmas.

I had read the reviews, they weren’t brilliant. TAKE NO NOTICE, it was classic Disney at its best. The songs were memorable, a great cast with Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and that cheeky cockney Dick Van Dyke (still with a dodgy accent), all with a cameo role. Brilliant. It sounds soppy but I had a tears in my eyes when Mary first appeared. Let’s set the scene. It suddenly gets very windy, leaves swirling round and round on the road outside the house…… and down comes Mary Poppins, parrot headed umbrella in her hand ready to weave her magic and save the day. I’m not spoiling anything because that’s how she arrives in the first one. Cheer yourself up, go and see it, be 9 again…….we all need a bit of magic and singing animals in our lives.

We like the Sunday walking market of all the markets in town. The police close the roads in the centre of the city at 4pm and all the stallholders set up. We park our bike just near the main square and the 3 Kings monument. This means we can make a swift getaway when we have had enough. In the main square itself was an astronomy exhibition with lots of big telescopes and displays and students from the local university. It was starting at sundown, after 6.

We eat from many of the food stalls on the market. Sumai and gyoza, fried chicken and a multitude of noodley rice dishes, very cheap and fresh. Thai’s eat all the time!! There is clothing, jewellery, leather goods and lots of things to buy. Paintings, carved soaps, musical instruments. You have to see it to believe it. If you can name it you can probably buy it.

I can only stand so much jostling, it gets very busy after 6 so we headed to the square and looked at the exhibition and listened to a local band who were playing. All the telescopes were looking at the Moon and Mars which was visible. There are always lots of free things to do in the city.

The next morning on our way out of our room, we keep our shoes outside in the hall, I picked up one of my flip flops and noticed a rather large spider hiding underneath.

I called Chris and he said ‘oh it’s a baby huntsman spider’. I was backing away at this point while Chris was having a closer look and taking a photo. It was very still but alive so I had a really close look. I have seen these spiders before and they move like greased lightning. I’m not scared of spiders unless they move quickly towards me then I’m off, shrieking…we saw one in a cave in Laos and it must have had an 8’’ leg span, way bigger than this one and this is the picture. Chris said put your hand near it so I can get some scale, you can imagine what my response was and it ended in OFF.

Chris captured the spider very carefully and took it outside to a suitable patch of vegetation and let it go. Even the housekeeper at the hotel kept her distance. I am sure if she would have found it she would have battered it with the flip flop. How it got to the 4th floor I will never know, not up the stairs I’m thinking. I move my shoes with caution now.

Bhuping Palace is high up on Doi Suthep and is where the Royal family stay when they are in CM.

We have been a couple of times before but once we were too late and the other time we were inappropriately dressed. This time we went early with long sleeves and long pants. Entrance was only 50 baht (£1.20) a bargain. It’s a bit like Tatton Park on the top of Snowdon.

The palace gardens are spectacular with many beautiful scented roses, and big upside down trumpet shaped flowers. Poinsettia plants just growing wild, I can barely make them last until xmas at home!!

There are fish ponds, a reservoir and giant bamboo, lots of pretty plants and displays. I also had the company of a dog all the way round, he wasn’t particularly friendly but just walked beside me for a couple of hours. There were some incredibly carved tree stumps, amazing. Because it’s 1500m high it’s much cooler to walk than down at city level it was a good day out.

The palace itself was not as glitzy as some but a very good looking house as you would imagine. The Thai royal family are incredibly wealthy, I was hoping we could go in but not so. Nice to look.

This is the view looking down on CM from the road after leaving the Palace

Today was our Zumba party at the gym. We had been asked by Melinda, an English girl and very good teacher, to bling it up for the party. I scoured the 20 baht shops for something suitable and found a blue bobbly thing for my head. At the gym were balloons and tinsel and lots of excited Thai ladies and a good handful of men ready to party. It was a lot of fun and a good workout as usual.

My new ‘Bestie’

We try to live normally here not like we are just on holiday. We are pleased to have found a good gym that we like, a very nice cinema, fantastic days out in the mountains and friends we can visit. We are staying in a friendly clean hotel who really want to look after you. Food is cheap as is accommodation and there are lots of places to visit. If you can you should try it……..

It is great to be back in CM. A lovely greeting at our hotel from the owner and family

There are a few of the same guests that were in residence last year, there is Arthur ‘The wandering Therapist’ and Naning, Richard who lives in the hotel all year and Tom and Rung. It was a lovely welcome back.

We joined our local gym and got a really good deal, 3 months for £100 each. There are loads of classes. Zumba 6 times a week, Yoga about 10 assorted classes and many other classes. The gym is well equipped on the 7th floor of an office block with a good view out over the city. It’s huge. We plan to go at least 3 times a week.

As always in life things change, nothing stays the same. A new seafood buffet restaurant has opened next to the hotel all you can eat for £8. It’s all tentacles, suckers, long spiny bits, alien species I don’t recognise and flippers on the barbecue, not my idea of a good night out, I could almost go vegetarian. I like fish but not the whole dismembering, burn to a crisp on the bbq moment.

I am very disappointed that our favourite Burmese eatery has disappeared. They made an exquisite tea leaf salad and spectacular curries but sadly no more. I was really looking forward to eating there.

We have been out for some of our favourite meals in our favourite places, the food is so good and still very reasonable although one of our favourites has upped their prices to over £1, not sure we can cope!! There must be 50 places to eat in our little village. Our local bottle shop were very happy to see us and instantly pointed to the gin, says it all really we didn’t want to disappoint.

We have been to the Thai equivalent of the pound shop for a few essentials. A teapot so our teabags will last the full 3 months ( teabags are disappointingly rubbish here ), tea towels and other mundane things, it is fun to see what 50p can get you. Loads of stuff.

We went to the cinema at the maya a very new, huge shopping complex.

There wasn’t a great deal of choice so we opted for the new Peter Jackson film , mortal engines, about a dystopian world where whole moving cities try to capture and use other cities for fuel.

It was really, really intense, quite exciting but I felt I needed a lie down and a cup of sweet tea to get over it.

I said to Chris the next film we see has to be Disney and probably Mary Poppins 😊.

Talking about change we visited our favourite Wat, Wat Palad. It’s Halfway to the biggest blingy Wat in CM, Wat Doi Suthep, and it’s the most beautiful. I never get fed up of visiting. As we arrived we noticed a great many parts of it are being restored. What we always liked about it was it’s mossy, crumbling serenity. You had to pick your way carefully balancing over the old river bridge and climb a little, now there is a new bridge. There is also a new building around the old open shrine.

It still has a charm to it and you cannot change the outstanding nature around it. Even so we were both a little disappointed but it is 600 years old and probably needed work as many more people are finding it and visiting. Speaking to one of the archaeologists, who is doing the restoration, it is more about saving it for the future and keeping its ethereal qualities rather than losing it altogether. We felt slightly better.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” 
― Lao Tzu

We arrived in Abersoch at 1.30am after watching Bill Bailey (which was very funny) in Warrington at the Parr Hall. We went to bed after a cup of tea and after only 5 hours sleep were in the boatyard waiting to go in the water. We put the dinghy and outboard on the boat and were moved towards the water in the hoist pulled by a tractor, which is always an interesting ride.

It was a big tide, 5m, so was a relatively smooth operation made easy by Nicko and Dave from the boatyard with Tim being chief photographer on our behalf. We were backed into the water, slings taken off and after a few minutes we were off. Much quicker than waiting on the shoreline for the tide to come in…

We soon motored off towards the mooring, it all went very smoothly the boat running well and looking great with it’s new paint job.

Once on the mooring we lowered the dinghy into the water and Chris got in and attached the outboard. He tied a piece of rope to the engine and the dinghy because it’s not uncommon to drop it in the briny! Many people have, whoops. We checked the boat wasn’t taking on water or had any other problems and when Chris was happy with it we locked her up and jumped into the dinghy. We took photos of Modoc on the mooring, we were both feeling very satisfied and happy because she looks fantastic. We could buy her all over again, no, no what am I saying!!!

We were delighted to see the dolphins out getting their breakfast. They were jumping out of the water and rounding up the fish, busy busy. As we headed back to shore in the dinghy they came very close to us following the mackerel.

It’s always a joy to see them and we always feel privileged to see them so often. It also means there are fish about….we are going out fishing when it’s not so windy and I can definitely feel a smoked mackerel pate coming on, yum.

We can now pick out some pictures and advertise the boat for sale on a couple of the online company’s sites which sell boats. We are hoping it sells sometime soon but not immediately as we want to have a final play on her and invite friends for a few last fishing and wildlife trips. We will see how that goes, it has been fun.

We have been surrounded by 50+ dolphins which stayed with us as we motored back to base a few years ago. They were with us for at least 20 minutes. They just rode the bow wave and you would swear that they looked at you, looking at them, as they glided effortlessly around and under the boat. It was awesome, they were in every direction as we motored along. We recorded it on a phone camera and put it on You Tube it was called ‘dolphin encounter abersoch’.

The link is https://youtu.be/UIGbNyUTQhA

We also met a friendly seal who we named Bob because he just bobbed up when we were in a particular spot. He begged for fish, had a fishing hook in his cheek and lots of injuries including a blind eye. I must confess to wanting to go there often so I could see if he was still about and would feed him ALL of the bait fish, it was hard not to….however much Chris objected to me using all the bait he was fishing with!! We doubted whether he would survive the winter and we never saw him again 🙁.

All these encounters I really treasure, the absolute joy of having contact with wildlife especially on the water. May there be many, many more ‘close encounters’.

Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. ~Albert Einstein

A friend Stefan helped us for a couple of days in the week with masking and painting the wheelhouse roof and foredeck and getting the first top coat on, a very good job done.

We are hoping the weather stays fine so we can carry on painting. It’s looking shiny now, a lot cleaner and hopefully more saleable.

We need to mask off for the waterline now we have given the boat 2 top coats of paint, remove the old masking tape and then mask the hull for the white line.

You have to wait at least 2 days before using the tape on fresh paint which is making the whole process very long winded. At long last we can sand off the old red line and some of the boat below the waterline which looked like porridge had been thrown at it before it was last painted!!! Smooth, smooth, smooth….

We are off to the boatyard for one of its famous bbq’s, time off for good behaviour!! It’s not all hard work 😎

The masked off waterline just near the porthole is where we nearly filed for divorce, I never realised applying masking tape could be so so stressful!!!!

We will give the wheelhouse roof another coat of paint and around the hatch when we paint the waterline. Looking tidy now…..

Still good weather so painted the wheelhouse roof, foredeck and hatch for the second coat and removed all the masking tape, also painted the waterline for its last coat. Hurray. Thought we would never get there.

Again it’s a waiting game, at least 48 hours before we can use masking tape on the line for the antifoul paint to go on……

The guys in the boatyard; Tim (master and commander), Niko, Dave, Foxy and Andy have been exemplary with their help and assistance. We are always there at the busiest times and couldn’t have done all this work without their goodwill. Thanks guys. Abersoch Boatyard you are the best 👍 and here you are…

Sadly after painting the roof, hatch and foredeck it rained earlier than expected and it now looks like a white leopard print and needs redoing ☹️ unfortunately I have to leave Chris to do it as I am going home. We will get there in the end.

All we have to do now is wait for a big tide on the next full moon and voila we will be on the water again, about 2 weeks. The hoist will drop us in the inner harbour and we have to wait for the tide to come in to float off……the story still continues

It’s alright going away for 4 months and having a fantastic adventure but coming home you find there are lots and lots of things to do. One of these ‘things’ is our old fishing boat Modoc which we have had for 8 years and which takes a lot of maintaining. This is the boat when we bought her.

The owner had changed the name to Nautical Lady (this is considered bad luck) so we changed her back to her original name of Modoc which is the name of an American Indian Tribe from Oklahoma!! Perfect for a pair of cowboys like us…..

We normally have the boat in the water by the beginning of May but this year she is looking very tatty and needs attention. Chris does all the maintenance of the engine which has been in and out a couple of times and most other boaty things and I am just labour and general dogsbody. I know my place.

As we plan to spend winters away from December to Easter this is going to be an ongoing problem so we have decided to spruce her up and repaint with a view to selling the boat. The engine is in good nick and working well but the woodwork and hull needs sorting and generally just making pretty.

We have had a great deal of fun and friends aboard the boat, lots of beers and skittles!!! Lots of good memories and fish caught.

‘

Now we need something that doesn’t need craning in and out of the water, winter storage and a lot of time and effort throwing at it. We want something that will move on a trailer and live in the garden, easy peasy. We can launch something smaller ourselves with the trusty quad bike.

We started by sanding off all the paint above the waterline, 2 coats and this took us 3 weekends. We both looked like Smurf’s at the end of the day much to the amusement of the guys who work in the boatyard.

Lots of aching arms, swearing and used sanding pads later we had removed the paint. Then it had an intense jet washing moment before we set to on the woodwork which we sanded and oiled. Now it’s beginning to look better.

We have now given the boat a coat of undercoat, looking better all the time. Another weekend of filling and its second coat of undercoat and looking forward to putting the top coat on. Woo hoo.

Before that we have to paint another waterline, this time in white rather than red along with painting the cabin roof. The final coat will be anti foul paint on the bottom and then she will be ship shape and ready to go. We will then photograph her and get the advert out and maybe have a few days out on her before she hopefully goes to her new owner.

The story continues……..

Now there’s a thing. Arriving at the ‘Freedom Hotel’ only thirty minutes after leaving Khali Estates, it looks surprisingly good. There are a team of workmen painting and sprucing up the property, and as we wave Ingrid and David goodbye we are feeling it’s a good choice.

We have landed in KasarDevi or ‘crank’s ridge’ as it has been known. It’s a small wooded town 1900m high on a thin ridge that has attracted many famous people over the years. It is believed it has a great magnetic force and a ‘cosmic energy’ like Machu Pichu and Stonehenge through gaps in the Van Allan Belt which circles the world. T.H. Lawrence came here as did Nehru and Swami Vivekananda who meditated at the Temple. Timothy Leary, Ram Dass and Bob Dylan spent a long time here, the locals giving it the nickname of ‘hippie hill’ and their shenanigans were legendary. It was a hub of poetry, music, mysticism and hippie sub-culture. American writer and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman lived on the ridge and his daughter and actress Uma spent many summers here. On a clear day there is a full panoramic view of Nanda Kot, Nanda Devi and the 5 snow capped peaks of Panchachulli. I can see why they all came here.

We have a big room with large bed, tv, very clean en-suite bathroom and an easy feel to the place with very friendly owners. There is plenty of outside balcony space and it hangs on the side of a ridge overlooking valley after valley and huge panorama vista of the Himalayan Range. I realise I am happiest in the mountains……

The hotel is full of young Israelis. They are polite and respectful. They sit around chatting, are very vocal and are always eating!! Of this I know from home….. They travel extensively. We are totally outnumbered; 30 Israelis. 2 Brits. If you close your eyes in the restaurant you would swear you were in Tel Aviv. They stay only a few nights. Do the washing, sing a lot and then they are gone.

Another group of 6 young Israelis turned up who were obviously the Theatrical Travelling Israelis. There were jugglers, devil stick throwers, random singers, bong smokers, didgeridoo players, musicians, artists and generally a very friendly bunch of people having a very, very good time. More and more arrived…. They all looked like extras for Joseph’s Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with their blankets casually thrown around their shoulders and at least 6 to a room! Talk about safety in numbers. Those were the days….when you wanted to share a room with a bunch of ‘cirque de soleil’ stoners!!

We were going to visit the local Zoo. We waited ages on the road for a shared taxi/Jeep which didn’t come. The school bus which was passing and empty beckoned us onboard. There is only one road, what could possibly go wrong? On the way he also picked up 2 Indian women and took them and us to the next village. He wouldn’t charge us. I thought it had been a bit windy on the journey and realised there was no windscreen, it did look very clean.

We walked to the Zoo, only 5 minutes from where we were dropped off. It’s not very big and the entrance fee was only 20 rupees (25p) each. We saw 4 leopards which were all caught locally in the forest.They are much bigger than I thought and all looked in good condition, beautiful animals. Of the other animals there was a lonely black bear who came out and just looked momentarily at us, and 2 monkeys. One a female black faced langur monkey and a larger albino macaque. I had put some old almonds in my pocket and shared them between the two. They carefully took them…..I always feel sorry for single monkeys in cages, like us they are not meant to be solitary animals.

Apart from a few deer with incredibly big ears, roe deer and something that looks like a reindeer but not quite, that was it for the Zoo. We had pictures taken, at their insistence, with a group of Indian tourists who were also at the zoo, still find that strange…..

Almora. The ancient capital of the Kumaon area. Again we stand on the road waiting for a shared taxi to Almora the big city down the road. Again nothing appears so Chris starts flagging down anything with 4 wheels. A car stops and we say Almora? He beckons us in. He says 100 rupees, we nod enthusiastically. He drops us off and we realise he wasn’t a taxi just someone willing to pick up strangers for a little petrol money. It was a brand new car, driven very carefully by a very nice guy.

Almora was a centre of the British authority in the 1870’s and the town is a really bustling market town, perched precariously on the side of a hill. It still has a big Indian Army presence.

Markets and shops that sell or repair anything and everything are here. There are hundreds of small green grocers and chemists and sari shops and dried goods, clothes and stainless steel shops.

There are lots of people, especially in the pedestrian area, it’s busy. There are many colonial and Indian style houses in the Main Street from early last century, they are very pretty. Sadly a few have been knocked down and replaced.

It was a good day out. It felt like the week before xmas, all hustle and bustle. Everyone is very friendly and wanting to chat.

It seemed crazily busy but I think that is spending too much time in the mountains for you…..

We bought a cotton tunic where everything in the shop was taken off the shelves to be shown to us; I always feel a bit pressured at this point!! A very lovely thin woolen scarf produced locally. A poster of the mountains from a fabulous big book shop and masala cha hah (as they call chai here!! Just as you think you are getting somewhere with the lingo) and samosas which were so good I had two. Taxi home, chill out. Day in the city.

Yawnnnnnnnnn…..and 3 days later, gallons of cha hah and 2 books later. Watching the eagles and vultures make big circles above you. It’s very easy not to do much here.

The famous KasarDevi Temple, a mile down the road and high on the ridge was having a bit of a do. For 24 hours they were singing aloud a whole section of their scriptures. They had local wealthy businessmen and their wives saying blessings and blessing the idol as they were about to open a new temple. The original temple was a small cave behind a big rock with a small building around it.

We walked up to where a colourful open sided marquee was erected and the source of music and singing. We sat on a wall and watched and listened for a few minutes.

A tall guy in orange robes and a hat like a woolly flowerpot wandered up, we exchanged namastes and he said ‘you’re from England’. He sat down and he explained what was happening in the ceremony. He was a funny and cool guy and was the Priest who lived on-site and looked after the temple. He was very chatty and had very good English We were offered food (we had just eaten) and cha ha which we accepted.

They were all very friendly and inclusive.

On the way out back past the original temple a man saw us looking inside and took us in. He opened the grill in front of the shrine and gave us 2 blobs of the orange colour on our foreheads and a minty cake to eat. It’s all very humbling being blessed. No wonder our churches are closing at a rate of knots, we need to be more inclusive and welcoming and a lot less exclusive, it might encourage more people to go.

On Friday a large new group of young friendly Israelis turn up and by mid afternoon the hotels balcony’s sound like the X factors practise studios, voices, guitars and didgeridoos echoing over the valley. Might be time to think about some Delhi shopping..

It’s almost time to leave the mountains and head back towards the railway town of Kathgodam for a night and to catch our early morning train back to Delhi. We still have 2 nights in colonial splendour to look forward to.

The taxi ride from KasarDevi was entertaining. The driver was useless, my mum in her 80’s on a bad day was way better than he was. The hotel in Kathgodam was basic but good enough for one night with a big group of monkeys in the gardens for entertainment. The monkeys weren’t enough after a while so we headed into town to the Walkway Mall a newly opened shopping experience. We had coffee looked through all the shops and then found a bar. Whooppee. We had a few beers and some very nice food. They brought us a dessert on the house and then 2 young Indians asked if they could join us and buy us a beer. One guy was a local vet and the other his brother in law on short leave from the army. They were very entertaining and friendly and Ayusha , the vet was saying how he wanted to go to England. He asked us a million and 1 questions about everything. After a few more beers they dropped us at our hotel, swapped email and Facebook and who knows we might see them soon!!!

Up early for the train after not sleeping well it left bang on time. It cost £9 for us both. 2nd class AC for a 7 hour journey. The trains are great value and very well used. We are looking forward to a bit of luxury at the ‘Colonels Retreat’ tonight. A nice dinner, feather pillows and duvet what a treat.

Still don’t want to go home 🙁. It was a long slog on the train with lots of crying babies and noisy people around us.

We ate at ‘Colonels Retreat’ and this was by far the best food in India, modern beautifully cooked food. We are going to do some last minute shopping at Dili Haat market and then home. It’s been a blast.

”Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” – Jaime Lyn