Mexico

mexico 2011 - home sweet home

litt kleint å oppdatere en blogg etter to år uten aktivitet, men here we go....

det er nå det tredje året på rad vi igjen befinner oss i mexico - chamela - for å jobbe med paradise hotel. det er ikke stort som har forandret seg....

alicias mat (eat your heart out)



stranden (need i say more)



hundene (fortsatt en del kadavre langs veien)



krokodillene (greit å få en advarsel liksom)



og menneskene, stashet til salgs i butikkene (samme sortiment som 2009), palmene, hvalene (vi så en enorm hval som spratt opp av vannet med hele kroppen, fikk i etterkant vite at den drev med dykkeopplæring til kidden) og bungalowen vår. det var som om ingenting hadde skjedd idet vi pakker ut og finner oss til rette i den siste bungalowen på rekka. for en herlig følelse det var å kjenne sand under bare føtter, varm sol i fjeset og lyden av bølger som sovemedisin! norge og trøgstad med sine kuldegrader virker milevis unna, noe det i og for seg også er...

andre uke er på tape av sesongens galskap og det har vært hard jobbing siden dag 1. det er gøy å se det vi har skrevet på fra småbruket ivertksettes, og se deltakere som må gjennom alle tvister og oppgaver som til nå kun har eksistert på papir. personlig fikk jeg ild dåpen i min første uke, men grunnet taushetsplikt er dette en historie som må gjenfortelles etter visning på TV. der fikk vi kjørt oss! og det bekrefter bare noe vi allerede visste - reality er planlegging og manus, men det er fortsatt helt opp til deltakerne hva som skal skje....

etter en uke med lange dager og konstant arbeid var det med stor iver jeg våknet opp på min første fridag - klar for stranden og late dager i hengekøya. vel plassert under palmene oppdager jeg til min forskrekkelse at mitt høyre ben er dekket av det hissigste utslettet jeg noengang har sett. sjekk krisen!!!



...og det er da det går opp for meg... jeg er angrepet av milagropesten!!!!! (en pest som finnes på hotellet der vi spiller inn parra, og som jeg foreløpig har klart å holde meg unna, siden jeg har jobbet utenfor hotellet de to siste årene). på et eller annet tidspunkt har jeg altså da blitt stukket ihjel av disse små, nasty dyrene som bærer med seg en parasitt som fester seg på huden. enten tåler du bakterien i parasitten, eller så gjør du det ikke.... med min allergikerkropp kom det ikke akkurat som noen bombe at jeg ikke tåler denne - og jeg er nå inne i min 3. dag med antibiotika og pillehelevete. etter hestekur mot parasitter fra sri lanka, trodde jeg nå at jeg skulle få litt pause - men den gang ei. så nå er det back in business med dårlig mage og laber form. er det mulig!!! ole foreslo at jeg burde oppsøke en shaman og bli kvitt den dårlige karmaen, noe jeg sterkt vurderer å gjøre. et eller annet må det jo være...

så det er med et skår i gleden jeg skriver dette, for det som er paradis er desverre nå et lite helvete. utslettet har siden bildene ble tatt spredd seg til armene, venstre ben og nakken det klør så mye at jeg fryser og jeg har hatt maks en time sammenhengende søvn de siste 4 nettene.... og benet er sånn ca dobbelt så stort, hovent to the max! IRRA er bare fornavnet.
klage laila.

satser på at jeg er bedre når jeg setter meg ned for en ny oppdatering!
i mellomtiden - hasta luego og stor klem til alle sammen!

skabbelars

bandcamp

rancho cerro largo yoga retreat!

Namaste - om shanti and so on....
Yes - we are feeling stronger, healthier and better in our bodies and minds at this moment! Thanks to Rancho Cerra Largo - the beautiful spot we found by luck 11 days ago. After work, really interested in finding a spot to chill out and rejuvenate - we travelled towards Puerto Escondido and Zicatela - a famous surf spot where the waves are high and the people also. A nice little place this was, and we stayed a few days. But not really getting into the vibe of it all - we decided to cruise on and moved further down the coast towards Zipolite, a hippie hang out offering yoga and the likes. Halfway there, we meet some nice people on our last means of transportation - and they tell us that Zipolite is quite dirty and unsafe - whereas Playa Augustinillo or even Mazunte would be better if we´re into peace, quiet and clean spots. And also, when I asked about yoga - the girl was telling me about this wonderful place up on the cliffs i should go and see. We decided to hop off in Augustinillo - and left our packs with Jack - the forever traveller and good man. We started out walking fast paced up the hills in search for Cerro Largo to see if this could be what we had been looking for. after 20 minutes of walking in intense heat and already tired from travelling - we started to think we might have walked in the wrong direction or something.. all was nothing on the roads.. But after a few minutes, a sign pointed to the right and we had found it! And there it was.. entering under the nepali prayer flags, we knew that it was something special. It somehow reminded us of Bhakti Kutir in Goa, India - all organic, in the spiritual zone and in tune with nature. And oh, so pretty! Placed on top of the cliffs with the most amazing views over the ocean - with 6 cabanas all different in style and size. we met with one of the owners, marion and she showed us the only available cabana - a room where you could open up alle the walls so there was infact no walls at all! outdoor shower and toilet - and we liked the idea of getting soaped under a starry sky....we booked us in for a week and moved in!!!
that day, we gathered around the dinner table, mario (owner), rolf and marion, paulina from italy and fabienne, theresa, kathy and sue. 4 american girls staying one week for the yoga and the place. fabienne, a ashtanga instructor from boston - had been hired by the girls to teach for one week. but ole and me, and the locals from the area was also welcome to join in the classes! so after being totally taken aback from the energy and the spirit of the girls at dinner, we got the picture in yoga class. ever so present, enthusiastic and funny fabienne with all her wonderful crazyness got me in the mood - and so it went for the rest of the week. theresa took us dancing at night, just the girls in the yogahall going nuts - singing and sweating our prayers. yoga was great in the morning, and in the evenings we would share meals and laugh more than usual i would say... new people joined in at the table, we had virginia and her boy from mexico city, ron and ted from massachusets, suzanna from ? that had directed punishment park!!! and ofcourse mario, marion and rolf. the staff was always si great and the food - ahhhhh the food. mario made the most delicious veggieoptions - indian inspired and hibisquis tea for dessert. we have spend our days lazily about in the hammock, in our room, in the hammock in our room, at the beach, going for walks, checking out the crocodiles and the turtles in the mangroveforest, eating, eating, eating, yoga, yoga, yoga, speaking very little, laughing hard, meeting likeminded people and creating a nice life together with other visitors at cerro largo. the area is so wild and intouched, very few tourists and lots of birds and wildlife. and the sun setting and rising in coordination with the moon has been something out of this world! very vivid and the moon is so huge! the sun is bleeding orange, and at night - the moon is so blue that it lights up the whole sky. lying under the mosquitonet, seeing the moon and the palm trees - hearing the ocean... ahhhhhhhhhh. it was hard to leave and tears were shed - but there is a time for everything and it was that time to move..
today - just after discovering a rat in our room - we are in oaxaca city: WIERD to all of a sudden walk a little faster, look at a menu, see lots of people, read the newspaper, look in shops and so on.. the architecture is truly a sight and all the streets are straight and narrow - making it easy to navigate around. It is lots of brick and concrete. old buildings that are all artied up and you can see there is a lot of creative people around...
we shall explore more tomorrow in daylight! looking forward to see monte alban also - and the villages surrounding the city.

look at the pics under the link: view pics from puerto escondido/rancho cerro largo!!

hasta luego -

mexico - second impression

DAMN, waking up and feeling like a retired crack ho, that is never a good start in the morning.. The sun is maximised outside, the heat is peaking & and the sea is roaring! It sounds perfect. Not. I am sick!!! Damn, I was finished shooting the PH yesterday.Finally some time off!!!!Instead I got my time off in bed feeling my soar throat, my dripping nose, my eking bones and overheated brain !!! So instead off doing it, I will imaging doing it.. Waking up 7am in the morning feeling great observing the wild Mexican nature waking up to a new day. I get my board shorts on, kissing my beautiful girlfriend goodbye, while she is a sleep. Meeting the guys at sunrise, and heading for playa Penita. Playa Penita is supposed to be a great place to learn to surf, my debut!BUT, Iam lying in the bed sick, and alone. Like the retired crack ho. DAMN!

mexico - first impression

its been nearly two months already, and oh so much work - and so much fun! the west coast og costalegre is really undeveloped, a main - dusty road leads from nowhere and with nothing to be seen towards the beach on small, dirty paths. no sign, no proper road. just dirt and sand.. we have been surprised by the many beautiful locations hiding at the end of these paths. everything from grand resorts, luxurious and colorful, to private mansions "all in or nothing" styled. untouched and secluded beaches, mile after mile with sandy - rocky -palmtree covered treasures. also, some unfinished, highly unattended hotels - huge overlooking the water, but spooky and ghostlike since they have been inhabited for a ling time.
mexico is colors, beers, nachos, guacemole, scampi, seafood, beans (made up on porkfat...uhhhh), tropical fruits and malibu/coke. mexico is hola, hasta luego and all smiles. mexico is bungalow at beach, far out sunsets and coconut palmtrees supporting a hammock. it is lime and chillies, cruising around and working hard. crazy ideas come to life in crazy ways, crazy people to support it all - makes life a little crazier everyday!!
we love it!
in another two weeks or so, we will take a car - and go from the city of puerto vallarta heading south to zipolite as final destination. and also, we are looking forward to reunite with fernando in mexico city - after nearly a year since yoga camp in rishikesh. great!!
some pictures can be seen at flickr. follow the link on the left side!

The Masala Trek - Episode 9

the deserted island of ko lipe

been silent since forever - we are getting lazy since its coming to an end... only 13 days left of our adventure, cannot believe it's been nearly six months already!


after the teacher training in rishikesh we were pretty exhausted and needed a break from everything. we had to leave india within the 5th of june, since our visa expired at

this time... so we spend hours at the net trying to figure out our next destination - which could be everywhere! sri lanka was a favorite, along with zanzibar, israel and jordan. but after some research and after checking our bank accounts, we figured we need to go somewhere cheap and convinent SINCE we have to return to india to get the flight home. puhh.. long sentence there. so we decided that good old bangkok would be worth visiting again, the embassy in easy and well everything is easy in thailand. so we found some cheap tickets from delhi and off we went. delhi was by the way a great city that both of us really liked. wide streets, lots of space, green areas, cool buildings, great shopping!, good food and nice people. so this was good to be in a big city after small and spaced out rishikesh.... and we were spaced ut also so we needed a reality check i guess!.

so now we have already spend some days in bangkok only to find out that we have to wait seven days for our visa into india again. we decided to go straight to hatyai and the tiny island of ko lipe in the very south and then perhaps go to malaysia after this.. we managed halfway, we have now returned to the mainland after 5 perfect days in ko lipe. the island is really small, and inhabited by lots of locals living off fishing. we were the only tourists on the whole island, apart from one french guy and a italian dude. so we pretty much had the island to ourselves! we found a nice little hut at mountain resort, on a hill above the beach. we had the most fantastic views from here, waking up to the turquise water and the pearly white sand - doing some yoga sessions on the balcony before going out to explore the island. it was raining quite a lot when we were there, so our days consisted mostly of yoga practice, eating whatever was available in one of the two restaurants open for business, walking in the jungle packed with mangroves and flowers in beautiful colors, walking on the beach, swimming in the rain and reading the books.. and most of all, having time to focus on eachtoher again! rishikesh was mainly all about the training and the course, so we barely had time to ourselves there. so this was really great!

at the moment, we are waiting for the bus to take us to krabi - we are meeting up with ingvild there - she has been in malaysia working on the new season of '......' take a guess... so we are planning on spending some social days in railey beach before we cruise back to bangkok on the 17th. the sale is on in the city, so we are going to ditch our dirty, worn out outfits from six months of travelling in favour of the latest thai fashion! can't wait to put on some clean, fresh and nice clothes again! mrs. scruffy... he he he.

the net is slow for uploading pics and stuff but we have managed to put out episode 8 of the masala trek, and a few pics from rishikesh at the link to the left.

hope you're all well - and we'll see you all soon!

The masala trek- episode 7

The masala trek- episode 6

the masala trek- episode 5

hAPPY national day 17th of May!!!

We wish you a hot doggy dog national day celebration today!. may your day be filled with norwegian flags, russ, drunkens, alcohol, hot dogs, ice cream, beer, cigarettes, munchies, bunad, barbeque, friends and family....
Rishikesh provide on this fine day 42 degrees and sunshine, holy cows, fruit salad, herbal tea, waking up to a two hour yoga practice with out boot camp instructor, ayurvedic massage later on, indian thali, lecture in indian philosophy, another two hours yoga session, a cold shower, and then zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......
Love you all and big smile from India!!

ok - so ole changed his mind and decided to join the course after all!!. now day 11, our second day off in 11 days. bodies are sore, and the boot camp continues.. ole shaved his head. went mental.... and wenche got once again very sick, this time omitted to hospital but after being put in a room with very negative energies, very sick baba's and very dirty bedspreads, and very much medicine in the vains, and too much medicine alltogether - she freaked out and left the hospital after 1/2 hour of treatment. been eating some pills again, so its too many pills and she is just stuffed with the pills. so basically, i need to leave india!!!. my body sais 'no mooooooooore have mercy on my belly'. chanting away. but i will finish the goddamn course. and then see....
today we went to a waterfall and put our aching bodies in the cold water from the himalayas. this was well neaded in this heat. i think it was 45 degrees (celsius) in the sun today...
we all live in the yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine... na na n a na na na na na na na... na na na na na... na na na na na....

The Masala trek - episode 4

The Masala trek - episode 3

let's do some serious bungee jumping (160 meters)!!

yoga boot camp

holy shit, dette er helt sykt.

jeg er naa offisielt saa stoel som jeg aldri har vaert foer. det jeg trodde skulle bli en behagelig maaned med deilig yoga og en avslappende daglig rutine, viser seg aa vaere boot camp og reneste militaeroevelsene!!!. vi trener 4 timer om dagen - og det ikke rent lite heller. Vi starter rett paa sak klokken syv om morgenen, og det uten en ting innabords. da er det bare aa staa i hver enkelt posisjon i alt fra 3 - 4 minutter (og det er LENGE naar du staar i planken f.eks), akkompagnert av laereren vaar som messer og chanter: hold it! hold it! hold it! hold it! no pain no gain!!! osv... han er kjempedyktig, men veldig streng. og han er saa opptatt av akkurat hvordan vi staar i posisjonen, at alt skal vaere perfekt og ingen muskulatur skal noengang faa hvile. og vi gjoer de samme oevelsene om og om igjen helt til de er perfekte. igaar var jeg saa irritert paa treningen at det var hakket foer jeg klinte til den stakkars mannen, men jeg kom meg helskinnet igjennom heldigvis.. og i tillegg er vi kun tre personer paa kurset (ole, en meksikansk TV programleder og meg), saa vi kan liksom ikke gjemme oss heller. shit ass. morgentreningen varer i 2 timer, og da er det bare aa kollapse etter frokost, for da er klokken 10 og temepraturen begynner aa snuse paa 40 grader allerede...
klokken ett er det lunsj, indisk thali som er india's svar paa tapas kan du si. det er linser og groennsaker, ris og chapatti (et broed bakt paa hvete) og yoghurt naturell. all maten vi spiser er 'pure sattvic', en diett som er anbefalt naar du praktiserer yoga intensivt (og ellers ogsaa for den saks skyld). det er ikke loek eller hvitloek i maten (jippi!! endelig har noen skjoent det...) eller sterke krydder. maten er veldig ren, uten for mye fett eller olje. poenget er at man skal kunne fordoeye maten enkelt, og at det ikke skal vaere en prosess som tar energien fra treningen. saa dette er egentlig perfekt kost for meg.
klokken halv fire er det en time med forelesning i 43 grader, og disse er veldig spennende. vi laerer alt om historikk bak yoga, de ulike maater aa gjoere yoga paa, hva som er bra for hva, filosofien og det spiritual vs. science. setter igang mange tankerekker som jeg kjenner er veldig bra for meg - nye maater aa se ting paa!.
etter forelesning er det kun en halv times pause, og rett paa igjen med 2 timer trening i AKKURAT DE SAMME POSISJONENE!!! dette er helt ute. men jeg ser jo poenget, for jeg har allerede faatt muskler jeg ikke ante eksisterte, og der er nok den eneste maaten aa faktisk bli sterkere og forstaa akkurat hvordan er posisjon skal se ut... Ole ombestemte seg foerste dagen og ble med paa kurset likevel (og godt er det, hvis ikke hadde det kun vaert meg og fernando, the mexican paa kurset), og han sliter max han ogsaa...
vi har fri hver soendag, og idag er det altsaa fridag - saa vi startet dagen med en time trening bare oss to (kan jo ikke ligge paa latsiden selv om vi har fri!!), og saa har vi ramlet litt rundt i rishikesh i varmen. ikveld skal vi ned til elven ganges og utfoere en 'puja' for power og strength til kurset. 'puja' er en liten religioes handling, men kan vaere hva du gjoer det til selv. du henter deg et blad med en del roseblader og andre blomster paa, og midt inne i alle bladene er det plassert en liten roekelse. du tenner roekelsen, tenker dine tanker og plasserer bladet paa elven. saa kan du sitte i solnedgangen og se bladet ditt flyte nedover elven mens du tenker over hva du har oensket deg fra den lille seremonien. veldig mektig naar du sitter midt blant sadhuer som vasker seg i elven, hellige kuer som vandrer rundt, apekatter som muncher paa peanoetter og fargerike, tannloese, spedalske og smilende mennesker overalt.

saa ja, kurset er bra - men mye mye mye hardere enn hva jeg hadde forventet. fra i morgen er det da 6 dager paa rad med dette pogrammet, foer vi igjen har en dag fri. har kun vaert her og trent i 3 dager til naa, men det foeles mye lengre.... jeg skal klare det i alle fall!!
www.rishikeshyogpeet.com

"Right,so what are you thinking?"

The short film "Right, so what are you thinking?" Has made it to the Cannes filmfestival 2008. Jiiipii!!! (Click on title for trailer..)
I shot and edited this film :)


oj

The Masala Trek- Episode 2

The Masala Trek - Episode 1

from bungee to yoga teacher training in one week.

jeeeeeeeeeeeez, i (wenche) just jumped from the worlds tallest bungee jump of 160 meters!!!!!!!!! (i think the one in New Zealand used to be the highest, but they had to close this one down since someone died there not long ago....). anyhow, this was a great experience - im telling ya!!! i was really out of it this day from YET ANOTHER STOMACH INFECTION, and for a while it looked like i was not going to jump. but in the last minute i changed my mind and thought to myself that i cannot possibly be in the last resort in nepal, facing this great jump, and not do it.. so i let myself fall down the 160 meters down the beautiful gorge, towards a raging river in between some tall and nice mountains. ole had positioned himself across from the gorge with his camera's, so we have some cool shots from these also.. i have also been filmed in action, so i shall put out the video for you to see soon. it was so nice to just fall like that, it felt really really fresh and just basically a fantastic feeling. http://www.thelastresort.com.np/bungy
we were up in the last resort to see also if we could enter Tibet from there, since its only 11 km form the border - but the borders are still closed because of the olympics and all the shait that has been happening there recently. so no such luck for us, we cruised back to kathmandu after spending i few days in the safari tent (eating CRAP food, the resort doesn't know how to cook at all). we booked our tickets, did our shopping last minute, said our fairwell to Matt (hey matt!!! it's GOOD HEY!!!), who has been a GREAT travel companion from the ABC, Chitwan, Jungle Resort and Kathmandu. You shall be missed Matt. And also of course, the beautiful Else - who has been to the same places as us since ABC, with whom we shared some fine days in Kathmandu with at the end (apart form the wierd, wierd dinner..). Else, you rock on and we know you will find your path - you are already on it!!.
after all this, we flew to Delhi and spend one night there before heading off in the train to Hardiwar and then to Rishikesh!!.

Rishikesh has very much been one of the things i have been really looking forward to on this trip, and now we are here! Only downer is that i am still sick from the stomach bacterias, and my yoga teacher training course is starting tomorrow..... ehhhhhh... it's no good being in a posture with a bad stomach. anyway - i have arrived now and things are looking good here at the place. i have been given a nice room, in the very end of the balcony so i have some privacy there. i have unpacked my stash and created for myself a little home already. Ole had for me a surprise this morning, he had bought me a emerald stone, 4 carats - and this is the stone for gemini born people such as myself for power. i have placed the stone in a special spot, and it already means a lot to me that it's there. the place has a nice garden and a clean organic restaurant, a massage/ayurvedic treatment room, internet and a pool table!! and the staff is really nice and friendly. the lecturer is meeting with me later on this evening to give me information about what's going to happen from tomorrow on, schedules, timetables, course material and all that. i am really excited and looking forward to learn new things yet again and be able to practice the yoga fully for one month with nothing else on the agenda! great!

for those who want to check out the place i'm at: http://www.rishikeshyogpeeth.com

as well, ole has been editing some scenes from our annapurna base camp trek - so this should also be out anytime soon. the problem is that some internet cafe's have veeeeeeeery sloooooooow connections, so the films are too much for them to handle.

have a good one!

A Possible Day In Columb Bay - Part 6 (last episode)

A Possible Day In Columb Bay - Part 5

A.B.C trek completed!!!!!! (The most unpredictible moments)

all we can say is - WOW we did it!!!!!!

the 10 days in the mountains was absolutely mind blowing - and HARD HARD work..... we set off on day 1 with our friend john and his father don... the four of us was by high spirits, and really eager to get going. we took a taxi to the starting point of NAYA PUL, and the path started straight away going up at steep stone steps (3800 steps!!). we discovered we were in much better shape than we feared, and the first day we ended up walking for around 7 hours - going UP up UP!!. we soon learned that there is no such thing as flat terrains, what john described as "nepali flat", was actually either straight up on hard stone steps, or straight down on the same steps... i guess we were a bit cocky on day 1, thinking that it was a piece of cake to walk for that many hours a day.... the following days, we followed the trail in the same manner, walking through fantastic landscape of rice fields, magical forests and amazing mountain views. we also discovered that walking on your own like that gives you A LOT of time to think things through, and our brains was exhausted from basically just thinking about all the things in the world - from where am i? what the hell am i doing here? what do i want to do with my life? ideas for films and documentaries? and so forth... another thing we discovered was that sore knees, ancles, calfs and all the muscles in the body in general was something we had better to get used to sooner than later. when waking up in the mornings, we usually had massive issues just getting our legs out of bed, let alone waking up to the early hours of 5 or 6 in the morning to catch sunrise..

on day 3, we got up at 5 and walked in the dark and the cold up to POON HILL, a viewpoint where you can see the whole annapurna range before you in panorama views.. unfortunately, it was really misty and foggy this morning, so we were a bit dissapointed with what we could see. also, the hill was crowded with tourists constantly getting in the way of our photographs - and that many tourists gathered in one spectacular space at 5 in the morning is also in general very annoying. but when the sun rose, we got some good views, so it was not a waste after all..
after a typical breakfast of oat porridge and corn bread in the tea house, we set off yet again for some more walking. it is wierd though, but after a while we were looking forward to the day's walk, eager to check out the next destination and the scenario along the way. the teahouses we stayed in was also really cosy, with extra blankets for the freezing nights and GREAT FOOD! the food we had on this trek has been the best food so far in nepal. all fresh ingredients, and home made as we were visiting in someone's house. which we infact also was, the teahouses are usually run by families looking to earn a fortune on tired and hungry tourists. and what an appetite you get after 7 - 8 hours of walking!! we ate like horses for all meals, and still felt hungry when the meal was completed....

things started to heat up a bit on day 5, as we learned from the locals that the wheather had been kind of strange over the last few weeks.... we had most definately experienced the heavy rain accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning, but most of the days it came just as we finished walking for the day (around four/five in the afternoon). in early spring, the wheather is very unpredictable, and it had been raining for 14 days straight up until this point. the rain obviously turns into heavy snow fall at high altitude, causing huge avalanches close to the path we were walking.. so it definately didn't look too good on day 6, the day before we were sceduled to walk up to base camp. on this day, it also started to rain much earlier than usual, forcing us to quit walking a few hours earlier than we had planned for the day. we were going to stay in the village of DOVAN, and then walk from there to M.B.C (the base camp a few hours before annapurna base camp), stay the night there and do a easy walk to A.B.C the following day (beacuse of the altitude, you are better off spending a day there to acclimatise..) but the rain cut os short, and we only reached BAMBOO, which pretty much ment that we lost a whole day. we decided to stay the night. after disagreement though - wenche would like to continue walking in the rain, but our guide was reluctant... so much for bringing a motivator along!!! at this point, things started to get a bit messy between our guide and us, we discovered a few things in him that prevented us from doing our own thing, but being dependant on the guide's experience with the avalance areas ahead, we felt we had to stick with him. we were also told that if the rain would continue into the next day, we wouldn't make it at all... we actually met a few people that gave up and went down again, and we heard of people getting sick from the altitude being forced to descend. at this stage, our motivation was down the gutter, with all the negative information and being tired and exhausted on top made us more sensitive towards bad news.. but luckaly, our companion on the trek, matt from ireland and his guide raj - was eager to stay the night and see how the wheather developed. so we did......

we woke up on day 6 to heavy duty rain fall, and our temper was lousy.... the guide told us it was not a good day for walking, but at this point - we really didn't pay much attention to his negative karma... ole was by now the new motivator, and persuaded us to put on our rain ponchos and start walking under the rain.. we aimed towards our next and final destination before base camp, DEURALI. it felt hard to walk, knowing that we descended perhaps for no reason, the wheather was still shithouse and showers, fogs and thunders lured on the sky... we reached DEURALI after a few hours (a few hours now ment loads of hours actually...), and settled in for the night. we packed our bags that night, cause if the wheather cleared, we had to be ready to start walking at 6 the following day. the new plan was now to walk from DEURALI to M.B.C, have breakfast at M.B.C (a 2 - 3 hour walk from DEURALI), and then make an attempt for base camp, a two hour walk from there in knee heights worth of freshly fallen snow (this pass is one of the most dangerous path to walk in the whole annapurna circuit because of the avalance dangers... after 14 days of snow, and warm temperatures - it could turn out to be a very interesting day indeed!!.) after A.B.C, we planned to run down to DEURALI, get our bags and then descend as far as possible after this. after all, we were on day 7 at this stage and we also had to consider that we had to walk all the way down again to NAYA PUL in a 2 days time....

YEAHHHH!!!!!!! we woke up at 5 in the morning on day 7 to a starry sky, meaning good wheather to walk!!!! so we set off at 6 carrying the most important things like our camera's and water.... And we forgot the damn suncreen!!! we reached the M.B.C without too much drama's, and after a quick blowout at our guide who refused to walk with us further on to the base camp, we were sort of ready to start the 2 hour climb towards the final destination at 4150 meters!!. by this stage, we discovered that forgetting the sunscreen at this height is not a joke.. when the skies turned blue, the sun reflected in the new snow and the temperature's was leaning towards 45 degrees, we got ROASTED as lobsters. as well, the altitude started kicking in, and our heads felt like they were ready to explode at any minute. both really determined, we pushed on and walked in our own little worlds the remaining hours to the camp. sweating like pigs and raving and rambling bullshit, completely out of our minds from the heat, the bright white light reflected in the snow, and the altitude... when we finally reached base camp, all this vanished as clear as the blue skies and we just laughed and joked and screamed and hugged and kissed and all the other thing you do when you have accomplished something and are DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!. this was a great moment for the both of us, and it was worth the effort. we were standing at annapurna base camp, at 4150 meters, completely surrounded by the white powerful mountain range. we were right in the middle of everything, and got panorama 360 degrees views of all the peaks. it was the most spectacular view we have ever seen EVER and we had a hard time believing we were actually right there at that moment, just the two of us. it was really special and magical, and we both shed a few tears while we were at it!!! (and more tears to come for wenche the next day as mountain madness started kicking in.....) anyhow - after a while up there, big things had happened - and we had to start the descent before the sun started melting up the snow too much.. the danger of the avalanches still remained very much intact. we practically had to make a run for it, and by the time we reached DEURALI to pick up our bags, we had been witnessing a massive avalanche just 100 meters or so from us. the sounds of a big avalanche close by is hard to describe, but it was LOUD. and it sounded really dangerous.
pushing ourselves to the max, just throwing some food down at DEURALI, we carried on for the next hours down to DOVAN where matt had promised to save a room for us. walking the last strech completely in another world and lost for words, exhausted and walking like drunks, we finally reached DOVAN and passed out immidiately...

day 8, we woke up to... have a guess... SOME MORE WALKING!!!. i had not even considered the fact that we had 2 days left, and shitloads of mountains, passes and stone steps to descend before reaching NAYA PUL again... it was definately a bad idea to not take a rest day at this point, cause for the 6 hours walk that day down towards CHOMRONG, i cried nearly all the time and felt like i was ready to be put into a mental institution. poor ole was forced to take my pack when we where going uphill, merely because i was raving on about how crazy i felt and how much i hated being on that mountian. when reaching the village just before CHOMRONG, we all collapsed pretty much (included our guide and john) and decided to stay for the night. we had a shower, a nice meal, and later that night the locals put up a show with dancing, tablas and singing - to mark the upcoming nepali new years eve only four days away. we were enjoying the entertainment, and got offered garlands of fresh flowers around our necks for good luck. and this we really needed!!!

the next 2 days was a matter of just falling downhill, with whatever muscle strenght we had left. it was amazing to see that the landscape could change so quickly - after all - we had been in snow and mountain range just a day beforehand. now, we found ourselves walking in rice fields and forests again. completely change of wheather, and the sun was burning as hell. i got blisters covering my neck and face from the lack of sunscreen at A.B.C, and headaches out of this world.. but nevertheless, really really happy and motivated to reach pokhara with hot whowers and clean clothes!!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!

The guillemots new album "Red"

Last summer I shot and edited a short movie with the group, The guillemots in London (Directed by McloRd mAgRAO). The film was supposed to come on the new album as a secret track.
BUT, UNIVERSAL HAD TO CLASSIFIED IT so would be over 15 onLy. And the film didnt make it to the album.

oj

A Possible Day In Columb Bay - Part 4

A Possible Day In Columb Bay - Part 3

premiere fra 7ende til 8ende!!!

for de som digger barneTV, sjekk ut premiere paa dokumentarserien "fra 7ende til 8ende" ikveld paa NRK1 18.30!!! w har hatt regi og foto.... yohooooo!
Dagsavisen anmelder: http://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/article341282.ece
mer info om kidsa paa nrksuper.no/fra 7ende til 8ende

ready for Annapurna Base Camp trek!!!

At April 1st - we will start a 10 day trek to Annapurna Base Camp... We will return to Pokhara at April 10th, election day here in Nepal. Let's hope for peace and love!.
For those who are interested in reading a little bit about the trek we are doing, you can check out this website: http://www.nepaltrekkinginfo.com/nepal/trekking/annapurna/annapurna_base_camp_trek.html
there are also loads of other sites on the trek...
We are walking with a senior guide, he's name is Dhon - and he is the father of John, our friend from Kathmandu that we met in Green Park, Goa. He is also coming along for the trek, so we are in good company!!.
We are feeling excited about the trek, a little nervous perhaps to see how hard and demanding this will be...
Wish us luck!!!!!!!!

nepal - first impressions..!.

SO FAR SO GOOD!!!!!! (((Apart from the fact that this time it's Ole's turn with the nasty indian bacterias - he is currently in bed sleeping, visiting the toilet and freaking out.. Definately not the first thing you're interested in after just arriving in a new country. Our bodies, I suppose, are so low on the immune system, that only one little shitty bacteria will fuck up everything. But as I said, Varanasi was dirty and dirty means.... indian belly....He has seen a nice Australian doctor, and he gave him some pills - so hopefully this will be over in no time... Fingers crossed!!)))

Anyhow - from the little we have seen since yesterday, Kathmandu is a fun city with cool people and a million miles from India. We landed after a 45 min flight from Varanasi (no delays!!) yesterday morning, and we were picked up by two nice old men from our guesthouse. The guys were really friendly, and compared to India - the airport was peanuts!. The first thing we really appreciated when stepping out of the plain was the crisp, clean air and the mountains surrounding the city.. It's around 26 degrees at the highest, and at night when the sun sets it gets really cold - around 10... But it feels definately cold after 38 degrees in Varanasi!!. So, I have dug out the wollen underwear and the fleece sweater from my pack, along with the one pair of trousers I brought....It feels wierd to cruise in pants and shoes again, and actually experiencing goozebums.. But the feeling is also very near since we are cold blooded norwegians, not to forget.. Feels like home I suppose!!

When cruising through the streets from the airport, we were surprised to see how developed everything was - we had imagined a much more primitive city. There were some fancy cars and the girls are wearing jeans and tight tops - a huge contrast to the sari's and salwar suits of the women in India. Ole was pleased to see not only this, but also several SONY shops around town with more or less (bit of an overstatement perhaps) the latest camera equipment... Sadly enough, our camera didn't survive the heat in India, so it is not co-operating very well.. So we might have to buy a new one, since we were planning on filming like there was no tomorrow at the trek later on..
We got to our guesthouse of choice safely after a short ride through town. The guesthouse is a six storey house (Gabrielle and Rowan - we have picked the same one as you! I just read your mail now Gabby, and we are also in Pilgrims, only second floor...), with great views over the Kathmandu valley from the rooftop. It has a cosy restaurant in the garden, and we were pleased to see that they had proper yoghurt on the menu!!. It is set in a area called Patanjol, north of the famous (and busy) Thamel district. I managed to do a fair bit of bargaining also, a room that was originally 650 rupee, was after a negotiation down on 400. Thats like 36 norwegian kroners, so not a lot at all!. After dumping our bags, we set out for a stroll in the streets, and we live very central to the action. The streets are all narrow and it's like a labyrinth of alleys, so I definately have a difficult time of seperating the one from the other, let alone find my way back to the guesthouse. It's packed with shopping opportunities, selling shitloads of trekking gear ofcourse. We checked out some jackets and pants that we need, but the quality is shithouse - so we want to cruise to another area called Durbar Square (business/shopping area) to compare price and quality. Anyhow, its fun to window shop and see all the restaurants, bars and music shops here.

Today is festival of Holi (festival of colors), a hindu festival celebrating the beginning of summer and the good taking over from the evil. All the nepalese people and the tourists are out in the streets and alleyways equipped with water balloons and plastic bottles full of water mixed with bright colors of mostly red, but also green, yellow and blue. It's more or less like a war out there, people splash the colors all over eachother - and they are covered from head to toe in water and red liquids... It's described in the papers as a festival originally celebrating the friendship and togetherness between all people, but lately it's going mad and more agressive. Hmmmmm. I already got splashed once, and the colors apparently sticks to your skin and clothes forever, causing a rash on your skin also... So with my already dry and ruined skin, I mostly stand like a old fart in the corners watching the madness... We'll see how the day develops though!!!

The new plan now is for Ole to recover as fast as possible, and then move on to Pokhara - the second largest city in Nepal, about seven hours by bus from here. There has been 3 bus accidents over the last few days, and many people killed - so we are seriously considering the plain... We'll see.. In Pakhora, we will find a chilled out guesthouse by the river Phewa Tal, and linger there for a few days. From Pakhora, we will go trekking - and after some advice and research it looks like it's gonna be the Jomsom trek. It's a 9 day walk to the end point of Muktinath, and it goes through all sorts of scenario - including one of the best viewpoints in Himalaya called Poon Hill at 3210 meters. The max elevation on this trek will be 3800 meters... GREAT!!.
After this, we will see how safe it is to enter Chitwan park - as we really want to go - but it is advised to stay out of the border crossing areas including the park by the embassy..... But this is all for later anyway, and first we will check out Kathmandu and the valley around it! It's great to see the mountains and feel the mountain air. For sure!

Stay tuned....

Back to reality!

it's back to india (yes, goa is a vacation from india....), and we have just been undertaking a 52 hour train journey.... We skipped Bombay alltogether and decided to stay another week in Goa, doing the yoga thing and being beach bums. Thats 30 sessions with Swami Yogananda for me and i feel great!!! But finally, we dragged ourselves off the beach and Green Park ( a rather sad goodbye there...) and crossed India from Goa to Varnasi - all in one leg!!!. dammit... what were we THINKING booking that ticket.. we were originally taking the plain, but we thought "what the hell" and decided to go for the indian, hardcore style. which is to jam your ass in a seat next to a million people, hold on to your backpack and watch india go by (ok, we did a mix of 2nd class sleeper and 2AC, so it was not that bad...). its also a old school locomotive, so you get the real sound of the tracks - which can be either quite soothing, or definately annoying...

the route was as follows:
1. rickshaw to canacona train station (duration: 10 min)
2. train at 20:00 to mumbai (duration:12 hours)
3. arrive mumbai at 08:00 am
4. wait in mumbai for 4 hours
4. take the train at 12 noon to VARANASI!!!! (duration: 40 hours)
6. arrive varanasi two days later at midnight..........

We are knackered now, and feel a bit funny after lying down for 3 days in a small glove compartment on the train etaing crackers and drinking chai. we feel rather stiff all of a sudden... anyhow - WE MADE IT!! we are actually in Varanasi!. India's most holy hindu city, with the holy river Ganges and the picture we have seen in the religion books since pre - school of the women bathing and washing their clothes in the river. we are so excited to check it out tomorrow morning and we can't really believe we are here....
we are looking forward to take photographs in the early morning light over the river, see the lanterns with candles they put out on the river at night, and just take in the atmosphere. might catch a burning of the dead or two also... hmmmm. but all this, we shall see in the morning.. it will be completely different from now on, with having moved to the north (northeast) part of the country.. so yeah. great!!.first impression is anyhow that Varanasi is wild, untamed and unpredictable.. we have a great hotel near the train station (hotel buddah) with nice mix veg curries and TV in the room!! and service. really good service. almost too much service!!.

pics from Goa on the left side guys...

have a good one!.

A possible day in Columb Bay Part 2

over the next 6 weeks, we will publish a masala film series in six parts (you get one new part every week!). ENJOY!!!

For those who want to see what we can experience on a normal day in India!!! part one

this one's in norwegian!! sorry about that...

for all our english speaking friends - we're sorry but this one's in norwegian.. for alle norske venner, innholdet i denne teksten kan finnes stoetende og litt for privat - men det er en del av india dette mage kjoeret... he he he. aerlighet varer lengst!!!

shit. jeg skammes over hvor lite jeg har skrevet - planen var jo aa oppdatere bloggeiiiiiiiin OFTE, og la dette bli the means of communication. men som dere sikkert har lagt merke til, oppdateres den ikke spesielt ofte. ergo, jeg foeler. men jeg legger ikke skjul paa at jeg tenker paa dere alle, og det er mange oeyeblikk her jeg gjerne skulle delt med dere!.

Saa naa kommer et lite kapittel fra mine siste encounters here in india (ole skipper kommentarer paa denne..):
Naa har vi da faktisk reist i 2 maaneder allerede. tiden gaar ikke sakte, men heller ikke fort - saa der er en bra kombo. Vi er fortsatt i Palla (Palolem) i Goa, og har besoek av Trond og Monica. Vi har mye laettiser... Monica har faatt diare saaklart, det er jo bare ikke til aa unngaa. Men ole og meg er heldigvis friske, etter en uke med oppkast og diare og feber oppaa det hele. Jeg har ikke vaert saa syk siden i fjor paa samme tid i Goa, og det frister ikke til gjentakelse. Jeg ble daarlig i Hampi, der vi bodde sinnsykt primitivt i et lite mur - rom med kun en skitten seng og et enda mer skittent myggnetting. Naboene vaare var finske,. og ganske skitne de ogsaa. Han ene hadde dredda og spart i 14 aar, saa dere kan jo bare tenke dere den stanken han gav fra seg. det var faktisk saa ille at vi kjente lukten helt inn i vaart rom. Kjaeresten hans holdt et lengre foredrag over frokost om hvordan hun pleide aa bruke haaret hans som hodepute.. digg... Vi hadde felles toalett med resten av folka paa resorten, og de doene tror jeg aldri hadde blitt vasket. standard indisk, med 'sitte paa huk og drite ned i et skittent hull' stylen.. kokkene paa restauranten brukte ogsaa disse doene, og jeg saa aldri noe til en haandvask - saa jeg mistenker at jeg fikk en eller annen nasty bakterie grunnet ikke eksisterende hygiene paa dette stedet. det var egentlig ganske kjipern, for vi hadde gledet oss mye til hampi - som foroevrig er et av de eldste imperiene som eksisterer i india. det hele ser ut som et maanelandskap, fargene er brune og orange og det er masse stein overalt. og store templer. veldig store. mange av bildene fra hampi ligger ute paa bloggeiiiiiin, saa jeg haaper dere faar et inntrykk der.!. Vi fikk sett ett eneste tempel foer bakteriene tok overhaand, saa resten av oppholdet saa jeg innsiden av mur rommet mitt. jeg baerset kontinuerlig, og maatte opp om natten hvert femte minutt for aa spy i buskene. Da jeg en natt, helt ute, gikk tilbake til sengen og inntok droemmeland vaaknet jeg av noe tungt paa brystet mitt. det foeltes ut som om en myk, tung og haarete ting med skarpe kloer. den bevegde seg nedover magen min, og i det oeyeblikket innsaa jeg at jeg hadde noe uvelkomment i sengen.. jeg spratt opp og ut av myggnettingen og skrek til ole som vaaknet forfjamset. han ristet i soveposen min som laa helt nede i fotenden av sengen, og ut loep det en svaer, feit og utrolig skitten rotte. den ble helt satt ut selv, og kastet seg inntill veggen i sjokk mens den gapte med det roede, ekle munnen sin. skrek gjorde den ogsaa. i dette sekund gikk stroemmen, saa det ble helt bekmoerkt i rommet. perfect timing...jeg stod midt paa gulvet og visste at rotta var like i naerheten. da var jeg saa redd at jeg bare hikstet til ole. han satt avventende i sengen, og jeg fant fram en lommelykt og hoppet inn under nettingen sammen med han.. vi fikk lukket opp doeren paa gloett (det var jo tross alt ikke store avstander i det lille rommet vaart), og vi satt bare og stirret etter rotta. etter ti minutter saa vi skyggen av den idet den loep ut. jeg bare sier her og naa, at det var en traumatisk opplevelse. i flere dager etter det, og til den dag idag, tar jeg meg jevnlig til brystet og kan kjenne rotta som loeper nedover magen min... heldig.. mandig.....
etter rotte greiene fikk vi nok av hampi, og tok nattbuss til gokarna - det 'nye' stedet i karnataka som er i ferd med aa 'ta over' for goa. renere strender, mindre folk, roligere stemning og mer uberoert natur.. vi hadde sett for oss beach life, restitusjon og et gjemt liten perle.. vi ankom 'om beach' etter 14 timer i en buss som flere ganger truet med frontkollisjoner - akkurat i tide til aa faa med oss soloppgangen fra en klippe over stranden. der vi satt, slitne og tok romma etter turen, begynte det aa romle farlig i magen min. jeg hadde ikke noe valg, og maatte beine inn i jungelen og joine rottene der idet jeg slapp loes den vaerste diareen jeg noengang har sett. da var jeg saa sliten og ferdig med alt at jeg frika helt ut. jeg graat og skrek til ole at jeg hater india, jeg vil vekk fra dette rottehelvete, og alle stygge menneskene som er skitne og tjukke i hue. ole stakarn, loep avgaarde og fikset oss et nice rom med eget toalett som var rent og ganske pent. saa der ble jeg liggende i tre doegn uten foede eller drikke og baersje livet ut av meg. kaste opp, baersje, sove, droemme og feber uten sidestykke. i tillegg til det fikk vi nok en gang en rotte inn paa rommet, denne gangen enda feitere og styggere enn den foerste. paa dette tidspunktet var jeg saa moekk lei av hele india at jeg bare ville synke under jorden. ole hadde heldigvis med seg antibiotika fra norge, saa vi delte en kur paa fire dager (han var ikke akkurat fresh i magen han heller....). den fjerde dagen foelte jeg meg bra nok til aa dra til goa - det maatte vi nesten gjort uansett - for trond og monica kom allerde dagen etterpaa. HELDIGVIS hjalp kuren, og siden vi kom til goa har jeg gradvis bygget meg opp med mat og trening. jeg har funnet det perfekte stedet aa gjoere yoga paa. det er gjemt inne i skogen, og er en oase med organisk mat og freshe mennesker. jeg trener med swami yogananda, som er kjent for aa vaere super rutinert. saa naa tar jeg en session daglig, er paa 12 dagen paa rad naa - noen ganger to ganger om dagen ogsaa. jeg digger yogaen saa mye at jeg har mailet med flere ashram i rishikesh, og tror jeg naa har funnet frem til et som jeg kan ta min teacher training. saa naa blir jeg kanskje yogalaerer!!!!. life is full of contradictions....
Ole og meg har i tillegg kun spist vegitarian siden vi kom, saa naa er vi offisielt vegitarianere. dette hoeres ut som jeg har blitt helt frelst, men not to worry - jeg er fortsatt samme gamle wenche. men india er et land jeg foeler sterke vibber fra, det er saa mye energier her og jeg kan ikke la vaere aa bli revet med. jeg er jo aapen for slikt i utgangspunktet. saa jeg flyter rundt paa en liten sky og gjoer mitt beste for aa ikke la meg paavirke av tiggere, folk uten ben og armer, hjelpesloeshet, korrupsjon og alle de tragiske skjebnene i india. i anjuna markets (flere fotballbaner med boder der de selger dritt) saa vi en fyr uten armer og ben - plassert i veikanten midt i solsteken. vi stod og lurte paa hvordan han i det hele tatt har psyke igjen. men her er ting organisert, saa han stod der garantert for aa samle sammen nok penger foer lederen hans plukket han opp for dagen. det kan jo til og med hende at han har viet armer og ben for hoey tiggerstatus. han ble tross alt plassert paa det beste hjoernet i anjuna, og det er ikke hvem som helst som faar tigge der!!.

jeg har ikke fortalt eller skrevet noe fra de stedene vi har vaert etter andaman, men kort fortalt har de fleste stedene vaert helt fantastiske. pondicherry med sine franske promenader og fantastiske mat ( vi fant en lokal sjappe med de sykeste curries til et par kroner stykket), auroville med sine sinnsyke naturomraader, snodige samfunn med alle slags nasjonaliteter som lever sammen i harmoni (?) og foelger laerdom fra sri aurobindo og the mother - og sjuke organiske bakerier (beste kjeksene jeg noengang har smakt), auro beach med sine bungalower oppe i traerne og forever puffing rastafari betjening, alleppey med sine kanaler midt inne i byen og to doegn paa husbaat med egen kokk og servitoer putrende langs palmebelagte kanaler der indiske landsbyer levde sine vanlige liv, varkala med sine sinnsyke strender, solnedganger og BRA yogatrening, fort kochin med sine smaa alleyways og teahouses europeisk standard, bangalore med sin sjuko shopping (no shopping for me though.. im on a budget!!), og ja hampi med sine templer og maanelandskap, gokarna med sine forlatte strender og laid back atmosfaere. og selfoelgelig goa naa, og gutta paa green park som serverer oss lassi, veg. curry og de beste naan broedene ever. jeg har blitt pals med tandoori kokken, saa en kveld lagde vi naan broed sammen i den lille hytta han har midt paa stranden. ikke kjedelig og staa og elte litt deig med palmesus og boelgesus som bakgrunnslyder!!. sonny (sjefen paa stedet) har lovet meg et kokkekurs, der jeg kan velge en rett fra menyen og bli med inn paa kjoekkenet for aa laere. saa tina - jeg joiner paa kjoekkenet paa neste indiske aften!!!!.

planen fremover naa er bombay. vi har bestilt biletter den 5. mars paa natt toget ( vi kjoerer second class sleeper med the locals, rottene og kakerlakkene) - og da har vi planer om aa dra paa indisk gourmetrestaurant med paafoelgende night out paa en av bombay's hippe nattklubber. vi vil ogsaa leie en sjoeffis, som kan ta oss med inn i de enorme slumomraadene. vi gleder oss til chowpatty beach, gateway of india og elephant island. vi har ogsaa funnet fram til et par treats utenfor byen med bungee jump og chill out zone. det tar jeg skikkelig gleda paa! vi spaca paa det kveld der vi satt med kartet og plansa, da vi innsaa at dette er det siste vi ser til palmer, sand, strand og beach huts paa hele turen. etter bombay skal vi jo til neppis og himalaya - og nord india er jo ogsaa mountain life. men etter to maaneder og tusen hakk brunere foeles det bra. jeg ser frem til aa kjenne paa fjell luften, og er skikkelig spent paa baade nepal og nord india. En av gutta paa green park som vi har blitt veldig godt kjent med er fra katmandhu, saa han skal hente oss paa flyplassen og vise oss byen sin naar vi kommer dit en eller annen gang i midten av mars. foeler oss heldige med den....

vi holder paa aa redigere bilder fra goa naa, saa de kommer paa bloggeiiiiiiiiin anytime soon. vi har blitt enige om aa skjerpe oss paa den fronten - baade med bilder og tekst. men faktisk, selv om man skulle tro at vi ikke har en dritt aa gjoere saa er det som om tiden bare forsvinner. hver dag skjer det noe uvventet, som stjeler tid fra internett og andre bank greier.. bare with me - jeg tenker som sagt masse paa dere alle - og hadde digga om det dukket opp noen updates fra dere ogsaa i innboksen paa tar.gleda@gmail.com. he he he.... jeg maa jo vite om kidsa, menn, arbeid, og ellers alt annet som skjer hjemme.

kjempeglad i dere - tar savna.

silent noise

already its been one week in goa - we chose colomb bay and green park yet again for accomodations, after a succesful trip last christmas!. the boys at green were happy to see us again, and so many laughs and great meals has been shared over the last seven days.. Trond and Monica, our friends from Norway - had originally asked us to set them up in a 'comfortable room close to the beach, around 2000 rupee per night'. hmmmm... as this is way above our budget, we decided to surprise them with a rather shabby looking, edgy little bungalow at green. the toilet flush whenever it feels like it, and 'Frodo the housefrog' is apparently hanging on to its life on the beautiful bathroom wall covered in plastic flowery wallpaper. and all this for 350 rupee!!. We were excited to see their reactions, but we had been way to worried. Monica was all smiles, and Trond could'nt get over the fact that they all of a sudden had 1650 rupee more to spend on their daily budget. not much to complain about either, as they have two good neighbours (were in the hut downstairs for 50 rupee less considering the toilet flush all over the floor), 15 meteres to the sea and sunset view from their balcony.
Having friends around after two months of travelling visiting proves to be a lot of fun! it will be strange to see them leave, as we are becoming one big happy family. Yesterday, we attended 'silent noise', a new party concept here in Goa. The DJ's blast their music until 10pm, and after that its full stop unless you have a headset which can be purchased in the bar for 500 rupees. In the set, you can choose between 3 channels: two being different house/techno shit form the two DJ's on stage, and one being the local radio station. Seeing 300 people at the beach under a full moon and palm trees raving silently, looking at eachother and wondering what channel the dancer next to you has chosen was a wierd, wierd sight. But after 4 local gin tonics (equivilent to 8 at home), anything goes - and in familiar Wenche style, I danced to the various instruments of an orchestra and made funny faces to the beats.. Only to completely pass out at 11pm, to hammered to notice the party around me. So today is recovery, that means many meals and huge serves of raw cashewnuts as they are definately in season!!. creamy, large and perfect.!. No yoga today - but i have been transformed and addicted to a local Swami at Bakhti Kutir, doing monkey walks and tightening of the buttocs a few hours a day. He is a reincarnation of Jim Morrison, only Indian - and loves to scream 'more upwards with the right hand side leg, streeeeetch your leg, noooo bending of the leg, squeezzze the stomach, hooooold the breath' and so on and so on.. The body is constantly aching with pain, but as a guru told me in Hampi: First pain, then gain. Right...
Hopefully this won't be the case tomorrow, as Ole once again is cruising to the dentist!. He had an attack on his wisdom tooth, and its definately infected. So for the second time in two weeks his on antibiotics, and looking at double removal of two wisdom teeth tomorrow. Being bitten by the dentist vibe, I have also had a consultation - only to be told that my front tooth is in serious trouble. It has broken into two pieces, and if i dont attend the problem immidiately, i will be cursed with a root canal filling in a matter of days... totally freaked out, I let myself be tricked into booking a session at thuesday 12noon, for a operation in my front tooth. dammit.

apart from that, palolem is perfect. colomb bay is even better. We like it so much that we are staying on for another week, until Trond and Monica flee for Norway. Ole has also discovered Patnem beach, only 12 minutes walk from us, so we shall cruise over there for a full day sun indulging at the spotless beach. Other things worth mentioning is the Anjuna flee market last wednesday, which was a collection of football fields covered in stalls selling the usual items. Crap, crap, crap and more crap. Seeing crap as fun, we all ventured out of the market two hours later with the following items: one cowboy hat, 6 pairs of Ali Baba yoga pants (presents for the yoga freaks at home), two t shirts, one pair of hotpants (Trond fancied Monica in a short style option), one pair of Ray Ban fake sunnies, 3 caps for the boys, enough spices for a year of curries, and ofcourse 200 grams of raw cashewnuts for me. Also, one image i shall never forget would be the man placed on the sidewalk sporting no arms and no legs!. He was just sitting there as a pole, perhaps waiting for someone to pick him up by the waistline and carry him home. Totally wierd, and luckaly the paparazzi in Ole managed a snapshot, very descrete indeed....!.

Stay tuned for further updates - hope your all good!.

rats rats and more rats!!!

wow. theres A LOT of rats in india. something like a 1000 per inhabitant.??. wenche woke up with a rat on her chest the other night, and with more to come the following nights... terrible.!. we have both been REALLY sick from a nasty bacteria for the last week.. no wonder when you see the toilet at display!. shit. literally speaking.
anyway. we have some new stories for you. whilst waiting, follow the link in the upper left corner to see photos from the last 5 weeks of our travels. this should cover auroville, pondicherry, alleppey, varkala, fort kochi, hampi and gokarna.

meanwhile, we are off to goa tomorrow to welcome trond and monica - friends from norway!!. that should be fun!. and they bring supplies. ahhh. cognac and pills from home. great!!

andaman islands (31st Dec 07 - Jan 13th 08)

Happy New Year everyone!!
We are now about three weeks into our travels, so here are a few updates from the Andaman islands for you to enjoy!.
First of all, if anyone is interested in knowing what airline company that goes under the name of ITEK air, this actually turned out to be Kingfisher Airlines - one of the leading low cost companies in India, and a good one too! (great meals...). So, no - there was no dramas involved in leaving Chennai for the Andamans as we suspected, apart from eight hours sleeping quite uncomfortable on a yoga mat in the transfer hall at the airport while waiting for our flight... All this was forgotten though when we arrived in Neill island, after spending one night in the shithole og Port Blair (dont visit the zoo. Its a waste..)

Neill island is one of the more remote islands in the Andamans, atleast among the ones that are inhabited. The ferry from Port Blair is only 2 1/2 hours, quite pleasant as well as you can watch dolphins and some of the 600 or so islands slowly passing by under the sun. Upon arrival in Neill, you are met by the police checking your entry permit, warning you about people stealing your stash, and wishing you a great stay on the island. The islands has three resorts only, so we decided to go for TANGO beach resort. The place is quite windy, so we figured that this would keep the mozzies away (it was not until later on we discovered that wind will not keep the bastards from eating you alive if you have the desired blood type!)
After being given the last available room in the resort, we unpacked our gear and started taking in the location for the next few days. We were happy and all smiles, also tired after four days with solid travelling from Oslo. So New Years eve was celebrated island style, being not much happening and not much fuzz. We spend the day at the beach working a tan on our rather blue bodies, and being very lazy.. We discovered that the beaches in Neill (and the other islands for that matter), doesnt have names. Instead, they are numbered from one up to how many beaches there are. On Neill, there are six beaches - number one being the best option. The beach is clean, white and untouched, with the forest quite near the water with all sorts of trees and animals. The beach ends at a point where you can find the best snorkelling on the island. The island is also quite big, but there is not much people there so its very wild! Exactly just how wild was to be discovered a little later though...

Later on that night we had a grilled fish each (the more common one goes under the name of Silver Jack - a white, tasty fish), and the local rum with warm, dead coke. The first drink is always horrible, but after a few of them they are actually very good! Some people had been making a bonfire at the beach, so after the meal we joined in and watched some rather laim fireworks organized by some danish people at midnight.. But the scenario was fantastic, and it was nice to finally feel the breeze from the sea and watch the stars above the palm trees! Being hammered from the rum certainly added to the fun of it all.. just perfect!.

After a few days in our concrete room waiting for Ole to get rid of some fever and a powerful cold, we got settled in a small basic hut right on the beach with just a bed and.. yeahh. a bed. This was perfect!! The rate for the hut was 200 rupi, thats about 28 NK, so we didnt haggle much on that one. We were planning on staying for a few days and then move on to the more busy Havelock island, but we never came to leave so we ended up spending nine days in our hut. We rented bikes and explored the island, went to the beach, did some snorkelling, freaked out when snorkelling (we are both a little suspicious of the life under there..), had fresh seafood and masala teas (too many teas with too much sugar), practiced the yoga at the beach, hooked up with the islands boys at Green Heaven Restaurant, observed our waiter Sandeep in action, read our books, and got some new friends as well..

The wildlife was really something special at this island. In a matter of minutes, we would see scorpions (one resting right beneath the squat down toilet..!), spiders, ghekko's, snakes (they would appear at night right infront of the bikes), seafood wandering around carrying their shells, cochroches and ofcourse the regular bats, birds and dogs. Lot of dogs. We had some cute puppies and a kitten in our resort, constantly begging for food and a massage. Luckaly, the dogs in our resort were all happy and nice, but one day we experienced otherwise when going for our daily bike ride around the island. This time, we were on a mission to find 'Natural Bridge', a hmmm... yep, natural bridge where the sun would apparently set beautifully. We asked for directions and a little boy pointed in between some buildings at the marked. At first, the ride was scenic and peaceful. We passed small villages and watched people going about their daily business. That is, washing some clothes, transporting goats from one place to the other, killing chickens, making food and eating food. Children would stop us asking for their picture to be taken, and laughing their ass off when checking it out on the screen after. The indian people love to pose for the camera, but more than often they end up asking for money afterwords.. In turn, they also love to take photos of you, also asking for money afterwords!!!
Anyway, we continued onto a small path where the heat was incredible. No wind, shitloads of mozzies and a strange vibe to it all. Something was definately wrong. Had we gone the wrong way?? As i stopped my bike, Ole went a little further on to a field covered in trees and other unspecified plants to see if we could get any further.. I lost sight of him but after a while i could hear a dog barking wildly.. A little worried i yelled after him, only to see that moments later he appeared out of the bush speeding his bike like there was no tomorrow!!. And after him came the dog, angry as and ready to attack!. He kept biting after Ole's leg, and it didnt look as if he was going to stop either. Next, I saw Ole taking his water bottle and started to throw water on the dog, still speeding along. It was quite a sight, and it kept on going for a while. The other dogs picked up the vibe and started barking too. I turned my bike around ready to follow Superman, but as i did the dogs went scared of the water and pulled back. Damn, what a waste of 20 rupi worth of water!!. Needless to say, we didnt try that path again - and we never got the see the natural bridge and its beautiful sunset. It had kind of lost its charm already..

After nine fantastic days in Neill, it was time to move.. After one hour or so on the ferry, we arrived in Havelock Island - the more settled and established islands in the Andamans and very popular with the tourists. We had heard not so positive things about the island from the people at Neill (money oriented, too busy and too expensive) - only to find that the beaches was near deserted, the food a little cheaper and really laid back after all. Sure, there was more people and more travellers but after nine days with total isolation and only each others faces to glare upon, it was nice with some action! We picked out PRISTINE beach resort, known for its good food and chilled atmosphere. And we certainly got both... Also, Havelock is famous for its beach NO.7 - voted one of the best beaches in the world. We got the picture as we arrived a beautiful laguna at the very tip of the beach, with turqouise water and palm trees touching the sand.. it was perfect and Ole even went as far as checking out the life in the sea!.
Back at the resort we met some really nice people including the israeli Raymond and his wife, the austrian Barbara and her boyfriend, the italian Ricardo with his supplies (thanks Ricardo!!) and more. We found Havelock to be the perfect mix of beach, beautiful scenarios, nice people, great food and nice atmosphere.. A place we will visit again Im sure!.

We were sad to leave the Andamans but after two weeks, we were ready to move on to Pondicherry, a french colonial town east of Chennai. After one night in a crappy room in Port Blair and an overprized tandoori fish at a restaurant - we took our flight to Chennai and went straight for the bus terminal. The bus terminal is Asia's largest, and chaos is a bit of an understatement when describing this place. We missed the first two buses, and the reason for that was that we were not fast enough! In India, there is no standing in line culture, and this didnt apply for the bus stand either. After being pushed to the side and missing out on two buses, we decided to take the Indian approach at the next one. Ole took both of our packs, and when the bus arrived I made a run for it with the other people desperate to get on the bus. It was jabbing, pushing, screaming and pure muscle work to get into that bus and dive into two seats. Once i had the seats, i had to hold on for life, with the people pushing and trying to snatch them while i was actuelly sitting down! It was like nothing i have ever experienced before, and i was quite proud of myself when Ole came into the bus with our packs to discover that I had actually managed to get the seats!!
When the bus had filled up, it became all chilled out and people respected their seats in a more relaxed manner. We hit the road and started preparing ourselves for the 4 hour bus ride to Pondicherry..
We soon discovered that taking the bus in India is like asking to be killed momentarily. They drive (yes, like there was no tomorrow), and half of the time it looks like you are going to collide head on with the other vehicles on the road. Being a variety of bikes, two wheelers, three wheelers, buses, vans, horses and cows its fair to say that the speed varies a lot. But the bus is king, so speeding along we reached Pondicherry after 3 1/2 hours of constant panicking. It didnt help either to be stopped by the police, smashing the bus' frontlight with their bamboo sticks - screaming angrlily and acting like there was murderers hiding in the bus. Fortunately, they only stopped the bus to make way for some VIP's on the road to Chennai....

After two nights in a bungalow at Rhippo beach (also known as Auro beach since its near Auroville), we moved to the city of Pondicherry. Being an old french colony, the french are everywhere and the streets are named rue de cathedral and so on... the food is also french inspired, along with the arcitechture and general vibe. The city is sort of divided into two parts, the 'indian side' and the 'french side', with the french side being much more relaxed, quiet and clean. its nice to walk in the streets and look at the buildings and the people passing on their bikes. but its also much more expensive here, so we tend to just 'look and not touch' (i did however have a salad in one of the fancy restaurants, and paid 80 rupi for a salad niqouise with no olives!!). after the salad incident, we managed to find a cheap local place to eat right at the beach promenade, where you can have curries and dosa for 20-35 rupi.. so its all good! our guest house (RAM) is really clean and fresh after staying in sandy huts at the beach, so we have done our loundry and taking hot showers in the afternoon!. We also located a place to do the yoga, in the local auruvedic centre with one of the doctors there.. perfect!. we laugh, cause the doctor have a cool way of saying 'tighten your buttocks!!' and 'this asana is good for the gas!!..'
anyway.... we cruise around, and this is also the first place we have been able to go on the internet (andamans was totally disconnected, perfect ofcourse...).

The celebrations of PONGAL just ended yesterday, so we got to experience a full on Indian style festival as well. The festival celebrates the end of harvest. This means that there are colorful drawings in the street, entertainment all around, chanting and painting at 4.30 in the morning and lots of people everywhere. the trains are also full because of this, so we will stay here until it all cools down a little - sunday the earliest!. We have a few more things we'd like to do, such as visiting Auroville (a free-minded, eco friendly community funded by 'The Mother') and checking out the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - a popular place with pilgrims and yogis.

Hope you are all good everyone, and please feel free to write comments at our page or an email..

until next time -

Ole & Wenche

fra -10 til +30...!.

Hei. Nå er det kun 12 dager igjen til vi reiser avgårde - Ole Johan drar til vadsø i morgen for å feire jul hjemme, og Wenche blir i the big O. Leiligheten er leid ut, visum er delvis i orden, billetter betalt, penger spart, vaksiner tatt, og bøker lest.. Første stopp på turen blir Andaman/Nicobar islands - en øygruppe på 572 øyer, der kun 36 som er bebodd. Øygruppen ligger i Bay of Bengal, ca 1000km fra østkysten av India, men nærmere sørøst asia.... Etter planen flyr vi til Port Blair med Itek Air (noen som har hørt om det?? Ikke vi heller!!) - og hvis det selskapet faktisk eksisterer lander vi i Port Blair den 30. Desember fra Chennai. Dagen etter det finner vi en båt som tar oss ut til en av småøyene.. Det skal bli rather nice å tine kroppeiiiin der i noen uker!. ihvertfall når man ser hva slags umenneskelig temperatur det er her for tiden...

mandariner fra løkka. god jul!