Nostalgia...

We had visitors this weekend and had a chance to look at my travel DVD These are DVD's that I prepared in 2004 after our long trip through three continents. Yep we travelled through, Asia, Europe and Americas (both south and North)

The highlights were Siberia and Alaska. two of the most remote places, that get very cold, but has the some of the warmest people.

I came to a empirical observation after this trip, in my view the colder the place, the warmer the people are!

Here are some example anecdote that I remember from the stay at just one such family

We had landed in Yekaterinburg a tiny little town in Siberia, in the evening. the guide had picked us up and being very organised gave us our plans for the next three days and dropped us of at our hosts (home stay) the hosts happened to be three women of three generations. The grandma who was about 70, the mother who would have been in her late 40's and a teenage daughter. The apartment was a tiny two bed place, and I think we dislodged the grandma from her room!

Some of the lasting memories of this household

• The grandma was of the era who loved Indian movies and wanted to have a photo of me with her (BTW me in my Sari) I had to explain using the phrase book that I do not carry my sari in my backpack.
• In the morning the mother saw me in my layers of warm clothes finishing off with my three season jacket ( I had thermal, full sleeve tshirt, Woolen Jumper, Double sided Fleece jacket, followed by the three season jacket). Looking at my penguin gait, I could not touch my thighs with my hands and I looked like an ungainly emperor penguin, she said "you cant go like this", and lent me her 'fur' coat. I could get rid of the top two layers of my attire and wear this one coat that kept me as snug as a bug in a rug.
• The teenage daughter got a royal tick off, because she was in the shower for an hour and we were waiting to get ready in the evening... Guess Teenagers world over are the same
• when I got back from our days ramble on day 1 with a Valenki (a molded woolen boot like thing , which cost $10, and would have been a fashion statement back in cave man days...) the grandma was reminded of her childhood when she used it, and took the boots literally off my feet and put them next to the radiators to warm them up for me to use the next day...

Where to next....

We seem to be turning into two old hags... Have not had a chance to travel anywhere exciting in the last year.

Well guess its not been all that boring, as we have had the adventure of buying a home in Auction, done a half marathon/Marathon (in case of Mr Nomad) and are training for Marathon.
However, for the first time in our lives, we have certain commitments (like mum living with us) that makes taking off for along period of time a bit difficult. Have sooo many places to visit that I am confused...

Well the options are

• Go to Leh in July, in time for the Greta Tibet Marathon. problem is that, we need at least 5 to 6 weeks for this trip... two to three weeks to catch up with family in India, two weeks to acclimatise and do a hike before the marathon, and a week to visit friends and shopping. So guess given the time frame its out of question this year... LOL



• Do a trip to India in October and again do some hiking in the Himalayas for about two weeks, while catching up with family and Friends for 3 weeks. A possibility but too far away...



• Do a trip to Tibet in october. Have to wait and see the effect of all this anti china protests around the world has on Tibet tourism for us foreigners!

Given all these issues, and the fact that Mr Nomad has decided to go for laser eye surgery, since he is finding multi focal a pain... means we cant decide anything right now! So have decided to take a short break (read a long weekend to keep our vasanas satiated). Once we decided on this I have been reading up some stuff, and here is what I found. We can visit the southern most land in Australia and stay in the light house... the good news about this trip is unless you are fit you cant get there, as the only way in is a 18 Km walk on a medium strenous walk. Apparently while the path is well defined, there are parts that are quite steep. I really look forward to the walk as described by the 'greenman' in his blog http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/archives/000416.html

Here is a picture of the lighthouse and surrounds.

Am planning on doing this in June. Expect it to be a bit wet and cold, but unlike the Greenman, we hope to take a day off at the lighthouse just wandering around and hence hope to be not that tired.

Wait for the posting once we have done the walk... :-)