Well we decided to go home to Perth as there was trouble again in Burma at the time and after Munnar and the tea plantation there, Maurice would have been disappointed with the Cameron Highlands.
It was a surprise to all of our friends that we arrived back home.
We spent 5weeks in W.A and house sat the house of a good friend for a week while she was in Sydney for Christmas and then we stayed on with her for a week and then went visiting friends for 10days in the southwest in Secret Harbour, Bunbury, Busselton, Cowaramup, Hamelin Bay, Denmark and Albany. Another good friend lent us her car for the duration of our stay which was wonderful especially after Maurice’s old (40years old)Valiant car died on Chistmas Day in 39 degrees heat. It was repaired over the next few days but not having any air conditioning was a bit taxing so we were very gateful to have the luxury of airconditioning in a nice Mazda 3.
After the hustle and bustle of traffic in Mumbai it was very comfortable driving around the south west with very few people on the road. On our 400km drive from Hamelin Bay to Denmark we saw no other car driving south for about 150kms.
We then stayed for ten days at another good friend’s house and minded their two Siamese cats while they went south and north for a few days.
It was great to catch up with our family and a lot of our friends over the 5 weeks but we were also happy to take off on the 2nd February for the second part of our adventure with our first stop in Ubud, Bali.
We will have 1month here in Ubud in our lovely 2 bedrrom private villa complete with pool, cleaning and breakfast for all of about $40 a night. My auntie and husband will join us for a week and then another friend for a few days and then we will take the slow boat to Lombok for 10days and stay on the beach at the Sunset house. On the 11th March we will come back to the mainland to Candi Dasa where 7 friends will join us for a week.
On the 19th March we will fly back to India and stay a few days in Chennai and Pondicherry before going back to the Ayurvedic centre in the beautiful mountains at Udayagiri in Kerala for two weeks to continue Maurice’s treatment for arthritis. On the 10th April we fly to Dubai to see our friend there and then onto London to purchase our campervan.