We were collected by our airbnb host Bejani and driven the couple of hours to Tbilisi for the night, staying in the Marjanishvili area of Tbilisi which was very European in design and atmosphere with nice cafes around a large piazza.
When we arrived at the airport in Tbilisi we purchased a sim card for Lari55 which gave us ample phone and internet for a month and was handy for booking taxis using a map to locate where we wanted to go and to contact our driver/guide.
All of the taxi drivers even the young ones didn’t speak a word of anything other than Georgian or Russian.
It was pouring with rain the next morning at 7am when we caught a ‘Maxim’ like ‘Uber’ transport to the train station for the 8am train to Batumi. It was a new German Stadler train which was very comfortable but which only had a dispenser with cold drinks and prepackaged sandwiches and crisps.
There was no tea or coffee or alcohol for sale. The train was full and we discovered many of the passengers were attending the world chess championships in Batumi.
The journey took 5hours and the train wound at first through rugged and then green mountains before arriving in Batumi on the Black sea.

The taxi and apartment hunters at the station were the most persistent we had ever encountered and Maurice threatened to hit a woman with his stock if she didn’t stop tugging at his shirt!
We managed to get away from them and catch our Maxim transport. If the taxi drivers had offered a reasonable sum to take us the few kilometres to the city we would have taken their offer but it was more than triple that of the Maxim driver. We have used them many times and they tell you the type of
car, the driver’s name and how much it will cost and the they tell you when they will arrive.

Batumi is very much a popular seaside town with ferris wheel, unusual new skyscrapers and some lovely European styled architecture.
It is the capital of the Arjuda and Georgia’s second largest city, located on the coast of the Black Sea in the country’s southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone near the foot of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. Much of Batumi’s economy revolves around tourism and gambling, but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.

The city was a mix of well to do areas with tree lined streets and poorer areas with people selling all sorts of bric a brac on roadside stalls. There were many wine shops selling the famous Georgian wine and a small yellow tanker like container on a trailer had beer for sale on a couple of the side streets.

We stayed at the Piazza boutique hotel which boasted clocktower accommodation with only two rooms on each floor. We were on the 5th floor and had two balconies overlooking the town. There was a central piazza with four hotels surrounding it. One afternoon a group of three Jewish men in their black suits and hats arrived in the square with long green plant like objects and skullcaps that they proceeded to put on the male takers and just waved their hands around the women takers. It was all very strange and I don’t know if they received any money for the service.
The weather was perfect with temperatures of 27 degrees and balmy evenings for the time we were there.

There are many Turkish people here in Batumi and the Turkish border is only a few kilometres away.
Marijuana has been decriminalized but we could not smell any of it wandering around the streets during the day or at night only the usual cigarette smoke.

We spent most of the next day at the beautiful botanical gardens. They comprise 10hectares of hilly land overlooking the Black sea and over forty percent is dedicated to Asian plants and trees. The views from the park over the sea and the city were magnificent and although it was a fairly steep
climb it was worth the effort. We lashed out and went to the top of the Radisson hotel for dinner and were rewarded with lovely views of the city and the sunset.

On Tuesday we walked all along the promenade by the sea which took us a few hours. It is about 8kilometres long with plenty of benches on which to rest and many restaurants, bars and cafes on the seaside. We heard a lot of Georgian,Russian and Turkish spoken but heard no English or any other languarge at all. There were apparently 115 nations represented at the 43rd world chess championship but we only saw a group of four from the Philippines who passed by us with that emblazoned on their shirts. We wanted to visit the Roman ruins at Goinia Apsarus so took a Maxim taxi when we could walk no further. The area is being slowly excavated and the fortress is an impressive structure. It was started by the Romans but taken over later by the Byzantines and then the Ottoman empire. It was only four kilometers from the Turkish boarder.

We finished the day off with another good Georgian meal and some good fresh dry red wine in a quaint little restaurant and then visited one of the many casinos to see what they were like. The Golden Palace was not very opulent but the 40lari – about $20 netted me $95 lari. We were only there a short time anyway and the smoking allowed encouraged us to leave very quickly.
It was a lovely balmy evening and we walked back to our hotel to repack and get a good night’s sleep before heading for Kutaisi on the 0825 train the next morning. Strangely we could only buy tickets for the train
an hour before it departed so we made sure we were there in plenty of time. It poured overnight and was drizzling and cool when we left for the station. The sea was very rough and we could barely make out the city from the brand new train station. What a difference 12hours made. We were glad that we had such a day for travelling as we had seen the same scenery on the way into Batumi.

We realized why the train only cost Lari 2 (less than $1) for the 3hour 40min journey when it stopped about every five minutes on the way. It was however a very wide and quite comfortable old Soviet train with plenty of leg room. It chugged along with the smell of burning rubber every time the brakes were applied.
Sellers plied their goods up and down the aisles which included bread and snacks but we had never seen fresh fish being sold on a train before!

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Two negative aspects for us in Azerbaijan and Georgia was the number of smokers and the fumes from the old cars and trucks – a lot of them old Russian ones. After pristine Australia with it’s no smoking laws it was hard to walk around the streets without getting a lung full of smoke (every second person smoked) and many restaurants allowed smoking inside. The cigarettes are very cheap and plentiful. At least there was no smoking on the train which was a godsend as the only windows which could be opened were minute and these were locked before we reached the borders. The engines were turned off while they took their time so it was pretty stuffy and we were of course not allowed off the train even though the military were stationed outside.
The customs and immigration on both the Azerbaijan and Georgian sides on the train took forever.
The Azeri customs declaration asked whether we had over the allowed amount of everything but there was no guide with it to tell us what the allowed amounts were so we just answered no to everything.
We got back to Tbilisi by 11am on the 19th September.
We were only 1/2late coming back into Tbilisi and despite a bit of a derelict looking place from the outside our airbnb in the very centre of Tbilisi near Rustaveli Ave had high ceilings, was very tastefully appointed and everything we needed.
We found a lovely cafe just 20metres away and spent the day relaxing and then going for a couple of walks around that part of the city.
Our driver was there at 10am in the morning to take us across to the east to Telavi and Signaghi, a famous Georgian wine growing area.
We passed countless trucks laden with white and black grapes going to be processed. An abandoned former Russian military post looked like a war zone because when they departed they took every door and window with them leaving shells of building.
Our next stop was what they call a monastery but there were no monks just nuns so really a convent. Beautiful buildings and we were ushered into the quaint small orthodox church as a service was taking place. The handful of
nuns were singing and had the most beautiful voices so we were happy to stand there and hear them. A lot of renovations were taking place outside with many workmen. The nuns dress entirely in black and just have their faces uncovered. They were very sweet and welcomed us.
Our next stop was in Telavi which had the most amazing market selling wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables and everything else! The Georgians proudly told us that they grew everything except bananas and pineapples but we found some imported varieties in the supermarkets.
We bought Maurice some Goat’s cheese and some delicious bread before going to the newly opened King Erekle II museum which was built into the side of a hill and within the old palace walls. The renovated palace which was very simple in it’s design. Much of the objects were not behind glass which made it more accessible to see the items in more detail.
The large plane tree in Telavi was more than 900 years old and it was amazing to see it so vigorous with most of it’s trunk missing.
The Tsinandale palace museum was again a beautiful building without being ostentatious. It belong to a prince by the name of Alex Chavchavadze and was owned by the Romanoffs for 30years.
Our last stop before Signagh was Bodbe Monastery – another convent and large complex with a new church underway and being built on the side of a hill. The nun tending the garden was very friendly and like many people wanted to know from where we came. They had a large fruit and vegetable garden and two other nuns were harvesting apples.
We took all day to get to Signaghi which was only two hours from Tbilisi but it was a very enjoyable day taking in the lovely scenery and visiting so many places on the way.
Signaghi is a lovely small town with something similar to the great wall of China around part of the town. It reminded us of Italy in so many ways also. Interesting architecture and beautiful views down to the Alazani valley with the clouds and high Caucasus mountains in the background. Our Lia’s guesthouse was in a perfect position overlooking the town above and the valley and mountains in front of us. It only took us 5 minutes to walk into town and only 15minutes to walk down to the great wall with it’s round lookout towers. We could walk around the whole town in a couple of hours.
A few tourist buses arrived, one with Russian tourists and one with Chinese tourists but they were gone by late afternoon.
The temperature in the shade was quite cool but lovely and warm in the sun. Nights were quite cool. We left Signaghi the next morning after spending two relaxing days there and headed back to Tbilisi for the night before catching an early train (8am) to Batumi a holiday town on the Black sea.

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It took about four hours the next day to drive from Sheki to Naftalan and our lovely 5star Garabag resort for
a couple of days as a prelude for Maurice’s birthday. We had both come down with a stomach bug so were not able to
enjoy the place as much as we would have liked but it was nice to be sick in luxury. We managed a trip to Helenendorf as it was called or Goygol as it’s known today. It was a German settlement in the middle of the country from the early 1800’s until Stalin shot or deported them all to Siberia or Kazakstan where most perished.
It was sad reading all the plaques on the very German like buildings where the families had lived. They produced mainly wine and some beer while they lived in the areea.

We had never seen so many radar cameras, police check points and traffic police on the road ready to nab any driver for any reason. Vugar kept very much to the speed limits which changed constantly. It was an extremely safe country with virtually no crime. As Vugar said the only criminals were the politians and the police.
Someone flashed their lights at us so Vugar pulled up thinking something was wrong with a tyre but this man must
have seen foreigners in the car. He came and gave us a diatribe about a plaque on deer skin that he was trying to sell but he finally believed us that we couldn’t take animal skin into Australia. It was a first for Vugar and a first for us.
On our way back to Baku we passed many old cars loaded to the hilt with produce for the markets in Baku. I photographed one when we stopped at a service station and the man kindly gave the service station attendant an orange melon to give to us.
We found everyone that we approached very friendly and helpful especially the younger people.

There was a lot of lamb on every menu and I think the general population thought it strange that we were vegetarians. I had to hunt in Baku for a coffee machine but there were plenty of tea houses. There are no tea bags in sight only fresh tea, black or green brewed in pots.

Vugar drove us back to Baku and our lovely apartment in the old town. We went for a walk to clear the cobwebs and
ended up at the Bulvar Mall where we could have been anywhere in the world with all the branded shops.
We went to a roof terrace restaurant overlooking the Maiden tower virtually next door to where we were staying
after we made the three flights of stairs to the place to celebrate Maurice’s birthday.

Our airbnb hostess allowed us to stay in the apartment the next day as we were not leaving on the overnight train
back to Tbilisi until 950pm that night. We had a walk around the old town visiting the miniature book museum. One
lady had collect the largest number of miniature books in the world and some were the side of a pinhead.
We met Vugar that evening at ‘Vapiano’ an innovative Italian restaurant chain where fresh pasta was made every day.
The food was fresh and excellent and I could enjoy an Aperol Spritz to boot.

We caught the metro back to the central station and said our goodbyes to Vugar who had been an excellent driver and
guide. Azerbaijani customs and passport control boarded the train at 7am and we got into Tbilisi at 1030am that morning.

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We had to cover large distances 4-5hours driving to see various interesting areas. One being Quba region and the hill villages to the far north east of Azerbaijan. Again we went out of the city and through the desert to hills with some green and then into the mountains with lush forests. There were many areas in which to picnic and have food cooked and all over Azerbaijan were small stalls, cafes and restaurants even in the desert areas to service the locals and the many Russian tourists all over the country. We only heard a couple of German accents as we visited tourist areas otherwise they seemed to be Azeris or Russians.
We stopped at a local restaurant with small huts perched precariously over the fast flowing river below so we opted for the one next to the kitchen which was on firmer ground.

The following day the three of us set out for Kungut (pronounced Kunjut) Village near the city of Sheki in the
far north of the country towards the Caucasus mountains. Vugar stopped and bought us local bread and cheese.
The locals eat bread and many varieties of cheese for breakfast and nearly every meals starts with a basket of bread, a selection of cheeses and plates of tomatoes, fresh herbs and cucumber.
We went up to the mountain village of Lahic on the way with it’s lovely old architecture and where they
sold every kind of herb and spice, most of which I couldn’t identify and a lot of sheepskin products.

I didn’t know when I booked our accommodation above Kungut village that the last 10minutes was on a rocky road
which lead up into the mountainside. It was however a beautiful location and we were given a suite which overlooked the countryside below. In the early mornings we could hear the jackals answering the Iman’s prayers
which created a bit of a din for a while.

We ventured into Sheki the next day and Vugar stopped at a clinic to be checked over – he wasn’t feeling well
so we agreed we would just wait and see how long he would be. They gave him a script for some injections and he
asked me if I could give him the injections every day! Like in Italy it seems anyone can give you an injection.
I politely said no. The pharmacy manager spoke to us and also wanted to practise his English.
He wanted to know what it was like in Prague where he was going to move. He only earned about $200 a month in Sheki and could make $2000 a month in Prague. His wife was a nurse at the clinic and he introduced her to us.
They had two children but he was going to go on his own for a start and his wife was going to learn English in the meantime. He kindly said if we needed anything to let him know.

There were large areas of apple orchards everywhere and some apples that we tried were very tasty.
Towards evening there were many cows walking along the road or in the middle of the road towards their homes. We felt like we were in India again! There was also a lot of local honey produced and for sale along the
roads as well as sides of lamb and corn to be roasted.

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We awoke on the 10th September to desert, desert and more desert for the last few hours before Baku. On the train there was no food or drink except for a large urn with boiling water to make tea. We had eaten the night before and had taken a couple of bananas and as we were 2hours late and didn’t get in until 11am we ate those. The two ‘Ludmillas’ in our carriage had lightened up overnight and were our best friends by the time we departed.

We couldn’t imagine the city arising from the wasteland but suddenly we were in a very European type of
environment with beautiful architecture and a huge promenade and park along the Caspian sea. The city
was spotless with many people cleaning the roads ad emptying rubbish bins.
As a 90percent muslim country I expected it to be much more conservative than we found it.
There were very few headscarves and most people dressed in a western way.
When I asked our driver Vugar if I had to dress more modestly in the outer regions he said not at all and such was the case. Like Georgia it seemed to be a very secular and tolerant society. The older peopole however spoke little English like in Georgia but a lot of young people either spoke English or wanted to practise their English.

We had not heard much or anything really about Azerbaijan except for what we read online so we decided to
spend just ten days there otherwise if we were there for longer we would have to report to a police station
which wouldn’t have been a problem as they were everywhere. No one liked the President whose picture
was on large posters all over the country or the police who were corrupt and liked to stop cars willy nilly
to fulfil their budget. There was especially a heavy police and military presence before the 15th September,
Baku’s independence day when they were practising for the big parade. Maurice and I were lucky to witness it
with aircraft and helicopter flyovers, infantry and cavalry along the Bulvar promenade.

Unfortunately there was no ATM at the train station even though it was new and a state of the art facility.
I parked Maurice with the luggage and walked 5minutes to the 28 Mall down the road to an ATM. I then organised
a taxi (a dreadful driver as we found out) and managed to change my money into smaller denominations back at the
station and got our return tickets printed all within 1/2 hour so it was a good start.
Our lovely airbnb apartment was in the smallest street in the old town and in a very quiet location. A man in
from the carpet shop kindly helped us with our luggage.
There was a little boutique hotel opposite where I could get a good coffee in the morning and we had a parting
coffee there the day we left on Maurice’s birthday and they wouldn’t let us pay for it. The little Russian
receptionist was a fountain of information and even though we weren’t staying at the hotel he helped us with
the bags as we had a flight of stairs to the apartment.

The day we arrived in Baku we did another free walking tour, this time with Gani and it was excellent. There were only four of us on the tour – another Australian and a local who wanted to learn more about his city of just over
2.5million people.

We met our driver/guide Vugar the next day (who I had found on Indy Guides) and we did a day’s trip to Qobustan
about 70kms away to see the many Petroglyphs and interesting rock formations there before heading back to the
peninsula to see Atsegah a former Zoroastrian town. Yanadag was our last stop for the day where a continuous
fire burns on the hillside from the underground gas in the region.

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We were glad to reach Tbilisi having forfeited one night and a day’s tour with a driver. We download the Maxim taxi app so that we could avoid the thieves of taxi drivers at the airport who like to dupe the foreigners out of their money. We paid 15Lari instead of 50Lari.

We made the most of our day after leaving the bags in our nice new airbnb apartment.

We took the metro to the city and walked a long way up a hill before taking the very steep funicular stopping midway to see the church built into the side of the hill.
There was an enormous and opulent function/restaurant at the top and the views of the city were spectacular. We returned to the lower funicular station and walked down another hill passing run down but interesting old houses from pre soviet and soviet times. The courtyards of many of the communal houses were dotted with banana and other trees.
We ate our first Georgian dishes at a large restaurant/pub called ‘Bernard’ and we tried several dishes with local cheese and tasty Georgian bread. The cheap local wine was also very good. Prices were very reasonable for food and the local fruit and vegetables especially the tomatoes were delicious. Nicholas our driver the next day told us proudly that Georgia grows everything except for pineapples and bananas which are imported.
We caught the metro back to near our apartment and fell into bed, not having slept more than 4hours the previous night.

We had hired a driver the next day to take us the 2 1/2hours to David Gareja Monastery south east of Tbilisi. The drivers were erratic, impatient, beeping their horns incessantly and all in a hurry. The Georgians seem to operate at a very slow pace but once in a car that changes dramatically. Nicholas our driver was a fountain of information about Georgia in general and the drive passed quickly. The scenery along the way was of undulating steppes developing into stark mountainous areas with a beautiful variety of colours. The monastery and it’s position was amazing and we spotted a couple of monks perched amongst the caves high up on the mountain. On the other side of the hill was Azerbaijan.
We stopped at a local outdoor restaurant for a delicious lunch of trout, a spinach dish, eggplant with walnuts,
potatoes with onions and the tasty Georgian bread which seems to accompany every meal. Nicholas proved to be a
very genuine and pleasant person. All the people we met in the first couple of days in Tbilisi were friendly and helpful.

The Georgian people are very tolerant of other religions and races and there are synagogs, churches shared by Catholics, Baptists and Copts, one mosque and many Christian Orthodox churches. The largest one on a hill overlooking Tbilisi is known as the ‘oil and gas church’ because the Oligarch that built it their billionaire president who just wanted to outdo the previous ruler. Two large tubular buildings were close to completion as concert halls by the previous incumbent when he lost office to the Oligarch. Not wanting to continue with his predecessor’s work the Oligarch halted contruction and it has been lying idle for seven years. He also refused to live in the presidential palace and built a ‘James Bond’type of glass mansion in which he lives high on another hill.

We opted for a free walking tour of Tbilisi (Tbilisi Hack) and Mo an Iranian who had lived there for 18months was an excellent guide and gave us an interesting insight into Georgians and life in general in Tbilisi. We thoroughly enjoyed the 4 1/2 hours we spent walking up and around the city and visiting the various churches, fort, statue of Mother Georgia and also visiting the oldest bakery from the 1500’s where the bread is baked in a large round oven like a Tandoor. They had a variety of long Turkish type rolls filled with either cottage cheese, mushroom or cheese. Very tasty.
The very strange looking knobbly colourful sticks we saw everywhere were a sweet made from flour, honey and various nuts and spices and naturally coloured. Our guide suggested not to buy any that were hanging up as they would be covered in dust.
Nearly every corner has hole in the wall bakery which are not signposted. The aroma of freshly baked bread just leads you to the bakery.
Nicholas gave us the recommendation of a local restaurant which was in a building called Gallery Italia but the food was definately Georgian and very tasty. We caught the metro back to ‘Station Square’ and retrieved our bags from the storage facility which was an old container and caught the overnight train to Baku leaving at 2035. It was again a long night with long stops at both the Georgian and Azerbaijani border controls. Nobody operated at a fast pace so it was 0145 before we got going to Baku again. The border guards who photographed us took two hours longer than normal making us two hours late into Baku. Their machine didn’t like our Australian passports and they wouldn’t swipe so everything had to be entered manually. We were going to return to Tbilisi for a few weeks after our 10days in Azerbaijan.

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We flew from Chennai to Aurangabad with a connection in Mumbai on the 29th August 2018. I had always wanted to see the caves since seeing a documentary about them and thinking that they were such an amazing feat of construction so many centuries ago. They did not disappoint us.
We flew into Aurangabad and stayed right opposite the Ellora caves at the Kailas hotel, a basic but good place for it’s location. We could see the caves and a waterfall in the distance. The lovely Langur monkeys loped through the hotel grounds and I saw a cute mongoose on the lawn one morning.
We went first to the Ajanta caves about a couple of hours from Aurangabad and were glad that Mr Taqui our driver suggested we go first to the viewpoint high above the caves and walk down to them. It was a spectacular sight before
walking down the hundreds of steps to the Buddhist caves. We spent some time exploring the various caves and it was pleasant not going on a weekend when thousands of Indian tourists would be there.
Our last day there we spent going to the tomb of Malik Akbar an African slave who rose to be the founder of Aurangabad.
We were surprised when we visited Bibi al Maqbara which at first looked identical to the Taj Mahal although it was not made of marble and was not in a good state. Reconstruction work was underway to repair a lot of damage which had been done over the many years.
We had a wonderful Thali meal on the way to the airport and flew back to Mumbai and to our hotel the Hotel Residency in the fort area. The old section was not so good so we transferred for a few more rupees to their new wing which was excellent, only thing missing was a lift so luckily we were still fit and easily able to climb the two storeys to our room.
It was wonderful location to explore old Mumbai with its many beautiful colonial buildings from the British Raj times.
The Shivaji railway station, the Prince of Wales museum, the David Sassoon library to name just a few.
Interspersed with these buildings was a bustling city with great restaurants – The Savoury restaurant, the Burma Burma and near Chhowpati beach the Soam restaurant. Walking around the area we found food stalls, men cutting hair, transcribing clerks using old typewritters, dogs and men resting in front of buildings, fish deliveries from near the old Crawford market which
has been re-roofed and renamed. Next door to the hotel was a good hairdresser – $3 for Maurice’s haircut and a very good and efficient laundry also next door.
Despite the construction of a major metro link from Colaba to Bandra and Seepz we could walk down to Marine Drive where a cool breeze was blowing most of the time. We were pleasantly surprised to have cooler and less humid weather than in Chennai and Pondicherry.
We treated ourselves to the cinema – an old art deco one called the Metro Inox to see ‘Christopher Robin’ at the great cost of $4.50 for both of us.
The traffic situation at peak times is horrendous and a lot of it due to increasing vehicle numbers and the metro construction which causes much consternation to the taxi drivers.
We caught a taxi to Bandra on our last evening to have dinner in a Goan restaurant called ‘O Pedro’ with our friend Nidhi.
The journey to the restaurant took 1 1/2 hours and when we left it took us 30minutes to get back to the hotel.
We flew out of Mumbai on the 5th September for what should have been a short overnight stay in Doha however we ended up being there for another 15hours at the airport. I think Doha must have paid to rate it’s airport the best in the world because we didn’t find many redeeming features, finding Singapore a far better airport even before it’s 5th terminal is completed. The flight which should have left at 4pm on the 6th September to Tbilisi ended up leaving at 7.15am on the 7th September and we were shuttled backwards and forwards to the business class lounge three times.

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It was good to be back on home turf and the thing that made such an impression on re-entry was the deep blue sky, the stars at night and the clean, white sand beaches.
It was good to meet up with friends and relations again.
We were off to Albany 400kms south in my new red WRX after our first week at home and the good wide roads and lack of traffic made it very different from most of the travel in the UK, Ireland, Western Europe, Turkey and Morocco. The roads in Scandinavia were good and also with little traffic compared to most of the other countries we visited.
We had brought our campervan home and the only downside to that was that it was ransacked on the ship on the way over and the thorough underbody clean done prior to leaving the UK was substandard and had to be redone.
Once we had put that behind us and had the vehicle licensed, a gas and electric conversion done to comply with Australian standards and regulations we had it on the road again.
We visited friends in Lancelin overnight which had us travelling 125kms north to a seaside holiday town which also made us appreciate the tranquility and lack of people and traffic.
We undertook a major renovation of kitchen, laundry and added a breakfast bar to our house and had a few repairs (a new hotwater system)to do.
We had a few parties to connect with old and new friends and were able to show them what had been our home for six months for the previous 5years. We were amazed at the amount of construction which had taken place in the form of apartments and road/bridges and general improvements since we had been away. In places it was like being in a different city. We were tourists in our own city and we were impressed with what had been done with the centre of the city with a new development on the river.
We got the house back to our home again after having tenants for 6years and decided to have a housesitter when we went away again. The nice woman was the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Commissioner of Police so it was in good hands.

Our itchy feet and the desire to miss the winter in Perth saw us fly on the 14th May 2018 to Bali for a relaxing two week break. A friend Carol picked us up and came with us for a few days and we stayed on until the 30th May, meeting up with Perth friends who happened to be there, our friend Steve in Penestanan, our Russian friend Ksenia with her partner Feisal and lovely baby Fyodor, and my old friend Gustu in Seminyak.
We had one night in Singapore and decided to stay close to the airport (15minutes by taxi) at D’Resort on the East coast of the island overlooking the South China Sea.
We arrived in Chennai on the 1st June and stayed at our usual Grand by GRT and had a wonderful meal at the very innovative restaurant JHind in the hotel. We were collected by Amalraj our driver in the afternoon for our 3hour trip down to Pondicherry.
It was good to be back to Gratitude again. The weather was very hot 35degrees and very humid so it took a couple of days to aclimatise especially riding around on our bicycles in the middle of the day. The airconditioning was a welcome respite at first but we found the fans were a much better option when not too hot.
We had a day’s trip to Gingee King’s fort and managed to climb the 1200 odd steps to the top and the girls also managed the Queen’s fort which wasn’t quite so steep.
Maurice and I had a quick 3day break at the end of July to the Chettinad part of India about 5hours by car south east of Pondicherry. It was truly amazing to see the mansions, some restored, some being renovated and some in disrepair due to lack of funds of the present owners, descendants of the original Chettiar wealthy family who made their money mainly in Burma and the far east. We stayed in three different restored mansions and they were all beautiful.
The 3months in Pondicherry went at some times too quickly and at some times too slowly. The large amount of work I was trying to achieve and dealing with the staff took it’s toll so that I was glad to say goodbye on the 28th August. I did complete most of what I set out to do in the tasks I was given so it was with a sense of satisfaction when I left.
It was also good to connect with several friends we had previously made in Pondicherry and some newly found friends. We will miss them but know we will connect again somewhere in the world or back in Pondicherry when I return in February 2019. Maurice will go to his Ayurvedic centre then and then join me in March or go home and do some work!
During the stay Maurice got a new job with a previous supplier of ours and good friend. They worked together for many years so it will be an easy transition to do what he does best – sell something he believes in. It is a part time position and he can choose his hours which will sit well around our continuing travels, the main feature of our lives.

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