We left Crete and spent 1night at Tina’s apartments only 15minutes from Athens airport. They have a very convenient free shuttle service from Athens Airport. We flew to Mumbai on Etihad via AbuDhabi. We stayed at the airport hotel in Mumbai also for 1night. It is very conveniently situated right next to the airport within easy walking distance. It was easy to get an Indian Sim card for 1month for Aud6 which we could then recharge for the same amount each month. Unfortunately there is no ATM inside the airport (only outside) so we make sure we keep some tip money with us till we arrive in India.
The 2hour something flight from Mumbai took us to Trivandrum airport in Kerala and it was then a 45 minute drive from there to the Advanced Healing Centre of Ayurmana Dharma where we stayed for 1month. Maurice is like a new person when he leaves as they know how to treat his Rheumatoid Arthritis after many years of attending the centre. He has the same therapists.
I had two lovely female therapists who came from Meghalaya in north eastern India.
With two treatments a day and the doctors checking blood pressure and blood sugars we felt very looked after. The senior doctor Maya came every second day to discuss treatments and progress. It was good to have three weeks treatment and then a week to recuperate.
I had another MRI there for my fractured vertebra which seems to be somewhat healed. The compressed herniated discs are more of a problem with sciatic pain which mostly only bothers me at night thank goodness. Patients are encouraged to stay within the centre and all our meals are served to our rooms as the doctors want patients to concentrate on their health and not social gatherings with other patients. You do meet people walking up and down the path
Within the centre and while waiting for treatments in the communal area which is fine. Yoga is at 630am every day and evening meditation is also available most days.
We did leave only once to Trivandrum on my birthday – one to have my suitcase fixed which had been damaged at the airport and two as it was my birthday we went with a driver to the Lulu Hypermarket – the
Largest mall in Southern India. It was like other malls around the world with even a little motorised train running around the mall for children. The food court was impressive with foods from all over India and we opted for a Masala Dosa (a large type of pancake with a spiced potato filling) We didn’t do much damage to our Ayurvedic diets with just that and each a juice.
We both left feeling much refreshed.
We arrived in chennai after a two hour flight and spent the night at the well appointed Raintree hotel on Mary Road and met up with our lovely friend Shoba, who was born in New Zealand of South Indian parents and who has lived in India for ten years. It was great to catch up and have a meal with her.
Our next stop was to Kariappa house in Tamil Nadu to look after the property for the owners.
Kakoli went to Delhi to look after her sick mother. The main job is to see what needs doing in and around the property and to keep the staff on their toes which is sometimes a job in itself.
I prepare the fruit for breakfast otherwise some guests are there at 830am which is the start of breakfast time and not everything is ready. I check the rooms and find walls that need repairing
And switches and mats that may not be clean and need changing. It is a constant reinforcing of normal household practices. Most staff are pleasant and do their jobs but some are not so willing to work. They have a lot of rest times when the guesthouse with it’s 15rooms isn’t busy.
Weekends and holidays have been very busy with sometimes 26people staying and who are able to also order meals in advance. Breakfast of fruit, toast, croissants, jam, peanut paste, eggs of every kind and an Indian dish is always served from 830-1000am.
I find the maintenance issues that need doing and implement them.
There have been several temple festivals, one temple being right next to the property and they are extremely loud affairs with severe drumming and Sarajevo type fireworks and crackers seemingly shaking some rooms. Large bamboo structures are erected with lights in various patterns and a large float heavily decorated with branches and flowers and priests on board and followers who parade it around the streets. Thank goodness the last one ended yesterday.
There have been several maintenance issues resolved but with any older style building or even newer there are always issues with paintwork, woodwork, plumbing and electrical to name a few.
We also look after the two lovely cats at Kariappa house while Kakoli is away and two dogs all of them rescue pets.
Rara has one eye. The other lost to infection before she was rescued. Didi is his sister but he tends to bully her. The dogs Jazzy the labrador and Cassie the very cute bitzer tend to chase the cats so there is a schedule for the cats being out and then the dogs and then the cats again.
I have been doing a lot of food preparation as one long term guest was writing his Phd and didn’t really want carbs for lunch and Vanaja the cook usually cooked something with rice. I made a lot of protein plant based food which he enjoyed. I wrote a lot of the recipes out so that Vanaja could replicate them for Kakoli when she came back.
We went out with our friends a couple of times and to the very good Coromandel restaurant and Cafe Veloute otherwise we ate healthily at the guesthouse. We did go to Kamatchi Veedu for my favourite Egg Biryani and then to the Kulfi shop for my favourite guava kulfi dusted with chilli powder.
Kariappa house have an electric bike here which Maurice made good use of going to Grindes a shop selling all sorts of European foods and to pick up or drop things off for me. My back didn’t allow me to ride a bike so I either walked a few kilometres or took an auto rickshaw to where I was going which was mainly into the so called “white town” to one of the several cafes there.
We have only had a couple of nights of heavy rain otherwise it has been very hot and humid.
Thank goodness for the 20mtr pool. I have been using it to walk back and forth for my back. It is thankfully a lap pool so the same depth about a metre and a half deep for the entire pool.
We caught up with all our Pondicherry friends on various days. Some we had seen last year and some not for the last five years. Iffat Nawas had published her first novel in 2022 and we were very happy to receive her first paperback edition when we saw her.
Viviya another friend had won a prestigious construction business award and an old guest had also published a book in French that she wants me to read.
After six weeks here we were ready for our stay to come to an end and move on to Chennai on the 30th August for the night before flying to Bali for a couple of months. One month in total in Penestanan and one month in Candi Dasa by the sea.
We spent four days in beautiful Ljubljana at the Airbnb “Barbo Palace apartments” which was an old palace with the only double staircase in Ljubljana and in a pedestrian street The manager was a very helpful and had to help us with our luggage as the “Kavalier” golf type vehicle stopped working at 8pm. Any further transfers cost 30euros but that was not possible the night we arrived. Ljubljana is a very easy small city to walk around apart from the cobblestones which gave Maurice grief. We had to look for streets without cobbles, not easy.
We met up on a couple of occasions with Maurice’s buddies from the Ayurvedic clinic Janja, Primoz, Ingrid and Sandra as well as the birthday girl Jenny for breakfast.
The markets there we remembered were some of the best we had seen anywhere in Europe and there was also a Friday food festival on the go too. We had two delicious meals at the Michelin starred ‘Altroke’ in the old town and another oldy worldy one ‘Ljulja’ also down the road from Altroke. Breakfast with Jenny at “Le Petit Cafe” and another good meal with Janja and Primoz there as well. The weather on the whole was kind to us with only a spattering of rain a couple of times for May.
We had booked a local bus from Ljubljana to Lake Bled for the princely sum of 2euros each. We just had to leave our hotel and walk the bags up a short way to where we got a taxi which took 10minutes to the bus station. It was worth checking at the ticket counter as our online tickets were not good enough so they issued us paper ones and gave us where to find the bus.
It only took 1hour from Ljubljana to Lake Bled and our Airbnb hostess met us at the nominated bus stop and helped us with our luggage again and up two flights of stairs to our lovely spacious apartment for 4days which overlooked the mountains on one side and the Castle of Lake Bled on the other side.
Jenny’s 60th birthday was a week’s long celebration starting in Ljubljana and ending in Lake Bled.. Firstly a get together in her share airbnb in Lake Bled with 25guests to get to know each other. The guests were from Australia, Italy, and Germany. A wonderful breakfast/brunch was supplied by a local company who left two large boxes with everything from cereal and yoghurt to a variety of drinks and breads and cheese, sausage and fruit. It was a feast. The following day we met to walk around the lake and in the evening we took over a great pizza restaurant. On Wednesday night Jenny most generously treated us to drinks overlooking the elake followed by a delicious dinner at the castle in Lake Bled which was wonderful and so well organized by Jenny. Jenny connected with a couple who had just
Eloped from the USA and were enjoying a quiet dinner near us in the restaurant.
Maurice and I left the next day by the GoOpti shuttle bus to Ljubljana airport where we were picked up by our host for a small fee to his airbnb only ten minutes from the airport.
Early the next morning we were delivered again to the airport for the Turkish airlines flight
To Athens.
We stayed close to the airport for the night at “Tina’s apartments” a very handy series of airbnbs also ten minutes from the airport. They have a free pick up and drop off service which is very handy. The next morning we flew with Aegean airlines on an A320 from Athens to Chania (pronounced Hania) on the west side of Crete. We picked up a hire car and drove the ½ hour
To our wonderful airbnb apartment The “Idene Penthouse” which was very close to the old
Town of Chania and its harbour. Chania is a charming city with excellent restaurants, cafes
And lots of interesting alleyways to explore in the old part of the city.
We met up with our friend Lumi and her husband Dimitris for a lovely seafood dinner by the
Fishing harbour. Everything was only 10-15minutes away from where we stayed. Lumi had recommended several restaurants and we tried out “Taman” in a narrow laneway and “The well of the Turk” both excellent restaurants and very reasonable compared to restaurant prices in Perth.
Our favourite place was having breakfast sitting at the Fishing Club restaurant overlooking the fishing harbour. It was so serene and relaxing early in the morning.
One day we drove along the coast to some of the best beaches of Balos Bay and Falasarna passing many resort complexes along the west coast. The bakeries along the way had the most delectable pastries and breads and we sampled some on the way.
On the way back we headed inland into the mountains to Topolia Gorge which was a popular tourist spot. We spied an interesting little restaurant on the way back to the highway overlooking the valley below. We ordered a Cretan salad which is similar to a Greek salad with with crumbled feta over crunchy bread pieces..
After four nights in Chania we took the road up into the mountains again and arrived at the Arcadi Monastery and for a few euros we saw the most beautifully kept monastery and gardens enclosed by high walls. There were arbors of grapevines and large amphoras filled with stunning roses and flowers. The ancient monks quarters consisted of two small rooms.
Part of the monastery was a museum of the old refectory, kitchen and a small shop to buy icons etc. There was also a cafe on the grounds. Our next stop was the archaeological site of Phiasto which was in a beautiful mountain top site. Of course all the ancient palaces and churches had
The best locations high above the land below.
Our next stop was Rethymno old town with a large Venetian fortress on the point leading into the town. It had a myriad of laneways with tourist shops but only one cafe that we could find in the main square. We stayed long enough to find the Venetian fountain and left soon after.
We decided on the longer route to Heraklion over the mountains for a few days staying at the “Athinaikon” which was only a 15minute walk to the old town with a multitude of cafes, bars and restaurants. It was a two star hotel but had everything we needed and they supplied a wonderful breakfast. The staff were excellent too and the building has a lift. Heraklion is the capital and is also on the water but it didn’t have the charm of Chania for us. We used some time there for the hairdressers and both had a pedicure which was double the price of one in Australian. The hair treatments were by contrast much cheaper.
A good coffee shop was also just down the road from the hotel.
One day we visited the archaeological site of Knossos. It is an enormous site and a lot
Has been reconstructed but some of it was done in concrete which is now slowly being replaced with the original mortar used. We made sure we were there when they opened at 8am and we were gone about 10am when the tour buses started to arrive. Our last lunch in Heraklion was at Herbs garden a rooftop restaurant above a hotel over looking the harbour and water.
Leaving Heraklion we took the coast road to Sitia another beautiful old town with a gorgeous harbour and beach. We stayed there one night leaving our large suitcases for our planned
Trip for a week to Kasos island which was very close (a 20minute flight away). It unfortunately went terribly wrong. Our hire car was dropped at Sitia airport and Maria our airbnb host picked
Us at the small airport. Most of the roads on the island were not in good shape which we saw as we made our way up from her parking area up to the large blue and white house. We were supposed to have a ground floor unit with a view and an enclosed garden but what we got was
A substandard apartment up a steep flight of stairs which was not good for either of us.
There was broken fly wire and many things broken and after we had gone for a walk to the
Unkempt beach area with broken lielows we decided this was not for us. The meal choices
Were also not great apart from our breakfast on the last day from a lovely well kept cafe, restaurant. We gave our airbnb host the bad news but she knew she was in the wrong but
Also said we had already paid a 50% deposit which was true. I wrote many emails and called
Booking.com but they said we had to deal with her even though what should have been our
Apartment was shown on the booking.com site. Anyway we cut our loses and were luckily able to change our flight to the next day and the Elysee hotel could give us a seaview room from
The next day as well. Not a good host at all but in the end we stayed in the best town of Sitia
For ten days.
The Elysee Hotel also offered a good breakfast which was included and the staff were brilliant. We had a balcony and a sea view of the harbour and waterfront. There was a myriad of cafes and restaurants along the seafront and we tried several of them. All the food was excellent but our favourite was Da Giorgio right in front of our hotel and which also offered us 10% as we stayed in the Elysee Hotel. We enjoyed the best traditional Greek desserts at Mitsikakis which had been going for 3generations as had many of the establishments.
I had an iced coffee every morning from our favourite bar and they gave me a complimentary 500ml water every time. In the evening I started with an Aperol Spritz and Maurice a virgin Mojito which were half the price of at home in Perth. We will go back to enchanting Crete. Next stop India.
Next stop was Taiwan. We were surprised at the lush green trees covering the hills on the way into Taipei on the fast train from the airport. We stayed in an excellent airbnb in the popular Wanhua district which was very quiet by day but buzzing at night with tourists and locals alike. There seemed to be a lot of Chinese, whether from the mainland or locals enjoying the many street vendors in the area. We decided on the hop on hop off to get our bearings although the commentary was very hit and miss and did not pause at stops long enough but if you stayed on it was a good way of seeing the whole city and surrounds.
It departed from exit D outside the main station and just opposite the station in the other direction was the bus station with four floors underground and one enormous floor for food only. It was very clean and neat and the variety of food available was endless.
It was not far 20minutes walk to go to Chiang Kai Cheks memorial Hall where we just made the on the hour changing of the guard which was very impressive. Only when we had walked up the many steps with difficulty did we find out there was a lift so took that down to the ground floor where there was a beautiful display of art and orchids.
The series of Blue and white and traditional buildings were very impressive.
After going to the Haidilao 1000 seat restaurant in Beijing I decided we should try the one in Taipei which was also a short walk away. It was not as big a restaurant but the service,10min show by one man and the food was well worth the trip. The hotpot was mild on one side for Maurice and hot and spicy for me. The robots delivered some of the vegetables to go into the hotpot and the noodle thrower comes to the table and throws and throws the noodles until they are quite small to put into the hotpot. It is a fun experience. Free biscuits sand Haagen Das Ice cream completes the meal. We waddled out of there to waves by the staff. One early morning I got a bus (wonderful service with wifi and toilets an air conditioning) from Ximen station to go to the Jiufen Qingyun temple about 2hours from Taipei. a stunning work of art and I could even get a good coffee in a hotel up the road. It was a lovely trip up into the mountains and I could see the sea in the distance. From there I backtracked a bit by bus and train to the Houtong Cat Village which the locals have cleverly repurposed as a place to photograph and be photographed with cats and buy a myriad of cat designed products. The cats have all been neutered and are fed by the locals. It was an old coal town and they have a very good museum about the old coal production on the other side of the train tracks. It was hot in May but pleasant enough to walk around. Unlike what China used to be when alighting the bus or train everyone lined up and it was very orderly getting on and off transport and Maurice was offered a seat everywhere we went.One night we felt an earth tremor and were glad it didn’t result in anything worse.
It was a ten minute ride in a taxi back to the main station gate A to get the high speed train back to the airport a few days later to fly to Singapore for a few days.
Booking dot com mucked up our airport to city transfer. In future we would get Uber or normal taxi We stayed at the very convenient Quay hotel around the corner from Boat Quay. It also had a 711 store next door and a wonderful Michelin starred Thai restaurant on the other side. It was also only a ten minute walk to Chinatown Mrt station. We opted for a Michelin recommended Monster food tour which started outside the MRT station and Starbucks. We braved the rain and visited three hawker food complexes and sampled plenty of delicious tours. William our older guide was a fountain of information and did the tour with aplomb. In the few years that we have not been to Sinapore it has really been greened with lots of plants in and around the large hotels and government buildings. We caught an early morning taxi booked by the hotel for our next flight to Istanbul.
We got a taxi from the airport which proved a bit problematic as the road to our hotel was blocked off for good as a large stone wall was starting to lean. Luckily our lovely man from the Obahan hotel which we had used on a previous visit galloped down and Carried both suitcases into the hotel. This hotel offers the most comprehensive breakfast we have ever experienced and is in a quiet area below a mosque and a ten minute walk from the main square outside the Blue Mosque. We had done all the major tourist sites like the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, the Topkapi Palace and the amazing Cistern. We instead took the tram to a wonderful viewpoint on a new tram line at Eminomou station right near the Galati Bridge. Unfortunately it was a Saturday so when we got to the cable car to take us up the the high point we were queued up for about an hour and a half but it was well worth the wait. It went up over and just above an old cemetery. There was a large cafe overlooking Istanbul and part of the harbour so we enjoyed some lunch and had a wander around the suburb at the back of the cafe.
Another day we took the tram from Eminonou over the bridge to the Galati Tower which was closed for renovation. We wandered around the area and ended near the port at a little hole in the wall selling the most delicious fish wraps. They had been recommended and didn’t disappoint. One evening we met Gavin who also happened to be in Istanbul at the same time and who was going to Jenny’s 60th bash in Slovenia at Lake Bled.
Another day and another tram took us over to Taksim square and up in the lift to the square. Here we caught the very old tram (soon to be replaced and put into a museum) to the end of the line and we caught another tram half way back and walked back to Taksim square and caught the tram back to. The weather in May was pleasantly warm with nights to sit outside comfortably.
Another interesting time in Istanbul and off to the airport for our Turkish airlines flight to Ljubljana.
We have decided to not do long flights if at all possible so we decided on a few days in Kuala Lumpur,leaving Perth on the 28th April. The time zone is the same as Perth and then onto Japan where there are only an hour ahead of Perth so we arrived refreshed to stay with Maurice’s son, wife Yuko and her parents at their home in Yokohama about 1 1/2hours from Tokyo.
Yoko, Yukos mother treated us to delicious meals. The weather was cool and called for jackets and scarves. We visited Sankeien Garden which features many historic buildings that have been transported there as well as beautiful gardens. Craig and Yuko, Kazuo and Yoko and we departed to the western mountains via beautiful Mt Fuji and had a couple of days in old towns like Narai-juku and spent a couple of nights at Nezame and visited the lovely Akasawa recreational forest where we had a cute 15minute train ride before walking back through the cedar forest. This was during Golden week which occurs 29April-5th May and contains many public holidays so there were many local tourists especially at the enormous service centre off the highway at Suwa. We returned to Yokohama and had excursions to the Motomachi shopping area and the Yokohama Bay area where it cost me $12 for a flat white with 2shots. They charge the whole coffee double if you have another shot. Lesson learnt there. Yuko and I ventured to Planet Team lab an enormous interactive experience which involved wading through knee deep water as well. We later had a delicious Monja-yaki different from the also delicious Okonomiyaki which we had another night at the same hole in the wall we visited a few years ago in Yokohama. We also caught up with Yukos brother, wife and three children who were happy with the presents I had brought from Perth.
Japan is such a beautiful, orderly country with extremely polite locals and amazingly innovative and technically advanced products and methods and trains which run perfectly on time.
We found food to be quite reasonable and a 8course lunch in a private room with impeccable service and drinks came to $45 a head.
We also had a wonderful endless meal at Yukos cousin’s restaurant/bar in Tokyo where we had countless dishes turned out from a tiny kitchen.
We left Yokohama the next day via the train to Tokyo airport. It was lovely spending time with the family again. Craig and Yuko will come at Christmas again so that made us happy.