Colombo – Sri Lanka

Another interesting city with horrendous traffic conditions, as we knew almost nothing about Colombo we thought that we would do a Princess tour to a tea plantation.

It was a very long drive about 3 hours each way and only about an hour at the plantation/factory, nothing like what was described on the Princess tour brochure, it was an interesting drive through the countryside up into the hills.  The factory itself was an education, it was interesting to see what other countries do about OH&S, they have none.     Workers with bare feet, sticking their hands into machines while they are running, of course we were not told about accident rates or the like, but you can just imagine.

We were then able to go into the fields to watch the girls pick the tea and then we had a cup of tea, but not from the plantation, I think they had been to the supermarket and bought tea bags, anyway it did make for an interesting day.

Mumbai – India

In Mumbai were we on a privately organised tour of about 30, we visited all of the tourist sights in Mumbai, which included the Gandhi House, Hanging gardens Taj Mahal Hotel, Dhobi Ghat, Chowpatty Beach and much more.  All I can say is that Mumbai is very different to any other city we have ever visited. 

We were very lucky that the day was not all that hot, although it was quite humid.   I had expected a very dirty smelly city and was surprised that it was not all that bad, yes it was dirty and very noisy, but when you think that almost as many people that live in Australia, live in the area of Mumbai, what can you expect?

We found the city interesting and vibrant with lots going on, the traffic is horrendous, but we survived it.

Salalah – Oman

A city of contrasts.

Again we found our guide Akmed waiting for us, and he had a good grasp of English.  We started by going west from Salalah and saw the rugged coast with blowholes and Frankincense trees, the sap of which is converted to exotic perfumes and oils.

Travelling to the east of Salalah we passed camels running free along the side of the road before passing miles of empty camping grounds which we were told was the holiday area of Salalah locals ~ strange I thought, you can see the city and suburbs of Salalah from here….

We headed out of town up into the hills and witnessed an extreme change of climate, Salalah was in the rugged desert, a few miles up the road we were in what felt and looked like the tropics.

We also visited Job’s tomb, a site of religious significance, where we were surprised to find, very little, given its significance.

Lunch was in a local restaurant where an Indian meal was served; David tried mine then decided to get some of his own and actually enjoyed it.

Aqaba

Since booking this trip we had always planned on going to Petra.  Most of you have probably never heard of Petra, but you may recognise it as the ancient city in the Indianan Jones movie: The last crusade.  

Many people had advised us to take a cart down to the treasury, but as it was fairly cool (only about 34c, when we set off), we decided to walk.  It is about a 500-metre walk to the entrance of the Siq, the Siq itself is just over two kilometres long and is a narrow gorge, which resulted from a natural splitting of the mountain.  At the end of the Siq it opens up onto Petra’s most magnificent facades, the treasury or Al Khazna, which rises to almost 40 metres high, it is really an

amazing sight as you enter from the Siq.  

Our group then set off to our restaurant where we were to have lunch. We knew it was within the area of Petra, but we did not know how far it was.  Our tour guide told us it was another 15 minutes walk, so we all set off again.  As it turned out it was about another 2.5k to the restaurant, and took most of us at least another 40 minutes as it was along a very uneven track, we passed many more wonderful carved sights along the way, and finally made it.  The only problem was that we had to walk the 5k back to the bus and it was now nudging about 40c.

As you will see from the photos we caught donkeys back to the treasury, and then a horse drawn cart, which was very bumpy, so bumpy it was hurting David’s back and I couldn’t stop laughing all the way back.   Anyway we made it back to the bus on time, Petra is defiantly worth a visit.  It was hard going and very very hot, but I am so glad that we did it.