our great new year

Firstly I'd like to say, Happy New Year to all!

We've just got back from a great trip around a little bit of Italy and a little bit of Catalonia in the north of Spain.

Wow I love Barcelona and the history of Rome and the Vatican is just breath taking.

We landed in Rome on Christmas Eve, spent a couple of days checking out the sights and then flew out to Barcelona.

If you have not seen it before the Roman architecture is well worth it, however I must say I would not recommend Rome as a nice place to visit. Compared to Barcelona there were disturbingly many homeless people and quite an amount of filth. Service attitudes were about on par with Finland. An Indian Australian I bumped into in an internet cafe suggested that Florence was much nicer and he too thought "Rome was a dump".

To be fair we had a great experience in a small family restaurant walking between the Colosseum and the Pantheon. Food was great and service was also great.

Its just that Barcelona was so dam good that Italy seemed to be so second in comparison.

Naturally while in Catalonia we visited the Dali museum.

If you happen to be a fan I assure you that you won't be disappointed. But take your time, there's lots to see.

The town of Figueres is also worth a look, with great outdoor under cover markets and lots between the train station and the Museum.

The train ride from Barcelona was simple and cost 22 euro return. From the station just follow the signs and its only a short walk to the museum. As well as what you know, theres heaps of things you may not have seen before.




We also took a quick trip up into the Pyrenees and into France via Tour De Carol by train to Ax Les Thermes, which is a lovely villiage nestled in a valley prividing access to the ski slopes.



Though as you can see, there wasn't good snow there when we were there (despite it being January).

Anwyay, for a bunch of snapshots have a look at my Flickr show here.

PS ... As Noons has suggested the Sagrada just must have a mention. If you go, you simply must visit the museum underneath it. You'll learn heaps about the history of the building ... remember its still just a construction site, so its not a church yet.



and check out the details on the interior ceiling ... its just beautiful with embedded tiles providing a golden sparkle.



You look at something and see symbolism embedded in it at every level, its just stunning.

snowy christmas walk

We went for a short hiking trip to Niemipuro between Christmas and new year, we wanted to go there by skiing, but there just wasn't enough snow.

There is this nice little cabin there. The cabin is quite small, but this is an advantage in heating up the inside. When its -15°C outside its nice to be able to heat it up to above 10°C

Inside is quite dark (unlike the way it looks in my images lit by my flash) but is very comfortably (if spartanly) appointed.

One of the things which is fantastic in Finland (and I also found the same in Northern Sweden) is that people actually leave useful items (like candles, matches and tins of food) behind in the cabin. This can be handy if you happen to stumble in with not much.


Inside the cabin on the opposite wall from the door there is a raised platform which is intended for sleeping on. Keeping people off the floor is handy as it not only keeps sleeping bags warmer but cleaner!

As well, the platform is covered with 3mm thick high density foam just like many camping mats. So even if we didn't have our mats with us we'd have been able to sleep warmly enough.

I thought you might like a quick look around the inside the cabin. Looking back towards the door you can see there is a small bench table beside the window, a box of firewood and plenty of places to hang your gear.

Its nice that these places are right around the heating stove ...

which helps them dry out! There is enough room inside the cabin for 6 people to sleep.



The cabin is more or less on the bank of the river, so its not hard to then drag yourself out of the sleeping bag to admire a beautiful sunrise (assuming its not overcast like 99% of the days in Finland)

Hotel near Amber Fort

Of the places and hotels we stayed in, the one which I liked the most was near Jaipur called Amer View (no idea why not Amber view ... perhaps it was taken?)

While nothing much to distinguish it from the outside; the interior decoration, quality of rooms,
nice bathrooms and friendly staff were a nice change. As an Australian (and my partner is a Finn) tipping is not something customary. To us, the whole idea is just an indication that staff are not paid properly and need to pester visitors for a proper salary.

Here at Amer view we didn't get the "hanging around like flies" type of staff to carry your bag for 5 feet then stick their hand out for money. Sure, people helped and were friendly, but quickly turned off to go about other business before we could even think about getting money out (having been conditioned into tipping for meaningless tasks already)

One of the nice things there was the roof top dining (not really a restaurant, but the kitchen was up there too). It was refreshing to have dinner up there in the (relatively) cool breezes and enjoy the views of the town at night.

The food was well priced and the Kingfisher was cold!

Not much more that you can ask for after a days walkin around in the heat if you ask me. Well ... now that I mention it ... relief from the heat would be nice. I makes eating a big meal (and the food certainly deserved it) harder.

The interior was nicely (but sparsely) decorated with paintings of Rajasthan culturally significant icons.

Because of our "package tour", knowing the actual prices of the hotel is nearly impossible to guage. This is annoying as why shouldn't (as a consumer) I have some idea what things cost?

Actually this point is a common issue in India, hotels regularly seem to list one price on their WWW sites, but charge another when you walk up (or call from a local Indian mobile) and ask for the prices.

Back to the Hotel, the views from the roof top both day and night are great. Walking around the local area (up towards the fort) was not only visually, but filled with all sorts of great small food and fresh vegetable markets.

I really wish we'd spent more time here ....




So, if you go to Jaipur, I recommend this place to stay!

Indian travel

I thought I'd get this down before the belly was fully better and while the rash was still bothering me (so pardon the sarcasm if you will).

After my Oracle bootcamp we plannedto hang about, travel and see the main sights (like the Taj) in India. We initially thought we'd just wander about on a day by day basis, because trains were easy to get. However due to some turmoil in the regions (the gujjar protests over issues have crippled transport). So we engaged a local travel agent and made a 7 day plan.

The travel agent (not quite liars denied that there was any problem and dissmissed my assertions that there were any ... however lets not get into that issue here) made a plan with us which seemed pretty good.

• Leave New Delhi for Agra
• Spend one day / night there to see Tajmahal and red fort
• then on to Jaipur and Ranthambore national park for two nights
• then return to New Delhi and fly home.

Seemed reasonable and minimized the time in travel. Sadly (after we'd paid and settled the payment of account) they came to our hotel late at night (just as I was retiring) with a 'revised plan' ... double back everywhere, spend more time in the car, less time at locations, be hassled and not get to spend more than one night anywhere. The bastards. Still, you get used to the lying and cheating in India .. (so I'm told).

If I had my time again I'd force them to cancel the contract and start again with a new plan in which they actually acknowledged the things I knew were happening in the political landscape. Still 20:20 hindsight is wonderfully clear .... other travellers we spoke to said that this re-negotiation after the contract happened to them, so perhaps its common practice. So if you're negotiating anything over there be firm ... no be so firm as to nearly be rude. Seems to be the way there.

Traveling in India is unlike traveling in most other countries I've been to (Australia, Canada, South Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia, Finland, England). Using taxis for longer journeys actually works out not much dearer than a train when longer trips are called for. For example for about 1000 rupee we could have a taxi for an entire day tripping or traveling. Considering that a sitting train fare for about the same distance was 700 rupee its not worth hassling with trains if you are traveling in a pair or a group.

So, our trip (including hotel accommodation) was about 28000 rupee for the two of us for 7 nights. This is not a bad price (remember we were already in India, so no international flights are part of this). You also need to consider how hotels are ... things are NOT the same as in Europe, Nth America or Australia. Some things are just that little different. For example, you won't see much of this on the brochures






so remember you really do get what you pay for ... sometimes less '-)

However, since you're now going in with your eyes more open, I can say that my trip was generally wonderful and we had a great time. Especially Ranthambore, Amber fort and Jaipur was the nicest part of the experience.