Souk Al Majarra (as was in 2000), now the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization
Wednesday 5 April 2000 – Rose early to play tennis – had brekkie and lounged by pool all day! Took early dinner at hotel (La Bais restaurant) where we both had duck. I had a trio of chocolate thing for pudding. Early night.
Thursday 6 April 2000 – Rose early, played tennis and lounged by pool. Caesar salad lunch!. Gave up on pool a little early to get 4:15 Wafi bus and then taxi from Wafi to Sharjah. Got dropped off at naff Gold Centre rather than gold souk – quickly legged it to gold souk (also known as Blue souk). Bought two pairs of earrings for Daisy.
Then on to Souk Al Majarra which we thought might have old things but was mostly “fashions” in the Middle Eastern context. Then on to cricket pitch where we just walked in and saw/photographed Emirates Airline versus Mashreq Bank in the Bukhatir League!
Farcical search for recommended restaurant with dim taxi driver. We all gave up about 20 yards from the spot (it looked naff anyway as we zoomed past it in another cab) and headed for Automatic in Dubai, where I tried the mixed grill while Daisy stuck with shawarma.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Rose early, played tennis had breakfast and lounged by pool. Caught 6:15 [pm] Wafi bus – looked around Wafi shopping mall (yuk, but bought some CDs).
“Precisely which CDs did you buy?”, I hear many readers cry.
I’m glad you’ve asked me that question. These two albums, which Janie and I used a lot to help make up playlists for parties in the early 2000s. I have replicated the tracks from both into a YouTube playlist, which you can access through this link or the picture links below.
Took a taxi to “fake souk”, Souk Al Kararia, where we bought a designer shirt for £8, designer tie for £2 – subsequently discovered that it goes with my [Catalan] cardi! And three designer watches at £9 each. Then on to Golden Fork for dinner where the seafood was good and the service defied description. Taxi home.
The purpose of the “designer” shirt and “designer” tie was to enable me to comply with the dress code for dinner at the Burj Al Arab’s Al Muntaha Restaurant, which we had booked for a few days later.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Rose early – played tennis and then had super breakfast (amazing muesli!). Sat round small pool for morning – washed and changed – then went on bus tour with guide Ali and driver Farooq. Saw hotels (Jumeirah Beach, Arab Tower), the Jumeirah Mosque…
…and drove through town, city centre, silly stops, then went round museum of Dubai (old Fort)…
Silly stops means those unwanted shopping opportunities that might occasionally work with some people, but simply waste time with me and Janie!
…then went to pick up water taxi – saw sites from creek…
…dropped off at spice souk – then walked to/through gold souk. Finally fish/veg Sukh and we said goodbye to tour (not too soon)
…and went off on our own to Riqqa Road. Walked to restaurant strip and settled on Automatic restaurant for shawarmas (very good) and juice.
This picture of us at Automatic a few day’s later when we returned there.
Early night.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Rose early to see sunrise, then after breakfast sat around pool until time to leave. Short tour of Pokhara plus last minute shopping (got the tongs!) on way to airport.
Kept waiting around at Pokhara airport for a nerve wrangling 2 1/2 to 3 hours with various excuses, etc. Got away just in time to make our connection at Kathmandu, where we were searched more times than I can ever remember. Long wait at Delhi for luggage etc. Got to hotel just in time to chow down (tandoori and tikka chicken rice, daal etc) and lie down for a couple of hours before…
Sunday 2 April 2000
…rising at 1:15 am! to head back to airport. Emirates flight from Delhi to Dubai could win awards for worst meal and least comfort – so much for Emirates!
Arrived at Ritz Carlton at 8:00 to 8:30 local time. We take some breakfast and then get given a naff room. We wash, go meet our local rep, eat her brain and sign up for tomorrow’s bus tour. By the time that’s done, we’ve been allocated a great room. We spend the middle of the day by the beach. I fell asleep for less than an hour covered in factor and still red as a beet! Avoided sun for the rest of the day (sat in shade) and went to Splendido for dinner where we had lobster bisque, lamb fillet (Janie), veal chop (me) and were stuffed by halfway through the main course!
This picture of us in Splendido, actually from our last night, not our first.
Early night.
You can see all the pictures from that final leg of our journey on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Either Hari or Ming drew us a map of the walk to Kafalgari, which we were about to undertake that morning.
…off on another short walk for circa 2 km, circa two hours, through Kafalgari Village and accompanying flora and fauna.
Rest up for the rest of the morning (Janie wants another go at bagh-chal, unusually). Lightish lunch of Nepalese style. Spent afternoon relaxing around (but not in) the pool.
Early supper of a chilled tomato (almost gazpacho) soup, beef and fresh vegetables followed by banana thing. Quick game of bagh- chal with Romie before early night.
One abiding memory of the stunning Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge was the rather set, almost regimented way of the place. The staff seemed most put out that Janie didn’t want to dine sitting around a large table with all the other guests, because “that’s the way we do things around here”.
In some ways, I think we “mended” with the in-house team through learning bagh-chal. I have my bagh-chal somewhere at the flat still, probably under the bed. I expect Janie would be horrified at the thought of having a go at the game again, 25 years later. She’s not a great lover of those sorts of games.
You can see all the pictures from that lovely day on the Flickr album linked here and below.
Another splendid Yak and Yeti breakfast before checkout and short flight to Pokhara.
Arrived at Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge well before lunch. Nepali style lunch, then short siesta before taking a 4 km 2 1/2 hour walk through neighbouring village Kandanidada and observing the local flora and fauna.
The village is mainly Brahman and the people very friendly. We are invited into many homes etc. Our guides are Hari and Ming. Hari teaches English to local children so is well known to the villagers.
Either Hari or Ming drew us a map of the walk we had just done:
Home just before dark for showers, spray, change and excellent dinner and learning bagh-chal (tiger and goats). Earlyish night – “Geddo zonked”.
You can see all the pictures from that lovely day on the Flickr album linked here and below.
The printed itinerary tells you all…indeed probably more than you want to know about the relentless touring we did on the preceding day and on this one. Described as a half day of touring, our second day around these parts felt even more intensive than the day of touring the day before…perhaps because they were trying to cram it all in to half a day.
Bhaktapur, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath were the three areas involved.
We took loads and loads of photos – about 120 of them ended up in our Kathmandu album, which is, in itself, a pretty good diary of our touring, as I labelled the photos well on our return and transposed those labels onto Flickr. You can review those through the Flickr link here or the picture link below.
Here are the words from my log for 29 March, with some sample pictures, to give you a taster.
1st stop: Bounhanath – huge Buddhist stupa. Saw beautiful Buddhist temple by side. Quiet and peaceful. On next to Pashupatinath, sacred Hindu temple on the banks of stagnant but holy by Bagmati River. Amazing monkeys and sadhus (mostly fake I think) but no actual cremations to be seen
On next to Changunarayan – stunning Hindu site not far from Bhaktapur. Achuote irritated Jamie beyond even yesterday’s heights with long-winded explanations on all of Vishnu’s manifestations.
I had forgotten about our Kathmandu guide, Achuote, and his “attention to detail”. Janie tends to give guides lots of clues, to the fact that she is not interested in ALL THAT MUCH detail and that I tend to mug up in advance, from the guide books. That we like to tour at our own pace and that we prefer to ask questions rather than have everything explained in depth. The best guides get it straight away, most guides get it with just a little prompting, but occasionally we’d get a guide like Achuote who was determined to spew out every detail he had learned about everything on our itinerary.
On to Bhaktapur – went to Peacocks for lunch – on through our town old town – saw Peacock window – more temples and stupas. Durbar Square then back to car.
Got pulled over on the way home as the king was going to pass (this is becoming a habit!).
Quick stop in Thamel to get bearings and booking of Kilroy’s – back to Yak & Yeti for R&R, plus repacking. Dinner at Kilroy’s. Momos, daal baht [thali], chicken supreme with yak cheese, amazing bread and butter pudding and a chocolate thingy.
At the time, we voted Kilroy’s the best meal of the holiday.
All the pictures from that intensive Kathmandu touring are in the Flickr album linked here and below:
The printed itinerary tells you all…indeed probably more than you want to know about the relentless touring we did on this day and the next.
We took loads and loads of photos – about 120 of them ended up in our Kathmandu album, which is, in itself, a pretty good diary of our touring, as I labelled the photos well on our return and transposed those labels onto Flickr. You can review those through the Flickr link here or the picture link below.
Here are the words from my log for 28 March, with some sample pictures, to give you a taster.
Touring today. First stop, Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath) and it’s amazing surroundings. Lots of mini temples (stupas) with shops and houses in between.
Then on to the House of the Living Goddess, but Kumari was out at a ceremony. Saw the 12th century Kasthamandap all made from one tree – then onto Durbar Square, Teleju Temple, Royal Palace, Statue of Hanuman and saw sadhus galore.
Strolled through old city to modern part – then drove to see Tibetan refugees weaving, a handicraft centre and then a temple. before lunch at Taleju with stunning views of Patan’s Durbar Square.
On to tour Patan – slaughtering courtyard, stunning museum – loads more temples including the Thousand Buddhas Golden Temple etc.
I snapped this scene of a pop video being made, which i noted in my photo album although I had clean forgotten to note it in my log.
On through shopping street (I got a pair of tongs and a monkey and two CDs)…
On of those CDs, Chautari by Pancha and Shanti, became a favourite of Janie’s for the rest of that holiday and indeed since. It is available on YouTube music and you can hear it through this link.
Then home for rest and dinner at Chimney (founded by Boris Lisanevich).
All the pictures from that intensive Kathmandu touring are in the Flickr album linked here and below:
Rose at 4 am to catch early flight to Kathmandu. Bid a fond farewell to Pema.
Arrived in Kathmandu to discover that there was a general strike going on. After a false start (being sent back to the airport by the police) we had a police escort through the streets to the Yak and Yeti.
On arrival, we were handed our “Tiger Mountain” itinerary for our five night stay in Nepal. Fortunately, there was nothing on our itinerary for the arrival day anyway.
Warned that nothing was open, we settled down to our fate within the Yak and Yeti [hoping to relax by the pool], only for it to start pouring down. Anyway, we got our bearings, snacked on momos and tuna melt, relaxed in our room, [then] ate at the Naachghar [within the Yak & Yeti]. Thali in my case and duck tandoori for Daisy.
We tucked in…The musicians were playing it largeNaachgar was doing good business that night!
Went to the [in house] casino which I found truly foul – I was delighted part with my £9.50 and get out quick!
I had never visited a casino before. 25 years later, I can report that I have never visited one since. Not for me. The light-suited gentleman did not want to be photographed, we were loudly and repeatedly informed by the supervisor, but the request came after Janie had taken the above photograph of me.
All the photographs from the Kathmandu leg of our trip are in the following Flickr album. All the pictures from this day are shown in the article above:
Janie and I spent a most memorable week in Bhutan as part of our trip to Delhi, Bhutan, Nepal and Dubai in the spring of 2000, looked after by a wonderful guide, Pema Gyalpo.
This page links to all of the Bhutan pages, the photographs and a music sample.
Actually, let’s start with the music sample. I bought just one album on that trip: Endless Songs From Bhutan by Jigme Drukpa. Here’s one of the tracks.
Here are links to the pages I have written about our visit.
The best of the pictures are included in the articles, but if you would like to see the albums in full, all of them (more than 180 pictures) are included in two Flickr albums, links in the list and also with embedded links below.
