✨ Resource & Repower ✨

Well, initially this website was dedicated to India, but I decided that I might aswell keep it up as a general forum for photos and streams of consciousness, and all things Isabelle related. That way whoever whishes to be updated on what I am doing or have their say and make comments on my posts can do so via this website. So the new year is upon us! 2006 already! cripes! Check out my christmas photos on the links opposite for a look at my brussels antics. Christmas was fabulous! Mum insisted on plying me with copious amounts of turkey due to the thinner body I brought back from India - I left behind 6 kilos! Christmas dinner was delicious and we kept eating it for 3 days. There was much laughter and drink and food to be had all around. My cousins came up from France with my grandmother and we enjoyed the usual crazieness that surrounds the O'Keeffe family on such occasions. Tonight will be the gathering of usual suspects at parties to bring int the new year old skool style in Bru...

So I am back in Delhi after an amazing week and a half in Goa sunbathing, swimming, partying, sleeping, eating, watching the sun set. I have left that lovely place behind as well as the rest of India which will always be with me. It has been just epic. I have learned so much about life here, about things in general but most of all about myself. I have so much more confidence now its strange it sort of crept up on me. I was waiting for a big bolt of lightning to hit me or for some sort of awaking but with out sounding too deep, only now when I look back on things can I see how I different I feel about life. I have a way more positive out look on life. I think reading a lot of books centred around India, like Holy Cow and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari sort of helped crystalise this feeling. Anyway enough of the spiritual stuff. I have to go wash up for dinner. I will post a goodbye shot on this site as a way of signing off here. Thanks for everyone who has followed my journey. May there ...

For those of you who have seen the above movie, you will know that in the opening scene, Matt Damon is seen jogging along on a beach somewhere in Goa, in hiding. Well above is that beach, where we are staying right now called Palolem! It is so nice. We went for a boat ride along the cost this morning. The boat is like a type of Curragh. We rode to this lovely secluded beach with Elodie and Regan our new Kiwi friend who came down with us from Anjuna. It was gorgeous. We even saw dophins playing about and flying fish ricocheting across the water it was so cool! We are staying in little huts on pilons in the sand they are deadly. 1 euro a night, you can't go wrong! Did some shopping and now we are chilling by the beach. Lovely seafood while watching the sun set over the ocean listening to cool music, is something I won't forget in a hurry.

So my days in India are finally drawing to a close. It is strange being here in Goa becuase it is so different to the rest of India. It feels like these past two months happened oh so long ago. This blog has been such a handy tool in recording all my experiences, and especially in storing my photos. Hats off to technology. So we are still livin' it up here in Goa. We head down to Palolem on Saturday. I look forward to that cos it is meant to be one of the nicest white sandy beaches on the southern coast. Check out my photos for an update, I downloaded some yesterday...

Well according to the millions of cheesy t-shirts being sold here with the slogan. Haven't quite figured out what "it" is yet though. Its been a while since I last posted something up on here. I have been so busy and self-absorbed trying to make the most of my last days here. We left Varkala and took a boat on the backwaters up the coast back to Kochi to get the train there to Goa which was pretty hard. I frankly am so fed up with trains and buses and looking forward to planes for a change. So here we are in Anjuna in the northern part of Goa. (Mel I hope you are still at Cocks Town Huts because we are heading up there this afternoon to meet you). Here in Anjuna everything is crazy. There are these 24hour partes on the beach with semi-famous djs and old indian ladies selling chai and snacks, and people dancing with flames on the end of sticks. It resembles the "Zion Rave" scene from The Matrix Revolutions for anyone who has seen it, where everyone is doing some...

This whole experience should infact be called Isabelle's Creature Extravaganza! The past month has seen me grapple with various life forms. I have shared a sleeping bag with a miniature mouse, washed my teeth with cockroaches staring back at me, slept in the desert amongst a continuous assault of dung beetles, had showers with gekhos suctionpadding their way across walls and even done a pooh in an indian toilet behind a restaurrant in Fort Kochi only to look down and see somewhat large crab-type pinches make their way past my recent deposit up through the toilet hole and out into the night! Seemingly these creatures have been planted at my every destination to test my strenght of character and squimishness. I honestly don't know how much more I can take...only time will tell!

The view from our cliff side Beach Hut taken 5 hours ago!

So we went on our merry way to catch the train to Alapuzha from where we would do the backwater trip to Kollam. It turned out that there was in fact no train to Alapuzha that day so we had to get a train straight to Varkala instead further down the coast. Oh the joys of the unexpected. We subsequently missed our stop and ended up in Trivandrum, the last stop before Sri Lanka and an epic treasure hunt at the station ensued, worthy of one of Mums "Chasse au tresor" from our childhood days. Point A tells you to go to Point B. Finding Point B takes anouther 20mins as you battle past the rickshaw drivers jumping at your throat. You finally arrive at point B after going up and down several flights of stairs where they tell you to go to Point C and get a ticket and queue for half an hour. When you get to the counter they land you with the bomb that infact it was at point A that we where meant to go. You get the idea! We finally got the train for Varkala and headed back up the coast...

After a few weeks I am starting to understand why it is, infact, that I am getting double stared at more than Elodie. The Injuns, it seems, are under the impression that I have some sort of strange skin disease. I am getting a bit tired of questions like "Why you skin like this?" or "Why you have skin allergy?" I am tempted to reply, "Why are you black?" Even the beautician had a confused expression on her face when I told her that no, I didn't use a lightening cream to get rid of my "spots". I can honsestly say that in all my years of being self-conscious of my freckles, I have never been prouder of them, or more honoured to defend them!

This is officially the cutest little fishing village / island with stalls, giant chinese fishing nets, palmtrees and sandy beaches. the dresscode here for blokes is very odd, they wear ordinary shirts and these strange wrap around sheets that they put like nappy skirts that come down to the knees. Interesting. There are sacred hearts of jesus pictures everywhere complete with the shining red heart light, and every hostel or "home stay" as they call them, has a copy of the holy bible in hindi. There are also a number of fish monger stalls all lined up along the docks where the chinese fishing nets are. The fishermen sell the catch of the morning and you can chose your fish and then bring it to a restaurant and they cook it for you however you want it. This evening we went to a demonstration of Kathakali, a local traditional Performance Art type thing. It was a reinactment of one of the numerous stories of the Mahabarata, the long hindi fables much like The holy bible. This dem...

Well we embarked on the Kanyakumari Express direction Kochi (Cochin). It was galaxys better than previous trains we have taken in terms of comfort. We even got clean sheets, a blanket, a pillow and a little towel and there was at least a meter between us and the ceiling. We shared a cabin with a really cute elderly Indian couple from Kerala who kept plying us with food every hour and enquiring in their colonial English about Elodie's "stomach upset" or if we where fasting that we where eating so little. They would giggle every so often when we talked. They where very nice. We spent the following 38 hours talking, playing cards, eating, sleeping, reading, sleeping some more, eating some more and I read the entirety of Indian Cosmo. Pretty Much the same only its Veejay 23 or Sinita 30 who write in with their comments and some of the fashion includes Saris. Also the "fashion police" segments involve Indian or Bollywood stars we have never heard of. We arrived in th...

After a nightmare, fatigue-enduced delirium on the Sleeper bus journey along the west coast we arrived in Mumbai. Oh my good god this city is insane! It is ten times crazier than Delhi in terms of the traffic and the people. And there are slums EVERYWHERE! We alighted from the bus completely zombified and we had a hard time adjusting to our new surroundings with guys on every corner throwing Hotel business cards in our faces. We eventually found a place wich was reasonably priced in relative terms. Mumbai is the single most expensive city in India. We made a new friend on the way, Lee Sharon from Israel. She was on her own having left her friends for a while, who had bought motorbikes and who decided to travel around the rest of India Motorcylcle Diaries style. We got on well and so decided to get a triple room which brought down the cost a bit. Despite our spaced out state we managed to do quite a bit of sight seeing. We saw the lovely Victoria Park where there is a museum and a zoo,...

This morning I woke up to the sound of two little Disneyland chipmunks clicking away at eachother just outside our window. They are soooo loud. They are tiny with huge bushy tails and are sand coloured with little dark dots on their back and look like they'd jumped straigt out of a Disney movie. We have been in Udaipur the past couple of days chilling and soaking in this lovely town full of beautiful indians. It would seem that this is where a scene from Octopussy was filmed, which would explain why we where seeing showings of Octopussy at 7pm in virtually every restaurant or guesthouse. We met the two nice Swiss girls Anne and Marie Claude for dinner on the first night in a gorgeous restaurant overlooking the lake and lake palace. Our table was a little alcove by a window with cushions everywhere and a low table. There are fireworks on everynight on the lake and its always really festive. Yesterday we got our palms read and the guy was freakishly right on some things about my pers...

Another hellish train journey. Shared our cubical with 30 loud Indian Soldiers. Got woken up with a start by elodie in a panic as we arrived at our intened stop. We frantically gathered ouyr bags as the soldiers stared at us without so much as an offer to help and made our way to the exit as the train gathered steam and began to leave the station. So we had to litterally jump from a moving train with our bags on our back in true Geronimo style still comatose from sleep. I got catapulted across from my own body inertia and it was truly a hairy moment. Andy and Steven if you are reading this, I am sorry I didn't get to say goodbye properly before we went our separate ways, but as it turns out we had to get off the stop before Jodhpur to grab the bus to Udaipur and as I said we almost missed it. I can't find the paper with your emails so drop me a mail with the photos and I will to likewise. Enjoy the rest of your trip and I hope to hear from you soon. You must think I am crazy......

We finally settled for the evening in the shade of a specacular sand dune. We where let loose and we spent the next 2 hours exploring taking photos of eachother in various poses on the dunes, like we where on some crazed desert photo shoot. It was such good fun and we have some lovely photos as a result. We where finally called for dinner and as I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that I would be spending the night with large, creepy dung beetles the size of a Euro coin, we settled infront of the camp fire as the sun set and the stars came out. And oh my god the stars! I have never seen so many in my life. Constellations I have never seen before. And right across the entire sky directly above us was a GIGANTIC milky way, really wide and really long. The guides sang us some local desert songs using a metal tray and a plastic water container as percussions. We all had to sing something so I ofcourse sang our beloved "She Moved Through The Fair" for lack of inspiration (M...

Get ready for a long post I have lots of catching up to do. So I got over my Delhi belly which wasn't so bad. I am sure it will happen again. but that is to be expected in a foreign country. Friday morning we hitched a ride by jeep with one of the hotel staff and he dropped us off about an hour into the desert where we met the camels and the guide. We made some new friends: Philippe and Guillaume from Francde who live in Haute Savoie somewhere, 2 guys from London Andrew and Steve, and a girl from thailand Soline (I suspect that was her european name). We where 7 in total and got on really well. Elodie´s Graceful mounting We met our camels and they all looked stupid with cartoon like grins, but they where cool. We alternated between a few hours riding and a couple of hours rest under the shade of a tree. Riding the actual camel was quite peaceful, they move really slowly and sway back and forth and at the start its quite nice. Its only when you are an hour into the trek that yo...

My Journey in Purple - not very accurate but just to give you an Idea...

Hi again! This morning I woke up fully intending to head to the camel safari however my stomach decided otherwise. I threw up twice and shat water! So we postponed it to tomorrow. I am feeling a lot better though now, although I am still quite week from not eating anything except a Banana Lassi (sort of yoghurt shake). Under the advice of 3 french nurse blokes working in Annecy I took immodium and motilium (could have figured that one out myself) but they were nice. All I have to do now is take it easy and build up some energy. Apparently its garnd, you just get a sore bum from the riding. Mum I really missed having you by my bedside telling me to drink my salty water. Elodie was really sweet and looked after me and kept checking on my every hour. I joined everyone on the roof top then and chilled out in the shade. Won't stay on too long because I want to rest a bit. I have but up a few more photos for you to have a look. I am still quite behind but its better than none at all.

our view So after 15 hours sleep last night in Shahi Palace (no I am not joking) see the website here: http://www.shahipalacehotel.com/ we took it quite easy today. Queued up at the railway station to organise all our forthcoming trips. Then this evening we walked up to the fort through the little narrow streets full of colourful shops. The view is magnificent from the fort, right across the town to the Thar Desert where we will be heading tomorrow at the crack of dawn Papu the very charming hotel dude is organising it for us. 7.am start in the morning ouch! Other than that just chilling out this evening with a nice cold kingfisher beer and some masala something or other. The bed is really comfortable which makes a change, only drawback is the fact that I am being savaged by mosquitos! They are evil vampire mozzies here. Big red bites the size of postage stamps! Attractive.

So today we arrived in Jaisalmer after a nightmare 10hour bus journey. We met 2 nice girls from Geneva who are staying with us and 2 guys from Amsterdam. Trying to sleep when your head is constantly hitting the roof and you fall off your seat with every bump in the road is not the best. Tortuous is what I would call it. So I think we will probably spend the rest of the day sleeping. We plan to stay here for 4 days to rest for a bit and do the camel safari Thursday and Friday, sleeping under the stars. Its all organised for you, food, blankets, jeeps, camels. So we are looking forward to that. Hope mum and dad are enjoying Egypt, Steph London and Delphine Morocco. Till next time...

Pushkar fair was mad! It was full of the hustle and bustle of people, tourists and Indians alike and there was a fabulous atmosphere mixed with constant loudness 24hours a day. Our hotel was situated on the Main Bazaar road where all the stalls where and all the steps leading down to the Ghats where. It overlooked the lake which was an amazing view with a rocky mountain backdrop. It is said that Pushkar is the lake where Bramha is said to have lain a lotus flower and from that spot the lake grew. The temple is huge and colourful and crowded with the devotees praying for long life and good fortune. Several times a day the head down in crowds to the lake side to bathe in the holy water of the lake. You aren't allowed to take photos of the Ghats, Men and Women can't hold hands, you cant eat meat or eggs, and you can't wear shoes. These rules where repeated over and over again simultaneously in English and in Hindi several times a day. It woke us up at 7am and was on repeat th...

Nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for what was awaiting us at Ajmer bus station. We where due to get a little local bus from Ajmer to Pushkar where the Camel fair was being held, so you can imagine the crowds and the madness. But it wasn't until our bus arrived that true insanity overcame everyone. Droves of people ran to the bus still pulling into the station, started climing on the roof, through the windows and over themselves to get into the door. It was a savage, ruthless fight to the death to get a little seat on the tiny 30 seater bus. Me and Elodie just took a deep breathe and charged, behaving like everyone else, shoving our huge rucksacks in the way of people. Eventually after much hyper-ventilation, sweating and adrenaline rushes, we got our bags on to the rack and grabbed a space up infront of the driver. Elodie was practiacally sitting on the drivers knees and I was on the engine which got hotter and hotter as the bus climbed up the hill dodging mangey dogs and ...

We could not have picked a more delapidated, rusty bus! We departed from juhnjunu bus station at 1pm and arrived at crazy Ajmer Bus station at 8.30pm. The bus resembled somewhat, an old fashioned american school bus in size and comfort but with peeling paint and ripped leather. We had our rucksacks where our feet should have been because there was no room, and where seated right at the doorway. It stopped at every single lost village along the way to pick up people and school children going from little village ( when I say village I mean 3 houses) to little village. The rattling was unbearable and at times a little scary. After resisting for about an hour, I finally gave in to Inertia and let my head and body roll around the place. Once again we provided great inhouse entertainment for the locals. I also got asked for my first autograph. I kid you not. Some guy sitting behind introduced himself and told me every single detail about his professional life, gave us some advise on where to...

So on our departure from Delhi for our grand tour of Rahasthan, we booked a 9pm train from the Station. On our arrival we discoverd that infact this train did not exist and that the next "sheduled", and I use the term loosely, departure was for 11.30pm. Its amazing how easily you can entertain curious onlookers and indeed yourself in the process, by the most trivial of activities. Ladies and gentlemen let me present the Isabelle and Elodie Show : Opening Scene : The Arrival Elodie and Isabelle arrive at the station is greeted by a mass of insanely curious Indians, blokes maibly. They stand shiftily barely a meter away and openly stare right at the subjects, Isabelle and Elodie eyeing them up and down. Scene 2 : Isabelle rummages around her bag Again they stare, anxiously awaiting what she is going to pull out of your bag next. Scene 3 : Elodie munches away idly at her sandwich. The gradualy expanding group of Indians, mesmerise by this stage, continue to stare, muttering k...

When you are rushed for time and have the entire indian population shouting Hallo, rupees, where from etc, the constant beeping from cars, an ever present fear of being disconnected at any minute, mosquitos buzzing around your face and a keyboard in hindi, then it may happen that my brain doesn't think quite straight and typos, lapses in spelling memory etc may occour! So bear with me please!!!

Ok, so on my second morning staying at Chris's place in Delhi, the worst experience i have ever had the pleasure of having, occured. I woke up with something scratching me on my right leg inside my sleeping bag. I reached inside half asleep with my mask half off my eyes and earplugs still in and tried to get rid of it but it was staying. I thought it was a piece of fluff or something so I grabbed it and through it out on to the bed. It felt like one of those little pompom toys with the big eyes that move around with some sharp stratch bits. As soon as I through it out it shot across my legs at warp speed into the corner where the bed was against the wall. Thinking that I had imagined it I sat up on the bed, took off my mask and earplugs, opened my eys fully and tried to figure out what the hell it was, and what had just happend. IT wasn't until I moved the pillow that I saw a little tail disappear down the side of the bed. Oh holy god! It was the mini mouse I had met the night ...

Thanks for the comments keep them coming its great to get feed back. Just sent yous a mail (to my little fambly). For anyone who is interested I will try to get more photos up first, I managed to get some put on to a cd rom finally in Delhi) and then i will upload them bit by bit as I discover more internet cafes along the way. You would swear my entire purpose on this trip was to find internet cafes but its a life line so I don't care how "un detached" I am being. I have so much more to write I don't know where to start. I am writing stuff in my Travel Journal I got from Delphine and Steph practically everyday. I have lots of little anecdotes to put up on here and internet cafes are hard to comeby in these desert parts. Perhaps when we head down south there will be more. Right now I am in Jhunjhunu prounounced Joonjoonoo, a tiny blip in the Rajasthan desert. Its a small town sort of south west of Delhi on the way to Jaiselmer which is near the Pakistan Border (yes mu...

I am back in Delhi since yesterday evening staying with Chris, Elodie's friend from Austria. He is staying in a trendy area with a little market place in south delhi. Everyday brings something new in the way of adventures and experiences. Last night after washing my teeth in the company of a cockroach (as you can amagine I was dancing around the place hysterically and shuddering the whole time hopping from one foot to the next with Chris's housmate from Nepal laughing at me. This morning I woke up and had breakfast with a little mouse the size of a lighter, hiding under the toaster! Goodmoring Delhi! So today we set out with the following tasks; British Airways (for elodie to change her return flight) Railway station (to book our next journey) Lunch Market Internet Cafe Home We managed to get to BA and Railway station! And after giving up on the rest we grabed something on the go to eat and headed home on a rickshaw to the itnernet cafe around the corner from Chris where I am n...

Wow! The Taj Mahal was definitely the most surreal moment so far on this trip. It was so small yet so big. There is infact a massive park where Sahajahan built this collosal monument. Facinating and humbling to stand right up against the building and touch the ancient cold marble that took 22 years to put together. Truly spectacular. Shiraz, our young 25 funky Indian guide then took us to see another red fort where the Sultan Akbar was imprisoned by his own son who was jealous of him and who killed his 6 brothers so he could get the throne! Em....yeah as you do.

I am still in jaipur in the lovely hilton hotel overlooking the lake. Me and elodie had a gorgeous swim in the huge pool, it felt like i was on my summer holiday. Today we visited the spectacular Amber Fort just outside Jaipur and our guide Om (as in the meditation sound) took us around and explaind the history behind it all, Dad you would have loved this place!!! We didnt do the Elephant ride though because it was too full but we had cool fun in the Jeep instead, again Dad i thought of you when I was on it. Last night we met up with Melissa and her new friend Ana from sweden and after the Ricksaw drive from hell yet again, we had a lovely dinner in the city center. It was a bit hectic coz of Eid but it was great to soak in the atmosphere. This evening we are going to do the lovely bazaars and get down and dirty with haggling and then meet up with Mel and Ana and have dinner at their hostel which is actually really posh. Tomorrow we head for Agra and the Taj Mahal YEY!!!!!! So exc...

Hi again. I am now in Jaipur, the pink city which the maharaja had painted pink the colour of hosptality when prince edward came to visit. Its so pretty. We have a fabulous view of the lake in the middle of the lake where the current maharaja has his summer house. Its just building in the middle of the lake. We visited the city palace and some textile shops. The chauffer has been waiting outside the internet cafe for an hour now so i will have to go. I will try to get my photos up asap. Love to all...

Oh my god you can not even imagine in your wildest dreams the spleandour of Samode palace and the room we stayed in.! We woke up the following morning hungovered and tired from lack of sleep ready to attack our second day which didnt require too much energy as we spent most of it in the car, after a "free for all noise fest" that night. By gosh the noise is indiscribable! I spent most of the night trying to distinguish the different sounds which, I kid you not, did not cease from 3am right through til mornin: beeps (an essential driving tool in india apparntly, I am sure teach it in driving school along with instinct and a deathwish), dogs barking, eagles, a "call to prayer" which lasted the better part of an hour, and the shrill of bicycle rings. We journeyed south in the direction of Jaipur and had lunch on the way. I had my staple diet of Chappati, Dal, and Masala Chai (curry tea) Delph and Steph you have got to make some I will give you the recepie. We arrived t...

Namaste everyone. Sorry for the lack of contact in a while. We have been so busy taking in so much visually and oraly and whatever you call it for smells. We had an early morning start on Tuesday to get to London Heathrow, arriving late at night in our hotel. During the drive there where all these bodies scattered on the side of the streets which I figured out to be just people sleeping on the ground in clusters by the dozen. Quite a first impression. (i am finding it hard to concentrate cos there is an indian bloke behind me who is obviously making a long distance call and clearly doesnt realise that shouting down the receiver wont make him hear any better). So we arrived at our lovely posh hotel at 3am night local time only to be woken up at 9 for an early tour of Delhi city with Singh our guide for the day. He is apparently quite a celebrity in these parts, he works for the tourism government department and is also a yogi and has this tv programme where he displays his ability to fo...

Well its october bank holiday weekend! wooowowoowowooooo scary! I finish up my job tomorrow. I am still finding it hard to believe that the time has finally come! I went shopping today for some things. I bought a rockin' pair of trekker sandals with two straps across. They are groovy! I also got a deadly washbag in muji which you can hang up and have things standing in. Very cool! Other then that its just last minute pharmacy type things which I will get on saturday. The other exciting development is that I finally got all my travel documents courriered to me in work, no less, and all presented in a lovely black leather pouch with a green embroidery on it. The tour itself looks brilliant! I will try to put it up on here somehow! So, five more days and counting....

Wow, my room impressive mess! I had taken a photo but it seems to be lost. This is my attempt at packing for 2 months to go travelling around India! Well welcome to my new, improved blog where you will be able to keep tabs with me as I explore a bit of India for the next two months. I am leaving in two weeks! I can't believe it is already so soon! I have spent the better part of this weekend trying to sort through stuff and devide it into suff that will go into storage with my generous auntie in west Dublin, and stuff that I will take with me to India, which I am hoping will not amount to much. My room in Belmont Park is now decidedly empty and dusty (achoom) but it has to be done.

3 Days 19 Hours 36 Minutes and counting...until my big trip to India that I won gambling on the Greyhounds at Shelbourne Park.